The Life of Élisabeth Charlotte d’Orléans, Duchess of Lorraine

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Archduchess Marie Antoinette of Austria, Élisabeth Charlotte d'Orléans, Carl Ludwig of the Palatine, Duchess of Lorraine, Duke of Orleans, Elisabeth Charlotte of the Palatine, Holy Roman Emperor Franz I, House of Habsburg-Lorraine, King Louis XVI of France and Navarre, Louis XIV of France and Navarre, Regent. Philippe I

Élisabeth Charlotte d’Orléans (September 13, 1676 – December 23, 1744) was a petite-fille de France, and duchess of Lorraine and Bar by marriage to Leopold, Duke of Lorraine. She was regent of Lorraine and Bar during the minority (1729–1730) and absence of her son (1730–1737), and suo jure Princess of Commercy 1737–1744.

Among her children was Franz I, Holy Roman Emperor, a co-founder (and patrilineal agnatic ancestor) of the royal House of Habsburg-Lorraine. She was the Grandmother of Archduchess Marie Antoinette of Austria, wife of King Louis XVI of France and Navarre.

Philippe I, Duke of Orléans

Élisabeth Charlotte d’Orléans was born at the Château de Saint-Cloud outside Paris. She was the daughter of Philippe I, Duke of Orléans, Monsieur, and of his second wife Elizabeth Charlotte of the Palatine, the daughter of Carl I Ludwig, Elector Palatine and his wife Charlotte of Hesse-Cassel *

Her father Philippe I, Duke of Orléans, was the only sibling of King Louis XIV of France and Navarre. As a petite-fille de France, she was entitled to have the style of Her Royal Highness, as well as the right to an armchair in the presence of the King.

At birth, she was given the style Mademoiselle de Chartres, taken from the name of one of her father’s appanages. After the marriage of her two older half-sisters, Marie Louise and Anne Marie, born of the first marriage of their father to Henrietta Anne of England, she was known as Madame Royale, according to her status as the highest-ranking unmarried princess in France.

Elisabeth Charlotte, Duchesse d’Orléans with her two surviving children, including her daughter Élisabeth Charlotte

As a child, Élisabeth-Charlotte was described by her mother as ‘so terribly wild’ and ‘rough as a boy’. To her father’s displeasure, she shared the frank opinions of her mother.

Marriage

Her mother wanted her to marry with the same level of prestige as that of her sisters. When her cousin’s wife, the Dauphine, (Maria Anna Christine Victoria of Bavaria 1660 – 1690 was Dauphine of France by marriage to Louis, Grand Dauphin, son and heir of Louis XIV) suggested she should marry the Dauphine’s younger brother Joseph Clemens of Bavaria, Élisabeth Charlotte said, “I am not made, madame, for a younger son.”

As her mother despised the king’s illegitimate children, the chances of such an alliance were remote; however, in 1692, to the ‘horror’ of the Duchess of Orléans, such a mismatch occurred when her eldest son, the Duke of Chartres (future Philippe II, Duke of Orléans) married Françoise Marie de Bourbon, the youngest legitimised daughter of Louis XIV and Madame de Montespan.

Élisabeth’s mother initially wanted her daughter to marry King William III of England, who was the widower of Queen Mary II of England, but, due to William being a Protestant, the marriage did not materialise.

Other candidates considered were Holy Roman Emperor Joseph I; Joseph was highly regarded, and, had the marriage taken place, the union would have been a way of reconciling the Bourbons and their traditional rivals, the Habsburgs.

Élisabeth Charlotte d’Orléans, Duchess of Lorraine

Even her widowed first cousin Monseigneur, Louis, the Grand Dauphin, was considered, as were his son, Louis, Duke of Burgundy, and another cousin, the legitimised Louis Auguste, Duke of Maine, eldest son of Louis XIV and Madame de Montespan. The latter, much to the relief of Madame did not occur as the Duke of Maine married Mademoiselle de Charolais (Louise Bénédicte de Bourbon-Condé) in May 1692.

Élisabeth Charlotte was finally married on October 13, 1698 at the Palace of Fontainebleau to Leopold, Duke of Lorraine, son of Charles V, Duke of Lorraine, and of the Archduchess Eleonora Maria Josefa of Austria the daughter of Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand III and his wife, Eleanora of Mantua.

Leopold, Duke of Lorraine is the direct male ancestor of all rulers of the Habsburg-Lorraine dynasty, including all Emperors of Austria.

The marriage was the result of the Treaty of Ryswick, one of its conditions being that the Duchy of Lorraine, which had been for many years in the possession of France, be restored to Leopold Joseph, a son of Charles V, Duke of Lorraine.

Thus, Élisabeth Charlotte was but an instrument to cement the peace treaty. Her mother later said that her daughter “was a victim of war”.

Duchess of Lorraine
The marriage was seen as a brilliant match by the House of Lorraine but was regarded by some as unworthy of a petite-fille de France. Despite this, the bride carried to the House of Lorraine a dowry of 900,000 livres.

Leopold, Duke of Lorraine

The jealousy of some members of the royal family prompted certain princesses to use as pretext the death of Louis Constantin de Bourbon, prince de Dombes (17 November 1695 – 28 September 1698), son of Louis Auguste, Duke of Maine, to attend the marriage ceremonies by proxy or in mourning clothes.

To everyone’s surprise, what had been expected to be an unhappy union turned out to be a marriage of love and happiness at first. Élisabeth Charlotte turned out to be a caring mother and gave birth to fifteen children, of whom five survived into adulthood. Three of them died within a week in May 1711 due to a smallpox outbreak at the Château de Lunéville, the country seat of the dukes of Lorraine.

In 1708, after ten years of marriage her husband turned his attentions to another, Anne-Marguerite de Ligniville, princesse de Beauveau-Craon. Embarrassed, Élisabeth Charlotte, on her mother’s advice, remained silent and continued to live in the Château de Lunéville with her husband and his mistress.

