The Life of George II, King of Great Britain and Ireland, Elector of Hanover. Part II.

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Battle of Dettingen, Caroline of Brandenburg-Ansbach, Countess of Suffolk, Elector of Hanover, Frederick-Louis, Henrietta Howard, King George II of Great Britain and Ireland, Mistress, Prince of Wales (1707-1751), Thomas Pelham-Holles, War of the Austrian Succession, William Pitt the Elder

As king, George II exercised little control over British domestic policy, which was largely controlled by the Parliament of Great Britain. As Elector of Hanover, he spent twelve summers in Hanover, where he had more direct control over government policy. He had a difficult relationship with his eldest son, Frederick Louis, the Prince of Wales, who supported the parliamentary opposition.

When George visited Hanover in the summers of 1729, 1732 and 1735, he left his wife to chair the regency council in Britain rather than his son. Meanwhile, rivalry between George II and his brother-in-law and first cousin Friedrich Wilhelm I of Prussia led to tension along the Prussian–Hanoverian border, which eventually culminated in the mobilization of troops in the border zone and suggestions of a duel between the two kings.

Negotiations for a marriage between the Prince of Wales and Friedrich Wilhelm’s daughter Wilhelmine dragged on for years but neither side would make the concessions demanded by the other. The marriage negotiations were welcomed by Frederick Louis even though the couple had never met. George II was not keen on the proposal but continued talks for diplomatic reasons. Frustrated by the delay, Frederick sent an envoy of his own to the Prussian court. When George II discovered the plan, he immediately arranged for Frederick to leave Hanover for England. The marriage negotiations foundered when Friedrich Wilhelm demanded that Frederick be made Regent in Hanover.

Instead, the prince married Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg in April 1736. Princess Augusta 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’s wife Caroline died on November 20, 1737 (O.S.). He was deeply affected by her death, and to the surprise of many displayed “a tenderness of which the world thought him before utterly incapable”. On her deathbed she told her sobbing husband to remarry, to which he replied, “Non, j’aurai des maîtresses!” (French for “No, I shall have mistresses!”).

It was common knowledge that George had already had mistresses during his marriage, and he had kept Caroline informed about them. Henrietta Howard, later Countess of Suffolk, had moved to Hanover with her husband during the reign of Queen Anne, and had been one of Caroline’s women of the bedchamber.

She was his mistress from before the accession of George I until November 1734. She was followed by Amalie von Wallmoden, later Countess of Yarmouth, whose son, Johann Ludwig von Wallmoden, may have been fathered by George. Johann Ludwig was born while Amalie was still married to her husband, and George did not acknowledge him publicly as his own son.

In 1745 supporters of the Catholic claimant to the British throne, James Francis Edward Stuart (“The Old Pretender”), led by James’s son Charles Edward Stuart (“The Young Pretender” or “Bonnie Prince Charlie”), attempted and failed to depose George.

On April 27, 1746, Charles faced George’s military-minded son Prince William, Duke of Cumberland, in the Battle of Culloden, the last pitched battle fought on British soil. The ravaged Jacobite troops were routed by the government army. Charles escaped to France, but many of his supporters were caught and executed. Jacobitism was all but crushed; no further serious attempt was made at restoring the House of Stuart.

Frederick Louis, Prince of Wales (1707-1751)

Against Walpole’s wishes, but to George’s delight, Britain reopened hostilities with Spain in 1739. Britain’s conflict with Spain, the War of Jenkins’ Ear, became part of the Henrietta Howard, later Countess of Suffolk, when a major European dispute broke out upon the death of Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI in 1740. At issue was the right of Charles’s daughter, Maria Theresa, to succeed to his Austrian dominions. George spent the summers of 1740 and 1741 in Hanover, where he was more able to intervene directly in European diplomatic affairs in his capacity as elector.

The pro-war faction was led by Carteret, who claimed that French power would increase if Maria Theresa failed to succeed to the Austrian throne. George agreed to send 12,000 hired Hessian and Danish mercenaries to Europe, ostensibly to support Maria Theresa. Without conferring with his British ministers, George stationed them in Hanover to prevent enemy French troops from marching into the electorate.

George II and the Battle of Dettingen

The British army had not fought in a major European war in over 20 years, and the government had badly neglected its upkeep. George had pushed for greater professionalism in the ranks, and promotion by merit rather than by sale of commissions, but without much success. An allied force of Austrian, British, Dutch, Hanoverian and Hessian troops engaged the French at the Battle of Dettingen on 16/27 June 1743.

George personally accompanied them, leading them to victory, thus becoming the last British monarch to lead troops into battle. Though his actions in the battle were admired, the war became unpopular with the British public, who felt that the king and Carteret were subordinating British interests to Hanoverian ones. Carteret lost support, and to George’s dismay resigned in 1744.

July 10, 1086: Assassination of King Canute IV of Denmark.

