Author Archives: Susan

Princess Hermine Reuss of Greiz, German Empress, Queen of Prussia

by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2015

Hermine Reuss of Greiz, German Empress, Queen of Prussia; Credit – Wikipedia

Princess Hermine Reuss of Greiz, the second wife of Wilhelm II, formerly German Emperor, was born on December 17, 1887, in Greiz, Principality of Reuss-Greiz, German Empire, now in Thuringia, Germany. She was the fifth of the sixth children of Heinrich XXII, 5th Prince Reuss of Greiz and his wife Princess Ida of Schaumburg-Lippe.

Hermine had one brother and four sisters:

Hermine (on the left) and her sisters in 1903; Credit – Wikipedia

Hermine was not quite four years old when her mother died. Louise, Grand Duchess of Baden, the daughter of Wilhelm I, German Emperor and King of Prussia raised Hermine.

On January 7, 1907, Hermine married Prince Johann Georg von Schoenaich-Carolath, who died in 1920 from tuberculosis. Hermine and Johann Georg had five children:

  • Prince Hans Georg von Schönaich-Carolath (1907 – 1943), married Baroness Sibylle von Zedlitz und Leipe, killed in action during World War II
  • Prince Georg Wilhelm von Schönaich-Carolath (1909 – 1927), died unmarried
  • Princess Hermine von Schönaich-Carolath (born 9 May 1910), married Hugo Herbert Hartung
  • Prince Ferdinand von Schönaich-Carolath (1913 –1973), married (1) Rose Rauch, married (2) Baroness Margret von Seckendorff
  • Princess Henriette von Schönaich-Carolath (1918 – 1972), married Prince Karl Franz of Prussia (grandson of Wilhelm II, German Emperor and only child of Prince Joachim of Prussia), had three children including Prince Franz Wilhelm of Prussia whose wife Maria Vladimirovna, Grand Duchess of Russia is a claimant to the Headship of the Imperial Family of Russia

Hermine with her children in 1923; Photo Credit – Wikipedia

In January 1922, one of Hermine’s sons sent birthday wishes to Wilhelm II, formerly German Emperor, living in exile at Huis Doorn in Doorn, the Netherlands, who then invited the boy and his mother to Doorn. Wilhelm found Hermine very attractive and greatly enjoyed her company. Having both been recently widowed, the two had much in common. Wilhelm was determined to marry Hermine despite objections from his children. 63-year-old Wilhelm and 34-year-old Hermine married on November 5, 1922, in Doorn. Although Wilhelm had abdicated, he continued to use his royal styles and titles, and therefore Hermine was styled Her Imperial Majesty The German Empress, Queen of Prussia.

Wilhelm and Hermine in 1933 at Huis Doorn; Credit – Wikipedia

Hermine’s youngest child Princess Henriette came to live with Hermine and Wilhelm at Huis Doorn. Wilhelm stayed out of his stepchildren’s affairs, except for Henriette. He seemed to have a genuine affection for her, and she was known as “the general”. On August 6, 1940, at his residence at Doorn, Wilhelm officially announced the engagement of his stepdaughter Princess Henriette and his grandson Prince Karl Franz of Prussia, the only child of Wilhelm’s son Prince Joachim who had died by suicide in 1920. The couple married at Huis Doorn on October 5, 1940, had three children, and divorced in 1946.

Hermine with Wilhelm and her youngest daughter Henriette in Doorn in 1931; Credit – Wikipedia

Hermine returned to Germany after Wilhelm died in 1941. After World War II, Hermine was imprisoned for a while at Paulinenhof, a Soviet internment camp near Brandenburg, East Germany.  On August 7, 1947, at the age of 59, Hermine died suddenly of a heart attack in a small apartment in Frankfurt an der Oder in the Soviet Zone of Germany while under house arrest by the Red Army occupation forces. She was buried at the Temple of Antiquities in Potsdam, Germany where Wilhelm’s first wife Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein and several other family members are buried.

Temple of Antiquities; Photo Credit – Wikipedia

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.

Friedrich III, German Emperor, King of Prussia

by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2015

Kingdom of Prussia: The Protestant Franconian branch of the House of Hohenzollern ruled as Margraves of Brandenburg, Dukes of Prussia, Electors of Brandenburg, Kings of Prussia from 1415 until 1918. In November 1700, in exchange for supporting the Holy Roman Empire in the Spanish War of Succession, Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor agreed to allow Friedrich III, Duke of Prussia, Elector of Brandenburg to make Prussia a kingdom and become its first king. In the aftermath of World War I, Prussia had a revolution that resulted in the replacement of the monarchy with a republic. Wilhelm II, German Emperor, King of Prussia abdicated on November 9, 1918.

The Kingdom of Prussia had territory that today is part of Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Russia, and Switzerland. All or parts of the following states of today’s Germany were part of the Kingdom of Prussia: Brandenburg, Hesse, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, Saarland, Saxony-Anhalt, and Schleswig-Holstein.

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Friedrich III, German Emperor, King of Prussia; Credit – Wikipedia

Friedrich III, German Emperor, King of Prussia was born at the Neues Palais in Potsdam, Kingdom of Prussia, now in the German state of Brandenburg, on October 18, 1831. The elder of the two children of the future Wilhelm I, German Emperor, King of Prussia and Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, he was given the names Friedrich Wilhelm Nikolaus Karl and was known in the family as Fritz.

Fritz had one sister:

Fritz’s father Wilhelm had been raised in the strict military traditions of the Hohenzollerns, the ruling house of Prussia. However, Fritz’s mother Augusta grew up in the more intellectual and artistic atmosphere of Saxe-Weimar where she received an excellent education with liberal views. Among the people, Augusta was exposed to during her childhood were the famous German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, composer Johann Nepomuk Hummel, and artist Louise Seidler.  Because of their different views, Fritz’s parents did not have a happy marriage and this unhappiness affected their children.

Fritz, circa 1841; Credit – Wikipedia

Fritz received both a military and a classical education. In 1844, archaeologist and historian Ernst Curtius was appointed his private tutor, and Fritz studied history, geography, physics, music, and religion. He had a talent for foreign languages, studying Latin and becoming fluent in English and French. Fritz also studied the traditional Hohenzollern areas of fencing, riding, gymnastics, and practical craft skills such as carpentry, book printing, and bookbinding. Colonel Karl Georg Friedrich Johann von Unruh oversaw Fritz’s military education. Probably at his mother’s suggestion, Fritz interrupted his military training at the age of 18 to study history, politics, law, and public policy at the University of Bonn. His time at the University of Bonn helped solidify his liberal, reforming beliefs.

