May 23, 1052: Birth of King Philippe I of the Franks

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Anna Yaroslavana of Kiev, Bertha of Holland, Excommunication, Grand Prince of Kiev and Prince of Novgorod, King of the Franks, Philippe I, Pope Urban II, Yaroslav the Wise

Philippe I (May 23, 1052 – July 29, 1108), called the Amorous, was King of the Franks from 1060 to 1108. His reign, like that of most of the early Capetians, was extraordinarily long for the time. The monarchy began a modest recovery from the low it reached in the reign of his father and he added to the royal demesne the Vexin and Bourges.

Early life

Philippe was born May 23, 1052 at Champagne-et-Fontaine, the son of King Henri I and his wife Anna Yaroslavana of Kiev, daughter of Yaroslav the Wise, Grand Prince of Kiev and Prince of Novgorod, and his second wife Ingegerd Olofsdotter of Sweden.

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

Personal rule

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

Philippe first married Bertha of Holland in 1072. Bertha was the daughter of Count Floris I of Holland and Gertrude of Saxony. Bertha had six siblings and both of her parents came from large families. Her father ruled a territory vaguely described as “Friesland west of the Vlie”, which is where Bertha spent her childhood.

Although the marriage produced the necessary heir, Philippe fell in love with Bertrade de Montfort, the wife of Fulk IV, Count of Anjou.

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

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

Philippe appointed Alberic first Constable of France in 1060. A great part of his reign, like his father’s, was spent putting down revolts by his power-hungry vassals. In 1077, he made peace with William the Conqueror, King of the English and Duke of Normandy who gave up attempting the conquest of Brittany.

In 1082, Philippe I expanded his demesne with the annexation of the Vexin, in reprisal against Robert Curthose’s attack on William’s heir, William Rufus. Then in 1100, he took control of Bourges.

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

Death

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

Louis’s half-brother, Philippe, Count of Mantes, prevented him from reaching Rheims, and so Daimbert, Archbishop of Sens, crowned him in the cathedral of Orléans on August 3. Ralph the Green, Archbishop of Rheims, sent envoys to challenge the validity of the coronation and anointing, but to no avail.

May 6, 1910: Death of King Edward VII of the United Kingdom

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Alice Kappel, Emperor of India, German Emperor Wilhelm II, King Christian IX of Denmark, King Edward VII of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Prince Albert Edward, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Prince of Wales, Princess Alexandra of Denmark, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland

Edward VII (Albert Edward; November 9, 1841 – May 6, 1910) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from January 22, 1901 until his death in 1910.

Edward was born at 10:48 in the morning on 9 November 9, 1841 in Buckingham Palace. He was the eldest son and second child of Queen Victoria and her husband, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. He was christened Albert Edward at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, on January 25, 1842. He was named Albert after his father and Edward after his maternal grandfather, Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn. He was known as Bertie to the royal family throughout his life.

As the eldest son of the British sovereign, he was automatically Duke of Cornwall and Duke of Rothesay at birth. As a son of Prince Albert, he also held the titles of Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Duke of Saxony. He had the style of Royal Highness as the son of the sovereign.

He was created Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester on December 8, 1841, Earl of Dublin on January 17, 1850, a Knight of the Garter on November 8, 1858, and a Knight of the Thistle on May 24, 1867. In 1863, he renounced his succession rights to the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in favour of his younger brother Prince Alfred.

During the long reign of his mother, he was largely excluded from political influence and came to personify the fashionable, leisured elite. He travelled throughout Britain performing ceremonial public duties and represented Britain on visits abroad. His tours of North America in 1860 and of the Indian subcontinent in 1875 proved popular successes, but despite public approval, his reputation as a playboy prince soured his relationship with his mother.

Once widowed, Queen Victoria effectively withdrew from public life. Shortly after Prince Albert’s death, she arranged for Edward to embark on an extensive tour of the Middle East, visiting Egypt, Jerusalem, Damascus, Beirut and Istanbul. The British Government wanted Edward to secure the friendship of Egypt’s ruler, Said Pasha, to prevent French control of the Suez Canal if the Ottoman Empire collapsed.

Edward and Alexandra on their wedding day, 1863

It was the first royal tour on which an official photographer, Francis Bedford, was in attendance. As soon as Edward returned to Britain, preparations were made for his engagement, which was sealed at Laeken in Belgium on September 9, 1862. Edward married Alexandra of Denmark at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, on 10 March 1863. He was 21; she was 18.

Alexandra was the daughter of King Christian IX of Denmark and Princess Louise of Hesse-Cassel.

The couple established Marlborough House as their London residence and Sandringham House in Norfolk as their country retreat. They entertained on a lavish scale.Their marriage met with disapproval in certain social circles because most of Queen Victoria’s relations were German, and Denmark was at loggerheads with Germany over the territories of Schleswig and Holstein.

When Alexandra’s father inherited the throne of Denmark in November 1863, the German Confederation took the opportunity to invade and annex Schleswig-Holstein. The Queen was of two minds as to whether it was a suitable match, given the political climate. After the marriage, she expressed anxiety about their socialite lifestyle and attempted to dictate to them on various matters, including the names of their children.

Edward was related to nearly every other European monarch, and came to be known as the “uncle of Europe”. German Emperor Wilhelm II and Emperor Nicholas II of Russia were his nephews; Queen Victoria Eugenia of Spain, Crown Princess Margaret of Sweden, Crown Princess Marie of Romania, Crown Princess Sophia of Greece, and Empress Alexandra of Russia were his nieces; King Haakon VII of Norway was both his nephew and his son-in-law; kings Frederik VIII of Denmark and George I of the Hellenes were his brothers-in-law; kings Albert I of Belgium, Ferdinand of Bulgaria, and Carlos I and Manuel II of Portugal were his second cousins.

Edward doted on his grandchildren, and indulged them, to the consternation of their governesses. However, there was one relation whom Edward did not like: Wilhelm II. His difficult relationship with his nephew exacerbated the tensions between Germany and Britain.

Edward had mistresses throughout his married life. He socialised with actress Lillie Langtry; Lady Randolph Churchill; Daisy Greville, Countess of Warwick; actress Sarah Bernhardt; noblewoman Lady Susan Vane-Tempest; singer Hortense Schneider; prostitute Giulia Beneni (known as “La Barucci”); wealthy humanitarian Agnes Keyser; and Alice Keppel. At least fifty-five liaisons are conjectured. How far these relationships went is not always clear. Edward always strove to be discreet, but this did not prevent society gossip or press speculation. Edward never acknowledged any illegitimate children. Alexandra was aware of his affairs, and seems to have accepted them.

When Queen Victoria died on January 22, 1901, Edward became King of the United Kingdom, Emperor of India and, in an innovation, King of the British Dominions. He chose to reign under the name of Edward VII, instead of Albert Edward—the name his mother had intended for him to use—declaring that he did not wish to “undervalue the name of Albert” and diminish the status of his father with whom the “name should stand alone”.