During this time, Élisabeth Charlotte was herself ill, suffering from serious coughing, fainting, and fever. Lunéville remained the favourite of Duke Leopold Joseph until his death in 1729. Yet the couple had five more children, one of whom, François of Lorraine, would become Holy Roman Emperor, Franz I, and the father of Queen Marie Antoinette.

Élisabeth Charlotte was religiously intolerant and supported the persecution of non-Catholics. She persuaded her husband to issue many oppressive laws against Protestants and Jews. During this time over 280 religious dissenters burned at the stake in persecutions.

In June 1701, her father died after having a heated argument with Louis XIV at Versailles about the Duke of Chartres. Her brother thus became the new Philippe II, Duke of Orléans and head of the House of of the House of Orléans.

Her mother was left at the mercy of Louis XIV, who forbade her from visiting foreign soil. As a result, Élisabeth Charlotte was only able to see her mother when she went to Versailles. Despite this, Élisabeth Charlotte and her mother kept in contact through letters. Their correspondence was destroyed in a fire at the Château de Lunéville in 1719.

Franz I, Holy Roman Emperor, son of Élisabeth Charlotte d’Orléans and father of Archduchess Marie Antoinette of Austria, wife of King Louis XVI of France and Navarre.

On the death of Louis XIV in 1715, her brother became the Regent of France for the five-year-old King Louis XV. In 1718, during a brief visit to the French court in Paris, her niece, the Dowager Duchess of Berry, gave a lavish reception in her honour at the Palais du Luxembourg.

Upon leaving France, her husband, Leopold, Duke of Lorraine, was accorded the style of His Royal Highness, usually reserved for members of foreign dynasties headed by a king.

Louis XV’s coronation at Reims Cathedral on 25 October 25, 1722 was the only occasion on which Élisabeth Charlotte’s youngest child, Anne Charlotte, would see her grandmother, who died a few weeks later on December 8; Élisabeth Charlotte’s brother died the following December, still ruling France as regent.

Regent of Lorraine

Her husband died in 1729, leaving his wife Regent of Lorraine for their son, Duke François Stephen. He interrupted his education in Vienna to return home in 1730 for the investiture of his mother as regent, then returned to Austria.

Élisabeth Charlotte tried to engage her daughter Anne Charlotte to King Louis XV; this project failed due to the intrigues of Louis Henri, Duke of Bourbon; Élisabeth Charlotte then tried to arrange the marriage of Anne Charlotte to her nephew Louis, Duke of Orléans, who had been recently widowed, but the devout duke chose not to remarry.

Princess of Commercy

Unable to prevent her son from giving up the duchy of Lorraine to Stanisław Leszczyński when he married the Habsburg heiress, Maria Theresa of Austria, Élisabeth Charlotte moved into the Château d’Haroué in nearby Commercy, which was erected into a sovereign principality for her to reign over during her dowager years.

In 1737, her daughter, Élisabeth Thérèse d’Orléans married Carlo Emmanuel III of Sardinia. Elisabetta Teresa, as she was known in Italy, died in childbirth in 1741 after giving birth to Élisabeth Charlotte’s grandson, Benedetto, Duke of Chablais.

On January 7, 1744 her youngest son, Prince Charles Alexander of Lorraine, made a “marriage of love” with Archduchess Maria Anna of Austria, who died in childbirth on December 16, 1744.

Élisabeth Charlotte died of a stroke at the age of sixty-eight on December 23, 1744, one week after her daughter-in-law and grandchild. She was the last of her siblings to die and had outlived most of her children. Nine months after her death, her son François Stephen became Holy Roman Emperor Franz I.

She was buried in the funerary chapel of the Dukes of Lorraine in the Saint-François-des-Cordeliers church in Nancy.

* Carl I Ludwig, Elector Palatine, grandfather of Élisabeth Charlotte d’Orléans (and the subject of this blog post) was the elder brother of Sophia of the Palatine, Electress of Hanover the mother of King George I of Great Britain. Carl I Ludwig’s mother was Princess Elizabeth (Stuart) of England the daughter of King James I-VI of England Scotland and England. This also means that Princess Elizabeth (Stuart) of England was the aunt of Henrietta Anne of England the first wife of Élisabeth Charlotte d’Orléans father, Philippe I Duke of Orléans!

November 22, 1602: Birth of Princess Elisabeth de Bourbon of France, Queen of Spain and Portugal

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Elisabeth de Bourbon of France, Henri IV of France and Navarre, Infanta Maria Theresa of Spain, Louis XIV of France and Navarre, Maria de Medici, Philip IV of Spain, Queen of Portugal, Queen of Spain

Elisabeth de Bourbon of France (November 22, 1602 – October 6, 1644) was Queen of Spain from 1621 to her death and of Portugal from 1621 to 1640, as the first spouse of King Felipe IV-III. She served as regent of Spain during the Catalan Revolt in 1640-42 and 1643–44. She was the eldest daughter of King Henri IV of France and his second spouse Marie de’ Medici.

Elisabeth, Madame Royale, was born at the Château de Fontainebleau on 22 November 1602; according to the court, her mother showed a cruel indifference to her, because she had believed the prophecy of a nun who assured her that she would give birth to three consecutive sons.

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

As a daughter of the King of France, she was born a Fille de France. As the eldest daughter of the king, she was known at court by the traditional honorific of Madame Royale. The early years of Madame Royale were spent under the supervision of the royal governess Françoise de Montglat at the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, a quiet place away from the Parisian court in which she shared education and games with her legitimate siblings (besides Dauphin, the other Enfants de France were Christine Marie, later Duchess of Savoy; Nicholas Henri, Duke of Orléans, who died in infancy; Gaston, Duke of Orléans; and Henrietta Maria, later Queen of England) and the bastard children that her father had from his constant love affairs.

