More on the referendum about the Danish succession

A new poll presented in Politiken today shows that the support for changing the Danish Act of Succession has risen by 2.1 % in two days. The percentage of those intending to vote no or cast a blank vote has fallen from 26.4 to 20.7. But according to the poll only 38.9 % of the total electorate will vote yes, which is 1.1 % short of the magical 40 % limit.

http://politiken.dk/politik/article726488.ece

In Politiken Kjeld Hybel writes about how the referendum on the succession has turned into a referendum on the monarchy itself:

http://politiken.dk/kultur/article726699.ece

In Berlingske Tidende today the priest Kathrine Lilleør argues that the referendum is really a referendum about Queen Margrethe, and that a “no” will mean that one thinks “it would have been better if the Queen had a younger brother so that we had avoided her”:

http://www.berlingske.dk/article/20090605/kommentarer/706050066/

In Berlingske Tidende on Thursday the constitutional expert Peter Kurrild-Klitgaard argued that the Act of Succession should be changed now, so that it can not in the future be used to push through more important constitutional amendments, as happened in 1953:

http://www.berlingske.dk/article/20090603/kommentarer/90603153/

Election disaster for Labour as British cabinet disintegrates

As expected, Thursday’s local elections in Britain turned out to be a disaster for the governing Labour party. With 33 out of 34 districts declared, results show that Labour has lost 268 councillors and are left with only 176. The Conservatives have gained 230 councillors which means they now have 1476, while the Liberal Democrats lost only 4, ending with 473 councillors. For results, see:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/local-election-results-map-2009

The election results come as a further blow to the beleaguered Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who is now left with little if any authority and should now take the consequences of that. Tuesday saw the resignation of four ministers, including Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, while Communities Secretary Hazel Blears announced her resignation on Wednesday morning, followed by Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell, who quit on Thursday, calling for the Prime Minister to “stand aside to give Labour a fighting chance of winning the next election”. Yesterday Defence Secretary John Hutton also resigned, followed by Transport Secretary Geoff Hoon, Europe Minister Caroline Flint and Wales Secretary Paul Murphy.
This mass defection from the government threw Gordon Brown’s planned reshuffle into disarray. The Prime Minister had reportedly intended to let Business Secretary Peter Mandelson replace David Miliband as Foreign Secretary and to make Education Secretary Ed Balls Chancellor of the Exchequer by removing Alistair Darling. These plans now had to be scrapped as Brown had to concentrate on filling the vacancies left by the mass of departing ministers. As the leader of the Conservatives, David Cameron, said on Wednesday, the cabinet is now reshuffling itself.
Health Secretary Alan Johnson, seen as a likely challenger to Brown’s leadership, was promoted to Home Secretary, while the relatively unknown MP Bob Ainsworth was made Defence Secretary and Glenys Kinnock (wife of former Labour leader Neil Kinnock and mother-in-law of the leader of the Danish Social Democrats, Helle Thorning-Schmidt) became Europe Minister. Yvette Cooper was appointed Work and Pensions Secretary and Lord Adonis Transport Secretary. For an overview of the old and new cabinet, see:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/interactive/2009/jun/05/reshuffle-labour-gordon-brown

While the government itself has been falling apart an e-mail has been circulating in the Labour Party’s parliamentary group, attempting to collect signatures for a letter calling on Gordon Brown to resign. Last evening Brown declared that he would stay on, but it seems doubtful if he will be able to do so. What might yet save him is if no serious challenger steps forward. Ambitious rivals who might otherwise gladly have done so in this situation may be dissuaded by the fact that a general election must be held within a year and that assuming the party leadership now almost inevitably would mean leading the party to defeat.
In my opinion a prime minister who has lost control over his own cabinet is too weakened to lead a country. The Guardian reached much of the same conclusion yesterday: “Any prime minister, however powerful, serves as a member of a cabinet. When that cabinet loses faith in him or her, and its members start saying so in public, the leader cannot stay. […] The truth is that it is all over. To cling to office now would [be] to do the Labour cause, and the country, huge harm. If Mr Brown does not recognise that fact, others will have to do it for him”.

On this date: King Albert turns 75

Today is the 75th birthday of King Albert II of the Belgians. In fact this makes him the oldest Belgian monarch ever. His great-great-grandfather Léopold I died a few days before his 75th birthday, while Léopold II died at 74, Albert I was killed at 58, Léopold III abdicated at 49 and Baudouin I died at 62. Unlike its neighbours Luxembourg and the Netherlands, Belgium has no tradition for voluntary abdications and the King has been in good health after heart surgery in April 2000 while the heir, Prince Philippe, is not very popular.

