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February 22, 1371: Accession of King Robert II to the Scottish Throne

22 Thursday Feb 2024

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Robert Stewart, born in 1316, was the only child of King Robert I of Scotland’s daughter Marjorie de Bruce, who died either in childbirth or shortly afterwards, and her husband Walter Stewart, 6th High Steward of Scotland.

Robert had the upbringing of a Gaelic noble on the Stewart lands in Bute, Clydeside, and in Renfrew. In 1315, the Scottish Parliament revoked Marjorie de Bruce’s right as heir to her father in favour of her uncle, Edward Bruce.

Edward was killed at the Battle of Faughart, near Dundalk on October 14, 1318, resulting in a hastily arranged Parliament in December to enact a new tailzie naming Marjorie’s son, Robert Stewart, as heir should the king die without a successor.

The birth of a son, afterwards King David II, to King Robert on March 5, 1324 cancelled Robert Stewart’s position as heir presumptive, but a Parliament at Cambuskenneth in July 1326 restored him in the line of succession should David die without an heir.

This reinstatement of his status was accompanied by the gift of lands in Argyll, Roxburghshire, and the Lothians.

Prince David married Princess Joan of England, the youngest daughter of King Edward II of England and Princess Isabella of France, Joan was born in the Tower of London on 5 July 1321.

In accordance with the Treaty of Edinburgh?Northampton, Joan was married on July 17, 1328 to Prince David de Bruce. She was seven years old and he was four at the time of their marriage. Their marriage lasted 34 years, but it was childless and apparently loveless.

Upon the death of his father, King Robert the Bruce, David succeeded to the throne at the age of five, and was crowned at Scone in November 1331 becoming King David II of Scotland.

King David II, became the first Scottish monarch to be anointed at their coronation. During his childhood David was governed by a series of guardians, and Edward III of England sought to take advantage of David’s minority by supporting an invasion of Scotland by Edward Balliol, beginning the Second War of Scottish Independence.

Following the English victory at the Battle of Halidon Hill in 1333, King David II, Queen Joan and the rump of his government were evacuated to France, where he remained in exile until it was safe for him to return to Scotland in 1341.

In 1346, David invaded England in support of France during the Hundred Years’ War. His army was defeated at the Battle of Neville’s Cross and he was captured and held as a prisoner in England for eleven years, while his nephew Robert Stewart governed Scotland.

In 1357 the Treaty of Berwick brought the Second War of Independence to an end, the Scots agreed to pay a ransom of 100,000 merks, and King David II was allowed to return home.

Heavy taxation was needed to pay for the ransom, which was to be paid in instalments, and King David II alienated his subjects by using the money for his own purposes.

By 1363 it was found impossible to raise the remaining ransom, and King David II sought its cancellation by offering to bequeath the succession to the Scottish throne to King Edward III or one of his sons.

In 1364, the Parliament of Scotland rejected David’s proposal to make Prince Lionel, Duke of Clarence, the next king. He was a son of King Edward III of England.

Despising his nephew, Robert Stewart, King David II sought to prevent him succeeding to his throne by marrying his mistress Margaret Drummond and producing an alternative heir.

King David II’s second wife was to Margaret Drummond (c. 1340 ? 1375), known also by her first married name as Margaret Logie, and a daughter of Sir Malcolm de Drummond, 10th Thane of Lennox by his wife Margaret Graham, Countess of Menteith.

By 1361/62 Margaret was a mistress to King David who was widowed from his first wife, Joan of The Tower, on August 14, 1362.

David’s favour to the Drummonds must have fuelled the tension between them and the Stewarts and Campbells: this erupted into a full-blown murderous feud by the 1350s.

Margaret then married David II of Scotland at Inchmurdach in Fife, on February 20, 1364. Her niece Annabella was subsequently married to John Stewart, later king of Scotland as Robert III and Margaret’s grand-nephew by marriage.

King David II and Margaret had no children and the King divorced her on March 20 1369 on grounds of infertility.

Although David spent long periods in exile or captivity, he managed to ensure the survival of his kingdom, reformed the machinery of government, and left the Scottish monarchy in a strong position.

The last male of the House of Bruce, he died childless on February 22, 1371 after a reign of 41 years, and was succeeded by his nephew as King Robert II of Scotland and the first of the House of Stewart to sit upon the Scottish throne.

January 24, 1679: King Charles II of England, Scotland and Ireland dissolves the English Cavalier Parliament

24 Wednesday Jan 2024

Posted by in Featured Monarch , Kingdom of Europe , Parliament , royal wedding

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The Cavalier Parliament of England lasted from May 8, 1661 until January 24, 1679. It was the longest English Parliament, and longer than any Great British or UK Parliament to date, enduring for nearly 18 years of the quarter-century reign of King Charles II of England, Scotland and Ireland. Like its predecessor, the Convention Parliament, it was overwhelmingly Royalist and is also known as the Pensioner Parliament for the many pensions it granted to adherents of the King.

