January 31, 1512 & 1580: The life of King Henrique of Portugal.

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House of Aviz, John III of Portugal, King Henry of Portugal, King Sebastian of Portugal, Kingdom of Portugal, Kingdom of Spain, Manuel I of Portugal, Philip II of Spain

Henrique (January 31, 1512 – January 31, 1580) was king of Portugal and a cardinalof the Catholic Church. He ruled Portugal between 1578 and 1580 and was known as Henrique the Chaste and the Cardinal-King. As a clergyman, he never married and was bound to chastity, and as such, had no children to succeed him, and thus put an end to the House of Aviz.

His death led to the Portuguese succession crisis of 1580 and ultimately to the 60-year Iberian Union that saw Portugal share a monarch with that of Spain. The next independent monarch of Portugal would be João IV, who took the throne after 60 years of Spanish rule. King Henrique was born and died on January 31, 1512 and 1580 respectively.

Henrique was the fifth son of King Manuel I of Portugal and Maria of Aragon, the third surviving daughter of Isabella I of Castile and Fernando II-V of Aragon and Castile (the Catholic monarchs).

Cardinal
As the younger brother of King João III of Portugal and a younger son in the Royal Family, Henrique was not expected to succeed to the Portuguese throne. Early in his life, Henrique took Holy Orders to promote Portuguese interests within the Catholic Church, then dominated by Spain.

He rose fast through the Church hierarchy, becoming in quick succession Archbishop of Braga, Archbishop of Évora and Grand Inquisitor before receiving a galeroin 1545, along with the Titulus Ss. Quattuor Coronatorum. From 1564 to 1570 he was Archbishop of Lisbon. Henriqu, more than anyone, endeavoured to bring the Jesuits to Portugal to employ them in the colonial empire.

Reign
Henrique served as regent for his great-nephew King Sebastian, replacing his sister-in-law and Sebastian’s grandmother Queen dowager Catherine, (An Infanta of Castile and Archduchess of Austria, Catherine was the posthumous daughter of King Felipe I by Queen Joanna of Castile) following her resignation from the role in 1562.

King Sebastian died without an heir in the disastrous Battle of Alcácer Quibir that took place in 1578, and the elderly cardinal was proclaimed king soon after. Henrique sought to be released from his ecclesiastical vows so he could take a bride and pursue the continuation of the Aviz dynasty, but Pope Gregory XIII, not wanting to antagonize Felipe II of Spain, did not grant him that release.

Death and succession

The Cardinal-King died in Almeirim, on his 68th birthday, without having appointed a successor, leaving only a regency to care for the kingdom. One of the closest dynastic claimants was King Felipe II of Spain who, in November 1580, sent the Duke of Alba to claim Portugal by force. Lisbon soon fell, and Felipe II was elected king of Portugal at the Portuguese Cortesof Tomar in 1581—on the condition that the kingdom and its overseas territories would not become Spanish provinces.

History of the French Dynastic Disputes. Part III.

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Charles VI of France, Edward III of England, French Dynastic Disputes, Henry V of England, Henry VI of England, Hundred Years War, Kings and Queens of England, Kings of france, Philip IV of France, The Treaty of Troyes, Valois Succession

The Valois succession

In 1328, Edward III of England unsuccessfully claimed the French throne. There was a political motive for this claim and not just a genealogical claim.

The legal basis of this outcome is a corollary to the masculinity principle established in 1316. Women do not have a right to the throne; hence, no right of succession can be derived from them (Nemo dat quod non habet). Edward III had to give in, and for nine years the matter seemed resolved.

Edward III, King of England and Lord of Ireland

But the ancient alliance of the Scottish and the French, the disputes over the suzerainty of Gascony, and Edward III’s expansionist policy against Scotland, led to a long war between the kingdoms of England and France.

To alleviate the pressure on the Scots, the French carried out raids on English coastal towns, leading to rumours in England of a full-scale French invasion. In 1337, Philippe VI confiscated the English king’s Duchy of Aquitaine and the county of Ponthieu. Instead of seeking a peaceful resolution to the conflict by paying homage to the French king, as his father had done, Edward responded by laying claim to the French crown as the grandson of Philippe IV. The French rejected this based on the precedents for agnatic succession set in 1316 and 1322. Instead, they upheld the rights of Philippe IV’s nephew, King Philippe VI (an agnatic descendant of the House of France), thereby setting the stage for the Hundred Years’ War.

In the Treaty of Troyes, Henry V of England married Catherine of Valois, daughter of Charles VI of France. Henry recognized Charles as king for the remainder of his life, while he would be the king’s regent and heir. The treaty was ratified by the Estates General the next year, after Henry entered Paris. But Henry predeceased Charles, and it would be his infant son Henry VI who would inherit according to the Treaty of Troyes.

