Leap Day: February 29

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Albert III of Bavaria, Albert V of Bavaria, Alessandro Farnese, Frederick of Hesse-Cassel, Louis I of Bavaria, Ludwig I of Bavaria, Papal States, Pope Paul III, Roman Catholic Church, Ulrica Eleanor of Sweden

Since this day is a leap day I would include the major event and births and deaths that occurred on February 29.

Ulrika Eleonora (January 23, 1688 – November 24, 1741), was Queen of Sweden, reigning in her own right from December 5, 1718 until her abdication on February 29, 1720 in favour of her husband King Friedrich I, Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel, and then she was Queen of Sweden as his consort until her death.

Ulrika Eleanora, Queen of Sweden

Births

Pope Paul III (February 29, 1468 – November 10, 1549), born Alessandro Farnese, was head of the Roman Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from October 13, 1534 to his death in 1549.

Pope Paul III

Albrecht V (February 29, 1528 – October 24, 1579) was Duke of Bavaria from 1550 until his death. He was born in Munich to Wilhelm IV, Duke of Bavaria and Maria Jacobäa of Baden.

Albrecht V, Duke of Bavaria

Deaths

Albrecht III the Pious of Bavaria-Munich (March 27, 1401 – February 29, 1460), since 1438 Duke of Bavaria-Munich. He was born in Wolfratshausen to Ernst, Duke of Bavaria and Elisabetta Visconti, daughter of Bernabò Visconti.

Albrecht III rejects the Bohemian crown; Painting by J.G.Hiltensberger.

Ludwig I (August 25, 1786 – February 29, 1868) was king of Bavaria from 1825 until the 1848 revolutions in the German states. Not willing to rule as a constitutional monarch, Ludwig abdicated on March 20, 1848 in favour of his eldest son, Maximilian. Ludwig lived for another twenty years after his abdication and he died at Nice on February 29, 1868.

Ludwig I, King of Bavaria

Princess Alice of Battenberg: Part II.

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Dowager Marchioness of Milford Haven (Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine), Greek Orthodox, Prince Philip Duke of Edinburgh, Princess Alice of Battenberg, Princess Andrew of Greece and Denmark, Princess George of Hanover, Princess Sophie of Greece and Denmark, Queen Elizabeth II

Princess Andrew returned to the United Kingdom in April 1947 to attend the wedding of her only son, Philip, to Princess Elizabeth, the elder daughter and heir presumptive of King George VI. The wedding occurred on November 20, 1947. She had some of her remaining jewels used in Princess Elizabeth’s engagement ring. On the day before the wedding, her son was created Duke of Edinburgh, Earl of Merioneth and Baron Greenwich by George VI. For the wedding ceremony, Princess Andrew sat at the head of her family on the north side of Westminster Abbey, opposite King George VI, Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary. It was decided not to invite Princess Andrew’s daughters to the wedding because of anti-German sentiment in Britain following World War II.

In January 1949, the princess founded a nursing order of Greek Orthodox nuns, the Christian Sisterhood of Martha and Mary, modelled after the convent that her aunt, the martyred Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna, had founded in Russia in 1909. She trained on the Greek island of Tinos, established a home for the order in a hamlet north of Athens, and undertook two tours of the United States in 1950 and 1952 in an effort to raise funds. Her mother, Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine, later Victoria Mountbatten, Marchioness of Milford Haven, was baffled by her actions, “What can you say of a nun who smokes and plays canasta?”, she said. Her daughter-in-law became Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of the Commonwealth realms in 1952, and Princess Andrew attended her coronation in June 1953, wearing a two-tone grey dress and wimple in the style of her nun’s habit. However, the order eventually failed through a lack of suitable applicants.

Duke of Edinburgh with his mother Princess Andrew of Greece

In 1960, she visited India at the invitation of Rajkumari Amrit Kaur, who had been impressed by Princess Andrew’s interest in Indian religious thought, and for her own spiritual quest. The trip was cut short when she unexpectedly took ill, and her sister-in-law, Edwina Mountbatten, Countess Mountbatten of Burma, who happened to be passing through Delhi on her own tour, had to smooth things with the Indian hosts who were taken aback at Princess Andrew’s sudden change of plans. She later claimed she had had an out-of-body experience. Edwina continued her own tour, and died the following month.

Increasingly deaf and in failing health, Princess Andrew left Greece for the last time following the April 21, 1967 Colonels’ Coup. Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh invited Princess Andrew to reside permanently at Buckingham Palace in London. King Constantine II of Greece and Queen Anne-Marie went into exile that December after a failed royalist counter-coup.

Despite suggestions of senility in later life, Princess Andrew remained lucid but physically frail. She died at Buckingham Palace on December 5, 1969. She left no possessions, having given everything away. Initially her remains were placed in the Royal Crypt in St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, but before she died she had expressed her wish to be buried at the Convent of Saint Mary Magdalene in Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem (near her aunt Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna, a Russian Orthodox saint).

When her daughter Princess Sophie of Greece and Denmark (Princess Georg of Hanover), complained that it would be too far away for them to visit her grave, Princess Andrew jested, “Nonsense, there’s a perfectly good bus service!” Her wish was realized on August 3, 1988 when her remains were transferred to her final resting place in a crypt below the church.

Princess Andrew of Greece and Denmark with her grandchildren Prince Charles and Princess Anne.

On October 31, 1994, Princess Andrew’s two surviving children, the Duke of Edinburgh and Princess Georg of Hanover, went to Yad Vashem (the Holocaust Memorial) in Jerusalem to witness a ceremony honouring her as “Righteous Among the Nations” for having hidden the Cohens in her house in Athens during the Second World War. Prince Philip said of his mother’s sheltering of persecuted Jews, “I suspect that it never occurred to her that her action was in any way special. She was a person with a deep religious faith, and she would have considered it to be a perfectly natural human reaction to fellow beings in distress.” In 2010, the Princess was posthumously named a Hero of the Holocaust by the British Government.