Oscarshall Palace reawakens – and it is white again!

Recently the scaffolding which has covered Oscarshall Palace in Oslo for several years as the palace has been renovated has started to come down – and reveal that the palace’s façade is now again white, as it was until King Haakon VII after the Second World War approved the suggestion that it should be painted pink.
Oscarshall Palace has been closed to visitors since September 2005 while restoration work has been going on. Modern facilities have also been installed to make the 160-year-old palace better suited to receive visitors. It will open to the public again on 26 August.
The photos show Oscarshall earlier today.

Daniel Westling leaves hospital

Expressen today reports that Daniel Westling last night left hospital following his kidney transplant a week ago.

http://www.expressen.se/Nyheter/1.1593911/har-lamnar-han-sjukhuset

Denmark to vote over succession change

Today is Denmark’s Constitution Day and on Sunday the country will hold a referendum about changing the Act of Succession, which aims at introducing gender-neutral succession to the throne. After 37 years of female rule time now seems ripe for Denmark to introduce full cognatic succession, yet it is uncertain if the plans to do so will succeed.
The bill was proposed to Parliament on 7 October 2008 by the government of the then Prime Minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen. Its first reading in Parliament was on 23 January this year, followed by the second reading on 17 February and the third on 24 February, at which 107 MPs voted in favour of the change, while 2 abstained. The government’s official website about the referendum:

http://www.tronfoelge.dk/

In Denmark constitutional amendments must be subjected to a referendum, and at least 40 % of the electorate (not just 40 % of those participating in the election) will have to vote yes for the amendment to be passed. The referendum is held together with the elections to the European Parliament and while it seems beyond doubt that a majority will vote in favour of the amendment it seems less certain if the turnout for the election will be sufficient for passing the new Act of Succession. At the referendum about the current Act of Succession in 1953 it was a very close cut, with 45.76 % of the electorate voting in favour at a time when the limit was 45 %.
An opinion poll presented in the newspaper Jyllands-Posten on 9 May showed that 82.5 % of the respondents intend to take part in the referendum and that 87.9% of those will vote yes, while 6.6 % intend to vote no.

http://jp.dk/arkiv/?id=1687815&eceExpr=tronf%F8lgelov%22%20/%3E&eceArchive=o

Another poll in Berlingske Tidende on 29 May showed that 84 % are in favour of the change.

http://www.berlingske.dk/article/20090528/danmark/705280152

If all those people intending to vote do indeed turn out, the amendment will be passed with a comfortable majority, but only 47.8 % of the electorate voted in the previous European Parliament election.
The government’s campaign has meanwhile been heavily criticised for being biased and too simplistic, which has caused some voices to be raised in favour of casting blank votes, including the editor-in-chief of the tabloid EkstraBladet today. Others have expressed their view that the referendum should have been held together with the next local elections rather than the European Parliament elections and some think that there should be larger reforms to the Constitution than just the succession. In recent days the debate about the referendum has also started to turn into a debate about the monarchy itself.

http://www.berlingske.dk/article/20090603/danmark/706030114/

A new poll in Berlingske Tidende yesterday showed that support for the change had fallen dramatically in less than a week to 72 %, with 13 % intending to vote no and 9 % intending to cast blank votes. This means that if less than half the electorate takes part in the referendum the “magical limit” of 40 % will not be reached. The poll also shows that among those who will not vote in favour of the amendment 24 % do so because they are opposed to the change itself, 22 % because they are republicans, 25 % because they want wider constitutional reforms and 25 % for other reasons.

http://www.berlingske.dk/article/20090603/danmark/706030115

Another poll in Politiken yesterday showed a support for the amendment from 74 % of the 1,012 people interviewed, but also found that the percentage intending to vote against or cast a blank vote had risen from 10 to 26 %.

http://politiken.dk/indland/article724666.ece

http://politiken.dk/newsinenglish/article724797.ece (in English)

