I’ve been thinking long and hard for the past few weeks about the blogs I run and how they’re organized.  For a while now, I’ve been wanting to fully transition this site into a place just for reviews and editorial entries, but I don’t want to deprive all of you who have been such responsible and respectful commenters at this site for the past few months.

So … after quite a bit of consideration, I’ve opened a new satellite RWEK location for general royal discussion.  This will allow the royal conversation at the blog to be directed toward any (respectful) topics you’d like, and it will be organized so that you’ll have a new post to comment on each week (helping to cut down on the overwhelming scrolling on entries).  You’ll also be able to use avatars, and you’ll be able to log in with either an existing (or new) Google account or with an Open ID account.

In the meantime, I’ll be posting occasional essays and reviews here — and you’re more than welcome to comment on those if you’d like.  But the everyday discussion would move to the other site.  The discussion site will be linked from this page as well.

Thoughts?  I’m hoping this solution will help to reorganize my resources a bit without making you all feel like you’ve been kicked out, which is not my intent!  I’ve enjoyed having you here, and I want to be able to continue to provide you with a platform for your royal discussion.  I’m happy to answer any questions you might have in this post, and I’d love to hear feedback from all of you on this proposition.

This Friday, Prince Albert of Monaco will finally relinquish his bachelorhood when he weds South African swimmer Charlene Wittstock in both civil and religious ceremonies.  We can assume the members of the Grimaldi family will be in Monaco for the festivities, but what about the rest of Europe’s royals?  With a wedding chock-full of royal guests on the docket, it’s time for another pictoral royal wedding guest list!

(A quick note: some of these guests are presumed to be attending but have not formally confirmed that they will be at the wedding — this list is compiled from official confirmations as well as media reports of attendance.  Grain of salt, of course!)

The Monegasque Princely Wedding
Friday, July 1, 2011 (civil wedding) and Saturday, July 2, 2011 (religious wedding)
religious ceremony streaming live on the official wedding website
5 PM CET (Monaco) / 11 AM EST (New York)

Click below for the guest list in pictures!

BELGIUM

Top: HM King Albert II and HM Queen Paola
Middle: HRH Prince Philippe, HRH Princess Mathilde, and HI&RH Princess Astrid
Bottom: HRH Prince Laurent and HRH Princess Claire

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DENMARK

Top: HRH Crown Prince Frederik and HRH Crown Princess Mary
Bottom: HRH Prince Joachim and HRH Princess Marie

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FRANCE

HRH Prince Jean and HRH Princess Philomena

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ITALY

Top: HRH Prince Vittorio Emanuele and HRH Princess Marina
Middle: HRH Prince Emanuele Filiberto and HRH Princess Clotilde
Bottom: TRH Prince Charles and Princess Camilla of Bourbon-Two Sicilies

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LIECHTENSTEIN

HSH Hereditary Prince Alois and HRH Hereditary Princess Sophie

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LUXEMBOURG

HRH Grand Duke Henri, HRH Grand Duchess Maria Teresa, and HRH Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume

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THE NETHERLANDS

HRH Prince Willem-Alexander and HRH Princess Máxima

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NORWAY

HRH Crown Prince Haakon and HRH Crown Princess Mette-Marit

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PORTUGAL

HRH Dom Duarte Pio and HRH Doña Isabel

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ROMANIA

HRH Crown Princess Margarita and HRH Prince Radu

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RUSSIA

HIH Grand Duchess Maria Vladmirovna

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SERBIA

HRH Crown Prince Alexander and HRH Crown Princess Katherine

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SPAIN

HRH Prince Felipe and HRH Princess Letizia

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SWEDEN

Top: HM King Carl Gustaf and HM Queen Silvia
Middle: HRH Crown Princess Victoria and HRH Prince Daniel
Bottom: HRH Prince Carl Philip and HRH Princess Madeleine

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UNITED KINGDOM

HRH The Earl of Wessex and HRH The Countess of Wessex

Yet another milestone today for the Duke of Edinburgh: the longest-serving royal consort in British history turns 90!  Happy birthday, Your Royal Highness!

The Queen marked today with a special birthday present: she appointed her husband Lord High Admiral of the British navy.  You can read the press release explaining the honor here. Philip’s birthday was also honored with a 41-gun salute in Hyde Park and a 62-gun salute at the Tower of London, as well as with more modest gifts, like the handmade card and ear protectors given to him this morning by Action on Hearing Loss (formerly known as the Royal National Institute for Deaf People).

But the biggest celebrations will come this weekend.  After the family gathers on Saturday for the Queen’s Annual Birthday Parade — which is always held in June, even though her birthday is in April — they will assemble again on Sunday at Windsor for a special service in honor of Philip’s birthday.  Members of foreign royal families are expected to attend; as he was born a prince of Greece and Denmark, Philip has many continental royal cousins.

Prince Philip was born HRH Prince Philippos of Greece and Denmark on the Greek island of Corfu on June 10, 1921. His entrance into the world was rather unusual for a royal prince: he was born on a kitchen table at the Mon-Repos Palace. Not long after his birth, his family fled from Greece to France after the king was forced to abdicate. His father, Prince Andrew, was accused of war crimes and later narrowly escaped conviction and execution.  His parents later separated; his mother, suffering from schizophrenia, moved to a Swiss sanitarium, while his father relocated to Monaco, where he would die in 1944.

