Was He A Usurper? King Richard III. Part II.

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2nd Duke of Buckingham, Anthony Woodville, Dowager Queen Elizabeth, Earl Rivers, Elizabeth Woodville, Execution, Henry Stafford, King Edward V of England, King Richard III of England, Lord Protector

Lord Protector

On the death of King Edward IV on April 9, 1483, his 12-year-old son, Edward V, succeeded him. Richard was named Lord Protector of the Realm and at Baron Hastings’ urging, Richard assumed his role and left his base in Yorkshire for London. This was in response to the Woodvilles’ attempt to monopolise power, Richard quickly moved to take control of the young king

On April 29, as previously agreed, Richard and his cousin, Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, met Queen Elizabeth’s (Elizabeth Woodville) brother, Anthony Woodville, Earl Rivers, at Northampton. At the queen’s request, Earl Rivers was escorting the young King Edward V to London with an armed escort of 2,000 men, while Richard and Buckingham’s joint escort was 600 men.

King Edward V had been sent further south to Stony Stratford. Richard had Earl Rivers, his nephew Richard Grey and his associate, Thomas Vaughan, arrested and charged with treason against the Lord Protector after appearing before a tribunal led by Henry Percy, 4th Earl of Northumberland. Rivers had appointed Richard as executor of his will.

Richard, Duke of Gloucester, Lord Protector of England

The result of the tribunal was Earl Rivers, Richard Grey and Thomas Vaughan were imprisoned and then beheaded at Pontefract Castle on June 25, 1483 as part of the duke’s path towards kingship (as Richard III).

What made Earl Rivers and his associates actions treasonous was that by following the orders of Queen Elizabeth they had set themselves up, or more precisely, we’re set up, to challenge the authority and wishes of Richard as Lord Protector. Their actions were an example of the bitter rivalry between Richard and Queen Elizabeth and the rest of the Woodville clan.

Another reason for the arrest and execution of Earl Rivers and associates was the plot that had been uncovered against Richard as Lord Protector where the Woodville family wanted to remove Richard from his position as Lord Protector. After the perpetrators had been executed Richard and Buckingham moved to Stony Stratford, where Richard informed his nephew Edward V of the plot aimed at denying him his role as Lord Protector.

King Edward V of England and Lord of Ireland

Richard proceeded to escort the king to London. They entered the city on May 4,displaying the carriages of weapons Rivers had taken with his 2,000-man army. Richard first accommodated Edward in the Bishop’s apartments; then, on Buckingham’s suggestion, the king was moved to the royal apartments of the Tower of London, where kings customarily awaited their coronation.

With her younger son and daughters, Elizabeth again sought sanctuary. Lord Hastings, the late king’s leading supporter in London, initially endorsed Gloucester’s actions, but Gloucester then accused him of conspiring with Elizabeth Woodville against him. Hastings was summarily executed. Whether any such conspiracy really occurred is not known. Richard accused Elizabeth of plotting to “murder and utterly destroy” him.

Dowager Queen Elizabeth

On hearing the news of her brother’s April 30 arrest, the dowager queen fled to sanctuary in Westminster Abbey. Joining her were her son by her first marriage, Thomas Grey, 1st Marquess of Dorset; her five daughters; and her youngest son, Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York.

On June 10/11, Richard wrote to Ralph, Lord Neville, the City of York and others asking for their support against “the Queen, her blood adherents and affinity” whom he suspected of plotting his murder. At a council meeting on 13 June at the Tower of London, Richard accused Hastings and others of having conspired against him with the Woodvilles and accusing Jane Shore, lover to both Hastings and Thomas Grey, of acting as a go-between.

According to Thomas More, Hastings was taken out of the council chambers and summarily executed in the courtyard, while others, like Lord Thomas Stanley and John Morton, Bishop of Ely, were arrested. Hastings was not attainted and Richard sealed an indenture that placed Hastings’ widow, Katherine, under his protection. Bishop Morton was released into the custody of Buckingham. On June 16, the dowager queen agreed to hand over the Duke of York to the Archbishop of Canterbury so that he might attend his brother Edward’s coronation, still planned for June 22.

Hedwig Eleonora of Holstein-Gottorp, Queen of Sweden.

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Battle of Warsaw, Duke Frederick III of Holstein-Gottorp, Great Northern War, Hedwig Eleonora of Holstein-Gottorp, King Carl X Gustaf of Sweden, King Carl XI of Sweden, Queen Christina of Sweden, Queen of Sweden, Regent

Hedwig Eleonora of Holstein-Gottorp (October 23, 1636 – November 14, 1715) Queen of Sweden.

Ancestry

Hedwig Eleonora was born on October 23, 1636, in the Palace of Gottorp at Schleswig, to Duke Friedrich III of Holstein-Gottorp and Marie Elisabeth of Saxony, daughter of Johann Georg I, Elector of Saxony, and his spouse Princess Magdalene Sibylle of Prussia.

Magdalene Sibylle of Prussia was the daughter of Albrecht Friedrich, Duke of Prussia and Marie Eleonore of Cleves.

Duke Friedrich III of Holstein-Gottorp

Magdalene Sibylle of Prussian also was a great-granddaughter of Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor. She is also in three ways an ancestor of Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, mother of George III of the United Kingdom. In that way, she connected the ancestry of the British monarchs to the Catholic Monarchs.

Hedwig Eleonora of Holstein-Gottorp was the sixth of the couple’s sixteen children.

Duke Friedrich III of Holstein-Gottorp was the elder son of Duke Johann Adolph of Holstein-Gottorp and Princess Augusta of Denmark, the third daughter of King Frederik II of Denmark and Sophia of Mecklenburg-Güstrow. Augusta of Denmark was politically influential during the reign of her son, Duke Friedrich III of of Holstein-Gottorp.

