February 23, 1848: Abdication of Louis Philippe, King of the French

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Abdication, Citizen King, February Revolution 1848, July Monarchy, King Charles X of France, King Louis-Philippe of France, Kings and Queens of France, Louis Philippe, Princess Elizabeth of the United Kingdom

The 1848 Revolution in France, sometimes known as the February Revolution was one of a wave of revolutions in 1848 in Europe. In France the revolutionary events ended the July Monarchy (1830–1848) and led to the creation of the French Second Republic.

Louis Philippe I (October 6, 1773 – August 26, 1850) was King of the French from 1830 to 1848. As Duke of Chartres he distinguished himself commanding troops during the Revolutionary Wars but broke with the Republic over its decision to execute King Louis XVI.

His father was Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans and his mother was Louise Marie Adélaïde de Bourbon. As a member of the reigning House of Bourbon, he was a Prince of the Blood, which entitled him the use of the style “Serene Highness”. His mother was an extremely wealthy heiress who was descended from Louis XIV of France through a legitimized line. His father known as Philippe Égalité during the French Revolution who supported the execution of Louis XVI, fell under suspicion and was executed, and Louis Philippe fled France and remained in exile for 21 years until the Bourbon Restoration.

Marriage

In 1796, Louis Philippe supposedly fathered a child with Beata Caisa Wahlborn (1766-1830) named Erik Kolstrøm (1796-1879). In 1808, Louis Philippe proposed to Princess Elizabeth, daughter of King George III of the United Kingdom. His Catholicism and the opposition of her mother Queen Charlotte meant the Princess reluctantly declined the offer. Louis Philippe struck up a lasting friendship with Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, (father of Queen Victoria) and moved to England, where he remained in exile from 1800 to 1815.

Princess Elizabeth of the United Kingdom

In 1809, Louis Philippe married Princess Maria Amalia of the Two-Sicilies, the tenth of eighteen children of King Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies and Maria Carolina of Austria, herself thirteenth child of Empress Maria Theresa and Holy Roman Emperor Franz I. The ceremony was celebrated in Palermo 25 November 1809. The marriage was considered controversial, because she was the niece of Marie Antoinette of Austria (wife of King Louis XVI of France), while he was the son of Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans who was considered to have played a part in the execution of her aunt.

Princess Maria Amalia of Naples and Sicily

Louis Philippe usurped the throne from his distance cousin Henri de Bourbon, comte de Chambord and was proclaimed king in 1830 after his cousin Charles X was forced to abdicate by the July Revolution. Louis Philippe’s liberal policies and his popularity with the masses was the main reason the Chamber of Deputies chose him as king. Upon his accession to the throne, Louis Philippe assumed the title of King of the French – a title already adopted by Louis XVI in the short-lived Constitution of 1791. Linking the monarchy to a people instead of a territory (as the previous designation King of France and of Navarre) was aimed at undercutting the legitimist claims of Charles X and his family.

The reign of Louis Philippe is known as the July Monarchy and was dominated by wealthy industrialists and bankers. Though initially liberal in his policies Louis Philippe followed conservative policies, especially under the influence of French statesman François Guizot during the period 1840–48. He also promoted friendship with Britain and sponsored colonial expansion, notably the French conquest of Algeria. His popularity faded as economic conditions in France deteriorated in 1847.

The Duke of Orleans in uniform as a Colonel-General of the Hussars in 1817

Nicknamed the “Bourgeois Monarch”, Louis Philippe sat at the head of a state controlled mainly by educated elites. Supported by the Orléanists, he was opposed on his right by the Legitimists (former ultra-royalists) and on his left by the Republicans and Socialists. Louis Philippe was an expert businessman and, by means of his businesses, he had become one of the richest men in France. Still Louis Philippe saw himself as the successful embodiment of a “small businessman” (petite bourgeoisie).

The year 1846 saw a financial crisis and bad harvests, and the following year saw an economic depression. A poor railway system hindered aid efforts, and the peasant rebellions that resulted were forcefully crushed. According to French economist Frédéric Bastiat, the poor condition of the railway system can largely be attributed to French efforts to promote other systems of transport, such as carriages.

Because political gatherings and demonstrations were outlawed in France, activists of the largely middle class opposition to the government began to hold a series of fund-raising banquets. This campaign of banquets (Campagne des banquets), was intended to circumvent the governmental restriction on political meetings and provide a legal outlet for popular criticism of the regime. The campaign began in July 1847. Friedrich Engels was in Paris dating from October 1847 and was able to observe and attend some of these banquets.

The banquet campaign lasted until all political banquets were outlawed by the French government in February 1848. As a result, the people revolted, helping to unite the efforts of the popular Republicans and the liberal Orléanists, who turned their back on Louis-Philippe.

Anger over the outlawing of the political banquets brought crowds of Parisians flooding out onto the streets at noon on 22 February 1848. They directed their anger against the Citizen King Louis Philippe and his chief minister for foreign and domestic policy, François Pierre Guillaume Guizot.

Alphonse de Lamartine in front of the Town Hall of Paris rejects the red flag on 25 February 1848, during the February 1848 Revolution

At 2 pm the next day, February 23, Prime Minister Guizot resigned. Upon hearing the news of Guizot’s resignation, a large crowd gathered outside the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. An officer ordered the crowd not to pass, but people in the front of the crowd were being pushed by the rear. The officer ordered his men to fix bayonets, probably wishing to avoid shooting, but in what is widely regarded as an accident, a soldier discharged his musket and the rest of the soldiers then fired into the crowd. Fifty-two people were killed.

Fires were set, and angry citizens began converging on the royal palace. Louis-Philippe, fearing for his life, abdicated in favor of his nine-year-old grandson Philippe, Comte de Paris and fled to England in disguise. A strong undercurrent of republican sentiment prevented Philippe, Comte de Paris from taking his place as king.

Louis-Philippe (1773-1850), The Citizen King by Eugène Lami

Louis Philippe and his family remained in exile in Great Britain in Claremont, Surrey, though a plaque on Angel Hill, Bury St. Edmunds claims that he spent some time there, possibly due to a friendship with the Marquess of Bristol, who lived nearby at Ickworth House. The royal couple spent some time by the sea at St. Leonards and later at the Marquess’s home in Brighton. Louis Philippe died at Claremont on August 26, 1850.

