May 31, 1613: Birth of Elector Johann-Georg II of Saxony.

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Albert Frederick of Prussia, Duke of Prussia, Elector of Saxony, Holy Roman Empire, John George I of Saxony, John George II of Saxony, John George III of Saxony, Magdalene-Sibylle of Brandenburg-Bayreuth, Magdalene-Sybille of Prussia

Johann-Georg II (May 31, 1613 – August 22, 1680) was the Elector of Saxony from 1656 to 1680. He belonged to the Albertine line of the House of Wettin.

Johann-Georg II, Elector of Saxony

He was the third but eldest surviving son of the Elector Johann-Georg I of Saxony (1585-1656) and Magdalene-Sybille of Prussia (1586-1659) his second spouse, the daughter of Albrecht-Friedrich, Duke of Prussia (1553-1618) and Marie-Eleonore of Cleves (1550–1608).

Johann-Georg succeeded his father as Elector of Saxony when Johann-Georg I died on October 8, 1656. In 1657 Johann-Georg II made an arrangement with his three brothers with the object of preventing disputes over their separate territories, and in 1664 he entered into friendly relations with King Louis XIV of France and Navarre. He received money from the French king, but the existence of a strong anti-French party in Saxony induced him occasionally to respond to the overtures of the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I.

Johann-Georg I, Elector of Saxony (Father)

The Elector’s primary interests were not in politics, but in music and art. He adorned Dresden, which under him became the musical centre of Germany; welcoming foreign musicians and others he gathered around him a large and splendid court, and his capital was the constant scene of musical and other festivals. He commissioned the building of the first opera house, the Opernhaus am Taschenberg.

Magdalene-Sybille of Prussia (Mother)

In 1658 Johann-Georg II was accepted into the Fruitbearing Society, through the patronage of Duke Wilhelm of Saxe-Weimar.

His enormous expenditure on the arts compelled Johann-Georg II in 1661 to grant greater control over monetary matters to the estates, a step which laid the foundation of the later system of finance in Saxony. Also, his government was less effective in establishing absolutist rule and a standing army than were Bohemia or Prussia.

Johann-Georg II’s reign saw the slow economic reconstruction of Saxony after the Thirty Years’ War. New trades and manufactures developed, such as textiles, hard coal and glass. Locally mined silver filled the Electorate’s empty treasury, and the Leipzig Trade Fair and the Bohemian Exulanten of 1654 also stimulated economic activity.

Elector Johann-Georg II of Saxony died in Freiberg on 22 August 22, 1680, aged 67.

Family

In Dresden on November 13, 1638 Johann-Georg II married his first cousin Magdalene-Sibylle of Brandenburg-Bayreuth (1612-1687) daughter of Christian, Margrave of Brandenburg-Bayreuth, and Marie of Prussia, she was by birth a Markgräfin, or Margravine, and a member of the Brandenburg-Bayreuth branch of the House of Hohenzollern. Her maternal grandparents were Albrecht-Friedrich, Duke of Prussia (1553-1618) and Marie-Eleonore of Cleves (1550–1608). Johann-Georg II’s mother and the mother of his spouse, Magdalene-Sibylle, were sisters.

They had three children:

1. Sibylle-Marie (September 16, 1642 – February 27, 1643)
2. Erdmuthe-Sophie (February 25, 1644 – June 22, 1670), married on 29 October 1662 to Christian Ernst, Margrave of Brandenburg-Bayreuth
3. Johann-Georg III (June 20, 1647 – September 12, 1691), his successor as Elector.

May 30, 1536: Marriage of Henry VIII of England and Jane Seymour.

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Anne Boleyn, Catherine of Aragon, Henry VIII of England, Jane Seymour, Queen Elizabeth I of England, Queen Mary I of England, Queen of England, Queen of Ireland

Jane Seymour (c. 1508 – October 24, 1537) was Queen of England and Ireland from 1536 to 1537 as the third wife of King Henry VIII. She succeeded Anne Boleyn as queen consort following the latter’s execution on May 19, 1536. She died of postnatal complications less than two weeks after the birth of her only child, a son who became King Edward VI. She was the only wife of the King to receive a queen’s funeral, and his only consort to be buried beside him in St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle.

Jane Seymour

Jane, the daughter of Sir John Seymour and Margery Wentworth was most likely born at Wulfhall, Wiltshire, although West Bower Manor in Somerset has also been suggested. Her birth date is not recorded; various accounts use anywhere from 1504 to 1509, but it is generally estimated as occurring in or around 1508.

Through her maternal grandfather, she was a descendant of King Edward III’s son Lionel of Antwerp, 1st Duke of Clarence. Because of this, she and King Henry VIII were fifth cousins. She shared a great-grandmother, Elizabeth Cheney, with his second and fifth wives, Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard.

Jane was not as highly educated as Henry’s first and second wives, Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn. She could read and write a little, but was much better at needlework and household management, which were considered much more necessary for women.

Jane became a maid-of-honour in 1532 to Queen Catherine, but may have served her as early as 1527, and went on to serve Queen Anne with her sister Elizabeth. The first report of Henry VIII’s interest in Jane was in February 1536, about three months before Anne’s execution.

Jane was highly praised for her gentle, peaceful nature, being referred to as “gentle a lady as ever I knew” by John Russell and being named as “the Pacific” by the Imperial Ambassador Eustace Chapuys for her peacemaking efforts at court. According to Chapuys, she was of middling stature and very pale; he also commented that she was not of much beauty. However, John Russell stated that she was “the fairest of all the King’s wives.” Polydore Vergil commented that she was “a woman of the utmost charm in both character and appearance.” She was regarded as a meek, gentle, simple, and chaste woman, whose large family made her a suitable candidate to give birth to many children.

Henry VIII was betrothed to Jane on May 20, 1536, just one day after Anne Boleyn’s execution. They were married at the Palace of Whitehall, Whitehall, London, in the Queen’s closet by Bishop Gardiner on May 30, 1536. As a wedding gift he made her a grant of 104 manors in four counties as well as a number of forests and hunting chases for her jointure, the income to support her during their marriage.

Jane, Queen of England and Ireland

Jane was publicly proclaimed queen on June 4, 1536. Her well-publicised sympathy for the late Queen Catherine and her daughter Mary showed her to be compassionate and made her a popular figure with the common people and most of the courtiers. She was never crowned because of plague in London, where the coronation was to take place. Henry may have been reluctant to have her crowned before she had fulfilled her duty as a queen consort by bearing him a son and a male heir.

As queen, Jane was said to be strict and formal. The lavish entertainments, gaiety, and extravagance of the queen’s household, which had reached its peak during the time of Anne Boleyn, was replaced by a strict enforcement of decorum. For example, she banned the French fashions that Anne had introduced. Politically, Jane appears to have been conservative.

Her only reported involvement in national affairs, in 1536, was when she asked for pardons for participants in the Pilgrimage of Grace. Henry is said to have rejected this, reminding her of the fate her predecessor met with when she “meddled in his affairs”.

