Archduchess Anne of Austria, Queen of Poland and Sweden. Conclusion

Tags

Archduchess Anne of Austria, House of Habsburg, House of Vasa, Protestant, Queen of Poland and Sweden, Roman Catholic, Sigismund III of Poland and Sweden

Queen

Anna was described as attractive and intelligent. She acquired the confidence and love of the introvert Sigismund, and their relationship was described as a happy one, with her functioning as his support during the many trials of the politically unstable 1590s.

Sigismund became King of Sweden as well in 1592, and the king and queen were required to go to Sweden to be crowned. The Poles did not want Sigismund to leave Poland, and demanded that Anna remain in Poland as a hostage. Sigismund rejected this condition, and they departed for Sweden in 1593.

The voyage to Sweden was difficult, and Anne was pregnant. Anne did not like Sweden, nor did she make a good impression on the Swedes: raised as a fervent Catholic, she strongly disapproved of the Protestant Swedes, whom she regarded as heretics, and could not tolerate the Lutheran clergy.

She became involved in a conflict with the Protestant Dowager Queen Gunilla Bielke, whom she accused of having stolen valuables from the Royal Palace. She felt a strong mistrust toward her husband’s Swedish Protestant uncle, Duke Charles. She was crowned as the Queen of Sweden in Uppsala Cathedral on February 19, 1594, but because the ceremony was a Protestant one, she viewed it as an empty ceremony of no consequence.

Her political influence as the confidant of Sigismund was noted, and Anne and her Jesuit confessor Sigismund Ehrenhöffer acted as a channel between the king and the Papal envoy Germanico Malaspina, to whom they gave information about the king’s policy.

In April 1594 in Stockholm, she gave birth to daughter, Catherine, whose baptism was elaborately celebrated at the Swedish court, but the child died soon after.

The Poles had demanded that she leave her daughter Anna Maria behind her as hostage in Poland during their stay in Sweden. She had also been afraid that the Swedes would demand to keep her daughter Catherine (born in Sweden) when she returned to Poland.

On her departure from Sweden in July 1594, she was granted the towns of Linköping, Söderköping, and Stegeborg as personal domains on the condition that she respect the Protestant belief within these fiefs.

Upon their return to Poland, Anne acted as the confidant of Sigismund. She advised him on navigating between the Polish noble factions, on the League against the Ottoman Empire, and especially on the relationship between Poland and the Habsburg dynasty.

She had however no interest in maintaining the personal union between Catholic Poland and Protestant Sweden, and used her influence to oppose the plan to have her son Wladislaus succeed Sweden by sending him there to be brought up a Protestant.

Anne died on February 10, 1598 in Warsaw as a result of haemorrhage during the birth of her last child, who also died then. Sigismund III then married her sister Archduchess Constance Renate of Austria.

June 7, 1840: Accession of King Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia

Tags

Elisabeth Ludovika of Bavaria, Emperor of the Germans, Frankfort Parliament, Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia, Kingdom of Prussia, Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Roman Catholic, Romantic

Friedrich Wilhelm IV (October 15, 1795 – January 2, 1861), the eldest son and successor of Frederick William III of Prussia, reigned as King of Prussia from June 7, 1840 to his death on January 2, 1861.

Born to Friedrich Wilhelm III by his wife Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, he was her favourite son. Queen Louise was the fourth daughter and sixth child of Duke Charles of Mecklenburg-Strelitz and his wife Princess Friederike of Hesse-Darmstadt. Her father Charles was a brother of Queen Charlotte of the United Kingdom and her mother Frederike was a granddaughter of Ludwig VIII, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt.

Her maternal grandmother, Landgravine Marie Louise of Hesse-Darmstadt, and her paternal first-cousin Princess Augusta Sophia of the United Kingdom served as sponsors at her baptism; her second given name came from Princess Augusta Sophia.

Friedrich Wilhelm was educated by private tutors, many of whom were experienced civil servants, such as Friedrich Ancillon. He also gained military experience by serving in the Prussian Army during the War of Liberation against Napoleon in 1814, although he was an indifferent soldier.

He was a draftsman interested in both architecture and landscape gardening and was a patron of several great German artists, including architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel and composer Felix Mendelssohn.

In 1823 he married Elisabeth Ludovika of Bavaria,
daughter of King Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria and his Queen Friederike Karoline Wilhelmine Margravine of Baden. She was the identical twin sister of Queen Amalie of Saxony, consort of King Johann I of Saxony, and sister of Archduchess Sophie of Austria, mother of Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria and Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico; as well as Ludovika, Duchess in Bavaria, mother of Franz Josef’s consort, Empress Elisabeth of Austria (Sisi), who was Elisabeth’s godchild and namesake. She was known within her family as Elise.