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Adela of Flanders, Charles of Denmark, King Canute IV of Denmark, King Harald III of Denmark, King Olaf II of Denmark, King Sweyn II of Denmark, King William I of England, Kingdom of Denmark, Mistress, William the Conqueror

Canute IV (c. 1042 – 10 July 1086), later known as Canute the Holy or Saint Canute was King of Denmark from 1080 until 1086. Canute was an ambitious king who sought to strengthen the Danish monarchy, devotedly supported the Roman Catholic Church, and had designs on the English throne.

Canute was one of the many sons oF Sweyn II Estridsson, King of Denmark (c. 1019-1076) and an unknown mistress. He is first noted as a member of Sweyn’s 1069 raid of England, and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle reports that Canute was one of the leaders of another raid against England in 1075.

When returning from England in 1075, the Danish fleet stopped in the County of Flanders. Because of its hostility towards William I of England, Flanders was a natural ally for the Danes. He also led successful campaigns to Sember and Ester, according to skald Kálfr Mánason.

When Sweyn died, Canute’s brother Harald III was elected king, and as Canute went into exile in Sweden, he was possibly involved in the active opposition to Harald. On April 17, 1080, Harald died; and Canute succeeded him to the throne of Denmark.

On his accession to the throne of Denver he married Adela, daughter of Count Robert I of Flanders and Gertrude of Saxony the daughter of Bernard II, Duke of Saxony and Eilika of Schweinfurt. She bore him one son, Charles in 1084, and twin daughters Cæcilia (who married Erik Jarl) and Ingerid (who married Folke the Fat), born shortly before his death (ca. 1085/86). Ingerid’s descendants, the House of Bjelbo, would ascend to the throne of Sweden and Norway and Canute IV’s blood returned to the Danish throne in the person of King Olaf II of Denmark.

King of Denmark

Canute IV quickly proved himself to be a highly ambitious king as well as a devout one. He enhanced the authority of the church, and demanded austere observation of church holidays. He gave large gifts to the churches in Dalby, Odense, Roskilde, and Viborg, and especially to Lund. Ever a champion of the Church, he sought to enforce the collection of tithes. His aggrandizement of the church served to create a powerful ally, who in turn supported Canute’s power position.

His reign was marked by vigorous attempts to increase royal power in Denmark, by stifling the nobles and keeping them to the word of the law. Canute IV issued edicts arrogating to himself the ownership of common land, the right to the goods from shipwrecks, and the right to inherit the possessions of foreigners and kinless folk. He also issued laws to protect freed thralls as well as foreign clerics and merchants. These policies led to discontent among his subjects, who were unaccustomed to a king claiming such powers and interfering in their daily lives.

Aborted attempt on England

But Canute’s ambitions were not purely domestic. As the grandnephew of Canute the Great, who ruled England, Denmark and Norway until 1035, Canute considered the crown of England to be rightfully his. He therefore regarded William I of England as a usurper. In 1085, with the support of his father-in-law Count Robert of Flanders and King Olaf III of Norway, Canute planned an invasion of England and called his fleet in leding at the Limfjord.

The fleet never set sail, as Canute was preoccupied in Schleswig due to the potential threat of Heinrich IV, Holy Roman Emperor, with whom both Denmark and Flanders were on unfriendly terms. Canute feared the invasion of Henry, whose enemy Rudolf of Rheinfelden had sought refuge in Denmark.

The warriors of the fleet, mostly made up of peasants who needed to be home for the harvest season, got weary of waiting, and elected Canute’s brother Olaf (the later Olaf I of Denmark) to argue their case. This raised the suspicion of Canute, who had Olaf arrested and sent to Flanders. The leding was eventually dispersed and the peasants tended to their harvests, but Canute intended to reassemble within a year.

Death

Before the fleet could reassemble, a peasant revolt broke out in Vendsyssel, where Canute was staying, in early 1086. Canute first fled to Schleswig, and eventually to Odense. On July 10, 1086, Canute and his men took refuge inside the wooden St. Alban’s Priory in Odense. The rebels stormed into the church and slew Canute, along with his brother Benedict and seventeen of their followers, before the altar. According to chronicler Ælnoth of Canterbury, Canute died following a lance thrust in the flank. He was succeeded by Olaf as Olaf I of Denmark.

Marie-Louise O’Murphy: Mistress of King Louis XV of France and Navarre.

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François Boucher, French Revolution, Girl Reclining, Louis XV of France., Marie-Louise O'Murphy, Mistress, Painting, Reign of Terror

From the Emperor’s Desk: Louis XV of France, like many monarchs, has many mistresses. Today, and in the future, I will feature the lives of various mistresses to Europe’s monarchs. Today I’ll feature Marie-Louise O’Murphy, mistress of King Louis XV.

Marie-Louise O’Murphy (also variously called Mademoiselle de Morphy, La Belle Morphise, Louise Morfi or Marie-Louise Morphy de Boisfailly; October 21, 1737 – December 11, 1814) was one of the lesser mistresses (petites maîtresses) of King Louis XV of France, and possibly the model for the famous painting by François Boucher.