Marriage

In 1654 Duke Friedrich III of Holstein-Gottorp hosted the recently abdicated Christina, Queen of Sweden. She wrote to her successor King Carl X Gustaf of Sweden to recommend two of his daughters as potential brides. King Carl X Gustaf chose to marry Friedrich III’s daughter Hedvig Eleonora.

Hedwig Eleonora was welcomed by King Carl X Gustaf of Sweden at Dalarö in Sweden October 5, 1654, and stayed at Karlberg Palace before her official arrival at Stockholm for the wedding October 24. She was greeted, dressed in silver brocade, by queen dowager Maria Eleonora of Brandenburg at the Stockholm Royal Palace, where the wedding was celebrated the same day.

She was crowned queen at Storkyrkan October 27. Shortly after, her husband left for Poland to participate in the Deluge (history). Hedwig Eleonora remained in Sweden for the birth of the future Carl XI the November 24, 1655 and the following Christmas.

Hedwig Eleonora of Holstein-Gottorp, Queen of Sweden.

The spring of 1656, she left Sweden and followed Carl X Gustaf during his campaign, during which she displayed both physical and mental strength. She was present during the Battle of Warsaw (1656), during which she received the official praise from the Swedish army alongside her spouse. She returned to Sweden in the autumn of 1656.

In Sweden, she took control over her dower lands, which she strictly controlled during her life. After the Dano-Swedish War (1657–1658), she was called to join her husband at Gothenburg, then she followed him to Gottorp and Wismar. During the Dano-Swedish War (1658-1660), she and her sister-in-law Maria Eufrosyne of Pfalz lived at Kronborg in Denmark after it had been taken by the Swedish general Carl Gustaf Wrangel.

At Kronborg, Hedwig Eleonora was visited by her husband and entertained the foreign ambassadors. She visited Frederiksborgs Palace and hunted in the woods with the English ambassador. During the Falster campaign, she entertained the ambassadors at Nyköbing Falster. Hedwig Eleonora left for Gothenburg in December 1659, where the Swedish parliament was to assemble in January 1660.

King Carl X Gustaf of Sweden

Soon after the estates opened on January 4, 1660, King Carl X Gustaf fell ill with symptoms of a cold. Ignoring his illness, he repeatedly went to inspect the Swedish forces near Gothenburg, and soon broke down with chills, headaches and dyspnoea.

On January 15, court physician Johann Köster arrived, and in medical error mistook King Carl X Gustaf’s pneumonia for scorbut and dyspepsia. Köster started a “cure” including the application of multiple enemata, laxatives, bloodletting and sneezing powder.

While after three weeks the fever eventually was down and the coughing was better, the pneumonia had persisted and evolved into a sepsis by February 8.

On February 12, King Carl X Gustaf signed his testament: His son, Crown Prince Carl of Sweden, was still a minor, and Carl X Gustaf appointed a minor regency consisting of six relatives and close friends. CarlnX Gustaf died the next day at the age of 37.

Queen Hedwig Eleonora served as regent during the minority of her son, King Carl XI, from 1660 until 1672, and during the minority of her grandson, King Carl XII, in 1697. She also represented King Carl XII in Sweden during his absence in the Great Northern War from 1700 until the regency of her granddaughter Ulrika Eleonora in 1713. Queen Hedwig Eleonora was described as a dominant personality, and was regarded as the de facto first lady of the royal court for 61 years, from 1654 until her death.

December 18, 1626: Birth of Christina, Queen of Sweden. Part II.

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Axel Oxenstierna, Carl Gustaf of Zweibrücken-Kleeburg, Chancellor of Sweden, King Carl X Gustaf of Sweden, Peace of Westphalia, Queen Christina of Sweden, Thirty Years War

In 1644, Christina was declared an adult, although the coronation was postponed because of the Torstenson War. In the Treaty of Brömsebro Denmark added the isles of Gotland and Ösel to Christina’s domain while Norway lost the districts of Jämtland and Härjedalen to her. Under Christina’s rule, Sweden, now virtually controlling the Baltic Sea, had unrestricted access to the North Sea and was no longer encircled by Denmark–Norway.

Chancellor Axel Oxenstierna soon discovered that Queen Christina’s political views differed from his own. In 1645, he sent his son, Johan Oxenstierna, to the Peace Congress in the Westphalian city of Osnabrück, to argue against peace with the Holy Roman Empire. Christina, however, wanted peace at any cost and sent her own delegate, Johan Adler Salvius.

Christina, Queen of Sweden

The Peace of Westphalia was signed between May and October 1648, effectively ending the European wars of religion. Sweden received an indemnity of five million thalers, used primarily to pay its troops.

Sweden further received Western Pomerania (henceforth Swedish Pomerania), Wismar, the Archbishopric of Bremen, and the Bishopric of Verden as hereditary fiefs, thus gaining a seat and vote in the Diet of the Holy Roman Empire and in the respective diets (Kreistag) of three Imperial Circles: the Upper Saxon Circle, Lower Saxon Circle, and Lower Rhenish-Westphalian Circle; the city of Bremen was disputed.

Shortly before the conclusion of the peace settlement, Queen Christina admitted Salvius into the council, against Oxenstierna’s wishes. Salvius was no aristocrat, but Christina wanted the opposition to the aristocracy present.

In 1649, with the help of her uncle, Johann Casimir, Count Palatine of Zweibrücken-Kleeburg, Queen Christina tried to reduce the influence of Oxenstierna, when she declared her cousin Carl Gustaf of Zweibrücken-Kleeburg as her heir presumptive. Carl Gustaf was the son of Johann Casimir, Count Palatine of Zweibrücken-Kleeburg and Catherine of Sweden, the daughter of King Carl IX of Sweden and his first spouse Maria of the Palatinate-Simmern.