February 25, 1883: Birth of Princess Alice of Albany, Countess of Athlone.

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Countess of Athlone, Duke of Cambridge, Governor General of Canada, King George III of the United Kingdom, King George V of the United Kingdom, Prince Adolphus Duke of Cambridge, Prince Alexander of Teck, Princess Alice of Albany, Princess Alice of the United Kingdom, Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge, Princess Mary of Teck

Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone, (Alice Mary Victoria Augusta Pauline; February 25, 1883 – January 3, 1981) was a member of the British royal family. She is the longest-lived British princess by descent, and was the last surviving grandchild of Queen Victoria. She also held the titles of Princess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Duchess in Saxony from birth, as well as a Princess of Teck by marriage, until 1917 when the British royal family ceased usage of German titles.

Princess Alice was born February 25, 1883 at Windsor Castle. Her father was Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, the youngest son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Her mother was Princess Helena of Waldeck and Pyrmont. She had one brother, Prince Charles Edward, Duke of Albany (1884–1954) and later reigning Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1900–1918). As the granddaughter of the Sovereign through the male line, she was a Princess of the United Kingdom and as the daughter of the Duke of Albany, she was styled Her Royal Highness Princess Alice of Albany. She was baptised in the Private Chapel of Windsor Castle on March 26, 1883, and named Alice for her late paternal aunt, Princess Alice of the United Kingdom (1843 – 1878) the third child and second daughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha and wife of Grand Duke Ludwig IV of Hesse and By Rhine.

Prince Alexander of Teck

On February 10, 1904, at St George’s Chapel, Windsor, Princess Alice of Albany married her second cousin once-removed, Prince Alexander of Teck, the brother of Princess Mary, the Princess of Wales (later Queen Mary, consort of King George V of the United Kingdom) After their marriage, Princess Alice was styled Princess Alexander of Teck.

Prince Alexander of Teck was born at Kensington Palace on April 14, 1874, the fourth child and third son of Prince Francis, Duke of Teck, and Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge, daughter of Prince Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge, the youngest surviving son of George III of the United Kingdom and Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. Although Prince Alexander’s mother was a granddaughter of King George III and first cousin to Queen Victoria, as the son of a Prince of Teck, a morganatic scion in the Kingdom Württemberg, he was styled from birth as His Serene Highness and held the title Prince Alexander of Teck.

Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone, with her children May and Rupert, circa 1909.

When the British royal family abandoned all Germanic titles in 1917, Prince Alexander of Teck adopted the surname Cambridge, relinquishing the title “Prince of Teck” in the Kingdom of Württemberg and the style Serene Highness. As such, their two children lost their Württemberg princely titles. He became (briefly) Sir Alexander Cambridge until, on November 7, 1917, his brother-in-law King George V, created him Earl of Athlone and Viscount Trematon. Athlone had declined a marquessate, as he thought the title did not sound British enough.

Princess Alice relinquished her titles of Princess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Duchess of Saxony, while her brother Charles Edward, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, who held a commission in the German Army, was stripped of his British titles. Alice remained, however, a Princess of Great Britain and Ireland and a Royal Highness in her own right, as granddaughter of Queen Victoria in the male line.

Princess Alice accompanied her husband to Canada where he served as Governor General from 1940 to 1946, residing primarily at Rideau Hall in Ottawa. Viewing his position as governor general as a link between Canadians and their monarch, the Count of Athlone also communicated in speeches that the King stood with them in their fight against Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime. As vicereine of Canada, Princess Alice also supported the war effort by serving as Honorary Commandant of the Women’s Royal Canadian Naval Service, Honorary Air Commandant of the Royal Canadian Air Force Women’s Division and president of the nursing division of the St. John Ambulance Brigade.

Eleanor Roosevelt, Princess Alice, and Clementine Churchill at the Second Quebec Conference, during WWII

The war was brought close to home for the Athlones also because many of those belonging to displaced European royal families sought refuge in Canada and resided at or near the royal and viceroyal residence, Rideau Hall. Among the royal guests were Crown Prince Olav and Crown Princess Märtha of Norway; Grand Duchess Charlotte and Prince Felix of Luxembourg; King Peter II of Yugoslavia; King George II of the Hellenes; Empress Zita of Bourbon-Parma (Austria) and her daughters; as well as Queen Wilhelmina and her daughter, Princess Juliana.

In her lifetime, Princess Alice carried out many engagements and took part in many of the activities the royal family were involved in. Apart from her normal duties as vicereine of South Africa and then Canada, she attended the coronations of four British monarchs: Edward VII, George V, George VI, and Elizabeth II, as well as the investiture of the Dutch queen Juliana.

The Earl and Countess of Athlone, followed by Mackenzie King at the opening of parliament, September 6, 1945

The Earl of Athlone died in 1957 at Kensington Palace in London. Princess Alice lived there until her death, dying in her sleep on January 3, 1981, at age 97 years and 313 days. At her death, she was the longest-lived British Princess of royal blood and the last surviving grandchild of Queen Victoria. The funeral of Princess Alice took place in St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle, attended by all members of the royal family. She is buried alongside her husband and son in the Royal Burial Ground, Frogmore, directly behind the mausoleum of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, in Windsor Great Park. Her daughter and son-in-law are also buried close by.

