Anne of Brittany: Part II

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Anne of Brittany, Austria, Ferdinand and Isabella, Ferdinand II of Aragon, Habsburg, Holy Roman Empire, Isabella I of Castile, King Charles VIII of France, Kingdom of France, Louis XI of France, Maximilian I of Austria, Spain

(Recreation of the Marriage of Anne of Brittany and Charles VIII of France)

Anne was crowned Duchess of Brittany in Rennes on February 10, 1489, five months after the death of her father Francis II, Duke of Brittany. Although the semi-salic law allowed for female succession her marriage was a matter of great state importance because, despite her being a sovereign in her own right, women’s liberation was centuries away therefore any husband would have a hand in ruling the duchy. This made Anne not only a sought after bride, many European states were eager to add Brittany to their domains.

Anne was married three times. Prior to her first marriage to Archduke Maximilian I of Austria (future Holy Roman Emperor) Anne was betrothed numerous times. Here is a list of the Royal suitors to whom she had been promised.

* In 1480 she was officially promised in marriage to Edward, Prince of Wales, son of Edward IV of England; however, (future Edward V) soon after the death of Edward IV in 1483 the boy disappeared, presumed to have been killed – some say on the orders of his regent, Richard III.
* Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor and Archduke of Austria, widower of Mary of Burgundy, daughter and heiress of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy.
* Alain I of Albret, son of Catherine of Rohan and Jean I of Albret. Through his mother, he was a great-grandson of Duke Jean V of Brittany, and thus a possible heir. Although he was an ally of Duke Francis II, Anne refused to marry him because she found him repulsive.
* Louis, Duke of Orléans, cousin of King Charles VIII of France and in turn future King, was another aspirant for her hand, despite being already married to the King’s sister Joan.
* John IV of Chalon-Arlay, Prince of Orange. A grandson of Richard, Count of Étampes, and nephew of Francis II, he was in line to the throne after Anne and Isabelle.
* Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham. In 1488 Henry VII had suggested a marriage between Buckingham and Anne, but in December 1489 the executors of Henry Percy, 4th Earl of Northumberland, paid the King £4000 for Buckingham’s marriage to Percy’s eldest daughter Eleanor.

At the tender age of thirteen, on December 19, 1490, Anne married Archduke Maximilian I of Austria (future Holy Roman Emperor) at Rennes Cathedral by proxy, which conferred upon her the title Queen of the Romans. The French regarded this union as a serious provocation. First, it was a violation not of the Treaty of Sablé which required any marriage to Duchess Anne to be sanctioned by the King of France who did not personally consent to the marriage. The larger, and more important political issue, was this marriage reintroduced the Habsburgs in general and the Holy Roman Empire specifically, an enemy of the French, as a ruler of Brittany, and this was a position the French had been avoiding during the 14th and 15th centuries.

Things were not to be between Anne and Maximillian as the politics of the day prevented this marriage from going any further than a proxy ceremony. King Louis XI of France had his eyes set on Anne to marry the Dauphin of France, Charles of Valois, and Louis XI had his heart on ruling Brittany. However, the betrothal between Charles of Valois and Archduchess Margaret of Austria, daughter of the Archduke Maximilian of Austria (later Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I) and Mary, Duchess of Burgundy. (Mary was the Duchess of Burgundy in her own right and in a similar situation to Anne of Brittany)had to be addressed before and arrangement could be made between Charles of Valois and Anne of Brittany.

The 13 year old Charles of Valois had been formally betrothed on July 22, 1483 to the 3-year-old Archduchess Margaret of Austria. It would be a difficult betrothal to break. The marriage had been arranged by Louis XI, Maximilian I, and the Estates of the Low Countries as part of the 1482 Peace of Arras between France and the Duchy of Burgundy. Margaret brought a wealthy dowry with her, the Counties of Artois and Burgundy to France and she was raised in the French court as a prospective Queen consort of France. Giving up the Counties of Artois and Burgundy in exchange for the duchy of Brittany seemed to be a worthwhile risk to take.

