Princess Palace

The Last Hessian Princess

2026-09-20T00:00:00.000-04:00

via Wikimedia Commons

A golden-haired princess arrived at Wolfsgarten on September 20, 1936 at a peak moment of joy for her family. The Hereditary Grand Duke Georg Donatus of Hesse-Darmstadt already had his "heir and a spare"--little Ludwig born in 1931 and Alexander born in 1933. Although his family had lost its political status at the end of the Great War in 1919, Germany was finally recovering and the Hessian family was thriving.

Georg Donatus' wife, the former Princess Cecilie of Greece and Denmark, seemed settled after the wanderings and upheavals of her youth caused by the political turmoils in Greece and her own parents' estrangement. Cecilie's mother, the former Princess Alice of Battenberg, had not attended their wedding in February 1931 because she had been institutionalized by her mother, the former Princess Victoria of Hesse and By Rhine (who was also Georg Donatus' aunt). By the time Georg Donatus and Cecilie's third child was born, however, Princess Alice had long been recovered and was living independently. Although she was not in regular contact with Cecilie, at least they knew she was no longer believing herself to be married to Jesus.

Georg Donatus' father, Grand Duke Ernest Louis, a beloved grandson of Queen Victoria, was aging but by no means decrepit at age 66. His mother, the former Princess Eleonore of Solms-Hohensolms-Lich, was a warm and loving grandmother to the growing brood. Meanwhile, his only brother, Prince Ludwig, was newly smitten with a very special British lady called Margaret Campbell Geddes.

Cecilie and Georg Donatus named their little girl Johanna Marina Eleonore. Her second name was given in honor of her godmother, Cecilie's first cousin Princess Marina of Greece, who had married the youngest surviving son of Britain's king and become the Duchess of Kent. The family of five was nestled in the happy and stable environs of their grandparents' country home at Wolfsgarten outiside of Darmstadt.

In the new year, Grand Duke Ernest Louis became ill with lung disease and started to decline. The family was worried but also had two new reasons to celebrate. First, Cecilie was pregnant again. Second, Ludwig and Margaret, affectionately known as Peg, were to be married in London.

Preparations for the wedding kept everyone busy in that fall of 1937 when they celebrated Johanna's first birthday. Everyone, except the tiny princess, would fly together from Germany to England for the wedding celebrations. Ernest Louis did his best to make sure he could attend. Sadly, his body had other plans. The Grand Duke passed away on October 9, two weeks before the wedding. The couple rescheduled their wedding until November 20.

On November 16, the new Grand Duke Georg Donatus kissed his 14-month-old daughter Johanna goodbye, likely promising to bring her gift from his journey. Then, he helped his mourning mother, his pregnant wife, and his two little boys board the private plane for a multi-stage flight. However, something went wrong. During an unplanned landing the plane collided with a factory chimney and crashed. In a flash, everyone was gone.

Devastated, Ludwig and Peg moved their wedding to the next day with the bride and the handful of guests dressed in mourning black. Then, they traveled to the site of the crash in Belgium for the gruesome task of identifying the bodies. From there, they hurried to Wolfsgarten to be with little Johanna, who was far too young to understand why her parents never returned to her. Although they had to oversee the funeral for six members of the family--Cecilie's baby was born in the lead-up to or in the moment of the crash--Ludwig and Peg showered Johanna with affection and attention.

The newlyweds formally adopted Johanna in early 1938 and she became their great joy. Their happiness was once again cut short the following year when little Johanna was stricken with meningitis. She died on June 14, 1939, just three months short of her third birthday. She was laid to rest at Rosenhöhe Park in Darmstadt with her brothers, parents, and grandparents.

For More About the Hessian Royal Family's Tragedies:
The Curse of November 16 on Royal Musings

Alt for Norge: The Life of Princess Astrid

2026-09-12T12:33:50.037-04:00

Screenshot from @
detnorskekongehus
on Instagram

An elderly lady sits in a wheelchair silhouetted in the shadows of the palace looking out on the crowds mourning her little brother. In another image, the same lonely figure sits alone beside his casket. A single stone of sadness with rivers of international mourning streaming around her. Alone. The last sibling.

And just days after that, the wheelchair sits empty. Its royal occupant no longer standing tall to give her "Alt for Norge."

Princess Astrid passed away in her sleep at the age of 94 on September 11, 2026, two days after her younger brother, King Harald V of Norway was laid to rest.

Despite several health challenges in her later years, Princess Astrid remained an active member of the Norwegian Royal Family working almost to the end. She made her last public engagement on May 4, 2026 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Dyslexia Norway just a few weeks after being hospitalized with pneumonia. Ten days later, she was hospitalized again, this time with heart failure and was given a pacemaker. This marked the unofficial end of 75 years of public service. Always full of humor and with a heart for service, Astrid once remarked, "I sit in a chair and stuff but it's my legs that fail...I can be involved with things." That spirit led her to take on as many as 20 official engagements a year well into her nineties.

Photo from the Studio of Ernest Rude from the
National Library of Norway via Wikimedia Commons

Princess Astrid Maud Ingeborg of Norway was born on February 12, 1932 as the second child of then Crown Prince Olav and Crown Princess Märtha of Norway. She was named for her maternal aunt Astrid, who was soon to be Queen of Belgium (See my post about her, End of a Fairytale); her paternal grandmother Queen Maud of Norway, a former British princess; and her maternal grandmother, Princess Ingeborg of Sweden (See my post about her, A Truly Royal In-Law). As a great-grandaughter of King Edward VII, she was born 18th in line to the British throne. At the time, however, her gender barred her from any claims on the Norwegian realm of her father or the Swedish realm of her mother. Nevertheless, she became a very important princess at a very young age. The death of Queen Maud when Astrid was five, elevated Crown Princess Martha to the role of Norway's first lady. When Martha died 16 years later, Astrid took on the role at the tender age of 22 because her older sister, Princess Ragnhild (see my post about her Death of Princess Ragnhild). She would serve as first lady for her grandfather King Haakon VII and her father King Olav V, until her younger brother Crown Prince Harald married Sonja Haraldsen (read my post about her, A New Kind of Queen for Norway) in 1968.

Astrid's early years were spent in the bosom of a growing, happy family despite the looming clouds of war that were gathering across Europe. When the Nazis brought the war to Norway, the Crown Princess and the three children fled at first to Sweden and then, when their presence grew harmful for Sweden's neutrality, to the United States as guests of President Franklin Roosevelt. King Haakon and Crown Prince Olav led a government from hiding in Norway and then from exile in London, after the Germans set up a puppet regime in Norway.

Astrid and her siblings spent five years of their childhood in the United States, at first in Upstate New York and then in Maryland, on the outskirts of Washington, D.C.. She was 13 by the time the war ended and they were finally able to return to Norway. She attended Nissen's Girl School and studied ceramics. Then, Astrid spent two years at Oxford University studying economics and political history, an unusual undertaking for a princess of her generation. However, the young princesses of the 1950s and 1960s were emerging as leaders -- perhaps because there were so many of them compared to the number of princes! Young royal women were being dispatched around the world to represent their nations.

One memorable tour saw Astrid with her cousins Princess Margaretha of Sweden and Princess (later Queen) Margrether of Denmark on a joing tour across the California to promote Scandinavia Airline Service (SAS) with its new faster transatlantic flights. In addition to some glitzy dinners wearing tiaras, the wildly popular trio of princesses, went to SeaWorld and Disneyland and also visited a different kind of king--King of Rock 'n' Roll Elvis Presley on the set of his film G.I. Blues.

Embed from Getty Images

The only moment of any controversy in Astrid's life came in her choice of spouse. All of King Olav's children married only with the grunting permission of their father: Ragnhild because Erling Lorentzen was a commoner and her former bodyguard and Harald because Sonja Haraldsen was also a commoner. Astrid's choice was potentially more scandalous because her desired spouse was also divorced. This meant more than just a social mismatch; it meant concerns from the Norwegian Church. Only a few years later, Princess Margaret of the United Kingdom had spurned her love Peter Townsend (see my post, An Affair to Remember) for the very same reason. Astrid quietly persisted, despite objections even from her own parish church and finally was given permission to marry Johan Martin Ferner, a businessman and Olympic medalist in sailing. As a consequence, she lost her royal status, becoming just Her Highness, and her royal income.

Embed from Getty Images

Thenceforth known officially as Princess Astrid Mrs. Ferner, she launched into a very happy domestic life. She and Mr. Ferner were married for 54 years until his death in 2015. The first 11 years of their marriage saw the arrival of give children: Cathrine, Benedikte, Alexander, Elisabeth and Carl Christian.

Publicly, she continued to support the monarch and to take on leadership roles for many charitable organizations. She was especially concerned with social and humanitarian issues, particularly those that related to women. Astrid also was an avid supporter of the arts and athletics. On her 70th birthday, Norway recognized her long service to the country by granting her an honorary pension.

Embodying the wartime mantra of "Alt for Norge" (All For Norway), Princess Astrid is the only member of the Norwegian Royal Family to have lived through all four reigns of the modern Norwegian monarchy, those of her grandfather Haakon VII, her father Olav V, her brother Harald V, and. for a few days, her nephew Haakon VIII. She was one of the last surviving great-grandchildren of Britain's King Edward VII--the others still living are The Duke of Gloucester, The Duke of Kent, Prince Michael of Kent, and Princess Alexandra Lady Ogilvy.

More personally, she is survived by her five children, seven grandchildren and three great-grandchildren, none of whom bear royal titles or undertake royal duties.

Princess Astrid, at the heart of the Norwegian Royal Family,between the then
Crown Princess & Princess and the King & Queen on the 85th birthday in 2017.
Photo by Marten Brun, The Norwegian Royal Court

More About Astrid
Did Princess Astrid of Norway Die of a Broken Heart? on Tatler
Heartbreak as Norways's Princess Astrid Dies on Hello!
Norway: Princess Astrid Mrs. Ferner's 90th Birthday on Dag Trygsland Hoelseth
On Call for Norway Throughout Her Life on the Norwegian Royal House
Princess Astrid, Mrs. Ferner on Royal Musings
Princess Astrid, Mrs. Ferner on Unofficial Royalty
Princess Astrid of Norway Has Died on Royal Watcher
Princess Astrid of Norway Dies Two Days After Her Brother's Funeral on Royal Central
Princess Astrid of Norway, 94, Is the Picture of Dignity on Tatler
Royal Wedding Dress: Princess Astrid of Norway on Queens of England
Working for Norway Throughout Her Life on Royal Musings

A New Kind of Queen for Norway

2026-08-30T13:07:41.676-04:00

Photo from Norwegian Royal Household

With the death of King Harald II of Norway in 2026, his wife Queen Sonja made history. She became the first Dowager Queen of Norway since Queen Margaret of Denmark outlived King Haakon VI Magnusson in 1380. (Of course, Margaret asserted her own authority, eventually ruling as Queen of Denmark, Norway and Sweden. For her story, see my post The Pantsless King.) For the next 500 years, Norway was ruled by foreign kings in union with Denmark and/or Sweden. When it finally gained its full independence from Sweden* in the early 20th Century, Norway voted to make Prince Carl of Denmark its new King. Carl adopted the name and title King Haakon VII and renamed his toddler son Olav, in tribute to Norway's earlier history.

Carl/Haakon's wife, however, did not change her name. Having been born Princess Maud of Wales, youngest daughter of Queen Victoria's heir, she became Queen Maud. In 1905, the small family of three was welcomed to their new homeland with great fanfare, in large part because when Haakon was offered the crown, it was he who insisted on a plebiscite to confirm the people's opinion.

Maud and Haakon were first cousins, both grandchildren of King Christian IX of Denmark, and had strong ties to the Danish Royal Family. Maud's heart, however, remained tied to Britain, where her father had ascended the throne as King Edward VII in 1901. She maintained a grace-and-favour house on her father's Sandringham estate called Appleton House and visited frequently, even maintaining her charitable roles there. Somewhat introverted, she did not necessarily enjoy the public role of being a queen, but she had learned a few things from her elegant mother, Queen Alexandra: when in doubt, layer on more jewels! Her regal appearance helped to solidify the new monarchy's place.

Queen Maud and King Haakon VII

by Peder O. Aune via Wikimedia Commons

Another attribute Maud gained from her active parents truly connected her to the Norwegian people. She loved sport, particularly the winter sports like skiing that are innate to everyone in Norway. She was also a superior horsewoman. During World War I, while Norway maintained a neutrality that leaned heavily in favor of Britain, Maud, like many royal women of the day took an active role in relief efforts. However, she was not afraid to push against tradition either. In fact, she was one of few royal women to engage with edgier social subjects, even supporting a home for unwed mothers.

Maud helped establish the traditions and homes of the Norwegian Royal Family in line with those of her home nation. Even though her parents and and all of her siblings had passed away by the mid-1930s, she was still welcomed warmly by her nephew, King George VI. During one of her regular visits, she grew very ill and was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. King Haakon dashed from Norway to be at her side as she underwent a surgery that successfully removed the tumor. Nevertheless, the weakened queen's heart failed and she died on November 20, 1938 just days before her 69th birthday. Her body was returned to Norway on a British naval flag ship and she became the first royal to be buried at Akershus Fortress in Oslo since the 13th Century. King Haakon survived her by more than 20 years but never remarried.

Martha and Olav in 1929

by G. Hård from the Norwegian National Library

via Wikimedia Commons

Instead, their daughter-in-law, the former Crown Princess Martha of Sweden became Norway's first lady. Martha and Crown Prince Olav were second cousins, both great-grandchildren of the prolific King Christian IX of Denmark. Martha was a granddaughter of Sweden's King Oscar II, who had also been King of Norway at the time that Norway gained its independence. As children of a younger son of the king, Martha and her siblings grew up in a more casual royal upbringing. Their parents even made sure their three daughters learned marketable skills -- cooking, childcare, first aid -- just in case they needed to make a living or become homemakers one day. As it happens, Margaretha married Danish Prince Axel, Astrid married King Leopold II of Belgium (read my post about her End of a Fairytale), and Martha married the future Norwegian king. Amazingly, all three of these elite marriages were also genuine love matches.

Olav had been slipping quietly across the border to visit Martha in Sweden without the public or the media taking notice. In 1928, they traveled separately to Amsterdam for the Olympic Games. Having won a gold medal in sailing, Olympian Olav proposed and Martha happily accepted. The engagement was finally announced in early 1929 to great public joy in both countries. Their true love match also symbolized "healing" for the two nations that had separated when the bride and groom were very young. Their wedding in March 1929 was the first royal wedding in Norway in over 300 years.

The couple quickly set up nursery with Princess Ragnhild arriving the next year and Princess Astrid two years after that. Their last child and only son, Crown Prince Harald was born in 1937. In public, Martha assumed the usual round of royal duties with public appearances and charitable works, but she added something new to her repertoire: public speaking. Very few royal women gave speeches at that time, but Martha's natural grace and confidence were well-suited to the task.

Martha and Harald with their children
(from left) Astrid, baby Harald and Ragnhild

by Anders Beer Wilse from Norwegian National Library
via Wikimedia Commons

As dark clouds were gathering in Europe, the couple was sent to the United States to shore up American support for the small nation. Martha and Olav built solid friendships with President Franklin Roosevelt and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. They also toured through areas where many Norwegian immigrants had settled, strengthening the ties back to the homeland. These connections were to be critical in the years ahead.

Once again intending to remain neutral, Norway was forced into World War II when Germany invaded in April 1940. Martha and her three young children were rushed to the Swedish border by car and on foot because the train had been bombed the day before. Traveling incognito, they were denied access when they could not produce their passports. Princess Astrid, who was eight at the time, recalled that her mother took control and ordered their driver to smash through the gates. King Haakon and Crown Prince Olav set up a operations at a secret location in Norway and then later narrowly escaped to London, where Olav's cousin King George VI allowed them to establish a government in exile.

Martha's presence in the officially neutral Sweden soon became diplomatically problematic. Martha's recently acquired friend offered a solution by inviting her and the children to come to the United States. He sent an American transport ship to pick them up from a Finnish port and bring them across the Atlantic. They initially stayed in the White House. Many speculate that the President and the Crown Princess had a romantic relationship. Whether true or not, Roosevelt certainly admired her and valued her opinion. Her presence in the U.S. brought many benefits to Norway, including a U.S. built submarine, which she christened. When not advocating for Norway with the U.S. government and wealthy Norwegian-Americans, Martha was active with the Red Cross.

After the war, the whole family was reunited in Norway following five years of separation. The Norwegian people welcomed them all with great pride and affection. By then in his 70s, King Haakon's health was steadily declining leading Olav and Martha to take on even more responsibilities. However, the king was not the only one ailing. In 1947, Martha had returned to the United States to undergo back surgery and received a blood transfusion contaminated with hepatitis. That illness eventually caused her to develop cirrhosis of the liver. She died at age 53, two weeks after their 25th wedding anniversary and four months before the birth of her first grandchild. She was the second modern royal buried at Akershus. Olav survived her by nearly 37 years and like his father, never remarried. He became King Olav V upon his father's death in 1957 and reigned until his own death in early 1991. Norway had no queen for more than 52 years from Maud's death until Olav's when King Harald V succeeded with Queen Sonja at his side.

Sonja and Harald in 1968
via Wikimedia Commons

Their road to the throne together had not been an easy one, however. Sonja Haraldsen had been born among the "common" people. Her father was a clothing merchant. She studied accounting and fashion and helped out in the family business. The couple met through common social connections and quickly fell in love in their early twenties. King Olav, a descendant of generations of royal-to-royal marriages strongly objected to an unequal marriage for his heir. (See my post, Unequal Marriage Equals Happy Marriage?) He actively intervened to prevent them from marrying but Harald persisted; he would not consider anyone but Sonja. The media had learned of the romance however, making Sonja the "Waity Katie" of her generation. She kept engaged with her work and even completed an undergraduate degree in English, French and history at the University of Oslo, where her granddaughter Crown Princess Ingrid Alexandra enrolled in August 2026. After nine years, Harald's obstinence finally caused Olav to relent. Better an unequal marriage than an end to the royal dynasty.

Sonja and Harald were married on August 29, 1968 and the new Crown Princess soon became a very popular first lady for her father-in-law. However, the couple's joy was marred in 1970 with a terrible miscarriage. After waiting so long to marry, were they to be denied a family after all? Finally, more than three years after their wedding, Princess Martha Louise was born in September 1971 followed by Prince Haakon Magnus in July 1973. Their family was complete.

As Crown Princess and then Queen, Sonja undertook the usual round of royal public and social duties. In 1972, she launched a fund in her newborn daughter's name to help children with disabilities. She established a music competition and a school to promote diversity and inclusion. She is particularly well-known for promoting the visual arts and outdoor sports, particulary trekking. She has also travelled widely representing Norway, becoming the first queen to visit Antarctica, when she went there in 2005 to open a research station in Queen Maud Land. She became a grandmother for the first time in 2003 with the birth of Princess Martha Louise's first daughter Maud Angelica Behn.

In more recent years, Sonja has suffered some health issues, especially atrial fibrillation for which she was implanted with her first pacemaker in 2005. A few months before Harald's death the condition landed her in the hospital again.

King Harald died one day before their 58th wedding anniversary, making Sonja the first royal wife in modern Norway to outlive her husband. Although she is the first Queen Dowager, she will simply be addressed as Queen Sonja. This moment also marks the first time, one Queen Consort (Sonja) is followed by another, new King Haakon VIII's wife, the former Mette-Marit Tjessem Høiby.

*During the period from 1818 until 1905, the Bernadotte Kings of Sweden were also Kings of Norway, although the countries were technically separate nations. During this time period, Queen Desideria became a Dowager Queen in 1844 and so did her daughter-in-law Queen Josephine in 1859. Desideria was crowned Queen of Sweden but never of Norway. She visited Norway but never lived there. In fact, she spent much of her time in her native France. Queen Josephine spent significantly more time in Norway during her husband's reign. After his death, however, she largely withdrew from society, living quietly in Sweden.

A Steady Princess in the Heart of Tempests

2026-08-26T00:20:21.250-04:00

Edition Moos, Karlsruhe Nr. 3640

via Wikimedia Commons

Theodora's life had always been unstable, riddled with upheavals and tragedies. She had lived through the Balkan Wars and the First World War. She had sheltered in the cellars with her mother and sisters when the French had bombarded the royal palace in Athens. Her family had been forced into exile not once, but twice. Her grandfather had been assassinated when she was just five years old. Her father had narrowly escaped a death sentence for treason when she was a teenager. Her beloved mother had been sent to a sanatorium after claiming she was married to Jesus.

This wasn't even the first time an entire branch of her family tree had been obliterated in a moment. When she was still a girl, her mother's cousin Alexandra had been brutally murdered with her husband and all of their children, the youngest just two years older than Theodora herself. The next day, Alexandra's sister met the same fate.

