June 8, 1042: Edward the Confessor becomes King of the English

Tags

Æthelred II the Unready, Canute II of Denmark, Canute III of Denmark, Canute the Great, Edmund Ironside, Edward the Confessor, Emma of Normandy, Hardicanute, King of Edward, King of Norway, King of the English, Magnus the Good, Pope Alexander III

Edward the Confessor (c. 1003 – 5 January 1066) was an Anglo-Saxon English king and saint. Usually considered the last king of the House of Wessex, he ruled from 1042 until his death in 1066.

Edward was the seventh son of Æthelred the Unready, and the first by his second wife, Emma of Normandy daughter of Richard I the Fearless Duke of Normandy and Gunnor. The names of Gunnor’s parents are unknown, but Robert of Torigni wrote that her father was a forester from the Pays de Caux and according to Dudo of Saint-Quentin she was of noble Danish ancestry. Gunnor was probably born c. 950. Her family held sway in western Normandy and Gunnor herself was said to be very wealthy.

Edward was born between 1003 and 1005 in Islip, Oxfordshire, and is first recorded as a ‘witness’ to two charters in 1005. He had one full brother, Alfred, and a sister, Godgifu. In charters he was always listed behind his older half-brothers, showing that he ranked beneath them.

During his childhood, England was the target of Viking raids and invasions under Sweyn I Forkbeard and his son, Canute II, both Kings of Denmark. Following Sweyn’s seizure of the English throne in 1013, Emma fled to Normandy, followed by Edward and Alfred, and then by Æthelred. Sweyn died in February 1014, and leading Englishmen invited Æthelred back on condition that he promised to rule ‘more justly’ than before.

Æthelred agreed, sending Edward back with his ambassadors. Æthelred died in April 1016, and he was succeeded by Edward’s older half-brother Edmund Ironside, who carried on the fight against Sweyn’s son, Canute.

In October 1016 Canute and Edmund agreed to divide England between them, but Edmund died a month later, leaving Canute as undisputed King of the English.

With the death of Edmund Iron Side thus left Eadwig Ætheling the heir to the English throne. Eadwig Ætheling (sometimes also known as Eadwy or Edwy) (died 1017) was the fifth of the six sons of King Æthelred the Unready and his first wife, Ælfgifu of York. It is most probable that Ælfgifu was a daughter of Thored, Earl of southern Northumbria. But her parentage remains unknown.

Eadwig Ætheking was banished in 1016 and then outlawed in 1017 by Canute however he was reconciled with Canute the same year and allowed to live in England, but was executed at the instigation of Canute, possibly after attempting to rally resistance in the south west. The Anglo-Saxon claim to the throne then passed to the elder son of Æthelred’s second marriage, the future Edward the Confessor. Eadwig was buried at Tavistock Abbey a place built by his uncle Ordwulf.

King Canute II the Great died on November 12, 1035 in Shaftesbury, Dorset. In Denmark he was succeeded by Hardicanute, sometimes referred to as Canute III. Magnus I took control of Norway. In England Canute II was succeeded by Harold Harefoot.

Harold Harefoot was the son of Canute II the Great and Ælfgifu of Northampton, a daughter of Ælfhelm, ealdorman of southern Northumbria, and his wife Wulfrun. Ælfhelm was killed in 1006, probably at the command of King Æthelred the Unready, and Ælfgifu’s brothers, Ufegeat and Wulfheah, were blinded.

Harold was elected regent of England following the death of his father in 1035. He initially ruled England in place of his brother Hardicanute, who was stuck in Denmark due to a rebellion in Norway which had ousted their brother Sweyn. Although Harold had wished to be crowned king since 1035, Æthelnoth, Archbishop of Canterbury, refused to do so.

It was not until 1037 that Harold, supported by earl Leofric and many others, was officially proclaimed king of the English. The same year, Harold’s two step-brothers Edward the Confessor and Alfred returned to England with a considerable military force. Alfred was captured by Earl Godwin, who had him seized and delivered to an escort of men loyal to Harefoot. While en route to Ely, he was blinded and soon after died of his wounds.

Harold I Harefoot died at Oxford on March 17, 1040, just as his half-brother Hardicanute was preparing an invasion force of Danes, and was buried at Westminster Abbey. Hardicanute had been horrified by Harold’s murder of Alfred, and his mother, Emma of Normandy, demanded vengeance.

Harold’s body was subsequently exhumed, beheaded, and thrown into a fen bordering the Thames when Hardicanute assumed the throne in June 1040. The body was subsequently recovered by fishermen, and resident Danes reportedly had it reburied at their local cemetery in London. The body was eventually buried in a church in the City of Westminster, which was fittingly named St. Clement Danes.

Hardicanute succeeded as King of the English in 1040 died suddenly on June 8, 1042 after a reign of two years. Hardicanute was succeeded in Denmark by Magnus I the Good, King of Norway, an illegitimate son of King Olaf II Haraldsson (later St. Olaf), by his English concubine Alfhild. Hardicanute was the last Dane to rule England.

Edward the Confessor succeeded to the English throne on the death of his half-brother – Hardicanute. Edward the Confessor restored the rule of the House of Wessex after the period of Danish rule.

On January23, 1045 Edward married Edith the daughter of Earl Godwin, the most powerful earl in England. Her mother Gytha was sister of Ulf, a Danish earl who was Cnut the Great’s brother-in-law. She was probably born in or before 1027. Edith was originally named Gytha, but renamed Ealdgyth (or Edith) when she married King Edward the Confessor. Soon afterwards, her brother Harold and her Danish cousin Beorn Estrithson were also given earldoms in southern England.

