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March | 2024 | European Royal History

Monthly Archives: March 2024

March 21, 1152: Annulment of the marriage of King Louis VII of the Franks and Eleanor of Aquitaine.

21 Thursday Mar 2024

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Louis VII (1120 ? September 18, 1180), called the Younger, or the Young was King of the Franks from 1137 to 1180. He was the son and successor of King Louis VI (hence the epithet “the Young”) and married Duchess Eleanor of Aquitaine, one of the wealthiest and most powerful women in western Europe. The marriage temporarily extended the Capetian lands to the Pyrenees.

Eleanor was the eldest child of Guillaume X, Duke of Aquitaine, and Aenor de Chatellerault. She became Duchess upon her father’s death in April 1137, and three months later she married Louis, son of her guardian King Louis VI of the Franks.

Shortly afterwards, Louis VI died and Eleanor’s husband ascended the throne, making Eleanor queen consort. The couple had two daughters, Marie and Alix.

Eleanor sought an annulment of her marriage, but her request was rejected by Pope Eugene III. Eventually, King Louis VII agreed to an annulment, as fifteen years of marriage had not produced a son.

The marriage was annulled on March 21, 1152 on the grounds of consanguinity within the fourth degree. Their daughters were declared legitimate, custody was awarded to Louis, and Eleanor’s lands were restored to her.

Immediately after their annulment, Eleanor married Henry Plantagenet, Duke of Normandy and Count of Anjou, to whom she conveyed Aquitaine, which following Henry’s ascension to the English throne as King Henry II and created an Angevin Empire.

Later, King Louis VII supported Henry’s rebellious sons to foment further disunity in the Angevin realms. King Louis VII went on to marry his second cousin, Infanta Constance of Castile, but still failed to produce a male heir.

Infanta Constance of Castile was a daughter of King Alfonso VII of Leon and Castile and Berengaria of Barcelona, but her year of birth is not known.

Infanta Constance died in childbirth with their second daughter. His third marriage to Adela of Champagne, five weeks after Constance’s death.

Adela of Champagne was the third child and first daughter of Theobald II, Count of Champagne and Matilda of Carinthia, and had nine brothers and sisters. She was named after her paternal grandmother Adela of Normandy, daughter of King William the Conqueror of England.

She was finally able to give him a son, Prince Philippe Aguste. King Louis VII died in 1180 and was succeeded by his son as King Philippe II Auguste.

King Philippe II Auguste was King of France from 1180 to 1223. His predecessors had been known as kings of the Franks (Latin: rex Francorum), but from 1190 onward, Philippe II Auguste became the first French monarch to style himself “ King of France ” (rex Francie).

March 20, 1848: Abdication of King Ludwig I of Bavaria

20 Wednesday Mar 2024

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Ludwig I (August 25, 1786 ? February 29, 1868) was King of Bavaria from 1825 until the 1848 revolutions in the German states.

Crown Prince

Born in the Zweibrucker Hof in Straßburg as Prince Ludwig Karl August of Pfalz-Birkenfeld-Zweibrucken, he was the son of Prince-Elector Maximilian IV Joseph of Zweibrucken (later King Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria) by his first wife Princess Augusta Wilhelmine of Hesse-Darmstadt, the fourth daughter and ninth child of Prince Georg Wilhelm of Hesse-Darmstadt (second son of Ludwig VIII, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt) and Countess Maria Louise Albertine of Leiningen-Falkenburg-Dagsburg.

At the time of his birth, Prince Ludwig’s father was an officer in the French army stationed at Strasbourg. He was the godson and namesake of King Louis XVI of France and Navarre.

On April 1, 1795 his father succeeded Ludwig’s uncle, Charles II, as Duke of Zweibrucken, and on February 16, 1799 became Prince-Elector Maximilian IV Joseph of Bavaria and Count Palatine of the Rhine, the Arch-Steward of the Empire, and Duke of Berg on the extinction of the Sulzbach line with the death of the Prince-Elector Charles Theodore. His father assumed the title of King Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria on January 1, 1806.

As Crown Prince, Ludwig married on October 12, 1854, Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen (8 July 1792 ? 26 October 1854; a daughter of Friedrich, Duke of Saxe-Hildburghausen and Duchess Charlotte Georgine of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, eldest daughter of Charles II, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz.

In 1809, Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen was on the list of possible brides for Napoleon. The wedding between her and Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria was the occasion of the first ever Oktoberfest.

When Ludwig was Crown Prince, he was involved in the Napoleonic Wars. As king Ludwig I of Bavaria, he encouraged Bavaria’s industrialization, initiating the Ludwig Canal between the rivers Main and the Danube. In 1835, the first German railway was constructed in his domain, between the cities of Furth and Nuremberg, with his Bavaria joining the Zollverein economic union in 1834.

