Nathalie and the father of the baby, Alexander Johannsman became engaged on Christmas Day last year, but the engagement was not announced until January.

The couple were married in a civil ceremony just after the engagement announcement, but Nathalie says in a comment to Euro Dressage News that the religious wedding has been set for 2011, but that no definite date has been set yet.

Nathalie, at 6 months pregnant, is planned to have her last dressage competition before the birth of the baby today at the 2010 World Cup Finals. Her goal is to be back in shape by the World Equestrian Games, this year hosted in Kentucky, USA, in the end of September/start of October.

Well, only that it’s not one audio file. We ended up making two. One for just the brief names, they are known as in every day conversations. And one for their full names. 

With many thanks to Stine. 

The short version – Danish Royal Names I: The Royal Twist. 

Margrethe, Henrik, Frederik, Mary, Christian, Isabella, Joachim, Marie, Benedikte, Ingrid, Anne-Marie, Knud, Felix, Nikolai, Alexandra, Martin (Strictly not a royal, but we included so anyone curious could hear it.) 

The long version – Danish Royal Names II: The Royal Twist. 

Margrethe Alexandrine Þorhildur Ingrid, Benedikte Astrid Ingeborg Ingrid, Anne-Marie Dagmar Ingrid, Elisabeth Caroline-Mathilde Alexandrine Helena Olga Thyra Feodora Estrid Margarethe Désirée, Henrik, Frederik André Henrik Christian, Mary Elizabeth, Joachim Holger Valdemar Christian, Alexandra Christina, Marie Agathe Odile, Nikolai William Alexander Frederik, Felix Henrik Valdemar Christian,  Christian Valdemar Henri John, Isabella Henrietta Ingrid Margrethe.

The Home Guard stands strong among the Danish female royals: the Queen’s sister, Princess Benedikte is a member of the Navy branch of the organization. 

The Danish Home Guard is a part of the Danish military. It has around 50,000 volunteers, and 650 full-time employees. It was formed in 1945, by former resistance fighters, who wanted to ensure that Denmark had a wide network of people who knew how to fight, if Denmark was to be invaded again. Today, the organization deals with education of military forces sent out for deployment, and with more civilian matters inside Denmark, such as handling environmental or other emergencies where the government is in need of extra hands.

Ex-Queen Anne-Marie affirms the regal impression when she says in Prinsesse Benedikte – Prinsessen i midten that her sister “was – and is – more sophisticated [than Anne-Marie and Margrethe], and besides that, she’s a perfectionist. Many have thought that she was a snob, but she is a very private person, who can have sort of a shield between herself and the world.”

Benedikte herself acknowledges that if she was to have a royal motto, it would probably be “duty before everything,” the motto of her grandfather.

Where there have been countless biographies of her sister, the Danish Queen, there are fewer ones about Princess Benedikte. I’ve looked at two of them – Prinsesse Benedikte: prinsessen i midten (Princess Benedikte: the princess in the middle) by Randi Buchwaldt, and Benedikte: Prinsesse til Danmark (Benedikte: Princess to Denmark) by Mette Bacher.

And where the biographies about the Queen usually have a hefty size to them, as do the Sara Blædel biography on the youngest sister, the biographies on Princess Benedikte are leaflets in comparison. Perhaps, because, unlike her two sisters, the Princess have not a distinct role in being the one destined for the throne after the change in constitution, or being stuck in the middle of a coup in Greece.

Named Benedikte (“for it was a very Danish name, coupled with the fact that I was born during the war”) Astrid (“after Queen Astrid of Belgium, who was a very close friend of mother”) Ingeborg (“After my grandfather’s sister – a beloved aunt and friend of both Father and Mother, and Queen Astrid’s mother”) and Ingrid, after her mother as all the sisters were – Benedikte points out that she and her husband have continued this naming tradition with their own children.

Where the Bacher book goes the traditional role, and tells what is happening, the Buchwaldt book is a collection of Princess Benedikte’s recollections of her life. For that reason, the Buchwaldt book would be my preferred book if I were to read just one of them. After all, when someone who claims that they’ve been taught to weigh their words before speaking in public, does reveal something about the private life, it becomes much more interesting – because the details are all the more “rare” and not repeated ad nauseam.