Marie-Louise O’Murphy or Morfi, was born in Rouen on 21 October 21, 1737 as the youngest of twelve children of Daniel Morfi and Marguerite Iquy, and was baptized the same day in the church of Saint Elo

Irish ancestry

The family of Marie-Louise O’Murphy was of Irish origin, settled in Normandy recently. The presence of her paternal grandfather Daniel Murphy is attested in Pont-Audemer at the end of the 17th century, when his first wife Marguerite Connard (Irish like him) died. Militant of the Jacobite army, he followed the deposed King James II-VII of England, Scotland and Ireland, to his exile in the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye; in consequence all the Catholic regiments who remained loyal to the King were sentenced to death in absentia by the new English government.

Marie-Louise’s parents had well-known criminal histories: Daniel Morfi was involved in a case of espionage and blackmail, while Marguerite Iquy was accused of prostitution and theft. Daniel Morfi appears in the records of the Bastille, where he was confined “for state business” after his arrest on February 23, 1735.

An unscrupulous collaborator, then identified as secretary of Charles O’Brien, 6th Viscount Clare accused him of stealing diplomatic correspondence that his master kept in secret with James Francis Edward Stuart (known as “The Old Pretender”), the pretender to the English throne, then exiled in Rome.

Daniel Morfi had tried to blackmail James Francis, by threatening to sell to the court of London the papers he had stolen. The case undermines the French Government, by revealing secret diplomatic negotiations in favor of the restoration of the Stuarts. The arrest record showed that Daniel Morfi possessed a handwritten letter of the Cardinal de Fleury, a letter from Viscount Clare and a letter from James Francis Stuart himself, where was shown his plans for the Restoration.

Daniel Morfi was held incommunicado for seven months at the Bastille; after this, he was able to join his wife and children, but all were locked under close supervision into the Abbey of Arcis near Nogent-le-Rotrou. This confinement was terminated on 21 December 1736: Daniel Morfi was allowed to go wherever he wished, except Paris. Thus, with his family, he returned to Rouen, where Marie-Louise was born a year later.

The sisters of Marie-Louise O’Murphy are also known for being involved in prostitution. Jean Meunier, police inspector who was in charge of monitoring girls and women dedicated to this work, dedicated several pages to the O’Murphy sisters in the diary that he wrote from 1747 and in a report made in 1753 for his superior Nicolas René Berryer, lieutenant général de police. On May 12, 1753 Meunier dedicated three pages to the five O’Murphy sisters: Marguerite, Brigitte, Madeleine, Victoire and Marie-Louise.

About Marguerite and Madeleine (nicknamed Magdelon), he notes that they have their “campaigns in Flanders” following the French army, but before their departure would often be in the company of their sister Victorie and “the Richardot, the Duval, the Beaudouin, the Fleurance and others women of the world”. About Brigitte, Meunier wrote that “she always stayed with her parents and she wasn’t either brilliant or noisy”; however, he concluded that “despite her ugliness we are sure that she wasn’t an innocent girl”.

This is probably a similar account to the information written by Marquis d’Argenson in his diary on 1 April 1753 about Marie-Louise O’Murphy: The King had a new mistress … she belonged to a family of prostitutes and thieves.

After the death of her father on June 4, 1753, Marie-Louise’s mother brought the family to Paris.

Model of François Boucher

Contemporary and modern historiography concur in identifying Marie-Louise O’Murphy as the very young model who posed for the Jeune Fille allongée (Reclining Girl), of François Boucher, a painting famous for its undisguised eroticism, dating from 1752. Marie-Louise O’Murphy would have been 15 years of age at the time of the painting.

Two versions of this painting have survived, both conserved in Germany, one in the Alte Pinakothek at Munich and the other in the Wallraf-Richartz Museum at Cologne. Boucher, at the height of his fame, had made a specialty of these deliberately licentious nudes, represented in lascivious poses outside a mythological context.

La Jeune Fille allongée, also known as l’Odalisque blonde (the Blonde Odalisque), echoes to the also erotic Odalisque brune (Brown Odalisque), painted around 1745, whose several copies are kept at the Louvre or the Museum of Fine Arts, Rheims.

In his Histoire de ma vie (vol. 3, chap. 11), Giacomo Casanova relates that he found her “a pretty, ragged, dirty, little creature” of thirteen years in the house of her actress sister. Struck by her beauty when seeing her naked, however, he had a nude portrait of her painted, with the inscription “O-Morphi” (punning her name with Modern Greek ὄμορφη, “beautiful”), a copy of which found its way to King Louis XV, who then asked to see if the original corresponded with the painting.

The skilled artist had drawn her legs and thighs so that the eye could not wish to see more. There I write below: O-Morphi wasn’t a Homeric or either Greek word. It simply meant “beautiful”.