But this family annihilation was worse. Maybe it wasn't as brutal. It wasn't intentional. It wasn't political. It was an accident. But that was not the worst part yet. This time, it was Cecilie. Her little sister. Her playmate. Of the four daughters of Prince Andrew of Greece and Princess Alice of Battenberg, Princess Cecile was the one who sparkled, whose bright personality found a way to shine despite all of the hardships they faced, while Princess Theodora was the quieter one, who stood back and tried to help keep everyone together.

Theodora was at home at her husband's ancestral castle, Salem, in Germany on that cold, cloudy November day when the news was delivered by telegram. Twenty-six-year-old Cecilie, her unborn child, her two little boys, her husband, her mother-in-law and their pilot all killed in an instant when their plane inexplicably crashed.

In that terrible moment, perhaps Theodora thought back to those glorious but stressful days when she and her sisters, the exiled Princesses of Greece, had made their debut in London society as the penniless relatives of the British Royal Family. (Their mother, after all, had been born at Windsor Castle under the eye of her grandmother Queen Victoria.) The girls and their baby brother, Prince Philip, who was 15 years younger than Theodora, bounced between a quasi-stable existence in France to "visit" various relatives from Romania to Britain to Germany, where their mother was ultimately confined.

Princess Alice with her four daughters

from the Royal Collection via Wikimedia Commons

And, it was in Germany, that all four sisters found their husbands. The two youngest married first: Sophie to Prince Christoph of Hesse in 1930 when she was only 16 and Cecilie a few months later to Christoph's cousin Hereditary Grand Duke Georg Donatus of Hesse. Two months later, oldest sister Margarita, age 26, Hereditary Prince Gottfried of Hohenlohe-Langenburg.

A month after that, Theodora was the last to marry when she wed Berthold Margrave of Baden, and moved into Schloss Salem. Within six years, the couple had three children: Margarita, Max, and little Ludwig, born just eight months before the Hessian plane crash. Ever dutiful, Theodora continued to maintain strong ties of her family. She traveled frequently to visit her mother at the sanatorium. With their mother institutionalized and their father living a playboy lifestyle in Paris, it was Theodora who invited their baby brother Philip a home with her growing family as Schloss Salem.

Theodora and Berthold were patrons of Philip's first school there, Salem School, which had been co-founded by Berthold's father and Jewish-German educator Kurt Hahn. With the Nazis' rise to power, Hahn relocated to Gordonstoun and Philip followed him there, while Berthold maintained the school at Salem. While her brothers-in-law voluntarily joined the Nazi party, Theodora's husband was less enthusiastic about the new regime. When war came, he did his aristocratic duty serving as a cavalry officer. He was injured early in the war and returned home to Theodora and the children. Theodora spent the war volunteering with the Red Cross and helping Berthold run their estates and raise their children.

The rest of her family was flung across the Europe. Philip, now grown was actively serving in the British Navy, actively fighting against her surviving brothers-in-law in the German army. Their father was on the French Riviera, while their mother, having returned to stable mental health was living a nunlike existence in Greece, where she was risking her life to protect Jewish people from the advancing armies.

Berthold was able to maintain the school's independence, but he could not fully protect it nor all of his domains from Nazi control. The school's main operations were closed in 1941, and the Nazis used the castle grounds as a forced labor camp for Polish prisoners. With the defeat of the Nazis, the French occupied the area and forced the remaining school program to be closed due to the Nazi influence. Before the end of the year, the French occupiers had been convinced of the school's true intent. In November 1945. Schule Schloss Salem was reopened under the original educational philosophies instituted by Kurt Hahn and Berthold's father. It continues to operate today. In addition to the school in Gordonstoun, Hahn went on to found Outward Bound and United World Colleges, which has been attended by many of the 21st Century's young royals.

by Philip de László via Wikimedia Commons

Although the turbulence of the war had subsided and normalcy eventually returned to Salem, Theodora's family heartaches continued to arrive at regular intervals. First, she lost her father not long before the war ended, not having seen him for years. Then, in 1947, the joy of Philip's wedding to the future Queen of the United Kingdom was denied to the sisters and their families. Despite a close bond between the prince and his sisters, the specter of the war with Germany was still too fresh to allow them to join him and his bride in the Abbey. Saddened and depressed and by then suffering from heart problems, Theodora was able to gather with her sisters and other univited relatives for their own celebration. They later received detailed written descriptions from their mother and from their cousin, Princess Marina of Greece, who had married the bride's uncle, Prince George Duke of Kent. Within a few years, things had settled enough for Theodora to be invited to the coronation when Philip's bride was crowned Queen Elizabeth II.

In the meantime, the restoration of the Greek monarchy under her cousin King Paul led to many invitations to royal occasions in her birth country. As her children grew into adulthood, the Badens' popularity across the royal families of Europe led to even more invitations that eventually yielded stronger family connections: their daughter Margarita married Prince Tomislav of Yugoslavia in 1957 while their oldest son Max married Archduchess Valerie of Austria in 1966. A year later, the youngest son Ludwig married Princess Marianne of Auersperg-Breunner.

Sadly, Berthold did not get to witness their sons' marriages. Theodora had lost him quite suddenly in 1963 when he died while driving home with Ludwig. Without Berthold at her side, Theodora withdrew more from public life, remaining at Salem. She often struggled to speak or to walk. Her ongoing heart issues were exacerbated by seizures. She survived him only by six years. Her death at age 63 at least spared her one final tragic loss: she was never orphaned as her mother Princess Alice lived on for another eight months after her.

Theodora and Berthold on their wedding day
via Wikimedia Commons

The strong familial connections that Theodora always fought to maintain despite the turmoil of her life also survived her. More than 50 years later, when her brother Philip died shortly before his 100th birthday, the ongoing Covid restrictions of the time severely limited the number of people allowed at the funeral. Only three people were invited to represent his birth family. One of them was Theodora's grandson, Hereditary Prince Bernhard of Baden

More About Theodora
Baden-Greece Nuptials on Royal Musings
The Badens on Royal Musings
Funeral of Princess Theodora, Margravine of Baden on The Royal Watcher
Princess Theodora of Greece and Denmark on Alchetron
Princess Theodora of Greece and Denmark Explained on Everything Explained Today
Princess Theodora of Greece, Margravine of Baden on Unofficial Royalty
Princess Theodora, Margravine of Baden on The Royal Watcher
Theodora of Greece & Denmark--A Princess without a Fortune on History of Royal Women
Wedding of the Margrave of Baden and Princess Theodora on The Royal Watcher

A Matriarch without Descendants

2026-08-17T23:54:32.588-04:00

By William Beechey via Wikimedia Commons

If fate had been kinder to her, Queen Adelaide might be the 19th Century royal matriarch we remember today instead of Victoria. Her daughter might have been Queen Elizabeth II and the entire line of Windsors might never have existed. Alas, tragedy launched a different trajectory for the pale young woman from Meinengen who married a future king more than twice her age.

In fact, tragedy seems to have often guided the course of Adelaide of Saxe-Meinengen's life. When she was just 11, a fever carried away her father, but his death placed her mother in the role of regent and taught her that women could be leaders. At 25, the tragic death in childbirth of King George III's only legitimate grandchild and her infant (read my post A Double Royal Tragedy), brought the penniless Duke of Clarence to her doorstep looking for a fertile wife. And, alas the tragic death of her only living child left her without a dynastic role in history.

But, in 1818, her potential for motherhood made her a bridal candidate for Prince William Duke of Clarence. As the third of George III's nine sons, William had felt far enough from the crown to eschew matrimony for decades. Instead, he set up house with an actress and produced 10 rowdy but well-loved children before casting her aside in 1811. (Read my post on Dorothy Jordan.) His navy career was hardly lucrative enough to pay for so many offspring or so many parties and, in the way of Hanoverian princes, William built up quite a bit of debt. The death of his niece, Princess Charlotte of Wales, opened the door of opportunity. To get more money from Parliament all he and his younger brothers had to do was find a suitable bride. He and brother number 4, Edward Duke of Kent, found their new wives and saved some cash by having a double wedding.

William married Adelaide of Saxe-Meinengen while Edward married the widowed Victoria of Saxe-Coburg on July 11, 1818 in their mother's drawing room at Kew Palace. Then, both couples raced off to Hanover, where they could live less expensively, to try to beget heirs.

In addition to becoming a royal duchess of Clarence, 25-year-old Adelaide became a stepmother to William's brood, who went by the surname Fitzclarence. They ranged in age from 11 to 24. The always kind Adelaide accepted her husband's illegitmate children (and the grandchildren who started arriving in 1820 with the first one named Adelaide!) and welcomed them with warmth. Still, she hoped for a child of her own and those hope were well-founded when she fell pregnant just a few months after the wedding. Late in the pregnancy, however, Adelaide became ill with pleuriscy and delivered a little princess two months early in March 1819. They named her Charlotte but she died within a few hours. Two months later, Edward and Victoria's own daughter, Victoria, was born.

Within a few months, Adelaide had recovered enough to become pregnant again. This time, William decided to use a ploy Edward and Victoria had used back in the spring: he would rush his pregnant wife to England so the potential could be born on English soil. Alas, the journey did not go as planned and Adelaide miscarried her second pregnancy before they crossed the English Channel. The saddened couple continued on to London and took up residence in Clarence House at St. James's Palace. Their daughter Princess Elizabeth Georgiana Adelaide was born there on December 10, 1820. The infant princess was third in line to the throne after her childless uncle Frederick Duke of York and her father.

Adelaide rejoiced in her baby daughter. Like her older sister, Elizabeth was born prematurely, causing her parents to christen her on the day she was born. However, it was quickly clear that Elizabeth was stronger. She seemed a picture of health throughout that wet, cold winter toward the end of a period we now call "the little ice age." As March roared in with more intemperate weather, Elizabeth remained well until suddenly she was not. But it was not the weather that carried her away. On March 1, the baby began to suffer convulsions and high fever. The doctors could do nothing to save her from a strangulated bowel or intussusception.

Sculpture by William Scoular, photo by James Calford via Wikimedia Commons

Once again, a healthy young heir had been tragically ripped away from the Hanoverian dynasty. William and Adelaide were devastated. They immediately commissioned a death mask and a memorial sculpture of their daughter in her cradle. They kept the sculpture always near them and Adelaide eventually willed it to their niece, Queen Victoria, to have it permanently displayed at Windsor Castle.

The couple tried once again to give the nation an heir. By the end of the year, Adelaide was pregnant once again. As with her earlier pregnancies, she went into labor early. At about 30 weeks, she was delivered of stillborn twin boys. It was her last recorded pregnancy. She was 29 years old.

Adelaide continued to focus on her husband and his family and, when she was permitted by the widowed Duchess of Kent, on their niece Princess Victoria, who was in blooming health. Adelaide was renowned for her charity and her gentleness. Many were impressed with how she had tamed the garrulous and somewhat rude-mannered Duke of Clarence. He seemed to become a calmer, kinder person thanks to her influence. Of course, she could not prevent all of his outbursts.

The couple was particularly troubled by the Duchess of Kent. Adelaide had sought to befriend her and the young Princess Victoria, assuring the Dowager Duchess of her true affection. "My children are dead," she wrote to her sister-in-law with whom she had shared a wedding, "but your child lives and she is mine, too."

Tensions only continued to grow after William became King William IV in 1830. By this time, Victoria was entering adolescence and the King and Queen Adelaide longed to have her with them more often. The Duchess of Kent, however, jealously guarded her daughter seeking both to physically protect her and to ensure her own control over the future monarch. At his 71st birthday party, when the Duchess had offered just one too many signs of disrespect to the King--including taking over 17 rooms at Kensington Palace that the King had denied her, William roared within everyone's hearing that he hoped he would live until Victoria was at least 18. "I should then have the satisfactin of leaving the royal authority to the personal exercise of theat young lady, the heiress presumptive to the Crown, and not in the hands of a person now near me, who is surrounded by evil advisers and who is herself incompetent to act with propriety in the situation in which she is now placed."

Princess Victoria burst into tears. The Duchess received the rebuke in stony silence. Adelaide was absolutely mortified but maintained her composure as Queen and hostess with more than 100 guests in attendance. She also continued thereafter to provide little respites for young Victoria from the strict confines of her mother. Adelaide called Victoria "my dear little heart". She consistently invited her to court and made her comfortable when she was allowed to come. She also created an environment where Victoria did not have to feel torn between her mother and her aunt.

The following year, William's lifestyle caught up to him. The combined impact of heart disease, cirrhosis of the liver, and pneumonia dogged his final weeks. He struggled to remain alive to fulfill his vengeance against the Duchess of Kent. Queen Adelaide stayed ever vigilant by his side, nursing him an comforting him, refusing to rest for the final 10 days and welcoming his children to keep vigil with her. He died less than a month after Victoria's 18th birthday. Although heartbroken and exhausted, Adelaide immediately wrote to the new Queen, assuring her of her "most affectionate devotion" and signing herself as "your Majesty's most affectionate Friend, Aunt, and Subject."

Queen Victoria repaid Adelaide's kindness immediately. As the first Queen Dowager in more than a century and because she was not the mother of the new monarch, Adelaide might easily have been denied the perquisites of her station. Instead, Victoria showered her with affection, even embracing her at her coronation. She let Adelaide take any personal mementos she wanted fromthe King's estate, gave her an income of £100,000 per year, and let her stay at Windsor Castle, where her daughter Elizabeth was buried, whenever she wished. A few years later, when Victoria's first child was born, she christened her Victoria Adelaide Mary Louisa and asked Queen Adelaide to stand as godmother.

During her widowhood, Adelaide continued to act as materfamilias to the ever-growing Fitzclarence family. She regularly welcomed them to her home at Bushy Park, where she served as Ranger of Bushy Park, a position her husband had granted her in the first year of his reign. She also traveled frequently. She returned to her German homeland and also went to warmer climates like Madeira, Malta, and Gibraltar in service to her chronically worsening health. Wherever she went, she is known to have supported churches, hospitals, and the poor.

Queen Victoria's husband Prince Albert, whose own mother had been banished from his life when he was very young and died when he was still a child, also embraced Queen Adelaide's maternal spirit as well as her sterling moral reputation. When she died in 1849 at age 57, Albert served as chief mourner joined by the seven surviving Fitzclarences and their offspring. Victoria writing that it was a "great and irreparable loss to both of us."

In addition to bequests to the Queen, including some jewels still in use by royal ladies today, she left cash, jewels, and family treasures to the Fitzclarence grandchildren, several of whom had been named Adelaide in honor of her.

Although she insisted on a quiet and unassuming funeral in keeping with her character and personality, her most famous namesake has her relaxed vibe but also knows how to throw a great festival. Adelaide, Australia was named in her honor in 1836 while King William was still alive. Queen Victoria's second son Prince Alfred was the first royal to visit Adelaide in 1867.

In 2026, Victoria's great-great-great granddaughter, Princess Eugenie, named her daughter Adelaide, reviving a royal name that had reigned two centuries ago.

A Queen Who Truly Changed a Kingdom

2026-07-12T20:25:51.642-04:00

via Wikimedia Commons

The church was silent. The streets of Munich were empty. The woman in the coffin had helped create the city as center for art and beauty, but her religion had always been a problem.When the Protestant Princess Caroline of Baden became the second wife of the soon-to-be King Maxilimilian I Joseph of Bavaria, she was not forced to adopt her new homeland's Catholicism. She was even allowed to keep her Protestant clergyman. But, on this gray November day in 1841, her clergy were forbidden to enter the Theatine Church and required to hand over their beloved Queen to the Catholic priests. By order of the archbishop, the priests wore no robes or finery. Dressed only in their street clothes, they led the coffin into the church. Then, without music or fanfare or blessings, they lowered her into the crypt.

Caroline had arrived in Munich as a lovely young bride 44 years earlier in the midst of the Napoleanic turmoil. In fact, she met her a husband, a widower 20 years her senior when he fled to her father's territory to avoid Napolean's rampaging armies. It might not have been the preferred match for the young woman who is said to have fallen in love with the French Bourbon Prince Louis Antoine Duke of Enghien, who had also sought refuge in Baden. But a French match had been deemed too unstable given the recent revolution and rise of the Republic. Better to marry her to Maximilian, who had fallen deeply in love with her, and send her to Bavaria, where she could help to raise the four surviving children from his first marriage, the oldest of whom, Prince Ludwig, was only 10 years younger than Caroline.

Accompanied by her twin sister Amalie, she left behind a close and happy family, but she would soon fill Maximilian Joseph's castle with a family of their own. Tragically, her first pregnancy ended in stillbirth and her second baby died before his third birthday, but two sets of healthy twin girls quickly arrived followed by two more princesses to complete the family. Tragedy again, however, when the youngest Princess Maximiliana contracted typhus and died at age 10.

By then, however, Maximilian Joseph and Caroline had grown into a loving couple and devoted parents. Caroline had gained the admiration of her stepchildren though the relationship with Prince Ludwig was never ideal. The nation was also stable. King Maxilimilian I Joseph had achieved this through a careful relationship with Napolean, which enabled him to obtain and retain his crown. The favor was so strong that Napolean even supported the marriage of his stepson Eugene de Beauharnais to Maximilian Joseph's oldest daughter, Princess Augusta. Caroline initially opposed the marriage, but relented when she learned that the couple loved each other.

Caroline and Maximilian Joseph with their daughters
By August von Heckel in the Bavarian National Museum via Wikimedia Commons

In fact, all of the daughters married well and several raised historically significant families. Among the grandchildren were: Emperor Franz Joseph II of Austria and his wife Empress Elisabeth, Queen Josephine of Sweden, Empress Amelie of Brazil, Prince Consort August of Brazil, Emperor Maximilian of Mexico, and Queen Marie Sophie of the Two Sicilies.

With their mixed religious marriage and their joint love of arts and culture, Caroline and Maximilian Joseph transformed Bavaria and its capitol Munich, in particular. Having emancipated the Protestants, perhaps influenced by the Lutheran Caroline, Maximilian Joseph also nationalized many of the treasures of the Catholic Church--which almost certainly led to the Catholic priests' disrespect at her funeral. They founded the Academy of Fine Arts and the National Theater, while also re-designing the city of Munich as a planned city around four royal boulevards with several squares, including one named for Caroline.

The unexpected death of Maximilian Joseph in his sleep after a family celebration of his name day in 1825 was a terrible blow to Caroline. Not only had she lost a devoted husband and staunch supporter, but her stepson, the new King Ludwig I sought to minimize her popular influence. Ludwig respected Caroline but he did not trust her Protestantism or anti-French tendencies. As he grew more ambitious, he became more volatile and impulsive (characteristics that would eventually lead to scandal and abdication).

In an effort to decrease Caroline's popularity and impact, he forced her to live outside of Munich. At first, the staunchly Catholic Ludwig tried to separate her Lutheran chaplain from her, but Caroline successfully pushed back. He even denied her the status of a Queen Dowager.

During her 16 years as a widow, Caroline remained steadfast and kind despite Ludwig's public coldness. She remained devoted to her growing family. In her final public moment--that unmerciful funeral--she enabled one more act of grace in a life that had been filled with them. King Ludwig was horrified by the outcome of his treatment of his stepmother, who had cared for him when she was little more than a girl herself. The indignity of her funeral led him to relent and become a defender of Protestant rights and a critic of extemism.

More about Caroline
Birth of Princess Caroline of Baden on European Royal History
Caroline of Baden -- Franz Josef and Sissi's Grandmother Part One on History of Royal Women
Caroline of Baden -- Franz Josef and Sissi's Grandmother Part Two on History of Royal Women
Caroline of Baden, Queen of Bavaria on Unofficial Royalty
The Daughters of the Hereditary Prince of Baden on Crowns, Tiaras, & Coronets
The First Bavarian Queen, Caroline of Baden on Arrayed in Gold
Queen Caroline of Bavaria, Royal Stepmother and Mother on Arrayed in Gold
Sweet Caroline of Baden, The First Queen of Bavaria on Paul's Talk Travel Blog

Making a Splash in Monaco

2026-06-30T22:28:03.769-04:00

By brunifia via Wikimedia Commons

Water has always flowed through her veins. Born as the daughter of a swim coach in 1978 deep in the heart of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), Charlene Lynette Wittstock could little have imagined how far her passion for swimming would take her. A fifth-generation descendant of German immigrants, she inherited her competitive spirit from her sales manager father Michael and her mother Lynette, a former competitive diver.

Charlene's passion for swimming strengthened as the family, including two younger brothers, moved to South Africa when she was 11. She quickly found her lane: by age 19 she was the South African champion in the 100-meter and 200-meter backstroke. A year later, she won three gold medals and a silver in the All-Africa Games. From there, she competed at the World Championships and twice at the Commonwealth Games. In 2000, she became an Olympian, representing South Africa at the Sydney Olympics. She finished 14th and 17th in her two individual backstroke events and earned a fifth-place finish with her team in the 4x100 medley relay.

