German History Part II: Kingdom of the Franks.

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Carolingians, Charlemagne, Childeric I, Clovis I, Franks, Gaul, Historiography, Holy Roman Emperor, Holy Roman Empire, Kingdom of the Franks, Merovingians, Pope Leo III, Roman Empire

I first began the examination of German history a few weeks ago with the post on the accession of Heinrich I The Fowler as King of East Francia. I’d like to continue to differentiate the the history of the Kingdom of the Franks and it’s transition to what became the Holy Roman Empire. Monarchy has always been an evolving concept and institution. This evolution also includes the development of Nation-states.

When viewing the past these transitions can often be overlooked or glossed over. This is a byproduct of historiography. Historiography is the study of the methods of historiansin developing history as an academic discipline, and by extension is any body of historical work on a particular subject. Historiography was more recently defined as “the study of the way history has been and is written – the history of historical writing”, which means that, “When you study ‘historiography’ you do not study the events of the past directly, but the changing interpretations of those events in the works of individual historians.”

Kingdom of the Franks

One aspect of historiography is to project onto the past terms and descriptions from a modern standpoint instead of what was contemporary for their times. One example of this is the Holy Roman Empire. It is often mentioned that Charlemagne is reckoned as the first Holy Roman Emperor when he was crowned on Christmas Day 800AD by Pope Leo III. Indeed, Charlemagne is reckoned Holy Roman Emperor Charles I despite the fact that at the time he was considered to have been restoring the old Roman Empire and that his state, the Carolingian Empire, (again, a more modern label) was actually a precursor of the Holy Roman Empire.

In this seven part series I will wade through the various transitions of German (and French) history as we observe the development of the Frankish Kingdom and it’s transition into the Holy Roman Empire. Today I will examine the Frankish people and the origin of the Kingdom of the Franks.

The Franks (Latin: Franci or gens Francorum) were a collection of Germanic peoples, whose name was first mentioned in 3rd century Roman sources, associated with tribes on the Lower and Middle Rhine, on the edge of the Roman Empire. Later the term was associated with later Romanized Germanic dynasties within the collapsing Roman Empire, who eventually commanded the whole region between the rivers Loire and Rhine.

The core Frankish territories inside the former Western Roman Empire were close to the Rhine and Maas rivers in the north. Frankish peoples inside Rome’s frontier on the Rhine river were the Salian Franks who from their first appearance were permitted to live in Roman territory, and the Ripuarian or Rhineland Franks who, after many attempts, eventually conquered the Roman frontier city of Cologne and took control of the left bank of the Rhine. Later, in a period of factional conflict in the 450s and 460s, Childeric I, a Frank, was one of several military leaders commanding Roman forces with various ethnic affiliations in Roman Gaul (roughly modern France). Childeric and his son Clovis I faced competition from the Roman Aegidius as competitor for the “kingship” of the Franks associated with the Roman Loire forces.

This new type of kingship represented the start of the Merovingian dynasty, which succeeded in conquering most of Gaul in the 6th century, as well as establishing its leadership over all the Frankish kingdoms on the Rhine frontier.

Clovis I, King of the Franks

The Merovingian dynasty was the ruling family of the Franks from the middle of the 5th century until 751. They first appear as “Kings of the Franks” in the Roman army of northern Gaul. By 509 they had united all the Franks and northern Gaulish Romans under their rule. They conquered most of Gaul, defeating the Visigoths (507) and the Burgundians (534), and also extended their rule into Raetia (537). In Germania, the Alemanni, Bavarii and Saxons accepted their lordship. The Merovingian realm was the largest and most powerful of the states of western Europe following the fall of the Western Roman Empire.

The term “Merovingian” comes from medieval Latin Merovingi or Merohingi (“sons of Merovech”), an alteration of an unattested Frankish form, akin to their dynasty’s Old English name Merewīowing, with the final -ing being a typical Germanic patronymic suffix. The name derives from the possibly legendary King Merovech. Unlike the Anglo-Saxon royal genealogies, the Merovingians never claimed descent from a god, nor is there evidence that they were regarded as sacred.
The Merovingians’ long hair distinguished them among the Franks, who commonly cut their hair short.

Contemporaries sometimes referred to them as the “long-haired kings” (Latin reges criniti). A Merovingian whose hair was cut could not rule and a rival could be removed from the succession by being tonsured and sent to a monastery. The Merovingians also used a distinct name stock. One of their names, Clovis, evolved into Louis and remained common among French royalty down to the 19th century.

As mentioned previously the first known Merovingian king was Childeric I (died 481). His son Clovis I (died 511) converted to Christianity, united the Franks and conquered most of Gaul. The Merovingians treated their kingdom as single yet divisible. Clovis’s four sons divided the kingdom between them and it remained divided—with the exception of four short periods (558–61, 613–23, 629–34, 673–75)—down to 679. After that it was only divided again once (717–18). The main divisions of the kingdom were Austrasia, Neustria, Burgundy and Aquitaine.

This date in History: July 22, 1706: Treaty of Union is signed.

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Act of Union, Articles of Union, East India Company, House of Hanover, king James I-VI of England and Scotland, Kingdom of England, Kingdom of Great Britain, Kingdom of Ireland, Kingdom of Scotland, Parliament, Queen Anne of England, Queen Anne of Great Britain, Queen Elizabeth I of England, Treaty of Union

The Treaty of Union is the name usually now given to the agreement which led to the creation of the new state of Great Britain, stating that England (which already included Wales) and Scotland were to be “United into One Kingdom by the Name of Great Britain”, At the time it was more often referred to as the Articles of Union.

James I-VI, King of England, Scotland and Ireland.

