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Viktoria Adelheid of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg with her husband Charles Edward, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha; Credit – Wikipedia
October 3, 1283 – Execution of Dafydd ap Gruffydd, Prince of Wales
Unofficial Royalty: Dafydd ap Gruffydd, Prince of Wales
October 3, 1390 – Birth of Humphrey, 1st Duke of Gloucester, son of King Henry IV of England
Humphrey received an excellent education and it is thought he was educated at Balliol College, Oxford. He had a great love of learning, was a collector of books and manuscripts, and commissioned translations of classical works from Greek into Latin. When Humphrey died, he donated his collection of 281 manuscripts to the University of Oxford. The university built Duke Humfrey’s Library as a second story to the Divinity School in order to house his collection in 1450-80. Duke Humfrey’s Library still exists and it is the oldest reading room in the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford.
Unofficial Royalty: Humphrey, 1st Duke of Gloucester
October 3, 1568 – Death of Élisabeth de Valois, daughter of King Henri II of France, third wife of King Philip II of Spain, died at the Royal Palace of Aranjuez in Madrid, Spain; buried at the Monastery of San Lorenzo El Real in El Escorial, Spain
Elisabeth was supposed to marry 14-year-old Carlos, Prince of Asturias, the only child and the heir apparent of King Philip II of Spain but Carlos died. Instead, Elisabeth became the third of the four wives of Philip II. Despite the 18-year-age gap, Elisabeth was also quite pleased with her husband. She considered her main duty to give birth to sons but she was unable to do so. She had five pregnancies but had only two surviving daughters. In May 1568, Elisabeth’s health suffered. A new pregnancy caused severe vomiting and dizziness which the doctors tried to relieve by bleeding which would have further weakened her and not helped her as the doctors then believed. On October 3, 1568, Elisabeth went into premature labor which turned out to be very complicated and so all of the doctors of the royal court were called. Elisabeth begged Philip to look after their two daughters and to help her brother Henri III to reign in France. Elisabeth also told him that she had known that she would not live a long life and had prayed constantly for her soul. She asked Philip to also pray for her soul and immediately Philip fell to his knees. After much suffering, Elisabeth gave birth to a daughter of five months of gestation. The daughter was baptized Juana but only lived for ninety minutes. An hour later, 23-year-old Elisabeth died. It was said that Philip II was only seen crying once in his life, during the funeral of his wife Elisabeth.
Unofficial Royalty: Élisabeth de Valois, Queen of Spain
October 3, 1611 – Death of Margaret of Austria, Queen of Spain, Queen of Portugal, wife of Felipe III, King of Spain, at the Royal Site of San Lorenzo de El Escorial in El Escorial, Spain; buried at the Pantheon of Kings at the Royal Basilica of San Lorenzo de El Escorial
The daughter of Karl II, Archduke of Austria-Styria and his niece Maria Anna of Bavaria, Margaret married Felipe III, King of Spain in 1599. Felipe and Margaret, both children of parents who were an uncle and his niece, were first cousins once removed and also second cousins, adding to more inbreeding in the House of Habsburg. Margaret and Felipe III had eight children, including King Felipe III’s successor King Felipe IV and Ana María Mauricia (better known as Queen Anne of France) who married King Louis XIII of France. They were the parents of King Louis XIV of France. In 1611, Margaret died at the age of twenty-six from childbirth complications eleven days after giving birth to her eighth child Alonso who lived for only one year.
Unofficial Royalty: Margaret of Austria, Queen of Spain, Queen of Portugal
October 3, 1784 – Birth of Baroness Louise Lehzen, governess, adviser, and companion to Queen Victoria, in Hanover, Kingdom of Hanover, now in the German state of Lower Saxony
Full name: Johanna Clara Louise Lehzen
From 1824 – 1842, Baroness Louise Lehzen was the governess and then adviser and companion to Queen Victoria who called her Lehzen.
Unofficial Royalty: Baroness Louise Lehzen
October 3, 1797 – Birth of Leopoldo II, Grand Duke of Tuscany in Florence, Grand Duchy of Tuscany
Upon his father’s death on June 18, 1824, Leopoldo became Grand Duke of Tuscany. In 1859, the Grand Ducal family was forced to flee Florence because of the wars caused by the Italian unification movement, and the family took refuge in Austria. On July 21, 1859, Leopoldo II abdicated in favor of his son Ferdinand IV who was Grand Duke of Tuscany in name but never really reigned. The Grand Duchy of Tuscany was annexed to the Kingdom of Sardinia in 1860, as a part of the unification of Italy. In 1861, Vittorio Emanuele II, King of Sardinia was proclaimed the first King of the new, united Kingdom of Italy.