When Edward died in 1066, he was succeeded by his wife’s brother Harold Godwinson, who was defeated and killed in the same year by the Normans under William the Conqueror at the Battle of Hastings. Edward’s young great-nephew Edgar the Ætheling of the House of Wessex was proclaimed king after the Battle of Hastings in 1066 but was never crowned and was peacefully deposed after about eight weeks.

Historians disagree about Edward’s fairly long 24-year reign. His nickname reflects the traditional image of him as unworldly and pious. Confessor reflects his reputation as a saint who did not suffer martyrdom as opposed to his uncle, King Edward the Martyr.

Some portray Edward the Confessor’s reign as leading to the disintegration of royal power in England and the advance in power of the House of Godwin, because of the infighting that began after his death with no heirs to the throne.

Biographers Frank Barlow and Peter Rex, on the other hand, portray Edward as a successful king, one who was energetic, resourceful and sometimes ruthless; they argue that the Norman conquest shortly after his death tarnished his image. However, Richard Mortimer argues that the return of the Godwins from exile in 1052 “meant the effective end of his exercise of power”, citing Edward’s reduced activity as implying “a withdrawal from affairs”.

About a century later, in 1161, Pope Alexander III canonised the king. Edward was one of England’s national saints until King Edward III adopted Saint George (George of Lydda) as the national patron saint in about 1350. Saint Edward’s feast day is 13 October, celebrated by both the Church of England and the Catholic Church.

June 7, 879 ~ Pope John VIII recognizes the Duchy of Croatia as an independent state.

Tags

Byzantine Empire, Carolingian Empire, Dalmatia, Doge Tradonico of Venice, Duke Branimir, Emperor Lothair I, House of Domagojević, Mislav of Croatia, Pope John VIII

The Duchy of Croatia was located between two major powers of the Middle Ages: the Eastern Roman Empire in the East which controlled the Dalmatian cities and islands and aimed to extend their rule over the entire former Roman province of Dalmatia, and the Carolingian Empirein the West seeking to control the northern and northwestern lands. The Byzantine influence on Croatia was also reflected on the creation of Croatian law and in trade with the Byzantine coastal cities.

In the second quarter of the 9th century the Croats began developing a navy. Along with the Narentines, who were still pagan at the time and occupied the territory of the river Neretva mouth, they were active in the Adriatic Sea and made shipping and traveling in the area hazardous, especially for Venice. Therefore, in 839 the Venetians under Doge Pietro Tradonico attacked the eastern coast of the Adriatic, including Croatia, but during the assault they signed peace with their ruler, princeps Mislav who ruled from Klis near Split.

The peace treaty was signed at a place named St. Martin. The Doge also attacked Narentine islands, but failed to defeat them and made peace with their leader, who is mentioned as count Drosaico by the chronicler John the Deacon. However, the peace treaty was short-lasting and next year the Venetians were defeated by the Narentines under count Diuditum. Piracy continued in the Adriatic, as well as hostility towards Venice, which is seen from the contract between Emperor Lothair I and Doge Tradonico, in which the Doge committed himself to defend the cities in Italy and Istria from Slavic attacks.

Duke Mislav was succeeded around 845 by Trpimir I, who continued the formal legacy of being the vassal of the Frankish king Lothair I (840–855), although he managed to strengthen his personal rule in Croatia. Arab campaigns thoroughly weakened the Byzantine Empire and Venice, which was used in the advance of the Croatian duke in 846 and 848.

In 846 Trpimir successfully attacked the Byzantine coastal cities and their patricius. Between 854 and 860, he successfully defended his land from the Bulgarian invasion under Knyaz Boris I of Bulgaria, somewhere in Northeastern Bosnia, concluding a peace treaty with Boris and exchanging gifts. Constantine Porphyrogenitus mentions the traditional friendship between the Bulgarians and Croatians, who coexisted peacefully up to that time.

In a Latin charter preserved in a rewrite from 1568, dated to March 4, 852 or, according to a newer research, about 840, Trpimir refers to himself as “leader of the Croats with the help of God” (Latin: dux Croatorum iuvatus munere divino); his land, called “Kingdom of the Croats” (Latin: regnum Croatorum), can simply be interpreted as the “Realm of the Croats”, since Trpimir was not a king. The term regnum was also used by other dukes of that time as a sign of their independence. This charter also documents his ownership of the Klis Fortress, from where his rule was centered, and mentions Mislav’s donations to the Archbishopric of Split.

In the proximity of his court in Klis, in Rižinice, Trpimir built a church and the first Benedictine monastery in Croatia. Trpimir’s name is inscribed on a stone fragment from an altar screen of the Rižinice monastery church. He is more expressly remembered as the founder of the House of Trpimirović, a native Croat dynasty that ruled, with interruptions, from 845 until 1091 in Croatia.

In 864 Duke Domagoj, founder of the House of Domagojević, usurped the throne after the death of Trpimir and forced his sons, including Zdeslav, to flee to Constantinople. During the rule of Domagoj piracy was a common practice in the Adriatic. The pirates attacked Christian sailors, including a ship with papal legates returning from the Eighth Catholic Ecumenical Council, thus forcing the Pope to intervene by asking Domagoj to stop piracy, but his efforts were of no avail. Domagoj waged wars with the Arabs, Venetians and Franks.

In 871 he helped the Franks, as their vassal, to seize Bari from the Arabs, but later actions of the Franks under the rule of Carloman of Bavaria led to a revolt by Domagoj against the Frankish rule. The revolt succeeded and Frankish overlordship in Dalmatia ended, but was to continue a little longer over Lower Pannonia. Domagoj’s rule also saw increased Byzantine influence in the area, especially reflected in the establishment of Theme of Dalmatia. After the death of Domagoj in 876 Zdeslav, who had close ties to Byzantium, returned from exile, usurped the throne from an unnamed son of Domagoj and restored peace with Venice in 878.