Queen Elizabeth I of England and Ireland, last monarch of the Tudor dynasty, died without issue on March 24, 1603, and the throne fell at once (and uncontroversially) to her first cousin twice removed, James VI of Scotland, a member of House of Stuart and the only son of Mary, Queen of Scots. By the Union of the Crowns in 1603 he assumed the throne of the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Ireland as King James I. This personal union lessened the constant English fears of Scottish cooperation with France in a feared French invasion of England.

After this personal union, the new monarch, James I and VI, sought to unite the Kingdom of Scotland and the Kingdom of England into a state which he referred to as “Great Britain”. Nevertheless, Acts of Parliament attempting to unite the two countries failed in 1606, in 1667, and in 1689.

By 1698 the main impetus for uniting the two realms was economics. While remaining separate kingdoms the two nations were often in trade wars with one another as both states vied for supremacy in trading with other foreign states. This competition created friction between the two states. England was also under pressure from the London-based East India Company, which was anxious to maintain its monopoly over English foreign trade. The East India Company threatened legal action towards the Scots on the grounds that the Scots had no authority from the king to raise funds outside the king’s realm.

Deeper political integration had been a key policy of Queen Anne ever since she had acceded to the thrones of the three kingdoms in 1702. Under the aegis of the Queen and her ministers in both kingdoms, in 1705 the parliaments of England and Scotland agreed to participate in fresh negotiations for a treaty of union.

Treaty negotiations

It was agreed that England and Scotland would each appoint thirty-one commissioners to conduct the negotiations. The Scottish Parliament then began to arrange an election of the commissioners to negotiate on behalf of Scotland, but in September 1705, the leader of the Country Party, the Duke of Hamilton, who had previously attempted to obstruct the negotiation of a treaty, proposed that the Scottish commissioners should be nominated by the Queen, and this was agreed. In practice, the Scottish commissioners were nominated on the advice of the Duke of Queensberry and the Duke of Argyll.

Negotiations between the English and Scottish commissioners began on 16 April 1706 at the Cockpit-in-Court in London. The sessions opened with speeches from William Cowper, the English Lord Keeper, and from Lord Seafield, the Scottish Lord Chancellor, each describing the significance of the task. The commissioners did not carry out their negotiations face to face, but in separate rooms. They communicated their proposals and counter-proposals to each other in writing, and there was a blackout on news from the negotiations. Each side had its own particular concerns. Within a few days, England gained a guarantee that the Hanoverian dynasty would succeed Queen Anne to the Scottish crown, and Scotland received a guarantee of access to colonial markets, in the hope that they would be placed on an equal footing in terms of trade.

Anne, Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland (1702-1707), Queen of Great Britain and Ireland. (1707-1714)

After the negotiations ended on July 22, 1706, acts of parliament were drafted by both Parliaments to implement the agreed Articles of Union. The Scottish proponents of union believed that failure to agree to the Articles would result in the imposition of a union under less favourable terms, and English troops were stationed just south of the Scottish border and also in northern Ireland as an “encouragement”. Months of fierce debate in both capital cities and throughout both kingdoms followed. In Scotland, the debate on occasion dissolved into civil disorder, most notably by the notorious ‘Edinburgh Mob’. The prospect of a union of the kingdoms was deeply unpopular among the Scottish population at large, and talk of an uprising was widespread. However, the Treaty was signed and the documents were rushed south with a large military escort.

The Kingdom of Great Britain was born on May 1, 1707, shortly after the parliaments of Scotland and England had ratified the Treaty of Union by each approving Acts of Union combining the two parliaments and the powers of the two crowns. Scotland’s crown, sceptre, and sword of state remained at Edinburgh Castle. Queen Anne (already Queen of both England and Scotland) formally became the first occupant of the unified throne of Great Britain, with Scotland sending forty-five Members to the new House of Commons of Great Britain, as well as representative peers to the House of Lords.

Although there were 25 articles to the Treaty, I will post the first two which are relevant to the Crown and the Succession.

Article 1 states “That the Two Kingdoms of Scotland and England, shall upon the 1st May next ensuing the date hereof, and forever after, be United into One Kingdom by the Name of Great Britain.”

Article 2 provided for the succession of the House of Hanover, and for Protestant succession as set out in the English Act of Settlement of 1701.

Happy Birthday HRH Prince George of Cambridge!!

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Duchess of Cambridge, Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Duke of Cambridge, Kate Middleton, Kensington Palace, Prince George of Cambridge, Prince William

Happy Birthday HRH Prince George of Cambridge!!

From Kensington Palace: The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are very pleased to share new photographs of Prince George to mark His Royal Highness’s sixth birthday.

These photographs were taken recently in the gardens at Kensington Palace by The Duchess of Cambridge.

Thank you everyone for your lovely messages on Prince George’s Birthday! 🎂

On this day, July 21, 1831: Enthronement of Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha as the first King of the Belgians.

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Belgium's National Day, George IV, George IV of the United Kingdom, King Leopold I of Belgium, King of the Belgians, King Philippe of the Belgians, Kingdom of Belgium, Leopold II of Belgium, Louis-Philippe of France, Louise Marie of Orleans, Princess Charlotte of Wales, Willem I of the Netherlands

Today is Belgium’s National Day. 🇧🇪

On this day, July 21, in 1831, Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (a maternal uncle of Queen Victoria and paternal uncle of her husband Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha) was sworn in as the first King of the Belgians.

Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha

Leopold was born in Coburg in the tiny German duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld in modern-day Bavaria on December 16, 1790. He was the youngest son of Franz, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, and Countess Augusta of Reuss-Ebersdorf. In 1826, Saxe-Coburg acquired the city of Gotha from the neighboring Duchy of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg and gave up Saalfeld to Saxe-Meiningen, becoming the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

On May 2, 1816, Leopold married Princess Charlotte of Wales at Carlton House in London. Charlotte was the only legitimate child of the Prince Regent (later King George IV) and Caroline of Brunswick, daughter of Carl-Wilhelm-Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick, and Princess Augusta of Great Britain (daughter of King George II of Great Britain and Caroline of Brandenburg-Ansbach). This meant that Princess Charlotte of Wales was second in line to the British throne.

Princess Charlotte of Wales

Princess Charlotte had been engaged Willem, Hereditary Prince of Orange (later King Willem II of the Netherlands). This engagement came about through pressure from her father the Prince Regent. Princess Charlotte found the Hereditary Prince of Orange distasteful but after initially accepting him, Charlotte soon broke off the intended match in favor of Leopold. This resulted in an extended contest of wills between her and her father. Though the Prince Regent was displeased, he found Leopold to be charming and possessing every quality to make his daughter happy, thus approving of their marriage. The same year Leopold received an honorary commission to the rank of Field Marshal and Knight of the Order of the Garter.

The marriage ceremony was held May 2, 1816. On the wedding day, huge crowds filled London; the wedding participants had great difficulties in travelling. At nine o’clock in the evening in the Crimson Drawing Room at Carlton House, with Leopold dressing for the first time as a British General (the Prince Regent wore the uniform of a Field Marshal), the couple were married. The only mishap was during the ceremony, when Charlotte was heard to giggle when the impoverished Leopold promised to endow her with all his worldly goods.

On November 5, 1817, after having suffered a miscarriage, Princess Charlotte gave birth to a stillborn son. She herself died the next day following complications. Leopold was said to have been heartbroken by her death.

Following a Greek rebellion against the Ottoman Empire, Leopold was offered the throne of an independent Greece as part of the London Protocol of February 1830. Though initially showing interest in the position, Leopold eventually turned down the offer on May 17, 1830. The role would subsequently be accepted by Prince Otto of Bavaria in May of 1832 who ruled until he was finally deposed in October 1862.

At the end of August 1830, rebels in the Southern provinces (modern-day Belgium) of the United Netherlands rose up against Dutch rule. The rising, which began in Brussels, pushed the Dutch army back, and the rebels defended themselves against a Dutch attack. International powers meeting in London agreed to support the independence of Belgium, even though the Dutch refused to recognize the new state.

In November 1830, a National Congress was established in Belgium to create a constitution for the new state. Fears of “mob rule” associated with republicanism after the French Revolution of 1789, as well as the example of the recent, liberal July Revolution in France, led the Congress to decide that Belgium would be a popular, constitutional monarchy.

Search for a monarch

Enthronement of King Leopold I of the Belgians

The choice of candidates for the position was one of the most controversial issues faced by the revolutionaries. The Congress refused to consider any candidate from the Dutch ruling house of Orange-Nassau. Some Orangists had hoped to offer the position to King Willem I or his son, Willem, Hereditary Prince of Orange, which would bring Belgium into personal union with the Netherlands like Luxembourg. The Great Powers also worried that a candidate from another state could risk destabilizing the international balance of power and lobbied for a neutral candidate.

Eventually the Congress was able to draw up a shortlist. The three viable possibilities were felt to be Eugène de Beauharnais, a French nobleman and stepson of Napoleon; Auguste of Leuchtenberg, son of Eugene; and Louis, Duke of Nemours who was the son of the French King Louis-Philippe. All the candidates were French and the choice between them was principally between choosing the Bonapartism of Beauharnais or Leuchtenberg and supporting the July Monarchy of Louis-Philippe. Louis-Philippe realized that the choice of either of the Bonapartists could be first stage of a coup against him, but that his son would also be unacceptable to other European powers suspicious of French intentions. Therefore Louis, Duke of Nemours refused the offer. With no definitive choice in sight, Catholics and Liberals united to elect Erasme Louis Surlet de Chokier, a minor Belgian nobleman, as regent to buy more time for a definitive decision in February 1831.

Leopold of Saxe-Coburg had been proposed at an early stage, but had been dropped because of French opposition. The problems caused by the French candidates and the increased international pressure for a solution led to his reconsideration. On April 22, he was finally approached by a Belgian delegation at Marlborough House to officially offer him the throne. Leopold, however, was reluctant to accept at first.

Accession

On July 17, 1831, Leopold travelled from Calais to Belgium, entering the country at De Panne. Traveling to Brussels, he was greeted with patriotic enthusiasm along his route. The accession ceremony took place on July 21, on the Place Royale in Brussels. A stand had been erected on the steps of the church of Saint Jacques-sur-Coudenberg, surrounded by the names of revolutionaries fallen during the fighting in 1830.

King Leopold I of the Belgians

After a ceremony of resignation by the regent, Leopold, dressed in the uniform of a Belgian lieutenant-general, swore loyalty to the constitution and became king. The enthronement is generally used to mark the end of the revolution and the start of the Kingdom of Belgium and is celebrated each year as the Belgian national holiday.

Second marriage

Princess Louise-Marie of Orléans

On August 9, 1832 King Leopold I of the Belgians married Princess Louise-Marie of Orléans, who was twenty-two years younger than the King, she was the eldest daughter of the future Louis-Philippe I, King of the French, and of his wife Maria Amalia of the Two Sicilies.

Louise and Leopold had four children, including Leopold II of Belgium and Empress Carlota of Mexico. Although never faithful to Louise, Leopold respected her and their relationship was a harmonious one.