After the July Revolution of 1830 in France, Ludwig’s previous liberal policy became increasingly repressive; in 1844, Ludwig was confronted during the Beer riots in Bavaria.

During the revolutions of 1848 the King faced increasing protests and demonstrations by the students and the middle classes. The king had ordered to close the university in February, and on March 4, a large crowd assaulted the Armory to storm the Munich Residenz.

Ludwig’s brother Prince Charles managed to appease the protesters, but the royal family and the Cabinet now turned against Ludwig. He had to sign the so-called “March Proclamation” with substantial concessions. On March 16, 1848 it was followed by renewed unrest because Lola Montez had returned to Munich after a short exile.

Ludwig had to let her be searched by the police on March 17, which was the worst humiliation for him.

Not willing to rule as a constitutional monarch, Ludwig abdicated on March 20, 1848 in favour of his eldest son, Maximilian. He became King Maximilian II of Bavaria.

Ludwig lived for another twenty years after his abdication and remained influential. An admirer of ancient Greece and the Italian Renaissance, Ludwig patronized the arts and commissioned several neoclassical buildings, especially in Munich. He was an avid collector of arts, amassing paintings from the Early German and Early Dutch periods as well as Graeco-Roman sculptures.

All living legitimate agnatic members of the House of Wittelsbach descend from him.

March 19, 1808: Abdication of King Carlos IV of Spain

19 Tuesday Mar 2024

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Carlos IV (November 11, 1748 ? January 20, 1819) was King of Spain and ruler of the Spanish Empire from 1788 to 1808.

Early life

Carlos IV was the second son of King Carlos III of Spain and his wife, Princess Maria Amalia of Saxony, the daughter of King Augustus III of Poland, (Prince-Elector Friedrich August II of Saxony) and Archduchess Maria Josepha of Austria, herself daughter of Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor. Her mother was the first cousin of Empress Maria Theresa.

Infante Carlos was born in Naples (November 11, 1748), while his father was King of Naples and Sicily. His elder brother, Don Felipe, was passed over for both thrones, due to his learning disabilities and epilepsy.

His father was also Duke of Parma and Piacenza, as Carlo I (1731?1735); King of Naples, as Carlo VII; and King of Sicily, as Carlo III (1735?1759). He was the fourth son of King Felipe V of Spain and the eldest son of Felipe’s second wife, Elisabeth Farnese.

In Naples and Sicily, Infante Carlos was referred to as the Prince of Taranto. He was called El Cazador (meaning “the Hunter”), due to his preference for sport and hunting, rather than dealing with affairs of the state. Carlos is considered by historian Stanley G. Payne as “good-hearted but weak and simple-minded.”

In 1762, Princess Maria Luisa of Parma became engaged to her cousin Infante Carlos, Prince of Asturias, later King Carlos IV of Spain. Maria Luisa of Parma the youngest daughter of Philip, Duke of Parma, the fourth son of King Felipe V of Spain, and Princess Louise Elisabeth of France, the eldest daughter of King Louis XV of France and Navarre and his Polish-born wife, Queen Marie Leczinska.

When Princess Maria Luisa’s elder sister, Princess Isabella died in 1763, there were suggestions that Princess Maria Luisa marry her sister’s widower, Emperor Joseph II, but the proposal was refused and her engagement to the Infante Carlos, Prince of Asturias was confirmed. The wedding took place on September 4, 1765 in La Granja Palace.

Infante Carlos succeeded to the Spanish throne in 1759 upon the death of his childless half-brother King Fernando VI. As King Carlos III of Spain, he made far-reaching reforms to increase the flow of funds to the crown and defend against foreign incursions on the empire.

In 1788, King Carlos III of Spain died and his second son, Infante Carlos, succeeded to the throne as King Carlos IV of and ruled for the next two decades. Even though he had a profound belief in the sanctity of the monarchy and kept up the appearance of an absolute, powerful king, Carlos IV never took more than a passive part in his own government.

The affairs of government were left to his wife, Maria Luisa, and the man he appointed first minister, Manuel de Godoy. Charles occupied himself with hunting in the period that saw the outbreak of the French Revolution, the executions of his Bourbon relative Louis XVI of France and his queen, Archduchess Marie Antoinette of Austria, and the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte.

Riots, and a popular revolt at the winter palace Aranjuez, in 1808 forced the king to abdicate on March 19, in favor of his son. Infante Fernando, Prince of Asturias, took the throne as King Fernando VII of Spain, but was mistrusted by Napoleon, who had 100,000 soldiers stationed in Spain by that time due to the ongoing War of the Third Coalition.

