The Life of Princess Alexandra Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg

Tags

Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg, Duke Johann II the Younger of Schleswig-Holstein, German Emperor Wilhelm II, German Empire, House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg, King Christian III of Denmark and Norway, Kingdom of Denmark, Princess Alexandra Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg

Princess Alexandra Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg (April 21, 1887 – April 15, 1957).

House of Glücksburg

The family takes its ducal name from Glücksburg, a small coastal town in Schleswig, on the southern, German side of the fjord of Flensburg that divides Germany from Denmark. In 1460, Glücksburg came, as part of the conjoined Dano-German duchies of Schleswig and Holstein, to Count Christian of Oldenburg whom, in 1448, the Danes had elected their king as Christian I, the Norwegians likewise taking him as their hereditary king in 1450.

Princess Alexandra Victoria’s birthplace Grünholz Castle, photographed in 2010.

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

The House of Augustenburg

The House of Augustenburg was a branch of the dukes of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg of the House of Oldenburg. The line descended from Alexander, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg, who was the the third son of Johann II, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg and Elisabeth of Brunswick-Grubenhagen.

Duke Johann II was the fourth child and third son of King Christian III of Denmark and Norway and his wife, Dorothea of Saxe-Lauenburg.

Like all of the secondary lines from the Sonderburg branch, the heads of the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg were first known as Dukes of Schleswig-Holstein and Dukes of Sonderburg. The family took its name from its ancestral home, Augustenborg Palace in Augustenborg, Denmark.

Ernst Günther, a member of the ducal house of Schleswig-Holstein (its branch of Sønderborg) and a cadet of the royal house of Denmark, was the third son of Alexander, 2nd Duke of Sonderborg (1573–1627), and thus a grandson of Johann II the Younger (1545–1622), the first duke, who was a son of King Christian III of Denmark.

Prince August Wilhelm of Prussia

Ernest Günther had a castle built in the years after 1651, which received the name of Augustenborg in honor of his wife, Auguste. She was also from a branch of the Dukes of Schleswig-Holstein as a daughter of Philip (1584–1663), Duke of Glücksburg. As that castle became the chief seat of their line, the family eventually used the name of Augustenborg as its branch name. As they were agnates of the ducal house, the title of duke belonged to every one of them (as is the Germanic custom).

The Dukes of Augustenburg were not sovereign rulers—they held their lands in fief to their dynastically-senior kinsmen, the sovereign Dukes of Schleswig and Holstein—who were the Oldenburg Kings of Denmark.

Princess Alexandra Victoria was born on April 21, 1887 at Grünholz Castle in Schleswig-Holstein, Prussia as the second-eldest child and daughter of Friedrich Ferdinand, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg and his wife Princess Caroline Mathilde of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg, a great-niece of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom.

Paternal Ancestry

Alexandra Victoria’s father, Friedrich Ferdinand, was the second-eldest son of Friedrich Wilhelm, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg and Princess Louise Caroline of Hesse-Cassel and an elder brother of Christian IX of Denmark.

Princess Augusta Victoria’s father, Friedrich Ferdinand had succeeded to the headship of the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg and the title of duke upon the death of his father on November 27, 1885.

Augusta Victoria’s paternal grandmother, Princess Louise Caroline of Hesse-Cassel, was the daughter of Prince Charles of Hesse-Kassel (1744 – 1836) and his wife Princess Louise of Denmark (1750 – 1831). Her elder sister Marie Sophie of Hesse-Cassel (28 October 1767 – 21 March 1852) became Queen consort of Frederik VI of Denmark.

Therefore Augusta Victoria’s paternal great-grandmother, Princess Louise of Denmark, was the daughter of was King Frederik V of Denmark and Norway and Princess Louise of Great Britain.

Maternal Ancestry

Augusta Victoria’s mother was Princess Caroline Mathilde of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg (1860 – 1932) and she was the second-eldest daughter of Friedrich VIII, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein and his wife Princess Adelheid of Hohenlohe-Langenburg.

Princess Caroline Mathilde had a sister, Princess Augusta Victoria, who married Emperor Wilhelm II; who are Prince August Wilhelm’s parents.

Princess Adelheid of Hohenlohe-Langenburg (20 July 1835 – 25 January 1900) was Duchess of Schleswig-Holstein, a niece of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, first cousin of King Edward VII, and the mother-in-law of Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany. She is the most recent common matrilineal ancestress (directly through women only) of Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden and Felipe VI of Spain.

Princess Alexandra Victoria and her son Prince Alexander Ferdinand of Prussia

Marriages and issue

Alexandra Victoria’s first husband was her first cousin Prince August Wilhelm of Prussia, the son of Wilhelm II, German Emperor and his wife Augusta Victoria Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg, a sister of Alexandra Victoria’s mother.

They married on October 22, 1908 at the Royal Palace of Berlin. The marriage was arranged by the Emperor and Empress, but it was relatively happy. Alexandra was a great favorite of her mother-in-law, especially since the Empress was also her own aunt.

A contemporary of the court, Princess Catherine Radziwill, commented that Alexandra “had always shown herself willing to listen to her mother-in-law. She is a nice girl – fair, fat, and a perfect type of the ‘Deutsche Hausfrau’ dear to the souls of German novel-writers”. Another contemporary wrote that the marriage had been a love match, and that Alexandra was a “charmingly pretty, bright girl”.

The couple had planned to take up residence in Schönhausen Palace in Berlin, but changed their mind when August Wilhelm’s father decided to leave his son the Villa Liegnitz in the Sanssouci Park in Potsdam. Their residence developed into a meeting place for artists and scholars.

Alexandra Victoria and August Wilhelm had one son:

Prince Alexander Ferdinand of Prussia (December 26, 1912 – June 12, 1985).

