Category Archives: Former Monarchies

Kamāmalu, Queen Consort of the Hawaiian Islands

by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2024

The Hawaiian Islands, located in the Pacific Ocean, were originally divided into several independent chiefdoms. The Kingdom of Hawaii was formed in 1795, when the warrior chief Kamehameha the Great of the independent island of Hawaii, conquered the independent islands of Oahu, Maui, Molokai, and Lanai, and unified them under one government and ruled as Kamehameha I, King of the Hawaiian Islands. In 1810, the whole Hawaiian archipelago became unified when Kauai and Niihau voluntarily joined the Kingdom of Hawaii. Two major dynastic families ruled the kingdom: the House of Kamehameha and the House of Kalākaua.

In 1778, British explorer James Cook visited the islands. This led to increased trade and the introduction of new technologies and ideas. In the mid-19th century, American influence in Hawaii dramatically increased when American merchants, missionaries, and settlers arrived on the islands. Protestant missionaries converted most of the native people to Christianity. Merchants set up sugar plantations and the United States Navy established a base at Pearl Harbor. The newcomers brought diseases that were new to the indigenous people including influenza, measles, smallpox, syphilis, tuberculosis, and whooping cough. At the time of James Cook’s arrival in 1778, the indigenous Hawaiian population is estimated to have been between 250,000 and 800,000. By 1890, the indigenous Hawaiian population declined had to less than 40,000.

In 1893, a group of local businessmen and politicians composed of six non-native Hawaiian Kingdom subjects, five American nationals, one British national, and one German national overthrew Queen Liliʻuokalani, her cabinet, and her marshal, and took over the government of the Kingdom of Hawaii. This led to the 1898 annexation of Hawaii as a United States territory. On August 21, 1959, Hawaii became the 50th state of the United States.

In 1993, one hundred years after the Hawaiian monarchy was overthrown, the United States Congress passed and President Bill Clinton signed the Apology Resolution which “acknowledges that the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii occurred with the active participation of agents and citizens of the United States and further acknowledges that the Native Hawaiian people never directly relinquished to the United States their claims to their inherent sovereignty as a people over their national lands, either through the Kingdom of Hawaii or through a plebiscite or referendum”. As a result, the Hawaiian sovereignty movement, a grassroots political and cultural campaign to reestablish an autonomous or independent nation or kingdom in Hawaii, was established along with ongoing efforts to redress the indigenous Hawaiian population.

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Kamāmalu, Queen Consort of the Hawaiian Islands; Credit – Wikipedia

Kamāmalu was the favorite of the five wives of Kamehameha II, King of the Hawaiian Islands, and was Queen Consort from 1819 – 1824, until her death and the death of her husband from measles. Born circa 1802 in Kawaihae, Kingdom of the Hawaiian Islands, she was the eldest daughter of Kamehameha I, King of the Hawaiian Islands and one of his wives, Queen Kalākua Kaheiheimālie. King Kamehameha I had many wives and many children. The exact number is debated because documents that recorded the names of his wives were destroyed. While he had many wives and children, only his children from his highest-ranking wife Queen Keōpūolani succeeded him to the throne.

Kamāmalu had one half-sister from her mother’s first marriage to Prince Kalaʻimamahu, Chief Priest of ʻIo and Kāne, and a half-brother of King Kamehameha I:

Kekāuluohi (1794 – 1845), married (1) King Kamehameha I, no children (2) King Kamehameha II, no children (3) Charles Kanaʻina, had two sons, only one survived childhood, William Charles Lunalilo who reigned as King Lunalilo of the Hawaiian Islands from his election on January 8, 1873, until his death a year later

Kamāmalu had three full siblings from her mother’s second marriage to King Kamehameha I:

  • Prince Liholiho-i-Kaiwi-o-Kamehameha (born 1795), died in infancy
  • Prince Kamehameha Kapauaiwa (born circa 1801), died in infancy
  • Princess Kīnaʻu (born circa 1805 – 1839), also known as Elizabeth Kīnaʻu, married (1) her half-brother King Kamehameha II, no children (2) Kahalaiʻa Luanuʻu, a grandson of King Kamehameha I, no children (3) Mataio Kekūanaōʻa, governor of the island of Oʻahu, had four sons and one daughter including King Kamehameha IV and King Kamehameha V

Kamehameha II, King of the Hawaiian Islands; Credit – Wikipedia

Kamāmalu was one of the five wives of King Kamehameha II, the last Hawaiian king to practice polygamy. She was betrothed to her half-brother Kamehameha II from birth and they were married when she was twelve and he was about seventeen. Kamehameha II had no children with any of his five wives:

  • Kamāmalu (circa 1802 – 1824), Kamehameha II’s favorite wife, his half-sister
  • Kīnaʻu (circa 1805 – 1839), Kamehameha II’s half-sister
  • Kekāuluohi (1794 – 1845), Kamehameha II’s cousin
  • Pauahi (circa 1804–1826), often referred to as often referred to as Kalanipauahi, Kamehameha II’s niece
  • Kekauʻōnohi (circa 1805 – 1851), Kamehameha II’s niece

On May 14, 1819, Kamehameha I, King of the Hawaiian Islands died and his 22-year-old son Kamehameha II became King of the Hawaiian Islands and Kamāmalu became Queen Consort.

On April 16, 1822, English missionary William Ellis arrived in the Hawaiian Islands with a gift from King George IV of Great Britain, the Prince Regent, a schooner with six guns, to add to the Kingdom of Hawaiian Island’s fleet of ships. Kamehameha II wanted to travel to Great Britain to thank King George IV and to encourage closer diplomatic ties between their two kingdoms. All Kamehameha II’s advisors, including his mother Keōpūolani and his co-regent Kaʻahumanu, were opposed to the trip. After the death of his mother on September 16, 1823, Kamehameha II was determined to travel to Great Britain.

King Kamehameha II and Queen Kamāmalu in the Royal Box at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane; Credit – Wikipedia

King Kamehameha II and Queen Kamāmalu arrived in Great Britain on May 17, 1824. Kamāmalu attracted much attention for her clothing – many society women asked their hatmakers to make turbans like the ones Kamāmalu wore – and because she was strikingly beautiful and six and a half feet tall. Kamehameha II and Kamāmalu toured London, visiting Westminster Abbey but Kamehameha II refused to enter because he did not want to desecrate the British royal burial place “with his presence or his feet stepping in that area.” The royal couple attended the opera and ballet at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London, and a play at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane, London.

King Kamehameha II and Queen Kamāmalu were scheduled to meet King George IV on June 21, 1824, but the meeting had to be canceled because Kamāmalu became ill. Members of the Hawaiian entourage had caught measles and they had no natural immunity because the people of the Hawaiian Islands had lived in isolation until their contact with Europeans. The Hawaiian entourage was likely exposed to measles on their June 5 visit to the Royal Military Asylum, an orphanage for the children of military parents that was known for its epidemics of childhood diseases. During the 19th and early 20th centuries, epidemics of measles, smallpox, and other diseases threatened to wipe out the entire Native Hawaiian population and disrupted the culture and lives of the islands’ residents.

Twenty-one-year-old Queen Kamāmalu died on July 8, 1824. Her grief-stricken husband King Kamehameha II died six days later on July 14, 1824, at the age of twenty-six. King Kamehameha II lay in state at the Caledonian Hotel in London on July 17, 1824, and large crowds paid their respects. On the following day, the coffins of King Kamehameha II and Queen Kamāmalu were placed in the crypt of St Martin-in-the-Fields Church in London, awaiting the voyage back to the Kingdom of the Hawaiian Islands.

HMS Blonde, the British ship that transported the coffins of King Kamehameha II and Queen Kamāmalu back to Hawaii; Credit – Wikipedia

In August 1824, the coffins of King Kamehameha II and Queen Kamāmalu left Great Britain on the Royal Navy frigate HMS Blonde under the command of Captain George Anson Byron, 7th Baron Byron. The HMS Blonde arrived in the Kingdom of the Hawaiian Islands on May 6, 1825.

King Kamehameha II’s brother-in-law William Pitt Kalanimoku, a High Chief who functioned similarly to a prime minister, had been notified of the deaths, and so Hawaiian royalty and nobility gathered at his house where the bodies were moved for the funeral. On May 11, 1825, a state funeral was held for the late King and Queen, the first Christian memorial service for a ruler of Hawaii. The crew from the HMS Blonde participated in the formal procession from the ship to the funeral site, the chaplain of the HMS Blonde said an Anglican prayer, and an American missionary said a prayer in the Hawaiian language.

In the background, the Royal Mausoleum, Mauna ʻAla, now a chapel; Credit – Wikipedia

A Western-style mausoleum was constructed for King Kamehameha II and Queen Kamāmalu near the ʻIolani Palace in Honolulu. The mausoleum was a small house made of coral blocks with a thatched roof. King Kamehameha II and Queen Kamāmalu were interred there on August 23, 1825. Over time, as more coffins were added, the small vault became crowded. In 1863, construction began on Mauna ʻAla (Fragrant Hills), the Royal Mausoleum of Hawaii in Honolulu. On October 30, 1865, the remains of past deceased royals, including King Kamehameha II and Queen Kamāmalu, were transferred in a torchlit ceremony at night to the new mausoleum. On November 9, 1887, after the Royal Mausoleum became too crowded, the caskets of the members of the House of Kamehameha were moved to the newly built Kamehameha Tomb, an underground vault, under the Kamehameha Dynasty Tomb. Two additional underground vaults were built over the years. In 1922, the Royal Mausoleum, Mauna ʻAla was converted to a chapel after the last royal remains were moved to tombs constructed on the grounds.

Kamehameha Dynasty Tomb – Royal Mausoleum, Honolulu, Hawai; Credit – By Daderot. – Self-photographed, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1101293

Inscriptions of Queen Consorts of Hawaii on the Kamehameha Dynasty Tomb; Credit – www.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.

