June 8, 1376: Death of Edward of Woodstock, the Black Prince & Prince of Wales

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Battle of Crecy, Battle of Poitiers, Edward III of England, Edward of Woodstock, Hundred Years War, Imperial State Crown., Jean II of France, Joan of Kent, Peter of Castile, Philippa of Hainault, Philippe III of France, Prince of Wales, Richard of Bordeaux, The Black Prince

From the Emperor’s Desk: I will address Prince Edward’s appellation “The Black Prince” in its own post later today.

Edward of Woodstock, known to history as the Black Prince (June 5, 1330 – June 8, 1376), was the eldest son and heir apparent of King Edward III of England.

Early life (1330–1343)

Edward of Woodstock, was the eldest son of King Edward III of England, Lord of Ireland and ruler of Gascony, and Philippa of Hainault, daughter of Count Willem II of Hainault and French princess Joan of Valois second eldest daughter of the French prince Charles, Count of Valois, and Margaret, Countess of Anjou and Maine. As the sister of King Philippe VI of France and the mother-in-law of King Edward III of England, Joan was ideally placed to act as mediator between them.

Edward of Woodstock was born at Woodstock in the County of Oxfordshire, on June 15, 1330. His father, Edward III, had been at loggerheads with the French over English lands in France and also the kingship of France; Edward III’s mother and the Prince’s grandmother, Queen Isabella of France was a daughter of the French king Philippe IV of France, thus placing her son Edward, in line for the throne of France.

England and France’s relations quickly deteriorated when the French king threatened to confiscate his lands in France, beginning the Hundred Years War.

His father, Edward III of England, became king at the young age of fourteen years in 1327, when his father (and the Black Prince’s grandfather) Edward II of England was deposed by his wife Isabella of France, daughter of Philippe IV of France, and by the English nobility due to his ineffectiveness and weakness to assert his control over the government and his failed wars against Scotland.

The marriage between his mother and father was arranged by his grandmother, Isabella of France, to get financial and military aid from the Count of Hainault for her own benefit to depose her husband, Edward II. The marriage of Edward III and Phillippa of Hainault produced thirteen children; Edward was the eldest child and eldest son.

Edward was made Duke of Cornwall, the first English dukedom, in 1337. He was guardian of the kingdom in his father’s absence in 1338, 1340, and 1342. He was created Prince of Wales in 1343 and knighted by his father at La Hougue in 1346.

In 1346, Prince Edward commanded the vanguard at the Battle of Crécy, his father intentionally leaving him to win the battle. He took part in Edward III’s 1349 Calais expedition. In 1355, he was appointed the king’s lieutenant in Gascony, and ordered to lead an army into Aquitaine on a chevauchée, during which he pillaged Avignonet and Castelnaudary, sacked Carcassonne, and plundered Narbonne.

The next year (1356) on another chevauchée, he ravaged Auvergne, Limousin, and Berry but failed to take Bourges. He offered terms of peace to King Jean II of France, who had outflanked him near Poitiers, but refused to surrender himself as the price of their acceptance. This led to the Battle of Poitiers, where his army routed the French and took King Jean II prisoner.

The year after Poitiers, Edward returned to England. In 1360, he negotiated the Treaty of Brétigny. He was created Prince of Aquitaine and Gascony in 1362, but his suzerainty was not recognised by the lord of Albret or other Gascon nobles. He was directed by his father to forbid the marauding raids of the English and Gascon free companies in 1364. He entered into an agreement with Kings Pedro of Castile and Charles II of Navarre, by which Pedro covenanted to mortgage Castro Urdiales and the province of Biscay to him as security for a loan; in 1366 a passage was secured through Navarre.

This the time in which Prince Edward came into possession of what is known as the
Black Prince’s Ruby, which he forced Pedro of Castile to give to him after the Castilian campaign. It is actually a large red spinel, now set at the front of the British Imperial State Crown.

On October 10, 1361 the prince, now in his 31st year, married his cousin Joan, Countess of Kent, daughter of Edmund of Woodstock, Earl of Kent, younger son of Edward I, and Margurite daughter of Philippe III of France, and widow of Thomas Lord Holland, and in right of his wife Earl of Kent, then in her thirty-third year, and the mother of three children.

As the prince and the countess were related in the third degree, and also by the spiritual tie of sponsorship, the prince being godfather to Joan’s elder son Thomas, a dispensation was obtained for their marriage from Pope Innocent VI, though they appear to have been contracted before it was applied for. The marriage was performed at Windsor, in the presence of King Edward III, by Simon Islip Archbishop of Canterbury.

According to Jean Froissart the contract of marriage (the engagement) was entered into without the knowledge of the king. The prince and his wife resided at Berkhamsted Castle in Hertfordshire and held the manor of Princes Risborough from 1343; though local history describes the estate as “his palace”, many sources suggest it was used more as a hunting lodge.

They had two sons, both born in Aquitaine:

Edward of Angoulême, born at Angoulême on July 27, 1364 and Richard of Bordeaux, born January 6, 1367.

In 1367 he received a letter of defiance from Enrique of Trastámara, Pedro’s half-brother and rival. The same year, after an obstinate conflict, he defeated Henry at the Battle of Nájera. However, after a wait of several months, during which he failed to obtain either the province of Biscay or liquidation of the debt from Don Pedro, he returned to Aquitaine. Prince Edward persuaded the estates of Aquitaine to allow him a hearth tax of ten sous for five years in 1368, thereby alienating the lord of Albret and other nobles.

The death of Prince Edward’s eldest son, Edward of Angoulême, in 1371, caused Edward a great deal of grief. His health continued to deteriorate and the prince’s personal doctor advised him to return to England. Edward left Aquitaine with the Duke of Lancaster, and landed at Southampton early in January 1371. Edward met his father at Windsor. At this meeting, Prince Edward interceded to stop a treaty Edward III had made the previous month with Charles of Navarre because he did not agree to the ceding of lands King Charles demanded in it. After this, the Black Prince returned to his manor in Berkhamsted.