February 23, 1934: King Leopold III succeeded to the throne of Belgium following the death of his father King Albert I.

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Abdication, King Albert I of Belgium, King Albert II of Belgium, King Baudouin of Belgium, King Leopold III of Belgium, Princess Astrid of Sweden, Royal Question, Succession, World War ii

Leopold III (November 3, 1901 – September 25, 1983) was King of the Belgians from 1934 until 1951, when he abdicated in favour of the heir apparent, his son

Prince Leopold was born in Brussels, the first child of King Albert I of the Belgians and his consort, Duchess Elisabeth in Bavaria.* In 1909 his father became King of the Belgians, as Albert I, and Prince Leopold became Duke of Brabant, the title of the heir to the Belgian throne.

Astrid (far right) with her mother and sisters

Prince Leopold married Princess Astrid of Sweden in a civil ceremony in Stockholm on November 4, 1926, followed by a religious ceremony in Brussels on November 10. Princess Astrid was the third child and youngest daughter of Prince Carl, Duke of Västergötland, and his wife, Princess Ingeborg of Denmark.

Her father was the third son of Oscar II, King of Sweden and Norway, by his wife, Sophia of Nassau. Her mother was a daughter of King Frederick VIII of Denmark by his wife, Louise of Sweden. Astrid’s father was a younger brother of King Gustav V of Sweden, and her mother was the younger sister of kings Christian X of Denmark and Haakon VII of Norway. The marriage produced three children:

1. Princess Joséphine-Charlotte of Belgium, (October 11, 1927 – January 10, 2005) Grand Duchess consort of Luxembourg, through married on to Prince Jean, Grand Duke of Luxembourg.
2. King Baudouin of Belgium, Duke of Brabant, Count of Hainaut, (September 7, 1930 – July 31, 1993).
3. King Albert II of Belgium, Prince of Liège, (June 6, 1934 -) He abdicated in July 2013.

On August 29, 1935, while the king and queen were driving along the winding, narrow roads near their villa at Küssnacht am Rigi, Schwyz, Switzerland, on the shores of Lake Lucerne, Leopold lost control of the car which plunged into the lake, killing Queen Astrid.

Leopold married Lilian Baels on September 11, 1941 in a secret, religious ceremony, with no validity under Belgian law. The new Princess of Réthy was soon expecting their first child, the ceremony took place on December 6, 1941. They had three children in total:

1. Prince Alexandre of Belgium, (July 18, 1942 – November 29, 2009) married Léa Wolman.
2. Princess Marie-Christine of Belgium, (February 6, 1951 -) Her first marriage, to Paul Drucker in 1981, lasted 40 days (and formally divorced in 1985); she subsequently married Jean-Paul Gourges in 1989.
3. Princess Marie-Esméralda of Belgium, (September 30, 1956 – ) a journalist, her professional name is Esmeralda de Réthy. She married pharmacologist Salvador Moncada in 1998. They have a son and a daughter.

The Duke of Brabant succeeded to the throne of Belgium on February 23, 1934, as King Leopold III following the death of his father King Albert I.

The controversial reign of Leopold III would need several blog entries to detail this complex topic and which I will do in the future. Therefore today, I will simply summarize the information.

King Leopold III during World War II

Leopold’s controversial actions during the Second World War resulted in a political crisis known as the Royal Question. The Royal Question was a major political crisis in Belgium that lasted from 1945 to 1951, coming to a head between March and August 1950. During Leopold’s exile from 1944 until 1950, Leopold’s brother, Charles, served as prince regent while Leopold was declared unable to reign.

The “question” at stake surrounded whether King Leopold III could return to the country and resume his royal duties as King of the Belgians amid allegations that his actions during World War II had gone contrary to the provisions of the Belgian Constitution. In 1950, following a referendum, Leopold was allowed to return from exile to Belgium, but the continuing political instability pressured him to abdicate on July 16, 1951 in favor of his eldest son Baudouin.

In retirement, he followed his passion as an amateur social anthropologist and entomologist and travelled the world, collecting zoological specimens. Two species of reptiles are named after him, Gehyra leopoldi and Polemon leopoldi. He went to Senegal and strongly criticized the French decolonization process, and he explored the Orinoco and the Amazon with Heinrich Harrer.

Leopold died in 1983 in Woluwe-Saint-Lambert aged 81, following emergency heart surgery. He was interred next to Queen Astrid in the royal vault at the Church of Our Lady of Laeken. Leopold’s second wife, the Princess de Réthy, was later interred with them.

Notable royal descendants

As of 2020 two of Leopold’s grandsons are reigning monarchs: Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg since 2000, and King Philippe of Belgium since 2013.

* Duchess Elisabeth in Bavaria was the daughter of Karl-Theodor, Duke in Bavaria, head of a cadet branch of the Bavarian Royal Family and an ophthalmologist. She was named after her father’s sister, Empress Elisabeth of Austria, better known as Sisi, wife of Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungry. Her mother was Maria Josepha of Portugal, daughter of exiled Miguel I of Portugal and his wife Adelaide of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg.

February 22, 1403: Birth of King Charles VII of France

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Agnès Sorel, Dauphin of France, Isabeau of Bavaria-Ingolstadt, Joan of Arc, King Charles VI of France, King Charles VIII of France, King Henry VI of England, Kings of france, Maid of Orléans, Marie of Anjou

Charles VII (February 22, 1403 – July 22, 1461), called the Victorious or the Well-Served was King of France from October 21, 1422 to his death on July 22, 1461.

Charles VII was born at the Hôtel Saint-Pol, the royal residence in Paris, the eleventh child and fifth son of Charles VI of France and Isabeau of Bavaria-Ingolstadt, the eldest daughter of Duke Stephen III of Bavaria-Ingolstadt and Taddea Visconti of Milan. Charles was given the title of comte de Ponthieu at his birth in 1403. His four elder brothers, Charles (1386), Charles (1392–1401), Louis (1397–1415) and Jean (1398–1417) had each held the title of Dauphin of France (heir to the French Throne) in turn. All died childless, leaving Charles with a rich inheritance of titles.