She lived through six reigns: those of Victoria (grandmother), Edward VII (uncle), George V (cousin and brother-in-law), Edward VIII (first cousin once removed and nephew), George VI (first cousin once removed and nephew) and Elizabeth II (first cousin twice removed and grand-niece).

February 25, 1912: Marie-Adélaïde becomes the first Grand Duchess of Luxembourg

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Abdication, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg, Grand Duke of Luxembourg, Marie-Adelaide of Luxembourg, Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands, Salic Law, William III of the Netherlands, William IV of Luxembourg

Marie-Adélaïde (June 14, 1894 – January 24, 1924), reigned as Grand Duchess of Luxembourg from 1912 until her abdication in 1919. She was the first Grand Duchess regnant of Luxembourg (after five grand dukes), its first female monarch since Duchess Maria Theresa (1740–1780, who was also Austrian Archduchess and Holy Roman Empress) and the first Luxembourgish monarch to be born within the territory since Count John the Blind (1296–1346).

Marie-Adélaïde was born on June 14, 1894 in Berg Castle as the eldest child of Grand Duke Guillaume IV of Luxembourg and his wife, Marie Anne of Portugal, the fifth child and second-youngest daughter of the deposed King Miguel of Portugal and his wife Princess Adelaide of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg.

Due to that same Salic Law, the elder branch of the House of Nassau, called Nassau-Weilburg (present-day Luxembourg-Nassau) had inherited the Grand Ducal throne in 1890 upon the death of King Willem III of the Netherlands. Ever since 1815 and the proclamation of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the new King of the Netherlands, Willem I, was also made Grand Duke of Luxembourg, a part of the Kingdom that was, at the same time, a member state of the German Confederation.

In 1830, Belgium seceded from the Kingdom, a step that was recognised by the Netherlands only in 1839. At that point, Luxembourg became a fully independent country in a personal union with the Netherlands. When Willem III of the Netherlands died leaving only his daughter Wilhelmina as an heir, the crown of the Netherlands, not being bound by the family pact, passed to Wilhelmina. However, the crown of Luxembourg, under the Salic Law, passed to a male of another branch of the House of Nassau: Adolphe, the dispossessed Duke of Nassau and head of the branch of Nassau-Weilburg.

In 1907, Adolphe’s only son, Guillaume IV, Grand Duke of Luxembourg, obtained passage of a law, overturning the Salic Law, confirming the right of his eldest daughter, Marie-Adélaïde, to succeed to the throne in virtue of the absence of any remaining dynastic males of the House of Nassau, as originally stipulated in the Nassau Family Pact.

Thus, when her father died on February 25, 1912 she succeeded to the throne at the age of 17, becoming the first reigning Grand Duchess of Luxembourg. Her mother served as regent until Marie-Adélaïde’s eighteenth birthday on June 18, 1912 when the President of the Chamber Auguste Laval swore her in as the first Luxembourgish monarch to be born in the territory since the reign of Count John the Blind of Luxembourg (1296–1346).

Marie-Adélaïde was deeply interested in politics and took an active part in the government and the political life of the Grand Duchy in accordance with the Luxembourgish Constitution which at that time granted the monarch extensive political powers. She was a devout Roman Catholic, with strong religious convictions and very conservative political views.

On the day of her ascension to the throne – February 25, 1912 – she refused to sign a new law reducing the role of Roman Catholic priests within the education system. Later, in 1915, she hesitated before appointing the mayors of Differdange and Hollerich, both known for their anticlerical views.

With the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, the German Empire violated the neutrality of Luxembourg established and recognized in International Law by invading the country on August 2, 1914. Although Marie-Adélaïde issued a formal protest, this did nothing to prevent the military occupation of Luxembourg. She decided not to resist the occupying army, but tried instead to maintain formally her country’s neutrality throughout the war.

However, during the war she developed a rather cordial relationship with the German occupiers (including hosting German Emperor Wilhelm II in the palace and allowing his son, Crown Prince Wilhelm to establish his temporary military headquarters in Luxembourg City), an attitude which made her very unpopular with the Luxembourgish population, especially after she refused as well to send away her German entourage who was part of the Grand Ducal Household (palace personnel).

In late 1916 the Grand Duchess caused controversy by dissolving the Chamber of Deputies to solve the deadlock faced by the Loutsch Ministry, which was composed of Party of the Right members and did not have a majority in the Chamber. Marie-Adélaïde ordered the Chamber dissolved and new elections held on December 23, 1916. This action was permissible under the Constitution, but regarded as unconventional, and provoked an outcry and long-term resentment among the socialists and liberals in parliament, who saw it as resembling a coup d’état.

Although she had not done anything flagrantly in contradiction with the Luxembourg Constitution of 1868, voices in Parliament began to demand her abdication. On January 9, 1919 a group of Socialist and Liberal Luxembourgish Members of Parliament (“Deputies”) publicly proclaimed a republic after losing a vote in parliament to abolish the monarchy, a situation which was followed by public unrest in the streets requiring even the intervention of the French Army to restore order.

Under intense national (and international) pressure, and after consulting with the Prime Minister, the 24-year-old Grand Duchess decided to abdicate (January 14, 1919). She was succeeded by her younger sister, Princess Charlotte, The Hereditary Grand Duchess.

After her abdication Marie-Adélaïde went into exile by travelling through Europe. She entered a Carmelite convent in Modena, Italy, in 1920. Later, she joined the Little Sisters of the Poor in Rome, taking the name “Sister Marie of the Poor”. Her worsening health did not allow her to remain a nun, however, and she eventually had to leave the convent.

She then moved to Schloss Hohenburg in Bavaria, where, surrounded by her family, she died of influenza aged 29 on January 24, 1924. Marie-Adélaïde never married nor had children. On October 22, 1947, her body was interred in the Grand Ducal Crypt of the Notre-Dame Cathedral in the city of Luxembourg.

