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European Royal History Blog

From the Emperor’s Desk:

Hello 👋 everyone!

I hope everyone is doing well today.

I will be taking some time off until Monday April 3rd.

I have reached my limit with media storage and i cannot upload any more pictures.

My options are to upgrade this site from Free to Pro but unfortunately im disabled and i cannot afford to upgrade at this time.

My other options are to move this blog to another platform or just continue here without any pictures.

I’m leaning towards just continuing to post here without any pictures until I can upgrade my blog.

I would appreciate any feedback!

I also want to thank you for your continued support!

Sincerely,

Liam the Grateful. 👑

March 28, 1727: Birth of Maximilian III Joseph, Elector of Bavaria

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Elector Charles Theodore of the Palatine, Elector Friedrich August II of Saxony, Elector Maximilian III Joseph of Bavaria, Emperor Charles VII, King Augustus III of Polan, Maria Anna of Saxony, War of the Bavarian Succession, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Maximilian III Joseph, “the much beloved” (March 28, 1727 – December 30, 1777), was a Prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire and Duke of Bavaria from 1745 to 1777.

Born in Munich, Maximilian was the eldest son of Holy Roman Emperor Charles VII (Elector Charles Albrecht of Bavaria) and his wife, Archduchess Maria Amalia of Austria, daughter of Holy Roman Emperor Joseph I and his wife Wilhelmine Amalia of Brunswick-Lüneburg.

Upon his father’s death in January 1745, he inherited a country in the process of being invaded by Austrian armies as part of the War of the Austrian Succession. The 18-year-old Maximilian Joseph wavered between the Peace-party, led by his mother Empress Maria Amalia and Army Commander Friedrich Heinrich von Seckendorff and the War-party, led by Foreign Minister General Ignaz Count of Törring and the French envoy Chavigny.

After the decisive defeat in the Battle of Pfaffenhofen on April 15, Maximilian Joseph quickly abandoned his father’s imperial pretenses as a future Emperor and made peace with Archduchess Maria Theresa (his mother’s first cousin and future Empress-Consort) in the Treaty of Füssen, in which he agreed to support her husband, Grand Duke Franz Stefan of Tuscany, in the upcoming imperial election.

In 1747, Maximilian Joseph married his first cousin, Maria Anna of Saxony, daughter of King Augustus III of Poland (Elector Friedrich August II of Saxony) and his wife Archduchess Maria Josepha of Austria, the eldest child of Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor and Princess Wilhelmina Amalia of Brunswick-Lüneburg. The marriage remained childless.

During the Seven Years’ War Bavarian forces then fought on the Habsburg side. Maximilian Joseph’s sister Maria Josepha of Bavaria was married in 1765 to Empress Maria Theresa’s son, future Emperor Joseph II. But long-term weakening of Prussia was not in the Bavarian interest, as that country offered the only counterweight to the Habsburg monarchy.

Maximilian Joseph tried, as far as possible, to keep Bavaria out of the wars. Apart from militia troops, he sent only a small force of 4,000 men to join the Austrian army. In 1758/1759 (only a year and half into the war), he withdrew Bavarian auxiliary troops from Austrian service. Together with the Wittelsbach Elector Charles Theodore of the Palatinate he enforced the neutrality of the Empire during the conflict.

Maximilian Joseph was a progressive and enlightened ruler who did much to improve the development of his country. He encouraged agriculture, industry, and exploitation of the mineral wealth of the country, and abolished the Jesuit censorship of the press. In 1747 the Nymphenburg Porcelain Factory was established, while the Codex Maximilianeus bavaricus civilis was written in 1756.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was received by Maximilian III Joseph, who was like his sister Maria Antonia of Bavaria skilled in music and composed, but due to a need for strict frugality no post could be offered. In 1775 La finta giardiniera, an Italian opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, received its first performance at the Salvatortheater in Munich.

In 1770 Maximilian III Joseph established the precursor of the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich.

In 1771 the elector regulated general school attendance. In December 1777 Maximilian Joseph rode in his carriage through Munich; on the ride, as he passed one of the tower clocks, the mechanism broke, and the clock struck 77 times. Commenting to the passengers, Maximilian Joseph decided this was an omen, and that his years had run out. Within days, he was stricken with a strange disease. None of his 15 doctors could diagnose it, but by Christmas, it had become clear that it was a particularly virulent strain of smallpox, called “purple small pox” at the time.

By the last day of the month he was dead without leaving an heir. Maximilian III Joseph is buried in the crypt of the Theatinerkirche in Munich.

Succession

As the last of the junior branch of the Wittelsbach dynasty which derived from Ludwig IV, Holy Roman Emperor and had ruled Bavaria since early 14th century, Maximilian III Joseph’s death led to a succession dispute and the brief War of the Bavarian Succession. He was succeeded by his (in the male line) 12th cousin, once removed, the Elector Charles Theodore of the Palatine from the senior branch of the Wittelsbach dynasty.

Charles Theodore did not immediately take up his new title. He had severall, mistresses and many illegitimate children. However, these children could inherit neither the Electorate of Bavaria nor that of the Elector Palatine; Charles Theodore needed territory that he could bequeath to his illegitimate children. Charles Theodore also dreamed of resurrecting the Burgundian Empire of the Middle Ages.