In 1851, Fritz and his family were invited to England by Queen Victoria to visit the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park, London which her husband Prince Albert was instrumental in organizing. On a visit to the Great Exhibition, Queen Victoria’s eldest child, ten-year-old Victoria, Princess Royal (called Vicky), was allowed to accompany the group as a companion to Fritz’s sister Louise. Despite being only ten years old, Vicky made an impression on Fritz, who was ten years older. Vicky’s father Prince Albert saw Fritz as a partner who shared his liberal political views. Fritz spent four weeks in England and was impressed by the British Royal Family. Unlike his own parents, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were warm and loving toward each other and had a family life that was far different from the rigor and formality of the Prussian court. After Fritz returned to Prussia, he and Vicky began to write to each other regularly. In a letter to her uncle Leopold I, King of the Belgians, Queen Victoria expressed the hope that Fritz and Vicky would form a closer bond.

Four years later, in 1855, Fritz was invited back to England by Victoria and Albert for a visit to their Scottish home Balmoral. Both the British and Prussian royal families expected Fritz and Vicky would decide their future together. Fritz was second in line to the Prussian throne after his father, who was expected to succeed his childless brother. Even though the marriage would not be universally popular in either country, Vicky and Fritz agreed to marry each other. Their marriage would be one of the most romantic of royal marriages. Because Vicky was so young, her parents decreed that the wedding would have to wait until Vicky was 17 years old. Fritz and Vicky were married on Monday, January 25, 1858, in the Chapel Royal of St. James’ Palace in London, England, where the bride’s parents had been married.

Fritz and Vicky, circa 1858; Credit – Wikipedia

Vicky and Fritz had eight children:

Fritz and Vicky’s family; Credit – Wikipedia

Vicky had also received a liberal education and shared her husband’s views. Prince Albert and Queen Victoria ardently hoped that this marriage would make the ties between London and Berlin closer, and lead to a unified and liberal Germany. However, Vicky and Fritz were politically isolated and their liberal and Anglophile views clashed with the authoritarian ideas of the Minister-President of Prussia and later Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck. Despite Fritz and Vicky’s efforts to educate their eldest son, the future German Emperor Wilhelm II, about the benefits of democracy, he favored his German tutors’ views of autocratic rule and became alienated from his parents.

On January 2, 1861, Fritz’s father became King of Prussia and Fritz became Crown Prince, a title he held for 27 years. King Wilhelm I continued with his conservative ideas and frequently clashed with his son Fritz who believed in an “essential liberal policy for internal and foreign affairs.” The appointment of Otto von Bismarck as Minister-President of Prussia made matters worse. Bismarck was an authoritarian who saw nothing wrong with ignoring or overruling the Landtag, the Prussian legislative body. On June 4, 1863, Fritz vehemently protested Bismarck’s restrictions on freedom of the press at a city hall reception in Danzig, making Bismarck his enemy and his father extremely angry. For the rest of his father’s reign, Fritz was excluded from any position of political power and relegated to representing his father at ceremonies, weddings, and celebrations, such as Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee in 1887.

Fritz as Crown Prince in 1874; Credit – Wikipedia

Despite his hatred of war and his belief that there should be bloodless “moral conquests,” Fritz served in the Second Schleswig War, the Austro-Prussian War, and the Franco-Prussian War. Once the wars had started, Fritz supported the Prussian military wholeheartedly and had command positions. Since he had no political influence, these were the only opportunities to prove himself. In 1871, following Prussia’s victories, the German states were united into the German Empire, with Fritz’s father Wilhelm I as the German Emperor (Kaiser) and Fritz as heir-apparent. Fritz sided with the empire’s liberals in their opposition to the expansion of the German Empire’s army and became involved in many public works projects, such as the establishment of schools and churches.

Fritz’s father’s proclamation as German Emperor in the Hall of Mirror at the Palace of Versailles, Fritz is standing behind his father on the steps; Credit – Wikipedia

The year 1888 is called “The Year of Three Emperors” in German history. Fritz’s father Wilhelm I died on March 9, 1888, and Fritz succeeded him as Friedrich III. However, Fritz was already gravely ill with cancer of the larynx and could no longer speak, but despite this, he did his best to fulfill his obligations as Emperor. In May 1888, Fritz lamented, “I cannot die … What would happen to Germany?” Fritz reigned for only 99 days, dying at the age of 56 on June 15, 1888, and was buried in the Kaiser Friedrich Mausoleum at the Friedenskirche in Potsdam, Kingdom of Prussia, now in Brandenburg, Germany.

As for what happened to Germany, Fritz was succeeded by his impulsive and pompous son Wilhelm II, who brought the German Empire into World War I which eventually caused the collapse of all the German Empire’s constituent states. Wilhelm II was an ineffective war leader, who abdicated in November 1918 and fled to exile in the Netherlands.

Tomb of Friedrich III, German Emperor and Victoria, Princess Royal; Credit – findagrave.com

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.

Prussia Resources at Unofficial Royalty

Victoria, Princess Royal, German Empress, Queen of Prussia

by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2015

Victoria, Princess Royal, German Empress, Queen of Prussia; Credit – Wikipedia

Victoria, Princess Royal was the eldest child of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and her husband Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. She was born on November 21, 1840, at Buckingham Palace in London, England, nine months after her parents’ marriage. Her christening was held in the Throne Room of Buckingham Palace on February 10, 1841, her parents’ first wedding anniversary, and she was given the names Victoria Adelaide Mary Louisa. In the family, she was known as Vicky. Her godparents were:

Queen Victoria with her eldest daughter Victoria, Princess Royal circa 1845; Credit – Wikipedia

Prince Albert with his eldest daughter Princess Victoria and Eos, his greyhound; Credit – Wikipedia

Vicky had eight siblings:

Royal Family in 1846 by Franz Xaver Winterhalter left to right: Prince Alfred and the Prince of Wales; the Queen and Prince Albert; Princesses Alice, Helena, and Victoria; Credit – Wikipedia

Shortly before her first birthday, Vicky was created Princess Royal, the fourth princess to be so styled. Vicky’s first governess was born Lady Sarah Spencer, daughter of George Spencer, 2nd Earl Spencer, and she married William Lyttelton, 3rd Baron Lyttelton. Lady Lyttelton was widowed in 1837 and shortly afterward she was appointed a lady-in-waiting to Queen Victoria. Lyttelton earned the respect of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert and, in April 1843, she was appointed governess to the royal children, who continued to call her Laddle, even when they were adults. Vicky started learning French with a French tutor when she was 18 months old and then began learning German at age three. Vicky’s second governess was Sarah Anne Hildyard, a dedicated and skillful teacher who developed a close relationship with her student. Miss Hildyard, called Tilla, was the daughter of a clergyman and taught Vicky science, literature, Latin, and history. Prince Albert tutored his daughter in politics and philosophy. Vicky’s governesses and tutors were impressed with her intelligence.

