The History of the Title, Duke of Northumberland. Part I.

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1st Duke of Northumberland., 1st Duke of Somerset, Edward Seymour, House of Tudor, John Dudley, King Edward VI of England and Ireland, King Henry VIII of England and Ireland, Lord Protector of England

From The Emperor’s Desk: In this first entry I will go into some detail concerning the first Duke of Northumberland. However, in subsequent entries I may not cover each Duke of Northumberland with such detail. John Dudley is a fascinating subject as the first Duke, during the most interesting period in English history, namely, the Tudor period.

The title Dukedom of Northumberland, is not to be confused with the title Earl of Northumberland which deserves its own blog entry.

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Duke of Northumberland is a noble title that has been created three times in English and British history, twice in the Peerage of England and once in the Peerage of Great Britain. The current holder of this title is Ralph Percy, 12th Duke of Northumberland.

Coat of Arms of the Dukedom of Northumberland

1551 Creation

John Dudley was the eldest of three sons of Edmund Dudley, a councillor of King Henry VII, and his second wife Elizabeth Grey, daughter of Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Lisle. His father was attainted and executed for high treason in 1510, having been arrested immediately after Henry VIII’s accession because the new king needed scapegoats for his predecessor’s (Henry VII) unpopular financial policies.

In January 1537, Dudley was made Vice-Admiral and began to apply himself to naval matters. He was Master of the Horse to Anne of Cleves and Katherine Howard, and in 1542 returned to the House of Commons as MP for Staffordshire but was soon promoted to the House of Lords following 12 March 1542, when he became Viscount Lisle after the death of his stepfather Arthur Plantagenet and “by the right of his mother”. Being now a peer, Dudley became Lord Admiral and a Knight of the Garter in 1543; he was also admitted to the Privy Council.

John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland

Arthur Plantagenet, 1st Viscount Lisle, KG (died March 3, 1542) was an illegitimate son of King Edward IV of England, half-brother-in-law of Henry VII, and an uncle of Henry VIII, at whose court he was a prominent figure and by whom he was appointed Lord Deputy of Calais (1533–40). The survival of a large collection of his correspondence in the Lisle Letters makes his life one of the best documented of his era.

John Dudley, popularly fêted and highly regarded by King Henry as a general, became a royal intimate who played cards with the ailing monarch. Next to Edward Seymour, Prince Edward’s maternal uncle, Dudley was one of the leaders of the Reformed party at court, and both their wives were among the friends of Anne Askew, the Protestant martyr destroyed by Bishop Stephen Gardiner in July 1546.

Upon the death of King Henry VIII in January 1547 the 16 executors of Henry VIII’s will also embodied the Regency Council that had been appointed to rule collectively during King Edward VI’s minority. The new Council agreed on making Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford Lord Protector with full powers, which in effect were those of a prince.

Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset (1500 – January 22, 1552) (also 1st Earl of Hertford, 1st Viscount Beauchamp), was the eldest surviving brother of Queen Jane Seymour (d. 1537), the third wife of King Henry VIII. He was Lord Protector of England from 1547 to 1549 during the minority of his nephew King Edward VI (1547–1553). Despite his popularity with the common people, his policies often angered the gentry.

Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset, Lord Protector of England

At the same time the Council awarded themselves a round of promotions based on Henry VIII’s wishes; the Earl of Hertford became the Duke of Somerset and John Dudley was created Earl of Warwick. The new Earl had to pass on his post of Lord Admiral to Somerset’s brother, Thomas Seymour, but advanced to Lord Great Chamberlain.

The new Earl of Warwick was perceived as the most important man next the Lord Protector, he was on friendly terms with Somerset, who soon reopened the war with Scotland. Dudley accompanied him as second-in-command with a taste for personal combat.

Dudley consolidated his power through institutional manoeuvres and by January 1550 was in effect the new regent. On February 2, 1550 he became Lord President of the Council, with the capacity to debar councillors from the body and appoint new ones.

Dudley excluded the Duke of Southampton and other conservatives, but arranged Somerset’s release and his return to the Privy Council and Privy Chamber. In June 1550 Dudley’s heir John married Somerset’s daughter Anne as a mark of reconciliation.

Yet Somerset soon attracted political sympathizers and hoped to re-establish his power by removing Dudley from the scene, “contemplating”, as he later admitted, the Lord President’s arrest and execution. Relying on his popularity with the masses, he campaigned against and tried to obstruct Dudley’s policies.

Dudley’s elevation as Duke of Northumberland came on October 11, 1551 with the Duke of Somerset participating in the ceremony. Five days later Somerset was arrested, while rumours about supposed plots of his circulated. He was accused of having planned a “banquet massacre”, in which the council were to be assaulted and Dudley killed.

Somerset was acquitted of treason, but convicted of felony for raising a contingent of armed men without a licence. He was executed on January 22, 1552. While technically lawful, these events contributed much to Northumberland’s growing unpopularity.

King Edward VI of England and Ireland

Dudley himself, according to a French eyewitness, confessed before his own end that “nothing had pressed so injuriously upon his conscience as the fraudulent scheme against the Duke of Somerset”.

The 15-year-old King Edward VI fell ill in early 1553 and excluded his half-sisters, Lady Mary and Lady Elizabeth, whom he regarded as illegitimate, from the succession, designating non-existent, hypothetical male heirs. As his death approached, King Edward VI changed his will so that his Protestant cousin Lady Jane Grey, Northumberland’s daughter-in-law, could inherit the Crown.

To what extent the Duke influenced this scheme is uncertain. The traditional view is that it was Northumberland’s plot to maintain his power by placing his family on the throne.

Many historians see the project as genuinely Edward VI’s, enforced by Dudley after the King’s death. The Duke did not prepare well for this occasion. Having marched to East Anglia to capture Mary, he surrendered on hearing that the Privy Council had changed sides and proclaimed Lady Mary as queen.