Charles VII inherited the throne of France in the midst of the Hundred Years’ War, under desperate circumstances. Forces of the Kingdom of England and the Duke of Burgundy occupied Guyenne and northern France, including Paris, the most populous city, and Reims, the city in which the French kings were traditionally crowned. In addition, his father Charles VI had disinherited him in 1420 and recognized Henry V of England and his heirs as the legitimate successors to the French crown instead. At the same time, a civil war raged in France between the Armagnacs (supporters of the House of Valois) and the Burgundian party (supporters of the House of Valois-Burgundy allied to the English).

Marie of Anjou

On December 18, 1422, Charles married his second cousin Marie of Anjou the eldest daughter of Duke Louis II of Anjou, claimant to the throne of Naples, and Yolande of Aragon, claimant to the throne of Aragon. They were both great-grandchildren of King Jean II of France and his first wife Bonne of Bohemia through the male line. They had fourteen children. But whatever affection he may have had for his wife, or whatever gratitude he may have felt for the support of her family, the great love of Charles VII’s life was his mistress, Agnès Sorel.

Political conditions in France took a decisive turn in the year 1429 just as the prospects for the Dauphin began to look hopeless. The town of Orléans had been under siege since October 1428. The English regent, the Duke of Bedford (the uncle of Henry VI), was advancing into the Duchy of Bar, ruled by Charles’s brother-in-law, René. The French lords and soldiers loyal to Charles were becoming increasingly desperate. Then in the little village of Domrémy, on the border of Lorraine and Champagne, a teenage girl named Joan of Arc (French: Jeanne d’Arc), demanded that the garrison commander at Vaucouleurs, Robert de Baudricourt, collect the soldiers and resources necessary to bring her to the Dauphin at Chinon, stating that visions of angels and saints had given her a divine mission. Granted an escort of five veteran soldiers and a letter of referral to Charles by Lord Baudricourt, Joan rode to see Charles at Chinon. She arrived on February 23, 1429.

Joan of Arc

What followed would become famous. When Joan appeared at Chinon, Charles wanted to test her claim to be able to recognise him despite never having seen him, and so he disguised himself as one of his courtiers. He stood in their midst when Joan entered the chamber in which the court was assembled. Joan identified Charles immediately. She bowed low to him and embraced his knees, declaring “God give you a happy life, sweet King!” Despite attempts to claim that another man was in fact the king, Charles was eventually forced to admit that he was indeed such. Thereafter Joan referred to him as “Dauphin” or “Noble Dauphin” until he was crowned in Reims four months later. After a private conversation between the two (Charles later stated that Joan knew secrets about him that he had voiced only in silent prayer to God), Charles became inspired and filled with confidence.

Joan of Arc at the coronation of Charles VII with her white flag

After her encounter with Charles in March 1429, Joan of Arc set out to lead the French forces at Orléans. She was aided by skilled commanders such as Étienne de Vignolles, known as La Hire, and Jean Poton de Xaintrailles. They compelled the English to lift the siege on May 8, 1429, thus turning the tide of the war. The French won the Battle of Patay on June 18, at which the English field army lost about half its troops. After pushing further into English and Burgundian-controlled territory, Charles was crowned King Charles VII of France in Reims Cathedral on July 17, 1429.

Joan was later captured by Burgundian troops under John of Luxembourg at the siege of Compiègne on May 24, 1430. The Burgundians handed her over to their English allies. Tried for heresy by a court composed of pro-English clergy such as Pierre Cauchon, who had long served the English occupation government, she was burned at the stake on May 30, 1431.

February 21, 1728: birth of Emperor Peter III of Russia

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Carl XII of Sweden, Catherine II of Russia, Charles Friedrich, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, Empress Elizabeth of Russia, Peter III of Russia, Russian Emperors, Russian Empire

Peter III (February 21, 1728 – July, 16, 1762) was Emperor of Russia for six months in 1762. He was born in Kiel as Charles Peter Ulrich of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp the only child of Charles Friedrich, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp (the son of Hedvig Sophia of Sweden, sister of Carl XII), and Anna Petrovna (the elder surviving daughter of Emperor Peter I the Great and Empress Catherine I of Russia). His mother died shortly after his birth. In 1739, Peter’s father died, and he became Duke of Holstein-Gottorp as Charles Peter Ulrich The German Peter could hardly speak Russian and pursued a strongly pro-Prussian policy, which made him an unpopular leader.

When Elizabeth, his mother’s younger sister, became Empress of Russia, she brought Peter from Germany to Russia and proclaimed him her heir presumptive in the autumn of 1742. Previously in 1742, the 14-year-old Peter was proclaimed King of Finland during the Russo-Swedish War (1741–1743), when Russian troops held Finland. This proclamation was based on his succession rights to territories held by his childless great-uncle, the late Carl XII of Sweden, who also had been Grand Duke of Finland.

Portrait of the Grand Duchess Ekaterina Alekseyevna around the time of her wedding, by George Christoph Grooth, 1745.

Empress Elizabeth arranged for Peter to marry his 2nd cousin, Sophia Augusta Frederica (later Catherine the Great), daughter of Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst and Princess Joanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp. The young princess formally converted to Russian Orthodoxy and took the name Ekaterina Alexeievna (i.e., Catherine). They married on August 21, 1745. The marriage was not a happy one but produced one son, the future Emperor Paul, and one daughter, Anna Petrovna (December 20, 1757 – March 19, 1759). Catherine later claimed that Paul was not fathered by Peter: that, in fact, they had never consummated the marriage.

Peter succeeded to the Russian throne (January 5, 1762) he withdrew Russian forces from the Seven Years’ War and concluded a peace treaty (May 5, 1762) with Prussia (dubbed the “Second Miracle of the House of Brandenburg”). He gave up Russian conquests in Prussia and offered 12,000 troops to make an alliance with Friedrich II of Prussia (June 19, 1762). Russia thus switched from an enemy of Prussia to an ally — Russian troops withdrew from Berlin and marched against the Austrians.

Despite his generally poor reputation, Peter made some progressive reforms during his short reign. The reign of Peter III is cast as progressive for its focus on transforming economically developed feudal Russia to a more advanced European state. During his 186-day period of government, Peter III passed 220 new laws that he had developed and elaborated during his life as a crown prince. He proclaimed religious freedom (a very enlightened move for the time) and encouraged education. He sought to modernize the Russian army. He abolished the secret police, which had been infamous for its extreme violence, and made it illegal for landowners to kill their serfs without going to court. Catherine adopted some of his reforms and reverted others.