Prince Edward returned to England in 1371, and the next year resigned the principality of Aquitaine and Gascony. He led the Commons in their attack upon the Lancastrian administration in 1376.

From the period of the Good Parliament, Edward knew that he was dying. His dysentery had become so violent on occasion, causing him to faint from weakness, that his household believed he had died. He left gifts for his servants in his will and said goodbye to his father, Edward III, whom he asked to confirm his gifts, pay his debts quickly out of his estate, and protect his son Richard.

His death was announced at the Palace of Westminster on 8 June 1376. In his last moments, he was attended by the Bishop of Bangor, who urged him to ask forgiveness of God and of all those he had injured. He “made a very noble end, remembering God his Creator in his heart”, and asked people to pray for him.

Edward was buried with great state in Canterbury Cathedral on 29 September. His funeral and the design of his tomb were conducted in accordance to the directions contained in his will. It has a bronze effigy beneath a tester depicting the Holy Trinity with his heraldic achievements – his surcoat, helmet, shield and gauntlets – hung over the tester; they have been replaced with replicas, and the originals now reside in a glass-fronted cabinet within the Cathedral.

Since the Black Prince died before his father his second surviving son, Richard of Bordeaux, succeeded to the throne upon the death of Edward III instead, becoming King Richard II of England and Lord of Ireland. Edward nevertheless earned distinction as one of the most successful English commanders during the Hundred Years’ War, being regarded by his English contemporaries as a model of chivalry and one of the greatest knights of his age. His reputation in France, on the other hand, was one of brutality.

June 8, 1042: Edward the Confessor becomes King of the English

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Æthelred II the Unready, Canute II of Denmark, Canute III of Denmark, Canute the Great, Edmund Ironside, Edward the Confessor, Emma of Normandy, Hardicanute, King of Edward, King of Norway, King of the English, Magnus the Good, Pope Alexander III

Edward the Confessor (c. 1003 – 5 January 1066) was an Anglo-Saxon English king and saint. Usually considered the last king of the House of Wessex, he ruled from 1042 until his death in 1066.

Edward was the seventh son of Æthelred the Unready, and the first by his second wife, Emma of Normandy daughter of Richard I the Fearless Duke of Normandy and Gunnor. The names of Gunnor’s parents are unknown, but Robert of Torigni wrote that her father was a forester from the Pays de Caux and according to Dudo of Saint-Quentin she was of noble Danish ancestry. Gunnor was probably born c. 950. Her family held sway in western Normandy and Gunnor herself was said to be very wealthy.

Edward was born between 1003 and 1005 in Islip, Oxfordshire, and is first recorded as a ‘witness’ to two charters in 1005. He had one full brother, Alfred, and a sister, Godgifu. In charters he was always listed behind his older half-brothers, showing that he ranked beneath them.

During his childhood, England was the target of Viking raids and invasions under Sweyn I Forkbeard and his son, Canute II, both Kings of Denmark. Following Sweyn’s seizure of the English throne in 1013, Emma fled to Normandy, followed by Edward and Alfred, and then by Æthelred. Sweyn died in February 1014, and leading Englishmen invited Æthelred back on condition that he promised to rule ‘more justly’ than before.

Æthelred agreed, sending Edward back with his ambassadors. Æthelred died in April 1016, and he was succeeded by Edward’s older half-brother Edmund Ironside, who carried on the fight against Sweyn’s son, Canute.

In October 1016 Canute and Edmund agreed to divide England between them, but Edmund died a month later, leaving Canute as undisputed King of the English.

With the death of Edmund Iron Side thus left Eadwig Ætheling the heir to the English throne. Eadwig Ætheling (sometimes also known as Eadwy or Edwy) (died 1017) was the fifth of the six sons of King Æthelred the Unready and his first wife, Ælfgifu of York. It is most probable that Ælfgifu was a daughter of Thored, Earl of southern Northumbria. But her parentage remains unknown.

Eadwig Ætheking was banished in 1016 and then outlawed in 1017 by Canute however he was reconciled with Canute the same year and allowed to live in England, but was executed at the instigation of Canute, possibly after attempting to rally resistance in the south west. The Anglo-Saxon claim to the throne then passed to the elder son of Æthelred’s second marriage, the future Edward the Confessor. Eadwig was buried at Tavistock Abbey a place built by his uncle Ordwulf.

King Canute II the Great died on November 12, 1035 in Shaftesbury, Dorset. In Denmark he was succeeded by Hardicanute, sometimes referred to as Canute III. Magnus I took control of Norway. In England Canute II was succeeded by Harold Harefoot.

Harold Harefoot was the son of Canute II the Great and Ælfgifu of Northampton, a daughter of Ælfhelm, ealdorman of southern Northumbria, and his wife Wulfrun. Ælfhelm was killed in 1006, probably at the command of King Æthelred the Unready, and Ælfgifu’s brothers, Ufegeat and Wulfheah, were blinded.

Harold was elected regent of England following the death of his father in 1035. He initially ruled England in place of his brother Hardicanute, who was stuck in Denmark due to a rebellion in Norway which had ousted their brother Sweyn. Although Harold had wished to be crowned king since 1035, Æthelnoth, Archbishop of Canterbury, refused to do so.

It was not until 1037 that Harold, supported by earl Leofric and many others, was officially proclaimed king of the English. The same year, Harold’s two step-brothers Edward the Confessor and Alfred returned to England with a considerable military force. Alfred was captured by Earl Godwin, who had him seized and delivered to an escort of men loyal to Harefoot. While en route to Ely, he was blinded and soon after died of his wounds.

Harold I Harefoot died at Oxford on March 17, 1040, just as his half-brother Hardicanute was preparing an invasion force of Danes, and was buried at Westminster Abbey. Hardicanute had been horrified by Harold’s murder of Alfred, and his mother, Emma of Normandy, demanded vengeance.

