On this date in History: June 17,1397. Establishment of the Kalmar Union.

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Albert of Mecklenburg, Albert of Sweden, Eric of Pomerania, Kalmar Union, Kingdom of Denmark, Kingdom of Norway, Kingdom of Sweden, Margrethe I of Denmark, Union of Kalmar, Waldemar IV of Denmark

The Kalmar Union was a personal union from 1397 to 1523 that joined under a single monarch the three kingdoms of Denmark, Sweden (then including most of Finland’s populated areas), and Norway, together with Norway’s overseas dependencies (then including Iceland, Greenland, the Faroe Islands, and the Northern Isles). Legally, the countries remained separate sovereign states, but with their domestic and foreign policies being directed by a common monarch.

One main political motives for its formation was to block German expansion northward into the Baltic region. The main reason for its eventual failure to survive was the perpetual struggle between the monarch, who wanted a strong unified state, and the Swedish and Danish nobility, which did not. Diverging interests (especially the Swedish nobility’s dissatisfaction with the dominant role played by Denmark and Holstein) gave rise to a conflict that would hamper the union in several intervals from the 1430s until its definitive breakup in 1523, when Gustav Vasa was elected as king of Sweden.

After 1523 the Kingdom of Norway continued to remain a part of the Kingdom of Denmark under the Oldenburg dynasty for nearly three centuries, until its dissolution in 1814. Norway was then United with Sweden with this union lasting until 1905, when a grandson of the incumbent King Christian IX of Denmark, Prince Carl of Denmark, was elected as King Haakon VII of Norway; his direct descendants still reign in Norway.

Inception

The union was the work of Scandinavian aristocracy wishing to counter the influence of the German Hanseatic League. The force behind the Kalmar Union was Margrethe I of Denmark (1353–1412).

Margrethe I of Denmark, Norway and Sweden.

Margrethe I of Denmark was a daughter of King Waldemar IV of Denmar and Helvig of Schleswig. (Helvig of Schleswig was the daughter of Eric II, Duke of Schleswig, and Adelaide of Holstein-Rendsburg, and the sister of Waldemar V, Duke of Schleswig. Her date of birth is not known, but she and her brother were children at the time of her father’s death in 1325, and she is estimated to have been born in around the year 1320).

Margrethe I of Denmark married King Haakon VI of Norway and Sweden, who was the son of King Magnus IV of Sweden, Norway and Scania. In 1375 Margrethe succeeded in having her son Olaf recognized as heir to the throne of Denmark despite the claims of her elder sister’s Ingeborg’s husband, Duke Heinrich III of Mecklenburg, and their son Albert. Margrethe insisted that Olaf be proclaimed rightful heir of Sweden, among his other titles. In 1376 Olaf inherited the crown of Denmark as King Olaf II, upon the death of his maternal grandfather, King Waldemar IV of Denmark, with his mother as guardian. When his father, King Haakon VI of Norway died in 1380, Olaf also inherited the crown of Norway as King Olaf IV.

Margrethe became regent of Denmark and Norway when her only child, King Olaf II-IV of Denmark and Norway, died in 1387, leaving her without an heir. That same year she adopted her great-nephew, Bogislav, and his sister Catherine of Pomerania (grandchildren of Duke Heinrich III of Mecklenburg). Bogislav changed his name to Erik

Meanwhile in Sweden…

In 1363, members of the Swedish Council of Aristocracy, led by Bo Jonsson Grip, had been banished from Sweden after a revolt against King Magnus IV who was unpopular with the nobility. Members of the Swedish Council of Aristocracy arrived at the court of Mecklenburg where the nobles requested that Albert of Mecklenburg launch an invasion of Sweden. Albert was supported by several German dukes and counts and several Hanseatic cities in Northern Germany. Stockholm and Kalmar in Sweden, with large Hanseatic populations, also welcomed the intervention.

Albert was proclaimed King of Sweden and officially crowned on February 18, 1364. The coronation took place at the Stones of Mora. A fragment still remains of the stone commemorating the occasion called the Three Crowns stone. This is the earliest known example of the use of the three crowns as a national symbol for Sweden.

Background on Albert of Mecklenburg

Albert was the second son of Duke Albert II of Mecklenburg and Euphemia Eriksdotter, the daughter of Duke Erik Magnusson of Södermanland and sister of King Magnus IV-VII of Swede-Norway. Albert married Richardis of Schwerin, daughter of count Otto of Schwerin. Queen Richardis died in 1377 and was buried in Stockholm.

In 1384 he inherited the ducal title of Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin as Albert III and united it with Sweden in a personal union. Albert based his claims on the Swedish crown upon two family ties: his mother was the sister King Magnus IV-VII of Sweden-Norway whose paternal grandfather was King Magnus III of Sweden. Albert claimed first place in the Swedish order of succcession after the dethronement or deaths of all of the children of Magnus IV; and through a Swedish princess Christina, a daughter of King Sverker II who was King of Sweden from 1196 to 1208.

Albert of Sweden deposed

Albert kept the crown of Sweden for another 19 years, but most of western Sweden did not support his reign. When he attempted to introduce reduction of the large estates of the Swedish nobility, he lost his support in Stockholm. In 1389, facing a loss of landholdings and wealth, the Swedish nobility turned to Margrethe of Denmark widow to plead for help in getting rid of Albert. Queen Margrethe sent troops to Sweden and in February 1389, they defeated Albert at the Battle of Åsle.

Albert was captured, deposed and sent to Lindholmen Castle in Scania, where he spent the next six years imprisoned. He was released after 16 days of peace negotiations in 1395, during which he agreed to either give up Stockholm within three years, or pay large sums in retribution to Margrethe. When the three years were up, Albert’s (then) only son Eric had died after ruling Gotland in Sweden for a short time as instigated by his father, and Albert chose to give up Stockholm rather than pay the fine. In 1398 the agreement came into force, granting Margrethe possession of Stockholm.

At a conference held at Dalaborg Castle in March 1388, after Margrethe’s defeat of Albert, the Swedes were compelled to accept all of Margrethe’s conditions, elected her “Sovereign Lady and Ruler”, and committed themselves to accept any king she chose to appoint. Albert, who had called her “King Pantsless” returned from Mecklenburg with an army of mercenaries. On February 24, 1389, the decisive battle took place at either Aasle or Falan near Falköping. General Henrik Parow, the Mecklenburger commander of Margrethe’s forces, was killed in battle, but he managed to win it for her. Margrethe was now the omnipotent mistress of three kingdoms.

The defeated Albert married as his second wife Agnes of Brunswick-Lüneburg the daughter of Duke Magnus II of Brunswick-Lüneburg (d. 1373) and Catharine of Anhalt-Bernburg (d. 1390). Albert continued to reigned as Duke Albert III of Mecklenburg-Schwerin until his death, seven months before Margrethe’s in 1412. He finally and formally abdicated his Swedish throne in 1405, but until then still styled himself King of Sweden and his second wife Queen Agnes. His tomb is in the Doberan Minster in Bad Doberan, Germany.

Kalmar Union: 1397-1523.

In 1389 Margrethe proclaimed her great-nephew Erik of Pomerania as King Erik III of Norway (1389–1442). In 1396 he was proclaimed as King Erik VII of Denmark King and Erik XIII of Sweden (1396–1434, 1436–39) On June 17, 1397, Erik was crowned a king of the three Nordic countries in the cathedral of Kalmar. At the same time, a union treaty was drafted, declaring the establishment of what has become known as the Kalmar Union (Kalmarunionen). Queen Margrethe however, remained the de facto ruler of the three kingdoms until her death in 1412. Erik was ultimately deposed from all three kingdoms of the union, but in 1449 he inherited one of the partitions of the Duchy of Pomerania and ruled it as duke until his death.

Ambiguities concerning titles of Margrethe of Denmark, Norway and Sweden.

In Denmark Margaret was called “sovereign lady and lord and guardian of the entire kingdom of Denmark” (Norway and Sweden later bestowed on her similar titles). This special, double-gendered title bestowed upon the holder the power and authority of a man (lord), of a woman (sovereign lady) and of the gender-neutral guardian. Later, when Erik was elected King of Norway in 1392, she renounced this title in Norway, and in 1396, when he was crowned as King of Denmark and Sweden, she stopped the use of this title altogether, although she continued as Regent.

She only styled herself Queen of Denmark in 1375, usually referring to herself as “Margrethe, by the grace of God, daughter of Waldemar IV, King of Denmark” and “Denmark’s rightful heir” when referring to her position in Denmark. Her title in Denmark was derived from her father King Waldemar IV of Denmark. Others simply referred to her as the “Lady Queen”, without specifying what she was queen of, but not so Pope Boniface IX, who in his letters styled her “our beloved daughter in Christ, Margrethe, most excellent Queen of Denmark, Sweden and Norway”.

