Queen Margrethe II and Prince Henrik, Current Events 3: August 2010 - January 2013

[Viv]

Originally Posted by Stefan

Could she not have brought Frederik and Mary with her to London as Sofia is also acompanied by Felipe and Letizia.

Stefan, I doubt it! CP Frederik told a Danish journalist last week that he and Mary were not invited. So I don't think that you can tell St. James' Palace/Clarence House that 'the Prince Consort is otherwise engaged, can I take the CPly couple instead?"

As for Spain I don't know whether the CPly couple is invited? King Juan Carlos never attends weddings, so who knows?

viv

[Kataryn]

I sometimes wonder how the queen of Denmark thinks about her cousin Philip giving up his Greek, but after all: Danish title of a HRH Prince of Denmark and how she is invited as a "foreign" Royal when she is dynastically the Head of the Main branch of the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Gluecksburg...

[TLLK]

Originally Posted by An Ard Ri

Is that unusual Viv for the Queen to attend a Wedding on her own?

That is interesting. Well then she can sit with the widowed Queen Beatrix and Queen Sofia. (They can relax and reminisce about their own children's weddings )

[Charlotte_Aster]

Originally Posted by Viv

As for Spain I don't know whether the CPly couple is invited? King Juan Carlos never attends weddings, so who knows?

viv

It was announced last week that QSofia is attending with the Felipe and Letizia.

[Viv]

Originally Posted by Charlotte_Aster

It was announced last week that QSofia is attending with the Felipe and Letizia.

Thanks for the info !

Viv

[An Ard Ri]

Originally Posted by Viv

Stefan, I doubt it! CP Frederik told a Danish journalist last week that he and Mary were not invited. So I don't think that you can tell St. James' Palace/Clarence House that 'the Prince Consort is otherwise engaged, can I take the CPly couple instead?"

As for Spain I don't know whether the CPly couple is invited? King Juan Carlos never attends weddings, so who knows?

viv

Queen Sofia of Spain will be accompanied by the Prince & Princess of Asturias to the wedding.

The King won't be attending.

[QueenElizabeth]

It is known that both Queen Elizabeth II and Queen Margrethe II are very close; in wartime, Margrethe was known as Daisy; Elizabeth as Lilibet, so I think this is the nature of the invitation.
It is strange that Queen Sofia will go, as it is not the heir to the throne who marries. I think the King and Queen of the Belgians will not go, but will send the Crown Prince and Princess.

[An Ard Ri]

Originally Posted by QueenElizabeth

It is known that both Queen Elizabeth II and Queen Margrethe II are very close; in wartime, Margrethe was known as Daisy; Elizabeth as Lilibet, so I think this is the nature of the invitation.
It is strange that Queen Sofia will go, as it is not the heir to the throne who marries. I think the King and Queen of the Belgians will not go, but will send the Crown Prince and Princess.

Queen Sofia was invited as were the Prince & Princess of Asturias,maybe she's looking forward to a day out

[Stefan]

Originally Posted by TLLK

That is interesting. Well then she can sit with the widowed Queen Beatrix and Queen Sofia. (They can relax and reminisce about their own children's weddings )

Queen Beatrix will not attend. Willem-Alexander and Máxima will.

[Muhler]

I think the BRF has handled this in a very peculiar way.

The BRF has always send secondary representation to the recent CP wedding in Denmark, Sweden, Norway and I believe Spain as well. I can't remember Belgium and the Netherlands.
And that was fair enough as they were also invited to the private celabrations afterwards. So younger royals would often be better suited and it would give them an opportunity to bond.

At this next wedding it's the son of the heir who is getting married and suddenly it considered appropriate by the British court to invite the various monarchs. Then only to let them take part in the reception, after that goodbye...

I don't know what happened. Did they get to end of the list and said: "Oh we also need to invite the continental royals, but we've only got fourteen seat, so who to invite"?
Or is it plain snobbery? "We can send lower representatives to continental wedding, but oh no, nothing short of monarchs are appropriate when the son of our heir is getting married".
It's not handled particularly elegantly in my opinion. I mean, a CP wedding happens once in every generation. You either do it with full royal bling bling or keep it very low key, like Charles and Camilla. You can't do both.

If a family acted that way towards my own extended family, they wouldn't get an invitation for the next event in my family. And we would just send a greeting card to them the next time they celebrated something.

I'll be interesting to see how many regent couples who turn up. i.e. both of them. And how "busy" there are about returning home.

