Happy Birthday to His Majesty King Felipe VI of Spain

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House of Bourbon, Infanta Leonor, King Felipe VI of Spain, King Juan Carlos of Spain, Kingdom of Spain, Princess of Astuiras, Queen Sofia of Spain

Felipe VI (Felipe Juan Pablo Alfonso de Todos los Santos de Borbón y Grecia; born 30 January 1968) is the King of Spain. He ascended the throne on June 19, 2014 upon the abdication of his father, Juan Carlos I.

His mother is Queen Sofía, born Princess Sofía of Greece and Denmark, she is the first child of King Paul of Greece and Frederica of Hanover. King Felipe VI has two elder sisters, Infanta Elena, Duchess of Lugo, and Infanta Cristina.

His full baptismal name, Felipe Juan Pablo Alfonso de Todos los Santos, consists of the names of the first Bourbon king of Spain (Felipe V), his grandfathers (Infante Juan of Spain and King Paul of Greece), his great-grandfather King Alfonso XIII of Spain, and de Todos los Santos (“of all the Saints”) as is customary among the Bourbons.

His godparents were his paternal grandfather Juan and his paternal great-grandmother, Queen Victoria Eugenie of Spain.

Additionally, he is the third cousin once removed of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, King Harald V of Norway, Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, and King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden.

In 2004, Felipe married TV news journalist Letizia Ortiz with whom he has two daughters, Infanta Leonor, Princess of Astuiras (his heir presumptive) and Infanta Sofía.

In accordance with the Spanish Constitution, as monarch, he is head of state and commander-in-chief of the Spanish Armed Forces with military rank of Captain General, and also plays the role of the supreme representation of Spain in international relations.

Upon ascending the throne, Felipe assumed the same titles held by his father. If the former Kingdoms of Aragon and Navarre had separate naming styles, he would also be known as Felipe V of Aragon and Felipe VIII of Navarre along with Felipe VI of Castile.

Soon I will post a blog entry on the history titles of the Spanish monarch.

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

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Abolition of the Monarchy, Beheading, Charles I of England Scotland and Ireland, English Civil War, Execution, Oliver Cromwell, Pride's Purge

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

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

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

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

The executioner was masked and disguised, and there is debate over his identity. The commissioners approached Richard Brandon, the common hangman of London, but he refused, at least at first, despite being offered £200.

It is possible he relented and undertook the commission after being threatened with death, but there are others who have been named as potential candidates, including George Joyce, William Hulet and Hugh Peterrs. The clean strike, confirmed by an examination of the king’s body at Windsor in 1813, suggests that the execution was carried out by an experienced headsman.

Created by Pride’s Purge when Colonel Thomas Pride forcibly removed from the Long Parliament all those members who supported the King and were not supporters of the Grandees in the New Model Army and the Independents. Many historians consider called it a coup d’état. This paved the way for the things to come.

Just before and the execution of King Charles I, the Rump Parliament passed a number of Acts of Parliament creating the legal basis for the republic. After the execution of Charles I, the House of Commons abolished the Monarchy, the Privy Council and the House of Lords, and declared the people of England “and of all the Dominions and Territories thereunto belonging” to be henceforth under the governance of a “Commonwealth”, effectively a republic.

The House of Commons now had unchecked executive and legislative power. The English Council of State, which replaced the Privy Council, took over many of the executive functions of the monarchy.

January 27, 1343: Pope Clement VI issues the Papal Bull Unigenitus Dei filius

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Bishop of Rome, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, Indulgences, Martin Luther, Papal Bull, Pope Clement VI, Protestant Reformation, Roman Catholic Church, Unigenitus Dei filius

Pope Clement VI (1291 – December 6, 1352), born Pierre Roger, was head of the Catholic Church from 7 May 1342 to his death in 1352. He was the fourth Avignon pope. Clement reigned during the first visitation of the Black Death (1348–1350), during which he granted remission of sins to all who died of the plague.

Pope Clement VI

Roger steadfastly resisted temporal encroachments on the Church’s ecclesiastical jurisdiction and, as Clement VI, entrenched French dominance of the Church and opened its coffers to enhance the regal splendour of the Papacy. He recruited composers and music theorists for his court, including figures associated with the then-innovative Ars Nova style of France and the Low Countries.

Like his immediate predecessors, Clement VI was devoted to France, and he demonstrated his French sympathies by refusing a solemn invitation to return to Rome from the city’s people, as well as from the poet Petrarch.

