Royal News Roundup

Starting in eastern Europe, there is promising news out from Serbia. The Serbian newspaper Blic (perhaps inspired by the recent wedding in London where Crown Prince Alexander II of Serbia was a prominent guest) published a poll which found that some 64% of Serbs would prefer a monarchy over their current republic. It is certainly no coincidence that the Serbian Crown Prince has been probably the most active non-reigning heir to a throne in Europe. Putting other, less active, royals to shame the Serbian heir has been hard at work for years campaigning for a return to constitutional monarchy as the form of government best suited to his people. He has dealt with the public, the government and the Serbian Orthodox Church which supports a restoration. There are no political parties pushing a monarchist agenda but there are monarchist organizations active in spreading grass-roots support for a return to the Kingdom of Serbia and it seems there are being effective. Serbia should be an example to other monarchists and would-be monarchs alike.

Staying in the Balkans, Romania has begun to worry many monarchists in recent years with changes in the succession, the King endorsing his son-in-law in a failed run for the presidency and now there is something else raising eyebrows about the Romanian royals. On Tuesday HM King Michael of Romania signed a decree severing “historic and dynastic links” with the House of Hohenzollern to which all Romanian monarchs since King Carol I have belonged. It is said that this was done to underscore the purely Romanian nature of the Royal Family and to remove any association with Germany (from whence the Hohenzollern family came). Prince Paul of Romania (a grandson of King Carol II) has already denounced the decision and it seems rather an odd thing to do. Why now? Are there some deep-seated resentments between Romania and Germany of which outsiders are unaware? And, of course, be it Romania, Britain or Belgium, no royal decree or change of name can change the facts of history. I will confess to being rather puzzled by this.

It seems, of course, an effort to remove the Prince of Hohenzollern from the succession but I think the King has already made it clear who he wishes to succeed him and all any of it has done so far is split the monarchist community between those who wish to adhere to the traditional rules of succession and those who wish to adhere to whatever the King desires. All of these antics of late have rather depressed me as I once had very high hopes for a restoration in Romania. King Michael was loved by many and respected by very many more yet all of these recent squabbles and efforts at re-arranging the succession, trying to “make” new princes and cancel the rights of others have, I am afraid, greatly lowered the image of the Romanian Royal House and certainly have not helped efforts to effect a restoration there.

Also involving the ‘southern front’ of European monarchy, HRH Prince Carlos Javier, Duke of Parma, recently issued a statement affirming his leadership of (at least one branch of the fractured movement of) the Carlists of Spain who now refer to him as “Don Carlos Javier II, King of the Spains”. This has caused a degree of embarrassment for the Dutch Royal Family who, of course, recognize HM Juan Carlos I as King of Spain -end of discussion. It is rather sad how the Carlists have fallen. Prince Carlos Javier is now the leader of the leftist branch of Carlism, opposed by the right-wing branch led by his uncle Prince Sixte-Henri. At this point the effort seems to be a “legitimism” of popular ideology, declaring any royal their legitimate leader who goes along with their left or right-wing views. Others will of course point out that with the death of the Carlist heir Alfonso Carlos de Borbon y Austria-Este in 1936 the senior male line descendant of King Carlos IV became King Alfonso XIII who is, as we know, the grandfather of King Juan Carlos I.

In Great Britain, Her Majesty the Queen recently surpassed King George III as the second-longest reigning monarch in British history, taking her one step closer toward the record of Queen Victoria. In more troubling news, we hope not a sign of things to come, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge had their honeymoon destination made public by a tourism official in the Seychelles. We can only hope they remain undisturbed. It has also been put out (though this is hardly “news”) that the Queen can expect no one to bow or curtsy to her when she makes her historic visit to the Republic of Ireland. PM “Call me Dave” Cameron will accompany her, at least part of the time and she will be arriving via the Casement Aerodrome, named after the Irish republican and pederast Roger Casement who was chief antagonist to Belgian King Leopold II before arranging arms shipments from Germany to Ireland during World War I. He was hanged for treason in London after the Easter Uprising. The Queen will also lay a wreath at the Garden of Remembrance in Dublin to commemorate those who tried to overthrow her grandfather King George V. And yet, it is the Irish who tend to be upset by the visit rather than the British -go figure.

Somehow I missed the Prince of Wales visiting the United States last week (don’t recall seeing anything on TV about it either). On Tuesday the Prince arrived in Washington to visit a “city farm” in what the AFP called a “predominately Black neighborhood” -perhaps someone should clue them in that Washington is a predominately Black city, anyway, the Prince seemed to take it all in stride, even when some on-lookers attracted his attention by shouting, “Yo Charles, over here!” and another woman asked him for his autograph (which was not forthcoming of course -that is not done). The Prince spoke at Georgetown University on sustainable agriculture and attended an event to honor the allied British and American soldiers currently serving overseas. He also toured the US Supreme Court and had a short visit at the White House with President Obama.

Finally, moving to the Far East, here is some news of the sort that I really like to see. In the Kingdom of Thailand the justice ministry has recruited several dozen young volunteers to serve as “Cyber Scouts” to patrol the internet for comments slandering their beloved monarch. The new social media, YouTube, MySpace, FaceBook, Twitter, MyFace, SpaceButt, BoobTube, AppleFritter, etc, etc have all made it harder to ensure that the laws against insulting the monarchy are upheld. However, the young “Cyber Scouts” are happy to donate their time and most say they are inspired to do so by their King and view their service as a way of giving back, helping him out and defending what they regard as the central and most sacred aspect of their country. The program is just getting started and so far no one has been reported to the authorities. I wish them every success and I would like to see more of this sort of voluntary defense of monarchs on-line around the world, in the west particularly. The western media reporting on this, of course, think it is atrocious and simply a method of persecuting the “red shirt” movement in Thailand as anti-monarchist. All I can say to that is, if the shoe fits…