Henry V, King of England and Lord of Ireland

The Treaty of Troyes threw the French in an uncomfortably humiliating position. To accept its terms meant that a defeated King of France could be coerced to hand over his kingdom to the enemy. To counter this act, the French developed the principle of the inalienability of the crown. The succession is to be governed by the force of custom alone, rather than by the will of any person or body.

This effectively removed the king’s power to relinquish his kingdom, or disinherit the heirs, the princes of the blood. From that moment the succession to the French throne was firmly entrenched in the Capetian lineage. As long as it continued to exist, the Estates cannot elect a new king. By this principle, the French do not consider Henry VI of England as one of their kings. Charles VII of France directly succeeded his father, not his nephew. Curiously, the French kings never asked the English monarchs to drop their nominal claim to France, which they persistently retained until 1800.

January 30, 1649: Execution of Charles I, King of England, Scotland and Ireland.

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Commonwealth, Execution of Charles Stuart of England, House of Lords, King Charles I of England, Long Parliament, Pride's Purge, Privy Council, Rump Parliament, Thomas Pride

Charles’s beheading was scheduled for Tuesday, January 30, 1649. Two of his children remained in England under the control of the Parliamentarians: Elizabeth and Henry. They were permitted to visit him on January 29, and he bade them a tearful farewell. The following morning, he called for two shirts to prevent the cold weather causing any noticeable shivers that the crowd could have mistaken for fear: “the season is so sharp as probably may make me shake, which some observers may imagine proceeds from fear. I would have no such imputation.”

He walked under guard from St James’s Palace, where he had been confined, to the Palace of Whitehall, where an execution scaffold had been erected in front of the Banqueting House. Charles was separated from spectators by large ranks of soldiers, and his last speech reached only those with him on the scaffold. He blamed his fate on his failure to prevent the execution of his loyal servant Strafford: “An unjust sentence that I suffered to take effect, is punished now by an unjust sentence on me.”

He declared that he had desired the liberty and freedom of the people as much as any, “but I must tell you that their liberty and freedom consists in having government … It is not their having a share in the government; that is nothing appertaining unto them. A subject and a sovereign are clean different things.” He continued, “I shall go from a corruptible to an incorruptible Crown, where no disturbance can be.”

At about 2:00 p.m., Charles put his head on the block after saying a prayer and signalled the executioner when he was ready by stretching out his hands; he was then beheaded with one clean stroke. According to observer Philip Henry, a moan “as I never heard before and desire I may never hear again” rose from the assembled crowd,some of whom then dipped their handkerchiefs in the king’s blood as a memento.

The executioner was masked and disguised, and there is debate over his identity. The commissioners approached Richard Brandon, the common hangman of London, but he refused, at least at first, despite being offered £200. It is possible he relented and undertook the commission after being threatened with death, but there are others who have been named as potential candidates, including George Joyce, William Hulet and Hugh Peterrs. The clean strike, confirmed by an examination of the king’s body at Windsor in 1813, suggests that the execution was carried out by an experienced headsman.

Cromwell was said to have visited Charles’s coffin, sighing “Cruel necessity!” as he did so. The story was depicted by Delaroche in the nineteenth century.

It was common practice for the severed head of a traitor to be held up and exhibited to the crowd with the words “Behold the head of a traitor!” Although Charles’s head was exhibited, the words were not used, possibly because the executioner did not want his voice recognized. On the day after the execution, the king’s head was sewn back onto his body, which was then embalmed and placed in a lead coffin.

The commission refused to allow Charles’s burial at Westminster Abbey, so his body was conveyed to Windsor on the night of February 7. He was buried in private on February 9, 1649 in the Henry VIII vault in the chapel’s quire, alongside the coffins of Henry VIII and Henry’s third wife, Jane Seymour, in St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle. The king’s son, Charles II, later planned for an elaborate royal mausoleum to be erected in Hyde Park, London, but it was never built.

The execution of Charles I had been carried out by the Rump Parliament. The Rump was created by Pride’s Purge when Colonel Thomas Pride forcibly removed from the Long Parliament all those members who supported the King and were not supporters of the Grandees in the New Model Army and the Independents. Many historians consider called it a coup d’état.

Just before and the execution of King Charles I, the Rump Parliament passed a number of Acts of Parliament creating the legal basis for the republic. After the execution of Charles I, the House of Commons abolished the Monarchy, the Privy Council and the House of Lords, and declared the people of England “and of all the Dominions and Territories thereunto belonging” to be henceforth under the governance of a “Commonwealth”, effectively a republic. The House of Commons now had unchecked executive and legislative power. The English Council of State, which replaced the Privy Council, took over many of the executive functions of the monarchy.

Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is now the 3rd longest reigning monarch in European History.

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Emperor Franz Josef of Austria- Hungary, King Louis XIV of France and Navarre, Longest Reigning European Monarch, Prince Johann II of Liechtenstein, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland has recently surpassed Franz Joseph, Emperor of Austria and King Hungary (1848-1916) to become Europe’s third longest reigning monarch.

Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary (August 18, 1830 – November 21, 1916) was Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary, King of Bohemia, and monarch of many other states of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, from December 2, 1848 to his death. From May 1, 1850 to August 24, 1866 he was also President of the German Confederation, the state that replaced the Holy Roman Empire which had been ruled by a Hapsburg emperor for centuries. He was the longest-reigning Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary, and is now as the fourth-longest-reigning monarch of any country in European history, after Louis XIV of France and Navarre, Johann II of Liechtenstein, and now, Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, in that chronological order.

The next monarch on the list of longest reigns is Johann II (October 5, 1840 – February 11, 1929), was the Prince of Liechtenstein between 1858 and 1929. His reign of 70 years and 91 days is the second-longest of any monarch in European history, after that of Louis XIV of France.

On February 6, 2020 (a week from tomorrow) Her Majesty the Queen will mark her 68th year on the throne. On May 10, 2022 the Queen will surpass Johann II of Liechtenstein by one day (70 years and 92 days). She now has only 4 years and 4 months left to overtake Louis XIV of France and Navarre.

Louis XIV reigned from May 14, 1643 to September 1, 1715 totaling 72 years, 3 months, 18 days on the throne. In order for Queen Elizabeth II to beat that record by one day (72 years, 3 months 19 days) and become longest reigning monarch in European history, she will need to remain on the throne until May 26, 2024, which is 4 years, 4 months and 25 days away.

At that time Elizabeth II will be 98 years, 1 month and 5 days old. Considering Her Majesty’s health is robust, this is entirely within the realm of possibility! Long may she continue to reign!

The Trial of Charles I, King of England, Scotland and Ireland.

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Charles Stuart, House of Lords, John Cook, Parliamentarians, Rump Parliament, The High Court of Justice, Trial of King Charles I of England, Westminster Hall

Charles was moved to Hurst Castle at the end of 1648, and thereafter to Windsor Castle. In January 1649, the Rump House of Commons indicted him on a charge of treason, which was rejected by the House of Lords. The idea of trying a king was a novel one. The Chief Justices of the three common law courts of England – Henry Rolle, Oliver St John and John Wilde – all opposed the indictment as unlawful.

The Rump Commons declared itself capable of legislating alone, House of Lords passed a bill creating a separate court for Charles’s trial, and declared the bill an act without the need for royal assent. The High Court of Justice established by the Act consisted of 135 commissioners, but many either refused to serve or chose to stay away. Only 68 (all firm Parliamentarians) attended Charles’s trial on charges of high treason and “other high crimes” that began on January 20, 1649 in Westminster Hall. John Bradshaw acted as President of the Court, and the prosecution was led by the Solicitor General, John Cook.

Charles was accused of treason against England by using his power to pursue his personal interest rather than the good of the country. The charge stated that he, “for accomplishment of such his designs, and for the protecting of himself and his adherents in his and their wicked practices, to the same ends hath traitorously and maliciously levied war against the present Parliament, and the people therein represented”, and that the “wicked designs, wars, and evil practices of him, the said Charles Stuart, have been, and are carried on for the advancement and upholding of a personal interest of will, power, and pretended prerogative to himself and his family, against the public interest, common right, liberty, justice, and peace of the people of this nation.

Reflecting the modern concept of command responsibility, the indictment held him “guilty of all the treasons, murders, rapines, burnings, spoils, desolations, damages and mischiefs to this nation, acted and committed in the said wars, or occasioned thereby.” An estimated 300,000 people, or 6% of the population, died during the war.

Over the first three days of the trial, whenever Charles was asked to plead, he refused stating his objection with the words: “I would know by what power I am called hither, by what lawful authority…?” He claimed that no court had jurisdiction over a monarch, that his own authority to rule had been given to him by God and by the traditional laws of England, and that the power wielded by those trying him was only that of force of arms. Charles insisted that the trial was illegal, explaining that,

no earthly power can justly call me (who am your King) in question as a delinquent … this day’s proceeding cannot be warranted by God’s laws; for, on the contrary, the authority of obedience unto Kings is clearly warranted, and strictly commanded in both the Old and New Testament … for the law of this land, I am no less confident, that no learned lawyer will affirm that an impeachment can lie against the King, they all going in his name: and one of their maxims is, that the King can do no wrong … the higher House is totally excluded; and for the House of Commons, it is too well known that the major part of them are detained or deterred from sitting … the arms I took up were only to defend the fundamental laws of this kingdom against those who have supposed my power hath totally changed the ancient government.

