January 26, 1763: Birth of Carl XIV-III Johan, King of Sweden and Norway.

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Crown Prince Carl August of Sweden, Emperor of the French, Jean Baptiste Jules Bernadotte, King Carl XIII-II of Sweden and Norway, King Carl XIV-III Johan of Sweden and Norway, King Christian VII of Denmark, King Christian VIII of Denmark, Napoleon Bonaparte, Napoleonic Wars, Prince Christian August of Denmark

From the Emperor’s Desk: In this examination of King Carl XIV-III Johan of Sweden and Norway I will cover his marriage and election to the Swedish throne.

Incidentally, when I began studying royalty I was interested in knowing if the Britis Crown had been passed down in the same family or did they ever bring in a family that was totally unrelated by Blood to previous monarchs. Although this is not Britain, for life of the future King of Sweden demonstrates such a case.

Carl XIV-III Johan (January 26, 1763 – March 8, 1844) was King of Sweden and Norway from 1818 until his death in 1844. Before his reign he was a Marshal of France during the Napoleonic Wars and participated in several battles. In modern Norwegian lists of kings he is called Carl III Johan. He was the first monarch of the Bernadotte dynasty.

Jean-Baptiste Jules Bernadotte was born on 26 January 26, 1763 in Pau, the capital of the province of Béarn in the southwestern part of the Kingdom of France. He was the son of Jean Henri Bernadotte (1711–1780), prosecutor at Pau, and his wife, Jeanne de Saint-Jean (1728–1809).

The family name was originally du Poey (or de Pouey), but was changed to Bernadotte—a surname of an ancestress at the beginning of the 17th century. He was the youngest of five siblings, two of whom died in childhood. Soon after his birth, Baptiste was added to his name, to distinguish him from his elder brother Jean Évangeliste. Bernadotte himself added Jules to his first names as a tribute to the French Empire under Napoleon I.

Carl XIV-III Johan, King of Sweden and Norway

Bernadotte joined the French Royal Army in 1780. Following the outbreak of the French Revolution, he exhibited great military talent, rapidly rising through the ranks, and was made a brigadier general by 1794. He served with distinction in Italy and Germany, and was briefly Minister of War.

His relationship with Napoleon was turbulent; nevertheless, Napoleon named him a Marshal of the Empire on the proclamation of the French Empire. Bernadotte played a significant role in the French victory at Austerlitz, and was made Prince of Pontecorvo as a reward.

Marriage

Désirée Clary was born in Marseille, France, the daughter of François Clary (February 24, 1725 – January 20, 1794), a wealthy silk manufacturer and merchant, by his second wife Françoise Rose Somis (1737 – 1815).

Clary had a sister and brother to whom she remained very close all her life. Her sister, Julie Clary, married Joseph Bonaparte, and later became Queen of Naples and Spain. Her brother, Nicholas Joseph Clary, was created Count Clary. He married Anne Jeanne Rouyer, by whom he had a daughter named Zénaïde Françoise Clary (1812 – 1884). Zénaïde would marry Napoléon Alexandre Berthier, the son of Marshal Louis Alexandre Berthier, and have several children, among them the first wife of Joachim, 4th Prince Murat.

Désirée, Queen of Sweden and Norway

She received a proposal from General Junot, but turned it down because it was given through Marmont. Clary eventually met her future spouse, Jean Baptiste Jules Bernadotte, another French general and politician. They were married in a secular ceremony at Sceaux on August 17, 1798. In the marriage contract, Clary was given economic independence. On July 4, 1799, she gave birth to their only child, a son, Oscar.

In 1810 Bernadotte was about to enter his new post as governor of Rome when he was unexpectedly elected the heir-presumptive to King Carl XIII-II of Sweden and Norway. The problem of Carl’s successor had been acute almost from the time he had ascended the throne a year earlier.

The King was 61 years old and in poor health. He was also childless; Queen Elizabeth Charlotte had given birth to two children who had died in infancy, and there was no prospect of her bearing another child.

Queen Elizabeth Charlotte was daughter of Duke Friedrich August I of Holstein-Gottorp and Princess Ulrike Friederike of Hesse-Cassel.

Soon after his coronation, the king had adopted a Danish prince Carl August, (originally Prince Christian August of Denmark).

Prince Christian August was the son of Friedrich Christian I, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg (1721–1794) and Princess Charlotte of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Plön (1744–1770).

Carl XIII-II, King of Sweden and Norway

He was a younger brother of Friedrich Christian II, Duke of Augustenborg, brother-in-law of Princess Louise Auguste of Denmark “daughter” of King Christian VII of Denmark and Caroline Matilda of Great Britain and an uncle of Caroline Amalie of Augustenburg, Queen Consort of Denmark as the wife of Christian VIII and Christian August, Duke of Augustenborg. He did not marry.

Despite the fact that Napoleon favored his ally Danish King Frederik VI, Danish Prince Frederick Christian initially had the most support to become Swedish Crown Prince as well.

As Crown Prince of Sweden, Prince Christian August changed his name to Carl August. Honors were lavished upon him on his arrival, he was for example made an honorary member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences on April 18, 1810, and was the first person to enjoy this status in that academy.

However, he did not live long enough to make a historical impact in Sweden. He suddenly died on 28 May 28, 1810, when he fell off his horse during a military practice in Kvidinge. His autopsy confirmed that he had died of a stroke, but at the same time rumours went that he had been poisoned by Gustavians.

Specifically, the Marshal of the Realm Count Axel von Fersen was openly accused of having killed Crown Prince Carl August, and was lynched on June 20, 1810 during the funeral procession of Carl August. Carl August was buried in Riddarholmen Church, the burial church of Swedish monarchs.

The political situation internally and externally for Sweden meant that selecting a foreign king was an attractive option. Sweden wanted to strengthen its relationship with Napoleon for militaristic reasons so sought to select a king who would be able to attract Napoleon’s support.

The Swedish court initially sounded out the emperor for his preferences on candidates for crown prince, whereupon Napoleon made it clear he preferred his adopted stepson Eugène de Beauharnais, or one of his nephews or brothers.

The Swedish envoys did not accept Eugène as a candidate. Baron Lagerbielke, the Swedish envoy in Paris, reported to Stockholm that Eugène was “gentle and good,” “but he does not seem to be a man of strong character; and, although he had had great opportunities, he does not appear to have developed any distinguishing talents.”

Also, Eugène, serving as viceroy in Italy, did not wish to convert to Lutheranism, a prerequisite for accepting the Swedish offer. Moreover, none of Napoleon’s brothers were interested in going to Sweden and his nephews were too young, as the Swedes did not want the hazards of minority rule in the event King Carl XIII died prematurely.

The matter was decided by an obscure Swedish courtier, Baron Karl Otto Mörner (nephew of Count Gustav Mörner, the commander of the Swedish force captured by Bernadotte at Lübeck), who, entirely on his own initiative, offered the succession to the Swedish crown to Bernadotte.