In 1851, Prince Wilhelm of Prussia (the future King of Prussia and German Emperor) and his wife Augusta were invited to England by Queen Victoria to visit the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park in London, England, which her husband Prince Albert was instrumental in organizing. Wilhelm and Augusta brought their two children, 20-year-old Friedrich and 13-year-old Louise. On a visit to the Great Exhibition, ten-year-old Vicky was allowed to accompany the group as a companion to Louise. Despite being only ten years old, Vicky made an impression on Friedrich (Fritz), who was ten years older.

Four years later, in 1855, Fritz was invited back to England by Victoria and Albert for a visit to their Scottish home Balmoral. The British and Prussian royal families expected  Fritz and Vicky to decide their future together. Fritz was second in line to the Prussian throne after his father, who was expected to succeed his childless brother. Although the marriage would not be universally popular in either country, Vicky and Fritz agreed to marry each other. Their marriage would be one of the most romantic of royal marriages. Because Vicky was so young, her parents decreed that the wedding would have to wait until Vicky was 17 years old.

Wedding of Victoria, Princess Royal and Prince Friedrich of Prussia; Credit – Wikipedia

It was and still is, customary for the wedding to be in the bride’s home territory but Vicky was marrying a future monarch and the wedding was therefore expected to be in Berlin, Kingdom of Prussia.  However, Queen Victoria had other ideas: “The assumption of it being too much for a Prince Royal of Prussia to come over to marry the Princess Royal of Great Britain in England is too absurd, to say the least…Whatever may be the usual practice of Prussian Princes, it is not every day that one marries the eldest daughter of the Queen of England.  The question must therefore be considered as settled and closed…”  Queen Victoria got her way and the wedding was scheduled for Monday, January 25, 1858, in the Chapel Royal of St. James’ Palace in London, England, where the bride’s parents had been married.

Eighteen carriages and 300 soldiers were in the procession for the short ride from Buckingham Palace to St. James’ Palace. Queen Victoria and Vicky were in the very last carriage. They were met at St. James’ Palace by Prince Albert and King Leopold I of the Belgians, the uncle of both Victoria and Albert. Vicky’s four brothers were in Highland dress and the elder two (Bertie and Alfred) preceded the Queen down the aisle. Vicky’s two younger brothers (Arthur and Leopold) accompanied their mother down the aisle followed by three of Vicky’s four sisters (Alice, Helena, and Louise), were dressed in white lace over pink satin. Beatrice, Vicky’s youngest sibling, was left back at Buckingham Palace as she was not even a year old. Next came Fritz, wearing a dark blue tunic and white trousers, the uniform of the Prussian First Infantry Regiment of the Guard, accompanied by his father and his uncle Prince Albrecht. Finally, Vicky came down the aisle escorted by her father Prince Albert and her great-uncle King Leopold I of the Belgians.

John Sumner, Archbishop of Canterbury, conducted the service and he was so nervous that he left out several parts of the service. However, Queen Victoria was pleased that both “Vicky and Fritz spoke plainly,” as she wrote in her journal. The service was concluded with George Friedrich Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus. Vicky and Fritz led the recessional to The Wedding March by Felix Mendelssohn, the first time it was used in a wedding. Thereafter, it became a popular wedding recessional. The music is from a suite of incidental music to Shakespeare’s play A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Queen Victoria loved Mendelssohn’s music and the composer often played for her when he visited Great Britain.

Vicky and Fritz led the carriage procession back to Buckingham Palace where they appeared on the balcony with and without their parents. After a wedding breakfast, the newly married couple left by train for a two-day honeymoon at Windsor Castle. Upon arrival at Windsor, Vicky and Fritz were met by fireworks, cannons, an honor guard, and cheering crowds. Schoolboys from nearby Eton pulled their carriage from the train station up the hill to Windsor Castle.

Vicky and Fritz on January 29, 1858; Credit – Wikipedia

Vicky and Fritz had eight children:

Vicky and Fritz’s family; Credit – Wikipedia

Prince Albert and Queen Victoria ardently hoped that this marriage would make the ties between London and Berlin closer, and lead to a unified and liberal Germany. However, Vicky and Fritz were politically isolated and their liberal and Anglophile views clashed with the authoritarian ideas of the Minister-President of Prussia, Otto von Bismarck.  Despite their efforts to educate their eldest son Wilhelm about the benefits of democracy, he favored his German tutors’ views of autocratic rule and became alienated from his parents.

NPG Ax132839; Frederick III, Emperor of Germany and King of Prussia; Victoria, Empress of Germany and Queen of Prussia by Hills & Saunders

Frederick III, Emperor of Germany and King of Prussia; Victoria, Empress of Germany and Queen of Prussia by Hills & Saunders, albumen carte-de-visite, circa 1870, NPG Ax132839 © National Portrait Gallery, London

The year 1888 is called “The Year of Three Emperors” in German history. Fritz’s father Wilhelm I died on March 9, 1888, and Fritz succeeded him as Friedrich III. However, Fritz was already gravely ill with cancer of the larynx and lived only three months more, dying at the age of 56 on June 15, 1888, when his son Wilhelm succeeded to the throne. After her husband’s death, Vicky lived at Schloss Friedrichshof, a castle she built in memory of her husband near Kronberg, close to Frankfurt, Germany. Today the castle is a five-star hotel. Vicky remained close to her British relatives and regularly corresponded with her mother. 3,777 letters from Queen Victoria to Vicky and more than 4,000 from Vicky to mother have been cataloged.

1894: At Palais Edinburgh in Coburg. Back row: left to right: Vicky’s brother, Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught; Vicky’s brother, Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha; Vicky’s son, Wilhelm II, German Emperor; Vicky’s brother, Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII. Front row: left to right: – Queen Victoria;  Vicky

In 1899, while visiting her mother at Balmoral Castle in Scotland, Vicky was diagnosed with breast cancer. By 1900, cancer had spread to her spine and she suffered a great deal during the last months of her life. When Queen Victoria died on January 22, 1901, Vicky was too ill to go to England. She died less than seven months later on August 5, 1901, at the age of 60. Vicky was buried in the royal mausoleum of the Friedenskirche in Potsdam, Kingdom of Prussia, now in Brandenburg, Germany next to her beloved husband Fritz. Their two sons who died in childhood are buried in the same mausoleum.

Tomb of Friedrich III, German Emperor and Victoria, Princess Royal; Credit – findagrave.com

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.