When King Henri IV was assassinated outside the Palais du Louvre in Paris on May 14, 1610, her brother the Dauphin (with whom Élisabeth had a very close relationship) succeeded him to the throne as King Louis XIII of France under the Regency of their mother Marie de’ Medici.

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

Marriage

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

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

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

Queen

In 1621, by the time of the birth of the couple’s first child, the couple had ascended to the throne of Spain upon the death of Felipe III of Spain. The new Queen of Spain was aware that her husband had mistresses {Memoirs of Madame de Mottville}

Elisabeth herself was the subject of rumors about her relations with the noted poet Peralta (Juan de Tassis, 2nd Count of Villamediana), who was her gentleman-in-waiting. On May 14, 1622, a fire broke out while the Peralta masque La Gloria de Niquea was being acted before the court. Peralta carried the queen to a place of safety, which caused suspicion about their relationship to deepen.

Peralta neglected a significant warning that his life was in peril, and “he was murdered as he stepped out of his coach. The responsibility for his death was divided between Felipe IV and Olivares” (at the time, prime minister and king’s favorite).

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

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

She was regent of Spain during the Catalan Revolt and supported the Duke of Nochera against the Count-Duke of Olivares in favor of an honorable withdrawal from the Catalan Revolt. Prior to 1640, the queen does not appear to have had much influence over state affairs, which was largely entrusted to Olivares. Elisabeth did not get along with Olivares, who reportedly assisted her spouse in his adultery and prevented her from achieving any political influence and once famously remarked, when she presented a political view to the king, that priests existed to pray as well as queens existed to give birth.

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

The fall of Olivares made the king consider her his only political partner, and when the king left again for the front in 1643, Elisabeth was again appointed regent assisted by Chumacero. Her second regency was also given good reviews, and she was credited by the king for her efforts to provide vital supplies for the troops as well as for her negotiations with the banks to provide finances for the army, offering her own jewelry as security.

It was rumored that she was intending to follow the example of queen Isabella the Catholic and lead her own army to retake Badajoz.

The Queen died in Madrid on October 6, 1644 at the age of forty-one, leaving two small children: Balthasar Carlos and Maria Theresa. After her death, her husband married his niece Archduchess Mariana of Austria. One of her great-grandsons, Philippe, Duke of Anjou, became King Felipe V of Spain, and through him, Elisabeth is an ancestor of all the subsequent Spanish monarchs.

September 16, 1701: Death of King James II-VII of England, Scotland and Ireland.

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1763 Test Act, Anne Hyde, Duke of Albany and York, English Civil War, Glorious Revolution of 1688, James II-VII, King of England, King of Ireland, King of Scotland, Louis XIV of France and Navarre, Marie Beatrice d'Este of Modena, Titus Oates

James II-VII (October 14, 1633 – September 16, 1701) was King of England and Ireland as James II, and King of Scotland as James VII, from February 6, 1685 until he was deposed in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. He was the last Catholic monarch of England, Scotland, and Ireland; his reign is now remembered primarily for struggles over religious tolerance. However, it also involved the principles of absolutism and divine right of kings, and his deposition ended a century of political and civil strife by confirming the primacy of Parliament over the Crown.

James, the second surviving son of King Charles I and his wife, Henrietta Maria de Bourbon of France, the youngest daughter of Henri IV of France (Henri III of Navarre) and his second wife, Marie de’ Medici, and named after her parents was born at St James’s Palace in London on October 14, 1633. Later that same year, he was baptised by William Laud, the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury.

James was educated by private tutors, along with his older brother, the future King Charles II, and the two sons of the Duke of Buckingham, George and Francis Villiers. At the age of three, James was appointed Lord High Admiral; the position was initially honorary, but became a substantive office after the Restoration, when James was an adult. He was designated Duke of York at birth, invested with the Order of the Garter in 1642, and formally created Duke of York in January 1644.

Civil War

King Charles I’s disputes with the English Parliament grew into the English Civil War. James accompanied his father at the Battle of Edgehill, where he narrowly escaped capture by the Parliamentary army. He subsequently stayed in Oxford, the chief Royalist stronghold, where he was made a Master of Arts by the University on November 1, 1642 and served as colonel of a volunteer regiment of foot.

When the city surrendered after the siege of Oxford in 1646, Parliamentary leaders ordered the Duke of York to be confined in St James’s Palace. Disguised as a woman, the 14-year old escaped from the Palace in 1648 with the help of Joseph Bampfield, and crossed the North Sea to The Hague.

When Charles I was executed by the rebels in 1649, monarchists proclaimed James’s older brother king. Charles II was recognised as king by the Parliament of Scotland and the Parliament of Ireland, and was crowned at Scone in 1651. Although he was proclaimed king in Jersey, Charles was unable to secure the crown of England and consequently fled to France and exile.

Like his brother, James sought refuge in France, serving in the French army under Turenne against the Fronde, and later against their Spanish allies. In the French army James had his first true experience of battle where, according to one observer, he “ventures himself and chargeth gallantly where anything is to be done”. Turenne’s favour led to James being given command of a captured Irish regiment in December 1652, and being appointed Lieutenant-General in 1654.

After the collapse of the Commonwealth in 1660, Charles II was restored to the English throne. Although James was the heir presumptive, it seemed unlikely that he would inherit the Crown, as Charles was still a young man capable of fathering children. On December 31, 1660, following his brother’s restoration, James was created Duke of Albany in the Peerage of Scotland, to go along with his English title, Duke of York. Upon his return to England, James prompted an immediate controversy by announcing his engagement to Anne Hyde, the daughter of Charles’s chief minister, Edward Hyde.

In 1659, while trying to seduce her, James promised he would marry Anne. Anne became pregnant in 1660, but following the Restoration and James’s return to power, no one at the royal court expected a prince to marry a commoner, no matter what he had pledged beforehand. Although nearly everyone, including Anne’s father, urged the two not to marry, the couple married secretly, then went through an official marriage ceremony on September 3, 1660 in London.

