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Monthly Archives: August 2020

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

31 Monday Aug 2020

Posted by liamfoley63 in Uncategorized

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She is still missed very much.

European Royal History

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

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The Spencers were hoping for a boy to carry on the family line, and no name was chosen for a week, until they settled on Diana Frances. The name Frances was chosen after her mother. Diana was the name chosen after Lady Diana Spencer (1710-1735) daughter of Charles Spencer, 3rd Earl of Sunderland (1675-1722) and his second wife, Anne Spencer, Countess of Sunderland (née Lady Anne Churchill) (1683-1716). This Lady Diana Spencer was a many-times-great-aunt and she…

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August 29, 1935: Queen Astrid of the Belgians died in a car crash in Switzerland.

29 Saturday Aug 2020

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

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Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg, King Albert II of Belgium, King Baudouin of Belgium, King Harald V of Norway, King Leopold III of Belgium, King Philippe of the Belgians, Princess Astrid of Sweden, Queen Astrid of Belgium

August 29, 1935, 85 years ago, Queen Astrid of the Belgians died in a car crash in Switzerland.

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The Queen was 30 years old and she had three young children with her husband King Leopold III.

Queen Astrid was born as Princess Astrid of Sweden, daughter of Prince Carl of Sweden and his wife Princess Ingeborg (born Princess of Denmark).

Astrid’s sister Märtha became Crown Princess of Norway and the current King Harald V of Norway is her son.

The current King Philippe of the Belgians and Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg are her grandsons. 

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Of the Queen’s children, only her youngest son King Albert II (86), who abdicated in 2013, is still alive today.

Her daughter Joséphine-Charlotte, who would become Grand Duchess of Luxembourg, died in 2005.

Eldest son King Baudouin died in 1993 (and was succeeded by Albert II).

August 28, 932: Birth of Richard I, Duke of Normandy

28 Friday Aug 2020

Posted by liamfoley63 in Duchy/Dukedom of Europe, Featured Noble, Featured Royal, Royal Genealogy, Royal Succession, Royal Titles, This Day in Royal History

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Duchy of Normandy, King of the Franks, Louis IV of France, Richard I of Normandy, Rollo of Normandy, William the Conqueror

Richard I (August 28, 932 – November 20, 996), also known as Richard the Fearless, was the count of Rouen from 942 to 996. Dudo of Saint-Quentin, whom Richard commissioned to write the “De moribus et actis primorum Normanniae ducum” (Latin, “On the Customs and Deeds of the First Dukes of Normandy”), called him a dux. However, this use of the word may have been in the context of Richard’s renowned leadership in war, and not as a reference to a title of nobility. Richard either introduced feudalism into Normandy or he greatly expanded it. By the end of his reign, the most important Norman landholders held their lands in feudal tenure.

Birth

Richard was born to William Longsword, princeps (chieftain or ruler) of Normandy, and Sprota, a Breton concubine captured in war and bound to William by a more danico marriage. He was also the grandson of the famous Rollo. William was told of the birth of a son after the battle with Riouf and other Viking rebels, but his existence was kept secret until a few years later when William Longsword first met his son Richard. After kissing the boy and declaring him his heir, William sent Richard to be raised in Bayeux. Richard was about ten years old when his father was killed on December 17, 942. After William was killed, Sprota became the wife of Esperleng, a wealthy miller. Rodulf of Ivry was their son and Richard’s half-brother.

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With the death of Richard’s father in 942, King Louis IV of the Franks installed the boy, Richard, in his father’s office. Under the influence of Arnulf I, Count of Flanders, the king took him into Frankish territory and placing him in the custody of the count of Ponthieu before the king reneged and seized the lands of the Duchy of Normandy. He then split up the duchy, giving its lands in lower Normandy to Hugh the Great. Louis IV thereafter kept Richard in close confinement at Lâon, but the youth escaped from imprisonment: with assistance of Osmond de Centville, Bernard de Senlis, Ivo de Bellèsme, and Bernard the Dane.