The first session of the Cavalier Parliament opened on May 8, 1661. Among the first orders of business was the confirmation of the acts of the previous year’s irregular Convention of 1660 as legitimate (notably, the Indemnity and Oblivion Act).

Parliament immediately ordered the public burning of the Solemn League and Covenant by a common hangman. It also repealed the 1642 Bishops Exclusion Act, thereby allowing Church of England bishops to resume their temporal positions, including their seats in the House of Lords.

Other notable pieces of first session legislation include the Militia Act placing the armed forces unambiguously under the king’s authority, and the Sedition Act. It also continued proceedings against the regicides of King Charles I of England, Scotland and Ireland.

The prior Convention of 1660 had promised King Charles II a generous annual revenue of ￡1.2 million, secured on customs duties and excise taxes. It was up to Cavalier parliament to ensure that the promise was kept. But in the first few years, the revenue fell short of the promised amount, and parliament had to look for new ways to make up for it.

Parliament was responsible for the introduction of the controversial hearth tax (1662), with its unpopular and intrusive method of assessment (tax collectors had to go inside everyone’s private homes to count hearths).

The session of 1677 had been called by Charles II to finance England’s re-entry into the Franco-Dutch war, which had been dragging on since England left in 1674, and hopefully get himself a seat at the peace table. Parliament was inclined, provided the king joined the Dutch side. To this end, Danby negotiated the marriage of James of York’s eldest daughter Mary to the Dutch Stadtholder Willem III of Orange in November 1677. But parliament was unwilling to provide enough funds to raise an army.

The memoirs of the French ambassador Paul Barillon d’Amoncourt reveal extensive French communication (and bribery) of the MPs to delay supply – even Country Party leaders like Henry Powle, William Harbord and Thomas Littleton were paid. This has led some historians to speculate that parliament’s war-call was a bluff from the start, that they were more interested in denying the king a foreign policy victory and embarrassing Danby. Nonetheless, King Charles II hurried things along in late 1677 by precipitously signing a treaty with Willem III, Prince of Orange to re-enter the war, and presenting it to parliament as a fait accompli.

The reluctant parliament was forced to cough up enough funds to dispatch an expeditionary force of around 15,000 troops under the Duke of Monmouth to Flanders in May, 1678. But it was too late – the French and Dutch quickly wound up their negotiations (without England), and went on to sign the Treaties of Nijmegen ending the war. In June, parliament quickly voted a sum to finance the disbanding of the expeditionary force, but Charles II decided to use the money to maintain it instead for a few months longer, in the hope he might still affect the final treaty.

This humiliating conclusion to the king’s war policy dragged the political reputation of the King and Danby to a low point, making them vulnerable when the Popish Plot erupted in August and September 1678. When the 17th session opened that October, parliament was in a tremendously combative mood. Worked up by the Popish Plot, they strengthened the Test Act with the Papists’ Disabling Act excluding Catholics from both houses of Parliament and the king’s court (James exempted).

Parliament also demanded to know why the King had misapplied the June funds and was still maintaining the expeditionary force in Flanders. The session was finally wrecked when details emerged that, on King Charles II’s instructions, Danby had entered into secret negotiations with King Louis XIV of France and Navarre in early 1676, promising England would not re-enter the war on the Dutch side, negotiations which had not been revealed during the 1677 debate. Parliament immediately impeached Danby, forcing King Charles II to prorogue the session in December, 1678.

In the recess, King Charles II entered into negotiations with Shaftesbury and other parliamentary leaders. In return for saving Danby from trial in the House of Lords, King Charles II reluctantly agreed to their demands to finally dissolve parliament and call for new elections. The dissolution was announced on 24 January 1679, bringing the seemingly interminable Cavalier Parliament to its end.

After the elections, the new parliament – known as the Habeas Corpus Parliament (or “First Exclusion Parliament”) – was assembled in March, 1679.

November 4, 1677: Marriage of Princess Mary of England and Prince Willem III of Orange

04 Saturday Nov 2023

Posted by in Bishop of Rome and the Catholic Church , Featured Royal , Kingdom of Europe , Parliament , Princess Royal , Royal Genealogy , royal wedding , This Day in Royal History

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Princess Mary of England and Scotland, was born at St James’s Palace in London on April 30, 1662, and she was the eldest daughter of Prince James, the Duke of York (the future King James II-VII of England, Scotland and Ireland), and his first wife, Anne Hyde.

Mary’s uncle was King Charles II of England, Scotland and Ireland; her maternal grandfather, Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, served for a lengthy period as King Charles II’s chief advisor. She was baptised into the Anglican faith in the Chapel Royal at St James’s, and was named after her ancestor, Mary I, Queen of Scots.

Willem III (November 4, 1650 ? March 8, 1702) was the sovereign Prince of Orange from birth, Stadtholder of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel in the Dutch Republic from the 1670s, and King William III of England, Ireland, and Scotland from 1689 until his death in 1702. As King of Scotland, he is known as William II. He ruled Britain and Ireland alongside his wife, Queen Mary II, and their joint reign is known as that of William and Mary.