When she was not in training or in competition, Charlene was still in the pool--usually teaching children how to swim. She believes that learning to swim is a fundamental right, not because it is fun and healthy, but because it is a skill that can literally save their lives. Charlene learned this lesson as a young girl when her five-year-old cousin Richard died in the river near his home. Charlene was devastated.

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Charlene's athletic career took her around the world including to the picturesque Mediterranean Principality of Monaco in 2000. The pretty blonde 22-year-old champion emerged from the pool and was later greeted by the 42-year-old bachelor Prince Albert of Monaco. Known for his "playboy" ways, Albert had never married although he was rumored to have fathered at least two children by different mothers (Jazmin and Alexandre, both of whom he later acknowledged.) Like Charlene, he was also an Olympian. He had represented Monaco in four Winter Games--1988 Calgary, 1992 Albertville, 1994 Lillehammer, and 1998 Nagano--and would compete one more time in 2002 in Salt Lake City.

The two also may have shared a bond over early tragedy; Prince Albert had lost his mother American-born Princess Grace in a fatal car crash when he was 24. Whatever the connection between them, Albert and Charlene kept their relationship private for several years. They were not seen publicly together until the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin. By then, Albert's father Prince Rainier had died and he had succeeded as the sovereign Prince Albert II. A few months after Turin, he made an Easter trip to the North Pole.

All of this time, Charlene continued swimming. Although she did not compete in the 2004 Summer Olympics, she was gearing up to make an Olympic return in 2008. She had even regained her South African national championship. However, a shoulder injury sidelined her for 18 months and she failed to qualify in 2008. It was effectively the end of her swimming career.

Charlene was increasingly seen in Monaco or with Albert, but their romance remained unofficial. She took on several charitable roles in Monaco, but no announcements were forthcoming. Media excitement began to build in 2010, especially when Charlene attended the wedding of Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden to Daniel Westling. Only four days later, the couple finally announced their own engagement. Although not required, Charlene converted to Catholicism. She also took lessons in French and Monagesque.

They were married just over a year later with a civil ceremony in the throne room of the princely palace on July 1, 2011 and a religious ceremony the next day in the palace's courtyard. They then honeymooned closer to her native land in Mozambique.

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As is usual, the media immediately began asking when a baby would arrive. It was a particularly critical issue in Monaco because Albert's other children had no right to the throne because their mothers had not been married to the prince. Therefore, his heir at the time was his older sister Princess Caroline.

Charlene, like many newly married women, did not become pregnant right away. Instead, she invested her time in taking on more charitable roles: Special Olympics International, Giving Organizations Trust in South Africa, the Princess Grace Foundation USA, amFAR, Red Cross and more. In late 2012 she launched the Princess Charlene of Monaco Foundation to help prevent more tragedies like the one that had followed her from her earliest days: childhood drowning.

Nearly three years after their wedding, Albert and Charlene announced her pregnancy. Six months later, they shared that they were expecting twins. On December 10, 2014, their daughter Princess Gabriella arrived followed two minutes later by Hereditary Prince Jacques. Monaco maintains male-preference succession rules so Jacques is first in line to the throne although he was born second.

For the next many years, Charlene's life followed a routine of charitable events, public ceremonies, international visits, and family photo calls. The media and the public alternatively praised her beauty, style and good works while criticizing her less-than-perfect French, her spending habits, and rumors of marital issues.

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When she fell deeply ill while in southern Africa in May 2021, initial concerns over her health soon spiralled into ugly speculation about her personal life. She had been back in her part of the world on an official mission to combat rhinoceros poaching when she contracted a severe ENT infection. Unable to fly due to the pressurization of airplanes, she was essentially stuck 8,000 miles (nearly 13,000 kilometers) away from Monaco.

Her prolonged absence led to rumors that she was refusing to return to her husband. So Prince Albert brought the children to visit her. Of course, they had to go back to work and school, leaving Charlene behind. This did nothing to ease the public chatter.

Charlene underwent several medical procedures, including a four-hour surgery, and was felled by complications in September. In early November, after nearly six months, she was finally able to return to Monaco, where the family was delighted to welcome her. Within a few days, however, it was clear that her recovery was going to take an extended period of time. All of her official engagements were cancelled and she traveled to Switzerland for a four-month stay in a high-end clinic. Of course, this further absence continued to fuel nasty speculation.

By the time she again returned to Monaco in March of 2022, she was able to slowly resume her duties. Then, three months later, she was diagnosed with COVID-19, leading to another--although shorter--period of isolation.

Having weathered physical illness, family separation, and public scrutiny, Princess Charlene seems to have emerged stronger. In recent years, she has increased her activites around water safety and drowning prevention and launched new initiatives and partnerships to use sport to protect marine life and to advocate for gender equality. She also took after as President of the Society for Protection of Animals of Monaco, Honorary President of Pink Ribbon Monaco, and Vice President of the Monegasque Olympic Committee. Prince Albert has served on the International Olympic Committee since 1985.

In 2024, Charlene and Albert displayed their Olympic spirit by carrying the Olympic torch together ahead of the Summer Games in Paris. It was a suiting moment for a woman who learned from an early age that hard work and tenacity pay off. Despite all she has endured publicly and personally over the years, she now appears more self-confident in her role as Princess of Monaco, as wife and mother, and as a leader on the international stage advocating to make this world a better place.

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More About Charlene
20 Photos that Show How Princess Charlene's Style Has Evolved on Business Insider
Celebrating Prince Albert and Princess Charlene's 10 Year Anniversary on Monaco Tribune
Charlene Wittstock on Aquatic Sports History of South Africa
HSH Princess Charlene of Monaco Celebrates Her 48th Birthday on New My Royals
Inside Princess Charlene and Prince Albert of Monaco's Family Life on The Australian Women's Weekly
A New Era for Princess Charlene? on Tatler
Oh Charlene! You Were Doing So Well on Mad for Monaco
Prince Albert Accused of Indulging Wive's Dangerous Spending Habits on Mercury News
Princess Charlene on The Balance Rehab Clinic
Princess Charlene (official bio) on Palais Princier de Monaco
Princess Charlene on UFO No More
Princess Charlene: At Home at the Royal Palace on Tatler
Princess Charlene Lives an Incredibly Lavish Lifestyle on The List
Princess Charlene of Monaco: A Shining Star on Hello Monaco
Princess Charlene and Prince Albert of Monaco's Relationship Timeline on Tatler
Princess Charlene's Diamond Aigrette Tiara on The Royal Watcher
Princess Charlene's Diamond Foam Tiara on The Royal Watcher
Princess Charlene's Family Opens Up about Her Lengthy Illness on Vanity Fair
Prince Charlene's Infinite Cascade Necklace on The Royal Watcher
Princess Charlene Reflects on 'Pain that Never Goes Away' on GBN
What to Know about Princess Charlene on People

Margaret Douglas: Too Close to the Throne

2026-06-01T20:10:20.263-04:00

Margaret Douglas

via Wikimedia Commons

In 16th Century Britain, the most dangerous place to be born was close to the throne. Though the Tudor dynasty was not very prolific--four surviving children in the first generation, seven in the second, and seven in the third--they greeted their siblings and cousins with great suspicion. King Henry VII's oldest granddaughter spent long stretches imprisoned at the Tower of London or under house arrest by order of her own uncle King Henry VIII and her cousin Queen Elizabeth I.

Born just three months before her favorite cousin, the future Queen Mary I, Margaret Douglas lived her entire life too close to the dangers of the 16th century power politics of both England and Scotland. Her mother was the English Princess Margaret Tudor. The Princess had been married to the 30-year-old King James IV of Scotland at the age of 13. Within 10 years, she had given him five children but only the fourth-born survived. She was pregnant with their sixth child when James IV died at the Battle of Flodden fighting against the English. At 23, Queen Margaret was named Regent for her son, the new King James V. However, many were opposed to her leadership, not just because she was a woman but because she was the sister of England's King Henry VIII. As Margaret sought allies to shore up her position, she was led by her heart to form an alliance with Archibald Douglas, Earl of Angus, a scion of one of Scotland's most powerful clans.

Just four months after giving birth to King James IV's posthumous son, she secretly married Angus. It was an incredible mistake. By remarrying, she had forfeited her position as Regent under the terms of her original marriage contract. She took the infant king and the newborn prince to Stirling Castle. Henry VIII urged her to bring the boys to England, but Margaret hesitated. She soon surrendered both the boys, never to see her youngest son again, who would die the following year. Now pregnant by Angus, Margaret finally accepted her brother's invitation to travel to England. In October 1515, she gave birth to Margaret Douglas at Harbottle Castle in Northumberland.

In the meantime, the Earl of Angus was not only making friends with Queen Margaret's enemy, he had taken up with Lady Jane Stewart. The Queen returned to make peace in Scotland in 1516, leaving baby Margaret in the care of her godfather, Cardinal Wolsey. Once she discovered her husband's paramour, she began moving toward divorce. The rapid shifting of Scottish politics found the couple battling each other as Margaret moved clumsily from one side to another.

Meanwhile, their daughter was growing up far from either of them in England. With Cardinal Wolsey's death in 1530, 14-year-old Margaret Douglas was moved to her cousin Princess Mary's household. The two were very good friends. Margaret's nearness to the throne meant that she was generally treated as a princess and she benefited from the generosity of her doting uncle King Henry VIII. Tall and crowned with the famous red hair of the Tudor dynasty, Margaret was considered to be a beautiful young woman. She remained with Mary, even when her father the Earl of Angus fled the turmoil of Scotland for 13 years in England.

By then, young Margaret's parents had divorced and each had married their lovers. As for their maturing daughter, she was kept far from matrimonial prospects. With King Henry's divorce from Catherine of Aragon, Margaret was moved from the now bastardized Mary's household to become a lady-in-waiting to the new Queen Anne Boleyn. Here, she met and fell in love with Anne's uncle, Thomas Howard, younger brother of the 3rd Duke of Norfolk who was also named Thomas Howard. Unfortunately for Margaret, the king discovered the couple's romantic intentions after Anne Boleyn had fallen from grace. Members of the court and especially members of the Royal Family had no right to marry without royal assent. To wish to marry the uncle of the recently beheaded queen made the king even more furious than he normally would have been.

Margaret and Thomas were sent separately to the Tower of London. Knowing how Henry had just disposed of his once beloved wife, Margaret must have been terrified. She was also heartbroken and fearful for Thomas. Conditions in the Tower were far from ideal, even for the most genteel of prisoners. Within a short time, both were ill. Thomas never recovered. He died after 15 months in prison. The King took pity on Margaret and had her moved to Syon Abbey. She was released from her arrest just two days before Thomas died.

Margaret remained in Uncle Henry's good graces for a few years...until she fell in love with another Howard. This time, he was Charles Howard, the nephew of her first love and brother of Henry's silly young bride and fifth Queen Catherine Howard. Despite Henry's infatuation with Catherine, he was infuriated by Margaret's latest unapproved romance. Margaret and Charles were spared the Tower and placed under house arrest back at Syon. Later, when Henry discovered Catherine's impure past, Margaret was sent to Kenninghall so the disposed-of Catherine could take her place at Syon until Catherine was beheaded. Archbishop Cranmer personally warned Margaret not to make a third mesalliance and to "wholly apply herself to please the King's Majesty."

Charles was pardoned and Margaret was welcomed back to court. Back in royal favor, a few years later, she even witnessed Uncle Henry's final marriage to her friend Catherine Parr. By this time, Margaret's mother had died in Scotland, never having seen her only daughter again. Young Margaret was estranged from her father on and off, as his later marriage brought sons and he disinherited his daughter in favor of them. Alas, those brothers died young and Margaret would ultimately claim her father's Earldom of Angus, but that was still years in the future.

Nearing her 30th birthday Margaret remained very much a pawn both in Scottish and English politics as well as in the very tumultuous relationship between the two nations.

By 1544, things were coming to a head over control of the infant Mary Queen of Scots, who was the only surviving child of Margaret's older half-brother King James V, who had died in battle days after Mary was born. One claimant for the Regency was Matthew Stewart, 4th Earl of Lennox, a descendant of King James II of Scotland. Opposed by the Earl of Arran, who had a slightly better dynastic claim, Lennox lost footing when Arran promised Queen Mary as a bride to King Henry VIII's son, Prince Edward. But, Mary's Catholic mother offered her daughter as a bride to the stalwartly Catholic Lennox instead. He was 25 years her senior.

As often happened in Scotland, things went sideways. Parliament refused an alliance with England, but Lennox changed sides and championed King Henry in the ensuing War of the Rough Wooing. Initially successful, Lennox soon lost ground and fled to England, where he met Margaret Douglas.

Margaret and the ambitious Lennox seemed to have fallen in love. They married and quickly produced an heir, Henry Stuart, known as Lord Darnley. Margaret would be preoccupied by her husband and this first son for the rest of their lives. During the reign of Henry VIII's Protestant son, King Edward VI, the Catholic Lennox family stayed well away from court and out of trouble. Happily raising their son and running a small estate. With the young king's death and Margaret's lifelong friend Mary's rise to the throne, they once again returned to court, where both had prominent roles. In 1555, 11 years after the birth of Lord Darnley, their only other surviving child Charles Stuart was born. The couple's place at the top of a Catholic hierarchy was about to shift again. When Queen Mary died in 1559, she was succeeded by her Protestant half sister Elizabeth, daughter of Anne Boleyn.

At the same time, Protestantism was making strong strides in Scotland while Mary Queen of Scots was growing up and becoming Queen Consort of Catholic France. When Mary's young husband died, the teenaged queen returned to Scotland to discover that she needed to weave a delicate path through the always tempestuous political situation that now also included religious disharmony. Unfortunately, young Queen Mary was not the wisest woman to ever sit on a throne.

By then, Lord Darnley had grown up tall and handsome like his parents. The Lennoxes believed their son would make a brilliant consort for the young, widowed Queen Mary. Through Margaret, Darnley was a potential heir to the English throne. Through Lennox, he was a potential heir to Scotland. An alliance between him and Mary would be a powerful message to other Scottish contenders for the throne. However, since Mary was also a potential heir to the English throne, their marriage would pose a tremendous threat to the unmarried and childless Queen Elizabeth. The fact that both were Catholic only added fuel. When Elizabeth discovered the family was plotting to bring about a marriage, Elizabeth arrested and imprisoned the family. However, they were released the next year.

Two years later, Lennox and Darnley traveled to Scotland to complete their plans. Young Mary found Darnley irresistibly lusty. She married him, much to his parents' delight. Elizabeth, on the other hand, was irate. Lennox was out of her reach in Scotland, but Margaret was not. Elizabeth sent her back to the Tower.

The marriage soon turned out to be one of the most disastrous in history. A vain and jealous Darnley had conspired in the brutal murder of his wife's friend in front of her while she was heavily pregnant. A few months later, their son James was born. The couple tried to patch up their rocky marriage but Darnley's constant insistence on being named King beside his wife, only served to irritate and distress the high-strung young woman.

Early in the next year, the couple were living separately at either end of Edinburgh, when a pair of explosions rocked Darnley's house in the middle of the night. As the smoke cleared, his body was found dressed only in his nightshirt. He had been smothered to death with no marks on his body.

Margaret with King James VI, Matthew Stuart and Charles Stuart

Memorial to Darnley by Lieven de Vogeleer via Wikimedia Commons

Margaret was so devastated when she learned of her beloved son's murder that Queen Elizabeth took pity on her and released her from the Tower. She could take no comfort in her husband's arms, though as he remained in Scotland to look after the interests of their grandson, the Prince. Lennox and others moved against Mary, holding her responsible for Darnley's murder. Queen Mary moved from one disastrous decision to another and eventually abdicated the throne. Over the next few years, the regency for the infant King James VI moved violently from one faction to another until his grandfather Lennox took the role in 1570. By this time, Mary had been imprisoned in Scotland and escaped to seek asylum in England. Believing Mary responsible for her beloved son's death, Margaret denounced her daughter-in-law. Mary also did not find the welcome she expected from Queen Elizabeth either and was soon under house arrest at Carlisle Castle, never to lay eyes on her cousin or her mother-in-law.

Margaret was heartbroken once again when her husband died in Scotland in 1571 following a skirmish with Mary's supporters. Margaret's beloved family now consisted only of her 14-year-old son Charles, who had become 5th Earl of Lennox upon his father's death. It was around this time that Margaret began to see Mary as a victim of conniving men around her and rethought her conviction that she had been responsible for Darnley's death. The two men began a secret correspondence, though Margaret remained cautious, publicly denying any reconciliation between them.

A few years later, Margaret made arrangements with the famous Bess of Hardwick, one of England's richest women, to marry their children and Charles became the spouse of Elizabeth Cavendish. Queen Elizabeth was furious, as she always was when anyone, especially those with a potential claim to her throne, married without her express permission. Margaret once again found herself imprisoned in the Tower of London. She spent some of her time using her own hair to create a gift of lace that she sent to Mary, still being held under Elizabeth's orders.

When Charles died of tuberculosis in 1576, Elizabeth once again granted Margaret her freedom. By now in her 60s, Margaret took over caring for Charles' only child, Lady Arbella Stuart. The constant ups and downs in royal favor also meant that Margaret fluctuating between wealth and poverty throughout her life. She died a few years later with little to show for her great royal heritage. However, she was granted burial at Westminster Abbey. Through her grandson King James VI & I, she is the ancestress of every British monarch after Queen Elizabeth I.

MORE ABOUT MARGARET

100 Posts for Queen Elizabeth's Centenary

2026-04-20T02:46:00.014-04:00

In celebration of the Centenary of Queen Elizabeth II's birth on April 21, 2026, here are 100 posts from my blog and others about Britain's longest lived monarch. I am sharing a post every hour on my Twitter and Bluesky feeds for 100 hours surrounding the moment of her birth (2:40 a.m. GMT+1) beginning on April 19 and continuing through April 23. #100HoursForQEII

Presidencia de la República Mexicana via Wikimedia Commons

FAMILY
70th Anniversary Celebration on Princess Palace
Ancestors of Queen Elizabeth II on Unofficial Royalty
First Cousins: Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom on Unofficial Royalty
Insider Reveals Prince Philip's Ugly Row with The Queen on Royal Observer
New Book Reveals How Queen Elizabeth Felt When She First Met Princess Lilibet on The Royal Observer
Of Course, Elizabeth Knew Philip on Royal Musings
The Queen's Royal Ladies Part 1 on Princess Palace
The Queen's Royal Ladies Part 2 on Princess Palace
The Relationship Between Wallis and Queen Elizabeth II Part 1 on History of Royal Women
The Relationship Between Wallis and Queen Elizabeth II Part 2 on History of Royal Women
What's in a Name? on Royal Musings

HISTORICAL CONTEXT
100 Things You Might Not Know about Britain's Most Historic Queen on Royal Central
Born to Be King? on Princess Palace
Elizabeth I or Elizabeth II in Scotland on Royal Musings
The Future Queen Elizabeth Was Never Created Princess of Wales on History of Royal Women
I Declare Before You All on Marilyn's Royal Blog
If The Queen Had Never Been Born on Princess Palace
A Royal Double Standard on Princess Palace
Jubilee: A Message About Monarchy on Princess Palace
Long May She Reign on Princess Palace
Queen Camilla Sums Up Royal History on Royal Central
The Queen: Her Commonwealth Story on The Royal Watcher
The Queen and Her Prime Ministers on History of Government
Queen Elizabeth II Was One of the Greatest Monarchs in History But... on Royal Central
The Queen and the Papacy on Queens of England
The Reign of Queen Elizabeth II: A Timeline on The History Press
When Queen Elizabeth Drank From a Finger Bowl on The Royal Observer
Will The Queen's Legacy Be in What She Says or What She Does? on Marilyn's Royal Blog

HOMES
Looking Back at Queen Elizabeth's Houses on Architectural Digest
Queen Elizabeth II's Private Rooms at the Palace of Holyroodhouse on History of Royal Women
Windsor Castle Fire: 25 Facts on The History Press

HOUSEHOLD
Margaret "Bobo" MacDonald on Unofficial Royalty
Queen Elizabeth's Former Assistant Speaks Out on Bored Panda
Who Were Queen Elizabeth's Advisors? on Town & Country

1920s & 1930s
Birthplace of a Queen on Princess Palace
How the Papers of 1926 Reported the Big Royal Story on Royal Central
A New Princess Is Born on Princess Palace
Princess Being Prepared to Succeed Uncle on Royal Musings
Revealed After 87 Years on Royal Musings

1940s & 1950s
Bulletin: Elizabeth Gives Birth to a Son on Royal Musings
Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II on Unofficial Royalty
Future Queen to Marry Naval Officer on Princess Palace
The Moonstruck Princess and Her Greek God, Part 1 on Princess Palace
The Moonstruck Princess and Her Greek God, Part 2 on Princess Palace
Princess Elizabeth's First Official Engagement a Success on Royal Musings
Queen Elizabeth II Records of Her Memories of V-E Day on History of Royal Women
Royal Guests at the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II on The Royal Watcher
The Royal Visit of 1947 on Royal Musings
Will Elizabeth's Children Be Royal? on Royal Musings

1960s & 1970s
1977 - The Silver Jubilee Year of Queen Elizabeth on Royal Splendour on Royal Splendour
Countdown to the 70th: The Queen & Prince Philip's 4th Decade on Princess Palace
The "High Life" in High Society on Royal Rendezvous
Queen Elizabeth II - The 60s and 70s on History of Royal Women
The Queen Visits Her Dying Uncle on History of Royal Women

1980s & 1990s
Attacking the Queen on Iconic Photos
Countdown to the 70th: The Queen & Prince Philip's Sixth Decade on Princess Palac
Queen's 'Annus Horribilis' Speech, 1992 on The Royal Watcher
Queen Elizabeth II - The 80s and 90s on History of Royal Women
The Tale of Michael Fagan on Rick Steves' Europe

2000s
8 Things You Don't About The Queen's Death on Princess Palace
Countdown to the 70th: The 7th Decade on Princess Palace
Diamond Jubilee State Coach Makes Debut on Land of Analie
King Charles Commissions Official Queen Elizabeth II Biography on Royal Universe
Missing the Queen: One Year Later on Mandy on Monarchy
Peter Phillips Reveals the Royal Family All Had One Question on Royal Central
Princess Anne Opens Memorial to Queen Elizabeth on Royal Central
Queen Elizabeth II - The 00s to 2022 on History of Royal Women
Queen Elizabeth Visited the Company of HMS Queen Elizabeth on New My Royals
A Resting Place Fit for a Queen on Marilyn's Royal Blog

The Angel of Prussia

2026-03-09T22:31:00.006-04:00

By Johann Friedrich August Tischbein
via Wikimedia Commons

There he was. The "Monster". The man who had bedeviled her country. The man who had forced her family from their home. Their five young children ripped from everything they had ever known. She was not here by choice. She would rather have never seen this bogeyman in person. And, yet, she believed she might make a difference, that she might save Prussia.