On January 3, 1778, shortly after the death of Maximilian III Joseph, Charles Theodore signed an agreement with Emperor Joseph II to exchange southern Bavaria for part of the Austrian Netherlands.

The plan was strongly opposed by Maria Anna of Saxony, the widow of Maximilian III Joseph, and Charles Theodore’s cousin Charles II August, Duke of Zweibrücken, the head of the House of Palatinate-Birkenfeld and next heir of Bavaria and the Palatinate. They were supported by Friedrich II of Prussia, and most of the German minor states.

The ensuing diplomatic crisis led to the War of the Bavarian Succession, which was ended by the Peace of Teschen (1779). Charles Theodore accepted the Bavarian succession, but agreed that his illegitimate descendants could not inherit Bavaria. Austria acquired the Innviertel, a part of Bavaria in the basin of the Inn River.

Maximilian’s widow Maria Anna of Saxony and Maximilian’s sister Duchess Maria Antonia of Bavaria as well as Maria Anna of Palatinate-Sulzbach, the widow of the former Bavarian Crown Prince Duke Clement Franz of Bavaria negotiated with Max’s reluctant heir and intervened together with King Friedrich II of Prussia and the new elector’s supposed successor, Charles II August, Duke of Zweibrücken, to secure Bavaria’s independence from Austria.

March 26, 1687: Birth of Sophia Dorothea of Hanover, Queen in Prussia and Electress of Brandenburg. Part II.

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Clement Affair, Crown Prince Friedrich of Prussia, Duke Leopold I of Anhalt-Dessau, Friedrich von Grumbkow, King Friedrich II of Prussia, King Friedrich Wilhelm I in Prussia, Sophia Dorothea of Hanover, Wilhelmine of Prussia

Clement Affair

Upon the illness of the king in Brandenburg during the campaign of 1719, he sent for Sophia Dorothea and entrusted her with his will, cautioning secrecy. Within the document, she was named regent during the minority of their son, with Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor, and King George I of Great Britain as guardians to the Crown Prince. The king’s favorites, military general Friedrich von Grumbkow and Duke Leopold I of Anhalt-Dessau, offered the queen’s favorite Madame de Blaspiel a bribe if she procured information for them and influenced the queen in their favor; she in turn informed the queen, who informed the king, who summoned von Grumbkow and the Prince and told them to return to Berlin.

They then tasked Madame de Blaspiel’s lover, Count de Manteufel, the Saxon ambassador, to acquire the document or at least find out its meaning: the queen did give de Blaspiel the document, and its contents were revealed to Grumbkow and Anhalt. Grumbkow and Anhalt, now wishing to lessen the queen’s influence after learning of the will appointing her regent, unsuccessfully tried to accuse her before the king of having borrowed money and pawning a pair of earrings given to her by the king to pay her gambling debts. The queen countered by accusing Grumbkow of plotting against her.

Concurrently, the Clement Affair took place, in which the alleged Hungarian nobleman Clement gained access to the king by use of false letters and convinced him that the courts of Vienna and Dresden were orchestrating a plot to depose him in favor of the crown prince who, under the guardianship of the Emperor, the queen, Grumbkow, and Arnhalt, was to then be raised a Catholic. All were accused of having been implicated in the plot before Clement was exposed as a con artist and summarily executed.

Friedrich Wilhelm accused her of having damaged his relationship with his children, and therefore banned them from seeing her without his presence. When the king banned the queen from communicating with her son, she corresponded with him through her daughter Wilhelmine. When Friedrich Wilhelm refused to let her see her eldest children, she invited them to her rooms in secrecy; on at least one occasion, Crown Prince Friedrich and Wilhelmine were forced to hide in the furniture in her rooms when Friedrich Wilhelm came to her room unexpectedly while they were there.

At the same time, the queen’s favorite, Madame de Ramen, acted as a spy for the king, causing their relationship to deteriorate sharply. Her children were terrorized and frequently beaten by Friedrich Wilhelm, who may have suffered from porphyria. During the latter years of the king’s life, he was often seized by fits of violence during which he hit people with his cane and threw things at his children. This was a difficult situation for his family, as he often forced them to attend to him, refusing to let them leave from 9 AM until bedtime.

Anglo-Prussian marriage alliance

Sophia Dorothea held a longtime ambition to arrange a double marriage of her eldest son, Crown Prince Friedrich, to Princess Amelia of Great Britain, and her eldest daughter Wilhelmine to Frederick Louis, future Prince of Wales. This was a project that had first been raised during the children’s infancy and would result in a strong alliance between Prussia and Great Britain.

Her plan was opposed by the king’s favorites Grumbkow and Anhalt, who wished to arrange a marriage between Wilhelmine and Anhalt’s nephew, Friedrich Wilhelm, Margrave of Brandenburg-Schwedt (the King’s first cousin). He was next in line to inherit the throne after the Crown Prince, whose health was delicate. If he succeeded, Anhalt and Grumbkow hoped to come into a position of power.