As king, Edward played a role in the modernisation of the British Home Fleet and the reorganisation of the British Army after the Second Boer War of 1899–1902. He re-instituted traditional ceremonies as public displays and broadened the range of people with whom royalty socialised.Edward VII fostered good relations on Britain and other European countries, especially France, for which he was popularly called “Peacemaker”, but his relationship with his nephew, the German Emperor Wilhelm II, remained poor.

The Edwardian era, which covered Edward’s reign and was named after him, coincided with the start of a new century and heralded significant changes in technology and society, including steam turbine propulsion and the rise of socialism.

Edward habitually smoked twenty cigarettes and twelve cigars a day. In 1907, a rodent ulcer, a type of cancer affecting the skin next to his nose, was cured with radium. Towards the end of his life he increasingly suffered from bronchitis. He suffered a momentary loss of consciousness during a state visit to Berlin in February 1909.

In March 1910, he was staying at Biarritz when he collapsed. He remained there to convalesce, while in London Asquith tried to get the Finance Bill passed. The king’s continued ill health was unreported, and he attracted criticism for staying in France while political tensions were so high. On April 27, he returned to Buckingham Palace, still suffering from severe bronchitis. Alexandra returned from visiting her brother, George I of the Hellenes, in Corfu a week later on May 5th.

On May 6, Edward VII suffered several heart attacks, but refused to go to bed, saying, “No, I shall not give in; I shall go on; I shall work to the end.” Between moments of faintness, his son the Prince of Wales (shortly to be King George V) told him that his horse, Witch of the Air, had won at Kempton Park that afternoon. The king replied, “Yes, I have heard of it. I am very glad”: his final words.At 11:30 p.m. he lost consciousness for the last time and was put to bed. He died 15 minutes later.

Alexandra refused to allow Edward’s body to be moved for eight days afterwards, though she allowed small groups of visitors to enter his room. On May 11, the late king was dressed in his uniform and placed in a massive oak coffin, which was moved on May 14, to the throne room, where it was sealed and lay in state, with a guardsman standing at each corner of the bier.Despite the time that had elapsed since his death, Alexandra noted the King’s body remained “wonderfully preserved”. On the morning of May 17, the coffin was placed on a gun carriage and drawn by black horses to Westminster Hall, with the new king, his family and Edward’s favourite dog, Caesar, walking behind.

Following a brief service, the royal family left, and the hall was opened to the public; over 400,000 people filed past the coffin over the next two days. As Barbara Tuchman noted in The Guns of August, his funeral, held on May 20, 1910, marked “the greatest assemblage of royalty and rank ever gathered in one place and, of its kind, the last.” A royal train conveyed the king’s coffin from London to Windsor Castle, where Edward was buried at St George’s Chapel.

When Edward VII died the British Government was in the midst of a constitutional crisis that was resolved the following year by the Parliament Act 1911, which restricted the power of the unelected House of Lords.

May 5, 1747: Birth of Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor

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Archduchess Marie Antoinette of Austria, Empress Maria Theresa, Grand Duke of Tuscany, Holy Roman Emperor Franz I, Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor Leopold II, King Carlos III of Spain, Louis XVI of France and Navarre

Leopold II (Peter Leopold Josef Anton Joachim Pius Gotthard; May 5, 1747 – March 1, 1792) was Holy Roman Emperor, King of Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia, and Archduke of Austria from 1790 to 1792, and Grand Duke of Tuscany from 1765 to 1790.

He was a son of Holy Roman Empress Maria Theresa, Queen of Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia, and Archduchess of Austria in her own right and her husband, Holy Roman Emperor Franz I.

Leopold was also and the brother of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France and Navarre as the wife of King Louis XVI of France and Navarre; Maria Carolina of Austria, Queen of Naples and Sicily as the wife of King Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies; Maria Amalia, Duchess of Parma by her marriage to Ferdinand, Duke of Parma; and Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor.

Leopold, Grand Duke of Tuscany (left) with his brother Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor

Leopold was a moderate proponent of enlightened absolutism. He granted the Academy of Georgofili his protection. Despite his brief reign, he is highly regarded. The historian Paul W. Schroeder called him “one of the most shrewd and sensible monarchs ever to wear a crown”.

Unusually for his time, he opposed capital punishment and abolished it in Tuscany in 1786 during his rule there, making it the first nation in modern history to do so.

As his parents’ third son, he was initially selected for a clerical career, he received education with focus on theology.

In 1753, he was engaged to Maria Beatrice d’Este, heiress to the Duchy of Modena and the eldest child of two monarchs, Ercole III d’Este, Duke of Modena and Maria Teresa Cybo-Malaspina, reigning duchess of Massa and princess of Carrara.

As heiress to four states (Modena, Reggio, Massa and Carrara), she was a very attractive wedding partner. Empress Maria Theresa sought to arrange a marriage between Maria Beatrice and Archduke Leopold, but this never materialised. Instead she married Leopold’s brother, Archduke Ferdinand Charles bof Austria, in a union through which the Austrians aimed to expand their influence in Italy.

Upon the early death of his older brother Archduke Charles in 1761, the family decided that Leopold was going to succeed his father as Duke of Tuscany. Tuscany had been envisioned and designated as a Secundogeniture, a territory and title bestowed upon the second born son, which was greater than an Appanage.

Infanta Maria Luisa of Spain

On August 5, 1765 Leopold married the Infanta Maria Luisa of Spain, daughter of Carlos III of Spain and Maria Amalia of Saxony. Upon the death of his father, Franz on August 18, 1765, he became Grand Duke of Tuscany.

Leopold, during his government in Tuscany, had shown a speculative tendency to grant his subjects a constitution. When he succeeded to the Austrian lands he began by making large concessions to the interests offended by his brother’s innovations.

He recognized the Estates of his different dominions as “the pillars of the monarchy”, pacified the Hungarians and Bohemians, and divided the insurgents in the Austrian Netherlands (now Belgium) by means of concessions. When these failed to restore order, he marched troops into the country and re-established his own authority, and at the same time the historic franchises of the Flemings.

Young Leopold as the Grand Duke of Tuscany

Yet he did not surrender any part that could be retained of what Maria Theresa and Joseph had done to strengthen the hands of the state. He continued, for instance, to insist that no papal bull could be published in his dominions without his consent (placetum regium).

One of the harshest actions Leopold took to placate the noble communities of the various Habsburg domains was to issue a decree on May 9, 1790 that forced thousands of Bohemian serfs freed by his brother Joseph back into servitude.

Leopold lived for barely two years after his accession as Holy Roman Emperor, and during that period he was hard pressed by peril from west and east alike. The growing revolutionary disorders in France endangered the life of his sister Marie Antoinette, the queen of Louis XVI, and also threatened his own dominions with the spread of subversive agitation. His sister sent him passionate appeals for help, and he was pestered by the royalist émigrés, who were intriguing to bring about armed intervention in France.