Beautiful Queen Louise of Prussia was 31 years old on the hot July day in 1807 when she stood face-to-face with Napoleon. The early months of her ninth pregnancy were hidden beneath the high waist of her fashionable gown, but no doubt the heat of that stormy summer and her pregnancy brought an additional glow to her already pretty face. Her beauty combined with her intelligence and charm were meant to distract the man who had crowned himself an emperor from dismantling Prussia after he destroyed the Prussian forces with surprisingly little effort.

Born on March 10, 1776, Louise of Mecklenburg-Stelitz had encouraged her husband, King Frederick William III of Prussia to declare war on the power-hungry French emperor, but he had hesitated. Frederick William believed that peace was the most important thing for people. As Napoleon waged war across Europe, Frederick William sought to stay out of the fight. Later, he wondered whether to fight with France or against. By the time he finally acted, the French had grown far too strong. Almost immediately, the Prussian army was destroyed at the Battle of Jena-Auerstädt. Napoleon quickly occupied Berlin and the royal family hastily fled into Russian territory placing themselves under the good graces of Emperor Alexander I, who also felt the sting of France that year.

By summer, Napoleon summoned Frederick William to discuss terms at Tilsit, well within Russian territory. Frderick William, who loved his bright and beautiful wife, thought she could persuade Napoleon to show mercy to Prussia. And so, Louise made her case and perhaps flirted a bit with 37-year-old emperor. He wrote to his wife Josephine that she was a bit coquettish. However, he was impressed, as he later admiringly called her the "only real man in Prussia" and "my beautiful enemy." She calmly asked him to be lenient with her country and to give the monarchy a chance to rebuild so that her children would have a nation to inherit with pride.

Charmed though he was by this unexpected diplomacy, Napoleon was implacable. He showed no kindness to the Prussians, who could have fought on his side instead of against him. He stripped away all territory west of the Elbe River and Prussia's vast Polish territories, demanded financial indemnity, and forced the Prussians to pay the costs of the occupying French forces.

Louise and Frederick William with five of their children

by Heinrich Anton Dähling via Wikimedia Commons

Although she had failed in her mission, it was a moment of triumph for Louise. Already admired by the nation for her modesty and virtue, her bravery placed her among the pantheon of beloved royal women.

Unfortunately, her earthly glory was shortlived. Just three years after that fateful meeting, Louise died at the age of 34. No doubt worn by the stresses of war and defeat, the exhaustion of 10 pregnancies in 15 years, and the deaths of three of her children, Louise died in Frederick William's arms after an illness.

In memory of the woman he had decided to marry on first sight when she was just 17 and he was shy young man of 23, Frederick William created the Order of Louise, a chivalric honor reserved for women. Until the end of the Prussian (and then German) monarchy it was presented to female members of the family and foreign consorts and Queens Regnant.

Louise's legacy stretches far beyond the Order of Louise. Two of her sons became Kings of Prussia, with the second later becoming the first Emperor of Germany, for Prussia had been restored to power and glory after Napoleon's eventual defeat. Her daughter Charlotte married Emperor Nicholas I of Russia, changing her name to Alexandra. More broadly, she remains deeply revered in Germany and beyond. General Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher captured the national grief when he declared upon her death, "our angel is in heaven." Her admirers have continued to praise her over the centuries. Even seventy years after her death, a statue of her was raised in Berlin. In 1923, that admiration grew to cultlike status as the Queen Louise League, with an attached children's branch called Children Circle, was created to promote German nationalism. The league was initially welcomed by the growing Nazi movement but was eventually disbanded with its members integrated into organizations the Nazi party could more directly control.

Over the last century, Louise's story has been retold in many books and films, whether historical or fictional in nature. Today, she is compared to Princess Diana. Not only did she die tragically young like Diana, but one of Louise's first public acts confirmed her as a princess of the people. As a 17-year-old bride arriving to the joyful acclaim of the crowds in Berlin, Louise was noticed to bend down and pick up a child for a kiss. "All hearts go out to meet her!" it was declared.

Thoughout her life and well beyond, only Napoleon's heart has been immune to Louise.

More About Louise
Consort Profile: Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz on The Mad Monarchist
Death of the Most Famous Prussian Monarch on Deutschland Museum
Louise and Napoleon on Heritage History
Louise of Prussia on Heritage History
Louise zu Mecklemburg-Stelitz on Napoleon & Empire
Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Patriotic Queen of Prussia on Quello che Piace a Valeria
Luise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Queen of Prussia on Unofficial Royalty
Luise, regierende Königin von Preussen (dedicated website)
Napoleon Bonaparte and Queen Louise of Prussia on Arrayed in Gold
Napoleon's Beautiful Enemy on Arrayed in Gold
The Life and Death of Louise of Prussia Part One on History of Royal Women
The Life and Death of Louise of Prussia Part Two on History of Royal Women
Queen Louise on Her-storic Royal Dress
Queen Louise on History's Women
Queen Louise on Napoleon.org
Queen Louise of Prussia on Louisa's Place
Queen Louise of Prussia, Part 1 - Mother of Her Nation on Napoleonic Impressions
Queen Louise of Prussia, Part 2- Standing Up to Napoleon on Napoleonic Impressions

Provocative Portraits

2026-03-06T10:34:00.000-05:00

As it turns out, 19th Century men also liked sexy portraits of their wives. Thankfully, renowned royal portraitist Franz Xaver Winterhalter was around to capture that perfect, provocative image before photographs and selfies pushed portrait painting into a different realm. Winterhalter usually painted his royal ladies in grand style, looming large and gorgeous amidst a dramatic setting. For these two paintings, however, he evoked a more intimate image.

Still a newlywed in 1843, Queen Victoria commissioned this portrait for her beloved husband Prince Albert's 24th birthday present. The surprise was greatly appreciated, as Victoria recorded in her journal, "he thought it so like, & so beautifully painted. I felt so happy & proud to have found something that gave him so much pleasure." The painting hung in his writing room at Windsor so that he could look at as he worked. It was also recreated in miniature so that he could carry it with him.

Two decades later, Winterhalter painted a similarly personal portrait of 25-year-old Empress Elisabeth of Austria. Like Victoria and Albert, she and Emperor Franz Joseph were a love match. It is not surprising then that he also kept this portrait in his study so he could look at her when he worked. He had a great need to be able to see her image because, while Victoria and Albert were nearly inseparable, Elisabeth was always restless and frequently traveled leaving her husband at home alone. His loneliness for her was permanently imposed when she was assassinated by an anarchist in 1898. He outlived her by 18 years, but had this portrait to help him remember his beautiful and beloved wife.

A Princess Who Made Her Own Choices

2026-03-02T01:38:00.001-05:00

via Wikimedia Commons

The violet-eyed Princess could not take her eyes off of the handsome young Grand Duke with the piercing light blue eyes. Victoria Melita had always been high-spirited and a bit of a tomboy, but she was on her best behavior on this trip to her mother's homeland for her aunt's funeral in St. Petersburg, Russia. Not quite 15 years old, she was trying to be on her best behavior, but something abour her cousin Kirill Vladimirovich made her heart flutter. He could hardly be more handsome and how dashing--he was, after all, preparing to enter the Imperial Navy the following year, after his 15th birthday.

In that, he was like her beloved father, Prince Alfred Duke of Edinburgh, second son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. A sailor prince whose naval career had caused his second daughter to be born on the Mediterranean island of Malta (and inspired her name, Victoria Melita), Alfred had since been landlocked as the heir to his father's patrimony in Saxe-Coburg, deep in the heart of Germany. Victoria Melita, affectionately called Ducky in the family, was a challenge to her mother, the imperious Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna, who had been delighted to remove her daughter's from the English influences of their father's homeland when they moved to Germany. Now, she was focused on finding sons-in-law that would put her daughter's in positions of power and keep them out of England.

However, a match with Kirill was impossible, no matter how dreamy he might be. He was too far from a throne. More importantly, the Russian Orthodox Church forbade marriage between first cousins. Any thought of Kirill had to be wiped from Ducky's mind. In this, Maria had an unlikely ally: her mother-in-law, Queen Victoria, who would adamantly (but sometimes unsuccessfully) oppose Russian marriages for any of her granddaughters.

And so, Ducky was dragged back to Germany while Kirill went off to the Navy while Mama and Grandmama searched for a more suitable suitor. In fact, Victoria has already started her planning just weeks earlier when Ducky visited her at a her Scottish home in Balmoral at just the same time as another grandchild, Prince Ernest Louis, heir to the Grand Duke of Hesse, also in Germany. He was the only surviving son of Victoria's second daughter Princess Alice. As it turns out, Ducky's English and German relatives had no qualms about marriage among first cousins. Victoria and Albert had been first cousins themselves. The fact that Victoria Melita and Ernest Louis were born on the 25th of November must be a sign of their compatibility. Never mind that neither was very keen on the other. Nevertheless, the two dutiful grandchildren were persuaded to stand together before an altar in 1894. She was 17. He was 25 and had by then succeeded his father as Grand Duke of Hesse-Darmstadt and by Rhine.

Victoria Melita and Elisabeth

by C Ruf via Wikimedia Commons

The newlyweds were immediately fruitful with their daughter, Elisabeth, born just 11 months after the wedding. The couple also engaged in a boisterous social life throwing parties from which anyone over 30 was banned. They filled their circle with progressives and artists and insisted on informality. As a couple, however, they had no spark. Ducky found Ernie cold and undemonstrative. The only thing she enjoyed less about life in Hesse than her husband was probably being his consort. The lively teenager did not feel at all compelled to take up the duties of leading a nation, which often included spending time with people who were far less jolly than she. Ernie was impatient with her attitude. She responded with shouting, throwing both tantrums and tea trays. As with other unhappy royal brides, she escaped outside to ride her beloved horse and to travel internationally while Ernie preferred staying home with their daughter.

When Ducky's Uncle Tsar Alexander III died, the pair traveled together to Russia for the coronation of her cousin Tsar Nicholas II and Ernie's sister, the new Empress Alexandra. Ernie described the coronation as "the most splendid ceremony I have ever seen." Ducky, however, found something else even more splendid: Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich, whose time in the Navy had no doubt added more charm and maturity. Ducky and Cousin Kirill rekindled their childhood flirtation before reality dragged them back into their separate lives.

Ducky escaped Hesse the next year for an extended visit to her older sister, Missy, better known then as Crown Princess Marie of Romania. When she returned north, she allegedly discovered Ernie bedding a male servant. The couple tried to keep up the pretence of their marriage, especially since Grandmama Victoria strictly forbade a divorce, but neither was happy. Ernie would later describe their life together as misery with both staying together mostly for their daughter's sake. Some joy returned when Ducky fell pregnant but a devastating stillbirth in May 1900 sent both careening once again into their separate, unhappy corners. Queen Victoria's death in January 1901 relieved a lot of the opposition to divorc and the two officially split later that year.

Ducky went to live with her mother, splitting their time between Coburg and the French Riviera. Five-year-old Elisabeth spent half the year with Ducky and half with Ernie, but she was often unhappy with her mother, who had never had as strong of a bond with her as Ernie had. In October 1903, Ernie took eight-year-old Elisabeth with him to visit his sister Empress Alexandra of Russia and her family at an imperial hunting lodge. While the grown-ups spent the days hunting, Elisabeth and her cousins, the young Grand Duchesses Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia played games and roamed through the forest. Perhaps after drinking from a contaminated water source in the forest, Elisabeth fell ill with typhoid fever. By the time a telegraph reached Ducky, the little girl was already dead. At the white funeral Ernie arranged for their daughter, Ducky removed her Hessian medallion and placed it on the tiny coffin, making her last break with the marriage that had made her so unhappy.

In the meantime, Kirill's interest in Ducky was growing, to his family's horror. Not only were they scandalized by her divorce, they were still deadset against marriage among cousins. His desperate mother even encouraged him to assuage his longing by taking Ducky as a mistress, but not as a wife. While serving in the Russo-Japanese war, Kirill's ship hit a mine. He suffered debilitating burns and injuries and was sent home. His near death experience led him to make a momentous decision. Both he and Ducky had tried living by others' rules, now they would live by their own.

Kirill and Victoria

by Eduoard Uhlenhuh via Wikimedia Commons

In October 1905, Victoria Melita married Kirill in a simple Orthodox ceremony in her mother's home in Coburg. The marriage was almost more shocking than her divorce had been. Not only had she not sought permission from her uncle King Edward VII of the United Kingdom, as required for a royal princess, but Kirill had not obtained permission from his cousin the Tsar. As the fourth in line for the Russian throne, this decision was monumental. Nicholas II stripped him of his titles and military rank and forbade the newlywed to return to Russia. They lived between Coburg, where their daugther Maria was born in 1907, and Paris, where daughter Kira was born in 1909.

By this time, the Tsar relented in his anger and restored Kirill's titles and rank. Ducky was created Grand Duchess Victoria Feodorovna and launched herself as a social hostess between their homes in St. Petersburg and Tsarskoe Selo. She continued her love of riding and indulged in painting, gardening and home decoration while Kirill took up auto racing. She still enjoyed traveling abroad, especially during the bleak Russian winters opting to spend time with her mother in France or her sister Marie in Romania, far to the south.

The family was summering on their yacht in the Baltic in 1914, stopping off in Riga for one of Kirill's auto races, when the First World War broke out. While Kirill served in Poland on the staff of the commander of the Russian Army, Victoria took on work as a nurse, as so many royal women did. Perhaps drawing on her husband's love of automobiles, she even created a motorized ambuland unit. She sometimes traveled to Romania to assist her sister with war victims. In Russia, however, familial tensions were rising due to the influence of Gregory Rasputin over Nicholas and Alexandra, who believed he could relieve the hemophiliac suffering of their son Tsarevich Alexei. After Imperial relatives murdered Rasputin, the couple joined in requests for leniency for the perpetrators, but Nicholas was unyielding.

The pair remained publicly loyal to the Tsar but they were privately very worried about the future of the monarchy and the dynasty. When the February Revolution of 1917 led to the Tsar's abdication, Kirill and Victoria Melita were secretly siding with the mob that surrounded their palace in St. Petersburg. Kirill and his naval unit swore allegiance to the new Provisional Government. He hoped to preserve the monarchy but many relatives viewed this act as treason. Kirill was forced to resign while Ducky wrote to her sister Marie that they were losing everything.

Now in the early stages of her final pregnancy, 40-year-old Ducky knew they had to escape Russia. The Provisional Government agreed to let them go to Finland, which was a quasi-independent Russian territory at the time. In August 1917, their son Vladimir Kirillovich was born in Finland, but they were rapidly running out of sustenance. By the following summer, when their Russian relatives were being massacred back home, they had been reduced to begging for baby food from family outside of the former empire. Ducky had pleaded with her cousin, now King George V, to send more help for the Romanovs and the Provisional Government, but he had refused. That was a blow that would not heal.

In 1919, after the war, the desperate family went first to her mother in Germany and then on to Switzerland. Later, she inherited her mother's homes in France and Coburg, where Ducky showed an interest in the emerging Nazi party due to its strong stance against the Bolsheviks.

After nursing Kirill through a breakdown in 1923, the couple focused on their dynastic aspirations. While many refused to believe rumors about the murders of the Tsar and his immediate family, Kirill felt it was important to accept them. Once Nicholas' only brother was declared legally dead, he decided to act. Much to the dismay of many Romanovs, he made himself the head of the family and "Guardian of the Throne" and raised his children from Princesses and Prince to Grand Duchesses and Grand Duke. When Germany began strenghthening its relationship with Soviet Russia, the family moved permanently to France.

There, they lived among many British ex-pats and maintained their imperial pretenses. They enjoyed throwing parties and socializing, but their romance came to a shuddering halt when Ducky discovered that his sojourns to Paris were for adultery. She did not seek a divorce as she had with her first husband, but she was devastated. When she suffered a stroke at the age of 59, it was her sister Marie she was glad to see, not her husband. She died surrounded by family and was buried at Coburg. After the fall of the USSR, she and Kirill, who died just two years after her, were among the many Romanovs to be re-interred in St. Petersburg, due in large part to the efforts of their granddaughter, Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna, who today styles herself as Head of the Imperial House of Romanov.

A Powerful Young Woman Who Never Wore a Crown

2026-02-14T00:30:00.002-05:00

Ingeborg's seal

via Wikimedia Commons

Scandinavia was a fairly brutal place in the Middle Ages. The daughter of King Håkan V of Norway would experience this firsthand. Unlike most women of the era, she would hold significant power. However, she would endure terrible deaths of the men in her life.

Ingeborg Håkansdotter was born in 1301 and her fate was determined by the time she was a year old: she was engaged to marry 19-year-old Erik Magnusson, younger brother of King Birger of Sweden. When the brothers had a falling out, the engagement was broken. When they made up, it was reinstated. (Historically, multiple sons guaranteed a king's lineage would hold the throne. However, multiple brothers often meant a king would spend his life battling against the spare heirs.)

In 1312, Erik and his younger brother Valdemar traveled to Norway for a double wedding. Erik married 11-year-old Ingeborg Håkansdotter while Valdemar married her 15-year-old cousin Ingeborg Eriksdotter. The two cousins returned to Sweden with their husbands and began a journey into power as allies. Both gave birth to sons in 1316. Eriksdotter's son would die young, but Håkansdotter's son Magnus would become the primary focus for both women in future years. Ingeborg also had a daughter, Euphemia, in 1317.

Despite their young ages and frail female status, both Ingeborgs were empowered by their husbands to rule their territories were while the two brothers were away once again fighting against their older brother King Birger. A reconciliation was proposed with the king invited Erik and Valdemar to join him for a feast. Birger, however, had other ideas. He captured his troublesome siblings and imprisoned them. Within weeks, both were dead, probably from starvation.

As Birger and his son Magnus Birgersson battled against the ensuing rebellion from the murdered brothers, their young widows consolidated their power. Birger was defeated by an army led by Canute Porse and in July 1319, the Swedish Council elected three-year-old Magnus Eriksson King of Sweden to prevent Birger and his son from regaining power. Both men died soon thereafter. The death of King Håkan of Norway the following month brought another crown to the little King Magnus. Ingeborg, at the age of 18, was the mother of the King of Sweden and Norway. She was named Regent for her son in Norway and she and her cousin Ingeborg sat on his council in Sweden.

