Foreign Royals in UK

[tommy1716]

I was wondering if we could make a list of foreign royals who live fulltime or have houses in the UK?

I was wondering also which royals are cuurently studying in the UK?

I can think of the following who live in the UK

Prince Friso and Princess Mabel (The Netherlands)
King Constantine and Queen Anne-Marie of Greece


That's all I can think of at the moment, anybody else have any suggestions?

 

[Mermaid1962]

Do the Crown Prince and Princess of Serbia live in London? I believe that they did at one time.

 

[JulieS]

Crown Prince Pavlos and Crown Princess Marie Chantal of Greece live in London.

 

[martina]

I read that Prince Nikolaos and Princess Tatiana of Greece live in London too.

 

[Midwestern Mom]

The (he is in his teens) heir to the throne of Scotland resides in London.

 

[Elly C]

I would imagine there may be some royal princes at the Royal Military Academy of Sandhurst - their alumni contains many from Arab states & other deposed monarchies.

The article below also lists some foreign royals resident here
The Independent

 

[KittyAtlanta]

Crown Prince Alexander II of Serbia, who's the Queen's Godson, was born in Claridge's hotel after his family left German-occupied Yugoslavia in 1941, exiling themselves in London. A small quantity of Yugoslavian dirt was placed underneath the bed (how Count Vlad is that???LOL) when Alexander was born in 1945 so he would technically be born on Yugoslavian soil. Prime Minister Winston Churchill declared suite 212 (the room where he was born) at Claridge's to be Yugoslavian territory.

He has since regained his Yugoslav citizenship and is in the process of recovering his royal residence in Belgrade.

 

[Diarist]

Information is sometimes hard to find because of security issues, but I believe that a number of Crowned Heads do keep houses in the UK. These are not just London bases [although these are popular] but country houses within fairly easy reach of London: in Surrey and Berkshire, to name two popular counties. I think that some Crowned Heads also keep a place in Scotland.

Many royal and princely families without their own accommodation in the UK tend to stay at Claridges. Princess Grace used to stay in the Connaught. This latter hotel is very grand indeed - it has (sadly) been re-vamped quite recently and I feel that its modernisation resulted in it losing its almost 'timeless' feeling of grandeur and luxury, which has begun to be replaced by this sort of 'modern luxury that is not really real luxury' feeling, which is too hard to define. Some of my family always stay/ed at the Connaught - it is slightly more 'tucked away' and therefore more private than some the Ritz and Claridges etc.

I do have a very funny story about Princess Grace. Years and years ago, I spotted a very young [teenage] Princess Caroline outside The Connaught. She seemed to be having a row with the Doorman. There was some fairly audible shouting. One of my aunts happened to be staying at the hotel at the time, and I had been visiting her. She later found out what had happened. Apparently Caroline had turned up to visit Princess Grace, who was also staying there at the same time as my aunt. [possibly for the same reason - a flower arranging symposium was on in London at that time.] The Connaught had [and I think it still has] a very strict 'no jeans' policy. Princess Caroline had turned up in jeans. The Connaught Doorman [in accordance with this policy] had therefore stopped Caroline from entering. Caroline was very angry and so apparently sent a message to Princess Grace, complaining that the Doorman would not let her in becuase she was wearing jeans. Whereupon Princess Grace had sent back a message: 'Quite right too! First apologise to the Doorman, and then go and change your jeans and find something else to wear'. I always think that this story presents Princess Grace in a very good light - a mother insisting on proper behaviour and not trying to 'pull rank'.

Hope this amuses some of you,

Alex

 

[fearghas]

A branch of the Auerspergs live in the Uk, which is where Princess Alice of Bavaria met her huisband, Prince Lukas of Auersperg

 

[NGalitzine]

Don't Johan Friso and Mabel of Orange Nassau still live in London? A number of Arab royals also maintain homes in the UK.

 

[carlota]

Royals who live in London and the UK

it seems that london (and the UK as a whole) is a popular destination for foreign royals to live in (non british royals). apart from british royals, which foreign royals are living / lived in london or the UK?

from memory:

norwegian royals:

-haakon and mette marit lived in london at the start of their marriage, around 2002-3: there mette marit was a student at School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London.
-martha louise and ari behn resided in london for some time since moving in 2012: they lived in islington.

dutch royals:

-mabel and her daughters resided for some time in london

luxembourg royals:

-louis and tessy resided with their family in london, and both studied at a university in richmond.

greek royals:

-the whole family seems to have made london their home since their exile started.

danish royals:

-mary spent some time (in 1998 approx, before her marriage, after her mother's death) living in scotland: she worked for three months as an account manager with Rapp Collins Worldwide. her case is a bit different as her parents were originally scottish.

japanese royals:

-Mako graduated from Leicester University - she earned her masters degree in Art Museum and Gallery Studies.
-tsuguko studied university in edinburgh, scotland, from 2004 to 2008 but she dropped out.

belgian royals:

-claire was born in Bath, Somerset. her case is also a bit different as her father was originally english.

jordan royals:

-raiyah was a student at edinburgh university, where she studied Japanese.

swedish royals:

-madeleine and chris relocated to london following their stay in NY. they have reportedly moved into one of chris' mother's houses in central london.


a lot of foreign royals attended the military academy of sandhurst, which seems to be the training of choice at several foreign courts, among its graduates:

Brunei: Hassanal Bolkiah, Sultan of Brunei

Greece: Pavlos

Jordan:
King Hussein of Jordan
King Abdullah II of Jordan (13th/18th Royal Hussars (Queen Mary's Own))
King Talal of Jordan
Princess Aisha of Jordan
Princess Iman of Jordan
Prince Ali of Jordan
Prince Hamzah of Jordan
Prince Hashim of Jordan
Prince Rashid of Jordan
Princess Basma Fatima of Jordan
Prince Talal of Jordan

Liechtenstein:
Alois, Hereditary Prince of Liechtenstein

Luxembourg:
Henri, Grand Duke of Luxembourg
Guillaume, Hereditary Grand Duke of Luxembourg
Jean, Grand Duke of Luxembourg (Irish Guards)
Prince Jean of Luxembourg
Prince Felix of Luxembourg

 

[Curryong]

Yes, I suppose living in London can be quite pleasant, central to everything, a major business centre and, of course, it's good to be able to practise the English language a bit in everyday life. Not that that's a problem for Chris O' Neill! It's also an anonymous sort of place, where people mind their own business (and paps are less numerous than they once were.) Interesting too that Edinburgh Uni was a choice for several. Edinburgh a gorgeous city, though often quite cold.

Historically of course, Britain was the destination of choice for French royals after revolutions and coups. Napoleon III lived in London for years and was once sworn in as a special constable in the Year of Revolutions.

 

[CyrilVladisla]

Prince Louis Philippe Albert of Orleans (Prince Philippe), Count of Paris, resided in Sheen House, Sheen in Surrey, England.

 

[Prisma]

Prince Sebastien of Luxembourg will attend Sandhurst this fall.

Luxarazzi: Luxarazzi 101: The Luxembourg and Liechtenstein Royals and the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst

King Michael and Queen Anne of Romania lived in Hertfordshire for 4 years after their wedding.

Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna of Russia started her exile in the UK, then moved to Denmark.

More from Japan:

• CP Naruhito studied at Merton College, University of Oxford from 1983-1985
• Masako Owada studied at Balliol College, Oxford from 1988-1990 but did not finish her thesis.
• Prince Akishino studied at the Graduate School of Zoology, University of Oxford, UK from 1988-1990.
• Nobuko Aso, now Princess Tomohito, graduated from Rossyln House College, UK in 1973.
• Hisako Tottori, now Princess Takamado, graduated from University of Cambridge, UK in 1975 and received her MA from there as well in 1979.
• Princess Akiko of Mikasa studied at Merton College, the University of Oxford from 2004-2010 and she got a D. Phil from Oxford.

 

[WreathOfLaurels]

I think one of the main reasons is tax free non domicile status that a number of them can claim living in the UK. Paris use to be popular as well but France is stricter on taxes for non doms than the UK, and there's stricter rules about registering your tax status in Monaco than there used to be. You can still use your titles in society as well (Tatler seems to be a good rule of thumb for this). The schools are good - Switzerland doesn't run as many schools as they used to.

Needless to say they're probably not there for the weather or the food.

 

[Denville]

I think that there's the anonyminity. Some of them come from smaller countires where their status and faces are well known and if they go to college here, probably harldy anyone will know them.
And In previous times for ex royals I think that there was a greater informality, in the UK, compared with their home countries, so they felt happier here.

 

[carlota]

thanks everyone for your contributions. i agree with you: the UK's popularity makes sense - after all, most royals will learn english as their foreign language, as opposed to french, so if they go abroad for school or university, the UK is an excellent choice. some royals, like martha louise or mabel, moved abroad with their children, so i am sure this was a consideration for them: that their kids would be able to learn english well.

Yes, I suppose living in London can be quite pleasant, central to everything, a major business centre and, of course, it's good to be able to practise the English language a bit in everyday life. Not that that's a problem for Chris O' Neill! It's also an anonymous sort of place, where people mind their own business (and paps are less numerous than they once were.) Interesting too that Edinburgh Uni was a choice for several. Edinburgh a gorgeous city, though often quite cold.

i guess in chris' case it is the other way round - he has business to attend to and it is easier to do so in a city that speaks your language than moving to stockholm.

Edinburgh is indeed a beautiful city - i am sure part of the attraction there is that being a smaller city than london with no paps it is easier for royals to carry a normal life, whilst at the same time offering a relatively large place to live, with good connections abroad. it also has a reputed university.

i am interested to see that naruhito and masako went to oxford only with 3 years of difference between them. surely that was a conversation starter...

out of interest, i checked the royal alumni of cambridge, among whom Dina al-Hussein of Jordan, Margrethe II of Denmark, Sofía, Queen Consort of Spain, Princess Takamado of Japan. interestingly though, oxford seems to be the university of choice in the oxbridge leage, with more royals seemingly choosing it over cambridge. i am no expert in the differences between them but i wonder if maybe oxford is more suited to governmental and social studies that royals would tend to choose. among foreign royals who studied there: Prince Philippe, Duke of Brabant, Dasho Jigyel Ugyen Wangchuk, Prince of Bhutan, Prince Akishino of Japan, El Hassan bin Talal, Princess Aisha of Jordan, Princess Badiya of Jordan and Prince Guillaume of Luxembourg.

 

[Lee-Z]

Also: if you're looking for a top level, big-bucks job, there's more choice in London than in most smaller countries in the entire country

 

[CyrilVladisla]

Princess Madeleine of Sweden and Christopher O'Neill moved to London, England before the end of 2015.

 

[CyrilVladisla]

After his abdication on February 24, 1848, King Louis Philippe I and Queen Marie Amelie of the French went to England and resided in Claremont.