tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-68075551295000218472024-03-26T23:37:52.520-07:00Crowns, Tiaras, & CoronetsAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15315177275314871435noreply@blogger.comBlogger57125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6807555129500021847.post-91457269710244362202018-03-24T15:59:00.001-07:002018-03-24T16:07:39.285-07:00The Daughters of the Hereditary Prince of Baden <br />
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">On July 14, 1775, the Hereditary </span> <style> <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1107305727 0 0 415 0;} @font-face {font-family:Calibri; panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536859905 -1073732485 9 0 511 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} @page WordSection1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;} --> </style>Prince of Baden – Charles Louis – married his first cousin, Princess Amalie of Hesse-Darmstadt. At the time of her marriage, Amalie was the twenty-one-year-old daughter of Ludwig IX, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt and Henriette Karoline of Palatine-Zweibrücken, a woman so respected for her intellect that she was known as "The Great Landgräfin." As the sister of a Queen consort of Prussia and a Tsesarevna of Russia, it was only fitting that Amalie was given an impressive husband as well. Although the newlyweds were just one year apart at the time of their wedding, Amalie did not find much happiness in her cousin-husband due to her father-in-law's rather cold treatment of her and her husband's immaturity. However, she inherited her mother's wit and intelligence and soon used these qualities to her advantage by becoming the fully dominant partner in the marriage. Despite Amalie's dislike for her husband (who did not outlive his father and thus, did not succeed him as the Grand Duke of Baden), the two did produce eight children, six daughters and two sons, with just one son dying in infancy.</div>
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Despite the family's rather modest lifestyle compared to other noble families, Charles Louis and Amalie made the best of their situation by arranging brilliant matches for their children (especially their daughters) largely due to Amalie's astute political judgment and fortitude on the European scene. By the time of her death in 1832, just one day after her seventy-eighth birthday, she was the mother of a Queen of Bavaria, an Empress of Russia, a Queen of Sweden, a Duchess of Brunswick-Lüneburg, and a Grand Duchess of Hesse and by Rhine. Amalie maintained a steady correspondence with her daughters throughout their lives and gave them invaluable advice in regards to their lives as wives and mothers in foreign courts while also constantly reminding them of their duties towards their adoptive lands.</div>
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Princess Caroline of Baden, Queen of Bavaria</div>
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by Johann Christian von Mannlich, 1817.</div>
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The first notable daughter of the Hereditary Prince and Princess of Baden was born Friederike Karoline Wilhelmine in July of 1776 but was later simply known as Caroline. Caroline was the younger twin of another girl, the couple's first child Amalie, but as this daughter never married, not much is known of her life. The Hereditary Princess of Baden was a strict but warm and loving mother to her children, resulting in a comfortable family environment where all her daughters were very close and referred to her as their "dear beloved Mama." Like her mother, Caroline adored the arts and was a talented painter. Once she came of age, she was considered as a possible match for Louis Antoine Henri de Bourbon, Duke of Enghien, a descendant of the French royal family through the Bourbon line. However, the match was quickly dropped out of fear of French opposition. While they were never engaged, it was said that the young and impressionable Caroline fell in love with the handsome French duke and when he was executed on charges of aiding Britain and plotting against Napoleon I in 1804, Caroline adopted a strong dislike for anything French and especially Napoleon himself.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Caroline of Baden around the time of her marriage<br />
by Philip Jacob Becker, 1797.</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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In 1796, as Napoleon's armies spread into France and drove many German nobles away from their hereditary lands, including Caroline's, she met Maximilian, Duke of Zweibrucken, in Ansbach, a forty-year-old widower with four young children, the twenty-one-year-old girl was shocked to learn he had fallen in love with her. At first, she hesitated to accept his offer of marriage but eventually, due to her mother's persuading and Maximilian's kind nature, she gave in. The two were married in Caroline's home of Karlsruhe on March 9, 1797, and settled down in Maximilian's ducal palace in Mannheim. Caroline got along well with her young stepchildren and became the mother figure they so sorely needed, as they had only lost their mother - Princess Augusta Wilhelmine of Hesse-Darmstadt (who was actually Caroline's first cousin once-removed, making her stepchildren her second cousins) – a few months before Maximilian and Caroline met. While Caroline got along with the youngest children, <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/06/princess-augusta-of-bavaria-duchess-of.html" target="_blank">Princess Augusta</a> (the future wife of Napoleon's stepson, Eugène de Beauharnais), <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/06/caroline-augusta-of-bavaria-empress-of.html" target="_blank">Caroline Augusta</a> (the future wife of the Crown Prince of Württemberg and later, Emperor Francis I of Austria), and Karl Theodor, she found that her eldest stepson, the ten-year-old Louis (later Ludwig I of Bavaria) was always strained. This was probably due to the fact that unlike his younger siblings, Louis was old enough to remember his mother vividly and Caroline could never replace her in his eyes.</div>
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In 1799, Maximilian became Elector of Bavaria and the family moved to the capital of Munich shortly after. By this time, Caroline was pregnant with her first child and in September, she gave birth to a stillborn son. A year later, she would give birth to her first living child, Maximilian Joseph Charles, who would die at the age of two. From 1801 to 1810, she would produce six more daughters, all of whom (except the youngest) would survive past childhood. Extraordinarily enough, she gave birth to two sets of twins back-to-back and even more surprisingly, all four girls and Caroline (a twin herself) survived. The first set of twins were Elisabeth Louise and Amalie Auguste, who became the consorts of the King of Prussia and the King of Saxony respectively. The second set of twins were Marie Anna and Sophia Frederica, who became the consorts of the King of Saxony (the successor to the husband of her elder sister) and a son of the Holy Roman Emperor. Sophia's husband, a simple-minded man, was convinced by his conniving wife to give up his rights to the Austrian throne in place of their eldest son, Franz Joseph I. The ambitious Sophia, often called "the only man at court" was also the mother of the tragic Maximilian, Emperor of Mexico and Karl Ludwig, the father of the pivotal Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Caroline's youngest surviving daughter, Ludovika, made a less impressive marriage than her sisters when she wed a simple Bavarian duke (whose father was her cousin), but like her mother, she produced <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/06/the-bavarian-duchesses.html" target="_blank">an impressive broad of daughters</a>, including the famous <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/06/elisabeth-of-bavaria-empress-of-austria.html" target="_blank">Empress Sisi</a>, wife to Sophia's son, Emperor Franz Joseph I.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An older Caroline, now Queen of Bavaria </td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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As evident by their many children, Maximilian and Caroline had a happy marriage and Caroline was just as loving and supportive of her children as her mother had been to her. Although she disliked Napoleon, her husband maintained a close relationship with him for political safety and it was due to this clever thinking that Napoleon had Bavaria elevated to the status of a kingdom in 1806, making Maximilian king and Caroline his queen. Caroline was well-suited to her role as queen consort, using her intellect to improve the welfare of the Bavarian people and her passion for the arts to transform Munich into a center for culture. The only apparent issue was that Caroline, who was allowed to maintain her Protestant religion when she married the Catholic Maximilian, was a Protestant queen in a Catholic-dominated court but this issue was resolved when a wave of religious tolerance swept through Bavaria and established more Protestant traders and dealers in the kingdom.</div>
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In 1825, Maximilian died, leaving the forty-nine-year-old widow at the mercy of her stepson Louis, now Ludwig I of Bavaria. His childhood dislike for the well-loved Bavarian queen still firmly in place, Ludwig tried to send her away from Munich. Caroline fought this but eventually compromised by moving to Tegernsee Castle in the country, which Maximillian had built for her before his death. She remained here until her death in 1841 at the age of sixty-five. Although Ludwig I never had much love for his stepmother, he was outraged at the lack of respect she received from the Catholic clergy at her funeral due to her Protestant faith. The Protestant clergy was not allowed to enter the church, so the funeral service had to be conducted outside and the visiting Catholic clergy wore ordinary clothes instead of their religious vestments. When the service reached its climax, the coffin of the Bavarian queen was placed in its tomb with no ceremony whatsoever. Ludwig was so angered at this insult to a member of the royal family that he softened his staunch pro-Catholic views and took a more adaptable approach to Protestantism that would last throughout his reign.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Empress Elizabeth Alexeivna of Russia (Borovikovsky, 1813)</td></tr>
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Caroline's next youngest sister, Princess Louise Maria Auguste, was born on January 24, 1779, and at her birth, she arrived into the world so small and frail that the doctors who delivered her warned her parents that she might not live long. They were proven wrong, as Louise managed to hang onto life and gain strength in the loving family environment her parents created for their children. Arguably her mother's favorite daughter, she would remain close to her throughout her entire life, from the happy days of her childhood to her death. Like the rest of her siblings, her mother ensured she had a well-rounded education. She studied history, geography, philosophy, literature, and could speak both French and German. She was known for her beauty and was acknowledged as the most handsome of her sisters. Described as having a "soft, melodious voice, and a beautiful oval face, with delicate features, a Greek profile, large almond-shaped blue eyes and curly ash blond hair," it was no wonder she was regarded as one of the most beautiful women in Europe at the time.</div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When word of Louise's beauty reached the ears of Catherine the Great of Russia, who was in the process of searching for a bride for her favorite grandson – the Tsarevich Alexander – she quickly invited the thirteen-year-old Louise to the Russian court along with her younger sister, the eleven-year-old Frederica. Louise already had familial connections to the Russian royal family – her aunt, the late Wilhelmina Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt (known as the Grand Duchess Natalia Alexeievna in Russia) had been the first wife of Catherine the Great's son, Grand Duke Paul.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>With no one but her younger sister to accompany her, the naïve and inexperienced Louise was immediately successful at charming the Russian Empress, who was taken by the young girl's beauty and charm. Even better, Louise quickly took to the tall and handsome Alexander, who was at first very reluctant to marry and extremely shy around his possible betrothed. At first, Louise mistook his remoteness for dislike but eventually, the young teenagers moved past this awkwardness and warmed to each other. Soon, Alexander was telling his parents and grandmother that he would like to marry Louise and the betrothal was underway.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjoyZqruE4d8J5oSN6Ks_Xp6SmJXOsCBNk5_hEAKHEHsBaqK87c8fEm0o7Fm0oXf1tN_gBMdwG-pXKfBzPR4RERmzaU8nu5_6Lhha5jWnfrBxg8vAMu25EyHSBqpUoA-JtI4Qb6-d81GJj/s1600/Empress_Elisabeth_Alexeievna_by_Vigee-Le_Brun_%25281795%252C_Castle_of_Wolfsgarten%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="806" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjoyZqruE4d8J5oSN6Ks_Xp6SmJXOsCBNk5_hEAKHEHsBaqK87c8fEm0o7Fm0oXf1tN_gBMdwG-pXKfBzPR4RERmzaU8nu5_6Lhha5jWnfrBxg8vAMu25EyHSBqpUoA-JtI4Qb6-d81GJj/s320/Empress_Elisabeth_Alexeievna_by_Vigee-Le_Brun_%25281795%252C_Castle_of_Wolfsgarten%2529.jpg" width="257" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Tsarita Elizabeth of Russia (Le Brun, 1795)</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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</span>Before the wedding, Louise learned Russian and converted to Russian Orthodoxy, taking the name of the Grand Duchess Elizabeth Alexeievna. The fourteen-year-old Louise wed Alexander on September 28, 1793, and it was said that the couple made such an attractive pair that it almost seemed like two angels were getting married, to which the ecstatic Empress referred to as "a marriage between Cupid and Psyche." Louise, who wrote to her mother of her love for her husband, was admired by the Russian courtiers for her steely determination to become Russian in every sense and were further charmed by her kind nature and modesty in a court filled to the brim with dishonesty and licentiousness. However, it was this very moral corruption and sexual intrigues that appalled the pure Elizabeth. There was also the fact that a huge rivalry between Catherine and her son Paul existed, along with rival courts, so poor Elizabeth and Alexander had no one to rely on but each other in this tumultuous world, deepening their already blossoming relationship. Elizabeth would later write of this period, "Without my husband, who alone makes me happy, I should have died a thousand deaths." This tension between the magnificent court of Catherine and the militaristic one of Paul would cease to exist with the death of Catherine the Great in late 1796, making Paul I the Emperor of Russia. Paul was an unpredictable man with an explosive temper, which ensured that he was not very popular with his people. His wife, the Empress Maria Feodorovna, was not much better, as she behaved coldly towards her more beautiful and popular daughter-in-law. At least Elizabeth could take solace in the comfort of her husband, but unfortunately, their relationship would soon begin to fall apart one Alexander's eye started to stray. The romantic Elizabeth was heartbroken when she realized her husband had begun to give his affections to other court ladies and now, in an alien world with a husband who had effectively abandoned her, a cruel mother-in-law, and a father-in-law she had nothing but distaste for, it was no wonder Elizabeth sought friendships.</div>
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She supposedly found her comfort in the arms of no other than Alexander's best friend, the debonair and witty Polish prince, Adam Czartoryski, who was nearly ten years her senior. It was after her possible dalliance with Czartoryski began that Elizabeth, who had been unable to conceive with Alexander for five years, she became pregnant and gave birth to a daughter, the Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna, in May of 1799. The court and Paul himself wasted no time in acknowledging the impossibility of how two blonde-haired, blue-eyed parents could produce a dark-haired child and identified Czartoryski as the father through gossip. While there was no concrete proof that Elizabeth and the Polish prince had engaged or were engaging in a sexual tryst, it was said that Alexander encouraged his best friend's passion for his wife so Alexander could freely chase after other women. While it is unknown how strongly Elizabeth felt for Czartoryski, he did admit his love for her in his journals and his feelings were threatening enough for Paul to send him away on a diplomatic mission to Italy. Unfortunately, the little Maria did not live for long. Just a little over a year after her birth, she died of a teething infection, much to Elizabeth's sorrow, as evident by a letter to her mother, "Not an hour of the day passes without my thinking of her, and certainly not a day without my giving her bitter tears. It cannot be otherwise so long as I live, even if she were to be replaced by two dozen children." The marriage of Alexander and Elizabeth, although still cordial, grew further emotionally distant.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Empress Elizabeth Alexeievna of Russia (Mosnier, 1806)</td></tr>
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Everything changed for the young couple when Paul was murdered in his bedroom by a group of conspirators the night of March 23, 1801, and it was said that both Alexander and Elizabeth knew about the conspirators' plans before the assassination took place, leaving Alexander with a deep sense of guilt that would remain with him until his death. Now, the politically inexperienced Alexander and Elizabeth, both still in their early twenties, were Emperor and Empress of Russia. The weight of their new responsibilities developed further cracks in their relationship, as Alexander was too possessed by his guilt to truly love his wife and the gentle Elizabeth could only watch as he moved further and further away from her. Elizabeth, although desiring of a more simple and tranquil lifestyle than the one she was thrust into, did her best to be the calm, steady rock her husband sorely needed while doing her duty to preside over court ceremonies and engage in charitable efforts. While Alexander treated his wife in an offhand manner, he was civil towards her in public ceremonies and made sure to take his meals with her. And yet, it was another further blow to Elizabeth when he began a romantic affair in 1803 with the Polish noblewoman Maria Naryshkina, who became the Emperor's mistress for fifteen years with the blessing of her own husband. Known as "The Aspasia of the North" and described as a woman "without any merit other than the charm of her beauty", she paraded her position openly for all the Court and Elizabeth to see and even tried to have Alexander divorce his wife and marry her instead. While this stunt failed, she did have at least four illegitimate daughters by Alexander, all of them dying young (the eldest reached the age of sixteen). She also had a son who she claimed was Alexander's child but he never admitted paternity, casting doubt on the child's true parenthood. While Alexander was convinced to set her aside in 1818 and go back to his wife, he would always refer to her as family.</div>
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Poor, jilted Elizabeth became withdrawn and resolved to withstand this humiliation in silence, as befitted her gentle nature. Although Alexander was never faithful to her, it was his interactions with her that resolved him of some of the guilt raging about his tormented psyche. It was Elizabeth he went to when he was conflicted on a specific matter and it was Elizabeth he relied on for knowledge of current events as, in his words, "she was more of a reader than him." But this did not stop Elizabeth from engaging in an affair of her own with a handsome staff captain, Alexis Okhotnikov, in 1804 when she was twenty-four and he was just one year her junior. Like Czartoryski, Alexis fell deeply in love with the beautiful Russian empress, calling her his "little wife" and his "goddess". According to Elizabeth's sister-in-law, the future Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, Alexei would sneak into Elizabeth's room through a window during the day and the pair would spend nearly three hours together behind closed doors. It was soon after her affair with Okhotnikov began that once again, Elizabeth became pregnant. In November of 1806, Elizabeth gave birth to a second daughter, the Grand Duchess Elizabeth Alexandrovna, and again rumors swirled that the child was not Alexander's. Although Alexander recognized that in all likelihood, the girl wasn't his, he claimed paternity, yet was supposedly distant and uncaring towards the baby girl.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Elizbeth in her later years, her beauty largely faded (1821)</td></tr>
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Just months after the birth of Elizabeth, called "Lisinka" by her mother, Okhotnikov was killed in a suspicious manner, leaving many to assume that Alexander or his brother, Grand Duke Konstantin, had ordered his death. But the real tragedy occurred fifteen months after the birth of Lisinka, when she too died of a teeth infection, just like her elder sister. Elizabeth was heartbroken – "Now," she wrote to her mother, "I am not longer good for anything in this world, my soul has no more strength to recover from this last blow." It was the death of Lisinka that brought Alexander and Elizabeth closer for a time and she remained his strongest supporter throughout the Napoleonic Wars, both personally and politically. While the couple was still in their thirties at this time, they seem to have given up any and all hope that they would produce any children, much less an heir, paving the way to the throne for whichever brother of Alexander survived the longest.</div>
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As the years passed by, Alexander became engrossed in religious mysticism and tried to make an effort towards redemption by forsaking Maria Naryshkina and spending more time with his wife. The reconciliation between husband and wife surprised many, even the Empress herself. By this time, as she entered her forties, her famed beauty had faded and her health had begun to take a drastic turn for the worse. She suffered from a lung condition and a nervous indisposition by 1825 and at the recommendation of her doctors, she traveled to Taganrog with Alexander in hopes that its temperate climate might cure her. It was here that Alexander and Elizabeth had their last moments of happiness together, harkening back to their childhood romance all those years ago. While Elizabeth's health did not improve, Alexander suddenly came down with a cold a month after they arrived in Taganrog, which developed into typhus in a matter of weeks. On December 1, 1825, Emperor Alexander I of Russia died in the arms of his wife at the age of forty-seven. Despite their tumultuous relationship, the loss of her husband sapped what little energy Elizabeth had left and truly broke her spirits. She wrote, again to her mother, "I do not understand myself, I do not understand my destiny... What am I to do with my will, which was entirely subjected to him, with my life, which I loved to devote to him?" Three days after his death, she wrote to her, "Do not worry too much about me, but if I dared, I would like to follow the one who has been my very life."</div>
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The Dowager Empress was much too weak to leave Taganrog for her husband's funeral in St. Petersburg. When she finally attempted to make the journey back months later, she felt so sick she had to stop at Belyov. It was here that in the early hours of May 16, 1826, one of her lady's maids found her bed in her bed from heart failure, aged forty-seven. She was put to rest beside her husband in the St. Peter and Paul Fortress and St. Petersburg after years of endless suffering and sorrow, tragedy and resilience.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Frederica of Baden, Queen of Sweden (Skjolebrand, 1850) <style>
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The third daughter of the Charles Louise of Baden and Amalie of Hesse-Darmstadt was Princess Friederike Dorothea Wilhelmina, known as Frederica (and affectionately as "Frick" by her family), born on March 12, 1781. Like her sisters, she was given a well-rounded education in subjects like history, literature, the arts, dancing, and etiquette but unlike her other sisters, she was described as "intellectually shallow". Regardless, she was still a beauty, which seemed to run in the family, but she was also said to have a weak constitution, as she suffered from rheumatism from the age of two. When she was eleven, she accompanied her sister Louise to the court of Catherine the Great of Russia to be inspected as possible brides for her grandsons, Alexander and Constantine. The Empress was duly impressed with the young girls' beauty, intelligence, morals, and manners and in the end, it was the shy, blonde Louise who snagged the heir to the throne, Alexander, while Frederica failed to capture the interest of the brunette, bubbly Frederica. Frederica went home to Baden laden with expensive gifts and compliments from the formidable, old Empress while Louise remained behind to marry Alexander. Although Frederica failed to gain the affection of Grand Duke Constantine, she probably benefited in the end, as evident by the horrible treatment Princess Juliane of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, the eventual wife of Constantine, would suffer at his hands. Eventually, Frederica would marry even higher than that of being a Grand Duchess of Russia – she would wed the King of Sweden.</div>
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King Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden had been crowned at the age of just fourteen when his father, Gustav III was assassinated in early 1792. Descended from the Prussian royal family through his paternal grandmother and the British and Danish royal families through his mother, Gustav had a certainly impressive bloodline compared to the Grand Dukes of Russia. When he was sixteen, he was betrothed to Princess Louise-Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Schwerin but the engagement fell through when the young, impetuous king fell in love with a beautiful Swedish noblewoman and broke off the engagement in an effort to abdicate and elope with her. This plan fell through when the astute woman declined this offer. With the engagement to the Princess of Mecklenburg-Schwerin now null, Gustav was encouraged by his family to visit the court of Catherine the Great so that a betrothal between himself and one of her granddaughters, the Grand Duchess Anna Pavolovna, might be arranged. However, although he at first desired to wed the Russian princess, he broke off all talks of an engagement when he learned that the Grand Duchess would not convert from Russian Orthodoxy to Lutheranism upon becoming queen. But it was here at the Russian court, upon meeting the beautiful Louise of Baden (now the Grand Duchess Elizabeth Alexeievna) the impressionable Swedish king, who always had a weakness for beautiful women, fell in love with Elizabeth's sister, Frederica, upon being presented a portrait of her and resolved to take her as his wife.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The King and Queen of Sweden (Forsslund, 1797-1800)</td></tr>
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Gustav traveled to Erfurt to see Frederica for himself in August of 1797 and was so taken with her that a marriage was arranged immediately, much to the surprise of Frederica's family. The eighteen-year-old King and his sixteen-year-old bride were married in Stockholm in late October of 1797 and settled in the Haga Palace, which was much to Frederica's taste. She became beloved by the Swedish people for her beauty and had no trouble getting along with her husband's family, especially her kind mother-in-law, unlike her older sister Elizabeth Alexeivna, who had a turbulent relationship with her in-laws. Nevertheless, like nearly all girls in her position, Frederica was homesick at first and had a difficult time adjusting to the strict decorum of the Swedish court. This caused her to isolate herself and become quite shy during formal occasions, as she preferred solitude over ceremony. Her marriage suffered at first, with the inexperienced Frederica being unaccustomed to her husband's intense sexual needs, frustrating him and causing her to become even further introverted. While the marriage improved once she began to deliver children, she would always believe that they were not sexually compatible, as the king was in her bedroom so much (his devoutness prevented him from engaging in extramarital affairs) that members of the royal council felt obligated to ask the king directly to "spare the queen's health." Gustav was overprotective of his wife's sexual innocence and went as far as to replace all her young maids of honor with older, married ladies in 1800 due to their "frivolous behavior".</div>
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Frederica would give her husband a total of five children, with just one son dying in infancy. Their first child, the Crown Prince Gustav, was born in late 1799 and was followed by three sisters – Sophie in 1801, Amalia in 1805, and Cecilia in 1807. The Crown Prince would go on to marry Princess Louise Amelie of Baden, the daughter of Charles, Grand Duke of Baden and Stéphanie de Beauharnais (niece of Josephine de Beauharnais, the wife of Napoleon Bonaparte). Louise's father, Charles, was the younger brother of Frederica, making the Crown Prince Gustav his wife's first cousin. They had one surviving daughter together, Carola of Vasa, who would marry the last King of Saxony. Meanwhile, Princess Sophie would marry her half grand-uncle, Prince Leopold of Baden, who would become the Grand Duke in 1830. Princess Amalia would die unmarried while Princess Cecilia would wed Augusts, the Grand Duke of Oldenburg, her distant cousin. While Frederica was a generally well-liked queen and garnered the public's sympathy due to her obvious sorrow when her husband left for Germany to fight in the War of the Fourth Coalition in late 1805, her husband was unpopular due to his incompetent take on ruling and the failure of his policies.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Queen Frederica in exile (Stieler, 1810)</td></tr>
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Gustav's unpopularity came to a head in March of 1809 when he was deposed by a coup d'etat in favor of his uncle, who succeeded him as Charles XIII of Sweden. While Frederica and her children were kept under house arrest at Haga Palace, she was not allowed to see her husband – imprisoned at Gipsholm Castle – out of suspicion of her planning a coup. However, pity for her plight allowed her to keep the title of queen according to terms of the deposition. It was only after Charles XIII's coronation that Frederica and the children reunited with Gustav at Gripsholm, but the whole royal family was still under house arrest. Soldiers still loyal to the former king approached Frederica with the option to have her on declared monarch with her as his regent during his minority but she refused these plans, as "her duty as a wife and mother told her to share the exile with her husband and children." Nevertheless, she still viewed her husband's deposition and her son's exclusion from the line of succession as legally wrongful. In December of 1809, the family finally left Sweden for Germany and settled in the duchy of Baden in February of 1810.</div>
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Here was where the true discordance between the couple emerged – Gustav wished for the family to have a simple life in a congregation of the Moravian church in Slesvig or Switzerland while Frederica wanted to settle down in the palace Meersburg at Bodensee, which had been gifted to her by her family. By now, Frederica also refused all of her husband's sexual advances because she didn't want to give birth to exiled royal children. All of this didn't take much for Gustav to decide to go alone to Switzerland in April of 1810, demanding a divorce. While the couple tried to reconcile two further times, once in July and another in September, both failed. Gustav, still admit for a divorce, arranged a proper settlement in February of 1812, renouncing all his assets in both Sweden and abroad along with the custody and guardianship of his children. Thus, Gustav settled permanently in St. Gallen, Switzerland until his death in 1837 at the age of fifty-eight while Frederica remained in the castle Bruchsal in Baden, spending her final years traveling around Germany, Switzerland, and Italy. In her last years, her health weakened greatly until finally, on September 25, 1826, she died at the age of forty-five in Lausanne of a heart disease. She was buried in Schloss and Stifskirche in the small town of Pforzheim, Germany, never to see her adoptive kingdom of Sweden again.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Marie of Baden, Duchess of Brunswick (Artist and Date Unknown)</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wilhelmine of Baden, Grand Duchess of Hesse and by Rhine (1810-20)</td></tr>
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The last and youngest notable daughters of the Hereditary Prince and Princess of Baden were Princess Marie (born Marie Elisabeth Wilhelmine on September 7, 1782) and Princess Wilhelmine (born Wilhelmine Luise on September 21, 1788). Like their elder siblings, they were given a well-rounded, morally significant education and although both were not as beautiful as their eldest sisters, they were certainly still attractive in the eyes of many. When Marie came of age, she was suggested as a possible spouse for one of the sons of the Duke of Brunswick Wolfenbüttel – specifically, Prince Frederick William.</div>
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The fourth son of Charles William Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel and Princess Augusta of Great Britain, a granddaughter of George II of Great Britain and the sister of George III, he was not expected to inherit much of anything as his oldest brother was already married, despite being mentally restricted as well as blind. However, once it became apparent that his eldest brother would have no children and his other two brothers, both older than him, were declared invalids and excluded from the succession, it became apparent that Frederick would be his father's successor. His other siblings included Princess Augusta, the first wife of the future Frederick I of Württemberg, and Princess Caroline, the infamous wife of George IV of the U.K. By the age of eighteen, he had joined the Prussian army as captain and fought in battles against Revolutionary France. He even inherited some land of his own in 1805 when his uncle, the Duke of Oels, died childless and bequeathed his small principality to Frederick.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Marie of Baden around the time of her marraige (around 1800)</td></tr>
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Pressured to marry by his father in order to continue the family line, he agreed to pursue the twenty-year-old Marie in 1802. While at first, Marie was not keen on marrying Frederick William (who was eleven years her senior) due to his reputation for leading a "fast" life, the two eventually warmed to each other and Marie agreed to wed him. They were married on November 1, 1802, in Karlsruhe, Marie's home, but settled in her husband's homeland soon after. She gave him three children, two sons and a stillborn daughter from the years of 1804 to 1808. The eldest, Charles, eventually succeeded his father as Duke of Brunswick (who became the duke himself upon his father's death in 1806) and as he never married or had children, he was succeeded by his younger brother William, who also died unmarried but with a number of illegitimate children.</div>
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Two years after Marie's wedding, her younger sister Wilhelmine married her maternal first cousin, the future Ludwig II of Hesse and by Rhine on June 19, 1804, in Karlsruhe. At the time of their wedding, Wilhelmine was just fifteen years old and Ludwig was over ten years her senior. Their marriage would prove to be extremely unhappy, as Louis was never loyal to cousin-wife. Nevertheless, Wilhelmine would successfully produce seven children – with three sons and one daughter surviving to adulthood. Her children were: the future Louis III, Grand Duke of Hesse, Prince Charles, Prince Alexander (whose morganatic marriage would result in the Battenberg/Mountbatten family), and <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/07/maria-alexandrovna-empress-of-russia.html" target="_blank">Princess Marie</a> (later known as Maria Alexandrovna as the wife of Emperor Alexander II of Russia). It was openly rumored that Alexander and Marie were not the children of Ludwig II, as Wilhelmine had been living separately from her husband since the birth of their first three children and in 1820 she began a lifelong affair with her chamberlain, Baron August von Senarclens de Grancy, which would explain the twelve year gap between the birth of her third child and the birth of her fourth child from 1809 to 1821.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A young Princess Wilhelmine of Baden (1810)</td></tr>
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During the course of the Napoleonic Wars, Marie's husband, who actively fought as a major-general in the Prussian army, was defeated by the enemy and his duchy fell under French control. Marie and her children fled to the safety of Sweden, taking up the offer of her brother-in-law, King Gustav IV Adolf (the husband of her sister Frederica) to live as guests with his family in Malmo. The family was only allowed to return to Germany in 1807 and while they could not return to the French-controlled Brunswick, they did go back to Karlsruhe to stay with Marie's family. It was here that she became pregnant with her third child, but when she gave birth on December 4, 1808, the child – a girl – was stillborn. Four days later, Marie herself died of puerperal fever at the age of just twenty-five. Her husband eventually became the commander of a corps of freedom-fighters known as "the Black Brunswick" for their black uniforms and gave Frederick the epithet of "The Black Duke." Eventually, Frederick gained back control of his duchy after the first fall of Napoleon in 1813 but his reign did not last long, as he was killed in the Battle of Quatre Bras during the course of the Hundred Days at the age of forty-three. Before his death, to commemorate the memory of his wife, he named several streets, places, and churches in Brunswick after her.</div>
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Meanwhile, Wilhelmine – still living separately from her husband – became Grand Duchess of Hesse and by Rhine in 1830 when her father-in-law died and her husband succeeded him. Her tenure did not last long, as she died on January 27, 1836, at the age of just forty-seven after contracting typhoid. She was buried in Darmstadt along with her husband, who died twelve years after her at the age of seventy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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Princess Fawzia Fuad was the eldest daughter of Fuad I, Sultan of Egypt and Sudan and his second wife, Nazli Sabri. Born on November 5, 1921 at Ras El Tin Palace in Alexandria, she was the second child of Faud I and had five siblings, one of whom was from her father’s first marriage.<br />
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Fawzia’s father, Faud I, was the seventh son of Isma'il Pasha - also known as Ismail the Magnificent - the Khedive (Viceroy) of Egypt and Sudan from 1863 to 1879. Ismail was well-known for his successful efforts at modernizing these two countries but his administration resulted in serious debt for the Khedivate, which ultimately resulted in the British pushing him in exile. Though he had numerous wives and children, his son Faud was born to one of his many concubines. Faud’s mother, Feriyal Kadinefendi, was a Frenchwoman of noble birth who was captured and sold into slavery in Egypt. When she entered Ismail’s harem in 1867, he was captivated by her beauty and grace, despite the fact that she was fifteen years his junior. He married her that same year and another year after that, she gave birth to Faud in Cairo.<br />
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When Egypt was created a sultanate in 1914 and named a protectorate of Britain in 1915, the British overthrew Abbas II in favor of his pro-British uncle, Hussein Kamel. Kamel reigned as Sultan of Egypt and Sudan for three years until his death, after which his only son refused the British-established throne. Thus, the crown passed to Kamel’s nephew, the forty-nine year old Faud I, who changed his title of “sultan” to “king” in 1922.<br />
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Faud had been unhappily married to his cousin, Princess Shivakiar Ibrahim for two years until they finally divorced in 1898. Their marriage was anything but serene, as during a fight with her brother, Faud was shot in the throat but survived. Their marriage did produce two children, however, a son who died in infancy and a daughter named Fawkia.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Fawzia’s parents - King Faud I of Egypt and Nazli Sabri</i></td></tr>
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Faud met his second wife and Fawzia’s mother, the twenty-five year old Nazli Sabri, at an opera performance and married her on May 24, 1919, just twelve days after he proposed to her. Nazli, who was a whopping twenty-five years Faud’s junior, was the daughter of the governor of Cairo and the maternal granddaughter of a three-time Prime Minister of Egypt. Her maternal great-grandfather, Suleiman Pasha, was a French army officer in Napoleon I’s army who converted to Islam and served in the Egyptian army. Nazli had previously been married to an Egyptian aristocrat in 1918 but their marriage ended in divorce that same year.<br />
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Faud’s second marriage was just as tempestuous as his first. Nazli wasn’t allowed to moved into Kobbeh Palace, the royal residence, until she gave birth to a son in 1920. Although she was the queen consort, Faud didn’t allow her to venture outside the palace except to go to opera performances, flower shows, and other ladies-only societal occasions. As a highly educated and cultured woman, Nazli struggled to conform to this restrictive lifestyle. Unsurprisingly, the couple fought frequently, which often resulted in Faud hitting his wife in anger and locking her in her room for weeks. It is said that on one occasion, she tried to take her own life by overdosing on aspirin pills.<br />
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Fuad and Nazli had five children together. After the birth of their first child and only son, the future Farouk I in early 1920, they had four daughters. Fawzia was their second child and eldest daughter, followed by Faiza in 1923, Faika in 1926, and Fathia in 1930. All of his daughters’ names began with the letter “F” as a tribute to Fuad’s beloved mother, who died in 1902.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Fawzia as a young girl</i></td></tr>
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Fawzia, who was of Circassian, Turkish, French, and Albanian descent (the Egyptian royal family was not ethnically Egyptian), would later be known as an “Asian Venus” for her famed beauty. With her thick, dark waves, heart-shaped face, striking features, and piercing light blue eyes, she had an almost unworldly allure. Like her mother, she received an impressive education for an Egyptian woman of her time by attending school in Switzerland. She also spoke three languages - her native Arabic, as well as English and French. However, she was incredibly sheltered and was described by one courtier as a “supremely naive, over-protected, cellophane-wrapped, gift-packaged little girl” who lived “in bucolic surroundings, mobbed by adoring servants, aunts and ladies-in-waiting.” She was so sheltered, in fact, that she was described as being “virtually a prisoner in her mother’s houseboat on the Nile. She rarely went out, and when she did she was surrounded by ladies-in-waiting and retainers. At a time when all other young girls were enjoying a relative freedom, Fawzia, by virtue of her position, was closely hemmed in.”<br />
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When Fawzia was seventeen years-old, an ambassador from Iran was sent to Cairo to propose the idea of a marriage between Fawzia and the Crown Prince of Iran - Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Reza Shah Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran, desired a union between Egypt and Iran’s royal families, as Fawzia’s old royal blood would add luster to Iran’s recently established monarchy. The match was agreed to by Fawzia’s older brother, Farouk I, who had succeeded to the throne upon his father’s death in 1936. For Farouk, the marriage asserted a constitutional monarch’s power in a region lorded over by the British while for the Iranian Shah, once just a humble soldier, the century-old Egyptian royal family conferred aristocratic legitimacy on his own. The betrothal was also significant in that it united a Sunni royal - Fawzia - with a Shia royal - Mohammad Reza. However, the Crown Prince himself remained unaware of the martial negotiations and had not even seen a picture of his bride by the time the engagement was publicly announced in May of 1938.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Fawzia and her husband, Crown Prince Mohammad Reza Pahlavi of Iran<br />(1938)</i></td></tr>
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Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, born on October 26, 1919 in Tehran, Iran, was the eldest son of Reza Khan and his second wife, Tadj ol-Molouk, and the third of eleven children. When Mohammad was born, he - along with his twin sister, Ashraf, his older sister, Shams, his younger brother, Ali Reza, and their older half-sister, Hamdamsaltaneh - were born as non-royals, for their father did not become Shah until 1925. Mohammad had a tough relationship with his father - he described him later in life as “one of the most frightening men” he had ever known and grew up in fear of his dominant personality and violent temper. As Shah, Mohammad would disparage his father in private, calling him a thuggish Cossack who achieved nothing as Shah, and almost airbrushed his father out of history during his reign to the point that the impression was given that the House of Pahlavi began its rule in 1941 rather than 1925. Mohammad’s mother, the superstitious but assertive Tadj ol-Molouk, provided the emotional support that her son so sorely needed. Under her influence, he grew up with an almost messianic belief in his own greatness and that God was working in his favor, which explained the often passive and fatalistic attitudes he displayed as an adult. But although he grew up surrounded by women, who were his main influences, he had a reputation as a womanizer and often spoke of women as sexual objects who existed only to please him.<br />
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The wedding rites were conducted twice - first in Cairo on March 15, 1939, according to Sunni custom, and later in Tehran according to Shi’ite custom. Fawzia was just seventeen at the time while Mohammad (who she had met only once before the wedding) was nineteen. At the wedding in Cairo, guests received bonbon boxes made of gold and precious stones, flower-filled floats paraded down the wide avenues, and fireworks were set off over the Nile. The day after the wedding in Cairo, the newlyweds flew to Tehran to conduct the Shi’ite ceremony, which included seven days of feasting, prisoners being released from jail, and food and money being handed out to the poor. Because Iranian law required that only an Iranian could become queen, a hasty bill was passed bestowing on Fawzia “the quality of Persianness.”<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Crown Prince and Princess Fawzia and Mohammad Reza <br />with their only child, Princess Shahnaz<br />(early 1940’s)</i></td></tr>
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Life in Tehran for Fawzia was very different - marriages between reigning dynasties in the Middle East were a novelty, so the uncultivated environment of Iran came as quite a shock to the new Crown Princess, who had spent all her life in the sophisticated city of Cairo. Though she was a married woman now, her life was no less restrictive than it had been before her wedding. At first, the marriage was relatively happy and the couple had one daughter, Princess Shahnaz Pahlavi, on October 27, 1940. In the eyes of the world, Fawzia was the epitome of glamor, her style a mixture of European fashion and oriental mystique. She was even pictured on the cover of <i>Life</i> magazine in 1942.<br />
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Unfortunately, by the time Mohammad Reza took the throne in late 1941 after an Anglo-Soviet invasion during World War II forced the abdication of his father, the marriage began to fall apart. Mohammad was openly unfaithful and was often seen driving around Tehran in one of his expensive cars with his girlfriends. Also, his dominating and extremely possessive mother saw Fawzia as a rival to her son’s love and took to humiliating her, while Mohammad sided with her all the while. Relations with her sisters-in-law were just as tense and she had no one to talk to, as her retinue of Egyptian servants was dismissed and she never succeeded at learning to speak Persian. To fend off boredom, she spent much of her time in bed and playing cards. A naturally shy and quiet woman, Fawzia described her marriage as miserable, feeling very much unwanted and unloved by her husband’s family, and longed to go back to Egypt. She refused to attend meetings of the charitable organizations and foundations of which she was nominal head as the Iranian queen and made it increasingly obvious her contempt for Iran and anything Iranian. She even began to show little interest in her own daughter and stopped sharing a room with her husband.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Fawzia Faud and her daughter, Princess Shahnaz<br />(early 1940’s)</i></td></tr>
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By 1944, reports began to circulate that the Queen was in poor health. Since her arrival in Tehran, she had suffered regular bouts of malaria and other ailments. When a member of the Egyptian court visited Tehran, he discovered Fawzia to be neglected and gravely ill and described her as “a bony, cadaverous apparition... [her] shoulder blades jutted out like the fins of some undernourished fish.” She was persuaded to return to Egypt in 1945 for medical treatment and convalescence, upon which the Egyptian ambassador to Iran advised that divorce would be best for the couple. The divorce was not recognized for several years by Iran, but eventually an official separation was obtained on November 17, 1948, with Fawzia successfully reclaiming her previous distinction of “Princess of Egypt.” A major condition of the divorce was that her daughter be left behind to be raised in Iran, which she didn’t protest. In the official announcement of the divorce, it was stated that "the Persian climate had endangered the health of Empress Fawzia, and that thus it was agreed that the Egyptian King’s sister be divorced.”<br />
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Coincidentally, her brother had divorced his own wife, Farida, the same month Fawzia’s divorce was finalized and since their mother - the adventurous Queen Nazli - had fought with her son and went to live in America in 1946, Fawzia was now the senior lady in Egypt. She presided over the elaborate court receptions for ladies in Cairo and Alexandria and while she was not the most imaginative of hosts, she enjoyed the role.<br />
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On March 28, 1949, Fawzia remarried to Colonel Ismail Chirine, who was two years her senior, the eldest son of Hussein Chirine Bey and Princess Amina Bihruz Khanum Effendi. He was a graduate of Trinity College, Cambridge and a one-time Egyptian minister of war and the navy. They lived in an estate owned by Fawzia in Maadi, Cairo and had two children, one daughter and one son: Nadia Chirine (born in 1950) and Hussein Chirine (born in 1955). In early 1951, Mohammad Reza had remarried to Soraya Esfandiary-Bakhtiari, who was thirteen years his junior and the daughter of a Bakhitary nobleman and Iranian ambassador to West Germany and his German wife. Their marriage would ultimately fail, as Mohammad’s mother and sisters could not get along with her since they saw her as another rival for his love, but it would be Soraya’s apparent infertility that broke the marriage apart completely. They divorced in 1958 after seven years of childlessness.<br />
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By the time of Fawzia’s second marriage, the Egyptian population, the majority of which were poor and disenfranchised, had turned against the royal family. King Farouk was seen as a corrupt and ineffectual playboy who was beholden to an occupying foreign power - the British. In 1952, a military coup led by Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser was widely heralded by the Egyptians and much of the world as an act of emancipation. The overthrown Farouk was forced to flee the country and lived in Rome for the rest of his life. Unlike most of her family, Fawzia remained in Egypt with her husband and children in a villa in Alexandria, where she lived a quiet, almost anonymous life in reduced circumstances, melting into the background of a rapidly growing city. Egypt would remain unstable politically for decades - going from monarchy to military coup, from socialism to oligarchy, to dictatorship and revolution again.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Fawzia Faud and her second husband, Ismail Chirine, with their<br />daughter Nadia<br />(1951)</i></td></tr>
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Iran fell into political turmoil in the 1970’s, with revolution finally erupting in 1979 as a result of strong opposition to the Shah due to clashes with Islamists, increased communist activity, and American and British support for his regime. By the time the monarchy was overthrown the same year the revolution began, Mohammad was married to his third wife, Farah Diba, an Iranian nearly twenty years his junior from an upper-class family, who he had wed in late 1959 and had two sons and two daughters with. Mohammad Reza died in exile in Egypt in 1980 at the age of sixty, unable to ever return to Iran under the penalty of death. His wife and two of his children survive him, with the former Empress dividing her time between Washington D.C. and Paris.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Princess Shahnaz Pahlavi of Iran<br />(1960’s)</i></td></tr>
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Fawzia’s daughter from her marriage to Mohammad - Princess Shahnaz - married a one-time Iranian foreign minister and twice ambassador to the U.S., Ardeshir Zahedi, in 1957 when he was twenty-nine and she was only seventeen. They had one daughter, Princess Zahra Mahnaz Zahedi, in 1958 before they divorced in 1964. Shahnaz later married Khosrow Jahanbani, the son of an Iranian general and a Russian aristocrat, in 1971. Khosrow was just four months Shahnaz’s junior and the great-great grandson of Fath Ali Shah, the Shah of Iran from 1797-1834. He was reported to have had more than 1,000 wives and was survived by fifty-seven sons and forty-six daughters, along with 296 grandsons and 292 granddaughters. Shahnaz and Khosrow had two children: a son, Keykhosrow, in 1971 and a daughter, Fawzia, in 1973. Khosrow died in 2014 at the age of seventy-three after combatting cancer for several years while Shahnaz still survives him today at the age of seventy-six in Switzerland, where she has lived with her family since the Iranian revolution.<br />
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Fawzia’s daughter from her second marriage, Nadia Chirine, married twice and had two daughters, one with her first husband and one with her second - Sinai and Fawzia respectively. She died in 2009 at the age of fifty-eight. Nadia’s brother, Hussein Chirine, never married or had children and died in 2016 at the age of sixty-one. Ismail Chirine, Fawzia’s second husband, died in 1994 at the age of seventy-four. Fawzia survived him by nineteen years before her own death on July 2, 2013 at the age of ninety-one in Alexandria. She was buried in Cairo alongside Ismail.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15315177275314871435noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6807555129500021847.post-61089811410444765672016-08-13T16:46:00.000-07:002016-08-13T16:46:49.760-07:00Aristocratic Ladies of Great Britain of the Edwardian Era | Portraits by Philip de László <br />
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Philip de László (1869-1937) was a Hungarian painter who became well known for his many portraits of royal and aristocratic men and women of the late nineteenth century and the early twentieth century. In 1907, he moved to London but he was constantly traveling throughout Europe to carry out the various artistic commissions he was assigned. His impeccable work, which focused mainly on English and American socialites, earned him a slew of awards and honors. King Edward VII named him a MVO (a member of the Royal Victorian Order) and Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria, King of Hungary ennobled him as "Philip László de Lombos" in 1912 (until then, he went by his birth name, "Laub Fülöp"). He became a British citizen in 1914 and at the turn of the century he married the Irish Lucy Madeleine Guinness, a member of the famous banking and brewing Guinness family. They had six children and seventeen grandchildren before de László died of a heart attack, which was brought on by overworking. Philip de László painted several members of royalty, such as: Empress Elisabeth of Austria, Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany, Queen Louise of Sweden, King Constantine I of Greece, Queen Elizabeth II, and King Edward VII, but he also painted many aristocratic women of the U.K. in the early 1900's. Below are some of his beautiful works and their equally stunning subjects.<br />
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<b><i>Edith Vane-Tempest-Stewart, Marchioness of Londonderry</i></b></div>
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Edith Helen Chaplin was born on December 3, 1878 in the village of Blankney, Lincolnshire to Henry Chaplin, a British landowner and conservative politician in the House of Commons, and Lady Florence Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, a daughter of the 3rd Duke of Sutherland. Edith had one older brother, Eric, and one younger sister, Florence. Her mother died in childbirth with her younger sister in 1881 and her father, who was a member of the Privy Council, was named the 1st Viscount Chaplin. Edith was just two years old when her mother died so she was sent to her maternal grandfather's estate of Dunrobin Castle in Sutherland to be brought up. Edith matured into a charming, sociable, dark-haired beauty with elegant features, a slender figure, fair skin, and blue eyes. On November 28, 1899 just five days away from her twenty-first birthday, she married Charles Vane-Tempest-Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh, the eldest son and heir of the 6th Marquess of Londonderry, who was just seven months her senior. At the time of his marriage to Edith, he was a lieutenant in the British Army. The couple resided in the Londonderry family estate of Mount Stewart near Newtownards, County Down in Northern Ireland where Edith would become active in creating the lovely gardens around the estate. Today, Edith's gardens at Mount Stewart are regarded as some of the best in the British Isles. </div>
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Edith had five children with her husband, four daughters and one son: Maureen (1900-1942), Edward (1902-1955), Margaret (1910-1966), Helen (1911-1986), and Mairi (1921-2009). When Edith's father-in-law died in 1915, Charles became the 7th Marquess of Londonderry, making Edith his Marchioness. Edith became a popular and influential socialite and hostess in the 1920's-30's and was active in the war effort during World War I. She was the Colonel-in-Chief of the Women's Volunteer Reserve and opened up the Londonderry townhouse as a military hospital. For her work, she was the named a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the Military Division in 1917, the first woman to receive such an honor. Her husband, who served during the war, was a prominent politician as the Secretary of State for Air from 1931-35 but he was forced from government in 1938 when he applauded Nazi Germany. He was not faithful to his wife, as he had an illegitimate daughter with the American actress Fannie Ward in 1900. Edith, who became the Dowager Marchioness of Londonderry in 1949 upon her husband's death, died on April 23, 1959 from cancer at the age of eighty. </div>
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<b><i>Grace Curzon, Marchioness Curzon of Kedleston</i></b></div>
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Grace Elvina Hinds was born in 1879 in Decatur, Alabama to Joseph Monore Hinds, a one-time U.S. Minister to Brazil, and Lucy Trillia of Montevideo, Uruguay. On May 1, 1902, she married a wealthy Irish Argentinian landowner, Alfred Huberto Duggan, when she was about twenty-three. They lived in Buenos Aires for around three years where Grace had two sons - Alfred Duggan (1903-1964), a future historian and archeologist, and Hubert Duggan (1904-1943), who would become a British Army officer and conservative politician. In 1905, Grace's husband was given a position at the Argentine Legation in London so the family moved to England. Grace would remain here for the rest of her life. She had another child with her husband, a daughter named Grace Lucille Duggan (1907-1995), before his death in 1915. </div>
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Grace inherited her late husband's extensive estancias in Argentina after his death, which made her a very rich widow. She served as a nurse for Britain during the First World War before she married again in 1917 to the haughty and stubborn George Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston (the Viceroy of India from 1899-1905), at the age of thirty-eight. Curzon, who was twenty years older than Grace, had been married once before from 1895-1906 to another wealthy American, the beautiful Mary Victoria Leiter of Chicago, who gave him three daughters before her early death. Curzon married Grace in an attempt to produce a much-desired son and heir. Grace miscarried several times and had a few fertility-related operations but she was unable to have a living child with Curzon because of her age. Though they always remained faithful to each other, Curzon and Grace became estranged (but still lived together) after it became apparent that Grace wouldn't have a son. In 1922, Grace was named a Dame Grand Cross (GBE), the highest honor of the Order of the British Empire for her services as a nurse during the war. Two years after Curzon was passed over for the position of Prime Minister, he died of a severe bladder hemorrhage in 1925. Grace survived him by thirty-three years before her death in 1958 at the age of seventy-nine.<br />
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<b><i>Hon. Harriet Sarah Jones-Loyd, Lady Wantage</i></b></div>
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The Hon. Harriet Sarah Jones Loyd was the only surviving child of Samuel Jones-Loyd, 1st Baron Overstone and Harriet Wright. She was born in 1837 at her family seat of Wolvey Hall in Wolvey, Warwickshire. He father, who was one of the richest men in Britain, was a banker and a Whig politician of Welsh ancestry. He was ennobled as a baron in 1850. In 1858, the twenty-one year old Harriet married Brigadier General Sir Robert James Lindsay, who was five years her senior. Harriet's father gifted her with a substantial fortune upon her wedding as well as the property of the Lockinge Estate, making her one of the wealthiest heiresses of her day. However, Harriet could never inherit her father's title upon his death because of her gender. When Lindsay married Harriet, he took the name of "Robert Loyd-Lindsay" by deed poll. The couple mainly resided at Lockinge Estate, which was near Wantage, but they also had a second home of Overstone Park in Northampton. Though Harriet and Lindsay were unable to have any children, they were happy together.<br />
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The respected and benevolent Harriet dedicated most of her time and efforts to charitable and philanthropic activities. She was greatly involved in hospital and nursing work and helped to create the National Aid Society, the precursor of the British Red Cross Society. When Queen Victoria established the Order of the Red Cross in 1883, Harriet was one of the first individuals to be awarded the honor. In 1885, Harriet became the Lady Wantage when her husband was ennobled as the 1st Baron Wantage (the title was taken from the name of their favorite estate and principal home). In 1901, Lindsay, who had served valiantly in the Crimean War, died at the age of sixty-nine. Since Lindsay had no children by his wife, his title died with him. Harriet created a monument to him after his death on the Ridgeway. In 1908, she opened Wantage Hall for the University of Reading as the first Hall of Residence in honor of her late husband. Harriet wrote a biography and memoir of er late husband before her own death on August 9, 1920 at the age of about eighty-three.<br />
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<b><i>Ruth Moore, Viscountess Lee of Fareham </i></b><br />
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Ruth Moore was the eldest child of New York financier and Wall Street stock market promoter, John Godfrey Moore, and his first wife, Miriam Jane Aldrich, of Munson, Massachusetts. Ruth was born sometime in the 1870's or 1880's and she had one younger sister, as well as a younger brother from her father's second marriage (Ruth's mother died in 1890).<i><b> </b></i>The petite, blue-eyed blonde was described by one newspaper as possessing an, "atmosphere of royalty with an unconscious girlish charm." Ruth met Arthur Hamilton Lee, a British military attaché at the British Embassy in Washington D.C. at parties in Kingston and Gananoque. Lee, who was a close friend of President Theodore Roosevelt, was the
half-American son of a clergyman and was born in Bridport, Dorset. A mutual attraction developed between the two and Lee invited her to a few balls with him at the Royal Military College in Kingston. On December 23, 1899, the couple married. Ruth inherited a great amount of wealth from her father right before the wedding, as he died just a few months prior to the ceremony. </div>
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Lee had a career in Parliament and joined the Cabinet and the Privy Council in 1919 before he was named the First Lord of the Admiralty in 1921. A year later, he was named the 1st Viscount Lee of Fareham. Ruth, as the Viscountess Lee, had a happy and stable marriage with her husband despite the fact that they had no children. In 1909, they took over the lease of Chequers Court in Buckinghamshire and completely renovated the estate into a fashionable main residence. When the Great War began, the couple opened up their house as a hospital and later a convalescent home for officers. When the war began to draw to a close in 1917, they gave the entire house and its contents in trust to the government as the official home of future British Prime Ministers. Lee died in 1947 at the age of seventy-eight and was survived by his wife for almost two decades until her death in 1966.<br />
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<i><b>Mary Louise Douglas-Hamilton, Duchess of Montrose</b></i></div>
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Lady Mary Louise Douglas-Hamilton was the only child of William Douglas-Hamilton, 12th Duke of Hamilton and Lady Mary Montagu. Mary Louise was born in 1884 in London a decade after her parents' wedding. While her mother was a daughter of the 7th Duke of Manchester and <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/06/louisa-cavendish-duchess-of-devonshire.html">Louise Cavendish, the "Double Duchess"</a>, her father (who also held the titles of 9th Duke of Brandon, 2nd Duke of Châtellerault, and 8th Earl of Selkirk) was the son of his namesake, the 11th Duke of Hamilton, and Princess Marie of Baden, the adoptive granddaughter of Napoleon I. Mary Louise's paternal aunt, Lady Mary Victoria Hamilton, was the Hereditary Princess of Monaco as the first wife of Prince Albert I of Monaco. When Mary Louise's father died in 1895 when she was just eleven years old, his title passed to his fourth cousin. Mary Louise's mother remarried two years after her husband's death but had no more children. </div>
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In 1906, the twenty-two year old Mary Louise married James Graham, the son and heir of the 5th Duke of Montrose, who was six years her senior. Graham was a naval officer and later a politician in the House of Lords. Mary Louise had four children with her husband, two sons and two daughters: James (the future 7th Duke of Montrose), Mary, Ronald, and Jean. Graham was also an engineer and invented the world's first naval aircraft carrier in 1912. He also served as the President of the British Institution of Marine Engineers and was active in World War I as a commodore. His father died in 1925, making him the 6th Duke of Montrose. Mary Louise was the Duchess of Montrose until her husband's death in 1954 at the family seat of Buchanan Castle in Stirlingshire. She died in 1957 at the age of about seventy-three. <br />
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<b><i>Lady Margaret Alice Leicester-Warren</i></b></div>
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Margaret Alice Leicester-Warren was the eldest child of Cuthbert Leicester-Warren, a son of Sir Baldwyn Leighton, 8th Baronet and the Hon. Eleanor Leicester Leighton-Warren, and Hilda Marguerite Davenport. She was born in either 1905 or 1906 in her family home of Tabley House, Knutsford and had two younger brothers. On January 18, 1933 at the age of about twenty-seven, Margaret Alice married Lieutenant General Sir Oliver William Hargreaves Leese, 3rd Baronet, a senior Army officer who was about eleven years her senior. Leese was the eldest son of Sir William Hargreaves Leese, 2nd Baronet, a barrister, and Violet Mary Sandeman. He served as a second lieutenant in World War I and was wounded three times during the conflict, including during the Battle of the Somme in 1916. His bravery in this particular battle earned him the Distinguished Service Honor.<br />
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When Leese married Margaret Alice, he was ranked as a major but by 1938, he was a colonel. His father died a year prior to this promotion, so by the time he became a colonel he had also succeeded to his father's baronetcy. Leese and Margaret Alice had no children and lived at the estate of Lower Hall in Worfield, Shropshire. Leese served as a military instructor in India for a few years before returning home to Britain to fight in World War II. He replaced Bernard Montgomery as the Lieutenant-General of the Eighth Army's XXX Corps in 1944 and fought in North Africa and Italy. He died in 1978 of a heart attack at the age of eighty-three, five years after his right leg had to be amputated due to health reasons. He survived his wife by thirteen years, as she had died on April 30, 1964 at the age of about sixty-one. </div>
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<b><i>Margot Asquith, Countess of Oxford and Asquith</i></b></div>
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Emma Alice Margaret Tennant was born on February 2, 1864 in Peeblesshire, Scotland as the eleventh child and sixth daughter of Sir Charles Tennant, 1st Baronet, an industrialist and Liberal politician, and Emma Winsloe. The childhood home of Emma Alice, who went by the name of "Margot", was her family's country estate of Glen, where she grew up as an adventurous, wild, and riotous child. She was very close to her sister Laura and she liked she venture throughout Glen's moors, ride horses, play golf, and climb up to the rooftop at night. When Laura died in 1888, Margot was so devastated with grief that she developed chronic insomnia, a sickness that followed her until her dying day. On May 10, 1894, the thirty year old Margot married the Rt. Hon. Herbert Henry Asquith, a widower who was twelve years her senior. His first wife had died of typhoid fever in 1891, leaving him with four sons and one daughter. Margot was the complete opposite of Asquith's quiet and meek late wife; she was, according to one of her stepchildren, a "dazzling bird of paradise, filling us with amazement, amusement, excitement, sometimes with a vague uneasiness as to what she might do next". Margot introduced her husband to her extravagant social world, which helped him achieve the position of Prime Minister of the U.K. in 1908. Before Asquith became Prime Minister and moved to 10 Downing Street with his wife, they lived in the Asquith family home of in Cavendish Square. Their favorite residence was their weekend home of The Wharf in Sutton Courtenay, which the politics-loving couple set up as a meeting place for intellectuals in literature, art, and government. </div>
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Margot had five children with Asquith but only two - a daughter named Elizabeth (1897-1945) and Anthony (1902-1968) survived past infancy. Elizabeth would become the Princess of Bibesco after her marriage to the Romanian Prince Antoine of Bibesco while Anthony would become a notable director in film. Asquith was the longest continuously serving prime minister in the twentieth century as he was in office from 1908-16. However, his successes as Prime Minister before the Great War have been forgotten due to his weak leadership during the conflict. In 1925, he was named the 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith, making Margot a countess. After his death in 1928, Margot lived in a state of destitution. She made some money writing autobiographies but the death of her daughter in 1945 from pneumonia proved to be her breaking point. She died on July 28, 1945 at the age of eighty-one just three months after her daughter's death.</div>
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<b><i>Muriel Thetis Warde </i></b><br />
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Muriel Thetis Wilson was born in 1875 to the shipping magnate Arthur Wilson and Mary Emma Wilson. Her father was the son of Thomas Wilson, the owner of the Thomas Wilson Sons & Co. shipping business, which operated steamship lines throughout the globe. When Arthur inherited his father's company in 1907, he was arguably the richest ship owner in the world. Muriel had a sister and three brothers, one of whom, Arthur Stanley, served as a conservative member of Parliament for Hull. Muriel's family became involved in a scandal when her father hosted his good friend, Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, at the Wilson family home of Tranby Croft near Hull in 1890. The Prince and Arthur fell into legal trouble when it was revealed that one of Arthur's guests was discovered to have cheated in a game of baccarat, a card game which was illegal in England at the time. The Prince was so embarrassed by the whole affair that he never went back to Tranby Croft. Although Arthur was offered a peerage some time after this event, he was so negatively affected by the royal baccarat scandal that he refused a title and withdrew from the public eye. </div>
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Muriel was said to be one of the most beautiful girls in Britain during her youth. She was described as having a, "small and oval" face, "a complexion so dark as to verge on olive...large, dark, lustrous and very expressive eyes," a small mouth, and a shapely nose. She had many admirers and was engaged to some well known British aristocrats such as Charles Spencer-Churchill, 9th Duke of Marlborough and Gilbert Heathcote-Drummond-Willoughby, 2nd Earl of Ancaster, but these betrothals fell through. She was also good friends with future Prime Minister Winston Churchill who was said to have unsuccessfully proposed to her. Muriel was a charming amateur actress and a skilled horsewoman who loved to wear lavish and unique fashions. She married later in life (most likely in the first decade of the twentieth century) to a Richard Edward Warde who was nine years her junior. They had no children and she died in 1964 at the age of eighty-nine. </div>
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<b><i>Nancy Beatrice Borwick, Lady Croft</i></b></div>
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Nancy Beatrice Borwick was the daughter of Robert Hudson Borwick, 1st Baron Borwick and Caroline Johnston, who had been born in Madras, India. Nancy was born in 1885 in her father's hometown of Regent Park, London and had one brother and two sisters. In 1907, Nancy married Henry Page Croft, a conservative member of Parliament. Henry, who was four years older than Nancy, was the son of Richard Benyon Croft, a naval officer and the High Sheriff of Hertfordshire, and Anne Elizabeth Page, the daughter of a successful businessman in the grain and malster industry. Nancy had two children with Henry - a son named Michael Henry and a daughter named Diane. </div>
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Henry entered Parliament in the House of Commons in 1910 but served in France during World War I from 1914-16. He co-founded the National Party in 1917, which stood for strong diplomacy and more armaments, anti-German policies, the end of the sale of honors, etc. Much to his horror (as he was an anti-German Protectionist), his daughter Diana married a German lawyer and painter in 1936. In 1940, Henry was named 1st Baron Croft, making Nancy the Lady Croft. Prime Minister Winston Churchill made him the Under-Secretary of State for War from 1940-45. He devoted much of his time to raising the morale of British soldiers in the Army and made it so education and entertainment was provided to the men fighting in Europe and Africa. Nancy survived her husband by two years, as she died in 1949 at the age of sixty-four.</div>
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<b><i>Winifred Cavendish-Bentick, Duchess of Portland</i></b></div>
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Winifred Anna Dallas-Yorke was the only daughter of Thomas Yorke Dallas-Yorke of Walmsgate, Lincolnshire and Frances Graham. She was born on September 7, 1863 at Murthly Castle in Perthshire and grew up alongside her only sibling, her younger brother Hailburton Francis. She was friends with <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/07/alexandra-of-denmark-queen-of-uk.html">Queen Alexandra</a>, the wife of King Edward VII, and served as her canopy bearer during the King's coronation in 1902 before being named Mistress of the Robes from 1913 until the Queen's death in 1925. On June 11, 1889, Winifred married William Cavendish-Bentick, 6th Duke of Portland, who was six years her senior. William was the son of Lieutenant-General Arthur Cavendish-Bentinck by his first wife, Elizabeth Sophia Hawkins-Whitshed. He became the Duke of Portland in 1879 when his cousin, the 5th Duke, died without issue. He was a conservative politician in the House of Lords with a military career and served as the Master of the Horse from 1886 to 1892. Winifred and William had three children: Victoria (1890-1994), William Arthur (1893-1977), and Francis (1900-1950).<br />
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Winifred, who had always loved animals, had numerous stables at her home of Welbeck Abbey, the family seat of the Dukes of Portland, which she used to house old horses and dogs in need of homes. She used her title and prominence as the Duchess of Portland to make a different in the areas of humanitarianism and animal rights. She became the first president of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds as well as the vice-president of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the president of the ladies committee of the RSPCA. She even convinced her husband to use most of the winnings he earned in horse racing to set up almshouses at Welbeck. Winifred also supported miners in the community by paying for their health care and creating sewing and cooking classes for their daughters. Her efforts earned her the honor of being made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 1935. She survived her husband by eleven years before her death on July 30, 1954 at the age of ninety.<br />
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<b><i>Vita Mary Sackville-West, Lady Nicolson</i></b><br />
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Victoria Sackville-West, more commonly known as "Vita", was the only child of Lionel Sackville-West, 3rd Baron Sackville and Victoria Josefa Sackville-West, the illegitimate daughter the 2nd Baron Sackville, who was Lionel's uncle, and a Spanish dancer. Vita was born on March 9, 1892 at Knole House in Kent, the family seat of the Baron Sackville family. In 1913, the twenty-one year old Vita married the twenty-seven year old politician and writer, Harold George Nicolson, a son of a British diplomat named Arthur Nicolson, 1st Baron Carnock. Vita and Harold, who were both bisexual and had affairs with both genders before and after their wedding, had an open marriage and lived in Cihangir, Istanbul (because of his father's profession, Harold had been born in Iran) until 1914, after which they lived in Kent. Here, they had two sons: Benedict (1914-1978), an art historian, and Nigel (1917-2004), who became a leading writer and politician like his father. Vita herself was a writer and published several novels, which earned her the honor of being named a Companion of Honor in 1947. But despite Vita's fame as an author, she was far more proliferate for her various affairs. She had a brief fling with Henry Lascelles, 6th Earl of Harewood, the future husband of Mary, Princess Royal, and Hilda Matheson, the head of the BBC Talks Department, which lasted from 1929-31. After this, she was involved in a ménage à trois with a journalist named Evelyn Irons and her boyfriend.<br />
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Her most famous affairs were with Rosamund Grosvenor, a granddaughter of the 1st Baron Ebury, Violet Trefusis, a daughter of the Hon. George Keppel and his wife, Alice Keppel (a mistress of King Edward VII), and the famous author, Virginia Woolf. Vita and Rosamund (who was four years her senior) went to the same school in 1899 and were educated under the same governess. They grew up together and fell in love but their covert affair ended when Vita married. Vita had a more passionate affair with Violet, who she also went to school with. They began their relationship after both married and became writers. They eloped many times in 1918 (often to France) with Vita usually cross-dressing as a man when they went out in public. The two always remained deeply in love with each other but their affair ended after Violet didn't uphold the promise she and Vita had made to each other that they wouldn't be intimate with their husbands. In the late 1920's, Vita engaged in a relationship with fellow author Virginia Woolf. Vita inspired Woolf to write one of her most famous novels - <i>Orlando</i>. Vita died just a month after her husband at the age of seventy on June 2, 1962.<br />
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<b><i>Mabell Ogilvy, Countess of Airlie</i></b></div>
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Mabell Frances Elizabeth Gore was the eldest daughter of Arthur Gore, Viscount Sudley and Edith Jocelyn, the daughter of Viscount Jocelyn. She was born on March 10, 1866 and had two younger sisters. After her mother's death in 1871, she and her sisters were sent to live with their maternal grandmother, Lady Jocelyn. Their grandmother was acquainted with the Duchess of Teck so the girls often visited the Duchess and her family, allowing Mabell to become good friends with the Duchess's daughter, the future Queen Mary, wife of King George V of the U.K. In 1884, Mabell's paternal grandfather died and her father inherited his title of the Earl of Arran, which gave Mabell the title of "Lady". On January 19, 1886, the twenty year-old Mabell married David Ogilvy, 11th Earl of Airlie, who was ten years her senior and a Lieutenant-Colonel in the British Army. Now the Countess of Airlie, Mabell had six children with her husband: Kitty (1887-1969), Helen (1890-1973), Mabell (1892-1918), David (1893-1968), Bruce (1895-1976), and Patrick (1896-1917). Mabell lost her husband in 1900 when he was killed in action at the Battle of Diamond Hill in the Second Boer War. Her eldest son, David, became the new Earl of Airlie at the age of seven so Mabell oversaw his duties as Earl in his name.<br />
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A year after her husband's death, Mabell's old friend, Mary of Teck (now the Princess of Wales), appointed Mabell as her Lady of the Bedchamber. When Mary became Queen of the U.K. once George V succeeded to the throne in 1910, Mabell stayed at court as the Lady of the Bedchamber. Like many other aristocratic women during World War I, Mabell did her part in supporting the war effort. She volunteered for the Red Cross and her work as the president of Queen Alexandra's Army Nursing Board earned her the honor of being named a Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE) in 1920. But she had to undergo heavy personal losses during the conflict; her youngest son and son-in-law were killed in action as well as her daughter, Mabell. The Dowager Countess of Airlie served Queen Mary as Lady of the Bedchamber for fifty-two years until the Mary's death in 1953, after which Queen Elizabeth II awarded her with the Dame Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order (GCVO) for her many decades of service. After Mary of Teck's death, Mabell moved from Airlie Castle to Bayswater Road in London where she died a few weeks after her ninetieth birthday on April 7, 1956. Mabell's grandson, Angus (a son of David Ogilvy, 12th Earl of Airlie), married Princess Alexandra of Kent, the youngest granddaughter of King George V and Queen Mary, in 1963, thus uniting Mabell's family with Queen Mary's, her oldest and closest friend, in blood.<br />
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<b><i>Beatrice Violet Wyndham, Lady Leconfield</i></b></div>
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Beatrice Violet Rawson was the eldest daughter of Colonel Richard Hamilton Rawson and Lady Beatrice Anson. She was born on May 6, 1892 in London and had one older brother (who died young in a horse-riding accident) and a younger sister. While her father was a High Sheriff for Sussex as well as the county's Justice of the Peace and Deputy Lieutenant, her mother was the second daughter of the Earl of Lichfield and a granddaughter of the 1st Duke of Abercorn. In 1911, the nineteen year-old Violet (as she went by) married the wealthy Charles Wyndham, 3rd Baron Leconfield, who was twenty years her senior. Violet, now known as Lady Leconfield, lived with her husband at the Leconfield family seat - Petworth House in West Sussex. They also had property in Cumberland, such as Cockermouth Castle and Scafell Pike.</div>
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Wyndham, who served in a cavalry regiment of the British Army as a lieutenant in the 1890's, rejoined this regiment in World War I to command the Royal Sussex Volunteers as the Lord Lieutenant of Sussex. Later, in World War II, he would be named Honorary Colonel of the 5th Battalion of the Border Regiment for Cumberland. Although he and Violet had no children of their own, they adopted two children - Peter and Elizabeth Geraldine (whose birth name was Betty Seymour) Wyndham. Peter was not able to succeed his father as the 4th Baron of Leconfield after Wyndham died in 1952 at the age of eighty following a long illness since he was not of his blood. Instead, Wyndham's younger brother inherited the Leconfield title and lands. Wyndham's daughter, Elizabeth, a civil servant and socialite, would become a linguist for the British codebreaking department in World War II (she was a skilled polyglot). Violet survived her husband by four years before dying on May 22, 1956 at the age of sixty-four. </div>
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<b><i>Violet Warwick Bampfylde, Countess of Onslow</i></b></div>
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Violet Marcia Catherine Warwick Bampfylde was the only daughter of Coplestone Bampfylde, 3rd Baron Poltimore and Margaret Harriet Beaumont, the daughter of the 1st Baron Allendale. She was born on December 22, 1884 and had three brothers. On February 22, 1906, the twenty-one year old Violet married Richard Onslow, Viscount Cranley, who was eight years her senior. Onslow was the eldest son and heir of William Onslow, 4th Earl of Onslow, who was also the Governor of New Zealand from 1889-92. His mother was the Hon. Florence Coulston Gardner, a daughter of the 3rd Baron Gardner. Before World War I began, he was a diplomat who worked in Madrid, Tangier, St. Petersburg, and Berlin before working in the Foreign Office from 1910-14. In the Great War, he served as an Honorary Colonel. </div>
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In 1911, Onslow's father died and he became the 5th Earl of Onslow, making Violet the Countess of Onslow. They had two children - a daughter named Mary Florence and a son named William Arthur, who eventually succeeded his father as the 6th Earl of Onslow. After the war, Onslow had a variety of government jobs such as the Chairman of the Committees and Deputy Speaker of the House of Lords. Onslow died in 1945 at the age of sixty-eight. His wife survived him by nine years before dying on October 23, 1954, two months before her seventy-first birthday. </div>
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<b><i>Jane Graham Murray, Viscountess Dunedin</i></b></div>
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Jane (also known as Jean) Elmslie Henderson Findlay was the only child of George Findlay, a hat maker in Aberdeen, and Jane Elmslie Henderson. She was born on Christmas Day of 1885 in Aberdeen, Scotland. By the time her birth was registered in January 11, 1886, she was an orphan (why her parents died so soon after her birth is unknown). She became an author and later the editor of <i>Everyman</i> magazine, as well as the secretary of the Scottish War Savings Committee during World War I. In 1923 at the age of thirty-seven, she married the widowed Andrew Graham Murray, 1st Viscount Dunedin, a Scottish politician and judge as the Lord Justice General and Lord President of the Court of Session. He had also been the Secretary for Scotland from 1903-05.</div>
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Murray, who was a whopping thirty-six years older than his wife, had been married once before to a woman named Mary Clementina, a daughter of a Scottish naval commander and baronet. They had two daughters and one son before Mary died in 1922. He married Jane less than a year later but due to her age at the time of their wedding, they had no children. His son by his first wife died in 1934, eight years before his father, who passed at the age of ninety-two. Since Murray died without a surviving son, his title became extinct upon his death. Jane lived as the Viscountess Dunedin until her death in 1944 at the age of fifty-eight.<br />
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<b><i>Helen Percy, Duchess of Northumberland</i></b></div>
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Helen Magdalan Gordon-Lennox was the youngest daughter of Charles Gordon-Lennox, 7th Duke of Richmond and Lennox, 2nd Duke of Gordon, and his second wife, Isabel Sophie Craven. Through her father, Helen was descended from Charles II by his mistress, Louise de Kerouaille. She was born on December 13, 1886 in London and had one full sister as well as two half-sisters and three half-brothers from her father's first marriage. The fair-haired Helen lost her mother just a year after her birth and by the time she was eighteen, she acted as hostess for her father and took on the duties of the lady of the house. The kind-hearted Helen, who was described as a "saint" by one of the Queen of Spain's ladies-in-waiting, was "the sort of woman who rides in buses, pays her bills, and is nice to old servants". On October 18, 1911, the twenty-four year old Helen married Alan Percy, Earl Percy, who was six years her senior. </div>
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Alan was the second surviving son of Henry Percy, 7th Duke of Northumberland, and Edith Campbell, a daughter of the 8th Duke of Argyll. He became his father's heir in 1909 when his older brother, Henry, died of pleurisy. Alan had served as a Captain in the South African War of 1901-02 and took part in the Sudan Campaign in 1908. When World War I erupted less than three years after Helen and Alan's marriage, Alan worked with the Intelligence Department to supply eyewitness accounts of battles as part of the Grenadier Guards. In 1918, his father died and he became the 8th Duke of Northumberland, which made Helen a duchess. She had six children with her husband: Henry (1912-1940), Hugh (1914-1988), Elizabeth (1916-2008), Diana (1917-1978), Richard (1921-1989), and Geoffrey (1925-1984). Alan also became the Lord Lieutenant of Northumberland in 1918, a position he held until his death in 1930 at the age of fifty. Seven years after Alan's death, Helen, now the Dowager Duchess of Northumberland, became the Mistress of the Robes to Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. A year after she received this position, she was honored as a Dame Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order (GCVO). Her eldest son, the childless 9th Duke of Northumberland, died fighting in World War II so her second son, Hugh, succeeded his late brother as the 10th Duke of Northumberland. Meanwhile, two of her daughters became duchesses by marriage; her eldest, Elizabeth, married the 14th Duke of Hamilton and her youngest, Diana, married the 6th Duke of Sutherland. Helen retired as Mistress of the Robes in 1964 and died not long after on June 13, 1965 at the age of seventy-eight. </div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15315177275314871435noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6807555129500021847.post-23645129903821217832016-08-06T17:16:00.000-07:002016-08-06T17:16:21.156-07:00Amélie of Orléans, Queen of Portugal <div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 220.5pt;">
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<span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Princess
Marie Amélie Louise Hélène d'Orléans, more commonly known as simply “Amélie”,
was the eldest child of Prince Philippe of Orléans, Count of Paris and Princess
Marie Isabelle of Orléans. Amélie was born on September 28, 1865 in Twickenham,
London. Her father was the son of Ferdinand Philippe, Prince Royal of France
and Duke of Orléans and Helene of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. He was a claimant to
the French throne from 1848 until his death in 1894, as he was the paternal
grandson of King Louis Philippe I of the French. Amélie’s mother was an Infanta
of Spain by birth, being the daughter of Infanta Luisa Fernanda, the youngest
daughter of King Ferdinand VII of Spain and his fourth wife, <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/06/maria-christina-of-two-sicilies-queen.html">Maria Christina of the Two Sicilies</a>, and Prince Antoine, Duke of Montpensier, himself a son of
King Louis Philippe I of the French and Maria Amalia of Naples and Sicily.