In 1488, however, Francis II, Duke of Brittany, having died in a riding accident leaving his 11-year-old daughter Anne as the new reigning duchess speeded up the desire to incorporate Brittany into the French crown. Anne, strongly desired that Brittany remained an independent duchy and was against the ambitions of France and King Louis XI. Therefore an arranged marriage was conducted in 1490 between herself and the widower Maximilian, thus making Anne a stepmother to Margaret of Austria, the perspective bride of Charles of Valois. This marriage would place the Habsburg lead Holy Roman Empire, long the enemy of France, as the protectorate of the duchy’s independence.

A month after the betrothal of between Charles of Valois and Archduchess Margaret of Austria in 1483, King louis XI of France died and his 13 year old son, Charles of Valois, succeed to the throne as King Charles VIII of France. The elder sister of Louis XI, Anne of France, had been appointed regent jointly with her husband Peter II, Duke of Bourbon until 1491 when the young king turned 21 years of age. When learning of the prospective union between Anne of Brittany and Archduke Maximilian I, the regent Anne of France and her husband Peter refused to sanction the marriage (her marriage had to be approved of by the king of France per the treaty of Treaty of Sablé) because it placed the Habsburgs on two French borders.

In response to the marriage the French army invaded Brittany, taking advantage of the preoccupation of Habsburg Holy Roman Emperor Friedrich III and his son (Maximilian) with the disputed succession of Mathias Corvinus to the Kingship of Hungary, another domain which the family ruled. With Brittany now an occupied territory of France, Anne of Brittany was forced to renounce Maximilian (whom she had only married by proxy) and reluctantly agreed to be married to Charles VIII instead.

Marriage to Anne of Brittany at the Château de Langeais.

In December of 1491, Charles VIII of France and Anne of Brittany were married in an elaborate ceremony at the Château de Langeais. The 14-year-old Duchess Anne, entered this marriage under protest and was unhappy about the arrangement. When she arrived for the wedding ceremony with her entourage they were carrying two beds sending the king a clear message this would be a union of political convenience and nothing more. For Charles VIII the marriage brought him freedom and independence from his aunt, Regent Anne of France, Duchess of Bourbon and thereafter was allowed to rule on his own. Anne, Duchess of Brittany was now Queen Anne of France and she lived at the Clos Lucé in Amboise separate from her husband the king.

However, there still remained the matter of Charles’ first betrothed, the young Archduchess Margaret of Austria. Although the cancellation of her betrothal meant that she by rights should have been returned to the Habsburg family, Charles did not initially do so, intending to marry her usefully elsewhere in France. This placed the young Margaret in a difficult situation. Desperate, Margaret informed her father in her letters that she was so determined to escape that she would even flee Paris in her nightgown if it gave her her freedom. Eventually, in 1493, she was returned to her family, together with her dowry – though the Duchy of Burgundy was kept in the Treaty of Senlis.

Upon her return to Austria, Margaret was betrothed to Juan, Prince of the Asturias and heir to the newly united Spanish throne. The Prince of the Asturias was the only son of Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Fernando II of Aragon. In order to completely solidify this Spanish alliance Maximilian started negotiating the marriage of his son, Archduke Philipp of Austria, to the Spanish royal couple’s daughter, Infanta Juanna.

Margaret left the Netherlands for Spain late in 1496. The marriage took place in 1497. Juan, Prince of the Asturias died after only six months, on October 4, 1497, widowed Margaret, now Dowager Princess of the Austirias was left pregnant, and sadly on April 2, 1498 she gave birth to a premature stillborn daughter. The Dowager Princess of Asturias then returned to the Netherlands early in 1500, when her brother and sister-in-law (Philipp and Juanna) invited her to be godmother to their newborn son, Charles of Austria, the future powerful Holy Roman Emperor Karl V who was also Carlos I of Spain.