On 29 May Berlingske Tidende had an article where the historian Jon Bloch Skipper comments on the consequences for how the monarchy is viewed if the bill is not passed:

http://www.berlingske.dk/article/20090528/danmark/705280143

§ 2 of the current Act of Succession of 27 March 1953 says: “On the death of a King the throne shall pass to his son or daughter, a son taking precedence over a daughter, and where there are several children of the same sex the elder child taking precedence over the younger child. […]”.
Before 1953 only men could inherit the Danish throne. At the time King Frederik IX had three daughters and it seemed unlikely that he and Queen Ingrid would have more children. The heir presumptive was therefore the King’s younger brother, Prince Knud, who had two sons and a daughter. Following a referendum the new Act of Succession came into force on 5 June 1953 and meant that Princess Margrethe (now the Queen) replaced Prince Knud as heir to the throne.
The change in 1953 caused a rift between King Frederik and Prince Knud which was never healed. No such thing will happen this time; if the change is approved in Sunday’s referendum it will not affect any living persons. Queen Margrethe II has two sons; Crown Prince Frederik had first a son, then a daughter; while Prince Joachim has two sons from his first marriage and a son from his second. All these will keep their places, followed by the Queen’s sister Princess Benedikte and the Queen’s cousin Princess Elisabeth. But if the Crown Prince has another son, this prince will come after his older sister in the line of succession, rather than surpassing her as he would have done under the 1953 Act of Succession.
The second picture shows King Frederik IX’s signature on the Danish Constitution of 5 June 1953.

Lost treasures: The second Christiansborg Palace, Copenhagen

The second Christiansborg Palace in Copenhagen was built by the architect Christian Frederik Hansen (1756-1845) in the years 1803-1828. It replaced the first Christiansborg, which had burned down in 1794. The following year much of Copenhagen was destroyed in a city fire and in 1807 the British terror bombardment caused much damage to the Danish capital, meaning that large parts of Copenhagen were rebuilt in the neoclassical style. Christiansborg Palace, the Cathedral and the City Hall were the most prestigious commissions and all of them were given to Hansen, who was called to Copenhagen from the Duchies of Schleswig-Holstein.
His was a heavy and monumental neoclassicism of the Roman brand and in his work on the palace he was restricted by the fact that it should be built literally on the ruins of the first Christiansborg. War, financial difficulties and lack of materials meant that work on the new palace proceeded slowly. Hansen’s drawings were approved by King Frederik VI in May 1803, but the work on the exterior was only completed in 1822. Work on the interiors continued for another ten years, while the King’s and Queen’s apartments could be inaugurated in 1828.
Hansen’s closest collaborator was the architect Gustav Friedrich Hetsch, who was twice his son-in-law and who deserves credit for much of the palace’s interiors. The King’s apartment was on the second floor, facing the Palace Square, while the Queen’s apartment was in the west wing on the same floor. The Crown Prince’s apartment was planned one level further up, but the fact that Denmark had no crown prince at the time meant that these rooms were never furnished. On the ground floor the Supreme Court Hall was the only room of significance to be completed.
After the 1794 fire the royal family had moved to the four mansions at Amalienborg and when the new Christiansborg was completed, they chose to remain there. Frederik VI and his family only stayed at Christiansborg for a few days in 1828, when the palace was inaugurated in connection with the wedding of the King’s daughter Princess Vilhelmine Marie and her second cousin Prince Frederik Carl Christian, later King Frederik VII.
Festivities and official ceremonies were those occasions when Christiansborg came to be used. Only Frederik VII made Christiansborg his official residence, but because of the hostility shown by the capital’s upper class towards his morganatic wife, Countess Louise Danner, he preferred to stay at palaces outside Copenhagen, such as Frederiksborg and Jægerspris. Christiansborg was also where the Constituent Assembly which gave Denmark its first constitution met in 1849 and thereafter the Supreme Court Hall became the plenary hall of the new Parliament. Even today Parliament is housed at the third Christiansborg Palace.
The second Christiansborg Palace was lost in a fire which erupted during the night of 3-4 October 1884. The next morning only ruins were left of the once magnificent palace. Only the Palace Church was saved and having been restored after a fire in 1992 it is now the only preserved interior from the second Christiansborg.
It was only in 1907 that work started on the third and present Christiansborg, which has little in common with the second. It was however built on its ruins and many things which had survived the fire were recycled for the third Christiansborg. The King’s Gate in the third photo is partly preserved from the second Christiansborg and what is now the entrance to the Supreme Court (fourth photo) was originally the second palace’s entrance towards the courtyard. Facing Prince Jørgen’s Courtyard the lower parts of the walls (picture 5) are from the second Christiansborg and the four statues by Bertel Thorvaldsen were those placed in niches on either side of the main entrance to the second palace.
The second picture shows a model of what the second Christiansborg looked like. Its façade can be seen in the first photo, which shows a detail of a painting of the old palace which hangs in the City Hall in Copenhagen. A similar painting, done by Heinrich Hansen, can be found at Buckingham Palace.