Thus, Amélie’s parents were first cousins, though her father was ten years
older than her mother.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw6D0iL-b0nJ_JO5UQ3EBVcX1RSrI_8yr8o3qhUw7O-Sgm5BIvGYOfdg9ONy-RgyYNm3va09bG3EM9PdMVmK8X5peAzNaH1pq3XQogGv5ufmM4w7_Mat0qWnPdGx4QNIbD35edMLtlaHKr/s1600/b57572e160766d78adefc056d8e58963.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw6D0iL-b0nJ_JO5UQ3EBVcX1RSrI_8yr8o3qhUw7O-Sgm5BIvGYOfdg9ONy-RgyYNm3va09bG3EM9PdMVmK8X5peAzNaH1pq3XQogGv5ufmM4w7_Mat0qWnPdGx4QNIbD35edMLtlaHKr/s400/b57572e160766d78adefc056d8e58963.jpg" width="350" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Amélie of Orléans<br />(1870's)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Amélie
was born a year after her parents married and she had five younger siblings who
lived to adulthood, three sisters and two brothers. Her siblings were: Prince
Philippe, Duke of Orléans, Princess Hélène (Duchess of Aosta by marriage),
Princess Isabelle (Duchess of Guise by marriage), Princess Louise (Princess of
Bourbon-Two Sicilies by marriage), and Ferdinand, Duke of Montpensier. Amélie
and her family lived in exile in England since her parents had been forced to
flee France after King Louis Philippe I was deposed in 1848. The family wasn’t
allowed back into France until after the fall of the Second French Empire in
1871 when Amélie was just six years old. They settled down in the Hôtel
Matignon in Paris and the Château d'Eu in Normandy. Amélie was a very caring
and nurturing older sister to her siblings and acted like a second mother to
them. While she was very close with her father, as they both loved nature and
horses, she was more distant with her mother. Marie Isabelle was a strict and
rigid parental figure and would slap Amélie in front of other people if she
thought her daughter wasn’t behaving well enough. Because of her mother’s
treatment, Amélie would become a very loving and compassionate mother towards
her own children, as she was determined not to follow in her mother’s
footsteps. She received a substantial education and her favorite subjects were
history (especially French history), archaeology, poetry, and fiction. Besides
her native French, Amélie was learned in Latin and German. She was a serious
reader whose hobbies included drawing, oil painting, riding, fishing, and
walking. She became interested in the arts, especially the opera and the
theater. Overall, Amélie was an attractive, elegant, and tall young girl with
dark hair and eyes, soft features, and a welcoming smile. She was admired for
her benevolence, empathy, and her constant willingness to help others. The
Princess of Orléans also genuinely enjoyed meeting ordinary people in France
and engaging in conversation with them so that she could learn more about their
hardships and joys.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhBiJ4qv7TmKSUIlVFHBwxmYbOHWMWGqDpah-ltBa04kg4EecC6xan6PpfX7wiPFKptlgM0KrrTrt8-e4aS_NK6STKLwVSdu1r7SctHisLqDpSLJl-bk1KCfiLKoDL8LOnalydF5D9GgFv/s1600/Screen+Shot+2016-08-06+at+4.38.41+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhBiJ4qv7TmKSUIlVFHBwxmYbOHWMWGqDpah-ltBa04kg4EecC6xan6PpfX7wiPFKptlgM0KrrTrt8-e4aS_NK6STKLwVSdu1r7SctHisLqDpSLJl-bk1KCfiLKoDL8LOnalydF5D9GgFv/s1600/Screen+Shot+2016-08-06+at+4.38.41+PM.png" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Carlos, Prince Royal of Portugal and his wife, Amélie of Orléans<br />(1886)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">In 1884,
the Prince Royal of Portugal, Carlos, saw a photograph of Princess Amélie and
was smitten with her. Prince Carlos was the eldest child of King Luís I of
Portugal and Princess Maria Pia of Savoy, the daughter of King Victor Emmanuel
II of Italy and his first wife, Archduchess Adelaide of Austria. In January of
1886, he left Lisbon to meet Amélie face-to-face at Chantilly Castle, the home
of Amélie’s great-uncle. The French princess and the Portuguese heir to the
throne shared a mutual attraction to one another from the time they met. Though
both shared a birthday, Carlos was two years older than Amélie. They attended a
gala dinner upon their initial meeting during which it was apparent that Carlos
was absorbed with just one thing – Amélie. After the dinner, Carlos was so
confident that Amélie was the one for him that he wrote to his father: “no
other creature is more beautiful than her.” Before Amélie met Carlos, her
family had tried to marry her to a prince or nobleman of Austria or Spain. Meanwhile,
Carlos’s parents tried to match him with Archduchess Marie Valerie of Austria
(the youngest child of Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria and <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/06/elisabeth-of-bavaria-empress-of-austria.html">Empress Elisabeth</a>), Princess Mathilde of Saxony, <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/06/princess-viktoria-of-prussia.html">Princess Viktoria of Prussia</a>, or
Princess Victoria of Wales (a daughter of King Edward VII of the U.K. and
<a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/07/alexandra-of-denmark-queen-of-uk.html">Alexandra of Denmark</a>). But after meeting Amélie, it was clear that Carlos would
marry no one but her. So, the couple were soon engaged and by May 19th of the
same year she had met Carlos, Amélie arrived in Portugal at the Palace of
Necessidades in Lisbon adorned in a beautiful blue and white silk dress with a
hat in the colors of the monarchist Portuguese flag. Three days after her
arrival, Princess Amélie married Prince Carlos on May 22, 1886 in the Church of
São Domingos in Lisbon. The ceremony was a huge event that seemingly everyone
in the city attended and political differences were forgotten. Amélie wore a
white gown of faille silk with a long train and a lace veil, which was a gift
from her friends in France. Though she chose not to wear any jewelry, she did sport
a garland of orange blossoms on her brow. With her marriage to Carlos, the
twenty-one year old Amélie became the Princess Royal of Portugal and the
Duchess of Braganza. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Amélie of Orléans, Princess Royal of Portugal<br />(1886-1895)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
newlyweds had a short honeymoon in the city of Sintra before moving into the
Palace of Belém where Amélie learned that her parents, who had come to Lisbon
for their daughter’s wedding and were currently staying in the Palace of
Necessidades, had been exiled from France a second time. The reasoning behind
this was because the lavish celebrations of Amélie’s wedding had sparked
royalist feelings in France (the government had always been suspicious of Amélie’s
family and viewed public interest in her wedding as a threat). Amélie and
Carlos were happy together during the first few years of their marriage. Almost
right after the wedding, Amélie became pregnant and on March 21, 1887, she gave
birth to a son named Luís Filipe after a long and arduous labor. The infant boy
was named the Prince of Beira and the Duke of Barcelos upon his birth. Soon
after Amélie recovered from her delivery, she traveled with her husband to
London for Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee where Amélie was able to meet her
French relatives who were living in exile in England. After the festivities, Amélie
and Carlos spent some time in Edinburgh, Scotland where they discovered that Amélie
was pregnant again. She gave birth to a daughter named Maria Anna on December
14, 1887 but the baby was premature and died soon after the delivery. The loss
of their child devastated Amélie and her husband to the point where they
couldn’t talk to each other about their daughter’s death for days. Physically, Amélie
never recovered from the labor and suffered from chronic heart problems for the
rest of her life. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcMbGFGo_b7ThE73F4fxciNPeAxX3IaQQV4-ENxSAs2CsnxjuAXjG4ddJZ7XIyHkNLB5FaFj3Vzq0Yi8wCd_ftpZPB8Pc_6aeiTbpXq_jt6QbUXII5hvCKxpvSD8cCFUcFVPKXwMTB2hb_/s1600/carlosportugal1863-5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcMbGFGo_b7ThE73F4fxciNPeAxX3IaQQV4-ENxSAs2CsnxjuAXjG4ddJZ7XIyHkNLB5FaFj3Vzq0Yi8wCd_ftpZPB8Pc_6aeiTbpXq_jt6QbUXII5hvCKxpvSD8cCFUcFVPKXwMTB2hb_/s400/carlosportugal1863-5.jpg" width="271" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>King Carlos I of Portugal and Queen Amélie<br />(1900-08)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Initially,
Amélie was unpopular with the Portuguese people not because of her personality
or appearance but because the monarchy itself was unpopular. The republicans
found that by attacking Amélie, they could attack the monarchy. So, she was
criticized for everything she did, no matter it if was a mandatory royal duty
or a private hobby. Amélie liked to personally visit institutions for the poor and
meet with the people there. The aristocracy saw this as unfitting for a future
queen while the republicans panned her as a liar and a phony. But Amélie
ignored all these criticisms and founded the Institute Princess Dona Amelia to
support workers’ social rights and the National Association against Tuberculosis.
She dedicated much of her time to promoting health care and became a significant
financial donor to the Red Cross, schools, and hospitals. Eventually, the
people warmed to her and she became a popular figure, which lessened the rising
reproach of the monarchy. Amélie was much more likeable than her formal mother-in-law
because she was much more relaxed, calm, and open-minded. The Portuguese also
liked the fact that Amélie made a successful effort to become fluent in their
native tongue. However, she was criticized for being a spendthrift and for
being too vain and over concerned with French fashion in the eyes of the
republicans. Though Carlos always cared for and respected his wife, he was
never faithful to her and engaged in various extramarital affairs. On October
19, 1889, Carlos’s father died and he ascended the throne as King Carlos I of
Portugal with Amélie, who was just twenty-four years old, as his Queen Consort.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_4asaP82aMPD5i4x7MboMo__lwjl6BRtqdNhPxw7XB0OcNcYwjJRbWlyHKkw6lfYKIDnIie7NGgDD6MTenrI88UmqPOK_pTfeZYi5zRJgMNywBYGNUuL_2BtN6dnWAZb7V9GePdcy6jgd/s1600/Amelie_d%2527Orleans_Corcos_1905.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_4asaP82aMPD5i4x7MboMo__lwjl6BRtqdNhPxw7XB0OcNcYwjJRbWlyHKkw6lfYKIDnIie7NGgDD6MTenrI88UmqPOK_pTfeZYi5zRJgMNywBYGNUuL_2BtN6dnWAZb7V9GePdcy6jgd/s400/Amelie_d%2527Orleans_Corcos_1905.jpg" width="363" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Amélie of Orléans, Queen Consort of Portugal<br />(Vittorio Matteo Corcos, 1905)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">As the
Queen of Portugal, Amélie was very active in her work with charities and the
welfare of the poor and sick. Less than a month after her husband’s accession, Amélie
gave birth to her last child – a son named Manuel, who was named the Duke of
Beja. Amélie mainly resided at the </span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Ducal Palace
of Vila Viçosa, the seat of the House of Braganza with her young sons while her
husband ruled. But it was clear that a storm was brewing amongst their subjects.
The monarchy’s popularity with the people was at an all time low and the
kingdom was suffering from manufacturing troubles, criticism from the media,
republican and socialist resentment, and a broke economy. When King Carlos went
on a series of official visits to foreign countries in late 1895, Amélie served
as his regent during his absence. She spent much of her free time writing about
her thoughts, troubles, and emotions in her private diary and whenever she
needed some time alone or to just relax, she would ride or take a short trip to
the ocean. Amélie’s heart problems worsened in 1902 and her doctors suggested
that she take a vacation to improve her health. Thus, the Queen took her two
sons with her on a three-month voyage in the Mediterranean on her husband’s
yacht, the </span><i><span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Amélia</span></i><span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">. Though the Queen
and her sons enjoyed their trip throughout Europe, the press heavily criticized
Amélie for the excessive luxury of her cruise. Her health didn’t improve as a
result of the vacation; in fact, she suffered from a stroke that summer. Her
relationship with her husband also became more distant, as he no longer asked
for her opinion or advice on political events like he had always done in the
past. As the years passed, general hostility towards the monarchy continued to
rise and Carlos’s position on the throne seemed less and less secure. Socialism
was becoming popular throughout Portugal and Catholic Church, which had once
been a highly influential institution in both government and daily life, was
fading into the background. The greatest threats to the monarchy was the
militant Republican Party and their revolutionary, conspiratorial left-wing
organization, the </span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Carbonária</span><span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">. The monarchy itself was crumbling from internal
tensions since the royalist parties that made up Carlos’s regime were
constantly at each other’s throats. </span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5q3HkqeO4ebKeV6i_8owVEIH4xzA2wmWJ4NbR-IOdkwZYGuFqtqhgUqfOGNElwqZG7BUYX8GylMfLLCiXzByBSwiI5LosYnu1Q2nJrtK-wjo0DzI1m-qUM4R3wz2Txn-55IMf-qaSEPtA/s1600/Queen_amelie_of_Portugal.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5q3HkqeO4ebKeV6i_8owVEIH4xzA2wmWJ4NbR-IOdkwZYGuFqtqhgUqfOGNElwqZG7BUYX8GylMfLLCiXzByBSwiI5LosYnu1Q2nJrtK-wjo0DzI1m-qUM4R3wz2Txn-55IMf-qaSEPtA/s400/Queen_amelie_of_Portugal.jpg" width="267" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Amélie of Orléans, Queen of Portugal<br />(early 1900's)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Portugal finally exploded on February 1, 1908 when
the King and Queen, along with their sons, were travelling by open carriage to
the Palace of the Necessidades. Two republicans fired a series of shots at the
carriage, which hit the King and his two sons. While Amélie was uninjured and
her youngest, Manuel, was just hit in the arm, her oldest son, </span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Luís Filipe, was mortally
wounded and her husband died immediately from the hit he received. Luís Filipe
lingered for about twenty minutes before dying from his wounds at the age of
twenty. He was buried next to his father, who was forty-four years old at the
time of his assassination, in the Pantheon of the Braganzas. The death of King
Carlos and his oldest son and heir, the Prince Royal, was known as the Lisbon
Regicide. Amélie was grief-stricken at the shocking deaths of her husband and
son but she knew that she had to be strong for her young son, Manuel, who
succeeded to the throne as King Manuel II at the age of eighteen. Manuel was
only alive because his mother had prevented his death by hitting a gunman in
the face with her bouquet. But he had never been expected to succeed to the
throne and as a result, he was completely unprepared for his new position as
the leader of an anti-monarchist country. In the two years that Manuel sat on
the throne, his mother had a huge amount of influence over him. She wrote the
official texts that he would sign, read dispatches to him and then gave her
opinion on what he should do, and headed political meetings. But her control
over Manuel just further enraged the republicans. It was only a matter of time
before the country devolved into rebellion. The revolution finally began on
October 3, 1910 and just two days later, the Republican Party had successfully
overthrown Manuel and replaced that constitutional monarchy with a republic. Amélie
and her son had no choice but to escape Lisbon for Ericeira, after which they
headed to Gibraltar, a British territory in Spain, on the </span><i><span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Am</span></i><span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">é<i>lia</i> </span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">with the late King Carlos’s brother, Prince
Alfonso, and his mother, Queen Maria Pia. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjO4RkfgLEjZLrsa6U8GgTJb4LnBAAUkydgtkuQGrP6uqsuy3L1ATyR_HhpkQ4NAvX1lOymFxBJ0QmiuCbmKR0wo8oSOdBB0SflJ6jvrXOyi0TgvkSl3fOUzA1-i5f_2XnYnUWOs_MdS4bP/s1600/3-augusta-victoria-hohenzollern.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjO4RkfgLEjZLrsa6U8GgTJb4LnBAAUkydgtkuQGrP6uqsuy3L1ATyR_HhpkQ4NAvX1lOymFxBJ0QmiuCbmKR0wo8oSOdBB0SflJ6jvrXOyi0TgvkSl3fOUzA1-i5f_2XnYnUWOs_MdS4bP/s1600/3-augusta-victoria-hohenzollern.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Manuel II of Portugal and his wife, Augusta Victoria of Hohenzollern<br />(1913)</i></td></tr>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Amélie lived the rest of her
life in exile. She lived in England until 1920, after which she moved back to
her native France since the cold English winters were negatively affecting her
health. She resided in the Château de Bellevue, a mansion in Chesnoy, and she
spent much of her time helping the local community by supporting charities and
the Red Cross. There was not enough support for Manuel, who now lived in
England, to ever make a serious attempt to reclaim his throne. In 1913, he
married his second cousin, the German Princess Augusta Victoria of
Hohenzollern, a daughter of William, Prince of Hohenzollern, and Princess Maria
Teresa of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, the only child of Prince Louis, Count of Trani
and <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/06/mathilde-ludovika-of-bavria-countess-of.html">Duchess Mathilde Ludovika in Bavaria</a>. Although Manuel and Augusta Victoria
had a peaceful and happy marriage, they had no children. When World War I broke
out in 1914, both Amélie and her son participated in humanitarian activities,
such as working in hospitals for the wounded. She lost Manuel on July 2, 1932
when the forty-two year old king in exile died of suffocation from an abnormal
swelling in his tracheal oedema. The Portuguese government permitted his
remains to be buried with those of his father and brother in the Royal Pantheon
of the House of Braganza but Amélie and Augusta Victoria were not allowed to
attend the funeral. In fact, Amélie was not permitted to set foot in Portugal
until World War II, when the government allowed her to return. She refused this
invitation until after the war, when on May 19, 1945, the fifty-ninth
anniversary of her arrival in Portugal as the betrothed of Prince Carlos, Amélie
went back to Portugal for the first time in thirty-four years. She was received
with open arms by the Portuguese people, who welcomed her arrival quite
enthusiastically. She only stayed in Portugal for a few days, taking the time
to visit the tombs of her husband and her sons before she met her pen pal and
close friend, António de Oliveira Salazar, the Prime Minister of Portugal, for
the first time. In the last three years of her life, Amélie’s physical and
mental health deteriorated rapidly. She suffered from dementia and by 1951, she
was asking people why she had been exiled and who had killed her sons. On
October 25, 1951 at her home in France, the eighty-six year old Amélie of
Orléans, the last Queen Consort of Portugal, passed away. She was buried in the
Royal Pantheon of the Braganza alongside her husband and sons.</span><span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15315177275314871435noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6807555129500021847.post-4771989962186194222016-08-04T17:24:00.001-07:002016-08-04T17:29:38.303-07:00The Mazarinettes | Seven Italian Beauties in the Court of the Sun King<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">In the splendid royal court of King Louis XIV of France, there were seven attractive noblewomen who caught the attention of every aristocrat in France. With their striking features, Italian mannerisms, and powerful family connections, these foreign beauties were destined for wealth, fame, and, in some cases, disaster. All made impressive noble marriages and all were unique in their own way. One was the mother of an ill-fated English queen, another was an alleged mistress of the Sun King himself who was forced to flee her home after she became embroiled in the infamous Affair of the Poisons. One was the first genuine love of the King of France and was denied happiness with the man she loved by her own family, another was a gorgeous bisexual who escaped her hellish marriage to find solace in the arms of the King of England. These are the Mazarinettes, some of the most prolific figures to ever grace the royal court of France. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAMY84-eWaGWM3tQel3WBtnb2YSqYaT0Wm-nz_ak3ZBozYp0CudpZqngaXM82Nr1w4IHtglxiPerPd2XC0w8sR12jNhcIP_kLPkcp2XotDFJ3A_h0VThyphenhyphenwGPRw9fkfXbQG-er-G_Oze2XS/s1600/Mazarin-mignard.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAMY84-eWaGWM3tQel3WBtnb2YSqYaT0Wm-nz_ak3ZBozYp0CudpZqngaXM82Nr1w4IHtglxiPerPd2XC0w8sR12jNhcIP_kLPkcp2XotDFJ3A_h0VThyphenhyphenwGPRw9fkfXbQG-er-G_Oze2XS/s400/Mazarin-mignard.jpg" width="340" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Cardinal Mazarin<br />(Pierre Mignard, 1658-60)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">For nearly two decades, the most
powerful man in France was not the king but his Chief Minister, an Italian
Cardinal from a noble background named Jules Raymond Mazarin. Mazarin was the
Cardinal-Duke of Rethel, Mayenne, and Nevers. He was appointed as the de facto
ruler of France during the minority of King Louis XIV, who succeeded to the
throne at the age of four in 1643. Mazarin effectively ruled the kingdom
alongside the young King’s mother and regent, Anne of Austria, even after Louis
reached his majority in 1654. Mazarin would continue to hold the reigns of
government until his dying day in 1661. The Cardinal became a surrogate father
and a political mentor to the King but he made sure to make his own mark on
history. He played a large role in putting a stop to the tumultuous period of
civil war known as the Fronde and shaped foreign policy by negotiating the
Peace of Westphalia at the conclusion of the Thirty Years’ War, as well as
achieving peace between France and Spain with the Peace of the Pyrenees. But
perhaps he is most well known for his seven beautiful nieces who he personally
arranged expedient marriages for to rich and powerful French and Italian
nobles. His nieces, known collectively as the “Mazarinettes”, were famous at
the French court for their exotic beauty, as well as their dynastic impact on
the European aristocracy. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMKkjsRkKh63tQduZQgIQsvUEov-RIAUGmhwgVNtgiWTxFYAMQqBQFuzHLN4-b9TJA0f5qaSvpE_lVrnfwyWj64oj4P0UcaxWxQkxECEJr_baAZ-qk8O9lgUdCLbrEqMWwXbMnjYNHP8zz/s1600/tumblr_lz1lvhcsQS1qbohcko1_500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMKkjsRkKh63tQduZQgIQsvUEov-RIAUGmhwgVNtgiWTxFYAMQqBQFuzHLN4-b9TJA0f5qaSvpE_lVrnfwyWj64oj4P0UcaxWxQkxECEJr_baAZ-qk8O9lgUdCLbrEqMWwXbMnjYNHP8zz/s1600/tumblr_lz1lvhcsQS1qbohcko1_500.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Three Nieces of Cardinal Mazarin (left to right): Marie, Olympia, and Hortense<br />(1660's)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Between 1647-55, the Cardinal
summoned his sisters, Laura Margherita and Girolama Mazzarini, to live under
his protection at court. He also asked that they bring their daughters, his
nieces, with them at various times so that he could provide for them and marry
them off to influential aristocrats, which would benefit not only the girls but
the family fortune as well. His eldest sister, Laura Margherita, was the mother of two daughters - Anna Maria and Laura Mazzarini - while Girolama (whose married surname was Mancini) was a widowed mother of five daughters - Laura, Olympia, Marie, Hortense, and Marie Anne Mancini - and three sons. Mazarin also wanted his sisters and the girls
nearby because he knew that he could trust members of his family as opposed to
the conniving, greedy power mongers that populated the court. His desire to
arrange prosperous marriages for his nieces was not solely for their benefit.
Since he had no legitimate children of his own, the only way he could secure
his legacy was through his nieces and nephews. Once the girls arrived in Paris,
they were gawked at and whispered about by French society due to their
“strange” appearances. At a time when pale skin, fair hair, and a full figure
were praised, the Mazarinettes stood out with their dark Italian complexions
and features as well as their slender frames and flamboyant mannerisms.
Nevertheless, the Queen Mother, Anne of Austria, became a mentor to the girls
and even educated the younger Mazarinettes with the King and his younger
brother, the Duke of Orléans, who were about the same age as the Cardinal’s
youngest nieces. With this action, the Queen Mother positioned the Mazarinettes
on the same level as a legitimate child of royalty. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvuxSMs0AUwFC3pR04dpI2wki91tXyG-01VSyAbr0QHpWMxo3LsYZE_7c5JGp2Q2XVhvxv2aED3IaNMn1UuhIW3rCyqty_qwJIiGkVMBfGTu6v-Pf6Ci_PeYhG0N5TujoV635aUbMvL9iA/s1600/unnamed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="412" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvuxSMs0AUwFC3pR04dpI2wki91tXyG-01VSyAbr0QHpWMxo3LsYZE_7c5JGp2Q2XVhvxv2aED3IaNMn1UuhIW3rCyqty_qwJIiGkVMBfGTu6v-Pf6Ci_PeYhG0N5TujoV635aUbMvL9iA/s640/unnamed.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Hortense, Duchesse de Mazarin (left) and Marie, Princess of Paliano (right)<br />(Jacob Ferdinand Voet, 1670-1700)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The first three of the Cardinal’s
nieces to arrive in Paris in 1647 were Laura Mancini, the eldest daughter of
Girolama, Olympia Mancini (Laura’s younger sister and the second eldest of
Girolama’s daughters), and Anna Maria Martinozzi, the eldest daughter of Laura
Margherita. Laura Mancini was the eldest of the group at eleven years old. Laura,
who was a “pleasing brunette with a handsome face”, was born on May 6, 1636 in
Rome as Laura Vittoria Mancini after her paternal grandmother. Laura had four
younger sisters and three brothers – Paul, Philippe, and Alfonso. Paul died in
the early 1650’s in battle before he was twenty years old while Alfonso died in
1658 at the age of fourteen. Philippe would be made the Duke of Nevers in 1660
and ten years later, he would marry the niece of Louis XIV’s mistress, Madame
de Montespan – Diane-Gabrielle de Damas de Thianges. They had six children and
through one of their sons they are the ancestors of the royal family of Monaco.
Olympia, who was born on July 11, 1638, was Laura’s closest sister in age at
nine years old and was described as a dark-haired girl “with a long face and
pointed chin, and small bright eyes” with lovely dimples. Laura and Olympia’s
cousin, Anne Marie Martinozzi, the oldest daughter of Laura Margherita, the
Cardinal’s eldest sister, was born in 1637. She was in between her two cousins
in age at ten years old and was said to be a pretty blonde with soft, sweet
eyes. The girls lived at the Palais Royal, the home of the Queen Mother, the
King, and his younger brother while their uncle showered them with favors,
gifts, and privileges. During the Fronde, the girls were taken to the safety of
the convent of Val-de-Grâce to be cared for by the nuns there until the civil
war came to an end. In 1653, the next “shipment” of the Cardinal’s nieces
arrived – the third and fourth daughters of Geronima, Marie and Hortense, and
Laura Martinozzi, the youngest daughter of Laura Margherita. The fourteen
year-old Marie (who was born on August 28, 1639), was said to be the least
attractive of the gorgeous Mazarinettes, as she was very tall and thin with
coarse, large black eyes, a wide mouth, and bad teeth. One contemporary said
she had “no charm in her person, and very little in her cleverness, though of
that she had an infinity but of a bold, resolute, violent kind, licentious and
far removed from every sort of civility and polish.” Apparently, as Marie grew
older, she became more beautiful, as her portraits can attest to. Meanwhile,
her younger sister Hortense was said to be the most beautiful of the seven
Mazarinettes. Hortense, who was born on June 6, 1646, was no more than seven
years old when she came to France but even then it was apparent that she would
become one of the most beautiful women in France. Born as “Ortensia”, she was
said to be “one of the most perfect beauties of the Court” with immense
intelligence and charm. She also happened to be the Cardinal’s favorite niece.
Marie and Hortense’s cousin, Laura Martinozzi (born May 27, 1639), was two
years younger than her older sister, Anne Marie, and was fourteen years old
when first set foot in court. Like her older sister, she was religious,
friendly, and smart. Though she didn’t share her sister’s blonde hair, she was
described as a “Roman beauty”. The last of the Mazarinettes to be called to
Paris by the Cardinal was the youngest, Marie Anne Mancini, the younger sister
of Laura, Olympia, Marie, and Hortense and the fifth and final daughter of
Geronima. Marie Anne, who was born in 1649, was the most charming of the five
Mancini sisters and the darling of the family. She was six years old when she
arrived in Paris in 1655 and was “piquant in appearance, with plenty of grace
and aplomb”, which made her a skilled ballet dancer. She had an “expressive
face, [a] retroussé nose…[a] delicate smile…[a] graceful figure, small hands
and feet, a brilliant complexion, and magnificent hair.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjuQ9omN-pDgkrPcNEonULFvTWDa73v_NvGNkq-LNHz_8Nwcit8fgoUxu5P-XIOcbdIiamyMyJq9Um4_t77l04avLm519IK7nTinC0-qNMIUkOG4GC0xHw3kqGzaDAnKZ28r-_EuHLnopi/s1600/Laura_Mancini_01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjuQ9omN-pDgkrPcNEonULFvTWDa73v_NvGNkq-LNHz_8Nwcit8fgoUxu5P-XIOcbdIiamyMyJq9Um4_t77l04avLm519IK7nTinC0-qNMIUkOG4GC0xHw3kqGzaDAnKZ28r-_EuHLnopi/s400/Laura_Mancini_01.jpg" width="310" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Laura Mancini, Duchess of Mercœur<br />(1640's-50's)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The first of the Mazarinettes to
marry was Laura Mancini, who wed Louis de Bourbon, Duke of Mercœur on February
4, 1651 at Bruhl near Cologne. Laura was fifteen at the time of her wedding
while her bridegroom was thirty-eight, more than double her age. Louis was the
son of César, Duke of Vendôme (an ancestor of Louis XV of France, Juan Carlos I
of Spain, King Albert II of Belgium, Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg, and
Vittorio Emanuele, Prince of Naples), an illegitimate son of King Henry IV of
France and his mistress, Gabrielle d’Estrées. Louis’s mother was Françoise de
Lorraine, the wealthy daughter and heiress of Philippe Emmanuel, Duke of Mercœur.
Françoise became the Duchess of Mercœur and Penthièvre in her own right upon
her father’s death in 1602 when she was just ten years old. She passed on her
titles and lands to her son in 1649, twenty years before her death, while Louis
inherited his father’s dukedom upon his death in 1665. Though César succeeded
in fulfilling his marital duty by having three children with his wife, he was
also known for engaging in a number of homosexual affairs on the side. Unlike
most men in his family, Louis was a loyal and pacific man who was, “gentle,
pious, and tranquil.” Because he was of such a passive nature, he was seen as “mediocre”
by the royal court and was viewed with disdain by his fellow aristocrats. Though
he loved to make peace, not war, he had a career in the military and was named
the governor of Provence in 1640. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">But
luckily for Laura, she found that her much older husband was completely
enchanted with her and she with him. She had three sons with her husband during
her time as the Duchess of Mercœur; the first, Louis Joseph, was born in 1654
when Laura was eighteen years old. Philippe followed in 1655 and the final and
third son, Jules César (a namesake of his paternal grandfather) arrived in
1657. However, the birth of her third son cost Laura her life. She died almost
two weeks after the birth on February 8, 1657 at the young age of twenty in her
adopted home of Paris. Jules César didn’t live long either; he died in 1660 at
the age of three. After Laura died, her widowed husband became a cardinal and
legate of France. He sent his young sons to be raised by his sister-in-law and
Laura’s youngest sister – Marie Anne Mancini. Louis died twelve years after his
wife on August 6, 1669 at the age of fifty-six. Laura and Louis’s eldest son,
Louis Joseph, became the Duke of Vendôme upon his father’s death. He was a
successful French military commander as the Marshal of France during the War of
the Grand Alliance and the War of the Spanish Succession and is remembered as
“one the most remarkable soldiers in the history of the French army.” Although
he was married to the daughter of the Prince of Condé – Marie Anne de Bourbon –
he had no children most likely because he, like his grandfather, was a homosexual.
When he died on June 11, 1712 at the age of fifty-seven, his younger brother,
Philippe, inherited the duchy of Vendôme. Philippe, like his brother had a
career in the military, although his was not as impressive. As he died
unmarried and without issue in 1727 at the age of seventy-two, the dukedom of
Vendôme fell into extinction. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi087Qy6b_EwdKalXh0MDBd9CU7BZGserqng9KZ48zQeMSesavqsxPi0SAF9Txas0rukFopX4BcQRwLxOdVqs1OvKp4hzY0hH4YSVEAROtDYmE-5Moylw-QPtI60jPDlBzl-jmQ6dIrDDK0/s1600/anne-marie-martinozzi-by-_med.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi087Qy6b_EwdKalXh0MDBd9CU7BZGserqng9KZ48zQeMSesavqsxPi0SAF9Txas0rukFopX4BcQRwLxOdVqs1OvKp4hzY0hH4YSVEAROtDYmE-5Moylw-QPtI60jPDlBzl-jmQ6dIrDDK0/s400/anne-marie-martinozzi-by-_med.jpeg" width="325" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Anne Marie Martinozzi, Princess of Conti<br />(1654-72)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">After
Laura Mancini, the next of the Mazarinettes to marry was her cousin and the
oldest daughter of Laura Margherita – Anne Marie Martinozzi. The blonde Italian
married Armand de Bourbon, Prince of Conti on February 22, 1654 at the Palais
du Louvre when she was no older than seventeen and Armand was twenty-four. Anne
Marie had been disappointed with her betrothed at first since he was an
unattractive hunchback with an, “uncertain disposition” and, “alternate fits of
devotion and debauchery.” Armand wanted to marry Anne Marie not out of love but
for power, as he longed to achieve a high position in government from the
Cardinal if he wed his niece. Eventually, the couple warmed up to each other
and lived respectfully in Guienne and Languedoc where Armand was governor. Anne
Marie, now the Princess of Conti, spent most her time dedicating her efforts to
charitable causes such as visiting the poor, giving her money to the needy, and
using her influence with the King to help the lower classes. Anne Marie and
Armand had three sons; their first, Louis, was born on September 6, 1658 but
died just eight days later. Their second child, Louis Armand, was born on April
4, 1661 and their third child, a son named François Louis followed on April 30,
1664. Less than two years after their third son’s birth, Armand died on
February 26, 1666 at the age of thirty-six in Pezenas. His eldest surviving
son, Louis Armand I, who was not yet five years old at the time of his father’s
early death, inherited his title. Anne Marie, widowed before she was even
thirty years old, only survived her husband by six years before her death from
apoplexy on February 4, 1672 at the age of about thirty-five. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaFupDKc50AltYLt6u38nEpLe72NhUeqxP6cD-fj_YrdfmgmIOyjuavfChMkCb43naBLgtZkYKFNmbN7djhh4SvyCFhjLXXHX9iOk0bG795jrE_zyiW4K7zi0OKDiPYhpp8PCvObVvjKk3/s1600/Screen+Shot+2016-08-04+at+4.47.20+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaFupDKc50AltYLt6u38nEpLe72NhUeqxP6cD-fj_YrdfmgmIOyjuavfChMkCb43naBLgtZkYKFNmbN7djhh4SvyCFhjLXXHX9iOk0bG795jrE_zyiW4K7zi0OKDiPYhpp8PCvObVvjKk3/s1600/Screen+Shot+2016-08-04+at+4.47.20+PM.png" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Granddaughters of Anne Marie Martinozzi, Princess of Conti (left to right): Marie Anne de Bourbon,<br />Duchess of Bourbon, and Louise Adélaïde de Bourbon</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">She
didn’t live to see both her sons marry in 1680. Louis Armand I wed his cousin,
Marie Anne de Bourbon, the favorite child of King Louis XIV and his mistress, the
beautiful Louise de La Vallière, while François Louis married Marie Thérèse de
Bourbon, the daughter of the Prince of Condé and Anne Henriette of Bavaria, a
great-granddaughter of King James I of England through his daughter, Elizabeth
Stuart, Queen of Bohemia. Since Louis Armand and his wife were only young
teenagers at the time of their wedding, they had a bad experience during their
first night together (neither had been educated in the art of consummation),
which resulted in Louis Armand never sleeping with a woman ever again.
Therefore, he was childless when he died from smallpox on November 9, 1685 at
the age of twenty-four. His younger brother, François Louis, who also had a
troublesome marriage, succeeded him as Prince of Conti. Though his wife was
head-over-heels in love with him, he had homosexual inclinations and was
infamous for his disgraceful reputation as a libertine. He barely paid
attention to his devoted wife and was actually in love with her sister-in-law,
Louise Françoise de Bourbon, Duchess of Bourbon, the eldest legitimized
daughter of King Louis XIV and Madame de Montespan. Nevertheless, he managed to
produce seven children with his wife, only three of whom survived infancy – two
daughters and one son. His eldest daughter, Marie Anne de Bourbon, Duchess of
Bourbon, married but had no children while his youngest, Louise Adélaïde de
Bourbon, never married but had many illegitimate children. His son, Louis
Armand II, succeeded him as Prince of Conti upon his death on February 9, 1709
at the age of forty-four from gout and syphilis. Louis Armand II married a legitimized
daughter of King Louis XIV and Madame de Montespan named Louise Élisabeth de
Bourbon, who he had one surviving son and daughter with. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh34pigFE0WJAP5UXDNEb5zaRxyW1d8iIg7yBDK8JC5PbLL9TipilDEaed_RWLJ30YglwYCJ7pgCtzhHbdMBYJJsdFiiD3VvHXmih9xuha9nUlJm8uPJJTh96pJhTlDV1tyJ9KJX_Z7Evp/s1600/Laura_Martinozzi_duchessa_Modena.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh34pigFE0WJAP5UXDNEb5zaRxyW1d8iIg7yBDK8JC5PbLL9TipilDEaed_RWLJ30YglwYCJ7pgCtzhHbdMBYJJsdFiiD3VvHXmih9xuha9nUlJm8uPJJTh96pJhTlDV1tyJ9KJX_Z7Evp/s400/Laura_Martinozzi_duchessa_Modena.jpg" width="307" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Laura Martinozzi, Duchess of Modena and Reggio<br />(1650's-80's)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Laura
Martinozzi, the younger sister of Anne Marie, Princess of Conti, was the next
of the Mazarinettes to be married off. On May 27, 1655, Laura was married by
proxy at the Palace of Compiègne to the eldest son and heir of Francesco I
d’Este, Duke of Modena and Reggio – Alfonso d’Este. Alfonso, who was five years
Laura’s senior, was related to the Medici family through his father as well as
the royal families of France and Spain (his paternal great-great grandparents
were Philip II of Spain and Elisabeth of Valois, daughter of King Henry II of
France). His mother, Maria Caterina Farnese, was the daughter of Ranuccio I
Farnese, Duke of Parma, and a descent of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, as well
as King Manuel I of Portugal. The marriage between Alfonso and Laura was
arranged because Alfonso’s father, one of France’s best generals, wanted the
support of Mazarin against Spain. After her proxy marriage, Laura moved back to
her birthplace of Italy to meet her husband for the first time at her new home
of the Ducal Palace of Modena. Three years after the marriage, Laura’s
father-in-law died and her husband became the Duke of Modena and Reggio as
Alfonso IV d’Este, making her a Duchess. The pious and demanding Laura had
three children with Alfonso but just two survived infancy. Their first child, a
son named Francesco, was born in 1657 when Laura was no more than eighteen
years old. However, Francesco didn’t survive long and died just a year after
his birth. Laura’s second child was a daughter named Maria Beatrice who was
born just nine days before her parents became the new Duke and Duchess of
Modena and Reggio on October 14, 1658. In 1660, Laura gave birth to her last
child – a son named Francesco II. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0ymDxiIIsFUipnjuIfWpWXHnwUqE-YAZmkEG5v4eJ2VaZPGGX_ivkmNnWFlVYtNQHcf7v29MUMCEjiGYjViRJ6ulGOhEK3F4-0_HqWQAZxLHXAhoo9RxF7bETXJReet6U8J7HMbjTtjCH/s1600/800px-Mary_of_Modena_Pietersz.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0ymDxiIIsFUipnjuIfWpWXHnwUqE-YAZmkEG5v4eJ2VaZPGGX_ivkmNnWFlVYtNQHcf7v29MUMCEjiGYjViRJ6ulGOhEK3F4-0_HqWQAZxLHXAhoo9RxF7bETXJReet6U8J7HMbjTtjCH/s400/800px-Mary_of_Modena_Pietersz.jpg" width="322" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Mary of Modena, Queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland<br />(Simon Pietersz Verelst, 1680)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Alfonso
IV d’Este had never been of robust health and on July 16, 1662, he died at the
age of twenty-seven from gout and tuberculosis after a little less than four
years of being Duke. His only surviving son, the two year-old Francesco II, succeeded
him with Laura, widowed at the age of twenty-three, as his regent. She ruled
“with a firm and gentle hand” for twelve years and supported her duchy with her
personal connections to France. In 1673, she left Modena to take her daughter
to her betrothed in England but when she returned, she found that her fourteen
year-old son (who was weak both in mind and body) had taken power into his own
hands under the control of his illegitimate half-brother, Cesare. Laura, no
longer regent, had no choice but to leave Modena for Rome where she lived until
she died on July 19, 1687 at the age of forty-eight. Her daughter, the beautiful
Maria Beatrice, became the second wife of King James II of England in 1673 when
she was just fifteen years old. Her husband (who was just the Duke of York upon
their marriage; he succeeded to the throne in 1685) was twenty-five years older
than her at the age of forty. Maria, or, as she is more commonly known in
England, “Mary of Modena”, had twelve children with James II but only two –
James Francis Edward Stuart and Louisa Maria Teresa – survived past infancy.
When James Francis Edward was born in 1688, the Catholic James II was deposed
due to his religion in the Glorious Revolution in favor of his eldest daughter
from his first marriage, Mary II, and her husband/cousin, William III, Prince
of Orange-Nassau. James and Mary fled to France where they lived as monarchs in
exile until their deaths. Mary of Modena died on May 7, 1718 from breast cancer
at the age of fifty-nine. Her son, James Francis Stuart, known as the “Old
Pretender”, claimed the English, Scottish, and Irish thrones after his father’s
death in 1701 as the Jacobite pretender. He married a Polish princess, Maria
Clementina Sobieska, who he had two sons with – Charles Edward Stuart (“the
Young Pretender”) and Henry Benedict Stuart, Cardinal Duke of York. Mary’s
daughter, Louisa Maria Teresa, never married or had children as she died at the
age of nineteen from smallpox. Meanwhile, Mary’s brother, Francesco II d’Este,
married his first cousin, Margherita Maria Farnese but they had no children.
Francesco died in 1694 at the age of thirty-four and was succeeded by his
uncle. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2gExaZtlqoR8mCfB4NunnS6GN75HXEchrzQN26KAHiWL-_ApMW4Ielrbos8eVFGIVt-Th4oeE-zp_M7_zsjEtuFFQBo6fCzJzHWYKcy7aMslFKSKh_U-6CR85qMge23DoKQAjGTZYjsQR/s1600/00a174cde4b7adeb7ba9e7e304db03eb.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2gExaZtlqoR8mCfB4NunnS6GN75HXEchrzQN26KAHiWL-_ApMW4Ielrbos8eVFGIVt-Th4oeE-zp_M7_zsjEtuFFQBo6fCzJzHWYKcy7aMslFKSKh_U-6CR85qMge23DoKQAjGTZYjsQR/s400/00a174cde4b7adeb7ba9e7e304db03eb.jpg" width="335" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Olympia Mancini, Countess of Soissons<br />(Pierre Mignard, 1650's-80's)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
fourth Mazarinette to marry was the second daughter of Girolama – Olympia
Mancini. Olympia married Eugene Maurice of Savoy, Count of Soissons on February
24, 1657 when she was eighteen and he was a few days shy of his twenty-second
birthday. Eugene was a prince of blood in France through his mother, a Bourbon
princess, and though he wasn’t very intelligent, he was a good soldier. His
paternal grandmother was Infanta Catherine Michelle of Spain, the youngest
surviving daughter of Philip II of Spain and Elisabeth of Valois (by this
descent, he was the first cousin once removed of the husband of his
cousin-in-law, Laura Martinozzi – Alfonso IV d’Este, Duke of Modena and Reggio),
and his paternal grandfather was Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy, a grandson
of Francis I of France and <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/06/claude-of-france-queen-of-france.html">Princess Claude, Duchess of Brittany</a>. Eugene Maurice
was deeply in love with his beautiful wife and spoiled her rotten, even going
as far as to ignore the various affairs and scandals she was involved in at
court. Meanwhile, the flippant Olympia cared little for her loyal spouse. The
new Countess of Soissons was appointed as the Superintendent of the Queen’s
Household in 1661, which made her the most prominent woman at court after the
Princesses of the Blood. But this newfound influence and authority did nothing
to improve Olympia’s personality, as she was an innate gossip with a flair for
intrigue. She was rumored to have been a mistress of the King himself before
her marriage for a short period of time and was a close friend of his
sister-in-law (and alleged lover), Henrietta, Duchess of Orléans, the most
fashionable and popular woman at court. Olympia had eight children with her
love-struck husband before his death from a fever in 1673 at the age of
thirty-eight, all of whom survived infancy. They had five sons but just one
married and had children. Not much is known of Olympia’s three daughters. Interestingly
enough, there were claims that Olympia’s eldest son was actually an
illegitimate child of the King. Six years after her husband’s death, Olympia
became involved in the disreputable Poison Affair where she was accused of
having plotted to poison the King’s mistress, Louise de La Vallière, and
threatening the King to “come back to [her], or [he would] be sorry.” She was
also rumored of poisoning her late husband and the daughter of her late close
friend, the Duchess of Orléans - Marie Louise, Queen of Spain. All these
accusations resulted in Olympia being banished from France. She moved to the
Spanish royal court where she was expelled from in 1690. Olympia, who always
maintained her innocence, moved to Brussels where she remained until her death
on October 9, 1708 at the age of seventy. Her most prominent child was her
youngest son, Prince Eugene of Savoy, who was one of the most successful
military commanders in the history of modern Europe. He fought for the Holy
Roman Empire as the general of the Imperial Army during the Great Turkish War,
the Nine Years’ War, the War of the Spanish Succession, the Austro-Turkish War
of 1716-18, and the War of the Polish Succession. Eugene never married or had
children and is thought to have been a homosexual. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ8hcJgfNMEMRs0b_GOCWKNPNkSkxZOZcLU33dVNR-zUV-MEVqlgZH9q8y8RcW3FsrETDd28lDn789U3gLd_VgEzAiLHMOCr3JO4NkFswbIjVZDq6bb_jUqBwp8SgzFhaHE-BFvzfYUyjI/s1600/Maria_Mancini_%25281639-1715%2529%252C_hertogin_van_Bouillon_Rijksmuseum_SK-A-3236.jpeg.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ8hcJgfNMEMRs0b_GOCWKNPNkSkxZOZcLU33dVNR-zUV-MEVqlgZH9q8y8RcW3FsrETDd28lDn789U3gLd_VgEzAiLHMOCr3JO4NkFswbIjVZDq6bb_jUqBwp8SgzFhaHE-BFvzfYUyjI/s400/Maria_Mancini_%25281639-1715%2529%252C_hertogin_van_Bouillon_Rijksmuseum_SK-A-3236.jpeg.jpeg" width="327" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Marie Mancini, Princess and Duchess of Paliano<br />(Jacob Ferdinand Voet, 1660-80)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Marie
Mancini, the third of the five Mancini sisters, was the fifth of the
Mazarinettes to marry. As mentioned previously, she had not been as beautiful
as her sisters and cousins in her youth. Her mother openly criticized her by
comparing her to her sisters and even sent her to a convent at the age of seven
but removed her two years later due to her poor health. However, Marie did
become more beautiful with age, so beautiful in fact that the King of France
himself fell for her. By 1658, Louis XIV had begun a love affair with the
vivacious and highly intellectual Marie, who was just one year his junior. They
studied Italian poetry and French romances together, as well as art and tragic
plays. Marie made him a more independent, confident, and open man while he grew
extremely devoted and fond of her. So much so that Marie’s family, especially
the Cardinal, worried that the willful Marie would become the Queen of France.
Although such a marriage was the ultimate prize for the ambitious Cardinal, he
feared that a union between Louis and Marie would result in the King being less
subservient towards him. Politically, it was also necessary that the King marry
a Spanish princess since France and Spain needed a marital union to achieve
peace. The marriage of a powerful sovereign to an Italian niece of a Cardinal
would not achieve anything for France. It also didn’t help that Marie was not
on good relations with her uncle and therefore, he couldn’t expect her to
support his station if she was on the throne. Though Louis’s love for Marie was
somewhat naïve, he was so infatuated with her that he pronounced his desire to
make her his wife. This declaration of love shocked the Cardinal and the Queen
Mother to the point of where they had to force Louis into marriage with his
Spanish double first cousin and send Marie away from court to Italy. It is
known that Marie never had sexual relations with the King, as she was a proud
and dignified woman who cherished her honor. Even if Louis had wanted Marie to
stay at court as his mistress, she would have never conceded. Instead, Marie
went to Italy eager to marry just to show how angry she was over how she had
been treated. So, in the early summer of 1661, the twenty-one year old Marie
married Lorenzo Onofrio Colonna, 8th Duke and Prince of Paliano as well as the
hereditary Grand Constable of the Kingdom of Naples, in Milan. Lorenzo was just
two years his wife’s senior and was a member of the powerful and noble Colonna
family. He made a famous remark on his wedding night to Marie, as he was
surprised to find that she was still a virgin and said that he had not
anticipated to discover “innocence among the love of kings.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Marie,
now the Princess and Duchess of Paliano, lived with her husband at his palace
in Rome. Lorenzo was a rather uninteresting man who didn’t hold much regard for
honor. But despite this, the couple were happy during their early years of
marriage, especially after Marie gave birth to three sons in quick succession.
The first, Filippo II, was born in 1663 and was followed by Marcantonio in 1664
and Carlo in 1665. The Prince and Princess of Paliano greatly supported and
promoted the arts, so much so that many artists dedicated their works to Marie
and her husband. Their palace was renowned for its, “artistic grace and luxury,”
as well as its, “Parisian fashions of cards, theatricals, and dances, and the
Parisian freedom of conversation, that shocked Roman prejudices and caused few
husbands to allow their wives to be seen in the Palazzo Colonna.” But Marie’s
marriage to Lorenzo fell apart soon after the birth of their third and final
child because of Lorenzo’s extramarital affairs and Marie’s unwillingness to
have any more children. In 1668, her younger sister, Hortense, fled her
horrible husband to find solace with Marie in the Palazzo Colonna. It seems as
though the rebellious Hortense inspired her older sister (who was now terrified
that her husband was harboring a desire to kill her) to escape with her to Rome
in June of 1672. The sisters didn’t stay in Rome for long and left the city
dressed as men for the coast of Provence where they parted ways – Hortense to
Savoy and Marie to Paris. She hoped to find support from her old lover, the
King, but Louis did not welcome her with open arms. Instead, he refused to see
her and banished her from the court. After this denial, Marie lived a
“wandering life” for some live, first staying with Hortense in Savoy and then
moving on to Switzerland and Spain. She lived in various convents on her
husband’s expense (though he did not willingly support her) until his death in
1689 when she went back to Italy, now fifty years old. According to
contemporaries, she was even more beautiful in old age than she had been in her
youth. She died on May 8, 1715 in Pisa at the impressive age of seventy-five.
Her eldest son, Filippo II, became the 9th Duke and Prince of Paliano after his
father’s death and married a Spanish aristocrat named Lorenza de la Cerda, a
descendant from the noble family of Castile, in 1681. After she died without
having children in 1697, Filippo II remarried an Italian noblewoman named
Olimpia Pamphili, who he had several children with. Filippo died months before
his mother in 1714 at the age of fifty-one from severe bladder stones and
kidney disease. Not much is known of Marie’s two younger sons except that her
youngest, Carlo, became a Cardinal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSZ9EQuT3LHHC92UhBhGlx2yExetard0m5i19h3eMOCJIrS9EQ4CAJYtD7MyH9DtaBGdDfTeGOSgq8ewqVzOgkFRS_XgDk11VArYPr7pAJ8GCrEuSdJbVrDzFdA3WgSqvRD8FqgJ_uf4IA/s1600/800px-HortenseManciniJacobFerdinandVoet1675.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSZ9EQuT3LHHC92UhBhGlx2yExetard0m5i19h3eMOCJIrS9EQ4CAJYtD7MyH9DtaBGdDfTeGOSgq8ewqVzOgkFRS_XgDk11VArYPr7pAJ8GCrEuSdJbVrDzFdA3WgSqvRD8FqgJ_uf4IA/s400/800px-HortenseManciniJacobFerdinandVoet1675.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Hortense Mancini, Duchesse de Mazarin<br />(Jacob Ferdinand Voet, 1675)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
fourth Mancini sister, the gorgeous Hortense, was the most beautiful and the
most defiant of the seven Mazarinettes. Her sumptuous beauty and marvelous
charm made her nearly impossible to resist for many men and women – including
the future King Charles II of England. In 1659, Charles came to the
French court to visit his maternal first cousin, the King, and found himself
falling for the seductive Hortense, who was sixteen years his junior. In fact,
when Charles first met the Italian beauty, she was just thirteen years old to
his twenty-nine years. Charles asked her uncle for her hand in marriage, as he
hoped her family’s wealth and connections would work in his benefit, but the
Cardinal was quick to rebuke Charles’s proposal. This was because Charles was
just an exiled king, so the Cardinal believed that a match between his niece
and the son of an executed and deposed monarch was far from idealistic.
However, the Cardinal soon realized his error in turning down Charles when he
was reinstated as king just a few months later. Mazarin hastily tried to
reinvigorate Charles’s desire to wed Hortense with a promise of an enormous
dowry but the new King was no longer interested in marrying someone who turned
him down. The Cardinal knew that he would have to pursue other prospects for
his favorite niece’s hand. Thus, on March 1, 1661, the fifteen year-old
Hortense married one of the richest men in Europe, a French general named
Armand-Charles de La Porte de La Meilleraye, who was fourteen years older than
his bride. The day after their wedding, the couple was made the Duc and
Duchesse de Mazarin. Although the marriage looked promising on paper, it would
prove to be a complete disaster. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1a9g6HIe5dYI6f99SLZpacI95znHP4Vpa4btMeL1ZHGr-seO5MaaBqaEnWVk7IZfsfsIL9OsQV7SCwn-mAYTzWNRlj5QyIukwjZdWbKsDU18zKOQyxFrroX9uuyYalAqKYa2MvwDx4Z2N/s1600/HortenseManciniGodfreyKneller.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1a9g6HIe5dYI6f99SLZpacI95znHP4Vpa4btMeL1ZHGr-seO5MaaBqaEnWVk7IZfsfsIL9OsQV7SCwn-mAYTzWNRlj5QyIukwjZdWbKsDU18zKOQyxFrroX9uuyYalAqKYa2MvwDx4Z2N/s400/HortenseManciniGodfreyKneller.jpg" width="318" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Hortense Mancini, Duchesse de Mazarin<br />(Sir Godfrey Kneller, 1671)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Armand-Charles
was an extremely odd, jealous, and stingy man. He was also spoiled, arrogant,
and used to getting his own way since he had been born with a silver spoon in
his mouth. It’s safe to say that he was mentally unstable, which his youthful,
lively, and sociable wife bore the brunt of. He possessed an intense sexual
jealousy towards Hortense coupled with an theatrical sense of morality. He
demanded that the front teeth of all his female servants be knocked out so they
wouldn’t attract the attentions of men and he also barred his dairy maids from
milking cows because the sight of them squeezing the cows’ udders would excite any
on-looking man sexually. The Duc de Mazarin also painted over or chipped away
all the “dirty bits” in paintings in his own art collection. He suffocated
Hortense to the point where he always believed that she was unfaithful to him
and searched her room every night for hidden lovers. She was forbidden from
ever being alone with a man and was compelled to spend the majority of her day
at church praying “for forgiveness for the sins of the flesh.” Hortense
revolted against her husband’s madness by engaging in a lesbian affair with a
friend her own age named Sidonie de Courcelles. Their little tryst went on
happily for some time until an enraged Armand-Charles discovered what they were
doing and sent them off to a convent to “cure” them. This was futile, as the
young girls were constantly creating trouble for the nuns by putting ink in the
holy water, flooding the nuns’ beds, and climbing up the chimneys in attempts
to escape. Eventually, Armand-Charles took his wife back and, astonishingly
enough (considering their mismatched personalities), had four children with
her. Hortense had her first child, a daughter named Marie Charlotte, in 1662
and a second daughter, Marie Anne, the following year. A third daughter named
Marie Olympe was born in 1665 and in 1666, Hortense had her fourth and last
child, a son named Paul Jules. </span><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;">Two years
after the birth of her son, Hortense had enough of her horrible marriage. On
the night of June 13, 1668, she left her children and husband with the help of
her brother, Philippe, Duc de Nevers, and fled to Rome to live with her older
sister, Marie Mancini, the Princess Colonna. Luckily enough for Hortense, she
managed to procure the support of King Louis XIV himself who supported her
flight from her marriage by granting her a large pension that allowed her to
live independently. She used this money to buy a home in Haute-Savoie after
leaving Rome with her sister and further managed to provide for herself by
becoming the mistress of a former suitor, Charles Emmanuel II, Duke of Savoy,
who made himself her protector until his death in 1675. After the Duke’s
demise, his jealous widow kicked Hortense out, leaving her homeless and
penniless since her estranged husband had managed to freeze her income
(including the pension from the King). </span><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;">But Hortense’s fortunes changed when the
English ambassador to Rome, Ralph Montagu, made her acquaintance and cooked up
a scheme to use her to improve his political and social standing back home. He
planned to bring Hortense with him back to England to win the heart of King
Charles II, a past suitor, as his new mistress. With Hortense in the King’s
bed, Montagu could use this as a way to gain favor and influence with the King
and thus, the court. The audacious Hortense was eager to try this plan and
quickly journeyed to England dressed as a man (she had a tendency to
cross-dress, which is seen as an “outward expression” of her bisexuality) under
the pretense of going to London to visit her niece, Mary of Modena, the newly
wedded wife of the King’s brother. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmsQMzx6cgoHbk3r73fEnBNw93OE0XK3Sal8F1-ORqmrpC0wCNl9bIqwq3W-9wH-0tFI2K-mqQTSPpv36MWzvQsJzmIWgAOwwrSJNDBSrTdEMJx_BWUPC_5Vg1VTF7BRbCCgkQiSVDkoAT/s1600/mariecharlottemazarin.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmsQMzx6cgoHbk3r73fEnBNw93OE0XK3Sal8F1-ORqmrpC0wCNl9bIqwq3W-9wH-0tFI2K-mqQTSPpv36MWzvQsJzmIWgAOwwrSJNDBSrTdEMJx_BWUPC_5Vg1VTF7BRbCCgkQiSVDkoAT/s400/mariecharlottemazarin.jpg" width="310" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Marie Charlotte de La Porte Mazarin<br />(Jacob Ferdinand Voet, 1680's-1700's)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;">It didn’t take long for Hortense to find her
way into the King’s bed; by the summer of 1676 she was the King’s new mistress
(replacing his former favorite, Louise de Kerouaille) and was living large off
a grand pension Charles had bestowed upon her. But the wild Hortense wasn’t
faithful to the King in the least. In fact, her sexual escapades earned her the
nickname of the “Italian Whore” by the English people. She had an affair with
the King’s illegitimate daughter by Barbara Palmer, the Duchess of Cleveland –
Anne Lennard, Countess of Sussex – a married woman who was fifteen years
Hortense’s junior. Hortense even had a public fencing match with her young
lover, both clad in nightgowns, for an audience of courtiers. This induced
Anne’s husband to ship her off to the country to keep her away from Hortense.
The Duchesse de Mazarin moved on from her young admirer quite quickly to begin
an affair with Louis I, Prince of Monaco, which enraged Charles II so greatly that
he cut off her pension and removed her as his favorite mistress. Eventually, he
did reinstate her payments and the two remained good friends until Charles’s
death in 1685. Hortense lived in England for the rest of her life at her sophisticated
home in Chelsea. She stayed in the good graces of Charles’s brother and
successor, James II, as well as his own successors, his daughter Mary II and
her husband William III. She headed her own salon of intellectuals at her home
until her death on November 9, 1699 at the age of fifty-three. It is said by
some that she took her own life by drinking herself to death. Strangely enough,
after her death her estranged husband claimed her body and took it with him
wherever he went until he eventually allowed her remains to be buried in the
tomb of her uncle, the Cardinal. Hortense’s oldest daughter, Marie Charlotte,
married a French nobleman named Louis Armand de Vignerot du Plessis, Duc
d’Aiguillon and Comte d’Agénias who she had one son with. Her younger sister,
Marie Anne, never married and became an abbess while Hortense’s youngest
daughter, Marie Olympe, married Louis Christophe Gigault, Marquis de Bellefonds
et de Boullaye and had one daughter. Hortense’s only son, Paul Jules, became
the Duc de Mazarin after his father’s death in 1713 and married a woman named Félice
Armande Charlotte de Durfort who he had a son and a daughter with. His
daughter, Armande Félice de La Porte Mazarin, married a Prince of Orange and
had five beautiful daughters known as the Mademoiselles de Nesles. Four of
these girls would become mistresses of King Louis XV. Paul Jules’s son, Guy
Jules, also became the Duc de Mazarin after his father’s death. His descendants
include the current royal family of Monaco.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCsWkDvwhJdg19izLCUtuMZVWcLCDo-PdQDgx57MdlCGhHM3rs8NNPohuZAIuWNI9NHXxVnJZq13CQj3p1uYS8j8CySXkTrG6fl0jiLlAHDbAJNaOv4UkhkvQH7a4mNF4JZ_4SW-01XAFf/s1600/800px-Marie-Anne_Martinozzi_%2528ne%25CC%2581e_Mancini%2529%252C_Duchess_of_Bouillon_by_Benedetto_Gennari.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCsWkDvwhJdg19izLCUtuMZVWcLCDo-PdQDgx57MdlCGhHM3rs8NNPohuZAIuWNI9NHXxVnJZq13CQj3p1uYS8j8CySXkTrG6fl0jiLlAHDbAJNaOv4UkhkvQH7a4mNF4JZ_4SW-01XAFf/s400/800px-Marie-Anne_Martinozzi_%2528ne%25CC%2581e_Mancini%2529%252C_Duchess_of_Bouillon_by_Benedetto_Gennari.jpg" width="341" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Marie Anne Mancini, Duchess of Bouillon<br />(Benedetto Gennari II, 1715)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
youngest Mazarinette, Marie Anne Mancini, was the last to marry. When her eldest
sister, Laura, the Duchess of Mercœur, died in childbirth in early 1657, the eight
year-old Marie Anne took her late sister’s three sons into her home, despite
her young age. When Marie Anne was thirteen years old, her uncle died in 1661.
On his deathbed, he was approached by the well-known field marshal, the Vicomte
de Turenne, who asked for Marie Anne to marry his nephew, </span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Godefroy Maurice de La Tour d'Auvergne, Duke of Bouillon.
The hesitant Cardinal died before agreeing or disagreeing to the match so Marie
Anne’s mother betrothed her youngest daughter to the Duke of Bouillon herself.
