Dec. 25 (UPI) – The grand duke of Luxembourg renounced the throne in a surprise abdication on Christmas Eve, according to multiple reports.
“It has been a quarter of a century of challenges, opportunities and hopes for a better future: of technological and economic progress, of social change, but also of many conflicts,” Grand Duke Henri, 69, said Tuesday during his Christmas Eve speech.
He’s been on the throne for 24 years, since 2000.
Henri will step-down in favor his son, Prince Guillaume, 43, on Oct. 3, 2025.
I don’t have any major comment, though I will confirm there’s a lot of buzzy discussion here, as this was an unexpected move.
The only real “local perspective” insight I can share is that the Grand Duke’s tenure has been married somewhat by controversy and gossip centering on his wife, Maria Teresa. It doesn’t seem to rise to the level of a genuine scandal, in the sense that anyone was genuinely harmed (cf. Prince Andrew in the UK); it’s more about a person in service complaining that the Grand Duchess has a bad attitude about people “beneath” her.
Some details:
If any one thing is motivating the Grand Duke’s exit, it could be this— a desire to remove himself and his wife from media scrutiny in hope that the attention re-centers elsewhere.
OR Prince Guillaume engineered a soft coup in preparation for his bloodthirsty war of vengeance against Belgium to regain what they stole from Luxembourg. Be wary - this time next year you might be fighting in the streets of Arlon as a conscripted grunt, cursing yourself for not choosing to immigrate to Liechtenstein instead.
Yes, that’s possible. My only quibble is that Arlon is a dump nobody will fight over. If we invade Belgium in that direction, it will simply be to push the border a kilometer west so we can have the Ikea.
Hey, they’re the ones who put their store literally five meters from our border and cut off part of our country. It’s their fault if they get caught in our revanchism.
(I’m not exaggerating, either. When that Ikea went in, there was a whole industrial park inside the Lux border that was no longer directly accessible via internal roads. Every spring and autumn when I trade out seasonal tires, I have to cross into Belgium and then back into Lux to reach the tire shop. And Ikea is to blame.)
I must say the visual of your posting is exactly how I felt the first time I went through an Ikea. Iimagined a dozen border collies couldn’t have herded sheep better than that store did the customers.
Depending on how you count, they’ve been doing it in Luxembourg for even longer or almost as long. The first consecutive abdication in was in 1919 in Luxembourg and 1948 in the Netherlands, and the last death on the throne was in 1912 in Luxembourg and 1890 in Netherlands. And the guy who died in 1890 was monarch of both countries.
I will add one further comment: I’m looking forward to seeing the coronation pageantry up close in October, and I’m curious about whether Americans’ fascination with “all things royal” will mean at least a bit of that spectacle will penetrate the “no foreign news” barrier of American media.
I don’t think it’s so much a tough life as a judgement that it’s been long enough, and better for the institution to pass on the baton to a younger
and more photogenic generation.
Wilhelmina had been queen for 50 years and approaching 70 when she retired, her daughter Juliana had 30+ years, again around 80, and then Beatrix 30+ years and over 70. Margrethe of Denmark had 50+ years and was 73 or so.
What just happened was a signature on the decree making official the transfer of power in a few months. Henri is still Grand Duke until then. When the actual transfer happens, there will be parades and speeches and stuff. It’s a coronation. It won’t be as elaborate as the ceremonies around the elevation of Charles, but it won’t be nothing either.
Plus, health reasons. There’s always the possiblity of a stroke or dementia that could make the duke/king/queen etc. incompetent, which in turn could trigger unneeded political issues. A planned transition reduces that possibility.
Here’s the stats on Prince Philip as a working royal, when he retired at age 96:
He retired from royal duties in 2017, aged 96, having completed 22,219 solo engagements and 5,493 speeches since 1952
Divided by 65 years, that’s ~342 engagements per year, and ~85 speeches per year; ~6 engagements a week and ~1.5 speeches a week.
That’s a significant workload, especially since every one of those is in the public eye and subject to media scrutiny, and in some cases needing to be vetted in advance by No 10. Some of that will also have been international travel.