During the First World War, August Wilhelm was made district administrator (Landrat) of the district of Ruppin; his office and residence was now Schloss Rheinsberg. His personal adjutant Hans Georg von Mackensen, with whom he had been close friends since his youth, played an important role in his life. These “pronounced homophilic tendencies” contributed to the failure of his marriage to Princess Alexandra Victoria. They never undertook a formal divorce due to the opposition of August Wilhelm’s father, Kaiser Wilhelm II.

After the fall of the German monarchy in 1918, the couple divorced on March 16, 1920.

Arnold Rümann

Her second husband was Arnold Rümann, whom she married on January 7, 1922 at Grünholz Castle. In 1926, Alexandra moved for a time to New York City, where she worked as a painter. She and Arnold were divorced in 1933.

Later life

After World War II, Alexandra lived in a trailer near Wiesbaden, where she earned a living as a portrait and landscape painter. She died on April 14, 1957 in a hotel in Lyons, France.

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

Tags

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.

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

Tags

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

Tags

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.

Princess Hermine Reuss of Greiz: 2nd Wife of German Emperor Wilhelm II

Tags

German Emperor Friedrich III, German Emperor Wilhelm II, Huis Doorn, King of Prussia, Prince Charles Franz of Prussia, Prince Joachim of Prussia, Prince Johann of Schönaich-Carolath, Princess Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg, Princess Henriette of Schönaich-Carolath, Princess Hermine Reuss of Greiz, Princess Royal of the United Kingdom, Princess Victoria, Princess Victoria of Prussia, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom

Princess Hermine Reuss of Greiz (December 17, 1887 – August 7, 1947) was the second wife of German Emperor Wilhelm II. They were married in 1922, four years after he abdicated as German Emperor and King of Prussia. He was her second husband; her first husband, Prince Johann of Schönaich-Carolath, had died in 1920.

Princess Hermine Reuss of Greiz

They were the parents of five children.

Princess Hermine was born in Greiz as the fifth child and fourth daughter of Heinrich XXII, Prince Reuss of Greiz (March 28, 1846 – April 19, 1902), and Princess Ida of Schaumburg-Lippe (July 28, 1852 – September 28, 1891), daughter of Adolf I, Prince of Schaumburg-Lippe and Princess Hermine of Waldeck and Pyrmont (1827–1910).

Princess Hermine’s mother, Princess Ida of Schaumburg-Lippe, had a brother, Prince Adolf of Schaumburg-Lippe (1859–1917), who was married Princess Victoria of Prussia, daughter of German Emperor Friedrich III, and Victoria, Princess Royal of the United Kingdom eldest daughter of Queen Victoria.

This means that Princess Victoria of Prussia was Princess Hermine’s aunt by marriage and Princess Victoria was the sister of German Emperor Wilhelm II, Princess Hermine’s second husband.

Princess Hermine Reuss of Greiz

Princess Hermine’s father was the ruler of the Principality of Reuss-Greiz, a state of the German Empire, in what is present-day Thuringia. Princess Hermine’s disabled elder brother became Heinrich XXIV, Prince Reuss of Greiz in 1902.

First marriage

Princess Hermine was married on January 7, 1907 in Greiz to Prince Johann of Schönaich-Carolath (September 11, 1873 – April 7, 1920).

Second Marriage

German Emperor Wilhelm II in Exile

In January 1922, a son of Princess Hermine sent birthday wishes to the exiled German Emperor Wilhelm II, who then invited the boy and his mother to Huis Doorn. Wilhelm found Hermine very attractive, and greatly enjoyed her company. The two had much in common, both being recently widowed: Hermine just over a year and a half before and Wilhelm only nine months prior.

By early 1922, Wilhelm was determined to marry Hermine. Despite grumblings from Wilhelm’s monarchist supporters and the objections of his children, 63-year-old Wilhelm and 34-year-old Hermine married on November 5, 1922 in Doorn.

Wilhelm’s physician, Alfred Haehner, suspected that Hermine had married the former kaiser only in the belief that she would become an Empress and that she had become increasingly bitter as it became apparent that would not be the case.

Hermine with Wilhelm II and her daughter Henriette in Doorn, 1931

Shortly before the couple’s first wedding anniversary, Haehner recorded how Hermine had told him how “inconsiderately [Wilhelm] behaved towards her” and how Wilhelm’s face showed “a strong dislike” for his wife.

Hermine’s first husband had also been older than she was, by fourteen years. Wilhelm and Hermine were fourth cousins once removed through mutual descent from Ludwig IX, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt and fifth cousins through common descent from King George II of Great Britain.

In 1927, Hermine wrote An Empress in Exile: My Days in Doorn, an account of her life until then. She cared for the property management of Huis Doorn and by establishing her own relief organization, she stayed in contact with monarchist and nationalist circles in the Weimar Republic.

Hermine and Wilhelm II

Hermine also shared her husband’s anti-Semitism. She remained a constant companion to the aging emperor until his death in 1941. They had no children.

Later life

Following the death of Wilhelm, Hermine returned to Germany to live on her first husband’s estate in Saabor, Lower Silesia. During the Vistula–Oder Offensive of early 1945, she fled from the advancing Red Army to her sister’s estate in Rossla, Thuringia.

After the end of the Second World War, she was held under house arrest at Frankfurt on the Oder, in the Soviet occupation zone, and later imprisoned in the Paulinenhof Internment Camp.

On August 7, 1947, aged 59, she died suddenly of a heart attack in a small flat in Frankfurt, while under guard by the Red Army occupation forces. She was buried in the Antique Temple of Sanssouci Park, Potsdam, in what would become East Germany. Some years earlier, it was the resting place of several other members of the Imperial family, including Wilhelm’s first wife, Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein.