February 25, 1885: Birth of Princess Alice of Battenberg. Part I.

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Duke of Edinburgh, Louis IV of Hesse and By Rhine, Prince Andrew of Greece., Prince Louis of Battenberg, Prince Philip Duke of Edinburgh, Princess Alice of Battenberg, Princess Alice of the United Kingdom, Queen Elizabeth II, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom

Princess Alice of Battenberg (Victoria Alice Elizabeth Julia Marie; February 25, 1885 – December 5, 1969) was the mother of Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark (HRH The Duke of Edinburgh) and mother-in-law of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom.

A great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria, she was born in Windsor Castle and grew up in the United Kingdom, the German Empire, and the Mediterranean. A Hessian princess by birth, she was a member of the Battenberg family, a morganatic branch of the House of Hesse-Darmstadt. She was congenitally deaf.

Alice was born in the Tapestry Room at Windsor Castle in Berkshire in the presence of her great-grandmother, Queen Victoria. She was the eldest child of Prince Louis of Battenberg and his wife Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine. Her mother was the eldest daughter of Ludwig IV, Grand Duke of Hesse and Princess Alice of the United Kingdom, Queen Victoria’s second daughter. Her father was the eldest son of Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine through his morganatic marriage to Countess Julia Hauke, who was created Princess of Battenberg in 1858 by Ludwig III, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine, Her three younger siblings, Louise, George, and Louis, later became Queen of Sweden, Marquess of Milford Haven, and Earl Mountbatten of Burma, respectively.

Prince and Princess Andrew of Greece and Denmark

Princess Alice met Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark (known as Andrea within the family), the fourth son of King George I of Greece and Olga Constantinovna of Russia, while in London for King Edward VII’s coronation in 1902. They married in a civil ceremony on October 6, 1903 at Darmstadt. The following day, there were two religious marriage ceremonies; one Lutheran in the Evangelical Castle Church, and one Greek Orthodox in the Russian Chapel on the Mathildenhöhe. She adopted the style of her husband, becoming “Princess Andrew”.

The bride and groom were closely related to the ruling houses of the United Kingdom, Germany, Russia, Denmark, and Greece, and their wedding was one of the great gatherings of the descendants of Queen Victoria and Christian IX of Denmark held before World War I. Prince and Princess Andrew had five children, all of whom later had children of their own.

Princess Alice with her two eldest daughters, Margarita and Theodora.

The global war effectively ended much of the political power of Europe’s dynasties. The naval career of her father, Prince Louis of Battenberg, had collapsed at the beginning of the war in the face of anti-German sentiment in Britain. At the request of King George V, he relinquished the Hessian title Prince of Battenberg and the style of Serene Highness on July 14, 1917, and anglicized the family name to Mountbatten. The following day, the King created him Marquess of Milford Haven in the peerage of the United Kingdom. The following year, two of her aunts, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna of Russia, and Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna, were murdered by Bolsheviks after the Russian revolution. At the end of the war the Russian, German and Austro-Hungarian empires had fallen, and Princess Andrew’s uncle, Ernst Ludwig, Grand Duke of Hesse, was deposed

In 1930, after suffering a severe nervous breakdown, Princess Andrew was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, first by Thomas Ross, a psychiatrist who specialised in shell-shock, and subsequently by Sir Maurice Craig, who treated the future King George VI before he had speech therapy. The diagnosis was confirmed at Ernst Simmel’s sanatorium at Tegel, Berlin. Princess Andrew was forcibly removed from her family and placed in Ludwig Binswanger’s sanatorium in Kreuzlingen, Switzerland.

During Princess Andrew’s long convalescence, she and Prince Andrew drifted apart, her daughters all married German princes in 1930 and 1931 (she did not attend any of the weddings), and her son Prince Philip went to England to stay with his uncles, Lord Louis Mountbatten and George Mountbatten, 2nd Marquess of Milford Haven, and his grandmother, the Dowager Marchioness of Milford Haven.

During World War II, Princess Andrew was in the difficult situation of having sons-in-law fighting on the German side and a son in the British Royal Navy. Her cousin, Prince Victor zu Erbach-Schönberg was the German ambassador in Greece until the occupation of Athens by Axis forces in April 1941. She and her sister-in-law, Princess Nicholas of Greece, lived in Athens for the duration of the war, while most of the Greek royal family remained in exile in South Africa. She worked for the Red Cross, helped organise soup kitchens for the starving populace and flew to Sweden to bring back medical supplies on the pretext of visiting her sister, Louise, who was married to the Crown Prince. She organised two shelters for orphaned and lost children, and a nursing circuit for poor neighborhoods.

On December 3, 1944 Prince Andrew died in the Hotel Metropole, Monte Carlo, Monaco, of heart failure and arteriosclerosis just as the war was ending. He was 62.

Part II Tomorrow.

February 23, 1848: Abdication of Louis Philippe, King of the French

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Abdication, Citizen King, February Revolution 1848, July Monarchy, King Charles X of France, King Louis-Philippe of France, Kings and Queens of France, Louis Philippe, Princess Elizabeth of the United Kingdom

The 1848 Revolution in France, sometimes known as the February Revolution was one of a wave of revolutions in 1848 in Europe. In France the revolutionary events ended the July Monarchy (1830–1848) and led to the creation of the French Second Republic.

Louis Philippe I (October 6, 1773 – August 26, 1850) was King of the French from 1830 to 1848. As Duke of Chartres he distinguished himself commanding troops during the Revolutionary Wars but broke with the Republic over its decision to execute King Louis XVI.