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A Full House!

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Alexandra of Denmark, Aragon, Chalres V, Charles I of England, Charles II of England, Elizabeth of York, England, France, Henry VIII of England, Holy Roman Empire, Louis XIV of France, Nicholas II of Russia, Sofia of Spain, Spain, United Kingdom

We often see in fairy tales that a future king, or a king himself, will marry a princess who is the daughter of a king herself. The reality is that this scenario is not always played out in the history of royalty. The last time it happened in the British monarchy was when Prince Albert Edward, the Prince of Wales and future King Edward VII married Princess Alexandra of Denmark the daughter of King Christian IX of Denmark. Well, technically her father wasn’t the king just yet when they married. Albert-Edward and Alexandra were married March 10, 1863 at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle while her father, Christian IX, didn’t become king until November 15, 1863 when King Frederik VII died that same year. Although she missed it by a few months I will count it.

You have to go back to King Charles II of England and Scotland when he married Catherine of Braganza, on May 15, 1662 to find a king (or future king) that married the daughter of a king. Catherine was the daughter of King João IV of Portugal. I guess you could also count Queen Anne of Great Britain who married Prince George of Denmark and Norway, Duke of Cumberland in 1683 for he was the son of King Frederik III of Denmark and Norway. However, for this post I am concentrating on women who were the daughters of kings.

When examining the genealogy of a daughter of a king that married another king this made these woman often connected to many other relatives who wore a crown. Today I want to look at four women who were very royally connected.

1. Elizabeth of York (1466-1503). She was the daughter of a king (Edward IV of England), the sister of a king (Edward V of England), the niece of a king (Richard III of England), the wife of a king (Henry VII of England), the mother of a king (Henry VIII of England), the mother-in-law of a king (James IV of Scotland), and the grandmother of two kings (Edward VI of England and James V of Scotland) and the grandmother of two queens (Mary I and Elizabeth I of England). Although I am not counting consorts per se, Elizabeth of York was also the mother of two queen consorts of Scotland and France.
3. Catherine of Aragon (1485-1536) She was the daughter of two sovereign monarchs (Isabella I of Castile and Fernando II-V of Aragon and Castile), she was the sister and sister-in-law to two sovereign monarchs (Juana of Castile and Felipe I of Castile, Archduke of Austria), she was the aunt of two Emperor-Kings (Carl V of the Holy Roman Empire who was also Carlos I of Spain, Ferdinand I Holy Roman Emperor) she was the wife of a king (Henry VIII of England) and the mother of a sovereign queen (Mary I of England) and mother-in-law/great aunt of a king (Felipe II of Spain and King of Portugal, Archduke of Austria).
5. Henrietta-Maria de Bourbon of France (1609-1669). She was the daughter of a king (Henri IV of France and Navarre), she was the sister of a king (Louis XIII of France and Navarre), she was the aunt of a king (Louis XIV of France and Navarre), she was the wife of a king (Charles I of England and Scotland), she was the mother of two kings (Charles II and James II-VII of England and Scotland) she was the grandmother of a king and two sovereign queens (William III of England and Scotland, Staholder of the Netherlands, Mary II of England and Scotland, Anne of England and Scotland/Great Britain).

   Alexandra of Denmark (1844-1925). She was the daughter of a king (Christian IX of Denmark), the sister to two kings (Frederik VIII of Denmark and George I of Greece), the aunt of three kings and an emperor (Christian X of Denmark, Haakon VII of Norway, Constantine I of Greece and Emperor Nicholas II of Russia), the mother of a king (George V of the United Kingdom), mother-in-law of a king (Haakon VII of Norway) and the grandmother two kings (Edward VIII of the United Kingdom and George VI of the United Kingdom).

   Sofia of Greece and Denmark (1938-). She is the daughter of a king (Paul of Greece), she is the sister of a king (Constantine II of Greece), the sister-in-law of a queen (Margrethe II of Denmark), she is the wife of a king (Juan-Carlos of Spain) and the mother of a king (Felipe VI of Spain).

