Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Royal engagement

I read on a friend's blog this morning that Swedish Crown Princess Victoria Bernadotte is now engaged to her long-time boyfriend Daniel.

Royalty is a big deal in Sweden, even though they do absolutely nothing to run the country except act as diplomats to foreign leaders and sometimes advisers to government officials, I presume. However, it's just the joy of having a real king, queen, prince and princesses that is so fascinating.

Daniel, a gym owner from Stockholm who is not of "noble blood," has been dating Victoria for seven years. They have may have been living together as well, I am not sure. Now, they finally have the government's and the royal family's blessing to get married.

Being named after the crown princess, who is a year and a half older than I am, I do take solace in the fact that I got engaged first! (Christmas - read about it here). And not only that! Victoria and Daniel are planning their royal wedding for the late spring/early summer of 2010.

Albie and I are getting married in a month! Yup, that's right - March 29, 2009. Exactly one month before our four-year anniversary of our first date. It's going to be a small ceremony away from home.

But don't worry. Just like Victoria and Daniel posted their engagement announcement on YouTube, Albie and I will post video evidence on the web for the whole world to see!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I feel I need to put one thing right: according to the Swedish constitution the royalties have no right to interfere whatsoever with politics (and thus not act as advisors to the goverment). They are not allowed to have they say in any issue where there is political disagreement. That is, they can say, for example, that environmental issues are important (which every political party in Sweden agree with), but not how to deal with them (as opionions diverge on that).

Our constitution was changed in this way in the 1970s, when our former king Gustaf VI Adolf was very old. We didn't want to see the ways of his father (Gustaf V) reappear: Gustaf V was very pro-German and acted this out during WWII in exceptional ways. He threatened to resign did not the Swedish government accept Hitler transporting soldiers and weapons through Sweden. As the government didn't have the guts to take on a constutional crisis while war going on and our neighbours being occupied by the Nazis, the let the Nazis have their way.

Gustaf VI Adolf was well aware of the problems with his father's attitude and so he kept his mouth shut.
Unfortunately our present king, Carl XVI Gustaf and his queen have both gone political on several occasions. As they cannot be punished for this we can only hope for a republic... some day...

Anonymous said...

Skoj att det kommer finnas videobevis, ser jag fram emot!
/Anna-Karin

Anonymous said...

That's lovely news, that you are getting married! I hope you have a very happy, warm and fun marriage and a long life together. Gee, I'm getting all teary-eyed here... *sniff* Looking forward to the video clip.

Anne Sofie is right - the king is informed of the government's work on a regular basis, but has no say.

On the occasions where he has said something political in public, it has usually been on environment issues. He has also spoken against the Norwegian habit of clubbing seal cubs to death in front of their mothers, for the skins. I have a hard time debating his stand there.

Sara said...

Åh vad mycket man missar när man inte läser på ett par dagar! Vad roligt, ett vårbröllop! Och jag ser också fram emot video-klippen. :-)