Who is who in European royal families?
While there are 12 kingdoms in Europe, 10 of which changed hands by inheritance, most of them have kinship ties. Dynasties of German descent sit on the throne in Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, and Luxembourg, and French in Sweden and Spain.
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The biggest and most popular of the European royals is undoubtedly England. In the United Kingdom, which received the title of "Empire on which the sun never sets", especially with its colonies in the 19th and 20th centuries, the monarchs continue to be the heads of state of 15 different countries even today.
Danish Queen Margrethe II left 50 years behind when she ascended the throne in 1972. Queen Margrethe, of German descent from the House of Glücksburg, is also a distant cousin of the late Queen Elizabeth's late husband, Prince Philip.
The Glücksburg Dynasty's transition to the throne of Denmark occurred with the extinction of the male lineage of the dynasty of the time, Oldenburg. King Christian IX, who previously wanted to marry Queen Victoria of England and whose proposal was rejected, ascended to the throne as the closest male relative to the Oldenburg Dynasty, which ruled Denmark and Norway for more than 400 years.
Queen Margrethe II, the 5th monarch from this dynasty, is the first female monarch in Danish history, but there is also Queen Margaret I in the history of the country. However, Margaret I was queen of Denmark as well as Sweden and Norway.
French general Sweden, Danish prince ascended to the Norwegian throne
Although Finland, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Sweden, and Norway were ruled under the Danish flag, the Kalmar Union ended with Sweden gaining its independence in 1524, but Norway remained Danish territory for about 300 years.
Denmark ceded Norway to Sweden in 1814. Thus, the Kingdom of Sweden and Norway was established. However, 4 years after the establishment of the union, the dynasty in the country changed in a way that no one expected.
The League lost all of Finland in the war with Russia in 1809, and Charles the 13th, who was sitting on the throne at the time, had no children. The country that wanted to regain Finland found what she was looking for in France when she was looking for a military noble to choose her heir to the throne.
French General Jean Bernadotte, who was awarded the title of Field Marshal with outstanding success in the Napoleonic Wars, was known for his military achievements and his attitude towards Swedish prisoners and merchants during his governorship in the Hanseatic League in the north of Germany.
Bernadotte was offered the heir to the throne, thinking that he could get Finland back and establish good relations between the French Emperor Napoleon and Sweden. Bernadotte became heir to the Swedish throne by agreeing to convert from Catholicism to Lutheranism.
Swedish King Carl Gustaf
Established in 1818, the Bernadotte Dynasty still ruled Sweden, while in 1905 Norway decided to secede from both the union and the dynasty in a plebiscite.
After this date, Carl, the son of the Danish King, took the Norwegian throne and took the name of 7th Haakon. Thus began the period of the German-origin Glücksburg Dynasty, which continues in Norway today.
The Norwegian monarchs, who were among the heirs of the Danish throne until they were removed from the list by Danish law, are also among the heirs of the current British throne.
Today's King of Norway, Harald V, is the 85th heir to the British throne due to the marriage of his great-aunt Alexandra to King Edward 7 of England.
King Felipe VI of Spain
King of Spain addresses Danish and British queen as 'still'
Spain is also one of the countries in Europe where the kingdom has existed for a long time. Even though it was interrupted by a single throne with different countries or by coups, the kingdom continues today and is headed by Felipe 6, son of Juan Carlos, who came to the throne after the General Franco period.
Spain, ruled by the Bourbon-Anjou dynasty, is also a relative of the Luxembourg dynasty, which still reigns today. The Bourbon-Anjou Dynasty, which is considered a sub-branch of the Bourbon Dynasty that ruled France and Italy in the past, is considered to be related to other European dynasties with its marriages.
Queen Sophia, the mother of King Felipe VI, is the sister of the last King of Greece, Constantine II. Queen Sophia's mother, Queen Frederica, is both the granddaughter of German Emperor Wilhelm II and the great-grandson of Queen Victoria of England.
Felipe 6, who is also related to the Kingdom of Denmark, therefore addresses the Queen of England and the Queen of Denmark as "still".
Dutch King Willem Alexander
Male monarch sat on the Dutch throne after 123 years
While there are kingdoms, principalities, and duchies with small populations in addition to countries with large populations in Europe, the Netherlands draws attention to its history, contrary to its size.
After being ruled by female monarchs for nearly 120 years, the Orange-Nassau Dynasty reigns in the Netherlands, where King Willem Alexander ascended the throne in 2013.
Due to his father Claus von Amsberg's involvement in the German Youth organization of the Nazis in his youth, Willem Alexander, whose mother and himself were removed from the throne for a while, became one of the heirs to the throne again with the approval of the Queen of the time Juliana and the parliament.
The Netherlands will again be a female-ruled kingdom in the future, with the daughters of Willem Alexander's heir to the throne, who became king after his mother, Queen Beatrix, abdicated in 2013.
The Kingdom of Belgium was established in 1831 in Belgium, one of the lands lost by the Netherlands, whose official name is the United Kingdom of the Netherlands due to its lands in the Caribbean and Europe.
Leopold, of German descent from the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, was married to the daughter of King George IV of England. For this reason, although the first established Kingdom of Greece was offered to him in 1830, Leopold did not accept this and preferred to live in England.
However, he did not reject the offer of the Kingdom of Belgium, which was established a year later, and was crowned Leopold I and ascended the Belgian throne. This dynasty, like the Saxe-Coburg and Gotha dynasties sitting on the throne in England, changed its name due to rising German hostility and took the name Belgium.
The heir to King Philippe, who is sitting on the throne today, is Princess Elisabeth, whose daughter was born in 2001. If Elisabeth takes the throne, she will become Belgium's first female monarch.