Britain’s Prince Edward was asked to become the king of Estonia

In 1994, the Estonian Royalist Party sent a letter to Elizabeth II, the Queen of the United Kingdom, requesting permission to crown her youngest son, Prince Edward, as Estonia’s monarch.

The existence of the letter was confirmed by a British journalist Robert Jobson, a royal expert and the author of the book, “The Royal Family Operations Manual”, the Cosmopolitan magazine reported.

The letter had called Prince Edward a “young British prince much admired by Estonians”. “Edward is perfect – young, royal, artistic and talented. We admire his Royal Highness Prince Edward enormously. We also admire Britain, its monarchy, democracy and culture,” the letter said, adding the party “would be most honoured if you [the monarchy] would accept this rare request”.

According to the Cosmopolitan, a spokesperson for the Buckingham Palace said at the time that Prince Edward becoming King of Estonia was “a charming idea but a rather unlikely one”.

Prince Edward, the Earl of Wessex, is the youngest child (born in 1964) of Queen Elizabeth II and is 14th in line of succession to the British throne. Edward and his wife Sophie, the Countess of Wessex, were on an official visit to Estonia in October 2018. Elizabeth II visited Estonia in October 2006.

Prince Edward arriving for a meeting with the Estonian president, Kersti Kaljulaid, in October 2018. Photo by the Estonian President’s Office.

A joke party

The Independent Royalist Party of Estonia was a joke party that was surprisingly successful in the first post-Soviet elections in 1992 – winning eight seats in the Estonian parliament, Riigikogu. The party’s MPs included some of the most well-known comedians in Estonia at the time – Priit Aimla, Kirill Teiter and Ralf Parve.

The party’s programme called for establishing Estonia as a monarchy, as modelled by Sweden and Norway.

Three MPs of the Royalist Party of Estonia, Kirill Teiter, Kalle Kulbok and Ralf Parve, conducting a “ritual” in the session hall of Riigikogu, the Estonian parliament, in 1993. Photo by Tiit Veermäe, Estonian National Archive.

In practice, the party stood out in the parliament for making fun of some of the proposed legislation as well as the technical procedures.

The Royalist Party’s 1995 general election candidate list was rejected by the Estonian Electoral Committee – the committee said the list contained many errors and was therefore not eligible – and after failing to stand for the elections, the party soon disintegrated.

Cover: Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex and Sophie, Countess of Wessex in Stockholm in 2013. Photo by Frankie Fouganthin, shared under the Creative Commons CC BY-SA 3.0 licence.

1 thought on “Britain’s Prince Edward was asked to become the king of Estonia”

  1. Estonia Will be, as we are: Royalty.
    It was not a joke party,
    Communist try to promote the idea as “Joke” as this is only way one can escape from it.

    Simple proof in here, is from Malle Pärn, who clearly still now promotes aristocracy as true realistic option for Estonia https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GEYZC4UPDI

    But in fact, that is Actual true future.

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