The following year, Queen Christina resisted demands from the other estates (clergy, burghers, and peasants) in the Riksdag of the Estates for the reduction of the number of noble landholdings that were tax-exempt. She never implemented such a policy.

King Carl X Gustaf of Sweden

Already at the age of nine Christina was impressed by the Catholic religion and the merits of celibacy. She read a biography on the virgin queen, Elizabeth I of England, with interest. Christina understood that it was expected of her to provide an heir to the Swedish throne.

Her first cousin and future successor, Carl Gustaf of Zweibrücken-Kleeburg, was infatuated with her, and they became secretly engaged before he left in 1642 to serve in the Swedish army in Germany for three years.

Christina revealed in her autobiography that she felt “an insurmountable distaste for marriage” and “for all the things that females talked about and did.” She once stated, “It takes more courage to marry than to go to war.”

As she was chiefly occupied with her studies, she slept three to four hours a night, forgot to comb her hair, donned her clothes in a hurry and wore men’s shoes for the sake of convenience. (In fact, her permanent bed-head became her trademark look in paintings.)

When Christina left Sweden, she continued to write passionate letters to her intimate friend Ebba Sparre, in which she told her that she would always love her. However, such emotional letters were relatively common at that time, and Christina would use the same style when writing to women she had never met, but whose writings she admired.

December 18, 1626: Birth of Christina, Queen of Sweden. Part I.

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Axel Oxenstierna, Eric XIV of Sweden, House of Vasa, King Carl IX of Sweden, King Gustaf II Adolph of Sweden, Maria Eleonora of Brandenburg, Privy Council, Queen Christina of Sweden, Regent, Sigismund III of Poland, Tre Kronor

Christina (December 18, 1626 – April 19, 1689), a member of the House of Vasa, was Queen of Sweden in her own right from 1632 until her abdication in 1654. She succeeded her father Gustavus Adolphus upon his death at the Battle of Lützen in 1632, but began ruling the Swedish Empire when she reached the age of eighteen in 1644.

Christina was born in the royal castle Tre Kronor on December 18, 1626. Her parents were King Gustaf II Adolph and his wife, Maria Eleonora of Brandenburg, a daughter of Johann Sigismund, Elector of Brandenburg, and Anna, Duchess of Prussia, daughter of Albrecht Friedrich, Duke of Prussia and Marie Eleonore of Cleves

King Gustaf II Adolph shared his wife Maria’s interest in architecture and her love of music. They had already had three children: two daughters (a stillborn princess in 1621, then the first Princess Christina, who was born in 1623 and died the following year) and a stillborn son in May 1625.

Excited expectations surrounded Maria Eleonora’s fourth pregnancy in 1626. When the baby was born, it was first thought to be a boy as it was “hairy” and screamed “with a strong, hoarse voice.” She later wrote in her autobiography that, “Deep embarrassment spread among the women when they discovered their mistake.” The king, though, was very happy, stating, “She’ll be clever, she has made fools of us all!”

The Crown of Sweden was hereditary in the House of Vasa, but from King Carl IX’s time onward (reigned 1604–11), it excluded Vasa princes descended from a deposed brother (Eric XIV of Sweden) and a deposed nephew (Sigismund III of Poland). Gustaf II Adolph’s legitimate younger brothers, Prince Louis and Prince Gustaf had died years earlier.

The one legitimate female left, his half-sister Catharine, came to be excluded in 1615 when she married Johann Casimir, Count Palatine of Zweibrücken-Kleeburg a non-Lutheran.

So Christina became the undisputed heir presumptive. From Christina’s birth, King Gustaf II Adolph recognized her eligibility even as a female heir, and although called “queen”, the official title she held as of her coronation by the Riksdag in February 1633 was King.

After King Gustaf II Adolph died on November 6, 1632 on the battlefield, Maria Eleonora returned to Sweden with the embalmed body of her husband. The 7-year-old Queen Christina came in solemn procession to Nyköping to receive her mother.

Maria Eleonora declared that the burial should not take place during her lifetime – she often spoke of shortening her life – or at least should be postponed as long as possible. She also demanded that the coffin be kept open, and went to see it regularly, patting it and taking no notice of the putrefaction. They tried to persuade Maria not to visit the corpse so often. Axel Oxenstierna managed to have the corpse interred in Riddarholmen Church on June 22, 1634, but had to post guards after she tried to dig it up. The grief suggests mental instability.

Maria Eleanora had been indifferent to her daughter but now, belatedly, Christina became the center of her mother’s attention. Gustaf II Adolph had decided that in the event of his death, his daughter should be cared for by his half-sister, Catherine of Sweden and half-brother Carl Gyllenhielm as regent.

This solution did not suit Maria Eleonora, who had her sister-in-law banned from the castle. In 1634, the Instrument of Government, a new constitution, was introduced by Axel Oxenstierna. The constitution stipulated that the “King” must have a Privy Council, which was headed by Oxenstierna himself.

The relation between Maria Eleonora and her daughter was considered very difficult, and in 1636 Maria Eleonora lost her parental rights to her daughter. The Riksråd motivated its decision by asserting that she neglected Christina and her upbringing, and that she had a bad influence on her daughter.

Chancellor Oxenstierna saw no other solution than to exile the widow to Gripsholm castle, while the governing regency council would decide when she was allowed to see her daughter. For the subsequent years, Christina thrived in the company of her aunt Catherine and her family.

December 8, 1708: Birth of Franz Stefan of Lorraine, Holy Roman Emperor

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Archduchess Maria Theresa of Austria, Duke of Lorraine and Bar, Franz Stefan of Lorraine, Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor Franz I, Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II, House of Habsburg, House of Habsburg-Lorraine, King Carlos III of Spain, King Friedrich II of Prussia

Franz I (French: François Étienne; German: Franz Stefan; December 8, 1708 – August 18, 1765) was Holy Roman Emperor (1745–1765), Archduke of Austria (1740–1765), Duke of Lorraine and Bar (1729–1737), and Grand Duke of Tuscany (1737–1765).