Harold’s body was subsequently exhumed, beheaded, and thrown into a fen bordering the Thames when Hardicanute assumed the throne in June 1040. The body was subsequently recovered by fishermen, and resident Danes reportedly had it reburied at their local cemetery in London. The body was eventually buried in a church in the City of Westminster, which was fittingly named St. Clement Danes.

Hardicanute succeeded as King of the English in 1040 died suddenly on June 8, 1042 after a reign of two years. Hardicanute was succeeded in Denmark by Magnus I the Good, King of Norway, an illegitimate son of King Olaf II Haraldsson (later St. Olaf), by his English concubine Alfhild. Hardicanute was the last Dane to rule England.

Edward the Confessor succeeded to the English throne on the death of his half-brother – Hardicanute. Edward the Confessor restored the rule of the House of Wessex after the period of Danish rule.

On January23, 1045 Edward married Edith the daughter of Earl Godwin, the most powerful earl in England. Her mother Gytha was sister of Ulf, a Danish earl who was Cnut the Great’s brother-in-law. She was probably born in or before 1027. Edith was originally named Gytha, but renamed Ealdgyth (or Edith) when she married King Edward the Confessor. Soon afterwards, her brother Harold and her Danish cousin Beorn Estrithson were also given earldoms in southern England.

When Edward died in 1066, he was succeeded by his wife’s brother Harold Godwinson, who was defeated and killed in the same year by the Normans under William the Conqueror at the Battle of Hastings. Edward’s young great-nephew Edgar the Ætheling of the House of Wessex was proclaimed king after the Battle of Hastings in 1066 but was never crowned and was peacefully deposed after about eight weeks.

Historians disagree about Edward’s fairly long 24-year reign. His nickname reflects the traditional image of him as unworldly and pious. Confessor reflects his reputation as a saint who did not suffer martyrdom as opposed to his uncle, King Edward the Martyr.

Some portray Edward the Confessor’s reign as leading to the disintegration of royal power in England and the advance in power of the House of Godwin, because of the infighting that began after his death with no heirs to the throne.

Biographers Frank Barlow and Peter Rex, on the other hand, portray Edward as a successful king, one who was energetic, resourceful and sometimes ruthless; they argue that the Norman conquest shortly after his death tarnished his image. However, Richard Mortimer argues that the return of the Godwins from exile in 1052 “meant the effective end of his exercise of power”, citing Edward’s reduced activity as implying “a withdrawal from affairs”.

About a century later, in 1161, Pope Alexander III canonised the king. Edward was one of England’s national saints until King Edward III adopted Saint George (George of Lydda) as the national patron saint in about 1350. Saint Edward’s feast day is 13 October, celebrated by both the Church of England and the Catholic Church.

June 7, 879 ~ Pope John VIII recognizes the Duchy of Croatia as an independent state.

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Byzantine Empire, Carolingian Empire, Dalmatia, Doge Tradonico of Venice, Duke Branimir, Emperor Lothair I, House of Domagojević, Mislav of Croatia, Pope John VIII

The Duchy of Croatia was located between two major powers of the Middle Ages: the Eastern Roman Empire in the East which controlled the Dalmatian cities and islands and aimed to extend their rule over the entire former Roman province of Dalmatia, and the Carolingian Empirein the West seeking to control the northern and northwestern lands. The Byzantine influence on Croatia was also reflected on the creation of Croatian law and in trade with the Byzantine coastal cities.

In the second quarter of the 9th century the Croats began developing a navy. Along with the Narentines, who were still pagan at the time and occupied the territory of the river Neretva mouth, they were active in the Adriatic Sea and made shipping and traveling in the area hazardous, especially for Venice. Therefore, in 839 the Venetians under Doge Pietro Tradonico attacked the eastern coast of the Adriatic, including Croatia, but during the assault they signed peace with their ruler, princeps Mislav who ruled from Klis near Split.

The peace treaty was signed at a place named St. Martin. The Doge also attacked Narentine islands, but failed to defeat them and made peace with their leader, who is mentioned as count Drosaico by the chronicler John the Deacon. However, the peace treaty was short-lasting and next year the Venetians were defeated by the Narentines under count Diuditum. Piracy continued in the Adriatic, as well as hostility towards Venice, which is seen from the contract between Emperor Lothair I and Doge Tradonico, in which the Doge committed himself to defend the cities in Italy and Istria from Slavic attacks.

Duke Mislav was succeeded around 845 by Trpimir I, who continued the formal legacy of being the vassal of the Frankish king Lothair I (840–855), although he managed to strengthen his personal rule in Croatia. Arab campaigns thoroughly weakened the Byzantine Empire and Venice, which was used in the advance of the Croatian duke in 846 and 848.

In 846 Trpimir successfully attacked the Byzantine coastal cities and their patricius. Between 854 and 860, he successfully defended his land from the Bulgarian invasion under Knyaz Boris I of Bulgaria, somewhere in Northeastern Bosnia, concluding a peace treaty with Boris and exchanging gifts. Constantine Porphyrogenitus mentions the traditional friendship between the Bulgarians and Croatians, who coexisted peacefully up to that time.

In a Latin charter preserved in a rewrite from 1568, dated to March 4, 852 or, according to a newer research, about 840, Trpimir refers to himself as “leader of the Croats with the help of God” (Latin: dux Croatorum iuvatus munere divino); his land, called “Kingdom of the Croats” (Latin: regnum Croatorum), can simply be interpreted as the “Realm of the Croats”, since Trpimir was not a king. The term regnum was also used by other dukes of that time as a sign of their independence. This charter also documents his ownership of the Klis Fortress, from where his rule was centered, and mentions Mislav’s donations to the Archbishopric of Split.

In the proximity of his court in Klis, in Rižinice, Trpimir built a church and the first Benedictine monastery in Croatia. Trpimir’s name is inscribed on a stone fragment from an altar screen of the Rižinice monastery church. He is more expressly remembered as the founder of the House of Trpimirović, a native Croat dynasty that ruled, with interruptions, from 845 until 1091 in Croatia.