It has been theorized that he wasn’t deposed for political reasons and was in fact murdered for personal reasons. He was deposed and possibly assassinated as a result of a conspiracy led by his German wife, Princess Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst, who succeeded him to the throne as Catherine II. With the aid of the two Guards troops that Peter had planned to discipline more harshly, the emperor was arrested and forced to abdicate on July 9, 1762. Shortly thereafter, he was transported to Ropsha, where he was supposedly assassinated, although it is unknown how Peter died. However, one theory is that he died as a result of a drunken brawl with his bodyguard while he was being held captive after Catherine’s coup.

February 14, 1014: Heinrich II is crowned Emperor by Pope Benedict VIII

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coronation, Duke Boleslaw I of Poland, Holy Roman Emperor, Holy Roman Emperor Henry II, Holy Roman Emperor Otto III, Holy Roman Empire, King of Germany, Pope Benedict VIII, St. Cunigunde of Luxembourg, St. Peter's Basilica

Heinrich II (May 6, 973 – July 13, 1024), also known as Saint Heinrich II the Exuberant, was Holy Roman Emperor (“Romanorum Imperator“) from 1014. He died in 1024 and was without an heir the last ruler in the imperial Ottonian line. As Duke of Bavaria, appointed in 995, Heinrich II became King of Germany (“Rex Romanorum“) following the sudden death of his second cousin, Emperor Otto III in 1002, was made King of Italy (“Rex Italiae“) in 1004.

Heinrich II was born in May 973, the son of Duke Heinrich II, Duke of Bavaria, and Gisela of Burgundy. Through his father, he was the grandson of Heinrich I Duke of Bavaria, and the great-grandson of King Heinrich I (The Fowler) of Germany. By his mother, he was the grandson of King Conrad I of Burgundy, and the great-grandson of King Rudolf II of Burgundy.

Royal Standard of the Holy Roman Empire

In 999 Heinrich II married St. Cunigunde of Luxembourg. This marriage granted him an extensive network of contacts in Germany’s western territories. St. Cunigunde was one of eleven children born to Count Siegfried I of Luxembourg (922 – August 15, 998) and a woman called Hedwig. Numerous genealogists have tried to find out which Hedwig it is, there are different views.

One of the most famous theses regarding her identity is from Joseph Depoin, who claims that Hedwig is the daughter of Duke Gilbert of Lorraine and his wife Gerberga of Saxony, the daughter of Heinrich I of Saxony. If this is correct, then Cunigunde married her distant cousin. Because Heinrich II was strongly against consanguineous marriage, it is assumed that this can not be. It can also often be read, that she is the daughter of Berthold of Schweinfurt from the House of Babenberg and Eilika of Walbeck, daughter of Count Lothar. Cunigundes paternal grandmother, also called Cunigunde, was a Carolingian. So Cunigunde of Luxembourg was a seventh-generation descendant of Charlemagne.

Heinrich II crowned as Emperor by Pope Benedict VIII in 1014.

in 1012, Benedict VIII was elected to succeed him. Upon assuming the chair of St. Peter, however, Benedict VIII was forced to flee Rome by Gregory VI, an antipope, whom John Crescentius installed as the new head of the Catholic Church. Fleeing across the Alps to Germany, Benedict VIII appealed to Heinrich II for protection. Heinrich II agreed to restore Benedict VIII to his papal throne in return for his coronation as Emperor.

Near the end of 1013, Heinrich II gathered his army at Augsburg to march into Italy. Earlier in 1013, Heinrich II signed a peace treaty with Duke Bolesław I of Poland at Merseburg. The peace with Poland gave Heinrich II opportunity to address affairs in Italy. On the march across the Alps, Henry was accompanied by his wife, Queen Cunigunde and a number of clerics. Upon reaching Pavia other bishops and abbots joined him. Heinrich II’s forces trapped the King of Italy Arduin in his capital of Ivrea, where he remained until 1015.

Heinrich II arrived in Rome in early 1014, restoring Benedict VIII as Pope. On February 14, 1014, the Pope crowned Heinrich II as Holy Roman Emperor (“Romanorum Imperator“) in St. Peter’s Basilica. Then, under the presidency of the Emperor and Pope, the two held a synod in Rome, appointed five bishops, issued decrees against simony and promoting chastity within the clergy, and ordered the restitution of Church property. Shortly afterwards, the Emperor moved north again where he established the Diocese of Bobbio. Celebrating Easter in Pavia, Italy, Heinrich II then returned to Germany in mid-May 1014. He left the rule of Rome to the Pope and thereafter rarely intervened in the politics of Italy or the Papal States.

On this date in History: February 13, 1542 Execution of Catherine Howard, 5th wife of King Henry VIII of England and Ireland.

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Anne of Cleves, Beheaded, Catherine Howard, Duke of Norfolk, Earl of Surrey, Henry Howard, King Henry VIII of England, Kingdom of Ireland, Lady Rochford, Royal Assent, Six Wives of Henry VIII, Thomas Culpeper, Tower of London

On this date in History: February 13, 1542 Execution of Catherine Howard, 5th wife of King Henry VIII of England and Ireland.

Catherine Howard (c. 1523 – February 13, 1542) was Queen of England from 1540 until 1541, as the fifth wife of Henry VIII. She (then 16 or 17) married him (then 49) on July 28, 1540, at Oatlands Palace, in Surrey, almost immediately after the annulment of his marriage to Anne of Cleves was arranged.

Catherine’s uncle, the Duke of Norfolk, found her a place at Court in the household of the King’s fourth wife, Anne of Cleves. As a young and attractive lady-in-waiting, Catherine quickly caught Henry’s eye. The King had displayed little interest in Anne from the beginning, but on Cromwell’s failure to find a new match for Henry, Norfolk saw an opportunity. The Howards may have sought to recreate the influence gained during Queen Anne’s reign. According to Nicholas Sander, the religiously conservative Howard family may have seen Catherine as a figurehead for their fight by expressed determination to restore Roman Catholicism to England. Catholic Bishop Stephen Gardiner entertained the couple at Winchester Palace with “feastings”.

