Prinsjesdag in the Netherlands!!! Live report.
Rectification: Máxima was not with the group Prince Willem-Alexander
spent some days with on the Island of Schiermonnikoog. It was told in a
newspaper but they weren't correct according to the royal house and the
owner of the hotel where the Prince stayed. What a pity!
The countess of Wessex is writing to all her public relations clients to
reassure them it is business as usual. It follows press speculations that
Queen Elizabeth II was to tell Sophie to choose between royal duties and
her career. Sophie writes that she is totally committed to Rhys-Jones
Public Relations. And she stresses that she has the full support of Buckingham
Palace.
Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands has left hospital in the morning. They
say he is doing fine.
~*September 22nd*~
The British Prime Minister Tony Blair has said a permanent memorial to
the late Princess Diana is to be built in the shape of a fountain in a
royal London park.
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The Windsors At War?
According to one report this morning there is something of a 'war' taking place within the Royal family. The report states that this 'war' has begun due to the actions of the newest member of the family. The Countess of Wessex, Sophie, has apparently been given leave to continue her professional career by Her Majesty the Queen. All well and good. The sticking point is that it seems Prince Charles and Princess Anne are not overly enamoured at what they see as Sophie cashing in on her Royal connections. The story is almost a carbon copy of one reported quite recently when it was the youngest of the Queen's children, Prince Edward the Earl of Wessex, who was in apparent receipt of his elder brother's and sister's disfavour. The report tells of how Prince Charles, Princess Anne and, it appears, Her Majesty the Queen Mother, are on one 'side' while the Queen, Prince Philip and Prince Andrew are in favour of both Sophie's and Edward's commercial ventures. It is understandable for both Charles and Anne to be concerned by this apparent carte blanche given to make money from a Royal connection. Prince Charles has worked hard for years and all in the name of charity. His Prince's Trust Charity is one of the best developed schemes for regeneration this country has ever known. He uses his Royal connection for the public good. Princess Anne, famed for her distrust of the media world, is the hardest working of all the Royals and yet her work is based along similar lines to that of Charles. To speak of 'war' within the Windsor family is obviously intended to titilate the reader but what this disagreement does show is that the Windsors are like most families, the Waltons and the Brady Bunch excepted of course.
~*September 23rd*~
The son of Prince Joachim and Princess Alexandra of Denmark will be baptised in the Fredensborg Slotskirke (Castle Church of Fredensborg) on November 6th at 11:00am.
September 24th
Malaysia installed its 11th King Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah at the Istana Negara Palace in Kuala Lumpur.
King Albert II of Belgium suffers from acute sciatica. He has to postpone his activities for some days at least.
The next few months Crown Prince Philippe of Belgium and his Mathilde will visit all 10 Belgian provinces. They start on
October 21st in Luxemburg and go to West-Flanders on October 25th. Finally on March 23rd, 2000, the province of Limburg
will be able to welcome the new Belgian Crown Princess.
September 25th
Crown Prince Philippe of Belgium and his fiancee jonkvrouwe Mathilde d'Udekem d'Acoz (with engagementring) together
started the website of the Fund Prince Philippe yesterday. The press came in force to get a glimse of Mathilde.
Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands and her husband Prince Claus will pay a three-day visit to Bulgaria in two weeks on invitation
of the Bulgarian President Stoyanov. They amongst others will visit the parliament in Sofia.
Princess Ann-Mari von Bismarck died on September 22nd in Marbella, Spain. She was born in Stockholm, Sweden, on July
26th, 1907, and thus 92 years old. She was the widow of Otto Prince von Bismarck (1897-1975).