Royalty of the World at Windsor

Front row (L-R): HIM the Emperor of Japan, HM the Queen of the Netherlands, HM the Queen of Denmark, HM the King of the Hellenes, HM the King of Romania, HM the Queen of the United Kingdom, HM the King of Bulgarians, HM the Sultan of Brunei, HM the King of Sweden, HM the King of Swaziland, HSH the Prince of Liechtenstein.

Middle row (L-R): HSH the Prince of Monaco, HRH the Grand Duke of Luxembourg, HM the King of Lesotho, HM the King of the Belgians, HM the King of Norway, HH the Emir of Qatar, HM the King of Jordan, HM the King of Bahrain, HM the Yong di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia.

Back row (L-R): HH Prince Nasser Mohamed of Kuwait, HH the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, HRH the Crown Prince of Yugoslavia, HM the King of Tonga, HRH the Crown Prince of Thailand, HRH Princess Lalla Meryem of Morocco, HRH Prince Mohammed bin Nayaf of Saudi Arabia.


Apparently that April 22 Telegraph article was much ado about nothing, as the former King of the Hellenes attended the Queen's Diamond Jubilee lunch after all, with no earth-shattering consequences, whatever Greek republicans say, resulting in a wonderful unique photograph (perhaps the most comprehensive ever taken) of most of the world's reigning monarchs.  Other members of the British royal family including the Duke & Duchess of Cambridge joined the Queen in welcoming this illustrious international assembly of royalty to Windsor Castle.  The absence of Queen Sofia and any representative of the royal families of Cambodia, Bhutan, and Oman is to be regretted, though monarchists can rejoice to see not only King Constantine but also the former kings of Romania and Bulgaria and the crown prince of Yugoslavia included.  Discussion however has been dominated by the presence of the controversial Kings of Bahrain and Swaziland, though I doubt most British people really mind nearly as much as noisy troublemakers apparently think they should.  Once again I say the Queen can invite who she likes; it's not as if democratic republican governments never host controversial republican heads of state!

International Royalty to Gather for Jubilee

As Queen Elizabeth II prepares to host many of Europe and the world's leading royalty (as she did ten years ago as shown in the above picture) at Windsor to celebrate her Diamond Jubilee this Friday, Harry Mount reflects on "the world's most exclusive club." It's not a bad article, but I don't understand why even pro-monarchy commentators feel the need to include back-handed compliments like this: "Looked at objectively, monarchy is a ludicrous anachronism." No, no, no, a thousand times no! I do not concede this! While there's nothing necessarily wrong with "anachronism," there are plenty of rational and contemporary justifications for constitutional monarchy.  It is not all about glittering royal events, though this promises to be a splendid one, with guests including the Emperor of Japan.

Royals and the Earthquakes

Natural disasters have been dominating the news lately, first with the earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand, and then the even more devastating one in Japan. Visiting Christchurch, Prince William honoured the victims of both disasters with a moving speech and toured the area. In Japan, for only the second time in history Emperor Akihito addressed the nation. Respect for the monarchy may be one reason why the Japanese people have risen to the occasion so admirably. My thoughts are with the people of New Zealand and Japan, both constitutional monarchies whose royalty are serving as symbols of unity.

The Monitor on Monarchies

The Christian Science Monitor has a decent and thorough (albeit slightly patronizing) article on the world's remaining monarchies. It's nice to see monarchies besides Britain's covered in a prominent English-language publication, though the map omits Bhutan. I'm not always sure if contemporary monarchists should be offended by the label "anachronistic," or embrace it. What do readers think?

Obama and the Emperor

The tiresome uproar over President Obama's apparent bow to the Emperor of Japan is a perfect illustration of why I hold that monarchists who happen to live in the United States should not necessarily identify with the American "Right." Not only are bows standard greetings in the Orient, but presidents of republics are still commoners, and it's entirely appropriate for commoners to bow to royalty, especially the world's only remaining Emperor. I am reminded of the Vatican's excellent seating arrangements for the funeral of Pope John Paul II in 2005, when as Fr Brian Harrison observed, royal guests, no matter how small their countries, sat in the front row, while republican representatives, no matter how powerful theirs, were firmly relegated to places behind them. It's also worth noting that Obama has been a head of state for less than a year, whereas Akihito has reigned for 20 years and is a generation older. While I disagree with Obama on many issues, his appropriate gesture of respect for a senior world leader and ally is not one of them, and for it to be considered an "issue" at all reflects not so much on him as on the pathetic infantilism of knee-jerk Americanists.

How to watch royal TV specials...

...turn the sound off. As is fairly typical with this sort of thing, E!'s "Forbes: Twenty Hottest Royals" had some nice footage, but the commentary was mostly worthless. I was particularly edified to learn that "in the old days, royals had to marry royals, but Princess Diana changed all that." Really? Amazing how Diana managed to convince that stuffy old King George V to encourage his children to marry British aristocrats instead of foreign royals, nearly forty years before she was born! Also rather...creative was the breathlessly authoritative declaration that Princess Theodora of Greece and Denmark (so styled because her patrilineal great-great-grandfather King George I of Greece was originally Prince William of Denmark) is "only half a royal" (whatever that means) because Denmark still "recognizes the monarchy" and Greece does not. Or something.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed being introduced to some of the younger representatives of the royal families of Dubai, Swaziland, Thailand, Brunei, and Japan, none of whom I had previously heard of. I suppose one should give the mainstream American media a little credit whenever they deign to acknowledge that there are still reigning royal families other than those of Britain and Monaco.

Forbes: Hottest Royals

Forbes identifies the world's twenty "Hottest Young Royals." Apparently a related E! TV special will air at 9 PM EDT on June 6. I'm sorry that no representatives of the generation of European Catholic royalty born in the 1980s (Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, the Habsburgs, etc.) were included; apparently they weren't considered to have enough "international Web and media presence."

Statistics

I have just updated (for the first time since 2004) my page on Population of the World's Monarchies, to reflect events in Nepal and the latest population estimates from Wikipedia. My conclusion is that, sadly, with the loss of Nepal (a country of about 29, 519,000 people) and other factors, the percentage of people living in monarchies has declined from about 8.6% to about 8% of the world's population. That may seem like a small change, but it's significant when we're talking about percentages of such a huge number (6.7 billion).

Another interesting development is that due to population growth in Britain and the Commonwealth Realms compared to relatively static figures in Japan, Queen Elizabeth II has overtaken Emperor Akihito as the monarch with the most subjects.