On April 22, 1662, Marie Anne (who was no more than fifteen years old) married
the Duke of Bouillon at the home of her sister Olympia - the Hôtel de Soissons.
Godegroy Maurice was thirteen years older than his bride and though he was a
good solider, he was a blunt man with bad manners and little intellect. Thus,
his young wife, the new Duchess of Bouillon (who was far more gifted and aspiring
than her dull husband), lived rather independently for her time, as she was
able to engage in her own political and literary pursuits without having to
seek out her husband’s approval. She even had her own salon at her home of the Hôtel
de Bouillon. Like her sister Olympia, she became involved in the scandalous
Affair of the Poisons when she was accussed of planning to poison her husband to
marry her maternal nephew, Louis Joseph, Duke of Vendôme (the eldest son of her
sister, Laura). Unlike her sister, who had to flee France to avoid arrest,
Marie Anne was not imprisoned, punished, or convicted. She had seven children
with her husband between the years of 1665-1679, five sons and two daughters,
all of whom survived infancy. Only five of her children married but just two of
her sons had children who lived to adulthood. Marie Anne Mancini, Duchess of
Bouillon, died on June 20, 1714 at the age of sixty-five while her husband died
seven years later at the age of eighty-five.</span><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15315177275314871435noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6807555129500021847.post-33022336862871662302016-07-31T16:38:00.000-07:002016-07-31T16:38:49.866-07:00Clara Ward, Princesse de Caraman-Chimay | An American Dollar Princess<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipaUaAOsUK2ZAaRkAM2LiHAFZiFmAuWxsUhf_tngkpdM-xf2ZGpx61Rc37Hqtde65UJRt5sn5PdlZTcawp4G_xn-KCvj3P8zE_00OVcUGxu92tdu1fkMxhLtAxnpdxQo_Me4rHny5Z9MT4/s1600/Clara_Ward%252C_Princesse_de_Caraman-Chimay_%25281873-1916%2529_C.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipaUaAOsUK2ZAaRkAM2LiHAFZiFmAuWxsUhf_tngkpdM-xf2ZGpx61Rc37Hqtde65UJRt5sn5PdlZTcawp4G_xn-KCvj3P8zE_00OVcUGxu92tdu1fkMxhLtAxnpdxQo_Me4rHny5Z9MT4/s640/Clara_Ward%252C_Princesse_de_Caraman-Chimay_%25281873-1916%2529_C.jpg" width="468" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Clara Ward was born in Detroit, Michigan on
June 17, 1873 to Captain Eber Brock Ward, a prosperous shipping magnate and
lumber industry mogul who was known as the “King of the Lakes”, and his second
wife, Catherine Lyon, a niece of a U.S. Senator from Ohio. Clara’s father, who
earned the title of Michigan’s first millionaire, had been born in Canada but
his parents had been born and raised in Vermont, so technically Eber Brock was
an American. His first marriage ended quite shamefully when his wife divorced
him for serial infidelity. He had seven children by his first wife and two by
his second wife, Clara’s mother. Clara’s siblings were quite an unstable bunch.
Her father’s first child by his first wife, Henry, was declared insane at the
age of fifteen and was put in the Michigan State Hospital. Eber Brock’s oldest
daughter by his first wife, Elizabeth, was said to be “mentally incompetent”
along with her younger brothers, Henry (who became bankrupt later in life and
was called “deranged and eccentric”), and Frederick (who committed suicide).
Clara’s only full sibling, her older brother Eber Jr., entered into a marriage
which ended in disaster in 1900 when his wife divorced him because he was
apparently too infatuated with his stepdaughter. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOsSOXKIZw1RKxohpDFf_e4Om67y09ql1vlQrqx1F-SwJKL9_BsR5JSRa2fBRwwi9fC9EL_MqkLcCzy81FfVnv8Ep5ymvbxQJvVgSW6iO8yOdjSEEJRhYbHPYM6BMmRQcF96pzEqj6tmVf/s1600/Clara_Ward%252C_Princesse_de_Caraman-Chimay_%25281873-1916%2529_B.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOsSOXKIZw1RKxohpDFf_e4Om67y09ql1vlQrqx1F-SwJKL9_BsR5JSRa2fBRwwi9fC9EL_MqkLcCzy81FfVnv8Ep5ymvbxQJvVgSW6iO8yOdjSEEJRhYbHPYM6BMmRQcF96pzEqj6tmVf/s400/Clara_Ward%252C_Princesse_de_Caraman-Chimay_%25281873-1916%2529_B.jpg" width="288" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Clara Ward<br />(1898)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">When Clara was a little over a year old, her
father died in 1875 from a stroke days after his sixty-fourth birthday. While
he left barely any of his $6 million dollar fortune to his children from his
first marriage, he did leave most of his wealth to his second wife, Clara, and
her brother. The widowed Catherine Lyon moved to New York with Clara and Eber
Jr. but she soon remarried a Canadian, so, the small family settled down again
in Toronto. When Clara was fifteen, her mother sent her to a London finishing
school…and then another…and another…and another. Clara had a notoriously bad
reputation and simply could not stay in one school for long due to her
troublesome and rebellious nature. There are many stories surrounding her
various adventures at the numerous finishing schools she attended. It’s said
that eighteen days after she vanished from her school in Paris, she was found
in the garret of a starving student. Another allegation was that Clara had
snuck out of one of her schools by hiding on the roof of her mother’s carriage.
Most of the stories surrounding her experiences in the many schools she
attended are more fiction that fact but what’s certain is that Clara was not an
obedient, dutiful daughter. Her mischievous personality is highlighted by the
many shocking things she did during her teenage years. It was even claimed that
Clara had been kicked out of an Italian convent school because she horrified
the nuns to such an extreme. But Clara’s rowdiness didn’t deter her mother from
finding her daughter a proper husband. The huge fortune that Clara inherited
from her father and her sensuous beauty made her a highly desirable bride. One newspaper
wrote that the curvy American heiress with long brown waves was “as beautiful
as she is wealthy”. And it would be this wild beauty’s wealth that would snag
her a husband – and a title. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Clara Ward, Princesse de Caraman-Chimay<br />(1890's)</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">In about 1889, the teenage Clara made the
acquaintance of Prince Joseph de Caraman-Chimay. Prince Joseph, a member of the
Belgian Chamber of Deputies, was the son of a Belgian foreign affairs minister
who also happened to be a minor noble of the Château de Chimay in the province
of Hainaut. Although Joseph’s family had means, the Belgian prince (who
competed in fencing in the 1900 Summer Olympics) was quickly sinking into debt
at the time. Thus, Clara’s fortune was the only reason he proposed to her.
Joseph was not a handsome man and was the polar opposite of Clara in regards to
personality but the seventeen year-old girl didn’t care about anything but the
fact that he had a title. By marrying the Belgian Prince de Caraman-Chimay (who
was fifteen years her senior) she would become a princess. And so, the
mismatched couple wed in Paris on May 20, 1890 and Clara became the Princesse
de Caraman-Chimay before she was even a legal adult. With her marriage to Prince Joseph, Clara became a "dollar princess", a rich American girl who came to Europe at the end of the 1800's looking to marry a titled aristocrat. The newlyweds spent most
of their marriage traveling through Joseph’s estates, the royal Belgian court,
the Riviera, Paris, and various other popular European gathering places for
aristocrats. Clara had two children with her husband; the first, a daughter
named Marie, was born on May 30, 1891 and the second, a son named Joseph, was
born on August 6, 1894. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Clara Ward, Princesse de Caraman-Chimay<br />(1890's)</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">But Clara soon discovered, not surprisingly,
that although she had wealth and prominence, she would never be satisfied with
simply molding herself into a proper, submissive princess in a world of rigid
decorum and precedence. She was also growing increasingly disenchanted with her
boring, standoffish husband. The couple already shared little affection or
contentment with one another; they had not married for love or companionship. Clara
had married Joseph for his title and he wed her for her fortune. Now that they
had these two things, what more was there to desire in each other? Rumors ran
amok throughout the nobility that Clara was having affairs with other men but
Joseph was so indifferent to his young, reckless wife that he could care less
what she did in her spare time. However, Clara’s unruliness always managed to
get her into trouble, be it in a finishing school or the royal court of King
Leopold II of Belgium. A few years into their marriage, Clara and Joseph left court
because, according to Clara, the King had been so enamored with her that he
made her a social pariah. This infuriated the Queen and the nobility so much
that they humiliated her to such an extent that she decided to leave court with
her husband. She later said of her decision to leave the Belgian court: “I
defied them, as I have all my life defied everyone”. It seems as though the
royal world of a princess Clara had so heartily desired in 1889 was not at all
what she expected – or wanted. She even cautioned other American women not to
fall into the same trap that she had stumbled into – that of marrying only for
a title: “Few American-bred women could feel themselves really happy in the
high European, especially Continental, society”. Simply put, Clara wanted her
life of freedom in America back. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Clara Ward and Rigo Janczy<br />(1897-1904)</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Once Clara and Joseph left court, they changed
their main social venue to the grand city of Paris where they enjoyed the more
riveting French engagements of dancing, drinking champagne, fashion, music, and
the arts. Clara loved this new world and threw herself into the Parisian
lifestyle wholeheartedly, which soon earned her the title of the most riotous
American east of the Atlantic. It was here in November of 1896 at a nightclub
for the rich upper class that the twenty-three year old Clara met a Hungarian
gypsy fiddler named Rigo Janczy. He, like Joseph, was not handsome by the
standards of the time. He was a miniscule man with an impressive handlebar
mustache and heavily perfumed dark hair. Janczy, who was just a single year
Clara’s senior, was called a “monkey-faced brute” by an American newspaper. But
something about this poor gypsy musician captivated Clara, even though he was a
married man. Perhaps it was the freedom of his lifestyle that she became
enamored with or maybe it was simply a chance for her to escape her husband and
the formal aristocratic world he belonged to. She most likely just wanted to be
the wild young teen she had once been before she chained herself to the stuffy
and dull Prince de Caraman-Chimay. Whatever the reason, ten days after Clara
met the Hungarian fiddler at the Parisian nightclub, she left her husband and
two young children to elope with him, much to the shock of the media and the aristocratic
world. Because she was so infamous for her reputation as a “fiery untamed
steed”, the abandoned Prince Joseph was able to divorce his runaway wife quite
easily by January of 1897. Clara, who didn’t even show up to the divorce
hearings, lost custody of her children and was legally obliged to pay her
ex-husband child support. She was also forbidden from ever seeing her children
again (not that she seemed to mind; she had left them without a thought and
didn’t bother to show up in court to fight for custody). In her own words, she
said of her elopement: “I am done with it all. I wanted to be free. I am at
least out of the rotten atmosphere in which modern society lives. It does not
want me and I do not want it – so we are quits.” Clara and her gypsy husband
first went to the mountainside cottage of Janczy’s mother after their flight
from the city. Apparently, Clara was so thankful for her mother-in-law’s
hospitality that she used a bit of her vast fortune to buy the mountain and
also gifted Janczy’s mother with a pearl necklace, which was so prized to the
Hungarian woman that she hung it on a nail by the fireplace. Soon, Clara and
Janczy returned to the city where they were sneered at and looked down upon by
Clara’s former acquaintances. The nobility of Paris even got the local hotels
and innkeepers to bar Clara from having a place to stay. But Clara wasn’t
deterred; she used some of her own money to buy her own house instead. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje_hLI4bUqxGXUWeakqCsCkWZxMuiXvxX5WiHC1mFjjU-pnhEi69NghNF_mdk9StXjXZv4llrPNrDBAm85UOLvJbgr-9L3W71VTL1HGte8nOEQtikXbH6dcWMUsWjMd3NRivEXjXTx18J-/s1600/7b512761c7568d2db5ff6449e79fb8c1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje_hLI4bUqxGXUWeakqCsCkWZxMuiXvxX5WiHC1mFjjU-pnhEi69NghNF_mdk9StXjXZv4llrPNrDBAm85UOLvJbgr-9L3W71VTL1HGte8nOEQtikXbH6dcWMUsWjMd3NRivEXjXTx18J-/s400/7b512761c7568d2db5ff6449e79fb8c1.jpg" width="270" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Clara Ward<br />(early 1900's)</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Clara certainly reviled in her newfound freedom
as the lover of a Hungarian gypsy (Rigo would not obtain a divorce from his
first wife until 1898, after which he legally married Clara). She would ride
down the streets on her bicycle in bloomers and “low socks like a man”, smoke
in public areas, and was often portrayed as a symbol of the moral decay of
Paris in foreign newspapers. But although Clara had her own means, the couple
needed a little more than a fiddler’s salary to get by. So, Clara decided to
use her two main assets – her beauty and fame – to make a bit of cash. By April
of 1897, Clara was on the stages of the Moulin Rouge and Folies Bergère posing
in skin-tight nude costumes for money, which she called her “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">poses plastiques</i>”. Sometimes Rigo even
appeared on stage with her playing his violin and dancing about while she
modeled for stunned onlookers. What Clara was engaging in was extremely
scandalous and shocking for the time, even for the usually more lax city of
Paris. Parisians were so horrified at the act of a former noble princess going
up on stage to stand in front of an audience and basically reveal everything
that police had to cancel her first show when they learned that friends of her
former husband were going to assault her with “live rabbits, rotten eggs, and
other equally objectionable missiles” while she was onstage. Despite the city’s
outrage, Clara still managed to rake in money (apparently, she and Rigo made
$6,800, about $181,000 today, in just a single month in Berlin). Pictures of
Clara in her revealing flesh-colored outfits were soon featured on postcards
throughout Europe. This just caused more social chaos, as her former husband
commanded the police to raid many photo shops in August of 1897 to confiscate
all pictures of her. It’s even said that Kaiser Wilhelm II forbade the use or
display of any of Clara’s postcards or pictures throughout his empire because
he found her beauty so “disturbing”. Many other common people throughout the
Continent were imprisoned for selling and sending the distasteful pictures of
the former Princesse de Caraman-Chimay throughout Europe. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Clara Ward<br />(1897-early 1900's)</i></td></tr>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Apparently, Clara and Rigo were initially
head-over-heels for each other. Clara spent vast amounts of her fortune on her
second husband, buying him a zoo of baby elephants, tigers, and lions as well
as a new violin and a trunk full of expensive jewels. They spent most of their
time vacationing throughout Europe, Africa, and Asia (allegedly, during a trip
to Japan, they had their faces tattooed on their biceps). They lived in Egypt
for two years where Clara taught Rigo how to read and write. The couple could
go wherever they wanted and settle down wherever they pleased; they just used
Clara’s money to build palaces in the different places they visited. However,
Clara’s profligate use of her inheritance soon reached her mother’s ears. The dismayed
former Mrs. Ward, concerned about her daughter’s actions and the state of the
family wealth and name, went to court to name her daughter’s uncle as the
conservator of her estate in 1898. Now that Clara had lost total control over
her money, she was permitted to a yearly allowance of about $2 million in
today’s money, a fourth of which would go to the care and support of her
children by Prince Joseph. But the fact that Clara had less money didn’t seem
to register in her errant mind. She went on spending her money just as
wastefully as when she hadn’t been limited to a certain income. By 1901, she
was pronounced a spendthrift after her uncle was forced to use some of her
capital to clear her huge debts. Between 1894-1901, Clara had spent $750,000,
which is about $20 million today, mostly on frivolities for Rigo. Yet, no
matter how much money Clara had or spent, it couldn’t seem to repair her
crumbling marriage. Just a few months into their elopement, Clara and Rigo were
fighting quite often in public, much to the embarrassment of spectators. In 1897,
the couple had such a loud and violent fight in a Milan hotel that guests there
were dazed at just how noisy and chaotic the conflict got. The fight was so bad
that Clara paid the cost of her board but not Rigo’s. The fact that both the
nobility and the common people of Europe shunned Clara and Rigo only hurt their
marriage. By, 1904, Clara and Rigo were divorced and the former princess had
found herself a new lover. Just a few months after Clara left her gypsy
husband, she married for a third time to a very handsome Italian (or Spanish)
man named Guiseppe “Peppino” Ricciardi. Most accounts pin him as a waiter on a
train but he was also said to be a baggage clerk, a canvasser for an Italian
tourist agency, and a manager of a railway station of the Mount Vesuvius
Funicular. Clara continued to make headlines under vague or bogus stories but
her third marriage, just like her former two, didn’t last long. In July of
1911, the couple divorced because Ricciardi asserted that she was having an
affair with their butler, which Clara protested. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOOjJU33UWmnoDCkHKEMdHgjyE2TEKhmvMq0aNDWnYBrj5n8WhfQ0LEds4bXv7gkb8SpYjKw2wJl5C0m4hKL_0g_dNgmMJq3ZkT0mdFh4zSqrqkGZ7zNDHzk51iMetHkZt7uwByFMy__ve/s1600/225px-Clara_Ward%252C_Post_Card1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOOjJU33UWmnoDCkHKEMdHgjyE2TEKhmvMq0aNDWnYBrj5n8WhfQ0LEds4bXv7gkb8SpYjKw2wJl5C0m4hKL_0g_dNgmMJq3ZkT0mdFh4zSqrqkGZ7zNDHzk51iMetHkZt7uwByFMy__ve/s400/225px-Clara_Ward%252C_Post_Card1.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Clara Ward<br />(1905)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">It’s said that after Clara’s third divorce she
announced: “I cannot be alone. I am unhappy like that. I shall marry yet once
again”. She stayed true to her words and wed for a fourth time to a Signore
Abano Caselato (his last name could have also been Cassalota, Casseletto, or
Casaloto), who was either a butler, a chauffeur, a station manager, or an
artist. The details of Clara’s fourth marriage were greatly obscure to the
public, as well as to Clara’s own family. In fact, Clara’s relatives didn’t even
know that she had married a fourth time until Abano sent them a telegraph five
years after the wedding to inform them that Clara had died of pneumonia on
December 9, 1916 in Padua, Italy at the age of forty-three. Upon her death, her
$1.2 million dollar estate was divided among her children, her third husband,
and an American cousin. Since her will had been made in 1904, the year she
married Ricciardi, her last husband was not included in it. Three years after
Clara’s death, her first husband, Prince Joseph, remarried a young woman named
Anne Marie Le Veneur de Tillières who was about thirty-one years his junior
(she was just a few months old when he married Clara) and had two sons. Prince
Joseph de Caraman-Chimay, died on July 25, 1937 at the age of seventy-nine and
was succeeded by his first son from his second marriage since his son with
Clara had died in 1920 at the age of twenty-five. Clara’s daughter with Joseph,
Marie, who was known as the Comtesse de Caraman-Chimay, married a French man
named Georges De Cocq in 1918 but had no children. She died in 1939 at the age
of forty-eight. A few lines from Clara Ward’s obituary in a Detroit paper
summed up Clara’s rebellious and scandalous life quite acutely: “She died a
woman without illusions. She had gone the pace. She lived intensely, a slave of
her desires; she died an outcast, an old woman of 43 years, just when she
should have been in her prime”. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15315177275314871435noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6807555129500021847.post-82409138615109426872016-07-29T17:00:00.001-07:002016-07-30T18:11:04.428-07:00Maria Carolina of Austria, Queen of Naples and Sicily<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvH5nWSFnkN8W0v3qoQatay21u8cv5hEe9vKTEll72Hlab2vDlixhvFRyIT-6zH7url03lKzGtqEUIYLfXIPwOVzyNSpVRZ5A4G0RwBbQf_fajcK2ewZBMBTRJHqm71hGaHBTt6ZeFGva1/s1600/Mari%25CC%2581a_Carolina_de_Habsburgo-Lorena%252C_reina_de_Na%25CC%2581poles.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvH5nWSFnkN8W0v3qoQatay21u8cv5hEe9vKTEll72Hlab2vDlixhvFRyIT-6zH7url03lKzGtqEUIYLfXIPwOVzyNSpVRZ5A4G0RwBbQf_fajcK2ewZBMBTRJHqm71hGaHBTt6ZeFGva1/s640/Mari%25CC%2581a_Carolina_de_Habsburgo-Lorena%252C_reina_de_Na%25CC%2581poles.jpg" width="534" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Maria Carolina of Austria, who
was born as “Archduchess Maria Carolina Louise Josepha Johanna Antonia”, was
the thirteenth and sixth surviving child of Empress Maria Theresa of the Holy
Roman Empire and Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor and Grand Duke of Tuscany. She
was born on August 13, 1752 at the Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna and was named
after her late older sisters – Maria Carolina, who died two weeks after her
first birthday in 1741, and another Maria Carolina, who died a few hours after
her baptism in 1748. To distinguish Maria Carolina from the sisters she never
knew, her family called her “Charlotte”. Maria Carolina’s mother was a
sovereign in her own right and the only female ruler of the Habsburg Empire.
Maria Theresa, the eldest surviving child of Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor and
Princess Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, married Francis
Stephan, Duke of Lorraine, a great-grandson of King Louis XII of France who was
nine years Maria Theresa’s senior, in 1736. While Maria Theresa loved her
husband passionately, she was an extremely jealous woman who wanted to control
Francis Stephan’s heart, body, and soul. Francis Stephan never returned his
wife’s feelings and was constantly unfaithful to her, much to her anger.
However, the couple did manage to produce sixteen children over the course of
twenty years, thirteen of whom survived infancy. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq3uAkyOZzDcWM5mLz_He1MHv4cpNel7PNKITMIkIeHTYQ3bMa_ghQ7DnnJypc8nQo_A1spND-4z2HBWg7_1KUIFJfn1oWWxwujCAQkZVsHSBfrvVbaTGb7owcsAsWsPPROSkC-y2VER2K/s1600/800px-Meister_der_Erzherzoginnenportraits_002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq3uAkyOZzDcWM5mLz_He1MHv4cpNel7PNKITMIkIeHTYQ3bMa_ghQ7DnnJypc8nQo_A1spND-4z2HBWg7_1KUIFJfn1oWWxwujCAQkZVsHSBfrvVbaTGb7owcsAsWsPPROSkC-y2VER2K/s400/800px-Meister_der_Erzherzoginnenportraits_002.jpg" width="311" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Archduchess Maria Carolina of Austria<br />(Martin van Meytens, 1765)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Maria Carolina was one of her
parents’ younger children. Her older siblings included: Joseph II, Holy Roman
Emperor, Maria Christina, Duchess of Teschen, Maria Amalia, Duchess of Parma,
and Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor. Her younger siblings included Ferdinand,
Duke of Modena and Marie Antoinette, Queen of France. Maria Carolina was said
to take after her mother greatly in appearance. Out of all of the Empress’s
sixteen children, it was Maria Carolina who looked the most like her mother. She
had light, chestnut-colored hair, large, expressive blue eyes, an aquiline
nose, a small, red-lipped mouth, dimples, a long neck, and a slender frame. Young
Maria Carolina was a princess of a huge empire; combined, her parents ruled
over the vast territory of the Holy Roman Empire, the lands of Austria,
Hungary, Croatia, Bohemia, Transylvania, Mantua, Milan, Lodomeria and Galicia,
the Austrian Netherlands, Parma, Lorraine and Tuscany. During her childhood in
Vienna, Maria Caroline became very close to her famous younger sister by three
years, the future Marie Antoinette of France. They were so close, in fact, that
when one became sick, the other would be sure to catch the same illness as
well. The girls were taught under the same governess until 1767 when their
mother separated them because they always roused up trouble together. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimUwGjB7tIL-zUUDpt-IkhEAUY59ybYYibgbKNkUxM5gPC29Axq4Ly_7AOp1CaKXEdOKZSkNTNWSiB4JpUDzVH6jd0uv-9dGWAU10kUhInCBMG8IzA_SnwK4APTcrKO2znaM2toS8xwGM_/s1600/Johann_Georg_Weikert_001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimUwGjB7tIL-zUUDpt-IkhEAUY59ybYYibgbKNkUxM5gPC29Axq4Ly_7AOp1CaKXEdOKZSkNTNWSiB4JpUDzVH6jd0uv-9dGWAU10kUhInCBMG8IzA_SnwK4APTcrKO2znaM2toS8xwGM_/s400/Johann_Georg_Weikert_001.jpg" width="308" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Archduchess Maria Carolina of Austria<br />(Johann Georg Weikert, 1768)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The formidable and astute Empress
Maria Theresa wanted to create a marriage alliance between her family and the
Bourbon royal family of southern Italy, specifically, the Spanish branch of the
Bourbon dynasty that reigned over Naples and Sicily, to maintain an alliance
between Austria and Spain. Initially, the Empress arranged for one of her older
daughters, Maria Josepha, to marry King Ferdinand IV and III of Naples and
Sicily but in 1767, on the day the sixteen year-old Maria Josepha was supposed
to leave Vienna for Naples, she died of smallpox. Ferdinand’s father and the
Empress were so keen to preserve the Austro-Spanish alliance through marriage
that Maria Theresa offered her younger daughter, Maria Carolina, to Ferdinand.
When Maria Carolina learned of her betrothal to her late sister’s fiancée, she
broke down in tears and threw an angry, emotional fit, proclaiming that marital
unions with the House of Naples were nothing but inauspicious. But her protests
were in vain because personal opinions regarding political marital matches made
no difference at the time. Nine months after the betrothal was announced, Maria
Carolina married King Ferdinand by proxy in Vienna on April 7, 1768 with her
brother, another Ferdinand, standing in for the bridegroom. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJbmcRRgGA3NyQgZFghk8K9z9LvZ3n-xhy8uj3oRTJJRD2RxTHZOSdKFz4qh-aame5fuF1hQGsbBnK-bekavEHIYuHoNuFrzaLjbMxHsomxRz-c7aLyuF2gYIMMvVAxu2DWp1t-vHqacMJ/s1600/Screen+Shot+2016-07-29+at+4.37.46+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJbmcRRgGA3NyQgZFghk8K9z9LvZ3n-xhy8uj3oRTJJRD2RxTHZOSdKFz4qh-aame5fuF1hQGsbBnK-bekavEHIYuHoNuFrzaLjbMxHsomxRz-c7aLyuF2gYIMMvVAxu2DWp1t-vHqacMJ/s1600/Screen+Shot+2016-07-29+at+4.37.46+PM.png" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>King Ferdinand VI and III of Naples and Sicily (Anton Raphael Mengs, 1772-73) </i><i style="font-size: 12.8px;">and Archduchess Maria Carolina of Austria (</i><i>Anton Raphael Mengs, 1768)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">King Ferdinand of Naples and
Sicily was the third son of King Charles III of Spain and Maria Amalia of
Saxony. He inherited the crowns of Naples and Sicily in 1759 at the age of
eight when his father became the King of Spain, so he ruled under a regency
until he came of age in 1767. He was described as being a undemanding young man
with a poor education, a passion for activities of pleasure, and a idle nature
when it came to ruling. Although he had been a king since childhood, Ferdinand
was more at ease conversing with a commoner on the streets than an aristocrat
in his royal court. He also loved to engage in outdoor sports, which he
sometimes neglected his royal duties to take part in. Maria Carolina was quite
different from her husband. She was a very smart and curious woman who could be
kind, munificent, and sympathetic to others when needed but she was also a
domineering, arrogant, and merciless royal princess who held grudges against
her rivals for decades. She was a willful and impulsive teen who was certain that
she, the daughter of a great empress and the member of a powerful ruling house,
was born to rule. On May 12, 1768, the sixteen year-old Maria Carolina arrived
in the Kingdom of Naples at Terracina where she and her escorts, her brother
the future Holy Roman Emperor Leopold II and his wife, Maria Luisa, travelled
to the Palace of Caserta. Here, Maria Carolina met her seventeen year-old
husband for the first time and she was extremely unimpressed. She said that he
was “very ugly” and that she would only “love him out of duty.” Ferdinand, like
his wife, was fair with light hair and eyes but he was also covered in herpes,
as his doctors said that this was a sign of good health. Ferdinand was not
pleased with his Austrian wife either, saying that “she sleeps like the dead
and sweats like a pig” after their first night together. It probably didn’t
help that the couple could barely communicate with each other; Maria Carolina
spoke Italian poorly and Ferdinand didn’t know his wife’s native German. He
spoke Spanish but could speak Italian about as well as Maria Carolina could. Though
the couple had no official wedding ceremony, they had married by proxy so, upon
her arrival in Naples, Maria Carolina was officially the Queen of Naples and
Sicily. Despite the lack of love in the couple’s relationship, they did their
dynastic duty by having a total of eighteen children, seven of whom survived to
adulthood:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJscGRR_88YBmQwcqreXZpp5dBD3eNnGg2y6gjBLwynvgAl7VEX2Ts0aTi5l31Lgzx8GzazezAehNCxTEdupfLZafvumzNp-SvQkAp_6r3kqNf-ZK0_fBKQy6MItp2a5cUJFHfRa1Axq9S/s1600/Ferdinand_IV%252C_King_of_Naples%252C_and_his_Family_%25281783%2529_Kaufmann.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="456" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJscGRR_88YBmQwcqreXZpp5dBD3eNnGg2y6gjBLwynvgAl7VEX2Ts0aTi5l31Lgzx8GzazezAehNCxTEdupfLZafvumzNp-SvQkAp_6r3kqNf-ZK0_fBKQy6MItp2a5cUJFHfRa1Axq9S/s640/Ferdinand_IV%252C_King_of_Naples%252C_and_his_Family_%25281783%2529_Kaufmann.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Family of King Ferdinand VI and III of Naples and Sicily and Queen Maria Carolina (left to right):<br />Maria Theresa, Francis I, King Ferdinand, Queen Maria Carolina, Maria Cristina, Gennaro, Maria Amelia, and Maria Luisa<br />(Angelica Kauffman, 1783)</i></td></tr>
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<ul>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Maria Theresa of Naples and
Sicily</span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> (1772-1807) married: Francis II and I, Holy Roman Emperor and
Emperor of Austria – had issue</span></li>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Luisa Maria of Naples and Sicily</span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;">
(1773-1802) married: Ferdinand III, Grand Duke of Tuscany – had issue</span></li>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Carlo, Duke of Calabria</span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;">
(1775-1778) died of smallpox at the age of three</span></li>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Maria Anna of Naples and Sicily</span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;">
(1775-1780) died of smallpox at the age of four</span></li>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Francis I, King of the Two
Sicilies</span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> (1777-1830) married: (1) Maria Clementina of Austria – had
issue, (2) <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/06/maria-isabella-of-spain-queen-of-two.html">María Isabella of Spain</a> – had issue</span></li>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Maria Cristina of Naples and
Sicily</span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> (1779-1849) married: Charles Felix, King of Sardinia and Duke
of Savoy – no issue</span></li>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Maria Cristina Amelia of Naples
and Sicily</span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> (1779-1783) twin of the above, died of smallpox at the age of
four</span></li>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Gennaro of Naples and Sicily</span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;">
(1780-1789) died of smallpox at the age of eight</span></li>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Giuseppe of Naples and Sicily</span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;">
(1781-1783) died of smallpox at the age of two</span></li>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Maria Amelia of Naples and Sicily</span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;">
(1782-1866) married: Louis Philippe I, King of France – had issue</span></li>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Maria Cristina of Naples and
Sicily</span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> (1783) stillborn</span></li>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Maria Antonietta of Naples and
Sicily</span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> (1784-1806) married: Ferdinand, Prince of Asturias – no issue</span></li>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Maria Clotilde of Naples and
Sicily</span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> (1786-1792) died of smallpox at the age of eight</span></li>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Maria Enricheta of Naples and
Sicily</span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> (1787-1792) died of smallpox at the age of five</span></li>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Carlo Gennaro of Naples and
Sicily</span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> (1788-1789) died of smallpox at six months</span></li>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Leopold, Prince of Salerno</span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;">
(1790-1851) married: Archduchess Clementina of Austria – had issue</span></li>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Alberto of Naples and Sicily</span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;">
(1792-1798) died of exhaustion at the age of six</span></li>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Maria Isabella of Naples and
Sicily</span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> (1793-1801) died at the age of seven</span></li>
</ul>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPyoSxeAKaU7SIZ9hPgKQvhyWSQi8zADOO45HIK7qMCdEdwelAhC7Noa0xEZ4Q7tkbGZJkuFq55nQ-vDxNv1RN7tPAgj274jplCreBHw_wTsNUV2PPCVWYLlfhqFwfL_rHPTKwKdHf65vd/s1600/Maria_Carolina_by_Mengs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPyoSxeAKaU7SIZ9hPgKQvhyWSQi8zADOO45HIK7qMCdEdwelAhC7Noa0xEZ4Q7tkbGZJkuFq55nQ-vDxNv1RN7tPAgj274jplCreBHw_wTsNUV2PPCVWYLlfhqFwfL_rHPTKwKdHf65vd/s400/Maria_Carolina_by_Mengs.jpg" width="287" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Maria Carolina, Queen of Naples and Sicily<br />(Anton Raphael Mengs, 1772-73)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">It didn’t take long for the
conniving Maria Carolina to pick up on her husband’s greatest weakness – his
inability to rule. This was because as a boy, he had been given a weak
education by his regent, Bernardo Tanucci, so that Ferdinand would always have
to rely on Tanucci and his father’s guidance to reign. The new Queen of Naples
and Sicily realized that she could use her husband’s disadvantage to achieve
her desire of power. She pretended to enjoy Ferdinand’s favorite activity –
hunting - to obtain his trust. Her plan worked and Ferdinand warmed up to her
just enough to allow her a “back-door” to his government and a membership on
the Privy Council when she gave birth to an heir. Since Maria Carolina’s first
children were daughters, she spent her early years as Queen Consort invigorating
Neapolitan court life, which had fallen into disarray during her husband’s
regency. It wasn’t until 1755 when Maria Carolina gave birth to her first son
that she was permitted to take part in politics. In 1751, Maria Carolina planned
to get rid of her greatest rival – Tanucci – when she wrote to her father-in-law
through the medium of a letter written by her husband saying that the Italian
statesman was destroying Naples. This made it appear as though Maria Carolina’s
words were actually those of her husband’s, so Ferdinand was pushed to remove
Tanucci from his position in 1776, much to his father’s displeasure. Tanucci’s
departure marked the end of Spanish influence in Naples, as he was succeeded by
one of Maria Carolina’s ineffective pawns, the Marquis of Sambuca. Maria
Carolina continued to consolidate her power by distancing the Neapolitan and
Spanish nobility from court and the kingdom’s government in favor of her native
Austrian courtiers and officials. Though this did erase Spanish influence from
Naples and increase Maria Carolina’s control, it made her very unpopular with
the kingdom’s nobility. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia9hszLU6wZpJjHWD_vaWe4yj9FKM3X9WbkrX4vq3md2fn2mKupvCx70Hge-3VZaPfzXru1z_td0TKmizX8fbkJrDtzUV6wkoEwtlLNplKmcPDaY4tMO9mVh89X3w0rvRvMUAmtKX2NuhJ/s1600/800px-Angelika_Kauffmann_Portrait_Maria_Karoline_von_O%25CC%2588sterreich_VLM_off.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia9hszLU6wZpJjHWD_vaWe4yj9FKM3X9WbkrX4vq3md2fn2mKupvCx70Hge-3VZaPfzXru1z_td0TKmizX8fbkJrDtzUV6wkoEwtlLNplKmcPDaY4tMO9mVh89X3w0rvRvMUAmtKX2NuhJ/s400/800px-Angelika_Kauffmann_Portrait_Maria_Karoline_von_O%25CC%2588sterreich_VLM_off.jpg" width="325" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Maria Carolina, Queen of Naples and Sicily<br />(Angelica Kauffman, 1782-83)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">With
Tanucci gone and Ferdinand a useless ruler, Maria Carolina became the real
power behind the throne with the help of her French-born, English favorite and
advisor, Sir John Acton, 6th Baronet. She made sure the kingdom’s government ruled
in the interest of her native Austria and embraced the liberalism of the
Enlightenment movement. She reformed the Neapolitan army and finances and
promoted the work of many liberal intellectuals and artists. She was even
supportive of the revolutionaries in France when the Revolution first broke
out, although her support for the Revolution ended once the monarchy was
abolished and her sister was executed (she was so horrified at Marie
Antoinette’s death that she refused to speak French for the rest of her life). Naples
joined the First Coalition against France to defeat the revolutionists and
later the Second Coalition to restrain the spread of “chaos” from France and
continue to try to overthrow the republic. Once Naples joined the Second
Coalition, Napoleon (who called Maria Carolina, “the only man in the Kingdom of
Naples”) had French troops invade Naples, which he occupied in January of 1799.
Maria Carolina, Ferdinand, and the rest of the royal family had no choice but
to flee their conquered kingdom for Sicily while the French attempted to turn
the Neapolitan people against their monarchy by making Naples a republic. But,
after just six months, the infant republic fell when royalist Neapolitan troops
took back their kingdom with help from the English Navy (without English aid,
the Neapolitan army wouldn’t have been successful). With Naples and Sicily
secure, Maria Carolina returned to her kingdom on August 17, 1802 after she and
four of her children stayed in Vienna for two years. But Napoleon’s desire to
conquer Italy hadn’t dispersed with the short-lived Neapolitan republic’s fall.
After he was crowned as Emperor of France in 1804, his troops invaded Naples
yet again in early 1806. Maria Carolina and her family had to escape once more to
Sicily in February while Napoleon named his brother, Joseph Bonaparte, the King
of Naples until he was replaced in 1808 by his <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>brother-in-law, Joachim Murat. The exiled
royal family pleaded for British help but their previous ally was more hostile
to Maria Carolina now that Naples had been conquered again in such a short
amount of time. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR7Np8W6QPAdOQFAPROkfcr7FW-riJhMjJ44-cEfiHBCHAxh2Zpe_GJQXe1XoNoUbTQ8Or-h8WGsf2Tsa5i1d8Oo8H-cc_SXmvx2A1CkGvgDh_EAmoW9h6asfcRg50MkZ0fsXjSaF6c8k6/s1600/Screen+Shot+2016-07-29+at+4.56.38+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR7Np8W6QPAdOQFAPROkfcr7FW-riJhMjJ44-cEfiHBCHAxh2Zpe_GJQXe1XoNoUbTQ8Or-h8WGsf2Tsa5i1d8Oo8H-cc_SXmvx2A1CkGvgDh_EAmoW9h6asfcRg50MkZ0fsXjSaF6c8k6/s400/Screen+Shot+2016-07-29+at+4.56.38+PM.png" width="297" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Maria Carolina, Queen of Naples and Sicily<br />(Filippo Marsigli, 1814)</i></td></tr>
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<div style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Maria
Carolina’s reign over the Kingdoms of Naples and Sicily came to an abrupt end
in 1813 when her husband effectively but not formally abdicated and named their
son, Francis I, as regent. This stripped Maria Carolina of any political power,
so the defeated Queen soon had no choice but to leave Sicily and go back home
to Vienna. It was on her journey home that she learned that Napoleon had been
defeated by the Sixth Coalition in the Battle of Leipzig in October and he was
forced to give up his crown. In Austria, Maria Carolina tried to get back the
throne for herself and her husband but her efforts were fruitless. Weakened and
worn out from her exile and the war, Maria Carolina died on September 8, 1814
from a stroke in Hetzendorf Palace at the age of sixty-two. Months after her
death, Napoleon was finally defeated at Waterloo and her husband was restored
to the throne of Naples by the Congress of Vienna. Archduchess Maria Carolina
of Austria, Queen Consort of Naples and Sicily was buried in the Imperial Crypt
in Vienna with her parents. Her husband survived her by ten years until his
death on January 4, 1825 at the age of seventy-three. In December of 1816, two
years after Maria Clementina’s death, the Kingdoms of Naples and Sicily were
merged into one single kingdom, that of the Two Sicilies. Five of Maria
Carolina and Ferdinand’s daughters survived to adulthood, four of whom became
royal consorts by marriage. Three of their daughters – Maria Theresa, Maria
Luisa, and Maria Amelia – had children. Just two of Maria Carolina and
Ferdinand’s sons survived infancy – Francis I, King of the Two Sicilies and
Leopold, Prince of Salerno. Francis married twice, first to his double first
cousin Archduchess Maria Clementina of Austria who he had one surviving child
with, <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/07/princess-maria-carolina-of-naples-and.html">Princess Maria Carolina, Duchess of Berry</a>, before Maria Clementina’s
early death. Francis remarried his much younger paternal first cousin, Infanta </span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">María Isabella of Spain, and they had twelve children,
two of whom were <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/06/maria-christina-of-two-sicilies-queen.html">Maria Christina, Queen of Spain</a>, and <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/06/teresa-cristina-of-two-sicilies-empress.html">Teresa Cristina, Empress of Brazil</a>. Francis’s younger brother, Leopold, Prince of Salerno, married his
niece/first cousin once removed, Archduchess Clementina of Austria, who he had
one surviving daughter with.</span><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjY_ne0QOLqskGJGW9WWjy9ij3UQXjL1QhsURWzkdg4YDoW5JVhAjH4BiutGGnKQh1QkdZEYDeLMOPiyMsR2P-v4CDCC_SeQU5Ia4MjHvmDOtJF9UDu08CaafRUeOOc_i812fTviqrRpET/s1600/Screen+Shot+2016-07-30+at+5.41.22+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjY_ne0QOLqskGJGW9WWjy9ij3UQXjL1QhsURWzkdg4YDoW5JVhAjH4BiutGGnKQh1QkdZEYDeLMOPiyMsR2P-v4CDCC_SeQU5Ia4MjHvmDOtJF9UDu08CaafRUeOOc_i812fTviqrRpET/s1600/Screen+Shot+2016-07-30+at+5.41.22+PM.png" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Maria Theresa, Holy Roman Empress and Empress of Austria (left - Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, 1790)<br />Luisa Maria, Grand Duchess of Tuscany (right - Joseph Dorffmeister, 1797)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 14.6667px; line-height: 22px;">Queen Maria Carolina's eldest daughter and favorite child, Princess Maria Theresa (who was named after her famous maternal grandmother), had a happy and successful marriage with her double first cousin, Archduke Francis of Austria, who she married on September 15, 1790. Francis was a son of Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor and Infanta Maria Luisa of Spain. Two years after he married Maria Theresa, he was crowned as Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Germany as well as King of Hungary and Croatia, Bohemia, and Lombardy-Venice. He lost the Holy Roman Empire when it was abolished in 1806 but two years previously, he had become the first Emperor of Austria. Maria Theresa and her husband had twelve children, seven of whom survived infancy: Empress Marie Louise of France (the second wife of Napoleon I), Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria, Empress Maria Leopoldina of Brazil and Queen of Portugal, Archduchess Clementina (who married her maternal uncle, Leopold, Prince of Salerno), Archduchess Marie Caroline (the wife of King Frederick Augustus II of Saxony), Archduke Franz Karl (the husband of Princess Sophie of Bavaria and the father of Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria and Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico), and Archduchess Marie Anne. Maria Theresa died on April 13, 1807 at the age of thirty-four days after giving birth to her last child. Her husband remarried twice after her death (Maria Theresa was actually his second spouse) and his final marriage was to <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/06/caroline-augusta-of-bavaria-empress-of.html">Caroline Augusta of Bavaria</a>, the daughter of Maximilian I Joseph, King of Bavaria. Queen Maria Carolina's second child and daughter, Princess Luisa, also married her double first cousin and the brother of Holy Roman Emperor Francis II, Archduke Ferdinand of Austria. They wed on August 15, 1790 and since Ferdinand was the Grand Duke of Tuscany at the time, Luisa became a Grand Duchess. They had six children together but just three survived infancy - Leopold II, Grand Duke of Tuscany, Archduchess Maria Luisa Giuseppa (who was born mentally disabled with a severe physical deformity), and Maria Theresa, Queen of Sardinia. Luisa died giving birth to her sixth and final child, a stillborn son, on September 19, 1802 at the age of twenty-nine. </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Maria Cristina, Queen of Sardinia (left - 1820's-40's)<br />Maria Amalia, Queen of France (right - Louis Hersent, 1828-29)</i></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/14/Maria_Antonietta_Borbone_Napoli_1784_1806.jpg/800px-Maria_Antonietta_Borbone_Napoli_1784_1806.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Maria Antonietta Borbone Napoli 1784 1806.jpg" border="0" class="mw-mmv-final-image jpg" crossorigin="anonymous" height="400" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/14/Maria_Antonietta_Borbone_Napoli_1784_1806.jpg/800px-Maria_Antonietta_Borbone_Napoli_1784_1806.jpg" width="330" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Maria Antonia, Princess of Asturias<br />(Vicente López y Portaña, 1805-06)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: lucida grande; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; line-height: 22px;">Queen Maria Carolina's third surviving daughter, Maria Cristina, married her first cousin once removed, Prince Charles Felix of Savoy, on April 6, 1807. Charles Felix was fourteen years her senior and the couple had no children during their marriage. Her husband became the King of Sardinia in 1821 when his older brother abdicated the throne and his wife served as his Queen Consort until his death in 1831. She survived him by eighteen years until her own death on March 11, 1849 at the age of seventy. Queen Maria Carolina's fourth surviving daughter, Maria Amalia, married her third cousin, Louis Philippe, Duke of Orléans, the son of Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans and a cousin of King Louis XVI of France, </span></span><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 14.6667px; line-height: 22px; text-align: center;">on November 25, 1809. Maria Amalia became the Queen Consort of France when her husband was crowned King Louis Philippe I in 1830. They kept their crowns until the Revolution of 1848 when Louis Philippe was overthrown and the couple had to flee their kingdom and live the rest of their lives in exile. They had ten children, eight of whom survived infancy, including: </span><span style="font-family: lucida grande; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; line-height: 22px;"><a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/07/princess-louise-of-orleans-queen-of.html">Louise of Orléans, Queen of Belgium</a>, Louis, Duke of Nemours (the husband of Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, a first cousin of Queen Victoria of the U.K.), and Clémentine of Orléans (the wife of Prince August of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, another first cousin of Queen Victoria). Maria Amalia died on March 24, 1866 at the age of eighty-three. Queen Maria Carolina's youngest surviving daughter, Maria Antonia, married her first cousin, Infante Ferdinand, Prince of Asturias (the future King Ferdinand VII of Spain), on October 6, 1802. Maria Antonia had two miscarriages before she suddenly died on May 21, 1806 at the age of twenty-one. Her husband would remarry three more times after her death and his final wife was Maria Antonia's niece, Princess Maria Christina of the Two Sicilies.</span></span><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15315177275314871435noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6807555129500021847.post-72564718948551885962016-07-28T22:10:00.000-07:002016-07-29T17:03:55.428-07:00Princess Maria Carolina of Naples and Sicily, Duchess of Berry<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUsZC48Qpa1XlJugl3NUVEBSvuKO0OFpljD_5Lzq1P5hdUmS39-McCECT6I5xVvuB4LLj62N1oljw-9vU2xl6mXnGTG9AaaOsRpzCq1F2CZ9rH7XJ1u9K9LCMxZ52hR8dJB10lAHHwjI7U/s1600/Berry%252C_Marie-Caroline_duchesse_de_-_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUsZC48Qpa1XlJugl3NUVEBSvuKO0OFpljD_5Lzq1P5hdUmS39-McCECT6I5xVvuB4LLj62N1oljw-9vU2xl6mXnGTG9AaaOsRpzCq1F2CZ9rH7XJ1u9K9LCMxZ52hR8dJB10lAHHwjI7U/s640/Berry%252C_Marie-Caroline_duchesse_de_-_1.jpg" width="486" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Princess Maria Carolina
Ferdinanda Luisa of Naples and Sicily was born on November 5, 1798 at the
Palace of Caserta in Naples. She was the eldest child of Francis, Hereditary
Prince of Naples and Archduchess Maria Clementina of Austria. The young
princess was named after her paternal grandparents, King Ferdinand IV and III
of Naples and Sicily and <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/07/maria-carolina-of-austria-queen-of.html">Archduchess Maria Carolina of Austria</a>. Her father,
Francis, was the eldest surviving son of the King of Naples and Sicily while
her mother was the tenth child of Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor and Infanta
Maria Luisa of Spain. Francis and Maria Clementina were double first cousins
and although the couple was engaged in 1790, they weren’t married until June
26, 1797 due to the chaotic Napoleonic wars plaguing the Italian peninsula. The
cousins were both twenty years old when they wed in a rather modest ceremony at
Foggia. Despite the fact that Maria Clementina’s features were scarred by
smallpox, she was a dignified and proud woman with a kind heart and a
substantial education. The couple’s relationship was rather uncommon for the
time, as Maria Clementina was the dominant partner in the relationship. She controlled
her less intelligent and easy-going husband but Francis didn’t seem to care
about his wife’s influence over him; according to his mother, Archduchess Maria
Carolina of Austria, “[Francis] adores her in every sense of the word. He says
she loves him, and assuredly shows and demands many proofs of love.” Maria
Carolina was so shocked by just how much her son loved Maria Clementina that
she “asked heaven to calm their over-excited sense by sending them children.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEile5-0M0GWcaJEkpLsRwu-nja_Q63z9oUStx6m9KND7mK7mu7tx4r94dbRhQdKWPE9J-QsX6UQyXXOlK9fCRCnGKkTLG1AxFKohqcfpp6snSApKOI5AE2xlgmDeHjsOeWqh8LLcrj2-Gha/s1600/Screen+Shot+2016-07-28+at+9.16.30+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEile5-0M0GWcaJEkpLsRwu-nja_Q63z9oUStx6m9KND7mK7mu7tx4r94dbRhQdKWPE9J-QsX6UQyXXOlK9fCRCnGKkTLG1AxFKohqcfpp6snSApKOI5AE2xlgmDeHjsOeWqh8LLcrj2-Gha/s1600/Screen+Shot+2016-07-28+at+9.16.30+PM.png" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Maria Carolina's parents: Francis I of the Two Sicilies (Vicente López y Portaña, 1829)</i><i style="font-size: 12.8px;"> and </i><i><br />Archduchess Maria Clementina of Austria (Joseph Hickel, 1796)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Francis’s mother got her wish
when Maria Carolina was born a year after her parent’s wedding. Less than two
years after Maria Carolina’s birth, her mother had a second child, a little boy
named Ferdinando. Unfortunately, Ferdinando lived for only eleven months. Maria
Clementina, who had never been of robust health, survived her young son by just
four months before she died of tuberculosis on November 15, 1801 at the age of
twenty-four. She was buried beside her infant son in the Basilica of Santa
Chiara while her heartbroken husband mourned the loss of his beloved wife and
son. Maria Carolina, who celebrated her third birthday ten days before her
mother’s death, grew up without knowing her mother. Francis remarried another
first cousin less than a year after his wife’s death for political expedience,
<a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/06/maria-isabella-of-spain-queen-of-two.html">Infanta María Isabella of Spain</a>. Despite the age gap between the couple
(Francis was twenty-five to María Isabella’s thirteen years), they had a good relationship
and he always treated her with compassion and respect, though he did take
several mistresses during his marriage. Through her father’s second marriage,
Maria Carolina had twelve half-siblings, including <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/06/maria-christina-of-two-sicilies-queen.html">Queen Maria Christina of Spain</a>, King Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies, and <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/06/teresa-cristina-of-two-sicilies-empress.html">Empress Teresa Cristina of Brazil</a>. She also had various illegitimate half-siblings by her father’s various
extramarital affairs. </span><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;">Maria Carolina grew up in
Palermo, Sicily and Naples, which would become the united kingdom of the Two
Sicilies in December of 1816 under her grandfather, King Ferdinand I. The
Italian princess was a petite girl with blond hair and bulging blue eyes who
inherited many physical features from her family. She had the large Bourbon
nose and fleshy lower lip of her grandfather, King Ferdinand, small breasts,
and rather unappealing teeth. Although she was no beauty, Maria Carolina
attracted many with her vivacity and boundless energy, as well as her charm and
spirit. She had her mother’s kind and generous personality and was known by her
family and friends for her sincerity and modesty. As the granddaughter of the
King of Naples and Sicily and the daughter of his heir, she grew up knowing
that an impressive marriage would be arranged for her once she reached an age
of maturity. So, it was no surprise to the young princess when the French
ambassador to her grandfather’s kingdoms suggested in 1816 that Maria Carolina
marry Charles Ferdinand d'Artois, Duke of Berry, a nephew of King Louis XVIII
of France.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy5E0jlNwJU3wDhbqm5xJBOCHuSaXKHvHg-SYAoEYJUdb2Ib0gKAbgaPjoPrLEhNnyHdXTgG7TjYxtLvZQFNR43p1Tj9enRJBob8L7_MLnjqonPbsCITvcw8L-2H8wRDlsVh01qVdtr0P4/s1600/800px-Charles-Ferdinand-Berry.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy5E0jlNwJU3wDhbqm5xJBOCHuSaXKHvHg-SYAoEYJUdb2Ib0gKAbgaPjoPrLEhNnyHdXTgG7TjYxtLvZQFNR43p1Tj9enRJBob8L7_MLnjqonPbsCITvcw8L-2H8wRDlsVh01qVdtr0P4/s400/800px-Charles-Ferdinand-Berry.JPG" width="315" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Charles Ferdinand d'Artois, Duke of Berry<br />(Jean-Baptiste Jacques Augustin, 1810's)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Charles Ferdinand, who was twenty
years Maria Carolina’s senior, was the second son and youngest surviving child
of Charles Philippe, Count of Artois (the future King Charles X of France and
Navarre) and Princess Marie Thérèse of Savoy, the eleventh child of Victor
Amadeus III, King of Sardinia and Duke of Savoy, and Infanta Maria Antonia
Ferdinanda of Spain. Blonde and blue-eyed, Charles was not a handsome man. He
was short with a large, squat body, “a big head, a broad forehead, prominent
eyes, a short neck, a high complexion, and a coarse mouth”. Though he did have
a rather gallant smile, he was described as lazy, not very intelligent, ill
mannered, stubborn, and prone to fits of temper. However, like his wife, he was
a kind-hearted individual with a penchant for generosity and forgiveness. He
was known for his various affairs with different women and had many
illegitimate children, nine of whom have been identified. He had a career in
the military during and after the French Revolution but his success was
limited. In 1814, when Napoleon returned form Elba, King Louis XVIII had named
him commander-in-chief of the army in Paris but he was a poor leader and could
not inspire loyalty or dedication in his men. Months after he became
commander-in-chief, he left his position and retired to Ghent while Napoleon
staged his unsuccessful Hundred Days War. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxmswOgfsFoPh5gS4kyipYEupSTu3Juo7E7Ov1pmka5XGZOavEY265g1fmUFdeWO_jXTqBypPpdTN8a5T3kxz04Ncq0VJsucjPyuhz3cpP-ZVp-CMKYOY4D4jZDQhTHnmfmMSvtJdinHZK/s1600/tumblr_mp53amzLVv1qatfdco1_500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxmswOgfsFoPh5gS4kyipYEupSTu3Juo7E7Ov1pmka5XGZOavEY265g1fmUFdeWO_jXTqBypPpdTN8a5T3kxz04Ncq0VJsucjPyuhz3cpP-ZVp-CMKYOY4D4jZDQhTHnmfmMSvtJdinHZK/s400/tumblr_mp53amzLVv1qatfdco1_500.jpg" width="325" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Princess Maria Carolina, Duchess of Berry<br />(Robert Lefèvre, 1826)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The betrothal between the Duke of
Berry and the Princess of Naples and Sicily was quickly agreed to and arranged.
On April 24, 1816, a proxy marriage was held in the Palazzo Reale where Maria
Carolina’s uncle, Leopold, Prince of Salerno, stood in for the bridegroom. Maria
Carolina, who was seventeen years old at the time, bade goodbye to her family
and home and sailed for France on May 14, 1816. She arrived in the port of
Marseille a week after her departure from Naples. On June 15th, she came to
Fontainebleau and met her thirty-eight year old husband and his aging uncle,
the King of France. Charles Ferdinand was enchanted by his wife and soon, the
two began to fall in love with each other. On June 17th, Maria Carolina
officially wed Charles Ferdinand at Notre-Dame, thus becoming the Duchess of
Berry. The newlyweds moved to Élysée Palace in Paris, which had been given to them
by the King as a wedding gift. Here, they began their happy lives together.
Although their marriage was purely political and the two didn’t even know each
other when they wed, Maria Carolina and Charles Ferdinand shared a mutual love
and respect. They saw past their large age gap, unattractive appearances, and
foreign backgrounds to create a loving marital union. In France, Maria Carolina
was known as “Madame de Berry” and went by the French version of her name,
“Marie Caroline Ferdinande Louise”. She had four children with her husband in
the span of four years, two of whom survived infancy:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Princess Louise Élisabeth
d’Artois</span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> (1817) died a day after her birth</span></li>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Prince Louis d’Artois</span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> (1818)
died the day of his birth</span></li>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Princess Louise Marie Thérèse
d’Artois</span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> (1819-1864) married: Charles III, Duke of Parma and Piacenza
– had issue</span></li>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Prince Henri d’Artois, Count of
Chambord</span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> (1820-1883) married: Archduchess Maria Theresa of
Austria-Este – no issue</span></li>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXliWKIsrvSss380-VWqT_I5_xc8Ubr8NCaWX0tfCF3AZ0zjQq-gJ2DKGacwribjydsLa4gDch0dsLo3R0ixY-0Wn6xT455qV1nVj-jvuTF9KN1drlyjHGCjD9xf0YJmk-TcmesdF-RYh-/s1600/Franc%25CC%25A7ois_Ge%25CC%2581rard_-_La_duchesse_de_Berry_et_ses_enfants%252C1822.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXliWKIsrvSss380-VWqT_I5_xc8Ubr8NCaWX0tfCF3AZ0zjQq-gJ2DKGacwribjydsLa4gDch0dsLo3R0ixY-0Wn6xT455qV1nVj-jvuTF9KN1drlyjHGCjD9xf0YJmk-TcmesdF-RYh-/s400/Franc%25CC%25A7ois_Ge%25CC%2581rard_-_La_duchesse_de_Berry_et_ses_enfants%252C1822.jpg" width="282" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Duchess of Berry and her two children<br />(François Gérard, 1822)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Maria Carolina loved music,
plays, and art and she became a significant patron of the arts during her life
in France. She attend the theater habitually and became the patron of the
Théâtre du Gymnase, which, for a time, was renamed Théâtre de Madame in her
honor. She was also a regular attendee at the Odéon-Théâtre de l'Europe and
often gave money out of her own pocket to benefit performances. Like her
husband, the Duchess of Berry was a passionate art collector, especially when
it came to paintings of landscapes. She also supported the Manufacture
nationale de Sèvres, a primary porcelain manufacturer for the entirety of
Europe. However, Maria Carolina’s happiness with her first husband didn’t last
for long. Nearly four years after their wedding, a pregnant Maria Carolina and
her husband went to an opera house in Paris on February 13, 1820 where an
anti-monarchy Bonapartist stabbed Charles Ferdinand. The forty-two year old
Duke of Berry died a day later from his wounds. Maria Carolina was still
grieving her husband’s shocking death when she gave birth to her only surviving
son seven months after Charles Ferdinand was assassinated. The little Henri was
named the “miracle child” because his birth sustained the direct Bourbon line
of King Louis XIV since his paternal granduncle, grandfather, and uncle all had
no sons. Therefore, he was expected to inherit the throne one day, which raised
his mother’s status and importance in the French royal court. In 1824, Henri’s
granduncle died and his grandfather, Maria Carolina’s father-in-law, became
King Charles X. This made little Henri second in line for the throne after his
childless paternal uncle, Louis Antoine, Duke of Angoulême. A few months after
Charles X’s succession, Maria Carolina’s father became King Francis I of the
Two Sicilies. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsSO5LtjntCAv22rC3MtZv8Pmahy-x0gG26II13ifSPl12pxQFLZdB4O2r5UGiuyI2ZFchUE-2LHqL7OoannTtIbBoaizyUN1-BrO9-JQ_5j1QUZtbepdBTmGY2OB_z2rEhrRBafS1BQCU/s1600/2a6a1a0fafef779f8f69e15f1b9d7333.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsSO5LtjntCAv22rC3MtZv8Pmahy-x0gG26II13ifSPl12pxQFLZdB4O2r5UGiuyI2ZFchUE-2LHqL7OoannTtIbBoaizyUN1-BrO9-JQ_5j1QUZtbepdBTmGY2OB_z2rEhrRBafS1BQCU/s400/2a6a1a0fafef779f8f69e15f1b9d7333.jpg" width="312" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Princess Maria Christina, Duchess of Berry<br />(Jean-Baptiste Paulin Guérin, 1824)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">But the monarchy’s days were
numbered and soon, Henri’s chances of ever inheriting the throne looked bleak.
In the July Revolution of 1830, the people overthrew Charles X in favor of his
cousin, Louis Philippe, Duke of Orléans. This change in power marked a shift
from the traditional principal of hereditary right to popular sovereignty. When
Louis Philippe was named King Louis Philippe I on August 9, 1830, Maria
Carolina fled the country with her daughter and son to live in exile with
Charles X and his family. Maria Carolina and her two children lived on their
own in Bath for a period of time before moving to Edinburgh to be with Charles
X and Louis Antoine. Maria Carolina, her children, and her brother-in-law
resided in the Regent Terrace while the deposed Charles chose to live separately
from his family in Holyrood Palace. In November, Maria Carolina learned to her
sorrow that her father had died in Naples. Her half-brother, Ferdinand II, was
now the King of the Two Sicilies. Maria Carolina did not like Edinburgh and
longed to return to her old home in France. But what she longed for most of all
was for her son to be the King of France. She refused to accept her son’s
exclusion from the succession and proclaimed that Henri was the legitimate king
with herself as his regent. In 1831, she set off on a journey to gather support
for her son’s cause in the form of Legitimists, those in France who backed the
Bourbon line over Louis Philippe’s Orléanists. She travelled to her native
Naples to visit her family before moving onto the Netherlands, Prussia, and Austria
in search of funds and defense of her young son’s claim to the throne. Maria
Carolina’s plan was to stage a Legitimist rebellion to place Henri on his
rightful throne. However, she found little support wherever she went and as the
months dragged on, Henri’s chance of ever wearing the French crown grew slimmer
and slimmer. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpA4adcIBDQoC6ySl5OxDv-nTqvQoqgkD_juZvRZnuNG0VqKDl8ZCzZibRp5HiVbXMagJcCsCtD-KLvDCaXfPnE73pjGT8kXWDyF67jjy6IzeAIMpDclNSmngYriytPy4ITXwF5fwFOC1j/s1600/Portrait_of_Princess_Marie_Caroline_of_Naples_and_Sicily_%25281798%25E2%2580%25931870%2529_%25281798%25E2%2580%25931870%2529%252C_Duchess_of_Berry_by_Charles_Rauch.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpA4adcIBDQoC6ySl5OxDv-nTqvQoqgkD_juZvRZnuNG0VqKDl8ZCzZibRp5HiVbXMagJcCsCtD-KLvDCaXfPnE73pjGT8kXWDyF67jjy6IzeAIMpDclNSmngYriytPy4ITXwF5fwFOC1j/s400/Portrait_of_Princess_Marie_Caroline_of_Naples_and_Sicily_%25281798%25E2%2580%25931870%2529_%25281798%25E2%2580%25931870%2529%252C_Duchess_of_Berry_by_Charles_Rauch.jpg" width="310" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Princess Maria Carolina, Duchess of Berry<br />(Charles Rauch, 1827)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">One important event did occur
during Maria Carolina’s travels regarding her personal life. While in Italy,
she fell in love with an Italian nobleman named Ettore Carlo Lucchesi-Palli,
8th Duca della Grazia, who was seven years her junior. They secretly married on
December 14, 1831, as revealing their marriage to the public would have a
negative effect on not just French and Italian society but also the Legitimist
cause. The Dowager Duchess of Berry went to Marseille in April of 1832 and,
finding no Legitimist support there, moved on to Vendée and Brittany where she
managed to initiate a short-lived but fruitless revolt in June. After her
rebellion was crushed, Maria Carolina had to flee to Nantes where she stayed in
hiding for five months. Eventually, she was deceived by her advisor, who
revealed her location to Louis Philippe’s administration in November. She was
caught, arrested, and imprisoned in the Chateau of Blaye. It was during her
time as a prisoner that she gave birth to her first child with Lucchesi-Palli
on May 10, 1833, as she had been pregnant when she was caught. The truth of her
secret marriage was leaked, which caused her to lose the backing of the
Legitimists. This was because while she had been a French citizen by her
marriage to Charles Ferdinand, when she remarried Lucchesi-Palli she became an
Italian citizen once more, which barred her from being her son’s regent in the
eyes of the people. With no Legitimist support, Maria Carolina was no longer a
threat to the King, so she was released a month after she gave birth. The
defeated Dowager Duchess reunited with her husband in Italy and the two moved
to Sicily where they had four more children. Their only child to die in infancy
was their eldest, the daughter who had been born in prison:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Anna Maria Rosalia Lucchesi-Palli</span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> (1833)
died at the age of five months</span></li>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Clementina Lucchesi-Palli</span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;">
(1835-1925) married: Conte Camillo Zileri dal Verme – no issue</span></li>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Francesca di Paola Lucchesi-Palli</span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;">
(1836-1923) married: Don Carlo Alberto Massimo, Principe d’Arsoli – had issue</span></li>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Maria Isabella Lucchesi-Palli</span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;">
(1838-1873) died unmarried and without children at the age of thirty-five</span></li>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Adinolfo Lucchesi-Palli, 9th Duca
della Grazia</span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> (1840-1911) married: Lucrezia Ruffo Bagnara – had
issue</span></li>
</ul>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghyphenhyphen8yQSggAlo5HNhiAZpEhteX_vmYCwpQC15l7NUJPXPVA3CBdzSZN0jgtpNOXeFZrfHjq4zL19bDA_62OSwspFSIXAHi7ip116yMBIhSKbsvQWO6IlplBVlO2nbuUtSZQTM50_d5G37ob/s1600/9ec69bfe3b0b1d3ca3f50f1b2c42dd17.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghyphenhyphen8yQSggAlo5HNhiAZpEhteX_vmYCwpQC15l7NUJPXPVA3CBdzSZN0jgtpNOXeFZrfHjq4zL19bDA_62OSwspFSIXAHi7ip116yMBIhSKbsvQWO6IlplBVlO2nbuUtSZQTM50_d5G37ob/s400/9ec69bfe3b0b1d3ca3f50f1b2c42dd17.jpg" width="225" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Princess Louise Marie Thérèse of Artois,<br />Duchess of Parma<br />(1860)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">In 1844, Maria Carolina and
Lucchesi-Palli bought a palace on the Grand Canal of Cannaregio in Venice named
Ca’ Vendramin Calergi. However, the conflict of the Italian unification
movement forced the couple to sell their home to Prince Henry, Count of Bardi,
Maria Carolina’s grandson by her daughter from her first marriage. Maria
Carolina and her husband moved to Brunnsee, Austria, where they remained until
their deaths. Lucchesi-Palli died in 1864 at the age of fifty-nine while Maria
Carolina died on April 17, 1870 when she was seventy-one years old. She was
buried in the Mureck Cemetery near her home in Austria. While three of her
children from her second marriage married, only two had children of their own.
Maria Carolina’s only surviving daughter from her first marriage, Princess
Louise Marie Thérèse married Ferdinando Carlo, Hereditary Prince of Lucca, who
was four years her junior, in November of 1845. While Louise Marie was said to
be a short, large blonde with blue eyes, she was also a reticent and unfriendly
woman who lacked her mother’s charm and empathy. Her husband, a thin and small
dandy, was not a handsome man. He is described as having protuberant eyes, a
big nose, a long neck, and a receding chin. Ferdinando Carlo became Charles III,
Duke of Parma and Piacenza in 1849 when his father abdicated his position.