His father was Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans and his mother was Louise Marie Adélaïde de Bourbon. As a member of the reigning House of Bourbon, he was a Prince of the Blood, which entitled him the use of the style “Serene Highness”. His mother was an extremely wealthy heiress who was descended from Louis XIV of France through a legitimized line. His father, known as Philippe Égalité during the French Revolution supported the execution of Louis XVI, fell under suspicion and was executed, and Louis Philippe fled France and remained in exile for 21 years until the Bourbon Restoration.

Marriage

In 1796, Louis Philippe supposedly fathered a child with Beata Caisa Wahlborn (1766-1830) named Erik Kolstrøm (1796-1879). In 1808, Louis Philippe proposed to Princess Elizabeth, daughter of King George III of the United Kingdom. His Catholicism and the opposition of her mother Queen Charlotte meant the Princess reluctantly declined the offer. Louis Philippe struck up a lasting friendship with Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, (father of Queen Victoria) and moved to England, where he remained in exile from 1800 to 1815.

Princess Elizabeth of the United Kingdom

In 1809, Louis Philippe married Princess Maria Amalia of the Two-Sicilies, the tenth of eighteen children of King Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies and Maria Carolina of Austria, herself thirteenth child of Empress Maria Theresa and Holy Roman Emperor Franz I. The ceremony was celebrated in Palermo 25 November 1809. The marriage was considered controversial, because she was the niece of Marie Antoinette of Austria (wife of King Louis XVI of France), while he was the son of Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans who was considered to have played a part in the execution of her aunt.

Princess Maria Amalia of Naples and Sicily

Louis Philippe usurped the throne from his distance cousin Henri de Bourbon, comte de Chambord and was proclaimed king in 1830 after his cousin Charles X was forced to abdicate by the July Revolution. Louis Philippe’s liberal policies and his popularity with the masses was the main reason the Chamber of Deputies chose him as king. Upon his accession to the throne, Louis Philippe assumed the title of King of the French – a title already adopted by Louis XVI in the short-lived Constitution of 1791. Linking the monarchy to a people instead of a territory (as the previous designation King of France and of Navarre) was aimed at undercutting the legitimist claims of Charles X and his family.

The reign of Louis Philippe is known as the July Monarchy and was dominated by wealthy industrialists and bankers. Though initially liberal in his policies Louis Philippe followed conservative policies, especially under the influence of French statesman François Guizot during the period 1840–48. He also promoted friendship with Britain and sponsored colonial expansion, notably the French conquest of Algeria. His popularity faded as economic conditions in France deteriorated in 1847.

The Duke of Orleans in uniform as a Colonel-General of the Hussars in 1817

Nicknamed the “Bourgeois Monarch”, Louis Philippe sat at the head of a state controlled mainly by educated elites. Supported by the Orléanists, he was opposed on his right by the Legitimists (former ultra-royalists) and on his left by the Republicans and Socialists. Louis Philippe was an expert businessman and, by means of his businesses, he had become one of the richest men in France. Still Louis Philippe saw himself as the successful embodiment of a “small businessman” (petite bourgeoisie).

The year 1846 saw a financial crisis and bad harvests, and the following year saw an economic depression. A poor railway system hindered aid efforts, and the peasant rebellions that resulted were forcefully crushed. According to French economist Frédéric Bastiat, the poor condition of the railway system can largely be attributed to French efforts to promote other systems of transport, such as carriages.

Because political gatherings and demonstrations were outlawed in France, activists of the largely middle class opposition to the government began to hold a series of fund-raising banquets. This campaign of banquets (Campagne des banquets), was intended to circumvent the governmental restriction on political meetings and provide a legal outlet for popular criticism of the regime. The campaign began in July 1847. Friedrich Engels was in Paris dating from October 1847 and was able to observe and attend some of these banquets.

The banquet campaign lasted until all political banquets were outlawed by the French government in February 1848. As a result, the people revolted, helping to unite the efforts of the popular Republicans and the liberal Orléanists, who turned their back on Louis-Philippe.

Anger over the outlawing of the political banquets brought crowds of Parisians flooding out onto the streets at noon on 22 February 1848. They directed their anger against the Citizen King Louis Philippe and his chief minister for foreign and domestic policy, François Pierre Guillaume Guizot.

Alphonse de Lamartine in front of the Town Hall of Paris rejects the red flag on 25 February 1848, during the February 1848 Revolution

At 2 pm the next day, February 23, Prime Minister Guizot resigned. Upon hearing the news of Guizot’s resignation, a large crowd gathered outside the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. An officer ordered the crowd not to pass, but people in the front of the crowd were being pushed by the rear. The officer ordered his men to fix bayonets, probably wishing to avoid shooting, but in what is widely regarded as an accident, a soldier discharged his musket and the rest of the soldiers then fired into the crowd. Fifty-two people were killed.

Fires were set, and angry citizens began converging on the royal palace. Louis-Philippe, fearing for his life, abdicated in favor of his nine-year-old grandson Philippe, Comte de Paris and fled to England in disguise. A strong undercurrent of republican sentiment prevented Philippe, Comte de Paris from taking his place as king.

Louis-Philippe (1773-1850), The Citizen King by Eugène Lami

Louis Philippe and his family remained in exile in Great Britain in Claremont, Surrey, though a plaque on Angel Hill, Bury St. Edmunds claims that he spent some time there, possibly due to a friendship with the Marquess of Bristol, who lived nearby at Ickworth House. The royal couple spent some time by the sea at St. Leonards and later at the Marquess’s home in Brighton. Louis Philippe died at Claremont on August 26, 1850.