The ousted King Carlos IV, having appealed to Napoleon for help in regaining his throne, was summoned before Napoleon in Bayonne, along with his son, in April 1808. Napoleon forced both King Carlos IV and his son, King Fernando VII to abdicate, declared the Bourbon dynasty of Spain deposed, and installed his brother, Joseph Bonaparte, as King Joseph I of Spain, which began the Peninsular War.

March 15, 1917: Abdication of Emperor Nicholas II of Russia

15 Friday Mar 2024

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By early 1917, in the midst of World War I, the Russia Empire was on the verge of total collapse of morale. An estimated 1.7 million Russian soldiers were killed in World War I.

The sense of failure and imminent disaster was everywhere. The army had taken 15 million men from the farms and food prices had soared. An egg cost four times what it had in 1914, butter five times as much. The severe winter dealt the railways, overburdened by emergency shipments of coal and supplies, a crippling blow.

On March 12, the Volinsky Regiment mutinied and was quickly followed by the Semenovsky, the Ismailovsky, the Litovsky Life Guards and even the legendary Preobrazhensky Regiment of the Imperial Guard, the oldest and staunchest regiment founded by Peter the Great.

The arsenal was pillaged and the Ministry of the Interior, Military Government building, police headquarters, Law Courts and a score of police buildings were set on fire. By noon, the Peter and Paul Fortress, with its heavy artillery, was in the hands of the insurgents. By nightfall, 60,000 soldiers had joined the revolution.

Order broke down and Prime Minister Nikolai Golitsyn resigned; members of the Duma and the Soviet formed a Provisional Government to try to restore order. They issued a demand that Nicholas must abdicate.

Faced with this demand, which was echoed by his generals, deprived of loyal troops, with his family firmly in the hands of the Provisional Government, and fearful of unleashing civil war and opening the way for German conquest, Emperor Nicholas II had little choice but to submit.

Revolution & Abdication (1917)

Emperor Nicholas II had suffered a coronary occlusion only four days before his abdication. At the end of the “February Revolution”, Nicholas II chose to abdicate on March 15, 1917.

He first abdicated in favor of Tsarevich Alexei, but a few hours later changed his mind after advice from doctors that Tsarevich Alexei would not live long enough while separated from his parents, who would be forced into exile.

Emperor Nicholas II thus abdicated on behalf of his son, and drew up a new manifesto naming his brother, Grand Duke Michael, as the next Emperor of all the Russias. He issued a statement but it was suppressed by the Provisional Government.

Grand Duke Michael declined to accept the throne until the people were allowed to vote through a Constituent Assembly for the continuance of the monarchy or a republic. The abdication of Nicholas II and Grand Duke Michael’s deferment of accepting the throne brought three centuries of the Romanov dynasty’s rule to an end.

The fall of Tsarist autocracy brought joy to liberals and socialists in Britain and France. The United States was the first foreign government to recognize the Provisional government. In Russia, the announcement of the Emperor’s abdication was greeted with many emotions, including delight, relief, fear, anger and confusion.

March 14, 1647: Death of Frederik Hendrik, Prince of Orange, Stadtholder of the Netherlands

14 Thursday Mar 2024

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Frederik Hendrik (January 29, 1584 ? March 14, 1647) was the sovereign Prince of Orange and Stadtholder of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, Overijssel in the Dutch Republic from 1625 until his death in 1647. In the last seven years of his life, he was also the stadtholder of Groningen (1640-1647).

Early life

Frederik Hendrik was born on January 29, 1584 in Delft, Holland, Dutch Republic. He was the youngest child of Prince Willem the Silent, Prince of Orange and Louise de Coligny. His father Prince Willem of Orange was Stadtholder of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, and Friesland. His mother Louise was daughter of the Huguenot leader Gaspard de Coligny, and was the fourth wife of his father. He was thus the half brother of his predecessor Prince Maurice of Orange, deceased in 1625.

As the leading soldier in the Dutch wars against Spain, his main achievement was the successful Siege of ‘s-Hertogenbosch in 1629. It was the main Spanish base and a well-fortified city protected by an experienced Spanish garrison and by formidable water defenses.

His strategy was the successful neutralization of the threat of inundation of the area around ‘s-Hertogenbosch’ and his capture of the Spanish storehouse at Wesel. The successful sieges under his command earned him the epithet ‘city forcer’ (Dutch: stedendwinger).