Louise Marie had four children, two girls and two boys, with her husband before
he was assassinated by hired killers on March 27, 1854 when he was thirty-one
years old. After her husband’s death, Louise Marie became her five year-old
son’s regent until the pair was overthrown during the Franco-Austrian War of
1859. Louise Marie fled Parma and lived the rest of her life in exile until her
death on February 1, 1864 at the age of forty-four. Her eldest daughter,
Margherita, married Carlos, Duke of Madrid, the Carlist claimant to the Spanish
throne (he was the great-grandson of King Charles IV of Spain) and the
Legitimist claimant to the French throne. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrXpaCp2enDEDO3OYShwqkG90rjIaZg4QxOoSAvft2klKx2CmoPb_kzIujCJJrBqYzD85vIF1Ys8rriD2OEyobvSDACbhP003c5yvI-J7hUS_AW_bptT1awol0qbAC2r7sm_ngp1giatCH/s1600/Comte-de-chambord.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrXpaCp2enDEDO3OYShwqkG90rjIaZg4QxOoSAvft2klKx2CmoPb_kzIujCJJrBqYzD85vIF1Ys8rriD2OEyobvSDACbhP003c5yvI-J7hUS_AW_bptT1awol0qbAC2r7sm_ngp1giatCH/s400/Comte-de-chambord.jpg" width="247" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Henri d'Artois, Count of Chambord<br />(1860's)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Louise
Marie’s eldest son, Robert, had twelve children by his first wife, his half
first cousin once removed, Maria Pia of the Two Sicilies, a daughter of King
Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies. Their eldest child was Princess Maria Luisa
of Bourbon-Parma, who became the Princess Consort of Bulgaria upon her marriage
to Ferdinand I, Prince of Bulgaria. Robert later remarried his second cousin
once removed, Infanta Maria Antónia of Portugal, the daughter of the deposed
King Miguel I of Portugal, after his first wife died in childbirth. They had
twelve children together, including Prince René, who married Princess Margaret
of Denmark (a granddaughter of King Christian IX of Denmark and <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/07/louise-of-hesse-kassel-queen-of-denmark.html">Louise of Hesse-Kassel</a>) and had four children, including Queen Anne of Romania. Louise
Marie’s third child, Princess Alice, married the widowed Ferdinand IV, Grand
Duke of Tuscany, who was fourteen years her senior, in early 1868. They had ten
children together. Louise Marie’s youngest child, Prince Henry, Count of Bardi,
married twice. His first marriage was to his half first cousin once removed,
Princess Maria Luisa of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, the youngest daughter of King
Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies. She died three months after the wedding so
Henry married again to Infanta Adelgundes, Duchess of Guimarães, the older
sister of his sister-in-law, Infanta Maria Antonia (both were daughters of King
Miguel I of Portugal). Henry had no children by either of his wives. As for
Maria Carolina’s only surviving son from her first marriage, Prince Henri, Count
of Chambord, he maintained his claim to the French throne until his death on
August 24, 1883 at the age of sixty-two. He married Archduchess Maria Theresa
of Austria-Este, the eldest child of Francis IV, Duke of Modena and Maria
Beatrice of Savoy, in 1846. They had no children so when Henri died, he became
the last legitimate descendant in the male line of King Louis XV of France.</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15315177275314871435noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6807555129500021847.post-7869574830128177832016-07-28T13:16:00.001-07:002016-07-28T13:16:20.990-07:00Maria Alexandrovna, Empress of Russia (Princess Marie of Hesse and by Rhine)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnoC3pzzcBdY8VGVShYjU-nx5hWuKC_PFG7DPPH14sdPD6uiMoZUQqRAV-zRsmetNwZb3I5opu3en8qg2KIg1y66wYnUIja5gS0AOs5TH5CEBm8b2JTRe9bHohzHnDgB_rbcju_cwO21g4/s1600/800px-Empress_Maria_Alexandrovna_%2528Marie_of_Hesse%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnoC3pzzcBdY8VGVShYjU-nx5hWuKC_PFG7DPPH14sdPD6uiMoZUQqRAV-zRsmetNwZb3I5opu3en8qg2KIg1y66wYnUIja5gS0AOs5TH5CEBm8b2JTRe9bHohzHnDgB_rbcju_cwO21g4/s640/800px-Empress_Maria_Alexandrovna_%2528Marie_of_Hesse%2529.jpg" width="460" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Princess Marie of Hesse and by
Rhine, who was born “Princess Maximilienne Wilhelmine Marie”, was the youngest
of the seven children of Ludwig II, Grand Duke of Hesse and Princess Wilhelmine
of Baden. Marie was born on August 8, 1824 in her family seat of Darmstadt. At
the time of her birth, Marie’s father was simply the heir to the Duchy of Hesse
since his father was still alive. In 1804, he married his first cousin,
Princess Wilhelmine of Baden, the youngest daughter of Charles Louis, Hereditary
Prince of Baden and Amalia of Hesse-Darmstadt. Wilhelmine, who was eleven years
her husband’s junior, was the sister of Caroline of Baden, the first Queen
Consort of Bavaria, Empress Consort Elizabeth Alexeievna of Russia, Frederica
of Baden, the Queen Consort of Sweden, and Charles, Grand Duke of Baden.
Wilhelmine and Louis were very unhappy together because Louis could never
remain faithful to his spouse. In fact, after the births of their three eldest
children, they lived apart from one another. In 1820, Wilhelmine began a
long-term affair with her chamberlain at her home of Heiligenberg Castle, a
native of Switzerland named Baron August von Senarclens de Grancy. It is
rumored that her last four children with Louis, including Marie, were actually the
issue of her lover but this allegation doesn’t hold up against Louis’s
recognition of all of Wilhelmine’s children. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg95mRkI691h8WDKh7XTvnV21dTin8X-MQzd4-3oKd9ApIf7Yn2wIHRfi5kYfCbusQmtq-ll-Lb37H3rQkFjMkDh2ntB2NH8cWdjqQmdWfSYFuCgV2ep9A1kjwa0gS0WOZPLYqh0XlllXII/s1600/68a5971fd446c0adbdd857f91be95d80.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg95mRkI691h8WDKh7XTvnV21dTin8X-MQzd4-3oKd9ApIf7Yn2wIHRfi5kYfCbusQmtq-ll-Lb37H3rQkFjMkDh2ntB2NH8cWdjqQmdWfSYFuCgV2ep9A1kjwa0gS0WOZPLYqh0XlllXII/s640/68a5971fd446c0adbdd857f91be95d80.jpg" width="398" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Marie of Hesse and by Rhine<br />(Christina Robertson, 1849)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Marie had three surviving elder
brothers since one of her sisters died in infancy and two of her siblings were
stillborn. Marie was primarily reared by her mother as opposed to her cheating
father. Wilhelmine oversaw her daughter’s education and, as the Grand Duchess
liked French culture and literature, she had her daughter focus primarily on
these subjects, as well as history and general texts. In 1836, six years after
Louis became the Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine, Wilhelmine died at the age
of forty-seven. Marie was just eleven years old when her mother unexpectedly
passed away and she was taken in by her late mother’s lady-in-waiting, Marianne
Gransi, who made sure Marie continued her education. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYD3h-8BhXsVRHLB2B3Tf8jl1rtK65SbRRJkikhFPF2ZruCgbdVck8mHM7QMgyisyg2A956oQKfFOrmcuuIL2rl7pK7eIQKqz3T3kQEDrf_VPj9-01uYbVz1oXO1PGw6xrWdheRbmJ-xKg/s1600/Alexander_II_and_his_wife.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYD3h-8BhXsVRHLB2B3Tf8jl1rtK65SbRRJkikhFPF2ZruCgbdVck8mHM7QMgyisyg2A956oQKfFOrmcuuIL2rl7pK7eIQKqz3T3kQEDrf_VPj9-01uYbVz1oXO1PGw6xrWdheRbmJ-xKg/s400/Alexander_II_and_his_wife.jpg" width="278" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Marie of Hesse and by Rhine and her husband,<br />Alexander II of Russia<br />(1860's)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">In 1838, Tsarevich Alexander
Nikolayevich of Russia went on an extensive tour of Europe specifically to
locate a suitable wife. The highly educated yet greatly underestimated eldest
child of Emperor Nicholas I and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna (born Princess
Charlotte of Prussia) met the fourteen year-old Marie on his tour and
immediately became enchanted with her. Even after he learned about the question
of her paternity, he still remained infatuated with the teenage German princess
who was six years his junior. Alexander’s mother was against the match but her
son remained firm in his desire to wed Marie, even writing to his doubting
mother: “I love her, and I would rather give up the throne, than not marry her.
I will marry only her, that’s my decision!” Emperor Nicholas I coaxed his wife
into taking a trip to Darmstadt to see Marie and much to Alexander’s relief,
his mother approved of Marie’s appearance and character and finally agreed to the
marriage. Before Marie left for her future home, she was educated in the
Russian Orthodox religion by a priest sent from Russia to Germany, as she was
expected to convert from Lutheranism to the Russian religion upon her marriage.
In September of 1840, Marie arrived in St. Petersburg, chaperoned by her
brother Alexander, and quickly fell in love with the beautiful city. On
December 5, 1840, Marie was officially received into the Russian Orthodox
Church as “Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna”. The formal betrothal was held in
front of the Imperial family the following day, as well as the entire Russian
court and high-ranking representatives of foreign countries. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Empress Maria Alexandrovna of Russia<br />(Franz Xaver Winterhalter, 1857)</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">On April 16, 1841 in the
Cathedral Church of the Winter Palace, the sixteen year-old Maria Alexandrovna
married Tsarevich Alexander Nikolayevich, who was just days away from his
twenty-third birthday. Maria wore a beautiful white gown “richly embroidered
with silver and diamonds” and a red sash over one shoulder. She also sported a
crimson velvet robe with white satin and fine ermine. The young bride was
decked from head to toe with diamond jewelry in the form of a tiara, earrings,
necklace, and bracelets. Her mother-in-law weaved orange blossoms through
Maria’s hair, as flowers were a representation of innocence and decorum. After
the lavish wedding ceremony and honeymoon, the new Tsarevna found it rather
challenging to fit in at the Imperial court and accept foreign customs and
routines. Maria was naturally very shy and timid so she struggled to assimilate
herself with the court and make friends. The Tsarevna had been born with
sensitive lungs and the dank weather of St. Petersburg caused her to develop a incessant
cough and a chronic fever. Her poor health prompted her to take various trips
to Germany and countries in southern Europe to escape Russia’s poor climate,
especially during the bitter winters. Despite her fragile health, Maria was
able to produce a total of eight children with her husband over a span of
eighteen years with just their eldest dying in childhood:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Empress Maria Alexandrovna with her youngest sons,<br />Sergei and Paul<br />(1860's)</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
</div>
<ul>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Grand Duchess Alexandra
Alexandrovna</span></u><span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> (1842-1849) died from infant meningitis at the
age of six and a half</span></li>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Tsarevich
Nicholas Alexandrovich</span></u><span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> (1843-1865) engaged to <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/07/maria-feodorovna-empress-of-russia.html">Dagmar of Denmark (Maria Feodorovna)</a> before his death from cerebro-spinal meningitis at the age
of twenty-one</span></li>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Emperor
Alexander III of Russia</span></u><span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> (1845-1894) married: <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/07/maria-feodorovna-empress-of-russia.html">Dagmar of Denmark (Maria Feodorovna)</a> – had issue</span></li>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Grand
Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich</span></u><span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> (1847-1909) married: Marie of
Mecklenburg-Schwerin (Maria Pavlovna) – had issue</span></li>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Grand
Duke Alexei Alexandrovich</span></u><span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> (1850-1908) married (possibly): Alexandra
Zhukovskaya – had issue</span></li>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/07/grand-duchess-maria-alexandrovna-of.html">Grand
Duchess Maria Alexandrovna</a></span></u><span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"><a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/07/grand-duchess-maria-alexandrovna-of.html"> </a>(1853-1920) married: Prince Alfred, Duke of
Saxe-Coburg & Gotha and Edinburgh – had issue</span></li>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Grand
Duke Sergei Alexandrovich</span></u><span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> (1857-1905) married: <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/07/princess-elisabeth-of-hesse-and-by.html">Princess Elisabeth of Hesse (Elizabeth Feodorovna)</a> – no issue</span></li>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Grand
Duke Paul Alexandrovich</span></u><span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> (1860-1919) married: (1) Princess Alexandra
of Greece and Denmark (Alexandra Georgievna) – had issue, (2) Princess Olga
Valerianovna Paley – had issue</span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 202.5pt;">
<br /></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN7IMmtEKCEke3ifiODMSH7NODUKjtxlzBFSvSEiB9fJD8oLMhqrUU65VkvN6ePLZdr-t7hy9Ft-CX1x6lBFefMaX0XnfYUdsuq4UyXbHaGfDSxTYHdFfJKqHhRtjw6-hgMSxyPwSsffoM/s1600/8129282ed42b6d7326fefe6a7e8dbf05.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN7IMmtEKCEke3ifiODMSH7NODUKjtxlzBFSvSEiB9fJD8oLMhqrUU65VkvN6ePLZdr-t7hy9Ft-CX1x6lBFefMaX0XnfYUdsuq4UyXbHaGfDSxTYHdFfJKqHhRtjw6-hgMSxyPwSsffoM/s400/8129282ed42b6d7326fefe6a7e8dbf05.jpg" width="325" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Empress Maria Alexandrovna<br />(Ivan Makarov, 1850)</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 202.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Although
Alexander held a large amount of respect for his wife throughout the entirety of
their union, his infatuation with her quickly rescinded after their wedding.
Alexander was a rather promiscuous man and since Maria was often away from
court either because of her string of pregnancies or her annual vacations away
from Russia, the Tsarevich took her absence as an opportunity to begin
relationships with other women. The true love of his life was his long-term
mistress, Catherine Dolgorukov, who was just twelve years old to Alexander’s
forty-one years when they first met in 1859. The beautiful Catherine was
described as being, “of medium height, with an elegant figure, silky ivory
skin, the eyes of a frightened gazelle, a sensuous mouth, and light chestnut
tresses”. Although she was given the position of a lady-in-waiting of the
Empress by Alexander himself, Catherine was very hesitant to become just
another lover of the Emperor until July of 1866 when she was eighteen years
old. Their love for one another was so passionate that Alexander’s own family
and court highly disapproved of Catherine’s influence over the Emperor.
Catherine had four children with her royal lover, two sons and two daughters,
and lived quite close to Alexander so he could see her multiple times a week.
Of course, Maria knew of her husband’s infidelity and his love for Catherine
but there was nothing she could do to stop his feelings; she just had to
tolerate the fact that her husband would never dedicate his heart to her, his
own wife. Maria’s relationship with her children was no better; while she cared
for her sons and daughter, she was also a physically cold woman who rarely, if
ever, displayed her affection or emotions, leaving her children feeling as
though she did not feel anything for them. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 202.5pt;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikX37et-nMC1L-wOXCq5vXDjxWYhfabpZy-fIzpX3-4QI8DsFTuu_Twt62DK2uZItr4V6OPiMH9sjSJR8kAPrlODQE-4BG0ZsKlPolh-Rm-e-aGtz1vCROMPfiu-I8SHulD49v9SZtOtxB/s1600/Crowning_of_the_Empress.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="482" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikX37et-nMC1L-wOXCq5vXDjxWYhfabpZy-fIzpX3-4QI8DsFTuu_Twt62DK2uZItr4V6OPiMH9sjSJR8kAPrlODQE-4BG0ZsKlPolh-Rm-e-aGtz1vCROMPfiu-I8SHulD49v9SZtOtxB/s640/Crowning_of_the_Empress.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Coronation of Emperor Alexander II and Empress Maria Alexandrovna<br />(Mihály Zichy, 1856)</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 202.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">On March
2, 1855, the fifty-eight year old Emperor Nicholas I died of pneumonia and
Alexander succeeded to the throne as Emperor Alexander II at the age of
thirty-seven. A coronation for the new Emperor and his Empress Consort was held
on August 26, 1856 in the Dormition Cathedral in the Moscow Kremlin. During the
ceremony, the crown slipped from Maria’s head, which was perceived as a bad
omen. Because Maria was usually suffering from weak health, she wasn’t
particularly active as an Empress and was not often in the public eye.
Throughout the early 1860’s and the 1870’s, Maria often travelled to her
homeland with her husband and children and they would go to Schloss
Heiligenberg to visit her brother, Alexander, who lived there with his
morganatic wife (who had actually been a lady-in-waiting of Maria) and
children. Here, Maria met the wife of her nephew, Prince Louis of Hesse, and
the second daughter of Queen Victoria of the U.K. – <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/06/princess-alice-of-uk-grand-duchess-of.html">Princess Alice</a>. Alice
suggested to Maria that her brother, Prince Alfred, marry Maria’s only
daughter, also named Maria, and although the Empress was reluctant to agree to
the match initially, the couple eventually married in 1874. Maria formed a
friendship with Alice that lasted until Alice’s early death in 1878, after
which the Empress invited Alice’s motherless children to come visit herself and
her family when she went to Heiligenberg. It was in Heiligenberg that many
marital connections were made between Maria’s family and Alice’s family. Other
than the engagement between the young Maria and Prince Alfred, Maria’s second
youngest son, Sergei, met and fell in love with his future wife, Princess
Elisabeth of Hesse and by Rhine, during the family trips to Heiligenberg.
During these vacations, Maria became acquainted with the young <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/07/alexandra-feodorovna-empress-of-russia.html">Princess Alix of Hesse and by Rhine</a>, who would grow up to marry Maria’s grandson, Emperor
Nicholas II. It is common lore that when Maria first met Alix, she turned to
her maid of honor and said: “Kiss her hand. That is your empress to be.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: 202.5pt;">
<br /></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXiusXU36yAm0gP6KfhZG1ghJGrNdvstxMbrr5Y7W5s_XL8T7fEv6e9GHVP7vE3WW3rfPIeP-h-NWsft3pUXqMujZDBynT3uv22OdeuGHBW5Dhw_I_LeESTY-ET7ug-NpHPsfnUKNsOFvJ/s1600/Family_of_Emperor_Alexander_II_of_Russia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="459" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXiusXU36yAm0gP6KfhZG1ghJGrNdvstxMbrr5Y7W5s_XL8T7fEv6e9GHVP7vE3WW3rfPIeP-h-NWsft3pUXqMujZDBynT3uv22OdeuGHBW5Dhw_I_LeESTY-ET7ug-NpHPsfnUKNsOFvJ/s640/Family_of_Emperor_Alexander_II_of_Russia.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Family of Alexander II and Maria Alexandrovna: (front row) - Alexander II, Nicholas II, Maria Feodorovna/Dagmar of Denmark, (back row) - Paul, Sergei, Maria, Alexei, Alexander III, Vladimir<br />(1871)</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Lucida Grande;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;">Maria’s
first child to marry was her second son, the future Emperor Alexander III.
Alexander’s bride, Princess Dagmar of Denmark, had been betrothed to
Alexander’s older brother, Tsarevich Nicholas, but after Nicholas’s unexpected
death in 1865, Dagmar and Alexander became engaged and fell in love with each
other. The future Emperor and Empress Consort of Russia would go on to have
five surviving children, including: Emperor Nicholas II, <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/07/grand-duchesses-xenia-and-olga.html">Grand Duchess Xenia, and Grand Duchess Olga</a>. Two of Maria’s children married in 1874 – her daughter,
Maria, and her third son, Vladimir. Vladimir married his second cousin, Duchess
Marie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, and had four surviving children with her,
including Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich, the second husband of <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/07/princess-victoria-melita-of-saxe-coburg.html">Princess Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha</a>. The younger Maria married Prince
Alfred, the second son of Queen Victoria of the U.K., and although they had a
very unhappy union, they had five surviving children. Their four daughters were
Queen Consort Marie of Romania, Princess Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg and
Gotha, Princess Consort Alexandra of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, and Infanta Beatrice
of Spain. Ten years after Maria and Vladimir’s marriages, Grand Duke Sergei
married Princess Elisabeth of Hesse and by Rhine. Although they had no children,
they were extremely happy together and loved each other immensely. Maria’s last
child to marry was her youngest, Grand Duke Paul, who actually married twice
during his lifetime. His first union was in 1889 to Princess Alexandra of
Greece and Denmark, the daughter of King George I of Greece, who he had two
children with before Alexandra’s early death in 1891. Paul remarried in 1902 to
a divorced mother of three children, Olga Valerianovna Paley, who was Paul’s
mistress for some time until he married her morganatically, much to the
displeasure of his family. They had three children together, their eldest of
whom was born before they wed. Although Maria's four son, Alexei, never married, it is claimed that he </span><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; line-height: 22px;">morganatically</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> married his mistress, <o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; line-height: 22px;">Alexandra Zhukovskaya (who was eight years his senior), who he had a son with in 1871. If the couple ever did marry, the union would have been annulled by the Russian Orthodox Church since Alexandra, the daughter of an illegitimate son of a Russian landowner and a Turkish slave,</span></span><span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 14.6667px; line-height: 22px;"> was no suitable wife for a Grand Duke of Russia.</span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSPDsm77SXhyphenhyphenYEmpB4FOz0YjwA9Ex4nrHei7FDlUFXmsaHIlWpeT7XRXg1wabdp9vnieozbEEXvaPjtF-BrXGUvSe9yEHXpYXGHDvIFLlCdZQoDgo2o2HD3rsx8yoiGxw7UEAV08S2lZTP/s1600/Empress_Maria_Alexandrovna.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSPDsm77SXhyphenhyphenYEmpB4FOz0YjwA9Ex4nrHei7FDlUFXmsaHIlWpeT7XRXg1wabdp9vnieozbEEXvaPjtF-BrXGUvSe9yEHXpYXGHDvIFLlCdZQoDgo2o2HD3rsx8yoiGxw7UEAV08S2lZTP/s400/Empress_Maria_Alexandrovna.jpg" width="260" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Empress Maria Alexandrovna<br />(1860)</i><span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Maria
contracted tuberculosis in 1863 and her health deteriorated each year until
1880 when her vigor finally collapsed. On June 3, 1880, Empress Maria
Alexandrovna died at the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg at the age of
fifty-five. She was buried at the Peter and Paul Cathedral in the Peter and
Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg. Her husband, who married his mistress Catherine
Dolgorukova a month after Maria’s death, survived his wife by less than a year
until he was brutally killed by an assassin on March 13, 1881, where a bomb
took his life outside the Winter Palace when he was sixty-two. Her was buried
beside Maria in the Peter and Paul Cathedral after their son, Alexander,
succeeded to the throne. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15315177275314871435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6807555129500021847.post-51120159687875064872016-07-26T22:09:00.001-07:002016-07-28T13:18:58.474-07:00Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia, Duchess of Saxe-Coburg & Gotha and Edinburgh<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwLvDRHxAhkeHYd4h5QAmPvCaUGhIV-LNn67UYrEIwOA7Co9GKdizhjrmFnlsMYtsr9dWVZHAIhClCJeT3PL5wisng2k3LoZG4R7CIQZ31MPyo2dQgG59xou7KXTwsdWEkFnErFfzy3bnr/s1600/Maria_de_rusia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwLvDRHxAhkeHYd4h5QAmPvCaUGhIV-LNn67UYrEIwOA7Co9GKdizhjrmFnlsMYtsr9dWVZHAIhClCJeT3PL5wisng2k3LoZG4R7CIQZ31MPyo2dQgG59xou7KXTwsdWEkFnErFfzy3bnr/s640/Maria_de_rusia.jpg" width="478" /></a></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna
was the sixth child and only surviving daughter of the eight children of
Emperor Alexander II of Russia and his first wife, <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/07/maria-alexandrovna-empress-of-russia.html">Maria Alexandrovna</a>, who was
born Princess Marie of Hesse and by Rhine. Maria Alexandrovna was born on
October 17, 1853 in the Alexander Palace, located in Tsarskoye Selo when her
grandfather, Emperor Nicholas I, was still on the throne and her father was
Tsarevich. Maria Alexandrovna had four older brothers and two younger brothers.
One of her older siblings was the future Emperor Alexander III of Russia (who
married <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/07/maria-feodorovna-empress-of-russia.html">Princess Dagmar of Denmark</a> and became the father of Emperor Nicholas
II) and one of her younger brothers was Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, who
married <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/07/princess-elisabeth-of-hesse-and-by.html">Princess Elisabeth of Hesse</a>, a daughter of <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/06/princess-alice-of-uk-grand-duchess-of.html">Princess Alice of the U.K.</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVJ7YL-HnP4ZD2vIDbQ6etiP7nMgNQw2S5TUfy8QccvuUpZu5jzQnaiSsxcHvRy1rDk7D_nmBjTS1lmamu6ketoXa5f8JWjlFhS1VSx8t9LdEZ992R_Rmuc8i5lHD-H_MjeNURUwj_oiqr/s1600/Family_of_Emperor_Alexander_II_of_Russia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="459" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVJ7YL-HnP4ZD2vIDbQ6etiP7nMgNQw2S5TUfy8QccvuUpZu5jzQnaiSsxcHvRy1rDk7D_nmBjTS1lmamu6ketoXa5f8JWjlFhS1VSx8t9LdEZ992R_Rmuc8i5lHD-H_MjeNURUwj_oiqr/s640/Family_of_Emperor_Alexander_II_of_Russia.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Family of Emperor Alexander II of Russia and Empress Maria Alexandrovna<br />(1871)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">In 1855, Maria’s grandfather died
and her father became the new Emperor of Russia when Maria was not yet two
years old. As the daughter of the sovereign of the Empire, Maria had a privileged
and lavish upbringing. Though her family had various residences throughout the
kingdom, their principal home was the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg. Both
the Emperor and his wife adored Maria, as she was their only daughter, but she
had a special relationship with her father. Emperor Alexander II clearly
favored Maria over all his other children and he spent most of his free time
with her. Her mother, on the other hand, was a physically unemotional woman and
did not often openly show her affection for her children. Since the Empress had
weak lungs that were negatively affected by the cold Russian winters, she would
often travel to Germany and southern Europe during that time of the year with
her three youngest children. As a result of these annual trips, Maria grew
quite close to her younger brothers – Grand Duke Sergei and Grand Duke Paul.
With no sisters and a distant mother, Maria developed into an independent,
determined, and stubborn tomboy. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6gEVeJHePBafXqlSaozcahJZN_LxJZt9s2ZMH1qXjfd2O7CWWJ31UXzl4g2AFcfdPJ5UhAdDRB2SEyAomciyExX947SG7uZyfq-0iOQkNYC8cw-Pm2T2H7fe8pdRUO1T-I4KNTUat1C30/s1600/Grand_Duchess_Maria_Alexandrovna_of_Russia_in_her_youth.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6gEVeJHePBafXqlSaozcahJZN_LxJZt9s2ZMH1qXjfd2O7CWWJ31UXzl4g2AFcfdPJ5UhAdDRB2SEyAomciyExX947SG7uZyfq-0iOQkNYC8cw-Pm2T2H7fe8pdRUO1T-I4KNTUat1C30/s400/Grand_Duchess_Maria_Alexandrovna_of_Russia_in_her_youth.png" width="288" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna<br />(1860)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">While she wasn’t astonishingly beautiful, she
wasn’t completely unattractive either. The Grand Duchess had a wide, round face
and a sturdy, solid frame as well as dark hair and blue eyes. As for her
education, Maria was the first grand duchess to be cared for by English nannies
and to learn the English language, which would serve her well in her adult
years. Other than English and her native Russian, Maria was also fluent in
German and French. She was an honest and down-to-earth girl who did not change
for anyone. She was also known for her “stubborn and uncompromising”
personality, as well as her tendency to always get what she wanted (a result of
her royal status and upbringing). Emperor Alexander did have a successful
marriage with his wife in terms of producing children but the same could not be
said for the romantic side of their union. Empress Maria was a very shy woman
who struggled to adjust to the Russian court and because of her many pregnancies
and her poor health; she was often away from her husband. Alexander was not a
man to stay faithful to an absent wife so he took many mistresses during his
marriage, which the Empress was quite aware of. His principal lover was a
Russian noblewoman named Catherine Dolgorukov, who Alexander became
romantically involved with in 1866, despite their almost thirty year age gap.
The couple had four illegitimate children together. One month after Empress
Maria died in 1880, Alexander morganatically married Catherine, much to the
displeasure of the aristocracy and his own family. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi43ZIZdSwm1Fp4Bw_ASNzLndjivjKBhXdbLZbgr2LYrrnc_uy6AIHW0FJxkifQ59S0UQbsPSJEGoTQC2sRkp31wnDwOrh1BmFSzsIqA28J4G3R_HyBdm470VjPZ48eaRqY287wyJyBvOOp/s1600/Maria_Alexandrovna_and_Prince_Alfred._engagement_photograph.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi43ZIZdSwm1Fp4Bw_ASNzLndjivjKBhXdbLZbgr2LYrrnc_uy6AIHW0FJxkifQ59S0UQbsPSJEGoTQC2sRkp31wnDwOrh1BmFSzsIqA28J4G3R_HyBdm470VjPZ48eaRqY287wyJyBvOOp/s400/Maria_Alexandrovna_and_Prince_Alfred._engagement_photograph.png" width="285" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Grand Duchess Maria and her fiancée,<br />Prince Alfred<br />(1873)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Much was expected for Maria
Alexandrovna in terms of marriage since not only was she the daughter of the
Emperor of Russia, she was his <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">only</i>
daughter. In the summer of 1868, Maria went with her family to visit her
mother’s relatives in Jugenheim. Here, the fifteen year-old Maria met Prince
Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, the second son of Queen Victoria of the U.K, as he
was also in Jugenheim visiting his sister, Princess Alice, who was married to
Maria’s first cousin. Alfred, who was nine years Maria’s senior, was a handsome
yet introverted prince serving as a commander in the Royal Navy at the time. It
was because of Alfred’s career in the Navy that he did not see Maria again
until the summer of 1871 when Maria’s family went to Germany to visit the
Empress’s family once more, this time at Schloss Heiligenberg. It was during
this second meeting that the British prince and the Russian grand duchess took
an interest in each other. They often spent their time walking together and
talking about their shared love of music. The love-struck couple soon announced
their desire to marry but nothing came of this revelation and Alfred went back
to England. Maria’s parents were firmly against the marriage since the Emperor
was fearful of parting from his beloved daughter and the Empress was sure Maria
would not be happy in England due to the kingdom’s odd customs and the impersonal
and rigid natures of the British people. The marriage wouldn’t be totally
accepted by the people of Russia either due to anti-English sentiment after the
Crimean War. Even Prince Alfred’s mother, Queen Victoria, did not want her son
to marry Maria. A marriage to a Russian Grand Duchess simply went against
tradition, for no British prince had ever done such a thing, and Maria’s
Orthodox religion and her foreign customs only complicated the matter. The
Queen was also wary of Russia’s intentions regarding India and she viewed the
Empire as a whole with hostility and distrust. But even after both Maria and
Alfred’s parents tried to dissuade them from the match, they remained firm in
their desire to wed one another. The Queen and her Russian counterparts finally
gave in during the summer of 1873 when it was suggested that a British-Russian
marriage could solve an Anglo-Russian dispute over the Afghan border as well as
bring the two kingdoms closer together. Even after Alfred proposed to Maria in
Jugenheim on July 11, 1873, Queen Victoria had a feeling that the couple’s
happiness would not last for long. She wrote in her diary after hearing of the
engagement: “Not knowing Marie, and realizing that there may still be many
difficulties, my thoughts and feelings are rather mixed.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimHYBiqtBKJVZ5ykQ1c-3WdjxVdqhZGIxcXzN1tjpykVwhoV9fYD284FjiB_Q1xV_dO21BH0KVZSYadMkhANC056Tverx7qMwm_3lyImJ4q2Nmif7I-p_KDIEMLNpTDkAgGIcSQu8IqEr2/s1600/Maria_Alexandrovna_and_Prince_Alfred_around_the_time_they_met.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="292" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimHYBiqtBKJVZ5ykQ1c-3WdjxVdqhZGIxcXzN1tjpykVwhoV9fYD284FjiB_Q1xV_dO21BH0KVZSYadMkhANC056Tverx7qMwm_3lyImJ4q2Nmif7I-p_KDIEMLNpTDkAgGIcSQu8IqEr2/s400/Maria_Alexandrovna_and_Prince_Alfred_around_the_time_they_met.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna and her husband, <br />Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh<br />(1871-2)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Although tensions were high
between the Queen and the Emperor while the wedding preparations began, Maria
could not wait to marry Prince Alfred. She wrote of her glee: "How happy I
am to belong to him. I feel that my love for him is growing daily. I have a
feeling of peace and inexpressible happiness and a boundless impatience to be
altogether his own." On January 23, 1874 at the Winter Palace, the
twenty-one year old Maria Alexandrovna married the thirty year-old Prince
Alfred in a two-part ceremony, which consisted of an Orthodox and an Anglican
service. While Alfred wore the uniform of the Royal Navy, Maria was adorned
more lavishly in a mantle of crimson velvet trimmed with ermine and a sprig of
myrtle as well as a bejeweled coronet, courtesy of her new mother-in-law. The
newlyweds spent their wedding night and their honeymoon at the Alexander Palace
by the Emperor’s request, as he hoped that this would convince Maria and her
husband to stay in Russia. But after the couple left for England once their
brief honeymoon had concluded, poor Emperor Alexander II never gave up hope
that his daughter would return to him so, he upheld the honeymoon suite in the
palace for Maria and Alfred for twenty years after their departure. When Alfred
and his bride, now the Duchess of Edinburgh, arrived in Windsor on March 7,
1874, they were greeted by Queen Victoria, who was pleased with Maria
Alexandrovna’s appearance and character. She wrote of her: “I have formed a
high opinion of her," Queen Victoria reported, impressed with "her
wonderfully even, cheerful, satisfied temper - her kind and indulgent
disposition, free from bigotry and intolerance, and her serious, intelligent
mind - so entirely free from everything fast - and so full of occupation and
interest in everything, makes her a most agreeable companion. Everyone must
like her.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLEfgH8CAhuMOM5ZvlfqeQdbfeKb3MRSkpAoZR_qd1gOP59ALufT9cKn1V8yABZGepv-SEGhHhR2QrbS2SoEoCem7cNl_iK05hXksPS2jAQb9e77tQluunzB5tHLFrW8IpBe5kUAJ6I0Fy/s1600/Maria_Alexandrovna_of_Russia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLEfgH8CAhuMOM5ZvlfqeQdbfeKb3MRSkpAoZR_qd1gOP59ALufT9cKn1V8yABZGepv-SEGhHhR2QrbS2SoEoCem7cNl_iK05hXksPS2jAQb9e77tQluunzB5tHLFrW8IpBe5kUAJ6I0Fy/s400/Maria_Alexandrovna_of_Russia.jpg" width="288" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna<br />(late 1860's)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh
set up Clarence House in London as their main residence with Eastwell Park in
Ashford, Kent as their country retreat. Unfortunately, although Maria had come
to England with an open mind and heart, she grew to hate her husband’s home.
She detested the kingdom’s dreary climate and food and looked down upon London
when compared to the extravagant St. Petersburg. Though Queen Victoria wrote
fondly of Maria upon their first meeting, Maria grew to dislike her domineering
mother-in-law. She even struggled to get along with Alfred’s siblings and only
liked his youngest brother and sister: Prince Leopold and <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/06/princess-beatrice-of-uk-princess-of.html">Princess Beatrice</a>.
She became homesick quite quickly and took any chance she could get to escape
her gloomy new home to visit her family. Her obvious distaste for Britain made
her unpopular with the people, who disliked her harsh treatment of her servants
and her insubordination of English customs, such as when she smoked in public.
Maria didn’t care what the Brits thought of her, even when they openly
criticized her manners because they found her too coarse and virile. She failed
to make any successful relationships with the British royal family, including
with her husband. Their marriage crumbled almost from the start once Maria
realized that Alfred, like her father, would never be a faithful spouse. Maria
also exasperated the British court with her constant wrangling with her
mother-in-law and sister-in-law, <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/07/alexandra-of-denmark-queen-of-uk.html">Alexandra, Princess of Wales</a>, when it came to
titles and superiority. Maria simply could not accept that she had to give
precedence to Alexandra since status worked differently in Britain than it did
in Russia. Her birth title of “Grand Duchess” no longer applied once she
married Alfred and became “Royal Highness”. This was a low blow for the proud
Maria since she had been given precedence over all other women in Russia
(except her mother) as the Emperor’s only daughter. Despite the fact that Maria
was completely unhappy both with her marriage and with every aspect of her new
home, she began a family with Alfred right away. Nine months after their
wedding, Maria gave birth to her first child – a son named Prince Alfred after
his father (to avoid confusion between the two, he was called “Young Alfie”).
In the next ten years, Maria Alexandrovna would have a total of six children
with Alfred, though her fifth child was stillborn:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwzNYfXyxXK03O45xGCctkGuujOqqW4fl3AbeKG0M4G5EOwGjukgAH_y3hDcAILT6hEJRpyhyphenhyphenvHH-DuEIpRXRjpm4BpsdDzzYBITloyj9sS4wfkds8pbdAmgsgJcTKAEFUABoourifDJi6/s1600/800px-The_Duchess_of_Edinburgh_with_her_children.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwzNYfXyxXK03O45xGCctkGuujOqqW4fl3AbeKG0M4G5EOwGjukgAH_y3hDcAILT6hEJRpyhyphenhyphenvHH-DuEIpRXRjpm4BpsdDzzYBITloyj9sS4wfkds8pbdAmgsgJcTKAEFUABoourifDJi6/s400/800px-The_Duchess_of_Edinburgh_with_her_children.JPG" width="286" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Maria Alexandrovna, Duchess of Edinburgh, and her<br />children<br />(1880's)</i></td></tr>
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<ul>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Alfred, Hereditary Prince of
Saxe-Coburg and Gotha</span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> (1874-1889) died unmarried and without children
at the age of twenty-four under mysterious circumstances</span></li>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Princess Marie, Queen Consort of
Romania</span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> (1875-1938) married: Ferdinand I, King of Romania – had issue</span></li>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/07/princess-victoria-melita-of-saxe-coburg.html">Princess Victoria Melita, Grand Duchess of Hesse & by Rhine</a></span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> (1876-1936) married: (1) Grand
Duke Ernest Louis of Hesse & by Rhine – had issue, (2) Grand Duke Kirill
Vladimirovich of Russia – had issue</span></li>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Princess Alexandra, Princess
Consort of Hohenlohe-Langenburg</span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> (1878-1942) married: Ernst II,
Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg – had issue</span></li>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Stillborn son</span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> (1879)</span></li>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Princess Beatrice, Infanta of
Spain</span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> (1884-1966) married: Infante Alfonso, Duke of Galliera – had
issue</span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The Duchess of Edinburgh went to
Malta, a British territory located just south of Italy, with her husband in
1876 when was stationed there for the Navy. She gave birth to her third child,
Victoria Melita, on the island before the family returned to England in 1877.
The family went to Coburg in 1878 to familiarize themselves with their future
home because Alfred was the heir of his elderly and childless paternal uncle, Duke
Ernest II of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Maria ordered a palace to be built for her
family in the German city called the Ehrenburg Palace, which she decorated with
furniture and objects that reminded her of her birthplace. Less than a month
after Maria went back to Russia to be at her mother’s bedside upon her death in
June of 1880, she received terrible news in March of 1881 that her father had
been brutally assassinated by radicals outside the Winter Palace. She grieved
her father’s death immensely and had to hurry from England to St. Petersburg to
attend his funeral and the coronation of her older brother, Alexander III. In
October of 1886, Maria and her family moved back to Malta when Alfred became
the commander-in-chief of the British Mediterranean Fleet. The children loved
the warm beaches of the beautiful island and even Maria became more cheerful
during the three years the family spent there because she found it to be a refreshing
break from England. Since Maria had so many relatives scattered around Europe
and her husband was rarely home due to his career, the Duchess of Edinburgh was
often able to travel all over the Continent, much to her pleasure. Other than
her yearly trips to England, Germany, and Russia, she visited Spain, Italy, the
Netherlands, Greece, and Montenegro. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOh3WKDCYGZZeCSfQDPxA9Kqj8DG_vvi00zC3yLaoBgjttohyphenhyphenhMUHGroagpGFMi3Q-3po5J4_MSDAcmhKIZXfxQ2TZkjCCtnq5VgBIbm5IIlrz9l3_9dbpgfJ0ljCrn9KjxMTPhN8fSW3C/s1600/ef66b79ebc013d4ddcff709819286441.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOh3WKDCYGZZeCSfQDPxA9Kqj8DG_vvi00zC3yLaoBgjttohyphenhyphenhMUHGroagpGFMi3Q-3po5J4_MSDAcmhKIZXfxQ2TZkjCCtnq5VgBIbm5IIlrz9l3_9dbpgfJ0ljCrn9KjxMTPhN8fSW3C/s400/ef66b79ebc013d4ddcff709819286441.jpg" width="327" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Maria Alexandrovna, Duchess of Edinburgh<br />(1870's-80's)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">In March of 1887, Alfred
officially resigned from his position as commander-in-chief and he moved his
family to Coburg permanently. Maria spent most of her time presiding over court
and giving her children an education while Alfred was always away with the
Navy. Although she was a strict mother, she was also clearly dedicated to her
children and did everything she could to be the most influential figure in their
lives. Her relationship with Alfred fell apart completely by the 1880’s when he
became a full-fledged alcoholic. Queen Victoria’s prediction of a failed
marriage between the two was painfully true; the couple had nothing in common
other than their interest in music and their children (even this was limited,
as Alfred cared little for his offspring). As Alfred grew older, he became more
“reserved, taciturn, moody, and ill-tempered” and never quit being rude and
unfaithful to his wife. Maria was deeply hurt by his relationships with other
women but hid her broken marriage and unhappiness from her children to make
sure they didn’t share her misery. It was only later in their lives that she
confessed that throughout all her years of marriage to Alfred, she never felt
like anything more than his legitimate mistress. On August 22, 1893, Maria
gained another title when Ernest II died and Alfred became the Duke of
Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. While Alfred disliked his new status since he had to
leave the Navy, Maria loved this change in her life. The Duchess of Saxe-Coburg
and Gotha was pleased with her new home in Coburg and called it a “real
God-send” as she no longer had to live in England. While Alfred spent most of
his time hunting, Maria worked on restoring the run-down castles in the area
and partaking in charitable activities, such as setting up a home for the
mentally challenged. She promoted the opera and the theater (both of which she
loved to attend) and in her free time she enjoyed reading and mushroom hunting.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-NG5ibdMgauq6dJw6HvauyB_GEcCxiRoJmDj93Rj2x4M90QYuFL5CwhcgF_0PVZnzbOgyPtX2E_r7aIjlrAtkdl4TtIwLP1_GYzLJCBuxKURY0ziRf_FIWQOXYYK_25HfTtaaoy4uHYhG/s1600/unsere-vier-prinzessinnen.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-NG5ibdMgauq6dJw6HvauyB_GEcCxiRoJmDj93Rj2x4M90QYuFL5CwhcgF_0PVZnzbOgyPtX2E_r7aIjlrAtkdl4TtIwLP1_GYzLJCBuxKURY0ziRf_FIWQOXYYK_25HfTtaaoy4uHYhG/s400/unsere-vier-prinzessinnen.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Daughters of Maria Alexandrovna (left to right): Beatrice,<br />Victoria Melita, Alexandra, and Marie<br />(1900)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Just months before Alfred and
Maria became the Duke and Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, their eldest
daughter, Marie, married Crown Prince Ferdinand of Romania, who was ten years
her senior. Alfred and Maria argued heavily when it came to Marie’s marriage
since Alfred wanted her to marry his nephew, the future George V, but Maria
approved of her union to Ferdinand instead, a she didn’t want her daughter to
repeat her own mistake. The tables were turned the following year when the
couple’s second daughter, Victoria Melita, married her first cousin, Grand Duke
Ernest Louis of Hesse and by Rhine. Maria didn’t want her daughter to marry
Ernest (she thought he was too close to his grandmother, Queen Victoria) but
Alfred supported the union. However, the marriage proved to be a complete
disaster because the cousins couldn’t stand each other and divorced in 1901.
They had one daughter together, Princess Elisabeth, who died in 1903 at the age
of eight from typhoid fever. Marie’s marriage to Crown Prince Ferdinand was no
better; the two didn’t love each other and although they had six children
(including King Carol II of Romania, Queen Elisabeth of Greece, and Queen Maria
of Yugoslavia), their two youngest were most likely fathered by Marie’s
long-time lover, </span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Barbu Știrbey. Alfred and
Maria came to blows regarding their children’s marriages yet again in 1895 when
Maria betrothed their third daughter, Alexandera, to Prince Ernst of
Hohenlohe-Langenburg, a grandson of Queen Victoria’s half-sister). They had
five children together, three daughters and two sons, but only their four
eldest survived infancy. Alfred couldn’t stand that Prince Ernest was a member
of a non-reigning royal family but he had more pressing concerns at the time
regarding his only son. Young Alfie was a rebellious young man with a patchy
career in the German army and his insolence (his favorite pastimes were
drinking, gambling and womanizing) was becoming very worrisome for Maria. To
top it all off, Alfred and Maria’s marriage had only plunged further into the
abyss of unhappiness. Maria struggled to find a single think to talk about with
her husband without causing an argument and it had come to the point where she
was only comfortable and happy when he was gone. By 1898 his health had waned
along with his marriage because of his excessive drinking. In 1892, Young Alfie
fell ill with syphilis as a result of his many sexual escapades and in 1898,
like his father, his time was limited. On January 23, 1899, the twenty-four
year old prince supposedly shot himself during his parents’ twenty-fifth
anniversary celebration. He survived and was sent to the Martinnsbrunn
Sanatorium in Gratsch (mental abnormalities are a primary symptom of syphilis)
where he died on February 6, 1899 at the age of twenty-four. Young Alfie’s
death devastated his father, who blamed Maria because she was the one who
oversaw Alfie’s education. Maria grieved her son’s death just as deeply as her
husband and during his funeral, she began weeping hysterically and collapsed. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimICfoPq4bGzBszB5mC0MQY4yqvWBKap6Y1T5ghvSf0ktTSQW0jgnMWHoBe1X57Hg-slIkfgGHts3MvJ5WqRLqMshXHusa4weKxyJ3Qg3mQfKRGuq7RmLVqhv0ybYelKfFqh2Esb3b70lM/s1600/Maria_Alexandrovna_Duchess_of_Saxe-Coburg_and_Gotha.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimICfoPq4bGzBszB5mC0MQY4yqvWBKap6Y1T5ghvSf0ktTSQW0jgnMWHoBe1X57Hg-slIkfgGHts3MvJ5WqRLqMshXHusa4weKxyJ3Qg3mQfKRGuq7RmLVqhv0ybYelKfFqh2Esb3b70lM/s400/Maria_Alexandrovna_Duchess_of_Saxe-Coburg_and_Gotha.jpg" width="293" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Maria Alexandrovna, Duchess of Saxe-Coburg <br />and Gotha<br />(1901)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Around this time, it was
discovered that Alfred had throat cancer that was too far along to be treated.
By May of 1900, he couldn’t swallow and had to be fed by a tube. On July 30,
1900, the fifty-five year old Prince Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and
Edinburgh, passed away in his sleep at the family’s country home of Rosenau
Palace with his wife and three youngest daughters at his bedside. Since his
only son had predeceased him, the duchy was inherited by Alfred’s nephew,
Prince Charles Edward. Maria Alexandrovna was now a widow at forty-six years
old. The Dowager Duchess stayed in Clarence House in England for some time
until she had to give it up to her brother-in-law, the Duke of Connaught. In
her later years, Maria lived in Edinburgh Palace and Rosenau Palace but she
spent the majority of her time at her villa in Tegernsee near Munich. In 1901,
after Victoria Melita divorced Ernest Louis, she lived with her mother until
she remarried her teenage crush and maternal first cousin, Grand Duke Kirill
Vladimirovich of Russia. Although Maria was judgmental of her daughters, she
always had their backs when times got tough. In 1909, her youngest daughter,
Beatrice, married </span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Infante Alfonso, Duke of
Galliera, the grandson of Queen Isabella II of Spain. They had three sons
during their marriage.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_wiYOVZs0MkrsDEzC7E2OQdD-OeVdDTNKAlza9uROq8lEFYcFXVD6HtqzAJ761yH4O_isjgz0m0m2SXsA8aYPI13HBtomrDjAR3opQyOItpgRi0rsnY2KyUumZAnH2bztzmaAoLHcO0ID/s1600/1914-grand-duchess-marie-2.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_wiYOVZs0MkrsDEzC7E2OQdD-OeVdDTNKAlza9uROq8lEFYcFXVD6HtqzAJ761yH4O_isjgz0m0m2SXsA8aYPI13HBtomrDjAR3opQyOItpgRi0rsnY2KyUumZAnH2bztzmaAoLHcO0ID/s400/1914-grand-duchess-marie-2.jpeg" width="265" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Maria Alexandrovna, Duchess of Saxe-Coburg<br />and Gotha<br />(1900's-10's)</i></td></tr>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">In
the years before World War I, Maria often visited Russia to see her daughter,
Victoria Melita. But once the Great War began, Maria supported Germany against
her home of Russia (her poor relationship with her nephew, Emperor Nicholas II,
probably influenced her views). Germany became so anti-Russian during the war
that Maria had to leave Coburg for Tegernsee, even though she was pro-German.
After Maria was harassed by an angry mob in Tegernsee, she had to flee the
country to live in exile in Switzerland in Zürich. Here, she watched the war
from afar and learned in 1917 of the various deaths of members of the Romanov
family at the hands of the Bolsheviks, including those of her last surviving
brother, Grand Duke Paul, and Nicholas II. After the war, Maria lost most of
her wealth since a majority of it was held in a trust in Russia. She was living
in poor conditions as a result of her financial strain when Victoria Melita and
her family with Kirill escaped Russia and came to live with the Dowager Duchess
in 1919. By this time, Maria was worn down in her old age. Although she had
been stout all her life, she was now thin and fragile with constant tremors in
her hands. Just months before her death, the elderly Maria (who was plagued
with gastric problems) wrote: </span><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"I am too utterly disgusted with the
present state of the world and mankind in general... They have destroyed and
ruined my beloved Russia, my much-loved Germany.” On October 25, 1920, the
sixty-seven year old Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia, Duchess of
Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Edinburgh, died in her sleep of a heart attack. She
was buried in the ducal mausoleum at </span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Friedhof
am Glockenberg with her husband and son. Perhaps Maria’s sad life can be summed
up best by her what her daughter Marie wrote of her after her death: “She was
profoundly religious. I hope God will not disappoint her as most things and
beings did in this life.”</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15315177275314871435noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6807555129500021847.post-17243530422836897032016-07-25T20:39:00.001-07:002016-07-28T13:19:24.464-07:00Princess Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Grand Duchess of Hesse and by Rhine<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Princess Victoria Melita of
Saxe-Coburg and Gotha was the third child and second daughter of Prince Alfred,
Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (as well as Edinburgh) and <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/07/grand-duchess-maria-alexandrovna-of.html">Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia</a>. Victoria was born on November 25, 1876 in San Anton
Palace in Attard, Malta, a small island south of Italy that was a territory of
the British Empire. At the time of her birth, her father was an officer in the
Royal Navy stationed at Malta so her parents decided to give her the second
name of “Melita” as an attribute to her birthplace. Prince Alfred was the
second son of Queen Victoria and Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna was the only
surviving daughter of Emperor Alexander II of Russia and <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/07/maria-alexandrovna-empress-of-russia.html">Empress Maria Alexandrovna</a> (formally Princess Marie of Hesse and by Rhine). She had two older
siblings - Prince Alfred and Queen Marie of Romania- and two younger sisters, Alexandra,
Princess Consort of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, and Princess Beatrice, Infanta of
Spain and Duchess of Galliera. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSatJveyGkJ3jKIB36_KE1_MpHinvIUcfSiel8hnJuScJrbrGWSQxj2t74x9-rc0hiDizUq5Erk3iNWqv29L385QUpKTA8qjanqaYoFjD7wSOH1B05qEJ0PoLTv67drWNTWJoXul6BMW2V/s1600/cb122a749ac44399d6c20e1fd12b7a7b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSatJveyGkJ3jKIB36_KE1_MpHinvIUcfSiel8hnJuScJrbrGWSQxj2t74x9-rc0hiDizUq5Erk3iNWqv29L385QUpKTA8qjanqaYoFjD7wSOH1B05qEJ0PoLTv67drWNTWJoXul6BMW2V/s400/cb122a749ac44399d6c20e1fd12b7a7b.jpg" width="282" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Princess Victoria Melita<br />(1883)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Victoria Melita spent the first
two years of her life in Malta before her father’s service was completed. After
this, the family came back to England and resided in their various homes of
Eastwell Park (which was a favorite of the children’s), their country home in
Kent, and Clarence House. Victoria, known as “Ducky” by her family, had a
complicated disposition. She was sensitive, introverted, solemn, and often
misunderstood. While she was a gifted artist and pianist, she was always
compared to her older sister by one year, Marie, who was her closest sibling in
terms of affection. While Marie was blonde, laid back, open, and personable,
Victoria was dark-haired, sullen, closed off, and temperamental. In fact,
Victoria was so solemn that she was constantly mistaken as the eldest daughter
of Prince Alfred. Unfortunately, Victoria Melita did not have an idyllic
childhood. Her father was a reticent man who had a tendency to drink and was
constantly unfaithful to his wife. He was also emotionally detached from his
family and showed little love for his children. Victoria’s mother was no
better. Though she was a strong-willed and educated woman, Maria Alexandrovna
was also unemotional and stringent. The Grand Duchess disliked her life as a
married woman and cared little for her husband. She was more considered with
her social status than providing her children with a well-rounded education.
Maria Alexandrovna as a proud woman who thought her married title of “Royal
Highness” was a downgrading from her birth title of “Grand Duchess”. She disliked
the fact that she had to give precedence to her sister-in-law, <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/07/alexandra-of-denmark-queen-of-uk.html">Alexandra of Denmark, Princess of Wales</a>, because she thought that she was higher in class
than a daughter of the King of Denmark, as she herself was the daughter of an
Emperor. Because of this, the Grand Duchess disliked England and preferred not
to spend much, if any, time at court. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqkfgzLmNwlAfI5TrLx-ZwCoDPji25_MwXrImhbpIWnfyGU2VfGlwvWvbOq5hsk6Nq_takGefudLbouYd7fzpjlUrK5f3KcpXZDP6-tKqSrneKQIp6l5mD3q8wHk_5fnfg2KX5LUVYhRcP/s1600/Princesses_Marie%252C_Victoria_Melita_and_Alexandra_of_Edinburgh.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="295" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqkfgzLmNwlAfI5TrLx-ZwCoDPji25_MwXrImhbpIWnfyGU2VfGlwvWvbOq5hsk6Nq_takGefudLbouYd7fzpjlUrK5f3KcpXZDP6-tKqSrneKQIp6l5mD3q8wHk_5fnfg2KX5LUVYhRcP/s400/Princesses_Marie%252C_Victoria_Melita_and_Alexandra_of_Edinburgh.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Princess Victoria Melita (center) with her sisters, Marie (left), <br />and Alexandra (right)<br />(1891)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Soon after Victoria’s ninth
birthday, the family left England in January of 1886 when her father was given
the position of commander-in-chief of the Mediterranean naval squadron based in
Victoria’s birthplace of Malta. The family lived in San Anton for another three
years, which the children described as the happiest time of their lives. Alfred
became the heir presumptive to the duchy when his older brother, Albert Edward,
the Prince of Wales, conceded his Saxon succession rights in favor of his
younger brothers. At the time, the reigning Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha was
Alfred’s paternal uncle, Ernest II. So, in 1889, Alfred moved his family from
the beautiful beaches and warm ocean waters of Malta to Coburg. After the move,
Maria Alexandrovna quickly tried to “Germanize” her daughters by forcing them
to take part in a vigorous educational regime under a strict governess,
forbidding them to wear anything but simple clothing, and having them confirmed
as German Lutherans although they had been Anglicans all their lives. Not
surprisingly, Victoria and her sisters protested against these new limitations.
Eventually, the Grand Duchess gave in to her children’s complaints and
alleviated some of the girls’ constraints. Alfred would not become the Grand
Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha until 1893 when Ernest II died. Though Victoria
longed for the happy days of her childhood in Malta, it was in Germany where
she spent her teenage years. During this period in her life, she was described
as a “tall, dark girl, with violet eyes…with the assuredness of an Empress and
the high spirits of a tomboy”. Though she apparently had “too little chin to be
conventionally beautiful”, she was certainly not unattractive, as another
contemporary said: “she had a good figure, deep blue eyes, and a dark
complexion.” </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKklXz6e4rlDoHneGBHPBNRG0Gw3MknCcUZFPbSAutkNNkQv6sLQyADv85q-KMrA8ry7lIn019z3yYpgMQ96nNPd5p0krFbGZg30v63uYg0j1y8muPwD324DBukk0yC9EP1TXh7CxSowm8/s1600/e68446b8344bf85bd1be87dad67380ac.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKklXz6e4rlDoHneGBHPBNRG0Gw3MknCcUZFPbSAutkNNkQv6sLQyADv85q-KMrA8ry7lIn019z3yYpgMQ96nNPd5p0krFbGZg30v63uYg0j1y8muPwD324DBukk0yC9EP1TXh7CxSowm8/s400/e68446b8344bf85bd1be87dad67380ac.jpg" width="292" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Princess Victoria Melita and her first husband, Grand<br />Duke Ernest Louis of Hesse, on their wedding day<br />(1894)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Victoria experienced love for the first time in 1891 when she was
fifteen years old. That year, she went to Russia with her mother to attend the
funeral of her mother’s sister-in-law, Grand Duchess Alexandra Georgievna, a
daughter of King George I of Greece. Here, she met her first cousin, the
handsome Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich, the second child of Grand Duke
Vladimir Alexandrovich and Duchess Marie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. The cousins
were just one month apart in age and they soon became infatuated with each
other. But their romance was not meant to be, as Victoria’s mother was hesitant
to allow her daughter to marry such a close relative (marriage between first
cousins was forbidden in the Russian Orthodox Church) and she was wary of the
ethics of the men in her family. Other plans were in the making for Victoria
Melita’s marital future by her matchmaking grandmother. Queen Victoria wanted
her granddaughter to marry her paternal first cousin, Prince Ernest Louis of
Hesse. Both were grandchildren of the Queen, as Ernest Louis was the eldest son
of Alfred’s older sister, the late <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/06/princess-alice-of-uk-grand-duchess-of.html">Princess Alice</a>, and Ernest Louis was also
his father’s heir to the Grand Duchy of Hesse and by Rhine. The Queen thought
the two would compliment each other nicely since both were fond of art, liked
to have fun, and even had the same birthday. However, the Queen and the rest of
the royal family were oblivious to the fact that the cousins did not get along
at all and Victoria Melita was still head-over-heels in love with her Russian
cousin. Victoria even wrote Kirill for two years after their first meeting,
both holding on to the hope that their love might prevail over their family’s
desires. But unfortunately, love did not prevail over royal duty and on April
9, 1894 at Schloss Ehrenburg in Coburg, an unhappy Victoria Melita (who was seventeen
at the time) married her twenty-five year old German cousin, who had become the
Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine two years earlier. </span><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;">The marriage between Ernest Louis
and his new Grand Duchess was a disaster from the start. The two simply did not
and never would get along. Victoria hated that her husband showed no affection
towards her, instead choosing to shower all his attention upon their young
daughter (who openly preferred her doting father over her lookalike mother).
Victoria had two children with her mismatched spouse, though their youngest was
stillborn:</span></div>
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<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Princess Elisabeth of Hesse and
By Rhine</span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> (1895-1903) died of virulent typhoid at the age of eight</span></li>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Stillborn son</span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> (1900)</span></li>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPK24pOliasciU3dXoILogmMKI0SlgT7_ua6PelsT8MSYo3Etrp5wdScrkI6AxuWa2V3nOyQ8JTPhAPKnWO0phaeL5z89caNOI3WiLD6SXA-G-qSYFgK_5KiJCSVh0KkT9duy1zwEPK_TO/s1600/Victoria_Melita_Grand_Duchess_of_Hesse_with_her_daughter_Princess_Elisabeth_1898.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPK24pOliasciU3dXoILogmMKI0SlgT7_ua6PelsT8MSYo3Etrp5wdScrkI6AxuWa2V3nOyQ8JTPhAPKnWO0phaeL5z89caNOI3WiLD6SXA-G-qSYFgK_5KiJCSVh0KkT9duy1zwEPK_TO/s400/Victoria_Melita_Grand_Duchess_of_Hesse_with_her_daughter_Princess_Elisabeth_1898.jpg" width="272" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Grand Duchess Victoria Melita of Hesse and her <br />daughter, Princess Elisabeth<br />(1898)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">While Victoria loved to host
lavish and informal parties for the couple’s young intellectual and artistic
friends (the unwritten rule was that anyone who was older than thirty “was old
and out”), she despised having to perform her public duties as her husband’s
consort. She evaded responding to letters, avoided visiting elderly relatives
who she did not like, and preferred to socialize with charming, younger people
similar to herself than individuals of higher status at official events. Ernest
regularly argued with his wife over her negligence in her role as Grand Duchess
in noisy, physical fights that usually resulted in the hot-blooded Victoria throwing
anything close at hand at her husband, such as china and tea trays. Victoria’s
only relief in her miserable life was her passion for horses. She would take
long rides over the countryside to escape her unloving husband, her boring
royal duties, and her young daughter who took after her father in showing
little love for Victoria.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqc5g6mgooi5AmRlBJAds9q2LCRzzysipROClwRpc80gtcs8VLVrrnDMn7lSqaLYcwXbVwNpLB_ZET9zaMOconPqQ-IuTDEXGjt7sg9Vp6tAhZx675vD9HjRAJi0ekA3KCPlSnSb8GMdLF/s1600/Princess_Elisabeth_of_Hesse_2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqc5g6mgooi5AmRlBJAds9q2LCRzzysipROClwRpc80gtcs8VLVrrnDMn7lSqaLYcwXbVwNpLB_ZET9zaMOconPqQ-IuTDEXGjt7sg9Vp6tAhZx675vD9HjRAJi0ekA3KCPlSnSb8GMdLF/s400/Princess_Elisabeth_of_Hesse_2.jpg" width="255" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Princess Elisabeth of Hesse </i><br />
<i>(1901)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">In May of 1896, Victoria and her
husband travelled to Russia to attend the coronation of her maternal first
cousin, Emperor Nicholas II, who had recently married Ernest’s younger sister,
<a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/07/alexandra-feodorovna-empress-of-russia.html">Alix of Hesse</a>. During her trip, Victoria ran into Kirill once again and the
cousins’ love for each other was rekindled. She spent the majority of her time
at the coronation’s celebratory balls and parties flirting with Kirill, who was
still unmarried. The following year, Victoria travelled to Romania to visit her
sister, Queen Marie, and when she came back home she was horrified to find her
husband in bed with a male servant. Although she never revealed this finding to
the public, she told one of her nieces, “no boy was safe, from the stable hands
to the kitchen help. He slept quite openly with them all.” Queen Victoria knew
of her grandchildren’s unhappy marriage but she refused to allow them to
divorce for the sake of their daughter. The Queen and the royal family spent
the next few years trying to regenerate the marriage but everything that was
attempted failed miserably. It was only upon Queen Victoria’s death in early
1901 that Victoria Melita could finally escape her cheerless union. Through initially
Ernest did not want to divorce, he soon realized it was the only thing his wife
truly desired. The marriage between the cousins was officially dissolved on
December 21, 1901 when Victoria Melita was twenty-five years old. The royal
families of Europe viewed the divorce as scandalous, as such a thing was seen
as a taboo at the time. But Victoria couldn’t be happier to be free again and
she moved away from Hesse to live with her widowed mother at Coburg at her
house in the French Riviera (Prince Alfred had died in the summer of 1900 at
the age of fifty-five from throat cancer. His duchy passed to his nephew,
Prince Charles Edward, because Alfred’s only son, the young Prince Alfred, died
in early 1899 under vague circumstances). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN_P941bF8cpVKCFD7p3GicDRPbcdyGnX71nvllZShyphenhyphenMEwRlhyphenhyphenEbP8bcXVCaR6lVtJxJuTyZzmc2d-ytclQv4kotZ4iYRnhamNUsXtzLCJwzdkeJj2pi1I21vYJmcWNwGFsJ1miBpY0IKU/s1600/Victoria_Melita_of_Edinburgh_and_Saxe-Coburg_and_Gotha.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN_P941bF8cpVKCFD7p3GicDRPbcdyGnX71nvllZShyphenhyphenMEwRlhyphenhyphenEbP8bcXVCaR6lVtJxJuTyZzmc2d-ytclQv4kotZ4iYRnhamNUsXtzLCJwzdkeJj2pi1I21vYJmcWNwGFsJ1miBpY0IKU/s400/Victoria_Melita_of_Edinburgh_and_Saxe-Coburg_and_Gotha.jpg" width="286" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Princess Victoria Melita, Grand Duchess of Hesse<br />(1900)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Victoria shared custody of her
daughter with her ex-husband and it was agreed that Elisabeth would spend six
months of every year with each parent. But Elisabeth had a difficult
relationship with her mother because the young girl held her responsible for
the divorce. The relationship never improved because Elisabeth died in November
of 1903 from typhoid fever when she was only eight and a half years old. Ernest
grieved his beloved daughter’s early death immensely, as he regarded her as
“the sunshine of his life”, while Victoria was more introverted in her mourning.
At her daughter’s funeral, she placed her Hessian Order medallion on her coffin
as a last indication “that she had made a final break with her old home.” Ernest Louis remarried in February of 1905 to Princess Eleonore of Solms-Hohensolms-Lich, who he had two sons with. Ernest Louis died in October of 1937 at the age of sixty-eight after a long illness. A month after his death, his second wife and his eldest son, Georg Donatus, along with Georg's pregnant wife, Princess Cecilie of Greece and Denmark (a daughter of <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/07/princess-alice-of-battenberg-princess.html">Princess Alice of Battenberg</a> and Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark) and two young sons were involved in a deadly airplane crash that left no survivors. After
her divorce and her daughter’s death, Victoria and Kirill tried to begin an
intimate relationship despite the fact that Kirill’s parents protested against
the couple’s love. Kirill’s mother even told him to keep Victoria as his
mistress but to marry someone else instead. When Kirill was serving in the
Russian Navy in the Russo-Japanese War, his ship was blown up by a Japanese
mine in 1904. Luckily, he was one of the few survivors of the explosion. His
close brush with death made Kirill realize how precious life was and that he
wanted Victoria as his wife now more than ever. So, after he was sent home to
recover, he left Russia for Coburg to propose to Victoria, who happily
accepted. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Victoria Melita and her second husband,<br />Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich of Russia<br />(1906)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On October 8, 1905, Victoria Melita married
Kirill in a small ceremony in Tegernsee, Bavaria. The only guests at the
wedding, other than a few attendants, were Victoria’s mother, her sister
Beatrice, and a friend named Count Adlerburg. Tsar Nicholas II was so outraged
over his cousins’ marriage that he denied Kirill of his royal allowance and
barred him from the Navy. His wife reacted to the marriage just as angrily,
saying that she would never see Victoria (who she called, “a woman who had
behaved so disgracefully”) or Kirill ever again. Because the couple faced so
much hostility from their Russian relatives, they decided to move to Paris.
They lived in a home off the Champs-Élysées and survived off an income that
their parents granted them. Victoria, who was almost thirty years old, matured greatly
during her second marriage. Much to the delight of her husband and mother, she
chose to convert to Russian Orthodoxy in 1907. Now a Grand Duchess of Russia,
she had three children with Kirill in the span of ten years:</span></div>
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<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Grand Duchess Maria Kirillovna,
Princess of Leningen</span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> (1907-1951) married: Karl, 6<sup>th</sup> Prince
of Leningen – had issue</span></li>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Grand Duchess Kira Kirillovna,
Princess of Prussia</span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> (1909-1967) married: Prince Louis Ferdinand of
Prussia – had issue</span></li>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich</span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;">
(1917-1992) married: Princess Leonida Bagration of Mukhrani – had issue</span></li>
</ul>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Grand Duchess Victoria Melita, her husband Kirill, and<br />their two daughters - Maria and Kira<br />(1912)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">After some members of the Romanov
family died, Kirill became the third in line to the throne so Nicholas II
decided to reinstate his cousin and invite him and his wife back to Russia. In
May of 1910, Kirill and Victoria, who was given the official title “Grand
Duchess Viktoria Feodorovna”, settled down in Saint Petersburg with their two
young daughters. In the Russian capital, Victoria took pleasure in hosting
copious dinners and balls for the crème de la crème of Russian society. She
used her artistic talents to decorate her various homes and spent her free time
gardening, painting, and riding. Unlike her days as the Grand Duchess of Hesse,
Victoria fit in quite well in the lavish Russian aristocracy, although she
never warmed to her cousins the Emperor and the Empress (both Victoria and her
husband disapproved of Rasputin’s influence with the Imperial family). She had
a loving relationship with her husband and the two often spent time together traveling
through the Baltic provinces by car (Kirill loved automobiles). Both were also
close to their two daughters and though Victoria hated the bitter Russian
winters, she used the cold season as an opportunity to visit her sister Marie
in Romania and her mother in either Coburg or southern France. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Grand Duchess Victoria Melita of Russia<br />(1914)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">When World War I broke out,
Kirill and Victoria were vacationing with their daughters on their yacht in the
Gulf of Finland. They soon came back to Russia and Victoria took part in the
war effort as a nurse in the Red Cross while Kirill went back to the Navy,
serving in a department in Poland. She used her money and status to create an
efficient motorized ambulance for the wounded. Victoria Melita exhibited great
bravery during her service, as she was often at the war front near Warsaw where
she could be found tending to the injured under enemy fire. The couple was back
in Saint Petersburg in February of 1917 since Kirill had been stationed as
Commander of the Naval Guards in order to be closer to his wife and children.
Though the couple was supportive of the Tsar in public, they would meet
secretly with other relatives to try to find a way to save the doomed regime.
Once revolution spread throughout the Empire and Nicholas II abdicated in
March, Victoria discovered to her surprise and concern that she was pregnant at
the age of forty. Meanwhile, Kirill and his naval unit proclaimed their loyalty
to the Provisional Government in hopes that order could be returned and the
Crown could survive the revolution. Although Kirill was eventually obliged to
give up his command of the Naval Guards and many of his royal relatives saw him
as a traitor to his family, Victoria stood by him, for she herself wanted the
government to be reformed. His men also remained loyal to him and guarded his family’s
house on Glinka Street. </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Victoria Melita with her husband, Grand Duke Kirill, and their two<br />youngest children - Kira and Vladimir<br />(1930's)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">But the men’s protection did nothing to soothe Victoria
and Kirill’s frayed nerves because they feared for their security under this
new the anti-royalist regime. In June, the family was allowed to leave Russia
for Finland, which was a territory of the Empire at the time with its own
constitution and government. They rented a house in Porvoo, a city on the
southern coast of the country, and it was here that Victoria gave birth to her
only son, Grand Duke Vladimir, in August. Once the Bolsheviks gained control of
Russia, Victoria and Kirill decided to remain in Finland, which had become
independent in December. They desperately watched from afar as their home was
plunged into civil war between Lenin’s Bolsheviks and the royalist White Army.
They prayed for the White Army to prevail in the conflict but soon the family
was more concerned with a matter that directly affected their wellbeing. They were
quickly running out of supplies and money and had to beg for support from their
family. The family lived under these troubling circumstances for two years and
it seems as though this stressful period and the Russian Revolution took quite
a toll on Victoria’s appearance. According to one eyewitness, she “looked aged
and battered and has lost much of her beauty, which is not astonishing
considering all that she has gone through.” In the autumn of 1919, Victoria and
her family finally left Porvoo for Munich, where they joined with Victoria’s
mother and moved to Zurich in September. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i> Victoria Melita's eldest daughter - <br />Grand Duchess Maria Kirillovna of Russia</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">In October of 1920, Victoria
Melita’s mother died at the age of sixty-seven and Victoria inherited her
French villa, the Chateau Fabron in Nice, as well as her home in Coburg, the
Edinburg Palace. For the remainder of their lives in exile, Victoria and her
family would spend their days living in both residences. During her time in
Germany, Victoria became attracted to the Nazi Party due to its anti-Bolshevik
platform. She hoped, in vain, that the party might restore the Russian monarchy
and even donated money to the Nazi cause. But it was highly unlikely that
Victoria understood just how immoral the party and its ideology was; she simply
believed that giving money and supporting the Nazis would bring back the
Russian Crown because then her husband would have a chance of being named
Emperor. A year after Kirill suffered a nervous breakdown in 1923, he named
himself the Guardian of the Throne while his wife went to America to try to
raise U.S. support for the restitution of the monarchy. Her efforts were futile
but even after she returned home, she never stopped trying to fight for her
husband’s claim to the throne. In 1925, her eldest daughter, Maria, married the
head of one of Germany’s mediatized families, that of the House of Leiningen.
