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Louise of Great Britain, Queen of Denmark; Credit – Wikipedia

December 19, 1554 – Birth of Filips Willem, Prince of Orange in Buren, Guelders, now part of the Netherlands, then part of the Habsburg Netherlands
Filips Willem was the only son of Willem I (the Silent), Prince of Orange and the first of his four wives Anna van Egmont. In 1568, Willem I, Filips Willem’s father, became the main leader of the Dutch revolt against the Spanish Habsburgs who held the land that we now know as the Netherlands and Belgium. That set off the Eighty Years’ War and resulted in the formal independence of the Dutch Republic in 1581. Angered by Willem I’s revolt, King Philip II of Spain arranged for 13-year-old Filips Willem to be kidnapped and taken to Spain, partly as a hostage, but also to be raised as a Catholic and a loyal subject to Spain. Filips Willem never saw his father again. In 1584, Balthasar Gérard, a subject and supporter of Philip II, assassinated Willem I. Filips Willem became Prince of Orange, however, he was not allowed to return to his homeland because he was not trusted and was considered an agent of Spain. In 1596, 28 years after he was kidnapped, Filips Willem returned to the Netherlands and lived at the Palace of Nassau in Brussels. At the request of the States-General (the legislature), he did not engage in political affairs.
Unofficial Royalty: Filips Willem, Prince of Orange

December 19, 1594 – Birth of King Gustavus II Adolphus the Great of Sweden  at Castle Tre Kronor in Stockholm, Sweden
Also known as Gustav II Adolf, King of Sweden, he was officially given the name Gustavus Adolphus the Great by the Riksdag of the Estates, the legislature, in 1634, two years after his death in battle. He is considered one of the greatest military commanders in history and made Sweden a great power that would result in it becoming one of Europe’s largest and leading nations during the early modern period. He became King of Sweden at the age of sixteen when his father Karl IX, King of Sweden died in 1611. In 1620, Gustavus Adoplphus married Maria Eleonora left Brandenburg. Their only surviving child was Christina who succeeded her father as reigning Queen of Sweden. The Thirty Years’ War was a conflict fought mostly within the Holy Roman Empire, mainly in present-day Germany, from 1618 to 1648. Although it started as a religious war (Protestant nations against Catholic nations), it developed into a territorial war. Before Gustavus Adolphus left to lead the Swedish army in the Thirty Years’ War, he secured his daughter Christina’s right to inherit the throne, in case he never returned and gave orders that Christina should receive an education normally given to only boys. Gustavus Adolphus died, aged 37, during the Battle of Lützen on November 16, 1632.
Unofficial Royalty: King Gustavus II Adolphus the Great of Sweden

December 19, 1683 – Birth of King Felipe V of Spain, the first Bourbon King of Spain, born as Philippe of France, Duke of Anjou; son of Louis of France, Le Grand Dauphin and grandson of King Louis XIV of France, at the Palace of Versailles in France
In 1700, Carlos II, King of Spain died childless with no immediate Habsburg heir. Philippe’s father Louis, Le Grand Dauphin had the strongest genealogical claim to the throne of Spain because his mother Maria Teresa, Infanta of Spain had been the half-sister of Carlos II. However, neither Philippe’s father nor his elder brother, Louis, Duke of Burgundy, could be displaced from their place in the succession to the French throne. Therefore, Carlos II, King of Spain, in his will, named 16-year-old Philippe of Anjou, Duke of Anjou as his successor. Felipe and his first wife Maria Luisa of Savoy had four sons but only two survived childhood, they both became Kings of Spain and they both had childless marriages. With his second wife Elisabeth Farnese of Parma, Felipe had six children including King Carlos III. Felipe suffered from mental instability and as he grew older, his mental issues worsened and his wife Elisabeth became the de facto ruler of Spain. Only the singing of the Italian castrato opera singer Farinelli (born Carlo Maria Michelangelo Nicola Broschi) brought any peace to Felipe. Farinelli would sing eight or nine arias for the king and queen every night, usually with a trio of musicians.
Unofficial Royalty: King Felipe V of Spain

December 19, 1751 – Death of Princess Louise of Great Britain, Queen of Denmark and Norway, daughter of King George II of Great Britain, wife of King Frederik V of Denmark and Norway, at Christiansborg Castle in Copenhagen, Denmark; buried at Roskilde Cathedral in Roskilde, Denmark
In 1743, 19-year-old Louisa married the future King Frederik V of Denmark and Norway, the son and heir of King Christian VI of Denmark and Norway.  King Christian hoped that this marriage would cause the British government to support his or his son’s claim to the Swedish throne.  Furthermore, the Danish government hoped (incorrectly) that marriage would put a damper on Crown Prince Frederik’s affairs and drunkenness.  The couple had five children, got along reasonably well and although Frederik continued his affairs, Louisa pretended not to notice them. Louisa’s husband succeeded his father as King Frederik V in 1746, but sadly Louisa died only five years later at the age of 27. While pregnant with her sixth child, Louise died due to complications from a miscarriage, a day after her 27th birthday.
Unofficial Royalty: Princess Louise of Great Britain, Queen of Denmark

December 19, 1778 – Birth of Marie-Thérèse-Charlotte of France, daughter of King Louis XVI and wife of Louis Antoine, Duke of Angoulême (Legitimist pretender), at the Palace of Versailles in France
Marie-Thérèse-Charlotte was the only one in her family to survive imprisonment in the Temple, the remains of a medieval fortress in Paris, during the French Revolution. She married her first cousin Louis-Antoine, Duke of Angoulême, the son of her father’s younger brother, the future King Charles X of France. The couple had no children. After the end of the Bourbon Restoration in 1830, once again, Marie-Thérèse lived in exile, this time with the former King Charles X, her uncle and her father-in-law, and her husband Louis-Antoine. The exiles ultimately moved to the estate of Count Johann Baptist Coronini near Gorizia, which was in Austria but now in Italy. After the death of her husband, Marie-Thérèse moved to the Schloss Frohsdorf, just outside Vienna, Austria where she spent her days taking walks, reading, sewing, and praying. There she died from pneumonia at the age of 72.
Unofficial Royalty: Marie-Thérèse-Charlotte of France, Duchess of Angoulême

December 19, 1814 – Birth of Maria Antonia of the Two Sicilies, Grand Duchess of Tuscany, second wife of Leopoldo II, Grand Duke of Tuscany in Palermo, Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, now Italy
Maria Antonia was the daughter of Francesco I, King of the Two Sicilies and his second wife Maria Isabella of Spain. In 1833, she became the second wife of her first cousin Leopoldo II, Grand Duke of Saxony. They had ten children including Leopoldo’s heir, the last Grand Duke of Tuscany, Ferdinand IV. In 1859, the Grand Ducal family was forced to flee Tuscany permanently because of the wars caused by the Italian unification movement, and the family took refuge in Austria. Leopoldo II abdicated in favor of his son Ferdinand IV who was Grand Duke of Tuscany in name but never really reigned. The family settled in the Kingdom of Bohemia, then part of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire ruled by Leopoldo’s Austrian Habsburg relatives.  After her husband’s death in 1879, Maria Antonia mostly lived at Schloss Ort in Gmunden, a town on the Traunsee, a lake in Austria.
Unofficial Royalty: Maria Antonia of the Two Sicilies, Grand Duchess of Tuscany

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