In 1723, the queen convinced the king to give his consent to the Prussian-British marriage alliance. In October of that year, they hosted a visit by King George I of Great Britain in Berlin, who inspected Wilhelmine and agreed to the double marriage alliance if it was approved by Parliament.

One day, Friedrich Wilhelm went to visit George I in Goehr. Queen Sophia Dorothea did not accompany him, because she gave birth unexpectedly just before they were to leave. Sophia had been unaware of her pregnancy, leading to a rumor that she had tried to hide it.

This caused Friedrich Wilhelm to suspect her of adultery. Upon his return, he had to be prevented from beating her by her chief lady-in-waiting, Sophie de Kameke, who held his arm and told him “if he had only come there to kill his wife, he had better have kept away.” The king questioned the physician Stahl, his regimental surgeon Holzendorf, and de Kameke about the queen’s suspected adultery, upon which de Kameke told him that “if he were not her king she would strangle him on the spot” for his accusation, which resulted in him making an apology to the queen and dismissing the affair.

In 1729, negotiations for the British marriage alliance were disrupted by the activities of Frederick William’s army recruiters. Friedrich Wilhelm wanted tall soldiers for his army; his agents went all over Germany paying or even kidnapping such men. They snatched men from Hanover, whose ruler was also the king of Great Britain. This caused diplomatic incidents, and Friedrich Wilhelm stopped all negotiations. But the queen renewed them. When Grumbkow revealed her independent negotiations to the king, the king stated that he would marry Wilhelmine to either a prince of Schwedt or Weissenfels, and that Sophia could consent or be imprisoned for life.

She was advised by Borck to suggest Prince Friedrich of Bayreuth as an alternative, which she did. Then she wrote to the Queen Caroline of Great Britain, claiming illness. The reply was unsatisfactory, and the king learned of her pretense. Friedrich Wilhelm beat Wilhelmine in Sophia’s presence, and Sophia agreed to drop the British marriage, provided that Wilhelmine was married to Frederick of Bayreuth, not the Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels. She fell genuinely ill shortly afterward, and successfully asked him to reconcile with their eldest son and daughter, and afterwards beat them only in private.

The Life of Langrave Friedrich II of Hesse-Cassel

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Archbishop-Elector of Cologne, Clemens August of Bavaria, Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle, Frederick I of Sweden, Friedrich II of Hesse-Cassel, King George II of Great Britain, Margravine Philippine Brandenburg-Schwedt, Princess Mary of Great Britain

Friedrich II of Hesse-Cassel (August 14, 1720 – October 31, 1785) was Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel from 1760 to 1785. He ruled as an enlightened despot, and raised money by renting soldiers (called “Hessians”) to Great Britain to help fight the American Revolutionary War. He combined Enlightenment ideas with Christian values, cameralist plans for central control of the economy, and a militaristic approach toward international diplomacy.

Early life

Friedrich was born at Cassel in Hesse, the son of Wilhelm VIII, Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel and his wife Dorothea Wilhelmine of Saxe-Zeitz. His paternal grandfather was Charles I, Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel, and his paternal uncle was King Frederick I of Sweden (Friedrich I, Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel). His education was initially entrusted to Colonel August Moritz von Donop and then from 1726 to 1733 to the Swiss theologian and philosopher, Jean-Pierre de Crousaz.

Marriages and Children

On May 8, 1740, by proxy in London, and on June 28, 1740 in person in Cassel, Friedrich married Princess Mary, fourth daughter of King George II of Great Britain, Elector of Hanover and Caroline of Brandenburg-Ansbach, daughter of Johann Friedrich, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach, and his second wife, Princess Eleonore Erdmuthe of Saxe-Eisenach.

They had four sons:

1. Wilhelm (December 25, 1741 – July 1, 1742)
2. William I, Elector of Hesse (June 3, 1743 – February 27, 1821)
3. Charles (December 19, 1744 – August 1836), father of Princess Louise Caroline of Hesse-Cassel and grandfather of King Christian IX of Denmark.
4. Friedrich (September 11, 1747 – May 20, 1837), father of Prince Wilhelm of Hesse-Cassel and grandfather of Louise of Hesse-Cassel, Queen of Denmark as the wife of King Christian IX of Denmark.

In December 1745, Friedrich landed in Scotland with 6000 Hessian troops to support his father-in-law, George II of Great Britain, in dealing with the Jacobite rising. Although he supported the “Protestant succession” in Great Britain on this occasion, Friedrich later converted from Calvinism to Catholicism.

In February 1749, Friedrich and his father visited the Archbishop-Elector of Cologne, Prince Clemens August of Bavaria, who received Friedrich into the Catholic Church.

Despite his exertions in support of her father, Friedrich’s marriage with the British princess was not a happy one. The couple were living apart from each other by 1747, and were formally separated in 1755. Mary moved to Denmark the following year to care for the children of her late sister Louise of Great Britain, who had died in 1751.

All three of the couple’s surviving sons moved with Mary to Denmark. Two of them, including Friedrich’s heir Wilhelm, later married Danish princesses, their first cousins. The younger sons lived permanently in Denmark, rising to high office in the court of their cousin; only Wilhelm returned to the Holy Roman Empire upon inheriting the principality of Hanau. He also later succeeded Friedrich II as Landgrave Wilhelm VIII of Hesse-Cassel.