Franz Stefan was elected Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire because his wife, Archduchess Maria Theresa of Austria, (daughter of Emperor Charles VI) was unable to be elected Empress in her own right due to the Empire went by the Salic Law which bared women from holding the Imperial title in her own right.

Emperor Franz was the last non-Habsburg monarch of both the Empire and Austria, which were effectively governed by Maria Theresa. The couple were the founders of the Habsburg-Lorraine dynasty, and their marriage produced sixteen children, among them was Archduchess Marie Antoinette the wife of King Louis XVI or France and Navarre.

Franz I Stefan, Holy Roman Emperor, Grand Duke of Tuscany

Franz Stefan was the fourth (but oldest surviving) son of Leopold, Duke of Lorraine, and the French princess Élisabeth Charlotte d’Orléans.

Paternal Ancestry

Franz Stefan’s father Leopold was the son of Charles V, Duke of Lorraine, and his wife Archduchess Eleonora Maria of Austria, a half-sister of Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor Franz Stefan’s Paternal grandmother, Archduchess Eleonora Maria of Austria, was the daughter of Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand III and his wife, Eleanora of Mantua.

Archduchess Eleanor Maria Anna of Austria was a Habsburg. However, she also had strong Habsburg ancestry through her descent from her great-grandfather, Albrecht V, Duke of Bavaria who’s own mother, Archduchess Anna of Austria, who was the third of fifteen children of Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I (1503–1564) from his marriage with the Jagiellonian princess Anna of Bohemia and Hungary (1503–1547).

Archduchess Anna of Austria’s siblings included: Elizabeth, Queen of Poland, Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II, Catherine, Queen of Poland, Eleanor, Duchess of Mantua, Barbara, Duchess of Ferrara, Charles II, Archduke of Austria and Johanna, Duchess of Tuscany.

Maternal Ancestry

Franz Stefan’s mother, Élisabeth Charlotte d’Orléans, was the daughter of Philippe I, Duke of Orléans, (brother of King Louis XIV of France and Navarre) and of his second wife Elizabeth Charlotte of the Palatine.

Franz Stefan’s maternal grandmother, Elizabeth Charlotte of the Palatine, was the daughter of Charles I Ludwig, Elector Palatine and his wife Charlotte of Hesse-Cassel. Elizabeth Charlotte was named after her paternal grandmother Elizabeth Stuart and her own mother.

Charles Ludwig of the Palatinate was the second son of Friedrich V of the Palatinate, the “Winter King” of Bohemia, and of Elizabeth Stuart, daughter of King James I-VI of England and Scotland and sister of Charles I of England of England and Scotland. This demonstrates how the House of Habsburg-Lorraine descends from the Kings and Queens of England and Scotland.

The Paternal and Maternal Ancestry of Emperor Franz I demonstrates a very strong Habsburg ancestry and connection. Though the House of Habsburg ceased in the male line with the death of Emperor Charles VI, his descendants through his daughter Archduchess Maria Theresa and her husband Franz Stefan of Lorraine have continued the Habsburg dynasty.

Although the dynasty is officially named Habsburg-Lorraine we can see that the House of Habsburg still exists because of Franz Stefan’s many paths of descent from the House of Habsburg

Duke Leopold died in 1729, and was succeeded by his son, under the French spelling of François Étienne, and became the Duke of Lorraine and Bar.

Emperor Charles VI favoured the family, who, besides being his cousins, had served the house of Austria with distinction. He had designed to marry his daughter Maria Theresa to Franz’s older brother Leopold Clement. On Leopold Clement’s death, Charles adopted the younger brother as his future son-in-law.

Archduchess Maria Theresa, Queen of Bohemia Hungary and Croatia, Archduchess of Austria and Holy Roman Empress

Prior to accepting Franz Stefan as the husband for his daughter, the Emperor considered other possibilities. Religious differences prevented him from arranging his daughter’s marriage to the Protestant prince Friedrich of Prussia the future King Friedrich II the Great of Prussia, his wife’s future rival. In 1725, he betrothed her to Infante Carlos of Spain (Carlos III of Spain) and her sister, Maria Anna, to Infante Felipe of Spain (The reigning Duke of Parma).

Other European powers compelled him to renounce the pact he had made with the Queen of Spain, Elisabeth Farnese. Maria Theresa, who had become close to Franz Stefan, was relieved.

On January 31, 1736 Franz agreed to marry Maria Theresa. He hesitated three times (and laid down the feather before signing). Especially his mother Élisabeth Charlotte d’Orléans and his brother Prince Charles Alexander of Lorraine were against the loss of Lorraine.

On February 12, 1736 Franz married Maria Theresa. In 1738, he left the Duchy of Lorraine and Bar for the deposed Polish king Stanisław Leszczyński in exchange for the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, as one of the terms ending the War of the Polish Succession.

Following the death of his father-in-law Charles VI in 1740, Franz was elected Emperor and his wife became the ruler of the hereditary Habsburg domains. Maria Theresa gave her husband responsibility for the empire’s financial affairs, which he handled well.

Though she was expected to cede power to her husband, Emperor Franz I, and later her eldest son, Emperor Joseph II, who were officially her co-rulers in Austria and Bohemia, Maria Theresa was the absolute sovereign who ruled with the counsel of her advisers.

Franz was a serial adulterer; many of his affairs well-known and indiscreet, notably one with Princess Maria Wilhelmina of Auersperg, who was thirty years his junior. This particular affair was remarked upon in the letters and journals of visitors to the court and in those of his children.