Convicted of high treason, Northumberland returned to Catholicism and abjured the Protestant faith before his execution. Having secured the contempt of both religious camps, popularly hated, and a natural scapegoat, he became the “wicked Duke” — in contrast to his predecessor Somerset, the “good Duke”.

Over a century later, An illegitimate son of one of his younger sons, Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, Sir Robert Dudley, claimed the dukedom when in exile in Italy. On March 9, 1620 the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II officially recognised the title, an act which infuriated James I-VI of England, Scotland and Ireland.

Only since the 1970s has John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland, has also been seen as a Tudor Crown servant: self-serving, inherently loyal to the incumbent monarch, and an able statesman in difficult times.

December 28, 1952: Death of Alexandrine of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Queen of Denmark. Conclusion.

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Alexandrine of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Copenhagen, Grand Duchess Charlotte of Luxembourg, King Christian X of Denmark, King Frederik VIII of Denmark, king George II of the Hellenes, King Haakon VII of Norway, King Peter II of Yugoslavia, Queen Alexandrine of Denmark, Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands, World War I, World War ii

On May 14, 1912 while on a return journey from a trip to Nice with his wife and four of his children, King Frederik VIII of Denmark made a short stop in Hamburg, staying at the Hotel Hamburger Hof under the pseudonym “Count Kronsberg”.

That evening, Frederik—while incognito—went out for a stroll on the Jungfernstieg, during which he became faint and collapsed on a park bench at Gänsemarkt. He was discovered by a police officer who took him to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead; his cause of death was announced as a heart attack. As King Frederik VIII was incognito at the time and had no papers on him, his body was brought to the local morgue, where he was identified by the hotel manager the next morning.

Alexandrine’s husband acceded to the throne as King Christian X, and Alexandrine became Queen Consort of Denmark. She is not considered to have played any political role, but is described as being a loyal support to her spouse.

She was interested in music, and acted as the protector of the musical societies Musikforeningen i København and Den danske Richard Wagnerforening. She was known for her needlework, which she sold for charitable purposes. After the death of her mother-in-law Louise of Sweden in 1926, she succeeded her as the official protector of the various charity organisations founded by Louise. She enjoyed golf and photography.

During World War I, she founded Dronningens Centralkomité af 1914 (“The Queen’s Central Committee of 1914”) to the support of poor families. The revolution in Russia brought much heartbreak for Alexandrine as three of her uncles, Nicholas, George and Sergey, were killed by the Bolsheviks.

She survived the 1918 flu pandemic.

King Christian X and Queen Alexandrine of Denmark

World War II

On April 9, 1940 at 4 am Nazi Germany invaded Denmark in a surprise attack, overwhelming Denmark’s Army and Navy and destroying the Danish Army Air Corps. King Christian X quickly realized that Denmark was in an impossible position.

Its territory and population were far too small to hold out against Germany for any sustained period of time. Its flat land would have resulted in it being easily overrun by German panzers; Jutland, for instance, would have been overrun in short order by a panzer attack from Schleswig-Holstein immediately to the south.

Unlike its Nordic neighbours, Denmark had no mountain ranges from which a drawn-out resistance could be mounted against the German army. With no prospect of being able to hold out for any length of time, and faced with the explicit threat of the Luftwaffe bombing the civilian population of Copenhagen, and with only one general in favour of continuing to fight, King Christian X and the entire Danish government capitulated at about 6 am, in exchange for retaining political independence in domestic matters, beginning the occupation of Denmark, which lasted until May 5, 1945.

In contrast to his brother, King Haakon VII of Norway, and Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands, King George II of the Hellenes, Grand Duchess Charlotte of Luxembourg, King Peter II of Yugoslavia, President Edvard Beneš of Czechoslovakia and President Władysław Raczkiewicz of Poland, all of whom went into exile during the Nazi occupation of their countries, King Christian X (like King Leopold III of the Belgians) remained in his capital throughout the occupation of Denmark, being to the Danish people a visible symbol of the national cause (Haakon VII escaped the German advance after refusing to accept a Nazi-friendly puppet regime.)

King Christian X and Queen Alexandrine of Denmark

The royal couple was given great popularity as national symbols during the World War II occupation, which was demonstrated during a tour through the country in 1946. Before the occupation, she and her daughter-in-law were engaged in mobilising the Danish women.

Her rejection of Major General Kurt Himer, Chief of Staff to General Kaupisch on April 9, 1940 became a symbol for her loyalty toward Denmark before her birth country Germany. When General Himer asked for an audience with the monarch, Christian was persuaded to receive him by his daughter-in-law as he would any other, which was supported by Alexandrine. He asked to do so alone, but Alexandrine told him she would interrupt them.

When the General was about to leave, she came in; and when he greeted her, she said: “General, this is not the circumstance in which I expected to greet a countryman.”

During the German occupation of Denmark, the King’s daily ride through Copenhagen became a symbol of Danish sovereignty. This picture was taken on his birthday in 1940

It was reported, that although Alexandrine was seen as shy and disliked official ceremonies, she had a “sharp” intelligence, and she was, together with her daughter-in-law, Ingrid of Sweden, a true support of the monarch and a driving force for the resistance toward the occupation within the royal house.

It was also reported, that in contrast to the monarch himself and the Crown Prince, the Queen and the Crown Princess never lost their calm when the nation was attacked.

As she was not the Head of the Royal House, she could show herself in public more than her spouse, who did not wish to show support to the occupation by being seen in public, and she used this to engage in various organisations for social relief to ease the difficulties caused by the occupation. Kaj Munk is quoted to describe the public appreciation of her during World War II with his comment: “Protect our Queen, the only German we would like to keep!”

Queen Alexandrine of Denmark

King Christian X used to ride daily through the streets of Copenhagen unaccompanied while the people stood and waved to him. One apocryphal story relates that one day, a German soldier remarked to a young boy that he found it odd that the King would ride with no bodyguard. The boy reportedly replied, “All of Denmark is his bodyguard.”

