Taking a look Prince Joseph Wenzel of Liechtenstein as he turns 30

One day, Prince Joseph Wenzel of Liechtenstein will rule the principality of Liechtenstein, and we will take a look at his life as he celebrates his 30th birthday.

He was born on 24 May 1995 at the Portland Hospital in London as the eldest child of Alois, Hereditary Prince of Liechtenstein and Sophie, Hereditary Princess of Liechtenstein. He was named after Joseph Wenzel I, Prince of Liechtenstein, Prince Max, Duke in Bavaria and Prince Maximilian of Liechtenstein. He was joined by a sister and two brothers: Princess Marie-Caroline (born 1996), Prince Georg (born 1999), and Prince Nikolaus (born 2000). Prince Joseph Wenzel is currently second in the line of succession behind his father.

He spent his childhood in Vaduz, where he attended primary school. For secondary school, he attended the International School in Buchs before moving to the renowned Malvern College in London. He told Vaterland Magazine, “I had an incredibly great time at college. I especially liked the boarding school life.”

Prince Joseph Wenzel mentioned that he wanted to study law, but there is no information on whether he ever did. In fact, we know very little about any of the children of Alois, Hereditary Prince of Liechtenstein and Sophie, Hereditary Princess of Liechtenstein. The family is incredibly wealthy and also incredibly private. They only appear together as a family on Liechtenstein’s national day or during family events.

Prince Joseph Wenzel does have another claim to fame. In another life, he would have been King of the United Kingdom. He will one day succeed in his great-uncle’s Jacobite or Catholic claim to the throne. This line is the line of succession, following male-preference primogeniture from the deposition of James II and VII in 1688 and his death in 1701. The Act of Settlement 1701 settled the succession on the closest protestant relative of Queen Anne, Sophia of Hanover. However, Prince Joseph Wenzel is a descendant of Henrietta of England, a sister of King James II, as James’s line went extinct.