Prince Louis Philippe, Crown Prince of Belgium (July 24, 1833 – May 16, 1834)
King Leopold II of the Belgians (April 9, 1835 – December 17, 1909)
Prince Philippe, Count of Flanders (March 24, 1837 – November 17, 1905)
Princess Charlotte of Belgium, (June 7, 1840 – January 19, 1927), consort of Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico.

Sadly, Queen Louise-Marie died of tuberculosis in the former Royal palace of Ostend on October 11, 1850 at the age of 38. Leopold was again a widower at the age of 59. The Queen’s body was brought to Laeken, and a memorial was erected in Oostende. She is buried beside her husband in Royal Crypt of the Church of Our Lady of Laeken.

Photo of King Leopold later in life.

Leopold died in Laeken near Brussels on December 10, 1865, aged 74. His funeral was held on 16 December. He is interred in the Royal Crypt at the Church of Notre-Dame de Laeken, next to Louise-Marie. He was succeeded by his son, Leopold II, aged 30, who ruled until 1909.

The current King of the Belgians, Philippe, is Leopold I’s great-great-great-grandson.

On this date in History. July 17, 1918. Murder of the Czar and his family.

On the 101st Anniversary of the assassination of the Czar and his family I am re blogging last years entry.

European Royal History

Today is the 100th Anniversary of the Murder of Czar Nicholas II of Russia and his entire family. My apologies for being a day late.

Late on the night of July 16, Nicholas, Alexandra, their five childre, Olga, Tatiana, Marie, Anastasia and Alexei and four servants, personal physician Eugene Botkin, his wife’s maid Anna Demidova, and the family’s chef, Ivan Kharitonov, and footman, Alexei Trupp, were ordered to dress quickly and go down to the cellar of the house in which they were being held. There, the family and servants were arranged in two rows for a photograph they were told was being taken to quell rumors that they had escaped. Suddenly, a dozen armed men burst into the room and gunned down the imperial family in a hail of gunfire. Those who were still breathing when the smoked cleared were stabbed to death.

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Today in royal history: July 15, 1837 – Birth of Stephanie of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen

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Albert I of Belgium, Cholera, Diptheria, Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia, Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II, House of Braganza, Pedro V of Portugal and the Algarves, Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg-Kohary, Quen Maria II of Portugal and the Algarves, Stephanie of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen

Today in royal history: July 15, 1837 – Stephanie of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, the future Queen consort of Portugal, wife of King Pedro V of Portugal and the Algarves, was born.

Stephanie of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen

Princess Stephanie was born in Krauchenwies, Sigmaringen, on July 15, 1837, Stephanie was the eldest daughter of Karl Anton, Prince of Hohenzollern, head of the House of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, and his wife Princess Josephine of Baden. Her maternal grandparents were Karl, Grand Duke of Baden, and Stéphanie de Beauharnais, adopted daughter of Emperor Napoleon I of France.

She was also a younger sister of Leopold, Prince of Hohenzollern, older sister of King Carol I of Romania, and aunt of King Albert I of Belgium.

Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen was a principality in southwestern Germany. Its rulers belonged to the senior Swabian branch of the House of Hohenzollern. The senior Swabian branch of the House of Hohenzollern is not as well known to history as is the junior Franconian line which became Burgraves of Nuremberg and later ruled Brandenburg-Prussia and the German Empire.

The Swabian Hohenzollerns were elevated to princes in 1623 by Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II. The small sovereign state with the capital city of Sigmaringen was annexed to the Kingdom of Prussia in 1850 by Friedrich Wilhelm IV following the abdication of its sovereign, Prince Carl, in the wake of the revolutions of 1848, then became part of the newly created Province of Hohenzollern.

This photo shows King Pedro V and Queen Stephanie in the courtyard at Pena Palace near Sintra, around 1858. The picture was taken during the wedding festivities of Pedro and Stephanie.

Stephanie married King Peter V of Portugal and the Algarves by proxy on 29 April 1858 at St. Hedwig’s Cathedral in Berlin, where her eldest brother Leopold stood in for the groom. She was then married in person on 18 May 1858 at the Church of St. Dominic in Lisbon.

Pedro V, King of Portugal and the Algarves.

King Pedro V was the eldest son of Queen Maria II of Portugal and the Algarves and Prince Ferdinand a German prince of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha-Koháryeter was a member of the House of Braganza. As heir apparent to the throne, Pedro was styled Prince Royal and he was also the 19th Duke of Braganza.

Both bride and groom were a few months short of their twenty-first birthdays. Stephanie was received with much luxury and wrote home that the Portuguese understood luxury better than dignity. However she fell ill with diphtheria and died only a year later in Lisbon at the age of 22. During her short period as queen, she made herself a good name from the foundation of hospitals.

Stephanie, Queen of Portugal and the Algarves.

There were no children from this marriage. Her body was interred at the Braganza Pantheon inside the Monastery of São Vicente de Fora in Lisbon.

Pedro never married again and died of cholera on November 11, 1861 at the age of 24. He was succeeded as King by his younger brother Luís.

On this date in History: July 13, 1889. Birth of Lady Louise Mountbatten, Queen of Sweden.

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Crown Prince of Sweden, Gustaf VI Adolph of Sweden, King Manuel II of Portugal, Kings and Queens of Sweden, Lady Louise Mountbatten, Princess Louise of Battenberg, Princess Margaret of Connaught, Queen Louise of Sweden, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom

Princess Louise of Battenberg at Schloss Heiligenberg, Seeheim-Jugenheim, on 13 July 1889 in the Grand Duchy of Hesse and By Rhine. Her father, Prince Louis of Battenberg, who was Admiral of the Fleet in the United Kingdom, renounced his German title during World War I and anglicised his family name to “Mountbatten” at the behest of King George V. He was then created the first Marquess of Milford Haven in the peerage of the United Kingdom. From 1917, therefore, his daughter was known as “Lady Louise Mountbatten”. Her mother was Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine, who was eldest daughter of Grand Duke Ludwig IV of Hesse and By Rhine and Princess Alice of the United Kingdom and a granddaughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Louise was a sister of Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma (Last Viceroy of India) and of Princess Alice of Battenberg, who was the mother of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. She was also a niece of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna of Russia.

