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Monthly Archives: August 2019

This date in History: August 31, 1997. Death of Diana, Princess of Wales

31 Saturday Aug 2019

Posted by liamfoley63 in Featured Royal, This Day in Royal History

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8th Earl Spencer, Charles, Charles Prince of Wales, Diana, Diana Princess of Wales, HRH The Duke of Cambridge, HRH The Duke of Sussex, HRH The Prince of Wales, HRH The Princess of Wales, John Spencer, Lady Diana Spencer, Prince Harry, Prince Henry of Wales, Prince William, Prince William of Wales, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom

Diana, Princess of Wales (July 1, 1961 – August 31, 1997). Diana Frances Spencer was born on 1 July 1961, in Park House, Sandringham, Norfolk. She was the fourth of five children of John Spencer, 8th Earl Spencer (1924–1992), and Frances Spencer, Viscountess Althorp (née Roche; 1936–2004). The Spencer family has been closely allied with the British royal family for several generations; Diana’s grandmothers had served as ladies-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother.

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The Spencers were hoping for a boy to carry on the family line, and no name was chosen for a week, until they settled on Diana Frances. The name Frances was chosen after her mother. Diana was the name chosen after Lady Diana Spencer (1710-1735) daughter of Charles Spencer, 3rd Earl of Sunderland (1675-1722) and his second wife, Anne Spencer, Countess of Sunderland (née Lady Anne Churchill) (1683-1716). This Lady Diana Spencer was a many-times-great-aunt and she was chiefly remembered for the unsuccessful attempt to arrange a marriage between her and Frederick Louis, Prince of Wales (1707-1751) eldest son of King George III of the United Kingdom.

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Lady Diana Spencer (1710-1735)

Diana came to prominence in 1981 upon her engagement to Prince Charles, Princes of Wales the eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II, after a brief courtship. Their wedding took place at St Paul’s Cathedral on July 29, 1981 which made her HRH The Princess of Wales, a role in which she was enthusiastically received by the public.

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The couple had two sons, the Prince William (current Duke of Cambridge) and Henry (Harry, current Duke of Sussex), who were then second and third in the line of succession to the British throne. Diana’s marriage to Charles, however, suffered due to their incompatibility and extramarital affairs. The couple separated in 1992, soon after the breakdown of their relationship became public knowledge. The details of their marital difficulties became increasingly publicised, and the marriage ended in divorce in 1996.

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(My favorite picture of Diana, Princess of Wales)

As Princess of Wales, Diana undertook royal duties on behalf of the Queen and represented her at functions across the Commonwealth realms. She was celebrated in the media for her unconventional approach to charity work. Her patronages initially centered on children and youth but she later became known for her involvement with AIDS patients and campaign for the removal of landmines.

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She also raised awareness and advocated ways to help people affected with cancer and mental illness. As princess, Diana was initially noted for her shyness, but her charisma and friendliness endeared her to the public and helped her reputation survive the acrimonious collapse of her marriage.

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Exceptionally photogenic, she was a leader of fashion in the 1980s and 1990s. Media attention and public mourning were extensive after her death in a car crash in a Paris tunnel in 1997 and subsequent televised funeral. Her legacy has had a deep impact on the royal family and British society.

This date in History: August 30, 1831. Death of Princess Louise of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg.

30 Friday Aug 2019

Posted by liamfoley63 in Featured Royal, This Day in Royal History

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Duke Ernst I of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Duke Ernst II of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Frederick Francis of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Louise of Saxe-Gotha--Altenburg, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom of Great Britain

Princess Louise of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg (Louise Dorothea Pauline Charlotte Fredericka Auguste; December 21, 1800 – August 30, 1831) was the wife of Ernst I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and the mother of Duke Ernst II and Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria. She was the paternal grandmother of King Edward VII of the United Kingdom. She is also the paternal great-great-great grandmother of Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom.

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Princess Louise of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg

Family

Princess Louise was the only daughter of August, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg and his first wife Louise Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, daughter of Friedrich Franz I, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Princess Louise of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg (whom she was named after).

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Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha

On July 31, 1817 in Gotha, sixteen-year-old Louise married her thirty-three-year-old kinsman Ernst III, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, (later Ernst I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha), after he failed to win the hand of a Russian grand duchess. Louise was considered “young, clever, and beautiful”.

They had two children: Ernst, who inherited his father’s lands and titles, and Albert, who was later the husband of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom.

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Princess Louise of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg with her sons Prince Albert and Prince Ernst.

The marriage was unhappy because of Ernst’s infidelities and the couple separated in 1824. St. Wendel, in the Principality of Lichtenberg, was assigned as her new residence (it was an exclave of Saxe-Coburg und Gotha; see Sotnick on this period), and Louise was forced to leave her two sons behind.

Biographer Lytton Strachey noted in 1921: “The ducal court was not noted for the strictness of its morals; the Duke was a man of gallantry, and it was rumored that the Duchess followed her husband’s example. There were scandals: one of the Court Chamberlains, a charming and cultivated man of Jewish extraction, was talked of; at last there was a separation, followed by a divorce.

Post-divorce

On March 31, 1826 their marriage was officially dissolved. Seven months later, on October 18, 1826, Louise secretly married in St. Wendel her former lover, the Baron Alexander von Hanstein (later created Count of Pölzig and Beiersdrof). In her previous marriage, she had taken great interest in the social life of the principality and was revered as its Landesmutter (literally, “mother of the region”). Nevertheless, this happy life ended in February 1831, when her secret marriage to von Hanstein was discovered and she lost her children permanently.

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Left: Prince Albert. Right: Duke Ernst II.

Louise died of cancer on August 30, 1831, when she was only 30 years old. Years after her death, Queen Victoria described Louise in an 1864 memorandum: “The princess is described as having been very handsome, though very small; fair, with blue eyes; and Prince Albert is said to have been extremely like her.”

Louise was reinterred from her initial burial site at Morizkirche to the ducal mausoleum at Friedhof am Glockenberg [de] after it had been completed in 1859.

German History: Part V. Louis I the Pious & the Treaty of Verdun.

29 Thursday Aug 2019

Posted by liamfoley63 in Empire of Europe, Featured Monarch, Kingdom of Europe, Royal Genealogy, Royal Succession

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Charlemagne, Charles the Bald, East Francia, Emperor, Holy Roman Emperor, Holy Roman Empire, Judith of Bavaria, King of Aquitaine, Lothair I, Louis I the Pious, Louis the german, Middle Francia, West Francia

Louis I the Pious (778 – June 20, 840), also called the Fair, and the Debonaire, was the King of the Franks and co-Emperor with his father, Charlemagne, from 813. He was also King of Aquitaine from 781. As the only surviving adult son of Charlemagne and Hildegard, he became the sole ruler of the Franks and Emperor after his father’s death in 814, a position which he held until his death, save for the period 833–34, during which he was deposed.

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Louis I the Pious, Emperor and King of the Franks.

During his reign in Aquitaine, Louis was charged with the defence of the empire’s southwestern frontier. He conquered Barcelona from the Muslims in 801 and asserted Frankish authority over Pamplona and the Basques south of the Pyrenees in 812. As emperor he included his adult sons, Lothair, Pepin, and Louis, in the government and sought to establish a suitable division of the realm among them. The first decade of his reign was characterised by several tragedies and embarrassments, notably the brutal treatment of his nephew Bernard of Italy, for which Louis atoned in a public act of self-debasement.

