February 28, 1261: Birth of Margaret of Scotland, Queen of Norway.

Tags

King Alexander III of Scotland, King Henry III of England, Margaret of England, Margaret of Scotland, Margaret the Maid of Norway, Queen of Norway

Margaret of Scotland (February 28, 1261 – April 9, 1283) was Queen of Norway as the wife of King Eric II. She is sometimes known as the Maid of Scotland to distinguish her from her daughter, Margaret, Maid of Norway, who succeeded to the throne of Scotland.

Royal Standard of Scotland

Early Life

Margaret was born on February 28, 1261 at Windsor Castle. She was the firstborn child of King Alexander III of Scotland and Margaret of England, Alexander’s first wife.

Margaret of England was the second child of King Henry III of England and his wife, Eleanor of Provence.

A committee of five earls, four bishops, and four barons were tasked with ensuring that the King’s firstborn child was brought safely to Scotland. She was followed by two brothers, Alexander and David. Queen Margaret (of England) died in 1275, but letters written by the younger Margaret point to an affectionate relationship with her uncle King Edward I of England.

Marriage

Margaret stayed unmarried until the age of 20, which is remarkably long for a medieval princess. She was finally betrothed to King Eric II of Norway, in 1281. The intent was to ease the tensions that developed between Norway and Scotland in the previous decades.

King Eric II of Norway (1268 – July 15, 1299) was the eldest surviving son of King Magnus VI “the Lawmender” of Norway, and his wife, Ingeborg of Denmark who in turn was a daughter of King Eric IV of Denmark and Jutta of Saxony.

According to chroniclers, Margaret was against the match, but her father insisted. The Scottish crown gave her and Eric the estates of Rothiemay in Banffshire, Belhelvie in Aberdeenshire, Bathgate in West Lothian, and Ratho in Midlothian as her dowry.

The treaty arranging the marriage specified that Margaret and her children would succeed to the throne of Scotland if King Alexander III died leaving no legitimate sons and if no legitimate son of his left legitimate children.

Margaret sailed into the port of Bergen in the early morning of August 15. For the 20 year old Margaret of Scotland her marriage to the 13-year-old King of Norway was celebrated two or three weeks later, making her Queen of Norway. She was crowned by Jon Raude, Archbishop of Nidaros, Christ Church, Bergen.

Royal Standard of Norway

A cultured woman, Margaret probably found it difficult to adapt to married life with an adolescent. Scots reported that she tried to “cultivate” Eric by teaching him French and English, table manners, and fashion. Her mother-in-law, Ingeborg of Denmark, undermined her position as Queen and dominated the court.

Between March and April 9, 1283, Queen Margaret gave birth to her only child, Margaret, known as the Maid of Norway, in Tønsberg. Queen Margaret died during or shortly after childbirth, and was buried in Christ Church in Bergen.

As Margaret’s brothers both predeceased her father, her daughter succeeded to the Scottish throne in 1286. As she was never inaugurated, Margaret’s status as Queen of Scots is uncertain and has been debated by historians.

King Eric II of Norway went on to marry Isabel Bruce, sister of King Robert I of Scotland. Their marriage did not produce a surviving male heir, although it did produce a daughter, Ingebjørg Eiriksdatter of Norway, who married Valdemar Magnusson of Sweden, third son of King Magnus III of Sweden and Helvig of Holstein. He became Duke of Finland.

As King Eric II died July 15, 1299 without sons, he was succeeded by his brother, as Haakon V of Norway.

History of the Kingdom of East Francia: King of the Romans

Tags

Emperor Henry II, Emperor Otto III, Holy Roman Emperor, King of East Francia, King of Germany, King of the Romans, Pope Benedict VIII, Rex Francorum, Rex Romanorum, Rex Teutonicum, Romanorum Imperator

Before I address the title “King of the Romans”, I will do a brief and simple summary of the information thus far.

In 800CE Charlemagne, King of the Franks, was crowned “Emperor of the Romans” by Pope Leo III on Christmas Day. This Empire, which was to be a restart of the old Roman Empire, is known as the Carolingian Empire. When Emperor Charlemagne died in 814 he left this Empire fully intact to his son Louis the Pious.

However, upon Louis’s death in 840CE he divided the empire amongst his three surviving sons. After a brief Civil War and the signing of the Treaty of Verdun in 843, the third son of Louis the Pious, known as Louis the German’ inherited the eastern portion of the Empire, logically known as the Kingdom of East Francia.

After the Carolingian Dynasty died out the Kingdom of East Francia, an elective monarchy, became the possession of the Dukes of Saxony. When King Otto I of East Francia who was also crowned Emperor of the Romans by Pope John XII 962 we see a transition from a Frankish Kingdom into a Germanic Kingdom and from there the title of the Kingdom transition to King of the Germans or also called Kingdom of Germany.