Biography

Frederik Hendrik was born six months before his father’s assassination on 10 July 1584. The boy was trained to arms by his elder brother Maurice, one of the finest generals of his age. After Maurice threatened to legitimize his illegitimate children if he did not marry, Frederik Hendrik married his first cousin once removed Amalia of Solms-Braunfels in 1625, she was a daughter of Count Johann Albrecht I of Solms-Braunfels (1563-1623) and his wife, Countess Agnes of Sayn-Wittgenstein (1568-1617). She was a member of the House of Solms, a ruling family with Imperial immediacy.

Frederik Hendrik’s illegitimate son by Margaretha Catharina Bruyns (1595?1625), Frederick Nassau de Zuylestein was born in 1624 before his marriage. This son later became the governor of the young King William III of England for seven years.

Frederik Hendrik proved himself almost as good a general as his brother, and a far more capable statesman and politician. For twenty-two years he remained at the head of government in the United Provinces, and in his time the power of the stadtholderate reached its highest point. The “Period of Frederik Hendrik,” as it is usually styled by Dutch writers, is generally accounted for the golden age of the republic.

Frederik Hendrik died on March 14, 1647 in The Hague, Holland, Dutch Republic. He left his wife Amalia of Solms-Braunfels, his son Willem II, Prince of Orange, four of his daughters, and his illegitimate son Frederick Nassau de Zuylestein.

On Frederik Hendrik’s death, he was buried with great pomp beside his father and brother at Delft. The treaty of Munster, ending the long struggle between the Dutch and the Spaniards, was not actually signed until 30 January 1648, the illness and death of the stadtholder having caused a delay in the negotiations.

March 13, 1809: King Gustaf IV Adolph of Sweden is Deposed

13 Wednesday Mar 2024

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Gustaf IV Adolph (November 1, 1778 ? February 7, 1837) was King of Sweden from 1792 until he was deposed in a coup in 1809. He was also the last Swedish monarch to be the ruler of Finland.

Gustaf Adolph was born in Stockholm. He was the son of King Gustaf III of Sweden by his wife Princess Sophia Magdalena of Denmark, she was eldest daughter of King Frederik V of Denmark-Norway and his first wife Princess Louise of Great Britain, the youngest surviving daughter of King George II of Great Britain and Princess Caroline of Brandenburg-Ansbach.

His reign was ill-fated and was to end abruptly. In 1805, he joined the Third Coalition against Napoleon. His campaign went poorly and the French occupied Swedish Pomerania. When his ally, Russia, made peace and concluded an alliance with France at Tilsit in 1807, Sweden and Portugal were left as Great Britain’s only allies on the European continent.

On February 21, 1808, Russia invaded Finland, which was ruled by Sweden, on the pretext of compelling Sweden to join Napoleon’s Continental System. Denmark likewise declared war on Sweden. In just a few months, almost all of Finland was lost to Russia. As a result of the war, on September 17, 1809, in the Treaty of Fredrikshamn, Sweden surrendered the eastern third of Sweden to Russia. Following which the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland was established within Imperial Russia.

Coup d’etat and abdication

On March 7, 1809, lieutenant-colonel Georg Adlersparre, commander of a part of the so-called western army stationed in Varmland, triggered the Coup of 1809 by raising the flag of rebellion in Karlstad and starting to march upon Stockholm.

To prevent the King from joining loyal troops in Scania, on March 13, 1809 seven of the conspirators led by Carl Johan Adlercreutz broke into the royal apartments in the palace, seized the king, and imprisoned him and his family in Gripsholm Castle; the king’s uncle, Duke Carl, accepted the leadership of a provisional government, which was proclaimed the same day; and a diet, hastily summoned, solemnly approved of the revolution.

On March 29, King Gustaf IV Adolph, to save the crown for his son, Gustav, Prince of Vasa, he voluntarily abdicated; but on May 10, the Riksdag of the Estates, dominated by the army, declared that not merely Gustav but his whole family had forfeited the throne, perhaps an excuse to exclude his family from succession based on the rumours of his illegitimacy.

A more likely cause, however, is that the revolutionaries feared that Gustaf Adolph’s son, if he inherited the throne, would avenge his father’s deposition when he came of age. On June 5, Gustav Adolf’s uncle was proclaimed King Carl XIII of Sweden after accepting a new liberal constitution, which was ratified by the diet the next day. In December, Gustaf Adolph and his family were transported to Germany. In 1812, he divorced his wife.

In exile Gustaf Adolph used several titles, including Count Gottorp and Duke of Holstein-Eutin, and finally settled at St. Gallen in Switzerland where he lived in a small hotel in great loneliness and indigence, under the name of Colonel Gustafsson. It was there that he suffered a stroke and died. He was buried in Moravia.