Carl XIV-III Johan, King of Sweden and Norway

Bernadotte communicated Mörner’s offer to Napoleon who at first treated the situation as an absurdity, but later came around to the idea and supported Bernadotte’s candidacy both financially and diplomatically.

Although the Swedish government, amazed at Mörner’s effrontery, at once placed him under arrest on his return to Sweden, the candidature of Bernadotte gradually gained favour and on August 21, 1810 he was elected by the Riksdag of the Estates in Örebro to be the new crown prince, and was subsequently made Generalissimus of the Swedish Armed Forces by the King.

Several factors benefitted Bernadotte’s election. Being foreign was, although problematic, also to his favour due to geopolitical factors and the internal situation at the time. One benefit was his (presumed) close ties to French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, with whom a relationship would provide military backing as the intention at the time was to reacquire Finland.

The current King, Carl XIII, viewed Napoleon in a more positive way than the deposed King, Gustaf IV Adolph had, who had held him in very ill regard. Another point in favour was that a large part of the Swedish Army, anticipating conflict with Russia, were in favour of electing a soldier.

Also, Bernadotte was personally popular, owing to the kindness he had shown to the Swedish prisoners in Lübeck and his reputation as the well-liked governor of the Hanseatic Cities from 1807 to 1809; as many Swedish merchants had operated under his auspices.

Finally, Bernadotte had no qualms about converting to Lutheranism, recalling the conversion of King Henri IV for the benefit of France with whom he felt a kinship with as both hailed from Pau, nor converting his son Oscar (though his wife Désirée never did renounce Catholicism).

Before freeing Bernadotte from his allegiance to France, Napoleon asked him to agree never to take up arms against France. Bernadotte refused to make any such agreement, upon the ground that his obligations to Sweden would not allow it; Napoleon exclaimed “Go, and let our destinies be accomplished” and signed the act of emancipation unconditionally.

On November 2, 1810 Bernadotte made his solemn entry into Stockholm, and on November 5, he received the homage of the Riksdag of the Estates, and he was adopted by King Carl XIII under the name of “Carl Johan.”

At the same time, he converted from Roman Catholicism to the Lutheranism of the Swedish court; Swedish law required the monarch to be Lutheran.

soon after his arrival becoming de facto head of state for most of his time as Crown Prince. In 1813, following the sudden unprovoked French invasion of Swedish Pomerania, Crown Prince Carl Johan was instrumental in the creation of the Sixth Coalition by allying with Emperor Alexander I of Russia and using Swedish diplomacy to bring warring Russia and Britain together in alliance. He then authored the Trachenberg Plan, the war-winning Allied campaign plan, and commanded the Allied Army of the North that defeated two concerted French attempts to capture Berlin and made the decisive attack on the last day of the catastrophic French defeat at Leipzig.

After the War of the Sixth Coalition, Crown Prince Carl Johan forced King Frederik VI of Denmark to cede Norway to Sweden, leading to the Swedish–Norwegian War of 1814 where Norway was defeated after a single summer’s conflict. This put Norway into a union with Sweden, which lasted for almost a century before its peaceful 1905 dissolution. The Swedish–Norwegian war is credited as Sweden’s last direct conflict and war.

Upon the death of King Carl XIII-II in 1818, Crown Prince Carl Johan ascended to the thrones as King Carl XIII-II Johan of Sweden and Norway. He presided over a period of peace and prosperity, and reigned until his death in 1844.

History of the Kingdom of Greece. Part II. King Otto

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Athens, Duchess Amalia (Amelie) of Oldenburg, House of Wittelsbach, King of the Hellenes, King Otto of Greece, Prince Otto of Bavaria, Queen of Greece

Otto was born as Prince Otto Friedrich Ludwig of Bavaria at Schloss Mirabell in Salzburg (when it briefly belonged to the Kingdom of Bavaria), as the second son of Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria and Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen.

His father served there as the Bavarian governor-general. Through his ancestor, the Bavarian Duke John II, Otto was a descendant of the Byzantine imperial dynasties of Komnenos and Laskaris. His father was a prominent Philhellene, and provided significant financial aid to the Greek cause during the War of Independence.

The Great Powers extracted a pledge from Otto’s father to restrain him from hostile actions against the Ottoman Empire. They also insisted that his title be “King of Greece”, rather than “King of the Hellenes”, because the latter would imply a claim over the millions of Greeks then still under Turkish rule.

King Otto of Greece

Not quite 18, the young prince arrived in Greece with 3,500 Bavarian troops (the Bavarian Auxiliary Corps) and three Bavarian advisors aboard the British frigate HMS Madagascar. Although he did not speak Greek, he immediately endeared himself to his adopted country by adopting the Greek national costume and Hellenizing his name to “Othon” (some English sources, such as Encyclopædia Britannica, call him “Otho”).

Otto’s early reign was also notable for his moving the capital of Greece from Nafplion to Athens. His first task as king was to make a detailed archaeological and topographic survey of Athens. He assigned Gustav Eduard Schaubert and Stamatios Kleanthis to complete this task. At that time, Athens had a population of roughly 4,000–5,000 people, located mainly in what today covers the district of Plaka in Athens.

Although King Otto tried to function as an absolute monarch, as Thomas Gallant writes, he “was neither ruthless enough to be feared, nor compassionate enough to be loved, nor competent enough to be respected.”

During 1836–37, Otto visited Germany, marrying a beautiful and talented 17-year-old, Duchess Amalia (Amelie) of Oldenburg (December 21, 1818 to May 20, 1875), Duchess Amalia Maria Frederica was born on 21 December 1818 in Oldenburg to Duke Paul Frederick Augustus of Oldenburg and his wife Princess Adelheid of Anhalt-Bernburg-Schaumburg-Hoym as their first child.

King Otto of Greece enters Athens

She was less than two years old when her mother died, on September 13, 1820. Her father remarried in 1825 to Princess Ida of Anhalt-Bernburg-Schaumburg-Hoym, though she soon died in 1828; his last marriage was with Princess Cecilia of Sweden in 1831.

Due to her father’s marriages, Amalia had 5 siblings, 4 being born as half-siblings: Duchess Frederica, Duke Nikolaus Friedrich, Duke Alexander, Duke August, and Anton Gunther, Friedrich Elimar.

The wedding took place not in Greece but in Oldenburg, on November 22, 1836; the marriage did not produce an heir, and the new queen made herself unpopular by interfering in the government and maintaining her Lutheran faith. Otto was unfaithful to his wife, and had an affair with Jane Digby, a notorious woman his father had previously taken as a lover.

King Otto of Greece in native dress.

When she arrived in Greece in 1837, she at first won the hearts of the Greeks with her refreshing beauty. After she became more politically involved, she then became the target of harsh attacks—and her image suffered further as she proved unable to provide an heir to the throne. She and her husband were expelled from Greece in 1862, after an uprising. She spent the rest of her years in exile in Bavaria.