The eighteen year-old Maria, who greatly resembled her maternal grandmother,
married the twenty-seven year old Karl, 6th</span><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> Prince of Leiningen (her
third cousin) on November 25, 1925. They had seven children together with just
one son dying in infancy. Victoria Melita, devoted to the last, was at her
daughter’s bedside each time she gave birth during Victoria’s lifetime.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Princess Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha<br />(1890's)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Around the time of Maria’s
marriage, the German government began to deal politically with the Soviet
Union. This made Kirill and Victoria’s claim to the lost Russian throne rather
shameful for Berlin. In the summer of 1926, the couple moved to Saint-Briac on
the Breton coast to escape the hostility of the German government. They lived
in a secluded and remote location just outside of the French town in a house
they named Ker Argonid. Victoria and Kirill felt a sense of security in this
little country town and made friends in the area. It was in this isolated home
that Vladimir was primarily raised, though he was upbringing was quite
different from that of his older sisters. His mother was extremely protective
of her only son, as she put all her hopes and desires for the future of the
family name on his shoulders. She constantly feared for his safety so she wouldn’t
let him go to school. Instead, she had him homeschooled by a private tutor as
though he were a Russian grand duke before the revolution. Though she never let
him even think about receiving an education for any sort of future career,
Vladimir adored his mother and held her up on a pedestal for her commitment to
him. Unfortunately for Victoria Melita, her life in Saint-Briac was not
completely idealistic. In 1933, she found out that her husband had been having
extramarital affairs during their time in France. Despite her shock and anger
over this revelation, she decided to pretend as though nothing was wrong with
her marriage to keep her children unaware of the situation. But eventually, the
children did learn the truth and Vladimir took his father’s unfaithfulness to
his mother quite seriously. He was never able to forgive Kirill for his actions
and regarded his affairs as an act of treachery to the family. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Grand Duchess Kira Kirillovna of Russia<br />(1936)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">In February of 1936, right after
she went to the christening of Maria’s fifth child, Victoria had a severe
stroke that restricted her to her bed for the last month of her life. She took
comfort in the presence of her children and her dearest sister, Marie, at her
bedside but the same could not be said for her cheating husband, as she
apparently “shuddered away from Kirill’s touch.” On March 1, 1936, Princess
Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha died at the age of fifty-nine in
Amorbach, Germany. She was buried in the family mausoleum of the House of
Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in Coburg until 1995 when her remains were moved to the
Grand Ducal Mausoleum of the Peter and Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg. Kirill
survived his wife by two years but he struggled with depression during his time
as a widower. He was extremely lonely without his wife and although he hadn’t
been faithful to her in the end, his love for Victoria still remained. Kirill
had leaned upon Victoria for support, guidance, and strength and without her,
he became a shell of his former self. The only happy occasion in his life after
his wife’s death was the marriage of their second daughter, Kira, to Prince
Louis Ferdinand of Prussia in 1938. Kirill took great joy in the marriage between
the thirty-one year old grandson of Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany and the
twenty-nine year old Kira, because he viewed the marital union as a merging of
two dynasties. The blonde, blue-eyed Kira was a lively, smart, and blunt woman
with a calm personality with a inquisitive nature. She had seven children with
Prince Louis Ferdinand – four sons and three daughters. Kirill spent the last
years of his life writing memoirs of his life with his late wife. He wrote of
her: “There are few who in one person combine all that is best in soul, mind,
and body. She had it all, and more. Few there are who are fortunate in having
such a woman as the partner of their lives – I was one of those privileged.”
Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich of Russia died on October 12, 1938 at the age
of sixty-two in Neuilly, France. He was first buried beside his wife in Coburg
until his remains, like hers, were moved to the Peter and Paul Fortress in
1995. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">After his father’s death,
Vladimir became the Head of the Imperial Family of Russia. During World War II,
he spent a brief period of time in a concentration camp after he declined to
write a manifesto asking Russian <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">émigrés
to back the Nazis against the Soviets. After the war, he lived in Madrid where
he married the widowed Princess Leonida Bagration of Mukhrani, the daughter of
the titular Head of the Georgian noble House of Mukhrani. Leonida had one
daughter by her first marriage and after she wed Vladimir in 1948, they had one
daughter – Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna of Russia – who is today the
disputed Head of the House of Romanov. In the spring of 1992, Vladimir died at
the age of seventy-four of a heart attack. He was buried beside his parents in
the Peter and Paul Fortress. His wife survived him by eighteen years until her
death in 2010 at the age of ninety-five. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZSDpi02f0VzSInbd0C83IqnGMbnDxysasuqoGb402bAO0H6xug8TG_BMrYhLHx-JSC9JSVHC-pqnJZt0P9E-4pwO6vNjP5HoezIVgvEqBpwqZSqMpzjxZrw_seFSMqawCSmPv9jqlMv_5/s1600/Victoria_Melita_by_H.von_Angeli_%25281896%252C_Royal_coll.%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZSDpi02f0VzSInbd0C83IqnGMbnDxysasuqoGb402bAO0H6xug8TG_BMrYhLHx-JSC9JSVHC-pqnJZt0P9E-4pwO6vNjP5HoezIVgvEqBpwqZSqMpzjxZrw_seFSMqawCSmPv9jqlMv_5/s400/Victoria_Melita_by_H.von_Angeli_%25281896%252C_Royal_coll.%2529.jpg" width="293" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Princess Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha<br />(Heinrich von Angeli, 1896)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;">As for
Vladimir’s sisters, his eldest, Maria, lived in peace with her husband and
children until World War II, when Prince Friedrich Karl was coerced to join the
German army by the Nazis. At the end of the war, he was held as a prisoner of
war by the Soviets and died of starvation in a Russian concentration camp in
1946 at the age of forty-eight. Maria, now a widow, had essentially no money
after her husband’s death and she fought immensely to provide for her children.
In October of 1951, Maria died at the age of forty-four of a heart attack.
Maria’s younger sister, Kira, also struggled during the war when her husband,
who worked with underground forces against the Nazis, was arrested and sent to
Dachau concentration camp. Kira was imprisoned at the camp along with her
spouse but luckily, both survived and were rescued by American soldiers in
1945. In her later years, Kira let her health go. She put on weight and
developed high blood pressure, which caused her death from a heart attack in
September of 1967 at the age of fifty-eight. Her husband survived her by
twenty-five years until he died in September of 1994 at the age of eighty-six. </span><span style="font-family: "lucida grande";"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; line-height: 22px;">The two were buried beside each other in Hohenzollern Castle, located in Baden- Württemberg. </span></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15315177275314871435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6807555129500021847.post-42008504632378143152016-07-23T18:00:00.002-07:002016-07-23T18:00:41.428-07:00Maud of Wales, Queen of Norway<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Princess Maud of Wales, more
formally known as “Princess Maud Charlotte Mary Victoria”, was the third
daughter and fifth child of Albert Edward, Prince of Wales and <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/07/alexandra-of-denmark-queen-of-uk.html">Princess Alexandra of Denmark</a>. Her father was the eldest son and heir of Queen Victoria and
eventually succeeded to the British throne as King Edward VII. Her mother, the
beautiful and popular Alexandra, was the eldest daughter of King Christian IX
of Denmark and <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/07/louise-of-hesse-kassel-queen-of-denmark.html">Princess Louise of Hesse-Kassel</a>. Maud was born on November 26,
1869 at her family’s home of Marlborough House in London. The Prince and
Princess of Wales went against tradition by not naming their youngest surviving
child after any particular close relative; “Maud” was simply a variant of the
Old German name of “Matilda”, which had its roots it Anglo-Norman history. On
the other hand, Maud’s middle names were attributed to some of her female
relatives; “Charlotte” was for her maternal great-grandmother, Princess
Charlotte of Denmark, and “Victoria” was for her paternal grandmother, Queen Victoria.
Maud’s older siblings were: Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and
Avondale, King George V of the U.K., <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/07/louise-princess-royal-and-duchess-of.html">Louise, Princess Royal and Duchess of Fife</a>, and Princess Victoria. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Princess Maud of Wales<br />(1896)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Maud and her sisters, who all
inherited their mother’s auburn hair, grew up in a sheltered and protected
environment as a result of their possessive mother’s “smothering love” and an
obsessive longing for her daughters to remain dependent on her, as well as
physically and emotionally close to her. Because of this controlling
environment, Maud and her two older sisters (they were collectively called the
“Wales girls”) had trouble socializing or relating to family outsiders. It also
didn’t help that the Prince and Princess of Wales gave their daughters only a
limited education. Although Maud’s older siblings called their childhood
“oppressive” and “stifled”, Maud always looked back on her upbringing fondly
and happily. She was certainly the rebellious child, for she was known for her
tomboyish nature, her lively spirit, and her endless energy. The young Maud was
even the first British princess to openly ride a bicycle, much to her dignified
paternal grandmother’s displeasure. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She
was her father’s favorite child and both loved to ride and play sports. Maud
even earned the nickname “Harry” after her father’s friend in the Royal Navy,
an Admiral who was particularly praised for his bravery during the Crimean War.
Maud and her family often went to her mother’s native Denmark to visit her
maternal relatives at their annual family reunions, where she got to know her
Danish cousins, aunts, and uncles. Though she was close to her own parents and
siblings, she was not very fond of her Danish family, particularly her first
cousin Prince Carl of Denmark, the son of the future King Frederick VIII and
Princess Louise of Sweden. Carl, who was three years Maud’s junior, was viewed
by his British cousin as “immature”. Also, when the Wales family traveled to
Copenhagen, they sometimes journeyed to Norway and the Mediterranean on
cruises. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Princess Maud and her husband, <br />Prince Carl of Denmark<br />(1896)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">When Maud was in her teenage
years, she fell in love with the elder brother of her sister-in-law, Mary of
Teck. Prince Francis of Teck, who was just one year Maud’s junior, was fairly
depleted in terms of money from his growing gambling debts and although he
could have benefited by marrying Maud because of her status, he had no interest
in her and spurned her flirtations. Maud was almost enamored with Grand Duke
George of Russia, a grandson of Tsar Nicholas I, for a brief period of time but
nothing came of this young crush. But surprisingly enough, Maud found love in
her “immature” and “daft” Danish cousin, Prince Carl of Denmark, who had fallen
in love with her in 1892. She eventually warmed up to him, finding him to be
less childish than she believed, and the two bonded over a mutual love of
bicycling. In 1895, Carl proposed to Maud and she accepted. The couple knew
that since Carl was unlikely to ever wear the Danish crown (since he was only
the second son of his father), the two could live peacefully and quietly in
Maud’s home of England. However, there was some hesitation in both the British
and Danish royal families regarding the union since the two were so close in
blood and Carl’s mother had desperately wanted him to marry Queen Wilhelmina of
the Netherlands. But ultimately, both Maud and Carl’s families did agree to the
wedding and the couple was quickly married on July 22, 1896 in the private
chapel of Buckingham Palace. Maud was twenty-six at the time of the wedding
ceremony while Carl was a few weeks shy of his twenty-fourth birthday. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Wedding of Princess Maud of Wales and Prince Carl of Denmark<br />(Laurits Tuxen, 1897)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The couple’s first few years of
marriage were peaceful, just as Maud wanted. They stayed out of the spotlight
in their honeymoon residence of Appleton House on the Sandringham Estate; a
country house Maud’s father had given her as a wedding gift. Maud was so
hesitant to leave England and her family that she and Carl were still residing
in Appleton House five months after the wedding. Eventually, the newlyweds did
pack up in December of 1896 for Carl’s home of Denmark (as he had to perform
his duties as an officer in the Danish navy), where they settled down at the
Bernstorff Palace in Gentofe not too far from Copenhagen. But even here, Maud
was not comfortable with her strange surroundings and would travel back to
England to visit her family as often as possible, especially when the bitter
Danish winters rolled through. Less than five years after Maud married Prince
Carl, her grandmother died in January of 1901 and her father was crowned as
King Edward VII of the U.K., making her the daughter of a sovereign. It was in
England at Appleton House that Maud gave birth to her only child on July 2,
1903 – a son named Prince Alexander.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Maud of Wales and her husband, King <br />Haakon VII, with their son, Crown Prince Olav<br />(1911)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">In June of 1905, the almost
century long union between the countries of Sweden and Norway was dissolved by
the Norwegian parliament, the Storting. Norway then began to look for suitable
candidates for the newly independent Norwegian Crown and because of Prince
Carl’s descent from past Norwegian monarchs and his wife’s high status in the
British royal family, he became the great favorite for the throne. After a
plebiscite in November, where 79% of the Norwegian people voted in favor of
Carl, the Danish prince formally accepted the crown. Carl arrived in his new
kingdom on November 25, 1905, along with his wife and their two year-old son. Two
days later, he took the oath of succession and was crowned as King Haakon VII.
Prince Alexander’s name was changed to Olav and he became the Crown Prince and
heir to the throne. Maud, now the Queen Consort of Norway at the age of
thirty-six, didn’t change her name but she and her husband were both crowned in
a coronation ceremony on June 22, 1906 at the Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Maud of Wales, Queen of Norway<br />(1905-1910's)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Although Maud had never wanted to
be a queen and her home country of Britain always held a special place in her
heart, she recognized her importance as her husband’s consort to integrate her
family into Norwegian culture and society. She made sure that she and her
husband were photographed in Norwegian folk costumes and engaging in winter
sports like skiing. Like her mother, she used clothes and jewelry as a tool to
create a regal impression. Though Crown Prince Olav was raised as though he
were a native Norwegian, Maud always remained firmly British and actually never
became truly fluent in the Norwegian language. Queen Maud appeared to have a
small and discreet public presence but in all actuality, she had a firm grip over
familial and ceremonial matters behind closed doors. The people loved her for
her dignified persona, friendly nature, and sophistication when it came to high
fashion and style. The warm yet bashful Maud disliked some of the luxuries of
being queen but she performed all her royal duties with grace, efficiency, and
care. She always made sure that she visited England every year and would constantly
stay in Appleton House during these annual trips. She was said to be a
“forceful and dominant person within the royal court” with a “less visible”
public role but overall, she was known as a humorous, friendly, and energetic
woman to her family and close friends. Maud took a special interest in
charities, especially those that involved animals and children, and supported
Norwegian musicians and artists. During World War I, she founded the
Dronningens Hjelpekomité (“the Queen’s Relief Committee”), which was designed
to help people suffering from very trying conditions caused by the war. She
also became active in the fight for women’s rights and promoted the cause for
welfare of single women. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Maud of Wales, Queen of Norway</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">In March of 1929, Crown Prince
Olav, who was serving as a naval cadet in the Norwegian army before becoming a
colonel in 1936, married Princess Märtha of Sweden, the paternal granddaughter
of King Oscar II of Sweden and Olav’s first cousin once removed, as her mother
was a daughter of Frederick VIII of Denmark. The couple had a very successful
marriage since they both genuinely loved and respected each other. They had
three children: two daughters named Princess Ragnhild and Princess Astrid, and
a son – the current King Harald V of Norway. Maud became the last surviving
child of Edward VII and Alexandra of Denmark when her final remaining sibling,
King George V, died in January of 1936. Maud’s last public appearance in Britain
as at the coronation of her nephew, King George VI, in May of 1937 at
Westminster Abbey. During the ceremony, the elderly Queen Consort of Norway sat
with the Queen Dowager Mary of Teck and her niece, Mary, Princess Royal, in the
official royal pew of the abbey. In October of 1938, Maud came back to England
for another one of her habitual visits but during her stay at a London hotel,
she fell ill and was taken to a nursing home where doctors had to perform an
abdominal surgery on her on November 16th. Her husband hastened to England to be
by his ailing wife’s bedside. Although she lived through the operation, Maud
suddenly and unexpectedly died of heart failure at her English home of Appleton
House on November 20, 1938, six days before her sixty-ninth birthday. Maud of
Wales, the Queen Consort of Norway and a princess of the United Kingdom, was
laid to rest in Akershus Castle in Oslo. Her husband survived her by almost
nineteen years before his own death on September 21, 1957 at the age of
eighty-five, after which he was buried beside his wife. Their son succeeded to
the throne as King Olav V at the age of fifty-four and ruled for more than
three decades as arguably the most popular monarch in Norwegian history before
his death in early 1991 at the age of eighty-seven.</span><span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15315177275314871435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6807555129500021847.post-4819939311781220352016-07-22T18:21:00.001-07:002016-07-23T18:01:26.392-07:00Louise, Princess Royal and Duchess of Fife<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzwVUIFzBKWrLI4ez3NTyZyjRPdJFBYSl34OmrTh7zfaaRfad7qpjw1OmS7GvKj1RTN-xnIaz5HA1KejNHVNyDfgjFaNQ0JRfCDR2Bzw_Katdh6JNocYkdN0w9P7K5w3sH3yRMfqrT4aNE/s1600/1901-princess-royal-louise.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzwVUIFzBKWrLI4ez3NTyZyjRPdJFBYSl34OmrTh7zfaaRfad7qpjw1OmS7GvKj1RTN-xnIaz5HA1KejNHVNyDfgjFaNQ0JRfCDR2Bzw_Katdh6JNocYkdN0w9P7K5w3sH3yRMfqrT4aNE/s640/1901-princess-royal-louise.jpeg" width="436" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Princess Louise Victoria
Alexandra Dagmar was the third child and eldest daughter of King Edward VII of
the U.K. and <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/07/alexandra-of-denmark-queen-of-uk.html">Alexandra of Denmark</a>. At the time of her birth, she was simply
styled as “Princess Louise of Wales”, as her parents were then just the Prince
and Princess of Wales. Louise, who was named after her maternal grandmother,
<a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/07/louise-of-hesse-kassel-queen-of-denmark.html">Princess Louise of Hesse-Kassel</a>, was born on February 20, 1867 at her parents’
home in London – Marlborough House. Her middle names were an attribute to her
relatives; “Victoria” was for her paternal grandmother, Queen Victoria,
“Alexandra” was for her mother, and “Dagmar” was for her mother’s favorite
sister, <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/07/maria-feodorovna-empress-of-russia.html">Princess Dagmar of Denmark</a> (who changed her name to Maria Feodorovna
upon her marriage to Emperor Alexander III of Russia). Through her mother,
Louise was also a grandchild of King Christian IX of Denmark, making her a
princess of both British and Danish royalty. She had two older brothers –
Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale, and the future King George
V – and two surviving younger sisters – Princess Victoria and <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/07/maud-of-wales-queen-of-norway.html">Princess Maud, Queen of Norway</a>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOxnXwkQWfcGOEGw0kom0OGANaOjSJDEl-cwhAovtUF9IlaA6_vH_d7JxmF1N9MpR5JWt6rrS5ap3xtwjmoSzwWxBbt0d8ZOM_HIHrvHCBDv5hLCAkzWAcE1FryKF8kRHtq6xVpF_lNEf9/s1600/31caa6f7f8a7c2f0a865ac60d51e1325.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOxnXwkQWfcGOEGw0kom0OGANaOjSJDEl-cwhAovtUF9IlaA6_vH_d7JxmF1N9MpR5JWt6rrS5ap3xtwjmoSzwWxBbt0d8ZOM_HIHrvHCBDv5hLCAkzWAcE1FryKF8kRHtq6xVpF_lNEf9/s400/31caa6f7f8a7c2f0a865ac60d51e1325.jpg" width="271" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Louise with her mother and sisters (left to right):<br />Maud, Victoria, Queen Alexandra, and Louise<br />(1880's-90's)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Louise had a happy but sheltered
childhood with her family, spending many of her younger years at her parents’
country retreat in Norfolk – Sandringham House. The family would also take the
occasional vacation to Denmark to visit their relatives on their mother’s side
and the country where Alexandra grew up. But though Alexandra was a caring and
affectionate mother, she was quite possessive of her girls and made sure they
remained close to her at all times, both physically and emotionally. She was so
controlling of them, in fact, that later in life she would insist that there
was no need for them to get married and leave home. Under their parents’
tutelage, the “Wales girls”, as they were collectively called, were given a
rather limited education. Because of their mother’s domineering personality,
Louise and her younger sisters (who were all very close with one another)
became quite shy, reserved, and naïve to the world around them. Louise was
actually so quiet and timid that she earned the nickname of “Her Royal
Shyness.” The red-haired and blue-eyed Louise was also considered to be the
plainest of her sisters, as she did not inherit her mother’s famous beauty. Her
meekness made it hard for her to converse with others and many remarked on just
how challenging it was to make decent conversation with the bashful Princess. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Louise, Princess Royal<br />(William and Daniel Downey, 1911)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">In face of her mother’s protests
against marriage and her royal grandmother’s tendency to play matchmaker,
Louise decided that she wanted to marry and what’s more, she wanted to marry
for love. So, when she decided to wed a paternal third cousin who was
relatively low in status and who was eighteen years her senior, her decision
sent shockwaves through the royal family. Alexander William George Duff, the 6th
Earl Fife, was the son of the Scottish James Duff, the 5th Earl Fife and his
Irish-Scottish wife, Lady Agnes Georgiana Elizabeth Hay, whose father was one
of the illegitimate children of William IV of the U.K. and his mistress,
Dorothea Jordan. Alexander, who had previously served as an MP for Scotland,
was frowned upon by many for his notorious reputation as a seemingly self-centered
and discourteous nobleman. However, he was also extremely wealthy and Louise
seemed to genuinely like him. He also possessed a strong shrewdness when it
came to business and was very successful in the ventures of banking and
finance. Either way, Louise was eager to escape her mother’s possessiveness and
she preferred to marry a “subject” rather than a high-ranking European prince.
Thankfully for Louise, her parents and her grandmother warmed to the match and
allowed the wedding to take place.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioZzMRWOuziFiadnPSZTZrBHPxTCPAJhxC45Kp55Jb1cN1143iYr7wm5ElZrUAzgM0QyrC0m9SqFRPQq1JPSs6nk_E1ysCwpwOwWZGNFoY8X1M6IqO2JaMcM_-SOFPoO93B0E1K7edLjH3/s1600/Screen+Shot+2016-07-22+at+5.43.16+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioZzMRWOuziFiadnPSZTZrBHPxTCPAJhxC45Kp55Jb1cN1143iYr7wm5ElZrUAzgM0QyrC0m9SqFRPQq1JPSs6nk_E1ysCwpwOwWZGNFoY8X1M6IqO2JaMcM_-SOFPoO93B0E1K7edLjH3/s1600/Screen+Shot+2016-07-22+at+5.43.16+PM.png" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Louise, Princess Royal and her husband, <br />Alexander Duff, Duke of Fife, on their wedding day<br />(1889)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Louise and Alexander married on
July 27, 1889 at the Private Chapel in Buckingham Palace when she was
twenty-two and he was thirty-nine years old. Two days after the ceremony, Queen
Victoria created her new grandson-in-law the Duke of Fife and the Marquess of
Macduff. The Duke and his Duchess had multiple homes scattered around England
and Scotland but their principal residence was their English base, a large
ivy-covered mansion near Richmond Park named East Sheen Lodge. Louise
flourished as a married woman. It seems as though her freedom and her happiness
with Alexander opened up a whole new world to her, for she became much more
confidant and strong. Louise’s relatives marveled at the contentment and love
the young couple shared and Louise’s paternal aunt, the <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/06/princess-louise-of-uk-duchess-of-argyll.html">Princess Louise</a>, was
envious of her niece’s luck. Princess Louise had also married a British
subject, John Campbell, Duke of Argyll, and although they had been in love at
the start of their marriage, the childless couple drifted apart in their later
years. The Princess Louise wrote of her niece’s marriage: <i>"I should be
dancing over the hilltops had I at least ¼ of her luck! Fancy marrying a man
you love and living in that beautiful property! ...She was the little mistress
of all around her. It was what one reads of in books but never comes true as a
rule!”</i><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"> The mother of Louise’s
sister-in-law, Mary of Teck once said of Louise and Alexander: <i>“…it does
one’s heart good to see them.”</i></span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8S6RZIeENnIsHNYyPfVjwl8FuHQ99p2f4cWarIbTGh6Wa_OK-UMIX-CrQXoTahWegrItbkCfWmTJyyFhlNoMYSLadaMElPCPlteTPQnO6MB7Wx1oB36NijouqVfSt44yxAqeV74P-zYN2/s1600/Princess_Louise_with_daughters_-_Alice_Hughes_c._1894.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8S6RZIeENnIsHNYyPfVjwl8FuHQ99p2f4cWarIbTGh6Wa_OK-UMIX-CrQXoTahWegrItbkCfWmTJyyFhlNoMYSLadaMElPCPlteTPQnO6MB7Wx1oB36NijouqVfSt44yxAqeV74P-zYN2/s400/Princess_Louise_with_daughters_-_Alice_Hughes_c._1894.jpg" width="268" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Louise, Princess Royal and Duchess of Fife<br />with her two daughters<br />(1894)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Her newfound liberty allowed
Louise to discover a passion for painting and interior design, skills that she
used to decorate and furnish her homes. She was fond of Scotland and the
outdoor activities she could engage in whilst there, such as fishing. However,
the couple’s happiness didn’t remain constant for long. They experienced their
first tragedy on June 16, 1890 when Louise gave birth to a stillborn boy named
Alastair Duff. After this shocking loss, Louise had two more children – both
daughters – who were born healthy and happy:</span></div>
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<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Alastair Duff, Marquess of
Macduff</span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> (1890) stillborn</span></li>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Princess Alexandra, 2<sup>nd</sup>
Duchess of Fife</span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> (1891-1959) married: Prince Arthur of Connaught –
had issue</span></li>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Princess Maud of Fife</span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;">
(1893-1945) married: Charles Carnegie, 11<sup>th</sup> Earl of Southesk – had
issue</span></li>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjjqGQn4eKQB76-xPAKcqZ4oKWN9O7exnE2vEI_FPQ1L5dvo0sfMBybjkBZPTOnFMiFRiTrbuihd0MPdJHi65Ohw3Z0GnAOjFQrq5Pe119mtw0LfDHGLiVIBDY9MDzU6SOwmucOOQZcSqK/s1600/Princess_Louise%252C_Duchess_of_Fife%252C_and_daughters_Princesses_Maud_and_Alexandra.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="273" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjjqGQn4eKQB76-xPAKcqZ4oKWN9O7exnE2vEI_FPQ1L5dvo0sfMBybjkBZPTOnFMiFRiTrbuihd0MPdJHi65Ohw3Z0GnAOjFQrq5Pe119mtw0LfDHGLiVIBDY9MDzU6SOwmucOOQZcSqK/s400/Princess_Louise%252C_Duchess_of_Fife%252C_and_daughters_Princesses_Maud_and_Alexandra.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Louise, Princess Royal and Duchess of Fife with her two daughters,<br />Maud (left) and Alexandra (right)<br />(1911)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">When it became apparent that
Louise and Alexander would have no living sons, Queen Victoria made a new
patent that stated that the Dukedom of Fife could be inherited by children of
both genders. Louise was a loving and caring mother to her two daughters, who
were named after her mother and her sister, and the small family spent their
life away from court in a quiet, peaceful existence. In January of 1901,
Louise’s father succeeded to the throne as</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">King Edward VII when Louise was a
month shy of her thirty-fourth birthday. Louise was now second in line to the
throne after her older brother, Prince George, because their eldest sibling,
Prince Albert Victor, had passed away from pneumonia in January of 1892 at the
age of twenty-eight. However, her position in the succession was displaced once
Prince George married Mary of Teck and had children. On November 9, 1905, King
Edward VII made his eldest daughter the Princess Royal and also gave her two
daughters the titles of “Princess”. Less than five years later in May of 1910,
Louise’s father died and Prince George was crowned as King George V. It didn’t
take long for Louise’s tranquil existence as a loving wife and mother to come
crashing down around her, for in December of 1911, Louise and family were
involved in a devastating shipwreck. The couple and their two daughters had
been traveling to Egypt for health reasons but during their voyage there, the
ship they were travelling on ran aground off the Moroccan coast on December
13th. Though the family was not harmed in the collision, they had to walk many
miles to Cairo in terrible weather. This caused Alexander to catch a chill,
which rapidly developed into pleurisy and in the early morning of January 29,
1912, the sixty-two year old Alexander died in the city of Aswan. Her beloved
spouse’s death thrust Louise into a state of immense distress and anguish.
Alexander’s passing had such a profound impact on Louise that she even lost
some of the self-assurance she had gained upon her marriage to the Duke of
Fife. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj957c2JkFfaYH0tJKYK2E3hQYP6bJ1PlJjz95_SFaBlVR1BxABqkr5Oz7FB7GojFKbWqDF9genEZau80sRcqafof5eeKoF7jtWifMXXZmlpJRMgcPH_3gDUacZC339jyCVtQi5gd0f0qFf/s1600/Screen+Shot+2016-07-22+at+6.05.12+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="486" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj957c2JkFfaYH0tJKYK2E3hQYP6bJ1PlJjz95_SFaBlVR1BxABqkr5Oz7FB7GojFKbWqDF9genEZau80sRcqafof5eeKoF7jtWifMXXZmlpJRMgcPH_3gDUacZC339jyCVtQi5gd0f0qFf/s640/Screen+Shot+2016-07-22+at+6.05.12+PM.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Louise's daughters: Princess Alexandra, 2nd Duchess of Fife (left) and Princess Maud, Countess of Southesk</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">At the end of February, the
grief-stricken Louise and her daughters arrived back in England accompanied by
Alexander’s coffin. Despite the family’s devastation, Louise’s relatives were
amazed with her display of resilience and strength in her time of mourning.
More than a year after Alexander’s death, his eldest daughter, Princess
Alexandra (who had succeeded her father as the 2nd Duchess of Fife in her own
right), married her first cousin once removed, Prince Arthur of Connaught.
Prince Arthur was the eldest son of Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and
Strathearn, the third son of Queen Victoria, and Princess Louise Margaret of
Prussia, a great-granddaughter of King Frederick William III of Prussia and the
great-niece of Emperor Wilhelm I of Germany. Previously, in 1910, Alexandra had
been secretly engaged to her maternal first cousin once removed, Prince
Christopher of Greece and Denmark, a son of King George I of Greece, but the
engagement fell through when the couple’s parents found out about the betrothal
and rejected it. So, the twenty-two year old Alexandra married Prince Arthur,
who was eight years her senior, on October 15, 1913 in the Chapel Royal of St.
James’s Palace. They had one child together, a son named Alastair Windsor, the
2nd Duke of Connaught and Strathearn in 1914. Alastair, who served in the
military in Canada, died in 1943 at the age of twenty-eight when he fell out a
window in a drunken haze and developed hypothermia after being spurned by his
fellow regiment men as “incompetent”. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Louise, Princess Royal and Duchess of Fife</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">On November 23, 1923, Louise’s
younger daughter, Princess Maud, married Charles, Lord Carnegie at the Royal
Military Chapel in Wellington Barracks, London. Charles was the eldest son of
Charles Noel Carnegie, 10th Earl of Southesk and both Maud and Charles were
thirty-three years old when they married. After Charles’s father died in
November of 1941, he became the 11th Earl of Southesk, making Maud the Countess
of Southesk. She had one child with her husband, a son named James Carnegie,
who became the 3rd Duke of Fife when his aunt, Princess Alexandra, died in
February of 1959 at the age of sixty-seven. She outlived her sister, Maud, who
died in December of 1945 at the age of fifty-two from acute bronchitis. </span><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;">In the fall of 1929, Louise fell
ill with gastric hemorrhage and suffered for fifteen more months in a severe
state of health until her death on January 4, 1931 at the age of sixty-three at
her home in Portman Square, London. She was first buried at St. George’s Chapel
in Windsor Castle but later, her remains and those of her husband’s were moved
to St Ninian’s Chapel in Braemar, a private chapel of the Duff family in
Aberdeenshire, Scotland.</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15315177275314871435noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6807555129500021847.post-3475285761545118082016-07-20T17:15:00.002-07:002016-07-20T17:15:09.764-07:00Grand Duchesses Xenia and Olga Alexandrovna | Sisters of the Last Emperor of Russia<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 22px;">Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna of Russia was the eldest daughter and fourth child of Emperor Alexander III of Russia and <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/07/maria-feodorovna-empress-of-russia.html">Empress Maria Feodorovna</a>. She was born on April 6, 1875 at her family home of the Anichkov Palace in St. Petersburg. At the time of her birth, she had two surviving elder brothers (one of her siblings, Alexander, had died in infancy in 1870): the future Emperor Nicholas II and the Grand Duke George Alexandrovich. She also had two younger siblings – Grand Duke Michael and Grand Duchess Olga.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>A Young Grand Duchess Xenia<br />(1884)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna
was the youngest of Emperor Alexander III and Maria Feodorovna’s six children.
She was their only child to be born during her father’s reign, as she came into
the world on June 13, 1882 in Peterhof Palace, a little more than a year after
her father took the throne. She was seven years younger than her sister, Xenia.
Their mother, who was born as Princess Dagmar of Denmark, shared a loving and
stable relationship with her huge, bear-like spouse. Maria was a doting and affectionate
mother to her sons, who she spoiled and coddled even into their adult years,
but while she cared for her daughters, she had a more distant relationship with
them than her boys. The girls were much closer with their father than their
dignified mother, particularly Olga, who shared a special relationship with the
gruff Emperor. Xenia and Olga, along with their brothers, were educated in various
subjects by private tutors, such as history and geography. The area of foreign
languages was especially focused on and the girls became fluent in English, French,
and German, along with their native Russian. They also learned how to cook,
build, and make puppets for their personal puppet theatre. The young Russian
princesses liked to ride, fish, draw, dance, play the piano, and engage in
gymnastics. Every year, the girls would travel to Denmark with their family to
attend their maternal grandparents’ summer family reunions at Fredensborg
Castle. It was on these visits that Xenia, who was known as a quiet and shy
tomboy, became close to her maternal cousin, Princess Marie of Greece, the
daughter of King George I and his Russian wife, Queen Olga. Xenia and Marie
developed a warm friendship that would last for the rest of their lives. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>A Young Grand Duchess Olga<br />(1889)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">While Xenia was close to her
cousin, Olga was fond of her closest brother in age – Michael. Olga, Michael,
and their father all shared a special relationship and often went on hikes in
the Gatchina forests by their home where the Emperor would teach his youngest
children woodsmanship. Olga matured into a practical, down-to-earth young woman
who favored comfort over luxury and was reserved in public but open and warm in
private. But Olga and Xenia’s lives would change dramatically in the summer of
1894 when their beloved father fell gravely ill with a terminal kidney disease.
The twelve year-old Olga and her nineteen year-old sister watched as their
father gradually grew sicker and sicker, wasting away until he finally died on
November 13, 1894 at the age of forty-nine. Alexander’s death had a tremendous
emotional impact on young Olga, who grieved the loss of her loving parent and
closest friend immensely. After their father’s death, their unready and
unskilled oldest brother, Nicholas II, became the new Emperor and married his
long-time love, the socially awkward and timid German princess, <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/07/alexandra-feodorovna-empress-of-russia.html">Alix of Hesse</a>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Grand Duchesses Xenia and Olga with their parents (both seated) and their three surviving brothers<br /> - Nicholas, George, and Michael<br />(1892)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Olga and Xenia resumed court
life, not as the daughters of the Emperor but as his sisters. Meanwhile, Xenia
was settling into her life as a married woman with her paternal first cousin
once removed, Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich. The two had been childhood
friends and playmates since their earliest years (Alexander, who was known as
“Sandro” by his family and friends, was also a good friend of her older brother
Nicholas) despite the fact that Alexander was nine years Xenia’s senior.
Romance bloomed between the two when Xenia was in her early teens and in 1890,
the fifteen year-old Xenia asked her parents if she could marry Alexander. At
first, the Emperor and Empress were hesitant to permit the match because they
believed their daughter was too young and vulnerable at the time and they believed
Alexander was too haughty and uncouth. But the couple’s affection for each
other didn’t fade over the next few years, so, on January 12, 1894, Xenia’s
parents finally agreed to the betrothal after Alexander’s father interceded. On
August 6, 1894, the nineteen year-old Xenia married her childhood crush, the
twenty-eight year old Alexander, at the Peter and Paul Chapel of the Peterhof
Palace. Olga wrote of the happy occasion: “The Emperor [Alexander III] was so
happy. It was the last time I ever saw him like that.” The newlyweds spent
their wedding night at Ropsha Palace before leaving for their honeymoon at
Ai-Todor, the Emperor’s estate in Crimea. It was during Xenia’s honeymoon that
she received the news of her father’s death in November. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXp-L4Nj-qRMnflxtvqXqb3Cq-SbzhfVO-Te5jB8kOv8yAUDwTyXncR66QFNk0Y6xQTOz95xQh1K75MeazEcFEem96tEt8ABSWxVnwrY8vBT4ybfTopEcEjbuLMxw8-BEFqiGFC-g1Kstp/s1600/Grand_Duke_Alexander_Mikhailovich_of_Russia_and_his_wife_Grand_Duchess_Xenia_Alexandrovna.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="365" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXp-L4Nj-qRMnflxtvqXqb3Cq-SbzhfVO-Te5jB8kOv8yAUDwTyXncR66QFNk0Y6xQTOz95xQh1K75MeazEcFEem96tEt8ABSWxVnwrY8vBT4ybfTopEcEjbuLMxw8-BEFqiGFC-g1Kstp/s400/Grand_Duke_Alexander_Mikhailovich_of_Russia_and_his_wife_Grand_Duchess_Xenia_Alexandrovna.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Grand Duchess Xenia with her husband,<br /> Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich<br />(1894)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Nicholas II’s wife,
Alix of Hesse (who took the name Alexandra Feodorovna upon her marriage), was
not liked by either the Russian people or her husband’s family due to her
foreign ways and her inability to fit into the Imperial court. Unlike her
mother, who never wanted Nicholas to marry Alexandra, Xenia got along well with
her brother and her sister-in-law when they began their reign. However,
Alexandra did eventually grow to begrudge Xenia because while the Empress was
unable to bear a healthy son (her only son, Alexei, was a hemophiliac), Xenia
had six robust boys with her husband. Xenia gave birth to her first child, her
only daughter, a year after her wedding on July 15, 1895. In the following
twelve years, she would produce six more children, all of whom were sons:</span></div>
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<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Princess Irina Alexandrovna</span></u><span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;">
(1895-1970) married: Prince Felix Yussupov – had issue</span></li>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Prince Andrei Alexandrovich</span></u><span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;">
(1897-1981) married: (1) Elisabetta Ruffo-Sasso – had issue, (2) Nadine
McDougall – had issue</span></li>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Prince Feodor Alexandrovich</span></u><span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;">
(1898-1968) married: Princess Irina Pavlovna Paley – had issue</span></li>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Prince Nikita Alexandrovich </span></u><span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;">(1900-1974)
married: Countess Maria Vorontsova Dashkova – had issue</span></li>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Prince Dmitri Alexandrovich</span></u><span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;">
(1901-1980) married: (1) Countess Marina Sergeievna Golenistcheva-Koutouzova –
had issue, (2) Margaret Sheila Mackellar Chisholm – no issue</span></li>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Prince Rostislav Alexandrovich</span></u><span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;">
(1902-1978) married: (1) Princess Alexandra Pavlovna Galitzine – had issue, (2)
Alice Eilken – had issue, (3) Hedwig Maria Gertrud Eva von Chappuis – no issue</span></li>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Prince Vasili Alexandrovich</span></u><span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;">
(1907-1989) married: Princess Natalia Golitsyna – had issue</span></li>
</ul>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Grand Duke and Duchess Alexander and Xenia and their seven children<br />(1910) </i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">While Xenia raised her many
children, she became very involved in a number of charities regarding poor
working class children, tuberculosis patients, and widows and children of naval
personnel. She also founded the Xenia Association for the Welfare of Children
of Workers and Airmen and became a patron of the Xenia Institute, a boarding
school in St. Petersburg. In August of 1899, Xenia and Olga faced another
tragedy in the family when their older brother, George, died of tuberculosis at
the age of twenty-eight. His death hit his siblings particularly hard. It
especially affected his mother, who lost her composure during the funeral and
ran out of the ceremony, unable to bear the grief of the occasion any longer.
Around a year later, in 1900, the eighteen year-old Olga went to the theatre
and opera with her distant cousin, Duke Peter Alexandrovich of Oldenburg.
Peter, who was fourteen years Olga’s senior, was the only child of Duke
Alexander Petrovich of Oldenburg, a great-grandson of Tsar Paul I, and Princess
Eugenia Maximilianovna of Leuchtenberg, a granddaughter of Tsar Nicholas I.
Peter, who was known for his love of reading and gambling, took Olga by
surprise when he proposed to her in May of 1901, despite the fact that the two
barely knew each other. Olga was so shocked at the proposal that all she could
say in response was a stunned “thank you”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHhcN99kq6LYjEKc0o9jIgwhNdkjxFoxIRwUnw83w3qvfSFfVVS61I8R_JbSS6mUkbiG9FGU8lpwMDd8TATnySWBHqL2kpntJAjh8-fWFEOTfU1_zez2YWe85peI3a-3D2Wi6OWrTAVbKp/s1600/Grand_Duchess_Olga_Alexandrovna_with_her_first_husband_Duke_Peter_Alexandrovich_of_Oldenburg.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="350" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHhcN99kq6LYjEKc0o9jIgwhNdkjxFoxIRwUnw83w3qvfSFfVVS61I8R_JbSS6mUkbiG9FGU8lpwMDd8TATnySWBHqL2kpntJAjh8-fWFEOTfU1_zez2YWe85peI3a-3D2Wi6OWrTAVbKp/s400/Grand_Duchess_Olga_Alexandrovna_with_her_first_husband_Duke_Peter_Alexandrovich_of_Oldenburg.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Grand Duchess Olga and her first husband, <br />Duke Peter Alexandrovich of Oldenburg<br />(1901)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The engagement didn’t just
surprise Olga – it surprised both the Imperial family and Peter’s family as
well. Up until this point, Peter had never shown any interest in the female sex
and it was largely assumed that he was homosexual. And yet, on August 9, 1901,
the nineteen year-old Grand Duchess married her thirty-three year old cousin in
St. Petersburg. But the marriage was a disaster from the first night; the
newlyweds spent their honeymoon at the Oldenburg estate near Voronezh and
instead of being with his bride, Peter left her alone and in tears the entire
night to go gambling. The marriage remained unconsummated and the indolent
Peter spent his time wasting his wife’s money on cards. Olga quickly began to realize
that Peter had been pressured into the marriage by his aspiring mother (who
Olga disliked and who Peter had a horrible relationship with) and he was only using
her for her status and wealth, since he was clearly only romantically
interested in men. When the couple moved into the Baryatinsky Mansion in St.
Petersburg weeks after their wedding, they slept in separate bedrooms. Olga
began to suffer from periods of depression due to her unhappy marriage, which
caused her to lose so much hair that she had to wear a wig for two years.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL-bS3p1gQkq1uAGdWcoEVgBy5SPBK1uzqJw-8ZfzrnvXdCojcJw_yRA6BiuW9eXNt_b9T_BBss3iirO5oHdzYqWWduLLFdbGuWgIZNICdFB2RMrA3dhR2R5ztPMhW47tkvqijJWsuwgmK/s1600/Olga_Alexandrovna_of_Russia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL-bS3p1gQkq1uAGdWcoEVgBy5SPBK1uzqJw-8ZfzrnvXdCojcJw_yRA6BiuW9eXNt_b9T_BBss3iirO5oHdzYqWWduLLFdbGuWgIZNICdFB2RMrA3dhR2R5ztPMhW47tkvqijJWsuwgmK/s400/Olga_Alexandrovna_of_Russia.jpg" width="308" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Although Peter was considerate
towards her, Olga was always miserable, as she dreamed of having a loving
spouse and a happy family. She ultimately found her true soulmate in April of
1903 when she met an officer her own age by the name of Nikolai Kulikovsky during
a royal military review at Pavlovsk Palace. The pair quickly fell in love and
began to see each other in secret and exchange letters. A few months into her
affair, Olga plucked up the courage to reveal her love for Nikolai to her
husband and ask for a divorce. But Peter refused and said that he might rethink
her proposition in seven years. However, Peter did do his wife a favor by
making Nikolai his aide-de-camp and permitting him to live with Olga and
himself. From 1904 to 1906, Peter was assigned to a military post in Tsarskoye
Selo, a center of palaces next to St. Petersburg and the home of Nicholas II.
Here, Olga was able to become closer to her brother the Emperor and her four
royal nieces, especially the youngest, Anastasia. As Alexandra was often
unwell, Olga would sometimes stand in for her sister-in-law during public
events. But like her sister Xenia, their mother, and essentially every other
member of the Imperial family, she resented her brother’s holy man, Rasputin,
and the influence the “Mad Monk” held over the Imperial couple. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXGwSJ29faYOED8H0OiWUzI5HbgN9aO_MCHs9be28297AciHSZwzwEYEfl5igdM1UABUspD9Is1qym4Fe4pwXndAeIQpmH6Ph-AIG5SNM7GBgP1UId5XeIjYDG4uURDkB4o7oLy7vQx7K7/s1600/Grand_Duchess_Olga_her_brother_Grand_Duke_Micheal_and_her_sister_Grand_Duchess_Xenia.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="384" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXGwSJ29faYOED8H0OiWUzI5HbgN9aO_MCHs9be28297AciHSZwzwEYEfl5igdM1UABUspD9Is1qym4Fe4pwXndAeIQpmH6Ph-AIG5SNM7GBgP1UId5XeIjYDG4uURDkB4o7oLy7vQx7K7/s640/Grand_Duchess_Olga_her_brother_Grand_Duke_Micheal_and_her_sister_Grand_Duchess_Xenia.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Grand Duchesses Olga (left) and Xenia (right) with their brother, Grand Duke Michael<br /></i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">A personal scandal rocked the royal
family when Olga’s closest brother in both age and affection, Michael, secretly
eloped with his long-time mistress, Countess Natalia Brasova. Natalia, who was
a two-time divorcee, already had a son with Michael and despite the fact that
Michael’s family hated his personal relationship with her, they were astounded
when Michael married his mistress in late 1912. Nicholas II was so furious at
his brother’s actions that he banished him in disgrace and removed him from the
royal succession. Eventually, when World War I broke out in 1914, Nicholas
allowed his exiled brother to return home to serve in the military. Both Xenia
and Olga supported the war effort, as Xenia set up her own hospital train and
opened a hospital for the wounded while Olga worked as a nurse at a struggling
Red Cross hospital in Rovno before later working in Kiev. In October of 1916,
Olga finally got her wish when Nicholas II annulled her marriage to Peter,
which allowed her to marry Kulikovsky on November 16, 1916 in a small ceremony
in Kiev. Olga was thirty-four at the time of her second marriage. But the
crumbling political and economic state of the Empire began to consume Xenia and
Olga’s lives and they, along with their mother, knew that the end was near. The
sisters’ relationship with the Imperial couple fell apart completely when the
Emperor and Empress’s controversial confidant, Rasputin, was violently murdered
at the end of the year by members of the royal family, including Xenia’s
son-in-law. In March of 1917 after revolution broke out, Nicholas immediately
abdicated the throne without even lifting a finger, much to his relatives’
bewilderment. The sisters and their families fled with their mother to the
estate of Ay-Todor in Crimea while Nicholas, his wife, and their children were
placed under house arrest by the revolutionaries. Olga was pregnant with her
first child at the time and on August 12, 1917, she gave birth to a son named
Tikhon Nikolaevich. By this point, Xenia’s marriage to Alexander had become
estranged. When Xenia was pregnant with her last child in 1907, Alexander had
begun an affair with another woman. One year after that, Xenia started her own extramarital
relationship with an Englishman. It was after the couple revealed their
infidelity to each other that their bond weakened. For the rest of their
marriage, they slept in separate rooms and maintained different lifestyles but
despite their estrangement, they still retained some amount of love for one
another. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvXQz0y8gZHJf0oHweSyyWaJ0RwvSYmfodONf_Bpa7YUparD0xzvrIHhtwHO0VKJItG4aYJ3F7CGstdVUQSga6aGHVQk1QA7ffkPjxYX0YiE_UIYjo6VvhXIG5jfiIANcGNFfBpoiHJPDw/s1600/olga3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="275" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvXQz0y8gZHJf0oHweSyyWaJ0RwvSYmfodONf_Bpa7YUparD0xzvrIHhtwHO0VKJItG4aYJ3F7CGstdVUQSga6aGHVQk1QA7ffkPjxYX0YiE_UIYjo6VvhXIG5jfiIANcGNFfBpoiHJPDw/s400/olga3.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Grand Duchess Olga with her second husband, Nikolai Kulikovsky,<br />and their two sons<br />(1922)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">After the Bolsheviks took power
in Russia, they assassinated numerous members of the royal family, including
Nicholas II, his wife, and their children along with his brother, Michael, in
June of 1918. The news horrified Olga and Xenia, as well as their mother, who
refused to accept her sons’ deaths and always maintained hope that they had
escaped. With the Bolsheviks closing in and threatening the very existence of
the remaining Imperial family, Xenia escaped to Britain in 1919 with her family
and her mother to live in safety with her maternal aunt, <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/07/alexandra-of-denmark-queen-of-uk.html">Queen Dowager Alexandra</a>. Olga, however, declined to leave her homeland, so after her sister
and mother went into exile, she moved to the safety of the Caucasus (which had
been cleared of the Bolsheviks by the royalist White Army) with her husband and
their two-year-old son. Olga was pregnant with her second and last child during
this time and in the large Cossack village of Novominskaya, Olga gave birth to
another son – Guri Nikolaevich – on April 23, 1919. Eventually, the family had
to move to Novorossiysk in November to escape the invading Bolsheviks and they
soon had no choice but to flee the dangerous country, now renamed the Soviet
Union, for a refugee camp on an island in the Dardanelles Strait. They made
their way to Denmark, where Olga’s mother was now living, and arrived in
Copenhagen in the spring of 1920. Here, they lived with the Empress Dowager at
her estate of Hvidøre. Olga had trouble staying with her elderly mother in the
Empress Dowager’s native country. Her mother expected Olga to serve her at all
times, disliked her two young sons because she found them too rowdy, and didn’t
even allow Olga’s husband to be in the same room as her, for she never accepted
the fact that her daughter had married a commoner. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr5N3Emm9WKGkdlFkOXZA4nHGhyphenhyphenRQxNdsBd9urop2BJqK5eqy5U4Yz_ptp0KfYie-vWFn7Yxlfa6xtM_uJHmt-N_3AmPxEieIP2izFopW3INwn-kWdLGgtwHN4kzA5HppRPRbX41ANjLNA/s1600/Xenia_Alexandrovna_%2528c.1925%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr5N3Emm9WKGkdlFkOXZA4nHGhyphenhyphenRQxNdsBd9urop2BJqK5eqy5U4Yz_ptp0KfYie-vWFn7Yxlfa6xtM_uJHmt-N_3AmPxEieIP2izFopW3INwn-kWdLGgtwHN4kzA5HppRPRbX41ANjLNA/s400/Xenia_Alexandrovna_%2528c.1925%2529.jpg" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna<br />(1925)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Unlike her mother, Xenia remained
behind in Great Britain while her husband and most of her children (who were all
grown and ready to start lives of their own) settled down in France. Xenia
began to suffer financially in 1925 so her maternal first cousin, King George
V, relieved some of her burden by giving her the home of Frogmore Cottage in
Windsor Great Park. She visited her mother and sister in Denmark as often as
she was able to until the Empress Dowager died on October 13, 1928 at the age
of eighty after a serious illness. Her estate was sold and Olga used some of
the money from the sale to buy a farm in Ballerup named Knudsminde. She moved
here with her husband and sons, who were thirteen and eleven at the time, where
they raised horses, cows, pigs, chickens, and many other animals. Olga was fond
of her life as a simple housewife and enjoyed working on the land, caring for
her home and children, and indulging in her favorite pastime of painting.
Russian emigrants would often visit the farm, which quickly became a center for
supporters of the deposed Russian monarchy. Olga and her family were close to
the Danish royal family, her cousins through her mother, and would vacation
with them every year. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTjnz9bdaS2oCk_Ctm6fhpMaxC_RBMJrQaHng-JbRdK27t6m__UEljfA40cULjYXmKLAVAIteSfXtY-BoP9GmnRfpgFn_rRIVMXkN9P7RfNgvTCErPOADExSxzcp_D3wtDTUovV4SwStY-/s1600/Yusupovirina.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTjnz9bdaS2oCk_Ctm6fhpMaxC_RBMJrQaHng-JbRdK27t6m__UEljfA40cULjYXmKLAVAIteSfXtY-BoP9GmnRfpgFn_rRIVMXkN9P7RfNgvTCErPOADExSxzcp_D3wtDTUovV4SwStY-/s400/Yusupovirina.jpg" width="283" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Xenia's only daughter, Princess Irina Alexandrovna, <br />and her husband Prince Felix Yusupov<br />(1915)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">By the 1930’s, all of Xenia’s
children were married and had children. Three of her sons married more than
once and unfortunately, four of her sons became divorced. Xenia’s daughter,
Irina, a beautiful woman with dark hair, deep blue eyes, and her mother’s shy
persona, had the most stable marriage of all of Xenia’s children to Felix
Yussupov, an extremely wealthy man who was known as wild, eccentric, and
bisexual. The couple had fallen in love with each other in 1910 and married morganatically
in early 1914, much to Xenia and Alexander’s displeasure. They had one
daughter, Irina, in 1915 and were closer to each other than their own child.
Xenia’s own marriage ended on February 23, 1933 when her estranged husband,
Alexander, died in France at the age of sixty-five. When World War II began in
1939, Denmark, which had declared its neutrality, was invaded by Nazi Germany
in April of 1940. The kingdom was occupied for the rest of the conflict and
Olga’s sons became officers in the Danish Army, though both were captured as
prisoners of war for a short period of time. During the war, Olga would
constantly meet with and help Russian émigrés to encourage the ongoing fight
against communism. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXpbWeZ5yG-8utFA37cjVGjsIfhDjDGtoct9m9UaN02m3CZXCF78MqWGcwKFqThryWPYPa77Y3RpqFXQse6g_0F7kv42OreX-pinVwsyoeSk39EWhkN4KpjRMIvdrvFwiJsw8kmcVaVkHH/s1600/9b5e2864ad05de2b55e7811a948e95fa.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="295" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXpbWeZ5yG-8utFA37cjVGjsIfhDjDGtoct9m9UaN02m3CZXCF78MqWGcwKFqThryWPYPa77Y3RpqFXQse6g_0F7kv42OreX-pinVwsyoeSk39EWhkN4KpjRMIvdrvFwiJsw8kmcVaVkHH/s400/9b5e2864ad05de2b55e7811a948e95fa.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Grand Duchesses Olga (left) and Xenia (right) Alexandrovna<br />(1925)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">After the war ended, the Soviets
occupied Bornholm and Olga and her family, wary of the threat the Soviets
posed, moved across the ocean to the safety of Canada in 1948, where they lived
on a farm in Halton County, Ontario. Their sons, who had both married Danish
women, came with them along with Guri’s two children – a daughter and a son.
But by 1952, the farm had become too hard to maintain for the aging Olga and
her husband, who was suffering from poor health. They sold the farm and moved
to a small house in Cooksville, Mississauga where they were occasionally
visited by members of royalty, such as Queen Elizabeth II and her husband. By
1958, Nikolai was almost completely paralyzed and died on August 11, 1958 at
the age of seventy-six. Olga’s health rapidly declined after his death and she
was hospitalized for almost two years. Her mental state was so poor that she
was unaware when her sister, Xenia, came to visit her. After she was released,
Olga went to stay with two Russian émigré friends in an apartment in Toronto,
as she could no longer take care of herself. On April 20, 1960, her older
sister, Xenia, died at the age of eighty-five in her home in London and was
buried in France with her husband. Seven months after Xenia’s death, Olga fell
into a coma on November 21, 1960 and three days later, she passed away at the
age of seventy-eight. She was buried with her husband in Toronto. Though most
of the Romanovs died at the hands of the Bolsheviks during the Russian
Revolution, a few of their descendants and their legacy still live on today in
the form of the grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and all the way down to the
great-great-great grandchildren of the Grand Duchesses Xenia and Olga
Alexandrovna.</span><span style="line-height: 150%;"> </span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15315177275314871435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6807555129500021847.post-38176922232122441422016-07-18T18:44:00.002-07:002016-07-28T13:20:38.364-07:00Maria Feodorovna, Empress of Russia (Princess Dagmar of Denmark)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdwLT78IYO1d6r61mGfMAkfcPObMRZMKjiaqxYW5K8lKAIuSWZvVpMz-lT-PZlHBlq5V97SVApBE7lRbzYHefetNMrNcEBRB2r3QmHLsbQWFg0WNKakP8IxOZqIDnpWZAbWr_-yXNE9T7n/s1600/Maria_Feodorovna_%2528Dagmar_of_Denmark%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdwLT78IYO1d6r61mGfMAkfcPObMRZMKjiaqxYW5K8lKAIuSWZvVpMz-lT-PZlHBlq5V97SVApBE7lRbzYHefetNMrNcEBRB2r3QmHLsbQWFg0WNKakP8IxOZqIDnpWZAbWr_-yXNE9T7n/s640/Maria_Feodorovna_%2528Dagmar_of_Denmark%2529.jpg" width="484" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Princess Marie Sophie Frederikke
Dagmar, known more commonly as “Princess Dagmar of Denmark”, was the fourth
child and second daughter of King Christian IX of Denmark and <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/07/louise-of-hesse-kassel-queen-of-denmark.html">Princess Louise of Hesse-Kassel</a>. She was born on November 26, 1847 in her family home of the
Yellow Palace, a town house near Amalienborg Palace in Copenhagen. Her siblings
included: King Frederick VIII of Denmark, King George I of Greece, <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/07/alexandra-of-denmark-queen-of-uk.html">Queen Consort Alexandra of the U.K.</a>, and <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/07/thyra-of-denmark-crown-princess-of.html">Crown Princess Thyra of Hanover</a>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl4wJ6dr_U96NPvP0sxFtZcvULTkjvCQNbObi2aK7yGVfjtIF5YgikrVPkdqCpcutUeDrpsZnf7KOjmteH8mTlF3uwX9tUrq1sCbr2rWp1qkFEH9keLKgRmZB5-YUUu4bwUUHv0zZMqwt-/s1600/tumblr_n8h24fxHCl1qzjmo0o1_500-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl4wJ6dr_U96NPvP0sxFtZcvULTkjvCQNbObi2aK7yGVfjtIF5YgikrVPkdqCpcutUeDrpsZnf7KOjmteH8mTlF3uwX9tUrq1sCbr2rWp1qkFEH9keLKgRmZB5-YUUu4bwUUHv0zZMqwt-/s400/tumblr_n8h24fxHCl1qzjmo0o1_500-1.jpg" width="325" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Princess Dagmar of Denmark<br />(mid 1860's)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Known to her family as “Minnie”,
Dagmar was named after her ancestress, Marie Sophie Frederikke of Hesse-Kassel,
Queen Consort of Denmark and Norway, as well as the medieval Danish queen,
Dagmar of Bohemia. At the time of her birth, her parents were of a relatively
obscure royal status and her father was simply Prince Christian of
Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg. Thus, Dagmar and her siblings lived a
very modest lifestyle for royalty, as their only income was Christian’s army
salary. Dagmar even shared a drafty attic bedroom in the Yellow Palace with her
elder and favorite sister, Alexandra. But the family’s life changed for the
better in 1852 when Prince Christian became the heir-presumptive to the throne
of Denmark. While he was a distant member of Danish royalty, his wife was the
niece of King Christian VIII and the first cousin of the current king, the
childless Frederick VII. After the Act of Succession was passed and Christian
was named the “Crown Prince of Denmark” (thanks to his wife’s lineage), Dagmar
and her family moved from the Yellow Palace to the much grander Bernstorff
Palace. On November 15, 1863, Frederick VII died and Christian succeeded to the
throne as King Christian IX. Dagmar, who was weeks away from her sixteenth
birthday, was now the daughter of the King and a Princess of Denmark. By the
end of 1863, much had changed for Dagmar’s family; her father was the King of
Denmark, her sister Alexandra had married Albert Edward, Prince of Wales (the
future King Edward VII), and her brother, Wilhelm, was elected as King George I
of Greece. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Princess Dagmar and her husband, Tsarevich<br />Alexander<br />(1871)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Dagmar’s aspiring mother made
sure that all of her children made impressive marriages into powerful European
families and her plans for the petite, deep-eyed Dagmar were no different. The
emergence of Slavophile in Russia led Emperor Alexander II and his consort, <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/07/maria-alexandrovna-empress-of-russia.html">Empress Maria Alexandrovna</a>, to search for a
bride for their son and heir, Tsarevich Nicholas Alexandrovich, in countries
other than the traditional Russian bride-pool of Germany. The handsome Tsarevich
Nicholas, or “Nixa”, as he was known in his family, traveled to Denmark in 1864
to meet with the young Dagmar, who was four years his junior. The couple soon
became engaged but the match didn’t last for long because Nicholas fell ill
from cerebro-spinal meningitis and died on April 24, 1865 at the age of
twenty-one in Nice, France. It is said that on his deathbed, he asked that his
younger brother, the new Tsarevich Alexander, marry his Danish fiancée in his
place. But poor Dagmar was so upset over her charming betrothed’s death that
when she went back home after his passing, her family became gravely concerned
about her health. Dagmar had already become deeply attached to Russia and
thought of it as home. She had also become very close with Nicholas’s parents
and Alexander II even wrote her a letter in an attempt to comfort her, saying
that he would always think of her as a member of his family. It was not long
before the Emperor’s statement and Nicholas’s dying wish became a reality and
Dagmar entered into a betrothal with Tsarevich Alexander in June of 1866. Alexander
had come to Dagmar’s home of Copenhagen to visit her and ask for her hand in
marriage, which he did when they were in her room looking at photographs. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyVSAsD20rOumXV60soza2Eui6ahElW7yQ_9FoW1GqMvIv8bc1UtRhSY2QNBNbSSWh2aSvT-7suXo7kSHtKTfEvX8rlKnFaEm7arhybg9U1p2z5ICI3Dz-vuQMXl2N5dgvdYdIzkGmFA_V/s1600/Wedding_of_Grand_Duke_Alexandr_Alexandrovich_and_Maria_Feodorovna_by_M.Zichy_%25281867%252C_Hermitage%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="396" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyVSAsD20rOumXV60soza2Eui6ahElW7yQ_9FoW1GqMvIv8bc1UtRhSY2QNBNbSSWh2aSvT-7suXo7kSHtKTfEvX8rlKnFaEm7arhybg9U1p2z5ICI3Dz-vuQMXl2N5dgvdYdIzkGmFA_V/s640/Wedding_of_Grand_Duke_Alexandr_Alexandrovich_and_Maria_Feodorovna_by_M.Zichy_%25281867%252C_Hermitage%2529.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Wedding of Tsarevich Alexander and Maria Feodorovna<br />(Mihály Zichy, 1867)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Alexander,
who was less than two years younger than his late older brother, was a tall,
strapping, bear of a man who was well known for his ability to bend iron rods.
The giant Russian prince had been secretly in love with Dagmar ever since
Nicholas had become engaged to her and once Dagmar became engaged to the new
Tsarevich she gradually developed a strong passion for the gruff, abrupt, and straightforward
Alexander. On September 1, 1866, Dagmar left Copenhagen for Russia for a second
time and she received a warm welcome from the Emperor and his family (who, as
mentioned previously, adored her) in Kronstadt. After she arrived, she
converted to Orthodoxy and was baptized as Grand Duchess Maria Feodorovna of
Russia. On November 9, 1866 in the Imperial Chapel of the Winter Palace in St.
Petersburg, the nearly nineteen-year-old Maria Feodorovna married the
twenty-one Tsarevich. After the extensive wedding festivities, the couple moved
into the Anichkov Palace in St. Petersburg where they would remain for the next
fifteen years. They would also spend their long summer holidays at their villa
of Livadia in the Crimean Peninsula. Maria’s marriage to Alexander was happy,
stable, and full of love. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9zojQLsYNvaTtHyIVeTWxJvykFKQTUKrD-XLJQqyfuyO0chkqb94_Rp60ZpC3EkhpBdKzHJqBJihyphenhyphenaBnDjBdk8iuSKeK_pNsVQ0Ueba3QqFGNJ-MFAl0WCSJrofrhKzaOurE4E4ecUNj8/s1600/tumblr_mpqdgoT69d1rqdmblo1_500.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9zojQLsYNvaTtHyIVeTWxJvykFKQTUKrD-XLJQqyfuyO0chkqb94_Rp60ZpC3EkhpBdKzHJqBJihyphenhyphenaBnDjBdk8iuSKeK_pNsVQ0Ueba3QqFGNJ-MFAl0WCSJrofrhKzaOurE4E4ecUNj8/s400/tumblr_mpqdgoT69d1rqdmblo1_500.png" width="266" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Grand Duchess Maria Feodorovna<br />(1870)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
future Empress Consort was an instant hit with the Russian people. They adored her
beauty, her charming and outgoing personality, and her extensive attempts to
integrate herself into Russian culture. She learned the Russian language as
soon as she arrived in her adopted country and stayed out of politics (though
like her sister Alexandra, she had an extreme hatred for Germany because of the
annexation of Danish territories by Prussia in 1864), focusing instead on her
family, philanthropy, and her social reputation. On May 18, 1868, the twenty-year-old
Maria gave birth to hr first child – the future Nicholas II. In the span of
fifteen years, she would have six children, one of whom died in infancy:</span></div>
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</div>
<ul>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Emperor
Nicholas II of Russia</span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> (1868-1918) married: <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/07/alexandra-feodorovna-empress-of-russia.html">Princess Alix of Hesse</a> – had
issue</span></li>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Grand
Duke Alexander Alexandrovich</span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> (1869-1870) died at the age of
10 months from meningitis</span></li>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Grand
Duke George Alexandrovich</span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> (1871-1899) died at the age of twenty-nine
from tuberculosis, unmarried with no issue</span></li>
<li><span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"><a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/07/grand-duchesses-xenia-and-olga.html" style="text-decoration: underline;">Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna</a> </span></span><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;">(1875-1960) married: Grand Duke Alexander
Mikhailovich of Russia – had issue</span></li>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Grand
Duke Michael Alexandrovich</span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> (1878-1918) married: Countess Natalia
Brasova – had issue</span></li>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/07/grand-duchesses-xenia-and-olga.html">Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna</a></span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> (1882-1960) married: (1) Duke Peter
Alexandrovich of Oldenburg – no issue, (2) Nikolai Kulikovsky – had issue</span></li>
</ul>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdbEnMvz8HVzxTDgbKsj5OUVHBWFQznlIsYy4gHZ-HiNHPtCrdLolNexwzN8Qu3VmvTa7ar_E82xkJPDTkOmxNKU37RVa3gR5Lp2Ffwne8EoN4-yCXRPXLqcF40xl2qPQ_Pg-jd_k1L9aa/s1600/1888._%25D0%25A1%25D0%25B5%25D0%25BC%25D1%258C%25D1%258F_%25D0%25B8%25D0%25BC%25D0%25BF%25D0%25B5%25D1%2580%25D0%25B0%25D1%2582%25D0%25BE%25D1%2580%25D0%25B0_%25D0%2590%25D0%25BB%25D0%25B5%25D0%25BA%25D1%2581%25D0%25B0%25D0%25BD%25D0%25B4%25D1%2580%25D0%25B0_III.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdbEnMvz8HVzxTDgbKsj5OUVHBWFQznlIsYy4gHZ-HiNHPtCrdLolNexwzN8Qu3VmvTa7ar_E82xkJPDTkOmxNKU37RVa3gR5Lp2Ffwne8EoN4-yCXRPXLqcF40xl2qPQ_Pg-jd_k1L9aa/s400/1888._%25D0%25A1%25D0%25B5%25D0%25BC%25D1%258C%25D1%258F_%25D0%25B8%25D0%25BC%25D0%25BF%25D0%25B5%25D1%2580%25D0%25B0%25D1%2582%25D0%25BE%25D1%2580%25D0%25B0_%25D0%2590%25D0%25BB%25D0%25B5%25D0%25BA%25D1%2581%25D0%25B0%25D0%25BD%25D0%25B4%25D1%2580%25D0%25B0_III.jpg" width="260" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Family of Alexander III and Maria Feodorovna<br />with their surviving five children<br />(1888)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Maria was nothing short of a doting,
loving mother but she also spoiled her children to such an extent that she
wanted them to stay children forever, especially her sons. While she had a
somewhat detached relationship with her two daughters, she was extremely
overprotective of her boys and coddled them throughout their childhood and
adult years. The fact that she babied her sons contributed partly to Nicholas’s
inexperience and inability to rule, as he had never been prepared for his
future role as Emperor. But Maria’s world would transform completely on the
cold winter afternoon of March 13, 1881 when leftist revolutionaries
assassinated her father-in-law, Emperor Alexander II, outside the Winter
Palace. The sixty-two year old Emperor was hit by a bomb in his carriage but he
didn’t die at first; instead, his wounded body was carried inside the palace,
where Maria described his mangled state: “His legs were crushed terribly and
ripped open to the knee; a bleeding mass, with half a boot on the right foot,
and only the sole of the foot remaining on the left”. Alexander II died after a
few hours and the Tsesarevich Alexander was crowned Emperor Alexander III after
his father’s passing. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYx14aL3FstCzNrN2lR-tA3oveDaByPE6y5jIucVsIDMx0lGg6wE_o9pOKdSDp-pwEffClrhNC_ur5D4yGLtSYmmzpI9O_PgZBiSa4iFGkQ2FIxITPGxcPt8fiYChAndv8AehunkixKfOc/s1600/800px-MakovskiyK_PtMariiFedorIRK.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYx14aL3FstCzNrN2lR-tA3oveDaByPE6y5jIucVsIDMx0lGg6wE_o9pOKdSDp-pwEffClrhNC_ur5D4yGLtSYmmzpI9O_PgZBiSa4iFGkQ2FIxITPGxcPt8fiYChAndv8AehunkixKfOc/s400/800px-MakovskiyK_PtMariiFedorIRK.jpg" width="337" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Empress Maria Feodorovna<br />(Konstantin Makovsky, 1880's)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Maria was thirty-four years old
when she became the Empress Consort of Russia and although her large, menacing
husband was never popular with the people, she was perhaps the most beloved
Russian consort in the Empire’s long history. She loved her new position as the
foremost woman in Russia and was admired for her stunning elegance and her
ability to transform the once profligate and debauched Imperial court into a
reflection of herself – well respected, sophisticated, and admired. But despite
the fact that the Empress Maria had fans and aficionados wherever she went, the
tragic death of her father-in-law shook her to the core and heightened her
almost constant sense of fear for the life of her husband and their children.