In 946, at the age of 14, Richard allied himself with the Norman and Viking leaders in France and with men sent by King Harald I Bluetooth of Denmark. A battle was fought after which Louis IV was captured. Hostages were taken and held until King Louis recognised Richard as Duke, returning Normandy to him. Richard agreed to “commend” himself to Hugh, the Count of Paris, Hugh resolved to form a permanent alliance with Richard and promised his daughter Emma, who was little more than a girl, as a bride; the marriage would take place in 960.


Louis, working with Arnulf, persuaded Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor to attack Richard and Hugh. The combined armies of Otto, Arnulf, and Louis were driven from the gates of Rouen, fleeing to Amiens and being decisively defeated in 947. Peace ensued, with Louis dying in 954, 13 year old Lothair becoming king. The middle-aged Hugh appointed Richard as guardian of his 15-year-old son, Hugh Capet in 955.

In 962, Theobald I, Count of Blois, attempted a renewed invasion of Rouen, Richard’s stronghold, but his troops were summarily routed by Normans under Richard’s command, and forced to retreat before ever having crossed the Seine river. Lothair, the king of the West Franks, was fearful that Richard’s retaliation could destabilize a large part of West Francia so he stepped in to prevent any further war between the two. In 987, Hugh Capet became King of the Franks.


For the last 30 years until his death in 996 in Fécamp, Richard concentrated on Normandy itself, and participated less in Frankish politics and its petty wars. In lieu of building up the Norman Empire by expansion, he stabilized the realm and reunited the Normans, forging the reclaimed Duchy of his father and grandfather into West Francia’s most cohesive and formidable principality.

Richard’s first marriage in 960 was to Emma, daughter of Hugh the Great, and Hedwige of Saxony. They were betrothed when both were very young. She died after March 19, 968, with no issue.

According to Robert of Torigni, not long after Emma’s death, Duke Richard went out hunting and stopped at the house of a local forester. He became enamored with the forester’s wife, Seinfreda, but she was a virtuous woman and suggested he court her unmarried sister, Gunnor, instead.


Gunnor became his mistress and her family rose to prominence. Her brother, Herfast de Crepon, may have been involved in a controversial heresy trial. Gunnor was, like Richard, of Viking descent, being a Dane by blood. Richard finally married her to legitimize their children:

Richard died of natural causes in Fecamp, France, on November 20, 996.

It was reported that the remains in his grave were not his.
Relationships with France, England and the Church Richard used marriage to build strong alliances. His marriage to Emma of Paris connected him directly to the House of Capet. His second wife, Gunnor, from a rival Viking group in the Cotentin, formed an alliance to that group, while her sisters formed the core group that were to provide loyal followers to him and his successors.


His daughters forged valuable marriage alliances with powerful neighboring counts as well as to the king of England. Emma married firstly Æthelred the Unready and after his death in 1016, the invader, Cnut the Great. Her children included Edward the Confessor, Alfred Aetheling and with Cnut, Harthacnut, so completing a major link between the Duke of Normandy and the Crown of England that would add validity to the claim by William the Conqueror to the throne of England.


Richard also built on his relationship with the church, undertaking acts of piety, restoring their lands and ensuring the great monasteries flourished in Normandy. His further reign was marked by an extended period of peace and tranquility.

August 26, 1596: Birth of Friedrich V, King of Bohemia.

26 Wednesday Aug 2020

Posted by liamfoley63 in Abdication, Empire of Europe, Featured Monarch, Kingdom of Europe, Royal Birth, royal wedding, This Day in Royal History

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Elizabeth Stuart, Frederick V of Bohemia, Frederick V of the Rhine, House of Habsburg, House of Wittelsbach, king James I-VI of England and Scotland, Sophia of the Rhine (Electress Sophia), Thirty Years War

Friedrich V. (August 26, 1596 – November 29, 1632) was the Elector Palatine of the Rhine in the Holy Roman Empire from 1610 to 1623, and reigned as King of Bohemia from 1619 to 1620. He was forced to abdicate both roles, and the brevity of his reign in Bohemia earned him the derisive sobriquet “the Winter King”.