From the east he was threatened by the aggressive ambition of Empress Catherine II of Russia and by the unscrupulous policy of Prussia. Catherine would have been delighted to see Austria and Prussia embark on a crusade in the cause of kings against the French Revolution.

While they were busy beyond the Rhine, she would have annexed what remained of Poland and made conquests against the Ottoman Empire. Leopold II had no difficulty in seeing through the rather transparent cunning of the Russian empress, and he refused to be misled.

To his sister, he gave good advice and promises of help if she and her husband could escape from Paris. The émigrés who followed him pertinaciously were refused audience, or when they forced themselves on him, were peremptorily denied all help.

Leopold was too purely a politician not to be secretly pleased at the destruction of the power of France and of her influence in Europe by her internal disorders. Within six weeks of his accession, he displayed his contempt for France’s weakness by practically tearing up the treaty of alliance made by Maria Theresa in 1756 and opening negotiations with Great Britain to impose a check on Russia and Prussia.

Leopold put pressure on Great Britain by threatening to cede his part of the Low Countries to France. Then, when sure of British support, he was in a position to baffle the intrigues of Prussia. A personal appeal to King Friedrich Wilhelm II led to a conference between them at Reichenbach in July 1790, and to an arrangement which was in fact a defeat for Prussia: Leopold’s coronation as king of Hungary on November 11, 1790, preceded by a settlement with the Diet in which he recognized the dominant position of the Magyars.

Leopold II. Holy Roman Emperor, King of Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia, and Archduke of Austria, and Grand Duke of Tuscany

He had already made an eight months’ truce with the Turks in September, which prepared the way for the termination of the war begun by Joseph II. The pacification of his eastern dominions left Leopold free to re-establish order in Belgium and to confirm friendly relations with Britain and the Netherlands.

During 1791, the emperor remained increasingly preoccupied with the affairs of France. In January, he had to dismiss the Count of Artois (afterwards Charles X of France) in a very peremptory way. His good sense was revolted by the folly of the French émigrés, and he did his utmost to avoid being entangled in the affairs of that country.

The insults inflicted on Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, however, at the time of their attempted flight to Varennes in June, stirred his indignation, and he made a general appeal in the Padua Circular to the sovereigns of Europe to take common measures in view of events which “immediately compromised the honour of all sovereigns, and the security of all governments.” Yet he was most directly interested in negotiations with Turkey, which in June led to a final peace, the Treaty of Sistova being signed in August 1791.

On August 25, 1791, he met King Friedrich Wilhelm II of Prussia at Pillnitz Castle, near Dresden, and they drew up the Declaration of Pillnitz, stating their readiness to intervene in France if and when their assistance was called for by the other powers.

The declaration was a mere formality, for, as Leopold knew, neither Russia nor Britain was prepared to act, and he endeavored to guard against the use which he foresaw the émigrés would try to make of it. In face of the reaction in France to the Declaration of Pillnitz, the intrigues of the émigrés, and attacks made by the French revolutionists on the rights of the German princes in Alsace, Leopold continued to hope that intervention might not be required.

When Louis XVI swore to observe the constitution of September 1791, the emperor professed to think that a settlement had been reached in France. The attacks on the rights of the German princes on the left bank of the Rhine, and the increasing violence of the parties in Paris which were agitating to bring about war, soon showed, however, that this hope was vain.

Leopold meant to meet the challenge of the revolutionists in France with dignity and temper, however the effect of the Declaration of Pillnitz was to contribute to the radicalization of their political movement.

Mozart’s opera La clemenza di Tito was commissioned by the Estates of Bohemia for the festivities that accompanied Leopold’s coronation as king of Bohemia in Prague on September 6, 1791.

Leopold died suddenly in Vienna, in March 1792.

His mother Empress Maria Theresa was the last Habsburg. His brother Joseph II died without any surviving children, but Leopold in turn had also 16 children, just like his mother, and became the founder of the main line of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine.

The eldest of Leopold II’s eight sons being his successor, Emperor Franz II, the last Holy Roman Emperor and first Emperor of Austria. Some of his other sons were prominent personages in their day. Among them were: Ferdinand III, Grand Duke of Tuscany; Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen, a celebrated soldier; Archduke Johann of Austria, also a soldier; Archduke Joseph, Palatine of Hungary; and Archduke Rainer, Viceroy of Lombardy-Venetia.

May 4, 1814: King Fernando VII of Spain Abolishes the Constitution

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Absolutism, Battle of Trocadero, Cortes, King Fernando VII of Spain, King Louis XVIII of France, Liberal Constitution 1812, Napoleon Bonaparte

Fernando VII (October 14, 1784 – September 29, 1833) was the King of Spain during the early- to mid-19th century. He reigned over the Spanish Kingdom in 1808 and again from 1813 to his death in 1833. He was known to his supporters as el Deseado (the Desired) and to his detractors as el Rey Felón (the Felon King).

Fernando VII was born in Madrid at El Escorial, the eldest surviving son of King Carlos IV of Spain and Maria Luisa of Parma, the youngest daughter of Filippo, Duke of Parma and Louise Élisabeth of France.

Louise Élisabeth of France the eldest daughter of King Louis XV of France and Maria Leszczyńska and the elder twin of Anne Henriette de France.

Filippo, Duke of Parma was the second son of King Felipe V of Spain and his wife, Elisabeth Farnese.

Fernando VII spent his youth as heir apparent to the Spanish throne. Carlos IV detested his son and heir Fernando, who led the unsuccessful El Escorial Conspiracy and later forced his father, Carlos IV to abdicate after the Tumult of Aranjuez on March 19, 1808.

Fernando VII’s first reign lasted from March 19, 1808 until May 6 of the same year when Napoleon Bonaparte, forced Fernando VII to abdicate, paving the way for Napoleon to place his older brother Joseph Bonaparte on the throne of Spain.

Five years later after experiencing serious setbacks on many fronts, Napoleon agreed to acknowledge Fernando VII as king of Spain on December 11, 1813 and signed the Treaty of Valençay, so that the king could return to Spain.

On March 24, 1814 the French handed Fernando over to the Spanish Army in Girona, and thus began his procession towards Madrid. During this process and in the following months, he was encouraged by conservatives and the Church hierarchy to reject the Constitution.

Fernando soon found that in the intervening years a new world had been born of foreign invasion and domestic revolution. Spain was no longer the absolute monarchy he had relinquished six years earlier. Instead he was now asked to rule under the liberal Constitution of 1812. Before being allowed to enter Spanish soil, Ferdinand had to guarantee the liberals that he would govern on the basis of the Constitution, but only gave lukewarm indications he would do so.