She had good reason to worry, for there were so many threats and conspiracies
against the monarchy that on the day of Alexander and Maria’s grand coronation
at the Kremlin on May 27, 1883, they had to move into Gatchina Palace, a safer
location than Anichkov Palace because it was outside of St. Petersburg. The
Emperor and Empress would live in this palace for the next thirteen years and
it was here that their children were primarily reared. Maria would accompany
her husband from Gatchina to the capital city various times during the year
(always under heavy guard) to take part in ceremonial or public events, which
was her main duty as Empress. She also loved to host balls and parties in the
Winter Palace as well as at Gatchina. Almost every summer, the Imperial family
would go to Denmark to take part in the family reunions Maria’s parents
annually hosted, where they were always joined by King George I and his family
as well as Alexandra, Princess of Wales, who usually came without her husband
or with just a few of her children. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnVuuJaWUZdq3HTSbzEjx_9QtzWDun56PADuYrHntG2fFK-uiuKpC3NwAA7XtSH2qQbJV0WOAE8XEm4HN03rJHp0T1694BY4GMM_Ep6oW497geQOfumYzirEJ1ZQDAUK8Qs4jNYgSHmRlo/s1600/Alexander_III_and_Maria_Feodorovna.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnVuuJaWUZdq3HTSbzEjx_9QtzWDun56PADuYrHntG2fFK-uiuKpC3NwAA7XtSH2qQbJV0WOAE8XEm4HN03rJHp0T1694BY4GMM_Ep6oW497geQOfumYzirEJ1ZQDAUK8Qs4jNYgSHmRlo/s400/Alexander_III_and_Maria_Feodorovna.jpg" width="292" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Emperor Alexander III and Empress Maria Feodorovna<br />(1890)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">In 1894, the typically strong and robust
Alexander III fell ill with nephritis, a terminal kidney disease, and it was clear
to everyone that he didn’t have much time left. Maria began to focus all her
attention on her eldest son and the heir to the throne, Nicholas, because not
only the future of the Empire but also her and Alexander’s hopes and dreams
rested on his unsteady shoulders. However, Nicholas, who was also Maria’s
favorite child, disappointed his mother right from the start as he declared
that he wanted to marry his long-time love, Princess Alix of Hesse, who neither
Alexander nor Maria approved of. So far, the only one of Maria and Alexander’s
children to marry was their eldest daughter, Xenia, who had wed her paternal
first cousin once removed and childhood friend, Grand Duke Alexander
Mikhailovich, on August 6, 1894. Maria, who detested anything to do with Germany,
thought Alix was no worthy match for a future Emperor. She believed that the
quiet and awkward granddaughter of Queen Victoria was not an ideal consort.
Though Maria and her husband had known Alix since she was an infant because of
their status as her godparents, both viewed Alix as frenetic and unstable. On a
more selfish note, Maria also worried that Alix would overshadow her as the
most important woman in Nicholas’s heart. But Nicholas was resolute in his
desire to marry the German princess and as Alexander’s health declined further,
Maria and her ailing husband grudgingly allowed for the betrothal to be
arranged. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS6xDswlnJizWQnyV-jP1phZNVDZ_0-_lyLHbmAEm8zJrWo3ymC_JcCiyIFMplikZRnVffUcKRQ9s4gsLVnT-nuNduCVpB41cYI0oT9SzngoHulg9mQtZyd_Uarm-_nRo0b8ITJ6y69lJQ/s1600/Maria_Feodorovna_with_her_son_Nicholas.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS6xDswlnJizWQnyV-jP1phZNVDZ_0-_lyLHbmAEm8zJrWo3ymC_JcCiyIFMplikZRnVffUcKRQ9s4gsLVnT-nuNduCVpB41cYI0oT9SzngoHulg9mQtZyd_Uarm-_nRo0b8ITJ6y69lJQ/s400/Maria_Feodorovna_with_her_son_Nicholas.jpg" width="258" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Empress Maria Feodorovna with her son,<br />Nicholas<br />(1889)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Soon after Alix arrived in Russia
and the engagement was finalized, Alexander III died at the age of forty-nine
on November 1, 1894 at the family’s summer villa of Livadia. Maria mourned her
husband’s passing immensely and wrote in her diary: “I am utterly heartbroken
and despondent, but when I saw the blissful smile and the peace in his face
that came after, it gave me strength.” Her sister and her brother-in-law,
Alexandra and the Prince of Wales, journeyed to Russia to help arrange the late
Emperor’s funeral and to provide solace to the grieving Empress Dowager. A week
after Alexander was buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg,
the new Emperor Nicholas II married Alix of Hesse (who took the name Alexandra
Feodorovna) on Maria’s birthday, as it was a day in which court mourning for
Alexander was a bit more lenient. Though she was now the Empress Dowager, Maria
continued to live at Anichkov Palace during her son’s chaotic and ultimately
doomed reign. She never got along with her daughter-in-law, Alexandra, and it
didn’t help that the Russian people hated their new Empress while continuing to
fawn over Maria, whose possessiveness of Nicholas and envy of Alexandra
worsened relations between the two. Alexandra resented the fact that her
mother-in-law was so beloved by the court and the people while she herself was
never liked. The Russian custom of the Empress Dowager taking precedence over
the Empress Consort also irked Alexandra immensely. A huge rift developed
between the royal couple and Nicholas’s family, as the Emperor and Empress
remained secretive and private to everyone, including their own relatives.
Maria especially detested how weak of a ruler her son was and that Alexandra
seemed unable to have a son. After having four daughters, the Empress finally
gave birth to an heir – Alexei – in 1904 but her unpopularity soared when it
was discovered that Nicholas and Alexandra had hid the fact that their little
boy had hemophilia, the “royal disease” of Alexandra’s British family.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0nom-cCd02dovswgnbaOYjiM70tjD5Jq5U1Y0CMt_WaOCAvRHVnErIaq8Cl7lt5r6kknLLTZYyZmff2gZ26usCbtZg8mVySRREFtIwQUwlBVfqkI13FHABOSRvjKTliyVU2PVq6vi5f6c/s1600/Maria_Fedorovna_by_V.Makovskiy_%25281912%252C_Russian_museum%2529-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0nom-cCd02dovswgnbaOYjiM70tjD5Jq5U1Y0CMt_WaOCAvRHVnErIaq8Cl7lt5r6kknLLTZYyZmff2gZ26usCbtZg8mVySRREFtIwQUwlBVfqkI13FHABOSRvjKTliyVU2PVq6vi5f6c/s400/Maria_Fedorovna_by_V.Makovskiy_%25281912%252C_Russian_museum%2529-1.jpg" width="287" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Empress Maria Feodorovna<br />(Vladimir Makovsky, 1885)</i></td></tr>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Maria spent most of her time as a
widow traveling to visit her family in Copenhagen, London, and Athens as well
as focusing on charitable efforts and her social presence. She faced yet
another loss of a family member in the summer of 1899 when her third child, the
fun-loving and mischievous George, died of tuberculosis at the age of
twenty-eight. The funeral was a terrible affair for the grieving Maria, who
rushed out of the ceremony because she couldn’t bear the sadness of the
occasion any longer. Two years after George’s death, Maria arranged the calamitous
marriage of her youngest daughter, Olga, to a distant cousin, Duke Peter
Alexandrovich of Oldenburg, who was fourteen years her senior. The marriage was
never consummated as Peter was a homosexual and only married Olga for financial
and social gain. After Olga fell in love with a cavalry officer named Nikolai
Kulikovsky two years into her marriage, she asked her husband for a divorce but
he refused. The couple separated in 1914 and Olga finally achieved her divorce
in October of 1916, after which she married Kulikovsky a month later and had
two sons. Maria also ran into some trouble with her youngest son, Michael,
regarding marriage when he caused a scandal by secretly marrying his mistress,
the two-time divorcee Countess Natalia Brasova (who had a daughter by her first
husband), in 1912. Maria and Nicholas II were so furious over the affair that Michael
was exiled and removed from the succession. Michael and his wife lived in
England until World War I, when Nicholas II allowed his brother to come back
home and serve in the Army. They had one son in 1910, George Mikhailovich, who died
at the age of twenty in 1931 in a car accident. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Maria Feodorovna's daughters: Grand Duchesses Xenia and Olga Alexandrovna</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">When World War I broke out in
1914, Maria worked as the head of the Russian Red Cross and spent most of her
time either supporting her charities or caring for wounded soldiers. But she
was powerless to do anything as the Empire’s government crumbled in front of
her very eyes when Nicholas left to be the Commander-in-Chief of the Army and
appointed Alexandra as his regent. Alexandra was poorly equipped to rule and
while Russia lost nearly every battle in the war, the political structure of
the government fell apart and people began to starve in the streets. Maria
protested against her daughter-in-law’s ruinous rule and the influence of the
Imperial couple’s mystic, the infamous Rasputin, who had Alexandra under his
thumb. In 1916, Maria left St. Petersburg (which was renamed Petrograd the same
year) for the Mariyinsky Palace in Kiev, allegedly in objection of Rasputin’s
power at court. What Maria didn’t know at the time was that she would never see
the capital city again. When the February Revolution broke out in 1917, Maria
was horrified when her son abdicated the throne on March 15th without a fight.
She traveled from Kiev to see her deposed son in Mogilev before moving to one
of the imperial villa in the Crimea where she was joined by her daughter Xenia,
her son-in-law, and their seven children. Also with them were Prince Felix
Yusupov, the husband of Xenia’s eldest child, Princess Irina, his parents, and
the pregnant Grand Duchess Olga and her second husband, Nikolai Kulikovsky. In
July of 1918, she learned that the Bolsheviks had killed her son, Nicholas II,
his wife, and their five children. She also discovered that the Bolsheviks
killed her youngest son, the thirty-nine year old Michael, just five days
before his brother. While she refused to accept the truth of her sons’ deaths
and clung onto hope that they escaped, her daughter Olga later said: “…I am
sure that deep in her heart my mother had steeled herself to accept the truth
some years before her death.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKeKF3DdvcOUmplH2FpJFCzuigd9rg158vr5kKtfHxvwtjJWHWykgpstYGW8KHHKDUo9ms9RBy2R-ftcczbIXKyotDspLBVtmXRbi_lmBnBU-4d5Cwgji4n41VjCV9EM05IfYfpJpQ0mo5/s1600/Maria_Feodorovna_In_Exile.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKeKF3DdvcOUmplH2FpJFCzuigd9rg158vr5kKtfHxvwtjJWHWykgpstYGW8KHHKDUo9ms9RBy2R-ftcczbIXKyotDspLBVtmXRbi_lmBnBU-4d5Cwgji4n41VjCV9EM05IfYfpJpQ0mo5/s400/Maria_Feodorovna_In_Exile.jpg" width="247" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Empress Dowager Maria Feodorovna<br />(1920's)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">While the Russian Revolution
raged on and the Bolsheviks killed a further ten members of the Imperial
family, Maria and her relatives who had gathered together in Crimea remained
alive but in danger. She refused to leave Russia until her sister, the Queen
Dowager Alexandra, pleaded with her to leave in 1919. Alexandra’s son, King
George V, sent the warship the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">HMS
Marlborough</i> to take his aunt and her family members in Crimea to London.
Maria stayed with her sister and royal nephew in London for some time until she
went back to her home of Denmark with her daughter Olga because she didn’t like
playing second fiddle to her sister in terms of status. She settled at her
holiday villa of Hvidøre near Copenhagen and her nephew, King Christian X
(Xenia stayed behind in England). The aged Maria watched as her family members
slowly died around her and eventually, her own health began to decline. The
death of her treasured sister, Queen Dowager Alexandra, in November of 1925 was
her final breaking point. On October 13, 1928 at her home in Denmark, the eighty
year-old Empress Dowager Maria Feodorovna, once known as Princess Dagmar of
Denmark, died. She was first buried in the Roskilde Cathedral, the traditional
burial site for members of Danish royalty, until her remains were reinterred
next to those of her husband’s in the Peter and Paul Cathedral in 2006.</span><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15315177275314871435noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6807555129500021847.post-59907379564627102612016-07-17T15:46:00.002-07:002016-07-18T18:44:54.348-07:00Thyra of Denmark, Crown Princess of Hanover<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAgr4mzqa9Ae5w0tJh8DyB-lyuZUDaRZnJlgRrl1pnTqn2WIrksiPyJkY7V3osSHGXZNe7y96vXp0N6AXCb2zaSYFaUjxJdc8F2xTGvVmGWBx8wD1vbmdSBdxH2JyN1V4R3CRgTmYlxZ4y/s1600/Princess_Tira_of_Denmark.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAgr4mzqa9Ae5w0tJh8DyB-lyuZUDaRZnJlgRrl1pnTqn2WIrksiPyJkY7V3osSHGXZNe7y96vXp0N6AXCb2zaSYFaUjxJdc8F2xTGvVmGWBx8wD1vbmdSBdxH2JyN1V4R3CRgTmYlxZ4y/s640/Princess_Tira_of_Denmark.jpg" width="416" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Princess Thyra of Denmark, whose
full name was “Thyra Amalie Caroline Charlotte Anna,” was the fifth child and
third daughter of Crown Prince Christian of Denmark and <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/07/louise-of-hesse-kassel-queen-of-denmark.html">Princess Louise of Hesse-Kassel</a>. She was born on September 29, 1853 at her family home of the
Yellow Palace, a town house next to Amalienborg Palace in Copenhagen. Her
siblings included: Frederick VIII of Denmark, <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/07/alexandra-of-denmark-queen-of-uk.html">Alexandra of Denmark</a> (who married
King Edward VII of the U.K.), George I of Greece, and <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/07/maria-feodorovna-empress-of-russia.html">Dagmar of Denmark </a>(who
married Tsar Alexander III of Russia and changed her name to Maria Feodorovna).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX7kJZCUZW6wQAa8tiYsXaJ4P4u89TV1cXbqC-OZKrIQSfo_xoggbvarAlqBrCUkY7jQtNL6_uXxzXad_OF72BXG6X03DrxAsvi1M__OR6667r8tn5juVWYc3EmkEGzziJKU0fseHIe7kz/s1600/e8413530753de73c17afd9156aa27665.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX7kJZCUZW6wQAa8tiYsXaJ4P4u89TV1cXbqC-OZKrIQSfo_xoggbvarAlqBrCUkY7jQtNL6_uXxzXad_OF72BXG6X03DrxAsvi1M__OR6667r8tn5juVWYc3EmkEGzziJKU0fseHIe7kz/s320/e8413530753de73c17afd9156aa27665.jpg" width="262" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Princess Thyra of Denmark<br />(1860's)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Up until the time of Thyra’s
birth, her family had been relatively minor and unknown members of royalty. Her
mother was the daughter of Prince William of Hesse and Princess Charlotte of
Denmark, the sister of King Christian VIII of Denmark. Her father was also a
descendant of Danish royalty but he came from an obscure German family, the
House of </span><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;">Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-</span><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;">Glücksburg,
a junior branch of the House of Oldenburg, which had worn the Danish crown
since the fifteenth century. Christian and Louise lived a modest and humble
lifestyle with their young children as they had no significant amount of wealth
(their only income was Christian’s army salary). But the family’s life changed
forever months before Thyra’s birth when Christian was elected as the successor
of the childless Frederick VII, his wife’s first cousin. The Act of Succession
was ratified two months before Thyra’s birth and Prince Christian was given the
title of “Crown Prince of Denmark.”</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Princess Thyra of Denmark<br />(1870's)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">On
November 15, 1863, the ten year-old Thyra became the daughter of the sovereign
of Denmark when her father succeeded to the throne as King Christian IX. Unlike
the majority of her siblings, Thyra spent her young adulthood bring raised as a
proper royal princess in the official residence of the Danish royal family –
the extensive Amalienborg Palace. In the same year that Thyra’s father was
crowned, her eldest sister, Alexandra, left home for England to marry Albert
Edward, the Prince of Wales, and her older brother, Wilhelm, was elected as the
new King of Greece under the name of George I. Three years after this eventful
period, another of Thyra’s siblings – Dagmar – moved to her new home of Russia
when she married Tsesarevich Alexander Alexandrovich. Eventually, Thyra herself
reached a marriage age and her ambitious mother began to search for a suitable
royal spouse for her youngest daughter. Thyra was a worthy prospect, for not
only was she a beautiful and kindhearted young woman with dark hair and deep
blue eyes but she was also the daughter of a king. But in 1871, marital plans
for young Thyra came to an abrupt standstill when her family discovered that
she had fallen in love with a commoner…and that she was pregnant with his
illegitimate child. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiym28sejQH1CZeTFTE5KJ8I9IjQ1yvg8YHhvCxrHrZhliAk_Bzu2NPWCFC30RhzOtnJWITOcZL7LtC6RwbxaZ7zzLLLXnLAIkW91cQx-jzthBE-X6MoA4zsukyjtET9Hy0LjfJHU8xHS63/s1600/800px-Princessthyradenmark.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiym28sejQH1CZeTFTE5KJ8I9IjQ1yvg8YHhvCxrHrZhliAk_Bzu2NPWCFC30RhzOtnJWITOcZL7LtC6RwbxaZ7zzLLLXnLAIkW91cQx-jzthBE-X6MoA4zsukyjtET9Hy0LjfJHU8xHS63/s400/800px-Princessthyradenmark.jpg" width="273" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Princess Thyra of Denmark<br />(1870's)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Sometime
before the year of 1871, Queen Louise had noticed that her seventeen year-old
daughter had become attracted to a Danish cavalry officer named Vilhelm Frimann
Marcher. Initially, Thyra’s mother had done nothing to stop the flirtation
because she believed it to be a meaningless teenage crush that would soon
evaporate without any outside pressure. But Thyra’s parents were in for a
surprise when they discovered in the summer of 1871 that their seemingly
innocent daughter was having a passionate affair with Marcher and that she was
pregnant with his child. Thyra’s family quickly concealed their pregnant
daughter and the truth of the scandal from anyone outside the immediate family
because they feared that if news leaked out it could destroy her reputation and
any chance of a high-standing marriage. While the media was told that the
Princess’s sudden absence from court was because she was sick with jaundice, in
reality, plans were made for her to travel to her brother’s kingdom of Greece
where she could give birth in secret. On November 8, 1871 in Athens (or
Glücksburg Castle, as it is also said that she possibly went to her father’s
home in Germany to have her child), the eighteen year-old Thyra produced a
healthy baby girl named Maria. Not long after the birth, the illegitimate
infant was taken away from her young mother to be adopted by a Danish couple in
Odense. She was renamed Kate and lived a normal life with her adopted family.
In 1902, she married a man named Frode Pløyen-Holstein and died in 1964 at
the age of ninety-three. It is said that Marcher was deeply upset about losing
his royal lover and their child but when he asked Christian IX for Thyra’s hand
in marriage in an attempt to regain Thyra and the little Maria, the King
refused because Marcher was a less than worthy bride of a royal princess.
Allegedly, not long after Maria’s birth and adoption, Marcher had a heated
verbal confrontation with the King that seems to have shattered the officer
completely. On January 4, 1872, Marcher committed suicide, most likely out of
grief and anger over the loss of Thyra and the daughter he was never able to
meet.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdiX_2fxpMltia2MkEI40krHmUH4Y5NMz9Tppb55OozlkWHb-yeg7vlcEQlEMQWFZ7iyIvCeaK0ypnADp0HBMXtpdmDs_wBYUSm9yruhc5BgzQBxQMEGuqJ1oLkbBGy08isltU_OYhy21b/s1600/tumblr_nq9at3IdSC1rqdmblo1_500.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdiX_2fxpMltia2MkEI40krHmUH4Y5NMz9Tppb55OozlkWHb-yeg7vlcEQlEMQWFZ7iyIvCeaK0ypnADp0HBMXtpdmDs_wBYUSm9yruhc5BgzQBxQMEGuqJ1oLkbBGy08isltU_OYhy21b/s400/tumblr_nq9at3IdSC1rqdmblo1_500.png" width="270" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Princess Thyra and her husband, Crown Prince<br />Ernest Augustus of Hanover<br />(1878-80's)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Thyra
soon returned to court and life carried on as if nothing had occurred. For a
time, it seemed as though Thyra might marry the third son of Queen Victoria,
Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught, who she had met during her childhood when her
sister had married his older brother, Albert Edward. Though the couple met a
few times to prepare for a possible future engagement and the Prince and
Princess of Wales strongly encouraged the match, Queen Victoria ultimately
decided not to agree to the union because a second British-Danish marriage
would hinder with her pro-German ideology. But it was in the winter of 1875
that Thyra met her eventual husband – Crown Prince Ernest Augustus of Hanover.
That Christmas, Thyra went to England to celebrate the holiday with her sister,
Alexander, and brother-in-law, the Prince of Wales, at their home of
Sandringham. During this time, the Crown Prince of Hanover arrived to take part
in the festivities as well. Prince Ernest Augustus, who was also the Duke of
Brunswick-Lüneburg, was the eldest child of the former King George V of Hanover
and Princess Marie of Saxe-Altenburg. Since Ernest Augustus was a
great-grandson of George III of the U.K. through his father, he was also given
the title of “Prince of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.” His
father had succeeded to the Hanoverian throne in late 1851 but after Hanover
sided with Austria and lost the Austro-Prussian War in 1866, Hanover was
annexed by Prussia and King George V was deposed. Ernest Augustus and his
exiled family fled to Hietzing but spent most of their time in Paris while
George V never gave up the fight for his lost crown. Thus, Ernest Augustus
still kept his title of Crown Prince of Hanover.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy4xpVwkqFZsywTV6WlBrgthK-TbN8OfKHbTHD7O98dI_E_Q7NW4BAxTk72Y1UxycMsaPz69hHCs_vE0AWJIm4o9KSZUBY7cDlUp7IC3c68kS75y_VDk2dm82SwWntd_V1AoGaAKlcZSqJ/s1600/Untitled.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="312" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy4xpVwkqFZsywTV6WlBrgthK-TbN8OfKHbTHD7O98dI_E_Q7NW4BAxTk72Y1UxycMsaPz69hHCs_vE0AWJIm4o9KSZUBY7cDlUp7IC3c68kS75y_VDk2dm82SwWntd_V1AoGaAKlcZSqJ/s320/Untitled.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Crown Prince and Princess Ernest Augustus <br />and Thyra of Hanover<br />(1892)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Thyra was
attracted to the Crown Prince, for although he was not handsome, he was a very
gentle and even-tempered man with a rich inheritance. But Prussia grumbled
about a match between Denmark and Hanover because both kingdoms had lost much
land after the Austro-Prussian War (in the case of Hanover, they lost their whole
country). So, Thyra’s parents tried to betroth her to the widowed King William
III of the Netherlands, who had two legitimate sons and dozens of illegitimate
children. The elderly king, who was thirty-six years Thyra’s senior, was known
as a brazen philanderer and for these reasons, Thyra refused to marry him. She
was also still in love with Ernest Augustus, who wanted to marry her even after
he learned of her illegitimate child. Eventually, Thyra’s parents gave in and
with the help of Thyra’s older sister, Alexandra, they set up a meeting between
the couple in Frankfurt in early 1878. As expected, the Danish princess and the
deposed Hanoverian prince soon became engaged. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">On
December 22, 1878, the twenty-five year old Thyra married Ernest Augustus (who
was eight years her senior) at the chapel of Christiansborg Palace in
Copenhagen. Months before the wedding, Queen Victoria had named her Hanoverian
cousin the 3rd Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale so Thyra was not only a
British Duchess but also the Crown Princess of Hanover (Ernest Augustus and his
family refused to abdicate their Hanoverian titles). After the wedding, the
newlyweds set up their family home in Gmunden, Austria. Here, they had all
their six children, save their youngest:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3N28wklTwIFftWylYTKcK7PsygU0KzwhMNNckbEL-u1rCT9j902V3PzbEC07WTIalIrDgPHl_O7sOqYPgWTQsPhgavq18H5EuaKUw-ruH8zvry2m_AvNjKhTFXiE_IS8WNW3sCAycMWTT/s1600/ca82e7e018812ee11b552b01ecdca042.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3N28wklTwIFftWylYTKcK7PsygU0KzwhMNNckbEL-u1rCT9j902V3PzbEC07WTIalIrDgPHl_O7sOqYPgWTQsPhgavq18H5EuaKUw-ruH8zvry2m_AvNjKhTFXiE_IS8WNW3sCAycMWTT/s640/ca82e7e018812ee11b552b01ecdca042.jpg" width="436" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;"><i>Thyra of Denmark with her youngest five children<br />(left to right): Ernest, George William, Christian,<br />Alexandra, Thyra, and Olga<br />(early 1900's)</i><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span></td></tr>
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<ul>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Princess
Marie Louise of Hanover and Cumberland</span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> (1879-1948) married: Prince
Maximilian of Baden – had issue</span></li>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Prince
George William of Hanover and Cumberland</span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> (1880-1912) died at the age of
thirty-one in a car accident, unmarried with no issue</span></li>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Princess
Alexandra of Hanover and Cumberland</span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> (1882-1963) married: Friedrich
Franz IV, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin – had issue</span></li>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Princess
Olga of Hanover and Cumberland</span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> (1884-1958) died unmarried and
without issue at the age of seventy-four</span></li>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Prince
Christian of Hanover and Cumberland</span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> (1885-1901) died from
peritonitis at the age of sixteen</span></li>
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<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Prince
Ernest Augustus of Hanover, Duke of Brunswick</span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> (1887-1953) married:
Princess Victoria Louise of Prussia – had issue</span></li>
</ul>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaz_9ILqR8zuB_TSwjUQxoSMW109jI-0ON8LndnQQm2d_cYfZfDkM3ay-jBMExvviXsux1J_mbGGBD11oDf4Xwa3yJIX17iAwSNeEYXR3Mlqkt24xeeJ9p8oS-58-_WGWrqC_rHmo3vzHl/s1600/Thyra_of_Denmark_by_Johannes_Zehngraf.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaz_9ILqR8zuB_TSwjUQxoSMW109jI-0ON8LndnQQm2d_cYfZfDkM3ay-jBMExvviXsux1J_mbGGBD11oDf4Xwa3yJIX17iAwSNeEYXR3Mlqkt24xeeJ9p8oS-58-_WGWrqC_rHmo3vzHl/s400/Thyra_of_Denmark_by_Johannes_Zehngraf.png" width="323" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Thyra of Denmark, Crown Princess of Hanover<br />(Johannes Zehngraf, early 1900's)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Though
Thyra and her husband were styled as the “Crown Prince and Princess of
Hanover”, in pretense they were the titular King and Queen of Hanover because
her father-in-law (who never renounced his throne) died six months before her
marriage. It is said that Thyra battled sporadic attacks of mental illness
during her marriage but the reality of the situation is unknown. Although the
marriage was a happy one, Ernest Augustus was a bit antisocial and didn’t like
public events, so the family was somewhat secluded. But when World War I broke
out in 1914 and Ernest Augustus and his family sided with the Germans as
opposed to their British cousins, King George V of the U.K. revoked the
family’s British titles after Germany lost the war in 1918. On November 14,
1923, Ernest Augustus died of a stroke at the age of seventy-eight at his home
of Gmunden and was buried in the Hanoverian family mausoleum in the same city. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8DPTbo1MLF5wdRITTimRVRaenMUfF2NT7J33NeYieNKbQNzZIOMmT46Cu4jwG7XVWGYjbwuucz7M42xvmR0u4bSxUMdiKfHlyoVngTXYh9oRdQwF5L0X1Mpyz2ZaZcav9h9Ip5x4Qe3b5/s1600/tumblr_npe22cJEzM1qzjmo0o1_500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8DPTbo1MLF5wdRITTimRVRaenMUfF2NT7J33NeYieNKbQNzZIOMmT46Cu4jwG7XVWGYjbwuucz7M42xvmR0u4bSxUMdiKfHlyoVngTXYh9oRdQwF5L0X1Mpyz2ZaZcav9h9Ip5x4Qe3b5/s400/tumblr_npe22cJEzM1qzjmo0o1_500.jpg" width="296" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Princess Thyra and her daughters (left to right):<br />Marie Louise, Thyra, Olga, and Alexandra<br />(early 1900's)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Before
World War I began, three of Thyra’s four children who were still alive at the
time had married. Her eldest, Marie Louise, married her third cousin twice
removed, Prince Maximilian of Baden, on July 10, 1900 in Gmunden when she was
twenty years old. Maximilian, who was twelve years Marie Louise’s senior, was
the son of Prince Wilhelm of Baden and Princess Maria Maximilianovna of
Leuchtenberg, the granddaughter of <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/06/princess-augusta-of-bavaria-duchess-of.html">Princess Augusta of Bavaria</a> and Eugène de
Beauharnais, the stepson of Napoleon I. The couple had one daughter and one
son: Princess Marie Alexandra of Baden, who married Prince Wolfgang of Hesse
(the son of Prince Frederick Charles of Hesse and <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/06/princess-margaret-of-prussia.html">Princess Margaret of Prussia</a>), and Berthold, Margrave of Baden, who married Princess Theodora of
Greece and Denmark (the daughter of Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark and
<a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/07/princess-alice-of-battenberg-princess.html">Princess Alice of Battenberg</a>). Louise’s youngest child and son, Prince Ernest
Augustus, married his third cousin once removed, <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/07/princess-victoria-louise-of-prussia.html">Princess Victoria Louise of Prussia</a>, the only daughter of Kaiser Wilhelm II, on May 24, 1913. They had five
children, including: Prince George William, who married Princess Sophie of
Greece and Denmark (another daughter of Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark and
Princess Alice of Battenberg), and Princess Frederica, who married King Paul of
Greece. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">While
Thyra’s youngest daughter, Princess Olga, never married or had children, her
second daughter, Princess Alexandra, married Frederick Francis IV, Grand Duke
of Mecklenburg-Schwerin on June 1, 1904. They had five children together. Nine
years after her husband’s death, Princess Thyra died in Gmunden on February 26,
1933 at the age of seventy-nine. She was buried beside her husband in the
Hanoverian family mausoleum of Gmunden.</span><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15315177275314871435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6807555129500021847.post-38390797208150080162016-07-16T12:33:00.001-07:002016-07-18T18:45:14.379-07:00Louise of Hesse-Kassel, Queen of Denmark<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjl3WQFClj1yn5e36CPjaxJOleRWlSMslmdTUEsr5x6yNjbStvyYfQddu0quFy_CDG0pnie55spErfZxH_9UmWK1aSXeft-17dG75tJmoDHz3jTxhL_T0kd9e9WmIaNiH4u0BU_qV5vL3X/s1600/a7dc641c1b328f15300972daff92dcde.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjl3WQFClj1yn5e36CPjaxJOleRWlSMslmdTUEsr5x6yNjbStvyYfQddu0quFy_CDG0pnie55spErfZxH_9UmWK1aSXeft-17dG75tJmoDHz3jTxhL_T0kd9e9WmIaNiH4u0BU_qV5vL3X/s640/a7dc641c1b328f15300972daff92dcde.jpg" width="426" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Princess Louise of Hesse-Kassel,
whose full name was “Luise Wilhelmine Friederike Caroline Auguste Julie”, was
the third child and second eldest daughter of Prince William of Hesse and
Princess Charlotte of Denmark. Louise was born on September 7, 1817 in Kassel
(located in present-day Germany) where her father was stationed at the time
with the Danish army. Louise’s father, William, was the first son of Prince
Frederick of Hesse-Kassel and Princess Caroline of Nassau-Usingen. Prince
Frederick was the founder of a cadet branch of the House of Hesse called
Hesse-Kassel-Rumpenheim. Frederick’s mother was Princess Mary of Great Britain
(daughter of George II), making him the first cousin of George III. William’s
siblings included: Princess Marie of Hesse-Kassel, Grand Duchess of
Mecklenburg-Strelitz and Princess Augusta of Hesse-Kassel, Duchess of Cambridge
(the wife of the tenth child of George III, Prince Adolphus, Duke of
Cambridge). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj15pKfsOEF-B2gFL7WdY4wx6cD3DEh8A1Al09B6p-Vr5N45af80LKidC-TpU7Q0DcxXySD-i-NzDVITDkSzje8g_WSNbauQ0tAE1xlWdKF3Qg7-tiOJF6DNKAxNMo87UMge9qYYn6K1im7/s1600/220px-Luisa_wife_of_Ch9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj15pKfsOEF-B2gFL7WdY4wx6cD3DEh8A1Al09B6p-Vr5N45af80LKidC-TpU7Q0DcxXySD-i-NzDVITDkSzje8g_WSNbauQ0tAE1xlWdKF3Qg7-tiOJF6DNKAxNMo87UMge9qYYn6K1im7/s320/220px-Luisa_wife_of_Ch9.jpg" width="241" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Louise of Hesse-Kassel<br />(1859-65)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">While her father came from
prominent German and British ancestry, Louise’s mother was the daughter of
Frederick, Hereditary Prince of Denmark and Duchess Sophie Frederica of
Mecklenburg-Schwerin. Prince Frederick was the only surviving child of King
Frederick V of Denmark by his second marriage to Juliana Maria of
Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel. Frederick’s elder half-brother, King Christian VII,
suffered from a severe mental illness (probably schizophrenia) so Frederick was
named the regent of Denmark in 1772 when he was just eighteen. However, he was
regent in name only as his domineering mother was the real figure of power in
the government. Frederick was regent until 1784 when his sixteen year old
half-nephew, the future King Frederick VI, staged a coup and took the regency
for himself. Prince Frederick, who lost all influence and power, remained at
court until 1794 after which he moved to Amalienborg Palace with his family.
His daughter, Princess Charlotte, married Prince William of Hesse-Kassel in
1810. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">William and Charlotte, who was
described as astute, pragmatic, and frugal, lived in Kassel until 1820, when
they moved to Charlotte’s native Denmark when Louise was just three years old.
The family first lived in the Prince Wilhelm Mansion in Copenhagen but later
moved to Brockdorff’s Palace, which is part of the Amalienborg. Louise, who had
five other siblings (just four survived infancy), including Prince Frederick
William of Hesse-Kassel, was brought up just like any royal princess in the
nineteenth century. She was extremely talented in the areas of painting and
piano and even received lessons from well-known Danish artists and musicians.
Louise’s status, and that of her family’s, rose when her maternal uncle, Prince
Christian Frederick, was crowned King Christian VIII of Denmark in 1839. Louise
and her siblings quickly became important members of the succession when it
became apparent that Christian VIII’s only child (and Louise’s first cousin),
the future King Frederick VII, would have no children. Since Princess Charlotte
was the only sibling of Christian VIII to have children, Louise and her
siblings became almost guaranteed successors to the throne. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFJCOCNRtpsRntdR0aHXyCyh2xJLA7x077zIybnwv0ddrhR5YQROMv9QGp9y4Sxz6VvJ4wzwdDQRpD-pKSjZBswl2If4Z7kblwqMq4f-N9QlRw0n5V0GyJuM44WfL11q1PmQkWPS7DxGlC/s1600/1840s-cl-apfxzanthia-18jun0-2.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="391" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFJCOCNRtpsRntdR0aHXyCyh2xJLA7x077zIybnwv0ddrhR5YQROMv9QGp9y4Sxz6VvJ4wzwdDQRpD-pKSjZBswl2If4Z7kblwqMq4f-N9QlRw0n5V0GyJuM44WfL11q1PmQkWPS7DxGlC/s640/1840s-cl-apfxzanthia-18jun0-2.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg and his wife, Princess Louise of Hesse-Kassel<br />(1840's)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">On May 26, 1842, the twenty-four
year old Louise married her paternal second cousin, Prince Christian of
Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, in Copenhagen. The cousins had first
met at Rumpenheim Castle in Hesse (the family seat of Louise’s paternal family)
during a family reunion. Here, Christian became so attracted to Louise that he soon
proposed. Prince Christian, who was one year his wife’s junior, was the sixth
child of Friedrich Wilhelm, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg
and Princess Louise Caroline of Hesse-Kassel. Christian’s mother was a
granddaughter of King Frederick V of Denmark and Princess Louise of Great Britain
(the youngest daughter of George II). He was also a descendant of Danish
royalty through his father, whose family was a junior branch of the House of
Oldenburg, the Danish royal family since 1448. Christian was actually a
great-grandson of King Frederick V and the first cousin once removed of King
Frederick VI. After Louise and Christian’s wedding, the couple moved to the
Yellow Palace, an eighteenth century town house located next to the Amalienborg
Palace complex in Copenhagen. They had a stable, loving relationship and Louise
supported her husband immensely. Here, Louise gave birth to all but one of her
six children, none of whom died in infancy. Two of their sons became monarchs
in their own right and two of their daughters became consorts of European
monarchs:</span></div>
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<ul>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Frederick VIII of Denmark </span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;">(1843-1912)
married: Princess Louise of Sweden – had issue</span></li>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/07/alexandra-of-denmark-queen-of-uk.html">Alexandra of Denmark, Queen ofthe U.K.</a></span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> (1844-1925) married: King Edward VII of the U.K. – had issue</span></li>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">George I of Greece</span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;">
(1845-1913) married: Grand Duchess Olga Constantinovna of Russia – had issue</span></li>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/07/maria-feodorovna-empress-of-russia.html">Dagmar of Denmark (Maria Feodorovna)</a></span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> (1847-1928) married: Emperor Alexander III of
Russia – had issue</span></li>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/07/thyra-of-denmark-crown-princess-of.html">Thyra of Denmark, Crown Princessof Hanover</a></span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> (1853-1933) married: Ernest Augustus, Crown Prince of Hanover
– had issue</span></li>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Prince Valdemar of Denmark</span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;">
(1858-1939) married: Princess Marie of Orléans – had issue</span></li>
</ul>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgjLY-yuhCSD4Ldhjrg5tStKd5tsTDZiIqJHuJJaFK3fiqlydDxjSJAyfaswCHQd2EOR-SpRqRGM-tCJz0MjxNfa0EoxP_ydrXzyY1-Gvu-pDR44yPiXojc_B2-V9nRR6CtVqpEwmZ56Op/s1600/Christian_IX_of_Denmark_and_family_1862.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="393" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgjLY-yuhCSD4Ldhjrg5tStKd5tsTDZiIqJHuJJaFK3fiqlydDxjSJAyfaswCHQd2EOR-SpRqRGM-tCJz0MjxNfa0EoxP_ydrXzyY1-Gvu-pDR44yPiXojc_B2-V9nRR6CtVqpEwmZ56Op/s640/Christian_IX_of_Denmark_and_family_1862.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Family of Christian IX and Louise of Hesse-Kassel (left to right): Dagmar, Frederick, Valdemar, King Christian IX, Queen Louise, Thyra, George, and Alexandra<br />(1862)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Christian’s marriage to Louise
greatly heightened his claim to the Danish throne, as both were descendants of
the royal family, which made themselves and their children strong contenders
for the Crown. But despite Christian and Louise’s noble backgrounds, they lived
a very modest and quiet life for members of royalty. They didn’t have a great
amount of wealth because their only income was Christian’s salary from an army
commission and their children grew up doing “normal” chores that royal princes
and princesses usually never performed, such as setting the table and making
their own clothes. When Louise’s uncle, King Christian VIII died in 1848 and
her cousin, the childless Frederick VII succeeded to the throne, Louise, her
mother, and her siblings all banded together to renounce their claims to the
Danish throne in favor of Christian. This occurred in 1851, so, a political
conference was held between Europe’s Great Powers the following year to decide
on Frederick VII’s successor. With the weight of his wife’s rights behind him,
Christian was ultimately selected as the new heir to the throne and was granted
the official title of “Prince of Denmark” in 1853. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ5BgXZIsn7ClSOyNDjAbAYYW9jb_-qswHarmaP5eMAa4-RpnrbaMjfmNxqqkgyKf-vmaeeiMDYjq8_PlM3WXi8mU7oBAkF-xzIUro6TzkfvukvEtNGoqHwfvtatE7SbiDw3ZqZbycKtR7/s1600/Louisehessekassel_queen_of_denmark.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ5BgXZIsn7ClSOyNDjAbAYYW9jb_-qswHarmaP5eMAa4-RpnrbaMjfmNxqqkgyKf-vmaeeiMDYjq8_PlM3WXi8mU7oBAkF-xzIUro6TzkfvukvEtNGoqHwfvtatE7SbiDw3ZqZbycKtR7/s640/Louisehessekassel_queen_of_denmark.jpg" width="379" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Louise of Hesse-Kassel, Queen of Denmark<br />(1860's-80's)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Louise and her husband had
achieved their ambition of becoming the Crown Princess and Prince of Denmark.
The family, whose statuses had now risen exponentially, moved into a much
grander residence, Bernstorff Palace. But their income did not increase despite
their great change in status and due to tense relations between Frederick VII
and Louise over the matter of the succession and Frederick’s morganatic
marriage to his mistress, Louise Rasmussen, Louise and Christian did not take
part in court life. The couple’s marriage did grow stronger during the whole
succession crisis, as Louise devoted herself wholeheartedly to her husband’s
fight for the throne. Christian became dependent on his loyal wife’s wisdom,
judgment, and determination, for she was said to have a stronger will and mind
than himself. Their battle for the throne, which they ultimately won, resulted in
the couple becoming deeply attached to each other. Their victory became
tangible on November 15, 1863 when Frederick VII died and Christian succeeded
to the throne as King Christian IX with Louise, who was forty-six at the time,
becoming his Queen Consort. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbno_R1pKFU_1wvTWsd70xH2ehf_hyphenhyphenUa3vLS24v_JTkWEUka6SgmeZ5gUcI3tWH2jQ_dLH_gV_nm9AeDofdksLeBOYCqsd2ttF7OJhe3OXmZlygYowYGZ3WUPQpjfuxl5ve2P1gy2BxLGx/s1600/Queen_Lujza_of_Denmark.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbno_R1pKFU_1wvTWsd70xH2ehf_hyphenhyphenUa3vLS24v_JTkWEUka6SgmeZ5gUcI3tWH2jQ_dLH_gV_nm9AeDofdksLeBOYCqsd2ttF7OJhe3OXmZlygYowYGZ3WUPQpjfuxl5ve2P1gy2BxLGx/s400/Queen_Lujza_of_Denmark.jpg" width="316" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Louise of Hesse-Kassel, Queen of Denmark<br />(1863-9)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">During her tenure as Queen,
Louise remained out of the public eye and devoted all of her time to her
children, grandchildren, and her work with charities. She sponsored twenty-six
different charity organizations and her philanthropic work reflected her deeply
conservative beliefs, as she fought against the rise of socialism and the
emerging workers movement. Louise also loved indulging in her role as the matriarch
of her large European family and was constantly arranging annual family
reunions. She did not care about her relationship or popularity with the Danish
people and was more fixated on arranging powerful dynastic marriages for her
children instead of state affairs. She wanted her children to marry into
powerful European royal families to cement the family’s newly recognized
status, although she refused to have any of her children marry into Germany, as
she was vehemently anti-German due to Denmark’s tense past with the rival
kingdom. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Louisa’s eldest daughter, the
beautiful Alexandra, was the first of her children to marry. In 1863, Alix (as
her family knew her) married Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, the eldest son and
heir of Queen Victoria of the U.K. Albert Edward would eventually succeed to
the throne in 1901 as Edward VII with Alix as his Queen Consort. The couple had
six children in total, including the future King George V and Maud, Queen
Consort of Norway. Louise’s second daughter, Dagmar, married next in 1866 to
Grand Duke Alexander Alexandrovich, the future Emperor Alexander III of Russia.
Dagmar, who changed her name to Maria Feodorovna upon her marriage, became
Empress when her husband ascended to the throne in 1881. She had six children,
five of whom survived to adulthood. Her eldest son was Emperor Nicholas II (who married <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/07/alexandra-feodorovna-empress-of-russia.html">Princess Alix of Hesse</a>), the
last sovereign of Russia. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKgp9sGkdCGTKWipCzi7ChbMH6ydUkeuoqRuFBG6xFt8eVuGz1kASY-jvrNtpo2yCT34d9pcwqgew85DIvP9bazx5BSleHyVFtUt0_nSDrsOdOOqW9_x3U8XCjoBKUz-kBmVcpJLK_Gnkh/s1600/Queen_Alexandra_with_Queen_Louise_and_the_Duchess_of_Fife.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKgp9sGkdCGTKWipCzi7ChbMH6ydUkeuoqRuFBG6xFt8eVuGz1kASY-jvrNtpo2yCT34d9pcwqgew85DIvP9bazx5BSleHyVFtUt0_nSDrsOdOOqW9_x3U8XCjoBKUz-kBmVcpJLK_Gnkh/s400/Queen_Alexandra_with_Queen_Louise_and_the_Duchess_of_Fife.jpg" width="265" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Queen Louise with her daughter, Alexandra (left),<br />and her granddaughter, Princess Louise (right)<br />(1893)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Prince William, who became King
George I of Greece in 1863 after he was elected to the position, married in
1867 to Grand Duchess Olga Constantinovna of Russia, the first cousin of
Emperor Alexander III, who was six years his junior. They had eight children
together with just one daughter dying in infancy. A few of their children were
- King Constantine I of Greece (who married <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/06/sophie-of-prussia-queen-of-hellenes.html">Princess Sophia of Prussia</a>, the
daughter of <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/06/victoria-princess-royal-of-uk-empress.html">Victoria, Princess Royal</a>) and Prince Andrew (who married <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/07/princess-alice-of-battenberg-princess.html">Princess Alice of Battenberg</a>, the daughter of <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/06/princess-victoria-of-hesse-and-by-rhine.html">Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine</a>
and the granddaughter of <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/06/princess-alice-of-uk-grand-duchess-of.html">Princess Alice of the U.K.</a>), who was the father of
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. In 1869, Louise’s eldest child and the heir
to the throne, Crown Prince Frederick, married Princess Louise of Sweden, the
only surviving child of Charles XV of Sweden, in a match designed to improve
relations between Denmark and Louise’s native country. The couple had eight
children together, including: Christian X of Denmark and Haakon VII of Norway
(who married his maternal first cousin, Princess Maud of Wales). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYtdbmlMgayFx9aSpLaT5zhK6bibRiyL1JWQ3VFh8jqoJnPcJATYbMSekKnPPMHaLFWTF4k1xh1dweD01bGJjxa5wVIK8LjCCOY3tDhOWsTSEql37hcH6vnDYWp_YZIc_T8vRazrB3IK7j/s1600/f8fe5a678ff42612f533cd97c7e8ed56.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYtdbmlMgayFx9aSpLaT5zhK6bibRiyL1JWQ3VFh8jqoJnPcJATYbMSekKnPPMHaLFWTF4k1xh1dweD01bGJjxa5wVIK8LjCCOY3tDhOWsTSEql37hcH6vnDYWp_YZIc_T8vRazrB3IK7j/s400/f8fe5a678ff42612f533cd97c7e8ed56.jpg" width="285" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Daughters of Christian IX and Queen Louise<br />(left to right): Dagmar, Alexandra, and Thyra<br />(1889)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">In 1871, Louise’s youngest
daughter, Thyra, fell into some trouble when she entered a scandalous affair
with a Lieutenant in the Cavalry of the Danish army named Vilhelm Frimann
Marcher. Thyra’s family discovered the secret relationship when she became
pregnant. The eighteen year-old princess had to give birth to her illegitimate
child in secret at Glücksburg Castle (the family seat of her father’s German
relatives) on November 8, 1871. Her relatives, who told the media that she was
sick with jaundice, covered up Thyra’s absence from court. A Danish couple
adopted Thyra’s baby, a little girl named Maria, soon after her birth. She was
renamed Kate and went on to marry and have a family of her own before she died
in 1964. Just short of two months after his daughter’s birth, Marcher committed
suicide after a heated row with Thyra’s father. In December of 1878, Thyra
married Crown Prince Ernest Augustus of Hanover, 3rd Duke of Cumberland and
Teviotdale, the only son of George V of Hanover and Princess Marie of
Saxe-Altenburg (Ernest Augustus was also eight years Thyra’s senior). They had
six children, including Prince Ernest Augustus of Hanover, Duke of Brunswick,
who married <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/07/princess-victoria-louise-of-prussia.html">Princess Victoria Louise of Prussia</a>, the only daughter of Kaiser
Wilhelm II. Louise’s last child to marry was her youngest – Prince Valdemar. In
late 1885, the twenty-seven year old Danish prince married Princess Marie of
Orléans (who was seven years his junior), the eldest child of Prince Robert,
Duke of Chartres, a grandson of King Louis Philippe I of France and Princess
Françoise of Orléans, who was also a grandchild of Louis Philippe I. The couple
had five children together and through their youngest daughter, they are the
grandparents of the titular Queen Anne of Romania. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ6avZKkMILeGSX1gOXe_loa49ALf90OPGFmiJzvXazfMeNKJkE_J4P4xNAK12uB11pBbhP7Pw2SjRGTSHLp1JwmxP0nEytPDz5C03qS0dqXn3XXB1kcdPQRCvp1F61exTndxu_INtOqf7/s1600/Christian_IX_of_Denmark_with_family_%2528Tuxen%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="402" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ6avZKkMILeGSX1gOXe_loa49ALf90OPGFmiJzvXazfMeNKJkE_J4P4xNAK12uB11pBbhP7Pw2SjRGTSHLp1JwmxP0nEytPDz5C03qS0dqXn3XXB1kcdPQRCvp1F61exTndxu_INtOqf7/s640/Christian_IX_of_Denmark_with_family_%2528Tuxen%2529.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Family of Christian IX and Queen Louise<br />(Laurits Tuxen, 1883-6)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Through the impressive dynastic
marriages of her children, Louise is an ancestress of many modern-day European
monarchies, such as: Denmark, the U.K., Belgium, Norway, Spain, and Luxembourg.
Her descendants also sat on the thrones of Greece and Romania, whose monarchies
no longer exist. In her later years as Queen Consort, Louise’s health began to
fail. She suffered from hereditary otosclerosis (which her daughter, Alexandra,
also inherited), an abnormal bone growth in the middle ear that causes hearing
loss. Louise’s deafness and infirmities worsened to such a point that in her
final years she was cared for by two deaconesses from the Deaconess Foundation,
which she was the founder of. On September 29, 1898 at Bernstorff Palace, the
eighty-one year old Queen Louise died with many members of her widespread
family by her bedside. At the time of her death, Louise had been queen for
thirty-five years, the longest period of time any Danish consort had served up
until that point. Louise was buried in Roskilde Cathedral on the island of
Zealand, the main burial site for Danish monarchs since the 1400’s. Louise’s
husband, Christian IX, survived her by seven years until his own death on
January 29, 1906 at the age of eighty-seven. He was buried beside his wife in
Roskilde Cathedral.</span><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15315177275314871435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6807555129500021847.post-91872310662601545162016-07-15T16:00:00.000-07:002016-07-23T18:01:48.828-07:00Alexandra of Denmark, Queen of the U.K.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp1PIPSvz9cEMTu7-gtWKMFJDH9xSFWXbEXS4GumVZYDeRkrnM-bVr8nRCn5JB6Nu-Neg_cg9NX90wIA1qxEeOB6bCsafucGu1W-Gn5tevaQa5TfBEualDCd_h8VAlN8FZHUDPfwevsidk/s1600/alex1902a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp1PIPSvz9cEMTu7-gtWKMFJDH9xSFWXbEXS4GumVZYDeRkrnM-bVr8nRCn5JB6Nu-Neg_cg9NX90wIA1qxEeOB6bCsafucGu1W-Gn5tevaQa5TfBEualDCd_h8VAlN8FZHUDPfwevsidk/s640/alex1902a.jpg" width="424" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Princess Alexandra of Denmark,
born “Alexandra Caroline Marie Charlotte Louise Julia”, was the second child
and eldest daughter of King Christian IX of Denmark and <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/07/louise-of-hesse-kassel-queen-of-denmark.html">Princess Louise of Hesse-Kassel</a>. She was born on December 1, 1844 in the Yellow Palace, a town
house near the Amalienborg Palace in Copenhagen. Her siblings include: King
Frederick VIII of Denmark, King George I of Greece, <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/07/thyra-of-denmark-crown-princess-of.html">Crown Princess Thyra of Denmark</a>, and <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/07/maria-feodorovna-empress-of-russia.html">Empress Maria Feodorovna of Russia</a> (born Princess Dagmar of Denmark). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">At the time of Alexandra’s birth,
her father was simply Prince Christian of
Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg from the fairly unknown House of
Glücksburg. In 1852, a succession crisis in the monarchy of Denmark erupted
when King Frederick VII, the last Danish sovereign of the older Royal branch of
the House of Oldenburg, was unable to produce a child and heir. Before his
death, he had made Denmark a constitutional monarchy and since he had no
successor, a conference of European kingdoms was called together to decide on
the future of the Danish succession. The members of the conference decided to
select Prince Christian as the next Danish king since his family was a junior
branch of the House of Oldenburg. So, Christian was named the heir to the
Danish throne when Alix was just eight years old. In 1842, he married his
second cousin, Louise of Hesse-Kassel, the niece of a previous king of Denmark,
Christian VIII. They had six children in total, including Alexandra, who all
made impressive marriages into the royal families of Europe (just like Queen Victoria’s
children), earning him the epithet “the father-in-law of Europe”. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7Yua4yyVIJ-TESgMkekgLMZiC21FI3zqbuXhc1KsLwB5rl-0PH9L14PhL0v6xwCz85JVM-Q9Yz_EsVXLXQ4eflswBNr0ImlWw3mjxVRrDwsNcGAhpTo32GyEe42qtNC_9nLgke5Qs9NaZ/s1600/Christian_IX_of_Denmark_and_family_1862.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="392" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7Yua4yyVIJ-TESgMkekgLMZiC21FI3zqbuXhc1KsLwB5rl-0PH9L14PhL0v6xwCz85JVM-Q9Yz_EsVXLXQ4eflswBNr0ImlWw3mjxVRrDwsNcGAhpTo32GyEe42qtNC_9nLgke5Qs9NaZ/s640/Christian_IX_of_Denmark_and_family_1862.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Family of Christian IX (left to right): Dagmar, Frederick, Valdemar, King Christian IX,<br /> Queen Louise, Thyra, George, and Alexandra<br />(1862)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Alexandra, or “Alix”, as her
close family members called her, lived quite modestly for a member of royalty
since her family did not have a huge amount of wealth due to Prince Christian’s
relatively minor royal standing at the time. Alix shared a bedroom with her
younger sister, Dagmar (the future Empress of Russia), in the chilly attic of
the Yellow Palace and did chores, unlike most royal children, such as setting
the table and making her own clothes. Alix and her sisters shared a love of
music and sewing with their mother, took swimming lessons with Nancy Edberg
(the women’s swimming forerunner of Sweden), and were occasionally told bedtime
stories by Hans Christian Anderson. Though Danish was Alexandra’s native tongue
and she was born a Lutheran, she learned English at a young age from the
English chaplain at Copenhagen. She was also confirmed into the Anglican Church
after her father became next in line for the throne and was devoted to religion
for the entirety of her life. When her father was named King Frederick VII’s
heir in 1852, he was given the grand title of “Prince of Denmark” and moved his
family to a new, much finer home – that of Bernstorff Palace. Though the
family’s status had been elevated dramatically, their wealth remained the same
and they did not partake in court life at Copenhagen while Frederick was still
on the throne. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC_vrTLWEfvp82qj9EGp6xbFqjsgVAMrF5_yvL783HHwEYLIjVibiQS6Bz5hUW2nMYra-XNmaJ1c8Jw27lGBP7yjoKC95JqjDBPDL58skDl_2lTHBS2v85z47qDFAZWfNEIUJgOomTGEDx/s1600/tumblr_o9a8bbhyhm1tphleno1_500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC_vrTLWEfvp82qj9EGp6xbFqjsgVAMrF5_yvL783HHwEYLIjVibiQS6Bz5hUW2nMYra-XNmaJ1c8Jw27lGBP7yjoKC95JqjDBPDL58skDl_2lTHBS2v85z47qDFAZWfNEIUJgOomTGEDx/s400/tumblr_o9a8bbhyhm1tphleno1_500.jpg" width="280" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Princess Alexandra of Denmark<br />(Richard Lauchert, 1863)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">As Alexandra matured into a gorgeous, elegant, and fashionable auburn beauty, in
England, Queen Victoria and her husband, Prince Albert, were searching for a
suitable bride for their eldest son and heir to the throne, Albert Edward,
Prince of Wales. The eldest Danish princess was actually not the Queen’s first
choice because at the time, Denmark was at odds with Prussia over issues
surrounding the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein. Because Queen Victoria had
many German relatives and came from a German background herself, this made
Alexandra a rather problematic but still acceptable bride for the Prince of
Wales. Eventually, the other candidates for Albert Edward were discarded and it
was decided that Alix would become the new Princess of Wales. Alexandra met
Albert Edward on September 24, 1861 at Speyer when his sister, <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/06/victoria-princess-royal-of-uk-empress.html">Victoria, Princess Royal</a>, introduced the two. Albert Edward was not an intellectual or
hard-working young man, unlike his siblings, but he was known for his charm, dexterity,
and cordiality. “Bertie”, as he was known in his family, was a disappointment
to his parents because he wasn’t anything like his intelligent and influential
father. In fact, his mother saw him as flippant, careless, and reckless. Though
he was not handsome (he had a short, tubby frame and his mother’s weak chin
that he hid with a beard), he had a strong reputation as a playboy and engaged
in numerous love affairs with various women throughout his life. Women were
attracted to his “infectious gaiety”, his easy-going nature, and his
approachability. Alix liked the Prince of Wales upon their first meeting and he
returned her affections. The betrothal was then solidified and marriage plans
began to take place while Bertie went to Ireland to gain some military
experience. During his time here, he spent a few nights with an actress named
Nellie Clifden and when his parents found out, a dismayed Prince Albert (whose
health was failing at the time) travelled to Cambridge to chastise his son for
his behavior. Two weeks later, Albert died on December 14, 1861 at the age of
forty-two from what was said to be typhoid fever. Queen Victoria was never the
same after her beloved consort’s death and blamed Bertie for his father’s early
demise for the rest of her life. She even wrote to her eldest daughter: “I
never can, or shall, look at him without a shudder.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKcFI33PDgEYBklSfpQmcLRH34uKo-MkVeM6lXPsMhTq0nadl5mcRLY4WTbvdXOAYF-f3rl1usPGlC7ksVx22Kq6DJ11wvKRz2g-D6ERA945cyAAvuctGY5nyycpZmc6X0lTquZEFr61Q3/s1600/3090e3421650b8e3376b423ae88523d6.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="452" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKcFI33PDgEYBklSfpQmcLRH34uKo-MkVeM6lXPsMhTq0nadl5mcRLY4WTbvdXOAYF-f3rl1usPGlC7ksVx22Kq6DJ11wvKRz2g-D6ERA945cyAAvuctGY5nyycpZmc6X0lTquZEFr61Q3/s640/3090e3421650b8e3376b423ae88523d6.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Wedding of Albert Edward, Prince of Wales and Alexandra of Denmark<br />(William Powell Frith, 1863)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Almost a year after his first
meeting with Alix, Bertie proposed on September 9, 1862 at the Royal Palace of
Laeken, which was the home of his great-uncle, King Leopold I of Belgium. Alix
left Denmark to arrive in England on March 7, 1863 where the British people
greeted the beautiful and shy Princess exuberantly. Her popularity with
Bertie’s future subjects was extremely high from the moment she first set foot
on English soil, for the people were delighted to see the first marriage of a
Prince of Wales in sixty-eight years. On March 10, 1863, the eighteen year-old
Alix married the twenty-one year old Prince of Wales at St. George’s Chapel in
Windsor Castle. The ceremony was a small and quiet affair for a royal wedding
because the Queen (and thus, the court) was still in mourning for Prince
Albert. The gorgeous Honiton lace gown that Alix wore for her wedding was the
first royal wedding gown to be photographed and published in papers thoughout
the world. The Prince and his new Princess of Wales left Windsor after the
wedding festivities for their honeymoon at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight.
But even after Bertie became a married man, he did not give up his endless
tirade of love affairs with women such as Lillie Langtry, Jennie Jerome, and
Daisy Greville. Alexandra remained a devoted wife to her husband, despite her
knowledge of his infidelities, and confidently shrugged off his affairs, later saying:
“He loved me the most.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2yp-GlFRYkMfy9SIl7ZDoLvkWLy9ViaWZIVAHFfb-2ounCyeChNv4wJkq-IIyIFB7AU5HuQABHGqsaAsQWN3PBYA0BEEZssvaA8kAaPzH6wnVILmxmabNuGgbwxoPAxYmRefojQ732gqR/s1600/ee94c536d1d6519ace0ef8e4184a8a95.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="395" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2yp-GlFRYkMfy9SIl7ZDoLvkWLy9ViaWZIVAHFfb-2ounCyeChNv4wJkq-IIyIFB7AU5HuQABHGqsaAsQWN3PBYA0BEEZssvaA8kAaPzH6wnVILmxmabNuGgbwxoPAxYmRefojQ732gqR/s400/ee94c536d1d6519ace0ef8e4184a8a95.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Albert Edward, Prince of Wales and his bride, Alexandra of Denmark<br />(1863)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">After the honeymoon, the
newlyweds made Marlborough House in London their main residence with
Sandringham House in Norfolk as their country retreat. The couple was known for
their extravagant parties and their tendency to socialize to the extreme, which
the Queen frowned upon. The Queen disapproved of a few other things her daughter-in-law
did, such as hunting, which she tried to discourage Alix from to no avail. Alix
would often come into conflict with her regal mother-in-law and members of the
British royal family regarding her political views because she detested the
Germans due to Denmark’s tense past with Prussia. But overall, the Princess of
Wales was seen as “dignified and charming” in public and “affectionate and
jolly” in private. She liked to dance and ice skate and was known for her skill
as a horsewoman and a tandem driver. Her favorite hobbies were woodcarving and
photography. Alexandra also performed numerous public and charitable tasks and
events in her mother-in-law’s place without complaint, something the Queen
greatly appreciated. She became a popular trendsetter when it came to fashion,
as all the ladies copied her style of dress. Since Alix had a small scar on her
neck, she would wear chokers or high necklines to cover the blemish, which unintentionally
became a fashion standard that lasted for almost fifty years. In 1867, Alix
fell seriously ill with rheumatic fever and although she recovered, the disease
left her with a permanent limp. However, her style of walking became so popular
(as with everything she did, wore, and said) that high-society women mimicked her
limp to such an extreme that it became a trend known as the “Alexandra limp.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq6u96ecNYD7df9khp2SvgBMMe25BPloEbzDweZd4bfWzLqsYsSovPN3g6HUmLrYnhL7ZQRrP5l60oLoQmZ0LdENnS-qkvjH2QBaNYFF_1OZVvEc6m7Ou9RpKcBsQlXSR5GyB6mohnnbIC/s1600/ALexandra_of_Denmark_Princess_of_Wales.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq6u96ecNYD7df9khp2SvgBMMe25BPloEbzDweZd4bfWzLqsYsSovPN3g6HUmLrYnhL7ZQRrP5l60oLoQmZ0LdENnS-qkvjH2QBaNYFF_1OZVvEc6m7Ou9RpKcBsQlXSR5GyB6mohnnbIC/s400/ALexandra_of_Denmark_Princess_of_Wales.jpg" width="281" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Alexandra of Denmark, Princess of Wales<br />(Franz Xaver Winterhalter, 1864)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Though Alexandra got along with
her mother-in-law quite well, their relationship was somewhat strained at
times. Alix, like Princes Diana, was popular with the British people from the
time of her wedding as, “her beauty captivated many of her subjects, but her
enormous charm made them love her”. Since Queen Victoria remained out of the
public eye after her husband’s death, Alix and her husband became the new faces
of the monarchy. The people also loved Alix for her dignity and uncomplaining
nature when it came to her husband’s infamous sexual reputation. For a good
period of time, Alix was actually the most popular member of the royal family.
On some occasions, crowds would cheer her and summarily boo her husband. It is
suggested that the Queen was sometimes at loggerheads with her daughter-in-law
because she was envious of Alix’s instant popularity. Alix resented the unsolicited
counsel the Queen constantly gave her and her husband over both their public
and private lives, such as the names of their own children. In total, Alix had
six children with Bertie with just their youngest child dying in infancy:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibBliMnIYkFKQSCNkHX1iV0Z-VHH8GePlUeyiW5ukAAqYvr4gBSzltL1qtMUGLo1rCVrudEvfLXyzS6-7s-GvDPmAM7ZWFKWzdYnW71aXTlJX36l482ej_E0QPcJ-EZkBEVew-UNaDDW1o/s1600/14315.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibBliMnIYkFKQSCNkHX1iV0Z-VHH8GePlUeyiW5ukAAqYvr4gBSzltL1qtMUGLo1rCVrudEvfLXyzS6-7s-GvDPmAM7ZWFKWzdYnW71aXTlJX36l482ej_E0QPcJ-EZkBEVew-UNaDDW1o/s400/14315.jpg" width="278" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Family of Albert Edward, Prince of Wales<br />and Alexandra of Denmark<br />(1884)</i></td></tr>
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<ul>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Prince Albert Victor, Duke of
Clarence and Avondale</span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> (1864-1892) died of pneumonia at the age of
twenty-eight while engaged to Mary of Teck</span></li>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">George V, King of the U.K.</span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;">
(1865-1936) married: Princess Mary of Teck – had issue</span></li>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/07/louise-princess-royal-and-duchess-of.html">Louise, Princess Royal</a></span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;">
(1867-1931) married: Alexander Duff, 1<sup>st</sup> Duke of Fife – had issue</span></li>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Princess Victoria</span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> (1868-1935)
died unmarried and without issue</span></li>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/07/maud-of-wales-queen-of-norway.html">Princess Maud, Queen of Norway</a></span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;">
(1869-1938) married: King Haakon VII of Norway – had issue</span></li>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Prince Alexander John</span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> (1871)
died hours after his birth</span></li>
</ul>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimFQ5fYDPTvEmk18eZnTSyYFG8qTHjgsXjKjVv0dMcUQv0o2lplrM9SR9J09vPFTqynWfjLVyZW5_MdD9VVXntLwufIGdXXN5K41ndQwm5o8B3uUQhvECArtlcgsY1jHFigbDhzS3_vcoJ/s1600/Queen_Alexandra%252C_the_Princess_of_Wales.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimFQ5fYDPTvEmk18eZnTSyYFG8qTHjgsXjKjVv0dMcUQv0o2lplrM9SR9J09vPFTqynWfjLVyZW5_MdD9VVXntLwufIGdXXN5K41ndQwm5o8B3uUQhvECArtlcgsY1jHFigbDhzS3_vcoJ/s400/Queen_Alexandra%252C_the_Princess_of_Wales.jpg" width="268" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Alexandra of Denmark, Princess of Wales<br />(1881)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The birth of Alexandra’s third
child, her oldest daughter Louise, had a profound effect on the Princess of
Wales both emotionally and physically. It was feared that Alix would die after
the difficult birth, for she fell ill with rheumatic fever after the delivery.
