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

Princess Carolina is living in Hong Kong

Princess Carolina of Bourbon-Parma, the youngest daughter of Princess Irene of the Netherlands, has moved with her husband Albert Brenninkmeijer to Hong Kong. A spokesperson for the royal family Bourbon-Parma confirmed the move Tuesday.

Mr. Albert Brenninkmeijer, scion of the famous C & A Brenninkmeijer family, was until this spring head of the Swiss branch of C & A and is now directing C & A's business in Hong Kong and further afield, in China.

Princess Carolina worked until recentlyas the  Swiss "representative for partnerships" of UNRWA, the UN organization dedicated to the support and development of the Palestinian refugees. The couple have two children. © RB

Princess Carolina shows off her baby son Xavier

Princess Carolina of Bourbon-Parma and her husband Albert Brenninkmeijer posed for the first official pictures after the birth on 16 December of their son Xavier Albert Alphons. In their home in Switzerland they were the very image of a happy young family, and their almost two year old daughter Alaïa-Maria joining in all the fun.

Princess Carolina is the youngest daughter of the late Prince Carlos Hugo of Bourbon Parma and Princess Irene of the Netherlands, sister to former Queen Beatrix. © RB; Photo by © Ruth Hofmann

Powerful message of Princesses Mabel & Viktória

"At age 15, we wantd to learn and grow! Not to be child brides - Princess Mabel and Princess Viktória campaigned to end Child Marriage with a clear message when they both attended an expert meeting at the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs in The Hague, Wednesday.

The meeting was organised by Save the Children, of which Princess Viktória de Bourbon de Parme is patron. Princess Viktória is the wife of Prince Jaime, younger brother of the present Duke of Parma, and himself Dutch ambassador in the Vatican. Jaime and Viktória have one daughter, Princess Zita, named after the last Empress of Austria, who was a sister to Jaime's grandfather Prince Xavier of Bourbon-Parma.

Princess Mabel is founder of Girls Not Brides, an umbrella organisation for over 500 ngo's and other organisations in 71 countries across the world who strive for girls rights and an end to child marriage. Every year around 14 million girls are married under the age of 18, and of this number 1 in 7 will marry before their 15th birthday and in extreme cases even before the age of 10. Hence the powerful message: what was your goal at age 15? 'Not to be a child bride'.

© RB Hans Jacobs; Photos by © Monarchy Press Europe, Patrick van Katwijk

Grand Duchess Charlotte fondly remembered

 

Grand Duke Jean, 94, made a rare public appearance Tuesday to mark the 70th anniversary of the return from exile of his mother Grand Duchess Charlotte on 14 April 1945. He was joined by his son Grand Duke Henri and daughter in law Grand Duchess Maria Teresa. In their name flowers were placed at the foot of a monument to the 'fearless Duchess', as Charlotte was known during the war years.

Charlotte and her family had fled for the occupying German troops on May 10, 1940. She spent the years in exile exhorting her country men to resist the nazi regime, expressing her strong belief that the Allied cause would win in the end. She travelled widely in Canada and the US, and sent her children to school in Montréal, Québec.

Her husband Prince Félix of Bourbon-Parma, brother of Empress Zita of Austria, and son Prince Jean (to become Grand Duke Jean when he succeeded her in 1964) took part in the first liberation of Luxembourg in September 1944. The Germans however turned around and re-occupied large chunks of the Grand Duchy again that winter, only to be kicked out again in February 1945. That openened the way for the Grand Duchess to return to her home as well.

© Royalblog, Hans Jacobs, with Marius Cirtiu

Princess Viktória helps Save the Children

Princess Viktória de Bourbon de Parme has become patron of the Dutch branch of Save the Children. In that capacity she follows in the footsteps of former queen Juliana, who was patron from 1980 till her death in 2004. Queen Juliana was the grandmother of Princess Viktória's husband, Prince Jaime - youngest son of Princess Irene of the Netherlands and the late Duke of Parma, Prince Carlos Hugo.

Princess Viktória lives in Rome, where Prince Jaime is Dutch ambassador to the Holy See - the Vatican. The couple who married in October 2013 has one daughter, Princess Zita, named after Jaime's great aunt the former Empress Zita of Austria.

The princess helped Little Red Riding hood and a class of school children Monday collecting coins from a wishing well at the Dutch amusement and fairy tale park De Efteling. The well was inaugurated by Princess Juliana in 1985, and has amassed some 180,000 euro for the children's right organisation Save the Children.  