The court, by contrast, challenged the doctrine of sovereign immunity and proposed that “the King of England was not a person, but an office whose every occupant was entrusted with a limited power to govern ‘by and according to the laws of the land and not otherwise’.

At the end of the third day, Charles was removed from the court, which then heard over 30 witnesses against the king in his absence over the next two days, and on 26 January condemned him to death. The following day, the king was brought before a public session of the commission, declared guilty, and was formally sentenced to death. Fifty-nine of the commissioners signed Charles’s death warrant.

January 28, 1547: Death of Henry VIII of England and Ireland and laws of succession.

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House of Tudor, King Edward VI of England, King Henry VIII of England, King of Ireland, Lady Jane Grey, Queen Elizabeth I of England, Queen Mary I of England, The House of Stuart

Henry VIII (June 28, 1491 – January 28, 1547) was King of England from 1509 until his death in 1547. He was the second Tudor monarch, succeeding his father Henry VII. Henry VIII is best known for his six marriages, in particular his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disagreement with the Pope on the question of such an annulment led Henry to initiate the English Reformation, separating the Church of England from papal authority and the Roman Catholic Church. He appointed himself the Supreme Head of the Church of England and dissolved convents and monasteries, for which he was excommunicated.

Illness and Death

Late in life, Henry became obese, with a waist measurement of 54 inches (140 cm), and had to be moved about with the help of mechanical inventions. He was covered with painful, pus-filled boils and possibly suffered from gout. His obesity and other medical problems can be traced to the jousting accident in 1536 in which he suffered a leg wound. The accident re-opened and aggravated a previous injury he had sustained years earlier, to the extent that his doctors found it difficult to treat.

The chronic wound festered for the remainder of his life and became ulcerated, thus preventing him from maintaining the level of physical activity he had previously enjoyed. The jousting accident is also believed to have caused Henry’s mood swings, which may have had a dramatic effect on his personality and temperament.

The theory that Henry suffered from syphilis has been dismissed by most historians. Historian Susan Maclean Kybett ascribes his demise to scurvy, which is caused by a lack of fresh fruits and vegetables. Alternatively, his wives’ pattern of pregnancies and his mental deterioration have led some to suggest that the king may have been Kell positive and suffered from McLeod syndrome. According to another study, Henry VIII’s history and body morphology may have been the result of traumatic brain injury after his 1536 jousting accident, which in turn led to a neuroendocrine cause of his obesity. This analysis identifies growth hormone deficiency (GHD) as the source for his increased adiposity but also significant behavioural changes noted in his later years, including his multiple marriages.

Henry’s obesity hastened his death at the age of 55, which occurred on 28 January 1547 in the Palace of Whitehall, on what would have been his father’s 90th birthday. The tomb he had planned (with components taken from the tomb intended for Cardinal Wolsey) was only partly constructed and would never be completed. (The sarcophagus and its base were later removed and used for Lord Nelson’s tomb in the crypt of St. Paul’s Cathedral.) Henry was interred in a vault at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, next to Jane Seymour. Over a hundred years later, King Charles I (1625–1649) was buried in the same vault.

Succession

Upon Henry’s death, he was succeeded by his son Edward VI. Since Edward was then only nine years old, he could not rule directly. Instead, Henry’s will designated 16 executors to serve on a council of regency until Edward reached the age of 18. The executors chose Edward Seymour, 1st Earl of Hertford, Jane Seymour’s elder brother, to be Lord Protector of the Realm.

If Edward died childless, the throne was to pass to Mary, Henry VIII’s daughter by Catherine of Aragon, and her heirs. If Mary’s issue failed, the crown was to go to Elizabeth, Henry’s daughter by Anne Boleyn, and her heirs. Finally, if Elizabeth’s line became extinct, the crown was to be inherited by the descendants of Henry VIII’s deceased younger sister, Mary, the Greys. The descendants of Henry’s sister Margaret – the Stuarts, rulers of Scotland – were thereby excluded from the succession. This final provision failed when James VI of Scotland became King of England in 1603.

January 27, 1708: Birth of Grand Duchess Anna Petrovna of Russia.