Canute Porse became one of Ingeborg's chief advisors and her lover, much to the disgust of others on the council. Canute, after all, was a Dane! A foreigner whispering advice into the ear of the King's mother was not acceptable. During this time, Ingeborg also had a lot of power in her own fiefdoms and she sought to extend her territories into neighboring Scania, which was then part of Denmark. She betrothed her daughter Euphemia to Albert II Duke of Mecklenburg in return for his military support against Scania. When Canute Porse and Ingeborg invaded Scania with authorization only from Norway's council but not from Sweden's and then Mecklenburg withdraw his support, Ingeborg's days as a political leader were rapidly drawing to a close. Many of her decisions were seen as arbitrary, poorly advised by foreigners (including Canute), or too self-interested (as if powerful men of the era were not self-interested...) Norway and Sweden removed her and Canute from power but the couple stayed together and even married. They had two sons before Canute died leaving Ingeborg a widow once again at the age of 29. She continued to hold control over vast amounts of territory and strategic fortresses.

The following year, 15-year-old King Magnus was declared of age to rule on his own. Ingeborg no longer attempted to exert regal power, but she continued to support her son and was sometimes present on state occasions. In 1350, she lost both of her sons by Canute to the plague. They were young adults but left no heirs. Her grandchildren by Magnus both became kings, splitting the personal union of Sweden and Norway with Sweden going to the oldest Eric XII and Norway to the youngest, Håkan VI. One of her grandchildren by Euphemia would also wear the Swedish crown as King Albert.

Ingeborg died in 1361.

More About Ingeborg
All These Ladies Named Ingeborg on The Freelance History Writer
Ingeborg Håkansdotter on Svenskt Kvinnobiografiskt Lexicon
Ingeborg Haakansdotter on Meet the Middle Ages
Queens Regent - Ingeborg of Norway on The History of Royal Women

Farewell Princess Desiree of Sweden

2026-01-28T07:23:00.000-05:00

By SCANPIX via Wikimedia Commons

The 1950s was a heyday for glamorous princesses. Like never before, these beautiful young women were constantly in the public eye, whether representing their monarchs or entertaining with their friends. The most famous was, of course, Queen Elizabeth II's younger sister Princess Margaret along with their younger cousin Princess Alexandra, but Europe was bursting with others. The number of royal princesses born in the 1930s and 1940s outnumbered their royal brothers. Greece boasted two princesses to one prince with the same ratio in Norway. Belgium had an even split: three princesses and three princes. Denmark had three princesses and no princes while The Netherlands had only princesses--four of them!

Sweden also had four princesses and they had one baby brother. Known collectively as the "Haga Princesses" after their childhood home, Princesses Margaretha, Birgitta, Desiree and Christina grew up in a close and loving family. Legally, as women, they were barred from inheriting the throne. So, when the third girl, Desiree, was born on June 2, 1938, there was likely some disappointment that she was not a boy at last. Nevertheless, Desiree, like her sisters became very popular in Sweden and beyond.

The birth of baby brother Carl Gustav in 1946 relieved the looming succession crisis and gave his big sisters an object of adoration. The family's joy, however, was eclipsed just eight months later when their father was killed in a plane crash while returning from a personal visit to The Netherlands. Desiree was eight years old. Their mother, the former Princess Sibylla of Saxe-Coburg, was left to bring up the five children on her own. The princesses were mostly educated at home in small classes with girls of the same age before enrolling at Franska Skolan in Stockholm where classes were taught in French.

Princess Desiree (far right) with her siblings and parents

By Ateljé Jaeger via Wikimedia Commons

Desiree showed an early love of the arts, taking both ballet and piano lessons. She particularly enjoyed drawing and needlework, and later enrolled in a degree program in textiles at Konstfack University College of Arts, Crafts, and Design to learn more about embroidery and weaving. Like most Scandinavians, she enjoyed outdoor sports, excelling at skiing. She studied French in Switzerland. But, Desiree's love for children guided her career choices. After completing a course in infant care, she worked as a preschool teacher and completed internships at a playhouse, a children's hospital and a school for blind children. She was a natural with the youngsters who liked her very much.

At the same time, Desiree had become one of the popular princesses of the 1950s. Her sisters' and her every move was documented in the press. A fact that enabled their grandfather, King Gustav VI Adolf, to expand Swedish interests around the world. Once, while on a goodwill visit to the United States, Desiree drew particular interest because of her attention to a child. When a young four-year-old girl asked the princess for a kiss, Desiree blushingly obliged.

Kisses were likely on Desiree's mind back home, too. While public rumors circulated that Desiree might marry Constantine of Greece (who actually later married her first cousin, Princess Anne Marie of Denmark), Desiree had found love closer to home. She has fallen for Greger "Teddy" Lewenhaupt, an older brother of one her brother's friends. The two were perhaps moving toward an engagement when Teddy was killed in a skiing accident in 1960. The 22-year-old princess had lost someone she loved to tragedy once again.

Her heartbreak began to heal in the next year when she caught the attention of her friend Irma's brother, Niclas Silfverschiold. Four years older than Desiree, Niclas had already completed studies at an agricultural college, served as an officer in the Swedish Army and had taken over the headship of his family and their properties upon his father's death in 1955. He held both Koberg Castle in Vastergotland and Gasevadholm Castle in Halland. The couple were married June 5, 1964 in a royal wedding at Storkyrkan in Stockholm. Desiree wore the same wedding dress her older sister, Brigitta, had worn three years earlier. She also wore the same tiara, the Swedish Cameo Tiara, that has come to be known as the traditional bridal tiara in the Swedish Royal Family. Its most recent wedding appearance was on Desiree's niece and goddaughter, Crown Princess Victoria, at her own wedding in 2010.

Because Niclas was merely a baron and not a prince, Desiree surrendered her royal status to marry him. She was however granted the courtesy of being called "Princess Desiree, Baroness Silfverschiold" for the rest of her life. After their marriage, the couple focused on family life and running the Silfverschiold estates. Desiree rarely took on public duties for the next six decades, although she did appear at large family events and sometimes attended Nobel Prize events, dressed in gala attire with other members of her family.

Embed from Getty Images

Desiree's focus, however, was on motherhood. She and Niclas welcome three children in quick succession. Carl was born nine months after their wedding; Christina 18 months after him; and Helene 24 months after her. While the public might still have thrilled at any news or sightings of her, Desiree was very clear on what was important to her. Once, when her grandfather was still king, he asked what jewelry she would like for her birthday. Desiree requested a tractor instead because "Niclas needs it for farming."

Princess Desiree & Baron Niclas Silfverschiold

By Frankie Fouganthin via Wikimedia Commons

When Sweden finally introduced a law to allow women to inherit the throne, Desiree and her sisters were still barred because the succession was limited only to the descendants of their brother, King Carl XVI Gustaf. Desiree likely was unbothered by this decision. As she said in an interview in 2008, "I now see myself only as a mother and wife and do not attach much importantce to my princessship." She went on to explain, "In principle, I think it is wrong to rely on origins and kinship."

Baron Niclas Silfverschiold passed away at age 82 in 2017. Princess Desiree died at home, surrounded by family, on January 21, 2026 at the age of 87. She is the second Haga Princess to pass; Princess Birgitta died in December 2024, also at the age of 87.

Princess Desiree is survived by her three children and five grandchildren.

Embed from Getty Images

More about Desiree
Heartbreak for the Swedish Royal Family on Tatler
The King of Sweden's Sister, Princess Desiree, Dies on Royal Central
Princess Desiree, Baroness Silfverschiold on The Royal Watcher
Princess Desiree Did Not Want to Rely on Her Royal Title on Sweden Herald
Princess Desiree Has Passed Away on Swedish Royal Court (Official Page)
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The First Isabella of Denmark

2026-01-17T19:05:00.004-05:00

Attributed to the workshop of Pieter van Coninxloo

via Wikimedia Commons

The ultimate power couple of the 16th Century are remembered as Philip the Handsome and Juana the Mad. Their union would unite the farflung European territories of the Holy Roman Empire with the growing global empire of Spain. When Philip died young and Juana's father declared her insane to gain control of her Kingdom of Castile, their children were torn between powerful grandfathers, King Ferdinand of Aragon and Emperor Maximilian. Born in 1501, their third child, Isabella of Austria, was about six years old. She and some of her five siblings were left to the care of their powerful aunt, Margaret of Austria, at her court as Governor of the Hapsburg Netherlands.

Like her mother and aunts on both sides (including the famous Catherine of Aragon), Isabella was very well-educated for a girl of her time. She learned both Greek and Latin and was tutored in the Bible. However, it was her family not her brains that attracted potential suitors. Both her wealth and her connections brought hopeful bridegrooms sniffing around Isabella and her sisters. Not surprisingly all four of them would marry kings. When Christian II of Denmark was selected for Isabella, it was hoped the marriage would push Imperial Hapsburg interest into the northern reaches of the continent, providing more access to trade in the Baltic Sea. At the age of 12, Isabella was married by proxy with her grandfather standing in for her groom. It would be more than a year before she would travel to Denmark along stormy seas. Like so many royal brides before and since, Isabella barely survived the turmoil of the voyage. The convoy of ships was scattered in the maelstrom and the one carrying Isabella nearly shipwrecked.

The barely 14-year-old bride was delighted to meet her 34-year-old husband and the retinue of more than 1,000 people he assembled to greet her. She had fallen in love with his portrait and was likely thrilled by his larger-than-life presence. He showed her the proper respect by having her crowned queen immediately. However, he refused to break from Dyveke Sigbritsdatter, the king's beloved mistress, despite pressure from Isabella's family. It wasn't until after Dyveke's unexpected death in 1517 that Isabella conceived her first child, a boy named John. After that, she delivered new children about every 12-18 months although twin boys born in 1519 both died as babies and her last child was stillborn.

Christian and Isabella, depicted on the altarpiece at Elsinore

from Wikimedia Commons

Her husband's rule over the Kalmar Union (a personal alliance of Denmark, Sweden and Norway under one monarch) was turbulent. He was at almost constant war with Sweden. At one point, he imprisoned several Swedish noblewomen. His determination to starve them to death was halted only by the please for his good wife Isabella, or so the story goes.

Nevertheless, Christian had consolidated his power enough to call a meeting in Stockholm with promises of amnesty for the Swedish leaders in November 1520. Over the course of three days, at least 100 people were executed in an event known as the Stockholm Bloodbath. The massacre earned Christian a new title, "Christain the Tyrant." By 1523, the Swedes finally overthrew their tyrant and ended the Kalmar Union by electing Gustavus Vasa as their new king.

Things were better but not by much in the joing kingdom of Denmark and Norway. His dictatorial ways won him few friends. When he decided that Dyveke had been poisoned, he had a man re-tried and executed after he had already been found innocent. When Christian then took action to decrease the power of the aristocracy, they rose against him in 1523 and sent him into exile offering Denmark and Norway to his uncle, the new King Frederik I. He had lost centuries of Scandinavian union and the crowns of three nations in just one year.

As for Isabella, also known as Elisabeth of Denmark, the people thought she was the opposite of terrible. Instead, they called her "the mother of the people." The new King Frederik even offered to let her stay behind and promised her the income of Dowager Queen. But, Isabella was loyal to her husband. He had, after all, left Denmark under her authority while he was in Sweden. She responded to Frederik, "Wherever my king is, there is my kingdom."

Isabella, Christian and their three surviving children traveled around Europe trying to raise money and support for Christian's restoration. They started in Germany, with Isabella appealing directly to her family. They even went to England where Isabella's aunt, Catherine of Aragon, was still married to King Henry VIII. They returned to Germany and then to the Low Countries, where Isabella had grown up.

Along the way, 24-year-old Isabella became ill. She never fully recovered as their journeys continued. By January of 1526, she declined, dying on January 19 near Ghent, where she was buried at St. Peter's Cathedral. In the late 19th century, she was moved to St. Canute's Cathedral in Odense. Her death caused some controversy as rumors spread that the granddaughter of "The Catholic Kings" of Spain had taken communion in both the Catholic and her husband's new Protestant rituals, an assertion that has not been fully proven.

Isabella's children were taken by her family to ensure they were raised Catholic. Her son John died several years later. Both of her daughters, Dorothea and Christina, grew up and married, but only Christina had children. Through her, Isabella is an ancestress to much of royal Europe including today's Princess Isabella of Denmark, who many believe was named for her.

In 1531, Christian, having returned to Catholicism, finally raised support from Isabella's brother, Emperor Charles V to invade Norway. He failed to capture Oslo and was captured himself. Despite promises of safe passage from his uncle King Frederik, he was imprisoned for 27 years in Denmark. His a gentile confinement, wherein he was allowed to entertain and to hunt to take part in other gentlemanly pursuits. When Frederik died, a small group launched a failed attempt to restore Christian. He remained safely in his captivity and lived until 1559. He had never remarried and was buried with Isabella. He returned with her to Denmark in 1883.

More About Isabella
The Habsburg Sisters Part 11: Isabella von Habsburg on Maidens and Manuscripts
Isabella, Archduchess of Austria, Infanta of Castile and Aragon on Unofficial Royalty
Isabella of Austria on The Creative Historian
Isabella of Austria: The Humble & Dutiful Princess Part One on The History of Royal Women
Isabella of Austria: A Queen with Historic Patience Part Two on The History of Royal Women
When Isabella of Austria Became Elisabeth of Denmark on Stolen Moments

Farewell Princess Irene

2026-01-15T21:10:00.002-05:00

By Javier Gaya via Wikimedia Commons

The Spanish and Greek royal families are mourning the loss of their beloved Aunt Pecu. Princess Irene of Greece died at the age of 83 in her apartment at Zarzuela Palace in Madrid. Irene was born May 11, 1942 as the youngest child of the future King Paul of the Hellenes and the former Princess Frederica of Hanover. She was descended from Queen Victoria, the Russian tsars, and the oldest monarchy in Europe, Denmark. However, she entered the world far from the palaces of her many royal relatives. She arrived on what would have been a fall day in South Africa, where her family had fled following the Nazi invasion of Greece during World War II.

When Irene was two, the family moved to Egypt for a while before returning across the Mediterranean to Greece before her father ascended the throne in 1947. Irene and her siblings, Sofia and Constantine, were a happy threesome. As they grew, their dynastically minded mother became concerned about their futures and wished to see them appropriately married to other royals. And so, it is said, Queen Frederica came up with the idea for the "Cruise of the Kings". Ostensibly created to promote tourism in the Greek isles, the matchmaking stunt brought together royals and their offspring from Greece, Austria, Bulgaria, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Spain, Sweden and Yugoslavia. Since Irene was only 12 that summer, it is not surprising that she did not make a match, but her sister Sofia did meet her future husband, Prince Juan Carlos of Spain. It was that connection that would eventually lead Irene to build her life in Spain, too.

As Irene entered adulthood, her life entered a turbulent phase. Sofia married Juan Carlos, surrendered her right to the Greek throne and moved to Spain. Their father King Paul died leaving Irene as the Crown Princess and heiress to their brother, the new King Constantine II of Greece, until the following year when the first of Constantine's five children was born. The instability of the Greek government that was a repeating motif throughout the 20th Century reared its head in the new reign. The turbulence of a coup and a countercoup ended in a military junta and the royal family escaping by plane to Rome in late 1967.

The 25-year-old Princess Irene spent the next several years traveling with her mother. The pair even spent an extended period in India studying Hinduism. Rumors of royal romance had popped up on occasion. Would she marry a French prince? Or perhaps the Norwegian Crown Prince? Despite the media hype, and perhaps Queen Frederica's wishes, Irene never married anyone. She focused her life on her music as a classical pianist, even performing at London's Royal Festival Hall. She showered love on her nieces and nephews. She also dedicated herself to making the world a better place for people and animals. Since her name means "peace", it is fitting that she founded a charitable organization in 1986 called World in Harmony, with a goal of building support for people in need and safeguarding the welfare of animals.

With her mother's death in 1981, Irene made Spain her permanent home to be near her sister's family. The sisters remained close throughout their lives. Three years ago, they lost their brother and they traveled to Greece to bid him farewell. In Irene's final days, Sofia was at her side, even declining to attend an event where the popular former Queen of Spain was due to receive an award and another where she was to be presented with an honorary degree.

She will be laid to rest at the Royal Burial Grounds at Tatoi in Greece with her brother and their parents.

Irene was perhaps the modern equivalent of the "Renaissance man". She lived on three continents. She studied archeology in Germany, philosophy in India, and music wherever she was. She rescued animals and people. When the European Court of Human Rights awarded her more than half a million dollars of compensation for lost property in Greece, she donated it all to charity.

The Next-to-Last Imperial Romanov

2026-01-11T00:36:00.004-05:00

Princess Vera Constantinovna in 1926
via Wikimedia Commons

Her father's study was familiar and comfortable. Nine-year-old Princess Vera Constantinovna would often sit with him as he wrote his poems and his plays under the pen name, "K.R." -- his initials, Konstantine Romanov. As the youngest of his nine children, he welcomed her presence on this summer day, a quiet moment away from the war that had taken his son Prince Oleg from them the year before.

Suddenly, Vera became frightened, her beloved father was gasping for breath unable to speak. Panic-stricken, the little girl rushed to her mother, the former Princess Elizabeth of Saxe-Altenburg. Shoving aside heavy potted plants that blocked the nearest doorway, she ran from the room, but by the time Vera and Elizabeth returned, Grand Duke Konstantine Konstantinovich, grandson of Tsar Nicholas I and cousin of Tsar Nicholas II, was dead from a heart attack at the age of 64. His death in 1915 spared him the tragedy and struggles his family would face over the next several years.

As the youngest child and baby girl (her only other surviving sister, Princess Tatiana, was 16 years her senior), Princess Vera had lived a peaceful and sheltered life within the wealthy palaces of the Imperial Romanov Family. Just two years younger than Tsarevich Alexei and five years younger than Grand Duchess Anastasia, Vera was a frequent playmate of the Tsar's children. Their mother, Empress Alexandra was among her godparents, so she held a special place in the Imperial household.

Like her Imperial cousins, Vera's mother was also German so she often found herself visiting family in Germany. In 1914, she was in Altenburg with her nearest brother, Prince George, and their parents when World War I started and they found themselves behind enemy lines. The German Empress Augusta Victoria intervened to allow them to return to Russia, where Vera's oldest brothers were already joining the fight. By the end of year, Prince Oleg was wounded and died from his wounds. Among his last words, he expressed happiness that his death would be good for Russia, "It will encourage the troops to know that the Imperial House is not afraid to shed its blood." With their father's unexpected death the following year, Vera's life soon began a rapid descent into uncertainty.

As the failing Russian war effort devolved into revolution, young Vera found herself behind enemy lines in her own country. For the first couple of years, Elizabeth and her younger children survived by selling family jewelry and heirlooms. As the Provisional Government began to fail, all protections for the Romanovs were lost. Elizabeth, Vera and George moved from their palace into an apartment while four of her adult brothers were imprisoned. In July 1918, three of the brothers were among the Romanovs assassinated at Alapaevsk with Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna, the sister of Empress Alexandra. (For Elizabeth Feodorovna's story, see my post The Last of the Romanovs Part 3.) For the rest of her long life, Princess Vera was tormented by nightmares that she, like her brothers, was standing with her back to a pit waiting to be shot.

The murder of her sons at last convinced Elizabeth that she had to flee Russia. With an invitation from her distant cousin, Queen Victoria of Sweden, Elizabeth, Vera, and George traveled by boat through Finland to Sweden. Before long, however, the family could no longer afford to live in Sweden and were allowed to relocate to Belgium. Unfortunately, the group struggled with illness. Once the war had ended, Elizabeth returned to her birthplace in Altenburg. Suffering from tuberculosis, Vera was not able to join her for some time. But, their reunion would be relatively short-lived: Elizabeth succumbed to cancer in 1927 at the age of 62. Vera was not yet 21 years old, living alone in a foreign country with her brother, George. When he decided to move to the United States in 1929, Vera was truly on her own as another World War loomed.

Vera was able to work as a translator at a prisoner of war camp but lost her job because the Nazis discovered that she was trying to help the prisoners. She remained in Germany throughout the war, but she faced even greater dangers as the Nazis began to lose and the Soviets started to invade Germany. A Romanov Princess would find no safety under the Soviet control of what soon be East Germany. Like thousands of other refugees, Princess Vera walked 150 miles to Hamburg in the Western zone. She once again put her language skills to work as a translator for a succession of different institutions over the next several years.

By 1951, she decided to leave Europe, moving to the United States, although her brother George had died there several years earlier. She worked in aid of Russian immigrants and refugees in New York for 20 years. For the next 30 years, she lived in peaceful retirement, dying on January 11, 2001 at the age of 94, reminding us that her playmates, Anastasia and Alexei, might well have survived into this century had they not been slaughtered as children in revolutionary Russia. Among the Romanovs who were able to escape Russia, Vera was the next-to-last to die. The last was her niece, Princess Catherine Ivanovna, who died at the age of 91 in 2007 in Uruguay.