Works Cited

  • Flantzer, Susan. (2024). Kamehameha II, King of the Hawaiian Islands. Unofficial Royalty. https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/kamehameha-ii-king-of-the-hawaiian-islands/
  • U.S. Department of the Interior. Liholiho (Kamehameha II). National Parks Service. https://www.nps.gov/puhe/learn/historyculture/kamehameha2.htm
  • Wikimedia Foundation. (2023). Kalākua Kaheiheimālie. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kal%C4%81kua_Kaheiheim%C4%81lie
  • Wikimedia Foundation. (2023). Kamāmalu. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kam%C4%81malu
  • Wikimedia Foundation. (2024). Kamehameha II. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamehameha_II
  • Wikimedia Foundation. (2023). Royal Mausoleum (Mauna ʻAla). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Mausoleum_(Mauna_%CA%BBAla)
  • Wikimedia Foundation. (2023). Hawaiian Kingdom. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaiian_Kingdom

Sybilla of Normandy, Queen of Scots, Illegitimate Daughter of King Henry I of England

by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2024

King Henry I of England, father of Sybilla of Normandy; Credit – Wikipedia

The wife of Alexander I, King of Scots, Sybilla of Normandy, Queen of Scots, one of the many illegitimate children of King Henry I of England, was born circa 1092 in Domfront, Duchy of Normandy, then a possession of the King of England, now in France. She was the daughter of King Henry I of England and his mistress Lady Sybilla Corbet of Alcester (1077 – circa 1157), the daughter of Robert Corbet of Alcester, Constable of Warwick, and Adèle d’Alcester, Sybilla’s maternal grandparents. Sybilla’s paternal grandparents were King William I of England (the Conqueror) and Matilda of Flanders.

King Henry I holds the record for the British monarch with the most illegitimate children, 25 or so illegitimate children who were Sybilla’s half-siblings.

Sybilla had four full siblings, the children of King Henry I and Lady Sybilla Corbet of Alcester:

  • William Constable (circa 1105 – circa 1187), married Alice Constable
  • Reginald de Dunstanville, Earl of Cornwall (circa 1110 – 1175), married Mabel FitzRichard, had six children
  • Gundred FitzRoy (1114 – 1130)
  • Rohese FitzRoy (circa 1114 – 1176, married Henry de la Pomerai, had two children

Sybilla had two royal half-siblings from her father’s marriage to Matilda of Scotland:

Sybilla’s mother married Herbert FitzHerbert, Lord of Blaen Llyfni. Sybilla had four half-brothers from her mother’s marriage:

  • Robert FitzHerbert (circa 1106 – 1147), unmarried
  • Henry FitzHerbert (circa 1110 – ?)
  • William FitzHerbert (1118 – 1132)
  • Herbert FitzHerbert, Lord of Blaen Llyfni, Lord Chamberlain of King Henry II of England (1125 – 1204), married Lucy FitzMiles de Gloucester and Hereford, had five children

The reverse of Alexander I’s seal; Credit – Wikipedia

In 1107, upon his accession to the Scots throne, Alexander I, King of Scots married the fifteen-year-old Sybilla. Alexander I and Sybilla’s father King Henry I were brothers-in-law as Henry I had married Alexander I’s sister Matilda (also known as Edith) of Scotland. Alexander I and Matilda were the children of Malcolm III, King of Scots and Margaret of Wessex, better known as Saint Margaret of Scotland. Margaret was born an Anglo-Saxon princess. Her father was Edward the Exile (also called Edward Ætheling), the son Edmund Ironside II, King of the English, and the last descendant of the House of Wessex and pretender to the crown of England.

The chronicler William of Malmesbury wrote an unflattering account of Sibylla. However, there is evidence that Alexander I and Sibylla were a loving but childless couple and that both were very pious. Alexander I and Sibylla founded Scone Abbey, circa 1114 – 1122.

Engraving of the ruins of the priory where Sybilla died and was buried from Adam de Cardonnell Picturesque Antiquities of Scotland, 1788; Credit: Canmore – National Record of the Historical Environment

On July 12, 1122, Sybilla of Normandy, Queen of Scots, aged around thirty, died on the Isle of Loch Tay (in Gaelic Eilean nam Bannaomh, Isle of Holy Women), north of Kenmore, a small village in Perthshire in the Highlands of Scotland. Alexander had erected a priory on the Isle of Loch Tay and granted it to Scone Abbey, which he and Sybilla had founded. It was at the priory on the Isle of Loch Tay that Sybilla died and was buried. Some sources say Sybilla was buried at Dunfermline Abbey in Fife, Scotland where her husband was buried. Alexander I is listed as being buried “within the church” at Dunfermline Abbey in the source Dunfermline Abbey Burial Grounds Desk-top Survey, however, Sibylla is not listed at all in the source.

Alexander I, King of Scots did not remarry. He survived Sibylla by only two years, dying on April 23, 1124, aged 45, at Stirling Castle in Stirling, Scotland. Because his marriage had been childless, Alexander I, King of Scots was succeeded by his brother David I, King of Scots.

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.

Works Cited

  • Ashley, Mike. (1998). The Mammoth Book of British Kings and Queens. Carroll & Graf Publishers.
  • Family Tree of Lady Sybilla Corbet of Alcester. Geneanet. https://gw.geneanet.org/comrade28?lang=en&n=alcester&oc=0&p=lady%2Bsybilla%2Bcorbet%2Bof
  • Flantzer, Susan. (2015). King Henry I of England. Unofficial Royalty. https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/king-henry-i-of-england/
  • Sybil Corbet, Lady of Alcester, Concubine #5 of Henry I of England. geni_family_tree. (2022). https://www.geni.com/people/Sybil-Corbet-Lady-of-Alcester-Concubine-5-Of-Henry-I-Of-England/6000000000440064763
  • Weir, Alison. (2008). Britain’s Royal Families – The Complete Genealogy. Vintage Books.
  • Wikimedia Foundation. (2023). Alexander I of Scotland. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_I_of_Scotland
  • Wikimedia Foundation. (2021). Sibilla di Normandia. Wikipedia (Italian). https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sibilla_di_Normandia

Kamehameha II, King of the Hawaiian Islands

by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2024

The Hawaiian Islands, located in the Pacific Ocean, were originally divided into several independent chiefdoms. The Kingdom of Hawaii was formed in 1795, when the warrior chief Kamehameha the Great of the independent island of Hawaii, conquered the independent islands of Oahu, Maui, Molokai, and Lanai, and unified them under one government and ruled as Kamehameha I, King of the Hawaiian Islands. In 1810, the whole Hawaiian archipelago became unified when Kauai and Niihau voluntarily joined the Kingdom of Hawaii. Two major dynastic families ruled the kingdom: the House of Kamehameha and the House of Kalākaua.

In 1778, British explorer James Cook visited the islands. This led to increased trade and the introduction of new technologies and ideas. In the mid-19th century, American influence in Hawaii dramatically increased when American merchants, missionaries, and settlers arrived on the islands. Protestant missionaries converted most of the native people to Christianity. Merchants set up sugar plantations and the United States Navy established a base at Pearl Harbor. The newcomers brought diseases that were new to the indigenous people including influenza, measles, smallpox, syphilis, tuberculosis, and whooping cough. At the time of James Cook’s arrival in 1778, the indigenous Hawaiian population is estimated to have been between 250,000 and 800,000. By 1890, the indigenous Hawaiian population declined had to less than 40,000.

In 1893, a group of local businessmen and politicians composed of six non-native Hawaiian Kingdom subjects, five American nationals, one British national, and one German national overthrew Queen Liliʻuokalani, her cabinet, and her marshal, and took over the government of the Kingdom of Hawaii. This led to the 1898 annexation of Hawaii as a United States territory. On August 21, 1959, Hawaii became the 50th state of the United States.

In 1993, one hundred years after the Hawaiian monarchy was overthrown, the United States Congress passed and President Bill Clinton signed the Apology Resolution which “acknowledges that the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii occurred with the active participation of agents and citizens of the United States and further acknowledges that the Native Hawaiian people never directly relinquished to the United States their claims to their inherent sovereignty as a people over their national lands, either through the Kingdom of Hawaii or through a plebiscite or referendum”. As a result, the Hawaiian sovereignty movement, a grassroots political and cultural campaign to reestablish an autonomous or independent nation or kingdom in Hawaii, was established along with ongoing efforts to redress the indigenous Hawaiian population.

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Kamehameha II, King of the Hawaiian Islands; Credit – Wikipedia

Born Prince Liholiho in November 1797, in Hilo, Kingdom of Hawaii, Kamehameha II, King of the Hawaiian Islands was the eldest of the three children and the elder of the two sons of Kamehameha I the Great, King of the Hawaiian Islands and his chief wife Keōpūolani. King Kamehameha I had many wives and many children. The exact number is debated because documents that recorded the names of his wives were destroyed. While he had many wives and children, only his children from his highest-ranking wife Keōpūolani succeeded him to the throne.

Kamehameha II had two full siblings:

Queen Kaʻahumanu, Kamehameha II’s official guardian and later his co-regent; Credit – Wikipedia

Kamehameha II’s care was entrusted to his father’s trusted servant Hanapi. However, after several months, he was taken back by his maternal grandmother Queen Kekuʻiapoiwa Liliha because she felt he was not getting the proper care. Kamehameha I then put his son in the care of Queen Kaʻahumanu, his favorite wife, who was appointed as Kamehameha II’s official guardian.

Jean Baptiste Rives, a Frenchman who arrived in the Kingdom of Hawaii in the early 19th century, taught the royal princes some English and French and became a close friend of Kamehameha II. He also had three other close companions. Charles Kanaʻina was an aliʻi (hereditary noble) of the Kingdom of Hawaii who served on both the Privy Counsel and in the House of Nobles. Mataio Kekūanaōʻa was governor of the island of Oʻahu, held the office of Kuhina Nui  (equivalent of the 19th-century European office of Prime Minister), and was the father of two kings, Kamehameha IV and Kamehameha V. Gideon Peleioholani Laanu was a Hawaiian chief and the great nephew of Kamehameha I.