Later life

At his death in Amalienborg Palace, Copenhagen, in 1947, at the age of 76, King Christian X was interred along with other members of the Danish royal family in Roskilde Cathedral near Copenhagen. Although he had been behind the politics of Erik Scavenius, a cloth armband of the type worn by members of the Danish resistance movement was placed on his coffin under a castrum doloris.

When Queen Alexandrine was widowed; she became the first Queen Dowager of Denmark to opt not to use that title.

She died in Copenhagen on December 28 in 1952 at the age of 73 and is interred next to her husband in Roskilde Cathedral.

December 28, 1757: Death of Princess Caroline of Great Britain

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Princess Caroline Elizabeth of Great Britain (June 10, 1713 – December 28, 1757) was the fourth child and third daughter of King George II of Great Britain and his wife Caroline of Brandenburg-Ansbach.

Early life

Princess Caroline was born at Herrenhausen Palace in Hanover, Germany, on June 10, 1713. Her father was George Augustus, Hereditary Prince of Hanover, the eldest son of George Louis, Elector of Hanover. Her mother was Caroline of Brandenburg-Ansbach, daughter of Johann Friedrich, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach.

As a granddaughter of the Elector of Hanover, she was styled Princess Caroline of Hanover at birth. Under the Act of Settlement 1701, she was seventh in the line of succession to the British throne. She was baptised the day after her birth at Herrenhausen Palace.

Princess Caroline of Great Britain and Hanover

Great Britain

In 1714, Queen Anne died, and Caroline’s grandfather became George I of Great Britain and Ireland and her father Prince of Wales. At the age of one year, Caroline accompanied her mother and elder sisters, the Princesses Anne and Amelia, to Great Britain, and the family resided at St James’s Palace, London.

She was then styled as a Princess of Great Britain. A newly attributed list from January–February 1728 documents her personal expenses, including charitable contributions to several Protestant groups in London.

In 1722, at the direction of her mother, she was inoculated against smallpox by variolation, an early type of immunisation popularised by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu and Charles Maitland.

Princess Caroline was her mother’s favourite, and became known as “the truth-telling Caroline Elizabeth” (or “the truth-loving”). When any disagreement took place among the royal children, her parents would say, “Send for Caroline, and then we shall know the truth!”

According to Dr. John Doran, “The truth-loving Caroline Elizabeth was unreservedly beloved by her parents, was worthy of the affection, and repaid it by an ardent attachment. She was fair, good, accomplished, and unhappy.”

Later life

Lord Hervey

According to popular belief, Caroline’s unhappiness was due to her love for the married courtier Lord Hervey. Hervey, who was bisexual, may have had an affair with Caroline’s elder brother, Prince Frederick Louis, Duke of Edinburgh and later Prince of Wales and was romantically linked with several ladies of the court as well.

When Hervey died in 1743, Caroline retired to St. James’s Palace for many years prior to her own death, accessible to only her family and closest friends. She gave generously to charity.

Princess Caroline died, unmarried and childless, on December 28, 1757, aged 44, at St James’s Palace. She was buried at Westminster Abbey.

Horace Walpole, of the death of Princess Caroline, wrote: “Though her state of health had been so dangerous for years, and her absolute confinement for many of them, her disorder was, in a manner, new and sudden, and her death unexpected by herself, though earnestly her wish. Her goodness was constant and uniform, her generosity immense, her charities most extensive; in short, I, no royalist, could be lavish in her praise.”

December 28, 1665: Birth of Lieutenant-General George FitzRoy, 1st Duke of Northumberland.

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Lieutenant-General George FitzRoy, 1st Duke of Northumberland (December 28, 1665 – June 28, 1716) was the third and youngest illegitimate son of King Charles II of England, Scotland and Ireland (‘Charles the Black’) by Barbara Villiers, Countess of Castlemaine (also known as Barbara Villiers, Duchess of Cleveland); he was the fifth of Charles’s eight illegitimate sons.

On October 1, 1674, he was created Earl of Northumberland, Baron of Pontefract (Yorkshire) and Viscount Falmouth (Cornwall) in the Peerage of England. On April 6, 1683, he was created 1st Duke of Northumberland, also in the Peerage of England.

King Charles II of England Scotland and Ireland

The title Duke of Northumberland is a noble title that has been created three times in English and British history, twice in the Peerage of England and once in the Peerage of Great Britain.

He was described as a most worthy man and as “…a tall Black Man like his father the King.”

In 1682, he was employed on secret service in Venice. Upon his return to England in 1684, he was elected (January 10) and installed (April 8) Knight of the Garter. That summer, he served as a volunteer on the side of the French at the Siege of Luxembourg.

In March 1686, Northumberland married Catherine Wheatley, the daughter of a poulterer, Robert Wheatley of Bracknell in Berkshire. Catherine was the widow of Thomas Lucy of Charlecote Park, a captain in the Royal Horse Guards.

Soon after the marriage, which was not a happy one,
Northumberland and his brother, Henry FitzRoy, 1st Duke of Grafton, allegedly attempted to privately convey her abroad to an English convent in Ghent, Belgium. After the death of Catherine in 1714, Northumberland remarried to Mary Dutton, the sister of Captain Mark Dutton.

Lieutenant-General George FitzRoy, 1st Duke of Northumberland

In 1687, Northumberland commanded the 2nd Troop of Horse Guards. A year later, he was appointed a lord of His Majesty’s bedchamber. In 1701, he was appointed Constable of Windsor Castle, in 1710 Lord Lieutenant of Surrey, and in 1712, he became Lord Lieutenant of Berkshire as well. In 1703, he succeeded the Earl of Oxford as Colonel of the Royal Regiment of Horse.

