I realize I am getting ahead of my usual news routine, but this story grabbed by attention and I do not often have the chance to report on Italian royal news. HRH Prince Emanuele Filiberto of Venice and Piedmont (son the last Crown Prince of Italy) and his wife Princess Clotilde have reportedly had two new additions to their family, adopting two boys from Kenya in January named Alan and Moses. The couple already have two daughters of their own; Princess Vittoria and Princess Luisa who accompanied their parents to Kenya to meet their new adopted siblings. I will confess that this was probably the most surprising recent royal news for me; I just never expected the Prince and Princess of Venice & Piedmont to be the sort who would do this. The succession of the House of Savoy has been disputed for some time over the un-equal marriage of the Crown Prince with the Duke of Aosta claiming to be rightful heir. The flaunting of succession laws was reiterated some time ago by the Prince of Venice who said that he would make his eldest daughter, Princess Vittoria, head of the house after him if he had no sons.As things stand now, the Duke of Aosta will inherit the position in any event since the Prince of Venice has no sons. However, if he actually tried to name his daughter as his successor (against the Salic law of Savoy) the squabble would be back to square one. There has also been chatter, considering the violations of the succession law that have already been made (and, let us be honest, some rather unorthodox behavior) what would happen if the Prince were to try to make one of his new adopted sons his heir? Might there be a Kenyan claimant to the kingship of Italy? I also cannot resist mentioning that the famous St Pio of Pietrelcina (Padre Pio) is said to have predicted that one branch of the House of Savoy would flourish while the other would wither away. If that story is true St Pio seems to have been quite prophetic yet again.
Personally, and I love the Italian Royal Family in spite of having many “problems” with them both today and throughout their history, but I cannot help but wonder if this adoption is really what you would call ‘genuine’. They all look perfectly happy about it and sincere and all but, let us be honest, the royal couple have tended to give the impression of craving celebrity and the spotlight and it is undeniable that, for some reason, adopting African children seems to have become rather chic and fashionable among the celebrities of our current pop culture. Could this be an effort in that direction or am I being unfair and needlessly negative? Time will tell I suppose. Until then at least, assuming the best of everyone involved, The Mad Monarchist congratulates the Prince and Princess on their new additions and wish the Italian Royal Family all the best for the future.*Update* Subsequent news reports have indicated that the adoption was a purely financial one rather than an actual change of family for the two youngsters.
Monarchy is not republic. A monarchy is tied to its root (tradition and religion), so in my opinion a black American president or a Japanese Argentinean president is still normal, but a black (native) Italian King is as absurd as a white (native) African Kings (colonial monarchs don’t count).
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ReplyDeleteI believe that in some jurisdictions, at least, adopted children cannot inherit a title or throne. For instance, the Belgian throne was restricted to direct, *natural* and legitimate descendants of Leopold I.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if there is any similar rule for the Savoys?
The rules for Savoy go back to the Holy Roman Empire so I imagine they are pretty strict, however, the rules have already been tossed out the window. Whether one agrees with the Prince of Naples or the Duke of Aosta, there is no denying that the old laws were not kept. Given that, no one can really say for sure what will happen.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with the previous point. I feel it less so with Latin America than the U.S. but the same basically holds true. There is no "American" ethnicity or nationality so anyone can be an American. However, a German is not a Frenchman, a Hungarian is not a Slav, an Anglo isn't a Celt and a Kenyan isn't an Italian. That's not hatred or bigotry or racism -that's just a fact. Races, ethnicities, nationalities etc all exist. They are real.
Whoops, I accidentally deleted my previous message, so here it is gain, if necessary.
ReplyDeleteI agree with ignatius masayuki (interesting name by the way). A Black monarch could never happen in Europe if the institution of Monarchy is worth anything, just as a white Monarch could never happen in Africa or in China.
Aside from that, I don't really approve of Europeans adopting non-European children. Europe is dying, a shell of its former self, and this hardly encourages regeneration of its people, land and culture.
Though I do congratulate their selfless and doubtlessly Christian act of charity. I just wish they would have adopted an Italian orphan.
Correction: Japanese Peruvian president, not Argentinean.
ReplyDeleteWe all know that the logics of republic & modern democracy are build from childish dreams. Being secular and already uprooted all its tradition, basically republics build their civilization from scratch (year 0). By 1918 the German Realm / Empire and its civilization were already about 1500 years, but the present German republic and its civilization are only 93 years old. The sacred French Monarchy and its civilization ended with the French revolution; the present republic and its civilization in my opinion are so different from former the similarity between them ends with the name they both shared.
The present intrusion of the “pop” culture is even basically republicanized all cultures in the world; although there are still monarchies today, but most of them, especially those in the west and its allies are already culturally republican.
Republics don’t care with tradition and religion; their very foundation is build from the ruin of the old orders; to be a deconstructionist is every republican wet dream; the older Japanese generation even called the present generation as “the new human being”.
So the potential of having a member of the minority as president in Europe is just another consequence of living under a republican culture / society. My worry is when that finally happens, how long do you thing before the “democratic society” would “force” the honorable monarchies to follow their “example”.
At least the black branch of the Savoy is not eligible for the throne, just like the black branch of the Grimaldi. However, the black branch of the Liechtenstein and the Chinese branch of the Gluckborg are eligible for the throne.
ReplyDeleteThis means, of course if something happen “God Forbid” to Prince Alois’s line, then we will end up with a black prince of Liechtenstein, again if something happen “God Forbid” to Prince Frederick’s line, then we will end up with a Chinese prince of Denmark.
Liberal Americans are very proud with their current black president; but allow me to present a scenario where from now on all American presidents must be black; I wonder under this scenario will liberal Americans still be proud with their black presidents? Historically and traditionally, modern USA is a white country (part of the Anglo sphere), so naturally American presidents are white.
In European history, we have witnessed some hostility toward Royal Houses during time of distress or war simply because they have foreign ethnic heritages in their blood. Nowadays, rather then ethnicity, they will have foreign racial heritages in their blood.
History are filled with a sour end for countries with multi ethnic (race) population headed continuously by the minority; Zanzibar, Sudan, Sikkim, Rwanda, Kashmir (exacerbate also by different religion between the King and his subjects) are just some of the example.
Only time will tell where the modern amalgamated world will end, perhaps in the 24th century the world will only have one race, one tradition, one belief; together facing “alien” races in the galaxy (star trek scenario) or perhaps an entirely different more sourer end.