A lovely reply arrived today from Monaco. I had written to Prince Albert in April to congratulate him on the 15th Anniversary of his Accession.
The front of the envelope is the usual sort of thing. The text in the left upper corner says, in French: "Service of H.S.H. The Prince of Monaco."
As you can kind of tell by the yellow sticker attached, this envelope was addressed to my old address, and then forwarded to my new address. I moved in March. I used my new address when sending my letter to Prince Albert, but they must have pulled my old address from their database when addressing this envelope. So far, since the move, Monaco has been the only monarchy to send mail to my old address.
The back of the envelope is blank. And from the feel of the paper and inside of the envelopes we can see that this is different than what we usually see from the Monaco royals. Normally they use a high-quality envelope that matches the reply's paper. But, of the few letters I have received from Monaco, they have all come in a business envelope like this.
Inside is a letter from Christine Sprile. She has been Prince Albert's Chief Private Secretary since 2019. Before that, she was his Assistant Private Secretary. The letter is almost identical to the letter I received 5 years ago for the 10th Anniversary of Prince Albert's Accession. Although I had written for Albert's accession, this letter instead refers to Prince Albert's enthronement. (Accession is when you become monarch. Enthronement is a formal ceremony similar to a coronation.)
Prince Albert's accession was April 6th, 2005, when his father died. Prince Albert's enthronement ceremony took place on July 12th, 2005 after the 3-month mourning period had ended (with continued celebrations on Monaco's National Day in November.)
The letter says:
The Private Secretary
of
HSH the Sovereign Prince of Monaco
Palace of Monaco,July 16th, 2020.Dear Mrs. Daly,
His Serene Highness Prince Albert II has received with great pleasure your kind wishes sent on the occasion of the fifteenth anniversary of His enthronement and your kind wishes of prompt recovery.
The Prince has asked me to send you His most sincere thanks for your thoughtful attention which was very much appreciated.
With all my best regards,
Christine Sprile
