State Visit to Portugal - Day 2

The second day of the state visit began with Henri giving the welcome address at the Discover Luxembourg seminar hosted by Luxembourg for Finance and Luxembourg for Business. I wonder if he used the same speech Guillaume uses when he opens the Discover Luxembourg seminar or if it is customized for each location?

Later in the day everyone went to Cascais where the Grand Ducal Family spent the summer of 1940 in exile. Henri gave an emotional speech where he highlighted how difficult it was for his family to leave Luxembourg. He stated that the exile was the worst time of their lives. Prince Felix was praised for his wise advice. The family fled to London where a government in exile was set up. Charlotte gave frequent radio addresses from London.

Henri gave the mayor of Cascais a bust of Charlotte. He also expressed deep gratitude on behalf of himself and his family to the city and their hosts, the Espirito Santo family. The Grand Ducal Couple were made honorary citizens of Cascais and given a golden key to the city.

The Grand Duchess and the First Lady visited the Casa Sol. The establishment houses 22 children infected with HIV. The children greeted Maria Teresa with a song that they had prepared.

The First Lady is the patroness of the home. It is known that an expansion is greatly needed but cannot be furnished due to lack of funding. It is hoped that the visit of the ladies could draw much needed attention to the home and its wonderful mission. The foundation of The Grand Ducal Couple has offered support to the worthy cause!

The heads of state and their spouses also toured Castelo Sao Jorge in Lisbon, where they stopped to take in the magnificent view of the city below.

The events of the day were closed with a performance of the jazz quartet Demuth at the Jeronimos Monastery. The performance was offered by The Grand Ducal Couple to their hosts. Maria Teresa wore the same Elie Saab gown that she wore for the National Day Gala in June. She accentuated the gown with historic diamond and pearl jewelry from the grand ducal collection. She looked beautiful. The First Lady was well turned-out in an elegant black gown. The gentlemen looked stately and handsome.

Wort has an article covering the events of today with a photo gallery. The websites of The President and The First Lady each offer lovely and distinct visuals and information. The website of the Cour Grand-Ducale is also updated. Tageblatt offers coverage with many photographs. The galleries linked in the previous entry (Getty, Belga, ect...) have been updated. I encourage you to scroll down and revisit them. However, I feel that the pictures from the Portuguese websites were clearer, larger and nicer.

Thanks to everyone that provided links, photos and information...

State Visit to Portugal - Day 1 **

You may find a semi-detailed itinerary at the Presidential website. Wort also carries a program of the visit. Additionally, Wort carries an article about the visit and an article about the large Portuguese population in Luxembourg. RTL mentions the visit and provides a link to the press release about the visit. And in case there was any doubt, Wort does indeed love us, ladies and gents. The proof? They have provided us with the first glimpse of The Grand Ducal Couple's visit, with an article and nice handful of accompanying photos. Danke schön!

Belga, DayLife, Getty and ANP have started galleries. Enter Luxembourg Portugal into any search boxes. The President and the Cour Grand-Ducale have updated their websites with photographs. The Luxembourg government has also provided information and photographs. Dr. Maria Cavaco Silva entertained the Grand Duchess during parts of the visit with appropriate activities. Royalty in the News blog has a nice article covering some of the points of the visit. I often get distracted while writing about the jewelry and ancestry and skip these points, which are generally the same for each state visit.

The Grand Duke thanked Portugal for for hosting members of the Grand Ducal Family's exile during WWII. He also thanked the large Portuguese community in Luxembourg for their contribution to The Grand Duchy. The Grand Duke made a point to highlight his own Portuguese ancestry.

The Grand Duchess wore emerald and diamond jewelry for the gala. This is the first time that Maria Teresa as worn Grand Duchess Josephine Charlotte's Emerald and Diamond Tiara/Collier. The convertible tiara/necklace was crafted by Van Cleef and Arples in 1956 at the request of Josephine Charlotte and using stones from pieces she inherited from her mother. I believe, the tiara was last worn by Princess Tessy. She also wore Queen Astrid's Diamond and Emerald Collier/Bracelet. The jewel was given to Queen Astrid to mark the birth of her first child, Josephine-Charlotte. Additionally, she wore a bracelet of emeralds and diamonds mounted on a gold band that was previously worn by Charlotte and Josephine-Charlotte. The large emerald and diamond brooch was previously owned by Josephine-Charlotte.

I must say that the gala was beautifully prepared! The President's website offers a wonderful array of high quality watermark free photographs. TRH The Duke and Duchess of Braganza (titular king and queen of Portugal) were seated at the table of honor with the Presidential Couple and The Grand Ducal Couple. Unfortunately, no jewels on Dona Isabel.