Seven years later, on January 10, 1710, he became Lieutenant-General in the British Army. Lieutenant general (Lt Gen), is a senior rank in the British Army and the Royal Marines. It is the equivalent of a multinational three-star rank.

On April 7, 1713, the Duke of Northumberland was sworn into the Privy Council and as Chief Butler of England.

The Duke lived at Frogmore House at Windsor in Berkshire, but died suddenly aged 50 at Epsom on June 28, 1716. Because he had no legitimate offspring, all the titles became extinct upon his death.

Mary, Dowager Duchess of Northumberland, died at Frogmore House in 1738.

December 28, 1879: Death of Alexandrine of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Queen of Denmark. Part I.

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Grand Duchess Anastasia of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Grand Duke Friedrich Franz III of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, King Christian IX of Denmark, King Christian X of Denmark, King Frederik VIII of Denmark, Prince Friedrich Franz, Princess Alexandrine, Princess Cecilie

Alexandrine of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (24 December 1879 – 28 December 1952) was Queen of Denmark from 1912 to 1947, as well Queen of Iceland from 1918 to 1944 as the spouse of King Christian X. She was the paternal grandmother of the current reigning Queen of Denmark, Margrethe II.

Alexandrine was born a Duchess of Mecklenburg-Schwerin on Christmas Eve of 1879, in the city of Schwerin, the capital of the vast Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin in Northern Germany. Her father was Friedrich Franz, Hereditary Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin; who was the eldest son of and heir to the reigning Grand Duke Friedrich Franz II.

Her mother was Grand Duchess Anastasia Mikhailovna of Russia the only daughter and second child of Grand Duke Michael Nicolaievich of Russia and his wife Princess Cecilie of Baden. Paternally, she was a granddaughter of Emperor Nicholas I of Russia.

Alexandrine was her parents’ first child, and was born eleven months after their wedding in St. Petersburg. She was born in the Neustädtisches Palais (English: New Town Palace) in Schwerin, which was her parents’ residence in the city at the time.

Duchess Alexandrine had two younger siblings: her only brother was Duke Friedrich Franz, who in 1897 succeeded their father as Grand Duke Friedrich Franz IV of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, and her only sister was Duchess Cecilie, who in 1906 married the German Crown Prince Wilhelm of Prussia, eldest son of German Emperor William II and Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein.

She was also a paternal first cousin of Queen Juliana of the Netherlands. Her mother was the paternal aunt of Princess Irina Alexandrovna of Russia, the wife of Felix Yusupov, one of the murderers of Rasputin.

From left: Princess Cecilie, Princess Alexandrine, Prince Friedrich Franz and Grand Duchess Anastasia of Mecklenburg-Schwerin

After their father’s succession as Grand Duke Friedrich Franz III of Mecklenburg-Schwerin upon the death of his father on April 15, 1883, Alexandrine grew up with her brother and sister at the Castle in Schwerin, at the royal residences of Ludwigslust Palace and the Gelbensande hunting lodge, only a few kilometres from the Baltic Sea coast.

Her father had a fragile health and suffered badly from dermatitis, asthma and respiratory disorders from an early age. The wet, damp, and cold Northern European climate of Mecklenburg was not good for his health, and as a result, Alexandrine spent a large amount of time with her family away from Mecklenburg, by the Lake Geneva, and in Palermo, Baden-Baden and Cannes in the south of France, where the family owned a large estate, the Villa Wenden. Cannes was favoured at the time by European royalty, including some whom Alexandrine met such as Empress Eugénie of France and her future husband’s uncle, King Edward VII of the United Kingdom.

It was also in Cannes during the winter visit of 1897 that Duchess Alexandrine met her future husband, Prince Christian of Denmark, the eldest son of Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Louise of Denmark.

The two young royals were engaged in Schwerin on March 24, 1897. In April 1897, shortly after the engagement was announced, her father the Grand Duke died suddenly at the age of just 46 years. His sudden death was somewhat shrouded in mystery as it was first reported that he had committed suicide by throwing himself off a bridge. However, according to the official report, he died in his garden when he fell over a low wall during a bout of shortness of breath.

Crown Prince Christian and Crown Princess Alexandrine of Denmark

The wedding of Duchess Alexandrine and Prince Christian was celebrated on April 26, 1898 in Cannes, when she was 18 years old. Prince Christian was 27 years old.

They had two children:

1. Prince Frederik (1899–1972), later King Frederik IX of Denmark; married Princess Ingrid of Sweden

2. Prince Knud (1900–1976), later Knud, Hereditary Prince of Denmark; married Princess Caroline-Mathilde of Denmark.

Early years in Denmark

Upon their arrival in Denmark, the couple were given Christian VIII’s Palace at the Amalienborg Palace complex in central Copenhagen as their principal residence and Sorgenfri Palace in Kongens Lyngby north of Copenhagen as a summer residence.

Furthermore, the couple received Marselisborg Palace in Aarhus in Jutland as a wedding present from the people of Denmark in 1902, the garden of which was to become one of her greatest interests. In 1914, the King and Queen also built the villa Klitgården in Skagen in Northern Jutland.

On January 29, 1906, her husband’s grandfather King Christian IX died, and Christian’s father ascended the throne as King Frederik VIII. Christian himself became Crown Prince and Alexandrine became Crown Princess.

Life of Archduke Ludwig Viktor of Austria

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Archduke Franz Charles of Austria, Archduke Karl Ludwig, Archduke Ludwig Viktor of Austria, Archduke Maximilian, Emperor Franz Joseph, Emperor of Mexico, Sophie of Bavaria

Archduke Ludwig Viktor of Austria (May 15, 1842 – 18 January 18, 1919). He had a military career, as was usual for archdukes, but did not take part in politics. He was openly homosexual and declined to marry princesses who were sought for him. He is well known for his art collection and patronage as well as philanthropy.

Ludwig Viktor was born in Vienna. He was the youngest son born to Archduke Franz Charles of Austria and Princess Sophie of Bavaria. His elder siblings included Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria, Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico and Archduke Charles Ludwig.

