It’s easy to get swept up in the British Royals – Australia might be a Commonwealth country, but the British Royals are not the only blue-blooded family globally. So that’s what this post is celebrating; some of our favourite non-British royals.
We’ll be discussing entire families with a few individuals thrown in as honourable mentions. I’m choosing to do this because I don’t know a load about them off the top of my head. So, without further ado, let’s jump in!
The Swedish Royals
One of my favourite non-British royal families is the Swedish royals. I’ve read a few things about them that I thought were fascinating.
Swedish Royal Titles
The first thing I want to cover is the way they issue titles. So, the Swedish Royals have a more modern approach to how spouses are given titles than the UK royals. For example, in Sweden, their royals allow male and female ‘commoner’ spouses to become Prince or Princess.
Two examples of this are Prince Daniel and Princess Sofia.
Prince Daniel is the husband of Crown Princess Victoria, the future Queen of Sweden. He was born a commoner but was given the title of ‘Prince’ as his wife would someday become monarch. What he will be called when the Crown Princess becomes Queen has been debated. He may be Prince Consort like Prince Henrik was in Denmark and Prince Philip in the UK.
Princess Sofia, the sister-in-law of Crown Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel and wife of Prince Carl Philip, was granted the title of ‘Princess’ upon her marriage to the King and Queen’s only son.
However, there is a catch when it comes to titles. A royal spouse has to have Swedish citizenship to receive a title. The husband of Princess Madeleine, Christopher O’Neill, does not have a title due to his refusal to obtain citizenship. Their children, however, do have titles, though they no longer hold HRHs and still hold their places in the line of succession of the throne of Sweden.
The King’s Objection
Sweden is one of the first monarchies to hold the rule of Absolute Primogeniture. This is where the firstborn child, regardless of gender, is the heir to the throne of their monarchy. However, when Sweden undertook the change in 1979, it came into effect on January 1 1980. The King, Carl XVI Gustaf, opposed the move. His opinion had had nothing to do with not believing that women should rule. Instead, it had to do with his son being stripped of his Crown Prince status.
Victoria was born in 1977, while her younger brother and the original heir to the throne, Carl Philip, was born in 1979. Finally, however, the law was passed, and Victoria became Crown Princess of Sweden upon the legislation being put into practice.
Since the law was passed, Victoria has had her own heir in the form of her daughter, Princess Estelle.
The Danish Royal Royal Family
My first venture into following any form of non-British royalty was through the Danish Royal Family when Australian Mary Donaldson married Crown Prince Frederik, becoming Crown Princess Mary of Denmark and the future Queen Consort of Denmark in 2004.
The Danish Royal Family have a few similarities and parallels with the British Royal Family. For example:
- Both have Queens with the names are the second of their name to rule their countries.
- Foreign Prince Consorts, who are now deceased.
- Male heirs to the thrones of respective nations.
- Both Queens are celebrating jubilees in 2022.
- Foreign in-laws; Mary is from Australia, Marie is from France, Alexandra is from Hong Kong, Meghan is from America.
- Eight grandchildren.
I love Princess Mary because she and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, share a close connection with their work. It does show that for a non-British royal, the future Queen consort is willing to work with others to further her work.
Honourary Non-British Mentions
- Queen Rania of Jordan
- Queen Letizia of Spain
- Princess Beatrix of the Netherlands