Ludwig and Victoria of Battenberg with young Princess Louise.

In 1909, Louise received a proposal from King Manuel II of Portugal. Edward VII was in favour of the match, but Louise declined, as she wished to marry for love. In 1913, having been deposed in 1910, Manuel married Princess Augusta Victoria of Hohenzollern in exile, but their marriage was childless. At the age of twenty, Louise became secretly engaged to Prince Christopher of Greece, but they were forced to give up their relationship for financial reasons. While living in exile more than 10 years later, he would wed the wealthy widow, Nancy Stewart Worthington Leeds. After the death of Nancy Leeds Christopher married Princess Françoise d’Orléans in 1929. Princess Françoise d’Orléans was the second daughter of Jean d’Orléans, duc de Guise (an Orléanist pretender to the throne of France under the name Jean III) and his wife, the French Princess Isabelle of Orléans. Françoise’s brother, Prince Henri, Count of Paris, succeeded their father as the Orleanist pretender, under the name Henri VI.

In 1914, the 25 year old Louise and her mother visited Russia, and were invited to a trip down the Volga with their Imperial relatives. During her visit, Louise noted the influence of Rasputin with concern. The trip was interrupted by the sudden outbreak of World War I, and Louise’s father telegraphed for them to return immediately. They stayed in Sweden as guests of the Crown Princely couple (her future husband Crown Prince Gustaf Adolph and his then wife, Margaret of Connaught, who was also her first cousin once removed) at Drottningholm Palace, just one night before they returned to Great Britain.

Lady Louise Mountbatten.

Later during the war, while she volunteered as a nurse in Nevers, she began a relationship with Alexander Stuart-Hill, a Scottish artist living in Paris and they became engaged. Anticipating that her parents would be disappointed in her choice, Louise kept their engagement a secret.

Eventually, she confided in her parents, who were initially understanding, and invited Stuart-Hill for visits at Kent House twice. In fact, her family, referring to him as “Shakespeare” because of his odd appearance, found him “eccentric” and “affected”. Lacking resources, the engaged couple agreed to postpone marriage until after the war. But in 1918 Louise’s father explained to her that Stuart-Hill was most likely homosexual, and that a marriage with him was impossible.

In 1923 Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf of Sweden, having been for three years the widower of Louise’s mother’s cousin Princess Margaret of Connaught, paid a visit to London and, to Louise’s surprise, began to court her. Although as a young woman Louise had said that she would never marry a king or a widower, she accepted the proposal of a man destined to be both. However, under Article 5 of the 1810 Swedish Succession Law, a prince of the Swedish royal house forfeited his right of succession to the throne if he “with or without the King’s knowledge and consent, married a private Swedish or foreign man’s daughter.”

Crown Prince Gustaf Adolph of Sweden with his first wife, Princess Margaret of Connaught and children.

Princess Margaret of Connaught.

Once the couple’s engagement was announced, there were lively discussions in the media about whether the bride-to-be was constitutionally eligible to become Sweden’s future queen. In response the Swedish Foreign Ministry, citing the law in question, clarified the term “a private Swedish or foreign man’s daughter” to mean “he who did not belong to a sovereign family or to a family which, according to international practice, would not be equal thereto” and announced that the Swedish government had “requested the British government’s explanation of Lady Louise Mountbatten’s position in this respect.” The Swedish Court announced that following the British government’s reply to its inquiry and the subsequent investigation into the matter, it had been determined that the Crown Prince’s choice of a future wife was in compliance with the succession law, and that she was of royal lineage, thereby concluding debate on the imminent nuptials.

On 3 November 1923, at age 34, Louise married Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf, in the Chapel Royal at St. James’s Palace in the presence of King George V and members of both royal families.

Wedding of the Crown Prince of Sweden and Lady Louise Mountbatten.

In 1950, Louise became queen after accession to the throne of her husband. Louise is described as a true democrat at heart, and was therefore somewhat disturbed at being celebrated merely in her capacity of queen. In reference to the attention, she remarked: “People look at me as if I were something special. Surely I do not look differently today from how I looked yesterday!”

Louise disliked the strict pre-World War I protocol at court, retained during her mother-in-law’s era, and reformed it when she became queen, instituting new guidelines in 1954 which democraticised many old customs. In 1962, she abolished the court presentations, replaced them with “democratic ladies’ lunches”, to which she invited professional career women, a custom which was to continue under Princess Sibylla after her death. Louise also renovated and redecorated the interior of the Royal Palace in Stockholm.

King Gustaf VI Adolph of Sweden and Queen Louise of Sweden

Louise was described as eccentric for royalty and temperamental; she could get very angry, but was said to possess a good heart, a great sense of humour, a sense of self irony and was able to distinguish between herself and her royal role. She could show her sympathies openly, and this was taken as a sign of her honesty. One courtier commented, “I would describe the queen as a ‘gentleman’. She would never avoid acknowledging her own mistakes”. Louise is described as a great lover and patriot of her new home country, and was often shocked by Swedish non-patriotic customs. She was a supporter of the political system and democracy in the form it had developed in Sweden and stated her opinion to her relatives that no other political system than the Swedish one had created such a happy development for any nation. Queen Louise also admired Swedish nature and in particular Swedish women, because of what she considered their natural dignity regardless of class, and remarked that she had never seen a country with less vulgarity than Sweden.

