Queen Noor (Jordan)

[royalwave]

Dredging this thread up because, compared to the tempest-in-a-teapot that is the Sussex vs. House of Windsor battle, the Jordanian family is undergoing some real turmoil at the moment. Noor's eldest son, who was at one time crown prince, is apparently under house arrest and accused of taking part in an attempted coup against his brother. Queen Noor is firmly in his corner and they are claiming the accusations are all lies.

Whether he was attempting a coup or not, Prince Hamzah has been pretty vocal that he thinks the current government headed by King Abdullah is corrupt.

Interesting article on all the palace intrigue.

[canuckcutie]

It’ll be interesting to see if there is any substance to these allegations or if it’s a way for the King to sideline a pesky sibling.

[Lwaxana]

Oooh, Queen Noor is step-mother to the King? That's classic fairytale stuff right there.

[Ginger]

Succession is always fraught, and I'm only surprised that Jordan's shuffling around of heirs did not result in this type of power struggle happening much sooner.

[royalwave]

I personally find it fascinating that the late King Hussein had changed his mind several times over who his successor should be, only settling on Abdullah near the end of his life. Then, out of deference to his father, Abdullah named his brother Hamzah as crown prince because that was Hussein's wish. Five years later, he reversed course and gave the crown prince title to his young son. At the time he justified this as "freeing" Hamzah "from the constraints of the position of Crown Prince in order to give [him] the freedom to work and undertake any mission or responsibility" the King entrusted him with. Yet apparently he was perfectly fine saddling his own son with the same constraints, so...

The interesting thing is that everyone sort of seemed to be fine with all of these rearrangements, at least on the surface, until just recently. In fact, it seems to be a tradition amongst this family to play a game of musical chairs with the Crown Prince title. I can't see how it fosters a great degree of family harmony.

[luckylexie]

Apr 6, 2021 17:08:41 GMT -4 royalwave said:

I personally find it fascinating that the late King Hussein had changed his mind several times over who his successor should be, only settling on Abdullah near the end of his life. Then, out of deference to his father, Abdullah named his brother Hamzah as crown prince because that was Hussein's wish. Five years later, he reversed course and gave the crown prince title to his young son. At the time he justified this as "freeing" Hamzah "from the constraints of the position of Crown Prince in order to give [him] the freedom to work and undertake any mission or responsibility" the King entrusted him with. Yet apparently he was perfectly fine saddling his own son with the same constraints, so...

The interesting thing is that everyone sort of seemed to be fine with all of these rearrangements, at least on the surface, until just recently. In fact, it seems to be a tradition amongst this family to play a game of musical chairs with the Crown Prince title. I can't see how it fosters a great degree of family harmony.

Talk about the diametrical opposite of the British Royal Family. Imagine if QEII was anything like this? There'd be the distinct possibility of a future King Andrew if she played favourites.

[lea1977]

I think when you have so many children from many marriages it can cause a lot of drama. There have been many rumours over the years that Noor never got on with her older stepchildren. Hamzah seemed to me to be very shy, I am surprised he would want to take on that role.

[featherhat]

King Hussein was dodging assassination attempts pretty regularly at one point, that's why his brother was his heir, in case he died before his children were grown up.

A lot of "Hamzah was Hussein's favourite, he definitely wanted him to be King" seems to come from Noor who obviously has an biased opinion on that matter.

I can't feel too sorry for Hamzah missing out because it seems unlikely he'd want to pass the throne around his brothers or nephews instead of his son when the time came either. But musical crown princes definitely doesn't do anything for family harmony in an already fractured structure. Princess Haya and Prince Ali are closer to their father's ex wife Princess Muna than they were with Queen Noor for example. Even though he left Muna for their mother.

Several middle eastern and gulf monarchies have/had a process where the oldest son isn't necessarily the heir but some are now trying to make it automatic like Qatar which has just created the role of Crown Prince for the first time ever.