In the 830s his empire was torn by civil war between his sons, only exacerbated by Louis’s attempts to include his son Charles by his second wife, Judith of Bavaria, was the daughter of Count Welf of Bavaria and Saxon noblewoman, Hedwig, in the succession plans. Though his reign ended on a high note, with order largely restored to his empire, it was followed by three years of civil war. Louis is generally compared unfavourably to his father, though the problems he faced were of a distinctly different sort.

The Treaty of Verdun, signed in August 843, was the first of the treaties that divided the Carolingian Empire into three separate kingdoms among the three surviving sons of Louis the Pious, who was the son of Charlemagne. The treaty, signed in Verdun-sur-Meuse, ended the three-year Carolingian Civil War 840-843.

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(Orange ~ Kingdom of West Francia; Purple ~ Kingdom of Middle Francia; Green ~ Kingdom of East Francia).

Following Charlemagne’s death, Louis was made ruler of the Carolingian empire. During his reign, he divided the empire so that each of his sons could rule over their own kingdom under the greater rule of their father. Lothair I was given the title of emperor but because of several re-divisions by his father and the resulting revolts, he became much less powerful. When Louis the Pious died in 840, his eldest son, Lothair I, claimed overlordship over the entirety of his father’s kingdom in an attempt to reclaim the power he had at the beginning of his reign as emperor.

Lothair also supported his nephew, Pepin II’s claim to the crown of Aquitaine, a large province in the west of the Frankish realm. Lothair’s brother, Louis the German, and his half-brother Charles the Bald refused to acknowledge Lothair’s suzerainty and declared war against him. After a bloody civil war, they defeated Lothair at the Battle of Fontenay in 841 and sealed their alliance in 842 with the Oaths of Strasbourg which declared Lothair unfit for the imperial throne, after which he became willing to negotiate a settlement.

Provisions of the treaty

Each of the three brothers was already established in one kingdom: Lothair in the Kingdom of Italy; Louis the German in Kingdom of Bavaria; and Charles the Bald in the Kingdom of Aquitaine:

* Lothair I received Middle Francia, the central portion of the empire.

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Lothair I. Emperor King of Middle Francia.

In the settlement, Lothair (who had been named co-emperor in 817) retained his title as emperor, but it conferred only nominal overlordship of his brothers’ lands.

His domain later became the Low Countries, Lorraine, Alsace, Burgundy, Provence, and the Kingdom of Italy (which covered the northern half of the Italian Peninsula). He also received the two imperial cities, Aachen and Rome.

* Louis the German received the East Francia portion of the empire.

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Louis the German. King of East Francia.

He was guaranteed the kingship of all lands to the east of the Rhine and to the north and east of Italy, called East Francia. It eventually became the High Medieval Kingdom of Germany, the largest component of the Holy Roman Empire.

* Charles the Bald received the West Francia portion of the empire, which later became the Kingdom of France.

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Charles the Bald. King of West Francia.

Pepin II was granted the Kingdom of Aquitaine, but only under the authority of Charles. Charles received all lands west of the Rhône, called West Francia.

After Lothair’s death in 855, Upper Burgundy and Lower Burgundy (Arles and Provence) passed to his third son, Charles of Provence, and the remaining territory north of the Alps to his second son, Lothair II, after whom the hitherto nameless territory was called Lotharingia. It would then become modern Lorraine. Lothair’s eldest son, Louis II, inherited Italy and his father’s claim to the Imperial throne.

This date in History: August 27, 1172. Marriage and 2nd Coronation of Henry the Young King of England.

27 Tuesday Aug 2019

Posted by liamfoley63 in Featured Monarch, Featured Royal, Kingdom of Europe, Royal Genealogy, Royal Succession, This Day in Royal History

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Bela III of Hungary, Duke of Anjou, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Henry II of England, Henry the Young King, King Richard I of England, Kings and Queens of England, Louis VII of France, Philippe II Augustus of France, Richard the Lion Heart

Henry the Young King (February 28, 1155 – June 11, 1183) was the eldest surviving son of Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine. Beginning in 1170, he was titular King of England, Duke of Normandy, Count of Anjou and Maine. Henry the Young King was the only King of England since the Norman Conquest to be crowned during his father’s reign, but spent his reign frustrated by his father’s refusal to grant him meaningful autonomous power.

Little is known of the young Prince Henry before the events associated with his marriage and coronation. His half-siblings (mother’s children by her first marriage to Louis VII of France) were Marie of France, Countess of Champagne and Alix of France. He had one elder brother, William IX, Count of Poitiers (August 17, 1153 – December 2, 1156) and his younger siblings included Matilda, Richard, Geoffrey, Eleanor, Joan, and John.

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In June 1170, the fifteen-year-old Henry was crowned king during his father’s lifetime, something originally practised by the French Capetian dynasty and adopted by the English kings Stephen and Henry II. The physical appearance of Henry at his coronation in 1170 is given in a contemporary court poem written in Latin, where the fifteen-year-old prince is described as being very handsome, “tall but well proportioned, broad-shouldered with a long and elegant neck, pale and freckled skin, bright and wide blue eyes, and a thick mop of the reddish-gold hair.”

He was known in his own lifetime as “Henry the Young King” to distinguish him from his father. Because he was not a reigning king, he is not counted in the numerical succession of the Kings of England.

Henry is described as a constant competitor at tournaments across northern and central France between 1175 and 1182. With his cousins, Philippe I, Count of Flanders, and Baldwin V, Count of Hainaut, he was a key patron of the sport. Though Henry lacked political weight, his patronage brought him celebrity status throughout western Europe.

On November 2, 1160, he was betrothed to Margaret of France, daughter of King Louis VII of France and his second wife, Constance of Castile, when he was 5 years of age and she was at least 2. The marriage was an attempt to finally settle the struggle between the counts of Anjou and the French kings over possession of the frontier district of the Norman Vexin, which Louis VII had acquired from Henry’s grandfather, Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou, in around 1144.

By the terms of the settlement, Margaret would bring the castles of the Norman Vexin to her new husband. However, the marriage was pushed through by Henry II when Young Henry and Margaret were small children so that he could seize the castles for himself. A bitter border war followed between the kings.

Henry and Margaret were formally married on August 27, 1172 at Winchester Cathedral, when Henry, aged seventeen, was crowned King of England a second time, this time together with Margaret, by Rotrou, the Archbishop of Rouen.

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Young Henry fell out of favor with his father in 1173. Contemporary chroniclers allege that this was owing to the young Henry’s frustration that his father had given him no realm to rule, and his feeling starved of funds. The rebellion seems, however, to have drawn strength from much deeper discontent with his father’s rule, and a formidable party of Anglo-Norman, Norman, Angevin, Poitevin and Breton magnates joined him.

The revolt of 1173–1174 came close to toppling King Henry II; he was narrowly saved by the loyalty of a party of nobles with holdings on the English side of the Channel, and by the defeat and capture of William I, the King of Scotland. Young Henry sought a reconciliation after the capture of his mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine, and the failure of the rebellion. His funds were much increased by the terms of the settlement, and he apparently devoted most of the next seven years to the amusement of the tournament.

In November 1179, Henry represented his father at the coronation of Philippe II Augustus as associate king of France at Reims. He acted as Steward of France and carried the crown in the coronation procession. Later, he played a leading role in the celebratory tournament held at Lagny-sur-Marne, to which he brought a retinue of over 500 knights at huge expense.