As the King’s interest in Catherine grew, so did the house of Norfolk’s influence. Her youth, prettiness and vivacity were captivating for the middle-aged sovereign, who claimed he had never known “the like to any woman”. Within months of her arrival at court, Henry bestowed gifts of land and expensive cloth upon Catherine. Henry called her his ‘rose without a thorn’ and the ‘very jewel of womanhood’. The French ambassador, Charles de Marillac, thought her “delightful”. Holbein’s portrait showed a young auburn-haired girl with a characteristically hooked Howard nose; Catherine was said to have a “gentle, earnest face.”

King Henry VIII and Catherine were married by Bishop Bonner of London at Oatlands Palace on 28 July 1540, the same day Cromwell was executed. The marriage was made public on August 8, and prayers were said in the Chapel Royal at Hampton Court Palace. Henry “indulged her every whim” thanks to her “caprice”. Catherine was young, joyous and carefree; Mannox had taught her to play the virginals. She was too young to take part in administrative matters of State. Nevertheless, every night Sir Thomas Heneage, Groom of the Stool, came to her chamber to report on the King’s well-being.

Downfall

It was alleged that, in spring 1541, Catherine had already embarked upon a romance with Henry’s favourite male courtier, Thomas Culpeper, a young man who “had succeeded [him] in the Queen’s affections”, according to Dereham’s later testimony. Culpeper called Catherine “my little, sweet fool” in a love letter; she considered marrying him during her time as a maid-of-honour to Anne of Cleves. The couple’s meetings were arranged by one of Catherine’s older ladies-in-waiting, Jane Boleyn, Viscountess Rochford (Lady Rochford), the widow of Catherine’s executed cousin, George Boleyn, Anne Boleyn’s brother.

During the autumn Northern Progress, a crisis began to loom over Catherine’s conduct. People who had witnessed her earlier indiscretions while still a ward at Lambeth, contacted her for favours in return for their silence, and many of them were appointed to her royal household. The brother of Mary Lascelles, John Lascelles, tried to convince his sister to find a place within the Queen’s royal chamber, however, Mary refused stating she had witnessed the “light” ways of Queen Catherine while living together at Lambeth. After hearing this John Lascelles reported such news to Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, who then interrogated Lascelles’ sister and upon doing so became informed of Catherine’s previous illicit sexual relations while under the Duchess’ care.

Cranmer immediately took up the case to be made to topple his rivals—the Roman Catholic Norfolk family. Lady Rochford was interrogated, and from fear of being tortured, agreed to tell all. She told how she had watched for Catherine backstairs as Culpeper had made his escapes from the Queen’s room. During the investigation, a love letter written in the Queen’s distinctive handwriting was found in Culpeper’s chambers. This is the only letter of hers that still survives (other than her later confession).

On All Saints’ Day, November 1, 1541, the King was to be found in the Chapel Royal, praying as usual for this “jewel of womanhood”. He received there a warrant of the queen’s arrest that described her crimes. On November 7, 1541, Archbishop Cranmer led a delegation of councillors to Winchester Palace, Southwark, to question her. Even the staunch Cranmer found Catherine’s frantic, incoherent state pitiable, saying, “I found her in such lamentation and heaviness as I never saw no creature, so that it would have pitied any man’s heart to have looked upon her.” He ordered the guards to remove any objects that she might use to commit suicide.

Imprisonment and death

Establishing the existence of a precontract between Catherine and Dereham would have had the effect of terminating Catherine’s royal union, but it also would have allowed Henry to annul their marriage and banish her from Court, in poverty and disgrace, without having to execute her. Yet still she steadfastly denied any precontract, maintaining that Dereham had raped her.

Catherine was stripped of her title as queen on November 23, 1541, and imprisoned in the new Syon Abbey, Middlesex, formerly a convent, where she remained throughout the winter of 1541. She was forced by a Privy Councillor to return Anne of Cleves’ ring that the King had given her; it was a symbol of her regal and lawful rights. The King would be at Hampton Court, but she would not see him again. Despite these actions taken against her, her marriage to Henry was never formally annulled.

Culpeper and Dereham were arraigned at Guildhall on December 1, 1541 for high treason. They were executed at Tyburn on December 10, 1541, Culpeper being beheaded and Dereham being hanged, drawn and quartered. According to custom, their heads were placed on spikes atop of London Bridge. Many of Catherine’s relatives were also detained in the Tower with the exception of her uncle, the Duke of Norfolk, who had sufficiently distanced himself from the scandal by retreating to Kenninghall to write a grovelling letter of apology to the King.

Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk

The Duke Norfolk’s son, Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, the poet, remained a favourite of the King. The duke knew his family had fallen from grace, wrote an apology on December 14 to the King, excusing himself and laying all the blame on his niece and stepmother. All of the Howard prisoners were tried, found guilty of concealing treason, and sentenced to life imprisonment and forfeiture of goods. In time, they were released with their goods restored. The King sank into depression and indulged his appetite for food.

Catherine herself remained in limbo until Parliament introduced a bill of attainder on January 29, 1542, which was passed on February 7, 1542. The Royal Assent by Commission Act 1541 made it treason, and punishable by death, for a queen consort to fail to disclose her sexual history to the king within twenty days of their marriage, or to incite someone to commit adultery with her. This solved the matter of Catherine’s supposed precontract and made her unequivocally guilty.

When the Lords of the Council came for her, she panicked and screamed aloud, as they manhandled her into the waiting barge that would escort her to the Tower on Friday February 10, 1542, her flotilla passing under London Bridge where the heads of Culpeper and Dereham were impaled (and remained until 1546). Entering through the Traitors’ Gate she was led to her prison cell. The next day, the bill of attainder received Royal Assent, and Catherine’s execution was scheduled for 7:00 am on Monday, February 13, 1542. Arrangements for the execution were supervised by Sir John Gage in his role as Constable of the Tower.

