Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary, Current Events 2: May - October 2004

[USCtrojan]

:)

[sky]

The kids have a say too. :flower:


- Crown Prince Frederik couldn't find a sweetheart in Denmark, because they were all smaller than him. Vokan, 9 years

- If Frederik had not found Mary, it would have been Joachim's child who would become queen. Martha , 9 years.

- If Frederik would like to be sweethwert with Mary, and she says "NO", then I really think they might be having a fight. William, 9 years.

- Mary often use a hair brace, because she's praticing wearing a crown. Stine, 8 years.

- I think that Mary ougth to learn a lot of different languages. Anyway, at least chinese. Jonathan, 7 years.

- When the royals are getting married, they have to dance in front of the others, to show them that they are good at it. Marc, 9 years.

- Before Crown Prince Frederik and Mary are going to get married, I think one ougth to check that he doesn't sleep all the time, because then Mary is going to work very hard all the time. Julie , 9 years.

- When Mary and Frederik gets marrried, she'll become a pregnant. Sarah, 8 years.

- If have to give a good advice to Crown Prince Frederik, I'll say to him, that it's very hard work to take care of children. Tobias, 8 years.

- If I should give Frederik a good advice, I'll say to him, that he should let Mary make the decisions once in a while. Martin, 9 years.

- The queen is an elderly person. So, if there is something that she have to inaugurate, and it's far away, she'll probably send Mary. Maria, 9 years.

- When Mary becomes queen, the speed will increase. Louise, 9 years.

Excerpts from the childrens section of Politiken, may 8, from a book of children's qoutes on Mary and Frederik, collected by Grethe Dirckinck-Holmfeld from children in the age 6-10. Aschehoug. 160 pp. 129 Dkr.

[Dennism]

That was funny. They are just darling. I love the one about the queen.

[Jasl]

Wow! I didn't know children around 8 think like that!

I think the following children have pro-Alex mums!!

- If Frederik had not found Mary, it would have been Joachim's child who would become queen. Martha , 9 years.
- I think that Mary ougth to learn a lot of different languages. Anyway, at least chinese. Jonathan, 7 years. (Qn: are Danes under the impression that Alex can speak Cantonese or Mandarin fluently?)

And these ones probably heard their parents discussing these topics too!

- Before Crown Prince Frederik and Mary are going to get married, I think one ougth to check that he doesn't sleep all the time, because then Mary is going to work very hard all the time. Julie , 9 years.
- If I should give Frederik a good advice, I'll say to him, that he should let Mary make the decisions once in a while. Martin, 9 years.

[montecarlo]

Alexandra was born and raised in Hong Kong, but doesn't even know how to speak local language? Hmmm, I find that odd.

[Victoria]

If I should give Frederik a good advice, I'll say to him, that he should let Mary make the decisions once in a while. Martin, 9 years.

This was funny-cute!

[Jasl]

Originally posted by montecarlo@May 8th, 2004 - 8:50 pm
Alexandra was born and raised in Hong Kong, but doesn't even know how to speak local language? Hmmm, I find that odd.

Sorry, I think she understands and can speak some Cantonese but she can't speak it fluently. The royal website and articles have not included Cantonese as something Alex can speak (she's fluent in 4: English, Danish, French and German but not Cantonese or Mandarin... funnily enough, it's Henrik who can speak Mandarin), and posters in LTR who have heard her speak Cantonese have said that she can't speak it fluently (I'd love to get the link to Alex speaking Cantonese pls).

Is it odd? There are many possible reasons why she can't (e.g. lots of people from HK speak English, she went to an international school with non-Cantonese speaking kids), but she has spent nearly 30 years of her life there so I do find it quite odd too that she can't speak Cantonese fluently. My friends (who came from HK) said that living in HK for nearly 30 years and not being fluent in Cantonese is like living in AUstralia for 30 years and not being fluent in English.

But again, we really don't know the whole circumstance.

[sky]

Sorry, I think she understands and can speak some Cantonese but she can't speak it fluently. The royal website and articles have not included Cantonese as something Alex can speak (she's fluent in 4: English, Danish, French and German but not Cantonese or Mandarin... funnily enough, it's Henrik who can speak Mandarin), and posters in LTR who have heard her speak Cantonese have said that she can't speak it fluently (I'd love to get the link to Alex speaking Cantonese pls).

Is it odd? There are many possible reasons why she can't (e.g. lots of people from HK speak English, she went to an international school with non-Cantonese speaking kids), but she has spent nearly 30 years of her life there so I do find it quite odd too that she can't speak Cantonese fluently. My friends (who came from HK) said that living in HK for nearly 30 years and not being fluent in Cantonese is like living in AUstralia for 30 years and not being fluent in English.

But again, we really don't know the whole circumstance.