At the suggestion of King Oscar II of Sweden and Norway his body was finally brought to Sweden and interred in Riddarholm Church.

Gustaf Adolph was a great-grandfather of Princess Victoria of Baden, daughter of Grand Duke Friedrich I of Baden, and Princess Louise of Prussia. Victoria of Baden was named after her aunt by marriage, Crown Princess Victoria of Prussia, daughter of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom.

King Oscar II’s new daughter-in-law at the time and eventually Queen of Sweden as consort to Oscar II’s son Gustaf V.

Numbering Emperor’s Named Lothair

13 Wednesday Mar 2024

Posted by in Bishop of Rome and the Catholic Church , Carolingian Empire , Elected Monarch , Holy Roman Emperor , King of the Romans-Germany , Royal Genealogy , Royal numbering , Royal Succession , Royal Titles

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From The Emperor’s Desk : in the blog post about King Conrad III of the Romans, there was a mention of Emperor Lothair III. He is also known as Lothair II.

Those who follow this blog know that how monarchs are numbered is an interest of mine. Today, I will examine how Lothair of Supplinburg came to be known by two different Regnal Numbers.

Lothair of Supplinburg was the second Emperor named Lothair, but is often numbered “Lothair III” by those who count King Lothair II of Lotharingia as his predecessor, of whose kingdom (Lotharingia) became a part of the Holy Roman Empire.

Lothair III, sometimes numbered Lothair II and also known as Lothair of Supplinburg (1075 ? December 4, 1137). He was Holy Roman Emperor from 1133 until his death. He was appointed Duke of Saxony in 1106 and elected King of the Romans-Germany in 1125 as well as King of Italy before being crowned Emperor in Rome by Pope Honorius II.

Who was the first Emperor named Lothair?

Emperor Lothair I was the eldest son of the Carolingian Emperor Louis I the Pious and his wife Ermengarde of Hesbaye, daughter of Ingerman the duke of Hesbaye.

When Louis I the Pious died on June 20, 840 in the presence of many bishops and clerics and in the arms of his half-brother Drogo, he pardoned his son Louis the German, proclaimed Lothair Emperor and commended the absent Charles the Bald and Judith to his protection.

Soon dispute plunged the surviving brothers into yet another civil war. It lasted until 843 with the signing of the Treaty of Verdun, in which the division of the empire into three souvereign entities was settled.

West Francia and East Francia became the kernels of modern France and Germany respectively. Middle Francia, that included Burgundy, the Low Countries and northern Italy among other regions was only short-lived until 855 and later reorganized as Lotharingia.

The Treaty of Verdun, agreed to in August 843, divided the Frankish Empire into three kingdoms between King Louis II the German, given the Kingdom of East Francia and Charles II the Bald, given the Kingdom of West Francia while Emperor Lothair I was given the Kingdom of Middle Francia.

They were the surviving sons of the emperor Louis I, the son and successor of Charlemagne. The treaty was concluded following almost three years of civil war and was the culmination of negotiations lasting more than a year.

In the settlement of the Treaty of Verdun, Lothair I retained his title as Emperor, but it conferred only nominal overlordship of his brothers’ lands. His domain later became the Low Countries, the Rhineland west of the Rhine, Lorraine, Alsace, Burgundy, Provence, and the Kingdom of Italy (which covered the northern half of the Italian Peninsula). He also received the two imperial cities, Aachen and Rome.

Just a few days before his death in late autumn of 855, Emperor Lothair I divided his realm of Middle Francia among his three sons, a partition known as Treaty of Prum. Lothair II received the Middle Francia territory west of the Rhine stretching from the North Sea to the Jura Mountains. It became known as Lotharingia early in the 10th century.

Who was Lothair II?

There are two contenders for Lothair II.

Lothair II (835 ? August 8, 869) was the King of Lotharingia from 855 until his death in 869. He was the second son of Emperor Lothair I and Ermengarde of Tours. He was married to Teutberga (died 875), daughter of Boso the Elder.

The Kingdom of Lotharingia was named after King Lothair II, who received this territory after the Kingdom of Middle Francia of his father, Emperor Lothair I, had been divided among his three sons in 855.

Lotharingia comprised present-day Lorraine (France), Luxembourg, Saarland (Germany), Netherlands, and the eastern half of Belgium, along with parts of today’s North Rhine-Westphalia (Germany), Rhineland-Palatinate (Germany) and Nord (France).

King Lothair II of Lotharingia ruled from Aachen and did not venture outside his kingdom. When he died in 869, King Lothair II left no legitimate children, but one illegitimate son – Hugh, Duke of Alsace.

