zlacker

>>xd+(OP)
Not to mention that she was the last monarch to have any memory of WWII and served as an ambulance mechanic. Now that generation that remembered the horrors of fascism has mostly passed and we find ourselves in a period that seems to have many echos of the 1930s with a new rise of authoritarianism and fascism around the world.

>>UncleO+Jk
> Not to mention that she was the last monarch to have any memory of WWII

That's probably not true. There's the Dalai Lama and Simeon II of Bulgaria, who were minors but at least Simeon surely remembers (his father died in suspicious circumstances, he had an unconstitutional regency, and then he was dethroned, expelled and spent his life in exile).

> Now that generation that remembered the horrors of fascism has mostly passed and we find ourselves in a period that seems to have many echos of the 1930s with a new rise of authoritarianism and fascism around the world

It's honestly infuriating that with the wealth of information available at everyone's fingertips so many people are so easily making the same mistakes as a century earlier.

>>sofixa+um
Perhaps we should define what a "monarch" is.

The Dalai Lama and Simeon II of Bulgaria were both heads of state during WW II. But China invaded Tibet in 1950, and by 1960 the Dalai Lama ruled nothing. And Simeon lost his throne in 1946 (though he did get elected prime minister many years later).

I wouldn't count them as monarchs any more.

That said, looking at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_current_monarchs_of_so... I find the following currently reigning monarchs who were born before WW II and probably remember something from it:

- Emir Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah of Kuwait

- King Harald V of Norway

- King Salman of Saudi Arabia

- Pope Francis of Vatican State