Hermine and Wilhelm II

Prince Charles Franz of Prussia married a daughter of Hermine from her first marriage.

Prince Charles Franz of Prussia was the son of Prince Joachim of Prussia and Princess Marie Auguste of Anhalt.

Prince Joachim of Prussia was the youngest son and sixth child of Wilhelm II, German Emperor, by his first wife, Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein. He committed suicide at age 29.

On October 5, 1940, Charles Franz of Prussia married Princess Henriette of Schönaich-Carolath. She was a daughter of Princess Hermine Reuss of Greiz, who had been the second wife of Charles Franz’s grandfather Emperor Wilhelm II since 1922 (Henriette was thus Emperor Wilhelm’s stepdaughter).

The wedding was at Wilhelm II’s private residence in Huis Doorn without much ceremony, he and Hermine attended the ceremony, as did a few other guests. The Mayor of Doorn performed the ceremony.

The eldest son of Charles Franz of Prussia and Princess Henriette of Schönaich-Carolath is Prince Franz Wilhelm of Prussia (born September 3, 1943), he married the claimant to the Russian throne, Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna, of Russia. Their child is Grand Duke George Mikhailovich of Russia, Prince of Prussia, born March 13, 1981 in Spain.

December 24, 1837: Birth of Duchess Elisabeth in Bavaria, Empress of Austria

Tags

Archduchess Sophie of Austria, Archduke Franz Charles of Austria, Crown Prince Rudolph of Austria, Duchess Helene in Bavaria, Emperor Franz-Joseph of Austria, Empress Elisabeth of Austria, Hungary and Croatia, Queen of Bohemia, Sophie of Bavaria

Duchess Elisabeth in Bavaria (December 24, 1837 – September 10, 1898) was Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary, Bohemia and Croatia from her marriage to Emperor Franz Joseph I on April 24,1854 until her assassination in 1898.

Born Elisabeth Amalie Eugenie on December 24, 1837 in Munich, Bavaria, she was the third child and second daughter of Duke Maximilian Joseph in Bavaria and Princess Ludovika of Bavaria, the half-sister of King Ludwig I of Bavaria. Her mother was the daughter of King Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria and his second wife Caroline of Baden as their fifth child, The birth of Ludovika was known to be difficult.

Duchess Elisabeth in Bavaria

Elisabeth was born into the royal Bavarian House of Wittelsbach. Nicknamed Sisi (also Sissi), she enjoyed an informal upbringing.

Sisi’s father, Maximilian was considered to be rather peculiar; he had a childish love of circuses and traveled the Bavarian countryside to escape his duties. The family’s homes were the Herzog-Max-Palais in Munich during winter and Possenhofen Castle in the summer months, far from the protocols of court. Sisi and her siblings grew up in a very unrestrained and unstructured environment; she often skipped her lessons to go riding about the countryside.

Emperor Franz Joseph was the eldest son of Archduke Franz Charles of Austria (the younger son of Holy Roman Emperor Franz II) and his wife Princess Sophie of Bavaria.

Young Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria

In December 1848, Franz Joseph’s uncle Emperor Ferdinand abdicated the throne at Olomouc, as part of Minister President Felix zu Schwarzenberg’s plan to end the Revolutions of 1848 in Hungary. Franz Joseph then acceded to the throne.

It was generally felt in the Imperial Court that the Emperor should marry and produce heirs as soon as possible. Various potential brides were considered, including Princess Elisabeth of Modena, Princess Anna of Prussia and Princess Sidonia of Saxony.

Although in public life Franz Joseph was the unquestioned director of affairs, in his private life his mother still wielded crucial influence. Sophie wanted to strengthen the relationship between the Houses of Habsburg and Wittelsbach—descending from the latter house herself—and hoped to match Emperor Franz Joseph with her sister Ludovika’s eldest daughter, Helene (“Néné”), who was four years the Emperor’s junior.

Duchess Helene (“Néné”) in Bavaria

Although the couple had never met, Emperor Franz Joseph’s obedience was taken for granted by the Archduchess, who was once described as “the only man in the Hofburg” for her authoritarian manner.

The Duchess Ludovika and Helene were invited to journey to the resort of Bad Ischl, Upper Austria to receive Emperor Franz Joseph’s formal proposal of marriage. The then fifteen year old Sisi accompanied her mother and sister, and they traveled from Munich in several coaches.

They arrived late as the Duchess, prone to migraines, had to interrupt the journey; the coach with their gala dresses never did arrive. Before leaving for Bad Ischl, the Bavarian court had gone into mourning over the death of the Queen-Dowager’s (Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen) brother Georg, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg so they were dressed in black and unable to change to more suitable clothing before meeting the young Emperor.

While black did not suit eighteen year old Helene’s dark coloring, by contrast, it made her younger sister look more striking.

Helene was a pious, quiet young woman, andnshe and Franz Joseph felt ill at ease in each other’s company.

Emperor Franz Joseph was instantly infatuated with her younger sister Sisi, a beautiful girl of fifteen, and insisted on marrying her instead. He did not propose to Helene, but instead, he defied his mother and informed her that if he could not have Elisabeth (Sisi), he would not marry at all.

Sisi

Sophie acquiesced, despite her misgivings about Sisi’s appropriateness as an imperial consort. Five days later, their betrothal was officially announced. When Emperor Franz Joseph decided to marry Elisabeth instead of Helene, she became very distraught.

The couple was married eight months later in Vienna, at the Augustinerkirche, on April 24, 1854. Emperor Franz Joseph was 24 years old and Empress Elisabeth was 16 years old at the time of thier marriage.

The marriage was finally consummated three days later, and Elisabeth received a dower equal to US$240,000 today.