She recovered but the fever heighted her otosclerosis, which she probably
inherited from her mother, as well as an abnormal bone growth in her middle
ear. This caused her to become increasingly deaf over the years and as a
result, she withdrew somewhat from her excessive socializing to spend more time
at home with her children. Alix’s relationship with her husband faltered a bit
after her numerous pregnancies and her serious bout with rheumatic fever (he
did not come to her bedside during her illness, instead choosing to continue to
socialize and flirt with other women) but they reconciled after he fell ill
with typhoid fever in late 1871. Her hatred for Germany and its people never
decreased and she protested against any political measures that supported
German interests or growth. When her eldest child, Albert Victor, died of
pneumonia shortly after his twenty-eighth birthday in early 1892, Alix grieved
so immensely that she never touched his room, keeping it preserved as a kind of
shrine for years to come. She was certainly never the same outgoing and
cheerful woman she had been before her son’s unexpected demise. She was also
close to her grandchildren in her later years and often watched over them and
cared for them in their parents’ place.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWasVcvlRX4Pu9-_WU2f0dEP0HHYIZtce5NDhuE8SH2U6OBpC1KD_Hcbg3TbvOFkDWgvXN4h7A1IdWI7buQmqLLHUkTjJpfcvLZTU40XV5wgUZ3FzuxrZKUwHPMzO4CVQMawVYk5jDuSUe/s1600/800px-Edward_VII_and_Alexandra_after_Gunn_%2526_Stuart.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWasVcvlRX4Pu9-_WU2f0dEP0HHYIZtce5NDhuE8SH2U6OBpC1KD_Hcbg3TbvOFkDWgvXN4h7A1IdWI7buQmqLLHUkTjJpfcvLZTU40XV5wgUZ3FzuxrZKUwHPMzO4CVQMawVYk5jDuSUe/s400/800px-Edward_VII_and_Alexandra_after_Gunn_%2526_Stuart.jpg" width="315" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Albert Edward, Prince of Wales and Alexandra of Denmark<br />(1896)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">On January 22, 1901, Queen
Victoria died and the fifty-nine year old Albert Edward became King Edward VII the
fifty-six year old Alexandra as his Queen Consort. A few days before Edward’s
coronation was scheduled to take place, he fell ill with appendicitis and was
so sick that Alexandra had to take his place at a military parade to keep the
public calm. The coronation was then postponed because Edward had to undergo an
operation to drain his infected appendix. After his recovery, Alexandra was
crowned alongside her husband on August 9, 1902. Alexandra did not partake in
political activities as Queen and her royal duties and activities did not
change much from those she performed as Princess of Wales. It is said that she
was prohibited from seeing her husband’s briefing papers and she was purposely barred
from a few of his foreign tours “to prevent her meddling in diplomatic
matters.” </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZevva-00caBIt7zyIOxlW4SDmRujqnDJZRt7tzaTiiPwAryY2qAmLt2dZPamyjyaCTs61xNuKpziOm0b2qdxQu_rQa-2pQ9AGk7SaAT_WHX2RFK_45wcewGUESn4VOXk1WGpL7oIiqjte/s1600/Edward_VII_and_Alexandra_coronation_portraits.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="512" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZevva-00caBIt7zyIOxlW4SDmRujqnDJZRt7tzaTiiPwAryY2qAmLt2dZPamyjyaCTs61xNuKpziOm0b2qdxQu_rQa-2pQ9AGk7SaAT_WHX2RFK_45wcewGUESn4VOXk1WGpL7oIiqjte/s640/Edward_VII_and_Alexandra_coronation_portraits.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Coronation Portraits of Edward VII and Alexandra of Denmark<br />(Luke Fildes, 1901)</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisV52mPhfAvU6MUJ6l4v5f0mr4AeyI-OkFfQ4Arupx7_inORbpf0HRQnemiu5wLd09LlWamidJ2ecBmFWRXDkObaAX2mheImWV7ENuOIlfpkTwerA1Wqhyphenhyphen6y-cmvGqN1EKpJ9Yl7T2i0XH/s1600/1024px-The_Anointing_of_Queen_Alexandra_at_the_Coronation_of_Edward_VII.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="432" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisV52mPhfAvU6MUJ6l4v5f0mr4AeyI-OkFfQ4Arupx7_inORbpf0HRQnemiu5wLd09LlWamidJ2ecBmFWRXDkObaAX2mheImWV7ENuOIlfpkTwerA1Wqhyphenhyphen6y-cmvGqN1EKpJ9Yl7T2i0XH/s640/1024px-The_Anointing_of_Queen_Alexandra_at_the_Coronation_of_Edward_VII.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Anointing of Queen Alexandra<br />(Laurits Tuxen, </i><i style="font-size: 12.8px;">1902)</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">In 1910, while Alix was visiting her brother King George I of Greece
in Corfu, she was sent an urgent telegraph informing her that her husband had
fallen gravely ill. After receiving this news, she returned to England straightaway
to be by her consort’s side. In his later years, Edward had suffered from
bronchitis (he smoked twenty cigarettes and twelve cigars a day) and began to endure
numerous heart attacks in his final days. On May 6, 1910, surrounded by his
wife and children, King Edward VII died at Buckingham Palace at the age of
sixty-eight after just nine years on the throne. In his last few hours, Alix
had dispensed oxygen from a gas cylinder with her own hands to aid his
breathing. She grieved for her husband immensely after his death and shortly
after his passing, she said to a friend: “I feel as if I had been turned into
stone, unable to cry, unable to grasp the meaning of it all.” Edward was given
a grand funeral, which was attended by “the greatest assemblage of royalty and
rank ever gathered in one place” and was buried at St George’s Chapel in
Windsor Castle, where he had married Alexandra almost fifty years earlier.
Later in the year, Alix, now the Queen Dowager, moved out of Buckingham Palace
and back to her former home of Marlborough House while her son, George
Frederick, was crowned King George V of the U.K.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEvNmCpJ7VrGDxxsyjCPlJKztTANJGHn953e3QcttDY7VjFllZ5YmxcoRQT-uOz1Q_BHQE1Pk6kaaKsjwfCzwb6rvohp84TR8ErQC1fU_gm8qGBfKr2QZv-eT5tHa7qKlCzhpXUn7I8_q4/s1600/Dowager_Queen_Alexandra.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEvNmCpJ7VrGDxxsyjCPlJKztTANJGHn953e3QcttDY7VjFllZ5YmxcoRQT-uOz1Q_BHQE1Pk6kaaKsjwfCzwb6rvohp84TR8ErQC1fU_gm8qGBfKr2QZv-eT5tHa7qKlCzhpXUn7I8_q4/s400/Dowager_Queen_Alexandra.jpg" width="273" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Alexandra of Denmark, Queen of the U.K.<br />(1910)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">She maintained a quiet life in
her widowhood during her son’s tenure on the throne, dedicating her time to
charitable activities such as Alexandra Rose Day, a fundraising event for
hospitals where female volunteers sold fake roses to the disabled. When World
War I broke out, Alexandra’s hatred for the Germans reached a fever pitch. She
was vocal of her dislike of her nephew by marriage, Kaiser Wilhelm II, and
supported the removal of hanging banners of foreign princes who were part of
the Order of the Garter from St George’s Chapel. During the Russian Revolution
of 1917, the Bolsheviks executed Alix’s nephew, Tsar Nicholas II, and his
family. The Tsar’s mother and Alix’s sister, the Empress Dowager Maria, was
brought from Russia to England in 1919 by the Royal Navy to live with Alix for
some time. Before the war, Alix had been able to preserve her youthful beauty
but by the late 1910’s, her age began to show. She started wearing intricate
veils and heavy makeup to hide the reality of her faded loveliness but many of
her contemporaries said that this just made her face appear “enameled”. Her
health began to fail around this time and in 1920, a blood vessel in her eye
burst, which left her partially blind for a period of time. Her memory and
speech diminished in her final years and on November 20, 1925, the
eighty-year-old Queen Dowager succumbed to a fatal heart attack at her home of Sandringham
House. She was then buried beside her husband in St George’s Chapel.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqFBIiqQ8MVn49-YYZyKDceJMCSkZd8Wmyu0Re5_oz5Wt6tNZi8aoMnmCbeYzynSgZjVMwsWPtGfJyDTCepyJOzHYlTZN9l3oRdwkaJ5gYvX4KICbi3YkHpssrqZGxv7vqSfP3H1OtGkzg/s1600/800px-Alexandra_of_Denmark.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqFBIiqQ8MVn49-YYZyKDceJMCSkZd8Wmyu0Re5_oz5Wt6tNZi8aoMnmCbeYzynSgZjVMwsWPtGfJyDTCepyJOzHYlTZN9l3oRdwkaJ5gYvX4KICbi3YkHpssrqZGxv7vqSfP3H1OtGkzg/s400/800px-Alexandra_of_Denmark.jpg" width="287" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Alexandra of Denmark, Queen Dowager<br />(1923</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">She was survived by her only remaining
son, King George V, and her three daughters. George, who would reign until his
death in 1936, married his late brother’s fiancée, Princess Mary of Teck, in
1893 and had six children, including Edward VIII and George VI. Alix’s oldest
daughter, Louise, had married Alexander Duff, 1st Duke of Fife in
1889 and had two surviving daughters before her death in 1931. Alix’s middle
daughter, Victoria, remained unmarried and motherless for the entirety of her
life, instead choosing to remain as her mother’s companion (it is said that
Alix vigorously dissuaded Victoria from marriage for this specific reason).
Victoria died in 1935 at the age of sixty-seven. Alix’s youngest daughter,
Maud, married her maternal first cousin, Prince Carl of Denmark in 1896, who
became King Haakon VII of Norway in 1905. They only had one son, the future
Olav V of Norway, before Maud’s death in 1938.</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15315177275314871435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6807555129500021847.post-1118802001364214562016-07-12T16:45:00.000-07:002016-07-28T13:18:16.144-07:00Alexandra Feodorovna, Empress of Russia (Princess Alix of Hesse and by Rhine)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Princess Alix of Hesse and by
Rhine, who was christened “Alix Victoria Helena Louise Beatrice”, was the sixth
child and fourth daughter of <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/06/princess-alice-of-uk-grand-duchess-of.html">Princess Alice of the U.K.</a>, the second daughter of
Queen Victoria, and Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse. She was born on June 6, 1872
at the New Palace in Darmstadt and was named after her mother and each of her
mother’s four sisters. She would be the youngest of Alice and Louis’s children
to survive to adulthood. Some of her older siblings were: <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/06/princess-victoria-of-hesse-and-by-rhine.html">Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine</a>, <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/07/princess-elisabeth-of-hesse-and-by.html">Grand Duchess Elizabeth of Russia</a>, <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/07/princess-irene-of-hesse-and-by-rhine.html">Princess Irene of Prussia</a>, and Grand Duke Ernest of Hesse.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Princess Alix of Hesse and by Rhine<br />(1881)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Alix was a cheerful and beautiful
child who was nicknamed “Sunny” by her mother for her lively disposition. She
was blessed with extraordinary good looks; she was a small girl with a slim yet
shapely figure, rosy lips, a clear and fair complexion, blue eyes, and waves of
dark auburn hair. The rest of her family called her “Alicky” to discern her
from her aunt-by-marriage, Alexandra of Denmark, who had married the future
Edward VII, then the Prince of Wales. Out of her many siblings, Alix was
particularly close to her older brother, Ernest, and the two shared a warm
relationship for the rest of their lives. Alix’s family lived quite modestly
for their royal statuses. Princess Alice made sure she taught her daughters the
importance of charity and humility, as the girls did household chores daily and
helped their mother in altruistic activities. Princess Alice raised her
children according to her native English fashion and Alix and her siblings
would frequently go to England to visit their “Grandmama”, Queen Victoria, who
they all adored immensely. Though the children were born German, they were
taught their mother’s English as their first language and their father’s German
as their second tongue. It was a known fact that hemophilia ran in Alice’s
family but it wasn’t apparent that Alice herself was a hemophilia carrier until
the birth of her second son, Prince Friedrich, in 1870. When little Frittie was
just years old, he died as a result of his hemophilia after suffering a brain
hemorrhage after a fall. His death occurred on May 29, 1873, when Alix was just
a year old, so she grew up never knowing the brother whose death affected her
family so immensely. But she was old enough to remember the tragic events of
late 1878, when she and every member of her family (except Elizabeth and
Princess Alice) fell ill with diphtheria. Elizabeth was immediately sent away
from the sick household to stay with her paternal grandmother while Alice
remained behind to nurse her other four daughters, son, and husband back to
health. Despite her efforts, Alice lost her youngest daughter, the four
year-old Marie, to the disease on November 16, 1878. Alice ultimately ended up
sacrificing her own life while caring for her family, as she soon fell ill
after Marie’s death and died on December 14, 1878. The six year-old Alix, her
sisters Victoria and Irene, her brother Ernest, and their father recovered but
the family remained in a state of grief for some time after the loss of little
Marie and their mother. Their grandmother, Queen Victoria, took over as the
Hesse children’s surrogate mother immediately after Alice’s untimely death.
Alix and her siblings would stay in England with their grandmother for some
time each year and were constantly under the Queen’s diligent and domineering
care. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Princess Alix of Hesse and by Rhine<br />(1890)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Queen Victoria was interested in
every single aspect of her grandchildren’s lives and controlled everything from
their education to their dress patterns. Her greatest concern above all was
their marital futures. Since she was especially fond of little Alix, she
planned to marry her to Prince Albert Victor, the eldest son of the Prince of
Wales and Alix’s first cousin. With this union, Alix would become the future
queen of the U.K., which was just what her matchmaking grandmother desired. But
Alix rejected her cousin’s proposal in 1890 in the face of intense pressure
from her relatives. The strong-minded Alix had no interest whatsoever in
marrying Albert Victor or even becoming a future queen, so Queen Victoria gave
in to her refusal. The truth of the matter was that Alix didn’t want to marry
her cousin because she had already fallen in love with another man who she
considered her true love – her second cousin, Tsarevich Nicholas of Russia. The
pair had met in 1884 when Alix traveled to Russia to attend her older sister
Elizabeth’s wedding to Nicholas’s uncle, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich. Here,
the twelve year-old Alix captivated the sixteen year-old Russian heir to the
throne but it wasn’t until Alix went back to Russia for a visit in 1889 that
the two genuinely fell passionately in love with each other. Queen Victoria and
Nicholas’s father, Tsar Alexander III, were very aware of the couple’s
courtship but both were against the idea of a marriage between the two. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfuxQZBj6hq02tPNnPUAOJmMiNFDI5BmImdk8shRw5Xz8XTuPo-YpwMEGQNgHuNJMtafm1p-ZYwbj-YsFAAe_9aZ4gU4peJHgmQHX5bYc7S9eSqu7hK4KomhZ4zsGliDzzhG_T5sNEAmN2/s1600/Alexandra_and_Nicholas_II_official_picture_of_engagement.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfuxQZBj6hq02tPNnPUAOJmMiNFDI5BmImdk8shRw5Xz8XTuPo-YpwMEGQNgHuNJMtafm1p-ZYwbj-YsFAAe_9aZ4gU4peJHgmQHX5bYc7S9eSqu7hK4KomhZ4zsGliDzzhG_T5sNEAmN2/s400/Alexandra_and_Nicholas_II_official_picture_of_engagement.jpg" width="295" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Alix of Hesse and her husband, Nicholas II<br />(1894)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Alexander III and his wife, <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/07/maria-feodorovna-empress-of-russia.html">Maria Feodorovna</a>, were both fervently anti-German, even though they were both Alix’s
godparents. The Tsar wanted his son to marry a more suitable and respectable
prospect, like Princess Hélène of Orléans, the daughter of Philippe, Comte de
Paris and the pretender to the French throne, because Alix (as the daughter of
a Grand Duke of a small German territory) was not royal empress material.
Thankfully for Nicholas, Hélène would not marry him due to their conflicting
religions. But when Alexander III tried to match his son with Alix’s first
cousin, <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/06/princess-margaret-of-prussia.html">Princess Margaret of Prussia</a>, Nicholas said outright that he would
become a monk before he married the Prussian princess (the match wouldn’t have
been doable anyway because Margaret, like Hélène, declined to convert from her
Protestant religion to Russian Orthodoxy). Meanwhile, Queen Victoria didn’t favor
the match of Alix and Nicholas because she though negatively of Russia’s
political past. The Queen was also concerned about Alix’s safety there, not to
mention that she wasn’t particularly fond of the gruff and stubborn Alexander
III. But when the Tsar’s health began to decline in 1894 and Nicholas remained
unmarried, he reluctantly agreed to allow his son to propose to the Hessian
princess. So, in April of 1894, when Alix’s older brother, Ernest Louis (who
had succeeded his father as the Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine in 1892 upon
Louis IV’s death), married his first cousin, Princess Victoria Melita of
Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, a large number of royal guests were present at the
wedding – including Alix and Nicholas (he was also a first cousin of Princess
Victoria Melita). A day after Nicholas came to Coburg, he immediately proposed
to Alix. But despite her love for him, Alix refused his offer of marriage
initially because she was worried about betraying her Lutheran faith and
converting to Russian Orthodoxy. Her relatives then stepped in to encourage her
to marry Nicholas, including her cousin Kaiser Wilhelm II, who informed her that
it was her “duty” to marry the Tsesarevich. It was actually her older sister
Elizabeth who convinced Alix to follow her heart and marry the man she loved.
Elizabeth, who was a Russian Grand Duchess after her 1884 marriage to
Nicholas’s uncle, had converted to Russian Orthodoxy seven years after her
wedding for sincere reasons. She told her hesitant sister about the
similarities between Lutheranism and Russian Orthodoxy, which prompted Alix to
agree to Nicholas’s second proposal. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIAIyngf_0mbts15aEqDtHG6-3ytvoGnaogk5CKi6yAOl5Jil6TeAPKMX3qt6CzdJiPXueqts4vvz-Q8l6Qg1zsjgw9_8duwj231YQUDJIqxxLnpiX6PXwKatkcD5oy-wKKabMn3WI8sf_/s1600/800px-Alix_hesseni_hercegno%25CC%258B.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIAIyngf_0mbts15aEqDtHG6-3ytvoGnaogk5CKi6yAOl5Jil6TeAPKMX3qt6CzdJiPXueqts4vvz-Q8l6Qg1zsjgw9_8duwj231YQUDJIqxxLnpiX6PXwKatkcD5oy-wKKabMn3WI8sf_/s400/800px-Alix_hesseni_hercegno%25CC%258B.jpg" width="305" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Alexandra Feodorovna, Empress of Russia<br />(Heinrich von Angeli, 1896-7)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">During the summer, Nicholas spent
some time in England with his betrothed while his father’s personal priest gave
her religious instruction. But in late autumn, when Alexander III’s health
began to decline further, he approved his son’s request to bring Alix to the
royal family’s Crimean palace of Livadia where the ailing Tsar met her in full
dress uniform and gave her his blessing. Ten days after Alix’s arrival, the
forty-nine year old Tsar Alexander III passed away from nephritis on November
1, 1894. With his death, Nicholas was the new Emperor of Russia at the age of
twenty-six. But unfortunately for the Russian Empire, their new ruler was
completely unprepared and entirely unwilling to sit on the throne. He was totally
ill equipped for his future position because since his father was only in his
forties at the time of his accession, it was believed that it would be quite
some time before Nicholas would inherit the crown. Alexander III himself did
not much faith in his son’s abilities; he viewed him as “not mature enough to
take on serious responsibilities” and he knew how inherently unskilled Nicholas
was to be the Emperor. The day after Nicholas was named Tsar Nicholas II, Alix
was received into the Russian Orthodox Church as “Grand Duchess Alexandra
Feodorovna”. Though the wedding between the couple was initially scheduled for
the following spring, it was moved up due to Nicholas’s unexpected accession.
So, on November 26, 1894 in the Grand Church of the Winter Palace, the
twenty-two year old Alix married her beloved “Nicky” in a grand and lavish
ceremony. Now, the naïve Hessian princess was the “Empress Consort of All the
Russians.” Although the couple would have an ultimately tragic ending, their
twenty-four years of marriage together would be full of passionate and intense
love that never faded in the slightest. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYjj1OhQbp0pU98-RffuXFS-vR8Oyen41BP0ULIpVITafWU-oB-YfCc-osMxye663iTQ53HFXnDnXKExAJODQyc1fH6vJn_Qu7DaFNQG5dTDlmnKehSZIonAvkYkqNmYvley4GXay9Dmq6/s1600/Wedding_of_Nicholas_II_and_Alexandra_Feodorovna_by_Laurits_Tuxen_%25281895%252C_Hermitage%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="472" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYjj1OhQbp0pU98-RffuXFS-vR8Oyen41BP0ULIpVITafWU-oB-YfCc-osMxye663iTQ53HFXnDnXKExAJODQyc1fH6vJn_Qu7DaFNQG5dTDlmnKehSZIonAvkYkqNmYvley4GXay9Dmq6/s640/Wedding_of_Nicholas_II_and_Alexandra_Feodorovna_by_Laurits_Tuxen_%25281895%252C_Hermitage%2529.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Wedding of Emperor Nicholas II and Alexandra Feodorovna<br />(Laurits Tuxen, 1895)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Nicholas II’s disastrous reign
was seemingly prophesized by the shocking Khodynka Tragedy on the day of the
Emperor and Empress’s coronation. While Nicholas and Alexandra were being
formally crowned as the rulers of Russia on May 26, 1896 in the Kremlin,
several thousand people were trampled to death at the Khodynka Field in Moscow
during public festivities for the royal event when a rumor erupted that there
wasn’t enough food for everyone at the field. After learning about the horrible
event, Nicholas and Alexandra didn’t want to go to the coronation ball that
night out of respect for the dead but several of Nicholas’s uncles persuaded
him to go. The public was shocked when they learned that the nobility,
including the Emperor and Empress, went to the ball in face of the tragedy. Their
subjects, who also saw the Khodynka Tragedy as a bad omen for Nicholas’s reign,
quickly perceived Nicholas and Alexandra as callous and shallow. The Russian
people, even those of the nobility, disliked Alexandra from the start because
they mistook her extreme shyness as arrogance and snootiness. She was
completely overshadowed by her sociable and immensely popular mother-in-law,
the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna, who was never fond of her introverted
daughter-in-law. The nobility disliked Alexandra for her quiet and awkward
persona (it didn’t help that she barely spoke any Russian, not to mention that
she wasn’t a fan of Russian culture) and the common people detested her because
she was German. Poor Alexandra was in an unfamiliar land surrounded by
disapproving people. To top it all off, she was expected to be the perfect
empress although she had never been prepared for the daunting task. The only
one who provided her with any comfort was her beloved husband, for even
Nicholas’s family turned their noses up at her. Alexandra lived most married
life as a recluse, staying out of the public eye and becoming extremely private
in regards to herself and the lives of her family. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnL9d6pckrBoytSroN7YvJ1qF2OuBoSvWXOIgsX71I2GaNeZFUTMYh2-yE9920pSbloPPt6MFUF3F2ZkFE9F5EwnAJTd0vAtwgcEbBu6F0_BLwyVcDyKJqrlyQiyaTKAbsps2Q6YLsqHkg/s1600/389c839428d5603f304476efc1ccf795.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnL9d6pckrBoytSroN7YvJ1qF2OuBoSvWXOIgsX71I2GaNeZFUTMYh2-yE9920pSbloPPt6MFUF3F2ZkFE9F5EwnAJTd0vAtwgcEbBu6F0_BLwyVcDyKJqrlyQiyaTKAbsps2Q6YLsqHkg/s320/389c839428d5603f304476efc1ccf795.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Empress Alexandra Feodorovna<br />(1895-1900)</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">A year after her wedding,
Alexandra gave birth to her first child, Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna. In the
next six years after Olga’s birth, Alexandra had three more girls – Tatiana,
Maria, and Anastasia. But although Nicholas and Alexandra loved their daughters
wholeheartedly, they still lacked an heir to the throne. The people were more
than eager to criticize Alexandra for her inability to produce a son, cementing
her extreme unpopularity that much further. Finally, Alexandra completed her
most important duty as a consort and gave birth to a son – Tsesarevich Alexei
Nikolaevich, in 1904. But Alexei’s birth was more upsetting for his mother than
celebratory, as it was quickly discovered that the infant prince was a
hemophilic. Alexandra’s worst nightmare had come true; she had become a
hemophilia carrier like her mother. Alexandra was blamed by the public for her
son’s infirmity, which haunted her for the rest of her life. She took to
extreme measures to protect her darling son from potential injury and death,
coddling him so intensely that he became a spoiled, controlling brat who was
used to always getting his own way. She also hid her children from the public
in such a severe manner that they grew up innocent, naïve, and unaware of the
world outside the palace walls. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Alexandra and Nicholas II’s
children:</span></div>
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<ul>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna</span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;">
(1895-1918) died at the age of 22 while in Soviet captivity </span></li>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna</span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;">
(1897-1918) died at the age of 21 while in Soviet captivity</span></li>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna</span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;">
(1899-1918) died at the age of 19 while in Soviet captivity</span></li>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Grand Duchess Anastasia
Nikolaevna</span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> (1901-1918) died at the age of 17 while in Soviet captivity</span></li>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Tsesarevich Alexei Nikolaevich</span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;">
(1904-1918) died at the age of 13 while in Soviet captivity</span></li>
</ul>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyzuMmRkoEKQTB_v7ejCKFWFmYRf4Ybio0lcbtHUX8llF2LBhMsXOJbFSaMXthSbBHQwflT5r9IF3M7YE_PL32MMZH8rrwWJOsds3f7Kgmd0WePwdWLsyfh6IAeaXXW2Q29YB6R3KHPCSd/s1600/800px-Family_Nicholas_II_of_Russia_ca._1914.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="520" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyzuMmRkoEKQTB_v7ejCKFWFmYRf4Ybio0lcbtHUX8llF2LBhMsXOJbFSaMXthSbBHQwflT5r9IF3M7YE_PL32MMZH8rrwWJOsds3f7Kgmd0WePwdWLsyfh6IAeaXXW2Q29YB6R3KHPCSd/s640/800px-Family_Nicholas_II_of_Russia_ca._1914.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Family of Nicholas II and Alexandra Feodorovna<br />(1913-14)</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Alexandra’s health had never been
strong and after her recurrent pregnancies, her constitution floundered. Her
obsessive anxiety and nervous exhaustion over the health of her son sapped her
strength and she became semi-invalid in her later years. As she grew older, she
became more and more immobile and she began to spend most of her days in bed or
in a chair, complaining about severe pain in her back. But the Empress would
find solace, and her family’s downfall, in the form of the mystic faith healer,
Grigori Rasputin. She believed full heartedly that he had power to improve her
son’s health and soon the infamous “Mad Monk”, who was known for his vulgar
behavior and explicit sexuality with women, became a central figure in the
Russian Imperial family. Many historians today are certain that his close
relationship with the Emperor, Empress, and the royal children contributed
immensely to the collapse of the monarchy, as the people despised Rasputin for
his influence over their sovereigns. Rumors soon began to spread that he was
having sexual relations with the Empress herself and even her daughters, which
were believed as fact by the common people and even the aristocracy, though
they were untrue.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFodjnDKmlvdz3ioWYP65KFAig-kFdBztrJtu5ieXwCs1v0vNi2u0C8u1tn3BHN2cFm2Qkh8YhT-zuJ0TRaLFJbR5cGJ17liDu-DT8HUWBmHgl1ftsZRmrPtv7qCetQBtewMD7_9x8uo70/s1600/407px-Alexandra_Fjodorowna.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFodjnDKmlvdz3ioWYP65KFAig-kFdBztrJtu5ieXwCs1v0vNi2u0C8u1tn3BHN2cFm2Qkh8YhT-zuJ0TRaLFJbR5cGJ17liDu-DT8HUWBmHgl1ftsZRmrPtv7qCetQBtewMD7_9x8uo70/s400/407px-Alexandra_Fjodorowna.jpg" width="271" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Alexandra Feodorovna, Empress of Russia<br />(1905-14)</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Russia entered World War I in
1914 after Germany declared war on the Empire. The large kingdom suffered
defeat after defeat during the course of the conflict, along with the loss of hundreds
of thousands of troops. Alexandra was already disliked because of her German
roots but now she was completely hated by the Russian people because her
background made her the enemy. The war was going so badly for Russia that
Nicholas went to the front line in 1915 to take personal command of the Army.
He then made the horrible decision to name his wife as the regent of the Empire
in his absence. Alexandra was completely and utterly inexperienced in matters
of politics (just like her husband) and constantly fired inept ministers only
to replace them with more incompetent officials. This meant the government was
never steady or proficient, which didn’t improve the situation of the
undersupplied troops or the starving citizens. People believed that Alexandra
was a German spy, especially since she was completely under Rasputin’s thumb
and she turned to him for advice in literally everything she did. The Empire
began to completely fall apart; Nicholas was blamed for the horrible losses on
the battlefield, the economy was in free-fall, and mass shortages, famine, and
hunger reigned supreme in the streets. Even the nobility hated Alexandra and
her calamitous rule, so they decided to resort to extreme measures and brutally
murdered Rasputin on December 30, 1916 (his killers included Nicholas II’s
nephew-in-law and his first cousin). Rasputin’s death horrified the royal family,
especially Alexandra, who lost what little trust she had in her husband’s
family. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4NqE5M9Tyn8V-9H7XXXkMUuAaOoF7UfNTvyIe_AliIaCApDjmVokEMryf5yh6RypYTGTwbFR8aZyL-8vBi29NVQROWsAvexwutFZ4uZkXYAL6W1nMeowAWqfjzC8mjkylOI8FFx3oE2rY/s1600/Alekszandra_Fjodorovna_orosz_ca%25CC%2581rne%25CC%2581_%25E2%2580%2593_Koppay_Jo%25CC%2581zsef_A%25CC%2581rpa%25CC%2581d.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4NqE5M9Tyn8V-9H7XXXkMUuAaOoF7UfNTvyIe_AliIaCApDjmVokEMryf5yh6RypYTGTwbFR8aZyL-8vBi29NVQROWsAvexwutFZ4uZkXYAL6W1nMeowAWqfjzC8mjkylOI8FFx3oE2rY/s400/Alekszandra_Fjodorovna_orosz_ca%25CC%2581rne%25CC%2581_%25E2%2580%2593_Koppay_Jo%25CC%2581zsef_A%25CC%2581rpa%25CC%2581d.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Alexandra Feodorovna, Empress of Russia<br />(Jószef Arpád Koppay, 1900)</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Things reached a turning point
when the people and soldiers united to declare rebellion against the Crown in
March of 1917. Nicholas took little convincing to abdicate the throne for
himself and his son in favor of the Provisional Government. Alexandra, her
husband, and their children were placed under house arrest in Tobolsk, Siberia
until the Bolshevik Revolution broke out in October and Lenin’s Bolsheviks
(also known as “Soviets”) took control of the government. The family was then
moved to Yekaterinburg in 1918 at the Ipatiev House. Their captivity under the
Bolsheviks was much more hellish that it had been under the Provisional Government,
as they lost all freedom in the Ipatiev House and were constantly fearful of
their future…and their lives. They had good reason to worry, for Lenin decided
to execute the entire family to undermine the cause of the royalist White Army
in the ongoing Russian Revolution. In the early morning of July 17, 1918, the
entire royal family and their servants were brought down to the basement of the
house by their guards and executed by firing squad and bayonets. Their bodies
were then stripped and thrown down a disused mine shaft at Ganina Yama north of
Yekaterinburg. The guards then decided soon after to take the corpses out of
the shaft, smash their faces, dismember and disfigure their bodies with
sulfuric acid, and hastily bury them under railway sleepers (they buried two of
the children in a different location and the bodies of a daughter – either
Maria or Anastasia – and Alexei were not found until 2007). The remains of
Nicholas, Alexandra, and three of their daughters were found in the early
1990’s and properly buried in the St. Catherine Chapel of the Peter and Paul
Cathedral in St. Petersburg in 1998. In 2000, Alexandra and her family were
canonized as passion bearers by the Russian Orthodox Church along with her
sister, Grand Duchess Elizabeth, who was also killed by the Bolsheviks just a
day after her sister’s demise.</span><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15315177275314871435noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6807555129500021847.post-53039646903010309142016-07-10T20:55:00.000-07:002016-07-17T15:49:03.219-07:00Princess Victoria Louise of Prussia<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGvTy9USAw38zGy85nnA3VJpxKV-vnE6A2hDWFekeB1HVBagTyWPVQb1p1G4XgKCB3BPqO39YnQLzyhTuu2GVxA__3vQ260p1TA1HxagbjJNg3-3iMtpV5rd8FSkuCtDwFIXo0RdQ0hGUP/s1600/tumblr_n1jkfgiNTt1rmfhybo1_500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGvTy9USAw38zGy85nnA3VJpxKV-vnE6A2hDWFekeB1HVBagTyWPVQb1p1G4XgKCB3BPqO39YnQLzyhTuu2GVxA__3vQ260p1TA1HxagbjJNg3-3iMtpV5rd8FSkuCtDwFIXo0RdQ0hGUP/s640/tumblr_n1jkfgiNTt1rmfhybo1_500.jpg" width="427" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Princess Victoria Louise of
Prussia, whose given name was “Viktoria Luise Adelheid Mathilde Charlotte” was
the seventh and last child of Wilhelm II, Emperor of Germany and King of
Prussia and his first wife, Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein. Victoria
Louise, who was the Emperor’s only daughter, was born on September 13, 1892 at
the Marmorpalais in Potsdam. Although she was born rather small, she soon
developed into a healthy young girl. She was named after her paternal
great-grandmother, Queen Victoria, and her paternal great-great-grandmother,
Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. But to her family, she was simply known as
“Sissy”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj66HAb-1vG7mVdOJLM3wOq7LdV3FgBMz6gsmft2yXt6vXs9n9CGTEPtAi89rZFZT8zJrfCvD04Jw9FIEPVn7U4cX_k1fPZpbmctFqh_xcPQc76ZZ5nsVLq3b8SqgfzXYDQiD7FZjYYCna3/s1600/Bundesarchiv_Bild_146-2008-0152%252C_Familie_Kaiser_Wilhelm_II..jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj66HAb-1vG7mVdOJLM3wOq7LdV3FgBMz6gsmft2yXt6vXs9n9CGTEPtAi89rZFZT8zJrfCvD04Jw9FIEPVn7U4cX_k1fPZpbmctFqh_xcPQc76ZZ5nsVLq3b8SqgfzXYDQiD7FZjYYCna3/s400/Bundesarchiv_Bild_146-2008-0152%252C_Familie_Kaiser_Wilhelm_II..jpg" width="265" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Family of Emperor Wilhelm II and Empress <br />Augusta<br />(1896)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Little Sissy was born into a
strong and powerful ruling family of an extensive empire. Her father was the
eldest son of Emperor Frederick III of Germany and <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/06/victoria-princess-royal-of-uk-empress.html">Victoria, Princess Royal</a>,
the eldest child of Queen Victoria of the U.K. Wilhelm had a rather rocky
relationship with his parents, especially his strict and domineering mother, so
by the time he succeeded his late father to the German and Prussian thrones in
1888, he possessed a personal instability and deep insecurities that he masked
with bluster and tough talk. He married his second cousin, Augusta Victoria of
Schleswig-Holstein, in 1881 after a failed proposal to his maternal first
cousin, <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/07/princess-elisabeth-of-hesse-and-by.html">Princess Elisabeth of Hesse and by Rhine</a>. By the time Victoria Louise
was born eleven years after her parents married, Wilhelm and Augusta had
produced six boys, the oldest of whom was ten years Victoria Louise’s senior.
Sissy was most definitely a daddy’s girl and her father adored his only
daughter immensely, unlike his sons. The young German princess was intellectual
like her paternal grandmother and possessed her mother’s regal and imposing
persona. She was also similar to her father in that both were obstinate and haughty.
But although Sissy might not have been the most empathetic of people, she was
known to have a friendly and lively disposition. Her English governess once
wrote that the “warlike” Wilhelm “unbends to a considerable extent when in the
bosom of his family… [and is] the dominating force of his daughter’s life. His
ideas, his opinions on men and things are persistently quoted by her.” </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMb6fyIfPpn6Gfs4mLesY7XFsU3AfvKSolGJsG5WQFApPmnzX38ZuQ6V9j8Dc8ol82BuHkYEPTYnYTv0DyiVKXClo5yBieNmo8Gy3B8cOZ8zPreMCXmFyTQzxlQrXsM9jS-C7gksE47z99/s1600/f4555dbc744730aaaf35fa7cc5243a6a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMb6fyIfPpn6Gfs4mLesY7XFsU3AfvKSolGJsG5WQFApPmnzX38ZuQ6V9j8Dc8ol82BuHkYEPTYnYTv0DyiVKXClo5yBieNmo8Gy3B8cOZ8zPreMCXmFyTQzxlQrXsM9jS-C7gksE47z99/s400/f4555dbc744730aaaf35fa7cc5243a6a.jpg" width="248" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Princess Victoria Louise of Prussia</i><br />
<i>(1905-10)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Wilhelm
loved his daughter so much that he let her get away with things he would have
never allowed his sons to say or do. Her siblings recognized their father’s
adoration of their little sister, so much so that the eldest, Crown Prince
Wilhelm, once wrote that she was “the only one of us who succeeded in her
childhood in gaining a snug place” in the Kaiser’s heart. </span><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;">At the royal family’s home of
Homburg Castle in Nümbrecht, Victoria Louise was given the typical substantial
education of a royal princess for the time, including music lessons with the
Russian concert pianist Sandra Droucker. She was often with her closest brother
in age, Prince Joachim, who was almost two years her senior. The royal children
often went to Kronberg Castle (which was close to their home) to visit their
paternal aunts, <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/06/princess-margaret-of-prussia.html">Princess Margaret</a> and <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/06/sophie-of-prussia-queen-of-hellenes.html">Princess Sophia</a>, as well as their young
cousins. Victoria Louise didn’t see her British relatives as often as her
German family members but for one week in May of 1911, Victoria Louise and her
parents sailed to England to visit their cousin, King George V, and other
members of the British royal family.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdBYpd0f7J1iwM56EjiQJ3mPlB4cORL33L944ggnq3alM75T-r8cfJQI3-qU3Eg7QKJZc9hS05NKJtWeLtNRYLpnvn-n4NzVW5jijyW4xTqX5wsK1wJT-67vJDi0nkMxedLBW1b4Fm9oqV/s1600/tumblr_mog3yd67Cj1rqdmblo1_500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdBYpd0f7J1iwM56EjiQJ3mPlB4cORL33L944ggnq3alM75T-r8cfJQI3-qU3Eg7QKJZc9hS05NKJtWeLtNRYLpnvn-n4NzVW5jijyW4xTqX5wsK1wJT-67vJDi0nkMxedLBW1b4Fm9oqV/s400/tumblr_mog3yd67Cj1rqdmblo1_500.jpg" width="292" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Princess Victoria Louise of Prussia<br />(1907)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Victoria Louise’s life completely
changed in 1912 when her third cousin once removed, Prince Ernest Augustus III
of Hanover, came to the German royal court in Berlin to personally thank the
Kaiser for sending two of his sons to the funeral of Ernest Augustus’s older
brother. During his time at court, the Hanoverian prince met Victoria Louise
and the two soon became besotted with each other. Although they wanted to
marry, any talk of matrimonial union was put on hold for an extended period of
time because of political tensions. Ernest Augustus was the well-to-do son and
heir of the Crown Prince of Hanover and Duke of Cumberland, Ernest Augustus II.
His mother was <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/07/thyra-of-denmark-crown-princess-of.html">Princess Thyra of Denmark</a>, a daughter of King Christian IX of
Denmark and <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/07/louise-of-hesse-kassel-queen-of-denmark.html">Louise of Hesse-Kassel</a>. Ernest Augustus had powerful family
connections to almost every ruling house in Europe; through his father, he was
the great-great grandson of George III of the U.K. He was also a first cousin
of George V of the U.K., Nicholas II of Russia, Christian X of Denmark, Haakon
VII of Norway, and Constantine I of Greece. Since his father was the head of
the House of Hanover, Ernest Augustus was next in line for the position. But
his family had a complicated relationship with the German and Prussian
monarchy. In 1866, the Kingdom of Hanover had been annexed into the Kingdom of
Prussia, which put an end to the Hanoverian crown. Victoria Louise’s family,
especially her eldest brother, Crown Prince Wilhelm, was not too keen on her
relationship with the Hanoverian prince. The Crown Prince said that Ernest
Augustus could only marry his sister if he renounced his rights to Hanover.
After negotiation, the two parties came up with a compromise. Ernest Augustus
would give up his claim to Hanover but he would be allowed to succeed to the
smaller duchy of Brunswick and marry Victoria Louise (although Ernest Augustus
II was the rightful heir to the duchy, he had been unable to take the title
because the Hanoverian family had been prohibited from claiming the duchy due
to their claims towards the Hanoverian crown). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Princess Victoria Louise of Prussia and her husband,<br />Prince Ernest Augustus of Hanover<br />(1913)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The wedding of Victoria Louise
and Ernest Augustus was a huge affair and attracted much tabloid from the
press. It was acclaimed as the conclusion of the feud between the House of
Hanover and the German-Prussian royal family, which had begun when Hanover was
annexed almost fifty years ago. It was even described as a romance similar to
“Romeo and Juliet” but thankfully with a more satisfying conclusion. Because of
all the media attention centered on the marriage, it is unclear whether
Victoria Louise and Ernest Augustus actually married for love or whether their
romance was fabricated for popular appeal. However, evidence leans towards
former according to Victoria Louise’s personal letters, in which she called her
marriage a “love match”. The ceremony took place on May 24, 1913 in Berlin was
described as “the largest gathering of reigning monarchs in Germany since
German unification in 1871, and one of the last great social events of European
royalty before World War I began fourteen months later.” The Kaiser invited
basically the entirety of his extended family in a friendly political gesture,
such as King George V and Queen Mary of the U.K. and Tsar Nicholas II and
Tsarina Alexandra of Russia. A total of 1,200 people attended the wedding feast
in itself. Before the ceremony, Ernest Augustus proved his goodwill towards his
wife’s family by swearing an oath of loyalty to his new father-in-law and
taking a position as a cavalry captain and company commander in a Prussian Army
regiment. When the wedding vows were all said and done, Victoria Louise, who
was twenty years old at the time, became a Princess of Hanover and the lawfully
wedded spouse of the twenty-five year old Ernest Augustus.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Princess Victoria Louise with her parents, the Emperor and Empress,<br />and her first three children<br />(1918)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">After the festivities, the
newlyweds let Berlin for Brunswick, which they made their permanent home.
Though Wilhelm II was sad to see his beloved daughter leave home, he was
pleased that she was happy (Victoria Louise’s mother didn’t take her daughter’s
departure quite as well and was depressed for some time after Sissy left home).
Less than six months after the wedding, Ernest Augustus’s father legally relinquished
his rights to the duchy of Brunswick in favor of his son, who officially became
the Duke of Brunswick on November 1, 1913. It was here in Brunswick that the
newly established Duke and Duchess had their first child, a son named Prince
Ernest Augustus IV in March of 1914. In total, they would have five children –
four sons and one daughter:</span><br />
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<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Prince Ernest Augustus IV of
Hanover</span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> (1914-1987) married: (1) Princess Ortrud of
Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg – had issue, (2) Countess Monika of
Solms-Laubach – no issue</span></li>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Prince George William of Hanover</span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;">
(1915-2006) married: Princess Sophie of Greece and Denmark – had issue</span></li>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Princess Frederica of Hanover,
Queen of the Hellenes</span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> (1917-1981) married: King Paul of Greece – had
issue</span></li>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Prince Christian Oscar of Hanover</span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;">
(1919-1981) married: Mireille Dutry – had issue</span></li>
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<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Prince Welf Henry of Hanover</span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;">
(1923-1997) married: Princess Alexandra
of Ysenburg and Büdingen – no issue</span></li>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Princess Victoria Louise of Prussia, Duchess of Brunswick<br />(1918)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">When
World War I broke out in 1914, Victoria Louise stayed quietly at home with her
young children while her husband served in the German army as a Major General.
However, the Great War did not go well for Victoria Louise’s family, as they
ended up losing not only the war but also their crowns. Wilhelm II was forced
to abdicate as Emperor of Germany and King of Prussia on November 9, 1918 and
the German and Prussian monarchy was abolished completely. Wilhelm II lived out
the rest of his life in exile in the Netherlands but the loss of the Empire
proved to be too much for his distraught wife. She died on April 11, 1921 in
Doorn at the age of sixty-two, a bereavement which devastated her husband and
children, as they were all still raw from the loss of their throne and their
way of life. Before the Empress’s death, Prince Joachim’s (Victoria Louise’s
closest brother) marriage to Princess Marie-Auguste of Anhalt had fallen apart
completely and the two had divorced. Joachim, who could not tolerate the loss
of his royal position, became severely depressed and shot himself on July 18,
1920 at the age of twenty-nine. Every other German king, grand duke, duke,
prince, or simply anyone with a royal title had to give up their titles and
crowns after Germany’s devastating defeat, including Ernest Augustus’s father.
Ernest Augustus lost his title of the Duke of Brunswick as well as his position
as the heir to the Dukedom of Cumberland, as his father had been divested of
his British titles because he had served in the German army. Ernest Augustus,
who had been a member of the German army as well, also relinquished his title
as a Prince of the U.K. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Princess Victoria Louise and her husband, <br />Prince Ernest Augustus</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
family lived out the rest of their years in a quiet and melancholy state, for they
never got used to their new statuses as commoners. When the senior Ernest
Augustus died in 1923, Ernest Augustus III became the new Head of the House of
Hanover. Victoria Louise and her husband didn’t associate themselves with the
Nazi Party when World War II broke out in 1939, although Ernest Augustus was on
good terms with some head Nazi officials and he did donate to the party. But
the couple refused to ally themselves wholeheartedly with Hitler and his
regime, unlike Victoria Louise’s brothers, because they wanted England and
Germany to reconcile. Hitler tried to take advantage of their desire in the
mid-1930’s when he attempted to push a marriage between Princess Frederica and
the future Edward VIII in order to create a German alliance with the U.K.
However, Victoria Louise and her husband refused because Frederica was
twenty-three years younger than the then Prince of Wales. When the war was
raging on, Victoria Louise and some of her brothers went to Doorn in May of
1941 to see their now elderly father, who was suffering from an intestinal
blockage. Although the diagnosis seemed dire at first, the former Emperor made
a short recovery, so Victoria Louise and her brothers went back home thinking
their father’s health was stable. But just a month later, Wilhelm II died of a
pulmonary embolus on June 3, 1941 at the age of eighty-two. He didn’t die
alone, for his second wife, Princess Hermine Reuss of Greiz, who was
twenty-eight years his junior, was by his side when he passed (when Wilhelm had
married Hermine in 1922, his children had protested against the union out of
respect for their late mother). A year after Wilhelm II’s death, Victoria
Louise’s second eldest brother, Prince Eitel Friedrich, died on December 8,
1942 at the age of fifty-nine. A few years after World War II ended, two more
of Victoria Louise’s brothers had died – Prince Adalbert in 1948 at the age of
sixty-four and Prince August Wilhelm in 1949 at the age of sixty-two. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Princess Victoria Louise of Prussia<br />(Ernst Sandau, 1913)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Despite
these losses, Victoria Louise did experience happy events in the form of the
marriages of her first three children. In 1938, Princess Frederica married her
first cousin once removed, the future King Paul of Greece, who was the son of
King Constantine I and Sophia of Prussia (Victoria Louise’s paternal aunt). In
1946, Victoria Louise’s second son, Prince George William, married his third
cousin, </span><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Princess
Sophie of Greece and Denmark, the daughter of Prince Andrew of Greece and
Denmark and <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/07/princess-alice-of-battenberg-princess.html">Princess Alice of Battenberg</a> and the widow of Prince Christoph of
Hesse (George William’s first cousin once removed, as Christoph was the son of
Victoria Louise’s paternal aunt, Princess Margaret of Prussia). Then, in 1951,
Victoria Louise’s eldest child, Prince Ernest Augustus IV, married Princess
Ortrud of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg (he would marry a second
time in 1981 after Princess Ortrud’s death in 1980 to Countess Monika of
Solms-Laubach). In the period after World War II, Victoria Louise and her
husband lived in Blankenburg Castle in Harz. The former Prussian princess
dedicated most her time to championing palace restoration projects, attending
high-society parties, and engaging in her hobbies of hunting and the showing of
horses. She also dabbled in charitable works, such as sponsoring a holiday
estate for needy children. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">On January 20, 1953, Ernest
Augustus died at the age of sixty-five in Marienburg Castle, Hanover. He was
buried in the Berggarten Mausoleum, which is also located in Hanover. After his
death, his youngest two sons finally married. Prince Welf Henry married Princess
Alexandra of Ysenburg and Büdingen in 1960 and Prince Christian Oscar eloped
with a Belgian woman named Mireille Dutry in 1963. Victoria Louise lived to see
the births of all of her grandchildren (her only child who didn’t have
offspring was her youngest, Prince Welf Henry). She was also able to see her
daughter Frederica become the Queen of Greece in 1947 when Frederica’s husband,
Paul, ascended to the throne. Frederica became the mother of King Constantine
II of Greece and Queen Sofía of Spain. Finally, on December 11, 1980, the
eighty-eight year old Princess Victoria Louise of Prussia, Duchess of
Brunswick, died at the age of eighty-eight in her home in Hanover. She was
buried beside her husband in the Berggarten Mausoleum. Victoria Louise was the
last of Emperor Wilhelm II’s children to die, for her final two surviving
brothers, Crown Prince Wilhelm and Prince Oskar had died in 1951 and 1958
respectively.</span><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15315177275314871435noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6807555129500021847.post-2868107060765174442016-07-09T21:10:00.000-07:002017-02-04T17:43:15.665-08:00Princess Irene of Hesse and by Rhine, Princess of Prussia<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Princess Irene of Hesse and by
Rhine, born “Irene Louise Marie Anne”, was the third child and daughter of
<a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/06/princess-alice-of-uk-grand-duchess-of.html">Princess Alice of the U.K.</a>, a daughter of Queen Victoria, and Louis IV, Grand
Duke of Hesse and by Rhine. Irene, who was named after the Greek word for
“peace” because she was born at the end of the Austro-Prussian War, came into
the world on July 11, 1866 in the New Palace of Darmstadt. She had two older
sisters - <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/06/princess-victoria-of-hesse-and-by-rhine.html">Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine</a> and <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/07/princess-elisabeth-of-hesse-and-by.html">Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna of Russia</a> – and four younger siblings, including Grand Duke Ernest
Louis of Hesse and <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/07/alexandra-feodorovna-empress-of-russia.html">Empress Alexandra Feodorovna of Russia</a>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhE-DjIxUNFp41AvtEQYeMeXvLI2uGsFnS3-nSkrYOyTB2LOMasms_1m2cdvZptv8QkAo-GTqVzlFEmw-n59AWnKrNrLl-i9FHr2tHanq6O2nccIaQ-sc-PMbfnYJrs_yw0ZztEUNM2klvd/s1600/1024px-Princesses_Irene%252C_Victoria%252C_Elisabeth_and_Alix_of_Hesse_and_by_Rhine.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhE-DjIxUNFp41AvtEQYeMeXvLI2uGsFnS3-nSkrYOyTB2LOMasms_1m2cdvZptv8QkAo-GTqVzlFEmw-n59AWnKrNrLl-i9FHr2tHanq6O2nccIaQ-sc-PMbfnYJrs_yw0ZztEUNM2klvd/s400/1024px-Princesses_Irene%252C_Victoria%252C_Elisabeth_and_Alix_of_Hesse_and_by_Rhine.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Daughters of Grand Duke Louis IV and Princess Alice (left to right):<br />Irene, Victoria, Elizabeth, and Alice<br />(1885_</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Unlike Irene’s other three
sisters who survived to adulthood, she is often overlooked or forgotten by
history due to the legacy of her other siblings. Her older sister Victoria is
remembered as the grandmother of Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh and the mother
of <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/07/princess-louise-of-battenberg-queen-of.html">Queen Louise of Sweden</a>. Irene’s two other sisters, Elizabeth and Alexandra,
are associated with their tragic deaths at the hands of the Bolsheviks in the
Russian Revolution. But Irene would become grateful for her relative insignificance
in her later years, as she desired nothing more than to live a private
existence. Though Irene’s mother loved all of her children, she considered
Irene to be her least attractive child. Irene may not have been beautiful like
her sister Elizabeth but she did have a pleasant and warm personality that made
her easy to like and befriend. Alice raised her children rather modestly for
their royal statuses and brought them up in an English manner. The children
learned how to speak both English and German and were taught to do household
chores such as clean their rooms, sweep the floors, and bake cakes. They wore
homemade dresses and were taught by their mother to value the importance of
aiding the poor, who often took her girls to visit local hospitals and
charities. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXL_OLzAGi4vYy2RBf6d0Q-uAPDK_GGOaAJPKLgmEM_ayI_4iaYUjWcF1StPAoAnDrta2lxQuMYbkPEW1Ly5ty_79q5MUKmRw8ZH-PUkryHMAdRwIcInmxzCP7BvT7iSr4XRBjhnpMV6cm/s1600/45777.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXL_OLzAGi4vYy2RBf6d0Q-uAPDK_GGOaAJPKLgmEM_ayI_4iaYUjWcF1StPAoAnDrta2lxQuMYbkPEW1Ly5ty_79q5MUKmRw8ZH-PUkryHMAdRwIcInmxzCP7BvT7iSr4XRBjhnpMV6cm/s400/45777.jpg" width="301" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Princess Irene of Hesse and by Rhine<br />(1883)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">But Irene’s happy childhood
didn’t last for long, as the 1870’s were marked by a series of sudden deaths
within the family. In 1873, Irene’s two year old hemophilic brother, Friedrich,
died after falling from a window (Alice was a hemophilia carrier, like her
mother, and she passed the disease on to some of her children – including Irene).
Then, in late 1878, everyone in the family fell ill with diphtheria except for
Alice and Elizabeth. Elizabeth was sent to her paternal grandmother’s house to
stay healthy while Alice remained behind to nurse her sick husband and
children. In November, Irene’s youngest sibling, the four year-old Marie, died
from the disease and a month later, Alice herself caught ill and died as well.
The twelve year-old Irene, her father, and the rest of her siblings recovered but
the children would remain distraught over their mother’s sudden death for years
to come. With their mother gone, Queen Victoria stepped in to take care of her
daughter’s children, taking great interest in almost every aspect of their
lives. Irene’s eldest sister, Victoria, also took on the role as a motherly
figure for her younger siblings and helped their father with his royal duties
by taking over the late Alice’s position as the head lady of the duchy. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4P0ma0uUAfdV70KrGgt-G_3P7-FPUaZA81S3TK3gV8HWLupfrm_4OjHlUl3hhFiA3iRHe7y0Xwr6y9Z3vRj2CbGhOO_WdvWYptcLBMAWHI2Tpo2mHb_Rxu8mzNvKk1ngub_dpDkejJcFJ/s1600/6288fa0cb5f1a2383b1a65ce7f3afd15.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4P0ma0uUAfdV70KrGgt-G_3P7-FPUaZA81S3TK3gV8HWLupfrm_4OjHlUl3hhFiA3iRHe7y0Xwr6y9Z3vRj2CbGhOO_WdvWYptcLBMAWHI2Tpo2mHb_Rxu8mzNvKk1ngub_dpDkejJcFJ/s400/6288fa0cb5f1a2383b1a65ce7f3afd15.jpg" width="270" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Princess Irene and her husband, Prince Henry<br />(1887)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">After the marriages of both her
older sisters in 1884, Irene became the eldest daughter still living at home
and as a result, she took over Victoria’s role as her father’s companion and
hostess for official events. But eventually, Irene had a marriage of her own.
On May 24, 1888, the twenty-one year old Irene married her maternal first
cousin, the twenty-five year old Prince Henry of Prussia, at the chapel of the
Charlottenberg Palace in Berlin. Henry was the third child and second son of
Frederick III, German Emperor and <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/06/victoria-princess-royal-of-uk-empress.html">Victoria, Princess Royal</a>, the older sister of
Irene’s mother. Although the couple was close due to their familial
relationship, their grandmother, Queen Victoria, was not happy about the arrangement
because she hadn’t known of her grandchildren’s romantic relationship until the
marriage was announced. When the wedding took place, Henry’s father was dying
of throat cancer and not even a month after the marriage, Frederick III died,
so, Henry’s older brother took the throne as Kaiser Wilhelm II. Henry’s other
siblings included: <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/06/princess-charlotte-of-prussia-duchess.html">Princess Charlotte of Prussia</a>, <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/06/princess-viktoria-of-prussia.html">Princess Viktoria of Prussia</a>,
<a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/06/sophie-of-prussia-queen-of-hellenes.html">Queen Sophie of the Hellenes</a>, and <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/06/princess-margaret-of-prussia.html">Margaret, Landgravine of Hesse-Kassel</a>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Irene and
Henry were well suited for each other. Both were genial, pleasant, and easy to
get along with. In fact, they were so good-natured that their relatives called
them “The Very Amiables”. Despite the powerful political positions of their
families, neither Irene nor her husband were interested in politics, much to
the dismay of the Empress Victoria. But the Empress Dowager was quite fond of
Irene as a daughter-in-law, especially because of her relationship as the
Empress’s niece. The discreet and unpretentious couple, who had no political
ambitions whatsoever, was content to live quietly at home and stay out of the
spotlight of the Prussian royal court. Almost a year after the wedding, Irene
gave birth to the couple’s first child – a son named Prince Waldemar. But when
Waldemar was born, Irene was devastated to learn that he had inherited her
family’s disease – that of hemophilia. She blamed herself for his sickness
because she had become a hemophilia carrier through her own mother and never
stopped fretting over his health during his early childhood. No doubt the
memory of her younger brother Friedrich’s early death was quite apparent in her
mind. Seven years after Waldemar’s birth, Irene had another son named Prince
Sigismund who, much to her relief, was not a hemophiliac. But when Irene had
her last and final child in 1900, a boy named Prince Heinrich, she was upset to
learn that little Heinrich had hemophilia like his eldest brother. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsaUHypNMgDmeOT-YgGxKUdGqKy-DBsPvKkHAGF2O3Qjp0Vp6is0aXfwcn-jb_Aqdv8Cy_JuJW58UiQuskvFUm1Jg1cp7GNnp8l5ageRH5AT_eXXZ3XJWDN361mAVWadplBX_69sJGl7Rr/s1600/Prinz_Heinrich_v_Preussen_01.1900.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsaUHypNMgDmeOT-YgGxKUdGqKy-DBsPvKkHAGF2O3Qjp0Vp6is0aXfwcn-jb_Aqdv8Cy_JuJW58UiQuskvFUm1Jg1cp7GNnp8l5ageRH5AT_eXXZ3XJWDN361mAVWadplBX_69sJGl7Rr/s400/Prinz_Heinrich_v_Preussen_01.1900.jpg" width="306" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Princess Irene, Prince Henry, and their sons<br />(1900)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Irene and
Henry’s children:</span></div>
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<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Prince Waldemar
of Prussia</span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> (1889-1945) married: Princess Calixta of Lippe-Biesterfeld,
no issue</span></li>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Prince
Sigismund of Prussia</span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> (1896-1978) married: Princess Charlotte of
Saxe-Altenburg, had issue</span></li>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Prince
Heinrich of Prussia</span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> (1900-1904) died at the age of 4 from a brain
hemorrhage due to a fall as a result of his hemophilia</span></li>
</ul>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Prince
Henry, who served in the Prussian Imperial Navy, spent most of his time
focusing on his career while Irene stayed at home to focus on her own main
concern – her family. They lived mainly at an estate in Eckernförde named
Hemmelmark, which was located in Schleswig-Holstein. The couple purchased this
home in 1894 specifically because it was near Henry’s military base in Kiel.
The family would also sometimes reside in Potsdam and Berlin when they had to
attend to royal matters. During Irene’s life as a married woman, she kept in
close contact with her siblings. She and her older sister, Victoria, would
often take trips to Russia to see their sisters Elizabeth and Alexandra. They
would also go back to their family home of Darmstadt to visit their brother,
Ernest, who had succeeded their father as Grand Duke of Hesse upon his death in
1892. The siblings would all come together for the occasional family vacation
in Hesse, where they would stay at Schloss Wolfsgarten. Although Irene, who was
brought up under her grandmother’s formal and strict code of behavior, was
distraught when Elizabeth and Alexandra converted to Russian Orthodoxy after
their marriages, she never lost love for them. But Irene continued to worry
about her sons’ delicate health as they grew older and sadly, her greatest
nightmare became a reality in February of 1904 when her youngest boy, Heinrich,
fell from a chair onto the floor headfirst. His hemophilia triggered a brain
hemorrhage, which caused him to die a day after his fall at the age of four.
Heinrich’s death was eerily similar to little Friedrich’s own demise in almost
every aspect, especially since both boys would have most certainly survived
their falls had they not been hemophiliacs. Heinrich’s death had a profound effect
on his mother, who retreated into herself in her grief. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimPx2Hv7yuoTRbAOs0Ak0cuKtumjuDgh9hvNMYfvg8y1z9VOowGcf_CY1fMAGkyDLQXxb_5fp_dHwnf_DLGI0tWbV8Grf6G2j202kRYGzBVkbT80QLH9N4J5jyhMpSqAexUFqGF-O0BxbT/s1600/Prinzessin_Irene_und_Prinz_Heinrich.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimPx2Hv7yuoTRbAOs0Ak0cuKtumjuDgh9hvNMYfvg8y1z9VOowGcf_CY1fMAGkyDLQXxb_5fp_dHwnf_DLGI0tWbV8Grf6G2j202kRYGzBVkbT80QLH9N4J5jyhMpSqAexUFqGF-O0BxbT/s400/Prinzessin_Irene_und_Prinz_Heinrich.png" width="286" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Princess Irene and Prince Henry<br />(1900)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Irene’s
close communication with her family fell apart when World War I broke out in
1914 since they were on opposing sides. It wasn’t until the conflict’s
conclusion that Irene learned that the Bolsheviks had murdered her sisters,
Elizabeth and Alexandra, as well as Alexandra’s family. Henry’s brother had to
abdicate the throne after Germany’s defeat in the war and the German Empire
ceased to exist. Though the Kaiser had to leave the country in exile, Irene and
her husband were allowed to remain at their home of Hemmelmark. Irene heard the
rumors circulating that one of the Tsar’s daughters, her nieces, had escaped
the family’s brutal demise and she hoped that this was indeed was true. In
1920, she met with Anna Anderson, the woman who was claiming to be the Grand
Duchess Anastasia, but Irene was convinced that Anderson was nothing but a fake
(DNA evidence in 1991 concluded that Anderson was indeed a pretender. The
missing body of the real Anastasia was recovered in 2007). However, the
existence of Anderson caused Irene so much stress and anxiety that her husband
commanded no one to even say the pretender’s name to Irene. Irene suffered
further grief on April 20, 1929 when her husband died at the age of sixty-six
from throat cancer, just like his father. By the time of Prince Henry’s death,
the couple’s surviving sons, Waldemar and Sigismund, had made lives of their
own. In 1919, Waldemar had married Princess Calixta of Lippe-Biesterfeld at the
family home of Hemmelmark, a decision which shocked many considering his weak
health. His hemophilia did affect his marriage, as the couple had no children
and Waldemar spent much of his later life in hospitals. Just a month before
Waldemar’s marriage, his younger brother, Sigismund, had married at the family
home as well. His wife was Princess Charlotte of Saxe-Altenburg, the eldest
child of Ernst II, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg. Sigismund was the only one of Irene’s
children to have issue. He had a daughter and a son and though both married,
only Sigismund’s daughter had children. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzzkcCxpdTlrpg9ON2egX4SPtjdx05va-TkgvNouGWMAPWVduc-F7PdEqgF9IUaQNiK4pxqZz6VZsZH3EfFqa96jslrHLIqoqyCQutlFaVFPtXPcie6zO-d5pwoxUaEu413R1QoWoVOH4Z/s1600/Prince_Heinrich_of_Prussia_with_family.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="315" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzzkcCxpdTlrpg9ON2egX4SPtjdx05va-TkgvNouGWMAPWVduc-F7PdEqgF9IUaQNiK4pxqZz6VZsZH3EfFqa96jslrHLIqoqyCQutlFaVFPtXPcie6zO-d5pwoxUaEu413R1QoWoVOH4Z/s400/Prince_Heinrich_of_Prussia_with_family.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Family of Princess Irene and Prince Henry (left to right):<br />Irene, Sigismund, Henry, and Waldemar<br />(1910)</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">When
Sigismund left Germany to live in Costa Rica in 1927 to take part in the banana
and coffee business, Irene later adopted his daughter and her granddaughter,
Barbara, in the 1930’s as her own heir. Barbara provided her widowed
grandmother with some much-needed company after the terrible grief Irene had
suffered when Prince Henry had died. In 1937, Irene’s brother, Ernest, died and
weeks later, a terrible plane crash killed Ernest’s widow, eldest son,
daughter-in-law, and grandsons. When World War II broke out in 1939, Irene was
separated once again from her only surviving sibling, Victoria. As the Russians
and Americans invaded Germany by the end of the war, Waldemar and his wife had
to flee their home for Tutzing, Bavaria. Since the American army redirected all
medical supplies to the recently discovered victims of the concentration camps,
the sick Waldemar was unable to receive a blood transfusion and died on May 2,
1945 at the age of fifty-six. Irene lost her last surviving sibling, Victoria,
in 1950, after which she lived out the remainder of her years peacefully with
her granddaughter, Barbara, in Hemmelmark. On November 11, 1953, Irene died in
her home at the age of eighty-seven with her granddaughter by her side. She was
buried with her husband and her youngest son in the chapel located in
Hemmelmark. Her last surviving son, Sigismund, lived in Costa Rica until his
death on November 14, 1978 at the age of eighty-one.</span><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15315177275314871435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6807555129500021847.post-37200581520468417532016-07-07T17:54:00.001-07:002016-07-28T13:21:02.516-07:00Elizabeth Feodorovna, Grand Duchess of Russia (Princess Elisabeth of Hesse and by Rhine)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJsLUGgFwbBqMbGUZS-ieFkQ6knfAuNOnYI6Lkd3Y2OTdDLYDvp6SbdTnC9mQ03IBvC40gtxeF49Zp7EjMQcE9QhuSSuFshzptsIsKRtSBm71XuoHVYtUUIlBeSO-8-ZIrx-0A_WaYOrhu/s1600/tumblr_n8x4cfobZT1rqdmblo1_500.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJsLUGgFwbBqMbGUZS-ieFkQ6knfAuNOnYI6Lkd3Y2OTdDLYDvp6SbdTnC9mQ03IBvC40gtxeF49Zp7EjMQcE9QhuSSuFshzptsIsKRtSBm71XuoHVYtUUIlBeSO-8-ZIrx-0A_WaYOrhu/s640/tumblr_n8x4cfobZT1rqdmblo1_500.png" width="480" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Princess Elisabeth of Hesse and
by Rhine, whose full name was “Elisabeth Alexandra Louise Alice”, was the
second child and daughter of <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/06/princess-alice-of-uk-grand-duchess-of.html">Princess Alice of the U.K.</a> and Ludwig IV, Grand
Duke of Hesse and by Rhine. She was born on November 1, 1864 in Bessungen,
Hesse. Through her mother, she was the granddaughter of Queen Victoria. When
Elisabeth was born, her mother strayed from the British tradition of naming
children after close relatives. Instead, she named her little daughter after
the ancestress of the House of Hesse, St. Elizabeth of Hungary, who she
developed a deep admiration for after visiting her shrine in Marburg. “Ella”,
as she was known by her family, had one older sister – <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/06/princess-victoria-of-hesse-and-by-rhine.html">Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine</a> – and five younger siblings, including: <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/07/princess-irene-of-hesse-and-by-rhine.html">Princess Irene of Prussia</a>, Grand Duke Ernest Louis of Hesse, and <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/07/alexandra-feodorovna-empress-of-russia.html">Empress Alexandra Feodorovna of Russia</a>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ38WfF-Ypbvt8jp1JPlVmpxh5Uw3StayYXKJ58VgOaPx_pVhmfnJC05IslFS08h2U-auNVSYgJezL1WmnRSuOdB8iTVMJDp5hqBnvVxDTzUDkSDgrmKGRR58mcXb1v85rfhj443yUTMqx/s1600/001stelizabeth.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ38WfF-Ypbvt8jp1JPlVmpxh5Uw3StayYXKJ58VgOaPx_pVhmfnJC05IslFS08h2U-auNVSYgJezL1WmnRSuOdB8iTVMJDp5hqBnvVxDTzUDkSDgrmKGRR58mcXb1v85rfhj443yUTMqx/s400/001stelizabeth.jpg" width="306" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Princess Elisabeth of Hesse and by Rhine<br />(1887)</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Despite her parent’s noble
background, the family lived rather modestly for royalty. Alice made her children
do household chores such as sweeping the floors and cleaning their rooms.
Elisabeth and her sisters even wore dresses that their mother sewed herself. When
the Austro-Prussian War broke out in June of 1866, Alice would visit wounded
soldiers in hospitals close to the family’s home and she would often take her
two daughters at the time, Victoria and Elisabeth, with her. Elisabeth had a
happy childhood surrounded by her close siblings and her affectionate, loving
parents, who exposed their children to both their British and German cultures.
