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Tag Archives: United Kingdom of Great Britain

Name of the Kingdom. Part II.

06 Wednesday Jul 2022

Posted by liamfoley63 in Featured Monarch, From the Emperor's Desk, Kingdom of Europe, Royal Titles

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Act of Union 1800, Act of Union of 1707, King George III, Kingdom of Great Britain, Queen Anne, United Kingdom of Great Britain, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland

From the Emperor’s Desk: This is the information I discovered.

The Treaty of Union and the subsequent Acts of Union state that England and Scotland were to be “United into One Kingdom by the Name of Great Britain”, and as such “Great Britain” was the official name of the state, as well as being used in titles such as “Parliament of Great Britain”.

The websites of the Scottish Parliament, the BBC, and others, including the Historical Association, refer to the state created on May 1, 1707 as the United Kingdom of Great Britain. Both the Acts and the Treaty describe the country as “One Kingdom” and a “United Kingdom”, leading some publications to treat the state as the “United Kingdom”. The term United Kingdom was sometimes used during the 18th century to describe the state.

Kingdoms

The Acts of Union 1800 were parallel acts of the Parliament of Great Britain and the Parliament of Ireland which united the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland (previously in personal union) to create the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The acts came into force on January 1, 1801, and the merged Parliament of the United Kingdom had its first meeting on January 22, 1801.

George III was King during this transition.

In Great Britain, George III used the official style “George the Third, by the Grace of God, King of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, and so forth”. In 1801, when Great Britain united with Ireland, he dropped the title of king of France, which had been used for every English monarch since Edward III’s claim to the French throne in the medieval period. His style became “George the Third, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland King, Defender of the Faith.”

69th Anniversary of the Accession of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom

06 Saturday Feb 2021

Posted by liamfoley63 in Featured Monarch, Kingdom of Europe, Royal Death, This Day in Royal History

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Acession to the Throne, Kenya, King George VI of the United Kingdom, Prince Charles, Prince Philip Duke of Edinburgh, Queen Elizabeth II, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, United Kingdom of Great Britain

Today, February 6, 2021 marks the anniversary of the death King George VI of the United Kingdom and marks the beginning of the 69th year on the throne for his daughter and heir, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary, born 21 April 1926) who is Queen of the United Kingdom and 15 other Commonwealth realms.

Elizabeth was born in Mayfair, London, as the first child of the Duke and Duchess of York (later King George VI and Queen Elizabeth). Her father ascended the throne on the abdication of his brother King Edward VIII in 1936, from which time she was the heir presumptive. She was educated privately at home and began to undertake public duties during the Second World War, serving in the Auxiliary Territorial Service. In 1947 she married Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, a former prince of Greece and Denmark, with whom she has four children: Charles, Prince of Wales; Anne, Princess Royal; Prince Andrew, Duke of York; and Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex.

When her father died in February 1952, Elizabeth became head of the Commonwealth and queen regnant of seven independent Commonwealth countries. Significant events have included her coronation in 1953 and the celebrations of her Silver, Golden, and Diamond Jubilees in 1977, 2002, and 2012, respectively. In 2017, she became the first British monarch to reach a Sapphire Jubilee. She is the longest-lived and longest-reigning British monarch. She is the longest-serving female head of state in world history, and the world’s oldest living monarch, longest-reigning current monarch, and oldest and longest-serving current head of state. Next year if she is still with us she will celebrate her Platinum Jubilee marking 70th year on the throne.

Her father died at the age of 56 and though his health had been declining the death still came unexpectedly. The stress of World War II had taken its toll on the King’s health, made worse by his heavy smoking and subsequent development of lung cancer among other ailments, including arteriosclerosis and Buerger’s disease. A planned tour of Australia and New Zealand was postponed after the King suffered an arterial blockage in his right leg, which threatened the loss of the leg and was treated with a right lumbar sympathectomy in March 1949. His elder daughter Elizabeth, the heir presumptive, took on more royal duties as her father’s health deteriorated. The delayed tour was re-organised, with Elizabeth and her husband, Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, taking the place of the King and Queen.

The King was well enough to open the Festival of Britain in May 1951, but on 23 September 1951, he underwent a surgical operation where his entire left lung was removed by Clement Price Thomas after a malignant tumour was found. In October 1951, Elizabeth and Philip went on a month-long tour of Canada; the trip had been delayed for a week due to the King’s illness. At the State Opening of Parliament in November, the King’s speech from the throne was read for him by the Lord Chancellor, Lord Simonds. His Christmas broadcast of 1951 was recorded in sections, and then edited together.

On 31 January 1952, despite advice from those close to him, the King went to London Airport to see Elizabeth and Philip off on their tour to Australia via Kenya. It was his last public appearance. Six days later, at 07:30 GMT on the morning of 6 February, he was found dead in bed at Sandringham House in Norfolk. He had died in the night from a coronary thrombosis at age 56. His daughter flew back to Britain from Kenya as Queen Elizabeth II.

From 9 February for two days George VI’s coffin rested in St Mary Magdalene Church, Sandringham, before lying in state at Westminster Hall from 11 February. His funeral took place at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, on the 15th. He was interred initially in the Royal Vault until he was transferred to the King George VI Memorial Chapel inside St George’s on 26 March 1969. In 2002, fifty years after his death, the remains of his widow, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, and the ashes of his younger daughter Princess Margaret, who both died that year, were interred in the chapel alongside him.

August 6, 1844: Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh and reigning Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Part I.

06 Thursday Aug 2020

Posted by liamfoley63 in Featured Royal, Kingdom of Europe, Royal Genealogy, Royal Succession, Royal Titles, This Day in Royal History

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Assassination, Duke of Edinburgh, Melbourne Australia, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Prince Alfred, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, Royal Navy, United Kingdom of Great Britain

Alfred (Alfred Ernest Albert; August 6, 1844 – July 30, 1900) reigned as Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha from 1893 to 1900. He was the second son and fourth child of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. He was known as the Duke of Edinburgh from 1866 until he succeeded his paternal uncle Ernst II as the reigning Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in the German Empire.

Early life

Prince Alfred was born on August 6, 1844 at Windsor Castle to the reigning British monarch, Queen Victoria, and her husband, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the second son of Ernst I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. He was second in the line of succession to the British throne behind his elder brother, the Prince of Wales, the future King Edward VII of the United Kingdom.

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Prince Alfred

Alfred remained second in line to the British throne for twenty years, from his birth until January 8, 1864, when his older brother Albert-Edward and his wife Alexandra of Denmark had their first son, Prince Albert-Victor. Alfred became third in line to the throne and as Edward and Alexandra continued to have children, Alfred moved further down the line in the order of succession.

Entering the Royal Navy

In 1856, at the age of 12, it was decided that Prince Alfred, in accordance with his own wishes, should enter the Royal Navy. A separate establishment was accordingly assigned to him, with Lieutenant J.C. Cowell, RE, as governor. He passed the examination in August 1858, and was appointed as midshipman in HMS Euryalus at the age of 14.

In July 1860, while on this ship, he paid an official visit to the Cape Colony, and made a very favourable impression both on the colonials and on the native chiefs. He took part in a hunt at Hartebeeste-Hoek, resulting in the slaughter of large numbers of game animals.

On the abdication of King Otto of Greece, in 1862, Prince Alfred was chosen to succeed him, but the British government blocked plans for him to ascend the Greek throne, largely because of the Queen’s opposition to the idea. She and her late husband had made plans for him to succeed to the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg.