Duke Zdeslav’s reign was short and ended in 879 when Branimir of the House of Domagojević killed him and usurped the throne. Branimir was unlike Zdeslav a proponent of Rome and returned the country to the Roman fold. He had regular contacts with Pope John VIII, to whom he sent a letter revealing his intentions to entrust his people and his country to the Apostolic See. The Pope replied to his requests, praising his initiative and on June 7, 879 the Duchy under Branimir, now free of Frankish suzerainty, received papal recognition as a state.

The second half of the 9th century marked a significant increase in papal influence in the Southeastern Europe. Pope John VIII complained to Domagoj about the obstinacy of Patriarch Ignatius who denied his jurisdiction over Bulgaria and appointed a new Archbishop. The Pope also requested from Dukes Zdeslav and Branimir assistance and protection for his legates who were crossing Croatia on their way to Bulgaria. Although the exact geographical extent of the Duchy is not known, these requests confirm geographical contiguity between Croatia and Bulgaria, which bordered probably somewhere in Bosnia.

June 1, 1424: Birth of King Ferdinand I of Naples

Tags

Alfonso I of Naples, Alfonso II of Naples, Duke of Calabria, Ferdinand I of Naples, Isabella of Taranto, Pope Eugene IV, Pope Nicholas V, René of Anjou-Valois, Treaty of Lodi

From the Emperor’s Desk: Not to be confused with Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies.

King Ferdinand I of Naples (June 2, 1424 – January 25, 1494), was the only son, illegitimate, of King Alfonso I of Naples. He was king of Naples from 1458 to 1494.

His mother, Gueraldona Carlino, was probably a woman of Neapolitan origin who in December 1423 had accompanied Alfonso on his return to Spain, where she later married a certain Gaspar Reverdit of Barcelona.

In order to ensure a good future for his illegitimate son, his father Alfonso had called him to Naples. At the behest of the king, on July 26, 1438 the governor de Corella, the bishop Borgia and the young Ferdinand, with their entourage of young Catalan gentlemen, set sail from Barcelona for Italy. Alfonso’s purpose was to prepare his only son, albeit illegitimate, for the role of heir to the kingdom he was conquering. The whole company landed in Gaeta on August 19, where Ferdinand was reunited with his father, whom he hardly knew.

A strong emotional bond soon developed between father and son, as Alfonso appreciated the young man’s acute intelligence and courage, while Ferrante showed complete reverence for his parent. Alfonso on September 9, 1438 created Ferdinand a knight on the Maddaloni field where René of Anjou-Valois, challenged to battle, did not appear.

In Naples he had as teachers Valla, Panormita, Borgia and Gabriele Altilio, who taught him for many years. He also had as tutor Paris de Puteo who taught him law. When the Sacro regio consiglio, judicial authority of the kingdom, was established by Alfonso, he was assigned the position of president.

Following the death of his uncle Peter, in April 1439 Ferdinand was appointed lieutenant general of the kingdom. On February 17, 1440, King Alfonso, by his own authority, legitimized and declared his son his heir to the throne of Naples and then, in January 1441, he secured the approval of the parliament of the barons of the kingdom that he had summoned in Benevento and which was then transferred to Naples.

Still in parliament, Alfonso, worried about the succession, promoted a petition, in which the barons, knowing they were doing the king a great pleasure, proposed to establish Ferdinand as his future successor, with the title of Duke of Calabria, usually given to the first-born of the king of Naples.

The recognition of the rights of succession Ferdinand was sealed by the Papal bull Regnans in altissimis issued by Pope Eugene IV in July 1443, and later confirmed in 1451 by Pope Nicholas V.

In 1444 Ferdinand married the heiress Isabella of Taranto, daughter of Tristan of Clermont and Catherine of Taranto, designated heir of Prince Giovanni Antonio Orsini Del Balzo of Taranto, his maternal uncle, who had no children. Isabella was also the niece of Queen Mary of Enghien who, having married Ladislaus I of Anjou, had therefore been queen of Naples, Sicily and the Kingdom of Jerusalem from 1406 to 1414.

Ferdinand was solemnly crowned on February 4, 1459, in the Cathedral of Barletta and to thank the Pope Pius II, in 1461, he wanted Maria, his natural daughter, to marry Antonio Piccolomini nephew of Pius, giving her as a dowry the Duchy of Amalfi, the county of Celano and the office of Great executioner for her husband. The problems, however, were not over yet, in fact Ferdinand’s rival, Jean of Anjou, aspired to regain the throne of Naples, lost by his father in the war against Alfonso.

As King, Ferdinand was one of the most influential and feared monarchs in Europe at the time and an important figure of the Italian Renaissance. In his thirty years of reign he brought peace and prosperity to Naples.

Its foreign and diplomatic policy aimed at assuming the task of regulating the events of the peninsula in order not to disturb the political balance given by the Treaty of Lodi, to affirm the hegemony of the Kingdom of Naples over the other Italian states and to tighten through its diplomats and marriages of his numerous legitimate and natural children, a dense network of alliances and relationships with Italian and foreign sovereigns, earned him the fame and the nickname of Judge of Italy, in addition to being recognized as a generous patron.

Ferdinand I was succeeded on the Neapolitan throne by his eldest son the Duke of Calabria as King Alfonso II (November 14, 1448 – December 18, 1495) and ruled as King of Naples from January 25, 1494 to January 23, 1495. He was a soldier and a patron of Renaissance architecture and the arts.