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Friedrich V was born at the Jagdschloss Deinschwang (a hunting lodge) near Amberg in the Upper Palatinate. He was the son of Friedrich IV and of Louise Juliana of Orange-Nassau, the daughter of Willem I the Silent Prince of Orange and Charlotte de Bourbon-Montpensier. An intellectual, a mystic, and a Calvinist, he succeeded his father as Prince-Elector of the Rhenish Palatinate in 1610. He was responsible for the construction of the famous Hortus Palatinus gardens in Heidelberg.

Friedrich IV’s marriage policy had been designed to solidify the Palatinate’s position within the Reformed camp in Europe. Two of Frederick V’s sisters were married to leading Protestant princes: his sister Luise Juliane to his one-time guardian Johann II, Count Palatine of Zweibrücken, and his sister Elizabeth Charlotte to Georg Wilhelm, Elector of Brandenburg. Friedrich IV had hoped that his daughter Katharina would marry the future King Gustaf II Adolph of Sweden, although this never came to pass.

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In keeping with his father’s policy, Friedrich V sought a marriage to Elizabeth Stuart, daughter of James I-VI of England and Scotland. James had initially considered marrying Elizabeth to Louis XIII of France, but these plans were rejected by his advisors. Friedrich’s advisors in the Palatinate were worried that if Elizabeth were married to a Catholic prince, this would upset the confessional balance of Europe, and they were thus resolved that she should marry Friedrich V.

Hans Meinhard von Schönberg, who had served as Friedrich V’s Hofmeister since his return to Heidelberg, was sent to London to court the princess in spring 1612. After intense negotiations, a marriage contract was signed on May 26, 1612, over the objection of her mother, Queen Anne.

Friedrich V travelled to London to collect his bride, landing on English soil on October 16, 1612. Friedrich and Elizabeth, who had previously corresponded in French, now met each other for the first time, and got on well together. They were formally engaged in January 1613 and married on February 14, 1613 at the royal chapel at the Palace of Whitehall.

In 1618 the largely Protestant estates of Bohemia rebelled against their Catholic King Ferdinand, triggering the outbreak of the Thirty Years’ War. Friedrich was asked to assume the crown of Bohemia. He accepted the offer and was crowned on 4 November 1619, as Friedrich I. The estates chose Friedrich since he was the leader of the Protestant Union, a military alliance founded by his father, and hoped for the support of Friedrich’s father-in-law, James I- VI of England and Scotland.

However, James opposed the takeover of Bohemia from the Habsburgs and Friedrich’s allies in the Protestant Union failed to support him militarily by signing the Treaty of Ulm (1620). His brief reign as King of Bohemia ended with his defeat at the Battle of White Mountain on 8 November 1620 – a year and four days after his coronation.

After the battle, the Imperial forces invaded Friedrich’s Palatine lands and he had to flee to his uncle Prince Maurice, Stadtholder of the Dutch Republic in 1622. An Imperial edict formally deprived him of the Palatinate in 1623. He lived the rest of his life in exile with his wife and family, mostly at The Hague, and died in Mainz in 1632.

His eldest surviving son Charles I Ludwig, Elector Palatine, returned to power in 1648 with the end of the war. Another son was Prince Rupert of the Rhine, one of the most colourful figures of his time. His daughter Princess Sophia was eventually named heiress presumptive to the British throne, and is the founder of the Hanoverian line of kings.

August 24, 1883: Death of Prince Henri, Count of Chambord, pretender to the French throne. Part II.

25 Tuesday Aug 2020

Posted by liamfoley63 in Abdication, Featured Royal, Kingdom of Europe, Royal Death, Royal Genealogy, Royal Succession, Royal Titles, This Day in Royal History

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Comte de Chambord, Count of Paris, Emperor Napoleon III of France, Franco-Prussian War, Henri V of France, Philippe VII of France, Third Republic

In the early 1870s, as the Second Empire collapsed following its defeat in the Franco-Prussian War at the battle of Sedan on 1 September 1870, the royalists became a majority in the National Assembly. The Orléanists agreed to support the aging comte de Chambord’s claim to the throne, with the expectation that at his childless death he would be succeeded by their own claimant, Philippe d’Orléans, comte de Paris.