In his account of those events, which were written many years later, the Venetian seducer seeks to obtain the central role, even though he was perhaps only a partial witness. He did not specifically cite Boucher and seems rather, in the evening of his life, to have recorded this episode from gossip and pamphlets which circulated very freely in Europe at the end of the 18th century. Other sources are more accurate.
Police inspector Jean Meunier echoes in his diary another version of the facts, that circulates in the months following the meeting of Louis XV and Marie-Louise O’Murphy. On 8 May 1753 he wrote very specifically:

They say that the youngest Morfi, fourth sister and therefore the youngest served as a model of the Boucher painting, he painted her naked and gave or sold the painting to Monsieur de Vandières [brother of Madame de Pompadour] and when the King saw it, became intrigued if the painter hadn’t flattered the model, so he asked to see the youngest Morfi, and after their meeting, he found her even better that the painting.

Petite maîtresse of Louis XV

The term Petite maîtresse (little mistress) was given to Louis XV’s mistresses that were not formally presented at court, and unlike the official mistress (maîtresse-en-titre) did not have an apartment in Palace of Versailles. Generally recruited by the King’s valets in Paris surroundings, if their affair lasted more than a single night, they were placed in a group of houses in the district of Parc-aux-Cerfs in Versailles, or close to other royal residences. Marie-Louise O’Murphy resided there for two years, from 1753 to 1755.

Different stories circulated about the exact circumstances in which was presented to the King. As was previously mentioned, according to Meunier’s reports, this was thanks to the mediation of Abel-François Poisson de Vandières, brother of Madame de Pompadour, showing Boucher’s portrait to Louis XV.

Another version supports the theory that the recruitment of Louis XV’s little mistresses was done under the control of the inner circle of Madame de Pompadour:

Monsieur de Vandières, Director of the King’s Buildings (Bâtiments du Roi) in a letter dated February 19, 1753, gave a peculiar order to the painter Charles-Joseph Natoire in Rome, who provides elements that suggests that he was in possession of the portrait of Marie-Louise O’Murphy made by Boucher, and he was able to show it to the King:

I had a private room that I wanted to enrich with four pieces of the most expert painters of our school. I already had a van Loo, a Boucher and a Pierre. You can judge that lacks a Natoire … Because the room was very small and secret, I wanted nudity: the painting of Carle who represents the sleeping Antiope, and the painting of Boucher of a young woman lying on her stomach …

Then it is Dominique-Guillaume Lebel, first valet of the King’s chamber, who had the delicate and secret mission to negotiate the “virginity” of the girl and bring her back to Versailles. Thus the Marquis d’Argenson in his diary, dated on April 1, 1753, recorded that “Lebel was in Paris to bring a new virgin … then he contacted a dressmaker named Fleuret, who provides the lovers with dresses from his shop at Saint Honoré”. By March 30, he still did not know the identity of Marie-Louise O’Murphy and he refers to a “little girl who was a model in Boucher” and the King “would have seen Lebel his valet”.

After a miscarriage in mid-1753 which almost killed her (as a result this merely brought Louis XV closer to her because he loved the idea that she had almost died “in service” as a proof of her affection for him), Marie-Louise O’Murphy gave birth to Louis XV’s illegitimate daughter, Agathe-Louise de Saint-Antoine de Saint-André, born in Paris on June 20, 1754 and baptized that same day at Saint-Paul as a child of “Louis de Saint-André, Old official of infantry and Louise-Marie de Berhini, resident of Saint-Antoine street”, both non-existent persons; the King (who did not want to recognize the offspring born from petites maîtresses and brief affairs) ordered that the newborn must be immediately placed in care of a wet nurse.

Subsequently, Agathe-Louise was sent to the Couvent de la Présentation, where she was raised; Louis XV paid a pension for his daughter and appointed Louis Yon, Secretary of the Comptroller of Finances and Jean-Michel Delage, a notary, both trustworthy men, as her legal guardians.

Marie-Louise Morphy de Boisfailly

The name of “Marie-Louise Morphy de Boisfailly” that she used in the second part of her life was invented for her first marriage.

After serving as a mistress to the King for almost two years, Marie-Louise O’Murphy made a mistake that was common for many courtesans, that of trying to replace the official mistress. She unwisely tried to unseat the longtime royal favorite, Madame de Pompadour. This ill-judged move quickly resulted in O’Murphy’s downfall at court.

In November 1755 Marie-Louise O’Murphy was expelled at night from her home at Parc-aux-Cerfs. Repudiated by the King, she was sent far away from Versailles:

The King ordened her to leave at four in the morning to Paris: there she received the unexpected order to marry and she must obey.

She was hastily married on November 25, 1755, by contract signed before Mr. Patu, notary in Paris, with Jacques Pelet de Beaufranchet, Seigneur d’Ayat (born 5 March 1728). The marriage was arranged by the inner circle of Madame de Pompadour. The Duke of Luynes and the Marquis de Valfons recorded that the Prince of Soubise and the Marquis de Lugeac received the task to find a husband for Marie-Louise O’Murphy and arrange her marriage.

