© Unofficial Royalty 2023
Juliana Maria of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, Queen of Denmark; Credit – Wikipedia
October 10, 1344 – Birth of Mary of Waltham, Duchess of Brittany, daughter of King Edward III of England at Bishop’s Waltham Palace in Bishop’s Waltham, Hampshire, England
Mary had thirteen siblings. Her brothers married into the English nobility and it was their descendants who later battled for the throne in the Wars of the Roses. Around July 3, 1361,16-year-old Mary and 22-year-old John IV, Duke of Brittany were married at Woodstock Palace in Woodstock, Oxfordshire, England. Mary and John remained at the English court after their marriage. Arrangements were being made for them to leave England and take up residence in Brittany as the Duke and Duchess of Brittany. However, within weeks, Mary became quite ill, and she died sometime before September 13, 1361,
Unofficial Royalty: Mary of Waltham, Duchess of Brittany
October 10, 1741 – Birth of Carl II, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz at Mirow Castle in Mirow, Duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, now in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany
Full name: Carl Ludwig Friedrich
Carl was the brother of Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz who married King George III of the United Kingdom. In 1794, Carl became the Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz upon the death of his brother Adolf Friedrich IV. In 1815, the Congress of Vienna recognized Mecklenburg-Strelitz as a grand duchy. Carl II, Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz became the first Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. Carl married Friederike of Hesse-Darmstadt who died due to childbirth complications giving birth to her tenth child. Two years later, Carl married Friederike’s younger sister, Charlotte who also died due to childbirth complications shortly after giving birth to their only child.
Unofficial Royalty: Carl II, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
October 10, 1796 – Death of Juliana Maria of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, Queen of Denmark, second wife of King Frederik V of Denmark, in Fredensborg Palace in Denmark; buried at Roskilde Cathedral in Denmark
In 1752, Juliana Maria married Frederik V six months after the death of his first wife Louisa of Great Britain. The couple had one son. After the death of Frederik V, he was succeeded by his son from his first marriage King Christian VII who had many symptoms of mental illness. Juliana Maria was instrumental in a coup that would bring about the fall of Christian VII’s physician Johann Friedrich Struensee and discredit Christian’s wife Caroline Matilda of Wales who was having an affair with Struensee. Juliana Maria arranged for King Christian VII to sign the arrest warrant of Struensee after she had already made the arrest in the name of the king. Struensee was executed and Caroline Matilda was exiled. After the fall of Struensee, Juliana Maria and her son, Christian VII’s half-brother Hereditary Prince Frederik, took charge of the Council of State. Christian VII was only nominally king from 1772 onward.
Unofficial Royalty: Juliana Maria of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, Queen of Denmark
October 10, 1830 – Birth of Queen Isabella II of Spain at the Royal Palace in Madrid, Spain
Full name: María Isabel Luisa
Isabella’s father Ferdinand VII died in 1833, and she succeeded to the throne, not quite three years old. Isabella married her double first cousin Infante Francisco de Asís de Borbón, Duke of Cadiz. Her marriage was not happy and there were rumors that few, if any, of her children, were fathered by her husband. Isabella had nine children, but only five reached adulthood. Her only surviving son was King Alfonso XII of Spain, the great-great-grandfather of the current Spanish monarch King Felipe VI. Isabella’s authoritarianism, her religious fanaticism, her alliance with the military, and the chaos of her reign — sixty different governments — helped bring about the Revolution of 1868 that exiled her to Paris. The new government replaced Isabella with Amadeo I, the second son of King Victor Emmanuel II of Italy. During Amadeo’s reign, there were many republican uprisings and he abdicated in 1873 and returned to Italy. The First Spanish Republic was declared, but it lasted a little less than two years. Isabella had officially abdicated in 1870 and after the First Spanish Republic collapsed, her son Alfonso XII became king.
Unofficial Royalty: Queen Isabella II of Spain
October 10, 1837 – Death of Princess Wilhelmine Luise of Nassau-Weilburg, Princess Reuss of Greiz, wife of Heinrich XIII, 2nd Prince Reuss of Greiz, in Greiz, Principality of Reuss-Greiz, now in the German state of Thuringia; buried at the Stadtkirche St. Marien in Greiz
The daughter of Karl Christian, Duke of Nassau-Weilburg and Princess Carolina of Orange-Nassau, twenty-year-old Wilhelmine Luise married thirty-eight-year-old Heinrich XIII, the heir to the throne of the Principality of Reuss-Greiz in 1786. Wilhelmine Luise and Heinrich XIII had four sons. Upon the death of his father in 1800, Heinrich XIII succeeded as Prince Reuss of Greiz. Heinrich XIII, 2nd Prince Reuss of Greiz died on January 29, 1817, aged 69. Wilhelmine Luise survived her husband by twenty years, dying on October 10, 1837, aged 72.
Unofficial Royalty: Wilhelmine Luise of Nassau-Weilburg, Princess Reuss of Greiz
October 10, 1846 – Birth of Georg, Prince of Schaumburg-Lippe at Schloss Bückeburg, in Bückeburg, Principality of Schaumburg-Lippe, now in North-Rhine Westphalia, Germany
Full name: Stephan Albrecht Georg
In 1882, Georg married Princess Marie Anna of Saxe-Altenburg, who was eighteen years younger than him. The couple had nine children. Before he succeeded to the throne, Georg had a career in the Prussian Army. Upon the death of his father on May 8, 1893, Georg became the reigning Prince of Schaumburg-Lippe.
Unofficial Royalty: Georg, Prince of Schaumburg-Lippe
October 10, 1903 – Birth of Prince Charles of Belgium, Prince Regent of Belgium, at the Palace of the Marquis d’Assche in Brussels, Belgium
Full name: Charles-Théodore Henri Antoine Meinrad
Charles was the younger brother of Leopold III, King of the Belgians. When Belgium was occupied by Germany during World War II, Leopold III surrendered and was held under house arrest at the Palace of Laeken. After the liberation of Belgium, the Belgian Parliament appointed Charles as Prince Regent. During his Regency, Charles worked to restore Belgium after the war, helping to establish financial aid and grants for the restoration of properties damaged or destroyed. Charles remained Prince Regent of Belgium until a 1950 referendum returned Leopold III to the throne.
Unofficial Royalty: Prince Charles of Belgium Count of Flanders, Prince Regent of Belgium
October 10, 1914 – Death of King Carol I of Romania at Sinaia, Romania; buried at the Curtea de Arges Monastery in Romania
Born Prince Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, he was elected by the Romanian government to become the new Ruling Prince in 1866 after Ruling Prince Alexander Ioan Cuza was forced to abdicate. He took on the more Romanian spelling of his name – Carol. In 1881, the Romanian parliament declared Romania a Kingdom, and he became King Carol I. He married Princess Elisabeth of Wied and they had one daughter who died in childhood from scarlet fever. After a reign of 48 years, Carol I died at the age of 75 and was succeeded by his nephew, King Ferdinand I, the second son of his elder brother Leopold.
Unofficial Royalty: King Carol I of Romania
This article is the intellectual property of Unofficial Royalty and is NOT TO BE COPIED, EDITED, OR POSTED IN ANY FORM ON ANOTHER WEBSITE under any circumstances. It is permissible to use a link that directs to Unofficial Royalty.