His uncles, Louis II the German, King of East Francia and King Charles II the Bald of West Francia (who wanted to rule the whole of Lotharingia) agreed to divide Lotharingia between them with the 870 Treaty of Meerssen – the western half went to West Francia and the eastern half to East Francia.

Thus, Lotharingia, as a united kingdom, ceased to exist for some years. In 876, King Charles II the Bald invaded eastern Lotharingia with the intent to capture it, but was defeated near Andernach by Louis’s son, Louis the Younger.

Lothair II (926/8 ? November 22, 950), often called Lothair II of Arles, was the King of Italy from 947 to his death. He did not hold the Imperial title. He was of the noble Frankish lineage of the Bosonids, descended from Boso the Elder. His father and predecessor was Hugh of Provence, King of Italy and great-grandson of King Lothair II of Lotharingia, and his mother was a German princess named Alda (or Hilda).

Although he held the title of Rex Italiae (King of Italy), he never succeeded in exercising power there. In 931, Lothair II’s father, King Hugh of Italy, made him co-regent. 21/19 year old Lothair II (depending on his year of birth) was married, December 12, 947, to the fifteen-year-old Adelaide of Burgundy, the spirited and intelligent daughter of King Rudolph II of Burgundy and Bertha of Swabia.

Although Lothair of Supplinburg was the second Holy Roman Emperor by the name of Lothair, other sources number him “Lothair III” because he was the third Lothair to rule as King of Italy after King Lothair II of Italy (both “King Lothair II of Italy” and “King Lothair II of Lotharingia” are numbered after Emperor Lothair I).

Lothair occasionally called himself “the third” in his diplomas (Lotharius tertius), and was the first German ruler to abandon any distinction in numbering between his rule as a King and his rule as an Emperor, a practice continued by his successor.

With the sources I have there are examples of Lothair of Supplinburg being called Lothair II and also Lothair III. When he is called Lothair II there is a mention of being called Lothair III.

Personally in the future when Lothair of Supplinburg is mentioned I will hyphenate his Regnal number, Lothair II-III to recognize his reign as Emperor and as King of Italy.

March 11, 1278: Birth of Mary of Woodstock, Princess of England

11 Monday Mar 2024

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Mary of Woodstock (March 11, 1278 ? before July 8, 1332) was the seventh named daughter of Edward I of England and Infanta Eleanor of Castile, daughter of King Fernando III of Castile and Countess Joan of Ponthieu. Infanta Eleanor of Castile was named after her paternal great-grandmother, Eleanor of England, the daughter of Eleanor of Aquitaine and King Henry II of England.

Mary of Woodstock was a nun at Amesbury Priory, but lived very comfortably thanks to a generous allowance from her parents. Despite a papal travel prohibition in 1303, she travelled widely around the country.

Early life

Mary’s grandmother, Eleanor of Provence, had decided to retire to Amesbury Priory in Wiltshire, a daughter house of Fontevrault. She lobbied for Mary and another granddaughter, Eleanor of Brittany, to become Benedictine nuns at the priory.

Despite resistance from Infanta Eleanor of Castile, Mary was dedicated at Amesbury in 1285, at the age of seven, alongside thirteen daughters of nobles. She was not formally veiled as a nun until December 1291, when she had reached the age of twelve. Eleanor of Brittany had been veiled in March, while Eleanor of Provence did not arrive until June 1286.

Mary’s parents granted her ￡100 per year for life (approximately ￡104,000 in 2024); she also received double the usual allowance for clothing and a special entitlement to wine from the stores, and lived in comfort in private quarters.

Her father visited her and Eleanor at the priory repeatedly: twice in 1286 and in 1289, and again in 1290 and 1291. Eleanor of Provence died in 1291, and it was expected that Mary would move to Fontevrault.

Certainly the prioress of Fontevrault wrote frequently to King Edward I asking that his daughter be allowed to live there. Probably to prevent his daughter falling into French hands in the event of war with England, King Edward refused, and Mary remained at Amesbury, while her allowance was doubled to ￡200 per year. In 1292, she was also given the right to forty oaks per year from royal forests and twenty tuns of wine per year from Southampton.

Representative of the order

Despite being a resident at the priory, Mary began to travel the country. She visited her brother Prince Edward in 1293, and regularly attended court, spending five weeks there in 1297, in the run-up to her sister Elizabeth’s departure to Holland.

By the end of the century, she held the post of vicegerent and visitatrix for the abbess, with the right to authorise the transfer of nuns between convents. In 1302, her ￡200 per year was replaced by the rights to several manors and the borough of Wilton, all held on condition that she remain in England.