Edward, Prince of Wales

Jane formed a close relationship with her stepdaughter Mary. Jane put forth much effort to restore Mary to court and to the royal succession, behind any children that she might have with Henry. She brought up the issue of Mary’s restoration both before and after she became queen. While she was unable to restore Mary to the line of succession, she was able to reconcile her with Henry. A letter from Mary to her shows that Mary was grateful to her. While it was she who first pushed for the restoration, Mary and Elizabeth were not reinstated to the succession until Henry’s sixth wife, Catherine Parr, convinced him to do so.

By Christmas of 1536, Jane was pregnant but subsequently lost the child. In January 1537, Jane conceived again. During her pregnancy, she developed a craving for quail, which Henry ordered for her from Calais and Flanders. During the summer, she took no public engagements and led a relatively quiet life, being attended by the royal physicians and the best midwives in the kingdom.

She went into confinement in September 1537 and gave birth to the coveted male heir, the future King Edward VI, at two o’clock in the morning on October 12, 1537 at Hampton Court Palace. Edward was christened on October 15, 1537, without his mother in attendance, as was the custom. He was the only legitimate son of Henry VIII to survive infancy. Both of his daughters, Mary and Elizabeth, were present and carried Edward’s train during the ceremony.

Jane’s labour had been difficult, lasting two days and three nights, probably because the baby was not well positioned. After the christening, it became clear that she was seriously ill. She died on October 24, 1537 at Hampton Court Palace. Within a few weeks of her death, there were conflicting testimonies concerning the cause of her demise.

Edward VI, King of England and Ireland, son of Jane Seymour

In retrospect from the current day, there are various speculations that have been offered. According to King Edward’s biographer, Jennifer Loach, her death may have been due to an infection from a retained placenta. According to Alison Weir, she may have succumbed to puerperal fever following a bacterial infection contracted during the birth. The same author has also speculated, after medical consultation, that the cause of her death was a pulmonary embolism.

Jane was buried on November 12, 1537 in St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle after the funeral in which her stepdaughter Mary acted as chief mourner. A procession of 29 mourners followed Mary, one for every year of Queen Jane’s life. She was the only one of Henry’s wives to receive a queen’s funeral.

After her death, Henry wore black for the next three months. He married Anne of Cleves two years later, although marriage negotiations were tentatively begun soon after Jane’s death. He put on weight during his widowerhood, becoming obese and swollen and developing diabetes and gout. Historians have speculated she was his favourite wife because she gave birth to a male heir. When he died in 1547, he was buried beside her, on his request, in the grave he had made for her.

May 29, 1994: Death of Lady May Abel-Smith (née Princess May of Teck)

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Alexander of Teck, Countess of Athlone, Francis of Teck, King George V of the United Kingdom, Kingdom of Württemberg, Lady May Abel Smith, Lady May of Cambridge, Princess Alice of Albany, Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge, Princess May of Teck, Queen Mary

Lady May Helen Emma Abel Smith (formerly Lady May Cambridge, née Princess May of Teck; January 23, 1906 – May 29, 1994) was a relative of the British Royal Family. She was a great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and a niece of Queen Mary, consort to King George V of the United Kingdom.

Lady May Abel-Smith

She was HSH Princess May of Teck was at Claremont House, near Esher in Surrey, England, the oldest child and only daughter of the Prince Alexander of Teck, and his wife Princess Alice of Albany.

Her father was a German nobleman, later granted the British title of Earl of Athlone, and he the youngest son of Francis, Duke of Teck by his wife the Princess Mary-Adelaide of Cambridge, daughter of Prince Adolphus-Frederick, Duke of Cambridge, the youngest surviving son of King George III of the United Kingdom and Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz.

Lady May’s mother was, Princess Alice of Albany, the daughter of Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, youngest son of Queen Victoria, by his wife Princess Helena of Waldeck and Pyrmont. As a daughter of Prince Alexander of Teck, Princess May was styled at birth Her Serene Highness Princess May of Teck.

Princess May as an infant with her mother Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone, and brother Rupert Cambridge, Viscount Trematon

During World War I, anti-German feeling in the United Kingdom led Princess May’s uncle, King George V, to change the name of the British royal family from the Germanic Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to the more British-sounding Windsor. The king also renounced all Germanic titles for himself and other members of the British Royal Family who were British subjects.

In solidarity, May’s father, Prince Alexander of Teck, renounced his title of a Prince of Teck in the Kingdom of Württemberg in Germany, and the style His Serene Highness. Alexander, along with his brother, Prince Adolphus of Teck, adopted the surname Cambridge, after their grandfather, Prince Adolphus-Frederick, Duke of Cambridge.

A few days later, the king elevated Alexander to the Peerage of the United Kingdom as Earl of Athlone and Viscount Trematon. Alexander was now styled The Right Honourable Earl of Athlone. His daughter then became styled as Lady May Cambridge, befitting a daughter of an Earl, and his surviving son adopted as a courtesy title his secondary title of Viscount Trematon, as befitted the eldest son of an Earl. Alexander’s wife, Alice, born as a British princess, retained her title and style, Her Royal Highness, and became known as Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone.

Lady May served as a royal bridesmaid on numerous occasions; three times in Westminster Abbey: in 1919 to Princess Victoria-Patricia of Connaught on her marriage to Captain Alexander Ramsay, RN; in 1922 to Princess Mary, Princess Royal on her marriage to Viscount Lascelles; and in 1923 to Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon on her marriage to Prince Albert, Duke of York,mlater King George VI.

Marriage

Lady May married Henry Abel Smith (later Sir Henry) on October 24, 1931 in Balcombe, Sussex,nclose to the Athlone residence at Brantridge Park. The bride was attended by four child bridesmaids: Princess Elizabeth of York (later Queen Elizabeth II), Rosemary Madeline Hamilton Fraser, Jennifer Bevan and Kathleen Alington. Her eight adult bridesmaids were the Hon. Imogen Rhys (daughter of Walter Rice, 7th Baron Dynevor); Lady Mary Whitley; Phyllis Seymour-Holm; Lady Alice Montagu Douglas Scott (later Duchess of Gloucester); Princess Ingrid of Sweden; Princess Sibylla of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha; Verena Seymour (daughter of Sir Edward Seymour and granddaughter of the 4th Marquess Conyngham; and Wenefryde Tabor. The best man was Cecil Weld Forester, 7th Baron Forester of Willey Park.

Princess Ingrid of Sweden, future Queen Consort of King Frederik IX of Denmark, introduced her fellow bridesmaid, Princess Sibylla of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (daughter of Prince Charles Edward, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and former Duke of Albany – grandson of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert through their son Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany) to her brother, Prince Gustaf Adolph (father of King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden), whom Princess Sibylla married a year later (20 October 1932) at the Kirche St. Moriz Coburg.

Issue

Sir Henry and Lady May Abel Smith were married for over 60 years and had three children:

Later life

Lady May, being only a distant member of the royal family, did not carry out any royal duties. She did attend some major royal events such as the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II and the wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales, and Lady Diana Spencer.

