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It’s Reigning Men is a the podcast about monarchy in the 21st century

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Princess Delphine invited It’s Reigning Men to her home in Brussels to discuss her art, her truth, and her identity

What did that long battle cost her?

Eventually, she won a court-ordered DNA test, a landmark decision

In her 50s, she was formally acknowledged as the King’s daughter and granted the title of Princess

She spent years trying to get the King to recognize her

First privately, then through the courts

His denial persisted for decades

The latest epsiode of our podcast series is about how Bhutan measures its sucess through wellbeing/ happiness with the country’s Prime Minister walking us through it. Take a listen! 😊 podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/i...

The latest epsiode of our podcast series is about how Bhutan measures its sucess through wellbeing/ happiness with the country’s Prime Minister walking us through it. Take a listen! 😊 podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/i...

The latest episode of our podcast series is all about Bhutan measuring its success with happiness 😊

podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/i...

But that’s not the only scandal to hit the Luxembourg monarchy during Grand Duke Henri’s reign

To find out more listen and subscribe to my podcast It’s Reigning Men now, with another episode coming this weekend

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In both the Belgian and Dutch cases a solution was found

But in Luxembourg the Grand Duke’s refusal to sign the bill was causing a constitutional crisis and officials were concerned he could try to prevent future laws

So, they changed the constitution to strip him of that power

🇳🇱 Shortly after the end of World War II, The Netherlands had a “conscientious objector” of its own with its monarch at the time

Queen Juliana in 1951 and 1952 refused to sign the death warrants of four Nazis known as the Breda Four

Instead they were sentenced to life in prison

The work around?

King Baudouin of the Belgians asked the government to declare him unfit to rule for 24 hours

The constitution stated if the king was unfit to rule the government assumed the role of head of state

So, for one day Belgium had no monarch and the bill was signed

🇧🇪 There was precedent for this in neighbouring Belgium where officials there had found a way around the then King Baudouin’s refusal to sign a bill legalising abortion in 1990

Again the monarch claimed his catholic faith prevented him from approving the legislation

Henri, a devout Catholic, said he couldn’t sign the bill because of “reasons of conscience”

Officials were blindsided by his decision because the democratically elected parliament had voted to legalise euthanasia, and had wrongly assumed the monarch would sanction the law

🇱🇺 This is Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg - who’s stepping down later this year

Eight years into his reign, in 2008, he caused a constitutional crisis when he tried to use his ‘veto power’ to stop a euthanasia bill

Henri’s approval and signature was needed for it to become law