LUXEMBOURG-VILLE — Explaining that she wanted to see a dear friend and ask for a little favour, on Wednesday Queen Elizabeth II paid an impromptu visit to Grand Duke Henri and off-handedly asked him to grant her Luxembourgish citizenship.
“This has nothing to do with that Brexit thing, or those little uncertainties about trade and travel,” she said. “It’s just that my whole life I’ve only had one passport, and I think having a second one would be fun.”
The queen then admitted that a European passport might also come in handy.
“What if I want to pop over to the mainland for wine and cigarettes, and the immigration people say, excusez-nous Your Majesty, but you’ve got to join the other queue,” she said. “With my luck, I’ll get stuck behind a bunch of lorry drivers and I’ll spend five hours in the car with the Duke of Edinburgh while he talks about horses.”
“It’s not that I want to give up being British, and on the contrary I’d prefer to have both nationalities,” she said. “One has grown fond of sitting on a throne and waving a sceptre around.”
“But what if I want to participate in a year-long monarch exchange program with the Queen of Sweden? What if I decide to retire on the Costa del Sol in Spain?” she continued. “There would be so much paperwork, visas and all that.”
Still insisting that she had only just thought up the idea, the queen then submitted to Grand Duke Henri a completed application form sealed in wax. Although she claimed that being Luxembourgish is her top pick, sources indicate she has made similar unannounced visits to the monarchs of Belgium, Denmark, and Lichtenstein.
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Originally published by RTL Today on March 28, 2019. Background photo credit: Wikimedia Commons / Cayambe