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Catherine I of Russia, Charles Frederick of Holstein-Gottorp, Charles Peter Ulrich of Holstein-Gottorp, Empress Elizabeth of Russia, Grand Duchess Anna Petrovna of Russia, Peter III of Russia, Peter the Great, Russian Empire

Grand Duchess Anna Petrovna of Russia, Tsesarevna of Russia (January 27, 1708 – March 4, 1728) was the elder daughter of Emperor Peter I, the Great of Russia and his wife Empress Catherine I, (Marta Samuilovna Skavronskaya). Her younger sister, Empress Elizabeth, ruled between 1741 and 1762. While a potential heir in the reign of her nephew, she never acceded to the throne due to political reasons. However, her son Duke Charles Peter Ulrich of Holstein-Gottorp would rule as Emperor Peter III in 1762, succeeding Elizabeth. Grand Duchess Anna was the Duchess Consort of Holstein-Gottorp by marriage.

Anna was born out of wedlock, although her parents were married in 1712 and she was later legitimized. Her earlier illegitimacy would pose great challenges for her marriage.

Anna grew up in the houses of Peter’s younger sister Natalia and Prince Alexander Menshikov. Although born illegitimate, she and her younger sister Elizabeth were awarded the titles of “princess” on March 6, 1711 and Grand Duchess Anna “crown princess” (tsesarevna) on December 23, 1721.

Peter planned to marry his daughters to foreign princes in order to gain European allies for the Russian Empire. The two girls were educated with this aim in mind, learning literature, writing, embroidery, dancing and etiquette. Anna developed into an intelligent, well-read girl who spoke four foreign languages – French, German, Italian and Swedish.

On March 17, 1721, Charles Friedrich, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp arrived in Imperial Russia to get acquainted with his future wife and father-in-law. Charles Friedrich was born in Sweden, the son of Friedrich IV of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp and his consort, Hedvig Sophia, daughter of King Carl XI of Sweden and married Ulrika Eleonora of Denmark daughter of King Frederik III of Denmark. Charles Friedrich became reigning Duke of Holstein in infancy, upon his father’s death in 1702, co-ruling, however under guardianship till 1717, with his father’s cousin King Frederick IV of Denmark in the Duchy of Holstein, a Holy Roman imperial fief, and the Duchy of Schleswig, a Danish fief, there as a vassal to the Danish king. All his life was a legitimate claimant to the throne of Sweden, as pro forma heir to Carl XII, who was his maternal uncle.

Charles Friedrich, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp

Charles Friedrich wanted to use the marriage in order to ensure Russia’s support for his plans of retrieving Schleswig from Denmark. He also entertained hopes of being backed up by Russia in his claims to the Swedish throne. Under the terms of the Treaty of Nystad Russia promised not to interfere in the internal affairs of Sweden, so his hopes proved ill-founded.

Another possible candidate as a husband was Prince Louis d’Orléans, Duke of Orléans, a son of Prince Philippe II, Duke of Orléans and his wife Madamme Françoise Marie de Bourbon (an illegitimate daughter of King Louis XIV of France and his Chief Mistress, Françoise-Athénaïs, Madame de Montespan). The marriage proposal was ignored due to a difference in style of address. Grand Duchess Anna was addressed as Her Imperial Highness and Louis was as His Serene Highness.

On November 22, 1724, the marriage contract was signed between Charles Friedrich and Emperor Peter the Great. By this contract, Anna and Charles Friedrich renounced all rights and claims to the crown of the Russian Empire on behalf of themselves and their descendants. However a secret clause allowed the Emperor to name a successor out of any issue from the marriage. As a result of this clause, the Emperor secured the right to name any of his descendants as his successor on the Russian throne.

A few months thereafter, by January 1725, Peter the Great fell mortally ill. As the story goes, on his deathbed he managed to spell the words: to give all…, but could not continue further and sent for Anna to dictate his last will to her. By the time the princess arrived, the Emperor could not pronounce a single word. Based on the story, some historians speculated that Peter’s wish was to leave the throne to Anna, but this is not confirmed.

Emperor Peter III of Russia

On February 21, 1728, Anna gave birth in Kiel Castle to a son named Prince Charles Peter Ulrich, the future Peter III of Russia. Peter would go on to be the future Emperor of Russia and found the House of Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov that would go on to rule Russia until the early 20th-century. A few days after his birth, the barely twenty-year-old Duchess Anna caught puerperal fever (postpartum infection) and died on March 4, 1728. In memory of his wife, Carl Friedrich founded the Order of St Anna, which subsequently became a Russian decoration.

January 25, 1858: The wedding of Princess Victoria, Princess Royal and Prince Friedrich of Prussia at the Chapel Royal of St. James’s Palace in London.

