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On the morning of November 27, 2017, Clarence House made the following announcement on Twitter: “The Prince of Wales is delighted to announce the engagement of Prince Harry to Ms. Meghan Markle.  The wedding will take place in Spring 2018.  Further details about the wedding will be announced in due course. His Royal Highness and Ms. Markle became engaged earlier this month.  Prince Harry has informed Her Majesty The Queen and other close members of his family. Prince Harry has also sought and received the blessing of Ms. Markle’s family. The couple will live in Nottingham Cottage in Kensington Palace.”

• Twitter: Clarence House announces engagement
• BBC: Prince Harry to marry girlfriend Meghan Markle next year
• Unofficial Royalty: Prince Harry of Wales
• Unofficial Royalty: Meghan Markle

by Susan Flantzer

By Genevievederivative work: Firebrace (talk) – DSC_3441, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=24725000

Rachel Meghan Markle, born on August 4, 1981, in Los Angeles, California, is the daughter of Thomas Markle and Doria Radlan. Her father is a cinematographer and lighting director and worked on the primetime shows Married With Children and Facts of Life and the daytime shows General Hospital and Santa Barbara. He is the winner of two Daytime Emmys for Outstanding Achievement in Lighting Direction for a Drama Series and was nominated six other times. Meghan’s mother has a master’s degree in social work and works as a clinical therapist and yoga instructor. Meghan told Elle magazine in 2016, “My dad is Caucasian and my mom is African American. I’m half black and half white.” Meghan has two much older half-siblings from her father’s first marriage: Samantha Markle Grant born in 1965 and Thomas Markle Jr. born in 1966.

Meghan grew up and was educated at private schools in Los Angeles, California. She attended elementary school at Hollywood Little Red Schoolhouse and then attended Immaculate Heart High School, an all-girls high school. Meghan graduated from Northwestern University in Chicago Illinois in 2003 with a double major in theater and international relations. In 2011, Meghan married her long-time boyfriend Trevor Engelson, a film and television producer. The couple divorced in 2013.

Growing up in Hollywood and with a lighting director as a father, Meghan was around the entertainment industry and knew she would end up in show business in some capacity. Her first acting job was a one episode role on the daytime show General Hospital in 2002. Thereafter, she had small roles on television shows and in several films. To help support herself, Meghan took on freelance calligraphy jobs. Starting in 2011, Meghan appeared on Suits, an American legal drama television series, playing Rachel Zane, a senior paralegal with dreams of going to law school.

Meghan Markle attends the Wimbledon tennis tournament in June 2016

On November 8, 2016, Kensington Palace confirmed Meghan was “a few months” into a relationship with Prince Harry in a statement from the prince asking for the media harassment of Meghan and her family to end. Harry and Meghan were introduced by a mutual woman friend.

In March 2017, after finished filming the seventh season of Suits, it was announced that Meghan was “ready to be done with Suits” and with “acting in general.” A source told E! News, “Even before Harry, she was starting to think about transitioning out of acting. She wants to focus on other worldly endeavors she is passionate about, like her philanthropy.” In 2016, Meghan had become the Global Ambassador for World Vision Canada, traveling to Rwanda for the Clean Water Campaign. She has also worked with the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women as an Advocate.

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Meghan and her mother Doria Radlan attend the Invictus Games with Prince Harry

In September 2017, Prince Harry and Meghan made their first public appearances together at an official royal engagement, the wheelchair tennis event and the closing ceremony of the Invictus Games in Toronto, Canada.

Meghan is a direct descendant of John Hussey, 1st Baron Hussey of Sleaford, Chamberlain to King Henry VIII’s daughter Mary, the future Queen Mary I. Lord Hussey’s wife Lady Anne was one of Mary’s attendants. Lord Hussey was beheaded for his participation in the 1536 uprising the Pilgrimage of Grace. Prince Harry and Meghan share common ancestors: Richard Bowes (circa 1497 – 1558) and his wife Elizabeth Aske  (1505 – circa 1572). Meghan’s maternal great-great-great grandfather was a slave on a Georgia plantation before being emancipated when slavery was abolished in 1865.

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The engagement of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle was announced on November 27, 2017.  The couple will marry on May 19, 2018, at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle where many royal weddings have been held and will reside in Nottingham Cottage adjoining Kensington Palace in London.

Meghan Markle’s engagement ring was reportedly designed by Prince Harry with the help of Cleave and Company, court jewelers to The Queen. The ring which is on a gold band features a cushion diamond from Botswana and two outside stones from the personal collection of Harry’s mother, Diana, Princess of Wales.

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Meghan made her first appearance with the British Royal Family on Christmas Day 2017 as they walked to church at the Sandringham Estate.