In 864 Duke Domagoj, founder of the House of Domagojević, usurped the throne after the death of Trpimir and forced his sons, including Zdeslav, to flee to Constantinople. During the rule of Domagoj piracy was a common practice in the Adriatic. The pirates attacked Christian sailors, including a ship with papal legates returning from the Eighth Catholic Ecumenical Council, thus forcing the Pope to intervene by asking Domagoj to stop piracy, but his efforts were of no avail. Domagoj waged wars with the Arabs, Venetians and Franks.

In 871 he helped the Franks, as their vassal, to seize Bari from the Arabs, but later actions of the Franks under the rule of Carloman of Bavaria led to a revolt by Domagoj against the Frankish rule. The revolt succeeded and Frankish overlordship in Dalmatia ended, but was to continue a little longer over Lower Pannonia. Domagoj’s rule also saw increased Byzantine influence in the area, especially reflected in the establishment of Theme of Dalmatia. After the death of Domagoj in 876 Zdeslav, who had close ties to Byzantium, returned from exile, usurped the throne from an unnamed son of Domagoj and restored peace with Venice in 878.

Duke Zdeslav’s reign was short and ended in 879 when Branimir of the House of Domagojević killed him and usurped the throne. Branimir was unlike Zdeslav a proponent of Rome and returned the country to the Roman fold. He had regular contacts with Pope John VIII, to whom he sent a letter revealing his intentions to entrust his people and his country to the Apostolic See. The Pope replied to his requests, praising his initiative and on June 7, 879 the Duchy under Branimir, now free of Frankish suzerainty, received papal recognition as a state.

The second half of the 9th century marked a significant increase in papal influence in the Southeastern Europe. Pope John VIII complained to Domagoj about the obstinacy of Patriarch Ignatius who denied his jurisdiction over Bulgaria and appointed a new Archbishop. The Pope also requested from Dukes Zdeslav and Branimir assistance and protection for his legates who were crossing Croatia on their way to Bulgaria. Although the exact geographical extent of the Duchy is not known, these requests confirm geographical contiguity between Croatia and Bulgaria, which bordered probably somewhere in Bosnia.

June 6, 1714: Birth of José I, King of Portugal

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Barbara of Spain, Duke of Braganza, Earthquake, King Joseph of Portugal, King Philip V of Spain, Lisbon, Mariana Victoria of Spain, Marquis of Pombal, Prince of Brazil, Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo

José I (June 6, 1714 – February 24, 1777), known as the Reformer was King of Portugal from July 31, 1750 until his death in 1777. Among other activities, Joseph was devoted to hunting and the opera. Indeed, he assembled one of the greatest collections of operatic scores in Europe. His government was controlled by Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo, 1st Marquis of Pombal.

The third child and second son of King João V of Portugal and Archduchess Maria Anna of Austria the daughter of Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor and Eleonore Magdalene of Neuburg.

He had an older brother Dom Pedro, Prince of Brazil, an older sister Infanta Barbara and three younger brothers. When his brother Pedro died in 1714 at the age of two, José became heir apparent with the titles of Prince of Brazil and Duke of Braganza.

Marriage

On January 19, 1729, José married Infanta Mariana Victoria of Spain, daughter of King Felipe V of Spain and Elisabeth Farnese, and his elder sister Infanta Barbara married King Felipe V’s son and heir, Infante Fernando, Prince of Asturias (later King Fernando VI of Spain). The ceremony became known as the Exchange of the Princesses. Infanta Mariana Victoria loved music and hunting, just like her husband, but she was also a serious woman who disapproved of José’s love affairs and did not hesitate to expose them to acquaintances. They had four daughters, all born before José ascended the throne.

Reign

José succeeded to the Portuguese throne in 1750, when he was 36 years old, and almost immediately placed effective power in the hands of Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo (in 1770, the king made him Marquis of Pombal). Indeed, the history of Joseph’s reign is really that of the Marquis of Pombal himself. The king’s eldest daughter, Infanta Maria Francisca, became heir presumptive with the title of Princess of Brazil.

His reign witnessed, among other things, a deadly earthquake in Lisbon in 1755 and a Spanish-French invasion of Portugal in 1762. The Lisbon earthquake allowed the Marquis of Pombal to consolidate power and also caused King José to develop claustrophobia, refusing to live in a walled building ever again. Afterwards, José moved his court into a series of tents. A new palace was built for him in Lisbon in the aftermath of the earthquake, but this was left uncompleted. José died in 1777 and was succeeded by his eldest daughter, Queen Maria I.

June 5, 1771: Birth of Ernst August, King of Hanover

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Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, Ernest Augustus of Hanover, Ernst August of Hanover, House of Hanover, King George III of Great Britain, King William IV of the United Kingdom, Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Kingdom of Hanover

Ernest Augustus (June 5, 1771 – November 18, 1851) was King of Hanover from June 20, 1837 until his death in 1851. As the fifth son of King George III of the United Kingdom and Hanover and his wife Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, the youngest daughter of Duke Charles Ludwig Friedrich of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Prince of Mirow (1708–1752), and his wife Princess Elisabeth Albertine of Saxe-Hildburghausen (1713–1761). Mecklenburg-Strelitz was a small north-German duchy in the Holy Roman Empire.

Prince Ernest Augustus (German: Ernst August) initially seemed unlikely to become a monarch, but none of his elder brothers had a legitimate son.

Ernst August was born in London but was sent to Hanover in his adolescence for his education and military training. While serving with Hanoverian forces near Tournai against Revolutionary France, he received a disfiguring facial wound. He was created Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale in 1799 by his father King George III. Although his mother Queen Charlotte disapproved of his marriage in 1815 to her twice-widowed niece, (and Ernst August’s maternal first cousin) Frederica of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, it proved happy.

Frederica of Mecklenburg-Strelitz the fifth daughter of Charles II, Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, and Princess Friederike of Hesse-Darmstadt, the eldest daughter of Prince Georg Wilhelm of Hesse-Darmstadt, second son of Ludwig VIII, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt, and Countess Maria Louise of Leiningen-Falkenburg-Dagsburg.