Carolingian Empire (Kingdom of East Francia) on the right

The transition from a Kingdom of the Franks to a Kingdom of the Germans was not immediate and it took time. Any firm distinction between the kingdoms of Eastern Francia and the Kingdom of Germany is to some extent the product of later retrospection and historiography.

It is impossible to base this distinction on primary sources, as the name Eastern Francia for the kingdom remained in use long after the name Kingdom of Germany came into use.

The actual title of the monarch did vary over time. During the Ottonian period, it was King of the Franks (Rex Francorum), from the late Salian period it was King of the Romans (Rex Romanorum).

The last of the Ottonian Kings of East Francia to use a different title began with the reign of Emperor Heinrich II (1002–1024) onward. Before assuming the throne Heinrich II was known as Heinrich III, Duke of Bavaria.

In 1001, Emperor Otto III experienced a revolt against his reign in Italy. The Emperor sent word for Heinrich III, Duke of Bavaria to join him with reinforcements from Germany, but then died unexpectedly in January 1002. Otto was only 21 at the time of his death and had left no children and no instructions for the Imperial succession. In the Ottonian dynasty, succession to the throne had belonged to the Saxon branch, not the Bavarian line of which Heinrch III was a member.

As the funeral procession of Emperor Otto III moved through the Duchy of Bavaria in February 1002, Heinrich met the procession to legitimize his claims, and Heinrich demanded Archbishop Heribert of Cologne give him the Imperial Regalia. The Archbishop refused. Heinrich imprisoned the Archbishop and his brother the Bishop of Würzburg.

With neither the symbols of imperial authority, the crown jewels, nor the cooperation of Heribert, Heinrich was unable to convince the nobles attending Otto III’s funeral procession to elect him as king. A few weeks later, at Otto III’s funeral in Aachen Cathedral, Henry again attempted to gain the support of the kingdom’s nobles and was again rejected.

Heinrich II, Holy Roman Emperor

So it was without the support of the kingdom’s nobility that Heinrich took the radical action of having himself anointed and crowned “King of Germany” or to be more accurate “Rex Romanorum” (King of the Romans) by Willigis, Archbishop of Mainz on July 9, 1002 at Mainz.

Heinrich’s action marked the first time a German king was not crowned in Aachen Cathedral since Emperor Otto I began the tradition in 936 and the first time a German king assumed the throne without election by the German nobility. Under the regal name of “King Heinrich II”, he appeared before the Saxons in mid-July in full regal apparel. There, Henry convinced Bernard I, Duke of Saxony, to support his claims to the throne.

Notice Heinrich II, as King, took the title “Rex Romanorum” (King of the Romans) rather than “Rex Teutonicum” (King of Germany). This begins the tradition of taking the title King of the Romans until he could secure his Papal coronation as Emperor.

Kingdom of Germany

Therefore, the title King of the Romans was from that point forward used by the King of Germany following his election by the princes from within the Empire, until he was crowned Emperor by the Pope.

King Heinrich II would have to wait 12 years for that to occur.

There was a great upheaval within the Roman Catholic Church as rival Popes fought for supremacy. I will not go into detail about this at this point.

Fleeing across the Alps to Germany, Pope Benedict VIII appealed to King Heinrich II for protection. Heinrich II agreed to restore Benedict VIII to his papal throne in return for his coronation as Emperor.

Heinrich II arrived in Rome in early 1014, restoring Benedict VIII as pope. On February 14, 1014, Pope Benedict VIII crowned King Heinrich II as Holy Roman Emperor (“Romanorum Imperator”) in St. Peter’s Basilica.

More on the title King of the Romans in my next entry.

The Life of Princess Alexandra of Greece and Denmark: later Grand Duchess Alexandra Georgievna of Russia

Tags

Grand Duchess Alexandra Georgievna of Russia, Grand Duchess Olga Constantinovna of Russia, King George I of the Hellenes, Princess Alexandra of Greece and Denmark, Rand Duke Paul Alexandrovich of Russia, Winter Palace

Princess Alexandra of Greece and Denmark: August 30, 1870 – September 24, 1891), later known as Grand Duchess Alexandra Georgievna of Russia and was a member of the Greek royal family and of the Russian imperial family. She was the daughter of King George I of the Hellenes and Grand Duchess Olga Constantinovna of Russia. She died of childbirth complications.

Early life

Princess Alexandra of Greece and Denmark was born on August 30, 1870 at Mon Repos, the summer residence of the Greek royal family on the island of Corfu. She was the third child and eldest daughter of King George I of Hellenes and his wife, Grand Duchess Olga Constantinovna of Russia.