 

 © RB Marius Cirtiu

Prince Jaime 'wants to make a difference'

Prince Jaime de Bourbon de Parme sees his new job as Dutch ambassador to the Holy See as a major challenge. ”I am an entrepreneur within the government. I see lots of possibilities”, Jaime said in an interview with Dutch public television Tuesday evening.

The Prince was appointed to the prestigeous post earlier this year and expects to hand his credentials to Pope Francis in October. He described his position at the Vatican as “one of the most interesting places in the world." The Vatican State may be small, but it has 1,2 billion ‘followers’ the Prince said.

Prince Jaime, who served the last few years as a special envoy for natural resources, called himself a career diplomat. He has already been with the State Department (Ministery of Foreign Affairs) for 13 years. He applied for a position “because I want to make a difference in the world."

In the interview he also talked about his two grandfathers, Prince Xavier of Bourbon-Parma and Prince Bernhard. He praised Prince Xavier's commitment to conflict prevention, as seen in the First World War when he tried to open negotiations between Austria-Hungary (where his sister Zita was married to Emperor Karl) and the Allies. In World War II, Xavier ended up in Nazi concentration camp Dachau. “He kept the faith, the nazi’s couldn’t take from him.”

Prince Bernhard was a "man figure" as Jaime described him. “Very authentic”, but unlike Jaime someone who did not shy away from conflict. ,”He was committed to the preservation of nature. I think it's great that he has co-founder of the World Wildlife Fund”, Prince Jaime said.

© Royalblog; Screenshot

Touching Dutch royal tribute to Carlos Hugo

They came to pay their respects to "one of their own". It was both touching and moving, and certainly unique. The Dutch royal family gathered at Noordeinde Palace in The Hague to honour the life of Prince Carlos Hugo, Duke of Parma, who died earlier last week of cancer, aged 80.

On Friday the Dutch government plane, specially commissioned by Queen Beatrix, carried his remains from Barcelona to The Netherlands, home of his four children, his grandchild and his former wife, Princess Irene. ,,Because I love Irene, I love Holland", the carlist claimant to the throne of Spain once said, many years ago at the time of his tumultuous engagement to Irene.

* The coffin, with the Bourbon standard, the red carlist headwear and the Order of the Gulden Fleece, and the wreath sent by 'Los Reyes', the King and Queen of Spain.

Holland never loved him back: not understanding his carlist heritage, not accepting Irene's conversion to the catholic faith, not seeing the future he had mapped out for Spain. When another branch of the Bourbon family (re)gained the throne of Spain, the dreams of Carlos Hugo and Irene shattered and they separated. Carlos Hugo went off the radar in Holland.

* Four royal sisters - Beatrix, Irene, Margriet and (unseen) Christina, with Pieter van Vollenhoven in the garden of Noordeinde Palace.

But the Dutch royal family did never break off contact. On the contrary. Carlos Hugo was almost always present at all major family occasions, apparently loved and appreciated by his former family in law. He sat in the royal box in 2008 for the royal variety show celebrating the birthdays of Queen Beatrix (70) and Princess Margriet (65). He was there for Pieter van Vollenhoven's 70th birthday, one year later.

And only in June he saw his eldest son and successor as Duke of Parma, marry in a civil ceremony - the church ceremony was scheduled for August 28, now the day of Carlos Hugo's funeral in Parma.  

* Princesses Margarita, with husband Tjalling, and Carolina lead the royal mourners, with Queen Beatrix and Princess Irene immediately following.

In a small but beautiful building - Fagel's Cupola - in the gardens of Noordeinde Palace, the Dutch royals - all four royal sisters, including Carlos Hugo's former wife Irene, and almost all of their children and their partners - held a private family ceremony after the remains of the Prince had arrived in The Hague. They were joined by Princess Marie Therèse of Bourbon Parma, sister of the late Prince.

The remains will be taken to Piacenza in Italy on Monday, where the Duke will lay in state till Wednesday, when the body will be moved to Parma. © RB/GPD; Pictures: © ANP Pool, Robin Utrecht   

Princess Margarita and Tjalling married

Princess Margarita and Tjalling Ten Cate married at an estate near Maarsbergen in central Holland, on Saturday 3 May, 2008. Members of the royal family and friends attended the low-key civil ceremony. 

Queen Beatrix was present too, in contrast to Margarita’s first marriage to Mr. Edwin de Roy van Zuydewijn in the French town of Auch in 2001, when the queen and Margarita’s father, the Duke of Parma, were among the many absentees.