The eldest son of George III, the Prince of Wales (later King George IV), had one child, Charlotte, who was expected to become the British Queen, but she died in childbirth in 1817, giving Ernst some prospect of succeeding to the British and Hanoverian thrones. However, his older brother Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, fathered the eventual British heir, Victoria, in 1819 shortly before the birth of Ernst’s only child, Georg.

Ernest was an active member of the House of Lords, where he maintained an extremely conservative record. There were persistent allegations (reportedly spread by his political foes) that he had murdered his valet, had fathered a son by his sister Sophia, and intended to take the British throne by murdering Victoria.

When his older brother King William IV of the United Kingdom and King of Hanover, who ruled both kingdoms, died in 1837, his niece Victoria inherited the British throne under British succession law, while Ernst August succeeded in Hanover under Salic law, which barred women from the succession, thus ending the personal union between Britain and Hanover that had begun in 1714.

King Ernst August became Hanover’s first resident ruler since George I. He had a generally successful fourteen-year reign but excited controversy near its start when he voided the liberal constitution granted before his reign and dismissed the Göttingen Seven, including the Brothers Grimm, from their professorial positions for protesting against this decision. In 1848, the King put down an attempted revolution. Hanover joined the German customs union in 1850 despite Ernst August’s reluctance. Ernest died the next year and was succeeded by his son as Kung Georg V of Hanover.

June 5, 1849: King Frederik VII of Denmark Signs the New Constitution

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Church of Denmark, Constitution, Constitution Day, Frederik VI of Denmark, Frederik VII of Denmark, Kingdom of Denmark, Landsting, Prime Minister of Denmark, Schleswig-Holstein Question

During the late Middle Ages and the renaissance, the power of the King of Denmark and Norway was tempered by a håndfæstning, a coronation charter each king had to sign before being accepted as king by the nobility. This tradition was abandoned in 1665 when King Frederik III of Denmark managed to establish a hereditary absolute monarchy by Lex Regia (The Law of The King). This was Europe’s only formal absolutist constitution. Under Lex Regia, absolute power was inherited for almost 200 years.

In the beginning of the 19th century, there was a growing democratic movement in Denmark and King Frederik VI only made some small concessions, such as creation of Consultative Estate Assemblies in 1834. But these only served to help the political movements, of which the National Liberals and the Friends of Peasants were the forerunners. When Christian VIII became king in 1839, he continued the political line of only making small democratic concessions, while upholding the absolute monarchy.

At this time Denmark was in a personal union between kingdom of Denmark and the duchies of Schleswig, Holstein, and Lauenburg called The Unitary State but the Schleswig-Holstein question was causing tension. On the other side, German nationalists in Schleswig were keen to keep Schleswig and Holstein together, and wanted Schleswig to join the German Confederation. Christian VIII had reached the conclusion that, should the Unitary State survive, a constitution covering both Denmark, Schleswig and Holstein was necessary. Before his death in January 1848, he advised his heir Frederick VII to create such a constitution.

In March 1848 following a series of European revolutions, the Schleswig-Holstein question became increasingly tense. Following an ultimatum from Schleswig and Holstein, political pressure from the National Liberals intensified, and Frederik VII replaced the sitting government with the March Cabinet, where four leaders of the Friends of Peasants and the National Liberals served, among those D.G. Monrad and Orla Lehmann, both National Liberals. The ultimatum from Schleswig and Holstein was rejected, and the First Schleswig War started.

Monrad drafted the first draft of the Constitution, which was then edited by Lehmann. Sources of inspiration included the Constitution of Norway of 1814 and the Constitution of Belgium. The draft was laid before the Constitutional Assembly of the Realm. This assembly, which consisted of 114 members directly elected in October 1848, and 38 members appointed by Frederik VII, was overall split in three different groupings: the National Liberals, the Friends of Peasants, and the Conservatives. A key topic for discussion was the political system, and the rules governing elections.

On May 25, 1849, the Constitutional Assembly approved the new constitution, and on June 5, 1849 it was signed by Frederik VII. For this reason, it is also known as the June constitution. Today, 5 June is known as Constitution Day.

This first democratic constitution replaced the 1665 absolutist constitution. The current constitution is from 1953. The Constitutional Act has been changed a few times. The wording is general enough to still apply today.

The constitution defines Denmark as a constitutional monarchy, governed through a parliamentary system. It creates separations of power between the Folketing, which enact laws, the government, which implements them, and the courts, which makes judgment about them. In addition it gives a number of fundamental rights to people in Denmark, including freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of association, and freedom of assembly. The constitution applies to all persons in Denmark, not just Danish citizens.

The main principle of the Constitutional Act was to limit the King’s power (section 2). It creates a comparatively weak constitutional monarch who is dependent on Ministers for advice and Parliament to draft and pass legislation. The Constitution of 1849 established a bicameral parliament, the Rigsdag, consisting of the Landsting and the Folketing. The most significant change in the Constitution of 1953 was the abolishment of the Landsting, leaving the unicameral Folketing. It also enshrined fundamental civil rights, which remain in the current constitution: such as habeas corpus (section 71), private property rights (section 72) and freedom of speech (section 77).

The monarchy

The Danish monarch, as the head of state, holds great de jure power, but de facto only serves as a figurehead who is not interfering in politics. The monarch formally holds executive power and, co-jointly with the Folketing, legislative power, since each new law requires royal assent. By article 12, 13 and 14, the powers vested in the monarch can only be exercised through the ministers, who are responsible for all acts, thus removing any political or legal liability from the monarch.

The monarch appoints the ministers after advice from the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister is itself appointed after advice from the leaders of the political parties of the Folketing, a process known as a Queen’s meeting. The monarch and the Cabinet attend regular meetings in the Council of State, where royal assent is given, and the monarch is regularly briefed on the political situation by the Prime Minister and Foreign minister.