Princess Alexandra of Greece and Denmark

Alexandra’s father was not a native Greek, but he had been born a Danish prince named Christian Wilhelm of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, a son of Christian IX, King of Denmark, and he had been elected to the Greek throne at the age of seventeen. Five of his sons (Constantine, George, Nicholas, Andrew and Christopher), and two daughters (Alexandra and Maria), attained adulthood.

Alexandra’s mother, Grand Duchess Olga Constantinovna of Russia, (whom I just featured on this blog) was the daughter of Grand Duke Constantine Nikolaievich of Russia and his wife Princess Alexandra of Saxe-Altenburg (whom I also just featured on this blog).

The Greek royal family was not wealthy by royal standards and they lived with simplicity. King George was a taciturn man, but contrary to the general approach of the time, he believed in happy rambunctious children. The long corridors of the royal palace in Athens were used by Alexandra and her siblings for all types of play and sometimes a “bike ride” would be led by the King himself. Raised by British nannies, English was the children’s first language, but they spoke Greek between themselves. They also learned German and French.

Alexandra, nickname “Aline” within her family, or Greek Alix, to distinguish her from her aunt and godmother, Alexandra of Denmark, at the time The Princess of Wales and husband of the future King Edward VII of the United Kingdom, had a sunny disposition and was much loved by her family. “She had one of those sweet and lovable natures that endeared her to everybody who came in touch with her,” recalled her brother, Nicholas. “She looked young and beautiful, and ever since she was a child, life looked as it had nothing but joy and happiness in store for her.”

Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich of Russia

Alexandra’s playmates were her brother Nicholas and her sister Maria, who followed her in age. Alexandra spent many holidays in Denmark visiting her paternal grandparents King Christian IX and Queen Louise of Denmark. In Denmark, Alexandra and her siblings met their Russian and British cousins in large family gatherings.

Marriage and children

When she was eighteen years old, she was married to Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich of Russia, her maternal first cousin once removed and the youngest child and sixth son of Emperor Alexander II and his first wife, Princess Marie of Hesse and by Rhine.

Grand Duke Paul’s father, Emperor Alexander II of Russia, and Princess Alexandra’s grandfather, Grand Duke Constantine were brothers.

They had become close when Grand Duke Paul spent winters in Greece due to his frequent respiratory illnesses. The Greek royal family also frequently spent holidays with the Romanov family on visits to Russia or Denmark. Their engagement was announced on November 10, 1888. The wedding took place on June 17, 1889 in St. Petersburg, at the chapel of the Winter Palace.

Grand Duchess Alexandra Georgievna of Russia and Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich of Russia,

They had two children:

Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna (1890–1958)
Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich (1891–1942)

Death

Seven months into her second pregnancy, Alexandra took a walk with her friends on the bank of the Moskva River and jumped directly into a boat that was permanently moored there, but fell as she got in. The next day, she collapsed in the middle of a ball from violent labour pains.

She gave birth to her son, Dimitri, lapsed into a fatal coma, and she died six days later in the Romanovs’ estate Ilyinskoe near Moscow. The Grand Duchess was buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral, St. Petersburg. Her grieving husband had to be restrained from throwing himself into the grave with her.

Her husband later morganatically remarried Olga Karnovich. Alexandra’s son would be involved in the murder of Grigori Rasputin, a favorite of Empress Alexandra Feodorvna, in 1916.

In 1939 during the reign of her nephew King George II of the Hellenes, the Greek government obtained permission from the Soviet government under Joseph Stalin to rebury Princess Alexandra in Greece. Her body was removed from the vault in Leningrad and transferred by a Greek ship to Athens. It was finally laid to rest near the Tatoi Palace. Alexandra’s marble tombstone over an empty tomb is still in its place in the Peter and Paul Cathedral.

The “Alexandra Maternity Hospital” (now “Alexandra General Hospital”) in Athens was later named in her memory by another nephew, King Paul; it was affiliated with the University of Athens with a special remit to research and combat postpartum maternal mortality. Alexandras Avenue in Athens was also named after her.

The Life of Princess Alexandra of Saxe-Altenburg. Conclusion.

Tags

Emperor Alexander III of Russia, Grand Duchess Alexandra Iosifovna of Russia, Grand Duchess Olga Constantinovna of Russia, Grand Duke Constantine Nikolaievich of Russia, Pavlovsk Palace, Princess Alexandra of Saxe-Altenburg

From The Emperor’s Desk: I got a new Tablet a few days earlier than expected!

