Racing and motorized driving in general was mostly a rich man’s hobby until about the 30s, when touring and endurance got to be a testing area for the technical parts needed for war effort, and in the 50s when the around the word endurance driving was good natured Cold War spying disguised as record spectacle. In Italy fascism and futurism were also a catalizator for motorized/technical development, just like in the rest of the Axis, where both the remaining bit of the pre WW1 innovation and the need to go around the entente before WW2 played a role. Back in the 20s, 30s there were a few high society women racing too of driving fancy sports cars - for fun. So t was only natural that the aristocracy and royalty got involved. They had time, money and resources to repair the cars while they rested at the club, eating the premade picnic. Early racing was also a prestige, aristocrats raced because the automobile club organized a fun touring race. the members were there, the crème de la crème, new money and the bourgeois had a way in - kind of. Wife hunting, husband chasing, inheritance wasting or investing via connections. back to royalty in motorsport - the Hapsburg - very catholic, lots of children, not so much contraception always. The girls being married away the boys having time for passions but married with a lots of kids - hence the current 600 living members… Ferdinand uses the two headed eagle from the family crest as his logo. A distant relative of his - via his great grandmother Empress Zita of Austria (not a great feat, she had 23+1 siblings…but 12 of them had seroius health problems due to dad and mom nr1 being cousins)a nephew of hers, let’s say great uncle of Ferdinand? Prince Michael of Bourbon-Parma (touring races, with a Ferrari even) . his second wife was the daughter of Umberto II of Italy aka the Princess of Savoy, also his brother Prince Jacques was into racing. Their sister was the queen of Romania, for a while. Now their mom, princess Margharete of Denmark is a granddaughter of Christian IX, the father in law of Europe (check - Mountbattens, the of Greece and Denmark crew with Queen mother Sophia of Spain, Empress Maria Fedorovna of Russia - yep the lady from Anastasia - and so on. Also descendants of Queen Victoria) they are also related to the Hanover house by marriage via Christian IXs other daughter Thyra. Princess Caroline of Monaco’s third husband is Ernst August of Hanover (the second was Stefano Casiraghi speedboat racer, died of racing accident). Back to the danish: Pricess Margarethes uncle married a Swedish princess of the house Bernadotte. Their son was the first king of the independent Norway from 1905, his wife a granddaughter or Victoria, yup, that one. Now that is a humble start of the dynasty there. A general and war minister of napoleon Bonaparte, Jean (baptiste Jules) Bernadotte - it’s always the French! - got adopted by the senile elderly childless Swedish king (more like the parliament so napoleon leaves them alone). He apparently had a tattoo on his chest which said death to the kings! (Mort aux rois!). once a revolutionarie, now forefather of the royals of Sweden, Norway, Belgium, Luxembourg. Never showed skin in public, after he ended up as the king. His wife -Desiree - intresting woman - was the ex fiancée of Napoleon. The house of Bernadotte - back to the 2000s, gave us Prince Carl Philip of Sweden, who raced in the Swedish Touring Championships, crazy parties, bachelor life - before marrying the ex reality star who is now his wife and the mother of his 3(4?) children. Princess Astrid (queen astrid of Belgium, mentioned before, is a great(great) aunt of his. She was also the sister of the queen of Norway, who famously convinced Roosevelt to help with the war effort and found the Norwegian resistance) there is a lot more of aristocracy, especially on lower levels (both racing and ranks:) After ww2 there is fewer of them from Eastern Europe, due to emigration, deportations and lack of wealth under communism, but there is a big common field in that Venn diagram.
anon i am genuinely speechless. do you have like a phd in this subject, because wow all the knowledge, thank you for sharing. anyways this is for everyone who’s interested in the history and link between royal families and racing in europe <3