Mary died in 1772, and Friedrich lost little time in marrying again. On January 10, 1773, at Berlin, he married Margravine Philippine Brandenburg-Schwedt daughter of Friedrich Wilhelm, Margrave of Brandenburg-Schwedt and Sophia Dorothea of Prussia. No children were born of this marriage.

Ruler

After being formally separated from his wife in 1755, Friedrich entered active service in the Prussian military. In 1760, he succeeded his father as Landgrave Friedrich II of Hesse-Cassel. Despite Friedrich’s Catholicism, the principality remained Calvinist, and Friedrich’s children were raised as Protestants in Denmark.

During the 17th and 18th centuries, it was a fairly widespread practice for smaller principalities to rent out troops to other princes. However, the practise was carried to excess in Hesse-Cassel, which maintained 7% of its entire population under arms throughout the eighteenth century.

Landgrave Friedrich II hired out so many troops to his nephew, King George III of Great Britain, for use in the American War of Independence, that “Hessian” has become an American term for all German soldiers deployed by the British in the War. Friedrich used the revenue to finance his patronage of the arts and his opulent lifestyle. The architect Simon Louis du Ry transformed for Friedrich II the town of Cassel into a modern capital.

Landgrave Friedrich II died in 1785 at Castle Weißenstein, Cassel. He was succeeded by his eldest surviving son, Wilhelm who became Wilhelm IX, Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel. He was said to have inherited one of the largest fortunes in Europe at the time.

In 1803, Landgrave Wilhelm IX was created The Prince-Elector of Hesse. After the Napoleonic Wars Several other prince-electors of the Holy Roman Empire had been recognized as kings at the Congress of Vienna (1815), such as Bavaria, Württemberg and Saxony, Wilhelm attempted to join them by declaring himself King of the Chatti.

However, the European powers refused to recognize this title at the Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle (1818) and instead granted him the title Grand Duke of Hesse and the style of “Royal Highness.” Deeming the title of Prince-Elector to be superior in dignity to that of Grand Duke, Wilhelm chose to remain an Elector, even though there was no longer a Holy Roman Emperor to elect. Hesse-Cassel would remain an Electorate until it was annexed by Prussia in 1866.

Princess Stephanie, the Hereditary Grand Duchess of Luxembourg has safely delivered a healthy baby boy

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Hereditary Prince Guillaume of Luxembourg, Prince Charles of Luxembourg, Prince François of Luxembourg, Princess Stephanie, the Hereditary Grand Duchess of Luxembourg

The Grand Ducal house of Luxembourg announced that Princess Stephanie, the Hereditary Grand Duchess of Luxembourg has safely delivered a healthy baby boy at 10:04AM today, March 27, at the Grand Duchess Charlotte Maternity Hospital in Luxembourg.

The infant will be named François Henri Luis Marie Guillaume and will be known as Prince François of Luxembourg. He is third in the line of succession to the Luxembourgian throne behind his father, Prince Guillaume, and older brother, Prince Charles. Congratulations! 🎉👏🍼

Was He A Usurper? King Richard III. Part III

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Bishop of Bath, Bishop of Bath and Wells, Bishop Robert Stillington, Eleanor Butler, Elizabeth Woodville, King Edward V of England, King Richard III of England, Lady Eleanor Talbot, Lord Protector of England, Titulus Regis

Shortly after the death of King Edward IV, Bishop Robert Stillington, the Bishop of Bath and Wells, is said to have informed Richard that Edward IV’s marriage to Elizabeth Woodville was invalid because of Edward’s earlier union with Eleanor Butler, making Edward V and his siblings illegitimate.

Bishop Stillington asserted Eleanor Butler had had a legal precontract of marriage to Edward, which invalidated the king’s later marriage to Elizabeth Woodville. According to Richard Duke of Gloucester, this meant that he, rather than Edward’s sons, was the true heir to the throne.

A precontract is a legal contract that precedes another; in particular it can refer to an existing promise of marriage with another. Such a precontract would legally nullify any later marriages into which either party entered. The practice was common in the Middle Ages, and the allegation of a precontract was the most common means of dissolving a marriage by the medieval ecclesiastical courts.

The identity of Stillington was known only through the memoirs of French diplomat Philippe de Commines. On June 22, a sermon was preached outside Old St. Paul’s Cathedral by Ralph Shaa, declaring Edward IV’s children bastards and Richard the rightful king. Shortly after, the citizens of London, both nobles and commons, convened and drew up a petition asking Richard to assume the throne.

Richard accepted the throne on June 26 and was crowned at Westminster Abbey on July 6. Richard then persuaded Parliament to pass an act, Titulus Regius, which debarred Edward V from the throne and proclaimed him as King Richard III. The Titulus Regius was confirmed by Parliament in January. Also at a meeting held on January 23, 1484 the former king’s marriage was declared illegal.

The princes, who were still lodged in the royal residence of the Tower of London at the time of Richard’s coronation, disappeared from sight after the summer of 1483. Although after his death Richard III was accused of having Edward and his brother killed, notably by More and in Shakespeare’s play, the facts surrounding their disappearance remain unknown. Other culprits have been suggested, including Buckingham and even Henry VII, although Richard remains a suspect.