To placate the Romans, however, Clement VI issued the bull Unigenitus Dei filius on January 27, 1343, reducing the interval between one Great Jubilee and the next from 100 years to 50 years. In the document he elaborated for the first time the power of the pope in the use of indulgences.

In the teaching of the Catholic Church, an indulgence (Latin: indulgentia, from indulgeo, ‘permit’) is “a way to reduce the amount of punishment one has to undergo for sins”. The Catechism of the Catholic Church describes an indulgence as “a remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven, which the faithful Christian who is duly disposed gains under certain prescribed conditions through the action of the Church which, as the minister of redemption, dispenses and applies with authority the treasury of the satisfactions of Christ and all of the saints”.

Martin Luther

This document would later be used by Cardinal Cajetan in the examination of Martin Luther and his 95 Theses in his trial at Augsburg in 1518. By then, Unigenitus was firmly fixed in Canon Law, having been added in the collection called Extravagantes.

Indulgences were, from the beginning of the Protestant Reformation, a target of attacks by Martin Luther and other Protestant theologians.

Luther was ordained to the priesthood in 1507. He came to reject several teachings and practices of the Roman Catholic Church; in particular, he disputed the view on indulgences.

Luther began by criticising the sale of indulgences, insisting that the Pope had no authority over purgatory and that the Treasury of Merit had no foundation in the Bible. The Reformation developed further to include a distinction between Law and Gospel, a complete reliance on Scripture as the only source of proper doctrine (sola scriptura) and the belief that faith in Jesus is the only way to receive God’s pardon for sin (sola fide) rather than good works.

Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain

Luther proposed an academic discussion of the practice and efficacy of indulgences in his Ninety-five Theses of 1517. His refusal to renounce all of his writings at the demand of Pope Leo X in 1520 and the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V at the Diet of Worms in 1521 resulted in his excommunication by the pope and condemnation as an outlaw by the Holy Roman Emperor.

The Reformation was the start of Protestantism and the split of the Western Church into Protestantism and what is now the Roman Catholic Church. It is also considered to be one of the events that signify the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the early modern period in Europe.

Eventually the Catholic Counter-Reformation curbed the excesses, but indulgences continue to play a role in modern Catholic religious life.

January 27, 1546: Birth of Joachim Friedrich, Elector and Margrave of Brandenburg

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Catherine of Brandenburg-Küstrin, Christian IV of Denmark, Eleanor of Prussia, Joachim Friedrich of Brandenburg, Prussia

Joachim Friedrich (January 27, 1546 – July 18, 1608), of the House of Hohenzollern, was Prince-Elector of the Margraviate of Brandenburg from 1598 until his death.

Joachim Friedrich was born in Cölln to Johann Georg, Elector of Brandenburg, and Sophie of Legnica. He served as administrator of the Archbishopric of Magdeburg from 1566 to 1598, then succeeded his father as Elector of Brandenburg in 1598.

Joachim Friedrich was succeeded at his death by his son Johann Sigismund.

Joachim Friedrich’s first marriage on March 7, 1570 was to Catherine of Brandenburg-Küstrin, daughter of Johann, Margrave of Brandenburg-Küstrin, and Catherine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel.

Joachim Friedrich’s second marriage, on October 23, 1603, was to Eleanor of Prussia, born August 12, 1583, daughter of Albrecht Friedrich and Marie Eleonore of Cleves. He became regent of the Duchy of Prussia in 1605. His titles also included “duke (Dux) of Stettin, Pomerania, Cassubia, Vandalorum and Crossen”, according to the terms of the Treaty of Grimnitz, although the Pomeranian titles were only nominal.

Joachim Friedrich and Catherine of Brandenburg-Küstrin had these children:

1. Johann Sigismund, Elector of Brandenburg (8 November 1572 – 23 December 1619)
2. Anne Catherine (26 June 1575 – 29 March 1612), married King Christian IV of Denmark
3. Johann Georg, Duke of Jägerndorf (16 December 1577 – 2 March 1624) married Eva Christina of Württemberg (1590 – 1657), daughter of Friedrich I, Duke of Württemberg and Sibylla of Anhalt. Elected Bishop of Strasbourg 1592; resigned 1604. Herrenmeister (Grand Master) of the Order of Saint John from 1616 until his death.
4. August Friedrich (16 February 1580 – 23 April 1601)
5. Albrecht Friedrich (29 April 1582 – 3 December 1600)
6. Joachim (13 April 1583 – 10 June 1600)
7. Ernst (13 April 1583 – 18 September 1613)
8. Barbara Sophie (16 November 1584 – 13 February 1636), married Johann Friedrich, Duke of Württemberg
9. Christian Wilhelm (28 August 1587 – 1 January 1665)

Joachim Friedrich and Eleanor of Prussia had only one child:

Marie Eleonore (22 March 1607 – 18 February 1675), married Ludwig Philipp, Count Palatine of Simmern-Kaiserslautern.