Archduke Ludwig Viktor of Austria

Career

During the Revolutions of 1848 and the Vienna Uprising, Ludwig Viktor and his family had to flee the Austrian capital, at first to Innsbruck, later to Olomouc. Ludwig Viktor pursued the usual military career and was appointed General of the Infantry, but had no intentions to interfere in politics.

He rejected his brother Maximilian’s ambitions in the Second Mexican Empire. Instead he concentrated on building up his own art collection and had Heinrich von Ferstel design and build a city palace on the new Schwarzenbergplatz in Vienna, where Ludwig Viktor hosted homophile soirées.

Personal Life

Ludwig Viktor’s mother attempted to arrange a marriage for him with Duchess Sophie Charlotte in Bavaria, youngest sister of Empress Elisabeth, but he declined. He likewise rejected plans to marry him to Isabel, daughter and heir presumptive of Emperor Pedro II of Brazil.

From left: Archduke Karl Ludwig, Emperor Franz Joseph (seated) Archduke Maximilian (future Emperor of Mexico) and Archduke Ludwig Viktor

In 1863, Ludwig Viktor’s brother Maximilian had tried to persuade him to marry her because “such a marriage might found yet another Habsburg dynasty in Latin America…. Maximilian wrote to Emperor Franz Joseph that Ludwig Viktor was ‘anything but pleased with the idea,'” and asked Franz Joseph to order Ludwig Viktor to marry her. Franz Joseph refused.

Ludwig Viktor was “a homosexual and cross-dresser with a reputation as a libertine….” After a scandalous incident at the Central Bathhouse Vienna in which he was publicly slapped, his brother Emperor Franz Joseph finally forbade him to stay in Vienna and joked that he should be given a ballerina as adjutant to keep him out of trouble.

Ludwig Viktor retired to Klessheim Palace near Salzburg where he became known as a philanthropist and patron of the arts. He died in 1919, at the age of 76, and is buried at the Siezenheim cemetery.

He was awarded the Order of the White Eagle.

December 26, 1800: Death of Mary Robinson

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Actress, Banastre Tarleton, Celebrity, Feminist, HRH The Prince of Wales, King George IV of the United Kingdom and King of Hanover, Mary Darby, Mary Robinson, Novelist, Poet

Mary Robinson (née Darby; November 27, 1757 – December 26, 1800) was an English actress, poet, dramatist, novelist, and celebrity figure. She lived in England, in the cities of Bristol and London; she also lived in France and Germany for a time. She enjoyed poetry from the age of seven and started working, first as a teacher and then as actress, from the age of fourteen. She wrote many plays, poems and novels. She was a celebrity, gossiped about in newspapers, famous for her acting and writing. She was the first public mistress of King George IV while he was still Prince of Wales.

Mary Robinson was born in Bristol, England to Nicholas Darby, a naval captain, and his wife Hester (née Vanacott) who had married at Donyatt, Somerset, in 1749, and was baptised ‘Polle(y)’ (“Spelt ‘Polle’ in the official register and ‘Polly’ in the Bishop’s Transcript”) at St Augustine’s Church, Bristol, July 19, 1758, the entry noting that she was born November 27, 1756.

In her memoirs, Robinson gives her birth in 1758, but the year 1757 seems more likely according to recently published research. Her father deserted her mother and took a mistress when Robinson was still a child.

Mary Robinson

The family hoped for a reconciliation, but Captain Darby made it clear that this was not going to happen. Without the support of her husband, Hester Darby supported herself and the five children born of the marriage by starting a school for young girls in Little Chelsea, London, (where Robinson taught by her 14th birthday).

However, during one of his brief returns to the family, Captain Darby had the school closed (which he was entitled to do by English law). Darby died in the Russian naval service in 1785. Robinson, who at one point attended a school run by the social reformer Hannah More, came to the attention of actor David Garrick.

Marriage

Hester Darby encouraged her daughter to accept the proposal of an articled clerk, Thomas Robinson, who claimed to have an inheritance. Mary was against this idea; however, after falling ill and watching him take care of her and her younger brother, she felt that she owed him, and she did not want to disappoint her mother who was pushing for the engagement.

After the early marriage, Robinson discovered her husband did not have an inheritance. He continued to live an elaborate lifestyle, however, and made no effort to hide multiple affairs. Subsequently, Mary supported their family. After her husband squandered their money, the couple fled to Talgarth, Breconshire (where Robinson’s only daughter, Mary Elizabeth, was born in November).

Here they lived in a fairly large estate, called Tregunter Park. Eventually her husband was imprisoned for debt in the Fleet Prison where she lived with him for many months. While it was common for the wives of prisoners to live with their husbands while indebted, children were usually sent to live with relatives to keep them away from the dangers of prison.

HRH Prince George, The Prince of Wales

However, Robinson was deeply devoted to her daughter Maria, and when her husband was imprisoned, Robinson brought the 6-month-old baby with her.

It was in the Fleet Prison that Robinson’s literary career really began, as she found that she could publish poetry to earn money, and to give her an escape from the harsh reality that had become her life. Her first book, Poems By Mrs. Robinson, was published in 1775 by C. Parker.

Additionally, Robinson’s husband was offered work in the form of copying legal documents so he could try to pay back some of his debts, but he refused to do anything. Robinson, in an effort to keep the family together and to get back to normal life outside of prison, took the job instead, collecting the pay that her husband neglected to earn.

During this time, Mary Robinson found a patron in Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire, who sponsored the publication of Robinson’s second volume of poems, Captivity.

Theatre

After her husband obtained his release from prison, Robinson decided to return to the theatre. She launched her acting career and took to the stage playing Juliet at Drury Lane Theatre in December 1776. Robinson was best known for her facility with the ‘breeches parts’, and her performances as Viola in William Shakespeare’sTwelfth Night and Rosalind in As You Like It won her extensive praise.