The night before her execution, Catherine is believed to have spent many hours practising how to lay her head upon the block, which had been brought to her at her request. She died with relative composure, but looked pale and terrified; she required assistance to climb the scaffold. She made a speech describing her punishment as “worthy and just” and asked for mercy for her family and prayers for her soul. According to popular folklore, her final words were, “I die a Queen, but I would rather have died the wife of Culpeper,” however no eyewitness accounts support this. Instead, reporting that she stuck to traditional final words, asking for forgiveness for her sins and acknowledging that she deserved to die ‘a thousand deaths’ for betraying the king; who had always treated her so graciously. Catherine was beheaded with a single stroke of the executioner’s axe. She was about 18 or 19 years old.

Lady Rochford was executed immediately thereafter on Tower Green. Both their bodies were buried in an unmarked grave in the nearby chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula, where the bodies of Catherine’s cousins Anne and George Boleyn also lay. Other cousins were also in the crowd, including the Earl of Surrey. King Henry VIII did not attend. Catherine’s body was not one of those identified during restorations of the chapel during Queen Victoria’s reign. She is commemorated on a plaque on the west wall dedicated to all those who died in the Tower. Upon hearing news of Catherine’s execution, Francis I of France wrote a letter to Henry, regretting the “lewd and naughty [evil] behaviour of the Queen” and advising him that “the lightness of women cannot bend the honour of men”.

Life of Elizabeth of York: (February 11, 1466 – February 11, 1503)

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Arthur Prince of Wales, Edward IV of England, Edward V of England, Edward VI of England, Elizabeth I of England, Elizabeth of York, Elizabeth Woodville, Henry VII of England, Henry VIII of England, James VI-I of Scotland and England, Kings and Queens of England, Mary I of England, Mary I of Scotland, Richard III of England

Elizabeth of York (February 11, 1466 – February 11, 1503) was the first queen consort of England of the Tudor dynasty from January 18, 1486 until her death, as the wife of Henry VII. She married Henry in 1485 after his victory at the Battle of Bosworth Field, which marked the end of the Wars of the Roses. Together, Elizabeth and Henry had seven, possibly eight, children.

Elizabeth of York was born at the Palace of Westminster as the eldest child of King Edward IV and his wife, Elizabeth Woodville. In 1469, aged three, she was briefly betrothed to George Neville. His father John later supported George’s uncle, the Earl of Warwick, in rebellion against King Edward IV, and the betrothal was called off. In 1475, Louis XI agreed to the marriage of nine-year-old Elizabeth of York to his son Charles, the Dauphin of France. In 1482, however, Louis XI reneged on his promise. She was named a Lady of the Garter in 1477, at age eleven, along with her mother and her paternal aunt Elizabeth of York, Duchess of Suffolk.

Elizabeth of York, Queen of England

After the death of her father, King Edward IV, Elizabeth’s brothers the “Princes in the Tower” disappeared, their fate uncertain. Although the 1484 act of Parliament Titulus Regius declared the marriage of her parents, Edward and Elizabeth Woodville, invalid, she and her sisters were subsequently welcomed back to court by Edward’s brother, King Richard III. As a Yorkist princess, the final victory of the Lancastrian faction in the War of the Roses may have seemed a further disaster, but Henry Tudor knew the importance of Yorkist support for his invasion and promised to marry Elizabeth before he arrived in England. This may well have contributed to the hemorrhaging of Yorkist support for Richard.

Although Elizabeth seems to have played little part in politics, her marriage appears to have been a successful one. Her eldest son Arthur, Prince of Wales, died at age 15 in 1502, and three other children died young. Her second, and only surviving, son became King Henry VIII of England, while her daughters Mary and Margaret became queen of France and queen of Scotland, respectively.

In 1502, Elizabeth of York became pregnant once more and spent her confinement period in the Tower of London. On February 2, 1503, she gave birth to a daughter, Katherine, but the child died a few days afterwards. Succumbing to a post partum infection, Elizabeth of York died on February 11, 1503 which was also her 37th birthday. Her husband and children appear to have mourned her death deeply. According to one account, Henry Tudor “privily departed to a solitary place and would no man should resort unto him.”

Henry VII entertained thoughts of remarriage to renew the alliance with Spain — Joanna, Dowager Queen of Naples (daughter of Ferdinand I of Naples), Joanna, Queen of Castile (daughter of Fernando II-V and Isabella I), and Margaret, Dowager Duchess of Savoy (sister-in-law of Joanna of Castile), were all considered — but he died a widower in 1509. The specifications that Henry gave to his ambassadors outlining what he wanted in a second wife described Elizabeth. On each anniversary of her death, he decreed that a requiem mass be sung, the bells be tolled, and 100 candles be lit in her honour. Henry also continued to employ her minstrels each New Year.

Elizabeth of York had the distinction of being the daughter of a king (Edward IV), sister of a king (Edward V), niece of a king (Richard III), wife of a king (Henry VII), the mother of a king (Henry VIII), mother of two queen consorts (Margaret, Queen of Scotland & Mary, Queen of France), and the grandmother of two kings and queens (Edward VI of England, James V of Scotland, Queen Mary I of England, Queen Elizabeth I of England), the grand mother and great-grandmother of sovereigns (Queen Mary I of Scotland and her son James VI-I of Scotland and England) and so forth. Actually, many modern royals, including Elizabeth II, trace their line through her daughter Margaret.

Elizabeth of York was a renowned beauty, inheriting her parents’ fair hair and complexion. All other Tudor monarchs inherited her reddish gold hair and the trait became synonymous with the dynasty.

February 10, 1842: Marriage of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

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Duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Emperor Alexander II of Russia, King Leopold I of Belgium, Lord Melbourne, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Privy Council, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, royal wedding, United Kingdom of Great Britain, William IV of the United Kingdom

On this date in history: February 10, 1840. Her Majesty Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland married her maternal first cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

Victoria once complained to her Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne, that her mother’s close proximity promised “torment for many years”, Melbourne sympathized but said it could be avoided by marriage, which Victoria called a “schocking alternative”. Although a marriage between Victoria and her cousin Prince Albert had been encouraged by the Coburg family, specifically King Leopold I of the Belgians since 1936, Victoria was ambivalent at best toward the arrangement.

The idea of marriage between Albert and his cousin, Victoria, was first documented in an 1821 letter from his paternal grandmother, the Dowager Duchess of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, (Countess Augusta of Reuss-Ebersdorf) who said that he was “the pendant to the pretty cousin”.