January 26, 1624: Birth of Georg Wilhelm, Duke of Brunswick-Lauenburg

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Elector of Hanover, Georg Wilhelm of Brunswick-Luneburg, George I of Great Britain, House of Brunswick, House of Hanover, Sophia Dorothea of Brunswick-Celle, Welf

Georg Wilhelm (January 26, 1624 – August 28, 1705) was the first Welf Duke of Lauenburg after its occupation in 1689. From 1648 to 1665, he was the ruler of the Principality of Calenberg as an appanage from his eldest brother, Christian Ludwig, Prince of Luneburg. When he inherited Luneburg on the latter’s death in 1665, he gave Calenberg to his younger brother, Johann Friedrich.

Nevertheless, he only kept the sub-division of Celle, giving the rest of Luneburg to their youngest brother Ernst August, whose son, George Ludwig (future King of Great Britain), inherited Saxe-Lauenburg and Celle from Georg Wilhelm. His only daughter, Sophia Dorothea of Celle, was George Ludwig’s wife.

Georg Wilhelm of Brunswick-Luneburg

Georg Wilhelm was born in Herzberg am Harz, the second son of Georg, Prince of Calenberg and Anne Eleonore of Hesse-Darmstadt, daughter of Ludwig V, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt and Magdalene of Brandenburg

Georg Wilhelm had an elder brother, two younger brothers, and several sisters, including Queen Sophia Amalie of Denmark and Norway, consort of the King Frederik III of Denmark and Norway.

Succession

In 1648, when Georg Wilhelm’s elder brother, Christian Ludwig, Prince of Calenberg, inherited the Principality of Lüneburg from their paternal uncle, Friedrich IV, he gave Calenberg to Georg Wilhelm in appanage.

Seventeen years later, in 1665, Christian Ludwig himself died childless, and Georg Wilhelm inherited Luneburg as well. He then gave Calenberg to his next brother, Johann Friedrich.

The renunciation of claim to Luneburg had in fact happened seven years previously, in 1658. In exchange for being freed from the obligation to marry Princess Sophia of the Palatinate, Georg Wilhelm ceded his claim on inheriting Lüneburg to his youngest brother Ernst August, settling for the smaller duchy of Celle and promising to remain unmarried so that he would produce no legitimate heir who might pose a challenge to his brother’s claim to Luneburg.

The absence of heirs would also mean that Celle would lapse back into Luneburg; Celle was only supposed to give Georg Wilhelm an income for his lifetime. After reaching this agreement, Georg Wilhelm’s youngest brother, Ernst August, married Sophia of the Palatinate
and became the Duke of Hanover.

Sophia of the Palatinate was the daughter of Elector Friedrich V of the Palatinate, a member of the House of Wittelsbach, and Elizabeth (Stuart) of England and Scotland, daughter of King James I-VI of England and Scotland.

Marriage and issue

This renunciation left Georg Wilhelm free to marry whoever he wished, and indulge his desires to travel and socialize, without being encumbered by considerations of state.

In 1665, Georg Wilhelm entered into a morganatic marriage with his long-time mistress, Eleanor, Countess of Wilhelmsburg. In 1666, their only child and daughter, Sophia Dorothea, was born.

By 1676, it had become quite clear that among the four brothers (Georg Wilhelm and three others), only the youngest, Ernst August had produced any heirs male, and that the entire duchy of Luneburg was likely to be united under Ernst August’s eldest son Georg Ludwig.

Georg Wilhelm therefore wanted Georg Ludwig to marry his daughter Sophia, whose marriage prospects were otherwise not bright, given the circumstances of her birth. To Georg Wilhelm’s annoyance, Georg Ludwig and his parents refused the proposal on the grounds of status.

Sophia of the Palatinate

At this point (in 1676), to improve the status of Eleonore and their daughter, and in open violation of his promise, Georg Wilhelm legitimized his daughter and declared that his marriage to Eleonore, Countess of Wilhelmsburg was not morganatic but valid to both church and state.