When she married Haakon VI of Norway in 1363, he was co-King of Sweden, making Margrethe Queen Consort, and despite being deposed, they never relinquished the title. In theory, when the Swedes deposed Albert of Mecklenburg in 1389 simply restored Margrethe to her original position as Queen Consort. Margrethe held these titles from March 1363 to 28 October 1412, she was Queen of Denmark, Norway and Sweden and founder of the Kalmar Union, which united the Scandinavian countries for over a century. She acted as Queen Regnant of Denmark, although in those days it was not the Danish custom for a woman to reign.

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On this date in History: June 15, 1888. Death of Friedrich III, German Emperor and King of Prussia. Part II.

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Crown Prince of Prussia, Dr. Mackenzie, Franco-Prussian War, Frederick III of Germany, Friedrich III, German Empire, Kingdom of Prussia, Liberalism, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, Revolutions 1848, Throat Cancer, United Kingdom, United Kingdom of Great Britain, Victoria Princess Royal

Friedrich insisted on a bloodless “moral conquests”, unifying Germany by liberal and peaceful means, but it was Bismarck’s policy of blood and iron that prevailed. His protests against Wilhelm’s rule peaked at Danzigon June 4, 1863, where at an official reception in the city he loudly denounced Bismarck’s restrictions on freedom of the press. He thereby made Bismarck his enemy and his father extremely angry. Consequently, as mentioned in my last entry, Friedrich was excluded from positions of political power throughout his father’s reign. Retaining his military portfolio, he continued to represent Germany and its Emperor at ceremonies, weddings, and celebrations such as Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee in 1887. Friedrich would spend a large portion of time in Britain, where Queen Victoria frequently allowed him to represent her at ceremonies and social functions.

Crown Prince Friedrich of Prussia

Friedrich fought in the wars against Denmark, Austria and France. Although Friedrich had opposed military action in unifying Germany, once war had started against Denmark (1864), Austria (1866) and France (1870) he supported the Prussian military wholeheartedly and took positions of command. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71 in which he was once more commanded the III Army, consisting of troops from the southern German states. He was praised for his leadership after defeating the French at the battles of Wissembourgand Wörth, and met with further successes at the Battle of Sedan and during the Siege of Paris.

Friedrich’s humane treatment of his country’s foes earned him their respect and the plaudits of neutral observers. After the Battle of Wörth, a London journalist witnessed the Crown Prince’s many visits to wounded Prussian soldiers and lauded his deeds, extolling the love and respect the soldiers held for Friedrich. Following his victory, Friedrich had remarked to two Paris journalists, “I do not like war gentlemen. If I should reign I would never make it.” One French journalist remarked that “the Crown Prince has left countless traits of kindness and humanity in the land that he fought against.” For his behaviour and accomplishments, The Times wrote a tribute to Friedrich in July 1871, stating that “the Prince has won as much honour for his gentleness as for his prowess in the war”.

Crown Prince Friedrich of Prussia

In 1871, following Prussia’s victories, the German states were united into the German Empire, with Wilhelm as the Emperor and Friedrich as heir-apparent to the new German monarchy. Although Wilhelm thought the day when he became Emperor the saddest of his life, Friedrich was excited to be witness to a great day in German history. Bismarck, now Chancellor, disliked Friedrich and also distrusted the liberal attitudes of the Crown Prince and Princess. Often at odds with his father’s and Bismarck’s policies and actions, Friedrich sided with the country’s liberals in their opposition to the expansion of the empire’s army. In 1878, when his father was incapacitated by injury from an assassination attempt, Friedrich briefly took over his tasks but was soon relegated to the sidelines once again. His lack of influence affected him deeply, even causing him to contemplate suicide.

Anton von Werner’s depiction of Wilhelm proclamation as Emperor; Friedrich is standing behind his father, his brother-in-law, the Grand Duke of Baden leads the cheering.

Friedrich had been a heavy smoker for many years. At a ball held by Wilhelm on January 31, 1887, a guest reported the Crown Prince “was so hoarse that he could hardly say a word.” His hoarseness continued through February, and was diagnosed as a thickening of the mucous membrane over the vocal cords, caused by “a chronic laryngeal catarrh.” On February 7, Friedrich consulted a doctor, Karl Gerhardt, who scraped a wire across the membrane for 10 days in an attempt to remove thickened tissue. After the procedure proved unsuccessful, Gerhardt cauterised the left vocal cord with an electric wire on March 15, in an attempt to remove what was then thought to be a vocal fold nodules. Due to Friedrich’s highly inflamed throat, Gerhardt was unable to remove the entire growth. After several cauterisations, and with no signs of improvement, Friedrich and his wife went to the spa of Bad Ems, where he drank the mineral waters and underwent a regimen of gargles and inhaling fresh air, with no effect.

On May 17, Gerhardt and other doctors, including Ernst von Bergmann, diagnosed the growth as laryngeal cancer. Bergmann recommended consulting a leading British cancer specialist, Morell Mackenzie; he also recommended a thyrotomy to gain better access to the inside of the larynx, followed by the complete removal of the larynx – a total laryngectomy – if the situation proved serious. While Victoria was informed of the need for an immediate operation, Friedrich was not told. Despite the tentative diagnosis of cancer, the doctors hoped the growth would prove to be a benign epithelioma.

Crown Prince and Princess of Prussia

Dr. Mackenzie arrived in Berlin on May 20, but after examining Friedrich recommended a biopsy of the growth to determine whether or not it was malignant. He conducted the biopsy the following morning, after which he sent tissue samples to the distinguished pathologist Rudolf Virchow for microscopic examination. When Virchow was unable to detect any cancerous cells despite several separate analyses, Mackenzie declared his opposition to a laryngectomy being performed, as he felt it would be invariably fatal, and said he would assume charge of the case. He gave his assurance that Friedrich would fully recover “in a few months.” While Gerhardt and Physician-General August Wegner concurred with Mackenzie, Bergmann and his colleague Adalbert Tobold held to their original diagnosis of cancer. In addition to Mackenzie’s opinion, Bismarck strongly opposed any major operation on Friedrich’s throat, and pressed the Emperor to veto it.

On June 9, Mackenzie again biopsied the growth and sent the samples to Virchow, who reported the following day that he was again unable to detect any signs of cancer. On June 13, 1887, the Crown Prince left Potsdam for London to attend his mother-in-law’s Golden Jubilee and to consult Mackenzie. He never saw his father alive again. He was accompanied by Victoria and their three younger daughters, along with Gerhardt; on June 29, Mackenzie reported that he had successfully operated at his Harley Street clinic, and had removed “nearly the entire growth.” Friedrich spent July with his family at Norris Castle on the Isle of Wight. However, when Frederick visited Mackenzie’s office on August 2, for a follow-up examination, the growth had reappeared, necessitating its cauterisation the same day, and again on 8 August – an ominous indication that it was indeed malignant.

Felix Semon, a distinguished German throat specialist with a practice in England, and who had been closely following Frederick’s case, submitted a report to the German Foreign Secretary in which he strongly criticised Mackenzie’s cauterisations, and gave his opinion that the growth, if not malignant, was suspect, and should continue to be biopsied and examined. On August 9, Friedrich travelled to Braemar in the Scottish Highlands with Dr. Mark Hovell, a senior surgeon at the Throat Hospital in London. Although a further examination by Mackenzie on August 20, revealed no sign of a recurrent growth, Frederick said he had the “constant feeling” of something “not right inside”; nonetheless, he requested Queen Victoria to knight Mackenzie, who duly received a knighthood in September.

Crown Prince and Princess of Prussia

Despite the operations on his throat and having taken the sea air at Cowes, Friedrich remained hoarse and was advised by Mackenzie to spend the coming winter on the Italian Riviera. In August, following reports that his father was gravely ill, he considered returning to Germany, but was dissuaded by his wife, and went to Toblach in South Tyrol with his family, where Victoria had rented a house. He arrived in Toblach on 7 September 7, exhausted and hoarse. Concerned by Friedrich ‘s lack of visible improvement after a brief meeting with Friedrich in Munich, Philipp, Prince of Eulenburg, consulted the distinguished laryngologist Max Joseph Oertel, who urged a drastic and thorough operation on Friedrich’s throat, and said he suspected a benign tumour which could soon become malignant.

By this time, Mackenzie’s treatment of Friedrich was generating strong criticism. After a fortnight in Toblach, Mackenzie arrived to reexamine Friedrich, who had continued to suffer from colds and hoarseness; in public, however, the doctor remained largely unconcerned, and attributed the hoarseness to a “momentary chill.” However, he recommended that Friedrich should leave Toblach for Venice, to be followed by Victoria. The weather soon turned cold, and Friedrich’s throat caused him pain, for which he received cocaine injections.