Although she did not hold any particular awe for the glories of her family's imperial past (in fact, she thought it was odd that the Orthodox Church made saints of her "martyred" brothers and relatives), Princess Vera always treasured Russia in her heart, proclaiming, "I did not leave Russia. Russia left me."

For more about Princess Vera and her immediate family's escape from Russia, see my post The Last of the Romanovs Part 4.

Royal Ladies of the United Kingdom

2026-01-03T17:21:00.004-05:00

The British Royal Family is probably the best-known royal family in the world. Most people can probably name a couple of its members, some can name several, but very few know who everyone is. In the United Kingdom, the members of the "Royal House" or "Royal Family" are not as definitively established as in some other countries. Various Letters Patent have outlined who is entitled to royal titles: specifically, the children of the monarch, male-line grandchildren, and the children of the oldest son of the Prince of Wales. However, these guidelines are not always employed. So, we tend to include members of the King Charles' family on his mother's side who are first- or second-generation descendants of a monarch. In recent years, distinction has been drawn between "working royals" and "nonworking royals".

Here is a quick guide to the women who are members of the British Royal Family and what makes them "royal":

by Isaac Maynes of DCMS
via Wikimedia Commons

Her Majesty The Queen

Birth Name: Camilla Rosemary Shand
AKA: Camilla Parker Bowles
Birth: July 17, 1947 in London
Former Title: The Duchess of Cornwall (Prior to her husband's accession, she chose to use one of his lesser titles rather than be called The Princess of Wales, out of respect to the memory of his former wife, Diana)
Spouse: His Majesty The King (Charles III)
Former Spouse: Andrew Parker Bowles
Children: Tom Parker Bowles and Lara Lopes by her first husband. The Prince of Wales and The Duke of Sussex are her stepchildren.
Areas of Interest: health, literacy, victims of sexual abuse and domestic violence, animals (particularly rescue dogs), empowering women, and the arts
Royal Connection: Spouse of King Charles III
Working Royal? Yes

From UK Government
via Wikimedia Commons

Her Royal Highness The Princess of Wales

Birth Name: Catherine Elizabeth Middleton
Birth: January 9, 1982 in Reading, England
Education: University of St Andrews (where she met her husband)
Former Career: fashion accessories buyer, web/print marketing
Other Titles: The Duchess of Cornwall, Duchess of Rothesay, Duchess of Cambridge, Countess of Chester, Countess of Strathearn, Baroness Carrickfergus
Spouse: His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales (Prince William)
Children: Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis of Wales
Areas of Interest: early childhood, mental health, sport and outdoors, visual arts
Royal Connection: Daughter-in-law of King Charles III
Working Royal? Yes

Her Royal Highness Princess Charlotte of Wales

Birth Name: Princess Charlotte Elizabeth Diana of Cambridge
Birth: May 2, 2015
Known Interests: piano, sport, Taylor Swift
Royal Connection: Male-line granddaughter of King Charles III
Working Royal? No but maybe in adulthood

From UK Home Office

via Wikimedia Commons

Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal

Birth Name: Princess Anne Elizabeth Alice Louise of Edinburgh
Birth: August 15, 1950 in London
Notable Achievements: Olympic equestrian athletes (1972 Calgary Games) and 1971 Gold Medalist in European Eventing Championships
Other Title: The Princess Anne
Current Spouse: Sir Timothy Laurence
Former Spouse: Mark Phillips
Children: Peter Phillips and Zara Phillips Tindall
Areas of Interest: International Olympic Committee, Save the Children, sport, sciences, people with disabilities
Royal Connection: Daughter of Queen Elizabeth II
Working Royal? Yes

by UKinUSA

via Wikimedia Commons

Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Edinburgh

Birth Name: Sophie Helen Rhys-Jones
Birth: January 20, 1965 in Oxford, England
Education: West Kent College, Tonbridge
Career: Led her own firm, RJH Public Relations
Other Titles: Countess of Wessex, Countess of Forfar, Viscountess Severn
Spouse: His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh (Prince Edward)
Children: Lady Louise Mountbatten-Windsor and James Earl of Wessex
Areas of Interest: children, preventable blindness, gender equality, people with disabilities, and agriculture
Royal Connection: Daughter-in-law of Queen Elizabeth II
Working Royal? Yes

by Richard Gough
via Wikimedia Commons

Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Gloucester

Birth Name: Birgitta Eva Van Deurs Henrikssen
Birth: June 20, 1946 in Odense, Denmark
Education: Diploma in Commercial and Economic Studies, Copenhagen
Former Career: Secretary, Royal Danish Embassy London
Other Titles: Countess of Ulster, Baroness Culloden
Spouse: His Royal Highness The Duke of Gloucester (Prince Richard)
Children: Alexander Earl of Ulster, The Lady Davina Windsor, The Lady Rose Gilman
Areas of Interest: lawn tennis, youth, Parkinson's research, the arts, St. Paul's Cathedral
Royal Connection: Granddaughter-in-law of King George V (father-in-law was The Prince Henry The Duke of Gloucester)
Working Royal? Yes

By LancasterII

via Wikimedia Commons

Her Royal Highness Princess Alexandra, The Honourable Lady Ogilvy

Birth Name: Princess Alexandra Helen Elizabeth Olga Christabel of Kent
Birth: December 25, 1926 in London, England
Career/Education: trained as a nurse at Great Ormond Street Hospital, London but did not practice
Late Spouse: Sir Angus Ogilvy, KVCO, PC
Children: James Ogilvy, Marina Ogilvy
Areas of Interest: mental health care, palliative care, international aid, medical research
Royal Connection: Male-line granddaughter of King George V (through The Prince George, The Duke of Kent)
Working Royal? Yes

From the Office of the
Governor General New Zealand
via Wikimedia Commons

Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Sussex

Birth Name: Rachel Meghan Markle (Meghan)
Birth: August 4, 1981 in Los Angeles
Education: Northwest University
Career: actress, lifestyle influencer, activist
Other Titles: Countess of Dumbarton, Baroness Kilkeel
Spouse: His Royal Highness The Duke of Sussex (Prince Harry)
Former Spouse: Trevor Engelson
Children: Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet of Sussex
Areas of Interest: gender equality, mental health, gun safety, lifestyle/fashion, economic development
Royal Connection: Daughter-in-law of King Charles III
Working Royal? No

Her Royal Highness Princess Lilibet of Sussex

Birth Name: The Lady Lilibet Diana Mountbatten-Windsor
Birth: June 4, 2021 in Santa Barbara, California
Royal Connection: Male-line granddaughter of King Charles III
Working Royal? No

By ITU Pictures
via Wikimedia Commons

Her Royal Highness Princess Beatrice

Birth Name: Princess Beatrice Elizabeth Mary of York
Birth: August 8, 1988 in London
Education: Goldsmiths, University of London
Career: Vice President of Partnerships and Strategy, Afiniti
Philanthropic Interests: dyslexia, children, anti-bullying
Distinction: 1st British royal woman to earn a university degree; 1st British royal to complete a marathon
Spouse: Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi
Children: Sienna and Athena Mapelli Mozzi; Wolfie Mapelli Mozzi is her stepson
Royal Connection: Male-line granddaughter of Queen Elizabeth II (through the former Prince Andrew)
Working Royal? No

by Mark Jones

via Wikimedia Commons

Her Royal Highness Princess Eugenie

Birth Name: Princess Eugenie Helena Victoria of York
Birth: March 23, 1990 in London
Education: Newcastle University
Career: Vice President of Partnerships and Strategy, Afiniti
Philanthropic Interests: anti-slavery, sustainable development,
Spouse: Jack Brooksbank
Children: August and Ernest Brooksbank
Royal Connection: Male-line granddaughter of Queen Elizabeth II (through the former Prince Andrew)
Working Royal? No

The Lady Louise Mountbatten-Windsor

Birth Name: The Lady Louise Alice Elizabeth Mary Mountbatten-Windsor
Birth: November 8, 2003 in Surrey, England
Education: University of St Andrews
Career: studying English
Title?: Her Royal Highness Princess Louise of Edinburgh (Although provided for by Letters Patent in 1917, her parents chose to style their children as children of an Earl. As an adult, she could opt to use her "rightful" royal title.)
Interests: equestrian sports, carriage driving, outdoor sports
Royal Connection: Male-line granddaughter of Queen Elizabeth II (through The Prince Edward, The Duke of Edinburgh)
Working Royal? No

by Mark Jones
via Wikimedia Commons

Her Royal Highness Princess Michael of Kent

Birth Name: Baroness Marie-Christine Anna Agnes Hedwig Ida von Reibnitz
Birth: January 14, 1945 in Karlsbad, Greater German Reich (now Czech Republic)
Education: Northwest University
Career: author, interior designer
Spouse: His Royal Highness Prince Michael of Kent
Former Spouse: Thomas Troubridge
Children: Lord Frederick Windsor, Lady Gabriella Kingston
Areas of Interest: cheetah conservation, natural history
Royal Connection: Granddaughter-in-law of King George V (father-in-law was Prince Michael of Kent)
Working Royal? No

Surrounded by Tragedies: A Lesser-Known Victoria

2025-12-06T13:16:00.003-05:00

The Hesse sisters: (from left) Irene, Victoria, Elizabeth
and Alix
By Carl Backofen via Wikimedia Commons

When the Bolsheviks wreaked their vengeance on the Romanov Dynasty in 1919 Russia, the Imperial Family was literally decimated. Grand Dukes and Grand Duchesses and Princes galore were slaughtered indiscrimanantly. Even the Czar's five children and their pet dog were viciously murdered.

While the surviving Romanovs fled from Russia using any means they could, in faraway England, a princess was deeply aggrieved. Two of her sisters, the famously beautiful Ella and Alix, were among the Romanov carnage. Their big sister Victoria was powerless to save them.

Born in 1863 at Windsor Castle, Princess Victoria of Hesse was the first child of Queen Victoria's second daughter, Princess Alice, who had married the future Grand Duke Ludwig IV of Hesse and by Rhine just nine months earlier. As the oldest child, Victoria was very caring toward her younger siblings, which eventually included four sisters and two brothers. Her role grew even stronger as tragedies started to impact the happy family. The first occurred when her youngest brother Friedrich died at age two. The toddler fell from a window while playing with his brother. He survived the fall but could not recover from uncontrolled internal bleeding due to the hemophilia he, like so many of his royal cousins, had inherited. The distraught family had managed to move on without little Frittie, as they called him, when a wave of diptheria hit the household. Fifteen-year-old Victoria grew ill first. Each of her siblings sickened one by one, except for Princess Elizabeth, who had been sent to their grandmother.

Princess Alice, who was both a devoted mother and a trained nurse, labored day and night caring for ailing children, always careful not to touch them in order to avoid the disease herself. Within 10 days, four-year-old Princess Marie succumbed, choking to death from the growth in her throat before Alice could get to her. Alice hid her grief in order to keep the traumatic news from her other young patients. When she finally told her son, Prince Ernest, his devastation overwhelmed her. She kissed the sobbing boy to soothe him. In less than two weeks, at the age of 35, Alice became the first of Queen Victoria's children to predecease her. (See my post Kiss of Death.)

Now recovered, Princess Victoria no doubt felt the loss of her mother and her baby sister very deeply, but she was a creature of duty. She took her role as oldest daughter quite seriously and would try her best to guide her younger siblings in the following years. She had to grow up quickly, assuming the role of first lady at her father's court and acting as hostess and taking on official duties. As she would later admit, her childhood ended with her mother's death. She had some help, though, as Grandmother Victoria became determined to mother the Hessian children from afar. Letters constantly flowed from Britain to Germany and back and as frequently as possible, Victoria and her siblings were often with Victoria at her homes in England, Scotland and on the Isle of Wight. In many ways, Princess Victoria was raised more English than German despite her father's role on the Continent despite her main home in Darmstadt, where English nannies led the nursery.

The extensive and intermingled royal families frequently gathered not just in Britain but across Europe for various weddings, births, coronations, and funerals. Victoria undoubtedly encountered the handsome Battenberg princes on many occasions before she decided to marry the oldest one, Prince Louis. Despite being her father's cousin, her father did not approve of the match. The Battenberg princes, you see, had been born of a misalliance. It had been quite a scandal when their father, Prince Alexander of Hesse and By Rhine, eloped with his sister's lady-in-waiting Countess Julia von Hauke, who was a ward of Russian Tsar Nicholas I. The Tsar has planned for Alexander to marry his daughter and forbade the match and kicked Alexander out of the Russian military. The couple escaped to Breslau and married just six months before their first child, Marie, was born. In short order, four boys joined the nursery.

Despite the Tsar's rage, Alexander's brother, Grand Duke Ludwig II, forgave the couple although he would only recognize the match as morganatic. Initially, he granted Julia the title Countess of Battenberg and granted her children rank commiserate with her rather than their princely father. When young Count Louis of Battenberg was four years old, Julia was granted the rank and style Her Serene Highness. Although her children were still barred from the Hessian succession, they also became Serene Highnesses with princely titles.

By Alexander Bassano in the National Portrait Gallery

via Wikimedia Commons

Prince Louis was a favorite of Victoria's mother Princess Alice, who encouraged him to join the British Royal Navy. At age 14, he was admitted to the Navy despite some physical limitations (like a small chest and some less-than-perfect vision) that would have prevented young men with less exalted sponsors from success. By the time he married Victoria, he had sailed in the late Admiral Nelson's flagship, accompanied the Prince and Princess of Wales on a cruise in the Mediterranean and Black Seas, served in the North American and West Indies fleet, accompanied the Prince of Wales to India, and served with the Duke of Edinburgh during the Russo-Turkish War (with his brother Prince Alexander fighting on the other side). After that, he served alongside the Prince of Wales' sons Prince Albert Victor and Prince George on a cruise around the world, with ports in South Africa, South America, Australia, and Asia. Then, he went to Bulgaria, where his brother Alexander has been made the Sovereign Prince, and went with him on a tour of the Ottoman Empire and the Holy Land.

It is little wonder that the young and somewhat sheltered Princess Victoria was enamored with the handsome and worldly prince. Victoria's father's objections could not withstand pressure from her grandmother Queen Victoria who had already allowed one of her daughters to marry into the Scottish nobility. If she determined that the Battenbergs were good enough for her granddaughter, Grand Duke Ludwig could hardly raise concerns. Grand Duke Ludwig still managed to cause disruption during Louis and Victoria's wedding celebrations while all of the family, including Queen Victoria, were gathered. He hypocritically married a mere countess, Alexandrine von Hutten-Czapska.

After the wedding, the 21-year-old bride and 30-year-old groom lived primarily in England, where Louis continued to advance up the ranks in his naval career. They immediately started their family. Princess Alice was born at Windsor Castle nine months after the wedding. Princess Louise arrived four years later followed by Prince George three years after her. Their fourth and final child, Prince Louis, was born eight years after George. He was therefore only a toddler when his big sister Alice married into the Greek Royal Family.

Victoria and Louis on Malta with their two
eldest children, Alice (standing) and Louise
possibly by Richard Ellis via Wikimedia Commons

The family also had a home in Germany and would winter in Malta when the elder Prince Louis was with the Mediterranean fleet. Like her mother before her, Victoria was a hands-on mother. She not only nurtured and cared for her young ones, with help from a nursery staff of course, but also gave them lessons, earning a compliment from her youngest child, who later called her "an encyclopedia." The younger Prince Louis, later known as Earl Mountbatten of Burma, credited her with teaching them hard work and recalled that she was more outspoken than other royals and also said she was free from prejudice.

As Victoria's siblings married and had children, this meant frequent visits to Germany, where Irene had married Prince Heinrich of Prussia, and to Russia, where Elizabeth had married a Grand Duke and Alix had married the Tsar. In fact, Victoria was on an extended visit to Russia with her daughter Louise in 1914 when the first World War started. The pair hurried from deep within the nation, where they had seen both the school at Alapayevsk and the Ipatiev House, which would have a much darker meaning later. They rushed to St. Petersburg and escaped into Finland. From thence, they went to Sweden and on to Norway where the caught the last ship to Britain.

Back home, Louis had been promoted to First Sea Lord in 1912. As the top commander of the British Navy, he had spent years preparing for a potential war against his homeland. When the war finally came, his four decades of service in the British armed forces, his close connections to the British Royal Family, and his family's residency in England, did nothing to protect him from the anti-German sentiment that stirred across the country. With the start of the war, he was forced into retirement. In 1917, when the British Royal Family changed its name to Windsor to emphasize its Britishness over Germanic roots, the Battenbergs did likewise. Their name was anglicized to Mountbatten and they surrendered their princely titles. Victoria's cousin, King George V, created Louis Marquess of Milford Haven. Their eldest son took on his secondary title of Earl of Medina. Their unmarried children became Lady Louise Mountbatten and Lord Louis Mountbatten. Only their eldest child, Alice, who had married Prince Andrew of Greece in 1903 was unaffected by the change.

But, the war was to have a far worse impact on the family the following summer. As Russia withdrew from the war effort to focus on its internal Revolution, Victoria's sisters Elizabeth and Alix (now known as Alexandra) were trapped behind the lines and captured by the Bolsheviks. For two months, Elizabeth and several Romanov relatives were imprisoned at the school in Alapayevsk that Victoria had visited before the war. On July 18, 1918, they were taken to a mine and beaten. They were thrown alive into the mine shaft with grenades thrown after them. After a time, the assassins could hear Elizabeth leading them in signing hymns. Another grenade was thrown in followed by wood that was set alight.

In the nearby town of Yekaterinburg, a perhaps even more horrifying massacre had taken place at the Ipatiev House, which Victoria had also seen on her last fateful visit to Russia. There, Alexandra, her husband, and their five children aged 13 to 22, together with several trusted supporters and their pet dog were shot down by firing squad and the women were mercilessly bayonetted when the bullets failed to kill them. Their bodies were disposed of in the forest in another mine shaft.

The violent slaughter of two beloved sisters, four nieces, and a young nephew must have been incredibly devastating for Victoria, the big sister who had mothered them after the early death of their mother. It is impossible to even imagine how she must have felt, safe in her English home far from the madness that destroyed so many of her beloved relatives. Alexandra's family would not be found for many years, but Elizabeth's was recovered more quickly. Several years after the way, in 1921, Victoria and Louis accompanied her earthly remains to Jerusalem where she was reburied at the Church of Mary Magdalene on the Mount of Olives. Decades later, Elizabeth, Alexandra, Nicholas and the five children were all recognized as saints of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Closer to home, Victoria's family was thriving. George had married and presented to two grandchildren: Tatiana and David. Alice had given birth to four Princesses of Greece and Denmark: Margarita, Theodora, Cecilie and Sophie before finally being delivered of a son, Prince Philip, in 1921. Young Louis married in 1922 and welcomed two daughters, Patricia and Pamela, in quick succession. Finally, Louise married the widowed Crown Prince of Sweden in 1922 becoming a beloved stepmother to his five children.

By Philip de Laszlo via Wikimedia Commons

Victoria's growing family was still touched by grief. Late in the summer of 1921, her husband grew ill with influenza and died from heart failure that September. The following year, Alice and her family had to be rescued by the British Navy from yet another uprising in Greece. Within a decade, Alice's husband had taken up residence with his mistress and Alice's behavior grew increasingly disturbing. Among other things, she believed she was receiving divine messages, which led Victoria to have her institutionalized. She was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. Nine-year-old Philip became Victoria's ward. He spent the rest of his childhood shuttled among his sisters (who had all married into German houses soon after their mother's hospitalization), his mother's brothers, and boarding schools. But, he remembered his grandmother very fondly, recalling that she knew how to handle children with a perfect balance of "the rational and the emotional."

In her widowhood, Victoria's cousin, King George V, had granted her Apartment 7 at Kensington Palace. Her close ties to many of Europe's reigning and exiled royal families earned her a place as a wise and respected materfamilias. But, the 1930s brought more heartache. First, the family was touched by scandal when Victoria's daughter-in-law Nadejda Marchioness of Milford Haven and her granddaughter Margarita's husband Gottfried were both named as lovers of Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt in the famous American custody battle over "Little Gloria." Then, in 1937 true tragedy struck when Victoria's granddaughter Cecilie died in a plane crash with her husband, mother-in-law, two young sons, and an infant, whose birth occurred in the crash. A year later, Victoria lost her oldest son George to bone cancer.

The onset of World War II saw the bombing of Kensington Palace and Victoria joined other members of the British Royal Family at Windsor for a time, while her son Louis and grandsons David and Philip fought in the British Navy against their German cousins. Princess Alice who had recovered enough to be freed from the sanatorium, had returned to Greece and worked for the Red Cross looking after orphans and the poor. Her efforts to protect Greece's Jewish population would later earn her Israel's designation as Righteous Among the Nations. For the time being, however, she had no contact with her family, including her worried mother. Only Louise was safe in neutral Sweden, where she was able to pass letters among family members on either side of the war.