She acted as Regent of Greece in 1850-1851, and a second time in 1861-1862 during the absence of Otto.

Amalia is attributed to the creation of the “romantic folksy court dress,” which in return became Greece’s national costume.

By 1843, public dissatisfaction with him had reached crisis proportions and there were demands for a Constitution. Initially Otto refused to grant a Constitution, but as soon as Bavarian troops were withdrawn from the kingdom, a popular revolt was launched.

Duchess Amalia (Amelie) of Oldenburg, Queen of Greece

On September 3, 1843, the infantry led by Colonel Dimitris Kallergis and the respected Revolutionary captain and former President of the Athens City Council General Yiannis Makriyiannis assembled in Palace Square in front of the Palace in Athens. Eventually joined by much of the population of the small capital, the crowd refused to disperse until the king agreed to grant a constitution, which would require that there be Greeks in the Council, that he convene a permanent National Assembly and that Otto personally thank the leaders of the uprising.

Left with little recourse now that his German troops were gone, King Otto gave in to the pressure and agreed to the demands of the crowd over the objections of his opinionated queen.

This square was renamed Constitution Square (Greek: Πλατεία Συντάγματος) to commemorate (through to the present) the events of September 1843—and to feature many later tumultuous events of Greek history. Now for the first time, the king had Greeks in his Council and the French Party, the English Party and the Russian Party (according to which of the Great Powers’ culture they most esteemed) vied for rank and power.

History of the Kingdom of Greece

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Duke of Nemours, Kingdom of Greece, Kingdom of the Hellenes, London Protocol of 1831, Prince Charles Theodore of Bavaria, Prince Frederick of the Netherlands, Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Prince Louis of Orléans, Prince Otto of Bavaria, The Great Powers

The Kingdom of Greece was established in 1832 and was the successor state to the First Hellenic Republic. It was internationally recognised by the Treaty of Constantinople, where Greece also secured its full independence from the Ottoman Empire after nearly four centuries of Ottoman rule.

Background

The Greek-speaking Eastern Roman Empire, also known as Byzantine Empire, which ruled most of the Eastern Mediterranean region for over 1100 years, had been fatally weakened since the sacking of Constantinople by the Latin Crusaders in 1204.

The Ottomans captured Constantinople with ease in 1453 and advanced southwards into the Balkan peninsula capturing Athens in 1458. The Greeks held out in the Peloponnese until 1460, and the Venetians and Genoese clung to some of the islands, but by 1500 most of the plains and islands of Greece were in Ottoman hands. While in contrast, the mountains and highlands of Greece were largely untouched, and were a refuge for Greeks to flee foreign rule and engage in guerrilla warfare.

Preparation of the Greek War of Independence

In the context of ardent desire for independence from Turkish occupation, and with the explicit influence of similar secret societies elsewhere in Europe, three Greeks came together in 1814 in Odessa to decide the constitution for a secret organization in freemasonic fashion. Its purpose was to unite all Greeks in an armed organization to overthrow Turkish rule.

The three founders were Nikolaos Skoufas from the Arta province, Emmanuil Xanthos from Patmos and Athanasios Tsakalov from Ioannina. Soon after they initiated a fourth member, Panagiotis Anagnostopoulos from Andritsaina.

Prince Louis d’Orléans, Duke of Nemours

Many revolts were planned across the Greek region and the first of them was launched on March 6, 1821, in the Danubian principalities. It was put down by the Ottomans, but the torch had been lit and by the end of the same month the Peloponnese was in open revolt.

Greek War of Independence

In 1821, the Greek-speaking populations of Peloponnesus revolted against the Ottoman Empire. Following a region-wide struggle that lasted several months, the Greek War of Independence led to the establishment of the first autonomous Greek State since the mid-15th century.

In January 1822, the First National Assembly of Epidaurus passed the Greek Declaration of Independence (part of the country’s First Constitution), which affirmed the sovereignty of Greece. However, the new Greek State was politically unstable and lacked the resources to preserve its territoriality in the long-term. Most importantly, the country lacked international recognition and had no robust alliances in the Western world.

Prince Frederick of the Netherlands

Following the recapture of the Greek territories by the Ottoman Empire, the Great Powers of that time (the British Empire, the Russian Empire and the Kingdom of France) saw the Greek counter-offensive as an opportunity to weaken the Ottoman Empire further and in essence increase their influence in the Eastern Mediterranean.

The Great Powers supported Greece to regain its independence and following a decisive battle in the Navarino Bay a cease fire was agreed in London (see Treaty of London (1827)). The autonomy of Greece was ultimately recognised by the London Protocol of 1828 and its full independence from the Ottoman Empire by the Protocol of London of 1830.

Prince Charles Theodor of Bavaria

In 1831, the assassination of the first Governor of Greece, Count Ioannis Kapodistrias, created political and social instability that endangered the country’s relationship with its allies.

At the end of Greek War of Independence, the three Great Powers formulated the London Protocol of 1829, which established an autonomous Greek state under the rule of a “Hereditary Christian Prince.” To avoid escalation and in order to strengthen Greece’s ties with the Great Powers, Greece agreed to become a Kingdom in 1832 (see Treaty of London (1832)).

Numerous candidates were considered for the vacant Greek throne.

As early as 1825, while revolutionaries were still engaged in the Greek War of Independence, attempting to establish a Kingdom of Greece, Prince Louis, Duke of Nemours, the second son of King Louis-Philippe I of France, and his wife Maria Amalia of Naples and Sicily, was mentioned as a possible candidate as the first modern King of Greece.

Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha

In 1829 Prince Frederick of the Netherlands, Prince of Orange-Nassau, was the second son of King Willem I of the Netherlands and his wife, Wilhelmine of Prussia, was a candidate for the Greek throne, but he declined because he did not want to be king of a country whose language and traditions were foreign to him.

Prince Otto of Bavaria’s uncle, Prince Charles Theodor of Bavaria, the second son of King Maximilian I of Bavaria and his first wife Princess Augusta Wilhelmine of Hesse-Darmstadt, was also considered for the Greek throne.

Even an Irishman named Nicholas Macdonald Sarsfield Cod’d put himself forward, claiming descent from the Byzantine Palaiologos dynasty.

Ultimately, they settled on Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, who was the widowed husband of Princess Charlotte of Wales, the only daughter of King George IV of the United Kingdom and in the amended London Protocol of 1830 made Greece into a fully independent Kingdom under his rule.

Although initially enthusiastic, Leopold was discouraged by the gloomy picture of the country’s stability painted by Ioannis Kapodistrias, Greece’s governor, and so rejected the crown, concerns that would prove well-founded when Kapodistrias was assassinated a year later.

In 1832 British Foreign Secretary Lord Palmerston convened the London conference. The convention offered the throne offered the crown to the teenage Prince Otto of Bavaria which he happily accepted.

They also established the line of succession which would pass the crown to Otto’s descendants, or his younger brothers should he have no issue. It was also decided that in no case would there be a personal union of the crowns of Greece and Bavaria.