However, she ran up considerable dice gambling debts while visiting her father’s court, and in 1305 was given ￡200 to pay them off. She was also given Grovebury Priory in Bedfordshire to manage, holding this until her death.

Mary was unsuccessful in obtaining high office in the order, whereas Eleanor of Brittany became abbess at Fontevrault in 1304. The papal bull Periculoso was read at Amesbury in 1303, requiring nuns to remain within their religious establishments, but Mary’s travels do not appear to have been affected.

She went on numerous pilgrimages, including one to Canterbury, and continued to visit court, with a retinue of up to twenty-four horses, sometimes with fellow nuns. Soon after 1313, her role as visitor was removed. In 1317, Mary’s brother Prince Edward, by now King Edward II, asked Eleanor to restore her to the post, but his request was refused. But Mary persevered and obtained a papal mandate requiring her reinstatement, which Eleanor appears to have obeyed.

Later life

Despite her apparent conflict with Eleanor, Mary continued to live comfortably. In 1316, she was able to borrow more than ￡2 from abbey funds (approximately ￡1,100 in 2024), and sent a clerk to London on personal errands, at the priory’s expense.

It was effectively as a princess, not a nun, that Mary received the homage of the English Dominican friar Nicholas Trevet, a prolific and versatile university scholar and author, who in 1328?1334 dedicated to her his Cronicles, which she may even have commissioned him to write.

Intended as an amusing history of the world, it later became an important source for several popular works of the period. In part it is an account of Mary’s own Plantagenet clan, and she herself is given a flattering mention there

Mary died before July 8, 1332, and was buried in Amesbury Priory. After her death, John de Warenne, 7th Earl of Surrey, attempting to divorce Mary’s niece Joan, claimed to have had an affair with Mary before he married Joan. If John’s claim was valid, his marriage to Mary’s niece would have been rendered null and void, but despite papal mandates for inquests to be made into the matter, the truth was never established.

March 7, 1138: Conrad III of Franconia is Elected King of the Romans-Germany. Part II

11 Monday Mar 2024

Posted by in Bishop of Rome and the Catholic Church , Byzantine Emperor , Elected Monarch , Empire of Europe , Featured Monarch , Holy Roman Emperor , Holy Roman Empire , King of the Romans-Germany , Royal Genealogy , Royal Succession , Royal Titles , This Day in Royal History

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Upon Emperor Heinrich V’s death in 1125, Archchancellor Adalbert summoned the royal electoral assembly in Mainz. On August 24 the Prince-Electors declined the candidacy of the primary contender Duke Friedrich II of Swabia of the Hohenstaufen Dynasty, who destroyed his chances due to his appalling overconfidence (ambicone cecatus) and his refusal to accept free princely elections (libera electio). Adalbert of Mainz considered Lothair of the Supplinburg dynasty to be a suitable candidate.

Having both Saxon and Bavarian ancestry, the Supplinburg Dynasty was a political opponent of the Salian dynasty and the House of Hohenstaufen. Disputes arose with Duke Frederick II when he refused to hand over property to Lothair, which the king considered to be royal property, the Staufer on the other hand argued, that it belonged to the Salian heritage.

Lothair III, sometimes numbered Lothair II and also known as Lothair of Supplinburg (1075 ? 4 December 1137), was Holy Roman Emperor from 1133 until his death. He was appointed Duke of Saxony in 1106 and elected King of Germany in 1125 before being crowned emperor in Rome.

The son of the Saxon Count Gebhard of Supplinburg, his reign was troubled by the constant intriguing of the Hohenstaufens, Duke Friedrich II of Swabia and Duke Conrad of Franconia. He died while returning from a successful campaign against the Norman Kingdom of Sicily.

When Emperor Lothair III and Pope Innocent II argued over feudal sovereignty of the Duchy of Puglia and tensions among his troops arose, he abandoned the campaign and returned home.

Death of Emperor Lothair III

On the return trip, he gave his son-in-law Heinrich of Bavaria the Margraviate of Tuscany and the Duchy of Saxony. He also gave him the imperial insignia, which depending on the point of view was interpreted as designation for the new King of the Romans-Germany or not.

On December 3, 1137, Emperor Lothair III died on the return journey at Breitenwang. His body was boiled to prevent putrefaction, and his bones were transferred to the Collegiate Church of Saints Peter and Paul at Konigslutter, which he had chosen as his burial site and for which he had laid the cornerstone in 1135. A month later, Pope Anaclet II’s death also ended the papal schism. .

As successor to Emperor Lothair III on March 7, 1138 ? Conrad of Franconia of the Hohenstaufen Dynasty was elected King of the Romans-Germany at Coblenz in the presence of the papal legate Theodwin.