This development greatly alarmed his relatives, as it threatened to hinder the contemplated union of the Lüneburg territories. Indeed, if Georg Wilhelm had had a son, a serious succession crisis could have arisen.

No son however was born, and in 1682, Georg Ludwig’s parents finally agreed to the proposed marriage as a way of avoiding uncertainty and dispute. Sophia Dorothea married Georg Ludwig in 1682. They had a son and heir the following year, named Georg August after his father and maternal grandfather: the future George II of Great Britain.

Duke of Saxe-Lauenburg

In 1689, Julius Franz, Duke of Saxe-Lauenburg, died leaving no son and no accepted heir male, but only two daughters, Anna Maria and Sibylle. The duchy had followed the Salic law since time immemorial, but Duke Julius Franz decided to nominate his elder daughter as his heir and proclaimed laws permitting female succession in his duchy. This self-serving innovation was not accepted by senior members of his dynasty (the other potential successors) and a succession crisis ensued.

Georg Wilhelm was one of the nearest and senior-most male-line claimants to the succession. Shortly after the death of the duke, Georg Wilhelm invaded the duchy with his troops and occupied it. The other claimants included the five Ascanian-ruled Principalities of Anhalt, Saxony, Saxe-Wittenberg, Sweden and Brandenburg, and also the neighbouring Mecklenburg-Schwerin and the Danish duchy of Holstein, whose ruler was the King Christian V of Denmark.

However, only Georg Wilhelm and Christian V of Denmark (whose mother, Sophie Amalie of Brunswick-Calenberg, was Georg Wilhelm’s own sister) engaged militarily on this question. An accord was soon reached between them, and on 9 October 1693 they agreed (in the Hamburg Comparison, or Hamburger Vergleich) that Georg Wilhelm – who now de facto held most of Saxe-Lauenburg – would retain the duchy in a personal union.

Meanwhile, the Emperor Leopold I, who had no direct claim on the duchy, occupied the Land of Hadeln, a Saxe-Lauenburgian exclave, and held it in imperial custody. Apart from that, Leopold did not attempt to use force in Saxe-Lauenburg.

In 1728, his son the Emperor Charles VI finally legitimised the de facto takeover and enfeoffed Georg Wilhelm’s grandson and second successor, George II of Great Britain (who was also Elector of Hanover) with the duchy of Saxe-Lauenburg, but Hadeln remained in imperial custody until 1731, when it was also ceded to Georg II August. Georg Wilhelm died in Wienhausen, aged 81.

January 26, 1947: Death of Prince Gustaf Adolf, Duke of Västerbotten

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Charles Edward of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, King Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden, Plane Crash, Prince Gustaf Adolf of Sweden, Princess Margaret of Connaught, Princess Sibylla of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom

Prince Gustaf Adolf, Duke of Västerbotten (Gustaf Adolf Oscar Fredrik Arthur Edmund; April 22, 1906 – January 26, 1947) was a Swedish prince, who for most of his life was second in the line of succession to the Swedish throne.

He was the eldest son of Gustaf VI Adolf, who was crown prince for most of his son’s life and ascended the Swedish throne three years after his son’s death. The current king, Carl XVI Gustaf, is Prince Gustaf Adolf’s son. The prince was killed on January 26, 1947 in an airplane crash at Kastrup Airport, Copenhagen, Denmark.

Prince Gustaf Adolf of Sweden

Gustaf Adolf was born in Stockholm on April 22, 1906 as the eldest son of the then Prince Gustaf Adolf and his first wife Princess Margaret of Connaught a granddaughter of Britain’s Queen Victoria. He was known by his last given name, Edmund, in the family.

Gustaf Adolf was an accomplished horse rider. He competed in show jumping at the 1936 Summer Olympics, but failed to finish. He served as president of the Swedish Olympic Committee from 1933 until his death in 1947.

Gustaf Adolf joined the Boy Scouts, and as an adult and became a Scoutmaster. He earned his Wood Badge beads at Gilwell Park in England. When the Svenska Scoutrådet formed he served as its first president or Chief Scout. He led the Swedish contingents at the 5th World Scout Jamboree in 1937 and at the World Scout Moot in 1939. He served on the World Scout Committee from May 1937 until his death.

Princess Sibylla of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha

From 1932, Prince Gustaf Adolf was chairman of the Swedish Scout Council and from 1937 honorary chairman of the International Scout Committee. Since 1933, the prince was also chairman of the Central Board of the Swedish Sports Confederation, the Swedish Central Association for Sports Promotion (Centralföreningen för idrottens främjande) and the Swedish Olympic Committee.