May 24, 919: Heinrich I the Fowler, Duke of Saxony is elected King of East Francia

Tags

Battle of Lenzen, Battle of Riade, Conrad I of Germany, Duke of Franconia, Duke of Saxony, Henry the Fowler, Hugh Capet, King Rudolph of the Franks, Kingdom of East Francia, Kingdom of Germany, Liudolfing, Matilda of Ringelheim, Pope Leo VII, Stem Duchies

Heinrich I the Fowler (c. 876 – 2 July 936) was the Duke of Saxony from 912 and the King of East Francia from 919 until his death in 936. As the first non-Frankish king of East Francia, he established the Ottonian dynasty of kings and emperors, and he is generally considered to be the founder of the medieval German state, known until then as East Francia. An avid hunter, he obtained the epithet “the Fowler” because he was allegedly fixing his birding nets when messengers arrived to inform him that he was to be king.

Heinrich was born into the Liudolfing line of Saxon dukes in Memleben, what is now Saxony-Anhalt, Heinrich was the son of Otto the Illustrious, Duke of Saxony, and his wife Hedwiga, who was probably the daughter of Heinrich of Franconia.

In 906 he married Hatheburg of Merseburg, daughter of the Saxon count Erwin. She had previously been a nun. The marriage was annulled in 909 because her vows as a nun were deemed by the church to remain valid. She had already given birth to Heinrich’s son Thankmar. The annulment placed a question mark over Thankmar’s legitimacy.

Later that year he married Matilda, daughter of Dietrich of Ringelheim, Count in Westphalia. Matilda bore him three sons and two daughters, Hedwige and Gerberga, and founded many religious institutions, including the Quedlinburg Abbey where Heinrich and Matilda are buried. She was later canonized.

His father Duke Otto I of Saxony died in 912 and was succeeded by Heinrich. The new duke launched a rebellion against the King of East Francia, Duke Conrad I of Franconia, over the rights to lands in the Duchy of Thuringia. They reconciled in 915 and on his deathbed in 918, Conrad recommended Heinrich as the next king, considering the duke the only one who could hold the kingdom together in the face of internal revolts and external Magyar raids.

On May 24, 919 the nobles of Franconia and Saxony elect Heinrich I the Fowler at the Imperial Diet in Fritzlar as King of the East Francia. He went on to defeat the rebellious dukes of Bavaria and Swabia, consolidating his rule. Through successful warfare and a dynastic marriage, Heinrich acquired Lotharingia as a vassal in 925. Unlike his Carolingian predecessors, Heinrich did not seek to create a centralized monarchy, ruling through federated autonomous stem duchies instead.

Heinrich built an extensive system of fortifications and mobile heavy cavalry across the Kingdom of East Francia to neutralize the Magyar threat and in 933 routed them at the Battle of Riade, ending Magyar attacks for the next 21 years and giving rise to a sense of German nationhood.

Heinrich greatly expanded German hegemony in Europe with his defeat of the Slavs in 929 at the Battle of Lenzen along the Elbe river, by compelling the submission of Duke Wenceslaus I of Bohemia through an invasion of the Duchy of Bohemia the same year and by conquering Danish realms in Schleswig in 934.

Heinrich’s hegemonic status north of the Alps was acknowledged by King Rudolph of West Francia and King Rudolph II of Upper Burgundy, who both accepted a place of subordination as allies in 935. Heinrich planned an expedition to Rome to be crowned Emperor by Pope Leo VII but the design was thwarted by his death. Heinrich prevented a collapse of royal power, as had happened in West Francia, and left a much stronger kingdom to his successor Otto I. He was buried at Quedlinburg Abbey, established by his wife Matilda in his honour.

His son Otto I, traditionally known as Otto the Great, continued his father’s work of unifying all German tribes into a single kingdom and greatly expanded the king’s powers. He installed members of his family in the kingdom’s most important duchies, subjected the clergy to his personal control, defeated the Magyars and conquered the Kingdom of Italy and was crowned Emperor by Pope John XII in 962.

King Heinrich’s daughter, Hedwige of Saxony (c. 910 – after 958), was Duchess consort of the Franks by her marriage to the Robertian Duke Hugh the Great of the Franks. Upon her husband’s death in 956, she acted as a regent during the minority of their son Hugh Capét, the founder of the senior line of the House of Capét who became King of West Francia and a forerunner of the Kingdom of France.

May 23, 1533: The Marriage of King Henry VIII and Infanta Catherine of Aragon is declared annulled

Tags

Anne Boleyn, Archbishop of Canterbury, Cardinal Wolsey, Carlos I of Spain, Catherine of Aragon, Emperor Charles V, King Francis I of France, King Henry VIII of England and Ireland, Pope Clement VII, Thomas Cranmer

During his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, King Henry VIII conducted an affair with Mary Boleyn, Catherine’s lady-in-waiting. There has been speculation that Mary’s two children, Henry Carey and Catherine Carey, were fathered by Henry, but this has never been proved, and the king never acknowledged them as he did in the case of Henry FitzRoy. In 1525, as Henry grew more impatient with Catherine’s inability to produce the male heir he desired, he became enamoured of Mary Boleyn’s sister, Anne Boleyn, then a charismatic young woman of 25 in the queen’s entourage. Anne, however, resisted his attempts to seduce her, and refused to become his mistress as her sister had.

It was in this context that Henry considered his three options for finding a dynastic successor and hence resolving what came to be described at court as the king’s “great matter”. These options were legitimising Henry FitzRoy, which would need the involvement of the Pope Clement VII and would be open to challenge; marrying off Mary, his daughter with Catherine, as soon as possible and hoping for a grandson to inherit directly, but Mary was considered unlikely to conceive before Henry’s death, or somehow rejecting Catherine and marrying someone else of child-bearing age. Probably seeing the possibility of marrying Anne, the third was ultimately the most attractive possibility to the 34-year-old Henry, and it soon became the king’s absorbing desire to annul his marriage to the now 40-year-old Catherine.