Prince Otto of Bavaria, King of Greece

Otto was born as Prince Otto Friedrich Ludwig of Bavaria at Schloss Mirabell in Salzburg (when it briefly belonged to the Kingdom of Bavaria), as the second son of future King Ludwig I of Bavaria and Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen. His father served there as the Bavarian governor-general.

Through his ancestor, the Bavarian Duke Johann II, Otto was a descendant of the Byzantine imperial dynasties of Komnenos and Laskaris. His father was a prominent Philhellene, and provided significant financial aid to the Greek cause during the War of Independence.

The Bavarian House of Wittelsbach had no connections to ruling dynasties of any of the Great Powers, and so was a neutral choice with which they were all satisfied. The Greeks were not consulted, but Greece was in chaos and no group or individual could claim to represent it anyway.

Otto arrived at the provisional capital, Nafplion, in 1833 aboard a British warship.

January 13, 1865: Birth of Princess Marie of Orléans, Princess of Denmark

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Bernstorff, King Christian IX of Denmark, King George I of Greece, King Louis Philippe of the French, Prince George of Greece and Denmark, Prince Waldemar of Denmark, Princess Marie Bonaparte, Princess Marie of Orléans

Princess Marie of Orléans (January 13, 1865 – December 4, 1909) was a French princess by birth and a Danish princess by marriage to Prince Waldemar. She was politically active by the standards of her day.

Background

Marie was the eldest child of Prince Robert, Duke of Chartres, and his wife, and first cousin, Princess Françoise d’Orléans. Her father was the second son of Prince Ferdinand Philippe, Duke of Orléans, and Duchess Helena of Mecklenburg-Schwerin.

Princess Marie of Orléans

Prince Ferdinand Philippe, Duke of Orléans (1810 – 1842) was the eldest son of King Louis Philippe I of the French and Maria Amalia of Naples and Sicily.

Princess Françoise of Orléans was the daughter of Prince François d’Orléans, Prince de Joinville, and Princess Francisca of Brazil.

Princess François d’Orléans, Prince de Joinville (1818 – 1900) was the third son of King Louis Philippe I of the French, and his wife Maria Amalia of Naples and Sicily

Born during the reign in France of her family’s rival, Emperor Napoléon III, she grew up in England, where her family had moved in 1848. She moved to France with her family after the fall of Napoleon in 1871.

Marriage

After obtaining papal consent from Pope Leo XIII, Marie married Prince Waldemar of Denmark, the youngest son of King Christian IX of Denmark and Princess Louise of Hesse-Cassel, on October 20, 1885 in a civil ceremony in Paris.

They had a religious ceremony on 22 October 1885 at the Château d’Eu, the residence of Prince Philippe, Count of Paris. The wedding was believed by one source to have been politically arranged, and in France, it was believed that the Prince Philippe of Orléans, Count of Paris (the bride’s uncle) was personally responsible for the match. However, the same source claimed that “there was every reason to believe that [it was] a genuine love match”.

They were third cousins, once-removed.

Prince Waldemar of Denmark

She remained a Roman Catholic, he a Lutheran. They adhered to the dynastic arrangement usually stipulated in the marriage contract in such circumstances: sons were to be raised in the faith of their father, daughters in that of their mother.

The couple took up residence at Bernstorff Palace outside Copenhagen, in which Waldemar had been born. Since 1883, he had lived there with his nephew and ward Prince George of Greece, a younger son of Waldemar’s elder brother Wilhelm, who had become King of the Hellenes in 1863 as George I. The king had taken the boy to Denmark to enlist him in the Danish navy and consigned him to the care of his brother Waldemar, who was an admiral in the Danish fleet.

Feeling abandoned by his father on this occasion, George would later describe to his fiancée, Princess Marie Bonaparte, the profound attachment he developed for his uncle Waldemar from that day forward.

Prince George of Greece and Denmark

Prince George of Greece and Denmark, was the second of the five sons of King George I of the Hellenes and was introduced to Marie Bonaparte on July 19, 1907 at the Bonapartes’ home in Paris. Although homosexual, he courted her for twenty-eight days, confiding that from 1883, he’d lived not at his father’s Greek court in Athens, but at Bernstorff Palace near Copenhagen with Prince Waldemar of Denmark, his father’s youngest brother.

It was into this household and relationship that Marie came to live. In 1907, when George brought his bride to Bernstorff for the first family visit, Marie d’Orléans was at pains to explain to Marie Bonaparte the intimacy which united uncle and nephew, so deep that at the end of each of George’s several yearly visits to Bernstorff, he would weep, Waldemar would feel ill, and the women learned to be patient and not intrude upon their husbands’ private moments.

On this and subsequent visits, the Bonaparte princess found herself a great admirer of the Orléans princess, concluding that she was the only member of her husband’s large family in Denmark and Greece endowed with brains, pluck, or character.

During the first of these visits, Waldemar and Marie Bonaparte found themselves engaging in the kind of passionate intimacies she had looked forward to with her husband George who, however, only seemed to enjoy them vicariously, sitting or lying beside his wife and uncle.

Princess Marie Bonaparte

On a later visit, George’s wife carried on a passionate flirtation with Prince Aage, Waldemar eldest son. In neither case does it appear that Marie objected, or felt obliged to give the matter any attention.

George criticized Marie to his wife, alleging that she was having an affair with his uncle’s stablemaster. He also contended that she drank too much alcohol and could not conceal the effects. But Marie Bonaparte found no fault with Marie d’Orléans; rather she admired her forbearance and independence under circumstances which caused her bewilderment and estrangement from her own husband.

Prince George of Greece and Denmark with his wife Princess Marie Bonaparte

Life and influence

Marie was described as impulsive, witty, and energetic, and introduced a more relaxed style to the stiff Danish court. She never fully learned to speak Danish. The marriage was friendly. She gave her children a free upbringing, and her artistic taste and Bohemian habits dominated her household.

She was informal, not snobbish, believed in social equality, expressed her own opinions, and performed her ceremonial duties in an unconventional manner. In 1896, she wrote to Herman Bang: “I believe that a person, regardless of her position, should be herself”. She liked both to ride and to drive and was known for her elegance.

Princess Marie of Orléans and Denmark with her tattoo

She was the official protector of the fire brigade and let herself be photographed in a fire brigade uniform, which was caricatured, and as a support to her spouse’s career as a marine, she had an anchor tattooed on her upper arm. She once said regarding complaints about her unconventional manners: “Let them complain, I am just as happy nevertheless”.

She had asked the permission of the court to leave the house without a lady-in-waiting, and she had mainly spent her time with artists. She painted and photographed and was a student of Otto Bache and Frants Henningsen. She participated in the exhibitions at Charlottenborg in 1889, 1901 and 1902 and was a member of the Danish Arts Academy.

She refused to obey the expectation on royal women to stay away from politics. In 1886, Waldemar declined the throne of Bulgaria with her consent. She belonged to the political left and participated in convincing the king to agree to the reforms of 1901, which led to an appointment of a Venstre government, and the de facto introduction of parliamentarism.