Between 1958 and 1966, Sir Henry Abel Smith served as the Governor of Queensland. May accompanied Henry to Brisbane, as vice-regal consort. They retired in 1975 to Barton Lodge at Winkfield in Berkshire, England.

Lady May died in hospital one year after her husband. They are both buried at the Royal Burial Ground, Frogmore, not far from Windsor Castle. Her funeral was held at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, Windsor, on June 9, 1994. It was attended by the Duke of Gloucester and Princess Alexandra, representing the royal family.

Titles

* 23 January 1906 – 14 July 1917: Her Serene Highness Princess May of Teck
* 14 – 17 July 1917: Miss May Cambridge
* 17 July 1917 – 24 October 1931: The Lady May Cambridge
* 24 October 1931 – 29 May 1994: The Lady May Abel Smith

From her birth, she was known as Princess May of Teck, a title from the Kingdom of Württemberg. She was later named for a few days Miss May Cambridge after the British Royal Family and its relatives ceased using their German titles in 1917, and her father adopted the surname “Cambridge”. She was subsequently styled Lady May Cambridge, when her father was created Earl of Athlone, and Lady May Abel Smith after her marriage in 1931.

May 29, 1630: Birth and Restoration of King Charles II of England, Scotland and Ireland.

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Catherine of Braganza, Charles I of England, Exclusion Bill, John IV of Portugal, King Charles II of England, Oliver Cromwell, Parliament, Restoration, Roman Catholic Church

Charles II (May 29, 1630 – February 6, 1685) was king of England, Scotland, and Ireland. He was king of Scotland from 1649 until his deposition in 1651, and king of England, Scotland and Ireland from the 1660 Restoration of the monarchy until his death in 1685.

Charles II was the eldest surviving child of Charles I of England, Scotland and Ireland and Henrietta-Maria de Bourbon of France, daughter of King Henri IV of France and Navarre and his second wife, Marie de Medici. After Charles I’s execution at Whitehall on January 30, 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War, the Parliament of Scotland proclaimed Charles II king of Scotland on February 5, 1649.

However, England entered the period known as the English Interregnum or the English Commonwealth, and the country was a de facto republic led by Oliver Cromwell. Cromwell defeated Charles II at the Battle of Worcester on September 3, 1651, and Charles fled to mainland Europe. Cromwell became virtual dictator of England, Scotland and Ireland.

Charles spent the next nine years in exile in France, the Dutch Republic and the Spanish Netherlands. A political crisis that followed the death of Cromwell in 1658 resulted in the restoration of the monarchy, and Charles was invited to return to Britain. On May 29,:1660, his 30th birthday, he was received in London to public acclaim. After 1660, all legal documents stating a regnal year did so as if he had succeeded his father as king in 1649.

Charles II, King of England, Scotland and Ireland.

Charles’s English parliament enacted laws known as the Clarendon Code, designed to shore up the position of the re-established Church of England. Charles acquiesced to the Clarendon Code even though he favoured a policy of religious tolerance. The major foreign policy issue of his early reign was the Second Anglo-Dutch War.

Marriage

Infanta Catherine of Braganza (November 25, 1638 – December 31, 1705) was the second surviving daughter of João, 8th Duke of Braganza and his wife, Luisa de Guzmán. Following the Portuguese Restoration War, which overthrew 60 years of Habsburg rule, her father was acclaimed King João IV of Portugal, on December 1, 1640. With her father’s new position as one of Europe’s most important monarchs, Portugal then possessing a widespread colonial empire, Catherine became a prime choice for a wife for European royalty, and she was proposed as a bride for Johann of Austria, François de Vendôme, duc de Beaufort, Louis XIV and Charles II.

Catherine de Braganza, Infanta of Portugal

Negotiations with Portugal for Charles’s marriage to Catherine of Braganza began during his father’s reign and upon the restoration, Queen Luísa of Portugal, acting as regent, reopened negotiations with England that resulted in an alliance. On June 23, 1661, a marriage treaty was signed; England acquired Catherine’s dowry of Tangier (in North Africa) and the Seven islands of Bombay, the latter having a major influence on the development of the British Empire in India.

Under the terms of the treaty Portugal obtained military and naval support against Spain and liberty of worship for Catherine. Catherine journeyed from Portugal to Portsmouth on May 13–14 1662, but was not visited by Charles there until 20 May 20. The next day the couple were married at Portsmouth in two ceremonies—a Catholic one conducted in secret, followed by a public Anglican service.

In 1670, he entered into the Treaty of Dover, an alliance with his cousin King Louis XIV of France and Navarre. Louis agreed to aid him in the Third Anglo-Dutch War and pay him a pension, and Charles secretly promised to convert to Catholicism at an unspecified future date. Charles attempted to introduce religious freedom for Catholics and Protestant dissenters with his 1672 Royal Declaration of Indulgence, but the English Parliament forced him to withdraw it.

Charles II near the end of his reign.

In 1679, Titus Oates’s revelations of a supposed Popish Plot sparked the Exclusion Crisis when it was revealed that Charles’s brother and heir presumptive, James, Duke of York, was a Catholic. The crisis saw the birth of the Party Politics in England with the birth of pro-exclusion Whig and anti-exclusion Tory parties.

Fearing that the Exclusion Bill, which would exclude James, Duke of York from the throne due to his Catholicism, would be passed, and bolstered by some acquittals in the continuing Plot trials, which seemed to him to indicate a more favourable public mood towards Catholicism, Charles dissolved the English Parliament, for a second time that year, in mid-1679.

Charles II’s hopes for a more moderate Parliament were not fulfilled; within a few months he had dissolved Parliament yet again, after it sought to pass the Exclusion Bill. When a new Parliament assembled at Oxford in March 1681, Charles dissolved it for a fourth time after just a few days.

During the 1680s, however, popular support for the Exclusion Bill ebbed, and as Charles ruled as a virtual absolute monarch, he experienced a nationwide surge of loyalty. Lord Shaftesbury was prosecuted (albeit unsuccessfully) for treason in 1681 and later fled to Holland, where he died.

Charles’s opposition to the Exclusion Bill angered some Protestants. Protestant conspirators formulated the Rye House Plot, a plan to murder him and the Duke of York as they returned to London after horse races in Newmarket. A great fire, however, destroyed Charles’s lodgings at Newmarket, which forced him to leave the races early, thus inadvertently avoiding the planned attack. News of the failed plot was leaked.

During the exclusion crisis Charles sided with the Tories, and, following the discovery of the Rye House Plot to murder Charles and James in 1683, some Whig leaders were executed or forced into exile. Charles dissolved the English Parliament in 1681, and for the remainder of his reign, Charles ruled without Parliament.

Charles was always favorable toward the Catholic faith, his mother, Marie-Henrietta was a devout Catholic, and Charles II was received into the Catholic Church on his deathbed.