Norwegian Parliament abolishes its oldest committee

The Norwegian Parliament today voted to abolish its Defence Committee, a change which will come into effect on 1 October. The Defence Committee (formerly called the Military Committee) is the oldest of Parliament's 13 standing committees, dating from 1815, the year after Norway became independent. From October there will be 12 committees and defence issues will be dealt with by the Committee on Foreign Affairs.

European Parliament elections begin

Today the elections to the European Parliament begin. Britain and the Netherlands vote today, the Czech Republic and Ireland tomorrow, Cyprus, Italy, Latvia, Malta and Slovakia on Saturday and the remaining EU countries on Sunday. Some 375 million people in 27 countries have the right to vote for candidates to the 736 seats of the European Parliament, but participation often being low the authorities in several countries have run campaigns to get people to vote.
In Britain the European Parliament election is held together with the local elections, which seem set to be another disaster for Gordon Brown and his Labour government. While Brown’s government is falling apart day by day, recent polls have shown that Labour risks becoming only the fourth biggest party, falling behind the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats and even the United Kingdom Independence Party. Polls have also shown that the openly racist British National Party may perhaps get a seat in the European Parliament, but hopefully this will be avoided.
Also in Sweden there is some chance that either of three small parties of recent origins may make it to Brussels – the right-wing extremists the Sweden Democrats, Feminist Initiative or the Pirate Party, who wants a more liberal policy on file-sharing. The photo shows Feminist Initiative’s top candidate, Gudrun Schyman, campaigning in Gothenburg on Monday. Schyman was formerly the leader of the Left Party, but co-founded FI in 2005. Despite her personal popularity her new party received only 0.68 % of the votes in the Swedish general election in 2006.

Princess Birgitta to host “summer talk” on Swedish radio

Every summer Swedish Radio broadcast a popular series of “Summer Talks” – each day from mid-June to mid-August a more or less well-known person hosts the programme. Yesterday the list of this year’s “Summer Talkers” was released, also including a royal. Princess Birgitta of Hohenzollern, one of King Carl Gustaf’s sisters, will be on air on 12 July. Formerly Princess Märtha Louise of Norway has also hosted a programme. First out this year is IKEA’s founder Ingvar Kamprad on 20 June and among the other “Summer Talkers” this year are the Finnish and Norwegian Foreign Ministers Alexander Stub and Jonas Gahr Støre on 24 June and 6 July respectively, the author Per Olov Enquist on 19 July and the historian Peter Englund on 31 July.

http://www.sr.se/sida/artikel.aspx?programid=2071&artikel=2873696

http://www.sr.se/sida/artikel.aspx?programid=2071&artikel=2864626

On this date: Start of the 1989 revolution

4 June 1989 should perhaps be counted as the very starting point of the momentous events of 1989 which culminated in the opening of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 and the collapse of the Soviet Empire in December 1991. On 4 June 1989 Poland, as the first East Bloc country, held elections which were very close to being fully democratic, with only a few seats in parliament reserved for the Communist Party. On the same day Ayatollah Khomeini died in Iran and in Beijing hundreds or even thousands of peaceful protesters were killed when the ruthless Communist regime crushed the pro-democracy demonstrations in Tiananmen Square.
New Statesman had an interesting series of articles on “The Year of the Crowd” in its issue of 12 March:

http://www.newstatesman.com/subjects/the-year-of-the-crowd

The Swedish news magazine Fokus also commemorated the events of 1989 in its latest issue last Friday:

http://www.fokus.se/2009/05/tjugo-ar-senare/

What to see: Gustavi Cathedral, Gothenburg

The Gustavi Cathedral in Gothenburg is named for King Gustaf II Adolf, who founded the city in 1621 and also built the first church at the spot. The first church was dedicated in 1633, the year after the King had fallen at Lützen. It burnt down in 1721 and its successor went up in flames during the great city fire of 1802.
The present Gustavi Cathedral was dedicated in 1815, but the interiors and the tower were not completed until 1827. This empire style church was designed by town architect Carl Wilhelm Carlberg (1746-1814), who really got to put his mark on Gothenburg because of the three fires in 1802, 1814 and 1813 which combined destroyed approximately half of the city’s buildings.
The Cathedral is built of yellow brick from Flensburg, while the portico is made of Scottish sandstone. In 1978-1980 the exterior was restored to its original condition and the same was done with the interiors in 1983-1985.

