the Wedding

[dukeofearl]

earlier it was said this was going to be a small affair. Wills isnt the heir (just the heir of the heir)..but lately its grown to include '40 crown heads'..i can understand the few royals Wills' age but the ex king of romania?? guess the queen really wants pageantry

[janjan]

Same with why do we call the ex king of greece the ex king of greece there is no king so lets just drop king altogether and call the idiot Mr He is also going to the wedding I also heard the first lady and the President of the USA are pissed they are not coming

[dukeofearl]

well the commies illegally stuffed the ballot box against michael so i'll let him have his due..but yeah constantine von glucksburg messed up big time..and as for the prez, thats what is wierd about this..its not officially a state affair ala charles and di, yet all these crown heads, including many from the middle east whom i doubt will show up (or rather, shouldnt show up)

[wendy]

The Greek royal family is very close to the British royals. I understand that they live in the UK and they socialize with each other quite regularly. The Queen rarely attends weddings but yet she attended the wedding of Crown Prince Pavlos. That's rather telling in my opinion.

I'm sure the various royal houses will send the most appropriate (i.e. young'ish) representatives to William's wedding.

I see no reason why it should surprise people that the Obamas wouldn't be invited or that royals are invited. I've been following royal weddings for years and it's completely common for them to invite members from other royal houses. The commonwealth countries will be represented at William's wedding by (I believe) the Governor Generals. I can't remember if the PMs are invited too (although I'm sure the British PM will be invited).

Perhaps non-commonwealth countries like the US will be represented by their ambassadors.

[dukeofearl]

greek royal family?? now romania and serbia (and lately montenegro?) have allowed their former monarchs to live tin the old palaces and for the most part play the role of constitutional king..but not greece..glamor social weddings aside, there isnt a greek royal family (the bavarians could make a claim there too)..as for the wedding, i still think the Queen stepped in and up the pageantry on this..will and kate would prob like to elope if they could lol

[wendy]

@ janjan...It just occurred to me that ex-King Constantine is one of William's godfathers. So, he absolutely should attend William's wedding for that reason alone!

Speaking of godparents attending the wedding: another of William's godfathers - Lord Romsey - has recently left the UK and is living in the Carribean. I understand there's quite the to-do about this exodus of his. He's basically shunned his lord-of-the-manor lifestyle and his wife is now filling his shoes. It will be quite interesting to see if he leaves his tropical hidey hole to attend William's wedding. I doubt he will - he'd receive a pretty cold reception from the bluebloods, methinks!

[wendy]

I've read a couple of articles in the last week+ concerning security at the wedding. I've noticed stinging comments on those sites from readers who resent tax money being spent on security but this wedding in the post-911 world is frightening me. One of the articles I read was quoting a man whom the article labelled a militant Muslim. This man was telling all Muslims to avoid the wedding procession route because he didn't want them to get hurt when they sent their message before such a huge world audience. The article was clear that he was saying that violence would occur.

I'm not bringing this up to bash any belief system but the idea of anyone using such an occasion as a stage for bloodshed is appalling to me. I'm scared for all concerned.

An assassination attempt has occurred in the past during a royal wedding carriage procession; namely, after the 1906 wedding of King Alfonso XIII of Spain and Princess Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg. The assassin missed his intended target (the royals) but upwards of 27 bystanders were killed.

A more recent article this week quoted the head of security as saying they would place a 'ring of iron' around the entire route for William and Catherine's wedding. I sincerely hope and pray it works!!!

[thequeenofcastile]

What the majority of people are tending to forget here is that most of the European royal families are related, quote closely in some cases. The Greek Royal family are invited because 1) Constantine is William's godfather, 2) Prince Philip was born a Greek prince which means they are closely related and 3) they live in exile in London. The Romanian, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian and Spanish Royal Families are all related by blood to the English royals from either Queen Victoria or Christian IX of Denmark or in most cases, both.

Not only is this a 'royal' event, but it is a 'family' one too.

[dukeofearl]

mugabe's ambassador? the king of swaziland? (one of the worse rulers alive) crown prince of bahrain? (thankfully he backed out)..as i said earlier, this thing got too big for its own good (yes it will b spectacular etc)..but there's the ex PMs controversy..as for constantine von gluck, i dont care that he's wills godfather, he isnt a king

[observer]

Apr 27, 2011 18:56:11 GMT dukeofearl said:

..as for constantine von gluck, i dont care that he's wills godfather, he isnt a king

I believe that the position is that once crowned a king (or queen), a person is always regarded as, and addressed as, a king (or queen), in much the same way that former US Presidents and Vice-Presidents are always addressed by their former titles after they have left office.

In the case of King Constantine, he will have been invited to the wedding as HM King Constantine II, and not as King of the Hellenes.

The former King of Spain, Alfonso XIII, was addressed in the UK after his deposition as Field Marshal HCM King Alphonso XIII, KG, using his rank and membership of the Order of the Garter, but not as HM The King of Spain.