On May 4, he ordered the Constitution abolished and on May 10 had the liberal leaders responsible for the Constitution arrested. Fernando justified his actions by claiming that the Constitution had been made by a Cortes illegally assembled in his absence, without his consent and without the traditional form. (It had met as a unicameral body, instead of in three chambers representing the three estates: the clergy, the nobility and the cities.)

Fernando initially promised to convene a traditional Cortes, but never did so, thereby reasserting the Bourbon doctrine that sovereign authority resided in his person only.

A revolt in 1820 led by Rafael del Riego in which the King was quickly taken prisoner. .

In the spring of 1823, the restored Bourbon French King Louis XVIII of France invaded Spain, “invoking the God of St. Louis, for the sake of preserving the throne of Spain to a fellow descendant of Henri IV of France, and of reconciling that fine kingdom with Europe.” In May of 1823, the revolutionary party moved Fernando to Cádiz, where he continued to make promises of constitutional amendment until he was free.

Fernando VII was eventually freed after the Battle of Trocadero. The liberated Fernando turned on the liberals and constitutionalists with fury. The last ten years of reign (sometimes referred to as the Ominous Decade) saw the restoration of absolutism, the re-establishment of traditional university programs and the suppression of any opposition.

Under his rule, Spain lost nearly all of its American possessions, and the country entered into a large-scale civil war upon his death. His political legacy has remained contested since his passing, with some historians regarding him as incompetent, despotic, and short-sighted.

After Ferdinand’s death in 1833, the 1812 Constitution was in force again briefly in 1836 and 1837, while the Constitution of 1837 was being drafted. Since 1812, Spain has had a total of seven constitutions; the current one has been in force since 1978.

April 30, 1513: Execution of Edmund de la Pole, 3rd Duke of Suffolk, 6th Earl of Suffolk

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3rd Duke of Suffolk, 6th Earl of Suffolk, Battle of Bosworth Field, Edmund de la Pole, Edward IV of England, Elizabeth of York, Henry VII of England, Henry VIII of England, House of Tudor, Richard III of England

Edmund de la Pole, 3rd Duke of Suffolk, 6th Earl of Suffolk, KG (c. 1471 – April 30, 1513), Duke of Suffolk, was a son of John de la Pole, 2nd Duke of Suffolk and his wife Elizabeth of York, the sixth child and third daughter of Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York (a great-grandson of King Edward III) and Cecily Neville. She was thus a sister of King Edward IV and of King Richard III.

Although the male York line ended with the death of Edward Plantagenet 17th Earl of Warwick (February 25, 1475 – November 28, 1499) who was the son of Isabel Neville and George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence, the brother of kings Edward IV and Richard III.

The 17th Earl of Warwick was a potential claimant to the English throne during the reigns of both his uncle, Richard III (1483–1485), and Richard’s usurper, Henry VII (1485–1509). He was also a younger brother of Margaret Pole, 8th Countess of Salisbury.

The Poles at first swore loyalty to the Tudor king of England, they later tried to claim the throne as the Yorkist claimant. Edmund was ultimately executed at the Tower of London.

Yorkist claim

Edmund de la Pole, 3rd Duke of Suffolk, 6th Earl of Suffolk

Edmund de la Pole was a son of John de la Pole, 2nd Duke of Suffolk, and Elizabeth of York. His mother was the second surviving daughter of Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York, and Cecily Neville. She was also a younger sister to Kings Edward IV and Richard III.

Service to the Tudors

De la Pole’s eldest brother John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln (c. 1464 – 1487), was the designated heir of their maternal uncle Richard III, who gave him a pension and the reversion of the estates of Lady Margaret Beaufort.

Meanwhile, Edmund was made a Knight of the Bath at the coronation of Richard III, and was present at the coronation of his cousin Elizabeth of York in 1487. Following the Battle of Bosworth Field, Lincoln took the oath of allegiance to Elizabeth’s husband, Henry VII, instead of claiming the throne for himself. In 1487, Lincoln joined the rebellion of Lambert Simnel and was killed at the Battle of Stoke.

After the death of his older brother, Edmund became the leading Yorkist claimant to the throne, and succeeded to the title Duke of Suffolk in 1492. Edmund took part in the Siege of Boulogne in October 1492.

However, he is said to have subsequently agreed with King Henry VII, by Indenture dated February 26, 1492/3, to surrender the dukedom (with, apparently, the marquessate) of Suffolk, and to be known henceforth as the Earl of Suffolk only, this being ratified by Act of Parliament in 1495.

In consideration of this surrender and “of the true and diligent service done to his Highness by the said Edmund” the King granted to him, for £5,000, a portion of the lands forfeited by his elder brother John, Earl of Lincoln, in 1487.

Suffolk was one of the leaders against the Cornish rebels at Blackheath, June 17, 1497. However, in Michaelmas term 1498 he was indicted for murder in the King’s Bench and, though afterwards pardoned, he fled overseas to Guisnes, July 1499, returning to England after September.

He was at this time recorded as stout and bold and of courage. On May 5, 1500 he witnessed at Canterbury the treaty for the marriage of King Henry VII and Queen Elizabeth’s son Prince Arthur with Catherine of Aragon.

He then left for France, arriving there on the 13th, and attended the King at his meeting with Archduke Philipp of Austria, and titular Duke of Burgundy at Calais, on June 9, 1500.

Yorkist claimant

In August 1501 he and his brother Richard again left England without royal leave (apparently assisted by James Tyrrell, who was subsequently executed for these actions), and joining Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I in the Tyrol, he assumed his former title of Duke of Suffolk, being also known as the “White Rose” (Yorkist Pretender).

For his alleged projected rebellion he was proclaimed an outlaw at Ipswich, December 26, 1502, and with his brothers William (arrested on suspicion and sent to the Tower, which he never left, early in 1502) and Richard, was attainted in Parliament January 1503/4, whereby all his honours were forfeited, backdated to July 1, 1499. Seward relates that throughout this period until Edmund’s death he used a Thomas Killingworth, gentleman of East Anglia and London, as his Steward, for which Killingworth later received a Royal Pardon.

On July 28, 1502 Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian signed a treaty at Augsberg whereby, in return for £10,000, he undertook not to help the English rebels.

Nevertheless, Suffolk was allowed to remain at Aix, 1502–04, though on leaving he had to leave his brother Richard as hostage for his debts. Upon leaving Aix about April 1504 in an attempt to join the Duke of Saxony in Friesland, he was imprisoned by the Duke of Gueldres at Hattem and subsequently by Archduke Philipp of Austria and Duke of Burgundy, at Namur into 1506.

Imprisonment and execution
While sailing to Spain to secure his wife Joanna’s inheritance of the Crown of Castile, Archduke Philipp of Austria (future King Felipe I of Castile) was blown off course to England, and reluctantly and unexpectedly became a guest of Henry VII.