Upon arriving in Venice, Friedrich again caught cold; privately, Mackenzie was growing seriously concerned, having observed a continued tendency for Friedrich’s throat and larynx to swell. He forbade Friedrich from speaking at any length, noting that if the Crown Prince insisted on speaking and contracted further colds, he could give him no more than three months to live. At the beginning of October, Victoria noted that “Fritz’s throat is giving no cause for fresh anxiety & he really does take a little more care and speaks a little less.” At the end of October, Friedrich’s condition abruptly worsened, with Victoria writing to her mother on November 2, that Friedrich ‘s throat was again inflamed, but not due to any cold, and that he was “very hoarse again” and easily became depressed about his health.

General Alfred von Waldersee observed that Friedrich’s health had grave implications as if Emperor Wilhelm died soon and his son succeeded, “a new Kaiser who is not allowed to speak is a virtual impossibility, quite apart from the fact that we desperately need a highly energetic one.” Crown Prince’s son, Prince Wilhelm reported to King Albert of Saxony that his father was frequently short-tempered and melancholic, though his voice appeared to have slightly improved, and that Friedrich’s throat was being treated by “blowing in a powder twice a day to soothe the larynx.”

On November 3, Friedrich and his entourage departed for San Remo. At San Remo two days later, on November 5, Friedrich entirely lost his voice and experienced severe pain throughout his throat. Upon examination, Dr. Hovell discovered a new growth under the left vocal cord; when the news reached Wilhelm and the German government, it caused great consternation. The following day, Mackenzie issued a bulletin stating that while there was no immediate danger to the Crown Prince, his illness had “unfortunately taken an unfavourable turn,” and that he had requested advice from other specialists, including the Austrian professor of laryngology Leopold Schrötter and Dr. Hermann Krause of Berlin.

Crown Princess of Prussia

On 9 November, Schrötter and Krause diagnosed the new growth as malignant, and said it was unlikely Frederick could live another year. All the doctors in attendance, including Mackenzie, now concluded that Friedrich disease was indeed laryngeal cancer, as new lesions had appeared on the right side of the larynx, and that an immediate and total laryngectomy was required to save his life; Moritz Schmidt, one of the doctors, subsequently said that the earlier growths found in May had also been cancerous. Friedrich was devastated by the news, bursting into tears upon being informed by Mackenzie and crying, “To think I should have such a horrid disgusting illness … I had so hoped to have been of use to my country. Why is Heaven so cruel to me? What have I done to be thus stricken and condemned?”

The news was greeted with shock in Berlin and generated further hatred against Victoria, now seen as a domineering “foreigner” who was manipulating her husband. Some politicians suggested that Friedrich be made to relinquish his position in the line of succession in favour of his son Wilhelm, but Bismarck firmly stated that Friedrich would succeed his ailing father “whether he is ill or not, [and] whether the K[aiser] is then unable permanently to perform his duties,” would then be determined per the relevant provisions of the Prussian Constitution. Despite the renewed diagnosis of cancer, Friedrich’s condition appeared to improve after November5, and he became more optimistic; through January 1888 there remained some hope that the diagnosis was incorrect. Both Friedrich and Victoria retained their faith in Mackenzie, who reexamined Frederick’s throat several times in December and gave a good prognosis, again doubting whether the growths had been cancerous.

The diagnosis of laryngeal cancer was conclusively confirmed on March 6, the anatomist Professor Wilhelm Waldeyer, who had come to San Remo, examined Friedrich’s sputum under a microscope and confirmed the presence of “so-called cancroid bodies…from a cancerous new growth” that was in the larynx. He further said that there were no signs of any growths in the lungs. Though it finally settled the question, Waldeyer’s diagnosis threw all of Mackenzie’s treatment of Frederick into doubt. The diagnosis and treatment of Friedrich’s fatal illness caused some medical controversy well into the next century.

1888 the Year of the Three Emperors

Wilhelm I, German Emperor and King of Prussia

Friedrich III, German Emperor and King of Prussia

Wilhelm II, German Emperor and King of Prussia

Three days after Friedrich was confirmed to be suffering from cancer, his father Emperor Wilhelm I died aged 90 at 8:22 a.m. on March 9, 1888, upon which Friedrich became German Emperor and King of Prussia. His son, Wilhelm, now Crown Prince, telegraphed the news to his father in Italy. Later the same day, Friedrich wrote in his diary that he had received the telegram upon returning from a walk, “…and so I have ascended the throne of my forefathers and of the German Kaiser! God help me fulfill my duties conscientiously and for the weal of my Fatherland, in both the narrower and the wider sense.”

Germany’s progressive elements hoped that Wilhelm’s death, and thus Friedrich’s succession, would usher the country into a new era governed along liberal lines. Logically, Friedrich should have taken as his regnal name either Friedrich I (if the Bismarckian empire was considered a new entity) or Friedrich IV (if the new empire was considered a continuation of the old Holy Roman Empire, which had had three emperors named Friedrich); he himself preferred the Friedrich IV. However, on the advice of Bismarck that this would create legal problems, he opted to simply keep the same regnal name he had as king of Prussia, Friedrich III.

The new Emperor reached Berlin at 11 p.m. on the night of March 11; those who saw him were horrified by his “pitiful” appearance. The question now was how much longer the mortally ill emperor could be expected to live, and what, if anything, he could hope to achieve. In spite of his illness, Friedrich did his best to fulfill his obligations as Emperor. Immediately after the announcement of his accession, he took the ribbon and star of his Order of the Black Eagle from his jacket and pinned it on the dress of his wife; he was determined to honor her position as Empress. Too ill to march in his father’s funeral procession, he was represented by Wilhelm, the new Crown Prince, while he watched, weeping, from his rooms in the Charlottenburg Palace.

As the German Emperor, he officially received Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom (his mother-in-law) and King Oscar II of Sweden and Norway, and attended the wedding of his son Prince Heinrich to his niece Princess Irene. However, Friedrich III reigned for only 99 days, and was unable to bring about much lasting change. The majority of the German ruling elite viewed Friedrich III’s reign as merely a brief interim period before the accession of his son Wilhelm to the throne.

An edict he penned before he ascended to the throne that would limit the powers of the chancellor and monarch under the constitution was never put into effect,although he did force Robert von Puttkamer to resign as Prussian Minister of the Interior on June 8, when evidence indicated that Puttkamer had interfered in the Reichstag elections. Dr. Mackenzie wrote that the Emperor had “an almost overwhelming sense of the duties of his position.” In a letter to Lord Napier, Empress Victoria wrote “The Emperor is able to attend to his business, and do a great deal, but not being able to speak is, of course, most trying.” Friedrich III had the fervour but not the time to accomplish his desires, lamenting in May 1888, “I cannot die … What would happen to Germany?”

From April 1888, Friedrich III became so weak he was unable to walk, and was largely confined to his bed; his continual coughing brought up large quantities of pus. In early June, the cancer spread to and perforated his esophagus, preventing him from eating. He suffered from bouts of vomiting and ran high fevers, but remained alert enough to write a last diary entry on June 11: “What’s happening to me? I must get well again; I have so much to do!”

Friedrich III died in Potsdam at 11:30 a.m. on June 15, 1888, and was succeeded by his 29-year-old son as Wilhelm II, German Emperor and King of Prussia. Under Emperor Wilhelm II, his parents and maternal grandparents, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert’s hopes of a liberal Germany were not fulfilled. He believed in the autocracy and Conservative principles of his paternal grandfather, Emperor Wilhelm I.

Empress Friedrich and her mother Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom holding a portrait of Emperor Friedrich III.

Frederick is buried in a mausoleum attached to the Friedenskirche in Potsdam. After his death, William Ewart Gladstone described him as the “Barbarossa of German liberalism.” His wife, Empress Victoria, now calling herself the Empress Friedrich, went on to continue spreading her husband’s thoughts and ideals throughout Germany, but no longer had power within the government.

The early death of Emperor Friedrich III is a tragedy in German history. For if he lived and was able to enact his Liberal policies the history of Germany would have been much different.

On this date in History: June 15, 1888. Death of Friedrich III, German Emperor and King of Prussia. Part I.