Willem was the only child of Willem II, Prince of Orange, and Mary, Princess Royal, the daughter of King Charles I of England, Scotland, and Ireland and his wife Princess Henrietta Maria de Bourbon of France the daughter of King Henri IV of France and Navarre and Maria de Medici. His father died a week before his birth, making Willem III the Prince of Orange from birth.

During the war with France, Willem III tried to improve his position by marrying. Prince Willem III desired to marry , in 1677, his first cousin Princess Mary of England and Scotland, elder surviving daughter of the Duke of York, later King James II of England (James VII of Scotland). Mary was eleven years his junior and Willem III believed that marrying her would increase his chances of succeeding to Charles’s kingdoms, and would draw England’s monarch away from his pro-French policies.

When Princess Mary of England became betrothed to her cousin, Prince Willem III of Orange, he was 26 and she was the age of fifteen. At first, King Charles II opposed the alliance with the Dutch ruler?he preferred that Mary wed the heir to the French throne, the Grand Dauphin Louis de Bourbon of France the eldest son and heir apparent of King Louis XIV and his spouse, Infanta Maria Theresa of Spain.

King Charles II believed a marriage between Mary and Louis would ally his realms with Catholic France and strengthening the odds of an eventual Catholic successor in Britain?but later, under pressure from Parliament and with a coalition with the Catholic French no longer politically favourable, he approved the proposed union.

Mary’s father, Prince James, the Duke of York, agreed to the marriage, after pressure from chief minister Lord Danby and the King, who incorrectly assumed that it would improve James’s popularity among Protestants. When James, Duke of York told Mary that she was to marry her cousin, “she wept all that afternoon and all the following day”.

Marriage

Prince Willem III and a tearful Princess Mary were married in St James’s Palace by Bishop Henry Compton on November 4, 1677, the Prince of Oranges birthday. The bedding ceremony to publicly establish the consummation of the marriage was attended by the royal family, with her uncle the King himself drawing the bed curtains.

Mary accompanied her husband on a rough sea crossing to the Netherlands later that month, after a delay of two weeks caused by bad weather. Rotterdam was inaccessible because of ice, and they were forced to land at the small village of Ter Heijde, and walk through the frosty countryside until met by coaches to take them to Huis Honselaarsdijk. On December 14, they made a formal entry to The Hague in a grand procession.

After his marriage Prince Willem became a strong candidate for the English throne should his father-in-law (and uncle) Prince James be excluded because of his Catholicism.

During the crisis concerning the Exclusion Bill in 1680, Charles at first invited Willem to come to England to bolster the king’s position against the exclusionists, then withdrew his invitation?after which Lord Sunderland also tried unsuccessfully to bring Willem over, but now to put pressure on Charles.

Nevertheless, Willem secretly induced the States General to send Charles the “Insinuation”, a plea beseeching the king to prevent any Catholics from succeeding him, without explicitly naming James. After receiving indignant reactions from Charles and James, Willem denied any involvement.

September 26 ~ 29, 1290: Death of Margaret the Maid of Norway, Queen of Scotland

26 Tuesday Sep 2023

Posted by in Bishop of Rome and the Catholic Church , Featured Monarch , Kingdom of Europe , Parliament , Parliament of Scotland , Royal Death , Royal Genealogy , Royal Palace , Royal Succession , Royal Titles , This Day in Royal History

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Margaret (March or April 1283 ? September 1290), known as the Maid of Norway, was the queen-designate of Scotland from 1286 until her death.

Margaret was the daughter of King Eric II of Norway and Margaret of Scotland, the firstborn child of King Alexander III of Scotland and Margaret of England, Alexander’s first wife. Margaret of England was the second child of King Henry III of England and his wife, Eleanor of Provence, and was born at Windsor Castle.

By the end of the reign of her maternal grandfather, King Alexander III of Scotland, she was his only surviving descendant and recognized heir presumptive. Alexander III died in 1286, his posthumous child was stillborn, and Margaret inherited the crown.

Owing to her young age, she remained in Norway rather than going to Scotland.

There was a dispute in parliament in April involving Robert Bruce, 5th Lord of Annandale, and John Balliol, Lord of Galloway. Bruce may have opposed the Maid’s succession, or the two men may have both claimed to be next in line to the throne after Yolanda’s child and Margaret.

Marriage negotiations

In May 1289, King Eric II sent envoys to King Edward I of England as part of the kings’ unfolding discussion about the future of Margaret, whom they called “lady and queen”. As Margaret was still with her father, the Scots could only observe the negotiations between the two kings.

King Eric II was indebted to Edward, and Edward was determined to make the most of the situation. The guardians, accompanied by Bruce, finally met with English and Norwegian envoys at Salisbury in October. The Treaty of Salisbury was drawn up on November 6, 1289, stating that Eric and Margaret, “queen and heir of the kingdom”, asked Edward to intervene on behalf of his grandniece so “that she could ordain and enjoy therein as other kings do in their kingdoms”.