Some recent journalists and historians portray Gustaf Adolf as sympathetic towards the Nazi movement in Germany in the 1930s, a highly debated and criticised opinion.

As an official representative of Sweden, Gustaf Adolf met with many Nazi leaders, including Adolf Hitler and Hermann Göring (the latter had lived in Sweden and had many friends among the Swedish upper class). His father-in-law, Charles Edward, the deposed Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, was one of the few members of any of the former German princely houses who was a Nazi supporter, but this does not mean Gustaf Adolf was.

As the prince very rarely spoke of political matters and left no written evidence of any political sympathies of any kind, the subject remains very much a matter of speculation.

Wedding of Prince Gustaf Adolf of Sweden and Princess Sibylla of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha

According to journalist and author Staffan Skott in his book Alla dessa Bernadottar (All these Bernadottes), letters and diary entries by influential Swedes of decidedly anti-Nazi persuasion disprove the rumors. Such documents include those of the diplomat Sven Grafström and of the wife of the cabinet minister Gustav Möller, as well as of the stepson of Hermann Göring, who said that a visit by the prince to Göring’s home was a complete failure and that Göring and Gustaf Adolf did not get along well.

The newspaper Expressen said that “plausible witnesses who were also strongly pro-democracy” had denied the rumors. The Swedish Royal Court made a statement denying any knowledge of Nazi sympathies.

Gustaf Adolf expressed his support for Finland during the Continuation War of 1941–1944, and would even have liked to participate as a voluntary soldier in the Winter War of 1939–1940, but the King’s disapproval prevented this from happening.

Some leading Swedish politicians were adverse to the possibility of seeing Gustaf Adolf inherit the throne, and one prominent Social Democrat publicly uttered that the prince was “a person who must never be King”.

Marriage and family

On October 19/20, 1932 in Coburg, Gustaf Adolf married his second cousin, Princess Sibylla of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. She was the elder daughter and second child of Charles Edward, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and Princess Victoria Adelaide of Schleswig-Holstein. Her father was a posthumous son of Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, the youngest son of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

Family of Prince Gustaf Adolf and Princess Sibylla of Sweden. Princess Sibylla is holding her son the current King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden

The religious ceremony took place the second day at St. Moritz Church.

The couple had five children:

1. Princess Margaretha (born 31 October 1934) married John Ambler on 30 June 1964 and is his widow. They had three children.

2. Princess Birgitta (born 19 January 1937) married Prince Johann Georg of Hohenzollern on 25 May 1961 and is his widow. They had three children.

3. Princess Désirée (born 2 June 1938) married Baron Niclas Silfverschiöld on 5 June 1964 and is his widow. They had three children.

4. Princess Christina (born 3 August 1943) married Tord Magnuson on 15 June 1974. They have three sons.

5. Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden (born April 30, 1946) he married Silvia Sommerlath on 19 June 1976. They have three children.

Gustaf Adolf was killed in an airplane crash in the afternoon of January 26, 1947 at Kastrup Airport, Copenhagen, Denmark.

The prince, along with two companions, were returning to Stockholm from a hunting trip and visit to Princess Juliana and Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands.

The delayed KLM flight from Amsterdam had landed at Copenhagen for a routine stop before continuing to Stockholm. Soon after the Douglas DC-3 aircraft took off, it climbed to an altitude of about 50 meters (150 ft), stalled, and plummeted nose-first to the ground, where it exploded on impact.

All 22 people aboard the plane (16 passengers and six crew members) were killed. Also aboard the ill-fated flight was American singer and actress Grace Moore and Danish actress Gerda Neumann.

An investigation found that, short of time, the plane’s captain had failed to perform the final pre-flight check list properly and took off not realizing that a gust lock on an elevator was still in place.

At the time of his death, Gustaf Adolf had been second in line to the Swedish throne behind his father, the Crown Prince, who in 1950 became King Gustaf VI Adolf. The younger Gustaf Adolf was succeeded as second in line by his only son, Carl Gustaf (at the time only 9 months old), who would later succeed his grandfather in 1973 as King Carl XVI Gustaf.