[Maura724]

Originally Posted by Muhler

It's not handled particularly elegantly in my opinion. I mean, a CP wedding happens once in every generation. You either do it with full royal bling bling or keep it very low key, like Charles and Camilla. You can't do both.

Absolutely. Everybody keeps saying, "Well, he's not the heir yet, he's the son of the heir, and thus his wedding is smaller with fewer foreign royals, blah blah blah." I think that's so silly. The (first) wedding of a future King or Queen only happens once every 30 years or so. It should be an equally big deal every time. I don't know why on earth the fact that his grandmother is still alive is determining the guest list and the scale of the wedding.

[camelot23ca]

I don't think there's anything strange about the way the British royals handled the invitations - my understanding is that the invitations were extended to the monarchs/heads of the royal families and then each family decides who's going to go. The invitation being addressed to the monarch doesn't mean that it HAS to be the monarch who goes, (as evidenced by the fact that in many cases it's not the monarch who's going), or even that ONLY the monarch and partner can go.. if a family wanted to send a larger contingent they could, (as we've seen with the Spanish attendees).

The fact that it's Queen Margrethe and not one of the "lower" members of the family going to the wedding IMO probably has more to do with her friendly relationship with QEII than anything else.

I get the feeling the British can't win with this wedding! They've done the invitations the proper way according to etiquette and people take that as evidence they're snobs who purposely snubbed a bunch of royals. If they'd extended personal invitations to individual royals I'm sure we'd be hearing about how those snobs have some nerve inviting people William doesn't even know.

[grevinnan]

It is quite unusual to have a wedding of the second in line to the throne. It must have been a minefield for the royal household to decide who is invited to the wedding outside of close family and friends. These types of occasions are "work" for the royals. It is not just a weekend get together of old friends. Just as a business decides who is going to the big client event the royal have to decide who in the royal family goes. It is posturing, returning ceremonial favours and being at the right place at the right time. It makes no sense to apply common wedding rules and customs for an event like this wedding. It is a state affair that is being arranges as if it is not. Therein lays the minefield.

I hope the royal attendees that are not invited to the evening dinner and dance have planned a great party together.

[Stefan]

Originally Posted by Muhler

I think the BRF has handled this in a very peculiar way.

The BRF has always send secondary representation to the recent CP wedding in Denmark, Sweden, Norway and I believe Spain as well. I can't remember Belgium and the Netherlands.
And that was fair enough as they were also invited to the private celabrations afterwards. So younger royals would often be better suited and it would give them an opportunity to bond.

At this next wedding it's the son of the heir who is getting married and suddenly it considered appropriate by the British court to invite the various monarchs. Then only to let them take part in the reception, after that goodbye...

I don't know what happened. Did they get to end of the list and said: "Oh we also need to invite the continental royals, but we've only got fourteen seat, so who to invite"?
Or is it plain snobbery? "We can send lower representatives to continental wedding, but oh no, nothing short of monarchs are appropriate when the son of our heir is getting married".
It's not handled particularly elegantly in my opinion. I mean, a CP wedding happens once in every generation. You either do it with full royal bling bling or keep it very low key, like Charles and Camilla. You can't do both.

If a family acted that way towards my own extended family, they wouldn't get an invitation for the next event in my family. And we would just send a greeting card to them the next time they celebrated something.

I'll be interesting to see how many regent couples who turn up. i.e. both of them. And how "busy" there are about returning home.

I think many facts play a role in this:
First it's not the Wedding of the Crown Prince but only the second in line. Which is stupid as Prince Andrew had also a big Wedding back in 1986. and hew was not Crown Prince and also not second in line he was at place 4 at that time.
Second the Ivitations where send by the Queen. Probably she send it to her fellow colleges. But could have Margrethe not done it like Sofia and aksed "Henrik can't come(for what ever reason). Can i then bring Frederik and mary with me insteed.
Third Aklso at the Wedding of Charles and Diana only the monarchs and their wives attended. Not more Family members from foreign Royals. I think the only exception was King Olav of Norway who was accompanied by Harald and Sonja then.

[FasterB]

Originally Posted by camelot23ca

They've done the invitations the proper way according to etiquette and people take that as evidence they're snobs who purposely snubbed a bunch of royals. If they'd extended personal invitations to individual royals I'm sure we'd be hearing about how those snobs have some nerve inviting people William doesn't even know.

Then why did CP Frederik said that it "isn´t a shame to stay away when you´re not invited"?
If this was done by etiquette, then he would surely know that he was invited if the DRF decided to let the CPC go.

[Viv]

Originally Posted by Muhler

The BRF has always send secondary representation to the recent CP wedding in Denmark, Sweden, Norway and I believe Spain as well. I can't remember Belgium and the Netherlands. .