I don't think it is that odd. Since, HK was britsh, I do think Alex prob. did get enough chances to speak Chinese. I'm sure the only time when Alex spoke Chinese was with her grandmother. But you are right we don't know the whole circumstance, and maybe there is a story behind it.


The quotes are really cute.

[xicamaluca]

Yahoo! News

Frederik, Mary escape near crash

Danish Crown Prince Frederik and his Australian fiancee Mary Donaldson narrowly escaped a car crash with a drunk driver just two days before their wedding, it's been reported.

The couple were on their way to a private party at a Copenhagen nightclub when a sports car came to a screeching halt at a crossing to avoid slamming into the royals' car, Danish tabloid Ekstra Bladet reported.

Pictures published in the newspaper showed a wide-eyed Mary looking out of the window of the car in a state of shock.

Police at the scene arrested the driver, a young man who was reported to be drunk.

The couple, who will marry on Friday, continued on their way to their soiree at the Vega nightclub.

The party was attended by many younger members of Europe's royal households, including Spain's Crown Prince Felipe and his fiancee Letizia Ortiz, Sweden's Crown Princess Victoria and Norway's Crown Prince Haakon and his wife Mette-Marit.

[Josefine]

do you think they will buy a house in Tasmania later on?

[Duke]

Hi can anyone post CP Frederik own royal standard and monogram? I think it was paraded during the wedding?

[Theilmann]

To Duke: I think there is a link to it at "HKHKRONPRINSEN.DK"

[Alexandria]

Originally posted by Duke@May 16th, 2004 - 2:29 am
Hi can anyone post CP Frederik own royal standard and monogram? I think it was paraded during the wedding?

It was also posted in a previous Frederik and Mary News thread here. Have a look through the old threads or do a search in the Frederik and Mary sub-forum.

[Theilmann]

Originally posted by Josefine@May 14th, 2004 - 7:18 am
do you think they will buy a house in Tasmania later on?

Well it's a possibility. HRH Prince Henrik bought a chateau near his ancestry home in Cahors, and the royal family spends a month or so there every summer. So one day the Crown Prince and Crown Princess might buy a property in Tasmania. It was among the suggestions for a "peoples gift" for the wedding, but in the end the commitee settled on the Flora Danica porcelain.

[Bubbette]

Who is she and how is she fifth in line? QM, Fred, Joachim, Felix and Nick, ?

[liv]

If you mean Mary,she is not in line to the throne.Mary will only become Queen if Fred becomes King.I think the line is:Fred,Joachim,Nikolai,Felix..

[Topsy-Turvy]

Originally posted by liv@May 17th, 2004 - 1:07 pm
If you mean Mary,she is not in line to the throne.Mary will only become Queen if Fred becomes King.I think the line is:Fred,Joachim,Nikolai,Felix..

Yes and then Princess Benedikte and Princess Elisabeth.

[Bubbette]

I meant Benedikte, thank you.

[hrhcp]

I didn't know:



Mary agreed to pre-nuptial
By Ben English in Copenhagen
May 17, 2004

DENMARK'S Crown Prince Frederik declared his undying love for his new princess – but he still took out last-minute insurance.

The future king moved to protect the vast riches he will inherit should his fairytale marriage to Hobart-born Mary Donaldson end.

Royal attorneys filed a pre-nuptial agreement, signed by both Prince Frederik and the now Princess Mary, minutes before the registry closed at noon on Friday.

"At the court in Aarhus . . . we received a signed marriage settlement from both Frederik and Mary," registry Judge Soeren Soerup Hansen said. "We just had time to record it in the registry so all formalities are now in order."

The agreement, called a settlement in Denmark, was lodged so late the court has yet to stamp it.

Judge Hansen said the document was still valid because it had been recorded in the register.

Had Prince Frederik failed to lodge the settlement, he would have been liable if the couple divorced to hand over half the "kingdom" to his bride under Danish law, which stipulates an even split of assets.

Under the settlement, Prince Frederik's existing riches will be safe from any divorce payout.

His assets are a closely-guarded secret but he is believed to be already independently wealthy.

After the wedding, Prince Frederik, who is honeymooning with Mary in Tanzania, receives a pay rise from $940,000 a year to $3.21 million, of which his wife will receive 10 per cent.

The Queen has given him a palatial 4 700 sq m wing of Amalienborg Castle in Copenhagen plus the vast Kansilli House, part of the sprawling Fredensborg Castle, 40km north of the capital.

An average two-bedroom 75sq m apartment in Copenhagen is worth about $400,000.

Using this benchmark, Prince Frederik's lodgings are worth more than $25 million.

In registering a pre-nuptial agreement, the Crown Prince followed the same cautious path as his mother and brother ahead of their marriages.

But prior to their marriage, Mary made it clear she had settled on a career for life – as Crown Princess of Denmark and eventually to be promoted to queen of one of the world's oldest monarchies.