As Alice took a major role in the upbringing of her children, she brought them
up in her native English fashion. Elisabeth and her siblings grew up speaking
English as their first language instead of German, although they were born and
raised in Hesse. The children did learn both languages and spoke in English to
their mother and German to their father. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">But tragedy struck the family in
May of 1873 when Elisabeth’s little brother, Friedrich, died at the age of two
after an accidental fall. Friedrich suffered from hemophilia, since his mother
was a carrier of the disease (a trait which she inherited from her own mother,
Queen Victoria). Friedrich died not from the fall itself but from the brain
hemorrhage brought on by his hemophilia, which the fall triggered. Princess
Alice was devastated by her beloved son’s death but, unfortunately, more grief
for the Hesse family soon followed in the autumn of 1878. Every family member
fell ill with diphtheria except for Alice and Elisabeth, so Alice quickly sent
her healthy daughter to her paternal grandmother’s home to prevent her from
falling ill. Everyone recovered from the disease except for Elisabeth’s
youngest sibling, Marie, who died in November at the age of four, and Princess
Alice herself, who caught the disease in December while nursing her sick family
back to health. When the fifteen year old Elisabeth was finally able to come
back home at the beginning of 1879, she described the tragic and grim state of
her broken family as “terribly sad” and “like a horrible dream”. After their
mother’s death, Elisabeth’s older sister by a little more than a year,
Victoria, became her younger siblings’ surrogate mother and took over all the
royal duties Alice had performed as the head lady of the Duchy of Hesse and by
Rhine. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Princess Elisabeth of Hesse and by Rhine<br />(1887)</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">As Elisabeth matured into a grown
woman, she was praised for her remarkable beauty. It was even said by many that
she was one of the most beautiful women in Europe at the time. With her lovely
features and her pleasant and compliant personality, as well as her piety and
her stately disposition, she quickly caught the attention of her older maternal
cousin, the future Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany. Wilhelm was the oldest child
of Princess Alice’s older sister, <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/06/victoria-princess-royal-of-uk-empress.html">Victoria, Princess Royal</a>, and when he
attended Bonn University in the late 1870’s, he regularly went to Darmstadt on
the weekends to visit his Hessian cousins. Here, he fell in love with Elisabeth
and showed his affection by sending her countless numbers of love poems that he
wrote himself. But when he proposed to Elisabeth in 1878, she rejected his
offer of marriage because she didn’t care for him as anything more than a
cousin. Of course, Wilhelm wasn’t Elisabeth’s only admirer. Both Lord Charles
Montagu, the second son of the 7th </span><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt;">Duke
of Manchester and <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/06/louisa-cavendish-duchess-of-devonshire.html">Louisa Cavendish, the “Double Duchess”</a>, and a famous soldier
named Henry Wilson fell for the Hessian Princess. Wilhelm’s first cousin on his
father’s side, the future Frederick II, Grand Duke of Baden, also chased after
Elisabeth for her hand in marriage. Although Queen Victoria was pleased with
the idea of Frederick as a spouse for her granddaughter, Elisabeth declined his
proposal. However, it wasn’t long before Elisabeth finally found the man she
knew she wanted to spend the rest of her life with.</span></div>
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<!--StartFragment--><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7vAfQxqdVLwx1q4HSDhWJIEBpfNAiLtxu_pKbnM2bPuMufh2oKH1pQTMLOobGZViA-P9BHgKsaWyXta1350z74Ef4yKlfAfUF5k4afhTq8qnGDdIEdG8qUE9jbsLlLxWtPOMgf4MciBMt/s1600/Screen+Shot+2016-07-07+at+5.39.31+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7vAfQxqdVLwx1q4HSDhWJIEBpfNAiLtxu_pKbnM2bPuMufh2oKH1pQTMLOobGZViA-P9BHgKsaWyXta1350z74Ef4yKlfAfUF5k4afhTq8qnGDdIEdG8qUE9jbsLlLxWtPOMgf4MciBMt/s400/Screen+Shot+2016-07-07+at+5.39.31+PM.png" width="295" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Princess Elisabeth with her husband, <br />Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich<br />(1880's)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Elisabeth’s paternal great-aunt,
<a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/07/maria-alexandrovna-empress-of-russia.html">Empress Maria Alexandrovna of Russia</a>, would frequently come to Hesse to visit
her Hessian relatives with her youngest sons, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich
and Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich. Since the Empress had visited Hesse constantly
throughout Elisabeth’s childhood, she had become quite familiar with Sergei and
Paul, her first cousins once removed. When she was younger, she thought the
boys were conceited and aloof, especially Sergei. But as she matured, she
realized that she had mistaken Sergei’s serious and religious nature for
haughtiness. It was Sergei who first became interested in his cousin during
their early adult years but at first, he didn’t impress her much. However,
everything changed when Sergei’s parents suddenly died within a year of each
other (his mother in 1880 and his father in 1881) and Elisabeth saw the
grieving Sergei “in a new light”. Their similarities (she had also lost her
mother and both were passionate about art and religion) brought them closer together
over time. Apparently, the shy and modest Sergei saw much of his late mother in
Elisabeth, which only served to heighten his affection for her. Eventually,
around 1883, Sergei proposed to Elisabeth and she happily accepted. She was so
in love with Sergei that she turned a blind eye to her British grandmother’s
irritation at her granddaughter’s choice in a husband, since she had never
favored the faraway, archaic kingdom of Russia. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp-r1KmpNm3egK0kPe58nakjJTMl_UDKDFcXbdBGQIIU2xYz5yom38ZqynIunS25r_Ky9HkLBLB5vX__wQV8KRYnXujTqC_lipRPSGg74krvuGT1rTyAnP8Opy_pxpz2egK2lKKXCvkfSf/s1600/Elizaveta_Feodorovna.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp-r1KmpNm3egK0kPe58nakjJTMl_UDKDFcXbdBGQIIU2xYz5yom38ZqynIunS25r_Ky9HkLBLB5vX__wQV8KRYnXujTqC_lipRPSGg74krvuGT1rTyAnP8Opy_pxpz2egK2lKKXCvkfSf/s400/Elizaveta_Feodorovna.jpg" width="310" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna<br />(Friedrich August von Kaulbach, 1880's-1910's)</i></td></tr>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">On June 15, 1884, the nineteen
year-old Elisabeth married the twenty-seven year old Russian Grand Duke at the
Chapel of the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg. Upon her marriage, she became
known as Grand Duchess Yelizaveta Fyodorovna, or “Elizabeth Feodorovna” in
English. It was actually at Elizabeth’s wedding that her younger sister,
Princess Alix, met and fell in love with Sergei’s nephew, Tsarevich Nicholas,
her future husband. The affable Elizabeth was well liked by the Russian people
upon her arrival in St. Petersburg and the Russian royal family shared their
subjects’ sentiments. After the wedding, Elizabeth and her husband moved into
the Beloselsky-Belozersky Palace in St. Petersburg. They lived here for eight
years until his older brother, Tsar Alexander III, gave Sergei the position of
Governor-General of Moscow in 1892, after which they moved into one of the
Kremlin palaces. During the span of their marriage, they would spend their
summers at Ilyinskoe, an estate outside Moscow that had once belonged to
Sergei’s mother. In the first seven years of Elizabeth’s life as a married
woman, she chose not to convert to her husband’s religion, that of Russian
Orthodoxy, and kept her Lutheran faith because there was no Russian law stating
that a royal bride must convert to her husband’s faith. But in 1891, after
becoming familiar with Russian Orthodoxy, she fell in love with the religion
and chose to convert for sincere, genuine reasons – not just to please her
husband. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna<br />(1894)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Although Elizabeth and Sergei
were extremely happy together, the only disappointment in their marriage was their
inability to conceive. But the couple made up for their childlessness by taking
great interest in the youth of Russia in general. They would constantly host
parties at their summer estates for children and they even became foster
parents to Sergei’s niece and nephew, Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna and Grand
Duke Dmitry Pavlovich. Though they stayed away from the Russian aristocracy, as
they refused to associate themselves with the immoral culture of the nobility,
they were on great terms with Sergei’s brother, Tsar Alexander III, and his
wife, Tsarina Maria. The Russian Emperor and Empress even sent Sergei and
Elizabeth to represent the Romanov dynasty at various official events, such as
Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee celebration in 1887. Elizabeth also played a
crucial role in encouraging the marriage of her younger sister, Alix, to her
nephew-in-law, the future Tsar Nicholas II. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">But Elizabeth’s happy life came
to an abrupt end on February 17, 1905 when a Socialist-Revolutionary named Ivan
Kalyayev assassinated her beloved husband in the Kremlin. In the afternoon of
that horrible day for Elizabeth, her husband had been riding in his carriage
when Kalyayev got close and threw a bomb into the Grand Duke’s lap. The
carriage, along with Sergei, was literally blown to bits; Sergei’s head (his
face was no longer recognizable after the blast), the upper part of his chest,
and his left shoulder and arm were scattered about the snow. He was forty-seven
years old at the time of his assassination. Sergei’s niece and foster child,
Marie, recalled the day when her aunt heard the news of her husband’s brutal
demise. She said that Elizabeth’s face was “pale and stricken rigid” with an
expression of “infinite sadness” that stuck with Marie for the rest of her
life. Elizabeth held her composure throughout the rest of the day as visitors
came to give their condolences, saying nothing and staring blankly into space,
but later on in the day, Elizabeth broke down completely. In her grief,
Elizabeth took absolute solace in religion. She forgave her husband’s murderer
before he was hanged on May 23, 1905 and tried unsuccessfully to get him to
repent his crime. After her husband’s burial in a crypt of the Chudov
Monastery, the forty year-old Elizabeth wore mourning clothes, became a
vegetarian, and sold all of her richest possessions, including her beautiful
personal collection of jewels and her wedding ring. She became a nun in 1908
and with the funds she had collected from the sale of her jewels and belongings,
she built the Convent of Saints Martha and Mary as its abbess. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWZwNbqgy6xo2JdvsKKN_q98AM9gIbUf6DSF5SST1ViWwVBt_UnuRol1qEPhyphenhyphenr8Wrr28IsGtNGkT9vS_X8kxIBr0OmacbsmZz1ZYtzXXEraObFae4PClW4NpkpTLo6jykPWURRdWGAT9P3/s1600/ce47f3702096a1a9533e71657936dcf5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWZwNbqgy6xo2JdvsKKN_q98AM9gIbUf6DSF5SST1ViWwVBt_UnuRol1qEPhyphenhyphenr8Wrr28IsGtNGkT9vS_X8kxIBr0OmacbsmZz1ZYtzXXEraObFae4PClW4NpkpTLo6jykPWURRdWGAT9P3/s400/ce47f3702096a1a9533e71657936dcf5.jpg" width="278" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna <br />during her time as a nun<br />(1908-18)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Now completely devoted to her
new, religion-centered existence, Elizabeth worked extensively to help the poor
and the sick of Moscow. She established a hospital, a chapel, a pharmacy, and
an orphanage in her convent and would often be found in the worst slums of the
city trying to help poverty-stricken Russians in any way she could. Her main
focus was to create a new religious order for all women, no matter their
background or class, to have an opportunity to devote their lives to prayer and
helping the needy (unfortunately, the Orthodox Church didn’t approve of this
idea). When World War I broke out in 1914, Elizabeth and her nuns toiled
endlessly to care for wounded Russian soldiers. But after Russia was taken over
by Lenin’s Bolsheviks in the Russian Revolution of 1918, the Imperial family
(including Elizabeth’s sister, the Empress Alexandra) was deposed and held as prisoners
of the Bolshevik Party. Then, Lenin commanded the Cheka to arrest Elizabeth, as
she was also a member of the royal family. First, Elizabeth was exiled to Perm
but later she was moved to Yekaterinburg along with a group of other members of
Russian royalty. On May 20, 1918, they were taken to Alapayevsk where they were
held captive in the Napolnaya School just outside the town. Almost two months
later, on July 18, 1918, some Cheka officers and Bolshevik workers took
Elizabeth and her fellow prisoners to the village of Siniachikha, where they
were beaten and thrown into a pit. A hand grenade was tossed down onto the
helpless victims to ensure their deaths but only one man died as a result of
the explosion. The officers said that they heard Elizabeth leading her
companions in the singing of an Orthodox hymn, so they tossed another grenade
down. But again, the grenade was ineffective and the singing continued.
Finally, the officers piled brush over the pit and set it on fire and left the
scene.</span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">On October 8, 1918, the White
Army came across the site of the pit and found the bodies of Elizabeth and her
companions still inside. Most appeared to have died from their injuries or
starvation instead of being burned to death by the fire. Elizabeth herself died
of the injuries she received from being thrown into the pit. Before she died
she was able to perform one last act of kindness when she bandaged the head of
one of her dying cohorts with her wimple. The group’s remains were initially
buried in the cemetery of the Russian Orthodox Mission in present-day Beijing
but later they were moved to the Church of Maria Magdalene in Jerusalem.
Elizabeth, who was fifty-three years old when she died, was probably unaware
that just a day before she was thrown into the pit to die, the Emperor, her
sister the Empress, and their children were all brutally murdered by a firing
squad. But Elizabeth’s memory continued to live on; in 1981, Elizabeth was
canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia as well as the
Moscow Patriarchate in 1992. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15315177275314871435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6807555129500021847.post-62891740359773075922016-07-06T18:33:00.000-07:002016-07-13T11:04:25.707-07:00Princess Charlotte of Belgium, Empress of Mexico<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg7Fh8OMJxgHDkY6VIGmMGm_1GAZ_UogrvQTA2Ng1HCOcoaUWH73pqY5_JAs55m839zmyF3F5HWoChSkkK5IfhbUi6R8_izkwH4VGgcRjOHaHRJ7yZv1Ft84sa2Ojq3AtFad8kEeGA7B4m/s1600/Carlota_by_Winterhalter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg7Fh8OMJxgHDkY6VIGmMGm_1GAZ_UogrvQTA2Ng1HCOcoaUWH73pqY5_JAs55m839zmyF3F5HWoChSkkK5IfhbUi6R8_izkwH4VGgcRjOHaHRJ7yZv1Ft84sa2Ojq3AtFad8kEeGA7B4m/s640/Carlota_by_Winterhalter.jpg" width="448" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Princess Charlotte of Belgium,
whose full name was “Marie Charlotte Amélie Augustine Victoire Clémentine
Léopoldine”, was the youngest child and only daughter of King Leopold I of
Belgium and his second wife, <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/07/princess-louise-of-orleans-queen-of.html">Princess Louise of Orléans</a>. Charlotte was a descendant
of the royal houses of France, Sicily and Naples, Spain, Poland, and the Holy
Roman Empire through her mother (who was the daughter of Louis Philippe I, King
of the French and Princess Maria Amalia of Naples and Sicily) and a descendant
of German royalty through her father. Charlotte was born on June 7, 1840 at the
Royal Palace of Laeken in Brussels. Though her parents had three sons before
her, their eldest boy had died in infancy in 1834. Thus, Charlotte had two
surviving older brothers – the future Leopold II of Belgium and Prince
Philippe, Count of Flanders. Through her father, Charlotte was the first cousin
of Queen Victoria and her husband, Prince Albert, as well as Ferdinand II of
Portugal. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVeWaW6UPmEtT54DEX1AK1iilBnVMd5zcPlvJ0TqWLz_YTFheQWwYTH-zesKS-UgKqH2KXQOYU301grKEgU20KlqqUGbypgPx8-UtYzRGUg2zncj675Do91WH5RKbsmFTISoxrJP6dDn4G/s1600/Princess_Charlotte_of_Belgium.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVeWaW6UPmEtT54DEX1AK1iilBnVMd5zcPlvJ0TqWLz_YTFheQWwYTH-zesKS-UgKqH2KXQOYU301grKEgU20KlqqUGbypgPx8-UtYzRGUg2zncj675Do91WH5RKbsmFTISoxrJP6dDn4G/s400/Princess_Charlotte_of_Belgium.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The young Princess Charlotte of Belgium<br />(Franz Xaver Winterhalter, 1842)</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Charlotte was named after her
father’s first wife, his beloved Princess Charlotte of Wales (the only
legitimate child of George IV of the U.K.), who had died in childbirth in 1817
after her marriage to Leopold a year earlier. Although Leopold cared for and
respected Charlotte’s mother and his second wife, Louise, his true soul mate
would always be the late Princess Charlotte. He remained haunted by her tragic
death for the rest of his life. Little Charlotte, who was undoubtedly her
father’s favorite child, inherited both of her parents’ good looks. She was a
fair-skinned, slender young girl with long locks of black hair and expressive,
dark eyes. She had a good relationship with both of her parents, who loved and
adored their children, but her closest confidante was her maternal grandmother,
Maria Amalia of the Two Sicilies (on Charlotte’s wedding day, she wore a
bracelet adorned with a miniature portrait of her grandmother). Charlotte was
an intelligent and kindhearted girl, just like her mother, who possessed a
lively and dedicated persona. She never declined to perform her royal duties
and was very serious about everything she did, even when it came to attending
social events. Her parents made sure that she received an excellent education,
which included studying philosophy, math, and literature (a subject she
especially adored). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKICuoPIGC9kzz0tAISLH-3kHWUBadRTnfl4WkUZkjkdZQ-UdUNP71WE0gyOGC0kGj2aM_uHNAeO7tihze1cUOodKiboB2DwOcqDDdx_eL5RzRlsR1QcidRXVmtAitpzvE28gow97yhfs9/s1600/800px-P_Charlotte.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKICuoPIGC9kzz0tAISLH-3kHWUBadRTnfl4WkUZkjkdZQ-UdUNP71WE0gyOGC0kGj2aM_uHNAeO7tihze1cUOodKiboB2DwOcqDDdx_eL5RzRlsR1QcidRXVmtAitpzvE28gow97yhfs9/s400/800px-P_Charlotte.jpg" width="327" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Princess Charlotte of Belgium in her youth<br />(Hermann Fidel Winterhalter, 1840's-50's)</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">When Charlotte was ten, her
mother succumbed to tuberculosis, an event that changed her life forever. After
her mother’s death, a close family friend, the Countess of Hulste, took
Charlotte into her own household to continue her education but for a few weeks
out of the year, Charlotte stayed in Claremont with her maternal grandmother.
In the summer of 1856, Charlotte met her second cousin, the Archduke Maximilian
of Austria, for the first time. Maximilian was the handsome but naïve younger
brother of Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria and the second son of Francis
Charles, Archduke of Austria and Princess Sophie of Bavaria (the maternal aunt
of the famous <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/06/the-bavarian-duchesses.html">Bavarian Duchesses</a>). Maximilian was an attractive and charming
blonde with a friendly and humorous disposition but unlike his older brother,
he was a hopeless romantic who always had his head up in the clouds. Charlotte
and Maximilian fell in love after meeting each other and before long,
Maximilian asked Charlotte’s father for his daughter’s hand in marriage.
Leopold was not too enthusiastic about the match, since he wanted Charlotte to
marry King Pedro V of Portugal, but he knew that the only brother of the
Emperor of Austria was an impressive suitor so he told his daughter that she
had his permission to marry the Austrian Archduke if she so pleased.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The two were engaged by the time
Maximilian came to Belgium to visit Charlotte for a second time, where the
couple bonded and became even closer than before. Both shared a liberal but impractical
view of the world and Charlotte soon grew to adore and worship her fiancée. On
July 27, 1857, the nearly seventeen year old Charlotte became an Archduchess of
Austria when she married the twenty-five year old Maximilian in Brussels. Soon
after the wedding, the newlyweds went to Maximilian’s home of Vienna where
Charlotte became acquainted with her husband’s family. Her uptight and rigid
mother-in-law, Princess Sophie of Bavaria, approved of her daughter-in-law, as
she saw her as the perfect example of a royal wife. But Charlotte didn’t get
along as well with her husband’s sister-in-law, <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/06/elisabeth-of-bavaria-empress-of-austria.html">Elisabeth of Bavaria</a>, the wife
of Franz Joseph I. Elisabeth, who was very much disliked by Sophie of Bavaria,
was close to Maximilian because they shared many common interests. Charlotte
felt threatened by their relationship, especially considering Elisabeth’s
extreme beauty and charm. The happy couple later went from Vienna to Italy
where Maximilian was appointed the Viceroy of Lombardy and Venice. Charlotte
loved Venice, although the Italians didn’t care for her, and lived quietly in
the villa Miramar. She spent her time reading, writing, swimming, sailing, and
painting while her husband worked. But since his older brother had given
Maximilian his new position, it was clear to Maximilian and Charlotte that the
job was only nominal and the Emperor wielded the real power. They were content
with their life in Italy for now but as the years went on, the couple’s desire
to do something truly influential only deepened. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU-f_7SMhmerQzDZwCbZ1th01O7fqDSfsKgxRkMqDV74B28MTBPrKfxX7-IOFoLwy9izuNzsSl3joAJV5r8mW4UMkS1YXSuFNLYLhGXJsYXJ9-qx0Ug6OHLBqNkWgTI5IqIQZFwfaBm_7R/s1600/800px-Maximilian_and_Charlotte.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU-f_7SMhmerQzDZwCbZ1th01O7fqDSfsKgxRkMqDV74B28MTBPrKfxX7-IOFoLwy9izuNzsSl3joAJV5r8mW4UMkS1YXSuFNLYLhGXJsYXJ9-qx0Ug6OHLBqNkWgTI5IqIQZFwfaBm_7R/s400/800px-Maximilian_and_Charlotte.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Princess Charlotte of Belgium and her husband,<br />Archduke Maximilian of Austria<br />(1857)</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Soon enough, their chance to grab
some power of their own came knocking from a place they never fathomed –
Mexico. Napoleon III, the Emperor of the French, wanted to transform Mexico
into a satellite state during the ongoing French intervention in Mexico, also known
as the Franco-Mexican War. France had captured Mexico and Napoleon III was in
search of a suitable candidate who could rule as his titular emperor of Mexico.
He set his sights on Maximilian since he knew that the Austrian Archduke was
frustrated with his powerless position in Italy. So, the French Emperor offered
the crown of Mexico to Maximilian, who accepted on April 10, 1864 against his
brother’s advice. On May 24, 1864, Charlotte and her husband landed in Veracruz
and were crowned at the Metropolitan Cathedral. The new Emperor and his Empress
Consort (who decided to take the Spanish version of her name – “Carlota”) chose
Mexico City as their royal seat and set up their residence at Chapultepec
Castle. Although Carlota had initially entered Mexico with a positive outlook,
she soon began to realize the reality of her new situation. She was shocked by
the poverty of most of the Mexican people, as well as their ignorance and lack
of education. She tried to help some poverty-stricken citizens by giving them
jobs in the palace but her efforts failed, as most of them left after a day
with stolen items from her household. Most of the country was not accepting of
her or her husband because they did not take well or consent to being under
French control. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7EBvYIPL54E60JRAx_wdrQiaR8S0YdNLNjTuyNVgR8oiqIYSn36KXrbrAnura3LK2RaoMModNaqChIDSQZnWDVUK_7HSfP_hwRcgSKIXbQE9d0K5iwylMIOqxyAT8bSpvJM0ozFuXXOD6/s1600/Charlotte%252C_Empress_of_Mexico.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7EBvYIPL54E60JRAx_wdrQiaR8S0YdNLNjTuyNVgR8oiqIYSn36KXrbrAnura3LK2RaoMModNaqChIDSQZnWDVUK_7HSfP_hwRcgSKIXbQE9d0K5iwylMIOqxyAT8bSpvJM0ozFuXXOD6/s400/Charlotte%252C_Empress_of_Mexico.jpg" width="295" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Empress Carlota of Mexico<br />(Albert Gräfle, 1865)</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">But Carlota tried to make the
best of her situation by working diligently to raise money for charities and
sponsor the building of schools, hospitals, and homes. She toured the country
on behalf of her husband and visited far-away places of significance in Mexican
history, such as the ruins of Uxmal and the untamed Yucatan Peninsula. When her
husband was away, she would rule in his place as regent and it quickly became
apparent to the Mexicans and French that Carlota was the dominant and stronger
partner in the marriage. But just as the Mexican population was not welcoming
to their new sovereigns, Carlota and her husband were not fond of the people
who had put them on the throne in the first place. They shared a deep mistrust
of the French troops stationed in Mexico, especially the army’s commander. Even
the succession became a troublesome matter. Despite their efforts, Carlota
could not become pregnant but the couple desperately needed an heir to cement
their legitimacy. They decided to adopt two grandchildren of the original
Mexican Emperor, Agustin de Iturbide, in 1865 – two boys named Agustín de
Iturbide y Green and Salvador de Iturbide y Marzán. Carlota was not too fond of
raising strange and foreign children as her own but she saw it as part of her
royal duty, so she went about her task without complaining. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Empress Carlota of Mexico<br />(1864)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Just months after the royal
couple adopted the two Mexican princes, Carlota received the heartbreaking news
that her father had died back in Belgium on December 10, 1865. By this time,
the Civil War in America had ended, which allowed American troops to put
pressure on the Mexican border, since the U.S. was opposed the idea of a
monarchy so close to home. Eventually, this combined with Napoleon III’s
troubles at home (his military conflict with the Prussians and his increasing
unpopularity) prompted him to completely go back on his word to Maximilian and
withdraw his support in early 1866. He ordered his troops in Mexico to come
back to France and told Maximilian that he would give him no more support in
the form of manpower or money. This shattered Carlota’s almost persistent optimism
and triggered the start of her emotional and mental collapse. She convinced her
husband not to abdicate just yet, as she made a last-ditch effort to save his
throne by traveling back to Europe to confront the French Emperor directly. She
arrived in France on August 8, 1866 and Napoleon, who claimed to be ill upon
her arrival, refused to see her. She then went to his wife and her friend, the
Empress Eugenie, and with her help she managed to worm her way into the
Emperor’s presence. Her confrontations (she met him three times) with Napoleon
were fiery, condescending, and emotional but despite her words and tears,
Napoleon refused to back Carlota and her husband any longer. After her failed
mission in France, she descended into a state of paranoia (she began constantly
hiding her face from sight, ordered her coachmen to drive as fast as possible
for no reason on one occasion, and believed that a farmer her carriage passed
by was actually an assassin sent to kill her). At first, she went back to her
old home in of Miramar in Italy but soon she received a message from her
husband asking her to go directly to the Pope to plead for support. Needless to
say, her visit to the Vatican was a complete disaster, as her husband was
unaware that his wife was in the bouts of a nervous breakdown. Upon arriving,
she barged into the papal apartments, threw herself at the Pope’s feet in a fit
of hysteria, and claimed that everyone around her was trying to poison her so
she was starving herself out of fear of dying. She then tasted some of the
chocolate milk the Pope was drinking with her finger and abruptly asked to stay
at the Vatican because it was the only place she would be safe. The extremely
shocked and confused Pope had no choice but to agree and set up a bed for her
in the library, which made Carlota the only woman to have ever slept overnight
in the Vatican. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Maximilian I, Emperor of Mexico<br />(1860's)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">During her time in Italy, she
experience further episodes of mental instability (she took a glass from the
Pope to drink from a fountain and tied live chickens by their legs to her table
so that she could watch as her servants killed, cleaned, and cooked them in
order to make sure no one slipped poisoned her food), which her family in
Belgium heard about. Her brother, Prince Philippe, personally came to the
Vatican to take her back to Miramar where her husband’s family, who allowed her
no visitors because of her condition, could watch her. Doctors were brought in
to examine Carlota and she was soon deemed insane. In her quiet yet familiar
surroundings, her physical condition began to improve but her fragile mental
state remained unchanging. During her time as a virtual prisoner, rumors began
to fly that she had left Mexico because she had become pregnant by her reputed lover,
a Belgian officer named Colonel Alfred Van der Smissen, and gave birth to a son
in 1867 who was later said to be a French military commander named Maxime
Weygand (who never knew his parents). There is no evidence to support this
farfetched claim and it is totally unlikely that a woman as devoted to her
husband as Carlota could betray him romantically, especially considering how
fractured her sanity was at this time. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Back in Mexico, in the beginning
of 1867, Napoleon III was in the process of sending all of his soldiers back
home so he asked Maximilian to come back with them. Although Maximilian
considered the offer, he ultimately refused to give up the throne (his family
had commanded him to maintain his position as long as possible to sustain the
dignity of the Hapsburg name) and, staying true to his romantic ideals, decided
to stage his last stand in a battle against the republican Mexican forces at
Queretaro, which failed. The rest of the Western world was shocked when President
Benito Juárez of the Republic of Mexico had Maximilian executed by a firing
squad on June 19, 1867. He died at the age of thirty-four and his body was sent
back to Austria to be buried in the Imperial Crypt in Vienna. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaPfb9AvKAQN6-CD2iE6O9_Jm0pzhI4wwmTkszBfo8AngR3So_J6rSyhG7MdEuXycXwrKfIMPmlTM6lUA1k4CzRp9AnIGkkenLZAMxqJaCKUYgA3ktDygO-W0ELnV8Nq6nbt7pA2ULnBDH/s1600/Charlotte_of_Belgium.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaPfb9AvKAQN6-CD2iE6O9_Jm0pzhI4wwmTkszBfo8AngR3So_J6rSyhG7MdEuXycXwrKfIMPmlTM6lUA1k4CzRp9AnIGkkenLZAMxqJaCKUYgA3ktDygO-W0ELnV8Nq6nbt7pA2ULnBDH/s400/Charlotte_of_Belgium.jpg" width="271" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Empress Carlota of Mexico<br />(1860's)</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Charlotte’s mental state only deteriorated
further after she learned of her husband’s execution. It is said that she died
with her beloved Maximilian on that horrible day in June. Her Belgian family
tried to have her live with them back in Laeken but she could not function around
other people, so she spent the rest of her years in isolation at the Castle of
Bouchout in Meise. Although she still maintained her beautiful appearance and
took comfort in reading and painting, she would have episodes where one moment
she would be laughing hysterically and the next she wouldn’t be able to stop
crying. Sometimes she would talk nonstop about a specific topic and other times
she would speak in gibberish. During her worst episodes, she would fall into a
furious rage and destroy everything she could get her hands on, including her
furniture, vases, and her prized books and paintings. But strangely enough, she
never ruined anything that had once belonged to Maximilian or was connected to
her memory of him in some way. She remained passionately in love with her dead
husband until her own death and even slept with a doll that she called Max.
Although her brother, King Leopold II, never came to visit her, his wife, Queen
Marie Henriette, often took her daughters with her on her frequent trips to see
their deranged aunt. In 1914, when World War I began and Germany invaded
Belgium, Kaiser Wilhelm II ordered his troops not to disturb the home of
Charlotte (the sister-in-law of Germany’s Austrian ally, Franz Joseph I) or
bother her in any way. Thus, she was spared seeing the atrocities of the Great
War but it is uncertain just how in touch she was with reality at this time
anyway. She lived the rest of her life in a fragile and unstable mental
condition, sometimes aware of reality and completely out of touch with the
world, until she died of pneumonia brought on by influenza on January 19, 1927.
She died in her home of Bouchout Castle, aged eighty-six and was buried with
her parents in the Royal Crypt of Laeken. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15315177275314871435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6807555129500021847.post-30196825402692751612016-07-06T13:20:00.000-07:002016-07-29T17:06:53.287-07:00Princess Louise of Orléans, Queen of Belgium<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbZbRwFg4HTQ4iHG3ps_ynN_uR8OYmILJXcq_YzEz-uCd2wyulN3Jjyy9juwfMcSt4NADsZ5BhVB5ssCGvvK5pJCKX9fYhK9ZrLP3XAGcZiCheFv5z9hB1iGBrLM1t6l7zXqtqvxs6OKzu/s1600/louise_of_belgium.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbZbRwFg4HTQ4iHG3ps_ynN_uR8OYmILJXcq_YzEz-uCd2wyulN3Jjyy9juwfMcSt4NADsZ5BhVB5ssCGvvK5pJCKX9fYhK9ZrLP3XAGcZiCheFv5z9hB1iGBrLM1t6l7zXqtqvxs6OKzu/s640/louise_of_belgium.jpg" width="473" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Princess Louise of Orléans, born
“Louise Marie Thérèse Charlotte Isabelle d'Orléans”, was the eldest daughter
and second child of Louis Philippe I, King of the French, and his wife,
Princess Maria Amalia of Naples and Sicily. Louise was born on April 3, 1812 in
Palermo, Sicily and through her father (who was the son of Louis Philippe II,
Duke of Orléans and Louise Marie Adélaïde de Bourbon) and her mother (the
daughter of King Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies and <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/07/maria-carolina-of-austria-queen-of.html">Archduchess Maria Carolina of Austria</a>), she was a descendant of the royal houses of France, Spain, Poland,
Sicily and Naples, and the Holy Roman Empire. Her close ancestors had an
especially important role in the French Revolution; her mother’s aunt, Marie
Antoinette, Queen of France, was executed along with her husband, King Louis
XIV, in 1793, while Louise’s paternal grandfather, Louis Philippe II, became an
active supporter of the Revolution and even helped to arrest the King and Queen
before he was beheaded himself soon after Marie Antoinette. Some of her famous
ancestors on her father’s side are Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, Madame de
Montespan, and King Louis XIII. On her mother’s side, she was a descendant of
Maria Theresa of Austria and Catherine de’ Medici, Queen of France. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2PuPGFBoSQ-_GG5TOS72Q-Ul4My6j1CHg9jlRyrbhNVAOiZLgOAe2oJ8Zeq5WMbBSKAKfLKIg2JJizYscpkBqb6eVUdqGhA8f-gumu8NC5koXwh50QJKpFnNYSSKx0IXYcRd8r4_zK4YR/s1600/b8da10743a2bbc3c66825679163fc6aa.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2PuPGFBoSQ-_GG5TOS72Q-Ul4My6j1CHg9jlRyrbhNVAOiZLgOAe2oJ8Zeq5WMbBSKAKfLKIg2JJizYscpkBqb6eVUdqGhA8f-gumu8NC5koXwh50QJKpFnNYSSKx0IXYcRd8r4_zK4YR/s400/b8da10743a2bbc3c66825679163fc6aa.jpg" width="315" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Louise of Orléans<br />(Magdalena Dalton, 1840)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Louise’s parents met when Maria
Amalia’s family had been forced to flee Naples for Sicily after the invasion of
Napoleon in 1806. Here in Sicily, Maria Amalia happened upon Louis Philippe
d'Orléans, her third cousin once removed, who also had to escape his home
because of the French Revolution and the rise of Napoleon. Three years after
they met, they married in Palermo on November 25, 1809 when Maria Amalia was
twenty-seven and Louis Philippe was thirty-six. They lived in Palermo during
the early years of their marriage, where Maria Amalia gave birth to her first
three children, including Louise. Louise had one older sibling, Ferdinand
Philippe, Duke of Orléans, and eight younger siblings, six of whom survived to
adulthood. Her younger siblings included: Prince Louis, Duke of Nemours (who
married Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the first cousin of Queen
Victoria. He was also the father-in-law of <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/06/sophie-charlotte-of-bavaria-duchess-of.html">Duchess Sophie Charlotte in Bavaria</a>), Princess Clémentine of Orléans (the wife of Prince August of
Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, another first cousin of Queen Victoria) and Antoine,
Duke of Montpensier (who married Infanta Luisa Fernanda of Spain, the daughter
of <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/06/maria-christina-of-two-sicilies-queen.html">Maria Christina of the Two Sicilies, Queen of Spain</a>). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpaAltXFxkz3btd42FAkcogphLn3CnQaaCngor3MoOqKhmkXSgbrAMLbYvKcUMlN8gSU3z6SYh3ayPveMVzeycmJh9Npi6dWmOngq0sLs-XRb9Fea_doSVSRJkW_I2UGW7NAsVw9SSGggq/s1600/Louise_of_Orleans_Winterhalter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpaAltXFxkz3btd42FAkcogphLn3CnQaaCngor3MoOqKhmkXSgbrAMLbYvKcUMlN8gSU3z6SYh3ayPveMVzeycmJh9Npi6dWmOngq0sLs-XRb9Fea_doSVSRJkW_I2UGW7NAsVw9SSGggq/s400/Louise_of_Orleans_Winterhalter.jpg" width="326" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Louise of Orléans<br />(Franz Xaver Winterhalter, 1841)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">As an infant, Louise lived with
her parents and her few closest siblings in age under British protection in
Palermo in a palace given to her parents by her maternal grandfather. She was
given a religious education fit for a royal princess by her mother and her
pious paternal aunt, Princess Adélaïde of Orléans, who both greatly influenced
her. The blonde, blue-eyed, fair skinned, and petite Louise was a shy and naïve
girl with an amiable personality and a kindhearted nature. She favored humility
and modesty over royal luxury and grandeur and liked to indulge in art,
reading, writing, and horseback riding. Like her mother, she became a devout
follower of the Catholic Church and possessed rather liberal views. When
Napoleon abdicated as Emperor of France in 1814, the two year-old Louise went
to France with her family but they had to flee again when Napoleon tried to
take back his throne in 1815. It wasn’t until 1817 that the family could return
to France permanently and take up residence in the Palais-Royal, the former
home of Louise’s paternal grandfather. In 1830, after the July Revolution
overthrew King Charles X, the government elected Charles’s cousin and Louise’s
father, Louis Philippe, as the new King of the French. Louise was eighteen when
her father was crowned, an act which somewhat disappointed the liberal-minded Louise
and caused a schism in the French Royal Family. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRKW9qk67esToUMIHsDTdi92zEBJMTMo_Gt2P4u1HfszkzvbweAxWwVotBSCwMbcPsehJf9BWvQd7yMgi17Wik-r2VLsREbnpSsgPNWYQnXBrGfjyESE0rIeRZgN4aZclvL8rJyUuGtOXk/s1600/Leopold_I_by_Franz_Winterhalter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRKW9qk67esToUMIHsDTdi92zEBJMTMo_Gt2P4u1HfszkzvbweAxWwVotBSCwMbcPsehJf9BWvQd7yMgi17Wik-r2VLsREbnpSsgPNWYQnXBrGfjyESE0rIeRZgN4aZclvL8rJyUuGtOXk/s320/Leopold_I_by_Franz_Winterhalter.jpg" width="230" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Leopold I, King of Belgium<br />(Franz Xaver Winterhalter, 1830's-40's)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">As a Princess of France, Louise’s
whole life changed in 1832 when she learned that she was engaged to marry King
Leopold I of the Belgians. This devastated her and literally reduced her to
tears, as she could not fathom the idea of marrying a complete stranger and German
Protestant one at that. But she knew that she had to do her royal duty, even
though it meant leaving her beloved family, so she very reluctantly agreed to
the marriage, which she called “a sacrifice for a very difficult future”.
Leopold, who was born Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, was the youngest
son of Francis, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld and Countess Augusta
Reuss-Ebersdorf. He was the uncle of both Queen Victoria and her husband and
first cousin, Prince Albert. Leopold was connected to the British royal family
not just by blood but also through marriage. In 1816, a year after he received
British citizenship, Leopold married the only legitimate child of the future
George IV, Princess Charlotte of Wales. Their marriage was a true love match
but unfortunately, the young couple’s happiness didn’t last for long. The
twenty-one year old Charlotte tragically died in November of 1817 after giving
birth to a stillborn son. Leopold was utterly devastated by his wife’s death
and never really got over the loss of the woman he considered to be his soul
mate. On July 21, 1831, Leopold was offered the kingship of the newly
established Kingdom of Belgium, which he accepted. Leopold knew that he had to
marry again to secure the Belgian succession, so he chose Louise-Marie.
Politically, she was the perfect choice. Leopold wanted to maintain friendly
relations with France and since Belgium was a Catholic country, it would be
much more appealing for the Protestant monarch to marry a Catholic princess who
could produce Catholic heirs. But when the two met at a dinner, Louise was
rather unimpressed by her betrothed, who she saw as cold, melancholy, and
indifferent. The couple was also opposite in almost every way, while Louise was
young, quiet, and innocent, Leopold was mature, experienced, and controlling. She
was a Catholic and he was a Lutheran, he was a veteran of the battlefield while
she absolutely hated any act of bloodshed or violence. Even their appearances
were contrasting; Leopold was tall, dark, and handsome while Louise was small,
fair, and, in her own opinion, rather plain. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXbw53ICYF20Hb4Q-LYVEZlNuihwqs_e6zciODMqXJRFhq1a3ykZ0L8e2nu-yM_RktEx8M4-y-gZRjdDs6vQIw361F96AMSuYGZdpODcHxU5zMmj795G8-oqu76q_qWBe35ZOMgJAKH5rM/s1600/Wedding_Leopold_I_of_Belgium_and_Marie_Louise_of_Orleans.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="504" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXbw53ICYF20Hb4Q-LYVEZlNuihwqs_e6zciODMqXJRFhq1a3ykZ0L8e2nu-yM_RktEx8M4-y-gZRjdDs6vQIw361F96AMSuYGZdpODcHxU5zMmj795G8-oqu76q_qWBe35ZOMgJAKH5rM/s640/Wedding_Leopold_I_of_Belgium_and_Marie_Louise_of_Orleans.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Wedding of Princess Louise of Orléans to King Leopold I of Belgium<br />(Joseph-Désiré Court, 1837)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Nevertheless, the twenty year-old
French Princess married the almost forty-two year old King of Belgium at the
Château de Compiègne in France on August 9, 1832. The wedding consisted of two ceremonies
– a Protestant one for Leopold and a Catholic one for Louise. It was quickly
determined that should Louise produce any children with Leopold, they would be
raised under their mother’s religion instead of their father’s. When the first
Queen of Belgium arrived in her adopted homeland, the people were overjoyed
with her kind and compassionate nature as well as her beauty. She even began to
warm to her husband and soon fell in love with him, despite her initial
misgivings. Leopold grew to care for and respect his young consort as well,
although he never loved her as passionately as she loved him. His first wife,
Charlotte, always held that special place in his heart and Louise simply could
not replace the void she had left behind. He saw Louise more as his closest
friend than his romantic lover but he still held a deep respect for her
intellect, talents, and character. Most evenings, he would spend a good deal of
time with his wife in her salon listening to her as she read aloud to him. He
once wrote to a friend: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">I'm delighted with my good little Queen: she
is the sweetest creature you ever saw, and she has plenty of spirit." </span></i><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">However, Leopold was never faithful to his
loyal wife, as he took a mistress in the early 1840’s named Arcadie Claret and
had two sons. Their relationship would last until his death.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbQAn6cQRg8MJNXPA6evMSudD0MoWTMe2Xh4xyF9nlQACROkHGHLURt19J_0tCC5KFimNibwGTCYARv2vgGJHFgWy_MjtwiMDBSloMJ2nF_W425CHHDJV1bcUhniweviwvh6uzvMbFABGI/s1600/Drawing_of_the_family_of_King_Leopold_I_of_Belgium.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="343" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbQAn6cQRg8MJNXPA6evMSudD0MoWTMe2Xh4xyF9nlQACROkHGHLURt19J_0tCC5KFimNibwGTCYARv2vgGJHFgWy_MjtwiMDBSloMJ2nF_W425CHHDJV1bcUhniweviwvh6uzvMbFABGI/s400/Drawing_of_the_family_of_King_Leopold_I_of_Belgium.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Leopold I and Louise of Orléans with their surviving children</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">At
first, Louise had a hard time adjusting to her new home because she found it very
different than France, which she couldn’t stop comparing Belgium to. She had an
especially difficult time getting used to the Belgian mentality and culture.
Eventually, she adapted to the land and began to genuinely care for her
husband’s subjects. Though she was embarrassed to be in public settings due to
her shy nature (in fact, she was only showed her face when her husband forced
her to), behind the scenes she was very active in philanthropic, religious, and
educational work. Every morning she made sure she read daily reports about
specific poor families and would then go visit their homes to personally help
them with her own money. When the weather was poor, she would directly hand out
clothes to the needy. She created periodic lotteries for the poor and gave away
household items to exhibitions set up specifically for the lower classes. Although
she didn’t have a large political role, she did participate somewhat in foreign
relations, especially in regards to France, as she had a gift for appealing to
people on opposing sides. She maintained very friendly relations with her
husband’s niece, Queen Victoria, who she often sent fashionable clothes to as
gifts.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Louise
did her duty for her husband and her country when she produced a total of four
children during her eighteen years of marriage to Leopold. They had three sons
and one daughter but their firstborn son died in infancy:</span></div>
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<ul>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Louis
Philippe, Crown Prince of Belgium</span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;">
(1833-1834) died after nine months from an inflammation of the mucous membranes</span></li>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Leopold
II, King of Belgium</span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> (1835-1909) married:
Archduchess Marie Henriette of Austria – had issue</span></li>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Prince
Philippe, Count of Flanders</span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> (1837-1905)
married: Princess Marie of Hohenzollern – had issue</span></li>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/07/princess-charlotte-of-belgium-empress.html">Princess Charlotte, Empress of Mexico</a></span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;">
(1840-1927) married: Maximilian I, Emperor of Mexico – no issue</span></li>
</ul>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6F84kO9bTdt6UxsDf_XIAR23I13i01kK0AnuTn9chVMkq8wDF575wHkMW60Z9arzVSNUfyyoiIrGDX8aW56XfVtqBBVTxjs1qwJTZYylTxFFhwhenAJXOqYPz_5Xsgnl_wcNdJobSQjIs/s1600/800px-Louise_Marie_d%2527Orle%25CC%2581ans-de_Keyser.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6F84kO9bTdt6UxsDf_XIAR23I13i01kK0AnuTn9chVMkq8wDF575wHkMW60Z9arzVSNUfyyoiIrGDX8aW56XfVtqBBVTxjs1qwJTZYylTxFFhwhenAJXOqYPz_5Xsgnl_wcNdJobSQjIs/s400/800px-Louise_Marie_d%2527Orle%25CC%2581ans-de_Keyser.jpg" width="272" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Louise of Orléans, Queen of Belgium<br />(Nicaise de Keyser, 1830's-40's)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Louise was a devoted and caring
mother to her children, who all inherited something of their mother’s. Leopold
received her prominent nose, Philippe had her introverted and pious
personality, and Charlotte (who was later known as “Carlota” in Mexico), shared
her mother’s kindhearted nature and passion for learning. But it was Louise’s generosity
and charity for others that seems to have been her undoing. She was constantly
putting others before herself and worrying about their well being, which seems
to have had a detrimental effect on her health. The deaths of her older
brother, Ferdinand Philippe, in 1842 and her younger sister, Marie, in 1839
also had a traumatic effect on her psyche and her physical health. She
experienced an intense period of stress during the Revolutions of 1848 and the abdication
of her father in February of 1848. Louis Philippe quickly fled his country for
England where Queen Victoria, who allowed him to live in Claremont House for
the rest of his life, welcomed him warmly. But this tense period was completely
overwhelming for poor Louise, as she was unaware of the fate of her parents’
lives for some time. As she aged, she became increasingly religious and fretted
about a variety of things, including the soul of her Protestant husband and her
son Leopold II’s cold personality.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiC2xDCGV55MTbUaCO9MWzw2kPJlmferlJOUwYRgVE2FyWbwDF5LqJimcl61rDMnwi33dfX1na9ayp3LJAS3MoqeAEJWWlda5fms1ORK9W_aA1US1iWq4nh-cdUuCAmAk0HMva2DiqlUpe/s1600/Leopold_ii_garter_knight.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiC2xDCGV55MTbUaCO9MWzw2kPJlmferlJOUwYRgVE2FyWbwDF5LqJimcl61rDMnwi33dfX1na9ayp3LJAS3MoqeAEJWWlda5fms1ORK9W_aA1US1iWq4nh-cdUuCAmAk0HMva2DiqlUpe/s400/Leopold_ii_garter_knight.jpg" width="266" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Louise's eldest surviving son: <br />Leopold II, King of Belgium</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In August of 1850, during a memorial service
for Louise’s recently deceased husband, it was quite noticeable just how frail
and weak the Queen was. She had such difficulty walking that she had to be held
up by her husband to avoid falling over. A month later, Louise was seriously
ill with tuberculosis and she was moved to Ostend near the sea in a last-ditch
attempt to improve her health. But the move proved to be of no consequence and on
October 11, 1850, Louise died at the age of thirty-eight in the presence of her
husband, her mother, and her children. The country went into a deep mourning
after Louise’s death but no one suffered more than Leopold himself, who praised
the memory of his wife unconditionally. Since Louise had wanted to be buried in
Laeken, Leopold had the Church of Our Lady of Laeken built specifically for her
and buried her remains there in a crypt that became the traditional burial site
for the Belgian royal family.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Leopold
survived his wife by fifteen years until his own death on December 10, 1865 at
the age of seventy-four. He died in Laeken, just as Louise had, and was buried
next to her in the Royal Crypt. Louise and Leopold’s eldest surviving son,
Leopold II, succeeded his father as the King of Belgium and ruled until his
death in 1909 (ironically enough, Leopold II died at the same age his father
had in Laeken, where both Louise and Leopold had died). As the second king of
Belgium and the founder of the Congo Free State, he was liable for the
extensive atrocities committed during his time on the throne against his
colonial subjects in the Congo. In 1853, he married Archduchess Marie Henriette
of Austria and had four children, including: Princess Stéphanie of Belgium, the
wife of Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria (who was the only son of Emperor Franz
Joseph I of Austria and <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/06/elisabeth-of-bavaria-empress-of-austria.html">Elisabeth of Bavaria</a>) and Princess Clémentine of
Belgium, the wife of Victor, Prince Napoléon, the Bonapartist pretender to the
French throne and the grand-nephew of the original Napoleon. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEV9PtLXxryief2l2QMSuZc5vlFgv0IMNvmMTMqwWYk0Y7Vw2MkVgCiN0a_vuRZqd8dLITKWrVunaGAFT1D4tWkrCgtMvfMLgdhS_V2chzzHQX259zC_K_IIjXYIBd_euTeg5Zl69HAjdX/s1600/Screen+Shot+2016-07-06+at+1.10.36+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEV9PtLXxryief2l2QMSuZc5vlFgv0IMNvmMTMqwWYk0Y7Vw2MkVgCiN0a_vuRZqd8dLITKWrVunaGAFT1D4tWkrCgtMvfMLgdhS_V2chzzHQX259zC_K_IIjXYIBd_euTeg5Zl69HAjdX/s1600/Screen+Shot+2016-07-06+at+1.10.36+PM.png" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Louise's youngest children: Prince Philippe, Count of Flanders and <br />Empress Carlota of Mexico</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
second surviving son of Louise and Leopold, Prince Philippe, was made the Count
of Flanders in 1840 and married Princess Marie of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, the
daughter of Karl Anton, Prince of Hohenzollern and Princess Josephine of Baden,
in 1867. They had five children, with one daughter dying in infancy. Their
surviving children included: Princess Henriette of Belgium, who married Prince
Emmanuel, Duke of Vendôme, the son of Prince Ferdinand, Duke of Alençon and
Duchess Sophie Charlotte in Bavaria and King Albert I of Belgium. Louise and
Leopold’s youngest child and only daughter, Princess Charlotte, married
Archduke Maximilian of Austria, the brother of Emperor Franz Joseph I of
Austria, in 1857. Charlotte, who was well known for her beauty, became Empress
Carlota of Mexico when her husband was made Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico in
1864 by Napoleon III of France. His rule collapsed after just three years when
Maximilian was executed in 1867. Carlota, whose mental state collapsed as she
aged, spent the rest of her life as a childless widow until her death from
pneumonia brought on by influenza in 1927 at the age of eighty-six.</span><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15315177275314871435noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6807555129500021847.post-52001856345188586362016-07-05T16:12:00.001-07:002016-07-13T11:03:25.855-07:00Eleanor of Austria, Queen of France and Portugal <div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxJaElrLGfJEQebpCebPnn4ysG-6AbhspXFNTBQPQcyyFQfJVkHG-hSabayMnGU3ZQSs_4E9lvo9rpJbhnes5N3-yVqoyLAvbws1LVNa9xem8g4lPzsnk2WNoUdU1_dElLxOEMAL2zhxE5/s1600/Joos_van_Cleve_003.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxJaElrLGfJEQebpCebPnn4ysG-6AbhspXFNTBQPQcyyFQfJVkHG-hSabayMnGU3ZQSs_4E9lvo9rpJbhnes5N3-yVqoyLAvbws1LVNa9xem8g4lPzsnk2WNoUdU1_dElLxOEMAL2zhxE5/s640/Joos_van_Cleve_003.jpg" width="520" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Eleanor of Austria (who was known
by the Spanish and Portuguese version of her name – “Leonor”) was born an
Archduchess of Austria and an Infanta of Castile as the eldest child of Philip
I of Castile, Duke of Burgundy and Infanta Joanna of Castile. Eleanor was born
on November 15, 1498 in Leuven, Burgundy. Through both of her parents, she was
descended from influential members of European royalty. Her mother was the
daughter of Isabella I, Queen of Castile and her co-monarch, Ferdinand II, King
of Aragon. Through her father, Eleanor was the granddaughter of Maximilian I,
Holy Roman Emperor and Mary, Duchess of Burgundy, a descendant of the French
royal family. Philip, who was known as “the Handsome” for his attractive
features, was an energetic and jovial youth of eighteen who had ruled the Low
Countries since his mother’s death when he was a young child. The auburn-haired
Joanna was as beautiful as her husband was handsome and upon their wedding day
on October 20, 1496, the sixteen year-old Spanish Princess fell madly in love
with her husband. Her passion for him was so intense that upon his early death
in 1506, she would carry his body around with her for some time. Every night
she would open his coffin to embrace and kiss his rotting corpse.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Eleanor’s birth was quite
surprising to the Burgundian court, as her parents had only been married for
two years when she arrived into the world. A year after Eleanor’s birth, Joanna’s
brother and the heir to Isabella and Ferdinand’s kingdoms, John, died. This left
Joanna’s older sister, Isabella, and her infant son, Prince Miguel de Paz of
Portugal, the new heirs. But when Isabella died in 1498 and her son followed
suit just two years later, Joanna became the eldest surviving child of Isabella
I and Ferdinand II, making her their new heiress. In 1502, Joanna was named the
Princess of the Asturias, which is the title customarily given to the heir of
Castile. By the time Joanna was crowned Queen of Castile in November of 1504,
she had given birth to five children (including Eleanor). Overall, in their ten
years of marriage, Joanna and Philip would have six children, four daughters
and two sons. All of their children would make advantageous marriages to other
European royal houses and become monarchs either by their own right or through
marriage.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Eleanor’s younger siblings:</span></div>
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<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor
& King of Spain</span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> (1500-1558) married: Infanta Isabella of Portugal
– had issue</span></li>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Isabella, Queen of Denmark,
Norway, & Sweden</span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> (1501-1526) married: King Christian II of Denmark,
Norway, & Sweden – had issue</span></li>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor</span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;">
(1503-1564) married: Princess Anne of Bohemia and Hungary – had issue</span></li>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Mary, Queen of Hungary and
Bohemia</span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> (1505-1558) married: Louis II, King of Hungary and Bohemia –
no issue</span></li>
<li><u style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Catherine, Queen of Portugal</span></u><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;">
(1507-1578) married: John III, King of Portugal – had issue</span></li>
</ul>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrJpn0g2_XkcK4ksgJr4cCr9W3kTLSt8ljrjMq_3zbUFX3otMnbrAB16rJ6VZcFly-9hxM67p82KNlroPBvCj1fb9FrvvBFaBh9Lg6PbBoRmzrqL89SM3NljVpmVXuIIQ4On68qep-aB_5/s1600/Screen+Shot+2016-07-05+at+3.33.39+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrJpn0g2_XkcK4ksgJr4cCr9W3kTLSt8ljrjMq_3zbUFX3otMnbrAB16rJ6VZcFly-9hxM67p82KNlroPBvCj1fb9FrvvBFaBh9Lg6PbBoRmzrqL89SM3NljVpmVXuIIQ4On68qep-aB_5/s1600/Screen+Shot+2016-07-05+at+3.33.39+PM.png" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Eleanor's Parents: Philip I of Castile, Duke of Burgundy and Joanna, Queen of Castile and Aragon</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">On September 25, 1506, just after
being proclaimed King of Castile, Eleanor’s father unexpectedly died of typhoid
fever at the age of twenty-eight. His death crushed the emotional and mentally
unstable Joanna, who was nicknamed “the Mad” for her persistence in carrying
her husband’s corpse around with her for some time. It is likely that Joanna’s
ambitious father, who didn’t want to give up the throne of Castile just yet,
exaggerated her mental illness to such an extreme that he forced her to
surrender her royal power to himself as her regent in 1507. He then confined
her, a queen only in name, to a nunnery in Tordesillas. After her father’s
death and her mother’s confinement, Eleanor was sent to live in the Low
Countries with her paternal aunt, Margaret of Austria, who had previously been
married to the late John, Prince of Asturias, Joanna’s brother. Her paternal
grandfather, Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor (whose second wife was <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/06/anne-of-brittany-queen-of-france.html">Anne, Duchess of Brittany</a>, and his third wife was <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/06/bianca-maria-sforza-holy-roman-empress.html">Bianca Maria Sforza</a>) attempted to betroth her to the
future King of England, Henry VIII. But when Henry’s father, Henry VII, died in
1509 and Henry VIII succeeded to the throne, he chose to marry Eleanor’s
maternal aunt, Catherine of Aragon, the widow of Henry’s older brother.
Throughout Eleanor’s whole life, she would become the ultimate pawn in the
tricky game of royal matrimonial union. Her grandfather also attempted to marry
her off to the French King Louis XII and later his successor, Francis I, as
well as the Polish King Sigismund I and John III of Portugal (who later married
her younger sister, Catherine) but none of these matches came to fruition. In
1510, Eleanor was also put forth as a possible wife for Antoine, Duke of
Lorraine, but just like the previous matches, the arrangement fell through. In
1516, Eleanor’s mother, still confined in the convent, became the Queen of
Aragon upon Ferdinand II’s death. But as Joanna’s mental and physical state
declined rapidly each year, she continued to hold the title of Queen of Castile
and Aragon while her son, Charles, actually ruled the two kingdoms as regent.
This arrangement went on until April of 1555 when Joanna died at the age of
seventy-five and was officially succeeded by Charles. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">In 1517, a scandal surrounding
Eleanor erupted at the Austrian court when it was rumored that she was having a
love affair with Frederick II, Elector Palatine. The possibility of a secret
romance between Eleanor and Frederick was discovered when her brother, the
Emperor Charles, happened upon her reading a love letter from Frederick. In
order to protect his sister’s modesty and eligibility on the marriage market,
he made Eleanor and Frederick swear to an attorney that they hadn’t secretly
married, after which he barred Frederick from court. In the same year, a marriage
was finally arranged for Eleanor with King Manuel I of Portugal. Manuel was the
son of Infante Fernando, Duke of Viseu, who was the second surviving son of
King Edward of Portugal and the younger brother of King Alfonso V. Manuel’s
mother, Infanta Beatrice of Portugal, was the granddaughter of King John I.
When Manuel was twenty-six years old, he succeeded his first cousin, King John
II, as the King of Portugal (John II also happened to be Manuel’s
brother-in-law, as he had married Manuel’s sister, Eleanor of Viseu). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUJlVe9k-7NC3Vf74FTD_BVO9bvEkBZThv0W_U7Kdzcbubx3uq2KJ0qZPga2aWSargVxMwWeL7-Mah7FpciXu50LZDCQ73h_e2sRUZfZ5FE5MKBM06f1JNFC6tZCsGymqw2uMRrfSxGYcw/s1600/Manuel_I.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUJlVe9k-7NC3Vf74FTD_BVO9bvEkBZThv0W_U7Kdzcbubx3uq2KJ0qZPga2aWSargVxMwWeL7-Mah7FpciXu50LZDCQ73h_e2sRUZfZ5FE5MKBM06f1JNFC6tZCsGymqw2uMRrfSxGYcw/s320/Manuel_I.jpg" width="256" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Manuel I, King of Portugal </i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Manuel had married two times
before his third marriage with Eleanor. His first wife was Infanta Isabella of
Aragon, who happened to be Eleanor’s maternal aunt. After the couple wed in
1497, they had one son, Miguel da Paz, who died less than two months before his
second birthday in 1500. Isabella died just five days after the birth of her
son in 1498 at the age of twenty-seven. Manuel remarried three years after his
wife’s death to Infanta Maria of Aragon, another one of Eleanor’s maternal
aunts. The couple had ten children together but two died at birth, leaving just
six surviving sons and two surviving daughters. Their children included: King
John III of Portugal (who Eleanor’s grandfather had tried to betroth her to
years ago), Isabella of Portugal (who married Eleanor’s younger brother,
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor) and King Henry I of Portugal. After Maria’s
death in 1517 at the age of thirty-four, Manuel wanted to maintain his alliance
with Aragon and Castile, so he decided to marry the niece of both his previous
wives, Eleanor of Austria. Eleanor’s brother, Charles, had wanted his sister to
marry Manuel to prevent any chance of the Portuguese aiding rebels in Castile,
if a rebellion happened to occur in the near future. Eleanor travelled with her
brother to Spain to marry her royal Portuguese fiancée, which she did on July
16, 1518. With Eleanor’s marriage, she became the Queen of Portugal at the age
of nineteen (at the time of the marriage, Manuel was much older than his young
bride, as he was forty-nine years old). Through her father, Eleanor was the first cousin twice removed of Manuel while through her mother, she was his second cousin twice removed. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-iepeKdvE4q9CZpyQtohuc_Zweaz5AS8jQEoGJlYw1buVu7JD1DKH80y4VtPmIDF6nT2IS5Ot2rDjPfn9sr_1sDAHiDGO1qIxAdL8X8G52N9nIx5vdN90FX_gHxa6R9C1Km35o7ANeYZo/s1600/Charles_V_HRE.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-iepeKdvE4q9CZpyQtohuc_Zweaz5AS8jQEoGJlYw1buVu7JD1DKH80y4VtPmIDF6nT2IS5Ot2rDjPfn9sr_1sDAHiDGO1qIxAdL8X8G52N9nIx5vdN90FX_gHxa6R9C1Km35o7ANeYZo/s320/Charles_V_HRE.jpg" width="252" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Eleanor's brother: Charles V, <br />Holy Roman Emperor<br />(Titian, 1540's-50's)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Less than two years after the
wedding, Eleanor gave birth to her first child on February 18, 1520 – a son
named the Infante Charles. However, little Charles didn’t survive long and died
on April 15, 1521 when he was a little over a year old. Eleanor had her second
and final child with Manuel shortly after Charles’s birth. The couple’s
daughter, the Infanta Maria, was born on June 8, 1521 and unlike her late
brother, she survived to adulthood. Six months after Maria’s birth and three
years after Eleanor had become Queen of Portugal, King Manuel I died of the
plague on December 13, 1521 when he was fifty-two years old. After Manuel’s
funeral, the now Queen Dowager left her short-lived adopted home with her
infant daughter to head back to the court of her brother, Charles, in Vienna.
But even after the late Manuel’s three marriages into Eleanor’s family, it
seems as though the royals of Portugal were still eager to marry more of
Eleanor’s relatives. In 1525, Eleanor’s younger sister, Catherine, married King
John III of Portugal, who happened to be the eldest surviving son of Manuel I
and the former stepson of Eleanor herself. Though his sister was now a widow,
she was still young and beautiful, which allowed Charles to use her for his own
advantage in the marriage market once again. In July of 1523, he betrothed her
to Charles III, Duke of Bourbon to create an alliance between Charles and
Bourbon against France but the marriage plans fell through. Eventually, Charles
made yet another successful marriage pact for his sister in 1526, this time to
King Francis I of France.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3j7vTMO6vgzXBg8D9glm2aV9XFj6qwQ3fVwUXBAqXl_GfwQ_oxwiLsarmItDK0wpIpyhUC55-iMJbsC_ADWzk-uJyE9EmhqHvlyiQgiW47STMxHY2TjfwT7opkF7rw5jFk_G24TPAIXmT/s1600/French_School_Portrait_of_Francis_I_of_France_c._1530.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3j7vTMO6vgzXBg8D9glm2aV9XFj6qwQ3fVwUXBAqXl_GfwQ_oxwiLsarmItDK0wpIpyhUC55-iMJbsC_ADWzk-uJyE9EmhqHvlyiQgiW47STMxHY2TjfwT7opkF7rw5jFk_G24TPAIXmT/s320/French_School_Portrait_of_Francis_I_of_France_c._1530.jpg" width="224" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Francis I, King of France<br />(1530)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Francis had been the King of
France since 1515. As the only son of Charles <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">d'Orléans</span>, the Count of Angoulême and Louise of Savoy, he was the
great-great grandson of King Charles V of France. Although he was a rather
distant descendant of the kings of France, he inherited the throne when King
Louis XII died without male heirs. Francis had been married once before to
Louis XII’s eldest daughter, <a href="http://crownstiarasandcoronets.blogspot.com/2016/06/claude-of-france-queen-of-france.html">Claude, the Duchess of Brittany</a>, and they had five
surviving children before Claude’s death in 1524. Although Francis was regarded
as a handsome man for the time, he was also a notorious womanizer who kept
mistresses during the entirety of his marriage. His lovers typically held far
more influence and power than the late Claude ever had. During the Four Years’
War, a part of the Italian Wars where France and Venice were fighting against
the Holy Roman Empire, England, and the Papal States, Francis experienced his
worst defeat at the Battle of Pavia on February 24, 1525. Charles’s army not
only took many important French nobleman captive but they also captured Francis
himself. Charles held the French king as a prisoner in Madrid and only gave him
back his freedom on March 17, 1526 after he signed the humiliating Treaty of
Madrid, in which Francis was forced to make huge concessions, including: the
surrender of any French claims to Naples and Milan, the recognition of the
independence of the Duchy of Burgundy, and the submission of all French rights
to Flanders and the Artois. One of the terms of the abhorred treaty was that
Francis must marry Charles’s sister, the widowed Eleanor. Francis unwillingly
and reluctantly agreed to the match, since he had no choice but to obey the
treaty’s commands. However, he held off the marriage for so long that a new
treaty called “The Ladies’ Peace” had to be created in 1529, stipulating that
the wedding must occur immediately. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjzOVTQLnoZgOVEdb7a-7VmH32Ym_l0vE-U1hcrBhV_rPlQ95MGgQRDQy7gdqk4DTpPvCejWXU7g_LRFTon5ohCcvMolWA-RGkNKWniFp7EQfCpvwad6khKHkaW6kk01U2IleWCGlZn_Mf/s1600/3413804104_6737536e6f.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjzOVTQLnoZgOVEdb7a-7VmH32Ym_l0vE-U1hcrBhV_rPlQ95MGgQRDQy7gdqk4DTpPvCejWXU7g_LRFTon5ohCcvMolWA-RGkNKWniFp7EQfCpvwad6khKHkaW6kk01U2IleWCGlZn_Mf/s320/3413804104_6737536e6f.jpg" width="257" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Eleanor of Austria, Queen of France<br />(1530's-40's)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Francis could dally no longer and
by 1530, Eleanor left Spain with her future stepsons, Francis, Duke of Brittany
and the eventual Henry II, who had been held captive in Spain in their father’s
place for the last four years. Eleanor and the French princes met the King at
the border of France and Spain, where Eleanor and Francis (her fourth cousin twice removed through her father) were married on July
4, 1530. Now the Queen of France, Eleanor was thirty-one years old to Francis’s
thirty-five years. Soon after the wedding, the royal couple officially entered
Bordeaux and then Paris. Though Francis had fulfilled his obligation and married
Eleanor, he had no intention of being a faithful or devoted husband to her. He
hated everything she stood for as she was a constant reminder of his
humiliation at the Battle of Pavia and the distasteful Treaty of Madrid.
Francis ignored his wife for their entire marriage and constantly displayed
himself in the company of his mistress at the time, </span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Anne de Pisseleu d'Heilly, to the public. Despite the
fact that Eleanor was never loved by her husband (as evidenced by the fact that
they never had any children), she was given a coronation at Saint-Denis on May
31, 1531 where she wore a dress of purple velvet to display her regal status.
She also carried out the royal duties of the Queen of France at official events
like her stepson Henry’s wedding to Catherine de’ Medici in 1533. She was
popular with the people (who knew her by the French version of her name – “</span><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Aliénor”)
</span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">because she customarily involved herself in acts of
charity and she even took an interst in her stepchildren, as she raised her
stepdaughters, Madeline and Margaret, in her own household to contribute to
their upbringing. </span><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Though
Eleanor had no political power, she did have an important position as a
messenger between France and her brother’s empire. She partook in various peace
negotiations between the two rival kingdoms like the one between her husband
and her brother in 1538 at Aigues-Mortes and another between Charles and their
sister, Mary, in 1544. Eleanor became a widow once again after almost seventeen
years of marriage when Francis died on March 31, 1547 at the age of fifty-two,
probably from the effects of syphilis. Now a Queen Dowager for the second time
in her life, Eleanor left France for Brussels in 1548 to head to her brother’s
court. She remained there until October of 1555 when her brother abdicated,
after which they left the royal court with their sister, Mary, in August of 1556.
The two sisters settled in Jarandilla de la Vera while their brother stayed in
a nearby monastery, where Eleanor and Mary often went to see him. It was near
this small, modest Spanish town, that Eleanor reunited with her only child
after a long twenty-eight years.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWJbRw95GTS7WYJLPN9OMz5_9J9hJdknG-jJ2j9i-Wh3WE9Jw1jPi2kWVVnkkSeyhRS2BM2Oft5Qui8_1JuWvIbXP3YpnWl32MPPioYrAO80RhFJU1eowCMhan4KoqSkFAHhdLdnSYJfJo/s1600/Maria_von_Portugal%252C_Anthonis_Mor.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWJbRw95GTS7WYJLPN9OMz5_9J9hJdknG-jJ2j9i-Wh3WE9Jw1jPi2kWVVnkkSeyhRS2BM2Oft5Qui8_1JuWvIbXP3YpnWl32MPPioYrAO80RhFJU1eowCMhan4KoqSkFAHhdLdnSYJfJo/s400/Maria_von_Portugal%252C_Anthonis_Mor.jpg" width="305" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Eleanor's daughter: Infanta Maria of Portugal,<br />Duchess of Viseu<br />(Antonis Mor, 1550-55)</i></td></tr>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Infanta
Maria of Portugal, Duchess of Viseu, had been raised and groomed into a proper
royal princess at her uncle’s court in Vienna ever since she and her mother
left Portugal after Manuel I’s death. When Eleanor left for France in 1530, she
had to leave behind her nine year old daughter, as was the custom for widows
who remarried. A few years after her mother’s departure, Maria left Vienna for
her the Portuguese court of her half-brother, John III, in Lisbon, where she
would remain alongside his family (including his wife and her maternal aunt,
Catherine) for the rest of her life. Maria never married, although marriage
negotiations to various suitors such as Henry VIII and her nephew and cousin,
the future Philip II of Spain, were carried out. As a princess of Portugal, the
niece of the Holy Roman Emperor, and the Duchess of Viseu in her own right,
Maria became one of the wealthiest princesses of Europe. She spent her time and
money promoting the arts and writing as well as becoming a patron to several
building projects in the Lisbon countryside. In 1558, Maria travelled to the
town of Badajoz on the Luso-Hispanic border to see her mother again. The last
time Eleanor had seen her daughter she had been a small, gangly child of nine.
Now, she was a mature, grown woman of thirty-seven who was unrecognizable to
the aging Eleanor. Eleanor wanted her daughter to leave Portugal and come live
with her but Maria, who had already established a life in Lisbon, turned down
the request and only stayed with her mother for three weeks before going back
home. On the way home from Badajoz, Eleanor died shortly after she parted ways
with her daughter on February 25, 1558 at the age of fifty-nine, perhaps out of
the grief caused by her daughter’s denial of her request. Eleanor of Austria,
Infanta of Castile and Aragon, Archduchess of Austria, and the Queen of both
Portugal and France, was buried first in the city of Lleida and later in El
Escorial, the historical home of the King of Spain. Her daughter, Maria,
survived her by nineteen years until she died on October 10, 1577 at the age of
fifty-six.</span><span style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span></div>
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