Queen Louise’s last official engagement was the Nobel Prize dinner in December of 1964, during which no one noticed that she was in fact already ill. Queen Louise died on 7 March 1965 at Saint Göran Hospital, in Stockholm, Sweden, following emergency surgery after a period of severe illness. Queen Louise is buried beside her husband and his first wife, Crown Princess Margaret, in the Royal Cemetery in Solna north of Stockholm.

Lady Jane Grey, Queen of England: Part II.

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Charles V, Duke of Northumberland, Duke of Suffolk, Edward VI of England, Holy Roman Empire, House of Tudor, King of Spain, Lady Jane Grey, Philip II of Spain, Privy Council, Queen Jane

After Jane was proclaimed Queen she refused to name her husband Dudley as king, because that would require an Act of Parliament. She would agree only to make him Duke of Clarence. This was all to the chagrin of her father-in-law, the Duke of Northumberlan, who desired to be the power behind the throne.

The Duke of Northumberland faced a number of key tasks to consolidate his power after Edward VI’s death. Most importantly, he had to isolate and, ideally, capture Mary Tudor, the rightful heir, to prevent her from gathering support. As soon as Mary was sure of King Edward’s demise, she left her residence at Hunsdon and set out to East Anglia, where she began to rally her supporters. Northumberland set out from London with troops on July 14 with the intent to capture Mary. The Privy Council switched their allegiance and proclaimed Mary queen in London, on July 19.

The historical consensus assumes that this was in recognition of overwhelming support of the population for Mary. However, there is no clear evidence for that outside Norfolk and Suffolk, where Northumberland had put down Kett’s Rebellion; hence, where princess Mary sought refuge. Rather, it seems that Henry FitzAlan, 19th Earl of Arundel—whom Northumberland had arrested and detained twice as an ally of Somerset, before rehabilitating—engineered a coup d’etat in the Privy Council in Northumberland’s absence.

Jane is often called the Nine-Day Queen, although if her reign is dated from the moment of Edward VI’s death on July 6, 1553, her reign could have been a few days longer. On July 19, 1553, Jane was imprisoned in the Tower’s Gentleman Gaoler’s apartments, her husband in the Beauchamp Tower. The Duke of Northumberland was executed on August 22, 1553. In September, Parliament declared Mary the rightful successor and denounced and revoked Jane’s proclamation as that of a usurper.

Mary I, Queen of England and Ireland.

Trial and execution

Referred to by the court as Jane Dudley, wife of Guildford, Jane was charged with high treason, as were her husband, two of his brothers, and the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer. Their trial, by a special commission, took place on November 13, 1553, at Guildhall in the City of London. The commission was chaired by Sir Thomas White, Lord Mayor of London, and Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk. Other members included Edward Stanley, 3rd Earl of Derby and John Bourchier, 2nd Earl of Bath. As was to be expected, all defendants were found guilty and sentenced to death. Jane’s guilt, of having treacherously assumed the title and the power of the monarch, was evidenced by a number of documents she had signed as “Jane the Quene”. Her sentence was to “be burned alive on Tower Hill or beheaded as the Queen pleases” (burning was the traditional English punishment for treason committed by women). The imperial ambassador reported to Holy Roman Emperor Carl V, (King Carlos I of Spain), that her life was to be spared.

The rebellion of Thomas Wyatt the Younger in January 1554 against Queen Mary I’s marriage plans with Felipe II of Spain sealed Jane’s fate. Her father, Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk, and his two brothers joined the rebellion, and so the government decided to go through with the verdict against Jane and Guildford. Their execution was first scheduled for 9 February 1554, but was then postponed for three days to give Jane a chance to convert to the Catholic faith. Mary sent her chaplain John Feckenham to Jane, who was initially not pleased about this. Though she would not give in to his efforts “to save her soul”, she became friends with him and allowed him to accompany her to the scaffold.

The Execution of Lady Jane Grey, by the French painter Paul Delaroche, 1National Gallery, London.

On the morning of February 12, 1554, the authorities took Guildford from his rooms at the Tower of London to the public execution place at Tower Hill, where he was beheaded. A horse and cart brought his remains back to the Tower, past the rooms where Jane was staying. Seeing her husband’s corpse return, Jane is reported to have exclaimed: “Oh, Guildford, Guildford.” She was then taken out to Tower Green, inside the Tower, to be beheaded.

According to the account of her execution given in the anonymous Chronicle of Queen Jane and of Two Years of Queen Mary, which formed the basis for Raphael Holinshed’s depiction, Jane gave a speech upon ascending the scaffold:

“Good people, I am come hither to die, and by a law I am condemned to the same. The fact, indeed, against the Queen’s highness was unlawful, and the consenting thereunto by me: but touching the procurement and desire thereof by me or on my behalf, I do wash my hands thereof in innocency, before God, and the face of you, good Christian people, this day.”

While admitting to action considered unlawful, she declared that “I do wash my hands thereof in innocence.” Jane then recited Psalm 51 (Have mercy upon me, O God) in English, and handed her gloves and handkerchief to her maid. The executioner asked her forgiveness, which she granted him, pleading: “I pray you dispatch me quickly.” Referring to her head, she asked, “Will you take it off before I lay me down?”, and the axeman answered: “No, madam.” She then blindfolded herself. Jane then failed to find the block with her hands, and cried, “What shall I do? Where is it?” Probably Sir Thomas Brydges, the Deputy Lieutenant of the Tower, helped her find her way. With her head on the block, Jane spoke the last words of Jesus as recounted by Luke: “Lord, into thy hands I commend my spirit.”