After the coronation ceremony, Richard and Anne set out on a royal progress to meet their subjects. During this journey through the country, the king and queen endowed King’s College and Queens’ College at Cambridge University, and made grants to the church. Still feeling a strong bond with his northern estates, Richard later planned the establishment of a large chantry chapel in York Minster with over 100 priests. He also founded the College of Arms.

March 27, 1625: Accession of Charles I, as King of England, Scotland and Ireland

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Accession, Archduke Charles II of Inner Austria, Charles I of England, Henrietta Marie de Bourbon of France, Infanta Maria Anna of Spain, King Henri IV of France and Navarre, King James VI of Scotland, Maria-Anna of Bavaria, Marie de' Medici

From the Emperor’s Desk: for some reason I am unable to post with pictures. I am looking into it and hopefully pictures will be back soon!

Charles I (November 1, 1600 – January 1649) was King of England, Scotland, and Ireland from March 27, 1625 until his execution in 1649. He was born into the House of Stuart as the second son of King James VI of Scotland, but after his father inherited the English throne in 1603, he moved to England, where he spent much of the rest of his life.

He became heir apparent to the kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland in 1612 upon the death of his elder brother, Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales. An unsuccessful and unpopular attempt to marry Charles to the Spanish Habsburg Infanta Maria Anna culminated in an eight-month visit to Spain in 1623 that demonstrated the futility of the marriage negotiation.

Maria Anna was born an Infanta of Spain and an Archduchess of Austria as the daughter of King Felipe III of Spain and Portugal and Archduchess Margaret of Austria, herself a daughter of Archduke Charles II of Inner Austria and Maria Anna of Bavaria.

The proposal with the Spanish princess Maria Anna fell through when King Felipe IV of Spain and Portugal demanded Charles convert to the Catholic Church and live in Spain for a year as pre-conditions for the marriage. As King Felipe IV was aware, such terms were unacceptable, and when Charles returned to England in October, he and Buckingham demanded King James declare war on Spain.

Two years later, he married the Bourbon princess Henrietta Maria de Bourbon of France.

Henrietta Maria de Bourbon of France, the youngest daughter of King Henri IV of France (Henri III of Navarre) and his second wife, Marie de’ Medici; met her future husband in 1623 at a court entertainment in Paris, when he was on his way to Spain with the Duke of Buckingham to discuss the possible marriage with Infanta Maria Anna of Spain.

Searching elsewhere for a bride, Charles sent his close friend Henry Rich, 1st Earl of Holland, to Paris in 1624. A Francophile and godson of Henri IV of France, Holland strongly favoured a marriage with Henrietta Maria, the terms of which were negotiated by James Hay, 1st Earl of Carlisle.

Henrietta Maria was aged fifteen at the time of her marriage, which was not unusual for royal princesses of the period. Opinions on her appearance vary; her niece Sophia of Hanover commented that the “beautiful portraits of Van Dyck had given me such a fine idea of all the ladies of England that I was surprised to see that the queen, who I had seen as so beautiful and lean, was a woman well past her prime.

King James I-VI died on March 26, 1625 and Charles succeeded as King of England, Scotland and Ireland.

A proxy marriage was held at Notre-Dame de Paris on May 1, 1625 where Duke Claude of Chevreuse stood as proxy for King Charles, with the couple spending their first night together at St Augustine’s Abbey near Canterbury on 13 June 1625. As a Roman Catholic, Henrietta Maria was unable to participate in the Church of England ceremony on February 2, 1626 when Charles was crowned in Westminster Abbey.

After his succession in 1625, Charles quarrelled with the English Parliament, which sought to curb his royal prerogative. He believed in the divine right of kings, and was determined to govern according to his own conscience. Many of his subjects opposed his policies, in particular the levying of taxes without parliamentary consent, and perceived his actions as those of a tyrannical absolute monarch.

Charles’ religious policies, coupled with his marriage to a Roman Catholic, generated antipathy and mistrust from Reformed religious groups such as the English Puritans and Scottish Covenanters, who thought his views too Catholic. He supported high church Anglican ecclesiastics and failed to aid continental Protestant forces successfully during the Thirty Years‘ War.

His attempts to force the Church of Scotland to adopt high Anglican practices led to the Bishops’ Wars, strengthened the position of the English and Scottish parliaments, and helped precipitate his own downfall.

History of the Kingdom of Greece: Part XI. Restoration of King George II

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Elisabeth of Romania, Exile, Ferdinand of Romania, General Georgios Kondylis, King Alexander of Yugoslavia, king George II of the Hellenes, Plebiscite, Restoration

From the Emperor’s Desk: for some reason I am unable to post with pictures. I am looking into it and hopefully pictures will be back soon!

First exile

Exiled in Romania since December 1923, the former Greek King and his wife settled in Bucharest, where King Ferdinand and Queen Marie of Romania put at their disposal a wing of the Cotroceni palace for some time. After several weeks, however, the couple moved and established their residence in a more modest villa on Victory Avenue.