Henri was then pretender for both Legitimists and Orléanists, and the restoration of monarchy in France seemed a close possibility. However, Henri insisted that he would accept the crown only on condition that France abandon its tricolour flag and return to the use of the white fleur de lys flag. He rejected a compromise, whereby the fleur-de-lys would be the new king’s personal standard, and the tricolour would remain the national flag.

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Defeat


A temporary Third Republic was established, to wait for Henri’s death and his replacement by the more liberal Comte de Paris. By the time this occurred in 1883, public opinion had however swung behind the Republic as the form of government which, in the words of the former President Adolphe Thiers, “divides us least”. Thus, Henri could be mockingly hailed by republicans such as Georges Clemenceau as “the French Washington” — the one man without whom the Republic could not have been founded.

Henri died on August 24, 1883 at his residence in Frohsdorf, Austria, at the age of sixty-two, bringing the Louis XV male-only line to an end. He was buried in his grandfather Charles X’s crypt in the church of the Franciscan Kostanjevica Monastery in Gorizia, then Austria, now in Slovenian city of Nova Gorica. His personal property, including the château de Chambord, was left to his nephew, Robert I, Duke of Parma (son of Henri’s late sister).

Henri’s death left the Legitimist line of succession distinctly confused. On one hand, Henri himself had accepted that the head of the Maison de France (as distinguished from the Maison de Bourbon) would be the head of the Orléans line, i.e. the Comte de Paris, recognized by most monarchists as Philippe VII of France. This was accepted by many Legitimists, and was the default on legal grounds; the only surviving Bourbon line more senior was the Spanish branch, which had renounced its right to inherit the throne of France as a condition of the Treaty of Utrecht.

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However, many if not most of Henri’s supporters, including his widow, chose to disregard his statements and this law, arguing that no one had the right to deny to the senior direct-male-line male Bourbon to be the head of the Maison de France and thus the legitimate King of France; the renunciation of the Spanish branch is under this interpretation illegitimate and therefore void. Thus these Legitimists settled on Infante Juan, Count of Montizón, the Carlist pretender to the Spanish throne (the Salic law having been suspended in Spain, the actual king, Alfonso XII, was not the senior descendant in the male line), as their claimant to the French crown.

August 24, 1883: Death of Prince Henri, Count of Chambord, pretender to the French throne. Part I.

24 Monday Aug 2020

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Abdication, French Empire, French Republic, Henri de Chambord, Henri V of France, July Monarchy, King Charles X of France, King Louis Philippe of the French, Revolutions of 1848

Prince Henri, Count of Chambord (French: Henri Charles Ferdinand Marie Dieudonné d’Artois, duc de Bordeaux, comte de Chambord; September 29, 1820 – August 24, 1883) was disputedly King of France from 2 to 9 August 1830 as Henry V, although he was never officially proclaimed as such.

Afterwards, he was the Legitimist pretender to the throne of France from 1844 until his death in 1883.

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Henri was the only son of Charles Ferdinand, Duke of Berry, born after his father’s death. The Duke of Berry was the younger son of Charles X of France and Navarre by his wife, Princess Carolina of Naples and Sicily, daughter of King Francis I of the Two Sicilies. As the grandson of Charles X, Henri was a Petit-Fils de France. He was the last legitimate descendant in the senior male line of Louis XV of France.

Henri d’Artois was born on September 29, 1820, in the Pavillon de Marsan, a portion of the Tuileries Palace that still survives in the compound of the Louvre Palace in Paris. His father, the duc de Berry, had been assassinated seven months before his birth.

At birth, Henri was given the title of duc de Bordeaux. Because of his birth after his father’s death, when the senior male line of the House of Bourbon was on the verge of extinction, Henri was named Dieudonné (“God-given”). Royalists called him “the miracle child”. Louis XVIII was overjoyed, bestowing 35 royal orders to mark the occasion. Henri’s birth was a major setback for Duke of Orleans’ ambitions to ascend the French throne. During his customary visit to congratulate the newborn’s mother, the duke made such offensive remarks about the baby’s appearance that the lady holding him was brought to tears.