King Conrad III was never crowned Emperor and continued to style himself “King of the Romans” until his death. His reign saw the start of the conflicts between the Guelphs and Ghibellines. He was involved in the failed Second Crusade with King Louis VII of the Franks, where he would fight and lose at Doryleum and would later fall ill and return to Constantinople.

After recuperating, he went to Jerusalem but would experience a string of failed sieges. Later returning from the Crusade, he was entangled in some conflicts with Welf VI’s claim to the Duchy of Bavaria. On his deathbed, he designated his nephew Frederick Barbarossa as his successor instead of his son, Friedrich of Swabia.

Friedrich Barbarossa, who had accompanied his uncle on the unfortunate crusade, forcefully pursued his advantage and was duly elected King of the Romans-Germany in Cologne a few weeks later. The young son of the late King Conrad III was given the Duchy of Swabia and became Duke Friedrich IV of Swabia.

King Conrad III left no male heirs by his first wife, Gertrude von Komburg a daughter of Henry, Count of Rothenburg, and Gepa of Mergentheim.

In 1136, he married Gertrude of Sulzbach, who was a daughter of Berengar II of Sulzbach and Adelheid of Wolfratshausen who was a daughter of Otto II, Count of Wolfratshausen and his wife Justizia.

Berengar II’s sister Bertha was married to the Byzantine Emperor Manuel I. Gertrude was the mother of Conrad’s children and the link which cemented his alliance with Byzantium.

March 7, 1138: Conrad III of Franconia is Elected King of the Romans-Germany. Part I.

08 Friday Mar 2024

Posted by in Abdication , Bishop of Rome and the Catholic Church , Featured Monarch , From the Emperor's Desk , King of the Romans-Germany , Kingdom of Europe , Royal Succession , Royal Titles , Uncategorized

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From The Emperor’s Desk : I meant to post this yesterday but I took the day off. ????

Conrad III (1093 or 1094 ? February 15, 1152) of the Hohenstaufen Dynasty was from 1116 to 1120 Duke of Franconia, from 1127 to 1135 anti-king of the Romans of his predecessor Emperor Lothair III, and from March 7, 1138 until his death in 1152 he held the King of the Romans in the Holy Roman Empire.

He was the son of Duke Friedrich I of Swabia and Agnes of Waiblingen, a daughter of the Salian Emperor Heinrich IV and Bertha of Savoy, a daughter of Otto, Count of Savoy and his wife Adelaide of Susa.

Conrad’s father took advantage of the conflict between Emperor Heinrich IV and the Swabian Duke Rudolph of Rheinfelden during the Investiture Controversy. When Rudolph had himself elected German anti-king at Forchheim in 1077, Friedrich of Hohenstaufen remained loyal to the royal crown and in 1079 was vested with the Duchy of Swabia by Emperor Heinrich IV, including an engagement with the king’s minor daughter Agnes.

Friedrich of Hohenstaufen, Duke of Swabia died in 1105, leaving two sons, Conrad and his elder brother Duke Friedrich II of Swabia who inherited the Swabian ducal title. Their mother entered into a second marriage with Margrave Leopold III of Austria, of the House of Babenberg.

In 1105, Heinrich IV, Holy Roman Emperor since 1084, was overthrown and abdicated in favor of his by his son who became Emperor Heinrich V, and he was Conrad’s uncle.

Emperor Heinrich V prepared for his second campaign to Italy upon the death of Margravine Matilda of Tuscany, and in 1116 he appointed Conrad as Duke of Franconia. Conrad was marked out to act as Regent for Germany, together with his elder brother, Duke Friedrich II of Swabia.

At the death of Heinrich V in 1125, Conrad unsuccessfully supported his younger brother Duke Friedrich II for the Kingship of the Romans-Germany. Duke Friedrich II was placed under a ban and Conrad was deprived of Franconia and the Kingdom of Burgundy, of which he was rector. With the support of the imperial cities, Swabia, and the Duchy of Austria, Conrad was elected anti-king of the Romans at Nuremberg in December 1127.

Conrad quickly crossed the Alps to be crowned King of Italy by Anselmo della Pusterla, Archbishop of Milan, in the village of Monza. Over the next two years, he failed to achieve anything in Italy, however, and returned to Germany in 1130, after Nuremberg and Speyer, two strong cities that supported him, fell to Emperor Lothair III in 1129.

Conrad continued in Emperor Lothair III’s opposition, but he and his brother, Duke Friedrich II were forced to acknowledge Lothair as Emperor in 1135, during which time Conrad relinquished his title as King of Italy. After this they were pardoned and could take again possession of their lands.