Royal Forum Newsletter: 2006 in Review

2006: A Year in Review

2006 was a year of milestones for many Royal families throughout the world. While it would take far too much time to re-cap everything that happened in the world of royalty in 2006, lets review some of the major events and rumors that had royal watchers talking.

The British Royal Family

Queen Elizabeth II celebrated her 80th birthday in 2006, and despite her age, she is showing no signs of slowing down. Although Princess Anne was hailed the "hardest working Royal" the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh still undertook hundreds of engagements, and a number of state visits overseas. In March, they visited Singapore and Australia, and later Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in October.

Engagement rumors about Prince William and Kate Middleton exhausted royal watchers in 2006 as the couple continues to play their cat and mouse game with the cameras. They seem to be finding it more difficult to lead private lives now that they are no longer at St. Andrews University, and photos of their first public kiss made international news.

More recently, Kate is said to have finally found employment through a family friend, and William recently completed his training at Sandhurst.

Prince Harry and Chelsy Davy have managed to avoid the spotlight for most of the year, although photographs of the couple attending the Sandhurst Ball were leaked to the papers in April.

After Harry's passing out from Sandhurst, he spent a good amount of time with Chelsy, although he still managed to take his royal role seriously and launch a charity this past April, called Sentebale in honor of his mother. Sentebale will be used to raise money to support children orphaned by AIDS.

The Prince's Trust celebrated 30 years in service with a charity concert attended by Prince Charles, the Duchess of Cornwall, Prince Harry and Prince William.

The Spanish Royal Family

Spain's Queen Sofia was awarded the Ceres Medal by the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) for her “commitment to the most exploited people on the planet”

Crown Prince Felipe and Crown Princess Letizia announced that they are expecting their second child, to be due in the spring of 2007. Their first child, HRH Infanta Leonor, was born on 31st October 2005.

The Swedish Royal Family

Prince Carl Philip received minor injuries during a go-kart race in Värmland, Sweden last May. The bend of the race track in which he crashed will now be known as 'Prinsens Kurva' in his honor.

The King and Queen of Sweden did a lot of traveling in 2006 by visiting Turkey, Thailand, the United States and Canada.

The Danish Royal Family

The first official portrait of Crown Princess Mary was unveiled 7th April 2006.

Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary confirmed that they are expecting their second child, to be born in 2007.

Other Notable Royals of 2006

The Japanese Imperial Family saw the end of a crisis in 2006. The Chrysanthemum Throne does not allow a female to rule, and Japan has not seen a male heir born into the family since 1965. In 2006, Prince and Princess Akishino had a baby boy who is now 3rd in line to the throne after his father Prince Akishino and his uncle Crown Prince Naruhito. Crown Princess Masako is still suffering from a stress-related disorder due to the pressure she felt to produce a male heir, however she has been increasingly seen in public over the past year.

King Rama IX of Thailand celebrated 60 years on the throne in 2006 and is the world's longest reigning monarch.