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Frederick III of Germany, German Empire, HRH Princess Victoria of the United Kingdom, Kingdom of Prussia, Otto von Habsburg, Princess Royal, The Great Exhibition 1851, Victoria the Princess Royal, Wilhelm I of Germany

Prince Friedrich-Wilhelm of Prussia was born in the New Palace at Potsdam in Prussia on October 18, 1831. He was a scion of the House of Hohenzollern, rulers of Prussia, then the most powerful of the German states. Friedrich’s father, Prince Wilhelm (future German Emperor and King of Prussia), was a younger brother of King Friedrich-Wilhelm IV and, having been raised in the military traditions of the Hohenzollerns, developed into a strict disciplinarian.

Young Prince Friedrich of Prussia

Wilhelm fell in love with his cousin Elisa Radziwill, a princess of the Polish nobility, but his parents, King Friedrich-Wilhelm III and Queen Louise (born a Duchess of Mecklenburg-Streitz) felt Elisa’s rank was not suitable for the bride of a Prussian prince and forced a more suitable match. The woman selected to be his wife was Princess Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach.

Augusta was well-known across Europe for her liberal views. Because of their differences, the couple did not have a happy marriage and, as a result, Friedrich grew up in a troubled household, which left him with memories of a lonely childhood. He had one sister, Louise (later Grand Duchess of Baden), who was eight years his junior and very close to him. Friedrich also had a very good relationship with his uncle, King Friedrich-Wilhelm IV, who has been called “the romantic on the throne”.

Friedrich grew up during a tumultuous political period as the concept of liberalism in Germany, which evolved during the 1840s, was gaining widespread and enthusiastic support. The liberals sought a unified Germany were constitutional monarchists desired a constitution to limit the power of the Crown, ensure equal protection under the law, the protection of property, and the safeguarding of basic civil rights. When Friedrich was 17 in 1848 these emergent liberal sentiments sparked a series of political uprisings across the German states and elsewhere in Europe. Although the uprisings ultimately brought about no lasting changes in German lands, liberal sentiments remained an influential force in German politics throughout Friedrich’s life.

Despite the value placed by the Hohenzollern family on a traditional military education, Augusta insisted that her son also receive a classical Liberal Arts education. Accordingly, Friedrich was thoroughly tutored in both military traditions and the liberal arts. His private tutor was Ernst Curtius, a famous archaeologist. Friedrich was a talented student, particularly good at foreign languages, becoming fluent in English and French, and studying Latin. He also studied history, geography, physics, music and religion, and excelled at gymnastics; as required of a Prussian prince, he became a very good rider.

Hohenzollern princes were made familiar with the military traditions of their dynasty at an early age; Friedrich was ten when he was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the First Infantry Regiment of Guards. As he grew older, he was expected to maintain an active involvement in military affairs. However, at the age of 18, he broke with family tradition and entered the University of Bonn where he studied history, law and governance, and public policy. During his time at Bonn (1850–1852), his teachers included Ernst Moritz Arndt and Friedrich Christoph Dahlmann. His time spent at the university, coupled with the influence of less conservative family members, were instrumental in his embrace of liberal beliefs.

Victoria, Princess Royal of the United Kingdom

Royal marriages of the 19th century were arranged to secure alliances and to maintain blood ties among the European nations. As early as 1851, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and her German-born husband, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, were making plans to marry their eldest daughter, Victoria, Princess Royal, to Friedrich. The royal dynasty in Britain was predominantly German; there was little British blood in Queen Victoria, and none in her husband. The monarchs desired to maintain their family’s blood ties to Germany, and Prince Albert further hoped that the marriage would lead to the liberalization and modernization of Prussia, and the ultimate unification of Germany under Prussian leadership and Liberal political beliefs. Friedrich’s father, Prince Wilhelm, had no interest in the arrangement, hoping instead for a Russian Grand Duchess as his daughter-in-law.

Victoria, Princess Royal of the United Kingdom

However, Princess Augusta was greatly in favour of a match for her son that would bring closer connections with Britain. In 1851, his mother sent Friedrich to England, ostensibly to visit the Great Exhibition but in truth, she hoped that the cradle of liberalism and home of the industrial revolution would have a positive influence on her son. Prince Albert took Friedrich under his wing during his stay but it was Albert’s daughter, Victoria, Princess Royal, only eleven at the time, who guided the German prince around the Exhibition.

Friedrich only knew a few words of English, while Victoria could converse fluently in German. He was impressed by her mix of innocence, intellectual curiosity and simplicity, and their meeting proved to be a success. A regular exchange of letters between Victoria and Friedrich followed.

Wedding of Prince Friedrich of Prussia and Victoria, Princess Royal of the United Kingdom.

Friedich proposed to Victoria in 1855, when she was 14 years old and he was 23. The betrothal of the young couple was announced on May 19, 1857, at Buckingham Palace and the Prussian Court, and their marriage took place on January 25, 1858 in the Chapel Royal of St. James’s Palace, London. Victoria too had received a liberal education and shared her husband’s views. Of the two, Victoria was the dominant one in the relationship.

The couple often resided at the Crown Prince’s Palace and had eight children: Wilhelm in 1859, Charlotte in 1860, Heinrich in 1862, Sigismund in 1864, Victoria in 1866, Waldemar in 1868, Sophia in 1870 and Margaret in 1872. Sigismund died at the age of 2 and Waldemar at age 11, and their eldest son, Wilhelm, suffered from a withered arm—probably due to his difficult and dangerous breech birth, although it could have also resulted from a mild case of cerebral palsy.

When his father succeeded to the Prussian throne as King Wilhelm I of Prussia on January 2, 1861, Friedrich became the Crown Prince of Prussia. Already twenty-nine years old, he would be Crown Prince for a further twenty-seven years. The new king was initially considered politically neutral; Friedrich and Prussia’s liberal elements hoped that he would usher in a new era of liberal policies. The liberals managed to greatly increase their majority in the Prussian Diet (Landtag), but Wilhelm soon showed that he preferred the conservative ways. On the other hand, Friedrich declared himself in complete agreement with the “essential liberal policy for internal and foreign affairs”.

Crown Prince Friedrich of Prussia.

Because Wilhelm was a dogmatic soldier and staunch conservative and unlikely to change his ideas at the age of sixty-four, he regularly clashed with the Liberal Diet over policies. In September 1862, one such disagreement almost led to his abdication and Friedrich being crowned and replacing his father as king; Wilhelm threatened to abdicate when the Diet refused to fund his plans for the army’s reorganization. Friedrich was appalled by this action, and said that an abdication would “constitute a threat to the dynasty, country and Crown”.

Wilhelm reconsidered, and instead on the advice of Minister of War Albrecht von Roon he appointed Otto von Bismarck as as Minister-President of Prussia who had offered to push through the military reform even against the majority of the Diet. The appointment of Bismarck, an authoritarian who would often ignore or overrule the Diet, set Friedrich on a collision course with his father. Once in power, Bismarck set his sights on the Unification of Germany under Prussian leadership but guided by Conservative principles and not Liberal philosophies.

Crown Prince Friedrich of Prussia.

I will post part II on Monday.

Catherine of Aragon: the bride of two brothers.

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Arthur Prince of Wales, Arthur Tudor, Catherine of Aragon, Henry VII of England, House of Tudor, King Henry VIII of England, Kings and Queens of England, Lady Margaret Beaufort, Prince of Wales

I missed this the other day. June 11th is the date my wife and I were married and it is also the date that Catherine of Aragon married King Henry VIII of England in 1509.

This portrait is either Catherine of Aragon, Mary Tudor (sister of Henry VIII) or an unknown English noble woman.

Henry VII planned to marry Arthur to a daughter of the Catholic Monarchs, Isabella I of Castile and Fernando II of Aragon, in order to forge an Anglo-Spanish alliance against France. It was suggested that the choice of marrying Arthur to Fernando and Isabella’s youngest daughter, Catherine (b. 1485), would be appropriate and suitable. The Treaty of Medina del Campo (March 27, 1489) provided that Arthur and Catherine would be married as soon as they reached canonical age. Since Arthur, not yet 14, was below the age of consent, a papal dispensation (i.e., waiver) allowing the marriage was issued in February 1497, and the pair were betrothed by proxy on August 25, 1497. Two years later, a marriage by proxy took place at Arthur’s Tickenhill Manor in Bewdley, near Worcester; Arthur said to Roderigo de Puebla, who had acted as proxy for Catherine, that “he much rejoiced to contract the marriage because of his deep and sincere love for the Princess.”

One reason Catherine of Aragon was chosen was due to the English ancestry she inherited from her mother. England had recently completed a long dynastic struggle for the throne known as the Wars of the Roses. Henry VII, as the new King who had a weak genealogical claim to the throne sought to strengthen his hold on the crown through marriage. First Henry married Elizabeth of York to unite the two warring branches of the English Royal House of Plantagenet. Secondly he also desired to grant a strong ally in Catholic Spain, who also had a claim to the English throne.