Victoria's children and grandchildren survived the war without further loss and the family emerged into a bright spotlight when her youngest grandson Prince Philip married Princess Elizabeth, the heiress to the British throne. By then in her 80s, Victoria lived long enough to witness the christening of Philip's firstborn child, who now serves as King Charles III.

A lifelong smoker, Victoria died from bronchitis at Kensington Palace at the age of 87, having survived her husband by nearly 30 years. She left behind only one of her six younger siblings, three surviving children (one of whom, Louis, would be assassinated in 1979), eight surviving grandchildren, and many great-grandchildren. She is buried on the Isle of Wight, where, as a motherless young girl, she had spent many holidays with the grandmother for whom she was named.

More About Victoria
Eyewitness Accounts - 1914 Trip to Russia - Victoria Remembers on Alexander Palace Time Machine
The Life of Princess Victoria of Hesse and By Rhine on Queen Victoria's Roses
Princess Victoria of Hesse and By Rhine on Crowns Tiaras and Coronets
Princess Victoria, Marchioness of Milford Haven on Royal Watcher Blog
Queen Victoria's Journal - The Wedding of Princess Victoria of Hesse and Prince Louis of Battenberg on Queen Victoria's Roses
Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine - Conclusion on European Royal History

The Princess of Downton Abbey

2025-09-14T15:42:00.004-04:00

The popular Downton Abbey series of period television shows and movies has been known to feature royals throughout its run. The first film, 2019's simply titled Downton Abbey, built the main storyline around the Crawley family and their servants preparing for a visit from King George V and Queen Mary. The latest film, Downton Abbey: Grand Finale, features a much less well-known royal. In the film, she is referred to only as Princess Arthur of Connaught but in real life, she bore many titles and was positioned at the center of several royal families, not just the British one.

At her birth in 1891, Lady Alexandra Victoria Alberta Edwina Louise Duff was yet another great-grandchild of Queen Victoria. However, she already bore several distinctions. She was the first of Victoria's direct descendants who was not born as a prince or princess. Albeit, she was the first living grandchild of the future King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra; her older brother had been stillborn the year before. She was fifth in line to the throne after her grandfather, her uncle Albert Victor (who would die the next year), her uncle George and her mother.

Baby Alexandra's mother was the oldest daughter of Edward and Alexandra (known as Bertie and Alix in the family), Princess Louise, who would later bear the title Princess Royal. Louise had married a nobleman, Alexander Duff 6th Earl of Fife, who was 18 years older than her and a good friend of her father. Upon the marriage, Queen Victoria elevated the groom to Duke of Fife. The couple's second daughter, Lady Maud, was born two years after Alexandra. The family lived a relatively quiet life adjacent to the more public-facing members of the family.

After 10 years of marriage, Queen Victoria paid the family a great honor. When she had first created Alexander Duke of Fife, the creation limited the title's descent only to male heirs. By 1900, it was fairly clear that the title would likely become extinct. So, Queen Victoria re-created the title again, this time allowing it to go to a female heir. Thus, seven-year-old Lady Alexandra Duff became one of those rare creatures among the British aristocracy: the heiress of a noble title in her own right.

Alexandra between her parents, Louise
and Alexander, with sister Maud, 1902
By Alexander Corbett via Wikimedia Commons

A few years later, Alexandra and Maud would be elevated even further. Their grandfather had succeeded Queen Victoria in 1901. It seemed to rankle him that any of his grandchildren did not have princely titles. In the modern British Royal Family, titles are only granted to male-line descendants of the monarch. His son and heir George's children had titles and his daughter Maud's newborn son was born a Prince of Denmark, but King Edward's daughter Louise's children were merely ladies. On November 9, 1905, at the same time that he created Louise Princess Royal, he granted her daughters the rank and style of Highness and Princess, with precedence above all others except Royal Highnesses. Thus, 14-year-old Lady Alexandra Duff became Her Highness Princess Alexandra. She and her sister are often referred to as Princess of Fife, but this is not technically correct since their status does not come from their father but from their maternal grandfather.

The next time Princess Alexandra made headlines was in 1910. Her mother's cousin, the handsome and poetic Prince Christopher of Greece, had spent some time visiting with the wealthy Fife family. The 19-year-old princess and 22-year-old prince apparently developed a passionate affection for each other and may even have become unofficially engaged. The royal romance sparked the rumor mills at home and abroad, even prompting an announcement by The New York Times. However, perhaps under pressure from her disapproving parents, the romance ended. Christopher later shared the young couple was not very heartbroken, having been more in love with love than with each other. The papers found other alleged suitors for Alexandra, including the King of Portugal. Alas, papers of the time often published such romantic nonsense.

The Fife family were tightly knit and spent most of their time away from the court or from Bertie's Marlborough House set. They gave Louise's poor health as the reason for their limited forays into royal duties. When they traveled abroad, it was often for the benefit of her health. Choosing the dry Egyptian climate over the wet winters of England and Scotland. In late 1911, their annual escape to Egypt led to high drama. The family was aboard the SS Delhi when it shipwrecked during a terrible storm off the north African coast. The passengers were rushed into a rescue boat but that boat was overcome by the rough seas and sank. Despite wearing a life vest, Alexandra went under the waves and took in great gulps of water. She likely would have drowned had she not been pulled to safety. Her parents and sister were also dragged from the waves. Once ashore, they had to walk four miles through the storm to find refuge at a lighthouse. They then endured a 10-mile ride on donkeys to the British Legation at Tangier. At first, all seemed well with the family reporting back to Britain and to journalists that they had suffered no lasting harm. However, as they traveled along to Egypt and sailed up the Nile, it became clear that the 71-year-old Duke was not recuperating after all. He had developed pleuriscy. He died in Egypt on January 29, 1912 and Alexandra became the 2nd Duchess of Fife. As such, she was one of the largest landowners in Scotland -- the title came with 250,000 acres and 14 country houses.

Prince and Princess Arthur of
Connaught on their wedding day
from Hans van Marwijk via Wikimedia Commons

The following year, the still grieving family were delighted to welcome a new member when Alexandra married her mother's cousin Prince Arthur of Connaught, only son of Queen Victoria's third son, at Chapel Royal in St. James's Palace. With this, her title and status were raised once again. Despite the fact that she was higher in the line of succession than her husband, he was a male-line descendant. Thus, she became Her Royal Highness Princess Arthur of Connaught. She was usually referred to this way rather than with her own title as Duchess of Fife.

Arthur held a prominent position within the British Royal Family. After the death of King Edward in 1910 and accession of Alexandra's uncle King George V, Arthur and his father, who was also named Arthur, were the only adult royal princes. As his bride, Alexandra took on a much more public role than she had previously held.

The couple's only child Prince Alaistair of Connaught was born 10 months after the wedding, just 12 days after the start of World War I. The war, of course, separated the family, who had taken up residence in Mayfair. Prince Arthur served with the British Expeditionary Force in France and Belgium. Back home, Alexandra followed the same route as many of her female relatives on both sides of the war: she became a nurse at St. Mary's Hospital, Paddington. (From the 1970s, most members of the British Royal Family have been born there.)

The war had a direct impact on the family. Cousin King George V did not agree with the expansion of royal titles that his father had implemented for the Fife girls. The war only excerbated his concerns that the public would grow tired of too many royals, especially as the family's ties to German royals were called into question. In 1917, the King officially changed the House of Saxe-Coburg to the House of Windsor and re-christened his British-dwelling cousins who had Germanic names and titles to British names and titles. The Battenbergs became the Mountbattens. The Tecks became the Cambridges. He also limited princely titles to the children and male-line grandchildren of the monarch. While he did not undo his father's creation of Alexandra and her sister as Princesses, as many other princes and princesses who could be demoted to lower titles, were demoted. This included Alexandra's son, Prince Alastair of Connaught. From then on, he was known by his mother's secondary title as Earl of Macduff.

By Alexander Corbett via Wikimedia Commons

After the war, Alexandra continued her nursing career, specializing in gynecology. She was well-respected in her field. She won a prize for a paper on preeclampsia and earned a certificate of merit. Her nursing career was interrupted from 1920 to 1923 when her husband served as Governor General of South Africa. The family was popular there, especially Alexandra, who found many ways to support nursing, hospitals and childcare there. But, she missed her hands-on work.

When they returned to Britain, Alexandra eagerly returned to her chosen career although with a degree of anonymity. She switched her specialization to the operating theater and became known as Nurse Marjorie, first at University College Hospital and later at Charing Cross Hospital. One patient's father, gave the anonymous royal a sixpence to thank her for helping his daughter. The coin became a treasured keepsake for the princess. In 1925, her uncle King George V honored her with the Royal Red Cross Badge in recognition of her service to nursing.

During the late 1920s, Alexandra's mother Louise Princess Royal became very ill. She suffered for several years with gastric hemorrhaging and then heart disease. Her death in 1931, with daughters Alexandra and Maud, at her side was seen as a relief by many in the family. She undoubtedly benefited in those final years from Alexandra's expertise as a nurse.

Like his wife, Prince Arthur also took an interest in hospitals, serving the chairman of Middlesex Hospital's Board of Directors. He held several other leadership roles, particularly across Berkshire, where King George appointed him High Steward in 1935. The family attended the coronation of Alexandra's cousin King George VI in 1937 but they had little time left together. Arthur developed stomach cancer and passed away in 1938 at the age of 55. Alexandra was 47 and their son Alastair was 24. Four years later, when Alexandra's father-in-law died, Alastair became the 2nd Duke of Connaught.

Undaunted, Alexandra continued her nursing work. By the outbreak of World War II in 1939, she was offered the position of matron in a country hospital, but she preferred to be closer to the troops. She accepted a role at the Second British General Hospital, working with the servicemen who were being evacuated from Dunkirk.

Alexandra with baby Alastair
from Bain News Service in the US Library of Congress
via Wikimedia Commons

She then financed and equipped her own nursing home, the Fife Nursing Home, and personally ran it for over a decade. Although she was fully engaged in her passion for nursing and health care, Alexandra was still not exempt from more personal tragedy. Her only child Alastair had graduated Sandhurst in 1935 and entered full-time Army service, including time in Palestine and in Egypt where his maternal grandfather had died three decades earlier. During World War II, he was appointed aide-de-camp to the Earl of Athlone, a royal relative serving as Governor General in Canada. On April 26, 1943, Alastair was found dead in or near his room at the Governor General's official residence of Rideau Hall. Reported at the time as death from natural causes, the truth has never been publicly clear. Early reports said he had died of hypothermia from an open window. Later reports agreed that hypothermia had killed him but only because he had fallen from his window after drinking heavily. Whatever actually happened, his mother was almost certainly devastated to lose her only child at the age of 28. Two and a half years later, her only sibling, Maud, passed away from bronchitis.

Throughout the 1940s, Alexandra increasingly suffered from crippling rheumatoid arthritis, which eventually left her bedbound. She closed her nursing home and focused on writing in the 1950s. She shared her work privately. One volume focused on her nursing career, while another detailed her family's horrific shipwreck. She passed away in February 1959 at the age of 67. Her titles passed to her sister Maud's only child, James Carnegie, who became the 3rd Duke of Fife. The title is currently held by his son.

Princess Arthur's depiction in Downton Abbey: Grand Finale takes place at a moment when she did have a quite prominent role in the royal family. Set in June 1930, two months before the birth of Princess Margaret, Alexandra was still in the Top Ten of the Line of Succession, which looked like this:

1. The Prince of Wales (later Edward VIII and then The Duke of Windsor)
2. The Duke of York (later George VI)
3. Princess Elizabeth of York (later Elizabeth II)
4. The Duke of Gloucester
5. The Prince George (later The Duke of Kent)
6. The Princess Mary, Countess of Harewood (later The Princess Royal)
7. Viscount Lascelles
8. The Honourable Gerald Lascelles
9. The Princess Royal
10. Princess Arthur of Connaught

Princess Arthur AKA Princess Alexandra AKA 2nd Duchess of Fife was 17th in line at the time of her death. She lived during six reigns, those of her great-grandmother Victoria, her grandfather Edward VII, her uncle George V, her cousins Edward VIII and George VI, and her first cousin once removed Elizabeth II.

Through her husband, whose sister Margaret married the future King Gustav VI Adolf of Sweden, she is a great-aunt to the current Royal Houses of Sweden, Denmark, and Greece. Through her mother, she is cousin once and twice removed (respectively) to the King of Norway and to King Charles III.

More about Alexandra

Alexandra, the Princess Who Might Have Been Queen of Portugal on Royal Musings
Christopher of Greece to Marry Alexandra of Fife on Royal Musings
The Marriage of Prince Arthur of Connaught and the Duchess of Fife on Royal Musings
Princess Alexandra 2nd Duchess of Fife on Alchetron
Princess Alexandra, Duchess of Fife on 1066
Princess Alexandra, Duchess of Fife on Royal Watcher Blog
Princess Alexandra, Duchess of Fife: A Champion of Nursing on Royal Splendor
Relatively Royal: Meet the Fifes on Esoteric Curiosa
Wedding of Prince Arthur of Connaught and Princess Alexandra Duchess of Fife on Royal Watcher Blog

Farewell Katharine Kent: The Princess from Yorkshire

2025-09-06T16:33:00.002-04:00

Katharine Duchess of Kent

from the Queensland State Archives via Wikimedia Commons

Six centuries had passed since a royal wedding was held at York Minster. As five future monarchs and representatives from eight royal families gathered at the church, a shy young local woman arrived on her father's arm to become the first untitled woman to become a British Royal Highness in centuries. Her very grand mother-in-law is said to have disapproved of the love match. Princess Marina, the widowed Duchess of Kent, was the granddaughter of a Greek King and great-granddaughter of a Danish King and Russian Czar. Her late husband was a great-grandson of Queen Victoria and the youngest surviving child of King George V. Her new daughter-in-law's grandfathers were mere baronets.

Katharine Lucy Mary Worsley was born in 1933 at her father's ancestral estate of Hovingham Hall in North Yorkshire. The only daughter of Sir William Worsley 4th Baronet and Joyce Brunner, she grew up in the countryside and did not attend school until the age of 10. In the midst of World War II, the lonely young girl was sent to Queen Margaret's School just outside of Kent. There she discovered a love of music that would come to define her life. Her musical talent led her to apply for the Royal Academy of Music but she failed to gain admission. Instead, she went to a finishing school for young ladies, living with her older brothers who were students at nearby Oxford University.

Katharine's parents helped her secure work as a nursery school teacher and she became a fixture on the local social scene, which welcomed a Prince into its midst when The Queen's younger cousin was based at Camp Catterick as part of his Army service.

Born in 1935, Prince Edward George Nicholas Paul Patrick was sixth in line to the throne at the time of his birth. He was still in the top ten when he met the blonde beauty who would become his wife. Edward's father, Prince George The Duke of Kent was the last British Prince to marry a royal when he wed Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark in 1934. After Edward, the couple welcomed two more children, Princess Alexandra and Prince Michael. Like so many families, the Kents met tragedy in World War II. Prince George was killed in an airplane crash while on active duty in 1942. Six-year-old Prince Edward became the new Duke of Kent. Ten years later, the teenager represented his branch of the family as he walked behind the funeral cortege of his uncle King George VI and a year later paid homage to his cousin Queen Elizabeth II at her coronation.

By the time Edward met Katharine, he had completed his education at the same schools his first cousin twice removed Prince Harry would later attend (Ludgrove, Eton and Sandhurst) and launched what would be a 20-year career in the British Army, eventually retiring as a lieutenant colonel. His mother, who is known to have looked down upon her sisters-in-law Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and Princess Alice Duchess of Gloucester, because they were daughters of a mere earl and duke respectively, initially tried to separate the young couple. Edward was sent to Germany in hopes his ardor would cool. Meanwhile, Katharine and a friend traveled through Mexico by bus. At the end of her journey, a bouquet of flowers from Edward greeted her. Princess Marina finally accepted the inevitable and announced the couple's engagement.

Embed from Getty Images

They were married on June 8, 1961. Katharine became not just Royal Highness but also an Army wife, following her husband to postings in Hong Kong and Germany. Their first child, George Earl of St. Andrews, was born in June 1962. Daughter Lady Helen Windsor arrived in April 1964 as the third of four royal babies born that year. (The others were, in order of birth: James Ogilvy, son of Katharine's sister-in-law Princess Alexandra; Prince Edward Duke of Edinburgh, son of Queen Elizabeth II; and Lady Sarah Armstrong-Jones, daughter of Princess Margaret.) In 1970, their son Lord Nicholas was born.

The 1970s, however, turned out to be a decade of great sorrow for the quiet Duchess of Kent. She lost her fourth pregnancy in 1975 after contracting rubella. In 1977, her son Patrick was stillborn. These tragedies combined with the deaths of both of her parents heralded a very difficult period in her life. She was hospitalized with "nervous exhaustion" and later became one of the first British royals to publicly discuss her struggles with mental health.

In public, Katharine became well-known for her role at Wimbledon, awarding the Ladies' Singles championship for decades. Her royal patronages focused largely on organizations that helped the young or the elderly. And, she was always a familiar face at royal balcony appearances and royal family celebrations. Privately, she was a well-loved member of the extended British Royal Family, participating in royal Christmas with the Queen until the family became too large to gather together in one palatial estate.

However, Katharine's mental and physical health took its toll. In addition to the depression she had suffered, she also struggled with the Epstein-Barr virus, myalgic encephalomyelitis (chronic fatigue syndrome) and celiac disease. Already introspective, she turned to religion to cope and eventually made the decision to convert to Catholicism in 1994. Under the laws of succession at the time, her husband might have lost his place in the Line of Succession for being married to a Catholic. Queen Elizabeth, in a show of love and support for her cousins, decided that this rule would not apply because Katharine was not Catholic at the time of their marriage. Besides being a cherished family member, the Kents had also proven themselves as excellent "working royals", carrying on royal duties well past the age when other Britons retire. Later, her youngest son and two of her grandchildren also converted and surrendered their places in the Line of Succession, which still bars actual Catholics but not the spouses of Catholics.

By 2002, after 40 years as a royal, Katharine decided to discontinue use of "Her Royal Highness." Always modest, she has already ended the tradition of making Wimbledon competitors genuflect to the royal box. By the time she was in 70s, she had withdrawn from royal duties, appearing only on large ceremonial occasions or public family events.

Instead, she focused on her love of music. Throughout her life, she had continued to pursue her own musical interests, including singing in several choirs. In her "retirement", she became a music teacher at a primary school where only the headmistress knew who "Mrs. Kent" really was. She also opened her own small music studio teaching private lessons. In 2004, she co-founded Future Talent, a private organization that provides instruments, lessons, and other opportunities to children from low-income backgrounds.

Largely absent from public life, Katharine's last royal appearance was as a guest at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in 2018. She was one of the few guests invited to Prince Philip's covid-era funeral in 2021. The death of Queen Elizabeth in 2022 left Katharine as the oldest living member of the British Royal Family, but she did not attend the funeral nor the coronation of King Charles III that followed. She was last scene seated in a wheelchair outside of the Kent's home at Wren Cottage, Kensington Palace, as her husband received birthday greetings on October 9, 2024.

Katharine Kent, or HRH The Duchess of Kent, passed away peacefully at home at the age of 92 on September 4, 2025. Her funeral will be held at Westminster Cathedral on September 16. It will be the first Catholic funeral in the royal family in centuries. She will then join her husband's parents and other members of the extended royal family in the Royal Burial Ground at Frogmore, Windsor.

In addition to her 89-year-old husband, who is now the oldest living member of the British Royal Family, she is survived by her children, and 10 grandchildren. Born between 1989 and 2014, the grandchildren are Edward Baron Downpatrick (who will eventually succeed to the Kent title after his father and grandfather), Lady Marina Windsor, Lady Amelia Windsor, Cassius Taylor, Columbus Taylor, Eloise Taylor, Estella Taylor, Albert Windsor, Leopold Windsor, and Louis Windsor.

MORE ABOUT KATHARINE DUCHESS OF KENT

Duchess of Kent: Death and Funeral on Gert's Royals
Duchess of Kent Has Died on The Royal Watcher
The Duchess of Kent's Secret Double Life on Royal Central
Fresh Fashion Forever: 90 Years of the Duchess of Kent's Elegant Style on Tatler
The Jewels of the Duchess of Kent on The Royal Watcher
Katharine Duchess of Kent: A Quiet Pearl on Timeless Pearl
The Music Loving Duchess on BBC
A Piece for the Duchess of Kent's 90th Birthday on Maddy Chassar Hesketh
Wedding of Prince Edward Duke of Kent and Katharine Worsley on Unofficial Royalty

Queens of Britain Series: Queen Anne

2025-02-16T17:10:00.004-05:00

By Michael Dahl via Wikimedia Commons

The second daughter of a second son. It had happened before when Queen Elizabeth became the last of Tudor monarchs. Now, a century after Elizabeth's death her cousin many times removed was ascending the throne as the last of the Stuart monarchs. Queen Anne's life had been less tragic and terror-filled than Elizabeth's but her rise to the throne was perhaps even more complicated.