Henry the Young King contracted dysentery at the beginning of June 1183, during the course of a campaign in Limousin against his father and his brother Richard the Lionheart. Young Henry had just finished pillaging local monasteries to raise money to pay his mercenaries. He Weakening fast, he was taken to Martel, near Limoges. It was clear to his household that he was dying on June 7, when he was confessed and received the last rites.

As a token of his penitence for his war against his father, he prostrated himself naked on the floor before a crucifix. He made a testament and, since he had taken a crusader’s vow, he gave his cloak to his friend William Marshal, with the plea that he should take the cloak (presumably with the crusader’s cross stitched to it) to the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.

On his deathbed, he reportedly asked to be reconciled to his father, but King Henry II, fearing a trick, refused to see him. He died on June 11, aged 28, six years before his father, leaving his brother Richard to become the next king. Henry died clasping a ring his father had sent as a sign of his forgiveness. After his death, his father is said to have exclaimed: “He cost me much, but I wish he had lived to cost me more.”

Three years after the death of her husband, Margaret, titular Queen of England and Duchess of Anjou by righter of her husband, became the second wife of Béla III of Hungary in 1186, after receiving a substantial pension in exchange for surrendering her dowry of Gisors and the Vexin. She was widowed for a second time in 1196 and died on pilgrimage to the Holy Land at St John of Acre in 1197, having only arrived eight days prior to her death.

This date in History: August 26, 1819. Birth of Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.

26 Monday Aug 2019

Posted by liamfoley63 in Featured Royal, Happy Birthday, Kingdom of Europe, This Day in Royal History

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Crystal Palace, Duchess of Kent, Ernest II, Great Exhibition, House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Prince Consort, Queen Elizabeth II, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, Trent Affair

Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (German: Franz Albert August Karl Emanuel. August 26, 1819 – December 14, 1861) was born at Schloss Rosenau, near Coburg in the German Confederation of the Rhine, the second son of Ernst III, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, and his first wife, Louise of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg. Albert’s future wife, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, was born earlier in the same year with the assistance of the same midwife, Charlotte von Siebold.

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Albert was baptised into the Lutheran Evangelical Church on September 19, 1819 in the Marble Hall at Schloss Rosenau with water taken from the local river, the Itz. His godparents were his paternal grandmother, Countess Augusta Reuss of Ebersdorf, the Dowager Duchess of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld; his maternal grandfather, August, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg; Emperor Franz I of Austria; Prince Albert Casimir of Saxony, the Duke of Teschen; and Emanuel, Count of Mensdorff-Pouilly.

In 1825, Albert’s great-uncle, Friedrich IV, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, died. His death led to a realignment of Saxon duchies the following year and Albert’s father became the first reigning Duke Ernst I of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Albert and his elder brother, Ernst, spent their youth in a close companionship marred by their parents’ turbulent marriage and eventual separation and divorce. After their mother was exiled from court in 1824, she married her lover, Alexander von Hanstein, Count of Polzig and Beiersdorf. She presumably never saw her children again, and died of cancer at the age of 30 in 1831.

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The brothers were educated privately at home by Christoph Florschütz and later studied in Brussels, where Adolphe Quetelet was one of their tutors. Like many other German princes, Albert attended the University of Bonn, where he studied law, political economy, philosophy and the history of art. He played music and excelled at sport, especially fencing and riding. His tutors at Bonn included the philosopher Fichte and the poet Schlegel.

Marriage to Queen Victoria

The idea of marriage between Albert and his cousin, Victoria, was first documented in an 1821 letter from his paternal grandmother, Countess Augusta Reuss of Ebersdorf, the Dowager Duchess of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, who said that he was “the pendant to the pretty cousin”. By 1836, this idea had also arisen in the mind of their ambitious uncle Leopold, who had been King of the Belgians since 1831. At this time, Victoria was the heir presumptive to the British throne. Her father, Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, the fourth son of King George III of the United Kingdom and Queen Charlotte (née Duchess of Mecklenburg-Streitz) had died when she was a baby, and her elderly uncle, King William IV, had no legitimate children. Her mother, the Duchess of Kent, was the sister of both Albert’s father—the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha—and King Leopold.

Leopold arranged for his sister, Victoria’s mother, to invite the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and his two sons to visit her in May 1836, with the purpose of meeting Victoria. William IV, however, disapproved of any match with the Coburgs, and instead favoured the suit of Prince Alexander, second son of the Prince of Orange (future King Willem II of the Netherlands). Victoria was well aware of the various matrimonial plans and critically appraised a parade of eligible princes. She wrote, “[Albert] is extremely handsome; his hair is about the same colour as mine; his eyes are large and blue, and he has a beautiful nose and a very sweet mouth with fine teeth; but the charm of his countenance is his expression, which is most delightful.” Alexander, on the other hand, she described as “very plain”. Victoria wrote to her uncle Leopold to thank him “for the prospect of great happiness you have contributed to give me, in the person of dear Albert … He possesses every quality that could be desired to render me perfectly happy.”Although the parties did not undertake a formal engagement, both the family and their retainers widely assumed that the match would take place.

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Victoria came to the throne aged eighteen on June 20, 1837. Her letters of the time show interest in Albert’s education for the role he would have to play, although she resisted attempts to rush her into marriage. In the winter of 1838–39, the prince visited Italy, accompanied by the Coburg family’s confidential adviser, Baron Stockmar.

Albert returned to the United Kingdom with Ernst in October 1839 to visit the Queen, with the objective of settling the marriage. Albert and Victoria felt mutual affection and the Queen proposed to him on October 15, 1839. Victoria’s intention to marry was declared formally to the Privy Council on November 23, and the couple married on February 10, 1840 at the Chapel Royal, St James’s Palace. Just before the marriage, Albert was naturalised by Act of Parliament, and granted the style of Royal Highness by an Order in Council.

Initially Albert was not popular with the British public; he was perceived to be from an impoverished and undistinguished minor state, barely larger than a small English county. The British Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne, advised the Queen against granting her husband the title of “King Consort”; Parliament also objected to Albert being created a peer—partly because of anti-German sentiment and a desire to exclude Albert from any political role.

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Melbourne led a minority government and the opposition took advantage of the marriage to weaken his position further. They opposed the ennoblement of Albert and granted him a smaller annuity than previous consorts, £30,000 instead of the usual £50,000. Albert claimed that he had no need of a British peerage, writing: “It would almost be a step downwards, for as a Duke of Saxony, I feel myself much higher than a Duke of York or Kent.” For the next seventeen years, Albert was formally titled “HRH Prince Albert” (his territorial designation, Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, was dropped upon marriage) until, on June 25, 1857, Victoria formally granted him the title Prince Consort. This shoddy treatment of Prince Albert was not repeated with the consort of the next Queen Regnant, Elizabeth II, who’s husband, Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, was made a peer-of-the-realm as the Duke of Edinburgh and was made a Prince of the United Kingdom in his own right in 1957.

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Initially he felt constrained by his role of prince consort, which did not afford him power or responsibilities. He gradually developed a reputation for supporting public causes, such as educational reform and the abolition of slaveryworldwide, and was entrusted with running the Queen’s household, office and estates. He was heavily involved with the organisation of the Great Exhibition of 1851, which was a resounding success.

Victoria came to depend more and more on Albert’s support and guidance. He aided the development of Britain’s constitutional monarchy by persuading his wife to be less partisan in her dealings with Parliament—although he actively disagreed with the interventionist foreign policy pursued during Lord Palmerston’s tenure as Foreign Secretary.

