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Victoria, Princess Royal, German Empress, Queen of Prussia; Credit – Wikipedia
November 21, 1689 – Birth of Jacques I, Prince of Monaco Torigni-sur-Vire, Normandy, France
Full name: Jacques François Léonor
Born Jacques François Leonor Goyon de Matignon to a wealthy French noble family, Jacques was the husband of Louise-Hippolyte, Sovereign Princess of Monaco. He was briefly the Sovereign Prince of Monaco.
Unofficial Royalty: Jacques I, Prince of Monaco
November 21, 1761 – Birth of Dorothea Jordan, mistress of King William IV of the United Kingdom and mother of his ten illegitimate children, near Waterford, Ireland
Actress Dorothea Jordan had a 21-year affair with the future King William IV of the United Kingdom. Dorothea and William had ten children together, all of whom were given the surname FitzClarence They married into the British aristocracy and their many descendants include many notable people. Upon the death of Princess Charlotte of Wales, the only legitimate grandchild of King George III, William and the other unmarried sons of King George III were pressured to marry to provide heirs to the throne. William ended his relationship with Dorothea and made a childless marriage with Adelaide of Saxe-Meinigen. He made sure Dorothea would continue to receive an allowance. Dorothea had one condition to continue receiving her allowance from William: she could not return to the theater. When she did return to the theater to help pay the debts of her daughter and son-in-law, her allowance was canceled. Greatly in debt, she sold her house and moved to France to escape her creditors and settled in Saint-Cloud, just outside of Paris where she died virtually penniless.
Unofficial Royalty: Dorothea Jordan
November 21, 1840 – Birth of Victoria, Princess Royal, German Empress, Queen of Prussia, Queen Victoria’s eldest child, at Buckingham Palace in London, England
Full name: Victoria Adelaide Mary
In 1858, Vicky, as she was known, married the future Friedrich III, German Emperor and King of Prussia, known as Fritz. The couple had eight children including Wilhelm II, the last German Emperor and King of Prussia. 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. 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. 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.
Unofficial Royalty: Victoria, Princess Royal, German Empress, Queen of Prussia
November 21, 1860 – Death of Georg Wilhelm, Prince of Schaumburg-Lippe at Bückeburg Castle in Bückeburg, Principality of Schaumberg-Lippe, now in the German state of Lower Saxony; buried in the Princely Mausoleum at St. Martini Church in Stadthagen, Principality of Schaumberg-Lippe, now in the German state of Lower Saxony
In 1787, two months after his second birthday, Georg Wilhelm became the reigning Count of Schaumberg-Lippe upon the death of his 64-year-old father. In 1807, after joining the Confederation of the Rhine, sixteen German states joined together in a confederation formed by Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, the County of Schaumberg-Lippe was raised to the Principality of Schaumberg-Lippe and Georg Wilhelm became its first reigning prince. In 1816, Georg Wilhelm married Princess Ida of Waldeck and Pyrmont and the couple had nine children. During the Revolutions of 1848, when there were demands for more participation in government and democracy, Georg Wilhelm gave in to some liberal demands but then changed to a more reactionary course in 1849 by abolishing the new constitution without restoring the old one. George Wilhelm died at the age of 75.
Unofficial Royalty: Georg Wilhelm, Prince of Schaumburg-Lippe
November 21, 1868 – Birth of Duke Peter Alexandrovich of Oldenburg, first husband of Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna of Russia, at Oldenburg Palace in St. Petersburg, Russia
Peter was the only child of Duke Alexander Petrovich of Oldenburg and Princess Eugenia Maximilianovna of Leuchtenberg. Alexander Petrovich’s grandfather had married Grand Duchess Catherine Pavlovna, daughter of Paul I, Emperor of All Russia, and their children and grandchildren were raised in Russia. Despite his German title, Alexander Petrovich, like his father, had grown up entirely in Russia, served in the Russian military, and was considered part of the Russian Imperial Family. Peter and Olga’s marriage, arranged by their mothers, was a marriage in name only. Two years after their marriage, Olga met Nikolai Kulikovsky, an army officer her own age. Over the years, Olga continued to ask her brother Nicholas II, Emperor of All Russia for permission to marry Nikolai. In 1916, Nicholas II had a change of heart and he officially annulled her marriage to Peter, and Olga and Nikolai were married. After the October Revolution in 1917, Peter, his father, and his mother emigrated to France, where he lived in Paris and on a farm near Bayonne, France. In 1922, Peter married Olga Vladimirovna Ratkova-Rognova. Duke Peter Alexandrovich of Oldenburg died at the age of 55.