In 1902 she rejected the idea of offering the Danish West Indies to the United States. She also saw to the interests of France: she was credited by the French press with having influenced the Franco-Russian alliance in 1894 and the peace in the French-German Colonial conflict over Morocco in 1905. She assisted her friend H.N. Andersen, the founder of the East Asiatic Company, with contacts in his affairs in Thailand. She was a popular person in Denmark.

Marie’s husband and three sons were in India en route to Siam when they received word that she had died at Bernstorff.

The Life of Princess Marie-Auguste of Anhalt

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Bellevue Palace, Duke Eduard of Anhalt, German Emperor Wilhelm II, Johannes-Michael Freiherr von Loën, King of Prussia, Prince Charles Franz of Prussia, Prince Eitel Friedrich of Prussia, Prince Joachim of Prussia, Princess Marie-Auguste of Anhalt

Princess Marie-Auguste of Anhalt (June 10, 1898 – May 22, 1983)

Her Highness Princess Marie-Auguste was born in Ballenstedt, Anhalt, Germany, to the then Prince Eduard of Anhalt and his wife Princess Louise Charlotte of Saxe-Altenburg, the daughter of Prince Moritz of Saxe-Altenburg and his wife, Princess Augusta of Saxe-Meiningen. Her father was a son of Georg, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg, and a younger brother of Ernst I, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg.

Her father, Eduard succeeded his brother Duke Friedrich II of Anhalt on April 21, 1918, but his brief reign came to an end five months later with his own death on September 13, 1918. He was succeeded by his eldest surviving son Prince Joachim Ernst under the regency of Eduard’s younger brother, Prince Aribert.

Prince Joachim Ernst’s brief reign came to an end on November 12, 1918 with his uncle abdicating in his name following the German revolution. The duchy became the Free State of Anhalt and is today part of the state of Saxony-Anhalt. Duke Joachim Ernst joined the ruling Nazi Party in 1939. He died at the Buchenwald concentration camp after World War II as a prisoner of the Soviet Union.

Princess Marie-Auguste was raised in Dessau, the capital of the duchy of Anhalt. She had five siblings, but her elder sister Friederike and brother Leopold died while infants. Marie-Auguste was an elder sister of Joachim Ernst, Duke of Anhalt.

First marriage and Divorce

On March 11, 1916 in Berlin, Marie-Auguste married Prince Joachim of Prussia, the youngest son of German Emperor Wilhelm II and his wife Princess Victoria Augusta of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg.

Prince Joachim of Prussia

Marie-Auguste and Joachim, who was Wilhelm’s last unmarried child, had been officially engaged since October 14 of the previous year. The wedding was celebrated at Bellevue Palace, and was attended by Joachim’s father and mother Empress Augusta Victoria, the Duke and Duchess of Anhalt, as well as other relatives. They had a simple Lutheran ceremony.

The couple shared common ancestry in King Friedrich Wilhelm II of Prussia who was Princess Marie-Auguste’s great-great-great grandfather through Prince Ludwig Charles of Prussia the second son and third child of King Friedrich Wilhelm II of Prussia and Frederika Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt.

Princess Marie-Auguste and her son Prince Prince Charles Franz of Prussia

Prince Joachim of Prussia was a great-great-great grandson of King Friedrich Wilhelm II of Prussia and Frederika Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt through the couples eldest son King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia.

The couple had one son, Prince Charles Franz Josef Wilhelm Friedrich Eduard Paul (December 15, 1916 – January 23, 1975). Their grandson, Prince Franz Wilhelm of Prussia, married Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna of Russia, a pretender to the Imperial Russian throne.

Following the German Revolution in November 1918, German Emperor Wilhelm II was forced to abdicate, thus depriving Joachim of his titles and position. Unable to accept his new status as a commoner, he fell into a deep depression.

The relationship between Joachim and Marie-Auguste had already started to deteriorate. The couple were divorced soon after the end of the First World War. The direct causes of the divorce are not known to the public.

According to one report, Marie-Auguste had previously abandoned her husband and child to run away with another man, had been forcibly brought back home on the orders of the Emperor, and had filed for divorce as soon as the war ended, when she saw that her husband’s family were at their lowest ebb.

Only weeks after the divorce was finalized, Joachim shot himself in Potsdam on July 18, 1920. One source reports that he had been in financial straits and suffered from “great mental depression”. His own brother Prince Eitel Friedrich of Prussia commented that he suffered from “a fit of excessive dementia”.

After Joachim’s suicide, Marie-Auguste’s son Charles Franz was taken into the custody of his paternal uncle Prince Eitel Friedrich. As the acting head of the House of Hohenzollern, he claimed this right, due to the fact that Emperor Wilhelm had issued an edict placing Hohenzollern powers in Eitel’s hands.

This action was later declared to have been unlawful, and in 1921, Marie-Auguste was given full custody of her son, despite that fact that she had previously run away from her husband and despite numerous servants having testified against her, with Eitel’s counsel arguing that Marie-Auguste was unfit to have custody of Charles Franz.

However, she appeared in court and pleaded that she was heartbroken, which may have helped to win the case for her. In 1922, Marie-Auguste sued her former father-in-law for the financial support that had been promised in the marriage contract between her and Prince Joachim. Wilhelm’s advocate argued that the laws of the House of Hohenzollern were no longer in force, so there was no longer a financial obligation to support her.

Second marriage and divorce

On September 27, 1926, she married Johannes-Michael Freiherr von Loën (b. 1902), a childhood friend. They were divorced in 1935, and Marie-Auguste reverted to her maiden name.

In 1980, Princess Marie-Auguste legally adopted the businessman Hans Lichtenberg, who subsequently took the name Frédéric Prinz von Anhalt. According to Prinz von Anhalt, who thereafter proceeded to sell knighthoods and marriages related to his new station, he gave her $4,000 a month (German sources say 2000 Deutsche Mark a month) in financial support.

Death

Princess Marie-Auguste died on May 22, 1983 at Essen, North Rhine-Westphalia, West Germany.

King, Constantine II of the Hellenes, Has Died.

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Anne-Marie of Denmark, Athens, Duke of Edinburgh, King Charles III of the United Kingdom, King Constantine II of the Hellenes, Kingdom of Greece, Prince Philip, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, Queen Margrethe II of Denmark.

King Constantine II of the Hellenes, whose reigned for nine years from March 6, 1964 until the abolition of the Greek monarchy on June 1, 1973, has died at a private hospital in Athens, late on Tuesday. He was 82.

Constantine II (June 2, 1940 – January 10, 2023) was the last King of the Hellenes (Greece).

King Constantine II was a second cousin of British monarch King Charles III. For most of his years in exile, Constantine lived in Hampstead Garden Suburb in north London.

His older sister, Queen Sophia of Spain, is the wife of former King Juan Carlos I of Spain. The current King Felipe VI of Spain is his nephew. Constantine II was also the cousin of Greek-Danish Prince Philip, the late Duke of Edinburgh and the husband of the late Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom.