IIRC: The Prince of Wales definetely attended the CPly wedding in Spain and I think that he attended Norway, Belgium and the Netherlands as well! Anglo-Norwegian relations are excellent (see the BRF turn out at King Harald's 70th!) whereas Denmark and Sweden are bottom of the league.

Originally Posted by Muhler

So younger royals would often be better suited and it would give them an opportunity to bond.

I don't think that they're particularly interested in bonding! How much interaction have William and Harry had with continental royalty so far?

Originally Posted by Muhler

At this next wedding it's the son of the heir who is getting married and suddenly it considered appropriate by the British court to invite the various monarchs.

I don't see the logic either! They should have invited the CPly couples only, but again: it signals that 'bonding' isn't an issue! And on second thought: With whom should William bond? There's no reason to believe that he will accede in the foreseeable future! There's still the POW! William is at least 10 years younger that the corps of continental crown princes whereas Charles is about 20 years older!

Originally Posted by Muhler

I don't know what happened. Did they get to end of the list and said: "Oh we also need to invite the continental royals, but we've only got fourteen seat, so who to invite"?

IIRC 40 seats are reserved for foreign royalty, including the politically important Middle-Eastern monarchs, who can afford to give serious bling-bling for presents!

Originally Posted by Muhler

Or is it plain snobbery? "We can send lower representatives to continental wedding, but oh no, nothing short of monarchs are appropriate when the son of our heir is getting married". .

IMO the word is arrogance!

Originally Posted by Muhler

It's not handled particularly elegantly in my opinion. I mean, a CP wedding happens once in every generation. You either do it with full royal bling bling or keep it very low key, like Charles and Camilla. You can't do both.
.

Yep! And that said, no offence intended to any UK or Commonwealth poster on this thread . I just wish they would understand that this particular issue looks very strange from a continental vantage point!

Originally Posted by Muhler

I'll be interesting to see how many regent couples who turn up. i.e. both of them. And how "busy" there are about returning home.

Well, some are staying way, maybe because of other engagements? Interesting that Queen Beatrix has excused herself because of the Queen's day on the 30th of April.

Viv

[Stefan]

Originally Posted by Viv

IIRC: The Prince of Wales definetely attended the CPly wedding in Spain and I think that he attended Norway, Belgium and the Netherlands as well! Anglo-Norwegian relations are excellent (see the BRF turn out at King Harald's 70th!) whereas Denmark and Sweden are bottom of the league.
Viv

The Prince of Wales not only attended the Crown Princely Wedding in Spain but also the Wedding of Infanta Elena. Only not the Wedding of Infanta Cristina but it was only a month after the death of Diana.
And yes he attended the Crown Princely Weddings in Belgium and Norway and the Netherlands. In Norway and the Netherlands also also the Earl and Countess of Wessex attended.
As for last years 70th birthday in Denmark i have read that the Duke of Edinburgh was to attend (at last the dinner at Fredensborg) but could not because of the volcano ash.

[Viv]

Originally Posted by Stefan

As for last years 70th birthday in Denmark i have read that the Duke of Edinburgh was to attend (at last the dinner at Fredensborg) but could not because of the volcano ash.

Correct. Prince Philip has attended another of the major DRF events (sorry, I've forgotten which!), but then again, he does have a link to Denmark: his former title, childhood memories and a Danish diplomatic passport. I remember vividly that he cried his eyes out at the funeral of King Frederik IX in 1972. So there must have been a bond there too!

Viv

[Viv]

The Pow and the Duchess of Cornwall were in Madrid recently and I read at the time that the Pow had had to intervene when hearing that the CPly couple were not invited to the wedding!

Sorry, I don't know how to make tiny urls:
Royal wedding: Inquisition over Prince William's 'snub' to Crown Prince Felipe of Spain - Telegraph

Wonder if this holds water??

Viv

[MRSJ]

Originally Posted by FasterB

Then why did CP Frederik said that it "isn´t a shame to stay away when you´re not invited"?
If this was done by etiquette, then he would surely know that he was invited if the DRF decided to let the CPC go.

You make your own point, if the DRF had decided to send the CPC then they would have been going as representative- The Queen obviously decided she wants to go with her husband and not send the CPC..... like ALL the other houses monoarchs were invited and then could send anyone, like Sweden chose to send Victoria and Daniel and Netherlands Max and WA- they were equally as 'non-invited' as Frederick and Mary and yet they are attending so Frederick was simply not choosen by his mom to represent the DRF as she had decided to do so herself....