The intended husband was chosen with great care: well born, with a good name for the former Petite maîtresse, young and good-looking. Beaufranchet, a good soldier and without fortune, obeyed the King’s order.

It was in order to give Marie-Louise O’Murphy a better status before her future in-laws and to spare the aristocrat sensibilities of Beaufranchet, that the young woman received the surname of Morphy de Boisfailly, and called a daughter of Daniel Morphy de Boisfailly, an Irish gentleman. As a dowry, she received the sum of 200,000 livres, a disguised donation of Louis XV, through the father Vanier, canon of the Royal and Collegiate Church of Saint-Paul de Lestrée at Saint-Denis; in addition, she was allowed to keep the clothes and jewelry received from the King during her stay at Parc-aux-Cerfs.

The engagement took place the next day and the wedding was celebrated on November 27, 1755 in the parish of Saints Innocents, in the greatest secrecy. Beaufranchet’s parents remained in the province and send their proxies to the wedding. By the side of Marie-Louise, no family member was present. Her mother was represented by a lawyer of the Parlement called Noël Duval, and none of her sisters was present, perhaps to spare the “mighty Seigneur d’Ayat” a painful confrontation with his humble and scandalous in-laws.

Later life

Soon, the new Dame d’Ayat became pregnant. Her first child, a daughter named Louise Charlotte Antoinette Françoise Pelet de Beaufranchet, was born on October 30, 1756. Thirteen months later, on November 5, 1757, Jacques Pelet de Beaufranchet was killed in action at the battle of Rossbach, and seventeen days later (November 22), Marie-Louise gave birth a second child, a son, Louis Charles Antoine Pelet de Beaufranchet, the later Comte de Beaufranchet and General under the Republic.

Her daughter Louise Charlotte died on February 6, 1759, aged two. Thirteen days later, on February 19 at Riom, Marie-Louise married secondly with François Nicolas Le Normant, Comte de Flaghac and Receiver General of Finance in Riom (born September 13, 1725), a divorcee with three children.

A distant cousin of Charles Guillaume Le Normant d’Étiolles and Charles François Paul Le Normant de Tournehem, through this marriage Marie-Louise became related with Madame de Pompadour. In addition, the former royal mistress was able to enter in the finance world and thanks to the traffic of influences, could accesses on the Ferme générale, which enable her to multiplicate her assets and fortune.

From her second marriage, Marie-Louise gave birth to a daughter, Marguerite Victoire Le Normant de Flaghac (January 5, 1768 – after 1814), who, according to one theory, could be another illegitimate daughter of Louis XV.

François Le Normant died on April 24, 1783. She was accorded a pension of 12,000 francs. During the Reign of Terror Marie-Louise was imprisoned as a “suspect”, under the name of O’Murphy, at Sainte-Pelagie and later at the English Benedictine convent in Paris.

After her release she married thirdly on June 19, 1795 with Louis Philippe Dumont (17 November 1765 – 11 June 1853), a moderate MP for Calvados in the National Convention and twenty-eight years younger than her; however, this union quickly failed, and after almost three years, they divorced on 16 March 1798. She never married again.

After the Bourbon Restoration, she received from King Charles X a rent of 2,000 francs from his own treasure, and further 3,000 francs from the Civil List. In 1811 was born her first great-grandchild, Louise Antoinette Zoé Terreyre (daughter of Anne Pauline Victoire Laure Pelet de Beaufranchet d’Ayat, in turn daughter of Marie-Louise’s son the Comte de Beaufranchet).

Marie-Louise O’Murphy died in Paris on December 11, 1814 aged 77, at the home of her daughter Marguerite Le Normant.

Princess Catherine Dolgorukova and Alexander II of Russia

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Emperor Alexander II of Russia, Emperor Alexander III of Russia, Lady-in-Waiting, Marie of Hesse and By Rhine, Mistress, Morganatic Marriage, Prince Michael Dolgorukov, Princess Catherine Dolgorukova, St. Petersburg

Princess Catherine Dolgorukova (November 14, 1847 – February 15, 1922), also known as Catherine Dolgorukova, Dolgoruki, or Dolgorukaya, was the daughter of Prince Michael Dolgorukov and Vera Vishnevskaya. She was a long-time mistress of Emperor Alexander II of Russia and later, as his morganatic wife, was given the title of Princess Yurievskaya.

Alexander and Catherine already had three children when they formed a morganatic marriage on July 18, 1880, after the death of the Emperor’s wife, Marie of Hesse and by Rhine, on June 3, 1880. A fourth child had died in infancy. Catherine became a widow with the assassination of Alexander II on March 13, 1881 by members of Narodnaya Volya.

Catherine first met Alexander when she was twelve and he paid a visit to her father’s estate. At the time, he saw her only as a little girl and probably forgot their visit. After the death of her father, who had left his family without resources, Catherine and her sister were sent to the Smolny Institute for Noble Maidens in St. Petersburg, a school for well-born girls.

