Friday, August 27, 2010

Henri attends funeral *

The Grand Duke attended the funeral of his cousin, Carlos Hugo, Duke of Parma. The funeral was held Saturday at the Basilica Santa Maria della Steccata in Parma, Italy.

Carlos Hugo was the Carlist pretender to the Spanish throne. In 1964 he married Princess Irene of the Netherlands. They were divorced in 1981. Together they had 4 children.

Henri's grandfather, Prince Félix of Luxembourg, Prince de Bourbon de Parme and Carlos Hugo's father, Xavier, were brothers. Félix and Xavier had 22 other siblings, several of whom died as infants. The Empress Zita of Austria, Queen of Hungry was one of their sisters. I have read that Xavier attempted to court Grand Duchess Marie-Adelaide prior to her abdication.


Friday, August 13, 2010

Grand Duke Jean visits exhibit...

Yesterday, Grand Duke Jean visited the exhibit in honor of his mother, Grand Duchess Charlotte. He seemed upbeat while he toured the travelling exhibit.

His son, Grand Duke Henri, toured the exhibit shortly after it opened. Wort and RTL have photographs of the visit.

Monday, August 9, 2010

Den Ierfgroussherzog

Guillaume hasn't been getting much attention lately. I thought I'd write a little something about him and the preparations he has undertaken to prepare himself for his position. I would also like to point out a few pretty obvious inaccuracies that I frequently read online.

The then Hereditary Grand Duke Henri and the lovely Hereditary Grand Duchess Maria Teresa welcomed itty-bitty baby Guillaume to the world 11 November 1981. The sound of cannons announced his birth while many Luxembourgers were having their lunch.

Prince Guillaume became The Hereditary Grand Duke on 18 December 2000.

Guillaume began his educational career at Ecole de Lorentzweiler and continued to Lycée Robert Schuman. He then attended the exclusive and oh-so-expensive College Alpin Beau Soleil in Villars-sur-Ollon, Switzerland where he received his French Baccalaureate in 2001.

Guillaume undertook a 44 week commissioning course at The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. His family attended his passing out parade on 9 August 2002. In December he took the oath as an officer in the Luxembourg Army. He now holds the rank of Major.

At some point after this Guillaume entered Durham University in the UK. He did not complete a degree. Some sources try to paint a picture of Guillaume literally failing out of the university. I do not seriously entertain that possibility.

Wikipedia states that Guillaume attended and graduated from Brunel University. Maybe he did attend the university but I do not believe he received a degree. From 2003-2005 Guillaume undertook various internships in Belgium, England and Spain.

In 2006 Guillaume entered Institut Philanthropos in Fribourg, Switzerland. (I didn't mention this before because I didn't want to draw attention to the school while Imre or Christoph were students). They do not offer programs in international politics. Logically, this indicates that Guillaume also studied somewhere else in Switzerland. If he didn't then person that wrote his official biography for the Grand-Ducal Court has a very different concept of what constitutes "geopolitics" than I.

Sometime after he completed the program at Philanthropos he arrived in Angers, France. In Angers he attended the Institut Albert le Grand. The Institut Albert le Grand and Université Angers have a partnership agreement. The humanities and political science program is completed at Albert le Grand and the degree is issued by Université Angers. Guillaume completed the program with honors in 2009.

This brings me to the reason why I do not believe Guillaume received a degree from Brunel.....The press release acknowledging his completion of the program stated that he received a "Licence." The Licence is not a Masters level program. It is the equivalent of what the English speaking world calls a Bachelor Degree. Both Institut Albert le Grand and Université Angers clearly differentiate between the "Licence" and the "Masters." Additionally, it is easy to obtain information on the French system of qualifications and their foreign equivalent. If Guillaume had received his Bachelor Degree at Brunel (or anywhere else) he would not have taken the Licence program in Angers. This would have been a waste of his time and money. Why would any reasonable person complete the same degree at two different schools? They wouldn't.

There was a time when I thought that Guillaume had received a degree from Brunel and that he earned a Masters at Angers. You may have noticed that I am now slightly better informed. ;)

Guillaume takes an active role in the Kraizbierg Foundation and the Board of Economic Development. He is also a member of the Council of State. Of all the Grand Duke's children only Guillaume is fully fluent in Luxembourgish, French, English, German and Spanish.

The number of engagements undertaken by The Hereditary Grand Duke increased dramatically following the completion of his Licence. I surmise that he is now working full time in his role.

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Mlle. Claire Lademacher **

Point de Vue and another magazine have published photographs of Félix and his lady-friend.

Claire and Félix attended Collège Alpin International Beau Soleil together. They graduated in the same class in 2003. It is not a coincidence that they are currently in Rome at the same university.

They were not together as a couple as far back as Beau Soleil; Félix is known to have dated at least 2 other women following his days there (prior to his more personal association with Claire). However, as far as I know, their relationship is serious.

They attended the wedding of Princess Blanche de Merode where they posed for photos (not a moment of brilliance, I might add). I had stated that Felix was in a serious relationship with a woman named Claire a while back. This shouldn't come as a shock to anyone who reads the LAF.  After they posed for the picture together, I didn't feel the need to continue to pretend that it was a secret. Honestly, they hadn't gone out of their way to be secret about their relationship.

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Louis

Happy 24th belated birthday Prince Louis!

I'd just like to say that for nearly a year I've withheld the information that Louis and Tessy were living in Melbourne, Florida (not Orlando as the tabloids say). I had also chosen not to publish the information that Louis was a student at the Florida Institute of Technology. This information was published in several places today. Apparently, it is not obvious to everyone that Melbourne is a relatively small town that could make Louis and his family easy prey for press, fans and royal stalkers. There also might have been 2 or 3 students at FIT that weren't aware that His Royal Highness is a student there. The aforementioned bloggers (not this one) also imply that Louis is a new student at FIT. He's been a student there for a while. He's already making solo flights.

Tessy is also supposed to be a student in Florida. Maybe everyone can do articles about about where she is studying? You know, just in case anyone wants to have a new royal best friend. Let's just go ahead and make their lives easier and safer...maybe you'd like to publish their home address to make it easier for stalkers, overzealous fans and general crazy people to locate them?

The Grand Ducal Family is one of the most private royal families in the world. You'd think that most people who are interested in them would have figured out by now that it is not accidental. They are purposely discreet and attempt to keep their private lives private.

I always try to keep the safety of the family in mind even when I forget about privacy. I never thought it was a good idea to mention the name of such a small area. I know that I've mentioned Brevard County in connection with Louis & Co. before but I didn't think it would be a brilliant moment to narrow it down any further.

Monday, August 2, 2010

Finish Line...

As promised, that mad dash by the world's greatest bicycle racers was completed with congrats from the world's greatest reigning Grand Duke representing the world's greatest Grand Du.... well, you get it. The grandest of Dukes was on hand to celebrate the Tour de France final on Sunday, July 25th in lovely Paris, of which Luxembourg's very own Andy Schleck peddled to a remarkable 2nd place victory. HRH proudly offered his personal congratulations to the athletes and capped his appearance by participating in the awards ceremony. Those of us who couldn't make it to the event need not feel left out - as always, visual coverage can be found on the Monarchy's official website, Wort, and RTL. Merci!