Recommended Books

  • An Uncommon Woman – Hannah Pakula
  • Beloved and Darling Child – edited by Agatha Ramm (letters of Queen Victoria and her daughter Victoria)
  • Dearest Vicky, Darling Fritz: The Tragic Love Story of Queen Victoria’s Eldest Daughter and the German Emperor – John Van der Kiste

Queen Victoria Resources at Unofficial Royalty

Prussia Resources at Unofficial Royalty

Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, Duchess of Kent

by Susan Flantzer © Unofficial Royalty 2015

Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, Duchess of Kent; Credit – Wikipedia

The mother of Queen Victoria, Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (Marie Louise Victoire), was born on August 17, 1786, in Coburg, Duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, now in the German state of Bavaria. She was the fourth daughter of the five daughters and seventh child of the ten children of Franz Frederick, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld and Augusta of Reuss-Ebersdorf.

Victoria had nine siblings:

At age 17, on December 21, 1803, Victoria became the second wife of Emich Carl, 2nd Prince of Leiningen, who was 23 years her senior.  Emich Carl died of pneumonia in 1814 and was succeeded by his 10-year-old son Karl.

Victoria and Emich Carl’s children:

In November of 1817, the death in childbirth of Princess Charlotte of Wales, the only legitimate grandchild of King George III, necessitated the marriages of the unmarried sons of King George III to provide an heir to the throne. On May 29, 1818, Prince Edward, Duke of Kent (fourth son of King George III) married the 32-year-old widow Victoria at Schloss Ehrenburg in Coburg. Edward had never married but had lived for 28 years with his mistress Julie de Montgenêt de Saint-Laurent. Upon the couple’s return to England, they had a second marriage ceremony on July 13, 1818, at Kew Palace in the presence of Edward’s ailing mother Queen Charlotte.

In September of 1818, Edward and Victoria set out for Leiningen, where the Duchess of Kent’s young son was the Sovereign Prince. However, when the Duchess became pregnant, they were determined to return to England so the possible heir to the throne would be born there. They took up residence in an apartment at Kensington Palace and it was there that their only child was born on May 24, 1819:

Toward the end of 1819, Edward leased Woolbrook Cottage in Sidmouth, a town on the English Channel, due to the need to economize and for benefits the sea air would have on the Duchess’ health. In early January, Edward caught a cold but insisted on taking a walk in the chilly weather. Within days, the cold worsened, he became feverish and delirious and developed pneumonia. His condition was aggravated by the bleeding and cupping of the physician sent from London to treat him. Edward became increasingly weaker and died on January 23, 1820, just six days before his father King George III died.

After King George III’s death, the infant Victoria was third in the line of succession after her uncles Frederick, Duke of York and William, Duke of Clarence. Neither the new king, George IV, nor his brothers Frederick and William had any heirs, and the Duchess of Kent decided she would take a chance on Victoria’s accession to the throne. The Duchess decided to stay in England rather than return to her homeland.

Victoria and the Duchess of Kent; Credit – Wikipedia

The Duchess of Kent and her daughter Victoria were given little financial support from Parliament. The Duchess’ brother Leopold (the future King Leopold I of the Belgians) was the widower of Princess Charlotte and received a very generous 50,000 pounds per year income from Parliament upon his marriage to Charlotte which was continued after her death. Leopold provided much-needed financial and emotional support to his sister and niece. In 1831, with King George IV dead for a year and his younger brother and heir King William IV still without legitimate issue, Victoria’s status as heir presumptive and her mother’s prospective place as regent led to major increases in income. Uncle Leopold became King of the Belgians in 1831, so an additional consideration was the impropriety of a foreign monarch supporting the heir to the British throne. Leopold had surrendered his British income upon his accession to the Belgian throne.

The Duchess developed a very close relationship with John Conroy, her household comptroller, who wanted to use his position with the mother of the future queen to obtain power and influence. Conroy and the Duchess tried to control and influence Victoria with their Kensington System, a strict and elaborate set of rules. The Duchess’ relationship with her daughter Victoria suffered greatly and did not normalize until Victoria herself had children.

There was no love lost between King William IV and his sister-in-law, the Duchess of Kent. Despite the Regency Act 1830 making the Duchess of Kent regent in case William died while Victoria was still a minor, the king distrusted the duchess’s capacity to be regent. William had been denied access to his young niece as much as the Duchess dared. The Duchess had offended the King by taking rooms in Kensington Palace that the King had reserved for himself. Both before and during William’s reign, the Duchess had snubbed his illegitimate children, the FitzClarences. All of this led to a scene at a dinner in 1836 where King William IV declared in the Duchess’ presence that he wanted to live until Victoria’s 18th birthday so that a regency could be avoided.

On May 24, 1837, Victoria turned 18 years old and it would not be necessary for the Duchess of Kent to serve as regent, much to the relief of Victoria’s uncle King William IV. Less than a month later, on June 20, 1837, King William IV died and Victoria acceded to the British throne. On the day Victoria became queen, she demonstrated her determination to free herself from her mother’s influence by ordering her bed removed from the room she and her mother had always shared.

In 1840, Queen Victoria married her first cousin and her mother’s nephew, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. After the birth of Victoria and Albert’s first child Victoria, Princess Royal, the Duchess was reconciled with Victoria probably due to Albert’s persuasion. Thereafter, the Duchess became a doting grandmother and her relationship with her daughter became closer than it had ever been.

Dowager Duchess of Kent; Credit – Wikipedia

In March of 1861, after the Duchess had surgery on her arm to remove an ulcer, a severe infection developed. On March 15, 1861, Queen Victoria was notified that her mother was not expected to survive for more than a few hours. Victoria, Albert, and their daughter Alice immediately traveled from London to Windsor where the Duchess resided at Frogmore House near Windsor Castle. The Queen found her mother in a semi-coma and breathing with great difficulty. At 9:30 on the morning of March 16, 1861, the Duchess of Kent died at the age of 74 without regaining consciousness. Victoria did not deal well with losing her mother and dealt even worse with a death that was to come at the end of 1861, that of her beloved husband Albert.

The Duchess of Kent’s final resting place is a mausoleum near Victoria and Albert’s mausoleum at Frogmore in Windsor Home Park.

Mausoleum of the Duchess of Kent. photo: Wikipedia

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.

Prince Edward, Duke of Kent

by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2015

Prince Edward, Duke of Kent; Credit – Wikipedia

Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, the father of Queen Victoria, was born at Buckingham House (later Buckingham Palace) in London, England on November 2, 1767. He was the fourth son and the fifth of the fifteen children of King George III and Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz.

