If You're a Princess, Where's Your Crown?

By Sarah Ward

If You’re a Princess, Where’s Your Crown is an introductory guide to royalty around the world. After introducing you to the 45 royal nations, this book looks at what royals do for a living, who the heirs are, what titles they use, why they don’t wear crowns, and what the medals they wear are, among other things. The book also takes a look at some of the deposed royalty and why they still use their titles, despite no longer having a throne.
The book is intended to be a quick look into royalty to show readers that there is more to royalty than just the British royals. Although not a comprehensive guide, it is a perfect starter guide for anyone even remotely interested in royalty.
If you’ve ever wondered when it’s appropriate to wear a tiara or who the Queen of Denmark is, take a look inside.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sarah Ward
• Release date: Feb 21, 2014
• ISBN: 9781310043482

Book preview

If You’re a Princess, Where’s Your Crown?

By

Sarah Ward

PUBLISHED BY:

Sarah Ward on Smashwords

If You’re a Princess, Where’s Your Crown?

Copyright © 2014 by Sarah Ward

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

To my fellow Royal Watchers

I have to begin by thanking a lot of moderators and constant posters at The Royal Forums and the Unofficial Crown Princess Mary of Denmark message board. Those were the first two royal websites I ever visited and they remain my two favorite websites. The Mary message board continues to be an amazing chronological source of Mary’s life in the royal family. You can find pretty much every royal family and even the deposed families on The Royal Forums. Without those two websites, I wouldn’t know as much as I do about royalty.

I also have to thank the royal fandom on tumblr. While it is sometimes a source of drama and misinformation, there is a large majority who are intent on spreading knowledge and more so, they have fun. I have spent several weddings and christening with them online and it’s been wonderful. Most of the blogs are run by genuinely wonderful people who are more than happy to answer questions. These blogs have been a great source of help and friendship for putting this book together. A particular thank you to the fellow co-runners of Royal Watcher who put up with me.

Thank you to Claudia Hagen for being a supporter of this book.

Finally, a very big thank you to everyone who allowed me to use their photos in this book: CPH, Belinda, and C. Wesener. I owe you three!

Thank you to Sara Mahoney, who was kind enough to draw the cover for me. Finding you at the last minute was a blessing. Your work is gorgeous and I wish great success for you!

Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1-Monarchy is all around Us

Chapter 2-What Happened to that Monarchy?

Chapter 3-The Next Generation

Chapter 4-The Grandmother and Father-in-Law of Europe

Chapter 5-You’re the Prince of What?

Chapter 6-Who is next in Line?

Chapter 7-Where’s Your Crown?

Chapter 8-What’s with the Ribbon?

Chapter 9-Bowing and Other Protocol

Chapter 10-The Homes They Live In

Chapter 11-Lady-in-Waiting and Other Staff

Chapter 12-Annual Events

Chapter 13-Sites to Visit

Sources

About the Author

If You’re a Princess, Where’s Your Crown?

Introduction

I’ve had the pleasure to be a royal watcher for eight years now. It all started with a search on Getty Images that led me to the 2004 Nobel Prize photos of Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden. I was instantly interested in who she was and why she was wearing a tiara. That was in early 2005. Since then, I’ve watched weddings, christenings, and seen the announcement of the births of several future monarchs. As a lover of history, it is so interesting to see the changing of monarchs.

For many years, I did not participate in conversations on the boards I followed. I watched and if I had a pressing question, I would ask, but for the most part, I stayed silent and just read. It wasn’t until I started helping out on a royal blog, Royal Watcher, on tumblr that I became a part of the conversation. For once, I had somewhere to put my knowledge to use. I really enjoy helping run the blog, though I have come to odds with some people, but that’s to be expected. There are varying types of people on tumblr with varying views. Like in anything else, people will see things in different ways.

I started writing this book because I found myself quite frustrated while watching the American coverage of William and Catherine’s wedding and hearing some misinformation being thrown about. It’s taken me a long time to put this together, but here it is. This is by no means a complete guide to royalty. I do tend to focus on the European families because there is more information about them and the Scandinavian royals are my favorite, but I have tried to at least include enough information about the other royals that could get you started. Perhaps in the future I will be able to put together a more comprehensive and involved book about royalty.

The internet is quite full of information, if you only google. Head over to tumblr and most of the royal blogs there will be happy to answer questions for you. The best policy is always to ask questions if you’re confused. There’s pretty much a blog for every royal. A good place to start is The Royal Forums, which has something for everyone. Monarchy continues to be a polarizing issue, with good reasons. I’m not intending, with this book, to sway you to one side or the other. This book is simply to show you that royalty is everywhere and there is more out there than the British royal family. It’s up to you to decide if you think they’re worth it or not.

Mostly, I hope this book will introduce you to more than just Will and Kate. There’s a world of royalty out there, you just have to look!

Chapter 1: Monarchy is all around Us

Chances are you’ve heard of Princess Diana, Queen Elizabeth, and Prince William, but what about Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden or Queen Mathilde of Belgium? How about Crown Princess Masako of Japan or Princess Sarah of Brunei? If you’re not a royal watcher (people who follow royalty), or a citizen of their country, then chances are you haven’t heard of them. That’s ok, because if you’re reading this, you’re about to get a modern history lesson.

So here’s your first lesson: monarchies exist everywhere. Almost every continent in the world has at least one country with a monarchy. There are currently 45 nations with a monarch as a head of state. Those nations all have different types of monarchies. There are constitutional and absolute monarchies, but each monarchy operates differently than the others. There are Kings and Queens, Emperors and Sultans, Emirs and Princes. And those are just your reigning families. There are plenty of disposed royals who still use their titles, but we’ll get to that in chapter 2.

There are 44 nations around the world with a monarch as a head of state (45 if you include Samoa, which I do). Many of those are Commonwealth realms. The realms in the Commonwealth all call Queen Elizabeth II their head of state, but they are sovereign states. The Queen regularly meets with the Heads of Government from the Commonwealth nations and every two years she attends the Commonwealth Head of Government Meeting in a host country. It is important to not get the Commonwealth realms mixed up with the member countries of the Commonwealth. While they are all under the Commonwealth, only the Commonwealth realms have Queen Elizabeth as their head of state.

There are 54 member countries in the Commonwealth, but only 16 are Commonwealth realms. Those 16 are: the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Jamaica, Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Papua New Guinea, St. Christopher and Nevis, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Tuvalu, Barbados, Grenada, Solomon Islands, St. Lucia, and the Bahamas.

And that’s just the Commonwealth! Outside of the Commonwealth, there are eleven monarchies in Europe (Andorra, Belgium, Denmark, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and the Vatican City), eleven in Asia (Bahrain, Bhutan, Brunei, Cambodia, Japan, Jordan, Kuwait, Malaysia, Qatar, Thailand, and the United Arab Emirates), five in Africa (Lesotho, Morocco, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and Swaziland), and two in Polynesia (Samoa and Tonga). They really are everywhere.

Not every monarchy is the same. With different titles come different responsibilities. The most common is a constitutional monarchy, but not all constitutional monarchies are run the same way. There are differences between how they are run in European monarchies, Islamic monarchies, and East Asian monarchies. A few countries still maintain an absolute monarchy, which is pretty much exactly as it sounds.

Ever heard of the Pope? Of course you have! Well, the Pope is the monarch of Vatican City, and Vatican City is an absolute monarchy. The sovereign city-state is run by the elected head of the Catholic Church. Vatican City isn’t just a city with a church; it’s a fully functional state. Who would have thought that the Pope would be the leader of the last absolute monarchy in Europe? Ok, it’s probably