Christian IX of Denmark’s second son, Vilhelm of Denmark, was elected King George I of the Hellenes in 1863, a few months before his father ascended the Danish throne.

Christian IX was of the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg and this family ruled in Greece from 1863 – until the monarchy was abolished in 1974. There was also a period of time when Greece was a Republic, 1922 and 1935, until the monarchy was restored under King George II of the Hellenes.

Constantine was the only son of King Pavlos of Greece and Friederike, Princess of Hanover, Princess of Great Britain and Ireland, and Princess of Brunswick-Lüneburg, the only daughter and third child of Ernst August of Hanover, then reigning Duke of Brunswick, and his wife Princess Viktoria Luise of Prussia, herself the only daughter of the German Emperor Wilhelm II.

The Greek Royal Family was forced into exile after the First World War and then again during the Second World War. Constantine returned to Greece with his family in 1946 during the Greek Civil War. King George II died in 1947, and Constantine’s father became King Pavlos I, making Constantine the Crown Prince.

Constantine became king in 1964 following the death of his father, King Pavlos I. During the same year the new Greek King married his cousin Princess of Denmark with whom he eventually had five children.

Princess Anne-Marie of Denmark, is the youngest daughter of King Frederick IX of Denmark and his wife Ingrid of Sweden. Ingrid of Sweden was the daughter of King Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden and his first wife, Princess Margaret of Connaught (a granddaughter of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom).

Anne-Marie’s sister is Queen Margrethe II of Denmark.

King Constantine II, continued to style himself King of Greece and his children as princes and princesses even though Greece no longer recognised titles of nobility. This is not unusual for former Royal Families. The Greek Royal Family are still Prince and Princesses of Denmark. Constantine travelled with a Danish passport, as a Danish prince.

It took Constantine 14 years to return to his country, briefly, to bury his mother, Queen Frederica in 1981, but he eventually moved back permanently.

His five children are Princess Alexia, Crown Prince Pavlos, Prince Nikolaos, Princess Theodora and Prince Philippos; and nine grandchildren.

If the Greek monarchy remained extant King Constantine II would have reigned for 59 years and his son, Crown Prince Pavlos, would now be King Pavlos II of the Hellenes.

January 9, 1514: Death of Anne, Duchess of Brittany, Twice Queen of France

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Anullment, Duchess Anne of Brittany and Queen of France, Duke François II of Brittany, King Charles VIII of France, King François I of France, King Louis XI of France, King Louis XII of France, Pope Alexander VI, Salic Law

Anne of Brittany (January 25/26, 1477 – January 9,1514) was reigning Duchess of Brittany from 1488 until her death, and twice Queen of France from 1491 to 1498 and from 1499 to her death. She is the only woman to have been Queen of France twice. During the Italian Wars, Anne also became Queen of Naples, from 1501 to 1504, and Duchess of Milan, in 1499–1500 and from 1500 to 1512.

Anne was born on January 25 or 26, 1477 in the Castle of the Dukes of Brittany in the city of Nantes in what is now the Loire-Atlantique département of France, as the eldest child of Duke François II of Brittany and his second wife Margaret of Foix, Infanta of Navarre. Four years later (before May 10 1481), her parents had a second daughter, Isabelle. Her mother died when Anne was little, while her father died when Anne was eleven years old.

Anne, Duchess of Brittany and Queen of France

Anne was raised in Nantes during a series of conflicts in which King Charles VIII of France sought to assert his suzerainty over Brittany. Her father, François II, Duke of Brittany, was the last male of the House of Montfort.

In this period, the law of succession was unclear, but prior to the Breton War of Succession mainly operated according to semi-Salic Law; i.e., women could inherit, but only if the male line had died out. The Treaty of Guérande in 1365, however, stated that in the absence of a male heir from the House of Montfort, the heirs of Joanna of Penthièvre would succeed.

By the time Anne was born, her father was the only male from the Breton House of Montfort, and the Blois-Penthièvre heir was a female, Nicole of Blois, who in 1480 sold her rights over Brittany to King Louis XI of France for the amount of 50,000 écus.

The lack of a male heir gave rise to the threat of a dynastic crisis in the Duchy, or to its passing directly into the royal domain. To avoid this, François II had Anne officially recognised as his heiress by the Estates of Brittany on February 10, 1486; however, the question of her marriage remained a diplomatic issue.

King Charles VIII of France

Upon the death of her father, Duke François II of Brittany in 1488, Anne became Duchess Regnant of Brittany, Countess of Nantes, Montfort, and Richmond, and Viscountess of Limoges. She was only 11 at that time, but she was already a coveted heiress because of Brittany’s strategic position.

The next year, she married Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I of the House of Austria (Habsburg) by proxy, but King Charles VIII of France saw this as a threat since his realm was located between Brittany and Austria. He started a military campaign which eventually forced the duchess to renounce her marriage.

Anne eventually married King Charles VIII in 1491. None of their children survived early childhood, and when the king died in 1498, the throne went to his cousin, Louis of Orléans, the son of Charles, Duke of Orléans, and Maria of Cleves. Louis of Orléans became King Louis XII of France.

Following an agreement made to secure the annexation of Brittany, Anne had to marry the new king.

However, since King Louis XII was already married getting free from his first wife would be difficult and at this time Anne had many opportunities to reassert the independence of her duchy.

In 1476 Louis of Orléans was forced by King Louis XI (his second cousin) to marry his daughter Joan of France. King Charles VIII (son of Louis XI) succeeded to the throne of France in 1483, but died childless in 1498, when the throne passed to Louis of Orléans as King Louis XII as previously mentioned.

In order for to sustain the union between the quasi-sovereign Duchy of Brittany with the Kingdom of France, Louis XII had to have his marriage to Joan annulled so that he could marry Charles VIII’s widow, Anne of Brittany.

King Louis XII of France

The annulment of Louis and Joan has been described as “one of the seamiest lawsuits of the age”, and was not simple. Louis XII did not, as one might have expected, argue the marriage to be void due to consanguinity (the general allowance for the dissolution of a marriage at that time).

Though he could produce witnesses to claim that the two were closely related due to various linking marriages, there was no documentary proof, merely the opinions of courtiers. Likewise, Louis XII could not argue that he had been below the legal age of consent (fourteen) to marry: no one was certain when he had been born, with Louis XII claiming to have been twelve at the time, and others ranging in their estimates between eleven and thirteen. As there was no real proof, he had perforce to bring forward other arguments.

Accordingly, Louis XII (much to the dismay of his wife) claimed that Joan was physically malformed (providing a rich variety of detail precisely how) and that he had therefore been unable to consummate the marriage.

Joan, unsurprisingly, fought this uncertain charge fiercely, producing witnesses to Louis’s boast of having “mounted my wife three or four times during the night”. Louis also claimed that his sexual performance had been inhibited by witchcraft.