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A man of progressive and relatively liberal ideas, Albert not only led reforms in university education, welfare, the royal finances and slavery, he had a special interest in applying science and art to the manufacturing industry. The Great Exhibition of 1851 arose from the annual exhibitions of the Society of Arts, of which Albert was President from 1843, and owed most of its success to his efforts to promote it. Albert served as president of the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851, and had to fight for every stage of the project.

In the House of Lords, Lord Brougham fulminated against the proposal to hold the exhibition in Hyde Park. Opponents of the exhibition prophesied that foreign rogues and revolutionists would overrun England, subvert the morals of the people, and destroy their faith.Albert thought such talk absurd and quietly persevered, trusting always that British manufacturing would benefit from exposure to the best products of foreign countries.

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The Queen opened the exhibition in a specially-designed and -built glass building known as the Crystal Palace on May 1, 1851. It proved a colossal success. A surplus of £180,000 was used to purchase land in South Kensington on which to establish educational and cultural institutions—including the Natural History Museum, Science Museum, Imperial College London and what would later be named the Royal Albert Hall and the Victoria and Albert Museum. The area was referred to as “Albertopolis” by sceptics.

In August 1859, Albert fell seriously ill with stomach cramps. He had an accidental brush with death during a trip to Coburg in the autumn of 1860, when he was driving alone in a carriage drawn by four horses that suddenly bolted. As the horses continued to gallop toward a stationary wagon waiting at a railway crossing, Albert jumped for his life from the carriage. One of the horses was killed in the collision, and Albert was badly shaken, though his only physical injuries were cuts and bruises. He confided in his brother and eldest daughter that he had sensed his time had come.

In March 1861, Victoria’s mother and Albert’s aunt, the Duchess of Kent, died and Victoria was grief-stricken; Albert took on most of the Queen’s duties, despite continuing to suffer with chronic stomach trouble. The last public event he presided over was the opening of the Royal Horticultural Gardens on June 5, 1861. In August, Victoria and Albert visited the Curragh Camp, Ireland, where the Prince of Wales was doing army service. At the Curragh, the Prince of Wales was introduced, by his fellow officers, to Nellie Clifden, an Irish actress.

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By November, Victoria and Albert had returned to Windsor, and the Prince of Wales had returned to Cambridge, where he was a student. Two of Albert’s young cousins, brothers King Pedro V of Portugal and Prince Ferdinand, died of typhoid fever within five days of each other in early November. On top of this news, Albert was informed that gossip was spreading in gentlemen’s clubs and the foreign press that the Prince of Wales was still involved with Nellie Clifden. Albert and Victoria were horrified by their son’s indiscretion, and feared blackmail, scandal or pregnancy. Although Albert was ill and at a low ebb, he travelled to Cambridge to see the Prince of Wales on November 25 to discuss his son’s indiscreet affair. In his final weeks Albert suffered from pains in his back and legs.

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When the Trent Affair—the forcible removal of Confederate envoys from a British ship by Union forces during the American Civil War—threatened war between the United States and Britain, Albert was gravely ill but intervened to soften the British diplomatic response and thus averting Britain getting involved in the US Civil War.

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On December 9, one of Albert’s doctors, William Jenner, diagnosed him with typhoid fever. Albert died at 10:50 p.m. on December 14, 1861 in the Blue Room at Windsor Castle, in the presence of the Queen and five of their nine children. The contemporary diagnosis was typhoid fever, but modern writers have pointed out that Albert’s ongoing stomach pain, leaving him ill for at least two years before his death, may indicate that a chronic disease, such as Crohn’s disease, renal failure, or abdominal cancer, was the actual cause of death.

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Prince Albert, Queen Victoria and their nine children, 1857. Left to right: Alice, Arthur, Albert (Prince Consort), Albert Edward (Prince of Wales), Leopold, Louise, Queen Victoria with Beatrice, Alfred, Victoria and Helena.

Prince Albert and Queen Victoria had 9 children, 4 sons and 5 daughters. Prince Albert’s 42 grandchildren included four reigning monarchs: King George V of the United Kingdom; Wilhelm II, German Emperor; Ernst-Ludwig, Grand Duke of Hesse and By Rhine and Charles Edward, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and five consorts of monarchs: Queens Maud of Norway, Sophia of Greece, Victoria Eugenie of Spain, Marie of Romania, and Empress Alexandra of Russia. Albert’s many descendants include royalty and nobility throughout Europe.

Wedding of Princess Beatrice of the United Kingdom and Prince Henry of Battenberg.

23 Friday Aug 2019

Posted by liamfoley63 in Featured Royal, From the Emperor's Desk

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Emperor Napoleon III of France, Grand Duke Ludwig IV of Hesse and By Rhine, Hesse and By Rhine, House of Battenberg, King Edward VII of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, Louis Napoleon, Osborne House, Parliament, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Prince Henry of Battenberg, Prince Louis of Battenberg, Prince of Wales, Princess Alice of the United Kingdom, Princess Beatrice, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, royal wedding

My note: although the wedding of Princess Beatrice of the United Kingdom and Prince Henry of Battenberg occurred on July 23 1885, and I’m about a month late, I would still like to present the information today.

Background on the Bride.
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Princess Beatrice of the United Kingdom, (Beatrice Mary Victoria Feodore; April 14, 1857 – October 26, 1944) was born at Buckingham Palace, the fifth daughter and youngest of the nine children of the reigning British monarch, Queen Victoria, and her husband, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (later the Prince Consort).

Beatrice’s childhood coincided with Queen Victoria’s grief following the death of her husband on December 14, 1861. As her elder sisters married and left their mother, the Queen came to rely on the company of her youngest daughter, whom she called “Baby” for most of her childhood. Beatrice was brought up to stay with her mother always and she soon resigned herself to her fate. The Queen was so set against her youngest daughter marrying that she refused to discuss the possibility.

Background on the Groom.

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Prince Henry of Battenberg (Henry Maurice; October 5, 1858 – January 20, 1896) was a morganaticdescendant of the Grand Ducal House of Hesse and By Rhine. Henry was born on October 5, 1858 in Milan, Lombardy–Venetia. His father was Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine, the third son and fourth child of Grand Duke Ludwig II of Hesse and By Rhine and Princess Wilhelmina of Baden. His mother was Countess Julia von Hauke. He was known as “Liko” to his family.

His parents’ marriage was morganatic, as Julia was not considered a proper wife for a prince of a reigning dynasty, being only a countess. As such, at the time of his birth, Henry could not bear his father’s title or name, and was styled His Illustrious Highness Count Henry (Heinrich) Maurice of Battenberg. When Henry’s mother was raised to Princess von Battenberg and given the higher style of Her Serene Highnessby Alexander’s older brother, Ludwig III, Grand Duke of Hesse of and By Rhine, Henry and his siblings shared in their mother’s new rank. He became His Serene Highness Prince Henry of Battenberg, although he remained ineligible to inherit the Grand Ducal throne of Hesse and By Rhine or to receive a civil list stipend.

Marriage

Possible suitors for Princess Beatrice

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Although the Queen was set against Beatrice marrying anyone in the expectation that she would always stay at home with her, a number of possible suitors were put forward before Beatrice’s marriage to Prince Henry of Battenberg. One of these was Napoléon Eugéne, the French Prince Imperial, son and heir of the exiled Emperor Napoleon III of France and his wife, Empress Eugénie.