Needing to continue his journey, Archduke Philipp was persuaded by Henry to hand over the Earl of Suffolk in the treaty Malus Intercursus. Henry VII committed the Earl to the Tower on his arrival in London, late in March 1505/6.

On the accession of Henry VII and Elizabeth’s son Henry VIII, Edmund being still in the Tower, was (with his two brothers) excepted from the new king’s general pardon of April 30, 1509. After being a prisoner in the Tower for 7 years, he was (since his brother Richard had joined the service of France, with whom England was then at war), without any further proceedings, beheaded on Tower Hill aged about 42.

Montaigne, in his Essays, said that Henry VII, in his will, instructed his son to put Suffolk to death immediately after his own death, and the author criticized the father for requiring that his son do what he himself would not.

Marriage and heirs

Edmund married, before October 10, 1496, Margaret, daughter of Sir Richard Scrope, second son of Henry Scrope, 4th Baron Scrope of Bolton. Margaret died in 1515. They had a daughter, Elizabeth, who became a nun and died of the Black Plague in the Convent of the Minoresses without Aldgate, London, in 1515.

Edmund’s younger brother, Richard de la Pole, declared himself Earl of Suffolk and was the leading Yorkist pretender until his death at the Battle of Pavia on February 24, 1525.

April 29, 1688: Death of Friedrich Wilhelm, Elector of Brandenburg and Duke of Prussia

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Elector Friedrich Wilhelm of Brandenburg and Duke of Prussia, House of Hohenzollern, The Great Elector, The Holy Roman Empire

Friedrich Wilhelm (February 16, 1620 – April 29, 1688) was Elector of Brandenburg and Duke of Prussia, thus ruler of Brandenburg-Prussia, from 1640 until his death in 1688. A member of the House of Hohenzollern, he is popularly known as “the Great Elector” because of his military and political achievements.

Friedrich Wilhelm was a staunch pillar of the Calvinist faith, associated with the rising commercial class. He saw the importance of trade and promoted it vigorously. His shrewd domestic reforms gave Prussia a strong position in the post-Westphalian political order of north-central Europe, setting Prussia up for elevation from duchy to kingdom, achieved under his son and successor.

Elector Friedrich Wilhelm of Brandenburg and Duke of Prussia

Elector Friedrich Wilhelm was born in Berlin to Georg Wilhelm, Elector of Brandenburg, and Elisabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate. Elizabeth Charlotte was the daughter of Friedrich IV, Elector Palatine, and Louise Juliana of Orange-Nassau. Her brother Friedrich V became famous as the Elector-Palatine and “Winter King” of Bohemia. He was married to Princess Elizabeth (Stuart) of England and they were the grand parents of George I, King of Great Britain and Elector of Hanover.

Friedrich Wilhelm’s inheritance consisted of the Margraviate of Brandenburg, the Duchy of Cleves, the County of Mark, and the Duchy of Prussia.

Foreign diplomacy

Following the Thirty Years’ War that devastated much of the Holy Roman Empire, Friedrich Wilhelm focused on rebuilding his war-ravaged territories. Brandenburg-Prussia benefited from his policy of religious tolerance and he used French subsidies to build up an army that took part in the 1655 to 1660 Second Northern War.

This ended with the treaties of Labiau, Wehlau, Bromberg and Oliva; they removed Swedish control of the Duchy of Prussia, which meant he held it direct from the Holy Roman Emperor.

In 1672, Friedrich Wilhelm joined the Franco-Dutch War as an ally of the Dutch Republic, led by his nephew Willem III of Orange but made peace with France in the June 1673 Treaty of Vossem. Although he rejoined the anti-French alliance in 1674, this left him diplomatically isolated; despite conquering much of Swedish Pomerania during the Scanian War, he was obliged to return most of it to Sweden in the 1679 Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye.

Friedrich Wilhelm was a military commander of wide renown, and his standing army would later become the model for the Prussian Army. He is notable for his joint victory with Swedish forces at the Battle of Warsaw, which, according to Hajo Holborn, marked “the beginning of Prussian military history”, but the Swedes turned on him at the behest of King Louis XIV and invaded Brandenburg.

After marching 250 kilometres in 15 days back to Brandenburg, he caught the Swedes by surprise and managed to defeat them on the field at the Battle of Fehrbellin, destroying the myth of Swedish military invincibility. He later destroyed another Swedish army that invaded the Duchy of Prussia during the Great Sleigh Drive in 1678.

Friedrich Wilhelm is noted for his use of broad directives and delegation of decision-making to his commanders, which would later become the basis for the German doctrine of Auftragstaktik, and for using rapid mobility to defeat his foes.

Domestic policies

Friedrich Wilhelm raised an army of 45,000 soldiers by 1678, through the General War Commissariat presided over by Joachim Friedrich von Blumenthal. He was an advocate of mercantilism, monopolies, subsidies, tariffs, and internal improvements.

Following Louis XIV’s revocation of the Edict of Nantes, Friedrich Wilhelm encouraged skilled French and Walloon Huguenots to emigrate to Brandenburg-Prussia with the Edict of Potsdam, bolstering the country’s technical and industrial base.

On Blumenthal’s advice he agreed to exempt the nobility from taxes and in return they agreed to dissolve the Estates-General. He also simplified travel in Brandenburg and the Duchy of Prussia by connecting riverways with canals, a system that was expanded by later Prussian architects, such as Georg Steenke; the system is still in use today.

Legacy

In his half-century reign, 1640–1688, the Great Elector transformed the small remote state of Prussia into a great power by augmenting and integrating the Hohenzollern family possessions in northern Germany and Prussia. When he became elector (ruler) of Brandenburg in 1640, the country was in ruins from the Thirty Years War; it had lost half its population from war, disease and emigration.

The capital Berlin had only 6,000 people left when the wars ended in 1648. He united the multiple separate domains that his family had acquired primarily by marriage over the decades, and built the powerful unified state of Prussia out of them. His success in rebuilding the lands and his astute military and diplomatic leadership propelled him into the ranks of the prominent rulers in an era of “absolutism”.

Historians compare him to his contemporaries such as Louis XIV of France (1643–1715), Peter I the Great of Russia (1682–1725) and Carl XI of Sweden (1660–1697).

On December 7, 1646 in The Hague, Friedrich Wilhelm entered into a marriage, proposed by Blumenthal as a partial solution to the Jülich-Berg question, with Luise Henriette of Nassau (1627–1667), daughter of Frederick Henry of Orange-Nassau and Amalia of Solms-Braunfels and his 1st cousin once removed through Willem the Silent.

On June 13, 1668 in Gröningen, Friedrich Wilhelm married Sophie Dorothea of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, daughter of Philipp, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg and Sophie Hedwig of Saxe-Lauenburg.

Elector Friedrich Wilhelm was succeeded by his son, Friedrich, by his first wife Luise Henriette of Nassau.