Franz died suddenly at the age of 56 in his carriage while returning from the opera at Innsbruck on August 18, 1765. He is buried in tomb number 55 in the Imperial Crypt in Vienna.

Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor, King of Bohemia, Hungary and Croatia

Franz was succeeded as Emperor by his eldest son, Joseph II, and as Grand Duke of Tuscany by his younger son, Peter Leopold (later Emperor Leopold II). Maria Theresa retained the government of her dominions until her own death in 1780.

The new Emperor was made co-regent (Co-Ruler) by his mother in the hereditary Austrian dominions. As emperor, he had little true power, and his mother had resolved that neither her husband nor her son should ever deprive her of sovereign control in her hereditary dominions.

With the death of Maria Theresa on November 29, 1780 Emperor Joseph II also became King of Bohemia, Hungary and Croatia and was free to pursue his own policy, and he immediately directed his government on a new course, attempting to realize his ideal of enlightened despotism acting on a definite system for the good of all.

December 5, 1559: Accession of Charles IX as King of France

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Archduchess Elisabeth of Austria, Catherine de Médici, King Charles IX of France, KIng François II of France, King Henri II of France, King Henri III of Navarre, King Henri IV of France and Navarre, Queen Mary I of Scotland, Queen of France, St. Bartholomew's Day massacre

Charles IX (June 27, 1550 – May 30, 1574) was King of France from 1560 until his death in 1574. He ascended the French throne upon the death of his brother François II in 1560, and as such was the penultimate monarch of the House of Valois.

Prince Charles Maximilien of France, third son of King Henri II of France and Catherine de’ Medici, the daughter of Lorenzo de’ Medici, Duke of Urbino, and Madeleine de La Tour d’Auvergne.

Prince Charles Maximilien was born on June 27, 1550 at the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye. He was the fifth of ten children born to the royal couple. Styled since birth as Duke of Angoulême, he was created Duke of Orléans after the death of his older brother Louis, his parents’ second son, who had died in infancy on October 24, 1550.

Charles’ father, King Henri II, died in 1559, and was succeeded by Charles’ elder brother, King François II, who was married to Queen Mary I of Scotland. Therefore, François II was also King Consort of Scotland and died at a young age in 1560.

King Charles IX of France

The ten-year-old Charles Maximilian was immediately proclaimed King Charles IX of France on December 5, 1560, and the Privy Council appointed his mother, Catherine de’ Medici, as governor of France (Regent) with sweeping powers, at first acting as regent for her young son.

On 15 May 1561, King Charles IX was consecrated in the cathedral at Reims. Prince Antoine of Bourbon, himself in line to the French throne and husband to Queen Joan III of Navarre, was appointed Lieutenant-General of France.

Charles IX’s reign saw the culmination of decades of tension between Protestants and Catholics. Civil and religious war broke out between the two parties after the massacre of Vassy in 1562.

On November 26, 1570, Charles married Archduchess Elisabeth of Austria, with whom he fathered one daughter, Princess Marie Elisabeth of France. In 1573, Charles fathered an illegitimate son, Charles, Duke of Angoulême, with his mistress, Marie Touchet.

Archduchess Elisabeth of Austria was a member of the House of Habsburg, she was the daughter of Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor, and his wife and his first cousin, Infanta Maria of Spain, and she herself was the daughter of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (Carlos I of Spain) and Infanta Isabella of Portugal.

Archduchess Elisabeth of Austria, Queen of France

In 1572, following several unsuccessful attempts at brokering peace, Charles IX arranged the marriage of his sister Margaret to King Henri III of Navarre, a major Protestant nobleman in the line of succession to the French throne, in a last desperate bid to reconcile his people.

Facing popular hostility against this policy of appeasement and at the instigation of his mother Catherine de’ Medici, Charles IX oversaw the massacre of numerous Huguenot leaders who gathered in Paris for the royal wedding, though his direct involvement is still debated.

This event, known as the St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre, was a significant blow to the Huguenot movement, and religious civil warfare soon began anew. Charles IX sought to take advantage of the disarray of the Huguenots by ordering the siege of La Rochelle, but was unable to take the Protestant stronghold.

Many of Charles’ decisions were influenced by his mother, a fervent Roman Catholic who initially supported a policy of relative religious tolerance. However, after the events of St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre, he began to support the persecution of Huguenots.

However, the incident haunted Charles IX for the rest of his life, and historians suspect that it caused his physical and mental health to deteriorate in his later years. King Charles IX died of tuberculosis in 1574 without legitimate male issue, and was succeeded by his brother as King Henri III of France, whose own death in 1589 without issue allowed for the ascension of King Henri III of Navarre to the French throne as King Henri IV of France and Navarre establishing the House of Bourbon as the new French royal dynasty.

November 23, 1890: Death of Willem III, King of the Netherlands and Grand Duke of Luxembourg

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House of Orange, King Willem III of the Netherlands, Prince Alexander of the Netherlands, Prince of Orange, Princess Emma of Waldeck and Pyrmont, Queen Victoria, Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands

Willem III (February 9, 1817 – November 23, 1890) was King of the Netherlands and Grand Duke of Luxembourg from 1849 until his death in 1890. He was also the Duke of Limburg from 1849 until the abolition of the duchy in 1866.

Willem III was the son of King Willem II and Grand Duchess Anna Pavlovna of Russia. Anna Pavlovna was born in 1795 at Gatchina Palace, the eighth child and sixth daughter of Emperor Paul I of Russia and Empress Maria Feodorovna (born Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg).

King Willem III of the Netherlands and Grand Duke of Luxembourg

On the abdication of his grandfather Willem I in 1840, and the accession of his father as King Willem II, Prince Willem became the Prince of Orange. On the death of his father in 1849, he succeeded as King Willem III of the Netherlands and Grand Duke of Luxembourg.