Their first child, Charles, was born less than two months later, but died in infancy, as did five further sons and daughters. Only two daughters survived: Mary (born April 30, 1662) and Anne (born February 6, 1665). Samuel Pepys wrote that James was fond of his children and his role as a father, and played with them “like an ordinary private father of a child”, a contrast to the distant parenting common with royalty at the time.

James’s wife was devoted to him and influenced many of his decisions. Even so, he kept mistresses, including Arabella Churchill and Catherine Sedley, and was reputed to be “the most unguarded ogler of his time”. Samuel Pepys recorded in his diary that James “did eye my wife mightily”. James’s taste in women was often maligned, with Gilbert Burnet famously remarking that James’s mistresses must have been “given him by his priests as a penance.” Anne Hyde died in 1671.

James’s time in France had exposed him to the beliefs and ceremonies of the Roman Catholic Church; he and his wife, Anne, became drawn to that faith. James took Catholic Eucharist in 1668 or 1669, although his conversion was kept secret for almost a decade as he continued to attend Anglican services until 1676.

Growing fears of Roman Catholic influence at court led the English Parliament to introduce a new Test Act in 1673. Under this Act, all civil and military officials were required to take an oath (in which they were required to disavow the doctrine of transubstantiation and denounce certain practices of the Roman Church as superstitious and idolatrous) and to receive the Eucharist under the auspices of the Church of England.

James refused to perform either action, instead choosing to relinquish the post of Lord High Admiral. His conversion to Roman Catholicism was thereby made public. King Charles II opposed James’s conversion, ordering that James’s daughters, Mary and Anne, be raised in the Church of England.

Nevertheless, he allowed James to marry Maria Beatrice d’Este of Modena, a fifteen-year-old Italian princess and the second but eldest surviving child of Alfonso IV, Duke of Modena, and his wife, Laura Martinozzi, was born on October 5, 1658 in Modena, Duchy of Modena, Italy.

James and Maria were married by proxy in a Roman Catholic ceremony on September 20, 1673. On November 21, Maria arrived in England and Nathaniel Crew, Bishop of Oxford, performed a brief Anglican service that did little more than recognise the marriage by proxy. Many British people, distrustful of Catholicism, regarded the new Duchess of York as an agent of the Papacy. James was noted for his devotion. He once said, “If occasion were, I hope God would give me his grace to suffer death for the true Catholic religion as well as banishment.”

Exclusion Crisis

In 1677, King Charles II arranged for James’s daughter Mary to marry the Protestant Prince Willem III of Orange, son of Charles and James’s sister Mary and her husband Prince Willem II of Orange. James reluctantly acquiesced after his brother and nephew had agreed to the marriage. Despite the Protestant marriage, fears of a potential Catholic monarch persisted, intensified by the failure of Charles II and his wife, Catherine of Braganza, to produce any children.

A defrocked Anglican clergyman, Titus Oates, spoke of a “Popish Plot” to kill Charles and to put the Duke of York on the throne. The fabricated plot caused a wave of anti-Catholic hysteria to sweep across the nation.

James inherited the thrones of England, Ireland, and Scotland from his elder brother Charles II after he died on February 6, 1685 with widespread support in all three countries, largely based on the principles of divine right or birth. Tolerance for his personal Catholicism did not apply to it in general and when the English and Scottish Parliaments refused to pass his measures, James II-VII attempted to impose them by decree; it was a political principle, rather than a religious one, that ultimately led to his removal.

In June 1688, two events turned dissent into a crisis; the first on June 10, was the birth of James’s son and heir Prince James Francis Edward, threatening to create a Roman Catholic dynasty and excluding his Anglican daughter Mary and her Protestant husband Willem III of Orange.

The second was the prosecution of the Seven Bishops for seditious libel; this was viewed as an assault on the Church of England and their acquittal on June 30, destroyed his political authority in England. Anti-Catholic riots in England and Scotland now made it seem that only his removal from the throne could prevent a civil war.

Leading members of the English political class invited Willem III of Orange to assume the English throne; after he landed in Brixham on November 5, 1688, James’s army deserted, and he went into exile in France on December 23. In February 1689, a special Convention Parliament held that the king had “vacated” the English throne and installed Willem and Mary as joint monarchs, who thereafter ruled jointly as William III and Mary II. This Act established the principle that sovereignty derived from Parliament, not birth.

James landed in Ireland on March 14, 1689 in an attempt to recover his kingdoms. Although the English Parliament had decided to give the throne to William & Mary jointly, the Scottish Parliament was undecided as to would be the next King of Scotland. However, in April a Scottish Convention followed that of England by finding that James had “forfeited” the throne and offered it to William III and Mary II. Incidentally, in Scotland William was known as King William II of Scotland.

After his defeat at the Battle of the Boyne in July 1690, James returned to France, where he spent the rest of his life in exile at Saint-Germain, protected by his first cousin,, King Louis XIV of France and Navarre.

In March 1701, James II suffered a stroke while hearing mass at the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, leaving him partially paralysed. Fagon, Louis XIV’s personal physician, recommend the waters of Bourbon-l’Archambault, to cure the King’s paralysis. The waters, however, had little effect, and James II died of a seizure on 16 September 1701.

Louis XIV, contravening the Peace of Ryswick and irritating King William III, declared James Francis Edward, King of England, Ireland and Scotland as James III-VIII. Maria acted as nominal regent for her minor son. She presided over his regency council, too, although she was uninterested in politics. Before his death, James II expressed his wish that Maria’s regency would last no longer than their son’s 18th birthday.

Often portrayed by his opponents as an absolutist tyrant, since the 20th century some historians have praised him for advocating religious tolerance, while more recent scholarship has attempted to find a middle ground between those views.

September 10, 1638: Birth of Marie Thérèse of Spain, Queen of France and Navarre.