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Queen Victoria and Prince Albert (Parents)

Prince Alfred, therefore, remained in the navy, and was promoted to lieutenant on February 24, 1863, serving under Count Gleichen on the corvette HMS Racoon. He was promoted to captain on February 23, 1866 and was appointed to the command of the frigate HMS Galatea in January 1867.

In the Queen’s Birthday Honours on May 24, 1866, the Prince was created Duke of Edinburgh, Earl of Ulster, and Earl of Kent, with an annuity of £15,000 granted by Parliament. He took his seat in the House of Lords on June 8.

While still in command of the Galatea, the Duke of Edinburgh started from Plymouth on January 24, 1867 for his voyage around the world. On June 7, 1867, he left Gibraltar, reached the Cape of Good Hope on 24 July and paid a royal visit to Cape Town on August 24, 1867 after landing at Simon’s Town a while earlier.

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The Duke of Edinburgh

He landed at Glenelg, South Australia, on October 31, 1867. Being the first member of the royal family to visit Australia, he was received with great enthusiasm. During his stay of nearly five months he visited Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Tasmania. Adelaide school Prince Alfred College was named in his honour to mark the occasion.

On March 12, 1868, on his second visit to Sydney, he was invited by Sir William Manning, President of the Sydney Sailors’ Home, to picnic at the beachfront suburb of Clontarf to raise funds for the home. At the function, he was wounded in the back by a revolver fired by Henry James O’Farrell.

Alfred was shot just to the right of his spine and was tended for the next two weeks by six nurses, trained by Florence Nightingale and led by Matron Lucy Osburn, who had just arrived in Australia in February 1868. In the violent struggle during which Alfred was shot, William Vial had managed to wrest the gun away from O’Farrell until bystanders assisted.

Vial, a master of a Masonic Lodge, had helped to organise the picnic in honour of the Duke’s visit and was presented with a gold watch for securing Alfred’s life. Another bystander, George Thorne, was wounded in the foot by O’Farrell’s second shot. O’Farrell was arrested at the scene, quickly tried, convicted and hanged on April 21, 1868.

June 20, 1837: Death of King William IV of the United Kingdom and the accession of his niece as Queen Victoria.

20 Saturday Jun 2020

Posted by liamfoley63 in Featured Royal, Kingdom of Europe, Royal Genealogy, Royal House, Royal Succession, Royal Titles, This Day in Royal History

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Accession, Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen, King Ernst-August of Hanover, King William IV of the United Kingdom, Kingdom of Hanover, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, Reform Act 1832, United Kingdom of Great Britain

William IV (William Henry; August 21, 1765 – June 20, 1837) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from June 26, 1830 until his death in 1837. William was the third son of King George III, William succeeded his elder brother King George IV, becoming the last king and penultimate monarch of Britain’s House of Hanover.

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William, Duke of Clarence.

William served in the Royal Navy in his youth, spending time in North America and the Caribbean, and was later nicknamed the “Sailor King”. In 1789, he was created Duke of Clarence and St Andrews. In 1827, he was appointed as Britain’s first Lord High Admiral since 1709.

In the Drawing Room at Kew Palace on July 11, 1818, William married Princess Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen, the daughter of Georg I, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen, and Luise-Eleonore of Hohenlohe-Langenburg. William apparently remained faithful to the young princess

William’s marriage, which lasted almost twenty years until his death, was a happy one. Adelaide took both William and his finances in hand. For their first year of marriage, the couple lived in economical fashion in Germany. William is not known to have had mistresses after his marriage. The couple had two short-lived daughters and Adelaide suffered three miscarriages. Despite this, false rumours that she was pregnant persisted into William’s reign—he dismissed them as “damned stuff”.

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William IV, King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover

As his two older brothers, King George IV and Frederick, Duke of York, died without leaving legitimate issue, William inherited the throne when he was 64 years old.

His reign saw several reforms: the poor law was updated, child labour restricted, slavery abolished in nearly all of the British Empire, and the British electoral system refashioned by the Reform Act 1832. Although William did not engage in politics as much as his brother or his father, he was the last monarch to appoint a British prime minister contrary to the will of Parliament. He granted his German kingdom a short-lived liberal constitution.

At the time of his death on June 20, 1837, William had no surviving legitimate children, but he was survived by eight of the ten illegitimate children he had by the actress Dorothea Jordan, with whom he cohabited for twenty years.

Since the Salic Law was in effect in the Kingdom of Hanover, William IV was succeeded by his niece Queen Victoria in the United Kingdom, and his brother King Ernst-August in Hanover.

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Princess Alexandrina-Victoria of Kent.

Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; May 24, 1819 – January 22, 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from June 20, 1837 until her death. She adopted the additional title of Empress of India on May 1, 1876. Known as the Victorian era, her reign of 63 years and seven months was longer than that of any of her predecessors and the second longest in British history.

The Victorian Era was a period of industrial, cultural, political, scientific, and military change within the United Kingdom, and was marked by a great expansion of the British Empire.

Victoria was the daughter of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn (the fourth son of King George III), and Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. After both the Duke of Kent and George III died in 1820, she was raised under close supervision by her mother and her comptroller, John Conroy. She inherited the throne aged 18 after her father’s three elder brothers, the last being King William IV, died without surviving legitimate issue.

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Victoria receives the news of her accession from Lord Conyngham (left) and the Archbishop of Canterbury. Engraving after painting by Henry Tanworth Wells, 1887.

Though a constitutional monarch, privately, Victoria attempted to influence government policy and ministerial appointments; publicly, she became a national icon who was identified with strict standards of personal morality.

Victoria married her cousin Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in 1840. Prince Albert was the second son of Ernst III, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, and his first wife, Louise of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg.

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Coronation portrait of Queen Victoria

Their children married into royal and noble families across the continent, earning Victoria the sobriquet “the grandmother of Europe” and spreading haemophilia in European royalty.

After Albert’s death in 1861, Victoria plunged into deep mourning and avoided public appearances. As a result of her seclusion, republicanism in the United Kingdom temporarily gained strength, but in the latter half of her reign, her popularity recovered. Her Golden and Diamond Jubilees were times of public celebration. She died on the Isle of Wight in 1901. The last British monarch of the House of Hanover, she was succeeded by her son Edward VII of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

11. Crown of the Kingdom of Hanover.

11 Monday May 2020

Posted by liamfoley63 in Abdication, Crowns and Regalia, Royal Genealogy, Royal House, Royal Succession

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Act of Settlement 1701, Crown of Hanover, Duke of Brunswick, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, Electorate of Hanover, Ernst August of Hanover, George I of Great Britain, House of Guelph, King George III of the United Kingdom, Kingdom of Hanover, Titles Deprivation Act 1917, United Kingdom of Great Britain, World War I

From the Emperor’s Desk: In researching the background on the Crown of the Kingdom of Hanover for my countdown of my favorite crowns, I came up with…nothing! So instead I’ll give a short synopsis of the Kingdom of Hanover itself.

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The Crown of the Kingdom of Hanover.

The Kingdom of Hanover was established in October 1814 by the Congress of Vienna, with the restoration of George III to his Hanoverian territories after the Napoleonic era. It succeeded the former Electorate of Hanover (known formally as the Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg), and joined 38 other sovereign states in the German Confederation in June of 1815.

The kingdom was ruled by the House of Hanover, a cadet branch of the House of Guelph (Welf), And held in personal union with the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland since 1714. Since its monarch resided in London, a viceroy (usually a younger member of the British Royal Family) handled the administration of the Kingdom of Hanover.

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The Crown of the Kingdom of Hanover and Hereditary Prince Ernst-August of Hanover.

History

The territory of Hanover had earlier been a principality within the Holy Roman Empire before being elevated into an Imperial Electorate in 1708, when Hanover was formed by union of the dynastic divisions of the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg, excepting the Principality of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel.