What to see: Gunnebo Palace, Mölndal

Situated in Mölndal just outside Gothenburg, Gunnebo Palace is perhaps the most beautiful neoclassical villa in Sweden. Although it is a villa of some 1,000 square metres it is commonly referred to as a palace, a word which was first used to describe it by the famous sculptor Johan Tobias Sergel.
Gunnebo was built as the country house of the wealthy merchant John Hall the Elder (1735-1802) and his wife Christina (1749-1825). In the winter they lived in a town house at Gothenburg’s Sillgatan, which is now long gone (the street was later renamed Postgatan and even later incorporated into the huge shopping mall Nordstan).
The architect was Carl Wilhelm Carlberg (1746-1814), who had just returned from a five-year educational trip to Italy, France and Britain when he was given the commission in 1782. To put it simply he created an Italianate villa with French gardens set in an English landscape park, but the house also has traces of the British brand of neoclassicism.
The villa was completed in 1796 and was much admired, as it continues to be. “He has taken a beautiful part of the mountains of Italy and placed it at Gunnebo”, Sergel wrote. “[…] The building is charming in every respect. He has with considerable skill made use of the terrain. The architecture is pure poetry. […] Since seeing Gunnebo, my admiration for Carlberg is boundless”.
In addition to Sergel Gunnebo has received many famous visitors. King Gustaf III was among the earliest visitors, and later came Mary Wollstonecraft and Louis XVI’s only surviving child, Marie-Thérèse, Duchess of Angoulême. Francisco de Miranda, the South American freedom fighter, visited in 1787 and had a passionate affair with Christina Hall – it was later said that he chose the colours yellow, blue and red for the Venezuelan flag in memory of the colours of Mrs Hall’s hair, eyes and lips. A small note is attached to a chair in which the Nobel Laureate Selma Lagerlöf sat, while the guides do not point out the chair used by US President George W. Bush when he met Sweden’s then Prime Minister Göran Persson at Gunnebo in connection with the EU summit in Gothenburg in 2001.
John Hall the Elder did not get the chance to enjoy Gunnebo for a long time after it was completed. He died six years later, in 1802. He lay in state at the Gustavi Cathedral in Gothenburg awaiting his magnificent funeral when a great city fire broke out. Both the Cathedral and the body of John Hall perished in the fire.
His only son, John Hall the Younger, had not inherited his father’s knack for business and had to sell Gunnebo when he went into bankruptcy. He ended his life as a beggar on the streets of Stockholm, where he froze to death in 1830. The last private owners of the estate were Carl and Hilda Sparre, and following Baroness Sparre’s death in 1948 Gunnebo was sold to the municipality of Mölndal. Today it is a listed building which is open to visitors throughout the year. Its website can be found at: http://www.gunneboslott.se/

Crown Princess Victoria gains a BA degree

The Swedish Royal Court today announced that Crown Princess Victoria has gained the degree “fil. kand.”, roughly corresponding to a Bachelor of Arts degree, from the University of Uppsala. The Crown Princess has over the years taken various courses at the universities of Stockholm, Uppsala and Yale, which combined make up a fil. kand. degree in peace and conflict issues. The Crown Princess is only the third member of the Bernadotte dynasty to get an academic degree, following in the footsteps of her sister Princess Madeleine and her great-uncle Prince Sigvard.

http://www.kungahuset.se/ovrigt/pressrum/hovetmeddelar/aretsarkivhovetmeddelar/kronprinsessantarexamenviduppsalauniversitet.5.6b0698e911fa8f90058800017313.html

Daniel Westling’s kidney transplant “was urgent”

Expressen yesterday claimed that Daniel Westling’s kidney transplant was more urgent than what has been reported earlier. The Swedish Royal Court said the operation had been planned, but according to Expressen’s sources it had been planned for later in the summer. The newspaper writes that when Westling and his fiancée Crown Princess Victoria returned from their trip to Brazil in April his condition had deteriorated, thus bringing forward the surgery.
Daniel Westling and his father Olle Westling, who donated the kidney, both remain in hospital and are doing well, according to the Palace’s spokeswoman Nina Eldh. Meanwhile there has been a surge in the numbers of Swedes registering as organ donators. There were 1,500 registrations in a couple of days after Westling’s transplant, while there are normally between 80 and 100 a day.
Crown Princess Victoria visited her fiancé in hospital at 8.30 this morning, having returned from her trip to Greenland last night.