Since Elisabeth Ludovika was a Roman Catholic, the preparations for this marriage included difficult negotiations which ended with her conversion to Lutheranism. There were two wedding ceremonies—one in Munich, and another in Berlin. The couple had a very harmonious marriage, but, after a single miscarriage in 1828, it remained childless.

Friedrich Wilhelm IV was a staunch Romanticist, and his devotion to this movement, which in the German States featured nostalgia for the Middle Ages, was largely responsible for his developing into a conservative at an early age.

In 1815, when he was only twenty, the crown prince exerted his influence to structure the proposed new constitution of 1815, which was never actually enacted, in such a way that the landed aristocracy would hold the greatest power. He was firmly against the liberalization of Germany and only aspired to unify its many states within what he viewed as a historically legitimate framework, inspired by the ancient laws and customs of the recently dissolved Holy Roman Empire.

In politics, he was a conservative, who initially pursued a moderate policy of easing press censorship and reconciling with the Catholic population of the kingdom.

During the German revolutions of 1848–1849, he at first accommodated the revolutionaries but rejected the title of Emperor of the Germans offered by the Frankfurt Parliament in 1849, believing that Parliament did not have the right to make such an offer. He used military force to crush the revolutionaries throughout the German Confederation. From 1849 onward he converted Prussia into a constitutional monarchy and acquired the port of Wilhelmshaven in the Jade Treaty of 1853.

Also referred to as the “romanticist on the throne”, he is best remembered for the many buildings he had constructed in Berlin and Potsdam as well as for the completion of the Gothic Cologne Cathedral.

From 1857 to 1861, he suffered several strokes and was left incapacitated until his death. His brother (and heir-presumptive) Wilhelm served as regent after 1858 and then succeeded him as King.

Accession of Queen Anne of England, Scotland and Ireland. Part V

Tags

Duke of Gloucester, Elizabeth Stuart of England, King James II-VII of England, Prince William, Queen Anne of England, Roman Catholic, Sophie of Hanover, The Act of Settlement of 1701, William III-II of England

Anne’s final pregnancy ended on January 25, 1700 with a stillbirth. She had been pregnant at least 17 times over as many years, and had miscarried or given birth to stillborn children at least 12 times. Of her five liveborn children, four died before the age of two.

Anne suffered from bouts of “gout” (pains in her limbs and eventually stomach and head) from at least 1698. Based on her foetal losses and physical symptoms, she may have had systemic lupus erythematosus, or antiphospholipid syndrome. Alternatively, pelvic inflammatory disease could explain why the onset of her symptoms roughly coincided with her penultimate pregnancy.

Other suggested causes of her failed pregnancies are listeriosis, diabetes, intrauterine growth retardation, and rhesus incompatibility. Rhesus incompatibility, however, generally worsens with successive pregnancies, and so does not fit the pattern of Anne’s pregnancies, as her only son to survive infancy, Prince William, Duke of Gloucester, was born after a series of stillbirths. Experts also believe syphilis, porphyria and pelvic deformation to be unlikely as the symptoms are incompatible with her medical history.

Anne’s gout rendered her lame for much of her later life. Around the court, she was carried in a sedan chair, or used a wheelchair. Around her estates, she used a one-horse chaise, which she drove herself “furiously like Jehu and a mighty hunter like Nimrod”. She gained weight as a result of her sedentary lifestyle; in Sarah’s words, “she grew exceeding gross and corpulent. There was something of majesty in her look, but mixed with a gloominess of soul”.

Anne’s sole surviving child, Prince William, Duke of Gloucester, died at age 11 on July 30, 1700. She and her husband were “overwhelmed with grief”. Anne ordered her household to observe a day of mourning every year on the anniversary of his death. With King William III childless and the Duke of Gloucester dead, Anne was the only person remaining in the line of succession established by the Bill of Rights 1689.

To address the succession crisis and preclude a Catholic restoration, the Parliament of England enacted the Act of Settlement 1701, which provided that, failing the issue of Anne and of William III by any future marriage, the Crown of England and Ireland would go to Sophia, Electress of Hanover, and her Protestant descendants.

Sophia was the granddaughter of James I-VI of England, Scotland and England through his daughter Elizabeth, who was the sister of Anne’s grandfather Charles I. Over 50 Catholics with stronger claims were excluded from the line of succession.