After Prussia defeated France in the Franco-Prussian War, Napoleon was deposed and moved his family to England in 1870. After the Emperor’s death in 1873, Queen Victoria and Empress Eugénie formed a close attachment, and the newspapers reported the imminent engagement of Beatrice to the Prince Imperial. These rumours ended with the death of the Prince Imperial in the Anglo-Zulu War on June 1, 1879. Queen Victoria’s journal records their grief: “Dear Beatrice, crying very much as I did too, gave me the telegram … It was dawning and little sleep did I get … Beatrice is so distressed; everyone quite stunned.”

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Louis Napoléon, Prince Imperial

After the death of the Prince Imperial, the Prince of Wales suggested that Beatrice marry their sister Alice’s widower, Ludwig IV, Grand Duke of Hesse. Alice had died in 1878, and the Prince argued that Beatrice could act as replacement mother for Ludwig’s young children and spend most of her time in England looking after her mother. He further suggested the Queen could oversee the upbringing of her Hessian grandchildren with greater ease.

However, at the time, it was forbidden by law for Beatrice to marry her sister’s widower. This was countered by the Prince of Wales, who vehemently supported passage by the Houses of Parliament of the Deceased Wife’s Sister Bill, which would have removed the obstacle. Despite popular support for this measure and although it passed in the House of Commons, it was rejected by the House of Lords because of opposition from the Lords Spiritual. Although the Queen was disappointed that the bill had failed, she was happy to keep her daughter at her side.

Other candidates, including two of Prince Henry’s brothers, Prince Alexander (“Sandro”) and Prince Louis of Battenberg, were put forward to be Beatrice’s husband, but they did not succeed. Although Alexander never formally pursued Beatrice, merely claiming that he “might even at one time have become engaged to the friend of my childhood, Beatrice of England”, Louis was more interested. Queen Victoria invited him to dinner but sat between him and Beatrice, who had been told by the Queen to ignore Louis to discourage his suit.

Louis, not realising for several years the reasons for this silence, married Beatrice’s niece, Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine, the eldest daughter of Grand Duke Ludwig IV of Hesse and By Rhine and Beatrice’s sister, Princess Alice of the United Kingdom” Although her marriage hopes had been dealt another blow, while attending Louis’s wedding at Darmstadt, Beatrice fell in love with Prince Henry, who returned her affections.

When Beatrice, after returning from Darmstadt, told her mother she planned to marry, the Queen reacted with frightening silence. Although they remained side by side, the Queen did not talk to her for seven months, instead communicating by note. Queen Victoria’s behaviour, unexpected even by her family, seemed prompted by the threatened loss of her daughter. The Queen regarded Beatrice as her “Baby” – her innocent child – and viewed the physical sex that would come with marriage as an end to innocence.

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Princess Beatrice in her wedding dress, Osborne, 1885. Beatrice wore her mother’s wedding veil of Honiton lace.

Subtle persuasions by the Princess of Wales and the Crown Princess of Prussia, who reminded her mother of the happiness that Beatrice had brought the Prince Consort, induced the Queen to resume talking to Beatrice. Queen Victoria consented to the marriage on condition that Henry give up his German commitments and live permanently with Beatrice and the Queen.

Beatrice and Henry were married at Saint Mildred’s Church at Whippingham, near Osborne, on July 23, 1885. Beatrice, who wore her mother’s wedding veil of Honiton lace, was escorted by the Queen and Beatrice’s eldest brother, the Prince of Wales. Princess Beatrice was attended by ten royal bridesmaids from among her nieces: (see picture below)

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(Back row left to right) Prince Alexander of Battenberg, Princess Louise of Wales, Princess Irene of Hesse, Princess Victoria of Wales, Prince Franz Josef of Battenberg, (middle row, left to right) Princess Maud of Wales, Princess Alix of Hesse, Princesses Marie Louise and Helena Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein, (front row, left to right) Princesses Victoria Melita, Marie and Alexandra of Edinburgh, Princess Beatrice and Prince Henry of Battenberg. Photograph taken at Osborne.

The bridegroom’s supporters were his brothers, Prince Alexander of Bulgaria and Prince Francis Joseph of Battenberg.

The ceremony – which was not attended by her eldest sister and brother-in-law, the Crown Prince and Princess of Prussia, who were detained in Germany; William Ewart Gladstone; or Beatrice’s cousin, Princess Mary Adelaide, Duchess of Teck, who was in mourning for her father-in-law – ended with the couple’s departure for their honeymoon at Quarr Abbey House, a few miles from Osborne. The Queen, taking leave of them, “bore up bravely till the departure and then fairly gave way”, as she later admitted to the Crown Princess.

The Grand Duke of Hesse with his children, 23 Jul 1885.

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Princess Alix of Hesse, Ernst Ludwig, Hereditary Grand Duke of Hesse, Victoria, Princess Louis of Battenberg, Princess Irene of Hesse and Ludwig IV, Grand Duke of Hesse. The group are dressed for the wedding of Prince Henry of Battenberg and Princess Beatrice. Photograph taken at Osborne.

After a short honeymoon, Beatrice and her husband fulfilled their promise and returned to the Queen’s side. The Queen made it clear that she could not cope on her own and that the couple could not travel without her. Although the Queen relaxed this restriction shortly after the marriage, Beatrice and Henry travelled only to make short visits with his family. Beatrice’s love for Henry, like that of the Queen’s for the Prince Consort, seemed to increase the longer they were married. When Henry travelled without Beatrice, she appeared happier when he returned.

German History Part IV: Charlemagne and the Carolingian Empire.

22 Thursday Aug 2019

Posted by liamfoley63 in Empire of Europe, Featured Monarch, Royal Genealogy, Royal Succession

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Byzantine Empire, Charlemagne, Charles the Great, Constantinople, Empress Irene, France, Germany, Holy Roman Emperor, Holy Roman Empire, Kingdom of France, Pope Leo III

My Note: in discussing how the Kingdom of the Franks evolved into both the Kingdom of France and the Holy Roman Empire, it’s not the scope of this entry to thoroughly review the life of Charlemagne. My aim is to give a cursory understanding of how Charlemagne gained the imperial title and divided his empire.

Under the Carolingians, the Frankish kingdom spread to encompass an area including most of Western Europe; the east-west division of the kingdom formed the basis for modern France and Germany.

Charlemagne was the eldest son of Pepin the Short and Bertrada of Laon, born before their canonical marriage. He became King of the Franks in 768 following his father’s death, initially as co-ruler with his brother Carloman I. Carloman’s sudden death in December 771 under unexplained circumstances left Charlemagne as the sole ruler of the Frankish Kingdom. He continued his father’s policy towards the papacy and became its protector, removing the Lombards from power in northern Italy and leading an incursion into Muslim Spain. He campaigned against the Saxons to his east, Christianizing them upon penalty of death and leading to events such as the Massacre of Verden.

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Charlemagne, King of the Franks, Emperor of the Romans

Charlemagne’s reign was one of near-constant warfare, personally leading many of his campaigns. He seized the Lombard Kingdom in 774, led a failed campaign into Spain in 778, extended his domain into Bavaria in 788, ordered his son Pepin to campaign against the Avars in 795, and conquered Saxon territories in wars and rebellions fought from 772 to 804.

In 799, Pope Leo III had been assaulted by some of the Romans, who tried to put out his eyes and tear out his tongue. His enemies had accused Leo III of adultery and perjury. Leo escaped and fled to Charlemagne at Paderborn. Charlemagne ordered the Pope’s accusers to Paderborn, but no decision could be made. Charlemagne then had Leo escorted back to Rome. In November 800, Charlemagne, advised by scholar Alcuin, travelled to Rome, and on December 1 held a council there with representatives of both sides of the dispute. Leo III, on December 23, took an oath of purgation concerning the charges brought against him, and his opponents were exiled.