The Constitution requires the monarch to be a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, though not necessary the Church of Denmark.

June 5, 1523: Birth of Marguerite de Valois, Duchess of Berry and Duchess of Savoy

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Catherine de Médici, Duke Charles Emmanuel of Savoy, Duke Emmanuel Philibert of Savoy, Emperor Charles V, Francis I of France, Henry II of France, Infanta Catherine Michelle of Spain, Marguerite de Valois, Philip II of Spain

Marguerite de Valois, Duchess of Berry, Duchess of Savoy (June 5, 1523 – September 15, 1574)

Early life

Marguerite de Valois was born at the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye on June 5, 1523 the youngest daughter and child of King Francis I of France and Claude, Duchess of Brittany, the eldest daughter of King Louis XII of France and Duchess Anne of Brittany.

Marguerite was very close to her paternal aunt, Marguerite de Angoulême, the eldest child of Louise of Savoy and Charles, Count of Angoulême. Her father was a descendant of King Charles V of France, and was thus in the succession line to the French crown by male primogeniture, if both Charles VIII and the presumptive heir, Louis, Duke of Orléans, would die without producing male offspring.

Marguerite de Angoulême took care of Marguerite de Valois and her sister Madeleine during their childhood, along wih her sister-in-law Catherine de’ Medici.

Near the end of 1538, her father, King François I and Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, agreed that Marguerite should marry Charles’ son, the future King Felipe II of Spain. However, the agreement between François and Charles was short-lived and the marriage never took place.

King François I died at the Château de Rambouillet on March 13, 1547, on his son (Henri, the Dauphin) and successor’s 28th birthday. It is said that “he died complaining about the weight of a crown that he had first perceived as a gift from God”. He was interred with his first wife, Claude, Duchess of Brittany, in Saint Denis Basilica. He was succeeded by his son as King Henri II of France.

In 1557 Marguerite de Valois was appointed as lady in waiting Jacqueline d’Entremont, to whom she would remain close with later in life.

On April 29, 1550, at the age of 26, she was created suo jure Duchess of Berry by her brother.

Duchess of Savoy

Shortly before her 36th birthday, a marriage was finally arranged for her by her brother King Henri II of France and her former suitor Felipe II of Spain as part of the terms stipulated in the Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis which was signed by the ambassadors representing the two monarchs on April 3, 1559.

The husband selected for her was Felipe’s ally and his first cousin once removed, Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy, Prince of Piedmont, (1528 – 1580) only child of Charles III, Duke of Savoy, and Beatrice of Portugal to reach adulthood. His mother was sister-in-law to Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, and the future duke served in Charles’s army during the war against François I of France, the father of his future bride.

At the time, Marguerite was described as having been a “spinster lady of excellent breeding and lively intellect”. She was five years older than her husband.

The wedding took place in tragic circumstances. On June 30 just three days after her marriage contract had been signed, King Henri II was gravely injured during a tournament celebrating the wedding of his eldest daughter Elisabeth to the recently widowed King Felipe II. King Felipe II’s wife, Queen Mary I of England and Ireland died the previous November.

A lance wielded by his opponent the Count of Montgomery accidentally struck King Henri II’s helmet at a point beneath the visor and shattered. The wooden splinters deeply penetrated his right eye and entered his brain. Close to death, but still conscious, the king ordered that his sister’s marriage should take place immediately, for fear that the Duke of Savoy might profit from his death and renege on the alliance.

The ceremony did not take place in Notre Dame Cathedral as had been planned. Instead it was a solemn, subdued event conducted at midnight on July 9, in Saint Paul’s, a small church not far from the Tournelles Palace where Margurite’s dying brother was ensconced. Among the few guests was the French Queen Consort Catherine de’ Medici who sat by herself, weeping.

King Henri II died the following day and was succeeded by his sickly fifteen-year-old son as King François II of France. King François II was married to sixteen-year-old Mary I, Queen of Scots, who had been his childhood friend and fiancée since her arrival at the French court when she was five.

Children

Marguerite and her husband had only one surviving child: Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy who was born in January 1562, when Margaret was 38 years of age. Charles Emmanuel later married his closely related cousin, Infanta Infanta Catherine Michelle of Spain, the daughter of King Felipe II by his marriage to Marguerite’s niece, Elisabeth of Valois, the eldest daughter of King Henri II of France and Catherine de’ Medici.

Death

Marguerite died on September 14, 1574 at the age of 51. She was buried in Turin at the Cathedral of Saint Giovanni Battista.

June 4, 1941: Death of Wilhelm II, German Emperor and King of Prussia

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Frederick III of Prussia, Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia, German Chancellor, German Emperor Wilhelm II, German Empire, King of Prussia, Otto von Bismarck, Victoria of the United Kingdom, Wilhelm I of Prussia, World War I

Wilhelm II (January 27, 1859 – June 4, 1941) was the last German Emperor and King of Prussia from June 15, 1888 until his abdication on November 9, 1918.

Despite strengthening the German Empire’s position as a great power by building a powerful navy, his tactless public statements and erratic foreign policy greatly antagonized the international community and are considered by many to be one of the underlying causes of World War I. When the German war effort collapsed after a series of crushing defeats on the Western Front in 1918, he was forced to abdicate,

Wilhelm was born in Berlin on January 27, 1859—at the Crown Prince’s Palace. Born during the reign of his granduncle King Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia, Wilhelm was the son of Prince Friedrich Wilhelm and Victoria, Princess Royal of the United Kingdom, daughter of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.

King Friedrich Wilhelm IV had been left permanently incapacitated by a series of strokes, and his younger brother Wilhelm was acting as regent. Wilhelm was the oldest of the 42 grandchildren of his maternal grandparents (Queen Victoria and Prince Albert), but more importantly, he was the first son of the Crown Prince of Prussia.

Upon the death of Friedrich Wilhelm IV in January 1861, Wilhelm’s paternal grandfather (the elder Wilhelm) became King Wilhelm I of Prussia, and the two-year-old Wilhelm became second in the line of succession to Prussia.