Henry’s precise motivations and intentions over the coming years are not widely agreed on. Henry himself, at least in the early part of his reign, was a devout and well-informed Catholic to the extent that his 1521 publication Assertio Septem Sacramentorum (“Defence of the Seven Sacraments”) earned him the title of Fidei Defensor (Defender of the Faith) from Pope Leo X. The work represented a staunch defence of papal supremacy, albeit one couched in somewhat contingent terms.

It is not clear exactly when Henry changed his mind on the issue as he grew more intent on a second marriage. Certainly, by 1527, he had convinced himself that Catherine had produced no male heir because their union was “blighted in the eyes of God”. Indeed, in marrying Catherine, his brother’s wife, he had acted contrary to Leviticus 20:21, a justification Thomas Cranmer used to declare the marriage null. Martin Luther, on the other hand, had initially argued against the annulment, stating that Henry VIII could take a second wife in accordance with his teaching that the Bible allowed for polygamy but not divorce.

Henry now believed the Pope had lacked the authority to grant a dispensation from this impediment. It was this argument Henry took to Pope Clement VII in 1527 in the hope of having his marriage to Catherine annulled, forgoing at least one less openly defiant line of attack. In going public, all hope of tempting Catherine to retire to a nunnery or otherwise stay quiet was lost. Henry sent his secretary, William Knight, to appeal directly to the Holy See by way of a deceptively worded draft papal bull. Knight was unsuccessful; the Pope could not be misled so easily.

Other missions concentrated on arranging an ecclesiastical court to meet in England, with a representative from Clement VII. Although Clement agreed to the creation of such a court, he never had any intention of empowering his legate, Lorenzo Campeggio, to decide in Henry’s favour. This bias was perhaps the result of pressure from Emperor Charles V, Catherine’s nephew, but it is not clear how far this influenced either Campeggio or the Pope.

After less than two months of hearing evidence, Clement called the case back to Rome in July 1529, from which it was clear that it would never re-emerge. With the chance for an annulment lost, Cardinal Wolsey bore the blame. He was charged with praemunire in October 1529, and his fall from grace was “sudden and total”. Briefly reconciled with Henry (and officially pardoned) in the first half of 1530, he was charged once more in November 1530, this time for treason, but died while awaiting trial.

After a short period in which Henry took government upon his own shoulders, Sir Thomas More took on the role of Lord Chancellor and chief minister. Intelligent and able, but a devout Catholic and opponent of the annulment, More initially cooperated with the king’s new policy, denouncing Wolsey in Parliament.

A year later, Catherine was banished from court, and her rooms were given to Anne Boleyn. Anne was an unusually educated and intellectual woman for her time and was keenly absorbed and engaged with the ideas of the Protestant Reformers, but the extent to which she herself was a committed Protestant is much debated. When Archbishop of Canterbury William Warham died, Anne’s influence and the need to find a trustworthy supporter of the annulment had Thomas Cranmer appointed to the vacant position. This was approved by the Pope, unaware of the king’s nascent plans for the Church.

In the winter of 1532, Henry met with King François I of France at Calais and enlisted the support of the French king for his new marriage. Immediately upon returning to Dover in England, Henry, now 41, and Anne went through a secret wedding service. She soon became pregnant, and there was a second wedding service in London on January 25, 1533. On May 23, 1533, Cranmer, sitting in judgment at a special court convened at Dunstable Priory to rule on the validity of the king’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon, declared the marriage of Henry and Catherine null and void.

Five days later, on May 28, 1533, Cranmer declared the marriage of Henry and Anne to be valid. Catherine was formally stripped of her title as queen, becoming instead “princess dowager” as the widow of Arthur. In her place, Anne was crowned queen on June 1, 1533. The queen gave birth to a daughter slightly prematurely on September 7, 1533. The child was christened Elizabeth, in honour of Henry’s mother, Elizabeth of York.

Life of King Philippe I of the Franks

Tags

Baudouin V of Flanders, Council of Clermont, First Crusade, King Henry I of France, King Philip I of France, Pope Urban II, William Rufus, William the Conqueror

Philippe I (c. 1052 – 29 July 1108), called the Amorous, was King of the Franks from 1060 to 1108. His reign, like that of most of the early Capetians, was extraordinarily long for the time. The monarchy began a modest recovery from the low it reached in the reign of his father and he added to the royal demesne the Vexin and Bourges.

Philippe was born c. 1052 at Champagne-et-Fontaine, the son of King Henri I and his wife Anne of Kiev Anne was a daughter of Yaroslav the Wise, Grand Prince of Kiev and Prince of Novgorod, and his second wife Ingegerd Olofsdotter of Sweden, daughter of King Olof Skötkonung of Sweden and Estrid of the Obotrites

Unusual for the time in Western Europe, his name was of Greek origin, being bestowed upon him by his mother. Although he was crowned king at the age of seven, until age fourteen (1066) his mother acted as regent, the first Queen of the Franks ever to do so. Baudouin V of Flanders also acted as co-regent.

Personal rule

King Henri I died on August 4, 1060 in Vitry-en-Brie, France, and was interred in the Basilica of St Denis. He was succeeded by his son, as King Philippe I of the Franks and his mother, Queen Anne of Kiev ruled as regent. At the time of his death, King Henri I was besieging Thimert, which had been occupied by the Normans since 1058.