Friedrich III, Elector of Brandenburg (1688–1713) and Duke of Prussia in personal union (Brandenburg-Prussia). The latter function he upgaded to royalty, becoming the first King in Prussia (Friedrich I) (1701–1713).

François III, Duke of Brittany and Dauphin of Viennois

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Anne of Brittany, Carlos I of Spain, Claude of Brittany, Dauphin of Veinnois, Felipe II of Spain, François I of France, François of Brittany, Henry VIII of England, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, Mary I of England, Treaty of Madrid

François III (February 28, 1518 – August 10, 1536) was Duke of Brittany and Dauphin of Viennois. He was the first son of King François I of France and Duchess Claude of Brittany, the eldest daughter of King Louis XII of France and Duchess Anne of Brittany.

Life

François I said of his son at birth, “a beautiful dauphin who is the most beautiful and strong child one could imagine and who will be the easiest to bring up.” His mother, Claude, Duchess of Brittany, said, “tell the King that he is even more beautiful than himself.” The Dauphin was christened at Amboise on April 25, 1519. Leonardo da Vinci, who had been brought to Amboise by François I, designed the decorations.

One of the most researched aspects of the Dauphin’s short life is the time he and his brother Henri (later King Henri II of France) spent as hostages in Spain. The king had been badly defeated and captured at the Battle of Pavia (1525) and became a prisoner of Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor, (King Carlos I of Spain) initially in the Alcázar in Madrid. In order to ensure his release, the king signed the Treaty of Madrid (1526). However, in order to ensure that François abided by the treaty, Charles demanded that the king’s two older sons take his place as hostages. François agreed.

On March 15, 1526, the exchange took place at the border between Spain and France. François almost immediately repudiated the treaty and the eight-year-old Dauphin and his younger brother Henri spent the next three years as captives of Charles V, a period that scarred them for life.

The Dauphin’s “somber, solitary tastes” and his preference for dressing in black (like a Spaniard) were attributed to the time he spent in captivity in Madrid. He also became bookish, preferring reading to soldiering.

Marriage arrangements

As first son and heir to a king of France the Dauphin was a marriage pawn for his father. He could not be wasted in marriage, as many felt his brother Henri had been with his marriage to Catherine de’ Medici, and there were several betrothals to eligible princesses throughout the Dauphin’s life.

The first was when he was an infant, to the four-year-old Mary Tudor (later Mary I of England), daughter of Henry VIII of England and Catherine of Aragon; this arrangement was made as a surety for the Anglo-French alliance signed in October 1518, but abandoned around 1521 when Mary was instead betrothed to Charles V. Mary I of England would eventually marry Charles V’s son, King Felipe II of Spain.

Duchy of Brittany

In 1524, the Dauphin inherited the Duchy of Brittany on his mother’s death, becoming Duke François III, although the Duchy was actually ruled by officials of the French crown. The Duchy was inherited upon the death of François III by his brother, Henri; upon Henri’s succession to the French throne in 1547, the Duchy of Brittany and the Crown of France were merged, the Breton estates having already tied the succession of the Duchy to the French crown, rather than to the line of succession of the Dukes of Brittany, by vote in 1532.

Death

The Dauphin Francis died at Château Tournon-sur-Rhône on August 10, 1536, at the age of eighteen. The circumstances of his death seemed suspicious, and it is believed by many that he was poisoned. However, there is ample evidence that he died of natural causes, possibly tuberculosis. The Dauphin had never fully recovered his health from the years spent in damp, dank cells in Madrid.

After playing a round of tennis at a jeu de paume court “pré[s] d’Ainay”, the Dauphin asked for a cup of water, which was brought to him by his secretary, Count Montecuccoli. After drinking it, François collapsed and died several days later. Montecuccoli, who was brought to the court by Catherine de’ Medici, was accused of being in the pay of Charles V, and when his quarters were searched a book on different types of poison was found. Catherine de’ Medici was well known to have an interest in poisons and the occult. Under torture, Montecuccoli confessed to poisoning the Dauphin.

In an age before forensic science, poison was usually suspected whenever a young, healthy person died shortly after eating or drinking. There was no way to pinpoint and trace the substance after death; therefore, it was considered a quick, easy and untraceable form of homicide. There have been several other suspected cases of political-murder-by-poison in the French royal family through the ages.

April 28, 1442: Birth of Edward IV, King of England and Lord of Ireland

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Duke of Clarence, Duke of Gloucester, Earl of Warwick, Elizabeth Woodville, King Edward IV of England, King Henry VI, King Richard III, Lord of Ireland, Richard Neville, Wars of the Roses

Edward IV (April 28, 1442 – April 9, 1483) was King of England and Lord of Ireland from March 4, 1461 to October 3, 1470, then again from April 11, 1471 until his death in 1483. He was a central figure in the Wars of the Roses, a series of civil wars in England fought between the Yorkist and Lancastrian factions between 1455 and 1487.

Edward was born on April 28, 1442 at Rouen in Normandy, eldest surviving son of Richard, 3rd Duke of York, and Cecily Neville. Until his father’s death, he was known as the Earl of March. Both his parents were direct descendants of King Edward III, giving Edward a potential claim to the throne. This was strengthened in 1447, when York became heir to the childless King Henry VI on the death of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester.

Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester was the fourth and youngest son of Henry IV of England and his first wife Mary de Bohun. Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester was the brother of Henry V, and the uncle of Henry VI. The Duke of Gloucester fought in the Hundred Years’ War and acted as Lord Protector of England during the minority of his nephew.

Allegations of illegitimacy toward Edward of York were discounted at the time as politically inspired, and by later historians. Edward and his siblings George, Duke of Clarence, and Margaret, Duchess of Burgundy, were physically very similar, all three being tall and blonde, in contrast to Richard, 3rd Duke of York who was short and dark. His youngest brother, who later became King Richard III, closely resembled their father.

Edward inherited the Yorkist claim when his father, Richard, 3rd Duke of York, died at the Battle of Wakefield in December 1460. Yorkist armies went on defeating Lancastrian armies at Mortimer’s Cross and Towton in early 1461.

On February 2, 1461, Edward won a hard-fought victory at the Battle of Mortimer’s Cross in Herefordshire. The battle was preceded by a meteorological phenomenon known as parhelion, or three suns, which he took as his emblem, the “Sun in splendour”. However, this was offset by Warwick’s defeat at the Second Battle of St Albans on February 17, the Lancastrians regaining custody of Henry VI.

On March 4, Edward, 4th Duke of York deposed King Henry VI and took the throne. Edward was hastily crowned as King Edward IV, before marching north, where the two sides met at the Battle of Towton. Fought on March 29, in the middle of a snowstorm, it was the bloodiest battle ever to take place on English soil, and ended in a decisive Yorkist victory.