In 1858, Helene married Maximilian Anton, Hereditary Prince of Thurn and Taxis. After nearly nine years of marriage, Maximillian died due to a chronic kidney disease, leaving the Thrun and Taxis throne into the hands of Helene until their son, Prince Maximilian Maria, reached majority.

The marriage of Emperor Franz Joseph and Sisi would eventually prove to be an unhappy one; though Franz Joseph was passionately in love with his wife, the feeling was not mutual. Elisabeth never truly acclimatized to life at court, and was frequently in conflict with the imperial family.

Sisi was surprised to learn she was pregnant and gave birth to her first child, a daughter, Archduchess Sophie of Austria (1855–1857), just ten months after her wedding.

The elder Archduchess Sophie, who often referred to Elisabeth as “a silly young mother,” not only named the child (after herself), without consulting the mother, but she took complete charge of the baby, refusing to allow Elisabeth to breastfeed or otherwise care for her own child. When a second daughter, Archduchess Gisela of Austria (1856–1932), was born a year later, the Archduchess took the baby away from Elisabeth as well.

The fact that she had not produced a male heir made Elisabeth increasingly unwanted in the palace. One day, she found a pamphlet on her desk with the following words underlined:

…The natural destiny of a Queen is to give an heir to the throne. If the Queen is so fortunate as to provide the State with a Crown-Prince this should be the end of her ambition – she should by no means meddle with the government of an Empire, the care of which is not a task for women… If the Queen bears no sons, she is merely a foreigner in the State, and a very dangerous foreigner, too. For as she can never hope to be looked on kindly here, and must always expect to be sent back whence she came, so will she always seek to win the King by other than natural means; she will struggle for position and power by intrigue and the sowing of discord, to the mischief of the King, the nation, and the Empire…

Her mother-in-law is generally considered to be the source of the malicious pamphlet. The accusation of political meddling referred to Elisabeth’s influence on her husband regarding his Italian and Hungarian subjects. When she traveled to Italy with him, she persuaded him to show mercy toward political prisoners.

Empress Elisabeth of Austria, Queen of Bohemia, Hungary and Croatia

In 1857, Elisabeth visited Hungary for the first time with her husband and two daughters, and it left a deep and lasting impression upon her, which many historians attribute to the fact that in Hungary, she found a welcome respite from the constraints of Austrian court life.

It was “the first time that Elisabeth had met with men of character in Franz Joseph’s realm, and she became acquainted with an aristocratic independence that scorned to hide its sentiments behind courtly forms of speech… She felt her innermost soul reach out in sympathy to the proud, steadfast people of this land…” Unlike the Archduchess, who despised the Hungarians, Elisabeth felt such an affinity for them that she began to learn Hungarian. In turn, the country reciprocated in its adoration of her.

Sisi is known as one of the most beautiful women of 19th century Europe. In addition to her rigorous exercise regimen, Elisabeth practiced demanding beauty routines.

At 173 cm (5 feet 8 inches), Elisabeth was unusually tall. Through fasting and exercise such as gymnastics and riding, she maintained her weight at approximately 50 kg (110 pounds) for most of her life.

In deep mourning after her daughter Sophie’s death, Elisabeth refused to eat for days – a behavior that would reappear in later periods of melancholy and depression. Whereas she previously had supper with the family, she now began to avoid this; and if she did eat with them, she ate quickly and very little.

Whenever her weight threatened to exceed fifty kilos, a “fasting cure” or “hunger cure” would follow, which involved almost complete fasting. Meat itself often filled her with disgust, so she either had the juice of half-raw beefsteaks squeezed into a thin soup, or else adhered to a diet of milk and eggs.

Elisabeth emphasised her extreme slenderness through the practice of “tight-lacing”. During the peak period of 1859–60, which coincided with Franz-Joseph’s political and military defeats in Italy, her sexual withdrawal from her husband after three pregnancies in rapid succession, and her losing battle with her mother-in-law for dominance in rearing her children, she reduced her waist to 40 cm (16 inches) in circumference.

Daily care of her abundant and extremely long hair, which in time turned from the dark blonde of her youth to chestnut brunette, took at least three hours. Her hair was so long and heavy that she often complained that the weight of the elaborate double braids and pins gave her headaches.

Elisabeth was an emotionally complex woman, and perhaps due to the melancholy and eccentricity that was considered a given characteristic of her Wittelsbach lineage (the best-known member of the family being her favorite cousin, the eccentric King Ludwig II of Bavaria), she was interested in the treatment of the mentally ill. In 1871, when the Emperor asked her what she would like as a gift for her Saint’s Day, she listed a young tiger and a medallion, but: “…a fully equipped lunatic asylum would please me most”.

On August 21, 1858, Elisabeth finally gave birth to an heir, Crown Prince Rudolph of Austria (1858–1889). The 101-gun salute announcing the welcome news to Vienna also signaled an increase in her influence at court. This, combined with her sympathy toward Hungary, made Elisabeth an ideal mediator between the Magyars and the emperor.

Her interest in politics had developed as she matured; she was liberal-minded, and placed herself decisively on the Hungarian side in the increasing conflict of nationalities within the empire.

At the young age of sixteen the marriage thrust her into the much more formal Habsburg court life, for which she was unprepared and which she found uncongenial. Early in the marriage, she was at odds with her mother-in-law, Archduchess Sophie, who took over the rearing of Elisabeth’s daughters, one of whom, Sophie, died in infancy.

The birth of a son to the imperial couple, Crown Prince Rudolf, improved Elisabeth’s standing at court, but her health suffered under the strain. As a result, she would often visit Hungary for its more relaxed environment. Since she had developed a deep kinship with Hungary she was instrumental in helping to bring about the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary in 1867.