At the time of posting no details of the wedding were known, with Dutch media respecting the Princess’ wish for privacy. Margarita had hoped to keep the date and place of her second wedding a secret, planning to release one picture only some time afterwards. That plan was thwarted and on Friday she had a posse of photographers stalking her.

Margarita, 35, and Tjalling Ten Cate, 32, made their engagement public on 19 February. That their relationship met with royal approval was evident two weeks earlier, when they appeared with the rest of the Dutch royals at the joint birthday party in Amsterdam for Queen Beatrix, 70, and Princess Margriet, 65.

 Queen Beatrix previously had disapproved of Edwin de Roy van Zuydewijn, Margarita’s first husband. The pair felt rightfully slighted by the family, and when pleas for acceptance and consideration fell on deaf ears, went public with their grievances. In a series of interviews with Dutch weekly HP/De Tijd Margarita and Edwin did more than spill the beans on the House of Orange and the Bourbon de Parme family.

Their accusations were rejected by Queen Beatrix at a special press conference in Santiago de Chile ("this is not the Margarita I know and love") and they even lead to a spectacular special debate in parliament, with Edwin and Margarita seated in the public gallery.

The pair claimed that Edwin was spied on, and that the secret service had checked his credentials, illegally sharing their information with Margarita’s father and with her grandfather, the late Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands. Government ministers had to apologise to the couple after they first denied any wrong doing and than found out that the secret service, as the express orders of the Queen’s Cabinet, had indeed check on Edwin.

Margarita and Edwin, who lived in a castle in the south of France, legally separated in 2006, two years after Margarta’s lawyer announce her intention to do so. By 2005 the Princess had been welcomed back in the royal family, while Edwin said he would write and publish at least two books about the royal family which so brutally rejected him.

Margarita and her new husband, who studied law at the prestigious Leiden University and who works for the Netherlands central bank, De Nederlandsche Bank, expect their first child in August.

© RB

Dutch Princess Irene is using her title again

Irene van Lippe-Biesterfeld is re-using her title of Princess. ,,I have to come to terms with the fact that this also a part of me", the younger sister of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands said in a rare personal interview.

Years ago she had decided to stop use her title and style of 'Her Royal Highness'. She became simply known as Irene Van Lippe-Biesterfeld, using the family name of her father Prince Bernhard instead.

In the interview the Princess, 68, explained that she needed to abandon her title "in order to be able to go my own way". She felt her title was a barrier in the contact "with people", "it got in the way between me and them", she said.

"As Irene Van Lippe-Biesterfeld I could go through life in a way that made it both easier for me and for others to communicate, to get in touch."

The Palace kept referring to "H.R.H. Princess Irene of the Netherlands" in official announcements. And abroad too the Princess kept using her title if that would further her cause and open doors that otherwise would remain shut, she admitted in the interview.

Princess Irene, mother of four children - including bride to be Princess Margarita - founded NatuurCollege. This week she presided over a symposium on sustainability in The Hague; the invitations were send by "Princess Irene".

© RB Hans Jacobs; Photos (archive) by © Royal Press Europe & © GPD

Prince Carlos Hugo treated for cancer

Prince Charles Hugues of Bourbon Parma is to undergo treatment for cancer, a spokesman for the Duke of Parma has said. The 77-year old prince will be treated at the Dutch Cancer Institute of the Antoni van Leeuwenhoek hospital in Amsterdam.

The treatment consists of radiation, which will be done five days a week, for at least seven weeks "in order to repress the disease and to prevent it from returning" the spokesman said. The prince has already been treated successfully in the Allgemeine Klinik in Vienna, Austria.

Prince Carlos Hugo, as he is better known in the Netherlands, is the former husband of Dutch Princess Irene. Their marriage, which ended in divorce in 1981, caused quite a stir in the Netherlands, not least because the protestant princess became converted to catholicism beforehand.

The Dutch government made it clear it would not seek parliamentary consent for the marriage, because of the prince’s claims to the then still vacant throne of Spain. Irene by marrying the prince, lost here rights of succession in Holland. The wedding took place on April 29th 1964 in Rome; the entire Dutch royal family stayed away.

Spanish dictator Franco later appointed Prince Juan Carlos de Borbon, at whose wedding in 1962 Princess Irene had been a bridesmaid, as future King of Spain. Carlos Hugo, who lived in excile in Paris, tried to get a seat in the new democratic parliament, but did not succeed.

His relations with the Dutch royal family have remained very cordial. The prince was guest at all the major royal events, including February 1st birthday bash for Queen Beatrix and her sister Princess Margriet.

© RB; Photos by © Phil Nijhuis