At Mass, on Christmas Day (25 December), when Charlemagne knelt at the altar to pray, the Pope crowned him Imperator Romanorum (“Emperor of the Romans”) in Saint Peter’s Basilica. In so doing, the Pope rejected the legitimacy of Roman Empress Irene of Constantinople.

Charlemagne’s coronation as Emperor, though intended to represent the continuation of the unbroken line of Emperors from Augustus to Constantine VI, had the effect of setting up two separate (and often opposing) Empires and two separate claims to imperial authority. For centuries to come, the Emperors of both West and East would make competing claims of sovereignty over the whole.

Einhard says that Charlemagne was ignorant of the Pope’s intent and did not want any such coronation:

[H]e at first had such an aversion that he declared that he would not have set foot in the Church the day that they [the imperial titles] were conferred, although it was a great feast-day, if he could have foreseen the design of the Pope.

A number of modern scholars, however, suggest that Charlemagne was indeed aware of the coronation; certainly, he cannot have missed the bejewelled crown waiting on the altar when he came to pray; something even contemporary sources support.

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The Carolingian Empire during the reign of Charlemagne covered most of Western Europe, as the Roman Empire once had. Unlike the Romans, who ventured to Germania beyond the Rhine only for vengeance after the disaster at Teutoburg Forest(9 AD), Charlemagne decisively crushed all Germanic resistance and extended his realm to the Elbe, influencing events almost to the Russian Steppes.

Prior to the death of Charlemagne, the Empire was divided among various members of the Carolingian dynasty. These included King Charles the Younger, son of Charlemagne, who received Neustria; King Louis the Pious, who received Aquitaine; and King Pepin, who received Italy. Pepin died with an illegitimate son, Bernard, in 810, and Charles died without heirs in 811. Although Bernard succeeded Pepin as King of Italy, Louis I the Pious was made co-Emperor in 813, and the entire Empire passed to him with Charlemagne’s death in the winter of 814.

Charlemagne has been called the “Father of Europe” (Pater Europae),as he united most of Western Europe for the first time since the classical era of the Roman Empireand united parts of Europe that had never been under Frankish or Roman rule. His rule spurred the Carolingian Renaissance, a period of energetic cultural and intellectual activity within the Western Church.

End note: The last entry in the series will discuss in depth the history of the imperial title itself.

This date in History. August 21, 1810: Election of Jean Baptiste Bernadotte as Crown Prince of Sweden.

21 Wednesday Aug 2019

Posted by liamfoley63 in Featured Monarch, Kingdom of Europe, Royal Genealogy, Royal Succession, This Day in Royal History

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Carl XIII of Sweden, Carl XIV Johan of Sweden, Crown Prince, Crown Prince of Sweden, Emperor of the French, French Empire, Jean BaptisterBernadotte, Kingdom of Denmark, Kingdom of Norway, Kingdom of Sweden, Napoleon Bonaparte

Jean Baptiste Bernadotte was born in Pau, France, as the son of Jean Henri Bernadotte (Pau, Béarn, October 14, 1711 – Pau, March 31, 1780), prosecutor at Pau, and his wife (married at Boeil, February 20, 1754) Jeanne de Saint-Jean (Pau, April 1, 1728 – Pau, January 8, 1809), niece of the Lay Abbot of Sireix. The family name was originally du Poey (or de Pouey), but was changed to Bernadotte – a surname of an ancestress at the beginning of the 17th century.

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Jean Baptiste Bernadotte. King Carl XIV Johan of Sweden.

Soon after his birth, Baptiste was added to his name, to distinguish him from his elder brother Jean Évangeliste. Bernadotte himself added Jules to his first names as a tribute to the French Empire under Napoleon I. At the age of 14, he was apprenticed to a local attorney. However, the death of his father when Bernadotte was just 17 stopped the youth from following his father’s career.

In order to explain how the French Jean Baptiste Bernadotte became Crown Prince, and later King Carl XIV Johan of Sweden, here is some background information on the state of the Swedish monarchy at that time.

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Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden

In 1808, Gustav IV Adolf was highly unpopular and his uncle, Duke Carl, was once again chief commander during the king’s stay in Finland. He is presumed to have been, if not involved, aware of the plans to depose Gustav IV Adolf in 1809. He kept passive during the Coup of 1809, and accepted the post of regent from the victorious party after having assured himself that the deposed monarch was not in mortal danger.[5]Carl was initially not willing to accept the crown, however, out of consideration for the former king’s son, his 11 year old nephew, Prince Gustav, Count Itterburg (1799-1877).

On March 13, 1809, those who had dethroned Gustav IV Adolf appointed Carl regent, and he was finally elected King of Sweden as Carl XIII by the Riksdag of the Estates. By the time he became king, he was 60 years old and prematurely decrepit. In November 1809, he was affected by a heart attack, and was not able to participate in government. The new constitution which was introduced also made his involvement in politics difficult. A planned attempt to enlarge the royal power in 1809–10 was not put into effect because of his indecisiveness and health condition.

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Carl XIII of Sweden

His incapacity triggered a search for a suitable heir. The problem of Carl’s successor actually had been an accute issue almost from the time he had ascended the throne as it was apparent that the Swedish branch of the House of Holstein-Gottorp would die with him. He was 61 years old and in poor health. He was also childless; Queen Charlotte had given birth to two children who had died in infancy, and there was no prospect of her bearing another child. The initial choice for his successor was a Danish prince, Christian August, the son of Friedrich Christian I, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg (1721–1794) and Princess Charlotte of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Plön (1744–1770). Christian August took the name Carl August upon being adopted by Carl XIII.

In 1810 Bernadotte was about to enter his new post as governor of Rome when he was unexpectedly elected the heir-presumptive to King Carl XIII of Sweden.

Although the king had adopted the Danish prince, Charles August, as his son soon after his coronation, Emperor Napoleon favored his ally Danish King Frederik VI, as the new heir to the Swedish throne but he declined the offer. Danish Prince Frederick Christian II, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg (older brother of Carl August, the eventual choice for Swedish Crown Prince) initially had the most support to become Swedish Crown Prince as well.

The Swedish court initially sounded out the emperor for his preferences on candidates for crown prince, whereupon Napoleon made it clear he also preferred his son-in-law Eugène de Beauharnais, one of his nephews or one of his brothers. However, Eugène, serving as viceroy in Italy, did not wish to convert to Lutheranism, a prerequisite for accepting the Swedish offer. Moreover, none of Napoleon’s brothers was interested in going to Sweden and his nephews were too young as the Swedes did not want the hazards of minority rule in the event King Carl died prematurely.

The matter was decided by an obscure Swedish courtier, son of Baron Gustav Mörner, a commander of the Swedish force captured by Bernadotte at Lübeck, Baron Karl Otto Mörner, who, entirely on his own initiative, offered the succession to the Swedish crown to Bernadotte. Bernadotte communicated Mörner’s offer to Napoleon who at first treated the situation as an absurdity, but later came around to the idea and diplomatically and financially supported Bernadotte’s candidacy.

Although the Swedish government, amazed at Mörner’s effrontery, at once placed him under arrest on his return to Sweden, the candidature of Bernadotte gradually gained favour and on August 21, 1810 he was elected by the Riksdag of the Estates in Örebro to be the new crown prince, and was subsequently made Generalissimus of the Swedish Armed Forces by the king. Bernadotte was elected partly because a large part of the Swedish Army, in view of future complications with Russia, were in favour of electing a soldier, and partly because he was also personally popular, owing to the kindness he had shown to the Swedish prisoners in Lübeck.mAnother factor which favored Bernadotte’s election was his (presumed) close ties to French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, who had recently defeated Sweden in the Franco-Swedish War.

