Prince Hans-Adam in Washington, D.C.

Very excited today as H.S.H. Prince Hans-Adam of Liechtenstein visited @EmbassyLI while in DC for a conference. pic.twitter.com/6Igm3Hnr0G

— Liechtenstein USA (@EmbassyLI) February 26, 2016

Prince Hans-Adam is in Washington, D.C., where he paid a visit to the Liechtenstein Embassy (photo above) and also spoke at the 9th International Students for Liberty Conference (ISFLC16). The conference website also notes that a member of Pussy Riot will be headlining as well, so there's quite a variety of options for attendees to experience.

A video of the event, with Prince Hans-Adam speaking just before the Theater of Public Policy segment, is shown below.

The warm-up act for @T2_P2 at #ISFLC16? Prince Hans-Adam II of Liechtenstein. Seriously. pic.twitter.com/6ToZbe2ER3

— Tane Danger (@TaneDanger) February 27, 2016

And another video, which showed up a bit later on YouTube:

What's (Not) Making Headlines: Births, Receptions, Court Cases

In happy news... Princess Xenia Galitzine, friend and relative of just about everyone covered on this blog or their spouse, and her husband Alberto Matta Maya had their third child yesterday. Felix Matta Galitzine was born on March 3 in Houston, Texas. A brother for Lidia and Damian.

In belated news... Back in January, Hereditary Prince Alois received representatives of different foundations from 23 European countries at Schloss Vaduz. They were in the Principality for a meeting of DAFNE, a network of 23 donors and foundations networks from across Europe, with a collective membership of over 7,500 foundations. More.

In legal news... Hartmut Lademacher, father of Princess Claire, is being sued for 30,000 euros in front of a German court. He and son Felix made a private cruise through the Greek islands in 2014 with their personal yacht "Conte Alberti". The company who organised the trip billed them 30,000 euros for various expenses such as repairs, dayages and more. Mr Lademacher now says that they weren't authorised to give orders. More.

In picture-less news... Grand Duke Henri received a delegation of attendees of the 3rd International Conference of the Consultative Function for an audience at the palais yesterday. The function was also attended by Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume, read here and here, though we haven't seen pictures of that yet either.

In more reception news... Grand Duke Henri had another audience today. He received Habib Essid, Prime Minister of Tunisia, who was on an official visit to the Grand Duchy today.

Grand Duchess Talks the Monarchy Today and More

Embed from Getty Images

Grand Duchess Maria Teresa gave an interview to French news agency AFP on February 23. In the interview, the Grand Duchess talked about a variety of topics including her dream to return to her native Cuba, the new openness of the cour as well as the upcoming trial after being sued by a former maid. She stated that the Luxembourg monarchy should become more authentic and transparent in the future, and that she supports her husband's initiative to reorganise the cour. Regarding the upcoming trial, the Grand Duchess said that she would find it "unethical to solve our problems with taxpayer money". And thus no agreement behind closed doors was sought.

For a lengthy translation of the interview into English, make sure to check out Wort.

Burial of Princess Alienor Faye of Liechtenstein

Princess Alienor Faye of Liechtenstein, daughter of Prince Rudolf and Princess Tılsım and thus granddaughter of Prince Philipp, will be laid to rest in Vaduz tomorrow, March 5, at 11.30am. The young princess, whose name was previously reported as Alya Nur, died on December 13 while chocking on a piece of food which got stuck in her trachea while in the United States. She was one year old having been born on September 29, 2014. The Liechtenstein court released a statement about the burial today. Princess Alienor Faye will presumably be laid to rest at the family crypt of the Kathedrale St. Florin.

Guillaume Attends Consultative Function Dinner

On Thursday evening, Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume the other attendees of the 3rd International Conference of the Consultative Function for a dinner at Château de Vianden. The dinner was hosted jointly by Viviane Ecker, the President of the Conseil d'Etat, and Marc Schaefer, the Mayor of Vianden.

Still awaiting photos, but they'll be added if and when they're made available.

Guillaume Attends Consultative Function Conference

On Thursday, Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume was present for the 3rd International Conference of the Consultative Function, which is being held at the European Convention Center on March 3rd and 4th.

The event, which also acknowledges the 160th anniversary of Luxembourg's Conseil d'Etat, is part of a series of conferences for institutions that participate in the Annuaire Internationale de la Fonction Consultative (AIFC), first created in 2010. The two previous conferences were held in Colombia in 2010, and Mexico in 2012.

Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume has been a member of Luxembourg's Conseil d'Etat since June 24, 2005. At the conference, Hereditary Grand Duke will participate in the sessions that explore how freedom of expression is evolving in the 21st century, in the context of public order, social media, and religion. Prime Minister Xavier Bettel is expected to speak at a morning session tomorrow, March 4th.

A little more about the schedule here.

No photos just yet. They'll be added if any photos show up.

Private Concert for the Grand Ducal Family

A string quartett with Stradivarius instruments worth 51 million euros gave a private concert at the palais grand-ducal for the Grand Ducal Family and invited guests including the President of Parliament, Mars di Bartoleomeo. Grand Duke Henri and Grand Duchess Maria Teresa, Grand Duke Jean, as well as Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume and Hereditary Grand Duchess Stéphanie listened to the performance of musicians Xiaoming Wang, Sebastian Bohren, lech Antonio Uszynski and Maya Weber. The four of them already played at the Klenge Maarnicher Festival last year and thus got their invite to the palais.

A gallery of visuals at Tageblatt.

A TnT Party with Princess Anunciata

Photo: Chatelles

Princess Elisabeth of Thurn und Taxis, the Vogue editing daughter of Princess TnT, has done some designing work for every noble girl/socialite/heiress' favourite slipper brand, Chatelles. A launch party was celebrated last night at the brand's Seventh Arrondissement showroom as part of the Paris Fashion Week. 

One of the guests for the intimate cocktail and dinner showcasing the three styles in the collaboration was Princess Anunciata, who is one of the very few people in this world - possibly only she and her siblings - who can call two uncles head of state. The daughter of Prince Nikolaus and Princess Margaretha happily posed for a pictures with Mr Chatelles himself, François du Chastel.

Prince Max in Bahrain

Photo: Bahrain News Agency

Prince Max, the CEO of LGT Group, is currently on a visit to Bahrain, during which he met with that country's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Shaikh Khalid bin Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Khalifa. The prince's visit, which highlights the ongoing bilateral relationship between the countries, also focused on Bahrain's financial sector and the increasing diversification that it offers.

A little more information here. (The article notes Prince Philipp, although the photo says otherwise.)

Grand Duke Receives a Pretzel (or 4)

Photo: Cour grand-ducale

Literally. In the tastiest news of the year thus far, Grand Duke Henri received four pretzels today. The pretzels were accompanied by members of the Fédération des Patrons Boulangers-Pâtissiers du Grand-Duché de Luxembourg. The reason for the guests? Sunday is Bretzelsonndeg.

To quote our post from last year, when Guillaume and Stéphanie had the same honour,the pretzel represents an Easter tradition unique to Luxembourg and part of Bretzelsonndeg, or Pretzel Sunday, which is the fourth Sunday of Lent. 

According to tradition, this Sunday is an opportunity for young men to demonstrate their interest in young ladies by giving them a decorated pastry in the shape of a pretzel. In the event that the young lady reciprocates the interest, she can give the young man a chocolate egg in return, on Easter Sunday. The size of the response gift also tends to correspond to the original: that is, the young lady gives a large egg if the young man has given her a large pretzel cake. However, the tradition states that everything is reversed during a Leap Year: the young lady presents the pretzel, while the young man presents the chocolate egg."

Another picture at the cour.