King Charles II was one of the most popular and beloved kings of England, known as the Merry Monarch, in reference to both the liveliness and hedonism of his court and the general relief at the return to normality after over a decade of rule by Cromwell and the Puritans.

Charles’s wife, Catherine of Braganza, bore no live children, but Charles acknowledged at least twelve illegitimate children by various mistresses. He was succeeded by his brother James who became James II-VII, King of England, Scotland and Ireland.

May 29, 1873: Tragic death Prince Friedrich of Hesse and by Rhine.

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Grand Duke Ernst-Ludwig of Hesse and by Rhine, Grand Duke Ludwig IV of Hesse and By Rhine, Hemophilia, Nicholas II of Russia, Prince Friedrich of Hesse and by Rhine, Prince Henry of Prussia, Princess Alice of the United Kingdom, Princess Alix of Hesse by Rhine, Princess Irene of Hesse and By Rhine, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom

Prince Friedrich of Hesse and by Rhine (Friedrich Wilhelm August Victor Leopold Ludwig; October 7, 1870 – May 29, 1873) was the haemophiliac second son of Ludwig IV, Grand Duke of Hesse, and Princess Alice of the United Kingdom, one of the daughters of Queen Victoria. He was also a maternal great-uncle of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh through his eldest sister Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine.

Alice, Princess of the United Kingdom, Grand Duchess of Hesse and By Rhine (Mother)

Ludwig IV, Grand Duke of Hesse and By Rhine (Father)

Life

Friedrich, called “Frittie” in the family, was a cheerful and lively child despite his illness. “Leopold” was added as one of his names in honor of his mother’s hemophiliac brother, Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, who was Friedrich’s godfather.

Death

His haemophilia was first diagnosed in February 1873, a few months before his death, when he cut his ear and bled for three days. Bandages could not stanch the flow of blood. In late May 1873, Friedrich and his older brother Ernst-Ludwig were playing together in their mother’s bedroom. Ernst-Ludwig ran to another room, which was set at right angles to Alice’s bedroom and peered through the window at his younger brother.

Prince Friedrich of Hesse and by Rhine

Alice ran to get Ernst-Ludwig away from the window. When she was out of the room, Friedrich climbed onto a chair next to an open window in his mother’s bedroom to get a closer look at his brother. The chair tipped over and Friedrich tumbled through the window, falling twenty feet to the balustrade below. Friedrich survived the fall and might have lived had he not been a haemophiliac. He died hours later of a brain hemorrhage.

Aftermath

Following Friedrich’s death, his distraught mother often prayed at his grave and marked anniversaries of small events in his life. His brother Ernst told his mother he wanted all of the family to die together, not alone “like Frittie.” Two of Friedrich’s sisters, Irene, who married her first cousin , Prince Heinrich of Prussia and Alix, who married Emperor Nicholas II of Russia, also had haemophiliac sons.

May 25, 1846: Birth of Princess Helena of the United Kingdom. Part III.

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King George V of the United Kingdom, Prince Albert of Schleswig-Holstein, Prince Alfred, Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein, Princess Helena, Princess Helena Victoria, Princess Marie Louise, Princess of the United Kingdom, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom

In 1917, in response to the wave of anti-German feeling that surrounded the war, George V changed the family name from Saxe-Coburg and Gotha to Windsor. He also disposed of his family’s German titles and styles, so Helena and her daughters simply became Princess Christian, Princess Helena Victoria and Marie Louise with no territorial designation. Helena’s surviving son, Albert, fought on the side of the Prussians, though he made it clear that he would not fight against his mother’s country.

In the same year, Prince Christian died at Schomberg House, Pall Mall, on October 28, 1917, in his eighty-sixth year. He is buried in the Royal Burial Ground, Frogmore in Windsor Great Park.

Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein

Helena’s last years were spent arguing with Commissioners, who tried to turn her out of Schomberg House and Cumberland Lodge because of the expense of running her households. They failed, as clear evidence of her right to live in those residences for life was shown.

Death

Princess Helena, Princess Christian of Schleswig-Holstein, died at Schomberg House on June 9, 1923 at the age of 77. Her funeral, described as a “magnificently stage-managed scene” by her biographer Seweryn Chomet, was headed by King George V. The regiment of her favourite son, Prince Christian-Victor, lined the steps of St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle. Although originally interred in the Royal Vault at St George’s on June 15, 1923, her body was reburied at the Royal Burial Ground, Frogmore, a few miles from Windsor, after its consecration on October 23, 1928.

Princess Helena

Legacy

Helena was devoted to nursing, and took the lead at the charitable organisations she represented. She was also an active campaigner, and wrote letters to newspapers and magazines promoting the interests of nurse registration. Her royal status helped to promote the publicity and society interest that surrounded organisations such as the Royal British Nurses’ Association. The RBNA still survives today with Aubrey Rose as president.

Emily Williamson founded the Gentlewomen’s Employment Association in Manchester; one of the projects which came out of this group was the Princess Christian Training College for Nurses, in Fallowfield, Manchester.

In appearance, Helena was described by John Van der Kiste as plump and dowdy; and in temperament, as placid, and business-like, with an authoritarian spirit. On one occasion, during a National Dock Strike, the Archbishop of Canterbury composed a prayer hoping for its prompt end. Helena arrived at the church, examined her service sheet, and in a voice described by her daughter as “the penetrating royal family whisper, which carried farther than any megaphone”, remarked: “That prayer won’t settle any strike.”

Her appearance and personality was criticised in the letters and journals of Queen Victoria, and biographers followed her example. However, Helena’s daughter, Princess Marie-Louise, described her as:

very lovely, with wavy brown hair, a beautiful little straight nose, and lovely amber-coloured eyes … She was very talented: played the piano exquisitively, had a distinct gift for drawing and painting in water-colours … Her outstanding gift was loyalty to her friends … She was brilliantly clever, had a wonderful head for business. …

Music was one of her passions; in her youth she played the piano with Charles Hallé, and Jenny Lind and Clara Butt were among her personal friends. Her determination to carry out a wide range of public duties won her widespread popularity. She twice represented her mother at Drawing Rooms, which was considered equivalent to being presented to the Queen herself.

Helena was closest to her brother, Prince Alfred, who considered her his favorite sister. Though described by contemporaries as fearfully devoted to the Queen, to the point that she did not have a mind of her own, she actively campaigned for women’s rights, a field the Queen abhorred. Nevertheless, both she and Beatrice remained closest to the Queen, and Helena remained close to her mother’s side until the latter’s death. Her name was the last to be written in the Queen’s seventy-year-old journal.

On these dates in History: May 27.

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Anne Marie Louise d'Orléans, Countess of Salisbury, Duchess of Montpensier, Elizabeth-Charlotte, Emperor Alexander III of Russia, Emperor of Russia, Emperor Peter the Great, King Edward IV of England, King Louis XIV of France and Navarre, Madame de Montespan, Margaret Pole, Princess Palatine, Tsar Simeon I the Great

* 1153 – Malcolm IV becomes King of Scotland.

