King Juan Carlos & Queen Sofia of Spain

Well, I think in today's society it's rather hit or miss. For every Stephanie (who is lovely) there is probably a Diana Spencer (in terms of toeing the royal line) or a Queen Sophia (in terms of marital happiness). For every Sarah Ferguson you can probably find a soon-to-be-Queen Maxima. I was just reading an article about how the Dutch royal family was against  Margriet marrying Pieter van Vollenhoven and yet they have, by all reports, a blissfully happy & successful marriage without a foot out of place. Her sister Irene married a fellow royal Carlos Hugo, Duke of Parma and the marriage ended in divorce. Most of the future consorts of Europe aren't from the aristocracy:

Duchess of Cambridge (thought Camilla has an aristocratic background); Crown Princess Mary of Denmark; Crown Princess Mette-Marit of Norway; Daniel Westling (I'm sorry, I forget the title he was given upon his marriage) in Sweden; the Princess of the Asturias; the Princess of Orange.

Hereditary Princess Sophie of Liechtenstein, Stephanie of Luxemburg and the Duchess of Brabant are the exceptions rather than the rule now.

As to the Spanish house, Infanta Elena married into the aristocracy (the son of the Count and Countess of Ripalda) and--divorce. Juan Carlos's sister Infanta Margarita, Duchess of Soria, married outside the aristocracy.

Well...At least Elena's husband did not get involved in a scandal. Cristina's husband is a real commoner and so is Letizia. There are may aristocrats from France to Austria to Germany & Spain. Why pick at the bottom of the barrel ? Although Kate Middleton (duchess of Cambridge) seem to do all the right things, but look out for possible for scandal from her brother and sister Pippa...

Also remember Camilla (Duchess of Cornwall) was descended from Alice Keppel, mistress of Edward VII. She was deem "unsuitable" until after the death of the Queen Mum.

Why is it not surprising that the Luxembourg, Lichtenstein and even Belgian Royal families are the cleanest of them in terms of scandal.

Grand Duchess Ella

I agree entirely about the hit-and-miss nature of modern royal marriages. Another marriage which seems to be working well is that of Princess Anne and Timothy Laurence. Also the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester (there was some concern when they married because her parents were divorced).

While the marriage of the Duke and Duchess of Kent has broken up, they have quietly separated without any scandal and neither has put a foot out of place.

Ann

I heartily agree, Ann. And, Eric, I think it's rather disgusting to refer to spouses as the 'bottom of the barrel'. So I guess it's a disgrace to come from anything less than the aristocracy--even though so many of them are engaged in trivial and rather seedy behavior themselves? Besides, you mention the Luxembourgs as being amongst the 'cleanest' and the Grand Duchess is from a middle class family herself!  Prince Louis is married to the daughter of a tiler

Maybe some of these middle class spouses have brought positives to the thrones--Queen Sonja in Norway, Queen Silvia in Sweden, Grand Duchess Maria Teresa, Henrik of Denmark. The only royal consorts are Phillip, Queen Sophia, the late Prince Claus, Queen Paola--and those families have been wracked with varying degrees of scandals. I am NOT saying there's a correlation, I'm merely using it to rebutt your argument. I think it depends entirely on the character of the person-- middle class, aristocrat or royal--who marries into those families, the structure of the royal family (witness the destruction of poor, talented, intelligent Masako of Japan) and the individual royals themselves.

But this is all getting off-topic--the bottom line is, the King is in trouble in Spain, mostly due to his own making and compounded by the allegedly illegal actions of his son-in-law. His personal popularity, upon which the foundation of the modern Spanish monarchy is built, has fallen from 75% to 50% over the past year.

I think coupling with a commoner is also a bit of risk. Look at the first commoner who married into the Royal Family : Anthony Armstrong Jones ? What a spectacular success that was ! Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent was against the Kent marriage from the start, and if not for Katherine's devotion to the the crown, it would have ended rather badly. Marina was right after all. I am not saying those I spoke of as "bottom of the barrel" as anything but unsuitable in status but not personality. There are more aristocrats in Austria, Hungary, France and not to mention Germany of course. Prince Aimone of Aosta and Prince Nicholas of Greece both chose within the class. I disagree that Prince Philip was a liability, his marriage to the Queen has its ups and downs. But they have been together for more than 60 years. He is a royal and knows how to behave.

I agree those three were well behaved, but what of Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, Mette, Crown Princess of Norway or Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York ? I totally agree with Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone who lived from the time between Queen Victoria to Queen Elizabeth II. "In my day, people do know their place". A well trained aristocrat who grew up in a firm "royal family" is a much better bet than a commoner who do not know how to behave when suddenly elevated to a new position. The handball player who suddenly found himself married to an infanta found opportunities he would not find. hence the temptation to do something inappropriate. I think quite a lot of Spanish Grandees agrees with this sentiment and stayed away from these kinds of celebrations with commoners.

HM Queen Sofia and TRH los Principes de Asturias and Princess Elena attended Mass at the Cathedral of Palma de Mallorca:

http://www.ppe-agency.com/show.php?zoektype=2&search=31-03-2013%20Mallorca

courtesy PPE