Joan responded by asking how he was able to know what it was like to try to make love to her. Had the Papacy been a neutral party, Joan would likely have won, for Louis’s case was exceedingly weak.

Pope Alexander VI, however, had political reasons to grant the annulment, and ruled against Joan accordingly. He granted the annulment on the grounds that Louis XII did not freely marry, but was forced to marry by Joan’s father King Louis XI. Outraged, Joan reluctantly submitted, saying that she would pray for her former husband. She became a nun; she was canonized in 1950.

Louis XII married the reluctant Queen Dowager, Anne, in 1499.

They had two daughters together and, although neither could succeed to the French throne due to the Salic Law, the eldest was proclaimed the heiress of Brittany. Anne managed to have her eldest daughter engaged to Archduke Charles of Austria, (Holy Roman Emperor Charles V), grandchild of Maximilian I, but after her death in 1514, her daughter married her cousin King François I of France. This marriage later led to the formal union between France and Brittany.

King François I of France

Exhausted by many pregnancies and miscarriages, Anne died of a kidney-stone attack in the Château de Blois at 6 a.m. on 9 January 1514, after having dictated in her will the customary partition of her body (dilaceratio corporis, “division of the body” in heart, entrails and bones) with multiple burials, a privilege of the Capetian dynasty, which allowed for multiple ceremonies (funerals of the body – the most important – and heart) and places (the burial of the body and heart).

She was buried in the necropolis of Saint Denis. Her funeral was exceptionally long, lasting 40 days, and it inspired all future French royal funerals until the 18th century.

She was buried in the necropolis of Saint Denis. Her funeral was exceptionally long, lasting 40 days, and it inspired all future French royal funerals until the 18th century.

Anne was a highly intelligent woman who spent much of her time on the administration of Brittany. She was described as shrewd, proud and haughty in manner. She made the safeguarding of Breton autonomy, and the preservation of the Duchy outside the French crown, her life’s work, although that goal would prove to have failed shortly after her death.

Anne was also a patron of the arts and enjoyed music. A prolific collector of tapestries, it is very likely that the unicorn tapestries now on view at The Cloisters museum in New York City were commissioned by her in celebration of her wedding to Louis XII. Of her four surviving illuminated manuscript books of hours the most famous is the Grandes Heures of Anne of Brittany. She also patronized printed books and their authors.

Anne as Queen, receives a book in praise of famous women, painted by Jean Perréal.

She was a devoted mother, spending as much time as possible with her children. She commissioned a book of prayers for her son, Charles-Orland, to use in teaching him how to pray, and as guidance for his role as future King of France. Unfortunately, Charles-Orland died in 1495, and no other son lived more than a few weeks. She also commissioned a primer, yet extant, for her then 8-year-old daughter Claude.

Anne is highly regarded in Brittany as a conscientious ruler who defended the duchy against France. In the Romantic period, she became a figure of Breton patriotism and she was honoured with many memorials and statues.

Her artistic legacy is important in the Loire Valley, where she spent most of her life. She was notably responsible, with her husbands, for architectural projects in the châteaux of Blois and Amboise.

Happy Birthday to HRH The Princess of Wales

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Catherine Elizabeth Middleton, HM King Charles III of the United Kingdom, HRH The Duchess of Cambridge, HRH The Duke of Cambridge, HRH The Princess of Wales, Prince William of Wales, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom

HRH The Princess of Wales (born Catherine Elizabeth Middleton; January 9, 1982) is a member of the British royal family. She is married to HRH The Prince of Wales, heir apparent to the British throne, making Catherine the likely next queen consort.

Catherine Elizabeth Middleton was born at the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading on January 9, 1982 into an upper-middle-class family. She was baptised at St Andrew’s Bradfield, a local parish church, on June 20, 1982.

She is the eldest of three children born to Michael Middleton (b. 1949) and his wife, Carole (née Goldsmith; b. 1955), a former flight dispatcher and flight attendant, respectively,

She was educated at St Andrew’s School and Marlborough College before studying art history at the University of St Andrews in Scotland, where she met Prince William of Wales in 2001. Prince William of Wales the son of the then Prince Charles, The Prince of Wales and his first wife, Lady Diana Spencer.

Catherine held jobs in retail and marketing and pursued charity work before their engagement was announced in November 2010. They married on April 29, 2011 at Westminster Abbey.

On the morning of thier wedding Queen Elizabeth II created Prince William Duke of Cambridge, Earl of Strathearn and Baron Carrickfergus. The letters patent granting these titles were issued on May 26 that year. Catherine became The Duchess of Cambridge, Countess of Strathearn and Baroness Carrickfergus.

By marrying a Prince of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Catherine became a Princess of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. However, the privilege to be called Princess, followed by thier first name, is reserved for Princesses that are born into the Royal Family.

Had her husband not been elevated to the Peerage of the United Kingdom, Catherine would have been addressed as Her Royal Highness Princess William of Wales. See Princess Michael of Kent as an example.

On the accession of the Duke of Cambridge’s father to the throne as HM King Charles III on September 8, 2022, as the eldest son of the monarch, the Duke of Cambridge automatically became Duke of Cornwall, Duke of Rothesay, Earl of Carrick, Baron of Renfrew, Lord of the Isles, and Prince and Great Steward of Scotland.

As heir to the throne the title Duke of Cambridge was to be used along with his new title Duke of Cornwall and for one day William and Catherine were officially The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Cornwall.

However, this new styling was only to last one day for on the next day, September 9, 2022, His Majesty the King announced the creation of the Duke of Cambridge and Cornwall as Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester.

His wife took on the feminine form of her husband’s titles and is addressed as Her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales in England but in Scotland is addressed as Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Rothesay. As mentioned above, since the Princess of Wales was not born into the Royal Family it is not correct to refer to her as Princess Catherine.

The couple’s children—Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis—are second, third, and fourth in the line of succession to the British throne, respectively.

Catherine holds patronage within over 20 charitable and military organisations, including Action for Children, SportsAid, and the National Portrait Gallery. She undertakes projects through The Royal Foundation, with her charity work focusing on issues surrounding young children, addiction, and art.

To encourage people to open up about their mental health issues, Catherine envisioned the mental health awareness campaign “Heads Together”, launched with William and Prince Harry in April 2016.

In 2011, 2012, and 2013, Time magazine selected her as one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World.

January 7, 1536: Death of Infanta Catherine of Aragon, Queen of England

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Anne Boleyn, Archbishop of Canterbury, Arthur Tudor, Infanta Catherine of Aragon, King Fernando II of Aragon, King Henry VIII of England and Scotland, Pope Clement VII, Prince of Wales, Queen Catherine of England, Queen Isabella I of Castile, Queen Mary I of England and Ireland, Thomas Cranmer

Infanta Catherine of Aragon (December 16, 1485 – January 7, 1536) was Queen of England as the first wife of King Henry VIII from their marriage on June 11, 1509 until their annulment on May 23, 1533. She was previously Princess of Wales as the wife of Henry’s elder brother, Arthur, Prince of Wales.