Kamāmalu, Kamehameha II’s favorite wife, his half-sister; Credit – Wikipedia

Kamehameha II continued the practice of polygamy and had five wives but none of the marriages produced children:

  • Kamāmalu (circa 1802 – 1824), Kamehameha II’s favorite wife, his half-sister
  • Kīnaʻu (circa 1805 – 1839), Kamehameha II’s half-sister
  • Kekāuluohi (1794 – 1845), Kamehameha II’s cousin
  • Pauahi (circa 1804–1826), often referred to as often referred to as Kalanipauahi, Kamehameha II’s niece
  • Kekauʻōnohi (circa 1805 – 1851), Kamehameha II’s niece

On May 14, 1819, Kamehameha I, King of the Hawaiian Islands died and 22-year-old Kamehameha II became King of the Hawaiian Islands. However, Queen Kaʻahumanu, who had been Kamehameha II’s official guardian, had no intention of giving up her power. When she first saw Kamehameha II after his father’s death, she was wearing Kamehameha I’s royal red cape and announced to the surprised young king, “We two shall rule the land.” The council of advisors agreed and created her Kuhina Nui. Her role was similar to a co-regent or modern-day prime minister. Queen Kaʻahumanu held the administrative power while Kamehameha II was forced to take on just a ceremonial role. Kaʻahumanu ruled as co-regent during the reigns of both Kamehameha II and his brother and successor Kamehameha III, until she died in 1832.

Kamehameha II’s reign is best known for the ‘Ai Noa, the elimination of the Hawaiian kapu system in October 1819. Kapu was the ancient Hawaiian code of conduct of laws and regulations governing lifestyle, gender roles, politics, and religion. After the elimination of the kapu system, women were allowed to eat formerly forbidden food and to eat with men, the priests no longer offered human sacrifices, and the many prohibitions surrounding the high chiefs were relaxed. Kamehameha II’s mother Keōpūolani played an important role in the elimination of the Hawaiian kapu system, and the move from the ancient religion and traditions. In 1820, when Christian missionaries came to the Hawaiian Islands, Keōpūolani and her second husband Hoapili were among the first of the Hawaiian nobles to convert to Christianity. Keōpūolani then wore Western clothing and learned to read and write. She made a public declaration that the custom of taking multiple spouses by royalty would end and the Christian practice of monogamy would be followed. Kamehameha II never officially converted to Christianity because he refused to give up four of his five wives and his love of alcohol. He was the last Hawaiian king to practice polygamy.

On April 16, 1822, English missionary William Ellis arrived in the Hawaiian Islands with a gift from King George IV of Great Britain, the Prince Regent, a schooner with six guns, to add to the Kingdom of Hawaiian Island’s fleet of ships. Kamehameha II wanted to travel to Great Britain to thank King George IV and to encourage closer diplomatic ties between their two kingdoms. All Kamehameha II’s advisors, including his mother Keōpūolani and his co-regent Kaʻahumanu, were opposed to the trip. After the death of his mother on September 16, 1823, Kamehameha II was determined to travel to Great Britain.

King Kamehameha II and Queen Kamāmalu in the Royal Box at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane; Credit – Wikipedia

King Kamehameha II and Queen Kamāmalu arrived in Great Britain on May 17, 1824. They were an unusual sight to the British people who had seen few Native Hawaiians or a person as tall as Kamāmalu who was over six feet tall. They toured London, visiting Westminster Abbey but Kamehameha II refused to enter because he did not want to desecrate the British royal burial place “with his presence or his feet stepping in that area.” The royal couple attended the opera and ballet at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London, and a play at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane, London.

King Kamehameha II and Queen Kamāmalu were scheduled to meet King George IV on June 21, 1824, but the meeting had to be canceled because Queen Kamāmalu became ill. Members of the Hawaiian entourage had caught measles and they had no natural immunity because the people of the Hawaiian Islands had lived in isolation until their contact with Europeans. The Hawaiian entourage was likely exposed to measles on their June 5 visit to the Royal Military Asylum, an orphanage for the children of military parents that was known for its epidemics of childhood diseases. During the 19th and early 20th centuries, epidemics of measles, smallpox, and other diseases threatened to wipe out the entire Native Hawaiian population and disrupted the culture and lives of the islands’ residents.

Twenty-one-year-old Queen Kamāmalu died on July 8, 1824. Her grief-stricken husband King Kamehameha II died six days later on July 14, 1824, at the age of twenty-six.  King Kamehameha II lay in state at the Caledonian Hotel in London on July 17, 1824, and large crowds paid their respects. On the following day, the coffins of King Kamehameha II and Queen Kamāmalu were placed in the crypt of St Martin-in-the-Fields Church in London, awaiting the voyage back to the Kingdom of the Hawaiian Islands.

HMS Blonde, the British ship that transported the coffins of King Kamehameha II and Queen Kamāmalu back to Hawaii; Credit – Wikipedia

In August 1824, the coffins of King Kamehameha II and Queen Kamāmalu left Great Britain on the Royal Navy frigate HMS Blonde under the command of Captain George Anson Byron, 7th Baron Byron. The HMS Blonde arrived in the Kingdom of the Hawaiian Islands on May 6, 1825.

King Kamehameha II’s brother-in-law William Pitt Kalanimoku, a High Chief who functioned similarly to a prime minister, had been notified of the deaths, and so Hawaiian royalty and nobility gathered at his house where the bodies were moved for the funeral. On May 11, 1825, a state funeral was held for the late King and Queen, the first Christian memorial service for a ruler of Hawaii. The crew from the HMS Blonde participated in the formal procession from the ship to the funeral site, the chaplain of the HMS Blonde said an Anglican prayer, and an American missionary said a prayer in the Hawaiian language.

In the background, the Royal Mausoleum, Mauna ʻAla, now a chapel; Credit – Wikipedia

A Western-style mausoleum was constructed for King Kamehameha II and Queen Kamāmalu near the ʻIolani Palace in Honolulu. The mausoleum was a small house made of coral blocks with a thatched roof. King Kamehameha II and Queen Kamāmalu were interred there on August 23, 1825. Over time, as more coffins were added, the small vault became crowded. In 1863, construction began on Mauna ʻAla (Fragrant Hills), the Royal Mausoleum of Hawaii in Honolulu. On October 30, 1865, the remains of past deceased royals, including King Kamehameha II and Queen Kamāmalu, were transferred in a torchlit ceremony at night to the new mausoleum. On November 9, 1887, after the Royal Mausoleum became too crowded, the caskets of the members of the House of Kamehameha were moved to the newly built Kamehameha Tomb, an underground vault, under the Kamehameha Dynasty Tomb. Two additional underground vaults were built over the years. In 1922, the Royal Mausoleum, Mauna ʻAla was converted to a chapel after the last royal remains were moved to tombs constructed on the grounds.

Kamehameha Dynasty Tomb – Royal Mausoleum, Honolulu, Hawai; Credit – By Daderot. – Self-photographed, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1101293

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.

Works Cited

  • Flantzer, Susan. (2024). Kamehameha I The Great, King of the Hawaiian Islands. Unofficial Royalty. https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/kamehameha-i-the-great-king-of-the-hawaiian-islands/
  • U.S. Department of the Interior. Liholiho (Kamehameha II). National Parks Service. https://www.nps.gov/puhe/learn/historyculture/kamehameha2.htm
  • Wikimedia Foundation. (2024). Kamehameha II. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamehameha_II
  • Wikimedia Foundation. (2023). Royal Mausoleum (Mauna ʻAla). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Mausoleum_(Mauna_%CA%BBAla)
  • Wikimedia Foundation. (2023). Hawaiian Kingdom. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaiian_Kingdom

Keōpūolani, Queen Consort of the Hawaiian Islands

by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2024

The Hawaiian Islands, located in the Pacific Ocean, were originally divided into several independent chiefdoms. The Kingdom of Hawaii was formed in 1795, when the warrior chief Kamehameha the Great of the independent island of Hawaii, conquered the independent islands of Oahu, Maui, Molokai, and Lanai, and unified them under one government and ruled as Kamehameha I, King of the Hawaiian Islands. In 1810, the whole Hawaiian archipelago became unified when Kauai and Niihau voluntarily joined the Kingdom of Hawaii. Two major dynastic families ruled the kingdom: the House of Kamehameha and the House of Kalākaua.

In 1778, British explorer James Cook visited the islands. This led to increased trade and the introduction of new technologies and ideas. In the mid-19th century, American influence in Hawaii dramatically increased when American merchants, missionaries, and settlers arrived on the islands. Protestant missionaries converted most of the native people to Christianity. Merchants set up sugar plantations and the United States Navy established a base at Pearl Harbor. The newcomers brought diseases that were new to the indigenous people including influenza, measles, smallpox, syphilis, tuberculosis, and whooping cough. At the time of James Cook’s arrival in 1778, the indigenous Hawaiian population is estimated to have been between 250,000 and 800,000. By 1890, the indigenous Hawaiian population declined had to less than 40,000.

In 1893, a group of local businessmen and politicians composed of six non-native Hawaiian Kingdom subjects, five American nationals, one British national, and one German national overthrew Queen Liliʻuokalani, her cabinet, and her marshal, and took over the government of the Kingdom of Hawaii. This led to the 1898 annexation of Hawaii as a United States territory. On August 21, 1959, Hawaii became the 50th state of the United States.

In 1993, one hundred years after the Hawaiian monarchy was overthrown, the United States Congress passed and President Bill Clinton signed the Apology Resolution which “acknowledges that the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii occurred with the active participation of agents and citizens of the United States and further acknowledges that the Native Hawaiian people never directly relinquished to the United States their claims to their inherent sovereignty as a people over their national lands, either through the Kingdom of Hawaii or through a plebiscite or referendum”. As a result, the Hawaiian sovereignty movement, a grassroots political and cultural campaign to reestablish an autonomous or independent nation or kingdom in Hawaii, was established along with ongoing efforts to redress the indigenous Hawaiian population.

