Wednesday 5 June 2013

Guests for Princess Madeleine’s wedding

The Swedish royal court has not yet released the official guest list for the wedding of Princess Madeleine and Christopher O’Neill on Saturday, but the newspaper Aftonbladet has gotten hold of it and released it in its entirety. As expected there will be far fewer royal guests than at the wedding of Crown Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel, which is only natural as Princess Madeleine is not the heir to the throne and this is not a state occasion.
Apparently no foreign heads of state have been invited, but the wife of the Sovereign Prince of Monaco, Princess Charlène, will be present. The then Charlene Wittstock also attended the wedding of Crown Princess Victoria in 2010 together with Prince Albert, which was unusual as the couple was at that time not yet engaged (at least not officially).
The Danish royal family will be represented by Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary, Prince Joachim and Princess Marie, and Princess Benedikte, who is one of Princess Madeleine’s godparents. The Norwegian guests will be Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit as well as Princess Märtha Louise and Ari Behn.
The British royal family will be represented by the Earl and Countess of Wessex (i.e. Prince Edward and his wife Sophie), who are usually the British representatives at royal weddings these days. Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume and Hereditary Grand Duchess Stéphanie of Luxembourg will also be in attendance, while the reigning houses of Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain and Liechtenstein will not be represented at all. Somewhat surprisingly the Japanese imperial house will send a representative, namely Princess Takamado, i.e. Hisako, the widow of the Emperor’s cousin Norihito, a frequent traveller who seems to have rather close relations with the Nordic royal families.
The extended Swedish royal family will naturally be out in force, led by King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia, Crown Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel, and Prince Carl Philip. Prince Carl Philip’s girlfriend, Sofia Hellqvist, is also on the guest list, but not listed with the Prince, as is the custom as long as there is no engagement.
King Carl Gustaf’s four sisters, Princess Margaretha, Princess Birgitta, Princess Désirée and Princess Christina, will also be present. Princess Désirée will be accompanied by her husband, Baron Niclas Silfverschiöld, who has been seriously ill and thus missed several royal occasions, and Princess Christina by her husband, Tord Magnuson. Princess Birgitta’ husband, Prince Johann Georg of Hohenzollern, will not attend.
The three children of Princess Margaretha, Baroness Sybilla von Dincklage, James Ambler and Edward Ambler, and her daughters-in-law Ursula and Helen will also be present, as well as Princess Birgitta’s daughter and son-in-law, Désirée and Eckbert von Bohlen und Halbach, but not Princess Birgitta’s sons. Princess Désirée’s son, Baron Carl Silfverschiöld, will attend without his wife Maria, while his sister Christina will be accompanied by her husband, Baron Hans De Geer, and the youngest sister, Baroness Hélène Silfverschiöld, by her boyfriend Fredrik Diterle. Princess Christina’s three sons will all be there: Gustaf Magnuson with his fiancée Vicky Andrén, Oscar Magnuson with his wife Emma Magnuson, and Victor Magnuson with his girlfriend Frida Bergström.
The widows of King Carl Gustaf’s uncles, Countesses Marianne and Gunnila Bernadotte af Wisborg, will also be in attendance.
As expected only those former royal families with close ties to the Swedish royal family have been invited. Ex-Crown Prince Pavlós of Greece and his wife Marie-Chantal will be accompanied by Prince Nikoláos and his wife Tatiana, Princess Theodora and Prince Philippos. Pavlós, Nikolaós, Theodora and Philippos are all second cousins of the bride.
King Carl Gustaf’s first cousin, Prince Andreas of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, will come without his wife Carin, but with his son Hubertus and daughter-in-law Kelly. Prince Leopold of Bavaria, who is a close friend of King Carl Gustaf, will be accompanied by his wife Ursula as well as his son Manuel and daughter-in-law Anna.
In the large section listing private friends we can also find the names of some members of former royal families who are apparently invited in their capacity as friends of the groom and his family, who seems to have a vast international network. Among them are Count Giberto and Countess Bianca Arrivabene-Valenti-Gonzaga (née Princess of Savoy), Archduke Philipp and Archduchess Mayasuni of Austria-Hungary, Prince Paolo Constantino Borghese, an unnamed Prince and Princess of Arenberg, the Maharana of Udaipur (Arvind Singh Mewar) and Princess Khaliya Aga Khan.
Queen Silvia’s two surviving brothers, Ralf and Walther Sommerlath, will be there with their wives Charlotte and Ingrid and a host of the Queen’s nephews, nieces, great-nephews and great-nieces: Carmita Sommerlath Baudinet and Pierre Baudinet, Thomas de Toledo Sommerlath and Bettina Aussems, Tim de Toledo Sommerlath and Kristina Junghans, Philip de Toledo Sommerlath, Giulia de Toledo Sommerlath, Patrick and Malina Sommerlath, Leopold Lundén Sommerlath, Chloé Sommerlath, Anaïs Sommerlath, Helena Christina Sommerlath and Vivien Nadine Sommerlath (the latter two being the daughters of Queen Silvia’s late brother Jörg). Prince Daniel’s sister, Anna Westling Söderblom, will attend with her husband Mikael.
There is also a large section listing the members of the groom’s family, of whom little is known. His father Paul O’Neill died in 2004, but his mother, Eva Maria O’Neill, will be there. All the groom’s five half-sisters are on the list; Annalisa O’Neill, Karen O’Neill and Stefanie O’Neill are his father’s daughters, while Tatjana d’Abo and Countess Natascha Abensperg und Traun are his mother’s daughters. The latter two will be accompanied by their husbands, Henry d’Abo and Count Ernst Abensperg und Traun. Then there are also several nephews and nieces, among them: Anouska d’Abo, Celina d’Abo, Jasper d’Abo, Countess Milana Abensperg und Traun, Count Moritz Abensperg und Traun, Countess Chiara Abensperg und Traun, and Oliver MacNeely. I am not sure how Richard d’Abo, Maria Sefarian, Rolf Nikel and Olivia Nikel, Wolfgang Schoeller and Heidi Schoeller, Cristopher Ramsay and Lucy Ramsay are related to the groom, while Countes Felicia Abensperg und Traun appears to be the mother of one of his brothers-in-law.
The non-official character of the wedding means that there will be far fewer representatives of Swedish authorities present, but among those who will be there are the Speaker of Parliament, Per Westerberg, and his wife Ylva, Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, Deputy Prime Minister Jan Björklund and his wife Anette Brifalk Björklund, and the county governor of Gävleborg (which is made up of Princess Madeleine’s dukedoms) Barbro Holmberg.

2 comments:

  1. According to one genealogical tree that is floating around, Felicia Abensperg und Traun (née Felicia Guépin in 1938) is the mother of Ernst Abensperg und Traun, not his daughter.

    According to thepeerage.com (which admittedly is not always a trustworthy source), Christopher (sic) and Lucy Ramsay are the children of Henry d'Abo's sister Louise.

    Given that Schoeller is the surname of Eva Maria O'Neill's first husband, it is probable that Wolfgang Schoeller and Olivia Nikel (whose maiden name appears to be Schoeller) are connected to him.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you for adding this. Including his sister's mother-in-law and his brother-in-law's sister's children on the list of the groom's relatives seems to indicate a rather wide definition of "family". Last week's issue of Svensk Damtidning tried to chart to the family of Christopher O'Neill, but did not succeed entirely.

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