Anne’s father, the former King James II-VII, died in September 1701. His widow, Anne’s stepmother, the former queen, wrote to Anne to inform her that her father forgave her and to remind her of her promise to seek the restoration of his line, meaning her Catholic half-brother, James Francis, The Prince of Wales, but Anne had already acquiesced to the line of succession created by the Act of Settlement.

December 15, 1907: Death of Carola of Vasa, Queen of Saxony

Tags

Albert of Saxony, Carol I of Romania, Carola of Vasa, Crown Prince Gustaf of Sweden, Gustaf IV Adolf of Sweden, Louise Amelie of Baden, Princess of Sweden, Roman Catholic

Carola of Vasa (Caroline Frederikke Franziska Stephanie Amalia Cecilia; 5 August 5, 1833 – December 15, 1907) was a titular Princess of Sweden, and the Queen Consort of Saxony. She was the last Queen of Saxony.

Background

Carola was the daughter of the former Crown Prince Gustaf of Sweden and Princess Louise Amelie of Baden, and a granddaughter of King Gustaf IV Adolf of Sweden who had been deposed in 1809.

In the early 1850s, she was considered one of the most beautiful princesses of Europe. Suitors were not lacking, and there had been plans for her to marry Napoléon III, Emperor of the French. She was a cousin of the Emperor’s through her maternal grandmother Stéphanie de Beauharnais, also the adoptive daughter of Napoleon I and a Princess of the First French Empire. Her father was against the marriage due to the volatile political situation in France and his dynasty’s historical dispute with the Bonaparte dynasty. 20 years later, when Napoleon III fell from power, her father is quoted as saying, “I foresaw that correctly!”

In 1852, against her father’s wishes, Carola converted to Catholicism. On June 18, 1853, Carola married in Dresden, Crown Prince Albrecht of Saxony. Their marriage was childless, although she suffered many miscarriages.

Her closest heirs were: in paternal side, Friedrich II, Grand Duke of Baden (1857–1928), son of her first cousin; and her first cousin King Carol I of Romania (1839–1914) in maternal side.

She had a good relationship with her parents-in-law and was described as their support during difficult times. Already as a crown princess, Carola began the activity within social issues which she would continue as a queen. In 1866, she visited Saxony’s field hospitals in Vienna, where she made herself known as a good samaritan. In 1867, she founded the Albert commission, which contributed to the medical care of the German army during the war of 1870–71. For her work, she was decorated with the Prussian Luisen-Orden and the Saxon Order of Sidonia. In 1871, she accompanied Albert to Compiègne after the defeat of France, where she entertained the officers of the victorious armies as a popular hostess.

Queen

In 1873, her spouse succeeded his father as King Albrecht I, making Carola queen. In 1884, the deposed Swedish branch of the House of Oldenburg made peace with the new Swedish Bernadotte dynasty through her and her first cousin once removed Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden, when the remains of Carola’s grandfather, king Gustaf IV Adolf of Sweden, her father and her brother Ludvig were taken to Stockholm and interred in the royal crypt. In 1888, Carola and her spouse made an official visit to Sweden.

Queen Carola made an important contribution to the health care organisation in Saxony. In 1867, as Crown princess, she and Marie Simon founded the Albert-Verein. She founded a wet nurse school at Leipziger Tor (1869), the hospital “Carola-Haus” (1878), the women employment agency Johannes-Verein (1876), a women’s school in Schwarzenberg (1884), the home “Gustavheim” for the old, sick and weak in Niederpoyritz (1887), the school Lehrertöchterheim Carola-Stift Klotzsche (1892) and the home for handicapped Amalie hus Löbtau, Friedrichstadt (1896). Carola was a popular queen. She was widowed in 1902.

She was the 499th Dame of the Royal Order of Queen Maria Luisa.
At the time of her death, she was the last surviving grandchild of Gustaf IV Adolf.

On this date in History: Election of King Christian III of Denmark and Norway on July 4, 1534.

Tags

Bogislaw the Great, Bogislaw X of Pomerania, Elective Monarchy, Jutland, King Christian II of Denmark, King Christian III of Denmark, King Frederick I of Denmark, King Hans II of Sweden, King Hans of Denmark, Protestant Reformation, Roman Catholic

At this point in its history Denmark was then an elective monarchy in which the nobility elected the new king (from among the sons or close male relatives of the previous monarch), who had to share his power with the nobility.

When King Hans I-II of Denmark, Norway and Sweden died on February 20, 1513 a group of Jutish nobles had offered Prince Frederik of Denmark the throne, (the brother of King Hans) but he had declined, rightly believing that the majority of the Danish nobility would be loyal to his nephew Prince Christian, who was elected King of Denmark on July 22, 1513 as King Christian II.