January 25, 1858: Marriage of Victoria, Princess Royal and Prince Friedrich of Prussia

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Berlin, Frederick III, House of Hohenzollern, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Princess Royal, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, The Great Exhibition, Victoria of the United Kingdom, Wilhelm I of Prussia

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

Friedrich III (18 October 1831 – 15 June 1888) was German Emperor and King of Prussia for 99 days between March and June 1888, during the Year of the Three Emperors. Known informally as “Fritz”, he was the only son of Emperor Wilhelm I and his wife Princess Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, he was raised in his family’s tradition of military service.

In the German Confederation, Prince Wilhelm of Prussia and his wife Princess Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach were among the personalities with whom Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were allies.

The British sovereign also had regular epistolary contact with her cousin Augusta since 1846. The revolution that broke out in Berlin in 1848 further strengthened the links between the two royal couples by requiring the heir presumptive to the Prussian throne to find shelter for three months in the British court.

In 1851, Wilhelm returned to London with his wife and two children (Friedrich and Louise), on the occasion of The Great Exhibition. For the first time, Victoria met her future husband, and despite the age difference (she was 11 years old and he was 19), they got along very well.

To promote the contact between the two, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert asked their daughter to guide Friedrich through the exhibition, and during the visit the princess was able to converse in perfect German while the prince was able to say only a few words in English.

The meeting was therefore a success, and years later, Prince Friedrich recalled the positive impression that Victoria made on him during this visit, with her mixture of innocence, intellectual curiosity and simplicity.

It was not only his encounter with little Victoria, however, that positively impressed Friedrich during the four weeks of his English stay. The young Prussian prince shared his liberal ideas with the Prince Consort. Friedrich was fascinated by the relationships among the members of the British royal family.

In London, court life was not as rigid and conservative as in Berlin, and Queen Victoria and Prince Albert’s relationship with their children was very different to William and Augusta’s relationship with theirs.

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

Engagement and marriage

The Princess Royal, c. 1855

Friedrich had received a comprehensive education and in particular was formed by personalities like the writer Ernst Moritz Arndt and historian Friedrich Christoph Dahlmann. According to the tradition of the House of Hohenzollern, he also received rigorous military training.

In 1855, Prince Friedrich made another trip to Great Britain and visited Victoria and her family in Scotland at Balmoral Castle. The purpose of his trip was to see the Princess Royal again, to ensure that she would be a suitable consort for him.

In Berlin, the response to this journey to Britain was far from positive. In fact, many members of the Prussian court wanted to see the heir presumptive’s son marry a Russian Grand Duchess. King Friedrich Wilhelm IV, who had allowed his nephew to marry a British princess, even had to keep his approval a secret because his own wife,, showed strong Anglophobia.

At the time of Friedrich’s second visit, Victoria was 15 years old. A little shorter than her mother, the princess was 4 feet 11 inches. Queen Victoria was concerned that the Prussian prince would not find her daughter sufficiently attractive. Nevertheless, from the first dinner with the prince, it was clear to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert that the mutual sympathy of the two young people that began in 1851 was still vivid.

In fact, after only three days with the royal family, Friedrich asked Victoria’s parents permission to marry their daughter. They were thrilled by the news, but gave their approval on condition that the marriage should not take place before Vicky’s seventeenth birthday.

Once this condition was accepted, the engagement of Victoria and Frederick was publicly announced on May 17, 1856. The immediate reaction in Great Britain was disapproval. The English public complained about the Kingdom of Prussia’s neutrality during the Crimean War of 1853–1856.

The Times characterized the Hohenzollern as a “miserable dynasty” that pursued an inconsistent and unreliable foreign policy, with the maintenance of the throne depending solely on Russia. The newspaper also criticised the failure of King Friedrich Wilhelm IV to respect the political guarantees given to the population during the revolution of 1848.

In the German Confederation, the reactions to the announcement of the engagement were mixed: several members of the Hohenzollern family and conservatives opposed it, and liberal circles welcomed the proposed union with the British crown.

Preparation for the role of Prussian princess
The Prince Consort, who was part of the Vormärz, had long supported the “Coburg plan”, i.e., the idea that a liberal Prussia could serve as an example for other German states and would be able to achieve the Unification of Germany. During the involuntary stay of Prince Wilhelm of Prussia in London in 1848, the Prince Consort tried to convince his Hohenzollern cousin of the need to transform Prussia into a constitutional monarchy following the British model. However, the future German emperor was not persuaded; he instead kept very conservative views.

Eager to make his daughter the instrument of the liberalisation of Germany, Prince Albert took advantage of the two years of Victoria and Friedrich’s engagement to give the Princess Royal the most comprehensive training possible. Thus, he taught himself history and modern European politics and actually wrote to the princess many essays on events that occurred in Prussia.