Though he was born a Greek prince, Philip has always had connections to Britain. His mother was born HSH Princess Alice of Battenberg, daughter of the 1st Marquess of Milford Haven, at Windsor Castle, with her great-grandmother Queen Victoria in attendance. Princess Alice’s brother, the 1st Earl of Mountbatten of Burma, was an officer in the British Royal Navy and one of Philip’s mentors. In the aftermath of his family’s split and the marriages of his four sisters, Philip spent much of his childhood in the United Kingdom, attending Cheam, Gordonstoun, and the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth. After finishing at Dartmouth, he continued to follow in his uncle’s footsteps, serving in the Royal Navy for many years, including the duration of World War II.

In 1947, Philip married another of Queen Victoria’s descendants, HRH The Princess Elizabeth, daughter and heir of George VI. Philip had already become a British subject, renouncing his claims to the thrones of Greece and Denmark and his royal title in the process, and had taken on the anglicized surname of Mountbatten. The evening before his wedding, Philip was created Duke of Edinburgh, Earl of Merioneth, and Baron Greenwich by his new father-in-law, and he received the style of His Royal Highness.

When the king died in 1952, Prince Philip became consort to the new queen, Elizabeth II, although he has never been given the title of Prince Consort. But even without that official title, in 2009, Philip became the longest-serving consort to any British monarch; he has now been consort to the Queen for 59 years, surpassing the record of George III’s queen, Charlotte. Though he is now in his nineties, Philip continues a demanding schedule of royal duties, conducting solo engagements as well as accompanying the Queen. In his birthday interview with the BBC, the Duke did admit that he is trying to ease his work schedule somewhat as he grows older.

Philip was reticent and even confrontive at times with Fiona Bruce in this year’s birthday special, especially when asked to talk about himself or highlight his achievements.  However, this seems typical.  On their diamond wedding anniversary, the Queen paid the following tribute to her husband: “He is someone who doesn’t take easily to compliments. But he has, quite simply, been my strength and stay all these years, and I, and his whole family, and this and many other countries, owe him a debt greater than he would ever claim or we shall ever know.”

Here’s to many more happy birthdays for the DoE!

(Note: part of this entry was adapted from a post I wrote for The Royal Forums blog in 2009.)

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Congratulations to entrant #9, shertz1981, winner of the BBC Royal Wedding DVD giveaway!  I will be e-mailing you shortly with more information.  Thank you so much to all who entered the contest, and look for more giveaways soon!

Exciting news, everyone!  I’m partnering with the BBC to give away a copy of a DVD copy of the royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton!  Here’s the Amazon blurb about the DVD, which goes on sale today:

The royal wedding of Prince William to Kate Middleton will be a event to remember for a lifetime, and BBC Video will have the official commemorative DVD of the event on sale just four short weeks after the April 29 event! This wonderful keepsake will capture all the pomp and pageantry of the historic occasion like no other memento. The DVD will include the complete ceremony plus a highlights from the official BBC pre- and post-wedding coverage. Lovers of the crown will want to own the official commemorative DVD of this most delightful of events, the Royal Wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton.

If you were planning on snapping up a copy of the DVD, here’s your chance to win one for free!

This giveaway is limited to US readers only — apologies to those from other countries!  I’ve got a giveaway scheduled for this summer that will be open to readers worldwide.

Here’s how you can enter: Comment on this entry, telling us what your favorite part of the royal wedding was.  To earn two additional entries in the giveaway, you can post about the giveaway on your blog and/or tweet about the giveaway.  (Please only comment once on this entry — if you’ve blogged and/or tweeted, please link your blog/Twitter account in the same comment.)  That’s a total of three possible entries per reader!  The winner will be chosen at random.

Entries must be received by midnight on Tuesday, May 31, 2011 (that’s one week from today).  Good luck, everyone — and watch this space for my review of the DVD soon!

Quick note: comments in this entry should be restricted solely to giveaway entries — all other comments will be deleted.  You can continue to chat about royal news in the other open posts on the blog!

Tomorrow marks the beginning of the first state visit by a reigning British monarch to the Republic of Ireland, as the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh embark on a four-day tour of the country.  No reigning king or queen has visited Ireland since George V’s 1911 visit, undertaken before the Republic gained independence from Britain.

On Tuesday, the Queen and the Duke will arrive in Ireland, where they will be welcomed by President Mary McAleese.  The Queen will plant a tree at the president’s official residence, Áras an Uachtaráin, lay a wreath at the Garden of Remembrance (a site that memorializes those who fought for Ireland’s freedom from the British), and visit Trinity College Dublin.

Wednesday’s program includes a meeting with Irish Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Enda Kenny; British Prime Minister David Cameron will be included in this part of the visit.  The Queen and the Duke will also tour the Guinness Storehouse.  Another wreath will be laid, this time at the Irish War Memorial Garden; the couple will also stop at Croke Park, the home of the Gaelic Athletic Association and, perhaps more infamously, the site of the 1920 Bloody Sunday massacre.  The day’s events will conclude with a state dinner at Dublin Castle, which was once the seat of the British government in Ireland.

The Queen’s interest in thoroughbred racing may have prompted Thursday’s scheduled visit to the Irish National Stud in Kildare.  Thursday’s schedule also includes an event at the British Embassy and a solo event for the Duke.  He will attend a reception for Gaisce – The President’s Award, which is a part of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award International Association.

On Friday, the state visit wraps up with a series of events in Cork.  Before returning to Britain, the Queen and the Duke will tour St. Patrick’s Rock, Cashel, the Cork English Market, and the Tyndall Institute.

Security has already been a major concern in the days ahead of this state visit; though the political tensions between the British and the Irish have cooled in the years following the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, not all issues and questions have been resolved.  However, the Irish government has expressed high hopes for the visit’s success.  In an interview with Irish television network RTE, President McAleese called the visit a “phenomenal sign and signal of the success of the peace process” and “an extraordinary moment in Irish history.”