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An illustration of Keōpūolani and her retinue from 1855 book The Christian Queen; Credit – Wikipedia

Keōpūolani was the highest-ranking wife of Kamehameha I the Great, King of the Hawaiian Islands. She was born around 1778, in Pāpōhaku, near present-day Wailuku, on the island of Maui. Keōpūolani was the daughter of Kīwalaʻō, the aliʻi nui (supreme monarch or chief) of the island of Hawaii, and Kekuʻiapoiwa Liliha, half-sister of Kamehameha I. In July 1782, Keōpūolani’s father Kiwalao was overthrown and killed at the Battle of Mokuʻōhai. This was the first step toward Kamehameha I’s domination over all the Hawaiian Islands.

Kamehameha I the Great, King of the Hawaiian Islands, 1816; Credit – Wikipedia

Keōpūolani and Kamehameha I were married in 1795. Their marriage linked the House of Kamehameha to the ruling house of Maui and the old ruling house of Hawaii. Kamehameha I had many wives and many children. The exact number is debated because documents that recorded the names of his wives were destroyed. While he had many wives and children, only his children from his highest-ranking wife Keōpūolani succeeded him to the throne. Keōpūolani had eleven children, all but three died young. Kamehameha I was about twenty years older than Keōpūolani. Because of the large age difference, Kamehameha I called his children with Keōpūolani his grandchildren. (Note: Unofficial Royalty articles are coming for Kamehameha II and Kamehameha III.)

Kamehameha I, King of the Hawaiian Islands died on May 14, 1819. His eldest son with Keōpūolani, Liholiho, succeeded as Kamehameha II, King of the Hawaiian Islands. After the death of Kamehameha I, Keōpūolani married Hoapili, a close friend and advisor of Kamehameha I.

Keōpūolani played an important role in the ʻAi Noa, the elimination of the Hawaiian kapu system in 1819. Kapu was the ancient Hawaiian code of conduct of laws and regulations governing lifestyle, gender roles, politics, and religion. After the elimintion of the kapu system, women were allowed to eat formerly forbidden food and to eat with men, the priests no longer offered human sacrifices, and the many prohibitions surrounding the high chiefs were relaxed. In 1820, Christian missionaries came to the Hawaiian Islands and Keōpūolani and her second husband Hoapili were among the first of the Hawaiian nobles to convert to Christianity. Keōpūolani then wore Western clothing and learned to read and write. She made a public declaration that the custom of taking multiple spouses by royalty would end and the Christian practice of monogamy would be followed.

In August 1823, Keōpūolani became ill and her condition quickly worsened. Many chiefs visited her to pay their respects. When William Pitt Kalanimoku, a High Chief who functioned as the prime minister of the Hawaiian Kingdom, arrived to pay her respects, Keōpūolani told him: “Jehovah is a good God. I love him and I love Jesus Christ. I have given myself to him to be his. When I die, let none of the evil customs of this country be practiced. Let not my body be disturbed. Let it be put in a coffin. Let the teachers attend, and speak to the people at my interment. Let me be buried, and let my burial be after the manner of Christ’s people. I think very much of my grandfather, Kalaniopuʻu, and my father Kiwalaʻo, and my husband Kamehameha, and all my deceased relatives. They lived not to see these good times, and to hear of Jesus Christ. They died depending on false gods. I exceedingly mourn and lament on account of them, for they saw not these good times.”

Keōpūolani had not yet been baptized and wished to do so before she died. English missionary William Ellis, who was fluent in Hawaiian, conducted the baptism in Hawaiian so all could understand. Keōpūolani’s son Kamehameha II, King of the Hawaiian Islands and all the assembled family and nobles listened to Ellis. When they saw that she was baptized with holy water in the name of God, they said that she was no longer one of them and that they believed she was God’s and would go to dwell with him. Keōpūolani stated that she wanted her eight-year-old daughter Princess Nāhienaena to be raised as a Christian and so she was also baptized too. Keōpūolani and her daughter took their Christian name Harriet after Harriet Stewart, the wife of missionary Charles Stewart. An hour later in the early evening of September 16, 1823, 45-year-old Keōpūolani died at Hale Kamani, her home on the beach in Lahaina, on the island of Maui.

The funeral procession of Keōpūolani by missionary William Ellis who baptized Keōpūolani (1823); Credit – Wikipedia

After a large public funeral on September 18, 1823, Keōpūolani was buried at her home Hale Kamani in Lahaina, Maui. In 1837, her second son King Kamehameha III transferred her remains to the sacred island of Mokuʻula in Lahaina, Maui. Later her remains were reburied at the Christian cemetery at Waiola Church in Lahaina, Maui along with her daughter, her second husband, and other royal family members.

The royal cemetery at at Waiola Church in Lahaina, Maui; 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.

Works Cited

  • Flantzer, Susan. (2024). Kamehameha I the Great, King of the Hawaiian Islands. Unofficial Royalty. https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/kamehameha-i-the-great-king-of-the-hawaiian-islands/
  • Kamehameha I. Royal Family Hawaii. https://www.crownofhawaii.com/kamehameha-i
  • U.S. Department of the Interior. Kamehameha the Great. National Parks Service. https://www.nps.gov/puhe/learn/historyculture/kamehameha.htm
  • Wikimedia Foundation. (2023). Hawaiian Kingdom. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaiian_Kingdom
  • Wikimedia Foundation. (2023). Kamehameha I. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamehameha_I
  • Wikimedia Foundation. (2023c, August 16). Keōpūolani. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ke%C5%8Dp%C5%ABolani
  • Young, Peter T. (2022). Hawaiian Woods – Hawaiian Royal Residences. Images of Old Hawaiʻi. https://imagesofoldhawaii.com/hawaiian-woods-hawaiian-royal-residences/

Kamehameha I the Great, King of the Hawaiian Islands

by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2024

The Hawaiian Islands, located in the Pacific Ocean, were originally divided into several independent chiefdoms. The Kingdom of Hawaii was formed in 1795, when the warrior chief Kamehameha the Great of the independent island of Hawaii, conquered the independent islands of Oahu, Maui, Molokai, and Lanai, and unified them under one government and ruled as Kamehameha I, King of the Hawaiian Islands. In 1810, the whole Hawaiian archipelago became unified when Kauai and Niihau voluntarily joined the Kingdom of Hawaii. Two major dynastic families ruled the kingdom: the House of Kamehameha and the House of Kalākaua.

In 1778, British explorer James Cook visited the islands. This led to increased trade and the introduction of new technologies and ideas. In the mid-19th century, American influence in Hawaii dramatically increased when American merchants, missionaries, and settlers arrived on the islands. Protestant missionaries converted most of the native people to Christianity. Merchants set up sugar plantations and the United States Navy established a base at Pearl Harbor. The newcomers brought diseases that were new to the indigenous people including influenza, measles, smallpox, syphilis, tuberculosis, and whooping cough. At the time of James Cook’s arrival in 1778, the indigenous Hawaiian population is estimated to have been between 250,000 and 800,000. By 1890, the indigenous Hawaiian population declined had to less than 40,000.

In 1893, a group of local businessmen and politicians composed of six non-native Hawaiian Kingdom subjects, five American nationals, one British national, and one German national overthrew Queen Liliʻuokalani, her cabinet, and her marshal, and took over the government of the Kingdom of Hawaii. This led to the 1898 annexation of Hawaii as a United States territory. On August 21, 1959, Hawaii became the 50th state of the United States.

In 1993, one hundred years after the Hawaiian monarchy was overthrown, the United States Congress passed and President Bill Clinton signed the Apology Resolution which “acknowledges that the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii occurred with the active participation of agents and citizens of the United States and further acknowledges that the Native Hawaiian people never directly relinquished to the United States their claims to their inherent sovereignty as a people over their national lands, either through the Kingdom of Hawaii or through a plebiscite or referendum”. As a result, the Hawaiian sovereignty movement, a grassroots political and cultural campaign to reestablish an autonomous or independent nation or kingdom in Hawaii, was established along with ongoing efforts to redress the indigenous Hawaiian population.

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Kamehameha I the Great, King of the Hawaiian Islands, 1816; Credit – Wikipedia

Kamehameha I the Great, reigned as King of the Hawaiian Islands from 1795 – 1819. He was born Kalani Paiʻea Wohi o Kaleikini Kealiʻikui Kamehameha o ʻIolani i Kaiwikapu kauʻi Ka Liholiho Kūnuiākea and known as Paiʻea. His father was Keōua Kalanikupuapaʻīkalaninui Ahilapalapa, from an old Hawaiian noble family, and his mother was Kekuʻiapoiwa II, a Hawaiian chiefess. Kamehameha was probably born in November 1758.  At the time of his birth, a comet was visible. Since Halley’s Comet was visible from Hawaii in 1758, it is believed that Kamehameha was probably born in 1758. His birth ceremony was held at the Moʻokini Heiau, an ancient temple that is preserved at the Kohala Historical Sites State Monument.

The Hawaiian Islands, located in the Pacific Ocean, were originally divided into several independent chiefdoms. Kamehameha I grew up at the court of his uncle Kalaniʻopuʻu, the aliʻi nui (supreme monarch or chief) of the island of Hawaii. During Kalaniʻopuʻu’s reign, British explorer Captain James Cook visited the island of Hawaii three times and had two cordial visits with Kalaniʻopuʻu. However, in 1779, during Cook’s third exploratory voyage in the Pacific, tensions escalated between his men and the people of the island of Hawaii. The theft of a longboat and an attempt by Cook to kidnap Kalaniʻōpuʻu led to the death of Cook’s death.