But she gained popularity with playing in Florizel and Perdita, an adaptation of Shakespeare, with the role of Perdita (heroine of The Winter’s Tale) in 1779. It was during this performance that she attracted the notice of the young Prince of Wales, later King George IV of the United Kingdom. He offered her twenty thousand pounds to become his mistress. During this time, the very young Emma, Lady Hamilton sometimes worked as her maid and dresser at the theatre.

George IV, King of the United Kingdom and King of Hanover

She was the first public mistress of George, then Prince of Wales, and was catapulted into the stratosphere of celebrity, becoming even more popular and trend-setting. Sadly their affair ended in 1781, and Mary went on to become distinguished for her poetry.

Mary Robinson, who now lived separately from her husband, went on to have several love affairs, most notably with Banastre Tarleton, a soldier who had recently distinguished himself fighting in the American War of Independence. Prior to their relationship, Robinson had been having an affair with a man named Lord Malden.

According to one account, Malden and Tarleton were betting men, and Malden was so confident in Robinson’s loyalty to him, and believed that no man could ever take her from him. As such, he made a bet of a thousand guineas that none of the men in his circle could seduce her. Unfortunately for Malden, Tarleton accepted the bet and swooped in to not only seduce Robinson, but establish a relationship that would last the next 15 years.

Banastre Tarleton

This relationship, though rumoured to have started on a bet, saw Tarleton’s rise in military rank and his concomitant political successes, Mary’s own various illnesses, financial vicissitudes and the efforts of Tarleton’s own family to end the relationship. They had no children, although Robinson had a miscarriage.

However, in the end, Tarleton married Susan Bertie, an heiress and an illegitimate daughter of the young 4th Duke of Ancaster, and niece of his sisters Lady Willoughby de Eresby and Lady Cholmondeley. In 1783, Robinson suffered a mysterious illness that left her partially paralysed.

Mary Robinson

Lastly, in 1800, after years of failing health and decline into financial ruin, Robinson wrote her last piece of literature during her lifetime: a series of poems titled the Lyrical Tales, published by Longman & Rees, in London. This poetry collection explored themes of domestic violence, misogyny, violence against destitute characters, and political oppression.

Mary Robinson died on December 26, 1800.

Mary Robinson was one of the first female celebrities of the modern era. She was dubbed as scandalous, but on the other hand educated and able to be partially independent from her husband. She was one of the first women to enter the sphere of writing, and to be successful there. Scholars often argue that she used her celebrity status only in her own advantage, but it is to be noted how much she contributed to the awareness of early feminism.

December 27, 1459: Birth of John I Albert, King of Poland

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Archduke of Austria, Elizabeth of Austria, Elizabeth of Luxembourg, Emperor Sigismund, Jagiellonian Dynasty, John I Albert, King Albrecht II of the Romans (Germany), King Casimir IV of Poland, King of Poland and Duke of Głogów

John I Albert (December 27, 1459 – June 17, 1501) was King of Poland from 1492 until his death in 1501 and Duke of Głogów (Glogau) from 1491 to 1498. He was the fourth Polish sovereign from the Jagiellonian dynasty, the son of Casimir IV and his wife Elizabeth of Austria, the daughter of King Albrecht II of the Romans (Germany), Archduke of Austria, and his wife Elizabeth of Luxembourg, daughter of Emperor Sigismund. The exact date of her birth is unknown and has been variously provided between 1436 and early 1439.

Several rulers were crowned King of the Romans (king of Germany) but not emperor, although they styled themselves thus, among whom were: Conrad I and Heinrich the Fowler in the 10th century, and Conrad IV, Rudolf I, Adolph and Albrecht I and Albrecht II.

As a kin to the House of Habsburg, John Albert was groomed to become Emperor in the Holy Roman Empire, a plan which ultimately failed. He was well-educated and tutored by scholars such as Johannes Longinus and Callimachus, whom he subsequently befriended. Heavily influenced by the Italian Renaissance, John Albert sought to strengthen royal authority at the expense of the Catholic Church and the clergy.

John I Albert, King of Poland and Duke of Głogów

In 1487, he led a force against the Ottoman Empire and defeated the Tatars of the Crimean Khanate during the early phase of the Polish–Ottoman War. In the aftermath of the Bohemian–Hungarian War, John Albert unsuccessfully attempted to usurp Hungary from his elder brother Vladislaus but was instead granted the Duchy of Głogów to calm his ambition.

John Albert ascended to the Polish throne in 1492 whilst his younger brother Alexander was elected Grand Duke of Lithuania by an independent Lithuanian assembly, thus temporarily breaking a personal union between the two nations. He was proclaimed king through an oral ballot orchestrated by Cardinal Frederick Jagiellon.

To secure his succession against the Piast princes from the Duchy of Masovia, he dispatched an army to the electoral proceedings which alienated the higher nobles and magnates. He later invaded Masovia to deprive Conrad III of his ancestral holdings and curtail internal opposition to his rule.

In 1497, John Albert launched a personal crusade into Moldavia to uphold Polish suzerainty, establish control over Black Sea ports and dethrone Stephen III in favour of John Albert’s brother Sigismund. The campaign’s failure greatly hindered Polish expansion into southeastern Europe.

A catastrophic Moldavian Campaign was a major blunder which psychologically scarred John Albert for life and likely affected his health. He died suddenly on June 17,1501 in Toruń, where he agreed to negotiate with the Teutonic Knights.

The most likely cause of death was syphilis, though the monarch also suffered from other ailments and battle wounds. The king’s body was embalmed for the journey, and on June 29, the funeral cortège left Toruń for the royal capital of Kraków. His heart was embedded inside the Toruń Cathedral, but its exact location remains unknown.