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Wikipedia: Meghan Markle

Meghan Markle’s engagement ring was reportedly designed by Prince Harry with the help of Cleave and Company, Court Jewellers and Medallists to The Queen. The ring which is on a gold band features a cushion diamond from Botswana and two outside stones from the personal collection of Harry’s mother, Diana, Princess of Wales.

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(From Susan: I used to teach preschool way back when and I think this is adorable.)

From November 29 – 30, 2017, The Duke of Cambridge undertook a visit to Finland at the request of the Foreign Office. However, William had another task on his visit to Finland. He delivered Prince George’s Christmas list to Father Christmas/Santa Claus. On a pre-printed Christmas list, four-year-old George had circled at the top that he had been “nice”, filled in one of the five lines provided for gift requests with “police car”, and wrote his name.

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by Susan Flantzer

Photo Credit – www.dailymail.co.uk

Princess Anne married Timothy Laurence on December 12, 1992, at Crathie Church in Crathie, Scotland near Balmoral Castle.

Princess Anne’s Early Life

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Anne Elizabeth Alice Louise was born at Clarence House in London, England on August 15, 1950. She was the second child of the four children and the only daughter of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (born a Prince of Greece and Denmark). Anne had one elder brother Charles and two younger brothers, Andrew and Edward.

At the time of Anne’s birth, her mother was Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh and the sovereign was her grandfather, King George VI. The children of a daughter of a British sovereign would not usually have been accorded the style Royal Highness or the titles Prince/Princess as in the case of Anne’s own children. However, on October 22, 1948, Anne’s grandfather King George VI issued letters patent allowing the children of his eldest daughter and heiress presumptive, to use the style and title of a royal prince or princess. Therefore, Anne was Her Royal Highness Princess Anne of Edinburgh at birth.

King George VI died on February 6, 1952, and his elder daughter Princess Elizabeth became Queen. Upon her mother’s accession to the throne, Anne was styled Her Royal Highness The Princess Anne. Anne was too young to attend her mother’s coronation, but she did make an appearance on the balcony of Buckingham Palace as can be seen in the above photo.

Catherine Peebles who was the governess of Prince Charles was also Anne’s governess and she was responsible for Anne’s early education. In 1959, a Girl Guides company, 1st Buckingham Palace Company was formed at the palace to allow Anne to socialize with other girls. Similar Girl Guide companies had been formed at Buckingham Palace for Anne’s mother and her aunt Princess Margaret. From 1963-1968, Anne attended Benenden School, an independent boarding school for girls in Kent, England.

From a young age, Princess Anne was passionate about riding and she soon became an excellent equestrienne. In 1971, Anne won the European Eventing Championship and was voted the BBC Sports Personality of the Year. For more than five years Anne competed with the British eventing team, winning a silver medal in both individual and team disciplines in the 1975 European Eventing Championship. In the 1976 Montreal Summer Olympics, Anne competed as a member of the British equestrian team.

Princess Anne married Captain Mark Phillips, a fellow equestrian, on November 14, 1973, at Westminster Abbey in London, England. The couple had two children: Peter (born 1977) and Zara (born 1981). Anne and her first husband separated in 1989 and their divorce was finalized on April 23, 1992.

For more information, see Unofficial Royalty: Princess Anne, The Princess Royal

Timothy Laurence’s Early Life

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Timothy James Hamilton Laurence was born on March 1, 1955, in Camberwell, South London, England, the son of Guy Laurence and Barbara Symonds. His father was a Commander in the Royal Navy and then a salesman for a marine engine manufacturer. Timothy grew up in Kent, England along with his older brother Jonathan.

Timothy began his education at The New Beacon Preparatory School in Sevenoaks, Kent, England. He then attended Sevenoaks School also in Sevenoaks, Kent, England, founded in 1432. Timothy attended University College, Durham on a Naval Scholarship where he was the editor of the student newspaper and captain of the cricket team. He graduated with a Bachelors degree in geography and then completed his naval training at the Britannia Royal Naval College Dartmouth.

Timothy served on a number of Royal Navy ships as a navigating officer and then as a commander. From 1986-1989, he had his first staff appointment as Equerry to Queen Elizabeth II. An equerry must be a senior officer in the British Armed Services. Timothy also served in various posts in the Ministry of Defence. He retired from the Royal Navy in 2010 with the rank Vice Admiral.

For more information, see Unofficial Royalty: Vice Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence

The Couple

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Timothy Laurence smiling at Princess Anne at the 1989 Royal Ascot Races. Anne is in the white outfit. The little girl is Anne’s daughter Zara.

