Random royal stories or facts

[JustAnotherWhinger]

A random fact about King Harald of Norway got me think about all the random/interesting/bizarre stories and facts about royals and thought a thread of them could be interesting.

Harald, who died today, was the first monarch to be born in Norway for over 600 years.
His grandfather, Prince Carl of Denmark, was selected to be the new King of Norway in 1905 (he became King Haakon VII.

Another Danish prince, George, was selected to be the King of Greece in 1863 and reigned until he was assassinated in 1914. He was Prince Philip’s grandfather.

Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon was a direct descendant of Mary Boleyn, through her daughter Catherine Carey. So if Henry VIII was the father of Mary’s children, Queen Elizabeth II (and Charles, William, George) would be a monarch descended from Henry VIII

I didn't know that! Maybe he'll hold out!
I think abdicating like the Dutch and Danish monarchies have done is a good idea. The monarch emeritus can be called on for advice, but they can retire and have a smooth handover.

Yes, and as I said on another thread the new monarch doesn't have to deal with the business of being a new monarch while grieving the parent they've just lost.

I don’t think the Swedish king will abdicate. I think while he’s king details of his affairs and sex club activities (that were made public in 2010/2011) have been kept somewhat under wraps. As soon as he wasn’t king anymore it would be open season, similar to Juan Carlos of Spain.

Plus he’s still bitter that Carl-Philip isn’t the next in line.

Edward VII was a notorious stickler for correct appearance. At a formal court event, he noticed a prominent peeress was not wearing a tiara. He walked up to her and barked, "The Queen has taken the trouble to wear a tiara, why haven't you?" The lady did not get the opportunity to explain that her jewellery box had been misplaced.

In the 19th century the custom when sovereigns wrote was to address one another as "My good brother." Napoleon III of France, whom many of the sovereigns of Europe regarded as an upstart, received a letter from the Tsar of Russia addressed to "My good friend". When he was miffed about not be called "Good brother" one of his ministers mollified him by pointing out that "Your friends you choose but your relatives are imposed upon you."

In their parents generation Elisabeth and Ingrid Alexandra would have been bumped down behind their brothers as well.

Or in the case of Belgium, bumped completely out. Belgium went from Salic law (agnatic primogeniture where only males could inherit the throne) to absolute primogeniture in one fell swoop in 1991. Norway did allow women to inherit after brothers in 1971 and then went to absolute primogeniture in 1990.

One of the big issues with Norway and the long delayed marriage of Harald and Sonja was that at the time, Harald was the only heir, even though he had two sisters. His father King Olav wanted him to marry a princess (Sophia of Greece was a main contender, and Marina, Duchess of Kent was supposedly promoting her daughter Princess Alexandra as a bride for Harald), but he told his father that it was Sonja or no one, which would likely have ended the Norwegian monarchy if Harald had stayed single.

The second son of the Hereditary (next) Prince of Liechtenstein became engaged yesterday to a non-ruling family Princess from Germany.

<a class="break-all" href="https://www.google.com/sorry/index?continue=royalmusingsblogspotcom.blogspot.com/2026/08/prince-georg-of-liechtenstein-to-marry.html&q=EhAqBdAcAcwUA7Q7AAAAAAAJGPnRy9QGIi3ONmN8W90JO3m1NgRdi0wCJSyG-FOB-2k0rpisgVwg-xJg1pGBmNiIUzfm_lkyAnJSWgFD" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://royalmusingsblogspotcom.blogspot.com/2026/08/prince-georg-of-liechtenstein-to-marry.html

That's really interesting as I think there was some speculation in the European press that he would marry Princess Elisabeth of Belgium!

Gleaned from today's rabbit hole:
Daphne du Maurier's husband, Frederick 'Tommy' or 'Boy' Browning was comptroller and treasurer to Princess Elizabeth from 1948 until she acceded and then he was treasurer for the DofE until 1959.

Following her brief split from Prince William (obviously before they were married) Kate Middleton and her mother were said to have stayed in a very nondescript 4 star hotel in Dublin, near the Liffey on the south side. They were over for an Art Exhibition by a friend, Gemma Billington.
I would say it’s 5 star+ all the way now 😀

And in Belgian royal news:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4g616gvxr0o

They didn’t really need a DNA!

Well, I hope he has better dress sense than Princess Delphine . . . .

Lieutenant-General Sir Frederick "Boy" Browning started the famous tradition at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in1926 by riding his horse up the steps of the Old College. One theory is that he was angered by a poor rehearsal drill and rode his horse up the steps in disgust.

@HilaryThorpe2 , indeed Browning is also described as 'the father of the British airborne forces'.
Daphne's sister, Tessa, married secondly Monty of Alamein's son, David Montgomery, 2nd Viscount Montgomery of Alamein.

But I digress ... 😁

Tessa was Daphne du Maurier's eldest daughter.

Yes, that's true. I forgot about his other antics. Probably worked out well for Carl Philip though - he seems very happy with Sofia, plus I'm not sure the Swedish equivalent of the "men in grey suits" would've considered her future queen material.

No, indeed! That wouldn't have gone down well at all!
Victoria seems to be a good heir, though.

Given their objections to Daniel because of his “commonness” there’s no chance they’d have agreed to Sofia as a future Queen.

He wouldn’t have been allowed to live with his ex for so many years either as a future King I don’t think. They’d have wanted him married off much sooner.

But out of the three spouses of the King's children I have always thought that Chris O'Neill looks really uncomfortable. I don't know whether that's because of language difficulties or not as I don't know how fluent he is in Swedish. Daniel & Sofia always look much more relaxed at Royal events, as if they really fit in

I wonder if they have a WhatsApp group?!

😂 they should!

Definitely 😁

Not long ago there was a lovely photo of several of them together at an event along with the very young Prince Charles of Luxembourg who I think is only 4 or 5 years old. He looked really out of place amongst the young ladies with their tiaras, especially as he was sat on a chair and his feet didn't touch the floor!

That would be an interesting group chat to read 😂

I bet the Swedes, Danes and Norwegians have a WhatsApp group as they’re a close bunch. I reckon there’s been a few “erm, don’t tell my parents or yours, but…” chats between that group.

He definitely is one that I think it’s very obvious married pretty much in spite of the fact Madeleine is royal, rather than any suggestion it was because of it. He really doesn’t seem comfortable with it at all.