Before freeing Bernadotte from his allegiance to France, Napoleon asked him to agree never to take up arms against France. Bernadotte refused to make any such agreement, upon the ground that his obligations to Sweden would not allow it; Napoleon exclaimed “Go, and let our destinies be accomplished” and signed the act of emancipation unconditionally.

Upon the death of King Carl XIII on February 5, 1818, Crown Prince Carl Johan ascended as the union King, reigning as Carl XIV Johan in Sweden and Carl III Johan in Norway. In 1814 Sweden acquired Norway from Denmark. He was initially popular in both countries.

This date in History, August 19, 1772: Coup of Gustav III of Sweden.

19 Monday Aug 2019

Posted by liamfoley63 in Featured Monarch, Kingdom of Europe, This Day in Royal History

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Cathereine the Great, Denmark, Frederick the Great of Prussia, Frederik Adolf of Sweden, Gustav III of Sweden, Kingdom of Sweden, Parliament, Riksdag, Sophie Magdalena of Denmark, Sweden

The Revolution of 1772, also known as the Coup of Gustav III was a Swedish coup d’état performed by king Gustav III of Sweden on August 19, 1772 to introduce absolute monarchy against the Riksdag of the Estates, resulting in the end of the Age of libertyand the introduction of the Swedish Constitution of 1772.

First, a little personal information on the King of Sweden.

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Gustav III (January 24, 1746 – March 29 1792) was King of Sweden from February 12, 1771 until his assassination in 1792. He was the eldest son of Adolf Frederik, King of Sweden and Queen Louise Ulrika (a sister of King Friedrich II the Great of Prussia), and a first cousin of Empress Catherine II the Great of Russia by reason of their common descent from Christian August of Holstein-Gottorp, Prince of Eutin, and his wife Albertina Frederica of Baden-Durlach.

Gustav married Princess Sophia Magdalena, by proxy in Christiansborg Palace, Copenhagen, on October 1, 1766 and in person in Stockholm on November 4, 1766. Princess Sophia Magdalena was the daughter of King Frederik V of Denmar-Norway and his first wife Princess Louise of Great Britain the youngest surviving daughter of King George II of Great Britain and Caroline of Ansbach.

Gustav was first impressed by Sophia Magdalena’s beauty, but her silent nature made her a disappointment in court life. The match was not a happy one, owing partly to an incompatibility of temperament, but still more to the interference of Gustav’s jealous mother, Queen Louisa Ulrika. The marriage produced two children: Crown Prince Gustav Adolf (1778–1837), (future King Gustav IV Adolf) and Prince Carl Gustav, Duke of Småland(1782–1783).

Gustav III was known in Sweden and abroad by his Royal Titles, or styles:

Gustav III, by the Grace of God, of the Swedes, the Goths and the Vends King, Grand Prince of Finland, Duke of Pomerania, Prince of Rügen and Lord of Wismar, Heir to Norway and Duke of Schleswig-Holstein, Stormarn and Dithmarschen, Count of Oldenburg and Delmenhors.

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Revolution of 1772

Gustav III was a vocal opponent of what he saw as the abuse of political privileges seized by the nobility since the death of King Carl XII. At the time of his accession, the Swedish Riksdag held more power than the monarchy, but the Riksdag was bitterly divided between rival parties, the Hats and Caps. On his return to Sweden, Gustav III tried unsuccessfully to mediate between the bitterly divided parties. On June 21, 1771, he opened his first Riksdag with a speech that aroused powerful emotions. It was the first time in more than a century that a Swedish king had addressed a Swedish Riksdag in its native tongue. He stressed the need for all parties to sacrifice their animosities for the common good, and volunteered, as “the first citizen of a free people,” to be the mediator between the contending factions.

A composition committee was actually formed, but it proved illusory from the first: the patriotism of neither faction was sufficient for the smallest act of self-denial. The subsequent attempts of the dominant Caps to reduce him to being a powerless king encouraged him to consider a coup d’état. Under the sway of the Cap faction, Sweden seemed in danger of falling prey to the political ambitions of Russia. It appeared on the point of being absorbed into the Northern Accord sought by the Russian vice-chancellor, Count Nikita Panin. It seemed to many that only a swift and sudden coup d’état could preserve Sweden’s independence.

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(King Gustav III of Sweden and his Brothers; Gustav III (left) and his two brothers, Prince Frederik Adolf and Prince Carl, later Carl XIII of Sweden. Painting by Alexander Roslin.)

Gustav III was approached by Jacob Magnus Sprengtporten, a Finnish nobleman, who had incurred the enmity of the Caps, with the prospect of a revolution. He undertook to seize the fortress of Sveaborg in Finland by a coup de main. Once Finlandwas secured, he intended to embark for Sweden, join up with the king and his friends near Stockholm, and force the estatesto accept a new constitution dictated by the king.
At this juncture, the plotters were reinforced by Johan Christopher Toll another victim of Cap oppression.

Toll proposed to raise a second revolt in the province of Scania, and to secure the southern fortress of Kristianstad. After some debate, it was agreed that Kristianstad should openly declare against the government a few days after the Finnish revolt had begun. Duke Carl, the eldest of the king’s brothers, would thereupon be forced to mobilize the garrisons of all the southern fortresses hastily, ostensibly to crush the revolt at Kristianstad, but on arriving in front of the fortress, he was to make common cause with the rebels and march upon the capital from the south while Sprengtporten attacked it simultaneously from the east.

On August 6, 1772, Toll succeeded in winning the fortress of Kristianstad by sheer bluff, and on August 16, Sprengtporten succeeded in surprising Sveaborg, but contrary winds prevented him from crossing to Stockholm. Events soon occurred there that made his presence unnecessary in any case.

On August 16, the Cap leader, Ture Rudbeck, arrived at Stockholm with news of the insurrection in the south, and Gustav found himself isolated in the midst of enemies. Sprengtporten lay weather-bound in Finland, Toll was 500 miles away, the Hat leaders were in hiding. Gustav thereupon resolved to strike the decisive blow without waiting for Sprengtporten’s arrival.

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He acted promptly. On the evening of August 18, all the officers whom he thought he could trust received secret instructions to assemble in the great square facing the arsenal on the following morning. At ten o’clock on August 19, Gustav III mounted his horse and rode to the arsenal. On the way, his adherents joined him in little groups, as if by accident, so that by the time he reached his destination he had about 200 officers in his suite.

After parade he reconducted them to the guard-room in the north western wing of the palace where the Guard of Honour had its headquarters and unfolded his plans to them. He told the assembled officers,

“If you follow me, just like your ancestors followed Gustav Vasa and Gustavus Adolphus, then I will risk my life and blood for you and the salvation of the fatherland!”
A young ensign then spoke up:

“We are willing to sacrifice both blood and life in Your Majesty’s service!”

Gustav then dictated a new oath of allegiance, and everyone signed it without hesitation. It absolved them from their allegiance to the estates, and bound them solely to obey “their lawful king, Gustav III”.

Meanwhile, the Privy Council and its president, Rudbeck, had been arrested and the fleet secured. Then Gustav made a tour of the city and was everywhere received by enthusiastic crowds, who hailed him as a deliverer. A song was composed by Carl Michael Bellman called the “Toast to King Gustav!”