On August 2, 1830, in response to the July Revolution, Henri’s grandfather, Charles X, abdicated, and twenty minutes later Charles’ elder son Louis Antoine, duc d’Angoulême, (Louis XIX) himself renounced his rights, in favour of the young duc de Bordeaux. Charles X urged his cousin Louis Philippe of Orléans, as Lieutenant général du royaume, to proclaim Henri as Henri V, King of France.

Louis Philippe requested the duc de Bordeaux to be brought in Paris to have his rights recognized. The duchess of Berry was denied to escort her son, therefore both the grand-father and the mother refused to leave the child in France . As a consequence, after seven days, a period in which legitimist monarchists considered that Henri had been the rightful monarch of France, the National Assembly decreed that the throne should pass to Louis Philippe, who was proclaimed King of the French on August, 9.

Henri and his family left France and went into exile on August 16, 1830. While some French monarchists recognized him as their sovereign, others disputed the validity of the abdications of his grandfather and of his uncle.

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Still others recognised the July Monarchy of Louis Philippe. With the death of his 79-year-old grandfather, Charles X, in 1836 and of his uncle, Louis Antoine, duc d’Angoulême, (Louis XIX) in 1844, young Henri became the genealogically senior claimant to the French throne. His supporters were called Legitimists to distinguish them from the Orléanists, the supporters of the family of Louis Philippe.

In November 1846, the comte de Chambord married his second cousin Archduchess Maria Theresa of Austria-Este, daughter of Duke Francis IV of Modena and Princess Maria Beatrice of Savoy. The couple had no children.

August 24, 1198: Birth of King Alexander II of Scotland.

24 Monday Aug 2020

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

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Alexander II of Scotland, Henry III of England, Joan of England, John of England, King of Scots, Kingdom of Scotland, William I of Scotland, William the Lion

Alexander II (August 24, 1198 – July 6, 1249) was King of Scotland from 1214 until his death. He concluded the Treaty of York (1237) which defined the boundary between England and Scotland, virtually unchanged today.

He was born at Haddington, East Lothian, the only son of the Scottish king William I the Lion and Ermengarde of Beaumont. He spent time in England (John of England knighted him at Clerkenwell Priory in 1213) before succeeding to the kingdom on the death of his father on December 4, 1214, being crowned at Scone on 6 December the same year.


King of Scots

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In 1215, the year after his accession, the clans Meic Uilleim and MacHeths, inveterate enemies of the Scottish crown, broke into revolt; but loyalist forces speedily quelled the insurrection. In the same year Alexander joined the English barons in their struggle against John of England, and led an army into the Kingdom of England in support of their cause. This action led to the sacking of Berwick-upon-Tweed as John’s forces ravaged the north.

The Scottish forces reached the south coast of England at the port of Dover where in September 1216, Alexander paid homage to the pretender Prince Louis of France for his lands in England, chosen by the barons to replace King John. But King John having died, the Pope and the English aristocracy changed their allegiance to his nine-year-old son, Henry, forcing the French and the Scots armies to return home.

Peace between Henry III, Louis of France, and Alexander II followed on September 12, 1217 with the Treaty of Kingston. Diplomacy further strengthened the reconciliation by the marriage of Alexander to Henry’s sister Joan of England on 18 June 18, or June 25, 1221.

Royal forces crushed a revolt in Galloway in 1235 without difficulty; nor did an invasion attempted soon afterwards by its exiled leaders meet with success. Soon afterwards a claim for homage from Henry of England drew forth from Alexander a counter-claim to the northern English counties. The two kingdoms, however, settled this dispute by a compromise in 1237. This was the Treaty of York, which defined the boundary between the two kingdoms as running between the Solway Firth (in the west) and the mouth of the River Tweed (in the east).

Alexander’s first wife Joan of England died in March 1238 in Essex, and was buried in Dorset. Alexander married his second wife, Marie de Coucy, the following year on May 15, 1239. Together they had one son, the future Alexander III, born in 1241.

A threat of invasion by Henry III in 1243 for a time interrupted the friendly relations between the two countries; but the prompt action of Alexander in anticipating his attack, and the disinclination of the English barons for war, compelled him to make peace next year at Newcastle.