The Emperor paid for their education and that of their four brothers. Alexander met the sixteen-year-old Catherine there on an official visit to the school in the fall of 1864 and was immediately attracted. The Emperor was 45 and with Catherine being 16 there was an age difference of 29 years, 6 months, 16 days.

One contemporary described the young Catherine as “of medium height, with an elegant figure, silky ivory skin, the eyes of a frightened gazelle, a sensuous mouth, and light chestnut tresses.” Alexander visited her at the school and took her for walks and on carriage rides. Catherine had liberal opinions, formed in part by her time at the school, and she discussed them with the Emperor . He later arranged for her to become a lady-in-waiting to his wife, who was suffering from tuberculosis.

Catherine liked the Emperor and enjoyed being in his company, but she didn’t want to become one of a series of mistresses. Though her mother and the headmistress of the Smolny Institute both urged her to seize the opportunity to better her circumstances and those of her family, Catherine and Alexander did not actually become intimate until July 1866, when she was moved by her pity for the Emperor after the death of his eldest son, Nicholas Alexandrovich, Tsarevich of Russia, and after an attempt to assassinate him. Her own mother had died two months before. That night, she later recalled in her memoirs, the Emperor told her: “Now you are my secret wife. I swear that if I am ever free, I will marry you.”

They had four children, 2 boys and 2 girls, born between 1872-1878. The Emperor insisted that Catherine and their children remain nearby. He saw her three or four times a week when she was escorted by the police to a private apartment in the Winter Palace and they wrote to one another every day and sometimes several times each day, often discussing the pleasure they found in making love. In one 28-page letter, written when Catherine was pregnant, she asked the Emperor to remain faithful to her “for I know you are capable in one moment when you want to make it, to forget that you desire only me, and to go and make it with another woman.”

Alexander sketched Catherine in the nude, rented her a mansion in St. Petersburg, and thought of her constantly. Still, great secrecy was required. They never signed their letters to one another with their real names and used the code word “bingerle” to refer to the sex act. When she went into labor with her third child, Boris, in February 1876, Catherine insisted on being taken to the Winter Palace, where she gave birth in the Emperor’s rooms, but the baby was taken back to Catherine’s private residence while Catherine recovered from childbirth in the Emperor’s rooms for nine days. Boris caught cold and died a few weeks later.

The children of Emperor Alexander II and Princess Catherine’s children were given the title Prince/Princess knyaginya:

* Prince George Alexandrovich Yurievsky (May 12, 1872 – September 13, 1913); married Countess Alexandra von Zarnekau, a morganatic daughter of Duke Constantine Petrovich of Oldenburg and Agrafena Djaparidze, Countess von Zarnekau.
* Princess Olga Alexandrovna Yurievskaya (November 7, 1873 – August 10, 1925); married Georg Nikolaus, Count of Merenberg, a morganatic son of Prince Nikolaus Wilhelm of Nassau by his wife, Natalia Alexandrovna Pushkina, daughter of Alexander Pushkin.
* Boris Alexandrovich Yurievsky (February 23, 1876 – April 11, 1876).
* Princess Catherine Alexandrovna Yurievskaya (September 9, 1878 – December 22, 1959); married, firstly, Prince Alexander Vladimirovich Baryatinsky; married, secondly, Prince Sergei Platonovich Obolensky.

The relationship met with tremendous disapproval from the Emperor’s family and from those at Court. Catherine was accused of scheming to become Empress and of influencing the Tsar towards liberalism. She was said to associate with unscrupulous businessmen. Some members of the family feared that Catherine’s children might supplant the Tsar’s legitimate heirs. The Tsar tired of hearing veiled criticisms from relatives and wrote to his sister Queen Olga of Württemberg, (wife of King Charles I of Württemberg) shortly after their marriage that Catherine never interfered in affairs at court, despite the ugly rumors about her. “She preferred to renounce all social amusements and pleasures so desired by young ladies of her age…and has devoted her entire life to loving and caring for me,” the Tsar wrote. “Without interfering in any affairs, despite the many attempts by those who would dishonestly use her name, she lives only for me, dedicated to bringing up our children.”

Fearing that she might become the target of assassins, the Tsar had moved Catherine and their children to the third floor of the Winter Palace by the winter of 1880. Courtiers spread stories that the dying Tsarina was forced to hear the noise of Catherine’s children moving about overhead, but her rooms were actually far away from those occupied by the Empress. Though the Tsar had been unfaithful on many occasions in the past, his relationship with Catherine began after the Empress, who had had eight children, stopped having intercourse with her husband on the advice of her doctors.

After the Empress asked to meet his children with Catherine, the Emperor brought their two older children, George and Olga, to the Empress’s bedside and she kissed and blessed both children. Both the Emperor and his wife were in tears during the meeting. The Emperor told his family that he chose to marry Catherine soon after the death of the Empress because he feared that he would be assassinated and she would be left with nothing. The marriage was unpopular both with the family and with the people, but the Tsar forced them to accept it. He granted Catherine the title of Princess Yurievskaya and legitimized their children, though they had no right to the throne as children of a morganatic marriage.

