Tag: Queen

Q is for Queens

“Five monarchies in Europe have eliminated male preference: Sweden, Norway, Netherlands, Belgium and Denmark.”


The last couple of times for Q, I did Queen, the rock group, and Queens, the NYC county. Obviously, I’m stuck in a rut, because I’m doing queens again, this time referring to the monarchy.

Of course, there have been woman rulers for a long time, whether dubbed queen, czarina, or other titles.

I suppose I should differentiate between someone named as queen, wife (sometimes consort) of the king, and someone who serves as monarch. For instance, in Jordan, when American-born Lisa Halaby married King Hussein, she became Queen Noor when she converted to Islam. But when Hussein died in 1999, and his son by a previous marriage became King Abdullah II, Abdullah’s wife became Queen Rania, with Noor becoming queen dowager.

As far as I can tell – and please correct me if I’m wrong – there are only three current queen monarchs: Queen Margrethe II of Denmark (pictured above), Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands (pictured to the right), and the one who just turned 85.

The rules of male primogeniture had been in place for many years in most countries, which meant that the only way a female could become a monarch queen is if her father had no sons whatsoever. This is, of course, the case for the world’s best-known current female monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, whose father George VI had two daughters, she and Margaret, and no sons.

The rules of primogeniture, though are changing. “Five monarchies in Europe have eliminated male preference: Sweden, Norway, Netherlands, Belgium, and Denmark.” However, the Norwegian change is not retroactive and therefore does not affect the current succession where a younger male is ranked over an older female.

Spain and the United Kingdom are also considering the change; however, for the latter, this would require changes in the law in not only the UK, but the 15 other Commonwealth realm countries of Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Canada, Grenada, Jamaica, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, the Solomon Islands, and Tuvalu.

ABC Wednesday – Round 8

An American Need

Listening to the podcast of Arthur@AmeriNZ recently. He noted that Rachel Maddow of MSNBC apologized to US Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) for calling him Bernie. Arthur, an American now living in New Zealand was amused/bemused by this apology. In his adopted nation, the prime minister is first among equals, and is referred to by the first name; the same tends to be true in the UK and in other countries that used to be called the British Commonwealth.

So what do they have that the United States doesn’t have?

They have a queen. Queen Elizabeth II, or her representative.

Whereas the United States, the anti-monarchical nation, has a much formal structure for addressing its leaders, “Mr. President,” and the like.

I had to laugh when Michelle Obama, speaking about Hillary, referred to her as “Senator, er, Secretary Clinton — almost said, President Clinton.” Whereas the UK, NZ, Australia use up their formality quotient on royalty.

Like John Oliver, the Senior British Person on the Daily Show noted a couple of weeks back, “the Brits have actual royalty, which is ‘why we can treat our political leaders like the disposable bureaucrats that they are.'”

So it’s obvious: the United States needs royalty.

Seriously, I thought that Ronald Reagan should have been king. For reasons I don’t need to get into, I was not crazy about his politics. At the same time, I recognized the positive impact his optimism had on certain segments of the populace. I decided around 1984 that I did not want him as President, but that he would be great as monarch. He said warm and fuzzy things about “morning in America”; we could feel good about ourselves without him having to have real power that could turn into Iran contra or the like.

So who should be our royal now? I’m not sure. Maybe Queen of All Media Oprah Winfrey. Perhaps a popular Olympiad from the most recent games. Or the mirror ball winner on Dancing with the Stars.

It’d be like king or queen of the prom. We can get all pomp and circumstancy with a royal. Then Rachel Maddow can call senator Sanders Bernie, like, he told her, everyone else does.

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