Christian II, King of Denmark, Norway and Sweden.

Christian II was born at Nyborg Castle in 1481 as the son of King Hans and his wife, Christina of Saxony, daughter of Ernst, Elector of Saxony and Elisabeth of Bavaria. Other than his descent from the House of Oldenburg (the first king of Denmark of the House of Oldenburg was his grandfather Christian I of Denmark) Christian II descended, through Waldemar I of Sweden, from the House of Eric, and from Catherine, daughter of Inge I of Sweden, as well as from Ingrid Ylva, granddaughter of Sverker I of Sweden.

In 1521 King Christian II seemed very powerful upon his return to Denmark after his re-conquest of Sweden in an attempt to maintain the Kalmar Union. On November 1, 1521 the representatives of the Swedish nation swore fealty to Christian II as hereditary king of Sweden, though the law of the land distinctly provided that Sweden was an elective monarchy.

With confidence and strength, Christian II at once proceeded recklessly to inaugurate the most sweeping reforms, such his great Code of Laws which were in direct defiance of the Charter governing Denmark at that time. Christian II’s reforms, however, suggested the actions not of an elected ruler, but of a tyrannical monarch by divine right. Jutland finally rose against him, renounced its allegiance, and offered the Danish crown to Christian’s uncle, Duke Frederik of Holstein, on January 20, 1523.

King Frederik I of Denmark, Norway and Sweden.

King Frederik I was the last Roman Catholic monarch to reign over Denmark, when subsequent monarchs embraced Lutheranism after the Protestant Reformation. As King of Norway, Frederik is most remarkable in never having visited the country and was never crowned King of Norway. Therefore, he was styled King of Denmark, the Vends and the Goths, elected King of Norway.

The future King Christian III was the eldest son of King Frederik I of Denmark, and Anna of Brandenburg (daughter of John Cicero, Elector of Brandenburg and Margaret of Thuringia). In 1514, when he was just ten years old, Christian’s mother died. Four years later, his father remarried to Sophie of Pomerania (1498–1568, 20 years old), a daughter of Bogislaw X “the Great”, Duke of Pomerania and the Polish princess Anna Jagiellon.

The young Prince Christian’s first public service after his father became king was gaining the submission of Copenhagen, which stood firm for the fugitive, King Christian II. As stadtholder of the Duchies of Holstein and Schleswig in 1526, and as viceroy of Norway in 1529, the future Christian III displayed considerable administrative ability.

King Frederik I died on April 10, 1533 and his eldest son was elected as King Christian III of Denmark and Norway on July 4, 1534. His election was seen as a landmark event for all of Denmark and Norway. It took place in St. Søren’s Church (Sankt Sørens Kirke) in the town of Rye in eastern Jutland. Although hesitant, Christian accepted the election and was cheered at a meeting in Horsens on August 18, 1534, where he declared that he would, like his predecessors, sign a håndfæstning (charter), although with a reform of ecclesiastical affairs, i.e. the implementation of the Protestant Reformation in Denmark and Norway.

King Christian III of Denmark and Norway.

However, the election of Christian III was not without its issues. The Rigsraad, dominated by Roman Catholic bishops and nobles, refused to accept Christian III as king and turned to Count Christopher of Oldenburg in order to restore the exiled Christian II to the Danish throne. Christian II had supported both the Roman Catholics and Protestant Reformers at various times. In opposition to King Christian III, Count Christopher was proclaimed regent at the Ringsted Assembly (landsting), and at the Skåne Assembly (landsting) on St Liber’s Hill (Sankt Libers hög) near Lund Cathedral. This resulted in a two-year civil war, known as the Count’s Feud (Grevens Fejde) from 1534–36, between Protestant and Catholic forces.

King Christian III of Denmark and Norway

Among the supporters of Christian III were Steward of the Realm, Mogens Gøye (ca. 1470–1544). Mogens Gøye was a Danish statesman and the Royal councillor of several Danish Kings. Gøye was among the originators of the meeting in Rye Church between eight Jutlandic members of the Council and the four Jutlandic bishops.

Members of the lesser nobility had also turned up – presumably on Mogens Gøye’s initiative – but had to stay outside the church. The lengthy discussion about the election eventually made them lose patience, and they forced their way into the church and demanded to know who opposed the election of Prince Christian. After that, the opponents finally gave up. Ove Bille, Bishop of Aarhus, wept when he signed the request for the Protestant Christian III to become king, realising that it would mean his own downfall.