Edward had fourteen siblings:

The infant prince was christened Edward Augustus after his paternal uncle Prince Edward, Duke of York and Albany who died seven weeks before his birth. His godparents were:

Edward was first educated at home by the Rev. John Fisher (later Bishop of Exeter and then Bishop of Salisbury).  He then went to study in Lüneburg and Hanover (both now in Germany) and in Geneva, Switzerland accompanied by his tutor Baron von Wangenheim. In 1785, Edward began his military training with the Hanoverian Guards and was appointed a colonel the next year at the age of 18. His military training in Hanover was not unusual as his father was also King of Hanover. In 1790, Edward arrived back in England without permission and his angry father immediately had him sent to serve in the 7th Regiment of Foot (Royal Fusiliers) in Gibraltar.

While in Geneva, Edward became acquainted with Julie de Montgenêt de Saint-Laurent, who was his mistress from 1790 – 1818. Julie accompanied him wherever he went until when he married. After Edward’s marriage in 1818, Madame de Saint-Laurent went to Paris where she spent the rest of her life. There is no evidence that the couple had children, but several families in Canada have claimed descent from Edward and Julie.

Julie de Montgenêt de Saint-Laurent; Credit – Wikipedia

In 1791, Edward was transferred to an army position in Canada and his mistress Julie accompanied him. The couple was popular in Canadian society and remained in Canada until 1798 when Edward was allowed to return to England following a fall from his horse. In 1799, Edward returned to Canada as the Commander-in-Chief of British forces in North America.

In 1802, Edward was appointed Governor-General of Gibraltar, but his harshness to the army forces there led to serious consequences. Edward refused to allow the army garrison to celebrate Christmas Day with any alcoholic drink. The soldiers became mutinous and peace was not restored until blood was shed. This led to Edward being recalled to England although he retained the title Governor-General of Gibraltar for the rest of his life. As a consolation for the end of his active military career, Edward was promoted to the rank of Field Marshal and appointed Ranger of Hampton Court Park, which provided him with a grace and favor residence there known as The Pavilion.

In November 1817, the death in childbirth of Princess Charlotte of Wales, the only legitimate grandchild of King George III, necessitated the marriages of the unmarried sons of George III to provide an heir to the throne. Edward’s mistress Julie is said to have read the news of Edward’s engagement in the newspaper while seated at the breakfast table and reacted with violent hysterics. Edward was genuinely attached to her and deeply upset at their forced separation.

On May 29, 1818, 50-year-old Edward married 32-year-old Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld at Schloss Ehrenburg in Coburg, Duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, now in Bavaria, Germany. His new wife, the daughter of Franz Friedrich, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld and sister of Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, widower of the recently deceased Princess Charlotte, was the widow of Emich Carl, 2nd Prince of Leiningen and had two children. Upon the couple’s return to England, they had a second marriage ceremony on July 13, 1818, at Kew Palace in the presence of Edward’s ailing mother Queen Charlotte.

Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, Duchess of Kent; Credit – Wikipedia

In September 1818, Edward and Victoria set out for Leiningen, where Victoria’s young son was the Sovereign Prince. However, when Victoria became pregnant, they were determined to return to England so the possible heir to the throne would be born there. They took up residence in an apartment at Kensington Palace and it was there that their only child was born on May 24, 1819:

Toward the end of 1819, Edward leased Woolbrook Cottage in Sidmouth, a town on the English Channel, due to the need to economize and the benefits the sea air would have for the Duchess’ health. In early January, Edward caught a cold but insisted on taking a walk in the chilly weather. Within days, the cold worsened, and Edward became feverish and delirious and developed pneumonia. His condition was aggravated by the bleeding and cupping of the physician sent from London to treat him. Edward became increasingly weaker and died in Sidmouth, Devon, England on January 23, 1820, just six days before his father, King George III died. The Duke of Kent was buried in St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle. He left only debts, which his daughter Victoria paid off when she became queen.

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Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands

by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2015

Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands; Credit – Wikipedia

Queen Wilhelmina holds the record for the longest-reigning Dutch monarch, 58 years. Her reign spanned World War I, the Great Depression, and World War II. Queen Wilhelmina’s father King Willem III was the third monarch of the Netherlands and had married his cousin Sophie of Württemberg in 1839. The couple had three sons, Willem (1840–1879), Maurits, (1843–1850), and Alexander (1851–1884), all predeceased their father without any legitimate children. Queen Sophie had died in 1877 and Willem was eager to remarry. After considering some other princesses, the 62-year-old Willem married Princess Emma of Waldeck and Pyrmont who was 21 years old. 19 months later, Willem and Emma’s only child Wilhelmina was born on August 31, 1880, at Noordeinde Palace in The Hague, Netherlands. At the time of her birth, Wilhelmina was third in the line of succession after her half-brother Alexander and her great-uncle Prince Frederick of the Netherlands. By the time Wilhelmina was four years old, both men had died and Wilhelmina was the heir presumptive.

Wilhelmina was named for:

Wilhelmina with her mother; Credit – Wikipedia

King Willem III died on November 23, 1890, without producing a son with Queen Emma, so ten-year-old Wilhelmina became Queen of the Netherlands. Until Wilhelmina was 18 years old, Queen Emma served as regent. On September 6, 1898, when Wilhelmina was 18 years old, her inauguration was held at the Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam.

Inauguration of Queen Wilhelmina; Credit – Wikipedia

In May 1900, Queen Mother Emma and Queen Wilhelmina traveled to Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt in present-day Thuringia, Germany to meet with three marriage candidates: Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia (a great-grandson of King Willem I of the Netherlands) and two sons of Friedrich Franz II, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. Only one of the Mecklenburg-Schwerin brothers showed up, Heinrich of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, and it was him that Emma and Wilhelmina selected. The engagement was announced on October 16, 1900. The wedding preparations were overshadowed by the deaths of Wilhelmina’s uncle Karl Alexander, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach on January 5, 1901, and Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom on January 22, 1901.

The couple was married on February 7, 1901, at the Grote of Sint-Jacobskerk in The Hague in the Netherlands. Following the wedding, Heinrich became a Prince of the Netherlands and was known by Hendrik, the Dutch version of his name. Wilhelmina decreed that the Dutch royal house would remain the House of Orange-Nassau and not change to the House of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. Although the marriage was a peaceful one, Wilhelmina and Hendrik grew apart due to her religious mysticism and his unfaithfulness and frustrations over his lack of an official role in the Netherlands.