Those are some good royal connections! I am certain there are more and I will post more in the future!

Queen Sofia of Spain, princess of Greece and Denmark.

By any other name. Part II.

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Carlos III of Spain, Don Juan Count of Barcelona, Ferdinand VII of Spain, General Francisco Franco, Isabel II of Spain, Juan Carlos I of Spain, Louis XVIII of France, Madrid, monastery of San Lorenzo del Escorial, Spain

It isn’t just the British monarchy that has names that would not be well received by future monarchs, Spain also seems to have a rather large share of names that would not be welcomed once again.

In Britain, as I mentioned last week, the name John is not a favorable name. In Spain the name Juan may be a little controversial in the future. The present king, Juan-Carlos, chose the double name instead of Juan III, in deference to his father Don Juan, Count of Barcelona. Don Juan was the heir to his father King Alfonso XIII but was bypassed for the throne by Francisco Franco for being too liberal. Instead Franco chose Juan-Carlos, the eldest son of the Count of Barcelona, as the heir to the Spanish throne. This did cause some breakdown in the relationship between Juan-Carlos and his father. The Count of Barcelona had a difficult time letting go of his place in the succession. Don Juan formally renounced his rights to the Crown eight years after being displaced as recognised heir to the throne by Franco, and two years after his son Don Juan Carlos had become king. In return, his son officially granted him the title of Count of Barcelona, which he had claimed for so long.

There were many monarchists who saw Don Juan as the rightful king. Had he reigned as king he would have been King Juan III. When the count of Barcelona died on April 1, 1993 he was treated as if he had been a reigning monarch and was buried as Juan III with honours and trappings due a king, in the Royal Crypt of the monastery of San Lorenzo del Escorial, near Madrid. Although this doesn’t negate the fact that a king may rule in Spain with the name Juan, the question would be will he rule as Juan III or as Juan IV? Even though Juan III was a nominal king and never actually reigned, I feel they will follow the usual Bourbon tradition of recognizing nominal rulers. In France Prince Louis Stanislas Xavier de Bourbon ruled as King Louis XVIII despite the fact that his nephew, Louis XVII, never actually ruled France.

The Count of Barcelona’s father, King Alfonso XIII, bore a name that may no longer be popular for a Spanish monarch. Alfonso XIII lost his throne in the unrest in Spain in the 1930s. In 1923 General Miguel Primo de Rivera took control of the government in a coup with the support of King Alfonso XIII. Rivera was very unpopular in Spain and in 1931 after some economic upheavals when he was told the army no longer supported him, he fled the country. A few weeks later the king also left the country as he had become the symbol for all that was wrong in Spain at the time. Alfonso XIII never abdicated and the Second Spanish Republic was proclaimed after he left. He eventually abdicated in 1941 shortly before his death in 1941, leaving the throne to Don Juan, Count of Barcelona. However, when Franco restored the monarchy in 1947 he chose the option of naming a successor later. Instead of the Count of Barcelona he chose the count’s son. Spain’s current king, Juan Carlos. Because of his actions with Rivera and the news that he was a bit of a womanizer has left the name Alfonso an unlikely choice in the near future.

Another name that may not be used for a long time is Fernando. The last king by that name, Fernando VII, was king during the Napoleonic wars. In March of 1808 King Carlos IV of Spain was forced to abdicate and by May of that Year his son and successor, Fernando VII, was forced to turn Spain over to Napoleon who placed his own brother, Joseph, onto the Spanish throne. When Joseph’s rule began falling apart in 1813 Napoleon was forced to recognize Fernando VII as king once again. Upon his restoration he abolished the liberal Constitution of 1812 and restoring the monarchy to an absolutist form. He died in 1833 and prior to his death had overturned the Salic Law which King Felipe V had instituted when the Bourbons came to power in Spain. The Salic Law barred women from inheriting the throne or passing on claims of succession. With the law overturned this allowed Fernando’s daughter, Isabel, to rule as queen of Spain in her own right. This angered the kings brother, Carlos, Duke of Madrid, who would have succeeded him. By not accepting this verdict the Duke of Madrid plunged Spain into a series of Civil Wars known as the Carlist’s Wars. This war lasted for several generations.