Willem III married his first cousin Princess Sophie of Württemberg in 1839. Sophie was born in Stuttgart; her parents were King Wilhelm I of Württemberg and Grand Duchess Catherine Pavlovna of Russia, the fourth eldest daughter of Emperor Paul I and Empress Maria Feodorovna (born Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg).

Shortly after Sophie’s birth, her mother died, and she was cared for by her aunt, Catharina of Württemberg. She was niece of tsars Alexander I and Nicholas I of Russia.

Princess Sophie of Württemberg

Willem III and Sophie had three sons, William, Maurice, and Alexander, all of whom predeceased him.

In 1877, Queen Sophie died and in the same year, King Willem III announced his intention to marry Émilie Ambre, a French opera singer, whom he ennobled as countess d’Ambroise – without government consent. Under pressure from society and the government, he abandoned these marriage plans.

Willem III remained eager to remarry. In 1878, he first proposed to his niece, Princess Elisabeth of Saxe-Weimar. He then considered marriage with Princess Pauline of Waldeck and Pyrmont, a small German principality, and Princess Thyra of Denmark, the daughter of King Christian IX of Denmark, who had her own private scandalous history

He finally decided to marry Pauline’s younger sister Emma.

Princess Emma of Waldeck and Pyrmont

Emma was born a princess of Waldeck and Pyrmont on August 2, 1858 in Arolsen Castle in Arolsen, the capital of the small German principality of Waldeck and Pyrmont. She was the fourth daughter of Georg Viktor, Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont, and Princess Helena of Nassau-Weilburg. Her brother, Friedrich, was the last reigning prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont. Her sister, Helena, was the wife of Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, a son of Queen Victoria.

Some politicians were quite angry, as she was 41 years the king’s junior. Emma showed herself, however, as a cordial woman. Willem III asked permission from parliament, this was easily granted. The couple were quickly married in Arolsen on January 7, 1879.

When Willem III married Emma in 1879 there was a 41 year age gap between them. Willem III was 62 and Emma was 21.

Princess Emma of Waldeck and Pyrmont and King Willem III of the Netherlands

Emma had a relieving influence on Willem’s capricious personality and the marriage was extremely happy. The king had stopped interfering with most aspects of government.

In 1880, Princess Wilhelmina was born. She became heir presumptive in 1884 after the death of the last remaining son from Willem’s first marriage, Alexander, Prince of Orange.

King Willem III of The Netherlands and Grand Duke of Luxembourg

King Willem became seriously ill in 1887. He was suffering from a kidney-ailment.

In 1888 and 1889, the ailing king became increasingly demented. The Council of State and then Queen Emma became regents. Willem III died in Het Loo in 1890. Because Wilhelmina had not yet reached adulthood, Emma became regent for her daughter. She would remain regent until Wilhelmina’s eighteenth birthday in 1898.

Queen Mother Emma of the Netherlands and Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands

November 22, 1602: Birth of Elisabeth of France, Queen of Spain

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Élisabeth of France, Balthasar Carlos, Catalan Revolt, Catherine de Médici, Charles Emmanuel of Savoy, Felipe IV of France, King Henri IV of France, Louis XIII of France, Louis XIV of France, Maria Theresa of Spain, Philip Emmanuel, Prince of Piedmont, Regent

Elisabeth of France (November 22, 1602 – October 6, 1644) was Queen of Spain from 1621 to her death and Queen of Portugal from 1621 to 1640, as the first spouse of King Felipe IV. She served as regent of Spain during the Catalan Revolt in 1640-42 and 1643–44.

Elisabeth, Madame Royale, was born at the Château de Fontainebleau on November22, 1602. She was the eldest daughter of King Henri IV of France and his second spouse Marie de’ Medici. According to the court, her mother showed a cruel indifference to her, because she had believed the prophecy of a nun who assured her that she would give birth to three consecutive sons.

Shortly after her birth, she was betrothed to Philip Emmanuel, Prince of Piedmont, son and heir of Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy, by Infanta Catherine Michaela of Spain, a daughter of King Felipe II of Spain. Philip Emmanuel died in 1605.

As a daughter of the King of France, she was born a Fille de France. As the eldest daughter of the king, she was known at court by the traditional honorific of Madame Royale. The early years of Madame Royale were spent under the supervision of the royal governess Françoise de Montglat at the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, a quiet place away from the Parisian court in which she shared education and games with her legitimate siblings and the bastard children that her father had from his constant love affairs.

Besides the Dauphin, (future King Louis XIII) the other Enfants de France (Henri IV’s legitimate children) were Christine Marie, later Duchess of Savoy; Nicholas Henri, Duke of Orléans, who died in infancy; Gaston, Duke of Orléans; and Henrietta Maria, later Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland. When King Henri IV was assassinated outside the Palais du Louvre in Paris on May 14, 1610, her brother the Dauphin (with whom Elisabeth had a very close relationship) succeeded him to the throne as King Louis XIII of France under the Regency of their mother Marie de’ Medici.

When Elisabeth was ten years old, in 1612, negotiations were begun for a double marriage between the royal families of France and Spain; Elisabeth would marry the Prince of Asturias (the future Felipe IV of Spain) and her brother Louis XIII the Spanish Infanta Anne.

Marriage

After her proxy marriage to the Prince of Asturias and Louis XIII’s proxy marriage to the Infanta Anne, Elisabeth and her brother met their respective spouses for the first time on November 25, 1615 on the Pheasant Island in the river Bidassoa that divides France and Spain between the French city of Hendaye and the Spanish city of Fuenterrabía.

This was the last time Louis would see his sister. In Spain, Elisabeth’s French name took on the Spanish form of Isabel. The religious ceremony took place in the Saint Mary Cathedral in Burgos. At the time of her marriage, the thirteen-year-old Isabel became the new Princess of Asturias.

