Over the last few hundred years, but especially since the two World Wars, a number of ruling houses of Europe were dethroned, exiled, and/or massacred (the Romanovs come to mind). Although most of these former royal families have spent decades in exile, there have been cases where they were reinstated as a constitutional monarchy, as happened in Spain following Franco’s death.
It seems that, frome time to time, some of these nations seem to flirt with the idea of reinstating these former ruling families in the form of constitutional monarchies – there’s the example of France, which following its Revolution, Napoleon’s Empire, the Bourbon restoration and downfall, plus an attempt to restore the Bonapartes, now has god knows how many pretenders to its vacant throne, each representing a different dynasty.
So, in your opinion, which of the current pretenders has the best snowball’s chance in hell of ever getting their ancestral throne back? Let me stress that it doesn’t have to be very likely, just the likeliest.
Maybe Nepal’s monarch? He was just forced out in 2008 and still lives in the country, and at least back when it happened there were some elements that supported him. I do believe at the time the country was very much against him, but any country like Nepal that has a recent history of monarchy and an unstable political system could see public sentiment rapidly shift.
I believe there are very very minor monarchist parties in several European states such as Germany, Italy, Greece, and Portugal (googling a few of them shows most have no representation in the legislatures of those countries and poll sub 1% in elections.)
Russia is rather unstable, & the murdered Romanoffs were made saints recently.
People have been forgetting the Romanoff sins, with the passage of time.
They must have a living heir or three.
Vladimir Kyrillovitch, great grandson of Czar Alexander II, died in 1992. His daughter Maria Vladimirovna is now Head of the Imperial Family of Russia and Titular Empress and Autocrat of All the Russias. She’s married to a Hohenzollern; the Heir to the German Reich is one of her cousins. Maria Vladimirovna is also 109th in line to succeed Queen Elizabeth II of the U.K.!
I’d love to see Crown prince Leka (Albania) return to power.
His graddaddy (King Zog I) was a cool dude.
Another question: did King Farouk (Egypt) have any sons? He must take the title for the GROSSEST monarch ever!
The Wall Street Journal recently ran a profile of his son, Ahmed Fouad II, who lives in Switzerland. He seems to have little interest in pressing his claim.
The best chance in Europe was in the Balkans, but it seems those countries have gotten their act together. If you see Bosnia break apart you might be able to get some royalty in there.
I was a bit surprised to see pictures of Maria Vladimirovna for sale in Dom Knigi when I was in Saint Petersburg, right next to the pictures of Putin and Medvedev. I’m not sure what that really says for her popularity, though, and I never checked to see how dusty they might be–DK was always too crowded to linger over anything I didn’t really want to buy.
They’re certainly much more closely related to one another than they are to their subjects (current and former). In many ways, they’re a distinct ethnic group of their own, albeit a small one.
How so?
I vote for Crown Prince Alexander of Serbia. He seems to be very popular over there, and unlike many monarchs, he’s actually of Serbian descent.
For example, King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia of Spain are third cousins. And Sofia is directly related to Queen Victoria through both parents.
Fortunately, they “let” Crown Prince Felipe marry a commoner, so they’ve got some new alleles now. Though the rumor I heard was that the king approved the match because Felipe threatened to run off if he didn’t. I know there were rows over two previous girlfriends.