In 1868 and unpopular Isabel II also abdicated and her name, along with that of her fathers, may not be used again for a long long time as the name of another reigning monarch.

Franz Xaver Winterhalter

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Emperor Franz Joseph, Empress Elizabeth of Austria, England, France, Franz Xaver Winterhalter, Louis-Philippe of France, Louise Marie of Orleans, Ludwig I Grand Duke of Baden, Madame Barbe de Rimsky-Korsakov, Mexico and Belgium, Portugal, Prince Albert, Queen of the Belgians, Queen Victoria, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, Russia, Spain

Back in the late 70s when I began my interest in royalty I soon found myself attracted to the 19th century. Despite my love for modern technology there are times I think I was born in the wrong century. I love looking at old photos from the 19th and early part of the 20th century. Even though the art of photography was growing in the 19th century all types of painting, including portraits, still thrived. For anyone examining royalty in the 19th century sooner or later you will run into the works of Franz Xaver Winterhalter (20 April 1805 – 8 July 1873). He was a German painter from the Grand Duchy of Baden who became one of the most sought after painters at the courts of Europe.

The portrait of Queen Victoria above was not for the public but was commissioned for Prince Albert. I think this portrait is exemplary of his style.

He is by far my favorite painter, besides Bob Ross of course. Winterhalter devoted his life to the study of art. He first attended a school at a Benedictine monastery in St.Blasien. At the age of thirteen he began to study drawing and engraving. In 1825, he was supported by Ludwig I, Grand Duke of Baden (1763–1830) and began a course of study at the Academy of Arts. In 1828 he became drawing master to Sophie, Margravine of Baden and it was here than his association with royal courts began. In 1836 he was able to move to Paris, France and in 1838 his painting of Louise Marie of Orleans, Queen of the Belgians, and her son, Duc de Brabant brought him great notoriety and within a short time he was the court painter for King Louis-Philippe of France.

One of the sad things about Winterhalter’s career is that in artistic circles popularity breeds contempt. His style was uniquely his own although he was influenced by Romanticism which crossed both art and literature. He was not taken seriously in artistic circles and fellow artists and critics dismissed his work as being superficial and an expression of affectation. Since he was painting many royals at court he did flatter them in portrait and was at their mercy to portray them in images which would enhance them in the eyes of their subjects. He was loved in royal circles as he painted The royal families of England, France, Spain, Russia, Portugal, Mexico and Belgium. His style does idealize his subject and there is an air of elegant romanticism to his work. His best work was with the ladies at court. His most famous paintings being those of Empress Elizabeth of Austria, wife of Emperor Franz Joseph. His paintings of the royal men were not as popular.

Madame Barbe de Rimsky-Korsakov

He died of typhus in 1873 at the age of 68. He had a brother, Hermann, who was also a painter who lived until 1891. Another favorite of mine appears above. The lady is not royal, she is Madame Barbe de Rimsky-Korsakov. She was a wife of Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov, a Russian aristocrat, and she and her husband are mentioned in the novel “Anna Karenina” by Leo Tolstoy. She sat for Winterhalter in 1845 and this portrait now sits in the Musee d’Orsay in Paris. After his death his work fell into obscurity and it wasn’t until the mid to late 20th century when his work became acknowledged and celebrated.

Princess Victoria, The Princess Royal

I only posted a couple of portraits so I suggest to my readers to do a google image search to enjoy more of his work.