Now in full control of the government the king initiated a campaign to restore a measure of Royal autocracy, which was completed by the Union and Security Act of 1789, which swept away most of the powers exercised by the Swedish Riksdag (parliament) but at the same time it opened up the government for all citizens. This reinforced monarchical authority significantly, although the estates retained the power of the purse, it did hereby broke the privileges of the nobility.

The next day, August 20, 1772 a new constitution was imposed upon the Riksdag of the Estates by Gustav III which converted a weak and disunited republic into a strong but limited monarchy. The estates could assemble only when summoned by him; he could dismiss them whenever he thought fit; and their deliberations were to be confined exclusively to the propositions which he laid before them. But these extensive powers were subjected to important checks. Thus, without the previous consent of the estates, no new law could be imposed, no old law abolished, no offensive war undertaken, no extraordinary war subsidy levied. The estates alone could tax themselves; they had the absolute control of the Riksbank – the Bank of Sweden, and the right of controlling the national expenditure.

In 1789 the king further strengthened his power. The Union and Security Act, alternatively Act of Union and Security, was proposed by king Gustav III of Sweden to the assembled Estates of the Realm during the Riksdag of 1789. It was a document, adding to the Swedish Constitution of 1772 new provisions. The King strengthened his grip on power while at the same time riding on a popular wave that also meant a decrease in aristocratic power. It has been described as “fundamentally conservative”.

The Act of Union and Security gave the king the sole power to declare war and make peace instead of sharing the power with the estates and the Privy Council. The estates would lose the ability to initiate legislation, but they would keep the ability to vote on new taxes.

Another provision was that the King was enabled to determine the number of Privy Councillors and so he could abolish the Council altogether by determining their number to be zero. The judicial branch of the Privy Council (in Swedish: Justitierevisionen) was then transferred to a new Supreme Court.

Most noble privileges were abolished with the Act, with most offices now available to all regardless of rank. Noble lands could now be bought by anyone instead of only by nobles.

This date in History, August 17, 1786: Birth of Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, Duchess of Kent.

17 Saturday Aug 2019

Posted by liamfoley63 in Uncategorized

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Victoria was born in Coburg on August 17, 1786 in the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. She was the fourth daughter and seventh child of Franz-Friedrich, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, and Countess Augusta of Reuss-Ebersdorf. One of her brothers was Ernst I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, and another brother, Leopold, future king of the Belgians, who married, in 1816, Princess Charlotte of Wales, the only legitimate daughter of the future King George IV of the United King of Great Britain and heiress presumptive to the British throne.

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First Marriage

On December 21, 1803 at Coburg, a young Victoria married (as his second wife) Charles, Prince of Leiningen (1763–1814), whose first wife, Henrietta of Reuss-Ebersdorf, had been her aunt. The couple had two children, Prince Carl, born on September 12, 1804, and Princess Feodora of Leiningen, born on December 7, 1807.

Through her first marriage, she is a direct matrilineal ancestor to various members of royalty in Europe, including Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, Felipe VI of Spain, and Constantine II of Greece.

Regency

After the death of her first spouse, she served as regent of the Principality of Leiningen during the minority of their son, Carl.

Second marriage

The death in 1817 of Princess Charlotte of Wales, the wife of Victoria’s brother Leopold, prompted a succession crisis. With Parliament offering them a financial incentive, three of Charlotte’s uncles, sons of George III, were prepared to marry. One of them, Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn (1767–1820) proposed to Victoria and she accepted. The couple were married on May 29 1818 at Amorbachand on 11 July 1818 at Kew, a joint ceremony at which Edward’s brother, the Duke of Clarence, later King William IV, married Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen. Princess Victoria was 32 and the Duke of Kent was 51 at the time of their marriage.

Shortly after their marriage, the Kents moved to Germany, where the cost of living would be cheaper. Soon after, Victoria became pregnant, and the Duke and Duchess, determined to have their child born in England, raced back. Arriving at Dover on April 23, 1819, they moved into Kensington Palace, where Victoria gave birth to a daughter on May 24, 1819, Princess Alexandrina Victoria of Kent, later Queen Victoria. An efficient organiser, Sir John Conroy’s planning ensured the Kents’ speedy return to England in time for the birth of their first child.

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The Duke of Kent died suddenly of pneumonia in January 1820, six days before his father, King George III. His widow the Duchess had little cause to remain in the United Kingdom, since she did not speak the language and had a palace at home in Coburg where she could live cheaply on the revenues of her first husband. However, the British succession at this time was far from assured – of the three brothers older than Edward, the new king, George IV, and the Duke of York were both estranged from their wives, who were in any case past childbearing age. The third brother, the Duke of Clarence, had yet to produce any surviving children with his wife. The Duchess of Kent decided that she would do better by gambling on her daughter’s accession than by living quietly in Coburg and, having inherited her second husband’s debts, sought support from the British government. After the death of Edward and his father, the young Princess Victoria was still only third in line for the throne, and Parliament was not inclined to support yet more impoverished royalty.

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In 1831, with George IV dead and the new king, William IV, over 60 and without legitimate issue, the young princess’s status as heir presumptive and the Duchess’s prospective place as regent led to major increases in British state income for the Kents. A contributing factor was Leopold’s designation as King of the Belgians, upon which he surrendered his British income.

Conroy had high hopes for his patroness and himself: He envisaged Victoria succeeding the throne at a young age, thus needing a regency government, which, following the Regency Act 1830, would be headed by the princess’s mother (who had already served in that capacity in Germany following the death of her first husband). As the personal secretary of the Duchess, Conroy would be the veritable “power behind the throne”. He had not counted on William IV surviving long enough for Victoria to succeed to the throne as an adult and consequently, while cultivating her mother, had shown little consideration for Victoria.

When Victoria succeeded as Queen of the United Kingdom, Conroy risked having no influence over her. He tried to force Victoria to agree to make him her personal secretary once she succeeded, but this plan, too, backfired. Victoria resented her mother’s support for Conroy’s schemes and being pressured by her to sign a paper declaring Conroy her personal secretary. The result was that when Victoria became queen, she relegated the Duchess to separate accommodations, away from her own.

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Duchess of Kent with her grandson, Prince Alfred.

When the Queen’s first child, the Princess Royal, was born, the Duchess of Kent unexpectedly found herself welcomed back into Victoria’s inner circle. It is likely that this came about as a result of the dismissal of Baroness Lehzen at the behest of Victoria’s husband (and the Duchess’s nephew), Prince Albert. Firstly, this removed Lehzen’s influence, and Lehzen had long despised the Duchess and Conroy, suspecting them of an illicit affair. Secondly, it left the Queen wholly open to Albert’s influence, and he likely prevailed upon her to reconcile with her mother. Thirdly, Conroy by now lived in exile on the Continent and so his divisive influence was removed. The Duchess’s finances, which had been left in shambles by Conroy, were restored thanks to Victoria and her advisors. By all accounts, the Duchess became a doting grandmother and was closer to her daughter than she ever had been.

IMG_8020

The Duchess died at 09:30 on 16 March 1861 with her daughter Victoria at her side, aged 74 years. The Queen was much affected by her mother’s death. Through reading her mother’s papers, Victoria discovered that her mother had loved her deeply; she was heart-broken, and blamed Conroy and Lehzen for “wickedly” estranging her from her mother. She is buried in the Duchess of Kent’s Mausoleum at Frogmore, Windsor Home Park, near to the royal residence Windsor Castle.

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