A different version on getting perspective.

Eight of the last ten page views of this site were related to Friday Prince Blogging, all but one of them from google image searches on photos of royalty. I need the reminder of why we have had visitors from 159 countries and what a huge portion of my site visit stats consists of. Good for reining in the ego, don't ya know.

Fortunately, I know that prayers and political posts and general information are also read and get responses, and that is what keeps this blog going.

Whatever the reason, guests are welcome.

--the BB

The video with GF

This is part of a series on "Europa" on a Dutch program showing a visit of Prince Georg Friedrich to Doorn House, where his great grandfather Kaiser Wilhelm II lived after leaving Germany in 1918. You get to see the Prince chat a bit near the beginning. Except for one commenter in English, the rest is in German (with Dutch subtitles) and Dutch.



--the BB

I want to trade Georges

I would be willing to trade a bushwhacking Bush-Walker for a Hohenzollern. At least until President Obama's term begins.

So today we take a look at His Imperial and Royal Highness Georg Friedrich Ferdinand Prinz von Preußen, head of the House of Hohenzollern.

His official page recounts the following:

George Frederick Ferdinand Prince of Prussia was born on the 10th of June in 1976 in Bremen/Germany. In the year before the wedding of his parents, Prince Louis Ferdinand jr. (1944-1977) and Countess Donata of Castell-Rüdenhausen (* 1950) had caused large media attention. Tragically, his father died shortly after Prince George Frederick’s first birthday from severe injuries he had suffered in a military training exercise. His widow gave birth to a girl, Princess Cornelie-Cécile, six months later. Therefore Prince Louis Ferdinand sen. (1907-1994) designated his grandson Prince George Frederick to become his heir.

Georg Friedrich passed his A-levels at Glenalmond College near Perth, Scotland.

While a couple of uncles contested his succession as head of the House of Hohenzollern, the courts ultimately awarded him the position while allowing the uncles a portion of the Prussian inheritance.

I am so loving the pin-up photo with autograph. If y'all are dithering over what to get me for my birthday, get in touch with GF.

Like almost every other royal in Europe, he is in line for the British throne, #151 according to Wikipedia.

The family takes its name from this fortified castle. It is owned 1/3 by one branch of the family and 2/3 by the royal branch.

Georg Friedrich was only a year old when his father died. His sister was born after their father's death. She suffered congenital encephalitis as a result of cytomegalovirus and this unfortunately resulted in developmental disability. I found three nice photos of the two children with their mother. This is the only later photo of Princess C-C that I have seen. Until Georg Friedrich sires an heir, she is next in line to head the family.

Much easier on the eyes than George IV of Amerika. And he's intelligent. Sigh.

This photo is from the official Hohenzollern site and I give it a big Woof!

Ladies, he's single.

--the BB

Complete with fairybook castle

Yes, I am a day late but a bear can only do so much. [If you are new here, the bear is my totem animal and a cartoon alter ego.]

Today we feature someone very distantly in line to the British throne (# 396) but next in line to head the House of Hannover (not that this cuts it in Germany since the whole noble thing was legally eliminated early in the 20th century). You can see the relation to the Brits in the arms above with the gold lioncels on red of England, the red lion of Scotland, and the harp of Ireland (also in the arms of Prince William of Wales).

Yes, we are talking about Prince Ernst August Andreas Philipp Constantin Maximilian Rolf Stephan Ludwig Rudolph of Hanover, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg. His familiar nickname is Ernsti, which easily distinguishes him from his father Ernst August, Prince of Hanover, the current head of the house of Hanover. His mother is Chantal Hochuli.

Ernsti "was born on 19 July 1983 in Hildesheim, Lower Saxony, Germany.... He has a younger brother Christian and a half sister Alexandra. He attended Malvern College." [Wikipedia]

This is one of those darling childhood pictures one tries to forget later.

You can see even in this earlier photo that Prince Ernst August (aka EA in the royal gossip circles) is a tall young man.