Princess Alexandra of Greece and Denmark

In June 1889, Alexandra’s 18-year-old granddaughter, Princess Alexandra of Greece and Denmark, returned to Russia to marry Grand Duke Paul, who was the younger brother of Emperor Alexander III. Towards the end of the wedding celebrations, Constantine suffered a stroke. This was followed in August 1889 by a severe stroke, which left him unable to walk or speak.

Grand Duchess Alexandra Iosifovna of Russia

For the remaining three years of his life Constantine lived with his wife in her favourite palace Pavlovsk, having a wing of the building to himself. He was confined to a bath chair, and Alexandra saw to it that Constantine was denied contact with his mistress and illegitimate offspring.

Alexandra’s grandson, Christopher of Greece, wrote in his memoirs that Constantine became so frustrated with being under Alexandra’s control that he one day grabbed her by the hair and beat her with his stick. Seeing as Christopher would have only been four years old at the time of Constantine’s death, it is difficult to know the full truth of this story.

Grand Duchess Alexandra Iosifovna of Russia

Despite his illness, Constantine tried to amuse himself as best he could. His grand-nephew Cyril Vladimirovich remembered skating parties at Pavlovsk, where Constantine would watch from his sledge, and how he always “smelt of cigars”. Cyril found Alexandra a formidable woman, with her “high pitched voice….driving about in an open carriage with a kind of awning over it, which could be opened and closed like an umbrella.

“I have never seen anything quite the same anywhere else, and think that she was the only person in the world who had such an ingenious cover to her carriage”.

Grand Duchess Alexandra Iosifovna of Russia in old age

When Constantine died, in January 1892, Alexandra arranged for his mistress Anna to visit Pavlovsk and pray at Constantine’s bedside.

Eleven years later, Alexandra herself suffered a stroke in 1903, eight years before she died and she lived out her days at the Marble Palace in Saint Petersburg. She died on July 6, 1911.

My Tablet Died. Off until March 4th

My tablet died today so I won’t be able to get another one until Saturday March 4th

I will be back then

Liam.

• 

The Life of Princess Alexandra of Saxe-Altenburg. Part II.

Tags

Emperor Alexander II of Russia, Grand Duchess Alexandra Iosifovna of Russia, Grand Duchess Olga Constantinovna of Russia, Grand Duke Constantine of Russia, Princess Alexandra of Saxe-Altenburg, Queen Olga of the Hellenes

In 1867, Alexandra’s eldest daughter, Olga, married King George I of the Hellenes. She was only sixteen, and her father Grand Duke Constantine was initially reluctant for her to marry so young. In July 1868, Olga’s first child was born and was named Constantine after his grandfather. The beginning of their daughter’s family coincided with the start of the breakdown of Alexandra and Constantine’s marriage.

Although he was only forty, Constantine’s struggles and travails of the previous decade— naval and judiciary reforms, the freeing of the serfs—had prematurely aged him. As his brother Emperor Alexander II turned away from the reform that had marked his first decade on the throne, Constantine’s influence began to wane and he began to focus more on his personal life.

Princess Alexandra of Saxe-Altenburg

After twenty years of marriage he had drifted away from his wife. Constantine’s heavy workload, and the couple’s divergent political views and interests had over the years slowly torn away at their relationship. Alexandra was as conservative as her husband was liberal, and she had learned to concern herself with her own society and mysticism. Soon, Constantine turned elsewhere for sexual intimacy.

At the end of the 1860s, Constantine embarked on an affair and conceived an illegitimate daughter, Marie Condousso. In the 1880s, Marie was sent to Greece, later serving as lady in waiting to her half sister, Queen Olga. Marie eventually married a Greek banker.

Soon after the birth of Marie, Constantine began a new liaison. Around 1868, he began to pursue Anna Vasilyevna Kuznetsova, a young dancer from the St Petersburg Conservatoire. She was the illegitimate daughter of ballerina Tatyana Markyanovna Kuznetsova and actor Vasily Andreyevich Karatygin. Anna was twenty years younger than Constantine and in 1873 she gave birth to their first child. Four more would follow.

Princess Alexandra’s daughter, Queen Olga of the Hellenes

Constantine bought his mistress a large, comfortable dacha on his estate at Pavlovsk; thereby lodging his second family in close proximity to his wife Alexandra, whom he now referred to as his “government–issue wife”.

By this act Constantine gave ammunition to his political enemies, with Russian society reacting to the scandal by siding with his suffering wife, Alexandra, who tried to bear his infidelity with dignity.

In 1874, a fresh scandal erupted when it was discovered that Alexandra and Constantine’s eldest son, Grand Duke Nicholas Konstantinovich, who had lived a dissipated life and had revolutionary ideas, had stolen three valuable diamonds from an icon in Alexandra’s private bedroom, aided by his mistress, an American courtesan.