Wilhelmina and Hendrik on their wedding day; Credit – Wikipedia

Wilhelmina needed to provide herself with an heir or the Dutch throne would pass to her second cousin Wilhelm Ernst, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, a grandson of Wilhelmina’s aunt Sophie.  On November 9, 1901, Wilhelmina had her first miscarriage. In March 1902, it was announced that the Queen was pregnant again, but a month later Wilhelmina was seriously ill with typhoid fever. She miscarried again in May 1902 and her condition was life-threatening. Wilhelmina recovered and on July 23, 1906, she had a third miscarriage. At the end of 1908, an announcement was made that Wilhelmina was once again pregnant and her only child Juliana was born. After Juliana’s birth, Wilhelmina suffered two additional miscarriages in 1912.

Wilhelmina with Juliana in 1914; Credit – Wikipedia

Wilhelmina had inherited a substantial amount of money from her father and her half-brother Alexander. She made wise investments that made her the world’s richest woman and the world’s first female billionaire (in United States dollars).

During World War I, the Netherlands remained neutral. While Queen Wilhelmina was concerned with the possibility of a German attack, the Allied blockade of Germany affected the Dutch. Dutch ships were included in the Allied blockade of Germany to ensure that none of the goods would get to the Germans. This severely restricted Dutch imports. At the end of World War I, Kaiser Wilhelm II fled to the Netherlands and was granted political asylum. When the Allied countries tried to gain custody of Wilhelm, Wilhelmina called the Allies’ ambassadors to a meeting and lectured them on the rights of political asylum.

During World War II, three days after Germany invaded the Netherlands in May 1940, the Dutch Royal Family left for London, England. One month later, Juliana and her daughters Beatrix and Irene went to Ottawa, Canada, where they would be safer. Juliana’s husband Prince Bernhard stayed with Queen Wilhelmina in London during the war, although both occasionally visited the family in Canada. Juliana’s third daughter Margriet was born while the family was in Canada. On August 2, 1945, the whole family returned to the Netherlands.

Queen Wilhelmina talks on the radio to the Dutch people during World War II; Credit – Wikipedia

After World War II, Juliana served twice as regent (October 14, 1947 – December 1, 1947, and May 14, 1948 – August 30, 1948) due to her mother’s ill health. On September 4, 1948, after a reign of nearly 58 years, Queen Wilhelmina abdicated in favor of her daughter and Juliana became Queen of the Netherlands. After her abdication, the former queen was styled Her Royal Highness Princess Wilhelmina of the Netherlands and retired to her home Het Loo Palace. She made few public appearances but did appear to support the Dutch people during the terrible floods of 1953.

The access to the royal crypt in the foreground; Credit – By Sander van der Wel from Netherlands – Royal grave tomb and the grave of Willem van Oranje, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=28146859

On November 22, 1962, the Dutch government announced that while there was no reason for immediate concern, Wilhelmina’s health had taken a turn for the worse. On November 28, 1962, Wilhelmina died at the age of 82 due to heart disease. After Wilhelmina’s death, it was announced that her condition during the last weeks of her life was more serious than had been announced. Wilhelmina was buried on December 8, 1962, in the royal crypt at the Nieuwe Kerk in Delft. According to her wishes, white dress was the protocol at her funeral.

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Kingdom of the Netherlands Resources at Unofficial Royalty

Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld, Prince Consort of the Netherlands

by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2015

Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld, Prince Consort of the Netherlands; Credit – Wikipedia

Prince Bernhard was the husband of Queen Juliana of the Netherlands. Bernhard Friedrich Eberhard Leopold Julius Kurt Carl Gottfried Peter, Graf von Biesterfeld was born on June 29, 1911, in Jena in the Duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach now in the German state of Thuringia. He was the elder son of Prince Bernhard of Lippe (younger brother of Leopold IV, Prince of Lippe) and his wife Armgard von Cramm. Bernhard and Armgard’s marriage was considered morganatic, so the younger Bernhard was styled Graf von Biesterfeld (Count of Biesterfeld) at birth.  In 1916, Bernhard’s uncle, the reigning Prince of Lippe, created Armgard Princess of Lippe-Biesterfeld with the style Serene Highness and this title and style also was extended to her two sons.

Bernhard had one younger brother:

Bernhard started his education with tutors at home. When he was twelve years old, he was enrolled in a boarding school for boys in Züllichau in the Prussian province of Brandenburg, now Sulechów, Poland. In 1929, he completed his secondary education and studied law at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland and Friedrich-Wilhelm University in Berlin, Germany, now Humboldt University. Bernhard then obtained a job at the Parisian subsidiary of the German chemical company IG Farben, where he continued to work until his engagement to Juliana.

In February 1936, Bernhard attended the Winter Olympics in Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Bavaria, Germany. There he met and fell in love with Princess Juliana of the Netherlands, the only child, and heir of Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands. After Queen Wilhelmina had lawyers draft a very detailed prenuptial agreement that specified exactly what Bernhard could and could not do, the couple’s engagement was announced on September 8, 1936. After a civil marriage at The Hague City Hall, a religious marriage was held at the Grote of Sint-Jacobskerk in The Hague, The Netherlands on January 7, 1937. Before the wedding, Bernhard had been granted Dutch citizenship and on his wedding day, he became His Royal Highness Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands.

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Juliana and Bernhard had four daughters:

Prince Bernhard also had two illegitimate daughters:

  • Alicia von Bielefeld (born 1952), whose mother has not been identified, Alicia is a landscape architect who lives in the United States
  • Alexia Grinda (born 1967), whose mother was French socialite and fashion model Hélène Grinda

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During World War II, three days after Germany began to invade the Netherlands in May 1940, the Dutch Royal Family left for London, England. One month later, Juliana and her daughters Beatrix and Irene went to Ottawa, Canada, where they would be safer. Prince Bernhard stayed with Queen Wilhelmina in London during the war, although both occasionally visited the rest of the family in Canada. Juliana and Bernhard’s third daughter Margriet was born while the family was in Canada. On August 2, 1945, the whole family returned to the Netherlands.

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On September 4, 1948, after a reign of nearly 58 years, Queen Wilhelmina abdicated in favor of her daughter and Juliana became Queen of the Netherlands and Bernhard became Prince Consort. From 1954 to 1976, Bernhard served as chairman of the Bilderberg Conference, an international political group that sought a better understanding between the cultures of the United States and Europe to encourage cooperation on political, economic, and defense issues. Prince Bernhard helped found the World Wildlife Fund and was its first president, serving from 1962 – 1976.