Victoria did however, show interest in Albert’s education for the future role he would have to play as her husband, but she resisted attempts to rush her into any marriage. Her uncle, King William IV of the United Kingdom, preferred that Victoria marry her paternal first cousin, Prince George of Cambridge. William IV also favored the suit of Prince Alexander of the Netherlands, second son of the Prince of Orange, future King Willem II. Victoria was well aware of the various matrimonial plans and critically appraised a parade of eligible princes.

In 1839, Tsesarevich Alexander Nikolaevich, the eldest son of Emperor Nicholas I of Russia and Charlotte of Prussia (daughter of King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia and of Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz), was sent on a tour of Europe by his parents where he met twenty-year-old Queen Victoria and both were enamored of each other. Simon Sebag Montefiore speculates that a small romance emerged. Such a marriage, however, would not work, as Alexander was not a minor prince of Europe and was in line to inherit a throne himself. In March 1855 Tsesarevich Alexander Nikolaevich became Emperor Alexander II of Russia.

Following Albert’s second visit to Queen Victoria in October of 1839, along with his brother Ernst, Victoria continued to praise Him and it was during this visit that genuine romantic feelings began to stir for her. Victoria wrote to her uncle Leopold I of the Belgians to thank him “for the prospect of great happiness you have contributed to give me, in the person of dear Albert … He possesses every quality that could be desired to render me perfectly happy.”

Albert and Victoria felt mutual affection and the Queen proposed to him on October 15, 1839, just five days after he had arrived at Windsor. Victoria’s intention to marry Albert was declared formally to the Privy Council on November 23.

The couple were married on February 10, 1840, in the Chapel Royal of St James’s Palace, London. Victoria was besotted. She spent the evening after their wedding lying down with a headache, but wrote ecstatically in her diary:

I NEVER, NEVER spent such an evening!!! MY DEAREST DEAREST DEAR Albert … his excessive love & affection gave me feelings of heavenly love & happiness I never could have hoped to have felt before! He clasped me in his arms, & we kissed each other again & again! His beauty, his sweetness & gentleness – really how can I ever be thankful enough to have such a Husband! … to be called by names of tenderness, I have never yet heard used to me before – was bliss beyond belief! Oh! This was the happiest day of my life!

Just before the marriage, Albert was naturalized by an Act of Parliament  and granted the style of Royal Highness by an Order in Council. This style was only legal in Britain and under the German system of styles and titles Prince Albert remained His Serene Highness. Lord Melbourne advised against the Queen’s strong desire to grant her husband the title of “King Consort”. Parliament even refused to make Prince Albert a peer of the realm—(granting him a title of nobility) partly because of anti-German sentiment and a desire to exclude Albert from any political role.

Initially Albert was not popular with the British public; he was perceived to be from an impoverished and undistinguished minor state, barely larger than a small English county.  In time Albert became an important political adviser as well as the Queen’s companion, replacing Lord Melbourne as the dominant, influential figure in the first half of her life.

February 8, 1587: Execution of Mary I, Queen of Scotland.

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Elizabeth I of England, Fotheringhay, Fotheringhay Castle, James I of England, James VI of Scotland, James VI-I of Scotland and England, Kingdom of England, Kingdom of Scotland, Mary Queen of Scots, Queen Mary I of Scotland

Mary I, Queen of Scots (December 8, 1542 – February 8, 1587), reigned over Scotland from December 8, 1542 to July 24, 1567.

Mary was born on December 8, 1542 at Linlithgow Palace, Scotland, to King James V and his French second wife, Mary of Guise. She was said to have been born prematurely and was the only legitimate child of James’ to survive him. She was the great-niece of King Henry VIII of England, as her paternal grandmother, Margaret Tudor, was Henry VIII’s sister. On December 14, six days after her birth, she became Queen of Scotland when her father died, perhaps from the effects of a nervous collapse following the Battle of Solway Moss or from drinking contaminated water while on campaign.

She spent most of her childhood in France while Scotland was ruled by regents, and in 1558, she married the Dauphin of France, François. Mary was queen consort of France from his accession in 1559 until his death in December 1560. Widowed, Mary returned to Scotland, arriving in Leith on August 9, 1561. Four years later, she married her half-cousin, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, and in June 1566 they had a son, James, who became King James VI of Scotland in 1567 after his mother’s abdication and King James I of England in 1603, after the death of Queen Elizabeth I, uniting the two realms in personal union.

After an unsuccessful attempt to regain the throne, she fled southward seeking the protection of her first cousin once removed, Queen Elizabeth I of England. Mary had once claimed Elizabeth’s throne as her own and was considered the legitimate sovereign of England by many English Catholics, including participants in a rebellion known as the Rising of the North. Perceiving Mary as a threat, Elizabeth had her confined in various castles and manor houses in the interior of England.

In May 1569, Elizabeth attempted to mediate the restoration of Mary in return for guarantees of the Protestant religion, but a convention held at Perth rejected the deal overwhelmingly. The Duke of Norfolk continued to scheme for a marriage with Mary, and Elizabeth imprisoned him in the Tower of London between October 1569 and August 1570. Early the following year, James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray (illegitimate son of James V of Scotland) was assassinated. His death coincided with a rebellion in the North of England, led by Catholic earls, which persuaded Elizabeth that Mary was a threat. English troops intervened in the Scottish civil war, consolidating the power of the anti-Marian forces. Elizabeth’s principal secretaries, Sir Francis Walsingham and William Cecil, Lord Burghley, watched Mary carefully with the aid of spies placed in her household.

In 1584, Mary proposed an “association” with her son, James. She announced that she was ready to stay in England, to renounce the Pope’s bull of excommunication, and to retire, abandoning her pretensions to the English Crown. She also offered to join an offensive league against France. For Scotland, she proposed a general amnesty, agreed that James should marry with Elizabeth’s knowledge, and agreed that there should be no change in religion. Her only condition was the immediate alleviation of the conditions of her captivity. James went along with the idea for a while but then rejected it and signed an alliance treaty with Elizabeth, abandoning his mother. Elizabeth also rejected the association, because she did not trust Mary to cease plotting against her during the negotiations.