After 1871, Wilhelm also became second in the line to the newly created German Empire, which, according to the constitution of the German Empire, was ruled by the Prussian king. At the time of his birth, he was also sixth in the line of succession to the British throne, after his maternal uncles and his mother.

As a young man, Wilhelm fell in love with one of his maternal first cousins, Princess Elisabeth of Hesse and by Rhine, the second child of Ludwig IV, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine, and Princess Alice of the United Kingdom, daughter of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom.

She turned him down, and in time, married into the Russian imperial family when she married Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich of Russia, the fifth son of Emperor Alexander II of Russia and Princess Marie of Hesse and by Rhine, brother of Emperor Alexander III of Russia and uncle of Emperor Nicholas II of Russia.

In 1880 Wilhelm became engaged to Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein, known as “Dona”.

Augusta Victoria was born at Dolzig Castle, the eldest daughter of Friedrich VIII, future Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg, and Princess Adelheid of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, a niece of Queen Victoria, through Victoria’s half-sister Feodora. She grew up at Dolzig until the death of her grandfather, Christian August II, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg, in 1869.

The couple married on February 27, 1881, and remained married for 40 years, until her death in 1921. In a period of 10 years, between 1882 and 1892, Augusta Victoria bore Wilhelm seven children, six sons and a daughter

In March 1888, his father Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm ascended the German and Prussian thrones as Friedrich III. Friedrich III came to the throne while dying from throat cancer and he passed away just 99 days later, and his son succeeded him as German Emperor Wilhelm II, King of Prussia.

In March 1890, Wilhelm dismissed Chancellor Otto von Bismarck and assumed direct control over his nation’s policies, embarking on a bellicose “New Course” to cement Germany’s status as a leading world power.

Over the course of his reign, the German colonial empire acquired new territories in China and the Pacific (such as Jiaozhou Bay, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the Caroline Islands) and became Europe’s largest manufacturer. However, Wilhelm often undermined such progress by making tactless and threatening statements towards other countries without first consulting his ministers.

Likewise, his regime did much to alienate itself from other great powers by initiating a massive naval build-up, contesting French control of Morocco, and building a railway through Baghdad that challenged Britain’s dominion in the Persian Gulf. By the second decade of the 20th century, Germany could rely only on significantly weaker nations such as Austria-Hungary and the declining Ottoman Empire as allies.

Wilhelm’s reign culminated in Germany’s guarantee of military support to Austria-Hungary during the crisis of July 1914, one of the immediate causes of World War I. A lax wartime leader, Wilhelm left virtually all decision-making regarding strategy and organisation of the war effort to the German Army’s Great General Staff.

By August 1916, this broad delegation of power gave rise to a de facto military dictatorship that dominated national policy for the rest of the conflict. Despite emerging victorious over Russia and obtaining significant territorial gains in Eastern Europe, Germany was forced to relinquish all its conquests after a decisive defeat on the Western Front in the autumn of 1918.

Losing the support of his country’s military and many of his subjects, Wilhelm was forced to abdicate during the German Revolution of 1918–1919, thereby marking the end of the German Empire and the House of Hohenzollern’s 300-year reign in Prussia and 500-year reign in Brandenburg.

The revolution converted Germany from a monarchy into an unstable democratic state known as the Weimar Republic. Wilhelm fled to exile in the Netherlands, where he remained during its occupation by Nazi Germany in 1940. He died there on June 4, 1941.

June 4, 1738: Birth of George III, King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, King of Hanover

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Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz., Elector of Hanover, George III, King George II of Great Britain and Ireland, King George IV of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, King of Great Britain and Ireland, King of Hanover, The Prince Regent, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland

George III (June 4, 1738 – January 29, 1820) was King of Great Britain and of Ireland from October 25, 1760 until his death in 1820. The two kingdoms were in a personal union under him until the Acts of Union 1800 merged them on January 1, 1801. He then became King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. He was concurrently Duke and Prince-Elector of Brunswick-Lüneburg (“Hanover”) in the Holy Roman Empire before becoming King of Hanover on October 12, 1814. He was a monarch of the House of Hanover who, unlike his two predecessors, was born in Great Britain, spoke English as his first language, and never visited Hanover.

George was born on June 4, 1738 at Norfolk House in St James’s Square, London. He was a grandson of King George II of Great Britain and the eldest son of Frederick Louis, Prince of Wales, and Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, a daughter of was born in Gotha to Friedrich II, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg (1676–1732) and Magdalena Augusta of Anhalt-Zerbst (1679–1740). Her paternal grandfather was Friedrich I, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, eldest surviving son of Ernst I, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg.

George was born two months prematurely and thought unlikely to survive, he was baptised the same day by Thomas Secker, who was both Rector of St James’s Church, Piccadilly, and Bishop of Oxford. One month later he was publicly baptised at Norfolk House, again by Secker. His godparents were King Frederick I of Sweden (for whom Lord Baltimore stood proxy), his uncle Friedrich III, Duke of Saxe-Gotha (for whom Lord Carnarvon stood proxy), and his great-aunt Sophia Dorothea, Queen in Prussia (for whom Lady Charlotte Edwin stood proxy).

In 1759, George was smitten with Lady Sarah Lennox, sister of Charles Lennox, 3rd Duke of Richmond, but Lord Bute advised against the match and George abandoned his thoughts of marriage. “I am born for the happiness or misery of a great nation,” he wrote, “and consequently must often act contrary to my passions.” Nevertheless, George and his mother resisted attempts by the King to marry George to Princess Sophie Caroline of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel. Sophie married Frederick, Margrave of Bayreuth, instead.

The following year, at the age of 22, George succeeded to the throne when his grandfather George II died suddenly on October 25, 1760, two weeks before his 77th birthday. The search for a suitable wife intensified: after giving consideration to a number of Protestant German princesses, George’s mother sent Colonel David Graeme with, on her son’s behalf, an offer of marriage to Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz.