Following the death of Baudouin VI of Flanders, Robért the Frisian seized Flanders. Baudouin’s widow, Richilda, requested aid from Philippe, who was defeated by Robért at the battle of Cassel in 1071.

Philippe first married Bertha of Holland in 1072. Bertha was the daughter of Count Floris I of Holland and Gertrude of Saxony the daughter of Bernard II, Duke of Saxony and Eilika of Schweinfurt.

Although the marriage with Bertha produced the necessary heir, Louis, King Philippe fell in love with Bertrade de Montfort, the wife of Fulk IV, Count of Anjou. Bertrade was the daughter of Simon I de Montfort and Agnes of Evreux.

King Philippe repudiated Bertha (claiming she was too fat) and married Bertrade on May 15, 1092. In 1094 following the synod of Autun, he was excommunicated by the papal representative, Hugh of Die, for the first time; after a long silence, Pope Urban II repeated the excommunication at the Council of Clermont in November 1095.

Several times the ban was lifted as Philippe promised to part with Bertrade, but he always returned to her; in 1104 Philippe made a public penance and must have kept his involvement with Bertrade discreet. In France, the king was opposed by Bishop Ivo of Chartres, a famous jurist.

Philippe appointed Alberic first Constable of France in 1060. A great part of his reign, like his father’s, was spent putting down revolts by his power-hungry vassals. In 1077, he made peace with William the Conqueror, who gave up attempting the conquest of Brittany. In 1082, Philippe I expanded his demesne with the annexation of the Vexin, in reprisal against Robert Curthose’s attack on William’s heir, William Rufus. Then in 1100, he took control of Bourges. Philippe expanded the royal demesne by incorporating the monasteries of Saint-Denis and Corbie.

It was at the aforementioned Council of Clermont that the First Crusade was launched. Philippe at first did not personally support it because of his conflict with Urban II. Philippe’s brother Hugh of Vermandois, however, was a major participant.

Death

Philippe died in the castle of Melun and was buried per his request at the monastery of Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire – and not in St Denis among his forefathers. He was succeeded by his son as King Louis VI of the Franks.

Philippe’s children with Bertha were:

Constance (1078 – 1126)
Louis VI of the Franks (1081 – 1137)
Henri (1083 – died young).

Philippe’s children with Bertrade were:

Philippe, Count of Mantes (1093 – fl. 1123)
Fleury, Seigneur of Nangis (1095 – 1119)
Cecile (1097 – 1145)

May 22, 1246: Heinrich Raspe, Landgrave of Thuringia is elected King of the Romans (Germany) in opposition to Conrad IV, King of the Romans

Tags

Conrad IV of Germany, Election, Henry Raspe, Holy Roman Empire, King of Germany, King of the Romans, Landgrave of Thuringia, Pope Innocent IV

Heinrich Raspe (c. 1204 – February 26, 1247) was the Landgrave of Thuringia from 1231 until 1239 and again from 1241 until his death. In 1246, with the support of the Papacy, he was elected King of Germany (King of the Romans) in opposition to the elected Conrad IV King of Germany (King of the Romans) but his contested reign lasted a mere nine months.

Biography

Heinrich Raspe was born c. 1204 to Hermann I, Landgrave of Thuringia and Sophia of Wittelsbach. In 1226, Heinrich’s brother Ludwig IV, Landgrave of Thuringia, died en route to the Sixth Crusade, and Heinrich Raspe became regent for his under-age nephew Hermann II, Landgrave of Thuringia. He managed to expel his nephew and the boy’s young mother, St. Elisabeth of Hungary, from the line of succession and ca. 1231 formally succeeded his brother as landgrave.

In 1242 Heinrich Raspe, together with King Wenceslaus I of Bohemia, he was selected by Emperor Friedrich II to be administrator of Germany for Friedrich’s under-age son Conrad.

After Pope Innocent IV imposed a ban on Friedrich in 1245, Heinrich Raspe changed sides, and on May 22, 1246 he was elected anti-king in opposition to Conrad. The strong papal prodding that led to his election earned Heinrich Raspe the derogatory moniker of “Pfaffenkönig” (priests’ king). The papal legate in Germany was Filippo da Pistoia. In August 1246 Heinrich Raspe defeated Conrad in the Battle of Nidda in southern Hesse, and laid siege to Ulm and Reutlingen. He suffered a mortal wound, and died February 16, 1247 in Wartburg Castle near Eisenach in Thuringia.

Personal life

In 1228, Heinrich Raspe married Elisabeth of Brandenburg (1206-1231), the daughter of Albrecht II, Margrave of Brandenburg and his wife Matilda of Groitzsch, the daughter of Landgrave Conrad II of Lusatia from the House of Wettin (Saxony).

After her death, he married Gertrude of Babenburg (c. 1210/1215 – 1241), the daughter of Leopold VI, Duke of Austria and Theodora Angelina Vatatzes the daughter of Isaac Komnenos Vatatzes, the grandson of the Byzantine general Theodore Vatatzes and the purple-born princess Eudokia Komnene, daughter of Emperor John II Komnenos (r. 1118–1143), and of Anna Komnene Angelina, the second daughter of Emperor Alexios III Angelos).

After Gertrude of Babenburg’s death, he married Beatrice of Brabant (1225-1288), the daughter of Heinrich II, Duke of Brabant and Marie of Hohenstaufen who was herself daughter of Philipp of Swabia, King of the Romans. Béatrice had five siblings, including Duke Heinrich III, and Marie who was executed for infidelity by her husband, Ludwig II, Duke of Bavaria

All three of his marriages were childless. After his death, the Emperor enfeoffed Thuringia to Heinrich III, Margrave of Meissen, the son of his sister Jutta.