A little lesson in Luxembourg-Portuguese inter-relatedness....The Grand Duke is descended from King Miguel I of Portugal, through two of the king's daughters. Infanta Maria Ana of Portugal was the consort of Grand Duke Wilhelm of Luxembourg. She was also the regent for her husband and during the short minority of her daughter, Grand Duchess Marie-Adelaide. Maria Ana was the mother of Henri's grandmother, Grand Duchess Charlotte. Maria Ana's younger sister, Infanta Maria Antonia, was the second wife of Robert I, The Duke of Parma. Their son, Prince Felix de Bourbon de Parme married his first cousin Grand Duchess Charlotte. Infanta Maria Antonia's daughter Princess Zita later became Empress of Austria. Zita's grandson, Archduke Carl-Christian married Henri's sister, Princess Marie-Astrid. That is more than a bit of Portuguese ancestry. It seems only fitting that the Portuguese community is the largest immigrant group in Luxembourg and that The Grand Ducal Family is part Portuguese.

Please note: I left the names of Grand Duke Wilhelm and Grand Duchess Maria Ana spelled as they were at birth. In Luxembourgish documents Wilhelm was simultaneously listed as Guillaume in French and as Wilhelm in Luxembourgish. Maria Ana was simultaneously listed as Marie Anne in French and Maria Anna in Luxembourgish. I, personally, favor the Luxembourgish names because they are pronounced the same as the names that the couple bore at their christenings. The Grand Duke was born Wilhelm and his wife, Maria Ana. It is cumbersome to use two different names for him and three for her when writing.

Additionally, some of the jewelry information was taken from the book of Christophe Vachaudez, Ursula's website, and postings on various message boards (English and Spanish language) by several authors over many years. The most recent information was by Marianne, Tamara, Lorenzo, Josephine, Hans, Johan and Vincent on the RJMB during the course of many conversations about the jewels of Luxembourg, Norway/Sweden, Queen Astrid, and Princess Lilian. Many of the recent conversations center around the emeralds that were owned by Queen Astrid, most of which were inherited by Josephine-Charlotte.

Thanks to HGD, Lily, Charlotte and Irishthanhy for providing pictures and info.

Those of you that follow on twitter may have noted that I retweeted some Portuguese articles. I only just noted that the twitter account is double posting. I'll correct this tonight and I apologize for any annoyance.

Portugal Bound

Mark your nearest calendar, fellow Lux lovers! The good folks at Wort have confirmed that The Grand Ducal Couple will attend a state visit to Portugal on invitation from President Anibal Cavaco Silva from Tuesday, September 7^th, until Thursday, September 9^th. As usual, you may count on us for the handy dandy visuals and miscellaneous coverage sure to spring from the event.

A Grand Graduation Gift

On Thursday, September 2^nd, the always dapper Grand Duke hosted an audience with some of the Grand Duchy’s (future) finest – students of both general and technical secondary schools who were ranked as most deserving of the honor due to the results of their recent end-of-study examinations. You can bet no Luxembourger ever complained that studying doesn’t pay off…

Henri attends funeral *

The Grand Duke attended the funeral of his cousin, Carlos Hugo, Duke of Parma. The funeral was held Saturday at the Basilica Santa Maria della Steccata in Parma, Italy.

Carlos Hugo was the Carlist pretender to the Spanish throne. In 1964 he married Princess Irene of the Netherlands. They were divorced in 1981. Together they had 4 children.

Henri's grandfather, Prince Félix of Luxembourg, Prince de Bourbon de Parme and Carlos Hugo's father, Xavier, were brothers. Félix and Xavier had 22 other siblings, several of whom died as infants. The Empress Zita of Austria, Queen of Hungry was one of their sisters. I have read that Xavier attempted to court Grand Duchess Marie-Adelaide prior to her abdication.

Grand Duke Jean visits exhibit...

Yesterday, Grand Duke Jean visited the exhibit in honor of his mother, Grand Duchess Charlotte. He seemed upbeat while he toured the travelling exhibit.

His son, Grand Duke Henri, toured the exhibit shortly after it opened. Wort and RTL have photographs of the visit.

Den Ierfgroussherzog

Guillaume hasn't been getting much attention lately. I thought I'd write a little something about him and the preparations he has undertaken to prepare himself for his position. I would also like to point out a few pretty obvious inaccuracies that I frequently read online.

The then Hereditary Grand Duke Henri and the lovely Hereditary Grand Duchess Maria Teresa welcomed itty-bitty baby Guillaume to the world 11 November 1981. The sound of cannons announced his birth while many Luxembourgers were having their lunch.

Prince Guillaume became The Hereditary Grand Duke on 18 December 2000.

Guillaume began his educational career at Ecole de Lorentzweiler and continued to Lycée Robert Schuman. He then attended the exclusive and oh-so-expensive College Alpin Beau Soleil in Villars-sur-Ollon, Switzerland where he received his French Baccalaureate in 2001.

Guillaume undertook a 44 week commissioning course at The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. His family attended his passing out parade on 9 August 2002. In December he took the oath as an officer in the Luxembourg Army. He now holds the rank of Major.

At some point after this Guillaume entered Durham University in the UK. He did not complete a degree. Some sources try to paint a picture of Guillaume literally failing out of the university. I do not seriously entertain that possibility.