http://www.expressen.se/Nyheter/1.1589814/daniel-westlings-operation-var-akut

http://www.expressen.se/Nyheter/1.1591292/victoria-hos-daniel-pa-sjukhuset

Brazilian “heir” disappears in Air France tragedy

Prince Pedro Luíz of Orleans-Bragança, third in line to the headship of the former imperial house of Brazil, was among the 216 passengers and 12 crew members who most likely lost their lives when Air France’s flight AF 447 disappeared over the Atlantic on its way from Rio de Janeiro to Paris yesterday.
Head of the house is Prince Luíz Gastão, who is childless, making his brother Prince Bertrand, who is also childless, the heir. The brothers Eudes, Pedro and Fernando have renounced their rights, leaving the succession to the sixth brother, Prince Antônio, father of the 26-year-old prince who perished yesterday. The succession now passes to Prince Antônio’s second son, Prince Rafael.
Prince Pedro Luíz was born on 12 January 1983. As his mother, Princess Christine of Ligne, is a Belgian aristocrat he held dual Brazilian and Belgian citizenship. The Prince lived in Luxembourg and was closely related to its grand ducal family – his maternal grandmother is the sister of Grand Duke Jean.

Crown Princess Victoria to take over Haga on 1 October

According to Aftonbladet of 29 May the Swedish government will leave Haga Palace in Solna by the end of August, so that Crown Princess Victoria and Daniel Westling will receive the keys to their future home around 1 October. The renovation of the palace will then begin and is scheduled to be completed in early June 2010, just in time for the wedding on 19 June. A private kitchen and rooms for children will be installed and security measures implemented. The western railings will be supplemented by a similar railing 90 metres to the west of the palace. This means that the public walkway leading past the palace will have to be moved towards the water.

http://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/article5253034.ab

Peter Englund takes over at the Swedish Academy

Yesterday Peter Englund succeeded Horace Engdahl in the prestigious position as secretary (ie. leader) of the Swedish Academy. Englund, a 52-year-old historian who enjoys great popularity, has been a member of the Academy since 2002 and is currently its youngest member – a position he will cede to Lotta Lotass when she in December takes up the chair vacated by the death of former Marshal of the Realm Sten Rudholm last year.
The Swedish Academy was founded by King Gustaf III in 1786 and has eighteen members. Internationally it is best known for awarding the Nobel Prize in Literature, frequently making unexpected choices. As recently as 2005 Professor Knut Ahnlund left the Academy in protest against the Prize being given to Elfriede Jelinek the previous year.
Peter Englund has a popular blog which can be found here:

http://peterenglund.wordpress.com/

The news magazine Fokus’s issue 22 (of 29 May) has more on the Academy and the change of secretary:

http://www.fokus.se/2009/05/kulturens-dolda-maktapparat/

http://www.fokus.se/2009/05/direktoren-for-det-hele/

Fokus also has interesting articles on the infighting in the American Republican party and the countries of the former Eastern Bloc twenty years after the near-democratic election in Poland on 4 June 1989 marked the beginning of the Iron Curtain’s collapse:

http://www.fokus.se/2009/05/tjugo-ar-senare/

http://www.fokus.se/2009/05/republikanerna-famlar-i-morkret/

Memorial service for the Prince Imperial

On 6 June a memorial service will be held in St. Mary’s Chapel, Pietermaritzburg in honour of “Napoléon IV”, the Prince Imperial, who was killed on 1 June 1879 while serving in the British army during the Zulu War. The Prince Imperial was the only child of Emperor Napoléon III and Empress Eugénie and with him died any realistic hopes of a Bonaparte restoration. The picture shows his uniform and other clothes he worn when he fell, together with some of the spears which killed him – the items are all in the Second Empire Museum at Compiègne Palace.

At the end of the road: Millvina Dean (1912-2009), last Titanic survivor

Millvina Dean, the last Titanic survivor, died in a nursing home in Hampshire, England on Sunday at the age of 97. She was only nine weeks old when her family emigrated to the USA on board the Titanic in April 1912. Her mother and brother also survived the shipwreck while her father was among the 1,517 who lost their lives. Articles and obituaries in The Times and The Guardian:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article6401827.ece

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jun/01/last-titanic-survivor-dies

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article6408728.ece