Alexandra’s twenty-four-year-old son was found guilty, declared insane, and banished for life to Central Asia. Alexandra suffered another bitter blow when in 1879, her youngest son, Vyacheslav, died unexpectedly from a brain haemorrhage.

History of the Kingdom of East Francia: King of Germany

Tags

Conrad of Franconia, Emperor of the Romans, Henry the Fowler, Holy Roman Emperor, King of the Romans, Kingdom of East Francia, Kingdom of Germany, Otto the Great

With Otto I, King of East Francia crowned as Emperor of the Romans by Pope John XII on February 2, 962 thus begins what many historians (such as myself) site as the actual start of the Holy Roman Empire.

Also, many historians also count Otto I the Great as the last King of East Francia. Since Conrad of Franconia took the throne of East Francia and with his successors Heinrich I the Fowler and Otto the Great the Kingdom of East Francia transformed from a Frankish Kingdom to that of a Germanic Kingdom.

Any firm distinction between the kingdoms of Eastern Francia and the Kingdom of Germany is to some extent the product of later retrospection. It is impossible to base this distinction on primary sources, as the name Eastern Francia for the kingdom remains in use long after the name Kingdom of Germany comes into use.

Under Arnulf of Carinthia the terminology Rex Francorum Orientalium was largely dropped and the kingdom, when it was referred to by name, was simply Francia. When it was necessary, as in the Treaty of Bonn (921) with the West Franks, the “eastern” qualifier appeared once more. Heinrich I refers to himself as rex Francorum orientalium, “King of the East Franks”, in the treaty.

With Otto the Great marking the end of the Kingdom of East Francia, his son and successor Otto II as Emperor and King is often cited by historians as the start of the Kingdom of Germany or German Kingdom. In Latin: Regnum Teutonicorum “kingdom of the Germans”, Regnum Teutonicum “German kingdom”, regnum Alamanie “kingdom of Germany”.

By the 12th century, the historian Otto of Freising, in using the Carolingian terminology, had to explain that the “eastern kingdom of the Franks” (orientale Francorum regnum) was “now called the kingdom of the Germans” (regnum Teutonicorum).

Therefore, the Kingdom of East Francia didn’t cease to exist the way the Kingdom was described had changed.

Like medieval England and medieval France, (Western Francia which evolved into the Kingdom of France) medieval Germany consolidated from a conglomerate of smaller tribes, nations or polities by the High Middle Ages.

The term rex teutonicorum (“king of the Germans”) first came into use in Italy around the year 1000. It was popularized by the chancery of Pope Gregory VII during the Investiture Controversy (late 11th century), perhaps as a polemical tool against Emperor Heinrich IV.

In the twelfth century, in order to stress the imperial and transnational character of their office, the Emperors began to employ the title rex Romanorum (king of the Romans) on their election.

In the next section I will discuss in more detail the transformation of the usage of the title King of Germany to that of King of the Romans.

The Life of King Frederik IV of Denmark and Norway. Part I.

Tags

Absolute Monarch, Alliance of Kings, August II of Poland, Great Northern War, King Carl XII of Sweden, King Christian V of Denmark and Norway, King Frederik III of Denmark and Norway, King Frederik IV of Denmark and Norway, King Friedrich I in Prussia, Venice

Frederik IV (October 11, 1671 – October 12, 1730) was King of Denmark and Norway from 1699 until his death. Frederik was the son of Christian V of Denmark-Norway and his wife Charlotte Amalie of Hesse-Cassel. Her parents were Wilhelm VI, Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel and Hedwig Sophia of Brandenburg.

The newborn Prince was baptized the same evening with the name Frederik by the royal confessional Hans Leth. His grandfather King Frederik III had died a year and a half before he was born, and as the eldest son of the reigning King Christian V of Denmark and Norway he was thus Crown Prince from birth. At the age of 18, he was given a seat on the Council of State as the heir apparent to the throne.

King Frederik IV of Denmark and Norway

The reason Prince Frederik was Crown Prince from birth was due to the actions of his grandfather. Prior to the reign of his grandfather, King Frederik III, Denmark had been an elective monarchy. In 1660 King Frederik III made use of his popularity by converting the elective monarchy into an absolute and hereditary monarchy during the Revolution of 1660.

As Crown Prince, Frederik broadened his education by travelling in Europe, led by his chamberlain Ditlev Wibe. He was particularly impressed by the architecture in Italy and, on his return to Denmark, asked his father, Christian V, for permission to build a summer palace on Solbjerg, as the hill in Valby was then known, the future site of Frederiksberg Palace. The one-story building, probably designed by Ernst Brandenburger, was completed in 1703.