Some courtiers described Catherine as “vulgar and ugly” and resented that she was there in the place of their dead Empress. One of them, Konstantin Pobedonostsev, wrote that “the eyes, by themselves, would be attractive, I suppose, only her gaze has no depth – the kind in which transparency and naïveté meet with lifelessness and stupidity … How it irks me to see her in the place of the dear, wise, and graceful Empress!”

The Emperor however, was delighted to finally be married to his long-time mistress and to be able to be open about their relationship. In his memoirs, Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich of Russia wrote that the Emperor behaved like a teenage boy when in Catherine’s presence and she also appeared to adore him. At one point in family company, the Emperor asked George, his oldest child by Catherine, if he would like to become a Grand Duke. “Sasha, for God’s sake, drop it!” Catherine rebuked him, but the exchange fueled the family’s fears that the Tsar planned to make Catherine his Empress and supplant his legitimate heirs with his second family.

The family also resented it when they heard Catherine call her husband by the diminutive “Sasha.” Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich wrote that his father, Grand Duke Mikhail Nikolaevich of Russia, was sorry for Catherine because the family treated her so coldly.

Though they were happy together, the troubled political situation and constant threats of assassination cast a shadow over their lives together. On March 1, 1880, an explosion shook the dining room of the Winter Palace. Alexander ran upstairs to Catherine’s rooms, shouting “Katya, my dearest Katya!” She was unhurt, as was the dying Empress, who was so ill she was unaware an explosion had occurred.

Alexander’s brother-in-law, Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine, who was there during the assassination attempt, bitterly resented that the Emperor had forgotten his dying wife, Prince Alexander’s sister, who was also in the Palace and might have been injured in the assassination attempt. A year later, on the day that Alexander was assassinated, Catherine pleaded with him not to go out because she had a premonition that something would happen to him. He quieted her objections by making love to her on a table in her rooms and leaving her behind. Within hours he was mortally wounded and was brought back to the palace, broken and bleeding.

When she heard the news, Catherine ran half-dressed into the room where he lay dying and fell across his body, crying “Sasha! Sasha!”[18] In his memoirs, Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich recalled that the pink and white négligée she was wearing was soaked in Alexander’s blood. At his funeral, Catherine and her three children were forced to stand in an entryway of the church and received no place in the procession of the Imperial Family. They were also forced to attend a separate Funeral Mass than the rest of the family.

Later life

After the Tsar’s death, Catherine received a pension of approximately 3.4 million rubles and agreed to give up the right to live in the Winter Palace or any of the Imperial residences in Russia in return for a separate residence for herself and the three children. She settled in Paris and on the Riviera, where she became known as a fashionable hostess and was used to having twenty servants and a private railway car, though the Romanov Family continued to look upon her and her children with disdain. Emperor Alexander III had his secret police spy on her and received reports on her activities in France. Grand Duke George Alexandrovich of Russia used illness as an excuse to avoid socializing with her in 1895.

Emperor Nicholas II recalled that Catherine was offended when he refused to be the sponsor when her daughter Olga married the Count of Merenberg in the spring of 1895. Nicholas II’s mother, the Dowager Empress Maria, had been appalled by the idea, so Nicholas declined. Catherine’s son George was an abysmal failure in the Russian Navy, as Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich of Russia informed her by letter, but he was granted a place in the Cavalry School. Catherine survived her husband by forty-one years and died on February 15, 1922 aged 74, just as her money was running out.

200th Anniversary of the Birth of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom: Prince Edward, Duke of Kent.

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Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz., Duke of Kent, King George III, King George III of Great Britain, Kings and Queens of Great Britain, Madame de Saint Laurent, Mistress, Prince Edward, Qubec, Queen Victoria

On Friday, May 24, is the 200th Anniversary of the birth of Queen Victoria. To honor this occasion I’ll feature some biographical info on her father Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn. Tomorrow (Thursday) I will feature Queen Victoria’s mother, Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, and Friday I’ll feature Queen Victoria’s Birth itself.

His Royal Highness The Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn and Earl of Dublin.

Prince Edward was born on November 2, 1767. He was the son of the the reigning British monarch, King George III of Great Britain and Imperial Elector of Hanover and Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. As a son of the British monarch, he was styled His Royal Highness The Prince Edward from birth, and was fourth in the line of succession to the throne. He was named after his paternal uncle, Prince Edward, Duke of York and Albany, who had died several weeks earlier and was buried at Westminster Abbey the day before his birth.

The Prince began his military training in Germany in 1785. King George III intended to send him to the University of Göttingen, but decided against it upon the advice of the Duke of York. Instead, Edward went to Lüneburg and later Hanover, accompanied by his tutor, Baron Wangenheim. On May 30, 1786, he was appointed a brevet colonel in the British Army. From 1788 to 1789, he completed his education in Geneva. On August 5, 1789, aged 22, he became a mason in the L’Union, the most important Genevan masonic lodge in the 19th century.