February 23, 1934: King Leopold III succeeded to the throne of Belgium following the death of his father King Albert I.

Tags

Abdication, King Albert I of Belgium, King Albert II of Belgium, King Baudouin of Belgium, King Leopold III of Belgium, Princess Astrid of Sweden, Royal Question, Succession, World War ii

Leopold III (November 3, 1901 – September 25, 1983) was King of the Belgians from 1934 until 1951, when he abdicated in favour of the heir apparent, his son

Prince Leopold was born in Brussels, the first child of King Albert I of the Belgians and his consort, Duchess Elisabeth in Bavaria.* In 1909 his father became King of the Belgians, as Albert I, and Prince Leopold became Duke of Brabant, the title of the heir to the Belgian throne.

Astrid (far right) with her mother and sisters

Prince Leopold married Princess Astrid of Sweden in a civil ceremony in Stockholm on November 4, 1926, followed by a religious ceremony in Brussels on November 10. Princess Astrid was the third child and youngest daughter of Prince Carl, Duke of Västergötland, and his wife, Princess Ingeborg of Denmark.

Her father was the third son of Oscar II, King of Sweden and Norway, by his wife, Sophia of Nassau. Her mother was a daughter of King Frederick VIII of Denmark by his wife, Louise of Sweden. Astrid’s father was a younger brother of King Gustav V of Sweden, and her mother was the younger sister of kings Christian X of Denmark and Haakon VII of Norway. The marriage produced three children:

1. Princess Joséphine-Charlotte of Belgium, (October 11, 1927 – January 10, 2005) Grand Duchess consort of Luxembourg, through married on to Prince Jean, Grand Duke of Luxembourg.
2. King Baudouin of Belgium, Duke of Brabant, Count of Hainaut, (September 7, 1930 – July 31, 1993).
3. King Albert II of Belgium, Prince of Liège, (June 6, 1934 -) He abdicated in July 2013.

On August 29, 1935, while the king and queen were driving along the winding, narrow roads near their villa at Küssnacht am Rigi, Schwyz, Switzerland, on the shores of Lake Lucerne, Leopold lost control of the car which plunged into the lake, killing Queen Astrid.

Leopold married Lilian Baels on September 11, 1941 in a secret, religious ceremony, with no validity under Belgian law. The new Princess of Réthy was soon expecting their first child, the ceremony took place on December 6, 1941. They had three children in total:

1. Prince Alexandre of Belgium, (July 18, 1942 – November 29, 2009) married Léa Wolman.
2. Princess Marie-Christine of Belgium, (February 6, 1951 -) Her first marriage, to Paul Drucker in 1981, lasted 40 days (and formally divorced in 1985); she subsequently married Jean-Paul Gourges in 1989.
3. Princess Marie-Esméralda of Belgium, (September 30, 1956 – ) a journalist, her professional name is Esmeralda de Réthy. She married pharmacologist Salvador Moncada in 1998. They have a son and a daughter.

The Duke of Brabant succeeded to the throne of Belgium on February 23, 1934, as King Leopold III following the death of his father King Albert I.

The controversial reign of Leopold III would need several blog entries to detail this complex topic and which I will do in the future. Therefore today, I will simply summarize the information.

King Leopold III during World War II

Leopold’s controversial actions during the Second World War resulted in a political crisis known as the Royal Question. The Royal Question was a major political crisis in Belgium that lasted from 1945 to 1951, coming to a head between March and August 1950. During Leopold’s exile from 1944 until 1950, Leopold’s brother, Charles, served as prince regent while Leopold was declared unable to reign.

The “question” at stake surrounded whether King Leopold III could return to the country and resume his royal duties as King of the Belgians amid allegations that his actions during World War II had gone contrary to the provisions of the Belgian Constitution. In 1950, following a referendum, Leopold was allowed to return from exile to Belgium, but the continuing political instability pressured him to abdicate on July 16, 1951 in favor of his eldest son Baudouin.

In retirement, he followed his passion as an amateur social anthropologist and entomologist and travelled the world, collecting zoological specimens. Two species of reptiles are named after him, Gehyra leopoldi and Polemon leopoldi. He went to Senegal and strongly criticized the French decolonization process, and he explored the Orinoco and the Amazon with Heinrich Harrer.

Leopold died in 1983 in Woluwe-Saint-Lambert aged 81, following emergency heart surgery. He was interred next to Queen Astrid in the royal vault at the Church of Our Lady of Laeken. Leopold’s second wife, the Princess de Réthy, was later interred with them.

Notable royal descendants

As of 2020 two of Leopold’s grandsons are reigning monarchs: Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg since 2000, and King Philippe of Belgium since 2013.

* Duchess Elisabeth in Bavaria was the daughter of Karl-Theodor, Duke in Bavaria, head of a cadet branch of the Bavarian Royal Family and an ophthalmologist. She was named after her father’s sister, Empress Elisabeth of Austria, better known as Sisi, wife of Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungry. Her mother was Maria Josepha of Portugal, daughter of exiled Miguel I of Portugal and his wife Adelaide of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg.

February 22, 1511: Death of Prince Henry, Duke of Cornwall.

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Archduchess Margaret of Austria, Catherine of Aragon, Duke of Cornwall, Ferdinand II of Aragon, Henry IX of England, Henry of Cornwall, Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I, House of Tudor, Janes Seymour, King Edward VI of England, King Henry VIII of England, Margaret of York

Henry, Duke of Cornwall (January 1, 1511 – February 22, 1511) was the first child of King Henry VIII of England and his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, and though his birth was celebrated as that of the heir apparent, he died within weeks. His death and Henry VIII’s failure to produce another surviving male heir with Catherine led to succession and marriage crises that affected the relationship between the English church and Roman Catholicism, giving rise to the English Reformation.