The founder of the dynasty was Prince Ernst-August, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, (November 20, 1629 – January 23, 1698). youngest son of Georg, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and Prince of Calenberg, and Anne-Eleonore of Hesse-Darmstadt.

On September 30, 1658, Ernst-August married Sophia of the Palatinate of the Rhine in Heidelberg. She was the daughter of Friedrich V, Elector Palatine of the Rhine and Princess Elizabeth of England, and granddaughter of King James VI-I of England, Scotland and Ireland. Sophia had been betrothed to Ernst-August’s older brother, Georg-Wilhelm who did not want her. When she married Ernst-August instead, releasing Georg-Wilhelm from this obligation, Georg-Wilhelm then ceded to Ernst-August his claim to the Duchy of Lüneburg.

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Ernst-August, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, Elector of Hanover.

As the fourth son, Ernst-August had little chance of succeeding his father as ruler. Therefore, the couple had to live in the Leineschloss at the Hanover court of Ernest-August’s eldest brother Christian-Ludwig.

Christian-Ludwig died childless in 1665, leaving the Duchy of Lüneburg to the second brother, Georg-Wilhelm, who had ceded his right to Ernst-August, who thus succeeded. Georg-Wilhelm kept the district of Celle for himself.

In 1679, Ernst-August inherited the Principality of Calenberg from the third brother Johann-Friedrich. In 1680 the family moved back to Hanover. In 1683, against the protestations of his five younger sons, Ernst-August instituted primogeniture, so that his territory would not be further subdivided after his death, and also as a pre-condition for obtaining the coveted electorship.

Ernst-August participated on the side of Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor, in the Great Turkish War; also known as the War of the Holy League which was a series of conflicts between the Ottoman Empire and the Holy League which consisted of the Habsburg Monarchy, Poland-Lithuania, Venice and Russia. In 1692, Ernst-August was appointed Prince-Elector by the Emperor, thus raising the House of Hanover to electoral dignity; however, the electorship did not come into effect until 1708. He was nonetheless recognized as Elector of Hanover, the very first. Ernst-August died in 1698 at Herrenhausen Palace, Hanover. He was succeeded as ruler by his eldest son, Georg-Ludwig.

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Georg-Ludwig, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, Elector of Hanover,

In 1701 The Act of Settlement was passed in the Parliament of England that settle the succession to the English and Irish crowns on Protestants only. The next Protestant in line to the throne after William III and his heir, Anne, was the Electress Sophia of Hanover, a granddaughter of James VI-I of England, Scotland and Ireland. After her the crowns would descend only to her non-Roman Catholic heirs, bypassing the Catholic descendants of James II-VII of England, Scotland and Ireland.

The Act of Settlement was, in many ways, the major cause of the union of Scotland with England and Wales to form the Kingdom of Great Britain. The Parliament of Scotland was not happy with the Act of Settlement and, in response, passed the Act of Security in 1704, through which Scotland reserved the right to choose its own successor to Queen Anne. Stemming from this, the Parliament of England decided that, to ensure the stability and future prosperity of Great Britain, full union of the two parliaments and nations was essential before Anne’s death.

It used a combination of exclusionary legislation (the Alien Act 1705), politics, and bribery to achieve this within three years under the Act of Union 1707 which united England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain. By virtue of Article II of the Treaty of Union, which defined the succession to the throne of Great Britain, the Act of Settlement became part of Scots Law as well.

Georg-Ludwig’s mother, the Electress Sophia, died on May 28, 1714 at the age of 83. She had collapsed in the gardens at Herrenhausen after rushing to shelter from a shower of rain. Georg-Ludwig, Elector of Hanover and was now Queen Anne’s heir presumptive.

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George I, King of Great Britain.

On the death of Queen Anne in August of 1714, Georg-Ludwig ascended the throne of Great Britain as George I, and the Electorate of Hanover was joined in a personal union with Great Britain. In 1803, Hanover was conquered by the French and Prussian armies in the Napoleonic Wars. The Treaties of Tilsit in 1807 joined it to territories from Prussia and created the Kingdom of Westphalia, ruled by Napoleon’s youngest brother Jérôme Bonaparte. French control lasted until October 1813 when the territory was overrun by Russian Cossacks. The Battle of Leipzig shortly thereafter spelled the definitive end of the Napoleonic client states, and the electorate was restored to the House of Hanover.

The terms of the Congress of Vienna in 1814 not only restored Hanover, but elevated it to an independent kingdom with its Prince-Elector, George III of Great Britain, as King of Hanover. The new kingdom was also greatly expanded, becoming the fourth-largest state in the German Confederation (behind Prussia, Austria and Bavaria) and the second-largest in north Germany.

Under George III’s six-year reign, he never visited the Kingdom. Actually, he never left Great Britain at all during his lifetime. Having succumbed to dementia prior to the elevation of Hanover, it is unlikely he ever understood that he had gained an additional kingship nor did he take any role in its governance.

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George III, King of the United Kingdom, Elector of Hanover (1760-1813) and 1st King of Hanover (1814-1820)

Functional administration of Hanover was usually handled by a viceroy, which during the later years of George III’s reign and the reigns of kings George IV and William IV from 1816 to 1837, was Adolphus-Frederick, Duke of Cambridge, George III’s youngest surviving son.

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King Ernst-August (I) of Hanover

When Queen Victoria succeeded to the British throne in 1837, the 123-year personal union of Great Britain and Hanover ended. Salic law operated in Hanover, excluding accession to the throne by a female while any male of the dynasty survived; thus instead of Victoria, her uncle in the male-line of the House of Hanover, Ernest Augustus, now the eldest surviving son of George III, succeeded to the throne of the new kingdom as King Ernst-August of Hanover (1771-1851) Adolphus-Frederick the younger brother, and long-time Viceroy, returned to Britain as King Ernst-August was the first King of Hanover to actually reside in the kingdom.

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King Georg V of Hanover

During the Austro-Prussian War (1866), Hanover attempted to maintain a neutral position, along with some other member states of the German Confederation. Hanover’s vote in favor of the mobilisation of Confederation troops against Prussia on June 14, 1866 prompted Prussia to declare war. The outcome of the war led to the dissolution of Hanover as an independent kingdom and it was annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia, becoming the Prussian Province of Hanover. Along with the rest of Prussia, it became part of the German Empire in 1871.

After King Georg V of Hanover (1819-1878) fled his country in 1866, he raised forces loyal to him in the Netherlands, called the Guelphic Legion. They were eventually disbanded in 1870. Nevertheless, Georg refused to accept the Prussian takeover of his realm and claimed he was still the legitimate King of Hanover. His only son, Ernst-August, Crown Prince of Hanover (1845-1923), inherited this claim upon George’s death in 1878.

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Ernst-August, Crown Prince of Hanover and Duke of Cumberland

Ernst-August, who was also the Duke of Cumberland in the peerage of the United Kingdom, was also first in line to the throne of the Duchy of Brunswick, whose rulers had been a junior branch of the House of Hanover. In 1884, that branch became extinct with the death of Duke Wilhelm of Brunswick, a distant cousin of Ernst-August.

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Prince Albert of Prussia, Regent of Brunswick

However, since Ernst-August refused to renounce his claim to the annexed Kingdom of Hanover, the Bundesrat of the German Empire ruled that he would disturb the peace of the empire if he ascended the throne of Brunswick. As a result, Brunswick was ruled by a regency until 1913. The first regent was Prince Albert of Prussia (1837–1906) his wife Princess Marianne of the Netherlands. His father was a brother of King Friedrich-Wilhelm IV of Prussia and of Wilhelm I, King of Prussia and German Emperor. Prince Albert of Prussia was regent of the Duchy of Brunswick from 1885 until his death in 1906.