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Frederick III of Germany, Kingdom of Prussia, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, royal wedding, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland., Victoria Princess Royal

Victoria, Princess Royal (Victoria Adelaide Mary Louisa; November 21, 1840 – August 5, 1901) was German Empress and Queen of Prussia by marriage to German Emperor Friedrich III. She was the eldest child of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and was created Princess Royal in 1841. She was the mother of German Emperor Wilhelm II.

In the German Confederation, Prince Wilhelm of Prussia and his wife Princess Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach were among the personalities with whom Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were allies. The British sovereign also had regular epistolary contact with her cousin Augusta since 1846. The revolution that broke out in Berlin in 1848 further strengthened the links between the two royal couples by requiring the heir presumptive to the Prussian throne to find shelter for three months in the British court.

In 1851, William returned to London with his wife and two children (Friedrich and Louise), on the occasion of The Great Exhibition. For the first time, Victoria met her future husband, and despite the age difference (she was 11 years old and he was 19), they got along very well. To promote the contact between the two, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert asked their daughter to guide Frederick through the exhibition, and during the visit the princess was able to converse in perfect German while the prince was able to say only a few words in English. The meeting was therefore a success, and years later, Prince Friedrich recalled the positive impression that Victoria made on him during this visit, with her mixture of innocence, intellectual curiosity and simplicity.

It was not only his encounter with little Victoria, however, that positively impressed Frederick during the four weeks of his English stay. The young Prussian prince shared his liberal ideas with the Prince Consort. Frederick was fascinated by the relationships among the members of the British royal family. In London, court life was not as rigid and conservative as in Berlin, and Queen Victoria and Prince Albert’s relationship with their children was very different to Wilhelm and Augusta’s relationship with theirs.

After Friedrich returned to Germany, he began a close correspondence with Victoria. Behind this nascent friendship was the desire of Queen Victoria and her husband to forge closer ties with Prussia. In a letter to her uncle, the king of the Belgians, the British sovereign conveyed the desire that the meeting between her daughter and the Prussian prince lead to a closer relationship between the two young people.

In 1855, Prince Friedrich made another trip to Great Britain and visited Victoria and her family in Scotland at Balmoral Castle. The purpose of his trip was to see the Princess Royal again, to ensure that she would be a suitable consort for him. In Berlin, the response to this journey to Britain was far from positive. In fact, many members of the Prussian court wanted to see the heir presumptive’s son marry a Russian grand duchess. King Friedrich Wilhelm IV, who had allowed his nephew to marry a British princess, even had to keep his approval a secret because his own wife showed strong Anglophobia.

At the time of Friedrich second visit, Victoria was 15 years old. A little shorter than her mother, the princess was 1.50 m tall (4 feet 11 inches) and Queen Victoria considered her far from the ideal of beauty of the time. Queen Victoria was concerned that the Prussian prince would not find her daughter sufficiently attractive. However, when I look at pictures of the Princess Royal at this time, personally I think she’s very pretty.

Nevertheless, from the first dinner with the prince, it was clear to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert that the mutual sympathy of the two young people that began in 1851 was still vivid. In fact, after only three days with the royal family, Friedrich asked Victoria’s parents permission to marry their daughter. They were thrilled by the news, but gave their approval on condition that the marriage should not take place before Vicky’s seventeenth birthday.

Once this condition was accepted, the engagement of Victoria and Frederick was publicly announced on May 17, 1856. The immediate reaction in Great Britain was disapproval. The English public complained about the Kingdom of Prussia’s neutrality during the Crimean War of 1853-1856. The Times characterized the Hohenzollern as a “miserable dynasty” that pursued an inconsistent and unreliable foreign policy, with the maintenance of the throne depending solely on Russia. The newspaper also criticised the failure of King Friedrich Wilhelm IV to respect the political guarantees given to the population during the revolution of 1848. In the German Confederation, the reactions to the announcement of the engagement were mixed: several members of the Hohenzollern family and conservatives opposed it, and liberal circles welcomed the proposed union with the British crown.

Convinced that the marriage of a British princess to the second-in-line to the Prussian throne would be regarded as an honour by the Hohenzollerns, Prince Albert insisted that his daughter retain her title of Princess Royal after the wedding. However, owing to the very anti-British and pro-Russian views of the Berlin court, the prince’s decision only aggravated the situation.

The question of where to hold the marriage ceremony raised the most criticism. To the Hohenzollerns, it seemed natural that the nuptials of the future Prussian king would be held in Berlin. However, Queen Victoria insisted that her eldest daughter must marry in her own country, and in the end, she prevailed. The wedding of Victoria and Friedrich took place at the Chapel Royal of St. James’s Palace in London on January 25, 1858.

