Marengo said:officially Irene and Christina are still HRH and Princesses of The Netherlands. However, Irene prefers to be referred to as mrs. van Lippe-Biesterfield.
Prince Johan-Friso kept his HRH (as son of a reigning Queen) but lost the title 'Prince of the Netherlands', another system to title members of the RF (it is such a mess). He is also made Count of Orange-Nassau, otherwise his family could not inherit that title. The queen can only ennoble members of the Royal House, which Luana is not. So in order for her to get a title the queen had to give her secondd son a hereditairy title. In contrast, the children of Prince Constantijn, who are still part of the Royal House, were created Counts of Orange-Nassau themselves.
Marengo said:The thing which buggs me most is that Margriets grand children have no title at all. They could have made the van Vollenhoven name noble, let's say Count Pieter van Vollenhoven, etc. His family was already a parician family, so it wouldn't have been to strange. Another thing which annoys me is that there is no distinction between Luana and Claus-Casimir/Eloise.
Marengo said:To squidgy: I do not think that for the press it makes a difference if they are titled or not, what count is their looks and how close to the monarch they are. Take for example Carlotte Casiraghi and Zara Phillips, who do not have a title but who get more attention in the press then for example HH Princess Elisabeth of Denmark. I think that the press attention for the van Vollenhovens will fade away with time. They are all perfectly able to live a private live now as well, eventhough with some intrusions (not to many). Only the attention for Marilene and Maurits remains higher then for the others, mainly because of their good looks I think.
Marengo said:She also recently offered Pieter the highest order, she usually bestows on heads of state. This is a clear sign of her respect for Pieter and her aknowledgement for his contributions to the monarchy and to the country (and well deserved!).
Marengo said:There was a book about Pieter a few years ago...
The book however suggests that in the 70-ties there was not to much love lost between Beatrix and Pieter.
Squidgy said:Marengo, we sure kept you busy with the above posts.Thanks for your in-depth, thoughtful response.
Yes, you have a good point - physical appearances and how close one is in line of succession do likely to a large extent determine how much press attention one receives. However, I think the mere act of having a title does also mean that you are more likely to receive more press exposure. Look at the British tabloids (if you dare). They are always talking about Lord X who has a drug problem, or Lady Y who is having an affair. Even if they are Lords & Ladies that the average Brit has never heard of, they still make it into the papers, I think mainly because they are titled. So personally, I think it is good that Margriet & Pieter's grandchildren do not have titles.
That's neat - I never heard that before. When did this happen and did it change the way Pieter is addressed?
SpiffyBallerina said:Now I'm interested ! What did the author say was the cause of this fight?
So how many different ways of styling does the family have at present? I believe it is a great mess without much logic at the moment.