By means of her mother, Queen Isabella I of Castile, Catherine had a stronger legitimate claim to the English throne than even King Henry VII himself through the first two wives of John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster: Blanche of Lancaster and Constance of Castile. In contrast, Henry VII was the descendant of Gaunt’s third marriage to Katherine Swynford, whose children were born out of wedlock and only legitimised after the death of Constance and the marriage of John to Katherine. The children of John and Katherine, while legitimised, were barred from inheriting the English throne, a stricture that was ignored in later generations.

Because of Henry’s descent through illegitimate children who were barred from succession to the English throne, the Tudor monarchy was not accepted by all European kingdoms. At the time, the Spanish House of Trastámara was the most prestigious in Europe, due to the rule of the Catholic Monarchs, so the alliance of Catherine and Arthur validated the House of Tudor in the eyes of European royalty and strengthened the Tudor claim to the English throne via Catherine of Aragon’s ancestry. It would have given a male heir an indisputable claim to the throne. The two were married by proxy on May 19, 1499 and corresponded in Latin until Arthur turned fifteen, when it was decided that they were old enough to be married.

Arthur, Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester.

On November 14, 1501, the marriage ceremony finally took place at Saint Paul’s Cathedral; both Arthur and Catherine wore white satin. The ceremony was conducted by Henry Deane, Archbishop of Canterbury, who was assisted by William Warham, Bishop of London. Following the ceremony, Arthur and Catherine left the Cathedral and headed for Baynard’s Castle, where they were entertained by “the best voiced children of the King’s chapel.

What followed was a bedding ceremony laid down by Arthur’s grandmother Lady Margaret Beaufort: the bed was sprinkled with holy water, after which Catherine was led away from the wedding feast by her ladies-in-waiting. She was undressed, veiled and “reverently” laid in bed, while Arthur, “in his shirt, with a gown cast about him”, was escorted by his gentlemen into the bedchamber, while viols and tabors played. The Bishop of London blessed the bed and prayed for the marriage to be fruitful, after which the couple were left alone. This is the only public bedding of a royal couple recorded in Britain in the 16th century.

In March 1502, Arthur and Catherine were afflicted by an unknown illness, “a malign vapour which proceeded from the air.” While Catherine recovered, Arthur died on 2 April 1502 at Ludlow, six months short of his sixteenth birthday.

Arthur’s death thrust all his duties upon his younger brother, the 10 year old Henry, Duke of York. After a little debate, Henry became the new Duke of Cornwall in October 1502, and the new Prince of Walesand Earl of Chester in February 1503. Henry VII gave the boy few tasks. Young Henry was strictly supervised and did not appear in public. As a result, he ascended the throne “untrained in the exacting art of kingship”.

Henry VII renewed his efforts to seal a marital alliance between England and Spain, by offering his second son in marriage to Arthur’s widow Catherine. Both Isabella and Henry VII were keen on the idea, which had arisen very shortly after Arthur’s death. On June 23, 1503, a treaty was signed for their marriage, and they were betrothed two days later. A papal dispensation was only needed for the “impediment of public honesty” if the marriage had not been consummated as Catherine and her duenna claimed, but Henry VII and the Spanish ambassador set out instead to obtain a dispensation for “affinity”, which took account of the possibility of consummation. Cohabitation was not possible because Henry was too young.

Isabella’s death in 1504, and the ensuing problems of succession in Castile, complicated matters. Her father preferred Catherine to stay in England, but Henry VII’s relations with Fernando had deteriorated. Catherine was therefore left in limbo for some time, culminating in Prince Henry’s rejection of the marriage as soon he was able, at the age of 14. Ferdinand’s solution was to make his daughter ambassador, allowing her to stay in England indefinitely. Devout, she began to believe that it was God’s will that she marry the prince despite his opposition.

Henry VIII, King of England. Age 18 in 1509.

Henry VII died on April 21, 1509, and the 17-year-old Henry succeeded him as King Henry VIII. Henry would turn 18 on June 28. Soon after his father’s burial on May 10, Henry suddenly declared that he would indeed marry Catherine, leaving unresolved several issues concerning the papal dispensation and a missing part of the marriage dowry. The new king maintained that it had been his father’s dying wish that he marry Catherine. Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I had been attempting to marry his granddaughter (and Catherine’s niece) Eleanor of Austria to Henry; she had now been jilted.

Henry’s wedding to Catherine was kept low-key and was held at the friar’s church in Greenwich on June 11, 1509. On June 23, 1509, Henry led the now 23-year-old Catherine from the Tower of London to Westminster Abbey for their coronation, which took place the following day. It was a grand affair: the king’s passage was lined with tapestries and laid with fine cloth. Following the ceremony, there was a grand banquet in Westminster Hall. As Catherine wrote to her father, “our time is spent in continuous festival”.

On this date in History: June 10, 1688. Birth of Prince James Francis Edward Stuart. Part I.

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Glorious Revolution, James Francis Stuart, King James II-VII of England and Scotland, Kings and Queens of England, kings and queens of Scotland, Louis XIV of France, Prince of Wales, William III of England, William of Orange

James Francis Edward Stuart (June 10, 1688 – January 1, 1766), nicknamed The Old Pretender, was the son of King James II-VII of England, Scotland and Ireland, and his second wife, Mary of Modena. He was born at St. James’s Palace and was automatically Duke of Cornwall and Duke of Rothesay, among other titles. Subsequently he was created Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester.

James II-VII, King of England, Scotland and Ireland.

The prince’s birth was controversial and, coming five years after his mother’s last conception, unanticipated on the part of a number of British Protestants, who had expected his sister Mary, from his father’s first marriage, to succeed their father. Mary and her younger sister Princess Anne had been raised as Protestants.As long as there was a possibility of one of them succeeding him, the king’s opponents saw his rule as a temporary inconvenience. When people began to fear that James’s second wife, Mary, would produce a Catholic son and heir, a movement grew to replace him with his elder daughter Princess Mary and his son-in-law/nephew, Willem III of Orange.

Rumors immediately began to spread that he was an impostor baby, smuggled into the royal birth chamber in a warming pan and that the actual child of James and Mary was stillborn. In an attempt to scotch this myth, James published the testimonies of over seventy witnesses to the birth.

Prince James Frances Edward, Prince of Wales

It is widely considered that the birth of Prince James Francis Edward was the sole reason that James II-VII was deposed. This event event certainly hastened the demise of king James’s reign, however, it was not the only cause. The second event that sealed the Kings fate was the prosecution of the Seven Bishops for seditious libel; this was viewed as an assault on the Church of England and their acquittal on June 30, destroyed his political authority in England. Anti-Catholic riots in England and Scotland now made it seem only his removal as monarch could prevent a civil war.

Let me provide more context to the second event. In April 1688, James re-issued the Declaration of Indulgence, subsequently ordering Anglican clergy to read it in their churches.

The Declaration granted broad religious freedom in England by suspending penal laws enforcing conformity to the Church of England and allowing persons to worship in their homes or chapels as they saw fit, and it ended the requirement of affirming religious oaths before gaining employment in government office.By use of the royal suspending power, the king lifted the religious penal laws and granted toleration to the various Christian denominations, including Catholic and Protestant, within his kingdoms.

While this was a progressive act, anti-Catholic sentiments ruled the day and many Protestant clergy viewed this act as an attack on their authority. When seven Bishops, including the Archbishop of Canterbury, submitted a petition requesting the reconsideration of the King’s religious policies, they were arrested and tried for seditious libel.

Protestant Clergy and Nobles had already entered into negotiations with Prince Willem III of Orange when it became known the Queen was pregnant, and the birth of a son reinforced their convictions. On June 30, 1688, when the group of Seven Bishops were acquitted, it resulted in wild celebrations throughout London, including within regiments of the Royal Army based in Hounslow, much to James’ annoyance and concern.

The same day of the acquittal seven Protestant nobles sent an Invitation to Willem III of Orange, ‘inviting’ him to take the throne on behalf of his wife Mary, James’ Protestant daughter. The invitation was signed by seven individuals selected from key elements of the political nation, including Tories, Whigs, Bishop Compton and the Royal Navy.

By September, it had become clear that Willem III sought to invade England. Believing that his own army would be adequate, James II-VII refused the assistance of Louis XIV, fearing that the English would oppose French intervention. When Willem arrived on November 5, 1688, many Protestant officers, including Churchill, defected and joined Willem as did James’s own daughter, Anne.