Estimates of the dead range from 9,000 to 20,000; figures are uncertain, as most of the mass graves were emptied or moved over the centuries, while corpses were generally stripped of clothing or armour before burial.

Margaret fled to Scotland with Edward of Westminster, while the new king returned to London for his coronation. Henry VI remained at large for over a year, but was caught and imprisoned in the Tower of London. There was little point in killing him while his son remained alive, since this would have transferred the Lancastrian claim from a frail captive to one who was young and free.

Although Edward preferred Burgundy as an alliance partner, he allowed Warwick to negotiate a treaty with Louis XI of France, which included a suggested marriage between Edward and Anne of France or Bona of Savoy, respectively daughter and sister-in-law of the French king.

In October 1464, Richard Neville 16th Earl of Warwick known as the “Kingmaker” was enraged to discover that on May 1, Edward IV had secretly married Elizabeth Woodville, a widow with two sons, whose Lancastrian husband, John Grey of Groby, died at Towton.

If nothing else, it was a clear demonstration that Warwick was not in control of the king, despite suggestions to the contrary. Edward’s motives have been widely discussed by contemporaries and historians alike.

Although Elizabeth’s mother, Jacquetta of Luxembourg, came from the upper nobility, her father, Richard Woodville, was a middle ranking provincial knight. The Privy Council told Edward with unusual frankness that “she was no wife for a prince such as himself, for she was not the daughter of a Duke or an Earl.”

The marriage was certainly unwise and unusual, although not unheard of; Henry VI’s mother, Catherine of Valois, married her chamberlain, Owen Tudor, while Edward IV’s grandson Henry VIII created the Church of England to marry Anne Boleyn.

By all accounts, Elizabeth possessed considerable charm of person and intellect, while Edward was used to getting what he wanted.

Historians generally accept the marriage was an impulsive decision, but differ on whether it was also a “calculated political move”. One view is the low status of the Woodvilles was part of the attraction, since unlike the Nevilles, they were reliant on Edward and thus more likely to remain loyal.

Others argue if this was his purpose, there were far better options available; all agree it had significant political implications that impacted the rest of Edward’s reign.

In 1470, with the Earl of Warwick still an enemy of Edward IV, he led a revolt against the King along with Edward’s brother, George, Duke of Clarence. After a failed plot to crown Edward’s brother, George, Duke of Clarence as King and there by deposing his brother, Edward IV, Warwick instead restored Henry VI to the throne.

The triumph was short-lived. Edward IV fled to Flanders, where he gathered support and invaded England in March 1471. On April 14, 1471, Warwick was defeated by Edward IV at the Battle of Barnet in which Warwick was killed and Edward IV resumed the throne.

Edward IV entered London unopposed and took Henry VI prisoner. A second army defeated the Lancastrian army at Tewkesbury on May 4. 17-year-old Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales the heir to the throne and the only son of King Henry VI of England and Margaret of Anjou, was killed at the Battle of Tewkesbury.

Shortly afterwards, Henry VI was found dead in the Tower of London. Despite a continuing threat from Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond (later Henry VII, the last Lancastrian claimant) Edward reigned in relative peace for the next twelve years.

However, The tumultuous relationship between Edward IV and his brother George, Duke of Clarence came to a head when Clarence was imprisoned in the Tower of London and put on trial for treason against his brother Edward IV. The accusations of Treason of George towards his brother are complex and will be the subject of a future blog entry.

Edward himself prosecuted his brother, and demanded that Parliament pass a bill of attainder against him declaring that he was guilty of “unnatural, loathly treasons.” Following his conviction and attainder, he was “privately executed” at the Bowyer Tower on February 18, 1478.

Edward IV died suddenly in April 1483, and was succeeded by his minor son as King Edward V, but Edward IV’s brother, the Duke of Gloucester, sized the throne as King Richard III citing that Edward V was illegitimate due to his parents marriage being unlawful.

April 23, 1016: Death of Æthelred II, The Unready, King of the English

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Æthelred II the Unready, Battle of Assandun, Canute the Great, Edmund Ironside, House of Wessex. the Danelaw, King of Denmark, King of the English, Swyne Forkbeard of Denmark

Æthelred II (c. 966 – April 23, 1016), known as the Unready, was King of the English from 978 to 1013 and again from 1014 until his death in 1016.

Æthelred was the son of King Edgar the Peaceful and Queen Ælfthryth, the daughter of Ealdorman Ordgar. Her mother was a member of the royal family of Wessex. The family’s power lay in the west of Wessex.

Ælfthryth was the first wife of an English king known to have been crowned and anointed as queen. She had two sons with Edgar, the ætheling Edmund (who died young) and King Æthelred the Unready. Ælfthryth was a powerful political figure and possibly orchestrated the murder of her stepson, King Edward the Martyr, in order to place her son Æthelred on the throne. She appeared as a stereotypical bad queen and evil stepmother in many medieval histories.

Æthelred came to the throne at about the age of 12, following the assassination of his older half-brother, King Edward the Martyr. Æthelred’s mother may have ordered the murder of his half-brother in order to place Æthelred on the throne.

The chief problem of Æthelred’s reign was conflict with the Danes. After several decades of relative peace, Danish raids on English territory began again in earnest in the 980s, becoming markedly more serious in the early 990s.

Following the Battle of Maldon in 991, Æthelred paid tribute, or Danegeld, to the Danish king. In 1002, Æthelred ordered what became known as the St. Brice’s Day massacre of Danish settlers. In 1013, King Sweyn Forkbeard of Denmark invaded England, as a result of which Æthelred fled to Normandy in 1013 and was replaced by Sweyn. After Sweyn died in 1014, Æthelred returned to the throne,

Over the next few months Canute the Great of Denmark conquered most of England, while Edmund rejoined Æthelred to defend London when Æthelred died on April 23, 1016. The subsequent war between Æthelred’s successor, Edmund Ironside and Canute ended in a decisive victory for Canute at the Battle of Assandun on October 18, 1016.

Edmund’s reputation as a warrior was such that Canute nevertheless agreed to divide England, Edmund taking Wessex and Canute the whole of the country beyond the Thames. However, Edmund died on November 30, 1016 and Canute became king of all of England.

Æthelred was buried in Old St Paul’s Cathedral, London.

Æthelred’s 37-year combined reign was the longest of any Anglo-Saxon English king, and was only surpassed in the 13th century, by Henry III. Æthelred was briefly succeeded by his son, Edmund Ironside, but he died after a few months and was replaced by Sweyn’s son Cnut. Another of Æthelred’s sons, Edward the Confessor, became king in 1042.

Name

Æthelred’s first name, composed of the elements æðele, “noble”, and ræd, “counsel, advice”, is typical of the compound names of those who belonged to the royal House of Wessex, and it characteristically alliterates with the names of his ancestors, like Æthelwulf (“noble-wolf”), Ælfred (“elf-counsel”), Eadweard (“rich-protection”), and Eadgar (“rich-spear”).