Malcolm IV (between April 23 and May 24, 1141 – December 9, 1165) was King of Scotland from 1153 until his death. He was the eldest son of Henry, Earl of Huntingdon and Northumbria (died 1152) and Ada de Warenne. He succeeded his grandfather David I, and shared David’s Anglo-Norman tastes.

* 1199 – John is crowned King of England.

John (December 24, 1166 – October 19, 1216) was King of England from 1199 until his death in 1216. He lost the Duchy of Normandy and most of his other French lands to King Philippe II of France, resulting in the collapse of the Angevin Empire and contributing to the subsequent growth in power of the French Capetian dynasty during the 13th century. The baronial revolt at the end of John’s reign led to the sealing of Magna Carta, a document sometimes considered an early step in the evolution of the constitution of the United Kingdom. John was the youngest of the four surviving sons of King Henry II of England and Duchess Eleanor of Aquitaine.

* 1257 – Richard of Cornwall, and his wife, Sanchia of Provence, are crowned King and Queen of the Germans at Aachen Cathedral.

Richard (January 5, 1209 – April 2, 1272), second son of John, King of England, was the nominal Count of Poitou (1225–43), Earl of Cornwall (from 1225) and King of Germany (from 1257). He was one of the wealthiest men in Europe and joined the Barons’ Crusade, where he achieved success as a negotiator for the release of prisoners and assisted with the building of the citadel in Ascalon.

* 1703 – Emperor Peter I the Great of Russia founds the city of Saint Petersburg.

The city was founded by Emperor Peter I the Great on May 27, 1703, on the site of a captured Swedish fortress. It served as a capital of the Russian Tsardom and the subsequent Russian Empire from 1713 to 1918 (being replaced by Moscow for a short period of time between 1728 and 1730). After the October Revolution, the Bolsheviks moved their government to Moscow.

Emperor Peter I the Great of Russia

* 1883 – Alexander III is crowned Emperor of Russia.

Alexander III (March 10, 1845 – November 1, 1894) was Emperor of Russia, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Finland from 13 March 13, 1881 until his death on November 1, 1894. He was highly reactionary and reversed some of the liberal reforms of his father, Alexander II. Under the influence of Konstantin Pobedonostsev (1827–1907) he opposed any reform that limited his autocratic rule. During his reign, Russia fought no major wars; he was therefore styled “The Peacemaker”

On March 13, 1881 Alexander’s father, Emperor Alexander II, was assassinated by members of the extremist organization Narodnaya Volya. As a result, he ascended to the Russian imperial throne in Nennal. Alexander III and Maria Feodorovna (Dagmar of Denmark) were officially crowned and anointed at the Assumption Cathedral in Moscow on May 27, 1883. Alexander’s ascension to the throne was followed by an outbreak of anti-Jewish riots.

Births

* 1537 – Ludwig IV, Landgrave of Hesse-Marburg (d. 1604)

Landgrave Ludwig IV of Hesse-Marburg (May 27, 1537 – October 9, 1604) was the son of Landgrave Philipp I of Hesse and his wife Christine of Saxony. After the death of his father in 1567, Hesse was divided among his sons and Louis received Hesse-Marburg (Upper Hesse) including Marburg and Giessen.

1626 – Willem II, Prince of Orange (d. 1650)

Willem II, Prince of Orange

Willem II (May 27, 1626 – November 6, 1650) was sovereign Prince of Orange and Stadtholder of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, Overijssel and Groningen in the United Provinces of the Netherlands from March 14, 1647 until his death three years later. His only child, William III, co-reigned as King of England, Ireland, and Scotland along with his wife Queen Mary II.

* 1627 – Anne Marie Louise d’Orléans, Duchess of Montpensier (d. 1693)

Anne Marie Louise d’Orléans, Duchess of Montpensier, (May 27, 1627 – April 5, 1693) known as La Grande Mademoiselle, was the only daughter of Gaston d’Orléans with his first wife Marie de Bourbon, Duchess of Montpensier. Gaston d’Orléans the third son of King Henri IV of France and his wife Marie de’ Medici.

Anne Marie Louise d’Orléans, Duchess of Montpensier

One of the greatest heiresses in history, she died unmarried and childless, leaving her vast fortune to her cousin, Philippe of France. After a string of proposals from various members of European ruling families, including Charles II of England, Afonso VI of Portugal, and Charles Emmanuel II of Savoy, she eventually fell in love with the courtier Antoine Nompar de Caumont and scandalised the court of France when she asked Louis XIV for permission to marry him, as such a union was viewed as a mésalliance. She is best remembered for her role in the Fronde, her role in bringing the famous composer Lully to the king’s court, and her Mémoires.

* 1652 – Elizabeth-Charlotte, Princess Palatine of Germany (d. 1722)

Princess Elisabeth-Charlotte (May 27, 1652 – December 8, 1722) was a German princess and, as Madame, the second wife of Philippe I, Duke of Orléans, younger brother of Louis XIV of France, and mother of France’s ruler during the Regency. Louis invoked her hereditary claim to the Palatinate as pretext to launch the Nine Years’ War in 1688. Her vast, frank correspondence provides a detailed account of the personalities and activities at the court of her brother-in-law, Louis XIV, for half a century, from the date of her marriage in 1672.

Princess Elisabeth-Charlotte was born in Heidelberg Castle, to Charles I Ludwig, Elector Palatine of the Simmern branch of the House of Wittelsbach, and Landgravine Charlotte of Hesse-Cassel. Princess Elisabeth-Charlotte is directly related to several iconic European monarchs. Her grandmother Elizabeth Stuart was a Scottish and later English princess, daughter of James I-VI of England, Scotland and Ireland and granddaughter of Mary I, Queen of Scots. Her first cousin became George I, the first Hanover King of Great Britain.

* 1756 – Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria (d. 1825)

Maximilian I Joseph (May 27, 1756 – October 13, 1825) was Duke of Zweibrücken from 1795 to 1799, prince-elector of Bavaria (as Maximilian IV Joseph) from 1799 to 1806, then King of Bavaria (as Maximilian I Joseph) from 1806 to 1825. He was a member of the House of Palatinate-Birkenfeld-Zweibrücken, a branch of the House of Wittelsbach.

King Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria

Maximilian-Joseph was the son of the Count Palatine Friedrich-Michael of Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld and Maria-Francisca of Sulzbach, was at Schwetzingen, between Heidelberg and Mannheim.

Deaths

* 866 – Ordoño I of Asturias (b. 831)

Ordoño I (c. 821 – May 27, 866) was King of Asturias from 850 until his death. He was probably raised in Lugo, capital of the province of Galicia, of which his father, Ramiro, had been named governor. There he was educated, including in the military arts.

On January 1, 850, Ordoño succeeded his father as king. As he was his father’s heir, he was the first king of Asturias to ascend the throne without election. Ordoño married Muniadona. He had six children, including his successor, Alfonso III.