The death of Elisabeth’s only son and his mistress Mary Vetsera in a murder–suicide at his hunting lodge at Mayerling in 1889 was a blow from which the Empress never recovered. She withdrew from court duties and travelled widely, unaccompanied by her family. In 1890, she had the palace Achilleion built on the Greek island of Corfu.

The palace featured an elaborate mythological motif and served as a refuge, which Elisabeth visited often.
In 1897, her sister, Sophie, died in an accidental fire at the Bazar de la Charité charity event in Paris. While travelling in Geneva in 1898, Elisabeth was mortally wounded by an Italian anarchist named Luigi Lucheni. Her tenure of 44 years was the longest of any Austrian Empress.

December 23, 1910: Birth of Princess María de las Mercedes of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, Countess of Barcelona

Tags

Countess of Barcelona, Francisco Franco, House of Bourbon, House of Bourbon-Two-Sicilies, Infante Juan of Spain, King Juan Carlos I of Spain, King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy, Princess María de las Mercedes of Bourbon-Two Sicilies

Princess María de las Mercedes of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, Countess of Barcelona (December 23, 1910 – January 2, 2000) was a Spanish noblewoman who married Infante Juan, Count of Barcelona, the claimant to the Spanish throne.

María was born in Madrid, daughter of Prince Carlos of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, Infante of Spain, a grandson of King Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies, and his second wife, Princess Louise of Orléans, daughter of Prince Philippe, Count of Paris, a pretender to the French throne.

Princess María de las Mercedes of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, Countess of Barcelona

She was granted, at birth, the rank and precedence of an infanta of Spain, although not the actual use of the title itself, her own being Princess of Bourbon-Two Sicilies. Her family moved to Seville, when her father was made Captain General of that province. When the Second Spanish Republic forced them into exile, they lived in Cannes and later in Paris, where she studied art at the Louvre.

On January 14, 1935, at a party, in Rome, hosted by King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy for the wedding next day of Infanta Beatriz of Spain, daughter of King Alfonso XIII, to Alessandro Torlonia, 5th Prince of Civitella-Cesi, she met the brother of the bride, her second cousin and future husband, the Infante Juan of Spain, fourth son and designated heir of Alfonso XIII and his wife Princess Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg a granddaughter of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom.

Infante Juan became heir apparent to the defunct Spanish throne after the renunciations of his two older brothers, Infante Alfonso and infante Jaime, in 1933. To assert his claim to the throne, following his father’s death he used the title of Count of Barcelona, a sovereign title associated with the Spanish crown.

Marriage of Princess María de las Mercedes of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, and Infante Juan of Spain, Count of Barcelona

They married in Rome on October 12, 1935. When her husband took up the title Count of Barcelona as a title of pretence on March 8, 1941, María became the Countess of Barcelona. They had four children.

Issue

1. Infanta Pilar, Duchess of Badajoz (July 30, 1936 – January 8, 2020)

2. King Juan Carlos I of Spain (born January 5, 1938)

3. Infanta Margarita, Duchess of Soria (born March 6, 1939)

4. Infante Alfonso of Spain (October 3, 1941 – March 29, 1956)

They lived in Cannes and Rome, and, with the outbreak of World War II, they moved to Lausanne to live with Infante Juan’s mother Queen Victoria Eugenie. Afterwards, they resided at Estoril, on the Portuguese Riviera.

Infante Juan, Count of Barcelona

When General Francisco Franco declared Spain a monarchy in 1947, he characterized it as a “restoration”. However, Franco was afraid that Juan would roll back the Spanish State because he favoured a constitutional monarchy, which would restore parliamentary democracy. As a result, in 1969, Franco passed over Juan in favour of Juan’s son, Juan Carlos, who Franco believed would be more likely to continue his dictatorship after his death.

In 1953, the Countess represented the Spanish Royal Family at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom.

In 1976, one year after the monarchy was restored in Spain in the person of her son, Juan Carlos, they returned to Spain. She mediated between her son and her husband, estranged since Juan Carlos had been designated heir by Franco.

In 1977 Infante Juan, Count of Barcelona, formally renounced his rights to the Spanish throne eight years after being displaced as recognised heir to the throne by Franco. In return, his son officially granted him the title of Count of Barcelona, which he had claimed for so long.

After his death in 1993, he was buried with honours due a king, under the name Juan III (his title if he had become king) in the Royal Crypt of the monastery of San Lorenzo del Escorial, near Madrid.

The Countess of Barcelona broke her hip in 1982 and the left femur in 1985, which forced her to use a wheelchair for the rest of her life. She became a widow in 1993 with the death of her husband the Count of Barcelona.

The Countess of Barcelona was a fervid fan of bull fighting and of the Andalusian culture. In 1995, her granddaughter Infanta Elena married in Seville in part because the Countess’ love for the city.

The Countess of Barcelona died of a heart attack in the Royal Residence of La Mareta, in Lanzarote, where the royal family had gathered to celebrate the New Year. She was buried with the honors of a queen at the Royal Crypt of the monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, near Madrid.

Henri IV of France and Navarre, His Wives and Mistresses. Part IV.

Tags

Archduchess Joanna of Austria, Charlotte des Essarts, Francesco I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, Henriette d'Entragues, Jacqueline de Bueil, King Felipe I of Castile, King Henri IV of France and Navarre, Marie de Medici of Florence, Queen Joanna of Castile, Queen of France and Navarre

By early 1599, Henri’s marriage to Margaret of Valois looked likely to be annulled at last. And so, at the age of forty-six and still without a legitimate heir, Henri felt free to propose to Gabrielle d’Estrées. On Mardi Gras, Henri placed on her finger the ring with which he had “married” France at his coronation in 1593.

During Holy Week, however, Gabrielle, who was pregnant at the time, fell ill; by Holy Saturday, to the relief of many in France, she was dead. Rumours flew that she had been poisoned, but in fact she died from eclampsia and a premature birth of a stillborn son.