Æthelred’s notorious nickname, Old English Unræd, is commonly translated into present-day English as “The Unready” (less often, though less inaccurately, as “The Redeless”). The Anglo-Saxon noun unræd means “evil counsel”, “bad plan”, or “folly”. It was most often used in reference to decisions and deeds, but once in reference to the ill-advised disobedience of Adam and Eve.

The element ræd in unræd is the same element in Æthelred’s name that means “counsel” (compare the cognate in the German word Rat). Thus Æþelræd Unræd is an oxymoron: “Noble counsel, No counsel”. The nickname has also been translated as “ill-advised”, “ill-prepared”, thus “Æthelred the ill-advised”.

Because the nickname was first recorded in the 1180s, more than 150 years after Æthelred’s death, it is doubtful that it carries any implications as to the reputation of the king in the eyes of his contemporaries or near contemporaries.

April 19, 1390: Death of Robert II of Scotland

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Earl of Carrick, High Steward of Scotland, House of Stewart, Robert I of Scotland, Robert II of Scotland, Robert the Bruce, Walter Stewart

King Robert I of Scotland died on June 7, 1329 at the Manor of Cardross, near Dumbarton. Upon the death of Robert I the Bruce of Scotland he was David succeeded on the throne by his son David II at the age of five, and was crowned at Scone in November 1331, becoming the first Scottish monarch to be anointed at their coronation.

David II died childless on February 22, 1371 and was succeeded by his nephew as King Robert II of Scotland. Robert II (March 1316 – April 19, 1390) was the son of Walter Stewart, 6th High Steward of Scotland and Marjorie, daughter of King Robert I, he was the first monarch of the House of Stewart.

Robert II depicted on his great seal

King David II was buried at Holyrood Abbey and almost immediately an armed protest was lead by William, Earl of Douglas delayed Robert II’s coronation until 26 March 26, 1371.

The reasons for the incident remain unclear but may have involved a dispute regarding Robert’s right of succession, or may have been directed against George Dunbar, Earl of March (also known as Earl of Dunbar) and the southern Justiciar, Robert Erskine.

It was resolved by Robert giving his daughter Isabella in marriage to Douglas’s son, James and with Douglas replacing Erskine as Justiciar south of the Forth.

Robert’s accession did affect some others who held offices from David II. In particular, George Dunbar’s brother John Dunbar, the Lord of Fife who lost his claim on Fife and Sir Robert Erskine’s son, Sir Thomas Erskine who lost control of Edinburgh Castle.

The Stewarts greatly increased their holdings in the west, in Atholl, and in the far north: the earldoms of Fife and Menteith went to Robert II’s second surviving son, Robert; the earldoms of Buchan and Ross (along with the lordship of Badenoch) to his fourth son, Alexander; and the earldoms of Strathearn and Caithness to the eldest son of his second marriage, David.

King Robert’s sons-in-law were John MacDonald, Lord of the Isles, John Dunbar, Earl of Moray and James who would become the 2nd Earl of Douglas. Robert’s sons John, Earl of Carrick, the king’s heir, and Robert, Earl of Fife, were made keepers of the castles of Edinburgh and Stirling respectively, while Alexander, Lord of Badenoch and Ross, and were usually very well rewarded.

This style of kingship was very different from his predecessor’s—David tried to dominate his nobles whereas Robert’s strategy was to delegate authority to his powerful sons and earls and this generally worked for the first decade of his reign. Robert II was to have influence over eight of the fifteen earldoms either through his sons directly or by strategic marriages of his daughters to powerful lords.

In 1336, he first married Elizabeth Mure (died 1355), daughter of Sir Adam Mure of Rowallan. The marriage was criticized for being uncanonical, so he remarried her in 1349 after receiving a papal dispensation in 1347.

From this union, ten children reached adulthood including John (died 1406), who became King of Scotland as Robert III.

In 1355, Robert married his second wife Euphemia de Ross (died 1387), daughter of Hugh, Earl of Ross. They had four children including Walter Stewart, Earl of Atholl, born about 1360, who was beheaded at Edinburgh in 1437 for being involved in the assassination of King James I of Scotland.

King Robert II also had many illegitimate children with several mistresses, including four sons with his favorite Mariota de Cardeny, daughter of Sir John Cardeny, and widow of Alexander Mac Naugthon.

Robert’s son, John, Earl of Carrick, had become the foremost Stewart magnate south of the Forth just as Alexander Stewart, Earl of Buchan was in the north. The Earl of Buchan, (1343 – c. 20 July 1405), was the third surviving son of King Robert II of Scotland and youngest by his first wife, Elizabeth Mure of Rowallan.

Alexander’s activities and methods of royal administration, enforced by Gaelic mercenaries, drew criticism from northern earls and bishops and from his younger half-brother David, Earl of Strathearn. These complaints damaged the king’s standing within the Council leading to criticism of his ability to curb Buchan’s activities.

Robert III’s differences with the Carrick affinity regarding the conduct of the war and his continued failure or unwillingness to deal with Buchan in the north led to the political convulsion of November 1384 when the Council removed the king’s authority to govern and appointed Carrick as lieutenant of the kingdom—a coup d’état had taken place.

With Robert III sidelined, there was now no impediment in the way of war. In June 1385, a force of 1200 French soldiers joined the Scots in a campaign that involved the Earl of Douglas and two of Robert’s sons, John, Earl of Carrick and Robert, Earl of Fife. The skirmishes saw small gains but a quarrel between the French and Scottish commanders saw the abandonment of an attack on the important castle of Roxburgh.

The victory of the Scots over the English at the Battle of Otterburn in Northumberland in August 1388 set in motion Carrick’s fall from power. One of the Scottish casualties was Carrick’s close ally James, Earl of Douglas.

Douglas died without an heir, which led to various claims upon the title and estate—Carrick backed Malcolm Drummond, the husband of Douglas’s sister, while Fife sided with the successful appellant, Sir Archibald Douglas, lord of Galloway who possessed an entail on the Douglas estates.

Fife, now with his powerful Douglas ally, and those who supported the king ensured a countercoup at the December Council meeting when the guardianship of Scotland passed from Carrick (who had recently been badly injured from a horse-kick) to Fife. Many had also approved of Fife’s intention to properly resolve the situation of lawlessness in the north and in particular the activities of his younger brother, Buchan.

Fife relieved Buchan of his offices of lieutenant of the north and justiciar north of the Forth. The latter role was given to Fife’s son, Murdoch Stewart. Robert II toured the northeast of the kingdom in late January 1390, perhaps to reinforce the changing political scene in the north following Buchan’s removal from authority. In March, Robert returned to Dundonald Castle in Ayrshire where he died on April 19 and was buried at Scone on April 25th.