News Summary R O Y A L B L O G. N L

Serbian Church supports royal reburials

The campaign of Crown Prince Alexander II to get all deceased members of the Karadjordjevic Royal Family who are buried abroad transferred to Serbia and reburied in the Crypt of St. George Church in Oplenac received a major boost.

Patriarch Irinej of Serbia and the Holy Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church have thrown their support behind the initiative and long held wish of Alexander II and his family. In a letter he informed Serbian President Boris Tadic and Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic of the support of the Church.

The Crown Prince asked again that the Serbian authorities take part in the organisation of the transfer of the remains of Queen Maria, King Peter II, Queen Alexandra, Prince Andrej, Prince Paul, Princess Olga and Prince Nikola to Serbia with full state honours. © GPD

Queen Beatrix cancels all engagements

Queen Beatrix has cancelled all her engagements for next week. The new ambassadors of the African nations Mozambique and Djibouti will have to reschedule their appointment to offer their credentials, the tenth anniversary celebration of Eurojust will have to make do without a royal visitor, and Prince Willem-Alexander will stand in for his mother at a War Memorial on Monday.

The Dutch queen at present is at the side of her second son Prince Friso, who is in stable but still critical condition in a hospital in the Austrian town of Innsbruck. Last week Friday he was hit by an avalanche while skiing in the Austrian Alps near Lech am Vorarlberg, where the Dutch royal family have been coming since the earlier sixties.

With Prince Friso, 43, was Florian Moosbrugger, 42, a very seasoned skier, as is the Prince, and a close friend of the royal family. He is also the manager of hotel Gasthof Post, which the Dutch royals consider as their home away from home.

Queen Beatrix this year is staying there for the 47th time. Moosbrugger escaped injury by using his avalanche airbag. He was than able to alarm the rescue services and is reported to have started digging in the snow to find his life time friend Friso.

* Prince Constantijn, youngest son of the queen, with Princesses Mabel and Laurentien, Thursday

The queen and members of her family visit Friso daily, in two shifts. With the exception of Thursday the queen comes in the early afternoon, accompanied by Friso's wife Princess Mabel - CEO of The Elders. In the evening Mabel returns, with other members of the royal family or of her own family. Doctors still do not know when a prognosis of Friso can be given. It was expected that would happen before the end of the week, but on Wednesday a statement said it could take longer.

Queen Beatrix will return to The Hague over the weekend it was announced Thusrday. She has some private business to attend to before returning to Austria. Her eldest son Prince Willem-Alexander and his wife Princess Máxima had already planned to stay another week - the heir to the Dutch throne will only make a quick trip home to attend the 70th anniversary of the battle of the Java Sea memorial service.

Dutch media have been standing watch near the Innsbruck hospital since last Friday. © HJ; Photos by © GPD AP. Videos on RoyalblogNL's YouTube channel.

 

Princess Máxima visits Friso in hospital

Princess Máxima of the Netherlands for the first time this week visited her brother-in-law Prince Friso in the Innsbruck University Hospital. She was accompanied by her husband Prince Willem-Alexander and Prince Friso's wife Princess Mabel.

 

They spent about one hour with Friso, who is in the intensive care unit of the hospital where he was brought after being hit by an avalanche on the sloped of the Austrian skiing resort Lech. The 43-year old Prince was buried in snow for 20 minutes before he could be found and rescued.

His condition remains stable, but his life is not out of danger, a medical bulletin issued on Wednesday read. © GPD; Video: © GPD Marius Cirtiu

Mabel visits her husband in hospital

Dutch Princess Mabel and her halfsister Eveline visited Prince Friso in the University Clinic in Innsbruck, on Monday evening. The Prince, second son of Queen Beatrix, was brought here on Friday after being hit and buried under snow by an avalanche on the last day of his skiing holiday in the Austrian ski resort of Lech. He is in stable condition, but his life is still in danger.

