Monday 30 December 2013

TWO NEW KINGS IN 2013

This year two new sovereigns were sworn in: in April King Willem Alexander of the Netherlands succeeded his mother Queen Beatrix after her abdication and in July King Philippe of the Belgians followed his father King Albert II after his.
Amsterdam, 30 April 2013: King Willem-Alexander, Queen Máxima, Princess Beatrix, Princess Alexia, the Princess of Orange and Princess Ariane © RVD; picture: Jeroen van der Meyde
A major event of the year was the birth of the first child of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Prince George of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Not only in the UK an heir was born, the German pretender, Prince Georg Friedrich of Prussia and his wife Sophie, welcomed twin boys in January 2013. In December Hereditary Prince Christian zu Fürstenberg and his wife had their first child, a son.

A few marriages this year: in June Hereditary Prince Maximilian of Hohenlohe-Bartenstein married in Rome Cristina Vozzi-Castriota-Scanderbeg. Two Spanish heiresses married as well: the eldest daughter of the Duque de Abrantes, Doña Ana Luisa de Zuleta y Pérez de Guzman, Marquesa de Sardoal, married in March in Sevilla Don José Luis Fernández de Mesa y Moyano, through his mother Doña Maria José Moyano y Álvarez de Toledo, 10.Condesa de Villahermosa del Pinar, a descendant of the Duques de Medina Sidonia. The eldest granddaughter of the Duquesa de Osuna and probably once the holder of this prestigious Spanish title, Doña Angela Maria de Ulloa y Solis-Beaumont, 21.Condesa de Ureña, married in April in Madrid lawyer Jesús Gregorio Casas Cardenal.

This year many deaths, the highest placed one was Landgrave Moritz of Hesse (86 years old). In Italy died in March Don Lodovico Gallarati-Scotti, 6.Principe di Molfetta (89), in August Don Pietro Paolo Sallier de la Tour Beccadelli, 12.Principe di Camporeale and 7.Principe di Castelcicala (85), in September Duca e Conte Don Ferdinando Gaetani dell'Aquila d'Aragona, Principe di Piedimonte (89) and in October Don Gherardo Artico 19.Fürst v. Porcia (68).
In Spain in August the woman passed away who held after the Duquesa de Alba the most titles in Spain, Doña Victoria Eugenia Fernández de Córdova y Fernández de Henestrosa, 18.Duquesa de Medinaceli, Duquesa de Camiña, de Ciudad Real, de Denia, de Tarifa y de Alcalá de los Gazules, 96 years old, surviving three of her four children. The same month Don Gonzalo Fernández de Córdova y Larios, 10.Duque de Arión and 4.Duque de Cánovas del Castillo (79) died. In October Don Juan Manuel Cavero de Carondelet y Bally, 6.Duque de Bailén (85) and in November Don Eduardo Espinosa de los Monteros y Español, 5.Duque de Dato (82).
In 2013 died as well Michał 7.Fürst Sapieha-Kodeński (83) and Andrew Konstantinovitch Prince Lobanov-Rostovsky (96).

In December 2013 the anachronistic union of the two branches of the Georgian Royal family was announced to be over after four years and the birth of a son and heir. After less than two years Charles Innes-Ker, Marquess of Bowmont and Cessford, heir of the Duke of Roxburghe, and his wife Hon. Charlotte Susanna Aitken, daughter of Lord Beaverbrook, divorced in May. The next month saw the end of the marriage of the titular Grandduke of Tuscany, Archduke Sigismund of Austria, and his wife Elyssa Edmonstone (of the baronets), after 13 years.

What will 2014 bring? Several heirs have already relationships for some time, which could result in a wedding. For instance Grandduke Georgi Romanov, heir to the Russian Imperial throne, and Rebecca Bettarini, daughter of the former Italian ambassador in Luxemburg and Brussels. And Archduke Amedeo of Austria-Este, Prince of Belgium, heir of the Duchy of Modena, and Lili Rosboch, whose father Ettore was the natural son of Don Filippo Caracciolo, Principe di Castagneto. And when are Leka II Pretender to the Albanian throne and his fiancée finally getting married?

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