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House of Habsburg, Louis XIV of France and Navarre, Marie Thérèse of Spain, Palace of Versailles, Philip IV of Spain and Portugal, Queen of France and Navarre

Marie Thérèse of Spain (September 10, 1638 – July 30, 1683), was by birth an Infanta of Spain and Portugal (until 1640) and Archduchess of Austria as member of the Spanish branch of the House of Habsburg and by marriage Queen of France and Navarre.

Born at the Royal Monastery of El Escorial, she was the daughter of King Felipe IV-III of Spain and Portugal, and his wife Elisabeth of France, who died when Maria Thérèse was six years old. As a member of the House of Austria, Maria Theresa was entitled to use the title Archduchess of Austria. She was known in Spain as María Teresa de Austria and in France as Marie Thérèse d’Autriche. She was raised by the royal governess Luisa Magdalena de Jesus.

Unlike France, the kingdom of Spain had no Salic Law, so it was possible for a female to assume the throne. When Marie Thérèse’s brother Balthasar Carlos died in 1646, she became heir presumptive to the vast Spanish Empire and remained such until the birth of her brother Felipe Prospero, in 1657. She was briefly heir presumptive once more between 1–6 November 1661, following the death of Prince Felipe Prospero and until the birth of Prince Carlos, who would later inherit the thrones of Spain as Carlos II.

In 1658, as war with France began to wind down, a union between the royal families of Spain and France was proposed as a means to secure peace. Maria Thérèsa and the French king were double first cousins: Louis XIV’s father was Louis XIII of France, who was the brother of Maria Thérèsa’s mother, while her father was brother to Anne of Austria, Louis XIV’s mother.

Spanish procrastination led to French Princess Christine Marie started communicating with France in order to secure a marriage between her daughter Margherita Violante and the young Louis XIV of France. Margaret Yolande of Savoy was the first cousin to Louis XIV, and the fifth child born to Victor Amadeus I, Duke of Savoy and his wife Christine Marie of France, daughter of Henri IV of France and Marie de’ Medici.

Negotiations with France and Savoy went as far as Louis XIV and Margherita Violante, known to the French as Marguerite Yolande de Savoie, meeting the French royal family at Lyon on October 26, 1658. The French entourage included the Dowager Queen, Louis XIV, Philippe d’Anjou, la Grande Mademoiselle and Marie Mancini. The French were impressed by her appearance despite saying her skin was too tanned. They also said she was a quiet girl.

When Felipe IV of Spain heard of a meeting at Lyon between the Houses of France and Savoy he reputedly exclaimed of the Franco-Savoyard union that “it cannot be, and will not be”. Felipe then sent a special envoy to the French court to open negotiations for peace and a royal marriage.

The negotiations for the marriage contract were intense. Eager to prevent a union of the two countries or crowns, especially one in which Spain would be subservient to France, the diplomats sought to include a renunciation clause that would deprive Maria Theresa and her children of any rights to the Spanish succession. This was eventually done but, by the skill of Mazarin and his French diplomats, the renunciation and its validity were made conditional upon the payment of a large dowry. As it turned out, Spain, impoverished and bankrupt after decades of war, was unable to pay such a dowry, and France never received the agreed upon sum of 500,000 écus.

A marriage by proxy to the French king was held in Fuenterrabia. Her father and the entire Spanish court accompanied the bride to the Isle of Pheasants on the border in the Bidassoa river, where Louis and his court met her in the meeting on the Isle of Pheasants on June 7, 1660, and she entered France. On June 9, the marriage took place in Saint-Jean-de-Luz at the recently rebuilt church of Saint Jean the Baptist. After the wedding, Louis wanted to consummate the marriage as quickly as possible. The new queen’s mother-in-law (and aunt) arranged a private consummation instead of the public one that was the custom.

On August 26, 1660, the newlyweds made the traditional Joyous Entry into Paris. Louis was faithful to his wife for the first year of their marriage, commanding the Grand Maréchal du Logis that “the Queen and himself were never to be set apart, no matter how small the house in which they might be lodging”.

Maria Thérèsa was very fortunate to have found a friend at court in her mother-in-law, unlike many princesses in foreign lands. She continued to spend much of her free time playing cards and gambling, as she had no interest in politics or literature. Consequently, she was viewed as not fully playing the part of queen designated to her by her marriage. But more importantly, she became pregnant in early 1661, and a long-awaited son was born on November 1, 1661.

The first time Maria Thérèsa ever saw the Palace of Versailles was on October 25, 1660. At that time, it was just a small royal residence that had been Louis XIII’s hunting lodge not far from Paris. Later, the first building campaign (1664–1668) commenced with the Plaisirs de l’Île enchantée of 1664, a week-long celebration at Versailles ostensibly held in honour of France’s two queens, Louis XIV’s mother and wife, but exposed Louise de La Vallière’s role as the king’s maîtresse-en-titre.

The celebration of the Plaisirs de l’Île enchantée is often regarded as a prelude to the War of Devolution, which Louis waged against Spain. The first building campaign witnessed alterations in the château and gardens in order to accommodate the 600 guests invited to the celebration. As time passed, Maria Thérèsa also came to tolerate her husband’s prolonged infidelity with Françoise-Athénaïs, Marquise de Montespan. The king left her to her own devices, yet reprimanded Madame de Montespan when her behaviour at court too flagrantly disrespected the queen’s position.

Later, the governess of Montespan’s illegitimate children by the king, Madame de Maintenon, came to supplant her mistress in the king’s affections. At first she resisted the king’s advances and encouraged him to bestow more attention on his long-neglected wife, a thoughtfulness which Maria Thérèsa repaid with warmth toward the new favourite. After the queen’s death, Maintenon would become the king’s second, although officially secret, wife.