Regular guests of the Romanian sovereigns, George and Elizabeth took part in the ceremonies which punctuated the life of the Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen family. Despite the kindness with which his mother-in-law treated him, the ex-King of the Hellenes felt idle in Bucharest and struggled to hide the boredom he felt from the splendors of the Romanian court.

Tried by the humiliations of exile, financial difficulties and the absence of descendants, relations between George and Elisabeth deteriorated. After having first assuaged her weariness in too rich food and gambling, the ex-queen of the Hellenes then carried on extra-marital affairs with various married men.

She took advantage of a visit to her sick sister, in Belgrade, to flirt with her own brother-in-law, Alexander, the King of Yugoslavia. Later, she began an affair with her husband’s banker, a Greek named Alexandros Scavani, whom she made her chamberlain to cover up the scandal.

In the United Kingdom

Restoration of monarchy and the Metaxas regime

After the abolition of the monarchy, in 1924, the anti-Venizelist leaders, except for Metaxas, refused to recognise the new regime. This “regime issue”, that arose just after the proclamation of the Republic, haunted Greek politics for more than a decade and eventually led to the restoration of monarchy.

Was the referendum to restore the Greek Monarchy in 1935 rigged?

In October 1935 General Georgios Kondylis, a former Venizelist who had suddenly decided to throw in his lot with the monarchist forces, overthrew the government and appointed himself prime minister. He then arranged a plebiscite both to approve his government and to bring an end to the republic.

In 1935, Prime Minister Georgios Kondylis, a former pro-Venizelos military officer, became the most powerful political figure in Greece. He compelled Panagis Tsaldaris to resign as Prime Minister and took over the government, suspending many constitutional provisions in the process. Kondylis, who had now joined the Conservatives, decided to hold a referendum in order to re-establish the monarchy, despite the fact that he used to be a supporter of the anti-monarchist wing of Greek politics.

Conduct

Observers of the time expressed serious doubts about the vote’s legitimacy. Besides the implausibly high “yes” vote, the vote was held in far-from-secret circumstances. Voters dropped a blue piece of paper into the ballot box if they supported the king’s return, or a red paper to retain the republic. Anyone who cast a red ballot risked being beaten up.

On November 3, 1935, almost 98% of the reported votes supported restoration of the monarchy. The balloting was not secret, and participation was compulsory.

George, who had been living at Brown’s Hotel in London, returned to Greek soil on November 25. Almost immediately he and Kondylis disagreed over the terms of a general amnesty the King wanted to declare, and George appointed an interim prime minister, Konstantinos Demertzis.

New elections were held in January, which resulted in a hung parliament with the Communists (who were naturally anti-monarchist) holding the balance of power. A series of unexpected deaths amongst the better-known politicians (including Kondylis and Demertzis), as well as the uncertain political situation, led to the rise to power of politician and veteran army officer Ioannis Metaxas.

March 26, 1027: Coronation of Conrad II as Holy Roman Emperor

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coronation, Emperor Conrad II, Holy Roman Emperor, King of East Francia, King of Germany, Pope John XIX

Conrad II (c. 989/990 – June 4, 1039), also known as Conrad the Elder and Conrad the Salic, was the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire from 1027 until his death in 1039. The first of a succession of four Salian emperors, who reigned for one century until 1125, Conrad ruled the kingdoms of Germany (from 1024), Italy (from 1026) and Burgundy (from 1033).

The son of Franconian count Henry of Speyer (also Henry of Worms) and Adelaide of Metz of the Matfriding dynasty, that had ruled the Duchy of Lorraine from 959 until 972, Conrad inherited the titles of count of Speyer and Worms during childhood after his father had died around the year 990. He extended his influence beyond his inherited lands, as he came into favor of the princes of the kingdom.

In 1016 Conrad married the twice widowed duchess Gisela of Swabia, daughter of Duke Herman II of Swabia who, in 1002, had unsuccessfully claimed the German throne upon Emperor Otto III’s death, and had lost the election to Emperor Heinrich II. Gisela had first been married to Count Bruno I of Brunswick the same year.

Following Bruno’s death around 1010, Gisela had married Ernst I of the House of Babenberg. Through this marriage, Ernst I inherited the Duchy of Swabia upon the death of Gisela’s brother Duke Herman III of Swabia in 1012. The marriage produced two sons: Ernst II and Herman. After the death of Ernst I in 1015, Emperor Heinrich II named Ernst II as Duke of Swabia.

As Gisela’s new husband, Conrad hoped to serve as regent for his minor stepson in the administration of the duchy, seeing it as an opportunity to increase his own rank and subsequently make a claim for his own duchy. Emperor Heinrich II blocked this attempt by placing the guardianship of Ernst II, and regency over Swabia, in the hands of Archbishop Poppo of Trier in 1016. This action further strained the already rough relationship between the imperial House of Otto and the Salian family.

On September 4, 1024, the German princes gathered at Kamba, a historical name for an area on the east banks of the Rhine opposite the modern German town of Oppenheim. Now the location of Kamba is marked with a small equestrian statue of Conrad II. The chronicler and Conrad’s chaplain, Wipo of Burgundy, attended the meeting and documented the event. Archbishop Aribo presided over the assembly.