Jane and Guildford are buried in the Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula on the north side of Tower Green. No memorial stone was erected at their grave. Jane’s father, the Duke of Suffolk, was executed 11 days after Jane, on 23 February 1554. Her mother, the Duchess of Suffolk, married her Master of the Horse and chamberlain, Adrian Stokes, in March 1555 (not, as often said, three weeks after the execution of the Duke of Suffolk). She was fully pardoned by Mary and allowed to live at Court with her two surviving daughters. She died in 1559.

On this date in History: July 10, 1553. Lady Jane Gray is proclaimed Queen of England. Part I

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Duke of Northumberland, Edward VI of England, House of Tudor, Kings and Queens of England, Lady Frances Brandon, Lady Jane Gray, Lord Guildford Dudley, Privy Council, Thomas Seymore

Lady Jane Grey (c. 1537 – 12 February 1554), also known as Lady Jane Dudley (after her marriage)and as “the Nine Days’ Queen”, was an English noblewoman and de facto Queen of England and Ireland from July 10 until July 19, 1553.

Lady Jane Grey was the eldest daughter of Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk, and his wife, Frances Brandon, the second child and eldest daughter of Princess Mary, and Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk. Princess Mary was King Henry VIII’s younger sister. Jane had two younger sisters, Lady Catherine and Lady Mary; through their mother, the three sisters were great-granddaughters of Henry VII, grandnieces of Henry VIII, and first cousins once removed of Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I.

Lady Jane Gray

The traditional view is that she was born at Bradgate Park in Leicestershire in October 1537, while more recent research indicates that she was born somewhat earlier, possibly in London, in late 1536 or in the spring of 1537.

Jane received a humanist education, studying Latin, Greek and Hebrew with John Aylmer, and Italian with Michelangelo Florio. Through the influence of her father and her tutors, she became a committed Protestant and also corresponded with the Zürich reformer Heinrich Bullinger. Jane preferred book studies to hunting parties and regarded her strict upbringing, which was typical of the time, as harsh.

In early February 1547, Jane was sent to live in the household of Edward VI’s uncle, Thomas Seymour, who soon married Henry VIII’s widow, Catherine Parr. Jane lived with the couple until Catherine’s death in childbirth in September 1548. Lady Jane acted as chief mourner at Catherine Parr’s funeral; Thomas Seymour showed continued interest to keep her in his household, and she returned there for about two months before he was arrested at the end of 1548. Seymour’s brother, the Lord Protector, Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset, felt threatened by Thomas’ popularity with the young King Edward. Among other things, Thomas Seymour was charged with proposing Jane as a bride for the king.

Edward VI, King of England and Ireland.

In the course of Thomas Seymour’s following attainder and execution, Jane’s father was lucky to stay largely out of trouble. After his fourth interrogation by the King’s Council, he proposed his daughter Jane as a bride for the Protector’s eldest son, Lord Hertford. Nothing came of this, however, and Jane was not engaged until the spring of 1553, her bridegroom being Lord Guildford Dudley, a younger son of John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland. The Duke, Lord President of the King’s Council from late 1549, was then the most powerful man in the country. On May 25, 1553, the couple were married at Durham House in a triple wedding, in which Jane’s sister Catherine was matched with the heir of the Earl of Pembroke, Lord Herbert, and another Katherine, Lord Guildford’s sister, with Henry Hastings, the Earl of Huntingdon’s heir.

The Third Succession Act of 1544 restored Henry VIII’s daughters, Mary and Elizabeth, to the line of succession, although they were still regarded as illegitimate. Furthermore, this Act authorised Henry VIII to alter the succession by his will. Henry’s will reinforced the succession of his three children, and then declared that, should none of them leave descendants, the throne would pass to heirs of his younger sister, Mary, which included Jane. For unknown reasons, Henry excluded Jane’s mother, Frances Grey, from the succession, and also bypassed the claims of the descendants of his elder sister, Margaret, who had married into the Scottish royal house and nobility.

Both Mary and Elizabeth had been named illegitimate by statute during the reign of Henry VIII after his marriages to Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn had been declared void.

Lady Jane Gray

When the 15-year-old Edward VI lay dying in the early summer of 1553, his Catholic half-sister Mary was still his heir presumptive. However, Edward, in a draft will (“My devise for the Succession”) composed earlier in 1553, had first restricted the succession to (non-existent) male descendants of Frances Brandon and her daughters, before he named his Protestant cousin “Lady Jane and her heirs male” as his successors, probably in June 1553; the intent was to ensure his Protestant legacy, thereby bypassing Mary, who was a Roman Catholic. Edward’s decision to name Jane Grey herself was possibly instigated by Northumberland.

Edward VI personally supervised the copying of his will which was finally issued as letters patent on 21 June and signed by 102 notables, among them the whole Privy Council, peers, bishops, judges, and London aldermen. Edward also announced to have his “declaration” passed in parliament in September, and the necessary writs were prepared.

The King died on July 6, 1553, but his death was not announced until four days later. On July 9, Jane was informed that she was now queen, and according to her own later claims, accepted the crown only with reluctance. On July 10, she was officially proclaimed Queen of England, France and Ireland after she had taken up secure residence in the Tower of London, where English monarchs customarily resided from the time of accession until coronation.

Joan of Kent, Princess of Wales: Part II.