Anne was born five years after the restoration of the monarchy. Her grandfather King Charles I had been beheaded in the midst of a civil war. Then followed a 10-year interregnum ruled by the Puritanical Cromwell's while the royal family wandered the Continent in exile. For Anne, however, those were just stories. The monarchy of her childhood was dominated by her bon vivant uncle King Charles II, who is remembered as the "Merry Monarch." However, it was still a monarchy torn by religion. Anne's father James Duke of York was Catholic. Uncle Charles was officially Protestant and, for the sake of the longevity of the crown, he insisted that Anne and her older sister Mary be raised as Protestants. Since Charles' wife Queen Catherine had no children (See my post Catherine: An Unhappy Queen), Charles knew that one of James' children would eventually ascend to the throne. He believed in order to avoid another civil war, the monarch needed to be Protestant.

Anne's father had other ideas. After her mother died when Anne was still a little girl, he married a Catholic princess and tried to have sons who would supplant his daughters in the line of succession. He was initially unsuccessful.

In the meantime, Anne was being moved from place to place, primarily because of her health. She had been sent to France to live with her grandmother, Queen Henrietta Maria. A French-born princess, Henrietta Maria opted to stay in her birth country rather than live in the country that had beheaded her husband. After the queen died, Anne was left in the care of her father's sister Henrietta Anne who had married the French king's brother. When Henrietta Anne died suddenly, young Anne returned to England to join her sister Mary in the care of the Edward and Frances Villiers. A year later, her mother died. Then, her father remarried. Then, Mary married and left to live in Holland. Anne was 12 years old and she was fairly alone except for a dear friend she had made, Sarah Jennings, who was five years her senior.

Anne's relationship with Sarah would come to be one of the defining elements of Anne's life, her reign, and even her memory today. The two were very close throughout their youth. They wrote to each other using the sobriquets Mrs. Freeman and Mrs. Morley. Anne thought this would make them more equal. It seems, however, that Sarah often had the upper hand. She married the military genius John Churchill, who defended Anne's father in the Monmouth Rebellion but later stood against him in the Glorious Revolution and won his lasting fame in the Battle of Blenheim, for which Anne would create him Duke of Marlborough.

The question of Anne's own marriage arose early as it often did for princesses. At first, it was thought that she would marry her second cousin Prince George of Hanover. As a descendant of King James I, George, like Mary's husband, William of Orange, was in the British Line of Succession. In fact, he was the next male after William. However, King Charles' preference for French alliances caused a change of plan. Mary's marriage into the Dutch naval superpower had made France uncomfortable. Charles needed an ally to counterbalance any possible future problems with the Dutch. Denmark was selected and Anne was offered to the Danish king's younger son, Prince George. The match infuriated William of Orange but ultimately delighted Anne, despite George's well-earned reputation for dullness and his complete lack of ambition.

The newlyweds fell immediately to the chief task of royal marriages: baby making. Anne would have 17 pregnancies in as many years. The first, a stillborn daughter, devastated the young couple. The birth of their daughter Mary 13 months later and Anne Sophia 11 months after that brought them great joy. Early the next year, Anne suffered a miscarriage. Shortly after that George and both of their tiny daughters were stricken with smallpox. Anne, who had survived smallpox as a child, nursed them all. George slowly recovered but the babies died within a week of each other. (See my post The Daughters of Queen Anne.) The couple was distraught at this tremendous double lost followed by another miscarriage that fall and a stillbirth the following spring. Finally, just a few days before their sixth wedding anniversary in the summer of 1689, their son William was born.

By then, the entire landscape of the British monarchy had changed, in part due to Anne's interference. Many Protestant leaders were concerned when Anne's Catholic father James acceded the throne in 1685. The fact that his heirs, Mary and Anne, were both Protestants married to Protestants kept their worries at bay. Eventually, they thought, he will die and Protestants will reign again. James, however, had made different plans. He had remarried a young Catholic princess Mary of Modena in an attempt to beget male heirs who would supersede his daughters in the Line of Succession. Mary's first 10 pregnancies resulted in stillbirths or babies who died young. When her eleventh pregnancy was announced in 1688, something seemed different. Especially to Anne. She and others started rumors that the King was planning to foist a false heir on Britain in order to maintain Catholic control. Anne even claimed that the Queen was not really pregnant. As evidence, she said her stepmother would not allow her to touch her pregnant belly as she had done in the past. By the time, Mary gave birth to a healthy son in June 1688, the conspiracy theories grew to include accusations of an infant being smuggled into the birth chamber in a warming pan. (See my post When Protestant Princesses Have Catholic Daddies.)

By the end of the next year, Parliament had invited William of Orange to invade and James had fled the country. Parliament deemed his departure an abdication and offered a joint throne to Anne's older sister Mary and William under certain conditions. The most important of these was that Parliament would now and always hold the upper hand in governance. Another condition was that either spouse would reign to the end of life regardless of who died first and that Anne would be their heir, unless Mary had a surviving child, which she never did.

During William and Mary's reign, their relationship with Anne became strained. In the beginning, they rewarded her loyalty by making her husband Duke of Cumberland and her best friend Sarah's husband Earl of Marlborough. However, they tried to prevent her from having too much financial independence. They also began to fear that the Marlboroughs were supporting the Jacobites, supporters of King James and his return to power. Despite this, Anne grew even closer to Sarah and would not comply with Mary's order to dismiss her from her household. When Sarah was dismissed by the Lord Chamberlain, Anne left the royal palace. Courtiers were forbidden from visiting her. When she then gave birth to another dead baby, Mary went to her but berated her for her defiance. That was the last time the sisters would ever see each other. Mary died a year and a half later.

Mary's death led to reconciliation with King William, who never remarried. He accepted Anne and her son William as his heirs. After William died at age 11 in 1700, he began to worry about the future of the monarchy. The Jacobites were still strong and would spend another half century attempting to bring James II or his son or grandson to the throne. With such a threat to the Protestant throne, the Act of Settlement of 1701 was adopted. It determined that the throne would bypass all of the potential heirs who were Catholic and settled the succession on Sophia Electress of Hanover and her descendants. Sophia was a granddaughter of King James I in the female line and matriarch of a family with two more generations of Protestant male heirs.

From the Almanac Royal Amsterdam
via Wikimedia Commons

The following year, William died and the 37-year-old Anne became Queen with Prince George as consort. Her long history of troubled health reared its head on her coronation day with an attack of gout that required her to be carried to the ceremony.

Anne showered her lifelong friend Sarah's and her husband with honors. Always tempestuous, Sarah controlled the Queen's household and served as a chief advisor. After Prince George's death, Sarah attempted to exert even more control, even removing portraits of George against Anne's wishes. Sarah's haughty ways continued to disturb others and eventually became more than even Anne could tolerate. When Anne showed favor befriend Sarah's cousin Abigail Masham, the two had a final blowout in 1711. Although frequently portrayed as a girl fight or even a spat between lovers, the row had much deeper roots in Anne and Sarah's political differences and Sarah's presumption to dictate to the Queen.

Today, Anne is one of the least well-remembered monarchs but her reign was active and full of historic events. Perhaps the most important of these was the 1707 Acts of Union that united all of the nations of the British Isles into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. As the last Stuart monarch, it is perhaps fitting that she was the first to be Queen of a united Scotland and England rather than serving as Queen of each.

She also had to face some karma from her early denials about her younger half-brother, Prince James Francis Stuart. When their father died in 1701, the King of France had pronounced James as his rightful successor. By 1708, the "Old Pretender" as he came to be called, had raised an army and attempted an invasion that was deflected by Anne's forces. Anne's government later had James exiled from France as a condition of a peace treaty between the countries.

Anne also was a patron of the arts and sciences. She supporting the work of some of the most famous men of the age, including Isaac Newton and George Frederick Handel.

By 1713, Anne's health was rapidly declining. Some say she forced herself to stay alive long enough to prevent her cousin Electress Sophia from succeeding her. Whether true or not, Sophia died in May 1714 and Anne suffered a final stroke less about eight weeks later. She was succeeded by Sophia's oldest son, King George I, whom Anne had never allowed to visit Britain. He beheld his new kingdom for the very first time six weeks later.

QUEENS OF BRITAIN SERIES
Boudica, Queen of the Iceni
Empress Matilda
Margaret Maid of Norway
Lady Jane Grey
Queen Mary I
Queen Elizabeth I
Mary Queen of Scots
Queen Mary II
Queen Anne
Queen Victoria - coming soon
Queen Elizabeth II - coming soon

MORE ABOUT ANNE
10 Surprising Facts About Queen Anne on Historical Medallions
The Death of Queen Anne on The National Archives
It's Not That Easy Being Queen on Tom Reeder's Blog
Mary II and Queen Anne: The Representations of Two Sisters on Team Queens
Queen Anne on The British Monarchy
Queen Anne on Historic Royal Palaces
Queen Anne on Historic UK
Queen Anne is Dead! on Untold Lives Blog
Queen Anne and the Favourite on Royal Museums Greenwich
Queen Anne and Sarah Churchill's Last Stand-Off at Kensington Palace on Historic Royal Palaces
Queen Anne's Love Life on University of Cambridge Museum & Botanic Gardens
The Stuart Dynasty - William, Mary, and Anne on A Royal Heraldry

Royal Ladies of 2024

2025-01-01T15:50:00.005-05:00

Embed from Getty Images

In a year that started with surprise announcements about cancer diagnoses for both the King of England and his daughter-in-law the Princess of Wales, 2024 not surprisingly was one of the most up-and-down years for our royal ladies in recent history. Amidst illnesses, deaths, and a disturbing (possibly criminal) scandal, the year was brightened with a wedding, a few births and pregnancy announcements, and one joyful accession.

Chemotherapy for Catherine

The biggest royal story of the year arguably was the illness of Catherine Princess of Wales and the world's overwrought response to it. Following a scheduled abdominal surgery in early January, a long leave from duties was announced. Then, Kensington Palace shared that the post-surgery discovery of cancer cells would necessitate chemotherapy and a much-extended medical leave. Simultaneously, King Charles was diagnosed with prostate cancer and withdrew temporarily from public-facing duties. With two major royals out of public view, the media and public began to wildly speculate on the condition of each, but focused mostly on Catherine. With theories ranging from a lazy princess who wasn't really sick to one who had actually been murdered by her husband, KP's various responses or lack of responses only furthered the crazy conspiracy theories. Beginning in the summer, Catherine undertook a few public appearances and shared gratitude for the end of her treatment with a produced family video. The holidays saw the return of her now traditional carol service and Christmas day walkabout with the family. Here's hoping the rumormongers are lot quieter in 2025.

The Last Reigning Queen

Denmark's new King Frederik and Queen Mary with their children.

From left: Isabella, Christian, Frederik, Mary, Vincent and Josephine.
Photo: Dennis Stenild, Kongehuset

January saw the abdication of the last reigning queen as Denmark's Queen Margrethe II handed over the crown to her son King Frederik X and his consort the Tasmanian-born Queen Mary. (See my post The Last Queen, For Now.) All of Europe's monarchies are now headed by men, but this is a short-lived period as the heirs in Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden and Spain are women and the #2 in line in Norway and Sweden are also female. Margrethe had reigned since her father's death in 1972 and celebrated her Golden Jubilee in 2022.

The Danish abdication and succession also brought one more historic moment: Queen Mary is only the second European Queen Consort to be born on another continent. (See my post A New Queen Mary.) The first was Argentinian-born Queen Maxima who acceded with her husband in The Netherlands in 2013. There are two other current consorts born outside of Europe but with lower ranking: Grand Duchess Maria Teresa of Luxembourg, born in Cuba, and Princess Charlene of Monaco, born in Rhodesia now called Zimbabwe. This leaves Asia as the only continent not currently represented in a European reigning couple.

Royal Marriages

We are currently in a period where most of the unmarried royal ladies are a bit young for a trip to the altar just yet, but we did celebrate one long-awaited marriage in 2024 when Princess Theodora of Greece married American Matthew Kumar on September 28. Their engagement had been announced in 2018, but their wedding was postponed twice -- once due to the Covid pandemic and then due to the death of her father, former King Constantine II in 2023. At 41 years old, Theodora is one of the oldest royal brides to make a first marriage. The ceremony was a true family celebration with Theodora carrying on the tradition of women in her family of wearing a veil of Irish lace and the Khedive of Egypt tiara, both of which have been passed down from her great-grandmother British Princess Margaret of Connaught, who was a granddaughter of Queen Victoria who married a future King of Sweden.

In Norway, the King's daughter Princess Martha Louise married for the second time. Always walking a line between what is acceptable for a princess and what is not, Martha Louise has been chided over the years for using her title for personal profit and for advocating fringe spiritual beliefs. Choosing American Durek Verrett, a self-proclaimed Shaman, caused huge controversy. Although he has a significant following, mainstream people have described him as a conspiracy theorist and even a conman. Nevertheless, the wedding went forward on August 31 with her royal relatives in attendance.

In the meantime, another Greek princess announced the end of her marriage. The second of Theodora's three brothers, Princess Nikolaus, and his wife Princess Tatiana announced their separation after 14 years. The couple had no children. Venezuelan-born Tatiana is an author, event planner and entrepreneur, who shares her love of cuisine and travel via her social media channels.

Royal Mothers

After several years of royal baby booms, the last few years have been relatively quiet. 2024 is no exception with only two new babies and two announced pregnancies expecting delivery in the new year. In Luxembourg, Princess Alexandra and her husband Nicolas Bagory welcomed a daughter named Victoire in May, just 13 months after the wedding.

Proud grandmother Queen Rania showed off Princess Iman on social media throughout the year.

In Jordan, King Abdullah and Queen Rania excitedly shared the birth of their first grandchild, Princess Iman bint Hussein, in August. The family shared photos of practically the entire family holding the newborn, who is the daughter of Crown Prince Hussein and Princess Rajwa, also 13 months after their wedding. The Jordanian King and Queen also marked 25 years on the throne in 2024.

Meanwhile, we have two more royal babies to look forward to in 2025 as both Britain's Princess Beatrice and Sweden's Princess Sofia announced pregnancies. This will be Sofia's fourth child. After a trio of boys, she may be wishing for a girl this time. As for Beatrice, she has a stepson with her husband and a little girl waiting to welcome their new sibling. Beatrice's plans to celebrate Christmas with her husband's family in Italy were apparently curtailed due to doctor's cautions in what may be her final trimester. Sofia, in the meantime, was featured in Vogue with photos taken before her bump was showing, but she and bump appeared to be in blooming health at the Nobel Prize celebrations in December. Her baby is said to be due in the spring.

In Norway, another royal mother was suffering due to one of her children. After years of rumors and innuendo, Crown Princess Mette-Marit's oldest child, Marius Borg Høiby, was arrested following reports of domestic violence. Her son from a previous relationship, Marius was a toddler when his mother married Crown Prince Haakon. During his childhood, he was regularly featured in photos with the royal family and appeared at family occasions. As he entered adulthood, it was officially clarified that he is not a member of the Norwegian Royal Family and wished to live a life out of public view. However, his behavior has attracted a lot of public attention, especially in 2024, with several women coming forward with accusations of sexual assault, domestic abuse, and drug abuse. Mette-Marit skipped a trip to the Summer Olympics in the wake of the scandal. Her own choices drew negative criticism when it was revealed that she had personally "cleaned up" Marius' home prior to his surrender to police. Both the King and Crown Prince have publicly acknowledged the family's personal struggles, but it looks like 2025 is going to bring more to light as the 27-year-olds court cases move forward.

Sad Farewells

On February 27, Buckingham Palace announced the death of Thomas Kingston, husband of Lady Gabriella, the only daughter of Prince and Princess Michael of Kent. Although it was soon clear that he had died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, the conspiracy theorists online drew connections to Catherine of Wales' absence from public life, alleging that William Prince of Wales had killed both Catherine and Thomas in a fit of jealous rage. The outrageous allegations could only have piled on to the family's pain. An inquest into the death later concluded that his suicide was likely due to an adverse reaction from medication, as Gabriella herself testified. The couple had celebrated their wedding at St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle in 2019.

Earlier in February, the pretender to the Italian throne, Prince Vittorio Emanuele, passed away, leaving behind his wife of 52 years. Marina Ricolfi Doria had been an internationally ranked water skiier before her marriage. Their only child, Prince Emanuele Filiberto, succeeded his father as Head of the House of Savoy and as a claimant to the Italian throne.

The death of Prince Michael of Greece in July widowed the former Marina Karella after 49 years of marriage. Having made an "unequal marriage", Michael's wife was not granted royal status. However, their daughters, Alexandra and Olga, are both Princesses of Greece. They both appear to have inherited equally from their artist mother and their historian father.

The Swedish King and his sisters in 2017. From left: Margareta, Carl Gustaf, Birgitta, Desiree

and Christina. Photo: Jonas Berg/The Royal Court of Sweden

With a number of royal ladies now in their 80s and 90s, the next few years may see the loss of many of them. On December 4, Princess Birgitta of Sweden passed away in her home on Mallorca at age 87. She was the second of King Carl XVI Gustaf's four older sisters. (See my post Farewell Princess Birgitta.) She was the only one of the King's sisters to retain her royal styling as she was the only one to make an "equal marriage", a standard that is no longer required today.

In June, King Mohammed VI of Morocco's mother, Princess Lalla Latifa, died. The only wife of King Hassan II, she was the mother of five children. After Hassan's death in 1999, she married her late husband's Chief of Security. Her exact birthdate is unknown, but she was about 80 when she passed.

One of longest-lived royal ladies in history passed away in November. Japan's Yuriko Princess Mikasa was 101 years old. The wife of World War II-era Emperor Hirohito's youngest brother, Yuriko outlived her husband by eight years and was the last surviving member of that generation of the Imperial Family. She is survived by her two daughters, 80-year-old Yasuko and 73-year-old Masako. All three of her sons predeceased her.

As 2025 dawns, let us hope we and our royal ladies have a year filled with more laughter than tears.

Farewell Princess Birgitta (1937-2024)

2024-12-04T18:47:00.000-05:00

By Frankie Fouganthin via Wikimedia Commons

On December 4, 2024, we received the sad news that Princess Brigitta of Sweden passed away at her home on Mallorca. She was 87.

Although Birgitta Ingeborg Alice was the second child of Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf of Sweden and his wife Princess Sibylla of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, she was never in the Swedish Line of Succession. Until 1980, no women were allowed to accede to the Swedish throne. When the law was changed to include women, it was limited to the descendants of her brother, King Carl Gustaf, and their uncle, Prince Bertil. She and her sisters, however, were in the British Line of Succession as granddaughters of Princess Margaret of Connaught, who had married the future King Gustaf VI Adolf. Margaret was a granddaughter of Queen Victoria. At the time of her death, Birgitta was around #200 in the British succession.

Birgitta is the first of the Haga Princesses to pass away. She and her three sisters--Margaretha, Desiree, and Christina--were known by this collective name after Haga Palace, where they were born and grew up. Born between 1934 and 1943, the princesses finally had a little brother, the current king, in 1946. Nine months later, their father died in a plane crash. Birgitta had celebrated her 10th birthday one week earlier.

Birgitta (center) surrounded by her parents, sisters, and

baby brother shortly before her father's tragic death.
By Ateljé Jaeger via Wikimedia Commons

The princesses grew up in the royal spotlight. In 1960, Birgitta and Desiree were sent on an official visit to the United States in honor of their grandfather's 50th anniversary on the throne. They spent 10-days being feted. Their older sister Margaretha and cousins Astrid of Norway and Margarethe of Denmark had visited the U.S. West Coast just a few months earlier.

In 1961, Birgitta was the first of the sisters to marry. She was also the only one to make a so-called "equal marriage", choosing a husband of princely rank. She and Prince Johann Georg of Hohenzollern had three children: Carl Christian in 1962, Desiree in 1963, and Hubertus in 1966. Later, they had four grandchildren. The couple separated in 1990 but remained married until his death in 2016. He continued to live in homeland of Germany while she made her home in Spain.

Because Birgitta married a prince, she is the only one of her sisters who retained the style of a Royal Highness and continued to be an official member of the Swedish Royal House.

Birgitta was a sporty person. She even trained a gymnastics instructor and was well-known for her love of golf.

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