Conrad presented himself as a candidate for election, as did his younger cousin Conrad. Both were descendants of Emperor Otto I by their common grandfather Otto of Worms, son of Liutgarde, one of Otto’s daughters. Although further members of the Ottonian dynasty existed, none were seriously considered eligible.

The Duchy of Saxony adopted a neutral strategy while the Duchy of Lorraine favored the younger Conrad. A majority of the assembled princes favored the elder Conrad, as the father of a seven-year-old son implied a more stable dynastic future for the kingdom. As president of the assembly, Archbishop Aribo cast the first vote and supported the elder Conrad. He was joined by the other clerics in support of him. The secular dukes then cast their votes for the elder Conrad as well. Archbishop Pilgrim of Cologne, Duke Gothelo I of Lower Lorraine and Duke Friedrich II of Upper Lorraine did not support him.

Conrad was crowned King of Germany by Archbishop Aribo in Mainz Cathedral on September 8, 1024 at the age of 34. To mark his election, Conrad commissioned the construction of Speyer Cathedral, near his ancestral home of Worms. Construction began in 1030. Archbishop Aribo, as archbishop of Mainz, was already the chancellor of Germany. Conrad wanted to reward the archbishop for his electoral support, so he made Aribo chancellor of Italy as well, making Aribo the second most powerful man in the Holy Roman Empire as the imperial chancellor.

Aribo refused to crown Conrad’s wife Gisela as queen as their marriage violated canon law. Conrad refused to accept Archbishop Aribo’s position. Archbishop Pilgrim of Cologne saw the situation as an opportunity to restore his relationship with the king, after refusing to support Conrad’s election, and he crowned Gisela queen on September 21, 1024. The political reorientation of Pilgrim also weakened the opposition towards the new king.

On March 26, 1027, Pope John XIX crowned Conrad and his wife Gisela as Emperor and Empress, respectively, in Old Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome. The event lasted seven days and was attended by Conrad’s son and heir Heinrich; Canute the Great, King of the English, Denmark and Norway; Rudolph III of Burgundy and around 70 senior clerics, including the Archbishops of Cologne, Mainz, Trier, Magdeburg, Salzburg, Milan and Ravenna.

Rudolph III of Burgundy’s attendance suggested surprisingly good relations between Burgundy and the Holy Roman Empire. During the festivities a power struggle between the archbishops of Milan and Ravenna ensued and was settled in favor of Milan. Subsequently, Conrad left Rome and toured south to receive homage from the Southern Italian principalities of Capua and Salerno and the Duchy of Benevento.

March 26, 1687: Birth of Sophia Dorothea of Hanover, Queen in Prussia and Electress of Brandenburg. Part I.

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Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, Elector of Hanover, House of Hanover, House of Hohenzollern, King Frederick I of Prussia, King Frederick William I of Prussia, King George I of Great Britain, Sophia Dorothea of Hanover

Sophia Dorothea of Hanover (March 26, 1687 – June 28, 1757) was Queen in Prussia and Electress of Brandenburg during the reign of her husband, King Friedrich Wilhelm I, from February 25, 1713 to May 31, 1740.

Sophia Dorothea was born on March 26, 1687 in Hanover. She was the only daughter of Georg Ludwig, Elector of Hanover, later King George I of Great Britain, and his wife and cousin, Sophia Dorothea of Celle the only surviving daughter of Georg Wilhelm, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, by his morganatic wife Eléonore Desmier d’Olbreuse (1639–1722), Lady of Harburg, a French Huguenot noblewoman.

Sophia Dorothea of Great Britain was detested by her elder brother, King George II of Great Britain.

After the divorce and imprisonment of her mother, she was raised in Hanover under the supervision of her paternal grandmother, Sophia of Hanover, and was educated by her Huguenot teacher Madame de Sacetot.

Marriage

Sophia Dorothea married her cousin, Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia, heir apparent to the Prussian throne, on November 28, 1706. He was born in Berlin to King Friedrich I in Prussia and Princess Sophia Charlotte of Hanover, the only daughter of Elector Ernst August of Hanover and his wife Sophia of the Palatinate. Her eldest brother, Georg Ludwig, succeeded to the British throne in 1714 as King George I.

They had met as children when Friedrich Wilhelm had spent some time in Hanover under the care of their grandmother, Sophia of Hanover, and though Sophia Dorothea disliked him, Friedrich Wilhelm had reportedly felt an attraction to her early on.

When a marriage was to be arranged for Friedrich Wilhelm, he was given three alternatives: Princess Ulrika Eleonora of Sweden, (later Queen of Sweden youngest child of King Carl XI and Ulrika Eleonora of Denmark); Princess Amalia of Nassau-Dietz, (the only daughter of Johan Willem Friso of Nassau-Dietz (after 1702 Prince of Orange) and his wife, Landgravine Marie Louise of Hesse-Cassel); or Sophia Dorothea of Hanover.

The Swedish match was preferred by his father, who wished to form a matrimonial alliance with Sweden, and thus the official Finck was sent to Stockholm under the pretext of an adjustment of the disputes regarding Pomerania, but in reality to observe the princess before issuing formal negotiations.