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Duke of Aquitaine, Edward III of England, Edward the Black Prince, Joan of Kent, Philippa of Hainaut, Princess of Wales, Richard II of England, The Good Parliament, Thomas Holland

Marriage to the Black Prince

Edward of Woodstock, Prince of Wales, known to history as the Black Prince (son of her first cousin King Edward III) was actually the second English Prince of Wales. Originally the title “Prince of Wales” was not conferred automatically upon the eldest living son of the King of England because Edward II (who had been the first English Prince of Wales) neglected to invest his eldest son, the future Edward III, with that title. It was Edward III who revived the practice of naming the eldest son Prince of Wales, which was then maintained by his successors:

Evidence for the romance between the Black Prince and Joan of Kent may be found in the record of his presenting her with a silver cup, part of the booty from one of his early military campaigns. Edward’s parents (King Edward III and Queen Philippa) did not, however, favour a marriage between their son and their former ward. Queen Philippa had made a favourite of Joan at first, but both she and the King seem to have been concerned about Joan’s reputation. Further, English law was such that Joan’s living ex-husband, the Earl of Salisbury, might have claimed any children of her subsequent marriages as his own. In addition, Edward and Joan were within the prohibited degrees of consanguinity.

In any case, Joan’s husband Holland did not die until Christmas 1360. After his death, the Black Prince pursued the matter with his father, who finally consented. That still left the matter of consanguinity to be resolved. At the King’s request, Pope Innocent VI (1352-1362) granted a dispensation allowing the two to be legally married. Matters moved fast, and Joan was officially married to the Prince barely nine months after Holland’s death. The official ceremony occurred on October 10, 1361 at Windsor Castle, with the King and Queen in attendance. Simon Islip, The Archbishop of Canterbury (1349-1366) presided over the ceremony.

Edward III and Joan of Kent.

In 1362, the Black Prince was invested as Prince of Aquitaine, a region of France that had belonged to the English Crown since the marriage of Eleanor of Aquitaine to Henry II. He and Joan moved to Bordeaux, the capital of the principality, where they spent the next nine years. Two sons were born during this period to the royal couple. The elder son, named Edward of Angoulême (January 27, 1365 – c. September 20, 1370) after his father and grandfather, died at the age of five, leaving his three-year-old brother, Richard of Bordeaux, as the new second in line. The death of his eldest grieved him greatly; he became worse, and his surgeon advised him to return to England where the plague was wreaking havoc.

Around the time of the birth of their younger son, Richard of Bordeaux the Prince was lured into a war on behalf of King Pedro of Castile. The ensuing battle was one of the Black Prince’s greatest victories; however, King Pedro was later killed, and there was no money to pay the troops. In the meantime, the Princess was forced to raise another army, because the Prince’s enemies were threatening Aquitaine in his absence.

Transition to Dowager Princess of Wales

By 1371, the Black Prince was no longer able to perform his duties as Prince of Aquitaine due to illness. The prince’s sickness again became very heavy when the “Good Parliament” met on April 28, 1376. The Good Parliament is the name traditionally given to the English Parliament of 1376, It took place during a time when the English court was perceived by much of the English population to be corrupt, and its traditional name was due to the sincere efforts by its members to reform the government. From the period of the Good Parliament Edward knew that he was dying. His dysentery became violent, and he often fainted from weakness, so that his household believed that he had already died.

On June 7, 1376, a week before his forty-sixth birthday, Edward of Woodstock, Prince of Wales, the Black Prince, died in his bed at the Palace of Westminster.

Richard II, King of England, Lord of Ireland and Duke of Aquitaine.

Edward and Joan’s son Richard was next in line to succeed his grandfather. One year later, King Edward III died on June 21, 1377, and Richard acceded to the throne as Richard II; he was crowned the following month, at the age of 10.

As the King’s mother, Joan did exercise much influence from behind the scene, and was recognised as a power behind the throne during the early years of the child-king’s reign. She also enjoyed a certain prestige and dignity among the people as an elderly, royal dowager. For example, on her return to London (via her Wickhambreauxestate) from a pilgrimage to Thomas Becket’s shrine at Canterbury Cathedral in 1381, she found her way barred by Wat Tyler and his mob of rebels on Blackheath; however, she was not only let through unharmed, but saluted with kisses and provided with an escort for the rest of her journey.

In January 1382, Richard II married Anne of Bohemia, daughter of Carl IV, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Bohemia.

Death and burial

Sir John Holland was Joan’s son by her first marriage; his wife Elizabeth was a daughter of John of Gaunt, uncle of the King. In 1385, Sir John Holland was campaigning with the King in the Kingdom of Scotland, when a quarrel broke out between him and Ralph Stafford, son of the 2nd Earl of Stafford, a favourite of the new queen, Anne of Bohemia. Stafford was killed, and John Holland sought sanctuary at the shrine of St John of Beverley. On the King’s return, Holland was condemned to death. Joan pleaded with her son for four days to spare his half-brother. On the fifth day (the exact date in August is not known), she died, at Wallingford Castle. King Richard then relented, and pardoned Holland, although he was then sent on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land).

Joan was buried beside her first husband, as requested in her will, at the Greyfriars(the site of the present hospital) in Stamford, Lincolnshire. Her third husband, the Black Prince, had built a chantry for her in the crypt of Canterbury Cathedral (where he himself was to have been buried), with ceiling bosses of her face. Another boss in the north nave aisle is also said to be of her.

Endnote: A legendary story of the founding of the Most Noble Order of the Garter involves Joan of Kent, then referred to as the “Countess of Salisbury”, whose garter is said to have slipped from her leg while she was dancing at a court ball at Calais. When the surrounding courtiers sniggered, the king picked it up and returned it to her, exclaiming, “Honi soit qui mal y pense!” (“Shame on him who thinks ill of it!”), the phrase that has become the motto of the Order. However, the earliest written version of this story dates from the 1460s, and it seems to have been conceived as a retrospective explanation for the adoption of what was then seen as an item of female underclothing as the symbol of a band of knights. In fact, at the time of the Order’s establishment in the mid-14th century, the garter was predominantly an item of male attire.