The regency of Brunswick fell to Duke Johann-Albrecht of Mecklenburg-Schwerin the fifth child of Friedrich-Franz II, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1823-1883) and his first wife Princess Augusta Reuss of Köstritz (1822–1862).

Duke Johann-Albrecht of Mecklenburg-Schwerin actually served as the regent of two states of the German Empire. Firstly from 1897 to 1901 he was regent of Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin for his nephew Friedrich-Franz IV, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, and from 1907 to 1913 he was Regent of the Duchy of Brunswick.

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Duke Johann-Albrecht of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Regent of Brunswick

When Crown Prince Ernst-August’s son, also named Ernst-Agust-August married the German Emperor Wilhelm II’s daughter, Princess Viktoria-Luise of Prussia in 1913 and swore allegiance to the German Empire, Crown Prince Ernst-August, Duke of Cumberland, then renounced his claim to Brunswick in favor of his son, and the Bundesrat allowed the younger Ernest-August to take possession of Brunswick as it’s new reigning Duke as a kind of dowry compensation for Hanover. This also reconciled the House of Guelph and the House of Hohenzollern after the Prussian annexation of Hanover in 1866. Duke Ernst-August abdicated the Duchy of Brunswick in 1918 at the end of World War I when the German monarchy was abolished.

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Duke Ernst-August and Duchess Viktoria-Luise of Brunswick.

Today the claimant to the defunct throne of Hanover is Ernst-August,(V) Prince of Hanover (born February 26, 1954) and is the grandson of Ernest-August, the last reigning Duke of Brunswick and his wife Princess Viktoria-Luise of Prussia.

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Prince and Princess Ernst-August Hanover (formerly Princess Caroline Of Monaco).

Ernst-August, is the senior male-line descendant of George III of the United Kingdom, and is head of the House of Hanover. He is also the claimant to the defunct Duchy of Brunswick and the British Peerage of the Dukedom of Cumberland which was lost due to the passing of the Titles Deprivation Act of 1917 which authorised enemies of the United Kingdom during the First World War to be deprived of their British peerages and royal titles. His second marriage was to HSH Princess Caroline of Monaco.

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February 10, 1842: Marriage of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

10 Monday Feb 2020

Posted by liamfoley63 in Featured Monarch, Featured Royal, This Day in Royal History

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Duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Emperor Alexander II of Russia, King Leopold I of Belgium, Lord Melbourne, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Privy Council, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, royal wedding, United Kingdom of Great Britain, William IV of the United Kingdom

On this date in history: February 10, 1840. Her Majesty Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland married her maternal first cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

winterhalter_-_queen_victoria_1843

Victoria once complained to her Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne, that her mother’s close proximity promised “torment for many years”, Melbourne sympathized but said it could be avoided by marriage, which Victoria called a “schocking alternative”. Although a marriage between Victoria and her cousin Prince Albert had been encouraged by the Coburg family, specifically King Leopold I of the Belgians since 1936, Victoria was ambivalent at best toward the arrangement.

The idea of marriage between Albert and his cousin, Victoria, was first documented in an 1821 letter from his paternal grandmother, the Dowager Duchess of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, (Countess Augusta of Reuss-Ebersdorf) who said that he was “the pendant to the pretty cousin”.

Victoria did however, show interest in Albert’s education for the future role he would have to play as her husband, but she resisted attempts to rush her into any marriage. Her uncle, King William IV of the United Kingdom, preferred that Victoria marry her paternal first cousin, Prince George of Cambridge. William IV also favored the suit of Prince Alexander of the Netherlands, second son of the Prince of Orange, future King Willem II. Victoria was well aware of the various matrimonial plans and critically appraised a parade of eligible princes.

In 1839, Tsesarevich Alexander Nikolaevich, the eldest son of Emperor Nicholas I of Russia and Charlotte of Prussia (daughter of King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia and of Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz), was sent on a tour of Europe by his parents where he met twenty-year-old Queen Victoria and both were enamored of each other. Simon Sebag Montefiore speculates that a small romance emerged. Such a marriage, however, would not work, as Alexander was not a minor prince of Europe and was in line to inherit a throne himself. In March 1855 Tsesarevich Alexander Nikolaevich became Emperor Alexander II of Russia.

Following Albert’s second visit to Queen Victoria in October of 1839, along with his brother Ernst, Victoria continued to praise Him and it was during this visit that genuine romantic feelings began to stir for her. Victoria wrote to her uncle Leopold I of the Belgians to thank him “for the prospect of great happiness you have contributed to give me, in the person of dear Albert … He possesses every quality that could be desired to render me perfectly happy.”

Albert and Victoria felt mutual affection and the Queen proposed to him on October 15, 1839, just five days after he had arrived at Windsor. Victoria’s intention to marry Albert was declared formally to the Privy Council on November 23.

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The couple were married on February 10, 1840, in the Chapel Royal of St James’s Palace, London. Victoria was besotted. She spent the evening after their wedding lying down with a headache, but wrote ecstatically in her diary:

I NEVER, NEVER spent such an evening!!! MY DEAREST DEAREST DEAR Albert … his excessive love & affection gave me feelings of heavenly love & happiness I never could have hoped to have felt before! He clasped me in his arms, & we kissed each other again & again! His beauty, his sweetness & gentleness – really how can I ever be thankful enough to have such a Husband! … to be called by names of tenderness, I have never yet heard used to me before – was bliss beyond belief! Oh! This was the happiest day of my life!

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Just before the marriage, Albert was naturalized by an Act of Parliament  and granted the style of Royal Highness by an Order in Council. This style was only legal in Britain and under the German system of styles and titles Prince Albert remained His Serene Highness. Lord Melbourne advised against the Queen’s strong desire to grant her husband the title of “King Consort”. Parliament even refused to make Prince Albert a peer of the realm—(granting him a title of nobility) partly because of anti-German sentiment and a desire to exclude Albert from any political role.

Initially Albert was not popular with the British public; he was perceived to be from an impoverished and undistinguished minor state, barely larger than a small English county.  In time Albert became an important political adviser as well as the Queen’s companion, replacing Lord Melbourne as the dominant, influential figure in the first half of her life.

On this date in History: June 15, 1888. Death of Friedrich III, German Emperor and King of Prussia. Part II.

17 Monday Jun 2019

Posted by liamfoley63 in Featured Monarch, Kingdom of Europe, Royal Genealogy, Royal Succession, This Day in Royal History

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Crown Prince of Prussia, Dr. Mackenzie, Franco-Prussian War, Frederick III of Germany, Friedrich III, German Empire, Kingdom of Prussia, Liberalism, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, Revolutions 1848, Throat Cancer, United Kingdom, United Kingdom of Great Britain, Victoria Princess Royal

Friedrich insisted on a bloodless “moral conquests”, unifying Germany by liberal and peaceful means, but it was Bismarck’s policy of blood and iron that prevailed. His protests against Wilhelm’s rule peaked at Danzigon June 4, 1863, where at an official reception in the city he loudly denounced Bismarck’s restrictions on freedom of the press. He thereby made Bismarck his enemy and his father extremely angry. Consequently, as mentioned in my last entry, Friedrich was excluded from positions of political power throughout his father’s reign. Retaining his military portfolio, he continued to represent Germany and its Emperor at ceremonies, weddings, and celebrations such as Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee in 1887. Friedrich would spend a large portion of time in Britain, where Queen Victoria frequently allowed him to represent her at ceremonies and social functions.