Ordoño died in Oviedo and was succeeded by his eldest son.

* 927 – Simeon I of Bulgaria first Bulgarian Emperor (b. 864)

Tsar Simeon I the Great ruled over Bulgaria from 893 to 927, during the First Bulgarian Empire. Simeon’s successful campaigns against the Byzantines, Magyars and Serbs led Bulgaria to its greatest territorial expansion ever, making it the most powerful state in contemporary Eastern and Southeast Europe. His reign was also a period of unmatched cultural prosperity and enlightenment later deemed the Golden Age of Bulgarian culture.

* 1039 – Dirk III, Count of Holland (b. 981)

Dirk III (also called Dirik or Theodoric) was Count of Holland from 993 to 27 May 1039, until 1005 under regency of his mother. It is thought that Dirk III went on pilgrimage to the Holy Land around 1030, hence his nickname of Hierosolymita (‘the Jerusalemite’ in Latin).

The area over which Dirk ruled was called Holland for the first time only in 1101 and was known as West Friesland at this time. The actual title of Count Dirk III was ‘Count in Friesland’. Western Frisia was very different from the area (North and South Holland) of today. Most of the territory was boggy and subject to constant flooding and hence very sparsely populated. The main areas of habitation were in the dunes at the coast and on heightened areas near the rivers.

* 1508 – Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan (b. 1452)

Ludovico Maria Sforza (July 27, 1452 – May 27, 1508), was an Italian Renaissance prince who ruled as Duke of Milan from 1494, following the death of his nephew Gian Galeazzo Sforza, until 1499. A member of the Sforza family, he was the fourth son of Francesco I Sforza. He was famed as a patron of Leonardo da Vinci and other artists, and presided over the final and most productive stage of the Milanese Renaissance. He is probably best known as the man who commissioned The Last Supper.

* 1541 – Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury (b. 1473)

Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury (August 14, 1473 – May 27, 1541), was an English peeress. She was the daughter of George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence, the brother of kings Edward IV and Richard III of England. Margaret was one of two women in 16th-century England to be a peeress in her own right with no titled husband. One of the few surviving members of the Plantagenet dynasty after the Wars of the Roses, she was executed in 1541 at the command of Henry VIII, who was the son of her first cousin Elizabeth of York. Pope Leo XIII beatified her as a martyr for the Catholic Church on December 29, 1886.

* 1707 – Françoise-Athénaïs, marquise de Montespan, French mistress of Louis XIV of France (b. 1640)

Françoise-Athénaïs de Rochechouart de Mortemart, Marquise of Montespan (October 5, 1640 – May 27, 1707), better known as Madame de Montespan was the most celebrated maîtresse-en-titre of King Louis XIV of France and Navarre, by whom she had seven children.

Born into one of the oldest noble families of France, the House of Rochechouart, Madame de Montespan was called by some the “true Queen of France”‘ during her romantic relationship with Louis XIV due to the pervasiveness of her influence at court during that time.

Françoise-Athénaïs de Rochechouart de Mortemart, Marquise of Montespan

Her so-called “reign” lasted from around 1667, when she first danced with Louis XIV at a ball hosted by the king’s younger brother, Philippe I, Duke of Orléans, at the Louvre Palace, until her alleged involvement in the notorious Affaire des Poisons in the late 1670s to 1680s. Her immediate contemporary was Barbara Villiers, mistress of King Charles II of England, Scotland and Ireland.

In 1673, the couple’s three living illegitimate children were legitimated by Louis XIV and given the royal surname of de Bourbon. Their mother’s name, however, was not mentioned in the legitimization documents, as Madame de Montespan was still married to her husband. If their maternal parentage had been revealed, the marquis could have legally claimed Madame de Montespan’s illegitimate children with the king as his own.

The last years of Madame de Montespan’s life were given up to a very severe penance. Real sorrow over her death was felt by her three youngest children. She died on May 27, 1707 at the age of almost sixty-seven while taking the waters at Bourbon-l’Archambault in order to try to heal an illness. The king forbade her children to wear mourning for her.

She is an ancestress of several royal houses in Europe, including those of Spain, Italy, Bulgaria, Portugal, Belgium and Luxembourg.

May 26, 1867: Birth of Princess Mary of Teck, Queen Consort of the United Kingdom. Part II.

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Delhi Durbar, King Alfonso XIII of Spain, King Edward VII of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom, King George V of the United Kingdom, King Haakon VII of Norway, Princess Mary of the United Kingdom, Queen Mary, Victoria Mary (May) of Teck, World War I

From October 1905 the Prince and Princess of Wales undertook another eight-month tour, this time of India, and the children were once again left in the care of their grandparents. They passed through Egypt both ways and on the way back stopped in Greece. The tour was almost immediately followed by a trip to Spain for the wedding of King Alfonso XIII to Victoria-Eugenie of Battenberg, at which the bride and groom narrowly avoided assassination. Only a week after returning to Britain, May and George went to Norway for the coronation of George’s brother-in-law and sister, King Haakon VII and Queen Maud.

Queen Mary

On May 6, 1910, Edward VII died. Victoria-Mary’s husband ascended the throne and she became queen consort. He husband disliked double names and asked her to drop one of her two official names, Victoria-Mary, she chose to be called Mary, preferring not to be known by the same style as her husband’s grandmother, Queen Victoria. Queen Mary was crowned with the King on June 22, 1911 at Westminster Abbey. Later in the year, the new King and Queen travelled to India for the Delhi Durbar held on December 12, 1911, and toured the sub-continent as Emperor and Empress of India, returning to Britain in February.

The beginning of Mary’s period as consort brought her into conflict with her mother-in-law, Queen Alexandra. Although the two were on friendly terms, Alexandra could be stubborn; she demanded precedence over Mary at the funeral of Edward VII, was slow in leaving Buckingham Palace, and kept some of the royal jewels that should have been passed to the new queen.

During the First World War, Queen Mary instituted an austerity drive at the palace, where she rationed food, and visited wounded and dying servicemen in hospital, which caused her great emotional strain. After three years of war against Germany, and with anti-German feeling in Britain running high, the Russian Imperial Family, which had been deposed by a revolutionary government, was refused asylum, possibly in part because the Russian Emperor’s wife was German-born.

Queen Mary, her daughter the Princess Mary as a nurse during World War I.

Though born as a Princess of Hesse and By Rhine the Empress of Russia was also a granddaughter of Queen Victoria. News of the Emperor Nicholas II’s abdication provided a boost to those in Britain who wished to replace their own monarchy with a republic.The war ended in 1918 with the defeat of Germany and the abdication and exile of Emperor Wilhelm II along with the rest of the German monarchs.

Two months after the end of the war, Queen Mary’s youngest son, John, died at the age of thirteen. She described her shock and sorrow in her diary and letters, extracts of which were published after her death: “our poor darling little Johnnie had passed away suddenly … The first break in the family circle is hard to bear but people have been so kind & sympathetic & this has helped us [the King and me] much.”