Bernhard was forced to step down from leadership roles in both groups after being involved in the Lockheed bribery scandal. The scandal comprised a series of bribes and contributions regarding the negotiations of the sale of aircraft made by officials of Lockheed, an American aerospace company, from the 1950s to the 1970s. It caused considerable political controversy in West Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Japan. Prince Bernhard received a $1.1 million bribe from Lockheed to ensure the Lockheed F-104 would win a contract over the French-made Mirage 5. The results of a Dutch government inquiry almost led to a constitutional crisis because Queen Juliana threatened to abdicate if Bernhard was prosecuted. Bernhard was not prosecuted but had to step down from several public positions and was forbidden to wear his military uniforms again. Although Bernhard always denied the charges, interviews published after his death revealed that he had admitted to taking the money.

Queen Juliana and Prince Bernhard returning from Italy due to developments in the Lockheed scandal on August 26, 1976; Photo Credit – Wikipedia

On January 31, 1980, Queen Juliana announced that she would abdicate in favor of her eldest daughter Beatrix on April 30, 1980, her 71st birthday. After 1995, when Juliana’s general health began to decline, she made fewer public appearances. In 2001, during a television interview on the occasion of his 90th birthday, Prince Bernhard said that Juliana no longer recognized her family and had been suffering from Alzheimer’s disease for several years. On March 20, 2004, Juliana died in her sleep at the age of 94 due to pneumonia.

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Prince Bernhard with his daughter Queen Beatrix at Queen Juliana’s funeral

On November 17, 2004, eight months after Juliana’s death, it was announced that Prince Bernhard had lung cancer. An additional announcement was made two weeks later stating that he also had a malignant tumor in the intestines. Bernhard died at the University of Utrecht Medical Center on December 1, 2004, at the age of 93.

Funeral procession in Delft; Photo Credit – Wikipedia

A state funeral was held on December 11, 2004, in the Nieuwe Kerk in Delft. The funeral had a military nature and the coffin was brought to the church on a gun carriage as a Royal Air Force flyover in the missing man formation flew overhead. After the funeral, Prince Bernhard was interred in the royal crypt at the Nieuwe Kerk in Delft.

The access to the royal crypt in the foreground; Credit – By Sander van der Wel from the Netherlands – Royal grave tomb and the grave of Willem van Oranje, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=28146859

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Kingdom of the Netherlands Resources at Unofficial Royalty

Joséphine of Leuchtenberg, Queen Josefina of Sweden and Norway

by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2015

Joséphine of Leuchtenberg, Queen Josefina of Sweden & Norway; Credit – Wikipedia

The wife of King Oscar I of Sweden and Norway, Princess Joséphine of Leuchtenberg was born on March 14, 1807, in Milan, then in the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy, now in Italy. Her father was Eugène de Beauharnais, the son of Empress Joséphine (Napoleon Bonaparte‘s first wife) from her first marriage to Alexandre, Vicomte de Beauharnais, who had been guillotined during the French Revolution. Her mother was Princess Augusta of Bavaria, daughter of King Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria and Princess Augusta Wilhelmine of Hesse-Darmstadt.  Augusta’s father created his son-in-law Duke of Leuchtenberg and Prince of Eichstätt with the style Royal Highness.  Joséphine had six siblings, some of whom made excellent marriages.

In Sweden, the king of a new upstart dynasty was considering how to provide his dynasty with legitimacy.  The House of Bernadotte has reigned in Sweden since 1818 when Jean Baptiste Jules Bernadotte, a Marshal of France, assumed the throne as King Carl XIV Johan. His predecessor King Carl XIII was childless and the House of Holstein-Gottorp was becoming extinct. On August 21, 1810, the Riksdag (Swedish Parliament) appointed Bernadotte as heir to the throne. The first four Bernadotte kings were also Kings of Norway until 1905 when the union between Sweden and Norway was dissolved. King Carl XIV John found the answer to his legitimacy problem in Joséphine.

Through her mother, Joséphine was a descendant of King Gustav I of Sweden and King Charles IX of Sweden from the House of Vasa which ruled Sweden from 1523-1654.  If Joséphine married the king’s only child Oscar, it would ensure that future members of the House of Bernadotte were descendants of the House of Vasa.  Oscar was born Joseph François Oscar Bernadotte on July 4, 1799, in Paris, France. Napoleon Bonaparte was his godfather. He was 11 years old when his father Jean Baptiste Bernadotte was elected Crown Prince of Sweden and he moved to Stockholm with his mother Désirée Clary, who ironically was once the fiancée of Napoleon.  Oscar was given the title Duke of Södermanland, and, unlike his mother, quickly learned Swedish and adapted to life in Sweden.

In 1823, Oscar married Joséphine and after her marriage, she was known as Josefina, the Swedish form of her name.  They married first by proxy at the Leuchtenberg Palace in Munich, Kingdom of Bavaria, now in the German state of Bavaria, on May 22, 1823, and in person at a wedding ceremony conducted in Stockholm, Sweden on June 19, 1823.

The couple had five children:

Josefina brought to Sweden jewelry that had belonged to her grandmother Empress Josephine, still worn by the Swedish and Norwegian royal families. The Cameo Tiara, originally made for her grandmother Joséphine, Empress of the French, was worn by her descendant Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden at her wedding in 2010.

josephineofleuchtenberg

Credit – Wikipedia

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Crown Princess Victoria wearing the Cameo Tiara at her wedding; Photo Credit – The Royal Order of Sartorial Splendor

Oscar and Josefina’s marriage was a happy one.  They shared interests in music and art and had similar personalities. While he was crown prince, Oscar had an affair with a lady-in-waiting which produced a daughter.  Unfortunately, Oscar had another well-known affair with Emilie Högquist, a famous Swedish actress at the Royal Dramatic Theatre.  Oscar had two sons by his mistress Emilie.  In 1832, Queen Josefina wrote in her diary that a woman was expected to endure a husband’s extramarital affairs: “A woman should suffer in silence.”  Josefina and her husband continued to appear together in public.  Oscar discontinued his extramarital affairs when he became King of Sweden and Norway in 1844 upon the death of his father.

Queen Josefina in 1874; Photo Credit – Wikipedia

After being bedridden for a long time, King Oscar I died at the Royal Palace in Stockholm on July 8, 1859, at the age of 60. An autopsy confirmed that he had a brain tumor.  King Oscar I was buried in the Bernadotte Chapel at Riddarholmen Church in Stockholm.  Josefina survived her husband for 17 years and died in Stockholm on June 7, 1876, at age 69. She remained Roman Catholic, was given a Catholic funeral, and was buried with her husband at Riddarholmen Church.