Royal Genealogy ~ Queen Victoria & Prince Albert

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Buckingham Palace, Charles II of England and Scotland, Denmark, Duke of York, Ernst August of Hanover, France, Friedrich I of Prussia, Friedrich III, Friedrich Wilhelm I of Prussia, German Emperor and King of Prussia, Italy, James VI-I of Scotland and England, Kings and Queens of England, Portugal, Prince Frederick, Princess Victoria, Queen Victoria, Sophia Dorothea of Great Britain, Sophia of the Rhine (Electress Sophia), Spain, The Princess Royal, United Kingdom of Great Britain, Victoria and Albert, Wilhelm II of Germany

When I began my interest in royalty, genealogy was the doorway by which I entered. After sorting out the genealogy of the British Royal Family the era that piqued my interest the most was the Victorian Era. To be more accurate I also am equally interested in the Edwardian Age and the time until the end of the First World War. One of the things I have read frequently is the statement that the descendants of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert married into all the great Royal Houses of Europe. While this is true, in some ways I find it misleading because royals marrying royals is a practice that had been going on for centuries. Today all the reigning royal families are related and this is nothing new.

Let us take the marriage of Victoria and Albert’s eldest daughter, Princess Victoria, the Princess Royal, and her marriage to the future Friedrich III, German Emperor and King of Prussia as an example. The two royals were already related. Both were descendants of Sophia of the Rhine (Electress Sophia) and Elector Ernst August of Hanover, the line from which the royal family earned its claim to the throne. Electress Sophia’s daughter, also named Sophia, married King Friedrich I of Prussia and their son, King Friedrich Wilhelm I of Prussia married his first cousin, Princess Sophia Dorothea of Great Britain. The next time the Prussians and the British royal family mingled was when Friedrich III’s great aunt, Princess Frederica, married Princess Victoria, the Princess Royal’s great uncle, Prince Frederick, Duke of York. Their mutual descent from the Electress Sophia made Fritz and Vicky 5th cousins.

Even if you go further back into the British Royal Family’s genealogy, their members frequently married into or chose members from the reigning houses that ruled France, Spain, Portugal, Denmark, Italy and many others. Charles II of England and Scotland was the first cousin of King Louis XIV of France. The marriage of Charles’ grandfather, James VI-I of Scotland and England married, Anne, the daughter of King Frederik II of Denmark and from this union also descends many of the great royal houses of Europe.

As I discuss this topic on Monday we will come to see all the myriad ways in which the various royal families are related.

Gender equality in Luxembourg throne succession rights

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Denmark, Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Norway, Prince Christian of Denmark, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom of Great Britain

http://www.wort.lu/en/view/gender-equality-in-luxembourg-throne-succession-rights-4fe4891ae4b0c152a04deb4c

HRH Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg

I have posted this article about Luxembourg shifting away from male  male-preference primogeniture. The term for offering the throne to the eldest child regardless of gender is called cognatic primogeniture. Many monarchies are going this route. Sweden was the first back in 1979/80. Norway has followed suit as has Belgium, and the Netherlands. Denmark was in the process of changing their succession to cognatic primogeniture until the birth of a boy, Prince Christian, in 2005. Great Britain is in the process of changing to cognatic primogeniture as mentioned in the queen’s speech in the Sate Opening of Parliament earlier this year. So far, to my knowledge, Spain, Liechtenstein and Monaco have not.

I wanted to share my feelings about this issue. I am honestly mixed. My practical rational side of me agrees with it while the emotional side of me doesn’t like it. I am all for women’s rights and equality. I have a daughter myself, she is my only child, and I want her to have the same advantages in life that men have. When it comes to monarchy I am a traditionalist in many areas. For example, I have no problem with royals marrying who they like but I do miss the days when royals married royals.

So I will miss the days when a king, duke or prince was followed on the throne by his eldest son. I understand that the monarchy must adapt and change to survive and this step makes sense given the fact that the role of sovereign is a symbolic one and a non-political role. In the end I think it will work out fine, but I will miss the old days.