New French Princess

Three centuries after it lost its most famous Antoinette (the alternately maligned and celebrated Marie Antoinette) to Madame Guillotine, the French royals welcomed a new Princess Antoinette on January 28, 2012. The new baby is the daughter of Jean Duke of Vendome, whom Orleanists recognize as the Dauphin, and his Viennese-born wife, Philomena. The couple married in 2009, eight years after Jean was forced to call off his engagement to Protestant Duchess Tatjana of Oldenburg so as not to jeopardize his family's claim to the long-defunct throne of France. Even if the French monarchy were restored again, it has been recreated so many times that there are also claimants from the Bourbons and Bonapartes. Perhaps there is potential for a French reality series, "Who Wants to Be King of France?"

Jean and Philomena also have a two-year-old son, Gaston.

A New Princess in Denmark

Princess Marie, wife of Prince Joachim of Denmark, gave birth to a daughter on the morning of January 24 in Copenhagen. This is the couple's first daughter. They have one son together and Joachim has two older boys by his first wife, Alexandra.

The prince says his little girl looks like her mother.

By Danish royal tradition, the baby's name will not be announced until her christening several weeks from now. Like her brothers and first cousins, she will undoubtedly receive four names and it is a fairly safe bet that one of those will be Margarethe after her maternal grandmother who is this year celebrating her fortieth anniversary as Queen of Denmark. (A quirkier possibility could be Ruby for the Ruby Jubilee.) Based on her brothers' names, don't be surprised to see her names include that of her mother Marie and her maternal grandmother Francoise.

May 20, 2012 UPDATE: And the name is Athena Marguerite Francoise Marie, which includes the names of the baby's mother and grandmothers. The first name, however, was a bit unexpected.

First Royal Jubilee of 2012

Prince Henrik and Queen Margrethe on Jubilee Day 2012
 Jens Dresling, Polfoto

That's right, Queen Elizabeth II is not the only reigning queen celebrating an anniversary this year. While Elizabeth will celebrate her Diamond Jubilee (60 years), her Danish counterpart Margrethe II is celebrating her Ruby Jubilee after 40 years on the throne. Like Elizabeth, if Margrethe had had a brother, she would never have been queen. However, it took a bit more to clear Margrethe's path to the throne since women weren't allowed to ascend at all until the law was changed shortly before her thirteenth birthday.

Margrethe II with her heir Crown Prince
Frederik and his heir Prince Christian
Maleri af Niels Strøbek

Also like Elizabeth, she had two small children at the time of her accession. Margrethe became queen on January 14, 1972 upon her father Frederik IX's death.

Known as Daisy to her family, Margrethe is very intelligent and extremely well-educated (Cambridge, Aarhus, Sorbonne and London School of Economics). She is also a gifted artist who has illustrated books, mounted exhibitions and created costumes for stage and film. She has even been known to design her on clothes, which are usually brightly colored.

Margrethe Alexandrine Thórhildur Ingrid is married to the French aristocrat and former diplomat Count Henri de Laborde de Monpezat. She has two sons, Crown Prince Fredrik and Prince Joachim, and seven grandchildren (Nikolai, Felix, Christian, Isabella, Henrik, Vincent and Josephine) with one more due to be born any day. If that baby turns out to be a girl, I wonder if she will be named Margrethe?