His father, King Christian V of Denmark and Norway, died on August 25, 1699 from the after-effects of a hunting accident and was interred in Roskilde Cathedral. His son and heir automatically became King Frederik IV of Denmark and Norway.

Frederik IV, having twice visited Italy, had two pleasure palaces built in the Italian baroque style: Frederiksberg Palace that was extended during his reign, when it was converted into a three-storey H-shaped building, and was completed in 1709 by Johan Conrad Ernst, giving the palace a true Italian Baroque appearance and Fredensborg Palace, both considered monuments to the conclusion of the Great Northern War.

He maintained weekly audiences where anyone could attend and deliver letters with complaints or projects.

Venetian journey

King Frederik IV holds a memorable place in the social history of the city of Venice for a visit he made during the winter of 1708–09. The king stayed in the city with an entourage of at least 70 people, formally incognito as Count of Oldenburg, not to be unknown, but to avoid the cumbersome and more costly etiquette of a royal visit. During his nine week stay, the king was a frequent guest at operas and comedies and a generous buyer of Venetian glass.

On his return from Venice the King led political negotiations with the King August II of Poland (Elector of Saxony) and King Friedrich I in Prussia (Elector of Brandenburg) about the impending plans of war against Sweden.

The Alliance of Kings: King Frederik IV of Denmark and Norway (right) King August II of Poland (Elector of Saxony) (left) and King Friedrich I in Prussia (Elector of Brandenburg) (center)

For much of Frederick IV’s reign Denmark-Norway was engaged in the Great Northern War (1700–1721) against Sweden. In spite of the conclusion of the Peace of Travendal in 1700, there was soon a Swedish invasion and threats from Europe’s western naval powers.

In 1709 Denmark again entered the war encouraged by the Swedish defeat at Poltava. Frederik IV commanded the Danish troops at the Battle of Gadebusch in 1712. Although Denmark-Norway emerged on the victorious side, she failed to reconquer lost possessions in southern Sweden.

The most important result was the destruction of the pro-Swedish Duchy of Holstein-Gottorp, which re-established Denmark’s domination in Schleswig-Holstein. Between 1703 and 1711, Frederick send military units in Hungary and supported Austria in the Rákóczi’s War of Independence. The Danish regiments fought against the Kuruc army and French auxiliaries (Battle of Zsibó).

Much of the king’s life was spent in strife with kinsmen. Two of his first cousins, King Carl XII of Sweden and Friedrich IV, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp (the three men were the grandsons of Frederik III of Denmark), had waged war upon his father jointly.

Initially defeated by the Swedes and forced to recognize the independence of Holstein-Gottorp, Frederik IV finally drove the next duke of Holstein-Gottorp, Duke Charles Friedrich (who was Frederik IV’s first cousin once removed) out of Schleswig in 1713, and avoided the revenge contemplated by Charles Friedrich’s mother-in-law, Empress Catherine I of Russia.

Domestic rule

King Frederik IV of Denmark and Norway

Frederick’s most important domestic reform was the abolition in 1702 of the so-called vornedskab, a kind of serfdom which had fallen on the peasants of Zealand in the Late Middle Ages. His efforts were largely in vain because of the introduction in 1733 of adscription (stavnsbånd), a law that forced peasants to remain in their home regions, and by which the peasantry was subjected to both the local nobility and the army.

During Frederik IV rule Copenhagen was struck by two disasters: the plague of 1711, and the great fire of October 1728, which destroyed most of the medieval capital. Although the king had been persuaded by astronomer Ole Rømer (1644–1710) to introduce the Gregorian calendar in Denmark-Norway in 1700, the astronomer’s observations and calculations were among the treasures lost to the fire.

February 21, 1613: Michael Romanov is elected Tsar of Russia

Tags

Anastasia Romanov, Election, Eudoxia Streshneva, King Carl IX of Sweden. Archduke Maximilian III of Further Austria, Michael Romanov, Princess Maria Vladimirovna Dolgorukova, Time of Troubles, Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible, Tsar Michael of Russia

Michael I (July 21, 1596 – July 23, 1645) became the first Russian tsar of the House of Romanov after the Zemskiy Sobor of 1613 elected him to rule the Tsardom of Russia.

Michael was the son of Feodor Nikitich Romanov (later known as Patriarch Filaret) and of Xenia Shestova (later known as “the great nun” Martha). He was also a first cousin once removed of the last Rurikid Tsar Feodor I through his great-aunt Anastasia Romanovna, who was the mother of Feodor I, and through marriage, a great-nephew in-law with Tsar Ivan IV of Russia.