January 24, 1742: Election of Charles Albert of Bavaria as the Holy Roman Emperor.

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Archduchess Maria Amalia of Austria, Charles Albert of Bavaria, Clemens August of Bavaria, Elector of Bavaria, Holy Roman Emperor, Holy Roman Emperor Charles VII, Holy Roman Empire, House of Wittelsbach, Maria Theresa of Austria, Pragmatic Sanction

Charles VII Albert (April 7, 1697 – January 20, 1745) was the Prince-Elector of Bavaria from 1726 and Holy Roman Emperor from January 24, 1742 until his death in 1745. A member of the House of Wittelsbach, Charles Albert was the first person not born of the House of Habsburg to become Holy Roman Emperor in three centuries, though he was connected to that house both by blood and by marriage. He was a great-great grandson of both Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II and King Henri IV of France.

Charles Albert was born in Brussels, the son of Maximilian II Emanuel, Prince-Elector of Bavaria, and Theresa Kunegunda Sobieska, daughter of King John III Sobieski of Poland and Marie Casimire Louise de La Grange d’Arquien.

His family was split during the War of the Spanish Succession and was for many years under house arrest in Austria. Only in 1715 was the family reunited. After attaining his majority in August 1715, he undertook an educational tour of Italy from 3 December 1715 until 24 August 1716. In 1717, he served with Bavarian auxiliaries in the Austro-Turkish War (1716–1718).

On 5 October 1722, Charles Albert married Archduchess Maria Amalia of Austria, whom he had met at the imperial court in Vienna. She was the younger daughter of the late Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor, and his wife Wilhelmine Amalia of Brunswick-Lüneburg. In 1725 Charles Albert visited Versailles for the wedding of Louis XV of France, and established firm contacts with the French court.

In 1726, when his father died, Charles Albert became Duke of Bavaria and a Prince-Elector of the Holy Roman Empire. He maintained good relations both with his Habsburg relatives and with France, continuing his father’s policies. In 1729 he instituted the knightly Order of St George. That year, he also started building the Rothenberg Fortress.

As son-in-law of Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor, Charles Albert rejected the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 and claimed the German territories of the Habsburg dynasty after the death of Holy Roman Charles VI in 1740. With the treaty of Nymphenburg concluded in July 1741, Charles Albert allied with France and Spain against Austria.

During the War of the Austrian Succession Charles Albert invaded Upper Austria in 1741 and planned to conquer Vienna, but his allied French troops under the Duc de Belle-Isle were redirected to Bohemia instead and Prague was conquered in November 1741. Therefore, Charles Albert was crowned King of Bohemia in Prague, December 19, 1741 when the Habsburgs were not yet defeated.

He was unanimously elected “King of the Romans” on January 24, 1742, also with the vote of King George II of Great Britain, Prince-Elector of Hanover, Charles Albert became Holy Roman Emperor upon his coronation on February 12, 1742. His brother Clemens August of Bavaria, Archbishop and Prince-Elector of Cologne, who generally sided with the Austria Habsburg-Lorraine faction in the disputes over the Habsburg succession, cast his vote for his brother and personally crowned him emperor at Frankfurt. Charles VII Albert was the second Wittelsbach emperor after Ludwig IV and the first Wittelsbach king of Germany since the reign of Rupert.

Shortly after the coronation most of Charles VII Albert’s territories were overrun by the Austrians, and Bavaria was occupied by the troops of Maria Theresa. The emperor fled Munich and resided for almost three years in the Palais Barckhaus in Frankfurt. Most of Bohemia was lost in December 1742 when the Austrians allowed the French under the Duc de Belle-Isle and the Duc de Broglie an honourable capitulation. Charles VII Albert was mocked as an emperor who neither controlled his own realm, nor was in effective control of the empire itself, though the institution of the Holy Roman Emperor had largely become symbolic in nature and powerless by that time.

The new commander of the Bavarian army, Friedrich Heinrich von Seckendorff, fought Austria in a series of battles in 1743 and 1744. In 1743 his troops and their allies took Bavaria and Charles VII was able to return to Munich in April for some time. After the allied French had to retreat after defeats to the Rhine, he lost Bavaria again. The new campaign of Frederick II of Prussia during the Second Silesian War finally forced the Austrian army to leave Bavaria and to retreat back into Bohemia. In October 1744 Charles VII regained Munich and returned. Under the mediation of the former Vice-Chancellor Friedrich Karl von Schönborn, the emperor then sought a balance with Vienna, but at the same time negotiated unsuccessfully with France for new military support.