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Crown Prince Friedrich of Prussia

Friedrich fought in the wars against Denmark, Austria and France. Although Friedrich had opposed military action in unifying Germany, once war had started against Denmark (1864), Austria (1866) and France (1870) he supported the Prussian military wholeheartedly and took positions of command. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71 in which he was once more commanded the III Army, consisting of troops from the southern German states. He was praised for his leadership after defeating the French at the battles of Wissembourgand Wörth, and met with further successes at the Battle of Sedan and during the Siege of Paris.

Friedrich’s humane treatment of his country’s foes earned him their respect and the plaudits of neutral observers. After the Battle of Wörth, a London journalist witnessed the Crown Prince’s many visits to wounded Prussian soldiers and lauded his deeds, extolling the love and respect the soldiers held for Friedrich. Following his victory, Friedrich had remarked to two Paris journalists, “I do not like war gentlemen. If I should reign I would never make it.” One French journalist remarked that “the Crown Prince has left countless traits of kindness and humanity in the land that he fought against.” For his behaviour and accomplishments, The Times wrote a tribute to Friedrich in July 1871, stating that “the Prince has won as much honour for his gentleness as for his prowess in the war”.

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Crown Prince Friedrich of Prussia

In 1871, following Prussia’s victories, the German states were united into the German Empire, with Wilhelm as the Emperor and Friedrich as heir-apparent to the new German monarchy. Although Wilhelm thought the day when he became Emperor the saddest of his life, Friedrich was excited to be witness to a great day in German history. Bismarck, now Chancellor, disliked Friedrich and also distrusted the liberal attitudes of the Crown Prince and Princess. Often at odds with his father’s and Bismarck’s policies and actions, Friedrich sided with the country’s liberals in their opposition to the expansion of the empire’s army. In 1878, when his father was incapacitated by injury from an assassination attempt, Friedrich briefly took over his tasks but was soon relegated to the sidelines once again. His lack of influence affected him deeply, even causing him to contemplate suicide.

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Anton von Werner’s depiction of Wilhelm proclamation as Emperor; Friedrich is standing behind his father, his brother-in-law, the Grand Duke of Baden leads the cheering.

Friedrich had been a heavy smoker for many years. At a ball held by Wilhelm on January 31, 1887, a guest reported the Crown Prince “was so hoarse that he could hardly say a word.” His hoarseness continued through February, and was diagnosed as a thickening of the mucous membrane over the vocal cords, caused by “a chronic laryngeal catarrh.” On February 7, Friedrich consulted a doctor, Karl Gerhardt, who scraped a wire across the membrane for 10 days in an attempt to remove thickened tissue. After the procedure proved unsuccessful, Gerhardt cauterised the left vocal cord with an electric wire on March 15, in an attempt to remove what was then thought to be a vocal fold nodules. Due to Friedrich’s highly inflamed throat, Gerhardt was unable to remove the entire growth. After several cauterisations, and with no signs of improvement, Friedrich and his wife went to the spa of Bad Ems, where he drank the mineral waters and underwent a regimen of gargles and inhaling fresh air, with no effect.

On May 17, Gerhardt and other doctors, including Ernst von Bergmann, diagnosed the growth as laryngeal cancer. Bergmann recommended consulting a leading British cancer specialist, Morell Mackenzie; he also recommended a thyrotomy to gain better access to the inside of the larynx, followed by the complete removal of the larynx – a total laryngectomy – if the situation proved serious. While Victoria was informed of the need for an immediate operation, Friedrich was not told. Despite the tentative diagnosis of cancer, the doctors hoped the growth would prove to be a benign epithelioma.

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Crown Prince and Princess of Prussia

Dr. Mackenzie arrived in Berlin on May 20, but after examining Friedrich recommended a biopsy of the growth to determine whether or not it was malignant. He conducted the biopsy the following morning, after which he sent tissue samples to the distinguished pathologist Rudolf Virchow for microscopic examination. When Virchow was unable to detect any cancerous cells despite several separate analyses, Mackenzie declared his opposition to a laryngectomy being performed, as he felt it would be invariably fatal, and said he would assume charge of the case. He gave his assurance that Friedrich would fully recover “in a few months.” While Gerhardt and Physician-General August Wegner concurred with Mackenzie, Bergmann and his colleague Adalbert Tobold held to their original diagnosis of cancer. In addition to Mackenzie’s opinion, Bismarck strongly opposed any major operation on Friedrich’s throat, and pressed the Emperor to veto it.

On June 9, Mackenzie again biopsied the growth and sent the samples to Virchow, who reported the following day that he was again unable to detect any signs of cancer. On June 13, 1887, the Crown Prince left Potsdam for London to attend his mother-in-law’s Golden Jubilee and to consult Mackenzie. He never saw his father alive again. He was accompanied by Victoria and their three younger daughters, along with Gerhardt; on June 29, Mackenzie reported that he had successfully operated at his Harley Street clinic, and had removed “nearly the entire growth.” Friedrich spent July with his family at Norris Castle on the Isle of Wight. However, when Frederick visited Mackenzie’s office on August 2, for a follow-up examination, the growth had reappeared, necessitating its cauterisation the same day, and again on 8 August – an ominous indication that it was indeed malignant.

Felix Semon, a distinguished German throat specialist with a practice in England, and who had been closely following Frederick’s case, submitted a report to the German Foreign Secretary in which he strongly criticised Mackenzie’s cauterisations, and gave his opinion that the growth, if not malignant, was suspect, and should continue to be biopsied and examined. On August 9, Friedrich travelled to Braemar in the Scottish Highlands with Dr. Mark Hovell, a senior surgeon at the Throat Hospital in London. Although a further examination by Mackenzie on August 20, revealed no sign of a recurrent growth, Frederick said he had the “constant feeling” of something “not right inside”; nonetheless, he requested Queen Victoria to knight Mackenzie, who duly received a knighthood in September.

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Crown Prince and Princess of Prussia

Despite the operations on his throat and having taken the sea air at Cowes, Friedrich remained hoarse and was advised by Mackenzie to spend the coming winter on the Italian Riviera. In August, following reports that his father was gravely ill, he considered returning to Germany, but was dissuaded by his wife, and went to Toblach in South Tyrol with his family, where Victoria had rented a house. He arrived in Toblach on 7 September 7, exhausted and hoarse. Concerned by Friedrich ‘s lack of visible improvement after a brief meeting with Friedrich in Munich, Philipp, Prince of Eulenburg, consulted the distinguished laryngologist Max Joseph Oertel, who urged a drastic and thorough operation on Friedrich’s throat, and said he suspected a benign tumour which could soon become malignant.

By this time, Mackenzie’s treatment of Friedrich was generating strong criticism. After a fortnight in Toblach, Mackenzie arrived to reexamine Friedrich, who had continued to suffer from colds and hoarseness; in public, however, the doctor remained largely unconcerned, and attributed the hoarseness to a “momentary chill.” However, he recommended that Friedrich should leave Toblach for Venice, to be followed by Victoria. The weather soon turned cold, and Friedrich’s throat caused him pain, for which he received cocaine injections.

Upon arriving in Venice, Friedrich again caught cold; privately, Mackenzie was growing seriously concerned, having observed a continued tendency for Friedrich’s throat and larynx to swell. He forbade Friedrich from speaking at any length, noting that if the Crown Prince insisted on speaking and contracted further colds, he could give him no more than three months to live. At the beginning of October, Victoria noted that “Fritz’s throat is giving no cause for fresh anxiety & he really does take a little more care and speaks a little less.” At the end of October, Friedrich’s condition abruptly worsened, with Victoria writing to her mother on November 2, that Friedrich ‘s throat was again inflamed, but not due to any cold, and that he was “very hoarse again” and easily became depressed about his health.