Quebec

Due to the extreme Mediterranean heat, Edward requested to be transferred to present-day Canada, specifically Quebec, in 1791. arrived in Canada in time to witness the proclamation of the Constitutional Act of 179, Edward became the first member of the Royal Family to tour Upper Canada and became a fixture of British North American society. Edward and his mistress, Julie St. Laurent, became close friends with the French Canadian family of Ignace-Michel-Louis-Antoine d’Irumberry de Salaberry; the Prince mentored all of the family’s sons throughout their military careers. Edward guided Charles de Salaberry throughout his career, and made sure that the famous commander was duly honoured after his leadership during the Battle of Chateauguay.

Madame de Saint-Laurent

Madame de Saint-Laurent was born September 30, 1760 in Besançon, France to Jean-Claude Mongenêt, a civil engineer, and Jeanne-Claude (Claudine) Pussot and later moved to Quebec.

On the formation of Lower Canada, in August, 1791, Prince Edward, arrived in Quebec City and shortly afterwards leased Judge Mabane’s house for £90 per annum. He lived at Prince Edward’s House in Quebec City for three years with Madame de Saint Laurent, before he was posted to Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1794.

History

While in Geneva, the Duke had been introduced to Madame de Saint-Laurent and her husband Baron de Fortissons and soon after Julie and Edward became lovers. The Duke’s father, King George III, enrolled Edward in the army In 1789, he was appointed colonel of the 7th Regiment of Foot (Royal Fusiliers). In 1790, he returned home without leave and, in disgrace, was sent off to Gibraltar as an ordinary officer, where Edward made arrangements for Madame de Saint-Laurent to be smuggled in from Marseilles so they could be together.

When George III later found out about the affair he sent the Duke to Quebec City as colonel of the 7th Fusiliers. Humiliated, at first he refused to go, but in August 1791 he arrived accompanied by his chatelaine, introduced as Julie de Saint-Laurent and reputed to be a widow. It has been claimed by several writers that she was morganatically married to the Duke of Kent at a Roman Catholic church in Quebec.

For twenty-eight years Madame de Saint-Laurent presided over the Duke’s household, as a local chronicler records, “with dignity and propriety.” She is described as having been beautiful, clever, witty and accomplished. Many of her letters will be found in Anderson’s ” Life of the Duke of Kent ” (Quebec: 1870).

On June 27, 1792, Edward is credited with the first use of the term “Canadian” to mean both French and English settlers in Upper and Lower Canada. The Prince used the term in an effort to quell a riot between the two groups at a polling station in Charlesbourg, Lower Canada. Recently he has been styled the “Father of the Canadian Crown” for his impact on the development of Canada.

After 1794, Prince Edward lived at the headquarters of the Royal Navy’s North American Station located in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He was instrumental in shaping that settlement’s military defences, protecting its important Royal Navy base, as well as influencing the city’s and colony’s socio-political and economic institutions. Edward was responsible for the construction of Halifax’s iconic Garrison Clock, as well as numerous other civic projects such as St. George’s Round Church. Lieutenant Governor Sir John Wentworth and Lady Francis Wentworth provided their country residence for the use of Prince Edward and Julie St. Laurent. Extensively renovated, the estate became known as “Prince’s Lodge” as the couple hosted numerous dignitaries, including Louis-Phillippe of Orléans (the future King of the French). All that remains of the residence is a small rotunda built by Edward for his regimental band to play music.

HRH The Duke of Kent and Strathearn

After suffering a fall from his horse in late 1798, he was allowed to return to England. On April 24, 1799, Prince Edward was created Duke of Kent and Strathearn and Earl of Dublin, received the thanks of parliament and an income of £12,000. In May that same year the Duke was promoted to the rank of general and appointed Commander-in-Chief of British forces in North America. He took leave of his parents 22 July 1799 and sailed to Halifax. Just over twelve months later he left Halifax and arrived in England on August 31, 1800 where it was confidently expected his next appointment would be Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.

In Geneva Switzerland Prince Edward had two more mistresses, Adelaide Dubus and Anne Moré. Adelaide Dubus died at the birth of their daughter, also named Adelaide Dubus (1789 – in or after 1832). Anne Moré was the mother of their son Edward Schenker Scheener (1789–1853). Scheener married but had no children and returned to Geneva, perhaps significantly in 1837, where he later died.

Mollie Gillen, who was granted access to the Royal Archive at Windsor Castle, established that no children were born of the 27-year relationship between Edward Augustus and Madame de Saint-Laurent; although many Canadian families and individuals (including the Nova Scotian soldier Sir William Fenwick Williams, 1st Baronet, have claimed descent from them. Such claims can now be discounted in light of this research.

After the Duke’s marriage in 1818 to the widow of the Prince of Leiningen, Madame de Saint-Laurent retreated to Paris where she lived out her days amongst her family and friends.