Unofficial Royalty: Leopoldo II, Grand Duke of Tuscany
October 3, 1860 – Birth of Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich of Russia, son of Alexander II, Emperor of All Russia, at the Catherine Palace at Tsarskoye Selo near St. Petersburg, Russia
The paternal uncle of Nicholas II, Emperor of All Russia, Paul was only eight years older than his nephew Nicholas and the two had a close relationship. Paul was one of the four Grand Dukes executed by a firing squad at the Peter and Paul Fortress on January 28, 1919. His son from his first marriage, Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich, was one of the conspirators involved in the murder of Grigori Rasputin. Paul’s son from his second morganatic marriage, Prince Vladimir Pavlovich Paley, was one of the five Romanovs executed on July 18, 1918, with Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna, the sister of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna.
Unofficial Royalty: Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich of Russia
October 3, 1891 – Birth of Prince Maurice of Battenberg, son of Princess Beatrice of the United Kingdom and grandson of Queen Victoria, at Balmoral Castle, Scotland
Full name: Maurice Victor Donald
In 1910, Maurice joined the 60th King’s Royal Rifles. Eight days after the United Kingdom entered World War I, on August 12, 1914, Maurice left for the front. On October 27, 1914, Maurice was leading an attack on the German frontline at Zonnebeke near Ypres in the Belgian province of West Flanders when he was mortally wounded by shrapnel. The platoon sergeant tried to offer help to the wounded prince, but Maurice, aged 23, died before his men could bring him to a safer place. Upon hearing the news, King George V who was Prince Maurice’s first cousin, and Queen Mary drove to Kensington Palace to console Princess Beatrice. Lord Kitchener, the Secretary of State for War, offered to have Prince Maurice’s body brought back to England, but Princess Beatrice replied, “No, let him lie with his comrades.” Prince Maurice was buried in the Ypres Town Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery in Ypres, Belgium.
Unofficial Royalty: Prince Maurice of Battenberg
October 3, 1898 – Birth of Zizi Lambrino, mistress and morganatic 1st wife of King Carol II of Romania, born Ioana Maria Valentina Lambrino in Roman, Romania
Zizi Lambrino was the first wife of the future King Carol II of Romania. The couple married in 1918, but the Romanian government deemed the marriage unconstitutional and it was annulled. On August 8, 1920, in Bucharest, Zizi gave birth to the couple’s only child – a son named Mircea Gregor Carol Lambrino. As Zizi and Carol’s marriage had been legally annulled, the child was considered illegitimate and was given his mother’s surname. Soon after the birth, the future King ended his relationship with Zizi, choosing instead to remain in line for the Romanian throne. Zizi and her son were forced to leave the country and were financially supported by the Romanian government.
Unofficial Royalty: Zizi Lambrino, mistress and morganatic 1st wife of King Carol II of Romania
October 3, 1941 – Birth of Infante Alfonso of Spain, son of Infante Juan, Duke of Barcelona and brother of King Juan Carlos I of Spain, in Rome, Italy
Full name: Alfonso Cristino Teresa Ángelo Francisco de Asís y Todos los Santos de Borbón y Borbón Dos-Sicilias
Alfonso was the younger brother of King Juan Carlos I of Spain. Fourteen-year-old Infante Alfonso was killed by a gun on March 29, 1956, while in a bedroom with his elder brother, the future King Juan Carlos I of Spain. What happened in that bedroom, who pulled the trigger, and whether or not it was an accident are still unclear.
Unofficial Royalty; Infante Alfonso of Spain
October 3, 1970 – Death of Viktoria Adelheid of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, wife of Charles Edward, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, at Schloss Greinburg in Grein, Austria; buried in the family cemetery in the forest of Schloss Callenberg in Coburg, Germany
In 1905, Viktoria Adelheid married Charles Edward, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the only son of Queen Victoria’s youngest son Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany and Princess Helena of Waldeck and Pyrmont. The couple had five children including Princess Sibylla of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the mother of King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden. After World War I, Charles Edward abdicated from the throne of the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. During the period between the two World Wars, Charles Edward became active in the Nazi Party. After World War II, in 1949, a denazification appeals court classified Charles Edward as a Nazi Follower, Category IV. He was heavily fined and almost bankrupted. After World War II, some of the Saxe-Coburg and Gotha properties that were now in East Germany were seized. The family was left with Schloss Callenberg in Coburg, Bavaria, Germany and Schloss Greinburg an der Donau in Grein, Austria. After her husband’s death in 1954, Viktoria Adelheid spent time traveling, often with her sister-in-law, Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone.
Unofficial Royalty: Viktoria Adelheid of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
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