Margaret was to be sent, by November 1, 1290, to England directly or via Scotland. Once the Scots could assure Edward that Scotland was peaceful and safe, he would send her to them. Edward was allowed to choose her husband, though her father retained the right to veto the choice. At Edward’s request, a papal dispensation permitting Margaret to marry her granduncle’s son, Edward of Caernarfon, was issued on November 16, 1289.

The guardians and other prelates and magnates wrote that they were firmly in favour of the English match for “the lady Margaret queen of Scotland, our lady”. It was strongly implied that Margaret’s husband would be king, and Edward insisted on referring to Margaret as queen in order to speed up the accession of his own son, although the Scots themselves normally described her only as their lady.

Negotiations about Margaret’s marriage, dower, succession, and the nature of the intended personal union between England and Scotland continued into 1290. A lavishly provisioned ship failed to fetch the Maid in May because of diplomatic difficulties. The Treaty of Birgham, agreed on July 18, provided that Scotland was to remain fully independent despite the personal union and that Margaret alone would be inaugurated as monarch at Scone.

Fatal journey

By late August 1290, Margaret was preparing to sail from Bergen to the island of Great Britain or was already at sea. The ship was her father’s but he did not accompany her; the most prominent men in her entourage were Bishop Narve and Baron Tore Hakonsson. She presumably embarked in good health but became ill during her journey. The ship landed in Orkney, a Norwegian archipelago off the coast of Scotland, on about September 23rd.

Having suffered on Orkney for up to a week from either food poisoning or, less likely, motion sickness, Margaret died between September 26 and 29, 1290 in the arms of Bishop Narve. The Scottish magnates, who had assembled at Scone for the child queen’s inauguration, learned about her death in October. Her body was returned to Bergen, where King Eric II of Norway insisted on having the coffin opened to confirm his daughter’s identity. He then had her buried in the north wall of the chancel of Christ Church, now destroyed.

Legacy

Margaret was the last legitimate scion of the line of King William I the Lion of Scotland. Thirteen men laid claim to succession, most notably Robert de Bruce 5th Lord of Annandale, and John Balliol, Lord of Galloway. King Eric half-heartedly claimed the Scottish crown as well, and died in 1299. In 1301 she was impersonated by a German woman, False Margaret, who was burned at the stake.

Historians debate whether Margaret should be considered a queen and included in the list of Scottish monarchs. She was never inaugurated, and her contemporaries in Scotland described her as queen very rarely, referring to her instead as their “lady”. She was called Scotland’s “lady”, “heir”, or “lady and heir” during the deliberations of the Great Cause after her death.

On the other hand, documents issued from late 1286 no longer refer to the “king whosoever he may be”, indicating that the throne may have been regarded as already occupied by Margaret.

Pope Nicholas IV considered Margaret to be the monarch of Scotland and treated her as such, sending to her a bull regarding the episcopal election of Matthew de Crambeth. In modern historiography she is nearly unanimously called “queen”, and reference books give March 19, 1286, the date of Alexander III’s death, as the start of her reign.

I do consider Margaret of Norway as the reigning Queen of Scotland. She was designated heiress presumptive to the Scottish throne. That is all that was needed for her to legally succeed to the throne. Inaugurations and coronations and proclamations of a new monarch are ceremonies that do not confer the legal status.

September 18, 1714: King George I of Great Britain arrived in England. Part II.

19 Tuesday Sep 2023

Posted by in Duchy/Dukedom of Europe , Featured Monarch , Kingdom of Europe , Parliament , Parliament of England , Parliament of Great Britain , Parliament of Scotland , Prime Minister , Royal Succession , Royal Titles

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Though both England and Scotland recognised Anne as their queen, only the Parliament of England had settled on Sophia, Princess-Electress of Hanover, as the heir presumptive. The Parliament of Scotland (the Estates) had not formally settled the succession question for the Scottish throne.

In 1703, the Estates passed a bill declaring that their selection for Queen Anne’s successor would not be the same individual as the successor to the English throne, unless England granted full freedom of trade to Scottish merchants in England and its colonies.

At first Royal Assent was withheld, but the following year Queen Anne capitulated to the wishes of the Estates and assent was granted to the bill, which became the Act of Security 1704.

In response the English Parliament passed the Alien Act 1705, which threatened to restrict Anglo-Scottish trade and cripple the Scottish economy if the Estates did not agree to the Hanoverian succession.

Eventually, in 1707, both Parliaments agreed on a Treaty of Union, which united England and Scotland into a single political entity, the Kingdom of Great Britain, and established the rules of succession as laid down by the Act of Settlement 1701. The union created the largest free trade area in 18th-century Europe.

Whig politicians believed Parliament had the right to determine the succession, and to bestow it on the nearest Protestant relative of the Queen, while many Tories were more inclined to believe in the hereditary right of the Catholic Stuarts, who were nearer relations.

In 1710, George announced that he would succeed in Britain by hereditary right, as the right had been removed from the Stuarts, and he retained it. “This declaration was meant to scotch any Whig interpretation that Parliament had given him the kingdom [and] … convince the Tories that he was no usurper.”