EA has consistently favored longer hair as does his brother and his step-brothers.

Although it is being opened to the public, this is the family home to which he holds title. He does not live there but, even so....

Here he is with his brother Prince Christian when they had Sotheby's run an auction at Marienburg, divesting of some 20,000 Hanover possessions to raise a little ready cash. Evidently there is lots more "stuff" so we need not weep for the heritage, though an uncle grumbled at the time and there was a flap over some weapons that were still functional (and I guess there is a law against functioning weapons displayed decoratively - didn't bother to chase that legal matter down).

Doing this weekly feature sends me into way more royal gossip than my natural taste inclines to. Along the way I learn all sorts of things. It seems the Guelphs/Welfs (yes, that's the family line) had the good sense not to divvy things up. Firstborn male gets it all. This is harsh on the siblings but it preserves the family wealth. So if you are gold digging, ladies, I recommend Ernst August and not his cute blond brother Christian. Ernsti, btw, looks like their dad and Chris like their mom.

It is rumored that Ernsti is a good lover. How the magazine that said so knows this is beyond my ken, but he seems to attract pretty women who don't mind that he isn't slated to be king of anything.

For the non-German-readers out there, you needn't pore over the photo for someone named Kunst. It's German for "art."

I love the expression on this photo. Something amused him. He is also looking a bit naughty here, which appeals to me. His father was quite the bad boy and attracted a lot of negative publicity, though public urination is hardly the worst thing royals might do. The greater scandal was divorcing EA and Christian's mother and marrying Chantal's [former] friend Princess Caroline of Monaco in January 1999. Ernsti's half-sister Alexandra arrived in July 1999.

Their Royal Highnesses Princes Ernst August and Christian thus have as step-siblings the princely Casiraghis - Andrea, Pierre, and Charlotte - and HRH Princess Caroline as stepmother. Since His Serene Highness Prince Albert of Monaco's children are not in line for the throne, Princess Caroline is next, followed by HRH Prince Andrea.

I've gotta say, that is one glamorous stepmom! From all accounts the blended family gets along very well.

Because, however distantly, Ernst August V of Hanover is in the British royal succession, he had to receive consent from Elizabeth II for his marriage to Caroline, without which he would have lost not only that claim but the possibility for his heirs of various claims to titles and property in England (Duke of Cumberland among them). Additionally, Princess Caroline obtained a "no objections" statement from France in accordance with the 1918 Franco-Monégasque Treaty. Since Princess Caroline is Roman Catholic, the Prince of Hanover did drop from British succession but his sons, having been baptized and raised Protestant, are still in the succession.

Here you can see Prince EA next to the young Casiraghis at the investiture of his step-uncle Prince Albert as sovereign of Monaco. When I posted a cropped version of this in the post on Andrea, I did not realize who the young man next to them was.

A royal version of the Brady bunch. Oh, I encountered two versions of the family name: Hanover and Hannover. This article uses both and y'all can deal with it. "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds." --Ralph Waldo Emerson

I really like this casual photo of Prince EA.


This is from the spread when he was featured in Vogue.

Sorry, I did not find him on YouTube.
--the BB

Will Wales Wins Wings

OK, I used to be a Baptist preacher. You expected me to resist alliterating in the header? Hah!


Yes, it's the flyboy pictured above. Well, sort of. More on that in a minute.


Oh, we're featuring William, all right.


Yes, this one, Diana's firstborn. William Arthur Philip Louis Windsor, born 21 June 1982.


Seen here with his grandmother, Her Britannic Majesty, and the old man, Carlos de Galles.


This week, of course, I did not have to scrounge for photos. Did you know his parents called him Wombat when he was very young? He is left-handed, and I have just begun to like him more for having learned that. He was also a rap DJ for a small radio station in Tortel, Chile, during part of his gap year after graduating from Eton. He majored in Geography at St Andrew's.


Barefoot at the beach.


