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King Felipe VI of Spain, King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, Crown Prince Haakon of Norway and Crown Prince Mary of Denmark will all be attending King Charles III’s coronation in London on 6 May as representatives of their royal dynasties. But that's not the only reason. All are related to the British King through Charles's ancestor Queen Victoria, aptly nicknamed the “grandmother of Europe”, who reigned in the United Kingdom from 1837 to 1901.
Queen Victoria, who married her cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, in 1840, had nine children, five girls and four boys. Ever the strategist, Victoria knew the importance of marriage alliances, with most of her brood marrying into European royalty.
Like King Charles’s mother the late Queen Elizabeth II, both of King Felipe’s parents are great-great-grandchildren of Queen Victoria. King Carl Gustaf of Sweden is her great-great grandson.
Naturally, many European royals gave touching statements when their distant relative, Queen Elizabeth, passed away last year. Queen Margrethe II of Denmark – who is unable to attend the coronation due to recent back surgery – was thought to be particularly close to her third cousin, who she called “Lilibet”. Elizabeth sweetly referred to Margrethe as “Daisy”. In a public letter to King Charles after her death, the Danish Queen wrote: “Your mother was very important to me and my family. She was a towering figure among the European monarchs and a great inspiration to us all. We shall miss her terribly.”
MORE:
-Elizabeth and Victoria: a tale of two Queens
-Seven of Queen Elizabeth’s close friends
King Charles is breaking with tradition by inviting crowned royals to his coronation. A source told the Mail on Sunday that in the past, foreign monarchs would send representatives rather than attending themselves, believing that “the rule began because a Coronation is meant to be a monarch’s private event with God”.
But Charles, in a bid to modernise the monarchy, is paving his own way. A spot at the slimmed-down ceremony has been offered to just 2,000 invitees, a huge decrease from the day his mother was crowned in 1953, which was attended by over 8,000.
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