Alexander now turned his attention to securing the Western Isles, which were still part of the Norwegian domain of Suðreyjar. He repeatedly attempted negotiations and purchase, but without success. Alexander set out to conquer these islands but died on the way in 1249. This dispute over the Western Isles, also known as the Hebrides, was not resolved until 1266 when Magnus VI of Norway ceded them to Scotland along with the Isle of Man.

Alexander attempted to persuade Ewen, the son of Duncan, Lord of Argyll, to sever his allegiance to Haakon IV of Norway. When Ewen rejected these attempts, Alexander sailed forth to compel him, but on the way he suffered a fever at the Isle of Kerrera in the Inner Hebrides. He died there in 1249 and was buried at Melrose Abbey.

He was succeeded by his son, the seven-year-old Alexander III of Scotland.

Infanta Maria Anna of Spain, Holy Roman Empress. Part III.

21 Friday Aug 2020

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

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Holy Roman Emperor, Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Empire, House of Habsburg, Infanta Maria Anna of Spain, Philip IV of Spain

Maria Anna arrived at the Imperial court in Vienna with the Spanish fashion, theatre, dance and music (including the first sounded guitar). As the wife of the heir, she maintained good relations with all the members of her husband’s family; however, she had a complicated relationship with Ferdinand’s stepmother, the Empress Dowager Eleonora Gonzaga, mainly because between both began a competition for influence at the Imperial court. Maria Anna also paid much attention to the arts, especially painting. She collected works of Italian, Spanish and Flemish painters of the late Renaissance and early Baroque.

In Regensburg on December 22, 1636 Ferdinand was elected as King of the Romans, and a week later he was crowned by the Archbishop of Mainz. Maria Anna was crowned Queen of Germany one month later, on January 21, 1637. After his father’s death on February 15, 1637, Ferdinand became Holy Roman Emperor under the regnal name of Ferdinand III and also became sovereign King of Hungary and Bohemia. As his wife, she received the titles of Holy Roman Empress and sovereign Queen. Her coronation as Queen of Hungary took place in Pressburg during the Hungarian Diet of 1637–1638.

Maria Anna, being active in politics as the adviser of her spouse, was an important mediator between the Emperor and their Spanish relatives. Despite the fact that she always defended the interests of her husband, she did not forget the interests of her brothers King Felipe IV and the Cardinal-Infante Fernando.

In her court, which was consisted mainly of Spaniards, frequent guests were the Spanish ambassador and diplomats. The Emperor, during his absences from the Imperial court in Vienna, appointed his wife as regent, for example in 1645 during the Thirty Years’ War, when he was in the Kingdom of Bohemia.

Death
In March 1645 Maria Anna and her children left Linz, due to the approach of the Protestant Swedish army, and moved to Vienna. By April it was ready to cross the Danube there and threatened to occupy the city. The Imperial family fled instead temporarily to Graz. After returning to Vienna, they were forced to move again to Linz because of the plague.

The Empress’ sixth pregnancy became known in January 1646; four months later, on May 12, at Linz Castle, Maria Anna suddenly felt ill with fever and heavy bleeding and died the next morning. Her unborn child, a girl, was taken out alive from her womb. She was named Maria after her mother, but only lived a few hours. On May 24, both mother and daughter in the same coffin were moved to Vienna and buried in the Imperial Crypt, which already contained the coffins with the remains of the two sons of the Empress who died earlier.

The funeral cortege was accompanied by the Spanish ambassador and the Empress’ maid of honor. Very upset by the death of his wife and child, the Emperor was unable to attend the funeral. However, after returning to Vienna in late August he finally paid his respects to the remains of Maria Anna, and in September he announced the engagement of their eldest daughter Maria Anna with Balthasar Carlos, Prince of Asturias. However, the Prince died the following month shortly after the announcement. The Spaniards courtiers members of the late Empress’ household who came with her from Spain, including her confessor and the maids of honor of the late Empress, stayed at the Imperial court in Vienna and lived there for a few more years after her death.

Issue
During her marriage, Maria Anna gave birth to six children:

Ferdinand IV (1633 – 1654), King of the Romans and titular King of Hungary and Bohemia.
Maria Anna (1634 – 1696), who married her maternal uncle King Felipe IV of Spain.
Philipp August (1637 – 1639), Archduke of Austria.
Maximilian Thomas (1638 – 1639), Archduke of Austria.
Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor (1640 – 1705).
Maria (born and died May 13, 1646), Archduchess of Austria.