Michael’s grandfather, Nikita, was brother to the first Russian Tsaritsa Anastasia Romanov and a central advisor to Ivan IV the Terrible. As a young boy, Michael and his mother had been exiled to Beloozero in 1600. This was a result of the recently elected Tsar Boris Godunov, in 1598, falsely accusing his father, Feodor, of treason. This may have been partly because Feodor had married Ksenia Shestova against Boris’s wishes.

Election

Michael was eventually chosen for the throne of Muscovy due to his father’s martyr-like captivity in Polish detention, as the patriotic mood swept the Russian elite since the expulsion of the Poles during the Time of Troubles.

Michael’s youth also contributed to his election as he was seen easy to be manipulated. On February 21, 1613, 700 delegates reached a consensus for Michael to be chosen as a compromise candidate as Tsar of Russia by the Zemsky Sobor of 1613.

The delegates of the council did not discover the young Tsar and his mother at the Ipatiev Monastery near Kostroma until March 24. He had been chosen after several other options had been removed, including Polish Prince Vladislav, Austrian Archduke Maximilian III of Further Austria and the Swedish Prince Carl Philip, the second surviving son of King Carl IX of Sweden and his second spouse, Duchess Christina of Holstein-Gottorp.

Initially, his mother Martha protested, believing and stating that her son was too young and tender for so difficult an office, and in such a troublesome time.

According to Dunning, “The sixteen-year-old boy did not impress the boyars at all; he was poorly educated and not particularly intelligent. Nonetheless, those great lords consoled themselves with the knowledge that Trubetskoi would not become tsar and that Mikhail’s ambitious and highly intelligent father, Filaret, was still in Polish captivity.

One of the boyars allegedly said at the time, ‘Let us have Misha Romanov for he is young and not yet wise; he will suit our purposes.’ In fact, under the strong influence of reactionary boyars, even in preparation for his coronation, the deeply conservative new tsar revealed his true feelings about his subjects by snubbing many patriots simply because they were commoners.”

The tsar’s family relationship with False Dmitry I, False Dmitry II, and Prince Wladyslaw was covered up, even the two years Mikhail spent in the Polish-occupied Kremlin with his collaborator uncle Ivan Romanov.

Michael’s election and accession to the throne form the basis of the Ivan Susanin legend, which Russian composer Mikhail Glinka dramatized in his opera A Life for the Tsar.

In so dilapidated a condition was the capital at this time that Michael had to wait for several weeks at the Troitsa monastery, 75 miles (121 km) off, before decent accommodation could be provided for him at Moscow.

He was crowned on July 21, 1613, on his seventeenth birthday. The first task of the new tsar was to clear the land of the countries occupying it. Sweden and Poland were then dealt with respectively by the peace of Stolbovo (February 17, 1617) and the Truce of Deulino (December 1, 1618).

Sixteen-year-old Michael being offered the crown at the Ipatiev Monastery in 1613, painting by Grigory Ugryumov

His accession marked the end of the Time of Troubles.
Michael’s reign saw the greatest territorial expansion in Russian history. During his reign, the conquest of Siberia continued, largely accomplished by the Cossacks and financed by the Stroganov merchant family. Russia had extended from the vicinity of the Ural Mountains to the Pacific Ocean by the end of Michael’s reign.

Michael was married off to Princess Maria Vladimirovna Dolgorukova in 1624, but she became ill, and died in early 1625, only four months after the marriage. In 1626, he married Eudoxia Streshneva (1608–1645), who bore him 10 children, of whom four reached adulthood: the future Tsar Alexis and the Tsarevnas Irina, Anna, and Tatyana.

Michael’s failure to wed his eldest daughter, Irina, with Count Valdemar Christian of Schleswig-Holstein, a morganatic son of King Christian IV of Denmark, in consequence of the refusal of the latter to accept Orthodoxy, so deeply afflicted him as to contribute to bringing about his death. Tsar Michael fell ill in April 1645, with scurvy, dropsy, and probably depression. His doctors prescribed purgatives which did not improve his condition; and after fainting in church on July 21, he died on July 23, 1645.

February 18, 1516: Birth of Mary I, Queen of England and Ireland

Tags

Francis I of France, Infanta Catherine of Aragon, jure uxoris, King Felipe II of Spain, King Henry VIII of England, Queen Mary I of England and Ireland, Queen Mary’s Marriage Act

From the Emperor’s Desk: I will not do a complete biography of Queen Mary on the anniversary of her birth, instead I will focus on how she came to marry King Felipe II of Spain.

Mary was born on February 18, 1516 at the Palace of Placentia in Greenwich, England. She was the only child of King Henry VIII and his first wife, Infanta Catherine of Aragon, to survive infancy. Her mother had suffered many miscarriages and stillbirths. Before Mary’s birth, four previous pregnancies had resulted in a stillborn daughter and three short-lived or stillborn sons, including Henry, Duke of Cornwall.