Charlotte accepted. While a royal household and staff were assembled for Charlotte in London, Lord Harcourt, the royal Master of the Horse, escorted her from Strelitz to London. Charlotte arrived in the afternoon of September 8, 1761 and the marriage ceremony was conducted that same evening in the Chapel Royal, St James’s Palace. The coronation of George III and Charlotte was held at Westminster Abbey a fortnight later on September 22th. George never took a mistress (in contrast with his grandfather and his sons), and the couple enjoyed a happy marriage until his mental illness struck.

George’s life and reign were marked by a series of military conflicts involving his kingdoms, much of the rest of Europe, and places farther afield in Africa, the Americas and Asia. Early in his reign, Great Britain defeated France in the Seven Years’ War, becoming the dominant European power in North America and India. However, many of Britain’s American colonies were soon lost in the American War of Independence. Further wars against revolutionary and Napoleonic France from 1793 concluded in the defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. In 1807, the transatlantic slave trade was banned from the British Empire.

In the later part of his life, George had recurrent—and eventually permanent—mental illness. Although it has since been suggested that he had bipolar disorder or the blood disease porphyria, the cause of his illness remains unknown. George suffered a final relapse in 1810, and his eldest son, the Prince of Wales, became Prince Regent the following year. When the King died in 1820, the Prince Regent succeeded him as King George IV.

At the time of his death, George III was the longest-lived and longest-reigning British monarch; he remains the longest-lived and longest-reigning male monarch and the third longest reigning monarch overall. Historical analysis of his life has gone through a “kaleidoscope of changing views” that have depended heavily on the prejudices of his biographers and the sources available to them.

June 1, 1424: Birth of King Ferdinand I of Naples

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Alfonso I of Naples, Alfonso II of Naples, Duke of Calabria, Ferdinand I of Naples, Isabella of Taranto, Pope Eugene IV, Pope Nicholas V, René of Anjou-Valois, Treaty of Lodi

From the Emperor’s Desk: Not to be confused with Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies.

King Ferdinand I of Naples (June 2, 1424 – January 25, 1494), was the only son, illegitimate, of King Alfonso I of Naples. He was king of Naples from 1458 to 1494.

His mother, Gueraldona Carlino, was probably a woman of Neapolitan origin who in December 1423 had accompanied Alfonso on his return to Spain, where she later married a certain Gaspar Reverdit of Barcelona.

In order to ensure a good future for his illegitimate son, his father Alfonso had called him to Naples. At the behest of the king, on July 26, 1438 the governor de Corella, the bishop Borgia and the young Ferdinand, with their entourage of young Catalan gentlemen, set sail from Barcelona for Italy. Alfonso’s purpose was to prepare his only son, albeit illegitimate, for the role of heir to the kingdom he was conquering. The whole company landed in Gaeta on August 19, where Ferdinand was reunited with his father, whom he hardly knew.

A strong emotional bond soon developed between father and son, as Alfonso appreciated the young man’s acute intelligence and courage, while Ferrante showed complete reverence for his parent. Alfonso on September 9, 1438 created Ferdinand a knight on the Maddaloni field where René of Anjou-Valois, challenged to battle, did not appear.

In Naples he had as teachers Valla, Panormita, Borgia and Gabriele Altilio, who taught him for many years. He also had as tutor Paris de Puteo who taught him law. When the Sacro regio consiglio, judicial authority of the kingdom, was established by Alfonso, he was assigned the position of president.

Following the death of his uncle Peter, in April 1439 Ferdinand was appointed lieutenant general of the kingdom. On February 17, 1440, King Alfonso, by his own authority, legitimized and declared his son his heir to the throne of Naples and then, in January 1441, he secured the approval of the parliament of the barons of the kingdom that he had summoned in Benevento and which was then transferred to Naples.

Still in parliament, Alfonso, worried about the succession, promoted a petition, in which the barons, knowing they were doing the king a great pleasure, proposed to establish Ferdinand as his future successor, with the title of Duke of Calabria, usually given to the first-born of the king of Naples.

The recognition of the rights of succession Ferdinand was sealed by the Papal bull Regnans in altissimis issued by Pope Eugene IV in July 1443, and later confirmed in 1451 by Pope Nicholas V.

In 1444 Ferdinand married the heiress Isabella of Taranto, daughter of Tristan of Clermont and Catherine of Taranto, designated heir of Prince Giovanni Antonio Orsini Del Balzo of Taranto, his maternal uncle, who had no children. Isabella was also the niece of Queen Mary of Enghien who, having married Ladislaus I of Anjou, had therefore been queen of Naples, Sicily and the Kingdom of Jerusalem from 1406 to 1414.

Ferdinand was solemnly crowned on February 4, 1459, in the Cathedral of Barletta and to thank the Pope Pius II, in 1461, he wanted Maria, his natural daughter, to marry Antonio Piccolomini nephew of Pius, giving her as a dowry the Duchy of Amalfi, the county of Celano and the office of Great executioner for her husband. The problems, however, were not over yet, in fact Ferdinand’s rival, Jean of Anjou, aspired to regain the throne of Naples, lost by his father in the war against Alfonso.

As King, Ferdinand was one of the most influential and feared monarchs in Europe at the time and an important figure of the Italian Renaissance. In his thirty years of reign he brought peace and prosperity to Naples.

Its foreign and diplomatic policy aimed at assuming the task of regulating the events of the peninsula in order not to disturb the political balance given by the Treaty of Lodi, to affirm the hegemony of the Kingdom of Naples over the other Italian states and to tighten through its diplomats and marriages of his numerous legitimate and natural children, a dense network of alliances and relationships with Italian and foreign sovereigns, earned him the fame and the nickname of Judge of Italy, in addition to being recognized as a generous patron.

Ferdinand I was succeeded on the Neapolitan throne by his eldest son the Duke of Calabria as King Alfonso II (November 14, 1448 – December 18, 1495) and ruled as King of Naples from January 25, 1494 to January 23, 1495. He was a soldier and a patron of Renaissance architecture and the arts.