Her staunch support of her husband continued during the later half of his reign. She advised him on speeches and used her extensive knowledge of history and royalty to advise him on matters affecting his position. He appreciated her discretion, intelligence, and judgement.

She maintained an air of self-assured calm throughout all her public engagements in the years after the war, a period marked by civil unrest over social conditions, Irish independence, and Indian nationalism.

King George V and Queen Mary of the United Kingdom

In the late 1920s, George V became increasingly ill with lung problems, exacerbated by his heavy smoking. Queen Mary paid particular attention to his care. During his illness in 1928, one of his doctors, Sir Farquhar Buzzard, was asked who had saved the King’s life. He replied, “The Queen”.

In 1935, King George V and Queen Mary celebrated their silver jubilee, with celebrations taking place throughout the British Empire. In his jubilee speech, George paid public tribute to his wife, having told his speechwriter, “Put that paragraph at the very end. I cannot trust myself to speak of the Queen when I think of all I owe her.”

George V died on January 20, 1936, after his physician, Lord Dawson of Penn, gave him an injection of morphine and cocaine that may have hastened his death. Queen Mary’s eldest son ascended the throne as Edward VIII. She was now the queen mother, though she did not use that style, and was instead known as Her Majesty Queen Mary.

May 25, 1846: Birth of Princess Helena of the United Kingdom. Part II.

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Christian of Schleswig-Holstein, Christian Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein, Earl Roberts, Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany, King Edward VII of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, King George V of the United Kingdom, Marie Louise of Schleswig-Holstein, Pretoria, Princess Helena of the United Kingdom, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, South Africa, The Boer Wars, World War I

Part II.

Health

Princess Helena’s health was not always robust, and she became was addicted to the drugs opium and laudanum. However, the Queen did not believe that Helena was really ill, often accusing her of hypochondria encouraged by an indulgent husband. Queen Victoria wrote to her daughter the Crown Princess of Prussia, complaining that Helena was inclined to “coddle herself (and Christian too) and to give way in everything that the great object of her doctors and nurse is to rouse her and make her think less of herself and of her confinement”.

Not all of her health scares were brought on by hypochondria; in 1869, she had to cancel her trip to Balmoral Castle when she became ill at the railway station. In 1870, she was suffering from severe rheumatism and problems with her joints. In July 1871, she suffered from congestion in her lungs, an illness severe enough to appear in the Court Circular, which announced that her illness caused “much anxiety to members of the royal family”. In 1873, she was forced to recuperate in France as a result of illness, and in the 1880s she travelled to Germany to see an oculist.

Nursing

Helena had a firm interest in nursing, and was the founding chair of the Ladies’ Committee of the British Red Cross in 1870, playing an active role in recruiting nurses and organising relief supplies during the Franco-Prussian War. She subsequently became President of the British Nurses’ Association (RBNA) upon its foundation in 1887. In 1891, it received the prefix “Royal”, and received a Royal Charter the following year. She was a strong supporter of nurse registration, an issue that was opposed by both Florence Nightingale and leading public figures.

Needlework

Helena was also active in the promotion of needlework, and became the first president of the newly established School of Art Needlework in 1872; in 1876, it acquired the “royal” prefix, becoming the Royal School of Needlework. In Helena’s words, the objective of the school was: “first, to revive a beautiful art which had been well-nigh lost; and secondly, through its revival, to provide employment for gentlewomen who were without means of a suitable livelihood.”

After Victoria

Edwardian period

In October 1900, while in Pretoria, South Africa, Prince Christian-Victor of Schleswig-Holstein, Helena’s favourite son, came down with malaria, and died of enteric fever, on 29 October 29, aged 33, after receiving Holy Communion in the presence of Lord Roberts and Prince Francis of Teck, the brother of the British queen Mary of Teck, wife of King the future King George V.

The reason Prince Christian-Victor was in Pretoria was because he served as a staff officer in the Second Boer War, being involved in the relief of Ladysmith under General Sir Redvers Buller and later was with Frederick Roberts, 1st Earl Roberts.

Prince Christian-Victor of Schleswig-Holstein

Three months after the death of her son, Prince Christian-Victor, her mother, Queen Victoria, died at Osborne House on January 22, 1901. Her brother, the new King, Edward VII, did not have close ties with his surviving sisters, with the exception of Princess Louise. Helena’s nephew, Prince Alexander of Battenberg (later Marquess of Carisbrooke) recorded that Queen Alexandra was jealous of the royal family, and would not invite her sisters-in-law to Sandringham. Moreover, Alexandra never fully reconciled herself to Helena and Christian following their marriage controversy in the 1860s.

Evidentially, the Royal Family was not very close and after the death of her mother and Princess Helena saw relatively little of her surviving siblings, and continued her role as a support to the monarchy and a campaigner for the many charities she represented. She and Christian led a quiet life, but did carry out a few royal engagements. On one such occasion, the elderly couple represented the King at the silver wedding anniversary, in 1906, of Emperor Wilhelm II (Helena’s nephew) and his wife Augusta-Victoria (Christian’s niece).

During the Edwardian period, Helena visited the grave of her son, Prince Christian Victor, She was met by South African Prime Minister Louis Botha, but Jan Smuts refused to meet her, partly because he was bitter that South Africa had lost the war and partly because his son had died in a British concentration camp.

Later years

Her brother King Edward VII died on May 6, 1910, and her nephew became King George V of the United Kingdom. The First World War began four years after his death. Helena devoted her time to nursing, and her daughter, Princess Marie-Louise, recorded in her memoirs that requests for news of German loved ones would often reach Helena and her sisters. It was decided that the letters should be forwarded to Crown Princess Margaret of Sweden, (born Princess Margaret of Connaught, niece of Princess Helena) as Sweden was neutral during the war.

King Edward VII

It was during the war that Helena and Christian celebrated their golden wedding anniversary in 1916, and despite the fact that Britain and Germany were at war, the Emperor Wilhelm II sent a congratulatory telegram to his aunt and uncle through the Crown Princess of Sweden. King George V and Queen Mary were present when the telegram was received, and the King remarked to Helena’s daughter, Marie-Louise, that her former husband, Prince Aribert of Anhalt, did her a service when he turned her out. When Marie-Louise said she would have run away to Britain if she was still married, the King said, “with a twinkle in his eye”, that he would have had to intern her.

The conclusion will be tomorrow!

May 26, 1135: King Alfonso VII of King of Castile, León and Galicia is crowned Emperor of Spain.

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Alfonso I of Aragon and Navarre, Alfonso the Battler, Emperor of Spain, Imperator totius Hispaniae, King Alfonso VII of Castile, Kingdom of Aragon, Kingdom of Castile, Kingdom of Galicia, Kingdom of León, Queen Urraca of Castile, Ramon Berenguer III of Barcelona, Spanish Empire, The Second Crusade

Alfonso VII (March 1, 1105 – August 21, 1157), called the Emperor, he became the King of Galicia in 1111 and King of Castile and León in 1126. Alfonso, born Alfonso Raimúndez, first used the title Emperor of All Spain, alongside his mother Urraca, once she vested him with the direct rule of Toledo in 1116. Alfonso later held another investiture in 1135 in a grand ceremony reasserting his claims to the imperial title. He was the son of Urraca, Queen of León and Raymond of Burgundy, the first of the House of Ivrea to rule in the Iberian peninsula.