George’s mother, the Princess-Electress Sophia, died on May 28, 1714 at the age of 83. She had collapsed in the gardens at Herrenhausen after rushing to shelter from a shower of rain. Prince-Elector George Louis of Hanover, Duke of Brunswick-Luneburg, was now Queen Anne’s heir presumptive.

He swiftly revised the membership of the Regency Council that would take power after Queen Anne’s death, as it was known that Anne’s health was failing and politicians in Britain were jostling for power.

She suffered a stroke, which left her unable to speak, and died on August 1, 1714. The list of regents was opened, the members sworn in, and George was proclaimed King of Great Britain and King of Ireland.

Partly due to contrary winds, which kept him in The Hague awaiting passage, he did not arrive in Britain until September 18. George was crowned at Westminster Abbey on October 20. His coronation was accompanied by rioting in over twenty towns in England.

Jacobites attempted, but failed, to depose George and replace him with James Francis Edward Stuart, Anne’s Catholic half-brother.

During George’s reign the powers of the monarchy diminished, and Britain began a transition to the modern system of cabinet government led by a prime minister.

Towards the end of his reign, actual political power was held by Robert Walpole, now recognised as Britain’s first de facto Prime Minister. King George I died of a stroke on a trip to his native Hanover, where he was buried. He is the most recent British monarch to be buried outside the United Kingdom.

September 1, 1715: Succession of Louis XV as King of France and Navarre

01 Friday Sep 2023

Posted by in Famous Battles , Featured Monarch , Kingdom of Europe , Parliament , Regent , Royal Genealogy , Royal House , Royal Succession , This Day in Royal History

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Louis XV (February 15, 1710 ? May 10, 1774), known as Louis the Beloved was King of France and Navarre from September 1, 1715 until his death in 1774. He succeeded his great-grandfather King Louis XIV of France and Navarre at the age of five. Until he reached maturity (then defined as his 13th birthday) in 1723, the kingdom was ruled by his grand-uncle Philippe II, Duke of Orleans, as Regent of France. Cardinal Fleury was chief minister from 1726 until his death in 1743, at which time the king took sole control of the kingdom.

Family Background

King Louis XV was the great-grandson of King Louis XIV and the third son Prince Louis, Dauphin of France, Duke of Burgundy (1682?1712), and his wife Marie Adelaide of Savoy. His father, Prince Louis, Dauphin of France, Duke of Burgundy, was the eldest son of Louis, Grand Dauphin, and Maria Anna Victoria of Bavaria and grandson of the reigning French king, Louis XIV. He was known as the “Petit Dauphin” to distinguish him from his father.

His mother, Marie Adelaide of Savoy, was the eldest daughter of Victor Amadeus II, Duke of Savoy and his French wife Anne Marie d’Orleans, a niece of Louis XIV, and the daughter of Philippe I of France, Duke of Orleans, and of Henrietta of England, herself the youngest daughter of King Charles I of England, Scotland and Ireland and his French wife, Princess Henrietta Maria de Bourbon of France the daughter of King Henri IV of France and Navarre and Maria de Medici.

The future King Louis XV was born in the Palace of Versailles on February 15, 1710 and was immediately styled the Duke of Anjou. At this time, the possibility of the Duke of Anjou becoming the next king seemed rather remote as Louis XIV’s eldest son and heir, Louis’s paternal grandfather Louis Le Grand Dauphin, was expected to assume the throne upon the old king’s death.

Next in line to the throne behind the Grand Dauphin was his eldest son- Louis’s father Le Petit Dauphin and then Louis’s elder brother, a child named Prince Louis, Duke of Brittany.

Disease, however, steered the line of succession forward three generations and sideways: on April 11, 1711 the Grand Dauphin, died of smallpox, and less than a year later, on February 12, 1712 the future king’s mother, Marie Adelaide, who had been stricken with measles, died, followed six days later by Louis’s father, her devoted husband who would not leave her side during her illness.

With the death of both the Grand and Petit dauphins, Louis’s elder brother immediately became Dauphin of France, but just over two weeks further still, on March 7, it was found that both the elder Louis and the younger Louis had also contracted measles.

The two brothers were treated in the traditional way, with bloodletting. On the night of March 8?9, the new Dauphin, age five, died from the combination of the disease and the treatment. The governess of Louis, Madame de Ventadour, forbade the doctors to bleed the two year old Duke of Anjou by hiding him in a palace closet where she cared for him alone; where he survived despite being very ill. When Louis XIV himself finally died on September 1, 1715, Louis, at the age of five, trembling and crying and against all probability, inherited the throne as Louis XV.

On February 15, 1723, the king’s majority was declared by the Parlement of Paris, officially ending the regency. Philippe II, Duke of Orleans continued to manage the government, and took the title of Prime Minister in August 1723, but while visiting his mistress, far from the court and medical care, he died in December of the same year. Following the advice of his preceptor Fleury, Louis XV appointed his cousin Louis Henri, Duke of Bourbon, to replace the late Duke of Orleans as prime minister.

