AWAITING PRINCE CHARMING

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 16, 9 April 1927, Page 17

AWAITING PRINCE CHARMING

Unmarried Royal Eleamties

Europe is blossoming again with the beauty of royal young womanhood. Time has done its part to repair in a measure at least the damage of the war which played havoc with royalty in general. At no time since the war have there been so many beautiful and marriageable princesses in Europe as now, ranging in age from just turned 30 to almost 17, and scattered from the Balkans to Spain, from Scandinavia to Italy, only two speaking the same mother tongue. There are eight princesses royal whose parents are, have been or will be sovereigns on still stable thrones; Hilda, sister of the Grand Duchess of Luxemburg, 30 years old on February 15. Eudoxie, sister of the King of Bulgaria, who was 29 years old in January. Marie-Jose of Belgium, 20 years old last August. Giovanna of Italy, 19 years old last November. lleana of Rumania, just IS years old. Juliana of Holland, who will attain IS in the spring. Beatrice of Spain, who will be IS in the summer. Ingrid, daughter of the Crown Prince of Sweden, not quite 17. Another princess royal without a country at present is Irene, the 23 year-old sister of former King George 11. of Greece. Two Scandinavian princesses might be added .who. though not princesses royal, are the next thing to royalty, being the daugh ters of the brothers of reigning kings: Martha of Sweden, 26 years old this March, whose sister, Princess Astrid, the bride of the Duke of Brabant, wiP some day become the Belgians' Queen; and Princess Feodora, halfway between 16 and 17 years old. eldest of the three daughters of prince Harald, brother of Christian X. of Denmark. To be a Princess is generally to be in every sense alive. Giovanna of Italy, for instance, may often be en countered galloping over the Roman Campagna in high spirits or following the hounds with a merry crowd of riders. She is one of the liveliest of Princesses. Princess Marie-.Tose of Belgium is athletic, too, but she tempers her enthusiasm for the outdoor with a more sedate devotion to music. She is a talented violinist.

Marie-Jose has much of the gracious charm and easy dignity of her mother. During her parents’ absence in India not long ago it was the Princess royal who presided at official receptions and did so with credit to them and to herself. During the war she was at school in Florence, where she learned to speak Italian perfectly, and afterward at the Ursuline Convent, Brentwood, England, where she acquired her command of English. A Happy Tomboy Perhaps the happiest of the little Princesses is the Infanta Beatrice of Spain, whose tomboy pranks have endeared her to the hearts of her people. She is a distinct English type, resembling much more her English mother than her Spanish father. The saddest of the Princesses is Eudoxie of Bulgaria, a girl of plain tastes, keenly sensitive to the troubles of her people. This she told a recent interviewer, to whom she also confided that being a Princess grew “a little heavy sometimes.” Eudoxie’s sweet, wistful face, framed in light browm hair, is seldom lit by a smile. Her chief interests are said to be charity and natural history. The Balkan Beauty lleana, the “jolly little kid’ of the Prince of Wales’s memory, is altogether a different sort of girl. Slender, graceful, fresh-looking, this “Beauty of the Balkans” is full of vivacity and love of sports. But she is not without her serious side. Princess lleana has done many things that Princesses do not ordinarily do, such as touring America with her mother, frolicking here with the young people, and even lunching with a West Point cadet. A more every-day democratic Princess is Irene of Greece, at present without a country, but not without charm and blessed with the beauty of classic Grecian features. With her mother, Queen Sophie, she lives in a rather modest villa in Florence, where she may be seen at public dance halls with the young bloods of the city or eating waffles at a popular tea room and having a thoroughly good time. Many of the princesses, royal and near-royal, have been suggested for the throne of England, in spite of the supreme indifference of the bachelor Prince of Wafes. Some say Martha of Sweden and Feodora of Denmark are the prime possibilities, they being the only available Protestant princesses. But the Catholic princesses do not go unnoticed, either.