There have long been rumours that Maria Thérèse had an illegitimate daughter, Louise Marie Thérèse (The Black Nun of Moret). Shortly after the death of the French Queen Maria Thérèsa of Spain, courtiers said that this woman could be the daughter, allegedly black, to whom the Queen gave birth in 1664. The nun herself seemed convinced of her royal birth, and Saint-Simon states that she once greeted the Dauphin as “my brother”. A letter sent on June 13, 1685, by the Secretary of the King’s Household to M. De Bezons, general agent of the clergy, and the pension of 300 pounds granted by King Louis XIV to the nun Louise Marie-Thérèse on October 15, 1695, “to be paid to her all her life in this convent or everywhere she could be, by the guards of the Royal treasure present and to come.” This suggests that she may, indeed, have had royal connections. The duc de Luynes claimed that she was the daughter of two black gardeners, too poor to educate her, who applied to Mme. de Maintenon for patronage

Maria Thérèse played little part in political affairs except for the years 1667, 1672, and 1678, during which she acted as regent while her husband was away on campaigns on the frontier.

Death

During the last week of July 1683, Maria Thérèse fell ill and, as her illness worsened, her husband ordered for the sacraments to be kept nearby. She died a painful death on July 30, 1683, at Versailles. Upon her death, Louis XIV said: “This is the first chagrin she has ever given me.” For the grand funeral ceremony, Marc-Antoine Charpentier composed dramatic motets H.409, H.189, H.331 and Jean-Baptiste Lully his Dies irae. The funeral prayer was by Bossuet.

Of her six children, only one survived her, Louis, le Grand Dauphin, the oldest one, who died in 1711. One of her younger grandsons eventually inherited her claim to the Spanish throne to become King Felipe V of Spain in 1700. He was able to claim the throne of Spain because Spain never paid the 500,000 écus as part of the agreement that would have made the descendants of Marie Thérèse ineligible for the Spanish Crown.

July 26, 1678: Birth of Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor, King of Hungary, Archduke of Austria.

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Emperor Joseph I, Emperor Leopold I, Felipe V of Spain, Holy Roman Emperor, Holy Roman Empire, House of Habsburg, Louis XIV of France and Navarre, Romani, War of the Spanish Succession, Wilhelmine Amalie of Brunswick-Lüneburg

Joseph I (Joseph Jacob Ignaz Johann Anton Eustachius; July 26, 1678 – April 17, 1711) was Holy Roman Emperor and ruler of the Austrian Habsburg Monarchy (Hereditary lands outside the empire) from 1705 until his death in 1711. He was the eldest son of Emperor Leopold I from his third wife, Eleonor Magdalene of Neuburg, the oldest of 17 children born from Philipp Wilhelm, Count Palatine of Neuburg and Duke of Jülich-Berg and his second wife, Landgravine Elisabeth Amalie of Hesse-Darmstadt. On Eleonor Magdalene father’s side her grandparents were Wolfgang Wilhelm, Count Palatine of Neuburg and his first wife, Magdalene of Bavaria. On her mother’s side, her grandparents were Georg II, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt and Sophia Eleonore of Saxony.

Although he was the first son and child born of his parents’ marriage, he was his father’s third son and seventh child. Previously, Leopold had been married to Infanta Margaret Theresa of Spain, the first child of King Felipe IV of Spain born from his second marriage with his niece Mariana of Austria. Leopold was Margaret Theresa of Spain’s maternal uncle and paternal cousin and gave Emperor Leopold four children, one of whom survived infancy. Leopold then married Claudia Felicitas of Austria, eldest daughter of Ferdinand Charles, Archduke of Further Austria and Count of Tyrol, by his wife and first-cousin Anna de’ Medici. Leopold and Claudia Felicitas were second cousins (both being great-grandchildren of Charles II, Archduke of Inner Austria).Claudia Felicitas gave Leopold two short-lived daughters. Thus, Joseph had six half-siblings.

Prior to his ascension, Joseph had surrounded himself with reform-hungry advisors and the young court of Vienna was ambitious in the elaboration of innovative plans. He was described as a “forward-looking ruler”. The large number of privy councillors was reduced and attempts were made to make the bureaucracy more efficient. Measures were taken to modernize the central bodies and a certain success was achieved in stabilizing the chronic Habsburg finances.

On February 24, 1699, Joseph married Wilhelmine Amalia of Brunswick-Lüneburg, the youngest daughter of Johann Friedrich, Duke of Brunswick-Calenberg, and Princess Benedicta Henrietta of the Palatinate. At their wedding in Vienna, the opera Hercule and Hebe by Reinhard Keiser (1674–1739) was performed.

Early on, the Joseph’s mother, Holy Roman Empress Eleonore Magdalene of Neuburg, decided that Wilhelmine Amalie would be her daughter-in-law. Prince Salm was instrumental in speaking for her candidacy. The adviser of Eleonore, Marco d’Aviano, had convinced her that Wilhelmine Amalie, being pious and older than Joseph, could act as a tempering influence and discontinue his sex life outside of marriage, and to Leopold, he claimed that he had a vision that the pair would be happy. She was subjected to medical examination, which establish that she was fertile.

Joseph and Wilhelmine Amalie had three children and their only son, Archduke Leopold Joseph of Austria (October 29, 1700 – August 4, 1701); died of hydrocephalus before his first birthday. His eldest daughter Archduchess Maria Josepha (December 8, 1699 – November 17, 1757); married August III, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania. His youngest daughter, Archduchess Maria Amalia (October 22, 1701 – December 11, 1756); married her Wittelsbach cousin, Prince-Elector Charles Albert of Bavaria who became Holy Roman Emperor Charles VII in 1742.

Joseph had a passion for love affairs (none of which resulted in illegitimate children) and he caught a sexually transmittable disease, probably syphilis, which he passed on to his wife while they were trying to produce a new heir. This incident rendered her sterile. Joseph’s father, Emperor Leopold, who was still alive during these events, made Joseph and his brother Charles sign the Mutual Pact of Succession, ensuring that Joseph’s daughters would have absolute precedence over Charles’s daughters, neither of whom was born at the time, and that Maria Josepha would inherit both the Austrian and Spanish realms.