May 22, 1581: Birth of Archduchess Gregoria Maximiliana of Austria

Tags

Archduchess Anna of Austria, Archduchess Gregoria Maximiliana of Austria, Archduke Charles II of Inner Austria, Emperor Ferdinand I, House of Habsburg, King Philip III of Spain, King Sigismund III Vasa of Poland, Prince of Asturias, Princess Maria Anna of Bavaria

Archduchess Gregoria Maximiliana of Austria (May 22, 1581 – September 20, 1597) was a member of the House of Habsburg.

She was the daughter of Archduke Charles II of Inner Austria and his wife/niece, Princess Maria Anna of Bavaria.

Her father was Archduke Charles II of Inner Austria was the son of Emperor Ferdinand I (1503–1564) from his marriage with the Jagiellonian princess Anna of Bohemia and Hungary (1503–1547).

Her mother was Princess Maria Anna of Bavaria daughter of Albrecht V, Duke of Bavaria and Archduchess Anna of Austria. Archduchess Anna of Austria was one of the fifteen children of Emperor Ferdinand I and Princess Anna of Bohemia and Hungary. As mentioned, Princess Maria Anna of Bavaria and her husband, Archduke Charles II of Inner Austria, were uncle and niece.

Archduchess Anna of Austria’s paternal grandparents were King Felipe I of Castile (Archduke Philipp of Austria, Duke of Burgundy) and his wife Queen Joanna of Castile. Her maternal grandparents were King Vladislaus II of Bohemia and Hungary and his third wife Anne of Foix-Candale.

Archduchess Gregoria Maximiliana’s elder brother, Archduke Ferdinand, succeeded as Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II in 1619.

Life

Archduchess Gregoria Maximiliana of Austria was born in Graz, her godparents were Pope Gregory XIII and her maternal aunt, Princess Maximiliana Maria of Bavaria. Named after both godparents, Archduchess Gregoria Maximiliana was described as an extremely pious Princess that had the closest relationship to her mother among her siblings.

Amongst her siblings was the aforementioned Emperor Ferdinand II, Archduchess Margaret and Archduchess Anna and Archduchess Constance, who through their subsequent marriages to King Sigismund III Vasa of Poland, became Queens of Poland.

In addition to the Habsburg inferior lip, Gregoria Maximiliana suffered from a deformed shoulder and a scarred face.

In 1596, the Admiral of Aragon arrived to Graz and had deliver to the Spanish court portraits of Gregoria Maximiliana and her two younger sisters in marriageable age, Archduchess Eleanor and Archduchess Margaret.

Shortly after, Archduchess Gregoria Maximiliana was betrothed to the Prince of Asturias, future King Felipe III of Spain. Although the Prince, after seeing the portraits, preferred her sister Archduchess Margaret, his father King Felipe II of Spain chose Archduchess Gregoria Maximiliana as his bride, mainly because she was the older sister.

On September 17, 1597, the Prince of Asturias made a visit to the Imperial court in Graz. At this time, Archduchess Gregoria Maximiliana was seriously ill and she compared her suffering to the prisoners of the Turkish sultan. Three days later, she died aged sixteen, and was in buried in Seckau Abbey. Archduchess Gregoria Maximiliana’s fiancé (future King Felipe III of Spain) married her sister Archduchess Margaret, and his first choice, in 1599.

May 18, 1152: The future King Henry II of the English marries Eleanor of Aquitaine

Tags

Annulment, Archbishop of Canterbury, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Empress Matilda, Henry II of England, King Robért II of the Franks, Louis VI of France, Louis VII of France, Pope Eugene III, Theobald of Bec, William X of Aquitaine

Eleanor of Aquitaine (c. 1122 – April 1, 1204)

Eleanor was the daughter of Guillaume X, Duke of Aquitaine, and Aénor de Châtellerault. She became duchess upon her father’s death in April 1137, and three months later she married Louis, son of her guardian King Louis VI of the Franks. A few weeks later, Eleanor’s father-in-law died and her husband succeeded him as King Louis VII of the Franks

Eleanor and Louis VII had two daughters, Marie and Alix. Soon afterwards, she sought an annulment of her marriage, but her request was rejected by Pope Eugene III. Eventually, Louis agreed to an annulment, as fifteen years of marriage had not produced a son.

On March 21, the four archbishops, with the approval of Pope Eugene III, granted an annulment on grounds of consanguinity within the fourth degree; Eleanor was Louis’ third cousin once removed, and shared common ancestry with King Robért II of Franks. Their two daughters were, however, declared legitimate. Custody of the daughters was awarded to King Louis VII. Archbishop Samson received assurances from Louis that Eleanor’s lands would be restored to her.

As Eleanor travelled to Poitiers, two lords—Theobald V, Count of Blois, and Geoffrey, Count of Nantes, brother of Henry II, Duke of Normandy—tried to kidnap and marry her to claim her lands. As soon as she arrived in Poitiers, Eleanor sent envoys to Henry II Duke of Normandy and future King of the English, asking him to come at once to marry her.

King Henry II of the English (March 5, 1133 – July 6, 1189)

Duke Henry II of Normandy was born in Maine at Le Mans on March 5, 1133, the eldest child of the Empress Matilda, and her second husband, Geoffrey V, Plantagenet, Count of Anjou.

His mother, Empress Matilda, was born to Henry I, King of the English and Duke of Normandy, and his first wife, Matilda of Scotland, a daughter of King Malcolm III of Scotland and the Anglo-Saxon Princess Margaret of Wessex, the daughter of the English prince Edward the Exile and his wife Agatha, and also the granddaughter of Edmund Ironside, King of the English.

King Henry I of the English was the youngest son of William the Conqueror, who had invaded England in 1066.