Maria Anna of Spain

Infanta Maria Anna of Spain, Holy Roman Empress. Part II.

20 Thursday Aug 2020

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

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Austrian Habsburgs, Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II, Infanta Maria Anna of Spain, King of Hungary, Spanish Habsburgs

Marriage
At the end of 1626, Maria Anna was betrothed to Ferdinand, the younger brother of her first fiancé, and the new heir of Emperor Ferdinand II. Ferdinand was her first cousin, being the son of her mother’s brother. The formal engagement was preceded by a series of negotiations which were conducted in 1625.


That same year, Prince Ferdinand was crowned King of Hungary, and in 1627 King of Bohemia. In the negotiations were included all the life aspects of the Infanta at the court of her future spouse. Despite the desire of the groom that Maria Anna’s confessor would be the Jesuit Ambrosio Penalosa, the appointment eventually went to Capuchin Diego Quiroga. In the marriage contract signed by both parties in 1628, it was noted that Maria Anna could retain her rights of inheritance over the Spanish throne, while her older sister Infanta Anna, married to King Louis XIII of France in 1615, was forced to renounce to her rights.

Maria Anna had left Madrid for Vienna in December 1629, fully three years after her engegement, and nearly five years after the proposal for marriage was first mooted. The journey, once embarked upon, took more than a year to complete. En route by sea, in Genoa complications arose due to an epidemic of the plague that erupted in the Italian Peninsula. For this reason, the party was unable to stop in Bologna, where Cardinal Antonio Barberini (nephew of Pope Urban VIII), was waiting for the Infanta to give her the Golden Rose.

The party moved to Naples, where Maria Anna finally received the award. Leaving the Kingdom of Naples, the Infanta crossed the Papal States, having made a pilgrimage to the Basilica della Santa Casa. On this section of her journey, Maria Anna was accompanied by Roman aristocracy, led by another nephew of Pope Urban VIII, Taddeo Barberini, Prince of Palestrina. On 26 January 1631, she arrived in Trieste, where she met Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria, her future brother-in-law, who would first stand in for his brother at a wedding-by-proxy and then escort the Infanta to Vienna. That very day, Maria Anna was married to King Ferdinand of Hungria-Bohemia per procura with Archduke Leopold Wilhelm serving as the proxy.

Before the official wedding, King Ferdinand, not trusting the previous portraits that he had seen of the Infanta, decided to secretly view his bride. The Royal oberhofmeister asked for an audience with Maria Anna; on this visit, he was accompanied by some nobles, among whom was her groom. Struck by the beauty of the Infanta, King Ferdinand immediately revealed his identity and began a conversation with Maria Anna in Spanish. The love and respect that the future emperor felt for his wife lasted throughout their marriage. He was never unfaithful to her and never had any illegitimate children.

In Vienna on February 20, 1631, Maria Anna was married to King Ferdinand of Hungary-Bohemia. The festivities lasted a whole month. The marriage was described as friendly. Maria Anna was described as happy-tempered, friendly, and intelligent, and she was able to relieve the feelings of the rather melancholic Ferdinand.

Charles I-IV, Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary. Part IV.

20 Thursday Aug 2020

Posted by liamfoley63 in Abdication, Empire of Europe, Featured Monarch, Kingdom of Europe, Royal Death, Royal House

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Armistace, Austrian Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire, Charles I-IV of Austria-Hungary, Habsburg Law, World War I, Zita of Bourbon-Parma

On the day of the Armistice of November 11, 1918, Charles issued a carefully worded proclamation in which he recognized the Austrian people’s right to determine the form of the state and “relinquish[ed] every participation in the administration of the State.” He also released his officials from their oath of loyalty to him. On the same day, the Imperial Family left Schönbrunn Palace and moved to Castle Eckartsau, east of Vienna. On November 13, following a visit with Hungarian magnates, Charles issued a similar proclamation—the Eckartsau Proclamation—for Hungary.