John Albert was laid to rest on July 28, 1501 at Wawel Cathedral in Kraków, in one of the dedicated chapels adjacent to the cathedral’s nave. The Late Gothic red-marble headstone with the king’s effigy and ledger was sculpted by Stanisław Stwosz, the son of Veit Stoss.

John Albert remains a largely forgotten and overlooked figure in Polish historiography. His relatively short reign ended in a major military setback, and he was criticised during his lifetime for embracing absolutism and attempting to centralise the government.

He is credited for creating a bicameral parliament comprising the Senate and the Sejm, which granted lower-class gentry the right of expression in the matters of state. Conversely, he limited the movement of peasants, confining them to nobles’ estates for life.

John Albert never married and remained a lifelong bachelor. It is uncertain whether he fathered any illegitimate children, however, it is evident that the king was a libertine who led a promiscuous life. Even during his lifetime John was known to be a notorious womaniser and a dissolute.

The life of Princess Margaretha of Saxony, Duchess of Saxony, Archduchess of Austria

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Archduchess of Austria, Archduke Charles Ludwig of Austria, Duchess of Saxony, Duke Charles Theodore in Bavaria, Emperor Franz-Joseph of Austria, King Johann of Saxony, Princess Amelia Auguste of Bavaria, Princess Margaretha of Saxony, Sophie of Saxony

From the Emperor’s Desk: There is not a lot written about today’s subject so I added to the information by drowning the post in genealogy and information about her other relatives.

Princess Margaretha of Saxony, Duchess of Saxony (May 24, 1840 – September 15, 1858) was the eighth child and fifth eldest daughter of King Johann of Saxony and his wife Princess Amalie Auguste of Bavaria who was the fourth child of King Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria and his second wife Caroline of Baden.

Princess Margaretha of Saxony was born in Dresden, then in the Kingdom of Saxony. She was the younger sister of King Albrecht of Saxony and King Georg of Saxony and Princess Sophie of Saxony.

Sisters Princess Margaretha and Sophie of Saxony would have many connections with the House of Wittelsbach of Bavaria and the House of Habsburg-Lorraine through thier mother, Princess Amalie Auguste of Bavaria who was one of the famous Bavarian royal sisters that made prominent royal marriages.

Princess Margaretha of Saxony

Here they are as follow:

Princess Amalie Auguste of Bavaria was the identical twin sister of Princess Elisabeth Louise of Bavaria, later Queen of Prussia as the wife of King Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia.

Another sister, Princess Maria Anna of Bavaria married King Friedrich August II of Saxony, the brother of King Johann of Saxony and the father of Princess Margaretha of Saxony the focus of this blog post!

Another sister was Princess Sophie of Bavaria the wife of Archduke Franz Charles of Austria. Thier younger son was Archduke Charles Ludwig of Austria the husband of Princess Margaretha of Saxony the focus of this blog post! Thier older son was Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria.

Another sister was Princess Ludovika of Bavaria who married her cousin Maximilian Joseph, Duke in Bavaria the parents of Elisabeth in Bavaria, who was married to Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria, brother of Princess Margaretha of Saxony’s husband, Archduke Charles Ludwig of Austria.

Princess Margaretha of Saxony

Princess Elisabeth in Bavaria’s brother was Duke Charles-Theodor in Bavaria who was married to Princess Sophie of Saxony, the sister of Princess Margaretha of Saxony the focus of this blog post!

That will make your head spin!

Princess Margaretha married her first cousin Archduke Charles Ludwig of Austria, on November 4, 1856 in Dresden. The marriage was happy, but only lasted two years and remained childless.

Here is a little more background on Princess Margaretha’s husband, Archduke Charles Ludwig of Austria.

As previously mentioned, Archduke Charles Ludwig of Austria (July 30, 1833 – May 19, 1896) was born at Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna, the son of Archduke Franz Charles of Austria (1802–1878) and his wife Princess Sophie of Bavaria (1805–1872). He was the younger brother of both Franz Joseph I of Austria and Maximilian I of Mexico.

Through her marriage to Princess Maria Annunciata of Bourbon-Two Sicilies Princess Margaretha became a member of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine and an Archduchess and Princess of Austria and Princess of Hungary, Croatia, Bohemia, and Tuscany.

Archduke Charles Ludwig of Austria

Death

On a trip to Italy, Margaretha contracted typhoid. She died on September 15, 1858 at the age of 18 in Monza. Her heart was interred in the Hofkapelle in Innsbruck.

Princess Margaretha’s sister, Princess Sophie, didn’t fair much better either. Childbirth caused severe respiratory problems for Sophie, which progressively weakened her, although she managed to recover. However, a year later she contracted a severe case of influenza that she could not overcome. Sophie died shortly before her 22nd birthday on March 9, 1867 and was interred at Tegernsee Abbey.

Princess Sophie of Saxony, Duchess in Bavaria

Archduke Charles Ludwig remarried.

Archduke Charles Ludwig’s second wife, whom he married by proxy on October 16, 1862 at Rome, and in person on October 21, 1862 at Venice, was Princess Maria Annunciata of Bourbon-Two Sicilies (1843–1871), daughter of King Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies (1810–1859) and Archduchess Maria Theresa of Austria (1816–1867) the eldest daughter of Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen and Princess Henrietta of Nassau-Weilburg.

Princess Maria Annunciata of Bourbon-Two Sicilies

Through this second marriage Archduke Charles Ludwig was the father of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Este (1863–1914) whose assassination ignited World War I. His grandson, was the last Emperor of Austria, Charles I-IV, King of Hungry, Bohemia and Croatia.

Princess Sophie of Saxony’s widowed husband also remarried. Duke Charles-Theodor in Bavaria second wife was Infanta Maria José of Portugal (March 19, 1857 – March 11, 1943), the fourth child and third daughter of King Miguel I of Portugal and his wife Adelaide of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg. She was the maternal grandmother of King Leopold III of Belgium.