After Kalaniʻopuʻu’ died in April 1782, his son Kiwalao became the aliʻi nui (supreme monarch or chief) of the island of Hawaii. In July 1782, Kiwalao was overthrown and killed at the Battle of Mokuʻōhai. This was the first step toward Kamehameha I’s domination over all the Hawaiian Islands. The island of Hawaiʻi was divided into three parts: Kamehameha I ruled Kona, Kohala, and Hāmākua, Kiwalao’s half-brother Keawemaʻuhili controlled Hilo and Kiwalao’s son Keōua Kūʻahuʻula controlled Kaʻū.

Kamehameha and his council of chiefs planned to unite the rest of the Hawaiian Islands. British and American traders sold guns and ammunition to Kamehameha. Captain William Brown of the Butterworth Squadron, a British commercial group of three vessels, gave Kamehameha the formula for gunpowder: sulfur, saltpeter, and charcoal, all of which are abundant in the islands. Welshman Isaac Davis and the British John Young who both lived on the island of Hawaii and had married native Hawaiian women, became valued advisors to Kamehameha. By 1795, Kamehameha had conquered the independent islands of Oahu, Maui, Molokai, and Lānaʻi and unified them under one government, the Kingdom of Hawaii. In 1810, the whole Hawaiian archipelago became unified when the islands of Kauaʻi and Niʻihau joined the Kingdom of Hawaii voluntarily.

Keōpūolani, Kamehameha’s highest ranking wife and her retinue; Credit – Wikipedia

Kamehameha had many wives and many children. The exact number is debated because documents that recorded the names of his wives were destroyed. While he had many wives and children, only his children from his highest-ranking wife Keōpūolani succeeded him to the throne. Keōpūolani had eleven children, all but three died young.

The ʻAhuʻena Heiau, the personal shrine of Kamehameha at Kamakahonu  in 1816; Credit – Wikipedia

Kamehameha I spent the last years of his life at Kamakahonu, the compound he built in Kailua-Kona on the island of Hawaii. It was at Kamakahonu that Kamehameha I, King of the Hawaiian Islands died on May 14, 1819. After his death, Kamehameha I’s body was hidden by his trusted friends Hoapili and Hoʻolulu in the ancient custom called hūnākele (to hide in secret). The mana, or power of a person, was considered to be sacred and his body was buried in a hidden location because of his mana. His final resting place remains unknown. King Kamehameha III asked Hoapili to show him where his father was buried, but on the way there Hoapili knew that they were being followed, so he turned around.

Statue of King Kamehameha I in Honolulu, Hawaii; 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.

Works Cited

  • Kamehameha I. Royal Family Hawaii. https://www.crownofhawaii.com/kamehameha-i
  • U.S. Department of the Interior. Kamehameha the Great. National Parks Service. https://www.nps.gov/puhe/learn/historyculture/kamehameha.htm
  • Wikimedia Foundation. (2023). Hawaiian Kingdom. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaiian_Kingdom
  • Wikimedia Foundation. (2023). Kamehameha I. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamehameha_I

Lady Elizabeth Ferrers, Princess of Wales

by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2024

Wales was divided into several separate kingdoms. The largest of these was Gwynedd in northwest Wales and Powys in east Wales. Gwynedd was the most powerful of the Welsh kingdoms. For one man to rule all of Wales during this period was rare. This was because of the inheritance system practiced in Wales. All sons received an equal share of their father’s property, including illegitimate sons, resulting in the division of territories.

The Principality of Wales was created in 1216 at the Council of Aberdyfi when it was agreed by Llywelyn the Great and the other Welsh princes that he was the paramount Welsh ruler and the other Welsh princes would pay homage to him. Although he never used the title, Llywelyn was the de facto Prince of Wales. Llywelyn dominated Wales for 45 years and was one of only two Welsh rulers to be called “the Great”, the other being his ancestor Rhodri the Great. Llywelyn was succeeded by his son Dafydd ap Llywelyn and then by his two grandsons who were the sons of his illegitimate son Gruffydd ap Llywelyn.

The campaign of King Edward I of England in Wales (1276 – 1284) resulted in Wales being completely taken over by England. It ended with the deaths of the last two native Princes of Wales: Llywelyn ap Gruffudd who was ambushed and killed in 1282 and his brother Dafydd ap Gruffydd, who was the first prominent person in recorded history to have been hanged, drawn, and quartered, in 1283. To ensure there would be no further members of the House of Aberffraw, the English imprisoned Dafydd ap Gruffydd’s two young sons for the rest of their lives at Bristol Castle and sent his daughter and the daughter of his brother Llywelyn ap Gruffydd to convents. To further humiliate the Welsh, King Edward I invested his son and heir, the future King Edward II, with the title Prince of Wales. Since then, the title has been granted (with a few exceptions) to the heir apparent of the English or British monarch.

Note: In Welsh, “ap” means “son of” and “ferch” means “daughter of”.

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Coat of Arms of Elizabeth Ferrers’ husband, Dafydd ap Gruffydd, Prince of Wales; Credit – By Sodacan Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12219418

Born circa 1240, in Derby, Derbyshire, England, Lady Elizabeth Ferrers, from an English noble family, was the wife of Dafydd ap Gruffydd, the last native and independent Prince of Wales. She was the youngest of the five children and the youngest of the three daughters of William de Ferrers, 5th Earl of Derby and his second wife Margaret de Quincy. Elizabeth’s paternal grandparents were William de Ferrers, 4th Earl of Derby and Agnes de Kevelioc. Her maternal grandparents were Roger de Quincy, 2nd Earl of Winchester, and Helen of Galloway.

Elizabeth had four elder siblings:

Elizabeth had seven half-sisters from her father’s first marriage to Sybil Marshal:

  • Agnes de Ferrers (circa 1222 – 1290), married William de Vesci, had five children
  • Isabel de Ferrers (1226 – circa 1260), married (1) Gilbert Basset of Wycombe, no children (2) Reginald II de Mohun, had three children
  • Maud de Ferrers (circa 1228- 1298), married (1) Simon de Kyme, no children (2) William de Vivonne, had four daughters (3) Amaury IX, Viscount of Rochechouart, had one daughter
  • Sibyl de Ferrers (1230 – 1273), married (1) Frank de Bohun of Midhurst, had three children
  • Joan de Ferrers (circa 1233 – 1267), married (1) Sir John de Mohun, Master of Dunster, had one son (2)Sir Robert II Aguillon of Addington, had one daughter
  • Agatha de Ferrers (? – 1306), married Hugh Mortimer, had three children
  • Eleanor de Ferrers (circa 1236 – 1274) married (1) William de Vaux, no children (2) Roger de Quincy, 2nd Earl of Winchester, no children(3) Roger de Leybourne, had two children

Elizabeth’s father William de Ferrers, 5th Earl of Derby had been in poor health for many years and died when Elizabeth was about fourteen years old. About 1256, Elizabeth was married to Sir William Marshal, 2nd Baron Marshal in Hingham, Norfolk, England. He was about twenty-five years older than Elizabeth and she was his second wife. The couple had no children. Willam died on August 4, 1265, at the Battle of Evesham. Soon after her first husband’s death, Elizabeth married Welsh Prince, Dafydd ap Gruffydd. He was the youngest of the four sons of Prince Gruffydd ap Llywelyn and Senana ferch Caradog. Dafydd’s paternal grandfather was the powerful Llywelyn ap Iorwerth, Prince of Gwynedd, also known as Llywelyn Fawr (Llywelyn the Great). At the time of their marriage, Dafydd ap Gruffydd’s elder brother Llywelyn ap Gruffydd was the Prince of an independent Wales.

Dafydd and Elizabeth had two sons and one daughter, and all were ill-fated:

From 1277 – 1283, King Edward I of England had many military campaigns that ultimately resulted in the conquest of Wales. On December 11, 1282, Dafydd’s brother Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, Prince of Wales, was one of 3,000 Welshmen killed by the English army under King Edward I at the Battle of Orewin Bridge near Builth Wells, Wales. As Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, Prince of Wales only had an infant daughter, Dafydd ap Gruffydd took over as his brother’s legitimate successor and became Prince of Wales and leader of the resistance against King Edward I of England.

King Edward I’s massive army surrounded the Snowdonia base of Dafydd ap Gruffudd, Prince of Wales, who had limited manpower and equipment. Dafydd kept moving and finally, in May 1283, he was forced to move to the mountains above the Welsh royal home in Abergwyngregyn. On June 22, 1283, Dafydd and his younger son Owain ap Dafydd were captured and brought to King Edward I’s camp in Rhuddlan, Wales that same day. Dafydd was taken to Shrewsbury, England. Dafydd’s wife Elizabeth, their daughter Gwladys, their infant niece Gwenllian ferch Llywelyn were also captured. Elizabeth and Dafydd’s elder son Llywelyn ap Dafydd was captured on June 28, 1283. On that same day, King Edward I issued writs to summon a parliament to meet at Shrewsbury, to discuss Dafydd’s fate.

On September 30, 1283, Dafydd ap Gruffydd, Prince of Wales, was condemned to death, the first person known to have been tried and executed for high treason against an English king. King Edward I’s sense of outrage was so extreme that he designed a punishment for Dafydd harsher than any previous form of capital punishment. Dafydd ap Gruffydd was the first person in recorded history to have been hanged, drawn, and quartered. On October 3, 1283, Dafydd ap Gruffydd, Prince of Wales was dragged through the streets of Shrewsbury, England attached to a horse’s tail, then hanged alive, revived, then disemboweled and his entrails burned before him. He was then beheaded and his body was cut into four quarters. Dafydd’s four quarters were sent to different parts of England: the right arm to York, the left arm to Bristol, the right leg to Northampton, and the left leg to Hereford. His head was placed on a pole in the Tower of London near the head of his brother Llywelyn. The days of an independent Wales were over.

King Edward I of England wanted to make sure that there were no more claimants to the Welsh throne. Elizabeth and Dafydd ap Gruffydd’s young daughter Gwladys ferch Dafydd was sent to the Sixhills Convent in Sixhills, Lincolnshire, England, where she spent the rest of her life, dying circa 1336. King Edward I ordered an annual payment of 20 pounds for Gwladys’s upkeep.