Friedrich Wilhelm, however, preferred Sophia Dorothea and successfully tasked Finck with making such a deterring report of Ulrika Eleonora to his father that he would encounter less opposition when he informed his father of his choice.

Sophia Dorothea of Hanover, Crown Princess of Prussia

A marriage alliance between Prussia and Hanover was regarded as a noncontroversial choice by both courts and the negotiations were swiftly conducted. In order for Sophia Dorothea to make as good an impression as possible in Berlin, her grandmother, Electress Sophia, commissioned her niece Elizabeth Charlotte, Princess of the Palatinate to procure her trousseau in Paris. Her bridal paraphernalia attracted great attention and was referred to as the greatest of any German Princess yet.

The wedding by proxy took place in Hanover on November 28, 1706, and she arrived in Berlin on November 27 where she was welcomed by her groom and his family outside of the city gates and before making her entrance into the capital. Thereafter followed a second wedding, the stately torch-dance, and six weeks of banquets and balls.

King Friedrich Wilhelm I in Prussia

Crown Princess in Prussia

Sophia Dorothea was described as tall, with a beautiful slender figure, graceful and dignified with big blue eyes. Though not regarded as strictly beautiful, she was seen as quite attractive at the time of her marriage and described as charming in her manners, making a good impression in Berlin. Friedrich Wilhelm often called her “Fiekchen”.

Sophia Dorothea and Friedrich Wilhelm differed from each other in every aspect and the marriage suffered as a result. Sophia Dorothea was interested in art, science, literature and fashion, while Friedrich Wilhelm was described as an unpolished, uneducated and spartan military man with rough manners.

Though he was never unfaithful to her, he was unable to win her affection. One of the most important differences between them was that Sophia Dorothea, unlike her husband, loved entertainment, something he regarded to be frivolous.

Friedrich Wilhelm contemplated divorcing her the same year they married and, judging by her letters, accused her of not wanting to be married to him. According to Morgenstern, “He had none of that astonishing complaisance by which lovers, whether husbands or friends, seek to win the favor of the beloved object.

As far as can be gathered from the words he occasionally let drop, the crossing of his first love might have been the innocent cause of this; and as the object of this passion, by the directions of her mother and grandmother, treated him with harshness, where, then, could he learn to make love?”

Queen Sophia Dorothea in Prussia

The birth of her firstborn son, Friedrich Ludwig, in 1707 was celebrated greatly in Prussia, and Sophia Dorothea successfully asked the king to liberate the imprisoned minister Eberhard von Danckelmann. In 1708, after the death of her firstborn son, the physicians declared that Sophia Dorothea was not likely to conceive again, which prompted the remarriage of her father-in-law.

Her father-in-law, Friedrich I, King in Prussia married Sophia Louise of Mecklenburg-Schwerin the fourth child of Friedrich, Duke of Mecklenburg-Grabow, and Princess Christine Wilhelmine of Hesse-Homburg. She was an aunt of Grand Duchess Anna Leopoldovna of Russia, who was herself regent and mother of Emperor Ivan VI of Russia.

However, Crown Princess Sophia Dorothea gave birth to several children in the following years, and finally to a son who survived in 1712.

Queen in Prussia

In 1713, her father-in-law King Friedrich I died and was succeeded by her spouse as Friedrich Wilhelm I, making her Queen in Prussia.

At the time of the accession, Prussia was at war with Sweden, and Sophia Dorothea accompanied Friedrich Wilhelm during the campaign of 1715, though she soon returned to Berlin to give birth to her daughter. During the war, the king left directions to his ministers to consult her and take no action without her approval in the case of an emergency.

In 1717, she hosted Emperor Peter I the Great of Russia on his visit to Berlin at her own palace Monbijou, as per the king’s request, which was vandalized as a result. Sophia Dorothea’s first favorite was her maid of honor, von Wagnitz, who was dismissed after an intrigue in which Kreutz and her mother tried to make her the king’s mistress, as well as being a spy of the French ambassador Rothenburg.

Queen Sophia Dorothea was admired for her gracious manners and nicknamed “Olympia” for her regal bearing, but scarred by smallpox and overweight with time, she was not called a beauty. She was known as extremely haughty, proud, and ambitious, but Friedrich Wilhelm greatly disliked her interference in politics, as it was his belief that women should be kept only for breeding, and kept submissive as they would otherwise dominate their husbands.

The king was known for his parsimony and dislike of idleness to such a degree that he would beat people in the street as well as in the palace if he viewed them as lazy. The queen complained about the “horrible avarice” he pressed upon the household and as a result, according to Pollnitz, the queen’s table was often so sparingly supplied that he had often given her money so that she could be able to have an omelette for supper.

Friedrich Wilhelm viewed her interests in theater, dancing, jewelry and music as frivolous and resented any sign of her living a life independently from his authority: he particularly disliked her interest in gambling, and it is reported that she and her partners would have coffee beans ready on the table during gambling, so that if the king appeared, they could pretend to be playing with them rather than money.

She also abhorred his cruelty towards their son and heir Friedrich, the future King Friedrich II the Great of Prussia (with whom she was close), although rather than trying to mend the relationship between father and son she frequently spurred Friedrich on in his defiance.