Suffering severely from gout, Charles VII Albert died at Nymphenburg Palace on January 20, 1745. His brother Prince Clemens August once again leaned towards Austria. In Bavaria, Charles VII Albert’s eldest son succeeded as Maximilian III Joseph Prince-Elector of Bavaria and made peace with Austria. With the Treaty of Füssen Austria recognized the legitimacy of Charles VII Albert’s election as Holy Roman Emperor. Charles VII Albert is buried in the crypt of the Theatinerkirche in Munich.

After the decisive defeat in the Battle of Pfaffenhofen on April 15 Maximilian III Joseph quickly abandoned his father’s imperial pretenses and made peace with Maria Theresa in the aforementioned Treaty of Füssen, in which he agreed to support her husband, Grand Duke Franz Stefan of Lorraine and Tuscany, in the upcoming imperial election. On September 13, 1745, Franz Stefan was elected Holy Roman Emperor in succession to Charles VII Albert and his wife, Maria Theresa of Austria, made him co-regent of her hereditary Habsburg dominions.

An interesting note is that among the many offspring of Charles VII Albert and his wife, Archduchess Maria Amalia of Austria, was Maria Josepha of Bavaria who married Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II the son and successor of her father’s successor Holy Roman Emperor Franz I Stefan his wife, Maria Theresa of Austria.

History of the French Dynastic Disputes. Part II.

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Arrêt Lemaistre, Charles VI of France, Fundamental Laws of Succession to the French Crown, Henry of Navarre, Philip III of France, Philip IV of France, Robert II of France

The fundamental laws concerning the royal succession In Ancien Régime France, the laws that govern the succession to the throne are among the fundamental laws of the kingdom. They could not be ignored, nor modified, even by the king himself, since it is to these very laws to which he owes his succession. In the French monarchy, they are the foundation of any right of succession to the throne. They have developed during the early centuries of the Capetian monarchy, and were sometimes transferred to other countries linked to the dynasty.

Heredity: the French crown is hereditary. The early Capetians had their heirs crowned during their lifetime, to prevent succession disputes. The first such coronation was in favor of Robert II, in 987.

Primogeniture: the eldest son is the heir, while cadets only receive appanages to maintain their rank. This principle was strengthened in 1027, when Henry, the eldest surviving son of Robert II, was crowned despite the protests of his mother, Constance of Arles, and younger brother, Robert.

Masculinity: females are excluded from the succession. This issue was not raised until 1316, as the Capetian kings did not lack sons to succeed them for the preceding three centuries. This was invoked by Philip V of France to exclude his niece, Jeanne, daughter of his elder brother.

Male collaterality: the right of succession cannot be derived from a female line. This was invoked in 1328 by Philippe VI of France, to counter the claims of Edward III of England, making the succession exclusive to the Capetian family.

Continuity of the Crown (or immediacy of the Crown): as soon as the king dies, his successor is immediately king because “the King (the State) never dies”. Philippe III, who was in Tunis when his father died, was the first to date his reign from the death of his predecessor (1270), instead of his own coronation.

Orders made under Charles VI, in 1403 and 1407, anxious to avoid any interregnum, declared that the heir to the throne should be considered King after the death of his predecessor. But even after these decisions, Joan of Arc persisted in the old position by calling Charles VII, whose father died in 1422, the “Dauphin” until his coronation at Reims in 1429.

Inalienability of the Crown (or unavailability of the Crown): the crown is not the personal property of the king. He cannot appoint his successor, renounce the crown, or abdicate. This principle arose circa 1419, in anticipation of the Treaty of Troyes, which sought to exclude the Dauphin Charles from the succession. The succession can no longer be regulated by the king, and would rely only on the force of custom.

Catholicism: this principle was not specifically identified in the Middle Ages, but it was implied. Since the baptism of Clovis, the kings of France were Catholic. The Protestantism of Henri of Navarre led to a civil war wherein the king had to reestablish his legitimacy. In the famous Arrêt Lemaistre (1593), Parlement protected the rights of the legitimate successor, Henri of Navarre, but deferred his recognition as legitimate king, pending his conversion.

It is clear that the constitution of the fundamental laws is empirical: masculinity, Catholicity and inalienability for example, have been added or rather clarified because there is uncertainty on points considered already implied by others or by custom (as was the case for masculinity, practiced with the rule of male collaterality, in 1316 and 1328 before being formulated in 1358 and formally put into effect in 1419).

The ‘fundamental’ character of the laws was that they could be supplemented in order to clarify, but not changed, or have any or all of the basic laws ignored to change the direction of the whole. It also appears that the role of parliaments is essential in these various clarifications, the fourteenth to the eighteenth century or the nineteenth century if we add the episodes from the history of the French Capetian dynasty in 1830, 1848, 1875 and 1886.