Duke Charles-Theodor in Bavaria

Infanta Maria José of Portugal, Duchess in Bavaria

In 1877 Duke Charles-Theodor in Bavaria began practicing medicine in Mentone on the Côte d’Azur, often assisted by his wife second wife Maria Josepha. In 1880 he opened an eye-clinic in his castle at Tegernsee. In 1895 he founded the Augenklinik Herzog Carl Theodor (English: Duke Charles Theodore Eye Clinic) in Munich; the clinic in the Nymphenburger Strasse remains one of the most respected eye clinics in Bavaria to the present day. Between 1895 and 1909 Carl Theodor personally carried out more than 5,000 cataract operations as well as treating countless other eye disorders.

December 25, 820: Assassination of Leo V the Armenian, Byzantine Emperor

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Arsaber, Assassination, Battle of Versinikia, Byzantine Emperor Leo V the Armenian, Byzantine Empire, Eastern Roman Empire, Emperor Michael II, Emperor Nikephoros I, Roman Empire, Theodosia

Leo V the Armenian (c. 775 – December 25, 820) was the Byzantine Emperor from 813 to 820. A senior general, he forced his predecessor, Michael I Rangabe, to abdicate and assumed the throne. He ended the decade-long war with the Bulgars, and initiated the second period of Byzantine Iconoclasm. He was assassinated by supporters of Michael the Amorian, one of his most trusted generals, who succeeded him on the throne.

Leo was the son of the patrician Bardas, who was of Armenian descent (according to Theophanes Continuatus, Leo was also of Assyrian that is Syrian descent). Leo served in 803 under the rebel general Bardanes Tourkos, whom he deserted in favor of Emperor Nikephoros I.

The Emperor rewarded Leo with two palaces, but later exiled him for marrying the daughter of another rebel, the patrician Arsaber. On the other hand, a contemporary source says that one general Leo of the Armeniakon theme was punished for his humiliating defeat by the Arabs during which he also lost the salaries of his thematic units (a modern scholar suggests that this Leo is not the same as the emperor). Punishment also included deprivation of his military rank, beating and hair cutting.

Recalled by Michael I Rangabe in 811, Leo became governor of the Anatolic theme and conducted himself well in a war against the Arabs in 812, defeating the forces of the Cilician thughur under Thabit ibn Nasr. Leo survived the Battle of Versinikia in 813 by abandoning the battlefield, but nevertheless took advantage of this defeat to force the abdication of Michael I in his favor on 11 July 813.

In a diplomatic move, he wrote a letter to Patriarch Nikephoros in order to reassure him of his orthodoxy (Nikephoros being obviously afraid of a possible iconoclast revival). One month later, during his entrance to the Palace quarter, he kneeled before the icon of Christ at the Chalke Gate. A further step in preventing future usurpations was the castration of Michael’s sons.

With Krum of Bulgaria blockading Constantinople by land, Emperor Leo V had inherited a precarious situation. He offered to negotiate in person with the invader and attempted to have him killed in an ambush.

The stratagem failed, and although Krum abandoned his siege of the capital, he captured and depopulated Adrianople and Arcadiopolis. When Krum died in spring 814, Leo V defeated the Bulgarians in the environs of Mesembria (Nesebar) and the two states concluded a 30-year peace in 815. According to some sources, Krum participated in the battle and abandoned the battlefield heavily injured.

With the iconodule policy of his predecessors associated with defeats at the hands of Bulgarians and Arabs, Leo V reinstituted Iconoclasm after deposing patriarch Nikephoros and convoking a synod at Constantinople in 815.

The Emperor used his rather moderate iconoclast policy to seize the properties of iconodules and monasteries, such as the rich Stoudios Monastery, whose influential iconodule abbot, Theodore the Studite, he exiled. Leo V appointed competent military commanders from among his own comrades-in-arms, including Michael the Amorian and Thomas the Slav. He also persecuted the Paulicians.

When Leo jailed Michael for suspicion of conspiracy, the latter organized the assassination of the Emperor in the palace chapel of St. Stephen on Christmas Eve, 820. Leo was attending the matins service when a group of assassins disguised as members of the choir due to sing in the service suddenly threw off their robes and drew their weapons.

In the dim light they mistook the officiating priest for the Emperor and the confusion allowed Leo to snatch a heavy cross from the altar and defend himself. He called for his guards, but the conspirators had barred the doors and within a few moments a sword stroke had severed his arm, and he fell before the communion-table, where his body was hewed in pieces. His remains were dumped unceremoniously in the snow and the assassins hurried to the dungeons to free Michael II.

Unfortunately for them Leo had hidden the key on his person, and since it was too early in the morning to find a blacksmith Michael was hastily crowned as emperor with the iron clasps still around his legs. Leo’s family (including his mother and his wife, Theodosia) was exiled to monasteries in the Princes’ Islands. His four sons (including ex co-emperor Symbatios) were castrated, a procedure so brutally carried out that one of them died during the “operation”.

All known children of Leo V are traditionally attributed to his wife Theodosia, a daughter of the patrician Arsaber.

Theodosia was the daughter of Arsaber, a Byzantine patrician. The name and rank of her father were recorded by both Genesius and Theophanes Continuatus, the continuer to the chronicle of Theophanes the Confessor. The name of her mother is unknown.

Genesius records four sons:

1. Symbatios, renamed Constantine, co-emperor from 814 to 820. Castrated and exiled following the assassination of his father.

2. Basil. Castrated and exiled following the assassination of his father. Still alive in 847, recorded to have supported the election of Patriarch Ignatius of Constantinople.

3. Gregory. Castrated and exiled following the assassination of his father. Still alive in 847, recorded to have supported the election of Patriarch Ignatius of Constantinople.

4. Theodosios (died in 820). Died soon after his castration.

5. Anna, who married Hmayeak, a Mamikonian prince (died c. 797), by whom she had Konstantinos, an officer at the court of Emperor Michael III.