Coat of Arms of the Kingdom of England used from 1504 to 1554 for the reigns of Henry VIII and Edward VI.

Birth and christening

Henry was born on January 1, 1511 at Richmond Palace, the first live-born child of King Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, born eighteen months after their wedding and coronation. Catherine had previously given birth to a stillborn daughter, on January 31, 1510. He was christened on January 5 in a lavish ceremony where beacons were lit in his honour. The christening gifts included a fine gold salt holder and cup weighing a total 99 ounces, given by Louis XII of France, his godfather. His other godparents were William Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury, and Margaret of Austria, Duchess of Savoy * At the christening, the baby prince’s great-aunt Lady Anne Howard stood proxy for Margaret, and Richard Foxe, Bishop of Winchester, stood proxy for the French king.

Young King Henry VIII of England

Celebrations and death

Henry VIII and his queen planned extravagant celebrations rivalling that of their joint coronation for the birth of his son, who automatically became Duke of Cornwall and heir apparent to the English throne, and was expected to become Prince of Wales, King of England, and third king of the House of Tudor, as King Henry IX. The tournament at Westminster was the most lavish of Henry’s reign, and is recorded via a long illuminated vellum roll, known as The Westminster Tournament Roll to be found in the College of Arms collection. Known as “Little Prince Hal” and “the New Year’s Boy”, the prince was fondly regarded by Henry’s court.

However, on February 22, 1511, the young prince died suddenly. The cause of his death was not recorded. He received a state funeral at Westminster Abbey. It was another two years until the Queen again became pregnant. There is no known portrait of Prince Henry. Contemporary reports state that both parents were distraught at the loss of their child. The deeply religious Catherine spent many hours kneeling on cold stone floors praying, to the worry of courtiers. Henry distracted himself from his grief by waging war against Louis XII of France with his father-in-law, Fernando II of Aragon.

Catherine of Aragon, Queen of England

Impact of Henry, Duke of Cornwall’s death on history

Historians have speculated what course English history might have taken had Henry, Duke of Cornwall, or any other legitimate son by Catherine survived. With the couple’s failure to provide a live son, Henry VIII’s desire for a male heir was the cited reason that led him to have their marriage annulled. A living son by Catherine might have forestalled or even prevented the marriage to Anne Boleyn and placed England in a different relationship with Roman Catholicism during the Protestant Reformation, thereby affecting, and perhaps even preventing, the English Reformation that grew out of the succession crisis prior to the birth of the future Edward VI to Henry VIII and Jane Seymour in 1537. This theme has also been explored in some alternative history fiction.

* Archduchess Margaret of Austria, Duchess of Savoy, (January 10, 1480 – December 1, 1530), the second child and only daughter of Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I of Austria and Mary of Burgundy, co-sovereigns of the Low Countries. She was named after her stepgrandmother, Margaret of York, (May 3, 1446 – November 23, 1503) the third wife of Charles the Bold Duke of Burgundy a daughter of Richard, 3rd Duke of York, and Cecily Neville.

February 22, 1403: Birth of King Charles VII of France

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Agnès Sorel, Dauphin of France, Isabeau of Bavaria-Ingolstadt, Joan of Arc, King Charles VI of France, King Charles VIII of France, King Henry VI of England, Kings of france, Maid of Orléans, Marie of Anjou

Charles VII (February 22, 1403 – July 22, 1461), called the Victorious or the Well-Served was King of France from October 21, 1422 to his death on July 22, 1461.

Charles VII was born at the Hôtel Saint-Pol, the royal residence in Paris, the eleventh child and fifth son of Charles VI of France and Isabeau of Bavaria-Ingolstadt, the eldest daughter of Duke Stephen III of Bavaria-Ingolstadt and Taddea Visconti of Milan. Charles was given the title of comte de Ponthieu at his birth in 1403. His four elder brothers, Charles (1386), Charles (1392–1401), Louis (1397–1415) and Jean (1398–1417) had each held the title of Dauphin of France (heir to the French Throne) in turn. All died childless, leaving Charles with a rich inheritance of titles.

Charles VII inherited the throne of France in the midst of the Hundred Years’ War, under desperate circumstances. Forces of the Kingdom of England and the Duke of Burgundy occupied Guyenne and northern France, including Paris, the most populous city, and Reims, the city in which the French kings were traditionally crowned. In addition, his father Charles VI had disinherited him in 1420 and recognized Henry V of England and his heirs as the legitimate successors to the French crown instead. At the same time, a civil war raged in France between the Armagnacs (supporters of the House of Valois) and the Burgundian party (supporters of the House of Valois-Burgundy allied to the English).

Marie of Anjou

On December 18, 1422, Charles married his second cousin Marie of Anjou the eldest daughter of Duke Louis II of Anjou, claimant to the throne of Naples, and Yolande of Aragon, claimant to the throne of Aragon. They were both great-grandchildren of King Jean II of France and his first wife Bonne of Bohemia through the male line. They had fourteen children. But whatever affection he may have had for his wife, or whatever gratitude he may have felt for the support of her family, the great love of Charles VII’s life was his mistress, Agnès Sorel.