However, the Prince Consort overestimated the ability of the liberal reform movement in Germany at a time when only a small middle class and some intellectual circles shared his views on the German Confederation. Hence, Prince Albert gave his daughter a particularly difficult role, especially facing a critical and conservative Hohenzollern court.

Domestic issues and marriage

To pay the dowry of the Princess Royal, the British Parliament allotted the sum of 40,000 pounds and also gave her an allowance of 8,000 pounds per year.

Meanwhile, in Berlin, King Friedrich Wilhelm IV provided an annual allowance of 9,000 thalers to his nephew Friedrich. The income of the second-in-line to the Prussian throne proved insufficient to cover a budget consistent with his position and that of his future wife. Throughout much of their marriage, Victoria relied on her own resources.

The Berlin court of the royal couple was chosen by Friedrich’s aunt, Queen Elisabeth, and his mother, Princess Augusta. They summoned people who had been in court service for a long time and were much older than Victoria and Friedrich. Prince Albert therefore asked the Hohenzollerns that his daughter could keep at least two ladies-in-waiting who were her age and of British origin.

His request was not completely denied but, as a compromise, Victoria received two young ladies-in-waiting of German origin: Countesses Walburga von Hohenthal and Marie zu Lynar. However, Prince Albert did succeed in imposing Ernst Alfred Christian von Stockmar, the son of his friend Baron von Stockmar, as his daughter’s private secretary.

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

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

January 25, 1860: Princess Caroline Mathilde of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg

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Adelheid of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein, Caroline Matilde of Schleswig-Holstein, Friedrich Ferdinand of Schleswig-Holstein, German Emperor Wilhelm II

Princess Caroline Mathilde of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg (Viktoria Friederike Auguste Marie Caroline Mathilde; January 25, 1860 – February 20, 1932) was the second-eldest daughter of Friedrich VIII, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein and his wife Princess Adelheid of Hohenlohe-Langenburg.

Family

Caroline Mathilde’s elder sister, Augusta Victoria was German Empress and Queen of Prussia as the wife of Wilhelm II, German Emperor.

Caroline Mathilde was Duchess of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg and later Duchess of Schleswig-Holstein as the wife of Friedrich Ferdinand. Caroline’s maternal grandmother Princess Feodora of Leiningen was the half-sister of Queen Victoria.

Marriage and issue

Caroline Mathilde married Friedrich Ferdinand, the eldest son of Friedrich, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg and Princess Adelheid of Schaumburg-Lippe and a nephew of Christian IX of Denmark, on March 19, 1885 at Primkenau.

After the overthrow of the Hohenzollern dynasty at the end of World War I, Caroline and her family lived quietly, seldom seen outside Grünholz Castle.

Caroline died on February 20, 1932, aged 72, at their castle. A few years previously, she had suffered an attack of heart disease and never completely recovered. Her husband was the only family member present on her deathbed.

January 25, 1900: Death of Princess Adelheid of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, Duchess of Schleswig-Holstein

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Edward VII of the United Kingdom, Feodora of Leiningen, Frederick VIII of Schleswig-Holstein, German Emperor Wilhelm II, Princess Adelheid of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld

Princess Adelheid of Hohenlohe-Langenburg (July 20, 1835 – January 25, 1900) was Duchess of Schleswig-Holstein by marriage, a niece of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, first cousin of King Edward VII, and the mother-in-law of German Emperor Wilhelm II. She is the direct most recent common matrilineal ancestress (through women only) of Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden and Felipe VI of Spain.

Early life

Adelheid was born the second daughter of Ernst I, Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg by his wife Princess Feodora of Leiningen, the daughter of Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld and her first husband, Emich Carl, Prince of Leiningen. Therefore, Adelheid’s mother was the older, maternal half-sister of the British Queen Victoria.

Napoleon III’s proposal of marriage

In 1852, not long after Napoléon III became Emperor of France, he made a proposal of marriage to Adelheid’s parents after he had been rebuffed by Princess Carola of Sweden. Although he had never met her, the political advantages of the marriage for the Emperor were obvious.

It would provide dynastic respectability for the Bonaparte line, and could promote a closer alliance between France and Britain, because Adelheid was Queen Victoria’s niece. At the same time, she was not officially a member of the British royal family, so the risk of refusal was small. Adelheid could be expected to be grateful enough for her good fortune to convert to Roman Catholicism.

