From The Emperor’s Desk: Today is my 60th birthday and therefore I will post the royal events along with births and deaths that occured on October 22nd.
Events
1721 – Tsar Peter I the Great was officially proclaimed Emperor of All Russia on October 22, 1721. At the same time Russia itself was proclaimed an Empire, after the Swedish defeat in the Great Northern War.
1923 – Following the Greek defeat in the Asia Minor Campaign against Turkey, the Greek Army, led by Venizelist Colonels Nikolaos Plastiras and Stylianos Gonatas, overthrew the royalist government in September 1922 and forced King Constantine I into renewed exile. His eldest son, George II succeeded him, but the position of the monarchy remained precarious.
In the early hours of October, the royalist Leonardopoulos–Gargalidis coup d’état attempt fails in Greece, discrediting the monarchy and paving the way for the establishment of the Second Hellenic Republic. In its initial stages it proved rapidly successful: by the morning, in the entire Greek mainland, only the cities of Athens, Thessaloniki, Larissa and Ioannina remained under government control. The government was initially caught by surprise but soon rallied. General Theodoros Pangalos, the head of the Army, launched energetic countermeasures, while the putschists prevaricated.
In the Peloponnese, Leonardopoulos and Gargalidis with their troops crossed the Isthmus of Corinth and marched towards Athens, but were surrounded by government troops and forced to surrender unconditionally on October 27th.
Births
1071 – Guillaume IX de Poitiers, Duke of Aquitaine (October 22, 1071 – February 10, 1126), called the Troubadour, was the Duke of Aquitaine and Gascony and Count of Poitou (as Guillaume VII) between 1086 and his death. He was also one of the leaders of the Crusade of 1101.
1660 – Charles of England and Scotland (October 22, 1660 – May 5, 1661) was the first of four sons and eight children born from the marriage between the Duke of York (later King James II-VII of England, Scotland and Ireland) and his first wife, Anne Hyde.
He was styled Duke of Cambridge, but never formally created so, because he died so young.
Charles was conceived seven months before his parents’ official marriage and if royal advisors and Queen Henrietta Maria, the mother of James, had their way, he could have been declared illegitimate. King Charles II of England, Scotland and Ireland, James’s older brother, approved of the marriage and the wedding between James and Anne was held on September 3, 1660 in London.
Charles was born on October 22, 1660 and was baptised on January 1, 1661 at Worcester House. However, he died before reaching the age of one, after becoming ill with smallpox. He was buried in Westminster Abbey on May 6, 1661. Three of his younger brothers, likewise short-lived, were also called Duke of Cambridge: James, Edgar, and another named Charles.
1689 – King João V of Portugal (October 22, 1689 – July 31, 1750) was King of Portugal from December 9, 1706 until his death in 1750. His reign saw the rise of Portugal and its monarchy to new levels of prosperity, wealth, and prestige among European courts. He was second son of King Pedro II of Portugal and Maria Sophia of Neuburg.
1701 – Archduchess Maria Amalia of Austria (October 22, 1701 – December 11, 1756) was Holy Roman Empress, Queen of Bohemia, and Princess-Electress of Bavaria among many other titles as the spouse of Holy Roman Emperor Charles VII. By birth, she was an Archduchess of Austria as the daughter of Emperor Joseph I and Wilhelmine Amalia of Brunswick-Lüneburg was unable to conceive more children after her, supposedly because her father had contracted syphilis and passed it onto his wife, rendering her infertile.
1781 – Louis Joseph Xavier François (October 22, 1781 – June 4, 1789) was Dauphin of France as the second child and first son of King Louis XVI of France and Navarre and Archduchess Marie Antoinette of Austria. He was named after his maternal uncle, Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II. As son of a King of France, he was a fils de France (“Child of France”). Louis Joseph died aged seven from tuberculosis and was succeeded as Dauphin (and thus heir-apparent) by his four-year-old brother Louis Charles.
1858 – Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg (October 22, 1858 – April 11, 1921) was the last German Empress and Queen of Prussia by marriage to Wilhelm II, German Emperor, King of Prussia. She was the eldest daughter of Friedrich VIII, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg, and Princess Adelheid of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, a niece of Queen Victoria, through Victoria’s half-sister Feodora.
Augusta Victoria grew up at Dolzig until the death of her grandfather, Christian August II, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg, in 1869. The family then moved to Castle Primkenau and the estate her father had inherited. She was known within her family as “Dona”
1859 – Prince Ludwig Ferdinand of Bavaria (October 22, 1859 – November 23, 1949) was a member of the Bavarian House of Wittelsbach and a General of Cavalry. Following his marriage to Infanta MarÃa de la Paz of Spain, he was also created an Infante of Spain.
He was the eldest son of Prince Adalbert of Bavaria (1828–75) and Infanta Amalia of Spain (1834–1905). He was a paternal grandson of King Ludwig I of Bavaria and his wife Princess Therese of Saxe-Altenburg. His maternal grandparents were Infante Francisco de Paula of Spain and his wife Princess Luisa Carlotta of Bourbon-Two Sicilies.