Political conditions in France took a decisive turn in the year 1429 just as the prospects for the Dauphin began to look hopeless. The town of Orléans had been under siege since October 1428. The English regent, the Duke of Bedford (the uncle of Henry VI), was advancing into the Duchy of Bar, ruled by Charles’s brother-in-law, René. The French lords and soldiers loyal to Charles were becoming increasingly desperate. Then in the little village of Domrémy, on the border of Lorraine and Champagne, a teenage girl named Joan of Arc (French: Jeanne d’Arc), demanded that the garrison commander at Vaucouleurs, Robert de Baudricourt, collect the soldiers and resources necessary to bring her to the Dauphin at Chinon, stating that visions of angels and saints had given her a divine mission. Granted an escort of five veteran soldiers and a letter of referral to Charles by Lord Baudricourt, Joan rode to see Charles at Chinon. She arrived on February 23, 1429.

Joan of Arc

What followed would become famous. When Joan appeared at Chinon, Charles wanted to test her claim to be able to recognise him despite never having seen him, and so he disguised himself as one of his courtiers. He stood in their midst when Joan entered the chamber in which the court was assembled. Joan identified Charles immediately. She bowed low to him and embraced his knees, declaring “God give you a happy life, sweet King!” Despite attempts to claim that another man was in fact the king, Charles was eventually forced to admit that he was indeed such. Thereafter Joan referred to him as “Dauphin” or “Noble Dauphin” until he was crowned in Reims four months later. After a private conversation between the two (Charles later stated that Joan knew secrets about him that he had voiced only in silent prayer to God), Charles became inspired and filled with confidence.

Joan of Arc at the coronation of Charles VII with her white flag

After her encounter with Charles in March 1429, Joan of Arc set out to lead the French forces at Orléans. She was aided by skilled commanders such as Étienne de Vignolles, known as La Hire, and Jean Poton de Xaintrailles. They compelled the English to lift the siege on May 8, 1429, thus turning the tide of the war. The French won the Battle of Patay on June 18, at which the English field army lost about half its troops. After pushing further into English and Burgundian-controlled territory, Charles was crowned King Charles VII of France in Reims Cathedral on July 17, 1429.

Joan was later captured by Burgundian troops under John of Luxembourg at the siege of Compiègne on May 24, 1430. The Burgundians handed her over to their English allies. Tried for heresy by a court composed of pro-English clergy such as Pierre Cauchon, who had long served the English occupation government, she was burned at the stake on May 30, 1431.

February 21, 1728: birth of Emperor Peter III of Russia

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Carl XII of Sweden, Catherine II of Russia, Charles Friedrich, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, Empress Elizabeth of Russia, Peter III of Russia, Russian Emperors, Russian Empire

Peter III (February 21, 1728 – July, 16, 1762) was Emperor of Russia for six months in 1762. He was born in Kiel as Charles Peter Ulrich of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp the only child of Charles Friedrich, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp (the son of Hedvig Sophia of Sweden, sister of Carl XII), and Anna Petrovna (the elder surviving daughter of Emperor Peter I the Great and Empress Catherine I of Russia). His mother died shortly after his birth. In 1739, Peter’s father died, and he became Duke of Holstein-Gottorp as Charles Peter Ulrich The German Peter could hardly speak Russian and pursued a strongly pro-Prussian policy, which made him an unpopular leader.

When Elizabeth, his mother’s younger sister, became Empress of Russia, she brought Peter from Germany to Russia and proclaimed him her heir presumptive in the autumn of 1742. Previously in 1742, the 14-year-old Peter was proclaimed King of Finland during the Russo-Swedish War (1741–1743), when Russian troops held Finland. This proclamation was based on his succession rights to territories held by his childless great-uncle, the late Carl XII of Sweden, who also had been Grand Duke of Finland.

Portrait of the Grand Duchess Ekaterina Alekseyevna around the time of her wedding, by George Christoph Grooth, 1745.

Empress Elizabeth arranged for Peter to marry his 2nd cousin, Sophia Augusta Frederica (later Catherine the Great), daughter of Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst and Princess Joanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp. The young princess formally converted to Russian Orthodoxy and took the name Ekaterina Alexeievna (i.e., Catherine). They married on August 21, 1745. The marriage was not a happy one but produced one son, the future Emperor Paul, and one daughter, Anna Petrovna (December 20, 1757 – March 19, 1759). Catherine later claimed that Paul was not fathered by Peter: that, in fact, they had never consummated the marriage.

Peter succeeded to the Russian throne (January 5, 1762) he withdrew Russian forces from the Seven Years’ War and concluded a peace treaty (May 5, 1762) with Prussia (dubbed the “Second Miracle of the House of Brandenburg”). He gave up Russian conquests in Prussia and offered 12,000 troops to make an alliance with Friedrich II of Prussia (June 19, 1762). Russia thus switched from an enemy of Prussia to an ally — Russian troops withdrew from Berlin and marched against the Austrians.

Despite his generally poor reputation, Peter made some progressive reforms during his short reign. The reign of Peter III is cast as progressive for its focus on transforming economically developed feudal Russia to a more advanced European state. During his 186-day period of government, Peter III passed 220 new laws that he had developed and elaborated during his life as a crown prince. He proclaimed religious freedom (a very enlightened move for the time) and encouraged education. He sought to modernize the Russian army. He abolished the secret police, which had been infamous for its extreme violence, and made it illegal for landowners to kill their serfs without going to court. Catherine adopted some of his reforms and reverted others.

It has been theorized that he wasn’t deposed for political reasons and was in fact murdered for personal reasons. He was deposed and possibly assassinated as a result of a conspiracy led by his German wife, Princess Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst, who succeeded him to the throne as Catherine II. With the aid of the two Guards troops that Peter had planned to discipline more harshly, the emperor was arrested and forced to abdicate on July 9, 1762. Shortly thereafter, he was transported to Ropsha, where he was supposedly assassinated, although it is unknown how Peter died. However, one theory is that he died as a result of a drunken brawl with his bodyguard while he was being held captive after Catherine’s coup.