As it turned out, the proposal horrified Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, who preferred not to confer such hasty legitimacy upon France’s latest “revolutionary” regime — the durability of which was deemed dubious — nor to yield up a young kinswoman for the purpose.

The British court maintained a strict silence toward the Hohenlohes during the marriage negotiations, lest the Queen seem either eager for or repulsed by the prospect of Napoléon as a nephew-in-law.

The parents, accurately interpreting the British silence as disapproval, declined the French offer—to their sixteen-year-old daughter’s dismay. This may have been only a maneuver by the Hohenlohe family to obtain concessions from the French to secure their daughter’s future interests.

However, before his ministers could press his case with further inducements, Napoléon gave up pursuit of a royal consort. Instead he offered marriage to Eugénie de Montijo, Countess of Teba, whom he had been simultaneously soliciting to become his mistress, and who had refused his advances.

Marriage and children

On September 11, 1856 Adelheid married Friedrich VIII, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein (from the Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg line).

They were parents to seven children:

1. Prince Friedrich (August 3, 1857 – October 29, 1858)
2. Princess Augusta Viktoria (October 22, 1858 – April 11, 1921) she married Wilhelm II of Germany on February 27, 1881.
3. Princess Karoline Mathilde (January 25, 1860 – 20 February 20, 1932) she married Friedrich Ferdinand, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein on March 19, 1885.
4. Prince Gerhard (January 20, 1862 – April 11, 1862)
Ernst Gunther, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein (August 11, 1863 – February 21, 1921) he married Princess Dorothea of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha on August 2, 1898.
5. Princess Louise Sophie (April 8,1866 – April 28, 1952) she married Prince Friedrich Leopold of Prussia on 24 June 24, 1889.
6. Princess Feodora Adelheid (July 3, 1874 – June 21,1910).

Later life

With her husband, the Duchess first resided at Dolzig, in Lower Lusatia, but in 1863 moved to Kiel when Duke Friedrich became legitimate heir to the duchies of Schleswig-Holstein.

They returned to Dolzig only three years later, when after the Austrian-Prussian War the duchies were annexed by Prussia. In the following years the couple alternated between Dolzig, Gotha, and the family domains at Primkenau.

Duke Friedrich died in 1880, shortly before the couple’s eldest daughter was engaged to the Prussian heir. After the marriage in February 1881, Duchess Adelheid settled in Dresden, where she lived a retired life, interesting herself chiefly in painting and music.

The Duchess died at Dresden on January 25, 1900.

January 23, 1906: Birth of HSH Princess May of Teck

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Alexander of Teck, Cambridge, Countess of Athlone, Earl of Athlone, King George V of the United Kingdom, Lady May Able Smith, Princess Alice of Albany, Princess May of Teck, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, Queen Mary

Lady May Smith (formerly Lady May Cambridge, née Princess May Helen Emma Abel of Teck; January 23, 1906 – May 29, 1994) was a relative of the British royal family. She was a great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria and a niece of Queen Mary.

She was born as Her Serene Highness Princess May Helen Emma of Teck at Claremont House, near Esher in Surrey, England. Her parents were Prince Alexander of Teck, great-grandson of King George III, and the former Princess Alice of Albany, granddaughter of Queen Victoria.

She was named May after her paternal aunt Princess Mary of Teck who was married to King George V, Helen after her maternal grandmother Princess Helena, Duchess of Albany and Emma after her maternal great-aunt Queen Emma of the Netherlands.

During the First World War, anti-German feeling led her family to abandon their German titles. Princess May of Teck thus became known as Lady May Cambridge, after her father assumed the last name Cambridge and was granted the Earldom of Athlone.

Lady May served as a bridesmaid in 1919 to Princess Patricia of Connaught; in 1922 to her first cousin Princess Mary; and in 1923 to Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon on her marriage to Mary’s brother the Duke of York (later King George VI).

Marriage

Lady May married Sir Henry Abel Smith on 24 October 1931 in Balcombe, Sussex, close to the Athlone residence at Brantridge Park. One of the bridesmaids, Princess Ingrid of Sweden, introduced her brother Prince Gustaf Adolf to his future wife, Princess Sibylla of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, who was also a bridesmaid. Elizabeth II attended her wedding as a bridesmaid at the age of 5.

Sir Henry and Lady May Abel Smith were married for over 60 years.

Lady May, being only a distant relative of the royal family, did not carry out any royal duties. She attended 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. Lady May accompanied him 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.