The daughter of Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Fernando II of Aragon. Infanta Catherine was three years old when she was betrothed to Prince Arthur, heir apparent to the English throne.

Infanta Catherine of Aragon

They married in 1501, but Arthur died five months later. Catherine spent years in limbo, and during this time, she held the position of ambassador of the Aragonese crown to England in 1507, the first known female ambassador in European history.

She married Arthur’s younger brother, the recently ascended Henry VIII, in 1509. For six months in 1513, she served as regent of England while Henry VIII was in France. During that time the English crushed and defeated a Scottish invasion at the Battle of Flodden, an event in which Catherine played an important part with an emotional speech about English courage and patriotism.

By 1525, Henry VIII was infatuated with Anne Boleyn and dissatisfied that his marriage to Catherine had produced no surviving sons, leaving their daughter Mary as heir presumptive at a time when there was no established precedent for a woman on the throne.

He sought to have their marriage annulled, setting in motion a chain of events that led to England’s schism with the Catholic Church. When Pope Clement VII refused to annul the marriage, Henry defied him by assuming supremacy over religious matters.

Portrait of a noblewoman, possibly Mary Tudor c. 1514 or Catherine of Aragon c. 1502, by Michael Sittow. Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.

On May 23, 1533 Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, sitting in judgement at a special court convened at Dunstable Priory to rule on the validity of Henry’s marriage to Catherine, declared the marriage unlawful, even though Catherine had testified that she and Arthur had never had physical relations. Five days later, on May 28, 1533, Cranmer ruled that Henry VIII and Anne’s marriage was valid.

Until the end of her life, Catherine would refer to herself as Henry’s only lawful wedded wife and England’s only rightful Queen, and her servants continued to address her as such. Henry refused her the right to any title but “Dowager Princess of Wales” in recognition of her position as his brother’s widow.

Catherine went to live at The More Castle, Hertfordshire, late in 1531. After that, she was successively moved to the Royal Palace of Hatfield, Hertfordshire (May to September, 1532), Elsyng Palace, Enfield (September 1532 to February 1533), Ampthill Castle, Bedfordshire (February to July, 1533) and Buckden Towers, Cambridgeshire (July 1533 to May 1534).

She was then finally transferred to Kimbolton Castle, Cambridgeshire where she confined herself to one room, which she left only to attend Mass, dressed only in the hair shirt of the Order of St. Francis, and fasted continuously.

King Henry VIII of England and Ireland

While she was permitted to receive occasional visitors, she was forbidden to see her daughter Mary. They were also forbidden to communicate in writing, but sympathisers discreetly conveyed letters between the two.

Henry offered both mother and daughter better quarters and permission to see each other if they would acknowledge Anne Boleyn as the new Queen; both refused.

In late December 1535, sensing her death was near, Catherine made her will, and wrote to her nephew, the Emperor Charles V, asking him to protect her daughter.

Catherine died at Kimbolton Castle on January 7, 1536. The following day, news of her death reached the king. At the time there were rumours that she was poisoned, possibly by Gregory di Casale.

Queen Catherine of England

According to the chronicler Edward Hall, Anne Boleyn wore yellow for the mourning, which has been interpreted in various ways; Polydore Vergil interpreted this to mean that Anne did not mourn. Chapuys reported that it was King Henry who decked himself in yellow, celebrating the news and making a great show of his and Anne’s daughter, Elizabeth, to his courtiers.

This was seen as distasteful and vulgar by many. Another theory is that the dressing in yellow was out of respect for Catherine as yellow was said to be the Spanish colour of mourning. Certainly, later in the day it is reported that Henry and Anne both individually and privately wept for her death. On the day of Catherine’s funeral, Anne Boleyn miscarried a male child.

Queen Mary I of England and Ireland

Rumours then circulated that Catherine had been poisoned by Anne or Henry, or both. The rumours were born after the apparent discovery during her embalming that there was a black growth on her heart that might have been caused by poisoning. Modern medical experts are in agreement that her heart’s discolouration was not due to poisoning, but to cancer, something which was not understood at the time.

Her daughter Mary would become the first undisputed English queen regnant in 1553.

Was He A Usurper? King Edward IV of England. Part III.

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3rd Duke of York, 3rd Earl of Cambridge, Battle of Agincourt, Duke of Alençon, King Edward IV of England, Richard of Conisburgh, Richard Plantagenet

Before I move onto Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York, I would like to finish telling the story of his father, Richard of Conisburgh, 3rd Earl of Cambridge, husband of Anne Mortimer

Southampton Plot

In the Parliament of 1414, Richard was created Earl of Cambridge, a title formerly held by his elder brother, Edward, 2nd Duke of York, who had earlier ceased to be Earl of Cambridge either by resignation or deprivation of the title.

Richard’s creation as Earl of Cambridge in 1414, however, brought with it no accompanying grant of lands, and according to Harriss, Cambridge was ‘the poorest of the earls’ who were to set out on Henry V’s invasion of France.

As a result, he lacked the resources to equip himself properly for the expedition. Perhaps partly for this reason, Cambridge conspired with Lord Scrope and Sir Thomas Grey to depose King Henry V and place his late wife Anne’s brother, Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March, on the throne.

On July 31 Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March revealed the Southampton Plot to the king. Later, he served on the commission that condemned the Earl of Cambridge to death.

Although the Earl of Cambridge pleaded with the king for clemency, he received none and was beheaded on August 5, 1415 and buried in the chapel of God’s House at Southampton (now St. Julien’s Church, Southampton). The fleet set sail for France a few days later, on August 11, 1415.

Richard’s brother, Edward of Norwich, 2nd Duke of York, himself was not implicated in the conspiracy, and he departed with the army for France. He was present at the Siege of Harfleur, where he made his will on August 17, 1415, then he commanded the van on the army’s march through northern France.

The 2nd Duke of York commanded the right wing at the Battle of Agincourt on October 25, 1415, during which he became the highest-ranking English casualty. According to some witnesses, he rushed forward to save King Henry V who had been assisting his younger brother, Humphrey of Gloucester, and had been assailed and wounded by the Jean, 2nd Duke of Alençon.

The Duke York’s intervention saved the King’s life but cost the duke his own. His death has been variously attributed to a head wound and to being ‘smouldered to death’ by ‘much heat and pressing’. York was buried in the Church of St Mary and All Saints, Fotheringhay, where he had earlier established a college for a master and twelve chaplains.

Legacy

Although the Cambridge’s title was forfeited, he was not attainted, and his four-year-old son Richard was his heir. After the Earl of Cambridge’s elder brother was slain at Agincourt, the Earl of Cambridge’s four-year-old son Richard Plantagenet eventually inherited his uncle’s titles and estates as well as his father’s.

In the parliament of 1461, King Edward IV had the sentence that had been passed his grandfather, Richard, Earl of Cambridge, annulled as ‘irregular and unlawful’.