Wikipedia states that Guillaume attended and graduated from Brunel University. Maybe he did attend the university but I do not believe he received a degree. From 2003-2005 Guillaume undertook various internships in Belgium, England and Spain.

In 2006 Guillaume entered Institut Philanthropos in Fribourg, Switzerland. (I didn't mention this before because I didn't want to draw attention to the school while Imre or Christoph were students). They do not offer programs in international politics. Logically, this indicates that Guillaume also studied somewhere else in Switzerland. If he didn't then person that wrote his official biography for the Grand-Ducal Court has a very different concept of what constitutes "geopolitics" than I.

Sometime after he completed the program at Philanthropos he arrived in Angers, France. In Angers he attended the Institut Albert le Grand. The Institut Albert le Grand and Université Angers have a partnership agreement. The humanities and political science program is completed at Albert le Grand and the degree is issued by Université Angers. Guillaume completed the program with honors in 2009.

This brings me to the reason why I do not believe Guillaume received a degree from Brunel.....The press release acknowledging his completion of the program stated that he received a "Licence." The Licence is not a Masters level program. It is the equivalent of what the English speaking world calls a Bachelor Degree. Both Institut Albert le Grand and Université Angers clearly differentiate between the "Licence" and the "Masters." Additionally, it is easy to obtain information on the French system of qualifications and their foreign equivalent. If Guillaume had received his Bachelor Degree at Brunel (or anywhere else) he would not have taken the Licence program in Angers. This would have been a waste of his time and money. Why would any reasonable person complete the same degree at two different schools? They wouldn't.

There was a time when I thought that Guillaume had received a degree from Brunel and that he earned a Masters at Angers. You may have noticed that I am now slightly better informed. ;)

Guillaume takes an active role in the Kraizbierg Foundation and the Board of Economic Development. He is also a member of the Council of State. Of all the Grand Duke's children only Guillaume is fully fluent in Luxembourgish, French, English, German and Spanish.

The number of engagements undertaken by The Hereditary Grand Duke increased dramatically following the completion of his Licence. I surmise that he is now working full time in his role.

Mlle. Claire Lademacher **

Point de Vue and another magazine have published photographs of Félix and his lady-friend.

Claire and Félix attended Collège Alpin International Beau Soleil together. They graduated in the same class in 2003. It is not a coincidence that they are currently in Rome at the same university.

They were not together as a couple as far back as Beau Soleil; Félix is known to have dated at least 2 other women following his days there (prior to his more personal association with Claire). However, as far as I know, their relationship is serious.

They attended the wedding of Princess Blanche de Merode where they posed for photos (not a moment of brilliance, I might add). I had stated that Felix was in a serious relationship with a woman named Claire a while back. This shouldn't come as a shock to anyone who reads the LAF.  After they posed for the picture together, I didn't feel the need to continue to pretend that it was a secret. Honestly, they hadn't gone out of their way to be secret about their relationship.

Louis

Happy 24th belated birthday Prince Louis!

I'd just like to say that for nearly a year I've withheld the information that Louis and Tessy were living in Melbourne, Florida (not Orlando as the tabloids say). I had also chosen not to publish the information that Louis was a student at the Florida Institute of Technology. This information was published in several places today. Apparently, it is not obvious to everyone that Melbourne is a relatively small town that could make Louis and his family easy prey for press, fans and royal stalkers. There also might have been 2 or 3 students at FIT that weren't aware that His Royal Highness is a student there. The aforementioned bloggers (not this one) also imply that Louis is a new student at FIT. He's been a student there for a while. He's already making solo flights.

Tessy is also supposed to be a student in Florida. Maybe everyone can do articles about about where she is studying? You know, just in case anyone wants to have a new royal best friend. Let's just go ahead and make their lives easier and safer...maybe you'd like to publish their home address to make it easier for stalkers, overzealous fans and general crazy people to locate them?

The Grand Ducal Family is one of the most private royal families in the world. You'd think that most people who are interested in them would have figured out by now that it is not accidental. They are purposely discreet and attempt to keep their private lives private.

I always try to keep the safety of the family in mind even when I forget about privacy. I never thought it was a good idea to mention the name of such a small area. I know that I've mentioned Brevard County in connection with Louis & Co. before but I didn't think it would be a brilliant moment to narrow it down any further.

Finish Line...

As promised, that mad dash by the world's greatest bicycle racers was completed with congrats from the world's greatest reigning Grand Duke representing the world's greatest Grand Du.... well, you get it. The grandest of Dukes was on hand to celebrate the Tour de France final on Sunday, July 25th in lovely Paris, of which Luxembourg's very own Andy Schleck peddled to a remarkable 2nd place victory. HRH proudly offered his personal congratulations to the athletes and capped his appearance by participating in the awards ceremony. Those of us who couldn't make it to the event need not feel left out - as always, visual coverage can be found on the Monarchy's official website, Wort, and RTL. Merci!