When her father John Donaldson gave her away, he literally handed his youngest daughter over to Denmark.

In the event of divorce, she will relinquish the custody of any children to Prince Frederik.

On Saturday, the couple departed on their honeymoon – in search of warmer weather in the wilds of Tanzania.

The couple chose a honeymoon destination as far from the urban jungle – and from the prying eyes of an obsessed Danish press – as possible.

In elaborate plan involving two planes to trick the media, the couple travelled to Dar Es Salaam, the capital of Tanzania on the coast near the famed island of Zanzibar.

Dar Es Salaam is often used as a staging point for holidaymakers on their way to Zanzibar's pristine tropical beach resorts. It is also renowned for its diving, one of Frederik's favourite recreations.

Tanzania also boasts Africa's tallest mountain – Mt Kilimanjaro (5 895 m) which can be seen from almost anywhere in the country – and an array of safaris to see the continent's wildlife up close.

Frederik and Mary broke with a tradition reaching back to his late grandmother Queen Ingrid, who spent her wedding night aboard royal yacht Dannebrog.

It is not known how long the honeymoon will last, although one of Frederik's best friends among the European royal community – Spanish Crown Prince Felipe – will be getting married next week.

The Daily Telegraph

[wyldseraph]

Location: Sunday 16 May 2004 > World News

Aussie belle will be queen of the Danes
By Julian Isherwood in Copenhagen and Nick Squires in Sydney

It began with a flirtatious evening in a pick-up bar in downtown Sydney and culminated on Friday in a wedding ceremony accompanied by as much pomp and pageantry as the Danes could muster.

Four years after Mary Donaldson, 32, an estate agent from Hobart, Tasmania, bumped into Denmark's Crown Prince Frederik, 35, in a crowded Sydney watering hole, she walked up the aisle of Copenhagen's Lutheran Cathedral of Our Lady to become the first Australian destined to be a European queen.

In her own words, it was "a fairytale". While she did not have to kiss a frog, she did capture the heart of her Prince, a former navy frogman, during an evening of high-jinks at the Slip Inn while out with her friend Beatrice Tarnawski. As the two women debated whether the men in the bar had hairy or hairless chests, three of them - Prince Frederik, his brother Prince Joachim, and their cousin Prince Nikolaos of Greece - gamely offered themselves up as guinea pigs, allowing the women to run their hands over their chests.

"I liked Prince Frederik best because he was so smooth," Tarnawski recounted to an Australian newspaper.

Prince Frederik, however, was smitten with Donaldson, although she was initially less enamoured.

"I didn't know who he was. It was not love at first sight," she said in a recent interview.

His tenacity won the day. And yesterday the couple held hands and said "Ja!" in front of European and Japanese royalty in the first wedding ceremony of a crown prince in the country since 1743.

While hundreds of thousands of Danes packed Copenhagen's streets, the Australians - at least half of them die-hard republicans - put aside their prejudices and joined in with their own, less formal, celebrations.

At the Slip Inn on Darling Harbour - its entrance decorated with giant posters proclaiming it "the meeting place of Mary Donaldson and the Crown Prince of Denmark" - there was free Carlsberg and Danish meatballs for customers able to produce a Danish passport.

The cocktail menu was amended to include two celebratory concoctions - "Great Dane" and "Tasmanian Temptress" - and the bar was open until 4am to broadcast the nuptials live.

"I've learned how to say 'Cheers' in Danish," boasted the barmaid.

While the 800 guests were ferried through the Danish capital in a fleet of 100 new royal blue Volvos to a reception at the Amalienborg Palace, the doors of the Sydney Opera House were thrown open to members of Australia's Danish community who wanted to watch the event live on television. There they saw the down-to-earth law graduate and daughter of a Scottish university mathematician metamorphose into Her Royal Highness Crown Princess Mary Elizabeth - Denmark's next queen.

"The whole of Australia is fascinated by this story because how often do you get an Australian girl marrying a real prince?" said Matt Campbell of Australian broadcaster SBS television. "It may never happen again."

In Donaldson's home state of Tasmania - her father Professor John Donaldson emigrated from Edinburgh to Hobart in 1963 - they seized on the day as a way of reversing its image as a remote, rainy island at the bottom of the world.

Children dressed up as princesses and Vikings. Shop windows displayed pictures of Danish castles and the red and white Danish flag flew above Parliament House in Hobart.

Donaldson, who has given up both her Australian and British citizenships and has studied Danish for the past two years, was keen to have her heritage reflected in the wedding ceremony.

Australian eucalyptus and Scottish bluebells were among the roses and carnations decorating the cathedral. - © The Telegraph, London

http://www.sundaytimes.co.za/2004/05/16/ne...rld/world02.asp