Unofficial Royalty: Duke Peter Alexandrovich of Oldenburg
November 21, 1895 – Death of Sir Henry Ponsonby, Private Secretary to Queen Victoria, at Osborne Cottage in the Isle of Wight, England; buried in the churchyard at St. Mildred’s Church in Whippingham, Isle of Wight, England
Henry served as Queen Victoria’s Private Secretary from 1870 – 1895. In 1857, Henry was appointed Equerry to Prince Albert, beginning his service in the Royal Household until just months before his death in 1895. In 1870, Henry was appointed Private Secretary to Queen Victoria, following the death of his wife’s grandfather Sir Charles Grey. After suffering a stroke several months earlier, Henry formally retired from his position on May 9, 1895, and died six months later.
Unofficial Royalty: Sir Henry Ponsonby
November 21, 1916 – Death of Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria at Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna, Austria; buried in the Imperial Crypt in Vienna, Austria
Franz Joseph is one of Europe’s longest-reigning monarchs. In 1848, Emperor Ferdinand of Austria abdicated the throne in favor of his 18-year-old nephew. Franz Joseph was now Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary and Croatia, and King of Bohemia. Franz Joseph married Elisabeth, Duchess in Bavaria (Sisi) in 1854. The couple had four children. In 1889, Franz Joseph’s only son Rudolf died in a suicide pact with his mistress. Just nine years, later, Franz Joseph’s wife was assassinated. In 1914, Franz Joseph’s heir, his nephew Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife were victims of an assassination that was one of the causes of World War I. Upon Franz Ferdinand’s death, Archduke Karl, who would be the last Emperor of Austria, became the heir. Karl’s father was Archduke Otto Franz, the second son of Archduke Karl Ludwig of Austria, Emperor Franz Joseph’s younger brother. Franz Joseph died in the middle of World War I, at the age of 86.
Unofficial Royalty: Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria
November 21, 1928 – Death of Heinrich XXVII, the 5th Prince Reuss of Gera at Schloss Osterstein in Gera, Germany; buried in the family cemetery in the park of Schloss Ebersdorf in Saalburg-Ebersdorf in Thuringia, Germany
Heinrich XXVII was the last reigning Prince Reuss of Gera, abdicating after the German defeat in World War I, on November 11, 1918. In 1884, Heinrich XXVII married Princess Elise of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, the daughter of Hermann, 6th Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg and Princess Leopoldine of Baden. Elise’s paternal grandmother was Princess Feodora of Leiningen, the half-sister of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. Heinrich XXVII and Elise had five children. After Heinrich XXVII abdicated, the new government of Reuss-Gera made an agreement with Heinrich XXVII that granted him some castles and land. Heinrich died at the age of 70.
Unofficial Royalty: Heinrich XXVII, the 5th Prince Reuss of Gera
November 21, 2002 – Death of Prince Takamado of Japan at the Keio University Hospital in Tokyo, Japan; buried at the Toshimagaoka Imperial Cemetery in Tokyo, Japan
Takamado was the youngest of the five children of Prince Mikasa of Japan. Takamado’s father Prince Mikasa was the youngest son of Emperor Taishō and the youngest brother of Emperor Hirohito (Shōwa). Takamado worked from 1981 until he died in 2002 as the administrator of the Japan Foundation which promotes Japanese arts, culture, and language exchange around the world. In 1984, he married Hisako Tottori, the daughter of a Japanese industrialist. The couple had three daughters. On November 21, 2002, while playing squash with the Canadian ambassador Robert Wright at the Canadian Embassy, Takamado collapsed due to ventricular fibrillation. He was immediately taken to Keio University Hospital but was already in a state of cardiopulmonary arrest. He was resuscitated but his condition then worsened and soon there was no hope that he would survive. With the consent of his wife, Takamado was removed from life support and died at the age of 47.
Unofficial Royalty: Prince Takamado of Japan
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