Charles I-IV

Charles I-IV

Although it has widely been cited as an “abdication”, the word itself was never used in either proclamation. Indeed, he deliberately avoided using the word abdication in the hope that the people of either Austria or Hungary would vote to recall him. Privately, Charles left no doubt that he believed himself to be the rightful emperor. He wrote to Friedrich Gustav Piffl, the Archbishop of Vienna: “I did not abdicate, and never will […] I see my manifesto of November 11, as the equivalent to a cheque which a street thug has forced me to issue at gunpoint […] I do not feel bound by it in any way whatsoever.”

Instead, on November 12, the day after he issued his proclamation, the independent Republic of German-Austria was proclaimed, followed by the proclamation of the First Hungarian Republic on November 16. An uneasy truce-like situation ensued and persisted until March, 23 to 24, 1919, when Charles left for Switzerland, escorted by the commander of the small British guard detachment at Eckartsau, Lieutenant Colonel Edward Lisle Strutt.

As the imperial train left Austria on March 24, 1919, Charles issued another proclamation in which he confirmed his claim of sovereignty, declaring that “whatever the national assembly of German Austria has resolved with respect to these matters since November 11, 1918 is null and void for me and my House.” The newly established republican government of Austria was not aware of this “Manifesto of Feldkirch” at this time—it had been dispatched only to King Alfonso XIII of Spain and to Pope Benedict XV through diplomatic channels—and politicians in power were irritated by the Emperor’s departure without explicit abdication.

The Austrian Parliament responded on April 3, with the Habsburg Law, which dethroned and banished the Habsburgs. Charles was barred from ever returning to Austria. Other male Habsburgs could only return if they renounced all intentions of reclaiming the throne and accepted the status of ordinary citizens. Another law passed on the same day abolished all nobility in Austria. In Switzerland, Charles and his family briefly took residence at Castle Wartegg near Rorschach at Lake Constance, and later moved to Château de Prangins at Lake Geneva on May 20.

Attempts to reclaim throne of Hungary


Charles sought twice in 1921 to reclaim the throne of Hungary, but failed largely because Hungary’s regent, Admiral Miklós Horthy (the last commander of the Imperial and Royal Navy), refused to support Charles’ restoration. Horthy’s action was declared “treasonous” by royalists. Critics suggest that Horthy’s actions were more firmly grounded in political reality than those of Charles and his supporters. Indeed, neighbouring countries had threatened to invade Hungary if Charles tried to regain the throne. Later in 1921, the Hungarian parliament formally nullified the Pragmatic Sanction, an act that effectively dethroned the Habsburgs.

After the second failed attempt at restoration in Hungary, Charles and his pregnant wife Zita were arrested and quarantined at Tihany Abbey. On November 1, 1921 they were taken to the Hungarian Danube harbour city of Baja, were taken onboard the monitor HMS Glowworm, and there removed to the Black Sea where they were transferred to the light cruiser HMS Cardiff.

On November 19, 1921 they arrived at their final exile, the Portuguese island of Madeira. Determined to prevent a third restoration attempt, the Council of Allied Powers had agreed on Madeira because it was isolated in the Atlantic Ocean and easily guarded.

The couple and their children, who joined them on February 2, 1922, lived first at Funchal at the Villa Vittoria, next to Reid’s Hotel, and later moved to Quinta do Monte. Compared to the imperial glory in Vienna and even at Eckartsau, conditions there were certainly impoverished.

Charles did not leave Madeira. On March 9, 1922 he had caught a cold in town, which developed into bronchitis and subsequently progressed to severe pneumonia. Having suffered two heart attacks, he died of respiratory failure on April 1, in the presence of his wife (who was pregnant with their eighth child) and nine-year-old former Crown Prince Otto, remaining conscious almost until his last moments.

His last words to his wife were “I love you so much.” His remains except for his heart are still on the island, resting in state in a chapel devoted to the Emperor in the Church of Our Lady of The Hill (Igreja de Nossa Senhora do Monte), in spite of several attempts to move them to the Habsburg Crypt in Vienna. His heart and the heart of his wife are entombed in Muri Abbey, Switzerland.

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