Though grief-stricken, Henri grasped that his fiancée’s death had saved him from disaster: his plan to declare his two sons by d’Estrées heirs to the throne would have precipitated a major political crisis.

Henri IV, King of France and Navarre

Henri provided Gabrielle d’Estrées with a grandiose funeral and drowned his sorrows with a sustained spree of womanising. Sir Henry Neville, the English ambassador, reported that Henry was spending time “in secret manner at Zamet’s house”, where “la belle garce Claude” was known to entertain, and that he was fervently courting Henriette d’Entragues, the daughter of Charles IX’s former mistress, Marie Touchet.

Royal accounts record that Henri was soon making large payments to “Mademoiselle d’Entragues”, as well as to “Mademoiselle des Fossez”. D’Entragues quickly replaced d’Estrées as Henry’s principal mistress.

She extracted from him, in Neville’s words, “100,000 crowns in ready money and an yearly pension” as proof of his commitment. At about the same time, Henri began affairs with Marie Babou de la Bourdaisière and with two wives of Paris parlement members, madames Quélin and Potier.

Marie de’ Medici

In October 1599, the parlement of Paris officially petitioned that Henri marry a princess worthy of his dignity. Henri took note and began considering candidates from several foreign states. According to Sully, however, he ruled out a German wife, on the grounds that it would feel like going to bed with a wine-barrel.

Henri IV was keenest on Maria de’ Medici of Florence, the niece of Ferdinando I de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany.

Maria was the sixth daughter of Francesco I de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, and Archduchess Joanna of Austria, the youngest daughter of Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor and Anna of Bohemia and Hungary.

She was a descendant of Lorenzo the Elder –a branch of the Medici family sometimes referred to as the ‘cadet’ branch– through his daughter Lucrezia de’ Medici, and was also a Habsburg through her mother, who was a direct descendant of Queen Joanna of Castile and King Felipe I of Castile.

Although Maria’s ancestry was impressive, what Henri found particularly attractive about Maria was her enormous wealth.

On December 17, 1599, the Archbishop of Arles pronounced the annulment of Henri’s marriage to Margaret of Valois. The Medici marriage contract was signed in April 1600, pledging a huge dowry of 600,000 écus, part of which was subtracted to pay Henry’s debts to Ferdinando.

Henri played his part by proclaiming undying devotion to Maria in a series of letters, though he was sending similar love letters to Henriette d’Entragues, telling her in one that he wanted to kiss her a million times.

Young Marie de’ Medici of Florence

A proxy marriage took place in Florence in October 1600, and then Maria—to be known in France as Marie—sailed in great pomp for Marseille, where she disembarked on November 3. Marie was 26 and King Henri was 47 at the time of thier marriage.

Henri on campaign in Savoy, rode to meet her at Lyon, where he found her at supper. He visited her afterwards in her chamber; according to Ralph Winwood, secretary to English ambassador Sir Henry Neville:

She met him at the door, and offered to kneel down, but he took her in his arms, where he held her embraced a long time … He doth profess to the World the great Contentment he finds in her, how that for her Beauty, her sweet and pleasing carriage, her gracious behaviour, she doth surpass the relation which hath been made of her, and the Expectation which he thereby conceived.

The couple underwent a second marriage ceremony in Lyon; and Marie finally reached Paris on February 7, already pregnant. She found her new home, the Louvre, so shabby that at first she thought Henri was playing a joke.

She gave birth to a son, Louis, at the Palace of Fontainebleau on September 27, 1601, to the delight of Henri IV, who had rushed from military duties to her bedside to serve, he joked, as one of her midwives. The moment Henri was told that the child was a boy, he ushered two hundred courtiers into the chamber to share the euphoria.

The baby was fed a spoonful of wine and handed over to a governess, Baroness Robert de Harlay, baron de Monglat [fr], and to the physician Jean Héroard [fr], an expert on the bone structure of horses. According to Winwood, the baby was a “strong and a goodly prince, and doth promise long life”. The birth of a dauphin, as the first son of a French king was known, inspired rejoicing and bonfires throughout France.

Marie believed that after bearing a son, she “would begin to be a Queen ueen”. However, a few weeks later, Henriette d’Entragues also produced another son (Gaston Henri, Duc de Verneuil) and Henri not only made just as much fuss over this son but declared that he was better-looking, not fat and dark like Louis and the Medici.

In the words of biographer David Buisseret, “the royal couple was well embarked upon nine years of mutual recrimination and misunderstandings, in which the fault plainly lay with the king”.

Marie de’ Medici, Queen of France and Navarre

Henri had made Marie’s position clear to her from the first. When she began by pressing him to accept the decrees of the Council of Trent, he told her to keep her nose out of state business and look after herself. Shortly after Marie’s arrival in Paris, Henri had introduced Henriette d’Entragues to her, reportedly pushing Henriette further towards the ground when her curtsey was not low enough.

He housed his senior mistress close to the Louvre and was seen dining with the queen and d’Entragues together. Marie also had to cope with a second public mistress, La Bourdaisière, as well as with Henry’s continued visits to Zamet’s house for services provided by “la belle garce Claude”.

In the next nine years, Marie bore Henri six children; but he also sired five more by d’Entragues, Jacqueline de Bueil, and Charlotte des Essarts. Nonetheless, Henri often wrote affectionate letters to Marie and in other ways treated her with respect.

December 18, 1724: Birth of Louise of Great Britain, Queen of Denmark and Norway. Part I.