General Alfred von Waldersee observed that Friedrich’s health had grave implications as if Emperor Wilhelm died soon and his son succeeded, “a new Kaiser who is not allowed to speak is a virtual impossibility, quite apart from the fact that we desperately need a highly energetic one.” Crown Prince’s son, Prince Wilhelm reported to King Albert of Saxony that his father was frequently short-tempered and melancholic, though his voice appeared to have slightly improved, and that Friedrich’s throat was being treated by “blowing in a powder twice a day to soothe the larynx.”

On November 3, Friedrich and his entourage departed for San Remo. At San Remo two days later, on November 5, Friedrich entirely lost his voice and experienced severe pain throughout his throat. Upon examination, Dr. Hovell discovered a new growth under the left vocal cord; when the news reached Wilhelm and the German government, it caused great consternation. The following day, Mackenzie issued a bulletin stating that while there was no immediate danger to the Crown Prince, his illness had “unfortunately taken an unfavourable turn,” and that he had requested advice from other specialists, including the Austrian professor of laryngology Leopold Schrötter and Dr. Hermann Krause of Berlin.

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Crown Princess of Prussia

On 9 November, Schrötter and Krause diagnosed the new growth as malignant, and said it was unlikely Frederick could live another year. All the doctors in attendance, including Mackenzie, now concluded that Friedrich disease was indeed laryngeal cancer, as new lesions had appeared on the right side of the larynx, and that an immediate and total laryngectomy was required to save his life; Moritz Schmidt, one of the doctors, subsequently said that the earlier growths found in May had also been cancerous. Friedrich was devastated by the news, bursting into tears upon being informed by Mackenzie and crying, “To think I should have such a horrid disgusting illness … I had so hoped to have been of use to my country. Why is Heaven so cruel to me? What have I done to be thus stricken and condemned?”

The news was greeted with shock in Berlin and generated further hatred against Victoria, now seen as a domineering “foreigner” who was manipulating her husband. Some politicians suggested that Friedrich be made to relinquish his position in the line of succession in favour of his son Wilhelm, but Bismarck firmly stated that Friedrich would succeed his ailing father “whether he is ill or not, [and] whether the K[aiser] is then unable permanently to perform his duties,” would then be determined per the relevant provisions of the Prussian Constitution. Despite the renewed diagnosis of cancer, Friedrich’s condition appeared to improve after November5, and he became more optimistic; through January 1888 there remained some hope that the diagnosis was incorrect. Both Friedrich and Victoria retained their faith in Mackenzie, who reexamined Frederick’s throat several times in December and gave a good prognosis, again doubting whether the growths had been cancerous.

The diagnosis of laryngeal cancer was conclusively confirmed on March 6, the anatomist Professor Wilhelm Waldeyer, who had come to San Remo, examined Friedrich’s sputum under a microscope and confirmed the presence of “so-called cancroid bodies…from a cancerous new growth” that was in the larynx. He further said that there were no signs of any growths in the lungs. Though it finally settled the question, Waldeyer’s diagnosis threw all of Mackenzie’s treatment of Frederick into doubt. The diagnosis and treatment of Friedrich’s fatal illness caused some medical controversy well into the next century.

1888 the Year of the Three Emperors
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Wilhelm I, German Emperor and King of Prussia
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Friedrich III, German Emperor and King of Prussia
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Wilhelm II, German Emperor and King of Prussia

Three days after Friedrich was confirmed to be suffering from cancer, his father Emperor Wilhelm I died aged 90 at 8:22 a.m. on March 9, 1888, upon which Friedrich became German Emperor and King of Prussia. His son, Wilhelm, now Crown Prince, telegraphed the news to his father in Italy. Later the same day, Friedrich wrote in his diary that he had received the telegram upon returning from a walk, “…and so I have ascended the throne of my forefathers and of the German Kaiser! God help me fulfill my duties conscientiously and for the weal of my Fatherland, in both the narrower and the wider sense.”

Germany’s progressive elements hoped that Wilhelm’s death, and thus Friedrich’s succession, would usher the country into a new era governed along liberal lines. Logically, Friedrich should have taken as his regnal name either Friedrich I (if the Bismarckian empire was considered a new entity) or Friedrich IV (if the new empire was considered a continuation of the old Holy Roman Empire, which had had three emperors named Friedrich); he himself preferred the Friedrich IV. However, on the advice of Bismarck that this would create legal problems, he opted to simply keep the same regnal name he had as king of Prussia, Friedrich III.

The new Emperor reached Berlin at 11 p.m. on the night of March 11; those who saw him were horrified by his “pitiful” appearance. The question now was how much longer the mortally ill emperor could be expected to live, and what, if anything, he could hope to achieve. In spite of his illness, Friedrich did his best to fulfill his obligations as Emperor. Immediately after the announcement of his accession, he took the ribbon and star of his Order of the Black Eagle from his jacket and pinned it on the dress of his wife; he was determined to honor her position as Empress. Too ill to march in his father’s funeral procession, he was represented by Wilhelm, the new Crown Prince, while he watched, weeping, from his rooms in the Charlottenburg Palace.

As the German Emperor, he officially received Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom (his mother-in-law) and King Oscar II of Sweden and Norway, and attended the wedding of his son Prince Heinrich to his niece Princess Irene. However, Friedrich III reigned for only 99 days, and was unable to bring about much lasting change. The majority of the German ruling elite viewed Friedrich III’s reign as merely a brief interim period before the accession of his son Wilhelm to the throne.

An edict he penned before he ascended to the throne that would limit the powers of the chancellor and monarch under the constitution was never put into effect,although he did force Robert von Puttkamer to resign as Prussian Minister of the Interior on June 8, when evidence indicated that Puttkamer had interfered in the Reichstag elections. Dr. Mackenzie wrote that the Emperor had “an almost overwhelming sense of the duties of his position.” In a letter to Lord Napier, Empress Victoria wrote “The Emperor is able to attend to his business, and do a great deal, but not being able to speak is, of course, most trying.” Friedrich III had the fervour but not the time to accomplish his desires, lamenting in May 1888, “I cannot die … What would happen to Germany?”

From April 1888, Friedrich III became so weak he was unable to walk, and was largely confined to his bed; his continual coughing brought up large quantities of pus. In early June, the cancer spread to and perforated his esophagus, preventing him from eating. He suffered from bouts of vomiting and ran high fevers, but remained alert enough to write a last diary entry on June 11: “What’s happening to me? I must get well again; I have so much to do!”

Friedrich III died in Potsdam at 11:30 a.m. on June 15, 1888, and was succeeded by his 29-year-old son as Wilhelm II, German Emperor and King of Prussia. Under Emperor Wilhelm II, his parents and maternal grandparents, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert’s hopes of a liberal Germany were not fulfilled. He believed in the autocracy and Conservative principles of his paternal grandfather, Emperor Wilhelm I.

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Empress Friedrich and her mother Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom holding a portrait of Emperor Friedrich III.

Frederick is buried in a mausoleum attached to the Friedenskirche in Potsdam. After his death, William Ewart Gladstone described him as the “Barbarossa of German liberalism.” His wife, Empress Victoria, now calling herself the Empress Friedrich, went on to continue spreading her husband’s thoughts and ideals throughout Germany, but no longer had power within the government.

The early death of Emperor Friedrich III is a tragedy in German history. For if he lived and was able to enact his Liberal policies the history of Germany would have been much different.