Raymond of Burgundy (c. 1070-1107) was the ruler of Galicia from about 1090 until his death. He was the fourth son of Count William I of Burgundy and Stephanie, and her name is all that is known about her.

Alfonso’s Mother was Urraca (1079-1126) called the Reckless was Queen of Castile, León and Galicia in her own right from 1109 until her death. She claimed the imperial title as suo jure Empress of All Spain and Empress of All Galicia. Born in Burgos, Urraca was the eldest and only surviving child of Alfonso VI of León with his second wife Constance of Burgundy; for this, she was heir presumptive of the Kingdoms of Castile and León.

Urraca, the Reckless, Queen of Castile, León and Galicia

As queen, Urraca rose to the challenges presented to her and her solutions were pragmatic ones, according to Reilly, and laid the foundation for the reign of her son Alfonso VII, who in spite of the opposition of Urraca’s lover Pedro González de Lara succeeded to the throne of a kingdom whole and at peace at Urraca’s death in 1126. The queen’s reign also served as the legal precedent for the reigns of future queens.

In 1111, Diego Gelmírez, Bishop of Compostela and the count of Traba, crowned and anointed Alfonso as King of Galicia in the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. He was a child, but his mother had (1109) succeeded to the united throne of León-Castile-Galicia and desired to assure her son’s prospects and groom him for his eventual succession. By 1125 he had inherited the formerly Muslim Kingdom of Toledo. On March 10, 1126, after the death of his mother, he was crowned in León and immediately began the recovery of the Kingdom of Castile, which was then under the domination of Alfonso I the Battler, King of Aragon and Navarre. By the Peace of Támara of 1127, the Battler recognised Alfonso VII as King of Castile.

Emperor of Spain

On May 26, 1135, Alfonso VII was crowned “Emperor of Spain” (Imperator totius Hispaniae) in the Cathedral of León. With this title he probably wished to assert his authority over the entire peninsula and his absolute leadership of the Reconquista. He appears to have striven for the formation of a national unity which Spain had never possessed since the fall of the Visigothic kingdom.

Imperator totius Hispaniae is a Latin title meaning “Emperor of All Spain”. In Spain in the Middle Ages, the title “emperor” (from Latin imperator) was used under a variety of circumstances from the ninth century onwards, but its usage peaked, as a formal and practical title, between 1086 and 1157. A vague tradition had always assigned the title of emperor to the sovereign who held León. Sancho the Great considered the city the imperiale culmen and minted coins with the inscription Imperator totius Hispaniae after being crowned in it. Such a sovereign was considered the most direct representative of the Visigothic kings, who had been themselves the representatives of the Roman Empire.

Alfonso VII, King of Castile, León and Galicia

The imperial title signalled at various points the king’s equality with the rulers of the Byzantine Empire and Holy Roman Empire, his rule by conquest or military superiority, his rule over several ethnic or religious groups, and his claim to suzerainty over the other kings of the peninsula, both Christian and Muslim. The use of the imperial title received scant recognition outside of Spain and had been little more than a flourish of rhetoric. By the thirteenth century the imperial title had become largely forgotten.

The elements he had to deal with could not be welded together. The weakness of Aragon enabled him to make his superiority effective. After Afonso Henriques recognised him as liege in 1137, Alfonso VII lost the Battle of Valdevez in 1141 thereby affirming Portugal’s independence in the Treaty of Zamora (1143). In 1143, he himself recognised this status quo and consented to the marriage of Petronila of Aragon with Ramon Berenguer IV, a union which combined Aragon and Catalonia into the Crown of Aragon.

When Pope Eugene III preached the Second Crusade, Alfonso VII, with García Ramírez of Navarre and Ramon Berenguer IV, led a mixed army of Catalans and Franks, with a Genoese–Pisan navy, in a crusade against the rich port city of Almería, which was occupied in October 1147. A third of the city was granted to Genoa and subsequently leased out to Otto de Bonvillano, a Genoese citizen. It was Castile’s first Mediterranean seaport.

In 1151, Alfonso VII signed the Treaty of Tudilén with Ramon Berenguer. The treaty defined the zones of conquest in Andalusia in order to prevent the two rulers from coming into conflict. Six years later, Almería entered into Almohad possession. Alfonso was returning from an expedition against them when he died on 21 August 1157 in Las Fresnedas, north of the Sierra Morena.

Legacy

Alfonso was at once a patron of the church and a protector, though not a supporter of, the Muslims, who were a minority of his subjects. His reign ended in an unsuccessful campaign against the rising power of the Almohads. Though he was not actually defeated, his death in the pass, while on his way back to Toledo, occurred in circumstances which showed that no man could be what he claimed to be — “king of the men of the two religions.” Furthermore, by dividing his realm between his sons, he ensured that Christendom would not present the new Almohad threat with a united front.

Family

In November 1128, he married Berenguela, the daughter of Ramon Berenguer III, Count of Barcelona, and Douce I, Countess of Provence, the daughter of Gilbert I of Gévaudan and Gerberga of Provence.

According to a description of Berenguela, “She was a very beautiful and extremely graceful young girl who loved chastity and truth and all God-fearing people.”

She died in Palencia, and was buried at the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela.

Their children were:
* Ramón, living 1136, died in childhood
* Sancho III of Castile (1134 – 1158)
* Fernando II of León (1137 – 1188)
* Constance (c.1138 – 1160), married Louis VII of the Franks
* Sancha (c. 1139 – 1179), married Sancho VI of Navarre
* García (c. 1142 – 1145/6)
* Alfonso (1144/1148-c. 1149)

In 1152, King Alfonso VII married Richeza of Poland, the daughter of Ladislaus II the Exile, the High Duke of Poland and ruler of Silesia, and his wife Agnes of Babenberg, daughter of Margrave Leopold III of Austria and half-sister of King Conrad III of Germany.

Their Children were:

1. Fernando (1153 – 1157), possibly named like his older brother because he was never expected to survive[17]
2. Sancha (1155 – 1208), the wife of Alfonso II of Aragón.

Alfonso also had two mistresses, having children by both. By an Asturian noblewoman named Gontrodo Pérez, he had an illegitimate daughter, Urraca (1132 – 1164), who married García Ramírez of Navarre, the mother retiring to a convent in 1133. Later in his reign, he formed a liaison with Urraca Fernández, widow of count Rodrigo Martínez and daughter of Fernando García de Hita, having a daughter Stephanie the Unfortunate (1148 – 1180), who was killed by her jealous husband, Fernán Ruiz de Castro.