Tuesday 5 April 2011

Charlene Wittstock joins the Catholic church

In a press release (external link) about the forthcoming wedding of Sovereign Prince Albert II and Charlene Wittstock the princely court of Monaco yesterday announced that Wittstock has now joined the Catholic church.
Most monarchies have laws which imposes certain religious restrictions on the head of state and those in line of succession. This does normally not extend to consorts (although anyone in line to the British throne will lose his or her succession rights upon marrying a Catholic), but several royal brides have chosen to convert upon marriage, among them the three daughters-in-law of Queen Margrethe of Denmark, who joined the Lutheran church before their weddings. Here in Norway we have on the other hand had three queens in a row which did not belong to the Lutheran church.

3 comments:

  1. Are Queen Sonja and Crown Princess Mette-Marit not members of the Lutheran church? I know Queen Maud remained Anglican, but I assumed the current and future Queens, as native Norwegians, were both Lutherans.

    - Maura

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  2. Of our six queens since independence Queen Desideria and Queen Josephina were Catholics, Queen Lovisa belonged to the Dutch Reformed church (Calvinist). Queen Sophia was Lutheran, as was Queen Hedvig Elisabeth Charlotta. Queen Sonja does indeed belong to the Lutheran church, as does Crown Princess Mette-Marit. Queen Maud was baptised and confirmed as an Anglican, but buried with Lutheran rites.

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  3. Pardon the typo, my previous comment should of course have started: "Of our SEVEN queens since independence..."

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