The Stuff Of Which Fairy Tales Are Made Of : Commoner Queens and Queens To-be

I did say something about being a royalty nut, didn't I? Well, yeah it's true. One of my favorite hobbies is to stare at tiaras, particularly on The Royal Order of Sartorial Splendor Blog where they have a segment called Tiara Thursdays. *sigh* This little fondness of anything royal may have started when I was introduced to Princess Diana and how she was pegged as the ordinary girl, barely out of her teens, who was swept off her feet by a real-life Prince Charming! Of course, and still unknown to many, she was no ordinary girl after all because she's a member of the nobility being a spawn of the aristocratic Spencer family. She may not have been royalty but her father was an earl; she was raised in fancy Althorp.

Enter Kate Middleton and we may have found a truer sense of a commoner marrying a prince; you know, someone a prince meets while going to the Uni, and all that.
But did you know that Kate may just be one of the latest addition to the list of commoners marrying a future king? You'd be surprised because it's a trend going on in European royalty. Here's the rundown.

William and Kate on their wedding day. (c) http://orderofsplendor.blogspot.com/

HM Silvia, The Queen of Sweden

Silvia Renate Sommerlath, as she was known before she met the future King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, spent time between Germany and Brazil, the respective countries of her parents, during her younger years. She majored in Spanish at the Munich School of Interpreting, and after graduating, she worked at the Argentinean Consulate in Munich. She also worked as a hostess trainer with the Organising Committee for the Munich Olympic Games between 1971 and 1973 and became Deputy Head of Protocol of the Organising Committee for the Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria.

At the 1972 Olympics she met Crown Prince Carl Gustaf. They got married four years later, when was already king and she has been a Queen Consort for four decades. They have three beautiful kids (because hey, it's never too bad to be blue-blooded and partly Brazilian-blooded at the same time).

The Interpreting course she took in college came handy for her role as a queen. Swedish is her sixth language. She speaks her native German, her mother's language of Portuguese, as well as French, Spanish, and English. She has some fluency in Swedish Sign Language, a national sign language used by the deaf community in Sweden. So, heads up girls! If you want to be a future queen, try majoring in Interpreting and doing some time in the Olympic Committee. *Ha ha*

HM Sonja, The Queen of Norway

Miss Sonja Haraldsen was initially not accepted by King Olav V of Norway because he wasn't so warm about the idea of having a commoner as wife of his heir, Crown Prince Harald. The Crown Prince made it clear though that he would remain unmarried for life unless he could marry her (now that!). It took nine years (!) before King Olav finally gave permission to his son to marry her and in 1968 Sonja officially became the Crown Princess of Norway. And what a well-loved Crown Princess she became! *Now does that sound like plot line of a Hollywood movie? You could say so. :)* Very Cinderella-ish ha!

Harald inherited the throne in 1991 and together they've been King and Queen ever since.

Sonja has a diploma in dressmaking and tailoring (her father's a clothing merchant so that explains it) from the Oslo Vocational School, and went on to receive a diploma from École Professionelle des Jeunes Filles in Lausanne, Switzerland. Her studies there included social science, accounting and fashion design. She returned to Norway for further studies and received an undergraduate degree (French, English and Art History) from the University of Oslo. A brainy queen with able and creative hands for dressmaking and tailoring? What's not to love. :) She's also a long time avid photographer.

Silvia and Sonja, respectively, back in the days. Could seriously give beauty queens a run for their money, no?

Maxima of the Netherlands and Letizia of Spain, respectively, are the newly crowned queens in Europe. To no one's surprise, they had actual day jobs before meeting those guys named Willem-Alexander and Felipe.*Like, no big deal*

Freshly crowned queens.

HM Maxima, The Queen of the Netherlands

Máxima Zorreguieta Cerruti who is originally from Argentina isn't just Queen of the Netherands. She also serves as the United Nations Secretary General’s Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development (UNSGSA). The UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon designated her to this role in September 2009 in order to raise awareness on the importance of inclusive financial systems for achieving economic and development goals such as poverty alleviation, food security and education. No big feat maybe, after all, Max holds a Bachelor and a Master's Degree in Economics and has worked for international finance agencies before she became Mrs. Orange. She met Crown Prince Wilhelm-Alexander at the Seville Spring Fair in Spain. *Because that's where princes normally hang out.* They got married in 02-02-02. That's February 2, 2002. Upon the abdication of Queen Beatrix in 2013, Wilhelm-Alexander became king and with that Maxima became the first Dutch queen consort since 1890.

HM Letizia, The Queen of Spain

Letizia Ortiz Rocasolano *Oh, I love the sound of that name* was a journalist and a news anchor before she got married to Crown Prince Felipe of Spain. She wrote for news papers and worked for the likes of Spanish Bloomberg and CNN+ before moving to TVE where she was news anchor of a popular evening news.

She has reported from DC during the 2000 presidential elections and was also at the Ground Zero in New York after the 9/11 attacks. She also reported from the front lines when Iraq was invaded. She started dating Felipe, Prince of Asturias after they reconnected in November 2002 when she was sent to northern Spain to cover the sinking of the oil tanker Prestige. They got married in 2004.

The Prince of Asturias ascended the Spanish throne as Felipe VI when his father King Juan Carlos I abdicated in 2013. She is the first Spanish-born queen consort since Mercedes of Orléans, the first wife of Alfonso XII. She is also the first Spanish queen to have been born as a commoner.

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These two here, Crown Princess Mette-Marit of Norway and Crown Princess Mary of Denmark are married to the future kings of their respective countries.

Queens in waiting: Crown Princess Mette-Marit of Norway and Crown Princess Mary of Denmark, respectively.

HRH Mary, The Crown Princess of Denmark

Mary Elizabeth Donaldson hails from Australia but both of her parents are Scottish in origin. Her dad's professor of Applied Mathematics and her mom has worked as an Executive Assistant to the Vice Chancellor of The University of Tasmania. She enrolled at the University of Tasmania in 1989 and graduated in 1994 with a Bachelor's degree in Commerce and Law (B Com. LLB).

Her career path moved towards advertising, marketing, and business development and as such she has worked for various companies around the globe.

Like Queen Silvia, she also met her prince Frederik at the Olympics when it was held in her native Australia in 2000. *Apparently, princes do hangout at random pubs and disguise as random boys.*

HRH Mette-Marit, The Crown Princess of Norway

There was some controversy in Norway (again!) when its Crown Prince Haakon and his fiance Mette-Marit Tjessem Høiby announced their engagement. She was then a single mother and she grew up in a social environment where drugs are readily available. Not so long ago, we discussed about Sonja who was given nine years of waiting time before she can be married to her prince. I didn't think she and King Harald would be hard on their own son after what they did in their younger years so of course, they blessed the pairing. Haakon and M-M had been married since 2001.

She has been actively involved in various HIV/AIDS-related work; in fact she has her own post in UNAIDS. She is also a champion of humanitarian projects.

*You can start going to festivals.* Like Queen Maxima, she also met her prince at a garden party of the local Quart Festival.

See, it's not just Kate who hit big time in the marriage lottery. But we all know that being Queen (or Princess or Duchess) is not just about luxuries, palaces, tiaras and lovely dresses. They uphold tradition and serve as good examples to their subjects. They also champion causes that will be beneficial to their subjects. They work to bring awareness to issues, diseases, etc and thereby help raise funds to help those in need. The world has shifted from absolute monarchies to constitutional monarchies so technically, they no longer rule but are still consulted about the go-abouts in their respective parliaments.

It's nice to know that these beautiful ladies who stand next to their husbands have good heads on their shoulders. Smart, brave, and independent. And did I mention beautiful.