 

Princess Mabel visits her husband twice a day. In the morning she is usually accompanied by her mother-in-law Queen Beatrix. On Monday the princess also took her five year old daughter Zaria and her mother Florence Wisse Smit to the hospital. The royal visitors took a side entrance, to shield countess Zaria from the waiting media in front of the hospital. © HJ; Videoclip: © RB Marius Cirtiu

No change in condition Prince Friso

There has been no change in the condition of Dutch Prince Friso the Dutch Government Information Service said in a statement Saturday afternoon. The 43-year second son of Queen Beatrix is in an Innsbruck University Hospital after being hit by an avalanche Friday near the Austrian ski resort of Lech.

 

Prince Friso, who went skiing with a friend, was found after twenty minutes by an Austrian rescue team and was taken by helicopter to the Landeskrankenhaus in the capital of the nearby state of Tyrol. The hospital, which once also treated former Polish President Lech Walesa, ranks among the first in Austria. A team of specialists is monitoring the Prince. They have requested that the number of visitors be limited.

Queen Beatrix and Friso’s wife Princess Mabel spent two hours at the hospital on Saturday, after having spend most of Friday afternoon near Friso too. After the visit they returned to Lech, where Prince Willem-Alexander and Prince Constantijn – the queens two other sons – are with their families. The Dutch royal family has been coming to Lech since the early sixties. The princes learned to ski there.

The reports about the are still incomplete. © GPD; Pictures by © GPD AP

Edward & Sophie get all the islands

The Earl and The Countess of Wessex will undertake an overseas tour of the West Indies from 21st February to the 7th March, representing Queen Elizabeth II in the year of her Diamond Jubilee, the Buckingham Palace press office announced.

Prince Edward and his wife Sophie have their work cut out for them, in this the first of the overseas royal tours planned for the Queen's family this year. On their itinerary are St Lucia, Barbados, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada; Trinidad and Tobago, Montserrat, St Kitts and Nevis, Anguilla and Antigua & Barbuda.

The tour will begin in St Lucia where Edward and Sophie will join the Independence Day celebrations, attending the Parade and watching a youth performance.

The Office of the Governor-General wishes to announce that Their Royal Highnesses Prince and Princess Edward, Earl and Countess of Wessex, will be in Saint Lucia during the celebration of her 33rd Anniversary of Independence.

Other highlights of the tour include a visit to the Barbados Parliament, a visit to the Princess Elizabeth Centre in Trinidad and Tobago, built with funds given to The Queen as a wedding present, and a visit to Montserrat where they will see the Island’s ongoing recovery from the devastating effects of the volcanic eruption. © GPD

Dutch Queen starts skiing holiday

Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands arrived in the Austrian ski resort of Lech Saturday, for the start of her annual skiing holiday. The queen and her family have been coming to Lech since the early sixties and hardly ever miss a season.

 

Prince Willem-Alexander and Princess Máxima, and Prince Constantijn and Princess Laurentien and their children will join the queen as soon as the Dutch and Belgian school holidays start. © HJ; Video by NOS

'Reburial of Serbian royals'

Crown Prince Alexander II of Serbia again sent letters to Boris Tadic, President of Serbia and Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic, with a renewed request that the earthly remains of members of the royal family be reburied in Serbia.

The request is for the remains of King Peter II of Yugoslavia (father of Crown Prince Alexander II and the last KIng of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia), Queen Maria of Yugoslavia (wife of HM King Alexander I of Yugoslavia and grandmother of the Crown Prince) Alexander II), Queen Alexandra of Yugoslavia (wife of King Peter II and mother of Alexander II), Prince Andrej (youngest brother of King Peter II), Prince Paul (Regent of the Kingdom), Princess Olga (wife of Prince Paul) and their son Prince Nicholas to be buried with highest state tributes in the Crypt of St. George Church in Oplenac.

Another letter was sent to His Holiness Patriarch Irinej of Serbia, asking for his blessing. Crown Prince Alexander II emphasized in his letter to state officials:

“I am not addressing you as a son, a grandson or a relative of the deceased, but I am addressing you as a Serb in Serbia. The personalities of their ranks should not be transferred and buried because of family piety, but should be escorted with official state tributes as a gesture of historical respect, reconciliation and understanding. It is an act of historic importance, and as such should be responsibility of highest elected officials in the State.”