Bernadotte Chapel

Bernadotte Chapel at Riddarholmen Church; Photo Credit – Susan Flantzer, August 2011

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Kingdom of Sweden Resources at Unofficial Royalty

Princess Ingeborg of Denmark, Princess of Sweden

by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2015

Princess Ingeborg of Denmark, Princess of Sweden; Credit – Wikipedia

Born at Charlottenlund Palace in Copenhagen, Denmark on August 2, 1878, Ingeborg Charlotta Carolina Frederikke Louise was the second daughter and fifth child of the future King Frederik VIII of Denmark and his wife Lovisa of Sweden.  Unusually for the time, Ingeborg and her siblings were raised mostly by their mother rather than servants. Lovisa took considerable interest in her children, who imposed a loving if not strict upbringing on her children. Nonetheless, Ingeborg grew into an amiable, easygoing, and quick-witted woman.

Back row, left to right: Crown Prince Frederik (later King Frederik VIII of Denmark), Prince Christian (later King Christian X of Denmark), and Prince Carl (in 1905 elected king of Norway, under the name of Haakon VII). Front row, left to right: Princess Ingeborg, Princess Louise, Princess Thyra, Crown Princess Lovisa (later Queen of Sweden), Prince Harald; Credit – Wikipedia

Ingeborg had seven siblings:

Princess Ingeborg of Denmark and Prince Carl of Sweden in 1897; Credit – Wikipedia

In May 1897, an engagement was announced between Ingeborg and another Scandinavian royal, Prince Carl of Sweden.  Oscar Carl Wilhelm, called Prince Carl, was born at Arvfurstens Palace in Stockholm, Sweden on February 27, 1861. He was the third of four sons of King Oscar II of Sweden and Norway and Sophia of Nassau. Although neither was the heir to a throne, the prospect of another Danish-Swedish royal union was exciting to the families of the couple and citizens of their respective countries.  On their 50th wedding anniversary, Carl admitted that the couple’s fathers had completely arranged their marriage. Ingeborg added, “I married a complete stranger!”

The wedding was held at Christiansborg Palace Chapel in Copenhagen, Denmark, on August 27, 1897. Among the guests were Alexandra, Princess of Wales, and Russian Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna (Dagmar of Denmark), the bride’s aunts. Copenhagen was decorated with flowers and flags of both countries to celebrate the occasion. Following a brief stay in Denmark, the new couple set off for a honeymoon in Germany.

Carl and Ingeborg had a comfortable family life, dividing their time between Arvfurstens Palace in Stockholm and summers in Fridhem, Sweden. Despite the difference in their ages (Carl was 17 years older than Ingeborg), the two were happy and well-suited to one another.

The couple had four children born between 1899 and 1911:

During their young adulthood, the four children of Ingeborg and Carl were repeatedly sought after as spouses by several European monarchs. Astrid and Märtha were linked to the future King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom before their respective marriages. Queen Wilhelmina strongly desired a union between Carl and Juliana of the Netherlands, but the two vehemently disliked each other upon meeting in the late 1920s. The current royal families of Belgium, Luxembourg, and Norway descend from Carl and Ingeborg. Belgian Kings Baudouin and Albert II, Norwegian King Harald V, and Grand Duchess Josephine-Charlotte of Luxembourg, the wife of Grand Duke Jean of Luxembourg, are all grandchildren of Carl and Ingeborg.

Prince Carl and Princess Ingeborg in 1926; Credit – Wikipedia

Carl and Ingeborg continued to play important roles in European history throughout their marriage. Ingeborg served as the de facto first lady of Sweden for several years during the absence of Sophia of Nassau and Viktoria of Baden. Due to her close familial connections, she also worked to bring peace to the three Scandinavian royal families following Norwegian independence in 1905. Carl distinguished himself as the President of the Swedish Red Cross, earning several Nobel Peace Prize nominations for his work with prisoners of war.

Both Carl and Ingeborg lived long lives. Carl died in 1951 at the age of 90. Ingeborg survived him by seven years, dying on March 12, 1958, at age 79 in Stockholm, Sweden. The two are buried in the Royal Burial Ground in Haga Park in Solna, Stockholm, Sweden

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King Miguel I of Portugal

by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2015

King Miguel I of Portugal; Credit – Wikipedia

Miguel Maria do Patrocínio João Carlos Francisco de Assis Xavier de Paula Pedro de Alcântara António Rafael Gabriel Joaquim José Gonzaga Evaristo was born on October 26, 1802, in Lisbon, Portugal. Miguel was the seventh of the nine children of King João VI of Portugal and Carlota Joaquina of Spain.  He was long rumored to be the biological son of one of Carlota Joaquina’s lovers. During the Napoleonic Wars, he lived in exile with his family in Brazil.

Miguel’s siblings:

The Portuguese royal family returned to Portugal in 1821 from their exile in Brazil.  Miguel’s father King João VI, who had become King of Portugal in 1816 upon the death of his mother Queen Maria I, continued to reign until he died in 1826.   At that time, Miguel’s elder brother Pedro became King of Portugal.  Pedro was king for only two months, abdicating in favor of his daughter Maria II.  Miguel served as regent for his niece Maria.

As regent, Miguel claimed the Portuguese throne in his own right. This led to a difficult political situation, during which many people were killed, imprisoned, persecuted, or sent into exile, finally culminating in the Portuguese Liberal Wars.  Ultimately, Miguel was deposed in 1834 and lived his last 32 years in exile.

During his exile in Baden, Miguel met Adelaide of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg, a daughter of Constantine, Hereditary Prince of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg and Princess Agnes of Hohenlohe-Langenburg.  Adelaide was brought up by her paternal grandparents after the early death of her father.  On September 24, 1851, at the age of 20, Adelaide married Miguel, who was 29 years her senior. The couple made their home in Schloss Bronnbach in Bronnbach, in the Grand Duchy of Baden, now in the German state of Baden-Württemberg.

Princess Adelaide of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg; Credit – Wikipedia

Miguel and Adelaide had six daughters and a son, all styled as Infanta and Infante of Portugal.

Miguel and Adelaide with their two eldest children; Credit – Wikipedia

Miguel died while hunting in Bronnbach on November 14, 1866, at the age of 64.  Initially, Miguel was buried in his wife’s family’s vault at the Engelberg Monastery in Grossheubach, Bavaria. In 1967, his remains and those of his wife (who had been buried in Ryde on the Isle of Wight, England, where she had died) were transferred to the traditional burial site of the Portuguese royals, the Monastery of São Vicente de Fora in Lisbon.

When Miguel died, all his children were under the age of fifteen.  Adelaide continued to raise her children and arranged some rather brilliant marriages for them despite their dubious status. Through the marriages of their many children and grandchildren, Miguel and Adelaide are the ancestors of the current monarchs of Luxembourg, Belgium, and Liechtenstein, as well as pretenders to the thrones of Portugal, Austria, Bavaria, and Italy.

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Portugal Resources at Unofficial Royalty