One of the first priorities of the Duke of Bourbon was to find a bride for the King, to assure the continuity of the monarchy, and especially to prevent the succession to the throne of the Orleans branch of the family, the rivals of his branch. A list of 99 princesses was prepared, among them being Princess Anne of Great Britain, Barbara of Portugal, Princess Charlotte Amalie of Denmark, Elisabeth Therese of Lorraine, Enrichetta d’Este and the Duke’s own sisters Henriette Louise de Bourbon and Elisabeth Alexandrine de Bourbon.In the end, the 21-year-old Marie Leszczy?ska, daughter of Stanislaus I, the deposed king of Poland, was chosen.

The marriage was celebrated in September 1725 when the king was 15 and Marie was 22. Louis was said to have fallen in love with Marie instantly, and consummated his marriage to her seven times on their wedding night.

From 1727 to 1737, Marie gave Louis XV ten children: eight girls and two boys. Of the boys, only the elder, the Dauphin Louis (1729?1765), survived childhood. While he did not live to rule, his birth as the awaited heir was welcomed with celebration in all spheres of French society. (The Dauphin Louis would go on to marry Maria Josephina of Saxony in 1747, who gave birth to the next three Kings of France: Louis XVI, Louis XVIII, and Charles X).

Louis XV’s second son, the Duke of Anjou, was born in 1730 and died in 1733. Of the daughters only the two oldest daughters, who were fraternal twins, were raised at Versailles; the others were sent away to be raised at the Abbey of Fontevrault.

His reign of almost 59 years (from 1715 to 1774) was the second longest in the history of France, exceeded only by his predecessor, Louis XIV, who had ruled for 72 years (from 1643 to 1715).

In 1748, Louis returned the Austrian Netherlands, won at the Battle of Fontenoy of 1745. He ceded New France in North America to Great Britain and Spain at the conclusion of the disastrous Seven Years’ War in 1763. He incorporated the territories of the Duchy of Lorraine and the Corsican Republic into the Kingdom of France.

Historians generally criticize his reign, citing how reports of his corruption embarrassed the monarchy, while his wars drained the treasury and produced little gain. A minority of scholars dispute this view, arguing that it is the result of revolutionary propaganda. His grandson and successor King Louis XVI inherited a large kingdom in need of financial and political reform which would ultimately lead to the French Revolution of 1789.

The Merry Monarch

23 Wednesday Aug 2023

Posted by in Beheading , Featured Monarch , Kingdom of Europe , Parliament , Parliament of England , Poetry , Restoration , Revolution

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From the Emperor’s Desk: One of my other intersts, besides European Royalty, I am an artist, a musician and a poet. Last week I actually wrote a poem about the restoration of King Charles II. It’s called The Merry Monarch and I wrote it from the perspective as if I were a poet living in 1660 during the King’s restoration. In the future I will do more of these historical poems and sare them with you! Enjoy!

A King of England and Scotland strongly shines,
Has been restored upon his gilded throne divine.
Revolutionary winds swept away his father’s crown.
For this ancient regal realm had been violently torn down.

Cromwell’s army with it’s iron fist, had been ceremoniously released.
And the mighty Cavilers could not slay the wretched and angry beast.
To foreign shores he was bound hidden within shroud and cloak.
His courage found while cradled in the arms of the mighty oak.

In exile he did reside while waiting for fate and the stars to align.
Hope he clung tightly to his breast as the heir of this royal line.
When news broke of his enemies demise his heart did joyously yearn.
General Monck shifted the winds of power and Parliament called for his return.

Then he did board his ship and journey to his Kingdom from over the sea.
With joy and celebration bonfires were lit, honoring this glorious jubilee.
For this noble Prince has returned as King to the shore of this sceptered isle.
From Dover’s marbled cliffs to the Scottish highlands where the winds run wild.

This land of noble folk both titled and uncommonly arrayed and adorned.
Is once again whole and complete as it’s Kingdom has been restored.
By the grace of God King Charles the second upon his rule he now embarks.
And thus begins the glorious reign of Britain’s most Merry Monarch.

Liam Foley ??

August 22, 1412: Birth of Friedrich II, Prince-Elector of Saxony and Landgrave of Thuringia

22 Tuesday Aug 2023

Posted by in Archduke of Austria , Duchy/Dukedom of Europe , Empire of Europe , Featured Monarch , Imperial Elector , Parliament , Royal Birth , Royal Genealogy , Royal Succession , This Day in Royal History

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Friedrich II, The Gentle (August 22, 1412 ? September 7, 1464) was Prince-Elector of Saxony (1428?1464) and was Landgrave of Thuringia (1440?1445).

Biography

Friedrich was born in Leipzig, the eldest of the seven children of Friedrich I, Prince-Elector of Saxony, and Catherine of Brunswick-Luneburg, the only daughter and second child of the Duke Heinrich I of Brunswick-Luneburg, from his first marriage to Sophie of Pomerania, daughter of Duke Wartislaw VI of Pomerania and Anne of Mecklenburg-Stargard.