James lost his nerve and declined to attack the invading army, despite his army’s numerical superiority. On December 9, Mary of Modena disguised herself as a laundress and escaped with the infant James Francis Edward to France. On December 11, James II-VII tried to flee to France, first throwing the Great Seal of the Realm into the River Thames. He was captured in Kent; later, he was released and placed under Dutch protective guard. Having no desire to make James a martyr, the Prince of Orange let him escape on December 23. James was received by his cousin and ally, Louis XIV, who offered him a palace and a pension.

On this date in History: June 10 1897. The birth of Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna of Russia.

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Alexander I of Yugoslavia, Alexander III of Russia, Alfred Duke of Edinburgh, Czar Nicholas II, Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna, King Ferdinand of Romania, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, Russian Empire, Russian Imperial Family, Russian Revolution

Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna of Russia (June 10, 1897 – July 17, 1918) was the second daughter of Czar Nicholas II of Russia, and Princess Alice of Hesse and By Rhine. She was born at the Peterhof, Saint Petersburg.

She was better known than her three sisters during her lifetime and headed Red Cross committees during World War I. Like her older sister Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna of Russia, she nursed wounded soldiers in a military hospital from 1914 to 1917, until the family was arrested following the first Russian Revolution of 1917.

According to sources, Peter I of Serbia wanted Tatiana as a bride for his younger son, Prince Alexander (future Alexander I of Yugoslavia). In January 1914, the Serbian prime minister Nikola Pašić delivered a letter to Czar Nicholas II in which King Peter expressed a desire for his son to marry one of the Grand Duchesses. Nicholas II replied that he would allow his daughters to decide whom to marry, but he noticed that the Serbian prince Alexander often gazed upon Tatiana during a family dinner. Marriage negotiations ended due to the outbreak of World War I. Tatiana exchanged letters with Alexander during World War I and Alexander was distraught when he learned of her death.

Russian Imperial Family meets the Romanian Royal Family.

Instead of marrying Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna of Russia, King Alexander I of Yugoslavia married Princess Maria of Romania on June 8, 1922. Princess Maria of Romania was a second cousin of Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna of Russia. Marie of Romania was the daughter of King Ferdinand of Romania and Marie of Edinburgh. Marie of Romania was named after her maternal grandmother, Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia, (the second and only surviving daughter of Emperor Alexander II of Russia and his wife Marie of Hesse and by Rhine). Marie of Romania and was known as Mignon in the family to distinguish her from her mother, Marie of Edinburgh the daughter of Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh (later Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha) and the aforementioned Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia. Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh was the second son and fourth child of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

Sisters, Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna (left) and Tatiana Nikolaevna of Russia.

The murder Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna of Russia, by communist revolutionaries on July 17, 1918 resulted in her being named as a passion bearer by the Russian Orthodox Church. She was a younger sister of Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna of Russia and an elder sister of Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna of Russia, Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russiaand Tsarevich Alexei of Russia. All sisters were falsely rumored to have survived the assassination and dozens of impostors claimed to be surviving Romanovs. Author Michael Occleshaw speculated that a woman named Larissa Tudor might have been Tatiana; however, all of the Romanovs, including Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia, were killed by the Bolsheviks.

Happy 98th birthday to HRH The Duke of Edinburgh!

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Christian IX of Denmark, Happy Birthday, House of Battenberg, Kingdom of Denmark, Kingdom of Greece, Kingdom of the Hellenes, London Protocol 1852, Prince Philip, Prince Philip Duke of Edinburgh, Princess Alice of Battenberg, Queen Elizabeth II, Queen Victoria, The Duke of Edinburgh

In honor of the 98th birthday of HRH The Duke of Edinburgh I thought I would give some genealogical and biographical information on him.

Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark was born in Mon Repos on the Greek island of Corfu on June 10, 1921. He was the only son and fifth and final child of Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark and Princess Alice of Battenberg. Prince Philip had four elder sisters, Margarita (1905-1981), Theodora (1906-1969), Cecilie (1911-1937) and Sophie (1914-2001).

Prince Philip’s Father:

Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark (January 20 – 1882 – December 3, 1944) of the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, was the seventh child and fourth son of King George I of Greece and Olga Constantinovna of Russia. He was a grandson of Christian IX of Denmark and Prince Louise of Hesse-Cassel.

Prince Andrew (left), with his older brothers, the Crown Prince Constantine and Prince Nicholas.

Paternal Grandfather:

George I of the Hellenes was born December 24, 1845 at the Yellow Palace, an 18th-century town house at 18 Amaliegade, right next to the Amalienborg Palace complex in Copenhagen. He was the second son and third child of Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg and Princess Louise of Hesse-Kassel. Until his accession in Greece, he was known as Prince Vilhelm, the namesake of his grandfathers Wilhelm, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, and Prince Wilhelm of Hesse-Cassel.

King George I of the Hellenes

Paternal Grandmother:

Olga Constantinovna of Russia was born on August 22, 1851 the daughter of Grand Duke Constantine Nikolaievich and his wife, Princess Alexandra of Saxe-Altenburg. Olga’s father was Grand Duke Constantine Nikolayevich of Russia (September 21, 1827 – January 25, 1892) was the second son of Czar Nicholas I of Russia and younger brother of Czar Alexander II. This gives the Duke of Edinburgh strong familial ties to the Imperial Russian royal family.

Grand Duchess Olga, Queen of the Hellenes

Prince Philip’s mother:

Alice of Battenberg was born on February 25, 1885 in the Tapestry Room at Windsor Castle in Berkshire in the presence of her great-grandmother, Queen Victoria. She was the eldest child of Prince Louis of Battenberg (after 1917: Louis Alexander Mountbatten, 1st Marquess of Milford Haven) and his wife Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine. Her mother was the eldest daughter of Ludwig IV, Grand Duke of Hesse and Princess Alice of the United Kingdom, the Queen’s second daughter.

Princess Alice of Battenberg

Prince and Princess Andrew of Greece and Denmark

Royal House

The Duke of Edinburgh is a member of the Royal House of Glücksburg (also spelled Glücksborg), shortened from House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, and is a Danish-German branch of the House of Oldenburg, whose members have reigned at various times in Denmark, Norway, Greece and several northern German states.

In 1460, Glücksburg came, as part of the conjoined Danish-German duchies of Schleswig and Holstein, to Count Christian VII of Oldenburg whom, in 1448, the Danes had elected their king as Christian I, the Norwegians likewise taking him as their hereditary king in 1450.

In 1564, Christian I’s great-grandson, King Frederik II, in re-distributing Schleswig and Holstein’s fiefs, allocated Glücksburg to his brother Duke Johann the Younger (1545-1622), along with Sonderburg, in appanage. Johann’s heirs further sub-divided their share and created, among other branches, a line of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg at Beck (an estate near Minden bought by the family in 1605), who remained vassals of Denmark’s kings.

The Danish line of Oldenburg kings died out in 1863 with the death of King Frederik VII of Denmark. Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, the fourth son of Duke Friedrich of Glücksburg, was recognized in the London Protocol of 1852 as successor to the childless King Frederick VII of Denmark. He became King of Denmark as Christian IX as king of Denmark on November 15, 1863.

A few months prior to becoming King of Denmark, Christian IX’s second son, Prince Vilhelm, was elected King of the Hellenes on March 30, 1863, succeeding the ousted Wittelsbach Otto of Greece and reigning under the name George I. As stated above, the seventh child and fourth son of King George I of Greece was Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark, the father of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.

Highlights of the life the Duke of Edinburgh:

After being educated in France, Germany and the United Kingdom, he joined the British Royal Navy in 1939, aged 18. In 1939, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth toured the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth. During the visit, the Queen and Louis Mountbatten asked Philip to escort the King’s two daughters, Elizabeth and Margaret, who were Philip’s third cousinsthrough Queen Victoria, and second cousins once removed through King Christian IX of Denmark.

Elizabeth fell in love with Philip and they began to exchange letters when she was thirteen. Eventually, in the summer of 1946, Philip asked the King for his daughter’s hand in marriage. The King granted his request, provided that any formal engagement be delayed until Elizabeth’s twenty-first birthday the following April. By March 1947, Philip had abandoned his Greek and Danish royal titles, had adopted the surname Mountbatten from his mother’s family, and had become a naturalised British subject. However, this was unnecessary as Philip was a descendent of Sofia of Hanover and due to this he already was a British subject.

The day preceding his wedding, King George VI bestowed the style of Royal Highness on Philip and, on the morning of the wedding, November 20, 1947, he was made the Duke of Edinburgh, Earl of Merioneth, and Baron Greenwich of Greenwich in the County of London. Philip and Elizabeth were married in a ceremony at Westminster Abbey, recorded and broadcast by BBC radio to 200 million people around the world. However, in post-war Britain, it was not acceptable for any of the Duke of Edinburgh’s German relations to be invited to the wedding, including Philip’s three surviving sisters, all of whom had married German princes. After their marriage, the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh took up residence at Clarence House.

