UK Queen’s jubilee lunch
Who’s who at the dinner
(Front row, L-R)
1.Emperor of Japan – Emperor Akihito succeeded his father, Hirohito, in 1989. Under the 1947 constitution the country is run by a parliamentary government and Japan’s emperors have a purely ceremonial role.
2. Queen of the Netherlands – Queen Beatrix took the throne in 1980 when her mother abdicated. She has little political say in domestic matters.
3. Queen of Denmark – Head of Europe’s oldest continuous monarchy Queen Margrethe II has made it clear that she has no intention of stepping down to allow her son, Crown Prince Frederik, to succeed her. The queen is known affectionately as Daisy.
4.King of the Hellenes – King Constantine II of Greece, was crowned in 1964 but was overthrown 1967 by a military junta. He attempted a failed counter coup and then fled into exile. Later the Greeks chose not to restore the monarchy and he was stripped of his Greek citizenship in 1994.
5. King of Romania – He is the last King of Romania as he reigned for 10 years before he was forced out by the Communist Party and Stalin when the Soviet army occupied the country in 1947. He is a great-great-grandson of Queen Victoria and a third cousin of Queen Elizabeth II.
6. Queen Elizabeth II.
7. King of Bulgarians – Tsar Simeon II is an important political and royal figure in Bulgaria. In 1946 he went into exile but in 2001 came back as Prime Minister making him one of the few monarchs in history to have become the head of government through democratic elections.
8. Sultan of Brunei – The 63-year-old is one of the world’s richest men with a £12billion fortune. Under their constitution the Sultan is the head of state with total power including the positions of PM, Minister of Defence and Finance.
9. King of Sweden – King Carl Gustaf was seen as the perfect modern monarch. loved by his people as an ordinary family man. But two years ago he was rocked by a claims of attending wild sex parties involving strippers, organised by Mafia bosses and then covered up by the Swedish secret service Sapo.
10. King of Swaziland -King Mswati III is regarded as one of the world’s worst dictators known for living in luxury while his people starve. He rules by decree with a fortune of about £64m over a country where political parties are banned and activists are regularly imprisoned and tortured.
11. Prince Hans-Adam II of Liechtenstein -He is the head of state while his son Crown Prince Alois was given day-to-day running of the principality in 2004. The royals won sweeping new powers in a constitutional referendum in 2003 giving them power to veto parliamentary decisions and sack the government.
(Middle row, L-R)
12. Prince Albert of Monaco – He became head of state in April 2005 after the death of his father, Prince Rainier, Europe’s longest-reigning monarch. He staunchly defended Monaco’s banking and taxation systems in the face of criticism from France.
13. Grand Duke of Luxembourg – As head of a constitutional monarchy Grand Duke Henri’s duties are mainly representative.
14. King of Lesotho -Letsie III – Most of King Letsie’s duties as monarch are ceremonial. He was educated in the UK at the universities of Bristol, Cambridge and London.
15. King of the Belgians- King Albert II was sworn in in 1993 as the sixth King of the Belgians. His role includes ratifying laws and appointing judges.
16. King of Norway – King Harald V is a constitutional monarch and is the formal head of the Church of Norway and the Norwegian Armed Forces.
17. Emir of Qatar – Emir Hamad bin Khalifa enjoys total power after he seized power from his father in 1995, Sheikh Hamad has stayed on as head of the armed forces and defence minister and has overseen Qatar’s military development.
18. King of Jordan – King Abdullah II has extensive powers to appoint governments, approve legislation and is able to dissolve parliament. He is facing growing demands for political reform, and following the popular uprising in Tunisia in 2011,
19. King of Bahrain – King Hamad Al Khalifa’s regime led to calls for the recent F1 Grad Prix race to be boycotted. It is accused of a catalogue of human rights abuses and orchestrating the violent suppression of pro-democracy protesters last year.
20. The Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia – a largely ceremonial role and the position of king is rotated every five years between nine hereditary state rulers.
(Back row, L-R)
21. Nasser Mohamed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah of Kuwait – Sheikh Sabah became prime minister in 2003 and pursued a policy of cautious reform. Kuwait’s parliament has the most powers of any elected body in the Gulf but the Sabahs retain full control over key government and executive posts.
22. Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi – General Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan became Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi in November 2004 and now oversees the country’s vast financial investment in projects around the world – including buying the new Premier League Champions Manchester City.
23. Crown Prince of Yugoslavia – Alexander II Karadjordjevic was the last crown prince of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia before it was abolished by the Soviets. He is now lobbying for the re-creation of a constitutional monarchy in Serbia.
24. King of Tonga – George Tupou VI is building on the work started by his brother to usher in parliamentary democracy, ending centuries of feudal dominance of government.
25.Crown Prince of Thailand – King Bhumibol Adulyadej assumed the throne in June 1946 and is the world’s longest-reigning monarch. The king’s role is largely symbolic but the royal family is revered by many Thais and laws mean insulting them can lead to arrest.
26.Princess Lalla Meryem of Morocco- is first daughter and eldest child of the late King Hassan II of Morocco. Most of her work centres around helping women and children and she has been nominated as UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador.
27.Prince Mohammed bin Nawaf bin Abdulaziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia – The kingdom has been ruled by the Al Saud dynasty for decades. Human rights groups have criticised it for its barbaric punishment which includes the amputations of hands and feet for robbery, and flogging for lesser crimes such as “sexual deviance” and drunkenness. Public executions by beheading can be imposed for drug use, adultery and witchcraft.
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