Personal stories about her move to Germany, and the honeymoon (spending a night in Hawaii in a 4th class hotel, because they were traveling incognito, and someone had double-booked their original hotel room) mixes with the stories on her official involvement as a regent in Denmark when her sister cannot, and protectorates.

These are two very interesting biographies, about the second-to-last person in the Danish line of succession.

The biography was published in 2006, and Nathalie and her close family all have contributed. Princess Benedikte wrote the foreword, and Prince Richard, Prince Gustav and Princess Alexandra are all quoted throughout the book, along with Nathalie’s trainers and friends from the circuit.

I think that what I found the most fascinating was Nathalie’s reflections around the costs associated with the sport. She acknowledges that she wouldn’t have made it as far as she had, if not for the support from her parents, but doesn’t think that that’s the way it should be. She also mentions that while she may be considered spoiled, she doesn’t get everything served on a platter – and she’s out in the stables from early in the day, working with her horses.

There’s also some interesting food for thought from her trainer, who points out that Nathalie’s horses have never been the kind that costs millions… and often would have been subpar for other riders, but the work that is put in, has given result.

Another thing that was discussed was when she and her sister got their Danish citizenships. The reasoning behind hers was clear – it is much easier to come to the forefront in Danish riding than in German, considering the size of the field. But instead of having her aunt pull the strings, and get it through the quick way – both she and her sisters went through the regular channels and it took them two years to get it. Princess Benedikte was careful not to let it appear that her daughters were getting preferential treatment.

Nathalie doesn’t gloss over things – she mentions that she has few close friends, because there is trouble with getting close to people because of her title and as one of the youngest in the batch of cousins, she’s seen what has happened to the older ones before with the press. She seems very down to earth in what she tells, and you can definitely see that it is someone who loves what she is doing.

The book is a quick read, and it is a nice way to learn something about one of the more anonymous descendants of King Frederik and Queen Ingrid.

Vivi Sjøner & Nathalie zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg

Prinsesse Nathalie: Mit liv med heste.

Documentas: 2006

Already in the foreword, Kristensen promises to adhere to Freud’s comment on that if a biography has the intent to understand its hero and his soul to the bottom, it must not, either from discretion or prudishness stay silent about the person’s sexual activity… and he does.

It is claimed that it is a triple biography, but it chiefly covers Princess Marie Bonaparte – the daughter of Roland Bonaparte who married an heiress, and had her write her will to also cover him instead of just her daughter, subsequently she died after Marie’s birth. Secondary it also covers Prince George of Greece and Denmark, referred to as Uncle Goggi by Grand Duchess Josephine-Charlotte of Luxembourg in the Danish television series “En Kongelig familie”, the son of King George I of the Hellenes. And finally it also covers Sigmund Freud.

The story goes from the description of Marie’s childhood, Marie and George’s wedding night, to Marie’s various lovers, and bodily modifications, and her suspicions that George was homosexual. There’s not much that has been put a lid on, and if there is something that has – I feel fairly confident that it is because the author was not admitted to various royal archives, or the archives of Freud – not because of any sense of prudishness. (The story of Prince Peter who contemplated incest with his mother, and Marie writing to Freud and asking whether she should do it, is an example of this.)

I don’t know if it was because I had not read any biographies on Marie and George before, or if it was because of the actual biography itself, but within a few pages I was thoroughly caught up in the story, and couldn’t put the book down.

I actually think that this book would have been stronger without claiming to be a biography on Freud – it can get fairly lengthy at times – Marie and George’s lives provide more than enough tantalizing information on their own – and Freud and Marie started working together fairly late in the equation. Furthermore, there’s a lot of repetition, as well as jumping around in the later chapters that made me lose my concentration.

If you read Danish, and wish to read something which definitely isn’t sugar sweet, and put through a public relations machine, this is definitely a biography to consider reading.