Tags

King Christian VI of Denmark of Norway, King Frederik V of Denmark and Norway, King George II of Great Britain, Princess Caroline of Brandenburg-Ansbach, Princess Louise of Great Britain, Queen of Denmark and Norway

From the Emperor’s Desk: The anniversary of the birth of Princess Louise of Great Britain is today and I will cover her birth and marriage. Tomorrow December 19 is the anniversary of her death and I will cover her time as Queen Consort of Denmark and Norway.

Louise of Great Britain (originally Louisa; December 18, 1724 – December 19, 1751) was Queen of Denmark and Norway from 1746 until her death, as the first wife of King Frederik V. She was the youngest surviving daughter of King George II of Great Britain and Caroline of Brandenburg-Ansbach.

Princess Louise was born as the fifth daughter and youngest child of the then Prince and Princess of Wales, on December 18, 1724, at Leicester House, Westminster, London. She was born ten years after her paternal grandfather, Elector George Louis (Georg Ludwig) of Hanover, had succeeded to the thrones of Great Britain and Ireland in 1714 as George I, and her father had become Prince of Wales and moved to London with his family.

Louise’s father had a strained relationship with his own father, and in 1717, after a quarrel, the King had banished his son from court. He had subsequently lived at Leicester House, a large aristocratic townhouse in Westminster, where a rival court grew up, and which became a frequent meeting place for his father’s political opponents. It was here that Louise was born.

She was baptised “Louisa” at Leicester House on December 22. Her godparents were her elder sister and two cousins: Princess Amelia of Great Britain, Princess Louisa Ulrika of Prussia (for whom Sarah Lennox, Duchess of Richmond and Lennox, stood proxy), and Frederick, Prince Royal of Prussia, later Frederick the Great (for whom Henry de Nassau d’Auverquerque, 1st Earl of Grantham, stood proxy).

Princess Louise had six older siblings who lived to adulthood. Of these, Louise lived only with the two youngest, Prince William and Princess Mary and their parents in Leicester House.

They constituted the ‘younger set’, born in London, in contrast to the ‘older set’, born in Hanover, whom King George I had cruelly separated from their parents in 1717. Her favorite sister was Princess Mary, who later married Friedrich II, Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel; The future marriages of the two sisters would become a basis for the many dynastic marriages between the Danish royal family and the House of Hesse-Cassel in the following generations.

Louise of Great Britain, Queen of Denmark and Norway

On June 11, 1727, when Louise was two years old, her grandfather, King George I, died, and her father ascended the throne as King George II of Great Britain and Ireland, Imperial Elector of Hanover. The family subsequently moved to St James’s Palace, the London residence of the British monarch. Here Louise grew up, spending holidays at her parents’ summer residence, Richmond Lodge, located near the River Thames in Richmond.

In 1737, when Louise was almost 13 years old, her mother, Queen Caroline, died, and she was then raised mainly by her older sister, Princess Caroline.

In 1743, a dynastic marriage was negotiated between Louise and Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark and Norway. The marriage was proposed by Great Britain from political reasons. At the time of the marriage, both France and Great Britain wished to make an alliance with Denmark-Norway, and being protestant Great Britain had the advantage of being able to make a marriage alliance.

The Danish government was in favor of the proposal, while Crown Prince Frederik’s father, King Christian VI, was initially reluctant. But he was convinced, as he hoped the marriage would lead to British support for his or his son’s claim to the throne of Sweden.

On a more personal level, there were hopes that marriage would suppress the frequent drinking and debauched behaviour of the Crown Prince. As for the Crown Prince, after having been presented with a portrait of the princess and finding her exterior appealing, and having been told of her amiability, he declared himself willing to marry Louise, all the more so as he too could see that the political circumstances made the marriage desirable.

Thus, the marriage negotiations began during the year of 1743, and were successfully concluded within a few months on September 14. On October 19, the 18 year old Princess Louise left London and began her journey towards Copenhagen.

The Lord Chamberlain ordered the provision of supplies for the Princess, including “sets of royal bedding, portmanteaus, a travelling tea equipage, and items for Mrs. Dives and the “Fubbs” yacht: all to an estimate of £503″.

King Christian VI with his family Queen Sophie Magdalene, Crown Prince Frederik (V), and Crown Princess Louise. Hirschholm Palace can be seen as a backdrop. Painting by Carl Marcus Tuscher, c. 1744 (Rosenborg Castle).

She first sailed aboard the royal yacht HMY Fubbs to her father’s German possession, the Electorate of Hanover, where on November 10, a proxy wedding ceremony was conducted in Hanover with her favorite brother, Prince William, the Duke of Cumberland, as the representative of the groom.

Prince William, the Duke of Cumberland, is best remembered for his role in putting down the Jacobite Rising at the Battle of Culloden in 1746, which made him immensely popular throughout parts of Britain.

After this, the entourages of Louise and Crown Prince Frederik met in the border city of Altona in the then Danish Duchy of Holstein, where Louise met her husband for the first time a week after the wedding.

There her English retinue was exchanged for a Danish one, headed by her new chamberlain Carl Juel and her Chief Court Mistress Christiane Henriette Louise Juel. Louise and Frederik then travelled together to Copenhagen, where they held their official entry into the Danish capital on December 11, to great cheers from the population. Already the same day a second wedding ceremony with the groom present was held in the chapel of Christiansborg Palace, the recently completed principal residence of the Danish Monarchy in central Copenhagen.

King Frederik V of Denmark and Norway

After the wedding, the newlyweds initially took up residence at Charlottenborg Palace, a Baroque style minor residence of the Danish royal family located at Copenhagen’s largest square, Kongens Nytorv. Here, their home quickly became the setting for a lively and entertaining court which differed greatly from the rigid and heavy etiquette that prevailed at the court of Louise’s in-laws at Christiansborg Palace. They lived there until, in 1745, they could move into the completed Prince’s Mansion, a city mansion remodeled for them by the Danish architect and royal building master Nicolai Eigtved in Rococo style, and located just across the Frederiksholm’s Canal from Christiansborg Palace.