Throughout Mary’s childhood, Henry negotiated potential future marriages for her. When she was only two years old, Mary was promised to François, Dauphin of France, the infant son of King François I, but the contract was repudiated after three years.

In 1522, at the age of six, she was instead contracted to marry her 22-year-old cousin Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (Carlos I of Spain). However, Charles broke off the engagement within a few years with Henry’s agreement.

Cardinal Wolsey, Henry’s chief adviser, then resumed marriage negotiations with the French, and Henry suggested that Mary marry the French king François I, himself who was eager for an alliance with England. A marriage treaty was signed which provided that Mary marry either François I or his second son Henri, Duke of Orléans, but Wolsey secured an alliance with France without the marriage.

In 1528, Wolsey’s agent Thomas Magnus discussed the idea of her marriage to her cousin James V of Scotland with the Scottish diplomat Adam Otterburn. According to the Venetian Mario Savorgnano, by this time Mary was developing into a pretty, well-proportioned young lady with a fine complexion.

When aged 37, Mary and was Queen she turned her attention to finding a husband and producing an heir, which would prevent the Protestant Elizabeth (still next-in-line under the terms of Henry VIII’s will and the Act of Succession of 1544) from succeeding to the throne.

Edward Courtenay and Reginald Pole were both mentioned as prospective suitors, but her cousin Emperor Charles V suggested she marry his only legitimate son, Infante Felipe of Spain.

Infante Felipe’s first wife was his double first cousin, Infanta Maria Manuela of Portugal. She was a daughter of Felipe’s maternal uncle, King João III of Portugal, and paternal aunt, Archduchess Catherine of Austria. They were married at Salamanca on November 12, 1543. The marriage produced one son in 1545, after which Maria Manuela died four days later due to haemorrhage.

Lord Chancellor Gardiner and the English House of Commons unsuccessfully petitioned Mary to consider marrying an Englishman, fearing that England would be relegated to a dependency of the Habsburgs.

The marriage was unpopular with the English; Gardiner and his allies opposed it on the basis of patriotism, while Protestants were motivated by a fear of Catholicism.

When Mary insisted on marrying Felipe, insurrections broke out. Thomas Wyatt the Younger led a force from Kent to depose Mary in favour of Elizabeth, as part of a wider conspiracy now known as Wyatt’s rebellion, which also involved the Duke of Suffolk, Lady Jane’s father.

Mary declared publicly that she would summon Parliament to discuss the marriage and if Parliament decided that the marriage was not to the kingdom’s advantage, she would refrain from pursuing it.

On reaching London, Wyatt was defeated and captured. Wyatt, the Duke of Suffolk, Lady Jane Grey, and her husband Guildford Dudley were executed. Lady Jane Grey was a pawn in trying to usurp the throne at the beginning of Mary’s reign.

Courtenay, who was implicated in the plot, was imprisoned and then exiled. Princess Elizabeth, though protesting her innocence in the Wyatt affair, was imprisoned in the Tower of London for two months, then put under house arrest at Woodstock Palace.

Queen Mary I of England was—excluding the brief, disputed reigns of the Empress Matilda and Lady Jane Grey—England’s first queen regnant. Further, under the English common law doctrine of jure uxoris, the property and titles belonging to a woman became her husband’s upon marriage, and it was feared that any man she married would thereby become King of England in fact and name.

While Mary’s grandparents King Fernando II and Queen Isabella I had retained sovereignty of their respective realms during their marriage, there was no precedent to follow in England.

Under the terms of Queen Mary’s Marriage Act, Felipe was to be styled “King of England”, all official documents (including Acts of Parliament) were to be dated with both their names, and Parliament was to be called under the joint authority of the couple, for Mary’s lifetime only.

England would not be obliged to provide military support to Felipe’s father in any war, and Felipe could not act without his wife’s consent or appoint foreigners to office in England.

Felipe was unhappy with these conditions but ready to agree for the sake of securing the marriage. He had no amorous feelings for Mary and sought the marriage for its political and strategic gains; his aide Ruy Gómez de Silva wrote to a correspondent in Brussels, “the marriage was concluded for no fleshly consideration, but in order to remedy the disorders of this kingdom and to preserve the Low Countries.”

To elevate his son to Mary’s rank, Emperor Charles V ceded to Felipe the Crown of Naples as well as his claim to the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

Queen Mary thus became Queen of Naples and titular Queen of Jerusalem upon marriage. Their wedding at Winchester Cathedral on July 25, 1554 took place just two days after their first meeting. Felipe could not speak English, and so they spoke a mixture of Spanish, French, and Latin.