On February 25, 1957, the Queen granted her husband the style and title of a Prince of the United Kingdom by Letters Patent, and it was gazetted that he was to be known as “His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh”.

New name of the Royal House?:

The accession of Elizabeth II to the throne brought up the question of the name of the royal house, as Elizabeth would typically have taken Philip’s last name on marriage. The Duke’s uncle, Earl Mountbatten of Burma, advocated the name House of Mountbatten. Philip suggested House of Edinburgh, after his ducal title. When Queen Mary, Elizabeth’s grandmother, heard of this, she informed the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who himself later advised the Queen to issue a royal proclamation declaring that the royal house was to remain known as the House of Windsor. Prince Philip privately complained, “I am nothing but a bloody amoeba. I am the only man in the country not allowed to give his name to his own children.”

It’s interesting that the question of the name of the Royal House was raised. The name of the dynasty remains the same during the reign of a Queen Regnant. For example, Queen Mary I 1553-1558, remained a Tudor despite being married to a Habsburg. Queen Anne remained a Stuart despite being married to a Danish prince of the House of Oldenburg. The same with Queen Victoria, the name of the Royal House did not change from Hanover to Saxe-Coburg-Gotha until the accession of her son. King Edward VII, in 1901.

In times past this would not have been an issue and the name of the royal house would automatically change once the Crown passed through the female line to reflect the patrilineal line. I believe that Lord Mountbatten was eager to elevate the status of his family name.

On February 8, 1960, several years after the death of Queen Mary and the resignation of Churchill, the Queen issued an Order in Council declaring that Mountbatten-Windsor would be the surname of her and her husband’s male-line descendants who are not styled as Royal Highness or titled as Prince or Princess. The son of the Duke of Sussex, Archie Mountbatten-Windsor, is the first descendant of the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh that this order applies to.

Service as Consort to Her Majesty the Queen.

The Duke of Edinburgh has been an excellent support to Her Majesty the queen. However, he has not been without controversy. The prince is no wall flower and often speaks his mind. Sometimes he would make and off-the-cuff remark or joke that would be taken either out of context or was not meant to be offensive but people would at times be offended but what he has said.

The princes has always been a very active man. He played polo until 1971 and then took up the sport of carriage driving. I worked at a historical house and have seen competitive carriage driving myself. I really enjoyed watching that and was happy that the prince took up that sport. Philip was also a skilled yachtsman and pilot.

Philip is patron of some 800 organisations, particularly focused on the environment, industry, sport, and education. His first solo engagement as Duke of Edinburgh was in March 1948, presenting prizes at the boxing finals of the London Federation of Boys’ Clubs at the Royal Albert Hall. He was President of the National Playing Fields Association (now known as Fields in Trust) for 64 years, from 1947 until his grandson Prince William took over the role in 2013.

He served as UK President of the World Wildlife Fund from 1961 to 1982, International President from 1981, and President Emeritus from 1996. In 1952, he became patron of The Industrial Society (since renamed The Work Foundation). He was President of the International Equestrian Federation from 1964 to 1986, and has served as Chancellor of the Universities of Cambridge, Edinburgh, Salford, and Wales.

In 2017, the British Heart Foundation thanked Prince Philip for being its patron for 55 years, during which time, in addition to organising fundraisers, he “supported the creation of nine BHF-funded centres of excellence”. He is an Honorary Fellow of St Edmund’s College, Cambridge.

Prince Philip retired from his royal duties on 2 August 2017, meeting Royal Marines in his final solo public engagement, aged 96. Since 1952 he had completed 22,219 solo engagements. Prime Minister Theresa May thanked him for “a remarkable lifetime of service”. On November 20, 2017, he celebrated his 70th wedding anniversary with the Queen, which made her the first British monarch to celebrate a platinum wedding anniversary.

The Duke of Edinburgh is the longest-lived descendant of both Queen Victoria and King Christian IX of Denmark, he is the longest serving British royal consort and his marriage to HM The Queen is the longest in British royal history.

Sweden: The Instrument of Government was adopted on June 6, 1809

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Absolute Monarchy, Constitutional Monarchy, Instrument of Government 1809, King Carl XIII of Sweden, King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, King Gustaf III of Sweden, King Gustaf VI Adolph of Sweden, Kingdom of Sweden, Riksdag

Also on this date in Swedish history. The Instrument of Government (Swedish: 1809 års regeringsform) was adopted on June 6, 1809 by the Riksdag of the Estates and King Carl XIII, was one of the fundamental laws that made up the constitution of Sweden from 1809 to the end of 1974.

King Carl XIII of Sweden and Norway

The Instrument of Government came about after the Coup of 1809, when the disastrous outcome in the Finnish War led Swedish nobles and parts of the Army to revolt, forcing King Gustav IV Adolf to involuntarily abdicate and go into exile.

For half a century, starting with the Instrument of Government of 1719, often referred to as the Age of Liberty, Sweden had enjoyed parliamentary rule under the Riksdag of the Estates, but in 1772 that was ended by a coup d’état perpetrated by Gustav III. The coup enabled Gustav III to rule as an enlightened despot, in other words, an absolute monarch. Gustav III’s son, Gustav IV Adolf, succeeded him but proved a less charismatic ruler, and the change of sides of Russia in the Napoleonic wars prompted the disastrous Finnish War and the loss of Finland, settled in the Treaty of Fredrikshamn. This provided momentum for the Swedish nobility and other forces to depose the king and restore political power to the Estates.

The aged and childless brother of Gustav III, Carl XIII was made king in 1809, but he was a mere puppet in the hands of the Estates and the question of his successor had to be solved. The election, by the Riksdag of the Estates, of the French Marshal and Prince of Pontecorvo Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte in 1810, provided not only a successor, but also a vital regent and a new dynasty. The rights of Bernadotte’s successors to accede to the Swedish throne were codified in an amendment to the constitution in the form of the Act of Succession (1810).

The Instrument of Government of 1809 replaced the Instrument of Government of 1772. It established a separation of powers between the executive branch (the king) and the legislative branch (the Riksdag of the Estates). The King and Riksdag possessed joint power over legislation (article 87, constitutional law in articles 81-86), while the Riksdag had sole power over the budget and state incomes and expenses (articles 57-77) including military burdens (article 73). While the king’s power was somewhat reduced compared to the enlightened absolutism of Gustav III, the new document enabled the king to take a more active role in politics than during the Age of Liberty.

The liberals won a decisive victory in 1917, but Gustaf tried to appoint another conservative ministry. However, it could not garner nearly enough support in the Riksdag. It was now obvious that the king could no longer pick a government entirely of his choosing, nor could he keep it in office against the will of the Riksdag. Gustaf yielded and appointed a liberal-social democratic coalition that effectively arrogated most of the crown’s political powers to itself. At that time, it was definitively established that ministers were politically responsible (not just legally) to the Riksdag. From then on, while ministers were still formally appointed by the king, convention required him to ensure they had the support of a majority in the Riksdag and to act on his ministers’ advice. Although the Instrument’s statement that “the King alone shall govern the realm” (article 4) remained unchanged, it was understood that he was to exercise his powers through the ministers, who did most of the actual work of governing.

King Carl XVI Gustav of Sweden

During the period when it was in force several important reforms took place without affecting its status. In 1866 the Four Estates were replaced by a bicameral parliament, and in 1876 the office of the Prime Minister of Sweden was introduced. In the early 20th century universal suffrage was introduced and the country became a de facto parliamentary monarchy. In 1970 the parliament was transformed from a bicameral legislature to a unicameral one.

In 1975, it was replaced by a new Instrument of Government, which stripped the king of even nominal political power and made Sweden a de facto crowned republic.

On this date in History: June 6, 1523. Election of Gustav Eriksson Vasa as King of Sweden.

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Carl VIII of Sweden, Christian II of Denmak, Gustav Eriksson, Gustav I of Sweden, Gustav Vasa, Kalmar Union, King Christian II of Denmark, Kingdom of Sweden, Monarchy, National Day of Sweden, Norway and Sweden, Queen Margrethe I of Denmark, Union of Kalmar

Gustav I, King of Sweden was born Gustav Eriksson of the Vasa noble family and later known as Gustav Vasa (May 12, 1496 – September 29, 1560). Gustav Eriksson, a son of Cecilia Månsdotter Eka and Erik Johansson Vasa, was probably born in 1496. The birth most likely took place in Rydboholm Castle, northeast of Stockholm, the manor house of the father, Erik. The newborn got his name, Gustav, from Erik’s grandfather Gustav Anundsson.