Although the marriage was arranged, the couple got along quite well, and at least during the first years, their relationship was apparently amicable. The couple had five children, of whom the eldest son, the heir to the throne, Crown Prince Christian, did not survive infancy.

Although Frederik came to feel high regard for her and always treated her with kindness, he reportedly was not in love with her and continued his debauched lifestyle. However Frederik was comfortable with her, and Louise pretended not to notice his adultery and random liaisons with others, notably with his favorite mistress Else Hansen.

Louise quickly made herself popular in the Danish court, and her father-in-law remarked that she seemed to him to be kind and agreeable. She was also met with great enthusiasm from the citizens of Copenhagen, due to her natural and straightforward behavior. Unlike her mother-in-law, Queen Sophie Magdalene, she made an effort to learn Danish, and studied the Danish language right from her arrival under the court priest Erik Pontoppidan. She also hired teachers so that her children could learn to speak their country’s language.

Henri IV of France. His Wives and Mistresses. Part I.

Tags

Catherine de Médici, Jeanne d'Albret, King Charles IX of France, King Henri IV of France and Navarre, King Philip II of Spain, Pope Gregory XIII, Princess Margaret de Valois, Queen Joan III of Navarre, Queen of France and Navarre, St. Bartholomew's Day massacre

Henri IV of France’s wives and mistresses played a significant role in the politics of his reign.

Henri’s womanising became legendary, earning him the nickname of Le Vert Galant. His sexual appetite was said to have been insatiable, and he always kept mistresses, often several at a time, as well as engaging in random sexual encounters and visits to brothels. Even so, he tended to elevate one mistress above the others and shower her with money, honours, and promises.

First Marriage

After the signature of the peace of Saint-Germain, Catherine de’ Medici, the powerful mother of King Charles IX, was convinced by François of Montmorency to marry her daughter Margaret with Henri III of Navarre.

The match was in fact assumed almost thirteen years earlier by the late King Henri II. Catherine, who believed in dynastic marriage as a potent political tool, aimed to unite the interests of the Valois and the Bourbons, and create harmony between Catholics and Huguenots in the reign of France.

By all accounts, Margaret of Valois was deemed highly attractive, even sexually magnetic: “The beauty of that princess is more divine than human, she is made to damn and ruin men rather than to save them”, said about her Don Juan of Austria came to court just to see her.

King Henri IV of France and Navarre

Margaret had also an enterprising and flirtatious character. Shortly before this marriage plan with Henri of Navarre, she had been involved in a scandal: it was discovered that she encouraged the handsome Henri of Guise, who intended to marry her, entertaining a secret correspondence with him. When her family discovered it put an end to the crush between them and sent Henri of Guise away from court.

Some sources claim the duke of Guise was Margaret’s first lover, but this is highly unlikely. For political reasons, the duty of a Daughter of France was to be a virgin at the wedding and for this she was very guarded.

If Margaret had really compromised her reputation, Jeanne d’Albret (Queen Joan III of Navarre) would not accept the marriage between her son Henri and the princess. Although certainly after the wedding, Margaret was unfaithful to her husband, many of the extramarital adventures are the result of pamphlets that have had to politically discredit her and her family: the most famous was Le Divorce Satyrique (1607), who described her as a nymphomaniac.

Margaret complied with her mother’s desire to marry Henri of Navarre, provided she was not forced to convert to Protestantism. When Jeanne d’Albret arrived at the French court after receiving numerous pressures from Catherine, she was extremely impressed by Margaret: “She has frankly owned to me the favourable impression which she has formed of you.

With her beauty and wit, she exercises a great influence over the Queen-Mother and the King, and Messieurs her younger brothers.” The problems began when the Protestant Jeanne discovered that Margaret had no intention of abjuring Catholicism. Meanwhile the marriage negotiations were repeatedly impeded by the Pope Gregory XIII and King Felipe II of Spain.

Tired of the duration of the negotiations, Charles IX decided that the wedding would be celebrated by the Cardinal of Bourbon even without papal dispensation, so Jeanne gave her consent to the wedding by promising that Henri could remain a Huguenot.

When Jeanne arrived in Paris to buy clothes for the wedding, she was taken ill and died, aged forty-four; and Henri succeeded her as the King Henri III of Navarre. Henri arrived in Paris in July 1572 and saw Margaret after six years of separation (they had spent their childhood together with the French court). Despite subsequent historiographic interpretations, contemporaries do not point out any mutual dissatisfaction between future spouses.

Princess Margaret de Valois, Queen of France and Navarre

The controversial wedding took place on August 18, 1572 at Notre-Dame, Paris. After a nuptial lunch, four days of balls, masques and banquets ensued, only to be interrupted by the outbreak of violence in Paris.

After the attempted assassination of the Huguenot leader Gaspard de Coligny on August 18, 1572, Dowager Queen Catherine and King Charles IX, to forestall the expected Huguenot backlash, ordered the murder of the Huguenot leaders gathered in Paris for the wedding. The result was the St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre, in which thousands of Huguenots were killed in Paris and throughout the reign.

Margaret later described in her Memoirs the chaos and bloodshed in the Louvre Palace, where she and her new husband were lodged. Henri found himself escorted to a room with his cousin Henri of Condé, and told to choose between death and conversion to Roman Catholicism.

Henri chose the latter. After the massacre, the Queen-Mother proposed to her daughter that the marriage be annulled, but Margaret replied that this was impossible because she had already had sexual relations with Henri and was “in every sense” his wife. She wrote in her Memoirs: “I suspected the design of separating me from my husband was in order to work some mischief against him.“