Joseph was crowned King of Hungary at the age of nine in 1687 and was elected King of the Romans (as heir to the Holy Roman Empire) at the age of eleven in 1690. He succeeded to the thrones of Bohemia and the Holy Roman Empire when his father died.

At this point in the history of the Holy Roman Empire the Emperor’s power were minimal as most states within the empire had become automenous after the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648. Therefore, Joseph endeavoured to strengthen his position within the Holy Roman Empire – as a means of strengthening Austria’s standing as a great power.

When Joseph sought to lay claim to imperial rights in Italy and gain territories for the Habsburgs, he even risked a military conflict with the Pope over the duchy of Mantua. Joseph I was threatened with excommunication by Pope Clement XI on June 16, 1708.

After becoming Emperor, Joseph continued the War of the Spanish Succession, begun by his father against Louis XIV of France, in a fruitless attempt to make his younger brother Charles (later Emperor Charles VI) King of Spain. In the process, however, owing to the victories won by his military commander, Prince Eugene of Savoy, he did succeed in establishing Austrian hegemony over Italy.

When Emperor Joseph I died in 1711, Archduke Charles succeeded his brother as emperor, and the new British government initiated peace talks to end the War of the Spanish Succession. The majority of nations participating in the war did not desire to see the Imperial Crown and the Spanish Crown reuniting under Charles VI recreating the vast Habsburg Empire as it was under Emperor Charles V who was also Carlos I of Spain. This resulted in the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht, followed by the 1714 Treaties of Rastatt and Baden, confirming Philippe of Anjou, grandson of King Louis XIV of France and Navarre, as King Felipe V of Spain. This began the House of Bourbon’s tenure on the Spanish throne.

Joseph also had to contend with a protracted revolt in Hungary, fomented by Louis XIV. Neither conflict was resolved until the Treaty of Utrecht, after his death. He also sanctioned the extermination of Romani people within the Holy Roman Empire.

In Hungary, Joseph had inherited the kuruc rebellion from his father Leopold I: once again, nobles in Transylvania (Siebenbürgen) had risen against Habsburg rule, even advancing for a time as far as Vienna. Although Joseph was compelled to take military action, he refrained – unlike his predecessors – from seeking to teach his subjects a lesson by executing the leaders. Instead, he agreed to a compromise peace, which in the long term facilitated the integration of Hungary into the Habsburg domains.

Hungary was disturbed by the conflict with Francis Rákóczi II, who eventually took refuge in the Ottoman Empire. The emperor reversed many of the authoritarian measures of his father, thus helping to placate opponents. He began the attempts to settle the question of the Austrian inheritance by a pragmatic sanction, which was continued by his brother Charles VI.

In 1710, Joseph extended his father’s edict of outlawry against the Romani (Gypsies) in the Habsburg lands. Per Leopold, any Romani who entered the kingdom was to be declared an outlaw by letters patent and if the same person returned to Bohemia a second time “treated with all possible severity”.

Joseph ordered that in the Kingdom of Bohemia they were to have their right ears cut off; in the March of Moravia, the left ear was to be cut off; in Austria, they would be branded on the back with a branding iron, representing the gallows.

These mutilations were to enable the authorities to identify Romani who had been outlawed and returned. Joseph’s edict specified “that all adult males were to be hanged without trial, whereas women and young males were to be flogged and banished forever.” Officials who failed to enforce the edict could be fined 100 Reichsthaler. Helping Romani was punishable by a half-year’s forced labor. “Mass killings” of Romani were reported as a result.

Death

During the smallpox epidemic of 1711, which killed Louis, le Grand Dauphin and three siblings of the future Holy Roman Emperor Franz I, Joseph became infected. He died on April 17, in the Hofburg Palace. He had previously promised his wife to stop having affairs, should he survive.

The Emperor was buried in the Imperial Crypt, resting place of the majority of the Habsburgs. His funeral took place on April 20, in tomb no. 35 in Karl’s Vault. His tomb was designed by Johann Lukas von Hildebrandt, decorated with pictures of various battles from the War of Spanish Succession. Josefstadt (the eighth district of Vienna) is named for Joseph.

May 29, 1630: Birth of King Charles II of England, Scotland and Ireland.

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Catherine de Braganza, Charles I of England, Charles II of England and Scotland, English Civil War, Kingdom of Portugal, Louis XIV of France and Navarre, Restoration

Charles II (May 29, 1630 – February 6, 1685) was King of Scotland from 1649 until 1651, and King of Scotland, England and Ireland from the 1660 Restoration of the monarchy until his death in 1685.

Charles II was the eldest surviving child of Charles I of England, Scotland and Ireland and Henrietta Maria de Bourbon France, daughter of King Henri IV of France and Navarre and Marie de Medici.

After Charles I’s execution at Whitehall on January 30, 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War, the Parliament of Scotland proclaimed Charles II king on February 5, 1649. But England entered the period known as the English Interregnum or the English Commonwealth, and the country was a de facto republic led by Oliver Cromwell.

Cromwell defeated Charles II at the Battle of Worcester on September 3, 1651, and Charles fled to mainland Europe. Cromwell became virtual dictator of England, Scotland and Ireland. Charles spent the next nine years in exile in France, the Dutch Republic and the Spanish Netherlands.

The political crisis that followed Cromwell’s death in 1658 resulted in the restoration of the monarchy, and Charles was invited to return to Britain. On May 29, 1660, his 30th birthday, he was received in London to public acclaim. After 1660, all legal documents stating a regnal year did so as if he had succeeded his father as king in 1649.

Charles’s English parliament enacted laws known as the Clarendon Code, designed to shore up the position of the re-established Church of England. Charles acquiesced to the Clarendon Code even though he favoured a policy of religious tolerance.

Marriage

Catherine of Braganza (1638 – 1705) was was born at the Ducal Palace of Vila Viçosa, as the second surviving daughter of João, 8th Duke of Braganza and his wife, Luisa de Guzmán. Following the Portuguese Restoration War, her father was acclaimed King João IV of Portugal, on 1 December 1640.