Birth of Princes Beatrice of the United Kingdom: April 14, 1857

14 Sunday Apr 2019

Posted by liamfoley63 in Featured Royal, Happy Birthday, Royal Succession, This Day in Royal History

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Duke of Edinburgh, House of Battenberg, King Edward VII of Great Britain, Prince Henry of Battenberg, Princess Beatrice, Queen Elizabeth II, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, United Kingdom of Great Britain

On this date in History: April 14th 1857 the birth of Princess Beatrice of the United Kingdom, (April 14, 1857 – October 26, 1944) the fifth daughter and youngest child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.

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Prince Albert with Princess Beatrice.

The birth caused controversy when it was announced that Queen Victoria would seek relief from the pains of delivery through the use of chloroform administered by Dr John Snow. Chloroform was considered dangerous to mother and child and was frowned upon by the Church of England and the medical authorities. Queen Victoria was undeterred and used “that blessed chloroform” for her last pregnancy. A fortnight later, Queen Victoria reported in her journal, “I was amply rewarded and forgot all I had gone through when I heard dearest Albert say ‘It’s a fine child, and a girl!” Albert and Queen Victoria chose the names Beatrice Mary Victoria Feodore: Mary after Princess Mary, Duchess of Gloucester, the last surviving child of King George III of the United Kingdom; Victoria after the Queen; and Feodore after Feodora, Princess of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, the Queen’s older half-sister. She was baptised in the private chapel at Buckingham Palace on June 16, 1857. Her godparents were the Duchess of Kent (maternal grandmother); the Princess Royal (eldest sister); and the Prince Friedrich of Prussia (her future brother-in-law).

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Queen Victoria with Princess Beatrice

Beatrice’s childhood coincided with Queen Victoria’s grief following the death of her husband Albert, the Prince Consort on December 14, 1861. As her elder sisters married and left their mother, Queen Victoria came to rely on the company of her youngest daughter, whom she called “Baby” for most of her childhood. Beatrice was brought up to stay with her mother always and she soon resigned herself to her fate. Queen Victoria was so set against her youngest daughter marrying that she refused to discuss the possibility.

Queen Victoria came to rely upon her youngest daughter, who had declared from an early age: “I don’t like weddings at all. I shall never be married. I shall stay with my mother.” As her mother’s secretary, she performed duties such as writing on the Queen’s behalf and helping with political correspondents. These mundane duties mirrored those that had been performed in succession by her sisters, Alice, Helena and Louise.

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Princess Beatrice as a teenager

Although the Queen was set against Beatrice marrying anyone in the expectation that she would always stay at home with her, a number of possible suitors were put forward before Beatrice’s marriage to Prince Henry of Battenberg. One of these was Louis-Napoléon, the French Prince Imperial, son and heir of the exiled Emperor Napoleon III of France and his wife, Empress Eugénie. After Prussia defeated France in the Franco-Prussian War, Napoleon was deposed and moved his family to England in 1870. After the Emperor’s death in 1873, Queen Victoria and Empress Eugénie formed a close attachment, and the newspapers reported the imminent engagement of Beatrice to the Prince Imperial. These rumours ended with the death of the Prince Imperial in the Anglo-Zulu War on June 1, 1879. Queen Victoria’s journal records their grief: “Dear Beatrice, crying very much as I did too, gave me the telegram … It was dawning and little sleep did I get … Beatrice is so distressed; everyone quite stunned.”

After the death of the Prince Imperial, the Prince of Wales (future King Edward VII) suggested that Beatrice marry their sister Alice’s widower, Ludwig IV, Grand Duke of Hesse. Alice had died in 1878, and the Prince argued that Beatrice could act as replacement mother for Ludwig’s young children and spend most of her time in England looking after her mother. He further suggested the Queen could oversee the upbringing of her Hessian grandchildren with greater ease. However, at the time, it was forbidden by law for Beatrice to marry her sister’s widower. This was countered by the Prince of Wales, who vehemently supported passage by the Houses of Parliament of the Deceased Wife’s Sister Bill, which would have removed the obstacle. Despite popular support for this measure and although it passed in the House of Commons, it was rejected by the House of Lords because of opposition from the Lords Spiritual. Although the Queen was disappointed that the bill had failed, she was happy to keep her daughter at her side.

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Princess Beatrice in her twenties.

Other candidates, including two of Prince Henry’s brothers, Prince Alexander (“Sandro”) and Prince Louis of Battenberg, were put forward to be Beatrice’s husband, but they did not succeed. Although Alexander never formally pursued Beatrice, merely claiming that he “might even at one time have become engaged to the friend of my childhood, Beatrice of England”, Louis was more interested. Queen Victoria invited him to dinner but sat between him and Beatrice, who had been told by the Queen to ignore Louis to discourage his suit. Louis, not realising for several years the reasons for this silence, married Beatrice’s niece, Princess Viktoria of Hesse and by Rhine (daughter of Princess Alice of the United Kingdom and Ludwig IV, Grand Duke of Hesse – Paternal grandmother of the Duke of Edinburgh). Although her marriage hopes had been dealt another blow, while attending Louis’s wedding to Princess Victoria at Darmstadt, Beatrice fell in love with Prince Henry, Louis’ younger brother, who returned her affections.

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Prince Henry of Battenberg.

When Beatrice, after returning from Darmstadt, told her mother she planned to marry, the Queen reacted with frightening silence. Although they remained side by side, the Queen did not talk to her for seven months, instead communicating by note. Queen Victoria’s behaviour, unexpected even by her family, seemed prompted by the threatened loss of her daughter. The Queen regarded Beatrice as her “Baby” – her innocent child – and viewed the physical sex that would come with marriage as an end to innocence.

Subtle persuasions by the Princess of Wales and the Crown Princess of Prussia, who reminded her mother of the happiness that Beatrice had brought the Prince Consort, induced the Queen to resume talking to Beatrice. Queen Victoria consented to the marriage on condition that Henry give up his German commitments and live permanently with Beatrice and the Queen.

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Wedding of Prince Henry of Battenberg and Princess Beatrice of the United Kingdom.

Beatrice and Henry were married at Saint Mildred’s Church at Whippingham, near Osborne, on July 23, 1885. Beatrice, who wore her mother’s wedding veil of Honiton lace, was escorted by the Queen and Beatrice’s eldest brother, the Prince of Wale. Princess Beatrice was attended by ten royal bridesmaids from among her nieces: Princesses Louise (18), Victoria and Maud of Wales; Princesses Irene and Alix of Hesse and by Rhine; Princesses Marie, Victoria Melita and Alexandra of Edinburgh; and Princesses Helena Victoria and Marie Louise of Schleswig-Holstein. The bridegroom’s supporters were his brothers, Prince Alexander of Bulgaria and Prince Franz Joseph of Battenberg.

The addition of Prince Henry to the family gave new reasons for Beatrice and the Queen to look forward, and the court was brighter than it had been since the Prince Consort’s death. Even so, Henry, supported by Beatrice, was determined to take part in military campaigns, and this annoyed the Queen, who opposed his participation in life-threatening warfare. Conflicts also arose when Henry attended the Ajaccio carnival and kept “low company”, and Beatrice sent a Royal Navy officer to remove him from temptation. On one occasion, Henry slipped away to Corsica with his brother Louis;the Queen sent a warship to bring him back. Henry was feeling oppressed by the Queen’s constant need for his and his wife’s company.

Despite suffering a miscarriage in the early months of her marriage, Beatrice gave birth to four children: Alexander, called “Drino”, was born in 1886; Ena in 1887; Leopold in 1889 and Maurice in 1891. Following this, she took a polite and encouraging interest in social issues, such as conditions in the coal mines. However, this interest did not extend to changing the conditions of poverty, as it had done with her brother, the Prince of Wales.