So, what did his granny say during the graduation ceremony from Sandhurst?


Not a gym rat, but not hard on the eyes either.


He's a 2nd Lieutenant in the Blues and Royals.


Spare Capacity
But it was time for a rotation in the air, so he's been training with the RAF. Normally it takes about 4 years to become a fully-trained RAF pilot but he got the crash course (I'm sorry, a most unfortunate term to use in this context) of 13 weeks. The verdict is that this makes him a functional pilot but he won't be an operational pilot.

Wing Commander Andy Lovell who helped to train William and carried out his final test that earned him his wings praised the royal's flying skills.

He said: "William was very good. I was very impressed by his flying skills. He had a natural handling ability and he was very quick to learn. He responded well to instructions and demonstrated plenty of spare capacity." (source)

The Times Online was a bit snarky about it.

After a four-month crash course in how not to crash, Prince William received his RAF wings yesterday, recognising his basic ability to fly an aeroplane the right way up.

You can catch a video on his training (from Clarence House) here.

Needless to say, Prince William learned how to stare the thing down, the first step in showing it who's master.


Pops pins him
HRH the Prince of Wales, as Air Chief Marshal, pinned the RAF wings on Prince William at RAF Cranwell. This event was in the UK headlines today, which is why we feature William this week.


HRH's relationship with Miss Kate Middleton has been an on-again-off-again thing and they had not been seen together in public for quite a while. They resumed dating quietly of late and she was very present for this occasion.


Go for the gossip!


These last two pics may thus be of the future King and Queen of England. We shall see.

Congrats on your wings, Your Royal Highness.
--the BB

Friday Prince Blogging - Archduke Karl

In Austria, where the constitution forbids noble titles, he is Karl Habsburg-Lothringen. Elsewhere he is His Imperial and Royal Highness, Archduke Karl Thomas Robert Maria Franziskus Georg Bahnam von Habsburg-Lothringen, Prince Imperial of Austria, Prince Royal of Hungary and Bohemia.


HI&RH was born January 11, 1961, the sixth child and eldest son of Crown Prince Otto von Hapsburg. Otto is the eldest son of Charles, the last Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary, and the current head of the Hapsburg family.

Karl Habsburg is the founder and president of the organization Paneurope-Austria (1987). On October 13, 1996 he was elected to the European Parliament (Austrian People's Party). Since January 19, 2002 he has been the Direcor General of UNPO (Unrepresented Nations and People Organisation).

Archduke Karl has lived in Salzburg, Austria, since 1981. On 31 January 1993, he married Francesca Thyssen-Bornemisza, the only daughter of Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza, a European industrialist known for his art collecting and multiple marriages, and his second wife, Fiona Campbell Walter, a leading British fashion model of the 1950s and 1960s.

The Archduke and Archduchess have three children.

HI&RH Archduchess Eleonore Jelena Maria del Pilar Iona of Austria (born February 28, 1994)

HI&RH Archduke Ferdinand Zvonimir Maria Balthus Keith Michal Otto Antal Bahnam Leonhard of Austria (born June 21, 1997), who is heir after his father of the House of Habsburg-Lothringen.

HI&RH Archduchess Gloria Maria Bogdana Paloma Regina Fiona Gabriela of Austria (born October 15, 1999), whose godmother is Gloria, Princess of Thurn and Taxis.

I rather think that just as some royals are happy exhibitionists who complain about paparazzi but but nonetheless frequent public places, others are either quite reclusive or sufficiently dull that no one takes photo. I had a difficult time coming up with these photos. I found a very few more that were of poorer quality than these and didn't seem worth the bother to post.

If you like a bit of royal gossip, here is a link on the wild child who became a great art curator and ultimately heiress to a no-longer-extant empire. She is now settled down and, based on earlier days, I should not blame her if she stays out of the limelight now and enjoys family life and art instead.

Sorry, no videos this week. If you check YouTube under his name you get the funeral of his uncle instead.

--the BB