King João IV of Portugal, became the first king from the House of Braganza in 1640 after overthrowing the 60-year rule of the Spanish Habsburgs over Portugal and restoring the Portuguese throne which had first been created in 1143.

With her father’s new position as one of Europe’s most important monarchs, Portugal then possessing a widespread colonial empire, Catherine became a prime choice for a wife for European royalty, and she was proposed as a bride for Johann of Austria, François de Vendôme, duc de Beaufort, Louis XIV and Charles II.

The consideration for the final choice was due to her being seen as a useful conduit for contracting an alliance between Portugal and England, after the Treaty of the Pyrenees in 1659 in which Portugal was arguably abandoned by France.

Negotiations for the marriage began during the reign of King Charles I, were renewed immediately after the Restoration, and on June 23, 1661, in spite of Spanish opposition, the marriage contract was signed.

Catherine arrived at Portsmouth on the evening of May 13–14, 1662, but was not visited there by Charles until May 20. The following day the couple were married at Portsmouth in two ceremonies – a Catholic one conducted in secret, followed by a public Anglican service.

The major foreign policy issue of his early reign was the Second Anglo-Dutch War. In 1670, he entered into the Treaty of Dover, an alliance with his cousin King Louis XIV of France. Louis agreed to aid him in the Third Anglo-Dutch War and pay him a pension, and Charles secretly promised to convert to Catholicism at an unspecified future date.

Charles attempted to introduce religious freedom for Catholics and Protestant dissenters with his 1672 Royal Declaration of Indulgence, but the English Parliament forced him to withdraw it.

In 1679, Titus Oates’s revelations of a supposed Popish Plot sparked the Exclusion Crisis when it was revealed that Charles’s brother and heir presumptive, James, Duke of York, was Catholic. The crisis saw the birth of the pro-exclusion Whig and anti-exclusion Tory parties. Charles sided with the Tories, and after the discovery of the Rye House Plot to murder Charles and James in 1683, some Whig leaders were executed or forced into exile.

Charles dissolved the English Parliament in 1681 and ruled alone until his death in 1685. He was allegedly received into the Catholic Church on his deathbed.

Traditionally considered one of the most popular English kings, Charles is known as the Merry Monarch, a reference to the liveliness and hedonism of his court. He acknowledged at least 12 illegitimate children by various mistresses, but left no legitimate children and was succeeded by his brother, James.

When Monarchs ruled.

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2012. Parliament, Absolute Monarchy, Age of Enlightenment, Charlemagne, Classical Liberalism, Constitutional Monarchy, Edward I of England, Louis XIV of France and Navarre, William the Conqueror

When I began my interest in royalty I was at first solely concerned in learning their particular genealogies. As I delved into the history of each country I began to be interested in the reigns of each monarch. I learned how monarchies survived going from periods of absolute power to the constitutional form we have today. Somewhere in the process I became a monarchist myself. With all the political infighting that occurs among politicians I think it is beneficial to have a figurehead as the Head of State. A Head of State that is symbolic of the nation and is above the petty partisan politics of the day. I think there are many beneficial aspects of having a Head of State being politically impartial for that gives them the opportunity of serving all the people and not just members of a particular party.

I need to be honest though, I do miss the days when Monarchs actually ruled and held some power. It is one of the things I enjoy about reading the history of these countries that were or are monarchies. For me it is an issue of power. In life some people have power and some do not. It is fascinating to read how those that held power used that power. So I find that the days when monarchs actually held power to be fascinating. Those times are even more interesting when a larger-than-life figure such as when Charlemagne or William the Conqueror or Louis XIV held power. I am sure I am romanticizing things because I know life was not all puppies, rainbows and roses under these monarchs. Yet things were not always terrible for there were monarchs that held power that did good for their country.

I look at King Edward I of England (1272-1307) as a good example. Historians report that the king could be a frightening individual and that he had a reputation because of his intimidating fierce temper also with a domineering physical presences. There is an anecdotal story about when the Dean of St Paul’s, who desired to confront the king about his broad level of taxation, was so intimidated by the king that he collapsed and died instantly the moment he was brought into the King’s presence. That sounds crazy to our modern scientific minds but it could be plausible that the stress of meeting this intimidating King could lead to sudden cardiac arrest. There was also a report that when the Prince of Wales (future Edward II) petitioned and pressured his father to grant an earldom for his personal favorite and friend, Piers Gaveston, the King grew impatient with his sons demands and the King exploded in anger and purportedly tore out handfuls of his son’s hair!

Edward is also known for the establishment of the Model Parliament. Parliament gathered on a fairly regular basis during his reign. In 1295 the king brought about some significant changes. At this point in history the English Parliament contained the secular (the nobility) and ecclesiastical lords (Priests and Bishops). In 1295 Edward also summoned two knights from each county and two representatives from each borough. These two representatives from the boroughs planted the seed for what eventual lead to the development of the House of Commons. Although having commoners sit in Parliament was not exactly new, the precedent setting status of these commoners was the fact that they were given, by the king, authority (plena potestas) of their communities, to give assent to the decisions made in Parliament. No longer were these commoner representatives there to give a rubber stamp and to simply assent to decisions already made by the upper magnates, they now met in Parliament with the full authority nobility and ecclesiastical lords had. This structure eventually became the standardized formation for later Parliaments.

Edward I was a mixture of being a good king with some bad personality issues. Now I do support Classical Liberal ideals of the democratic principles that came of age during the Enlightenment period where we have a right to select those that rule over us. However, I do enjoy reading about these monarchs such as Edward I who did hold power and also, with his creation of a more egalitarian Parliament, demonstrated that many times they could be effective and efficient rulers. While it is best to now have the monarchs as being above partisan politics you really cannot blame a monarchist for missing the good old days when they held actual power.