After the death of his father in 1428 Friedrich took over the government together with his younger brothers Wilhelm III, Heinrich and Sigismund. Prior to the introduction of Primogeniture, all sons had a part in their father’s title and inheritance.

In 1433 the Wettins finally concluded peace with the Hussites and in 1438 Friedrich led Saxon forces to victory in the Battle of Sellnitz. That same year it was considered the first federal state parliament of Saxony. The parliament received the right to find together in case of innovations in fiscal matters also without summoning by the ruler.

In Leipzig, Electoral Saxony on June 3, 1431 Friedrich married Duchess Margaret of Austria, the daughter of Ernst the Iron, Duke of Inner Austria of Austria and Cymburgis of Masovia, the second daughter of Duke Siemowit IV, a scion of the Masovian branch of the Piasts, and his consort Alexandra, a daughter of Grand Duke Algirdas of Lithuania from the dynasty of Gediminids and sister of King Władysław II Jagiełło of Poland.

Ernest the Iron, was a member of the House of Habsburg, ruled over the Inner Austrian duchies of Styria, Carinthia and Carniola from 1406 until his death. He was head of the Habsburg Leopoldian line from 1411.

In Austria he was succeeded by Friedrich (Duchess Margaret of Austria’s sister) became Holy Roman Emperor and in 1453 Emperor Friedrich III, also the ruler of Austria, consolidated rule in Austria and officially adopted the Archducal title.

Also in 1438 it was decided that Friedrich II of Saxony and not his rival Bernard IV, duke of Saxe-Lauenburg, was entitled to exercise the Saxon electoral vote at the elections for the German throne. The elector then aided Albert II of Habsburg to secure this dignity as King of Germany King of the Romans , performing a similar service for his own brother-in-law, Friedrich of Austria two years later when he became Holy Roman Emperor Friedrich III, the first Habsburg to be crowned Emperor.

After his brother Heinrich’s death in 1435, and Sigismund was forced to renounce and became a bishop (in 1440), Friedrich and Wilhelm divided their possessions. In the Division of Altenburg in 1445, Wilhelm III received the Thuringian and Frankish part, and Friedrich got the Eastern part of the principality.

Disputes over the distribution led however in 1446 to the Saxon Brother War, which found an end only on January 27, 1451 with the Peace of Naumburg. In the Treaty of Eger in (1459), Prince-Elector Friedrich II of Saxony, Duke Wilhelm III of Saxony and the King of Bohemia, George of Podebrady, fixed the borders between Bohemia and Saxony, at the height of the Ore Mountains and the middle of the Elbe which still holds today. It belongs therefore to the oldest still existing borders of Europe.

After the death of Friedrich II in Leipzig, both of his sons, Ernst and Albrecht, first took over the government together. After Duke Wilhelm III died in 1482, Thuringia returned to Friedrich II’s line.

June 13, 1625: Marriage of King Charles I of England, Scotland and Ireland and Princess Henrietta Maria de Bourbon of France

13 Tuesday Jun 2023

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In 1613, Prince Charles’s sister Princess Elizabeth married Friedrich V, Elector Palatine of the Rhine, and moved to Heidelberg. In 1617, the Habsburg Archduke Ferdinand of Austria, a Catholic, was elected king of Bohemia. The next year, the Bohemians rebelled, defenestrating the Catholic governors. In August 1619, the Bohemian diet chose Elector Friedrich V, who led the Protestant Union, as their monarch, while Ferdinand was elected Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II in the imperial election.

Frederick’s acceptance of the Bohemian crown in defiance of the emperor marked the beginning of the turmoil that would develop into the Thirty Years’ War. In 1620, King Friedrich was defeated at the Battle of White Mountain near Prague and his hereditary lands in the Electoral Palatinate were invaded by a Habsburg force from the Spanish Netherlands. King James I-VI, however, had been seeking marriage between Prince Charles and Emperor Ferdinand’s niece, Infanta Maria Anna of Spain, and began to see the Spanish match as a possible diplomatic means of achieving peace in Europe.

The daughter of King Felipe III of Spain and Portugal and of Archduchess Margaret of Austria who was the daughter of Archduke Charles II of Inner Austria and Maria Anna of Bavaria and thus the paternal granddaughter of the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I. Her elder brother was the Archduke Ferdinand, who succeeded as Emperor Ferdinand II in 1619.

Prior to her Imperial marriage to her cousin Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand III, Infanta Margaret’s consideration as a possible wife for Charles, Prince of Wales, provoked a domestic and political crisis in the Kingdoms of England and Scotland.

The proposed marriage between Charles, Prince of Wales and Infanta Margaret of Spain, negotiate d heavily by King James I-VI, proved unpopular with both the public and James’s court. The English Parliament was actively hostile towards Spain and Catholicism, and thus, when called by King James I-VI in 1621, the members hoped for an enforcement of recusancy laws, a naval campaign against Spain, and a Protestant marriage for the Prince of Wales.