Erik Johansson’s parents were Johan Kristersson and Birgitta Gustafsdotter of the dynasties Vasa and Sture respectively, both dynasties of high nobility. Birgitta Gustafsdotter was the sister of Sten Sture the Elder, regent of Sweden. According to genealogical research, Birgitta Gustafsdotter and Sten Sture (and consequently also Gustav Vasa) were descended from King Sverker II of Sweden, through King Sverker’s granddaughter Benedikte Sunesdotter (who was married to Svantepolk Knutsson, son of Duke of Reval). One of King Gustav’s great-grandmothers was a half-sister of King Carl VIII of Sweden.

Gustav I, King of Sweden

Gustav Eriksson was appointed hövitsman during the ongoing Swedish War of Liberation against King Christian II of Denmark, Norway and Sweden. In February 1520 the growing rebellion toward the Union of Kalmar iconsisted of 400 men, mainly from the area around Lake Siljan. The first big clash in the Dissolution of the Kalmar Union that now started, took place at Brunnbäck’s Ferry in April, where a rebel army defeated an army loyal to the king. The sacking of the city of Västerås and with it controlling important copper and silver mines gave Gustav Vasa resources and supporters flocked to him. Other parts of Sweden, for example the Götaland provinces of Småland and Västergötland, also saw rebellions. The leading noblemen of Götaland joined Gustav Eriksson’s forces and, in Vadstena in August, they declared Gustav regent of Sweden.

The election of Gustav Eriksson as a regent made many Swedish nobles, who had so far stayed loyal to King Christian II of Denmark, Norway and Sweden switch sides. Some noblemen, still loyal to the king, chose to leave Sweden, while others were killed. As a result, the Swedish Privy Council lost old members who were replaced by supporters of Gustav Eriksson. Most fortified cities and castles were conquered by Gustav’s rebels, but the strongholds with the best defences, including Stockholm, were still under Danish control.

Christian II, King of Denmark, Norway and Sweden.

In 1522, after negotiations between Gustav Eriksson’s people and Lübeck, the Hanseatic city joined the war against Denmark. The winter of 1523 saw the joint forces attack the Danish and Norwegian areas of Scania, Halland, Blekinge and Bohuslän. During this winter, Christian II was overthrown and replaced by Frederik I. The new king openly claimed the Swedish throne and had hopes Lübeck would abandon the Swedish rebels. The German city, preferring an independent Sweden to a strong Kalmar Union dominated by Denmark, took advantage of the situation and put pressure on the rebels. The city wanted privileges on future trade as well as guarantees regarding the loans they had granted the rebels. The Privy Council and Gustav Eriksson knew the support from Lübeck was absolutely crucial. As a response, the council decided to appoint Gustav Eriksson king, ending the Union of Kalmar

The ceremonial election of the regent Gustav Eriksson as king of Sweden took place when the leading men of Sweden got together in Strängnäs in June 1523. When the councillors of Sweden had chosen Gustav as king, he met with the two visiting councillors of Lübeck. The German representatives supported the appointment without hesitation and declared it an act of God. Gustav stated he had to bow to what was described as the will of God. In a meeting with the Privy Council, Gustav Eriksson announced his decision to accept. In the following ceremony, led by the deacon of Strängnäs, Laurentius Andreae, Gustav swore the royal oath.

The next day, bishops and priests joined Gustav in Roggeborgen where Laurentius Andreae raised the holy sacrament above a kneeling Gustav Eriksson. Flanked by the councillors of Lübeck, Gustav Eriksson was brought to Strängnäs Cathedral where the king sat down in the choir with the Swedish privy councillors on one side, and the Lübeck representatives on the other. After the hymn “Te Deum”, Laurentius Andreae proclaimed Gustav Eriksson king of Sweden. He was, however, still not crowned. In 1983, in remembrance of the election of Gustav Ericsson as King of Sweden on June 6 that date was declared the National Day of Sweden.

Originally an elective monarchy, Sweden became an hereditary monarchy in the 16th century during the reign of Gustav Vasa, though virtually all monarchs before that belonged to a limited and small number of families which are considered to be the royal dynasties of Sweden.

His 37-year rule, which was the longest of a mature Swedish king to that date (subsequently passed by Gustav V and Carl XVI Gustav) saw a complete break with not only the Danish supremacy but also the Roman Catholic Church, whose assets were nationalised, with the Lutheran Church of Sweden established under his personal control. He became the first truly autocratic native Swedish sovereign and was a skilled bureaucrat and propagandist, with tales of his largely fictitious adventures during the liberation struggle still widespread to date. In 1544, he abolished Medieval Sweden’s elective monarchy and replaced it with a hereditary monarchy under the House of Vasaand its successors, including the current House of Bernadotte. Due to a vibrant dynastic succession, three of his sons, Erik XIV, Johan III and Carl IX, all held the kingship at different points.

On this date in History: June 3, 1937. The marriage of The Duke of Windsor to Wallis Warfield Simpson.

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Abdication, Duchess of Windsor, Duke of Windsor, King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom, King George VI of the United Kingdom, kings and queens of the United Kingdom, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, Wallis Simpson

On December 11 1936, King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Emperor of India, abdicated the throne in favor of his brother, the Duke of York, who ascended the throne as King George VI. The next day, December 12, at the accession meeting of the Privy Council George VI announced he was creating his brother the “Duke of Windsor” with the style of Royal Highness. George VI’s decision to create Edward a royal duke ensured that he could neither stand for election to the House of Commons nor speak on political subjects in the House of Lords.

The Duke and Duchess of Windsor

Letters Patent created May 27, 1937 re-conferred the “title, style, or attribute of Royal Highness” upon the Duke of Windsor, but specifically stated that “his wife and descendants, if any, shall not hold said title or attribute”. Some British ministers advised that the reconfirmation was unnecessary since Edward had retained the style of HRH and Prince automatically upon his abdication and further that Wallis Simpson would automatically obtain the rank of wife of a prince with the style Her Royal Highness. However, other ministers held the opinion that the Duke of Windsor had lost all royal rank and should no longer carry any royal title or style as an abdicated king, and be referred to simply as “Mr Edward Windsor”.

On April 14, 1937, Attorney General Sir Donald Somervell submitted to Home Secretary Sir John Simon a memorandum summarising the views of Lord Advocate T. M. Cooper, Parliamentary Counsel Sir Granville Ram, and himself:

1. We incline to the view that on his abdication the Duke of Windsor could not have claimed the right to be described as a Royal Highness. In other words, no reasonable objection could have been taken if the King had decided that his exclusion from the lineal succession excluded him from the right to this title as conferred by the existing Letters Patent.

2. The question however has to be considered on the basis of the fact that, for reasons which are readily understandable, he with the express approval of His Majesty enjoys this title and has been referred to as a Royal Highness on a formal occasion and in formal documents. In the light of precedent it seems clear that the wife of a Royal Highness enjoys the same title unless some appropriate express step can be and is taken to deprive her of it.

3. We came to the conclusion that the wife could not claim this right on any legal basis. The right to use this style or title, in our view, is within the prerogative of His Majesty and he has the power to regulate it by Letters Patent generally or in particular circumstances.

The creation of the 1937 Letters Patent by King George VI cleared any confusion and speculation to the status of the former King Edward VIII and his new wife.

The Duke of Windsor married Wallis Simpson in a private ceremony on June 3, 1937, at Château de Candé, near Tours, France. When the Church of England refused to sanction the union, a County Durham clergyman, the Reverend Robert Anderson Jardine (Vicar of St Paul’s, Darlington), offered to perform the ceremony, and the Duke accepted. King George VI, forbade members of the royal family to attend, to the lasting resentment of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. Edward had particularly wanted his brothers the Dukes of Gloucester and Kent and his second cousin Louis Mountbatten to attend the ceremony.

The denial of the style Royal Highness to the Duchess of Windsor caused further conflict in the early days of George VI’s reign. The Duke of Windsor telephoned daily, importuning for money and urging that the Duchess be granted the style of Royal Highness, until the harassed king ordered that the calls not be put through.

Relations between the Duke of Windsor and the rest of the royal family were strained for decades. The Duke had assumed that he would settle in Britain after a year or two of exile in France. King George VI (with the support of Queen Mary and his wife Queen Elizabeth) threatened to cut off Edward’s allowance if he returned to Britain without an invitation. Edward became embittered against his mother, Queen Mary, writing to her in 1939: “[your last letter destroy[ed] the last vestige of feeling I had left for you … [and has] made further normal correspondence between us impossible.”

During the Second World War, Edward was at first stationed with the British Military Mission to France, but after private accusations that he held Nazisympathies he was appointed Governor of the Bahamas. After the war, Edward spent the rest of his life in retirement in France. Edward and Wallis remained married until his death in 1972.