Elizabeth and Dafydd ap Gruffydd’s two sons 15-year-old Llywelyn ap Dafydd and 7-year-old Owain ap Dafydd were imprisoned for the rest of their lives at Bristol Castle in England. Much of the time they were kept in cages. Llywelyn died in 1287, under mysterious circumstances, when he was about twenty years old. Owain was last reported to be alive in 1325 when he would have been in his fifties.

Gwenllian ferch Llywelyn, the 18-month-old daughter and only child of Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, Dafydd’s brother, was confined at Sempringham Priory in Sempringham, Lincolnshire, England where she lived until her death on June 7, 1337, a few days before her 55th birthday. An annual payment of 20 pounds was also arranged for Gwenllian’s upkeep.

St. Michael’s Church in Caerwys, Flintshire, Wales where Elizabeth may be buried; Credit – By Llywelyn2000 – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=62808423

As for Elizabeth Ferrers, Princess of Wales, her fate is uncertain. She lost everything and would never see her children again. Some historians think she returned to England and died circa 1297. It is possible that she was buried at St. Michael’s Church in Caerwys, Flintshire, Wales where there is a stone effigy reputed to be that of Elizabeth Ferrers.

Effigy reputed to be that of Elizabeth Ferrers; 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.

Works Cited

  • Belfrage, Anna Belfrage. (2018). Elizabeth who? A reflection on the life of a medieval woman. https://www.annabelfrage.com/2018/05/27/elizabeth-who/
  • Flantzer, Susan. (2024). Dafydd ap Gruffydd, Prince of Gwynedd. Unofficial Royalty. https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/dafydd-ap-gruffydd-prince-of-wales/
  • Sir William Marshall. geni_family_tree. (2023). https://www.geni.com/people/Sir-William-Marshall/6000000003828319213
  • Wikimedia Foundation. (2023). Elizabeth Ferrers. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Ferrers
  • Wikimedia Foundation. (2021). Elizabeth Ferrers. Wikipedia (Welsh). https://cy.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Ferrers
  • Wikimedia Foundation. (2022). William de Ferrers, 5th Earl of Derby. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_de_Ferrers,_5th_Earl_of_Derby
  • William de Ferrers, 5th Earl of Derby. geni_family_tree. (2023). https://www.geni.com/people/William-de-Ferrers-5th-Earl-of-Derby/6000000002092684088
  • Williamson, David. (1996). Brewer’s British Royalty: A Phrase and Fable Dictionary. Cassell.

Dafydd ap Gruffydd, Prince of Wales

by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2024

Wales was divided into several separate kingdoms. The largest of these was Gwynedd in northwest Wales and Powys in east Wales. Gwynedd was the most powerful of the Welsh kingdoms. For one man to rule all of Wales during this period was rare. This was because of the inheritance system practiced in Wales. All sons received an equal share of their father’s property, including illegitimate sons, resulting in the division of territories.

The Principality of Wales was created in 1216 at the Council of Aberdyfi when it was agreed by Llywelyn the Great and the other Welsh princes that he was the paramount Welsh ruler and the other Welsh princes would pay homage to him. Although he never used the title, Llywelyn was the de facto Prince of Wales. Llywelyn dominated Wales for 45 years and was one of only two Welsh rulers to be called “the Great”, the other being his ancestor Rhodri the Great. Llywelyn was succeeded by his son Dafydd ap Llywelyn and then by his two grandsons who were the sons of his illegitimate son Gruffydd ap Llywelyn.

The campaign of King Edward I of England in Wales (1276 – 1284) resulted in Wales being completely taken over by England. It ended with the deaths of the last two native Princes of Wales: Llywelyn ap Gruffudd who was ambushed and killed in 1282 and his brother Dafydd ap Gruffydd, who was the first prominent person in recorded history to have been hanged, drawn, and quartered, in 1283. To ensure there would be no further members of the House of Aberffraw, the English imprisoned Dafydd ap Gruffydd’s two young sons for the rest of their lives at Bristol Castle and sent his daughter and the daughter of his brother Llywelyn ap Gruffydd to convents. To further humiliate the Welsh, King Edward I invested his son and heir, the future King Edward II, with the title Prince of Wales. Since then, the title has been granted (with a few exceptions) to the heir apparent of the English or British monarch.

Note: In Welsh, “ap” means “son of” and “ferch” means “daughter of”.

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Coat of Arms of Dafydd ap Gruffydd, Prince of Wales; Credit – By Sodacan  Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12219418

Dafydd ap Gruffydd was the last native and independent Prince of Wales from December 11, 1282, until his execution on October 3, 1283, on the orders of King Edward I of England. Born on July 11, 1238, in Gwynedd, Wales, he was the youngest of the four sons of Gruffydd ap Llywelyn and Senana ferch Caradog. Dafydd’s paternal grandparents were Llywelyn ap Iorwerth, Prince of Gwynedd, also known as Llywelyn Fawr (Llywelyn the Great), and his mistress Tangwystl ferch Llywarch Goch. His maternal grandparents were Caradog ap Membyr Ddu and Eva ferch Gwyn.

Dafydd had three brothers and three sisters. Information on his siblings is sketchy, including birth and death dates and marriage information.

  • Margred ferch Gruffydd (1221 – 1261), married Madog II ap Gruffydd, Lord of Dinas Branof Powys Fadog, had two sons
  • Owain Goch ap Gruffydd (circa 1225 – circa 1282)
  • Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, Prince of Wales (circa 1228 – 1282), married Eleanor de Monfort, had one daughter
  • Rhodri ap Gruffydd (circa 1230 – 1235 to circa 1315), married (1) Beatrice, daughter of David of Malpas (2) Unknown, had one son
  • Gwladys ferch Gruffydd (circa 1225 – 1261), half-sister, married Rhys Fychan
  • Catrin ferch Gruffydd (circa 1234 – ?), a half-sister, married Iorwerth Fychan ab Iorwerth Hen, had two children

Dafydd ap Gruffydd’s father Gruffydd ap Llywelyn was the eldest son of Llywelyn the Great. Even though Gruffydd ap Llywelyn was illegitimate, according to Welsh law, all sons received an equal share of their father’s property, including illegitimate sons, resulting in the division of assets. However, Llywelyn the Great wanted his legitimate son Dafydd ap Llywelyn, the son of Llywelyn the Great’s wife Joan, Lady of Wales, an illegitimate daughter of King John of England, to be his sole heir. In 1220, Llywelyn the Great managed to convince Dafydd ap Llywelyn’s maternal uncle King Henry III of England to recognize Dafydd ap Llywelyn as his sole heir, and in 1226, Pope Honorius III officially declared Llywelyn the Great’s wife Joan to be the legitimate daughter of King John of England, strengthening Dafydd ap Llywelyn’s position. In 1238, at a council at Ystrad Fflur Abbey, the other Welsh princes recognized Dafydd ap Llywelyn as Llywelyn’s sole legitimate heir.

Llywelyn the Great on his deathbed with his sons Gruffydd ap Llywelyn and Dafydd ap Llywelyn; Credit – Wikipedia

On April 11, 1240, Llywelyn the Great died and his son Dafydd ap Llywelyn succeeded him as Prince of Gwynedd. In August 1241, King Henry III of England invaded Gwynedd, and after a short war, under the Treaty of Gwerneigron, Dafydd ap Llywelyn was forced to give up all his lands outside Gwynedd and hand over his imprisoned half-brother Gruffydd ap Llywelyn, Llywelyn ap Gruffydd’s father, to King Henry III who imprisoned him in the Tower of London. Since Gruffydd ap Llywelyn was a rival claimant to the Principality of Gwynedd, King Henry III put limits on Dafydd ap Llywelyn by threatening to set up Gruffydd as a rival in Gwynedd. However, on March 1, 1244, Dafydd ap Gruffydd’s father Gruffydd ap Llywelyn fell to his death while trying to escape from the Tower of London by climbing down a knotted bedsheet.

Gruffydd ap Llywelyn falling from the Tower of London; Credit – Wikipedia

Dafydd ap Llywelyn, Prince of Gwynedd and his wife Isabella de Braose had no children. Dafydd ap Gruffydd’s elder brother Llywelyn ap Gruffydd was in the entourage of their uncle Dafydd ap Llywelyn and appeared to be his designated heir. However, shortly after Dafydd ap Llywelyn died in 1246, the 1247 Treaty of Woodstock divided Gwynedd between Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, his elder brother Owain ap Gruffydd, and his younger brothers Rhodri ap Gruffydd and Dafydd ap Gruffydd.

In 1255, Llywelyn ap Gruffydd defeated his brothers at the Battle of Bryn Derwin and established himself as the sole ruler of Gwynedd. He received the homage of the Welsh princes and assumed the title Prince of Wales. Llywelyn imprisoned his brother Dafydd but released him the following year and restored him to his court. In 1263, Dafydd joined King Henry III of England in a campaign against Llywelyn. After Llywelyn was recognized by King Henry III as Prince of Wales via the 1267 Treaty of Montgomery, Dafydd was once again restored to Llywelyn’s favor.

Dafydd ap Gruffydd married Lady Elizabeth de Ferrers, daughter of William de Ferrers, 5th Earl of Derby and his second wife Margaret de Quincy. Dafydd and Elizabeth had two sons and one daughter, and all were ill-fated:

In March 1282, Dafydd ap Gruffudd attacked and captured Hawarden Castle, near Hawarden, Flintshire, Wales, starting the final conflict with King Edward I of England which would lead to the end of an independent Wales. On December 11, 1282, Dafydd’s brother Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, Prince of Wales, was one of 3,000 Welshmen killed by the English army under King Edward I at the Battle of Orewin Bridge near Builth Wells, Wales. Llywelyn ap Gruffydd was ambushed, horribly murdered, and beheaded. His head was sent to London for public display, and it is thought that the rest of his body was interred at Cwmhir Abbey in Abbeycwmhir, Wales. As Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, Prince of Wales only had an infant daughter, Dafydd ap Gruffydd took over as his brother’s legitimate successor and leader of the resistance against King Edward I of England.