Deaths
741 – Charles Martel (c. 688 – October 22, 741) was a Frankish political and military leader who, as Duke and Prince of the Franks and Mayor of the Palace, was the de facto ruler of the Franks from 718 until his death. He was a son of the Frankish statesman Pepin of Herstal and a noblewoman named Alpaida. Charles, also known as “The Hammer” (in Old French, Martel), successfully asserted his claims to power as successor to his father as the power behind the throne in Frankish politics.
1383 – King Fernando of Portugal (October 13, 1345 – October 22, 1383) was the King of Portugal from 1367 until his death in 1383. He was also briefly made King of Galicia, in 1369 (a claim which he would maintain until 1371). His death led to the 1383–85 crisis, also known as the Portuguese interregnum. He was the second but eldest surviving son of King Pedro I of Portugal and his wife, Constanza Manuel.
The male line of the Portuguese House of Burgundy becomes extinct with the death of King Fernando, leaving only his daughter Beatrice. Rival claimants begin a period of civil war and disorder.
1751 – Willem IV (September 1, 1711 – October 22, 1751) was Prince of Orange from birth and the first Hereditary Stadtholder of all the United Provinces of the Netherlands from 1747 until his death in 1751. During his whole life he was furthermore ruler of the Principality of Orange-Nassau within the Holy Roman Empire.
Prince Willem IV of Orange was the son of Johann Willem Friso, Prince of Orange, head of the Frisian branch of the House of Orange-Nassau, and of his wife Landgravine Marie Louise of Hesse-Kassel (or Hesse-Cassel). He was born six weeks after the death of his father.
1761 – Ludwig Georg, Margrave of Baden-Baden (June 7, 1702 – October 22, 1761) was the Margrave of Baden-Baden from 1707 until his death in 1761. Because of his passion for hunting, he was nicknamed Jägerlouis (the “hunter Louis”).
Biography
He was born at the Ettlingen Palace and was the son of Ludwig Wilhelm, Margrave of Baden-Baden and his wife, Princess Sibylle of Saxe-Lauenburg, daughter of Julius Franz, Duke of Saxe-Lauenburg and his wife Countess Palatine Maria Hedwig Augusta of Sulzbach.
Ludwig Georg was Hereditary Prince of Baden-Baden from birth, at the death of his father in 1707, he succeeded as Margrave of Baden-Baden at the age of four. As such, his mother was Regent of Baden-Baden while he was a minor. He reached his majority on October 22, 1727 at the age of 25.
At the age of 16 years, the young Prince was in love with Marie Leszczyńska, the second daughter of King Stanislaus I Leszczyński of Poland and his wife, Countess Catherine Opalińska. The couple were never to unite.
Marie was later the consort of King Louis XV of France and Navarre. His sister Johanna of Baden was later a resident of the French court and wife of Louis d’Orléans, a grandson of their father’s enemy, King Louis XIV of France and Navarre.
As an unmarried prince, in the summer of 1720 he and his mother travelled to Prague where he would meet his future spouse (first of two) at the Schloss Hluboka nad Vltavou.
The chosen bride was Princess Maria Anna of Schwarzenberg, a daughter of Prince Adam Franz of Schwarzenberg and Princess Eleonore of Lobkowicz. His mother travelled to Vienna in order to seek permission from Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor.
Permission was granted and he married Maria Anna on April 8, 1721 at the Český Krumlov Castle. The couple were the parents of four children, of whom only one survive infancy. As a wedding gift, his mother gave him her hunting lodge at Fremersberg.
At Maria Anna’s death in 1755, he married again to Princess Maria Anna of Bavaria on July 10, 1755. She was the daughter of Charles VII, Holy Roman Emperor and his Austrian wife Archduchess Maria Amalia, the daughter of Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor and his wife Wilhelmine Amalia of Brunswick-Lüneburg. The second marriage remained childless.
Ludwig Georg died at the Schloss Rastatt October 22 ,1761 at the age of 59. He was succeeded as Margrave of Baden-Baden by his brother August Georg having no surviving male issue. He was buried at the Stiftskirche in Baden-Baden beside his first wife.
2002 – Countess Géraldine de Nagy-Appony (August 6, 1915 – October 22, 2002) was Queen of the Albanians from her marriage to King Zog I of the Albanians on April 27, 1938 until the King was deposed on April 7 of the following year.
The native form of this personal name is Apponyi Géraldine. I use Western name order when mentioning individuals.
Geraldine was born in Austria-Hungary into the noble Apponyi family. Her family fled to Switzerland in 1918, when the monarchy of Austria-Hungary was abolished. They returned to Hungary in 1921.
However, after her father Gyula died in 1924, her American-born mother Gladys took Geraldine and her two siblings to live in Southern France. Later Geraldine was educated at a boarding school in Austria. She met the Albanian King Zog I in 1938, and they married shortly afterwards.
The Italian invasion of Albania cut short Zog’s reign. During World War II, King Zog and Queen Geraldine lived first in France and later in England. Later on, they would live in France again and in Egypt. After her husband died in Paris in 1961, Geraldine took the title Queen Mother and asserted the rights of her son Leka I, Crown Prince of Albania, to rule. She and Leka fled successively to Spain, Rhodesia, and South Africa. Geraldine was allowed to return to Albania in 2002, and she died that year on October 22, 2002 aged 87.