King James’s Lord Chancellor, Francis Bacon, was impeached before the House of Lords for corruption. The impeachment was the first since 1459 without the king’s official sanction in the form of a bill of attainder. The incident set an important precedent as the process of impeachment would later be used against Charles and his supporters the Duke of Buckingham, Archbishop William Laud, and the Earl of Strafford.

King James insisted that the House of Commons be concerned exclusively with domestic affairs, while the members protested that they had the privilege of free speech within the Commons’ walls, demanding war with Spain and a Protestant princess of Wales. Like his father, Charles considered discussion of his marriage in the Commons impertinent and an infringement of his father’s royal prerogative. In January 1622, James dissolved Parliament, angry at what he perceived as the members’ impudence and intransigence.

Charles and Buckingham, James’s favourite and a man who had great influence over the prince, travelled incognito to Spain in February 1623 to try to reach agreement on the long-pending Spanish match. The trip was an embarrassing failure. The infanta thought Charles little more than an infidel, due to his Protestantism, and for that reason the Spanish Court at first demanded that he convert to Catholicism as a condition of the match.

The Spanish Court insisted on toleration of Catholics in England and the repeal of the English penal laws, which Charles knew Parliament would not agree to, and that the infanta Margaret remain in Spain for a year after any wedding to ensure that England complied with all the treaty’s terms. A personal quarrel erupted between Buckingham and the Count of Olivares, the Spanish chief minister, and so Charles conducted the ultimately futile negotiations personally. When he returned to London in October, without a bride and to a rapturous and relieved public welcome, he and Buckingham pushed the reluctant King James I-VI to declare war on Spain.

With the encouragement of his Protestant advisers, King James summoned the English Parliament in 1624 to request subsidies for a war. Charles and Buckingham supported the impeachment of the Lord Treasurer, Lionel Cranfield, 1st Earl of Middlesex, who opposed war on grounds of cost and quickly fell in much the same manner Bacon had.

King James told Buckingham he was a fool, and presciently warned Charles that he would live to regret the revival of impeachment as a parliamentary tool. An underfunded makeshift army under Ernst von Mansfeld set off to recover the Palatinate, but it was so poorly provisioned that it never advanced beyond the Dutch coast.

By 1624, the increasingly ill King James I-VI was finding it difficult to control Parliament. By the time of his death in March 1625, Charles and Buckingham had already assumed de facto control of the kingdom.

In early 1625, King James was plagued by severe attacks of arthritis, gout, and fainting fits, and fell seriously ill in March with tertian ague and then suffered a stroke. He died at Theobalds House in Hertfordshire on March 27, 1625 during a violent attack of dysentery, with Buckingham at his bedside. He was succeeded by the Prince of Wales as King Charles I of England, Scotland and Ireland.

Early reign

With the failure of the Spanish match, King Charles and Buckingham turned their attention to France. The prospective bride was Princess Henrietta Maria de Bourbon of France the youngest daughter of King Henri IV of France (King Henri III of Navarre) and his second wife, Marie de’ Medici, and was named after her parents.

Henrietta Maria first met her future husband in 1623 at a court entertainment in Paris, when he was on his way to Spain with the Duke of Buckingham to discuss a possible marriage with Infanta Maria Anna of Spain. Searching elsewhere for a bride, Charles sent his close friend Henry Rich, 1st Earl of Holland, to Paris in 1624. A Francophile and godson of King Henri IV of France, Holland strongly favoured a marriage with Princess Henrietta Maria, the terms of which were negotiated by James Hay, 1st Earl of Carlisle.

On May 1, 1625 Charles was married by proxy to the 15-year-old French princess Henrietta Maria de Bourbon of France in front of the doors of Notre Dame de Paris.They met in person on 13 June 1625 and married in Canterbury.

Henrietta Maria was aged fifteen at the time of her marriage, which was not unusual for royal princesses of the period. Opinions on her appearance vary; her niece Sophia of Hanover commented that the “beautiful portraits of Van Dyck had given me such a fine idea of all the ladies of England that I was surprised to see that the queen, who I had seen as so beautiful and lean, was a woman well past her prime. Her arms were long and lean, her shoulders uneven, and some of her teeth were coming out of her mouth like tusks…. She did, however, have pretty eyes, nose, and a good complexion…”

King Charles delayed the opening of his first Parliament until after the marriage was consummated, to forestall any opposition. Many members of the Commons opposed his marriage to a Catholic, fearing that he would lift restrictions on Catholic recusants and undermine the official establishment of the reformed Church of England.

Charles told Parliament that he would not relax religious restrictions, but promised to do exactly that in a secret marriage treaty with his brother-in-law King Louis XIII of France. Moreover, the treaty loaned to the French seven English naval ships that were used to suppress the Protestant Huguenots at La Rochelle in September 1625. Charles was crowned on February 2, 1626 at Westminster Abbey, but without his wife at his side, because she refused to participate in a Protestant religious ceremony.