King Edward I’s massive army surrounded the Snowdonia base of Dafydd ap Gruffudd, Prince of Wales, who had limited manpower and equipment. Dafydd kept moving and finally, in May 1283, he was forced to move to the mountains above the Welsh royal home in Abergwyngregyn. On June 22, 1283, Dafydd and his younger son Owain ap Dafydd were captured and brought to King Edward I’s camp in Rhuddlan, Wales that same day. Dafydd was taken from Rhuddlan to Chester, England, and then on to Shrewsbury, England. Dafydd’s wife Elizabeth de Ferrers, his daughter Gwladys, and his infant niece Gwenllian ferch Llywelyn were also captured. Dafydd’s elder son Llywelyn ap Dafydd was captured on June 28, 1283. On that same day, King Edward I issued writs to summon a parliament to meet at Shrewsbury, to discuss Dafydd’s fate.

On September 30, 1283, Dafydd ap Gruffudd, Prince of Wales, was condemned to death, the first person known to have been tried and executed for high treason against the King. King Edward I’s sense of outrage was so extreme that he designed a punishment for Dafydd harsher than any previous form of capital punishment. Dafydd ap Gruffydd was the first person in recorded history to have been hanged, drawn, and quartered. On October 3, 1283, Dafydd ap Gruffydd, Prince of Wales was dragged through the streets of Shrewsbury, England attached to a horse, then hanged alive, revived, then disemboweled and his entrails burned before him. He was then beheaded and his body was cut into four quarters. Dafydd’s four quarters were sent to different parts of England: the right arm to York, the left arm to Bristol, the right leg to Northampton, and the left leg to Hereford. His head was placed on a pole in the Tower of London near the head of his brother Llywelyn.

The days of an independent Wales were over. King Edward I of England had completed a conquest of Wales that resulted in his annexation of the Principality of Wales. After the brutal conquest of Wales and the destruction of the ruling family, Wales was stripped of all royal insignia, relics, and regalia. King Edward I took particular delight in appropriating Aber Garth Celyn, the royal home of the defeated dynasty. He then took their title, Prince of Wales, and bestowed it upon his heir.

King Edward I of England wanted to make sure that there were no more claimants to the Welsh throne. Dafydd ap Gruffydd’s young daughter Gwladys ferch Dafydd was sent to the Sixhills Convent in Sixhills, Lincolnshire, England, where she spent the rest of her life, dying circa 1336. King Edward I ordered an annual payment of 20 pounds for Gwladys’s upkeep.

Dafydd ap Gruffydd’s two sons 15-year-old Llywelyn ap Dafydd and 7-year-old Owain ap Dafydd were imprisoned for the rest of their lives at Bristol Castle in England. Much of the time they were kept in cages. Llywelyn died in 1287, under mysterious circumstances, when he was about twenty years old. Owain was last reported to be alive in 1325 when he would have been in his fifties.

Gwenllian ferch Llywelyn, the 18-month-old daughter and only child of Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, Dafydd’s brother, was confined at Sempringham Priory in Sempringham, Lincolnshire, England where she lived until her death on June 7, 1337, a few days before her 55th birthday. An annual payment of 20 pounds was also arranged for Gwenllian’s upkeep.

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.

Works Cited

  • Flantzer, Susan. (2024). Dafydd ap Llywelyn, Prince of Gwynedd. Unofficial Royalty. https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/dafydd-ap-llywelyn-prince-of-gwynedd/
  • Flantzer, Susan. (2024). Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, Prince of Wales. Unofficial Royalty. https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/llywelyn-ap-gruffydd-prince-of-wales/
  • Gruffydd ap Llywelyn Fawr. geni_family_tree. (2022). https://www.geni.com/people/Gruffydd-ap-Llywelyn-Fawr/6000000006727931003
  • Wikimedia Foundation. (2023). Dafydd ap Gruffydd. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dafydd_ap_Gruffydd
  • Wikimedia Foundation. (2022). Dafydd ap Gruffudd. Wikipedia (Welsh). https://cy.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dafydd_ap_Gruffudd
  • Wikimedia Foundation. (2023). Gruffudd ap Llywelyn ap Iorwerth. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gruffudd_ap_Llywelyn_ap_Iorwerth
  • Williamson, David. (1996). Brewer’s British Royalty: A Phrase and Fable Dictionary. Cassell.

Breaking News: Crown Prince Leka II, current claimant to the throne of Albania, and Crown Princess Elia are ending their marriage

Leka and Elia on their wedding day with some of their guests. Front row, left to right: Princess Lalla Meryem of Morocco, Empress Farah of Iran, Elia, Leka, Queen Sofía of Spain. Second row, left to right: Alexander, Crown Prince of Serbia, Princess Camilla of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, Margareta of Romania, Prince Radu of Romania, Nicholas, Prince of Montenegro; Credit – By RoyalblogNL, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=122942226

On January 16, 2024, it was announced that Crown Prince Leka II, the current claimant to the defunct throne of Albania, and his wife Crown Princess Elia, the former Elia Zaharia, an Albanian actress and singer, were ending their marriage.

Read more at the following links:

Crown Prince Leka and Crown Princess Elia were married at the Royal Palace in Tirana, Albania on October 8, 2016. A civil ceremony was held, officiated by the Mayor of Tirana, followed by a blessing from the religious leaders of Albania representing the Sunni Islam, Bektashi, Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant faiths. This showed the long-standing tradition of religious diversity and tolerance in the country, and within the Albanian Royal Family.

The couple has a daughter Princess Geraldine, born on October 22, 2020. She was named in honor of her great-grandmother Queen Geraldine, as she was born on the anniversary of the Queen’s death 18 years earlier.

Albania ceased being a kingdom in 1939, when on the orders of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, Italian forces invaded and occupied Albania, forcing Leka’s grandfather King Zog and his family into exile. Since 1939, there have been three claimants to the throne of Albania

Learn more about the Kingdom of Albania at Unofficial Royalty: Kingdom of Albania Index.

Eleanor de Montfort, Princess of Wales and Lady of Snowdon

by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2024

Wales was divided into a number of separate kingdoms. The largest of these was Gwynedd in northwest Wales and Powys in east Wales. Gwynedd was the most powerful of the Welsh kingdoms. For one man to rule all of Wales during this period was rare. This was because of the inheritance system practiced in Wales. All sons received an equal share of their father’s property, including illegitimate sons, resulting in the division of territories.

The Principality of Wales was created in 1216 at the Council of Aberdyfi when it was agreed by Llywelyn the Great and the other Welsh princes that he was the paramount Welsh ruler and the other Welsh princes would pay homage to him. Although he never used the title, Llywelyn was the de facto Prince of Wales. Llywelyn dominated Wales for 45 years and was one of only two Welsh rulers to be called “the Great”, the other being his ancestor Rhodri the Great. Llywelyn was succeeded by his son Dafydd ap Llywelyn and then by his two grandsons who were the sons of his illegitimate son Gruffydd ap Llywelyn.

The campaign of King Edward I of England in Wales (1276 – 1284) resulted in Wales being completely taken over by England. It ended with the deaths of the last two native Princes of Wales: Llywelyn ap Gruffudd who was ambushed and killed in 1282 and his brother Dafydd ap Gruffydd, who was the first prominent person in recorded history to have been hanged, drawn, and quartered, in 1283. To ensure there would be no further members of the House of Aberffraw, the English imprisoned Dafydd ap Gruffydd’s two young sons for the rest of their lives at Bristol Castle and sent his daughter and the daughter of his brother Llywelyn ap Gruffydd to convents. To further humiliate the Welsh, King Edward I invested his son and heir, the future King Edward II, with the title Prince of Wales. Since then, the title has been granted (with a few exceptions) to the heir apparent of the English or British monarch.

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Eleanor de Montfort, Princess of Wales and Lady of Snowdon; Credit – Wikipedia

Note: In Welsh, “ap” means “son of” and “ferch” means “daughter of”.

The wife of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, Prince of Wales, Eleanor de Montfort was born at Kenilworth Castle in Kenilworth, Warwickshire, England, around Michaelmas (September 29) in 1252. King Henry III of England had granted Kenilworth Castle to Eleanor’s father in 1244. Eleanor was the youngest of the seven children and the younger and the only surviving of the two daughters of Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester and Eleanor of England. Her paternal grandparents were Simon de Montfort, 5th Earl of Leicester and Alix de Montmorency, a French noblewoman. Her maternal grandparents were King John of England and Isabella of Angoulême. King Henry III of England was Eleanor’s maternal uncle and his four surviving children, King Edward I of England, Margaret of England, Queen of Scots, Beatrice of England, Countess of Richmond, and Edmund Crouchback, 1st Earl of Lancaster, were her first cousins.

Eleanor had six siblings:

The displeasure of the English nobility with King Henry III ultimately resulted in a civil war, the Second Barons’ War (1264–1267). The leader of the forces against King Henry III was led by Eleanor’s father Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester. Simon de Montfort wanted to reassert the Magna Carta and force King Henry III to surrender more power to the baron’s council. When Eleanor was thirteen years old, her father Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester and her eldest brother Henry de Montfort were killed at the Battle of Evesham. Today, Eleanor’s father is considered one of the fathers of representative government. His contributions have been remembered over the years by the British Houses of Parliament. A bas-relief of Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester hangs on the wall of the chamber of the United States House of Representatives where he is recognized as one of the 23 historical lawgivers.