Marriage

On May 18, 1152 (Whit Sunday), eight weeks after her annulment, Eleanor married Henry “without the pomp and ceremony that befitted their rank.”

Eleanor was related to Henry even more closely than she had been to Louis: they were cousins to the third degree through their common ancestor Ermengarde of Anjou, wife of Robért I, Duke of Burgundy and Geoffrey, Count of Gâtinais, and they were also descended from King Robért II of the Franks.

A marriage between Henry and Eleanor’s daughter Marie had earlier been declared impossible due to their status as third cousins once removed. It was rumoured by some that Eleanor had had an affair with Henry’s own father, Geoffrey V, Count of Anjou, who had advised his son to avoid any involvement with her.

On 25 October 1154, Henry became King Henry II of the English. A now heavily pregnant Eleanor, was crowned Queen of the English by Theobald of Bec, the Archbishop of Canterbury, on December 19, 1154. She may not have been anointed on this occasion, however, because she had already been anointed in 1137.

Over the next 13 years, she bore Henry five sons and three daughters: William, Henry, Richard, Geoffrey, John, Matilda, Eleanor, and Joan. Historian John Speed, in his 1611 work History of Great Britain, mentions the possibility that Eleanor had a son named Philip, who died young. His sources no longer exist, and he alone mentions this birth.

Eleanor’s marriage to Henry was reputed to be tumultuous and argumentative, although sufficiently cooperative to produce at least eight pregnancies. Henry was by no means faithful to his wife and had a reputation for philandering; he fathered other, illegitimate, children throughout the marriage.

Eleanor appears to have taken an ambivalent attitude towards these affairs. Geoffrey of York, for example, was an illegitimate son of Henry, but acknowledged by Henry as his child and raised at Westminster in the care of the Queen.

May 12, 1670: Birth of Augustus II the Strong, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland

Tags

Augustus II the Strong, Elector Friedrich August I of Saxony, John George IV of Saxony, Order of the Golden Fleece, Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, War of the Polish Succession

Augustus II (May 12, 1670 – February 1, 1733), most commonly known as Augustus the Strong, was Elector of Saxony from 1694 as well as King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania in the years 1697–1706 and from 1709 until his death in 1733. He belonged to the Albertine line of the House of Wettin.

Early life

Augustus was born in Dresden on May 12, 1670, the younger son of Johann Georg III, Elector of Saxony and Princess Anna Sophie of Denmark, the eldest daughter of King Frederik III of Denmark and Sophie Amalie of Brunswick-Lüneburg.

As the second son, Augustus had no expectation of inheriting the electorate, since his older brother, Johann Georg IV, assumed the post after the death of their father on September 12, 1691. Augustus was well educated, and spent some years in travel and in fighting against France.

Augustus married Cristiane Eberhardine of Brandenburg-Bayreuth in Bayreuth on January 20, 1693, the firstborn child of Christian Ernst, Margrave of Brandenburg-Bayreuth, and his second wife, Princess Sophie Luise of Württemberg, daughter of Eberhard III, Duke of Württemberg. She was named for her father, Christian, and her mother’s father, Eberhard. As the daughter of the Margrave of Brandenburg-Bayreuth, she was margravine by birth. She had five younger siblings, only two of whom survived infancy. She remained close to her relatives in Bayreuth and continued to visit them after her marriage.

While in Venice during the carnival season, his older brother, the Elector Johann Georg IV, contracted smallpox from his mistress Magdalena Sibylla of Neidschutz. On 27 April 1694, Johann Georg died without legitimate issue and Augustus became Elector of Saxony, as Friedrich August I.

Augustus’ great physical strength earned him the nicknames “the Strong”, “the Saxon Hercules” and “Iron-Hand”. He liked to show that he lived up to his name by breaking horseshoes with his bare hands and engaging in fox tossing by holding the end of his sling with just one finger while two of the strongest men in his court held the other end. He is also notable for fathering a very large number of children.

To be eligible for election to the throne of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1697, Augustus had to convert to Roman Catholicism. The Saxon dukes had traditionally been called “champions of the Reformation”. Saxony had been a stronghold of German Protestantism and Augustus’ conversion was therefore considered shocking in Protestant Europe. Although the Prince-Elector guaranteed Saxony’s religious status quo, Augustus’ conversion alienated many of his Protestant subjects.

As a Catholic, he received the Order of the Golden Fleece from the Holy Roman Emperor and established the Order of the White Eagle, Poland’s highest distinction. As Elector of Saxony, he is perhaps best remembered as a patron of the arts and architecture. He transformed the Saxon capital of Dresden into a major cultural centre, attracting artists from across Europe to his court. Augustus also amassed an impressive art collection and built lavish baroque palaces in Dresden and Warsaw. In 1711 he served as the Imperial vicar of the Holy Roman Empire.

His reigns brought Poland some troubled times. He led the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in the Great Northern War, which allowed the Russian Empire to strengthen its influence in Europe, especially within Poland. His main pursuit was bolstering royal power in the Commonwealth, characterized by broad decentralization in comparison with other European monarchies.

He tried to accomplish this goal using foreign powers and thus destabilized the state. Augustus ruled Poland with an interval; in 1704 the Swedes installed nobleman Stanisław Leszczyński as king, who officially reigned from 1706 to 1709 and after Augustus’ death in 1733 which sparked the War of the Polish Succession.

Augustus’ body was buried in Poland’s royal Wawel Cathedral in Kraków, but his heart rests in the Dresden Cathedral. His only legitimate son, Augustus II and his wife, Cristiane Eberhardine of Brandenburg-Bayreuth had a son, Friedrich August II (1696–1763), who succeeded his father as Elector of Saxony and King of Poland as Augustus III.