Henry, increasingly bored by the lack of activity at court, longed for employment, and in response, the Queen made him Governor of the Isle of Wight in 1889. However, he yearned for military adventure and pleaded with his mother-in-law to let him join the Ashanti expedition fighting in the Anglo-Asante war. Despite misgivings, the Queen consented, and Henry and Beatrice parted on December 6, 1895; they would not meet again. Henry contracted malaria and was sent home. On January 22, 1896, Beatrice, who was waiting for her husband at Madeira, received a telegram informing her of Henry’s death two days earlier.

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Princess Beatrice in old age.

Beatrice remained at her mother’s side until Queen Victoria died on 22 January 1901. Beatrice devoted the next 30 years to editing Queen Victoria’s journals as her designated literary executor and continued to make public appearances. She died at 87, outliving all her siblings, two of her children, and several nieces and nephews including George V and Wilhelm II. In the case of Wilhelm II Beatrice was only 1 year, 9 months, 13 days older than her nephew.

She died at Brantridge Park, the home of her niece, Princess Alice of Albany and her husband, the Earl of Athlone, at the time serving as Governor General of Canada. Osborne House, her mother’s favourite home, is accessible to the public. Her Osborne residences, Osborne and Albert Cottages, remain in private ownership after their sale in 1912. At her death, Beatrice was the only surviving child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. The future Elizabeth II, Beatrice’s great-grandniece, was eighteen years of age at that time.

On this date in History: January 20th, 1936. Death of HM King George V of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Emperor of India.

20 Friday Jan 2017

Posted by liamfoley63 in Featured Monarch, From the Emperor's Desk, This Day in Royal History

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Czar Nicholas II of Russia, Delhi Durbar, George V, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, King Edward VII of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, King George V of Great Britain, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, United Kingdom of Great Britain

 

king_george_v_1911_color-cropOn this date in History: January 20th, 1936. Death of HM King George V of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Emperor of India. The king had reigned for 25 years.

He was the second son of Albert Edward, Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII), and the grandson of the reigning British monarch, Queen Victoria. From the time of his birth, he was third in the line of succession behind his father and his own elder brother, Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale. From 1877 to 1891, George served in the Royal Navy, until the unexpected death of his elder brother in early 1892 put him directly in line for the throne. On the death of his grandmother in 1901, George’s father became King-Emperor of the British Empire, and George was created Prince of Wales. He succeeded his father in 1910. He was the only Emperor of India to be present at his own Delhi Durbar.

His reign saw the rise of socialism, communism, fascism, Irish republicanism, and the Indian independence movement, all of which radically changed the political landscape. The Parliament Act 1911 established the supremacy of the elected British House of Commons over the unelected House of Lords. As a result of the First World War (1914–18) the empires of his first cousins Czar Nicholas II of Russia and Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany fell while the British Empire expanded to its greatest effective extent. In 1917, George became the first monarch of the House of Windsor, which he renamed from the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha as a result of anti-German public sentiment. In 1924 he appointed the first Labour ministry and in 1931 the Statute of Westminster recognised the dominions of the Empire as separate, independent states within the Commonwealth of Nations. He had health problems throughout much of his later reign and at his death was succeeded by his eldest son, Edward VIII.

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Legal Succession: The House of Hanover & Jacobite resistance

05 Monday Aug 2013

Posted by liamfoley63 in Royal Genealogy

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George IV, King George I of Great Britain, king James I-VI of England and Scotland, Kings and Queens of England, kings and queens of Scotland, kings and queens of the United Kingdom, Sophia of the Rhine (Electress Sophia), United Kingdom of Great Britain, William III and Mary II

With the succession now legally in the hands of William III and Mary II and with the death of the future Queen Anne’s son, Prince William, Duke of Gloucester, it necessitated the Act of Settlement of 1701 that placed the succession on the nearest Protestant heir, the Electress Sophia of Hanover. She was a granddaughter of King James I-VI of England and Scotland. The Electress Sophia was married to the Ernst August, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and Imperial Elector of Hanover.

Ernst August of Hanover died January 23, 1698 and his son, Georg Ludwig became Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and Imperial Elector of Hanover. He was also 2nd in line to the English and Scottish thrones throne via the Act of Settlement. Although not the topic of this series, in 1707 the Parliaments of England and Scotland were united to form the kingdom of Great Britain. The titles of King and Queen of England and the Scots passed into history. Georg-Ludwig’s mother, the Electress Sophia, did not live long enough to inherit the British throne she died June 8, 1714 a few weeks before the death of Queen Anne on August 1, 1714. Upon the death of Queen Anne the legal succession passed to Elector Georg-Ludwig of Hanover who became King George I of Great Britain. Although George was Elector of Hanover that country was not politically united with Great Britain.

The deposed king, James II-VII, died in 1701 and the Stuart claim passed to his son, James Francis, Prince of Wales who then claimed the throne as King James III-VIII of England and Scotland. The followers of James, known as Jacobites, did not recognize the union of England and Scotland so you will often see the Jacobite claimants call themselves Kings of England and Scotland rather than Great Britain. When James claimed the titles to his father’s thrones these claims were recognised as by France, Spain, the Papal States and Modena. These states refused to recognise William III, Mary II or Queen Anne as legitimate sovereigns. Another consequence of James claims to the throne was that the British government charged him with treason and his title, Prince of Wales, was attainted March 2, 1702, and were considered forfeited under English law. For the rest of this post James will be called The Old Pretender.

It is not the scope of this series to delve in-depth with he Jacobite uprisings but I will give a brief synopsis. James had support in France from King Louis XIV who had been the first cousin to both Charles II and James II-VII. Also, at this time France was at war against Britain as the War of the Spanish Succession raged throughout Europe as Louis XIV’s grandson, Felipe V, became the new King of Spain. In 1715 the year after the accession of George I, John Erskine, 22nd Earl of Mar, began a rebellion with the aim of placing James, the Old Pretender on the throne. This rebellion failed.

In 1745 another rebellion occurred under the Old Pretender’s son, Charles Edward, known to his supporters as King Charles III and to history as Bonnie Prince Charlie. This uprising moved as far into England as Derby and culminated in the Battle of Culloden. The armies of Field Marshal George Wade and of William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, son of King George II of Great Britain led the British forces to victory. Bonnie Prince Charlie fled to Europe with a large price on his head.

After the Battle of Culloden the Jacobite movement dwindled considerably. Charles Edward married Princess Louise of Stolberg-Gedern but had no legitimate offspring. He left a natural daughter, Charlotte Stuart, created Duchess of Albany by her father but this title had no legal standing in Britain. When Charles Edward died in 1788 the Jacobite claim to the throne went to his brother, Henry Benedict Stuart, Cardinal Duke of York. He was a Catholic Priest and to his supporters he was Known as King Henry IX of England, Scotland, Ireland and France.

After the French Revolution, Henry lost his French Royal benefices and sacrificed many other resources to assist Pope Pius VI. He also lost all of his French property which caused him to descend into poverty. Ironically, the British Minister in Venice arranged for Henry to receive an annuity of £4,000 from King George III of Great Britain. In his will,  which he signed as “Henry R”, he was succeeded his claim to the British/English/Scottish throne to his nearest blood-relative, King Charles Emmanuel IV of Sardinia. However, Charles never asserted nor renounced his Jacobite claims, nor have any of his successors to this day.

In the near future I will do a post about Jacobitism and the succession of those claimants. My next entry in the Legal Succession series will be the last as I bring it up to date with current times.

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