Simon de Montfort marble bas-relief, one of 23 reliefs of great historical lawgivers in the chamber of the U.S. House of Representatives in the United States Capitol, sculpted by Gaetano Cecere in 1950; Credit – Wikipedia

After her husband’s death, Eleanor of England, Eleanor’s mother, organized a defense of Dover Castle against royalist troops, but in October 1265, the castle was taken by her nephew Edward, Prince of Wales (the future King Edward I). Eleanor of England’s possessions were confiscated by the Crown and she was exiled to France with her 13-year-old daughter Eleanor de Montfort. She sought refuge at a de Montfort stronghold, Montargis Abbey, founded by her husband’s sister Amicia de Montfort. With the influence of King Louis IX of France, King Henry III paid his sister compensation for her confiscated lands and goods in 1367. Eleanor of England lived the rest of her life as a nun at Montargis Abbey where she died on April 13, 1375, at the age of 60 and was buried. Her daughter Eleanor de Monfort remained with her mother until her death.

Alexander III, King of Scots (on the left) with Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, Prince of Wales (on the right) as guests of King Edward I of England (in the middle) at the sitting of an English parliament; Credit – Wikipedia

In 1265, a marriage contract had been concluded for a marriage between Eleanor de Montfort and Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, Prince of Wales. In 1275, Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, Prince of Wales and Eleanor de Montfort were married by proxy. While making her way from France to Wales by ship, Eleanor de Monfort was captured by agents of her first cousin King Edward I of England. She was held prisoner at Windsor Castle for nearly three years and was finally released in 1278 following the signing of the Treaty of Aberconwy between King Edward I of England and Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, Prince of Wales. On October 13, 1278, the feast day of Saint Edward the Confessor, King of England, Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, Prince of Wales and Eleanor de Monfort were married in person at Worcester Cathedral in England with King Edward I giving the bride away and paying for the wedding feast.

Eleanor and Llywelyn ap Gruffydd had one child, a daughter Gwenllian ferch Llywelyn, also known as Gwenllian of Wales, born at the  Palace of Aber Garth Celyn in Gwynedd, Wales. Sadly, Eleanor died due to childbirth complications on June 19, 1282, aged 29 – 30. She was buried at Llanfaes Friary which had been founded by Llywelyn the Great, the grandfather of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, in memory of his wife Joan, Lady of Wales, an illegitimate daughter of King John of England and Eleanor’s aunt, in the now vanished medieval town of Llanfaes, Anglesey, Wales.

On December 11, 1282, five months after the birth of his daughter Gwenllian and the death of his wife Eleanor, Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, Prince of Wales was one of 3,000 Welshmen killed at the Battle of Orewin Bridge near Builth Wells, Wales. He was ambushed, horribly murdered, and beheaded. His head was sent to London for public display, and it is thought that the rest of his body was interred at Cwmhir Abbey in Abbeycwmhir, Wales. On October 3, 1283, Llywelyn ap Gruffydd’s brother and successor Dafydd ap Gruffydd, Prince of Wales (Unofficial Royalty article coming) was brutally executed in Shrewsbury, England on the orders of King Edward I of England. Dafydd ap Gruffydd was the first prominent person in recorded history to have been hanged, drawn, and quartered. His head was placed on a pole in the Tower of London near the head of his brother Llywelyn. The days of an independent Wales were over. King Edward I of England had completed a conquest of Wales that resulted in his annexation of the Principality of Wales.

King Edward I of England wanted to make sure that there were no more claimants to the Welsh throne. Gwenllian ferch Llywelyn, the infant daughter of Eleanor de Monfrot and Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, along with Gwenllian’s first cousin Gwladys ferch Dafydd, Dafydd ap Gruffydd’s young daughter, were confined for life in remote convents in Lincolnshire, England, and never allowed freedom. Gwenllian died in 1337 and Gwladys died circa 1336. Dafydd ap Gruffydd’s two young sons 15-year-old Llywelyn ap Dafydd and 7-year-old Owain ap Dafydd, also Gwenllian’s first cousins, were imprisoned for the rest of their lives at Bristol Castle in England. Much of the time they were kept in cages. Llywelyn died in 1287 while Owain was last reported to be alive in 1325 when he would have been in his fifties.

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.

Works Cited

  • Flantzer, Susan. (2017). Eleanor of England, Countess of Leicester. Unofficial Royalty. https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/eleanor-of-england-countess-of-leicester/
  • Flantzer, Susan. (2024). Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, Prince of Wales. Unofficial Royalty. https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/llywelyn-ap-gruffydd-prince-of-wales/
  • Weir, Alison. Britain’s Royal Families – The Complete Genealogy. Vintage Books, 2008.
  • Wikimedia Foundation. (2023). Eleanor de Montfort. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleanor_de_Montfort
  • Wikimedia Foundation. (2023). Simon de Montfort, 6th arl of Leicester. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_de_Montfort,_6th_Earl_of_Leicester
  • Williamson, David. (1996). Brewer’s British Royalty: A Phrase and Fable Dictionary. Cassell.

Bathildis of Schaumburg-Lippe, Princess of Waldeck and Pyrmont

by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2024

The County of Waldeck was a county within the Holy Roman Empire since 1180.  In 1625, the much smaller County of Pyrmont became part of the much larger County of Waldeck through inheritance and the combined territory was known as the County of Waldeck-Pyrmont. In 1712,  Friedrich Anton Ulrich, Count of Waldeck-Pyrmont was elevated to Prince of Waldeck-Pyrmont by Holy Emperor Karl VI.

Friedrich, the last Prince of Waldeck-Pyrmont,  abdicated on November 13, 1918, and negotiated an agreement with the government that gave him and his descendants the ownership of the family home Arolsen Castle and Arolsen Forest. Today the territory that encompassed the Principality of Waldeck-Pyrmont is located in the German states of Hesse and Lower Saxony

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Bathildis of Schaumburg-Lippe, Princess of Waldeck and Pyrmont; Credit – Wikipedia

Princess Bathildis of Schaumburg-Lippe was the wife of Friedrich, the last reigning Prince of Waldeck-Pyrmont. Bathildis Marie Leopoldine Anna Auguste was born on May 21, 1873, in Ratibořice, then in the Kingdom of Bohemia, now in the Czech Republic. She was the sixth of the eight children and the second of the four daughters of Prince Wilhelm of Schaumburg-Lippe and Princess Bathildis of Anhalt-Dessau. Bathildis’ paternal grandparents were Georg Wilhelm, Prince of Schaumburg-Lippe and Princess Ida of Waldeck and Pyrmont. Her maternal grandparents were Prince Friedrich August of Anhalt-Dessau and Princess Marie Luise Charlotte of Hesse-Kassel.

Bathildis had seven siblings:

Náchod Castle; Credit – Wikipedia

Bathildis’ family spent much time in the Kingdom of Bohemia, now part of the Czech Republic. In 1839, her grandfather Georg Wilhelm, Prince of Schaumburg-Lippe bought the town of Náchod, then in the Kingdom of Bohemia and Náchod Castle, and the Schaumburg-Lippe family held the town and castle until 1945.

Friedrich, Prince of Waldeck-Pyrmont; Credit – Wikipedia

On August 9, 1895, at Náchod Castle, 22-year-old Bathildis married 30-year-old Friedrich, Prince of Waldeck-Pyrmont.

Bathildis and Friedrich had four children:

During World War I, Bathildis’ husband Friedrich served as a Cavalry General in the Imperial German Army. After the defeat of the German Empire in World War I and the end of all the German monarchies, Friedrich abdicated on November 13, 1918. However, he was the only German prince who refused to sign an abdication agreement. Philipp Scheidemann, the Social Democratic Mayor of Kassel, jokingly called him “Friedrich the Defiant” because of his resistance. Friedrich negotiated an agreement with the new government that gave him and his descendants the ownership of the family home Arolsen Castle and the Arolsen Forest.

Bathildis’ eldest son Josias; Credit – Wikipedia

Both Bathildis and her husband Friedrich lived through World War II. While neither joined the Nazi Party, their eldest son Josias, his wife Altburg, and their eldest child Margarethe were members of the Nazi Party. Josias joined the Nazi Party in 1929 and by 1930, he was a member of the Schutzstaffel, better known as the SS. The SS was the primary agency of security, surveillance, and terror in Nazi Germany and German-occupied Europe. In September 1930, Josias become the Adjutant and Staff Chief of Heinrich Himmler, the head of the SS, one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany, and the main architect of the Holocaust. Josias rose through the ranks of the SS, eventually attaining the rank of General of the Waffen-SS, the military branch of the SS. Members of the Waffen-SS were involved in numerous atrocities. At the Nuremberg Trials (1945 – 1946), the Waffen-SS was judged to be a criminal organization because of its direct involvement in numerous war crimes and crimes against humanity.

On April 13, 1945, Josias was taken prisoner by American forces. For a period of time, Josias had supervisory authority over the Buchenwald concentration camp. He was sentenced to life imprisonment for crimes in connection to the Buchenwald concentration camp by an American court in Dachau, Germany during the Buchenwald Trial on August 14, 1947. In 1948, Josias’ sentence was reduced to twenty years. He was released early from the Landsberg War Crimes Prison for health reasons in 1950.

Princely Mausoleum and Cemetery; Credit – www.findagrave.com

Bathildis’ husband Friedrich, the last Prince of Waldeck-Pyrmont, died on May 26, 1946, at the age of 81 in Arolsen, Germany. His son Josias became Head of the House of Waldeck-Pyrmont while in custody. Bathildis survived her husband by sixteen years, dying on April 6, 1962, aged 88, in Arolsen, West Germany, now in Germany. She was buried with her husband in the Princely Cemetery at Schloss Rhoden (link in German) in Rhoden, now in the German state of Hesse.

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.

Works Cited

  • De.wikipedia.org. 2023. Bathildis zu Schaumburg-Lippe. [online] Available at: <https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathildis_zu_Schaumburg-Lippe> [Accessed 3 November 2023].
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  • Flantzer, Susan, 2021. Friedrich, Prince of Waldeck-Pyrmont. [online] Unofficial Royalty. Available at: <https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/friedrich-prince-of-waldeck-pyrmont/> [Accessed 3 November 2023].
  • Petropoulos, Jonathan, 2009. Royals And The Reich. Oxford: Oxford University Press