This marriage followed a tradition of cementing military and political alliances between the Catholic powers of France and Spain with royal marriages. The tradition went back to 1559 with the marriage of King Felipe II of Spain with the French princess Elisabeth of Valois, the daughter of King Henri II of France, as part of the Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis. The Exchange of the Princesses at the Spanish Border was painted by Peter Paul Rubens as part of his Marie de’ Medici cycle.

Queen

Elisabeth was renowned for her beauty, intelligence and noble personality, which made her very popular in Spain.

In 1621, by the time of the birth of the couple’s first child, the couple had ascended to the throne of Spain upon the death of Felipe III of Spain. The new queen of Spain was aware that her husband had mistresses.

Elisabeth herself was the subject of rumors about her relations with the noted poet Peralta (Juan de Tassis, 2nd Count of Villamediana), who was her gentleman-in-waiting.

She was regent of Spain during the Catalan Revolt and supported the Duke of Nochera against the Count-Duke of Olivares in favor of an honorable withdrawal from the Catalan Revolt.

Prior to 1640, the queen does not appear to have had much influence over state affairs, which was largely entrusted to Olivares. Elisabeth did not get along with Olivares, who reportedly assisted her spouse in his adultery and prevented her from achieving any political influence and once famously remarked, when she presented a political view to the king, that priests existed to pray as well as queens existed to give birth.

Between 1640 and 1642, Elisabeth served as regent for the king in his absence during the Catalan revolt and was given very good marks for her efforts. She was reputed to have influenced the fall of Olivares as a part of a “women’s conspiracy” alongside the duchess of Mantua, Ana de Guevara, María de Ágreda and her chief lady-in-waiting Luisa Manrique de Lara, Countess Paredes de Nava.

The fall of Olivares made the king consider her his only political partner, and when the king left again for the front in 1643, Elisabeth was again appointed regent assisted by Juan Chumacero Carrillo y Sotomayor. Her second regency was also given good reviews, and she was credited by the king for her efforts to provide vital supplies for the troops as well as for her negotiations with the banks to provide finances for the army, offering her own jewelry as security. It was rumored that she was intending to follow the example of queen Isabella the Catholic and lead her own army to retake Badajoz.

The Queen died in Madrid on October 6, 1644 at the age of forty-one, leaving two children: Balthasar Carlos and Maria Theresa. After her death, her husband married his niece Mariana of Austria.

Elisabeth’s last child, Infanta Maria Theresa of Spain, would later become queen of France as the wife of her nephew, the future Louis XIV. Unlike her husband and sister-in-law, she would not see the wedding that cemented the peace between her homeland and adopted country, Spain; the countries would be at war until 1659.

One of her great-grandsons, Philippe, Duke of Anjou, became King Felipe V of Spain, and through him, Elisabeth is an ancestor of the subsequent Spanish monarchs

October 28, 1412: Death of Margrethe I, Queen of Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Part IV. Conclusion

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Catherine of Pomerania, Eric of Pomerania, Kalmar Union, King Eric VII-III-XIII of Denmark Norway and Sweden, King Henry IV of England, Philippa of England, Queen Margrethe I of Denmark

According to Thomas Kingston Derry, Margrethe tried to provide the union with a sound economic basis. In the process, each of her measures (recovery of crown lands from nobility and the church, new taxes and new coins) hurt the interests of powerful classes, but she prevented them from having leadership by making little use of separate councils of her three kingdoms, relying on a body of civil and ecclesiastical officials she chose with great skills instead.

She placed Danes in Swedish and Norwegian bishoprics, while royal estates and castles were managed by castellans and bailiffs of foreign extraction. While this has been criticized as promoting Danes at the expense of Swedish and Norwegian people, Derry opines that considering she employed more Germans in her native Denmark than elsewhere, she was mainly interested in securing a loyal and efficient administration.

She travelled much, in her later years is said to have spent more time in Sweden than in Denmark. She encouraged intermarriages among the nobility of three realms. Her piety is well-known, and she gave strong backing to the canonisation of St.Brigitta, helped to make Vadstena into a strong cultural centre and encouraged the spread of “Brigittine language”, which led to many Swedish expressions coming into use among Danes and Norwegians.

In contrast with the foreign policy of her venturesome father, Margrethe’s was circumspect and unswervingly neutral in the bloody war between France and England as well as other European conflicts. However, she spared no pains to recover lost Danish territory. She purchased the island of Gotland from its actual possessors, Albert of Mecklenburg and the Livonian Order, and the greater part of Schleswig was regained in the same way.

In 1402 Margrethe entered into negotiations with King Henry IV of England about the possibility of a double-wedding alliance between England and the Nordic Union. The proposal was for King Eric VII-III-XIII of Denmark, Norway and Sweden to marry Henry’s daughter Philippa, and for Henry’s son, the Prince of Wales and future Henry V of England, to marry Eric’s sister Catherine.

According to Marc Shell, Margrethe’s vision was that one day, two unions would unite to recreate Canute the Great’s Empire of the North. The English side wanted these weddings to seal an offensive alliance that could have led the Nordic kingdoms to become involved in the Hundred Years’ War against France.

Margrethe followed a consistent policy of not becoming involved in binding alliances and foreign wars, and therefore rejected the English proposals. However, although there was no double wedding, Eric married the 13-year-old Philippa, daughter of Henry IV of England and Mary de Bohun, at Lund on October 26, 1406, sealing a purely defensive alliance. For Eric’s sister Catherine, a wedding was arranged with Johann, Count Palatine of Neumarkt. Margaret thus acquired a South German ally, who could be useful as a counterweight to the North German Princes and cities.

Death

Margrethe’s elaborate tomb, near subsequent royal sarcophagi at Roskilde Cathedral.