In February 1585, William Parry was convicted of plotting to assassinate Elizabeth, without Mary’s knowledge, although her agent Thomas Morgan was implicated. In April, Mary was placed in the stricter custody of Sir Amias Paulet, and at Christmas she was moved to a moated manor house at

On August 11, 1586, after being implicated in the Babington Plot, Mary was arrested while out riding and taken to Tixall. In a successful attempt to entrap her, Walsingham had deliberately arranged for Mary’s letters to be smuggled out of Chartley. Mary was misled into thinking her letters were secure, while in reality they were deciphered and read by Walsingham. From these letters it was clear that Mary had sanctioned the attempted assassination of Elizabeth. She was moved to Fotheringhay Castle in a four-day journey ending on September 25, and in October was put on trial for treason under the Act for the Queen’s Safety before a court of 36 noblemen, including Cecil, Shrewsbury, and Walsingham.

Mary was convicted on October 25, and sentenced to death with only one commissioner, Lord Zouche, expressing any form of dissent. Nevertheless, Elizabeth hesitated to order her execution, even in the face of pressure from the English Parliament to carry out the sentence. She was concerned that the killing of a queen set a discreditable precedent and was fearful of the consequences especially if, in retaliation, Mary’s son, James, formed an alliance with the Catholic powers and invaded England.

On February 1, 1587, Elizabeth signed the death warrant, and entrusted it to William Davison, a privy councillor. On February 3, ten members of the Privy Council of England, having been summoned by Cecil without Elizabeth’s knowledge, decided to carry out the sentence at once.

At Fotheringhay, on the evening of February 7, 1587, Mary was told she was to be executed the next morning. She spent the last hours of her life in prayer, distributing her belongings to her household, and writing her will and a letter to the King Henri III of France.

On February 8, Her servants, Jane Kennedy and Elizabeth Curle, and the executioners helped Mary remove her outer garments, revealing a velvet petticoat and a pair of sleeves in crimson brown, the liturgical colour of martyrdom in the Catholic Church.

She was blindfolded by Kennedy with a white veil embroidered in gold, knelt down on the cushion in front of the block, on which she positioned her head, and stretched out her arms. Her last words were, In manus tuas, Domine, commendo spiritum meum (“Into thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit”).

Mary was not beheaded with a single strike. The first blow missed her neck and struck the back of her head. The second blow severed the neck, except for a small bit of sinew, which the executioner cut through using the axe. Afterwards, he held her head aloft and declared, “God save the Queen.” At that moment, the auburn tresses in his hand turned out to be a wig and the head fell to the ground, revealing that Mary had very short, grey hair. Cecil’s nephew, who was present at the execution, reported to his uncle that after her death “Her lips stirred up and down a quarter of an hour after her head was cut off” and that a small dog owned by the queen emerged from hiding among her skirts.

When the news of the execution reached Elizabeth, she became indignant and asserted that Davison had disobeyed her instructions not to part with the warrant and that the Privy Council had acted without her authority. Elizabeth’s vacillation and deliberately vague instructions gave her plausible deniability to attempt to avoid the direct stain of Mary’s blood. Davison was arrested, thrown into the Tower of London, and found guilty of misprision. He was released nineteen months later after Cecil and Walsingham interceded on his behalf.

Mary’s request to be buried in France was refused by Elizabeth. Her body was embalmed and left in a secure lead coffin until her burial, in a Protestant service, at Peterborough Cathedral in late July 1587. Her entrails, removed as part of the embalming process, were buried secretly within Fotheringhay Castle. Her body was exhumed in 1612, when her son, King James VI-I of Scotland and England ordered that she be reinterred in Westminster Abbey in a chapel opposite the tomb of Elizabeth.

In 1867, her tomb was opened in an attempt to ascertain the resting place of James I; he was ultimately found with Henry VII, but many of her other descendants, including Elizabeth of Bohemia, Prince Rupert of the Rhine and the children of Anne, Queen of Great Britain, were interred in her vault.

Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom: 68 years on the throne.

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1952, Duke of Edinburgh, Kenya, King George VI of the United Kingdom, kings and queens of the United Kingdom, Prince Philip Duke of Edinburgh, Queen Elizabeth II, Tree Tops

On this date, February 6, 1952, George VI of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland died and was succeeded by his elder daughter as Queen Elizabeth II. This marks her 68th year on the throne.

The stress of the World War II had taken its toll on the King George VI’s health, made worse by his heavy smoking and subsequent development of lung cancer among other ailments, including arteriosclerosis and Buerger’s disease. A planned tour of Australia and New Zealand was postponed after the King suffered an arterial blockage in his right leg, which threatened the loss of the leg and was treated with a right lumbar sympathectomy in March 1949.

His elder daughter, Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh and the heir presumptive, took on more royal duties as her father’s health deteriorated. The King was well enough to open the Festival of Britain in May 1951, but on September 23, 1951, his left lung was removed by Clement Price Thomas after a malignant tumour was found.

In October 1951, Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh went on a month-long tour of Canada; the trip had been delayed for a week due to the King’s illness. When she toured Canada and visited President Harry S. Truman in Washington, D.C., her private secretary, Martin Charteris, carried a draft accession declaration in case the King died while she was on tour.

At the State Opening of Parliament in November 1951, the King’s speech from the throne was read for him by the Lord Chancellor, Lord Simond. His Christmas broadcast of 1951 was recorded in sections, and then edited together.

In early 1952, Elizabeth and Philip set out for a tour of Australia and New Zealand by way of Kenya. On January 31, 1952, despite advice from those close to him, the King went to London Airport to see off Princess Elizabeth, on her tour of Australia via Kenya.

On the morning of February 6, at 07:30 GMT, George VI was found dead in bed at his Sandringham House in Norfolk. He had died from a coronary thrombosis in his sleep at the age of 56. Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh had just returned to their Kenyan home, Sagana Lodge, after a night spent at Treetops Hotel, when word arrived of the death of the King and consequently Elizabeth’s immediate accession to the throne.

Philip broke the news to the new queen. Martin Charteris asked her to choose a regnal name; she chose to remain Elizabeth, “my own of course.” She was proclaimed queen throughout her realms and the former Princess Elizabeth hastily returned to the United Kingdom as Queen Elizabeth II.