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Maria Carolina of Austria, Queen of Naples and Sicily; Credit – Wikipedia
August 13, 1090 – Death of Constance of Normandy, Duchess of Brittany, daughter of King William I of England (the Conqueror), buried at St. Melans near Rhedon in France
Born around 1066, Constance was one of the daughters of William I and Matilda of Flanders. She married Alan IV, Duke of Brittany in 1086 but they had no children. Two chroniclers of the time had very different views of Constance. Orderic Vitalius wrote that Constance was caring and attentive to the subjects of her husband and that her death on August 13, 1090, was the greatest loss for the inhabitants of the duchy. However, William of Malmesbury wrote that her “harsh and conservative manner” of government made Constance unpopular in the duchy, and her husband ordered her servants to poison her.
Unofficial Royalty: Constance of Normandy, Duchess of Brittany
August 13, 1752 – Birth of Maria Carolina of Austria, Queen of Naples and Sicily, first wife of the future Ferdinando I, King of the Two Sicilies, at Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna, Austria
Full name: Maria Carolina Louise Josepha Johanna Antonia
Maria Carolina was the thirteenth of the sixteen children and the tenth of the eleven daughters of Empress Maria Theresa, who was in her own right Archduchess of Austria, Queen of Hungary, Queen of Croatia, and Queen of Bohemia, and Franz, Holy Roman Emperor, Grand Duke of Tuscany, and Duke of Lorraine. During childhood, Maria Carolina was very close to her younger sister Maria Antonia, better known as the ill-fated Marie Antoinette, Queen of France. Maria Carolina married King Ferdinando IV of Naples and III of Sicily, who became King of the Two Sicilies after her death. Despite her dislike for her husband, Maria Carolina fulfilled her most important duty – to continue the dynasty. Maria Carolina and Ferdinando had seventeen children but only seven survived childhood. Seven of their children died from smallpox. However, four of their five surviving daughters married sovereigns, and their son Francesco succeeded his father.
Unofficial Royalty: Maria Carolina of Austria, Queen of Naples and Sicily
August 13, 1792 – Birth of Queen Adelaide of the United Kingdom, wife of King William IV of the United Kingdom, born Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen at the Elisabethenburg Palace in Meiningen, Duchy of Saxe-Meiningen, now in Thuringia, Germany
Full name: Adelheid Luise Therese Karoline Amalie
After twenty-one-year-old Princess Charlotte of Wales, the only child of George, Prince of Wales, died delivering a stillborn son, the unmarried, aging sons of King George III began a frantic search for brides to provide for the succession. One of the sons was William, Duke of Clarence (the future King William IV). William had never married but had lived for 20 years with actress Dorothea Jordan. Soon after the death of Princess Charlotte of Wales, negotiations began for the marriage of William to Princess Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen, and the engagement was announced on April 19, 1818. William was 52 and Adelaide was 25. Adelaide loved children but was destined not to have one of her own. Sadly, Adelaide had two babies who died in early infancy, a miscarriage, and two stillbirths. A child of William and Adelaide would have succeeded to the throne as William’s two elder brothers (George IV and Frederick, Duke of York) had no surviving children. Adelaide wrote to her widowed sister-in-law the Duchess of Kent, “My children are dead, but your child lives, and she is mine too.” That child was the future Queen Victoria.
Unofficial Royalty: Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen, Queen of the United Kingdom
August 13, 1904 – Death of Elizabeth Wellesley, Duchess of Wellington, Queen Victoria’s Mistress of the Robes 1861–1868, 1874–1880, in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, England; at Stratfield Saye House in Hampshire, England
Born Lady Elizabeth Hay, daughter of George Hay, 8th Marquess of Tweeddale, she married Arthur Wellesley, 2nd Duke of Wellington.
Unofficial Royalty: Elizabeth Wellesley, Duchess of Wellington
August 13, 1910 – Birth of Said bin Taimur, Sultan of Oman in Muscat, Sultanate of Muscat and Oman, now the Sultanate of Oman
In 1932, Said’s father, Taimur bin Feisal, abdicated. The new 21-year-old Sultan of Oman inherited a country that was heavily in debt to the United Kingdom and India. To break away from the United Kingdom (Oman had become a British protectorate in 1891) and maintain autonomy, Oman needed to regain economic independence. During his reign, Said maintained close oversight of Oman’s budget. Oil wealth would have allowed Said to modernize his country. However, his policies were extremely conservative and he opposed any modernization, therefore, Oman was isolated from the outside world. He did achieve Oman’s independence from the United Kingdom in 1951. In 1970, he was overthrown in a coup d’etat by his son Qaboos bin Said Al Said, Sultan of Oman. Said bin Taimur, former Sultan of Oman lived out the rest of his life in exile in the United Kingdom.
Unofficial Royalty: Said bin Taimur, Sultan of Oman
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