In 1412, Margrethe tried to recover Schleswig, and thus entered a war with Holstein. Before that she had managed the recovery of Finland and Gotland. While winning the war, Margrethe died suddenly on board her ship in Flensburg Harbor.

In October 1412, she set sail from Seeland in her ship. She attended several debates, which reportedly had brought matters to a state of promising forwardness. On retiring to her vessel though, with the intention of leaving the port, “she was seized with sudden and violent illness.”

Margrethe apparently foresaw the end of her life, as she ordered thirty seven marks to be paid to the nearby monastery of Campen for a perpetual mass for her soul. Beyond this, there is no discussion in the historical record regarding her demise.

She died on the night of October 28, 1412, the vigil of St. Simon and St. Jude. Possible scenarios that have been suggested include plague, shock from the death of Abraham Brodersson (whom 18th century authors have alleged was the father of a daughter Margrethe had, while 19th century authors have blamed the story on a mistranslation), or poisoning by King Eric.

Her sarcophagus, made by the Lübeck sculptor Johannes Junge in 1423, is situated behind the high altar in the Roskilde Cathedral, near Copenhagen. She had left property to the cathedral on the condition that Masses for her soul would be said regularly in the future. This was discontinued in 1536 during the Protestant Reformation, though a special bell is still rung twice daily in commemoration.

October 28, 1412: Death of Margrethe I, Queen of Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Part I.

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Kalamar Union, King Haakon VI of Norway, King Magnus IV-VII of Sweden and Norway, King Valdemar IV of Denmark, Queen Margrethe I of Denmark, Queen of Norway, Queen of Sweden

Margrethe I (March 1353 – October 28, 1412) was ruler of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden (which included Finland) from the late 1380s until her death, and the founder of the Kalmar Union that joined the Scandinavian kingdoms together for over a century. She had been Norway’s queen consort 1363–1380 and Sweden’s 1363–1364, since then titled Queen. Margrethe was known as a wise, energetic and capable leader, who governed with “farsighted tact and caution,” earning the nickname “Semiramis of the North”.

Margrethe was born in March 1353 as the sixth and youngest child of King Valdemar IV and Helvig of Schleswig. She was born in the prison of Søborg Castle, where her father had already confined her mother. She was baptised in Roskilde and in 1359, at the age of six, engaged to the 18-year-old King Haakon VI of Norway, the youngest son of the Swedish-Norwegian king Magnus IV-VII.

As part of the marriage contract it is presumed that a treaty was signed ensuring Magnus the assistance of King Valdemar in a dispute with his second son, Eric XII of Sweden, who in 1356 held dominion over Southern Sweden. Margrethe’s marriage was thus a part of the Nordic power struggle.

There was dissatisfaction with this in some circles, and the political activist Bridget of Sweden described the agreement in a letter to the Pope as “children playing with dolls”. The goal of the marriage for King Valdemar was regaining Scania, which since 1332 had been mortgaged to Sweden.

Per contemporary sources, the marriage contract contained an agreement to give Helsingborg Castle back to Denmark, but that was not enough for Valdemar, who in June 1359 took a large army across Øresund and soon occupied Scania.

The attack was ostensibly to support Magnus against Erik, but in June 1359, Erik died. As a result, the balance of power changed, and all agreements between Magnus and Valdemar were terminated, including the marriage contract between Margrethe and Haakon.

This did not result in the withdrawal of Valdemar from Scania; he instead continued his conquests on the island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea. Visby, which was populated by Germans, was the main town on the island and was the key to domination of the Baltic Sea.

On July 27, 1361 a battle was fought between a well-equipped Danish army and an array of local Gotland peasants. The Danes won the battle and took Visby, while the Germans did not take part. King Magnus and the Hanseatic League could not disregard this provocation, and a trade embargo against Denmark was immediately enacted, with agreement about necessary military action.

At the same time, negotiations opened between King Magnus and Heinrich of Holstein about a marriage between Haakon and the latter’s sister Elizabeth. On 17 December 17, 1362, a ship left with Elizabeth bound for Sweden. A storm, however, diverted her to the Danish island Bornholm, where the archbishop of Lund declared the wedding a violation of church law because Haakon had already been engaged to Margaret.

The Swedish and Hanseatic armies also ultimately withdrew from their siege of Helsingborg. Following this, a truce was concluded with the Hanseatic States and King Magnus abandoning the war, meaning the marriage of the now 10-year-old Margrethe and King Haakon was again relevant. The wedding was held in Copenhagen on April 9, 1363.

The marriage of Haakon and Margrethe was an alliance, and Margrethe likely remained in Denmark for some time after the wedding, but ultimately was taken to Akershus in Oslo Fjord where she was raised by Merete Ulvsdatter. Merete Ulvsdatter was a distinguished noblewoman and daughter of Bridget of Sweden, as well as the wife of Knut Algotsson, who was one of King Magnus’s faithful followers.

Margrethe was brought up with Merete Ulvsdatter’s daughter Ingegerd, who likely instructed her in matters of religion and monarchy. Merete’s daughters, Ingegerd and Catherine, became her closest female friends, with Margrethe later showing favoritism to Ingegerd, who became an abbess, as well as her monastery.

It is also likely, though, that her promotion of the Bridgettines was also out of piety and political interest to help the process of integration. Her academic studies were probably limited, but it is assumed that in addition to reading and writing she also was instructed in statecraft. She displayed an early talent for ruling and appears to have held real power.

In the years after Margrethe’s wedding Scandinavia saw a series of major political upheavals. A few months after her wedding, her only brother, Christopher, Duke of Lolland, died, leaving her father without an obvious male heir. In 1364 the Swedish nobles deposed Magnus and Margrethe’s husband King Haakon from the Swedish throne and elected Albert of Mecklenburg as king of Sweden.