Timothy first met his future wife, Anne, Princess Royal when he was Equerry to Queen Elizabeth II. As the Queen’s Equerry for three years, Timothy learned the ways of the Royal Family. He often ate with the family, accompanied them on outings, cruised with them on the royal yacht, and made the formal introductions when important guests came to visit. Anne’s marriage to Mark Phillips was in trouble and Timothy caught her eye. However, it was not until 1989, when four of Timothy’s love letters were stolen from Anne’s briefcase at Buckingham Palace that the romance came to light. In the same year, Anne separated from her first husband, but the courtship with Timothy remained discreet. The couple was seldom seen together until Anne’s divorce became final in April 1992.

The couple’s intention to marry was announced by Buckingham Palace on December 5, 1992, just a week before the wedding. A Palace spokesperson said, “Due to the level of speculation about the matter, we decided to confirm that The Princess Royal and Commander Laurence are planning to marry, but I cannot say where and when.”

Timothy gave Anne a ring with a cabochon sapphire surrounded by three small diamonds on either side.

The Wedding

Photo Credit – http://www.hellomagazine.com

The small, private wedding was held on December 12, 1992, at the tiny Crathie Church in Crathie, Scotland where the British Royal Family worships when they are staying at Balmoral Castle. The couple chose to marry in Scotland as the Church of England did not at that time allow divorced persons whose former spouses were still living to remarry in its churches. The Church of Scotland does not consider marriage to be a sacrament and has no objection to the remarriage of divorced persons.

Princess Anne arrived at Crathie Church accompanied by her father Prince Philip and her 11-year-old daughter Zara who acted as her bridesmaid. Anne was dressed in a simple white suit with white blossoms in her hair and Timothy was wearing his Royal Navy uniform. Before about 30 guests, the bride and groom exchanged vows to stay together “until God shall separate us by death.” After the ceremony, the newlyweds emerged from the church to the cheers of about 500 well-wishers. Press and photographers were barred from the church but they lined the road from Balmoral Castle to Crathie Church.

Among the guests were Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Philip, The Queen Mother, Princess Margaret, Anne’s three brothers: Prince Charles, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward, Anne’s two children: Peter Phillips and Zara Phillips. Two prominent members of the Royal Family were absent: The Princess of Wales, whose formal separation from her husband had been announced a few days earlier, and The Duchess of York who was separated from her husband Prince Andrew. The Princess of Wales sent her best wishes to Anne. Aides indicated she did not attend because she did not want Anne’s wedding to become a media circus.

After the wedding, the newlyweds and their guests had a short celebration at Craigowan Lodge on the Balmoral Estate.

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Works Cited

• latimes. (2017). Britain’s Princess Anne Remarries: Wedding: Scottish ceremony brings a tiny bit of joy to a year that saw more than one royal marriage fail.. [online] Available at: http://articles.latimes.com/1992-12-13/news/mn-4165_1_princess-anne [Accessed 31 Aug. 2017].
• Nytimes.com. (2017). In Quiet Scottish Ceremony, Anne Marries Naval Officer. [online] Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/1992/12/13/world/in-quiet-scottish-ceremony-anne-marries-naval-officer.html?mcubz=3 [Accessed 31 Aug. 2017].
• Unofficial Royalty. (2017). Anne, Princess Royal. [online] Available at: http://www.unofficialroyalty.com/anne-the-princess-royal/ [Accessed 26 Aug. 2017].
• Unofficial Royalty. (2017). Vice Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence. [online] Available at: http://www.unofficialroyalty.com/timothy-laurence-husband-of-anne-the-princess-royal/ [Accessed 31 Aug. 2017].
• UPI. (2017). Princess Anne to marry former royal attendant. [online] Available at: https://www.upi.com/Archives/1992/12/05/Princess-Anne-to-marry-former-royal-attendant/4441723531600/ [Accessed 31 Aug. 2017].

by Scott Mehl

Royal Christmas celebrations in the United Kingdom begin in mid-December when The Queen hosts a luncheon at Buckingham Palace for the entire extended Royal Family. This gives The Queen a chance to celebrate with her cousins and their families before she travels to Sandringham for Christmas itself.

The Queen en route to Sandringham in 2015. source: The Daily Mail

Soon after the luncheon, The Queen travels to Sandringham, her private home in Norfolk, where she will stay through the anniversary of her accession, in early February. In recent years, Her Majesty has traveled by train, departing from London’s King Cross Station on a scheduled route – in a first-class car, of course. Less than two hours later, she arrives at King’s Lynn Station and is driven the few miles to her Sandringham Estate. Prior to 1901, Christmas was traditionally celebrated at Windsor Castle. It was King Edward VII who began celebrating at Sandringham, which was purchased for him as a country home in the early 1860s. His son and grandson, Kings George V and George VI, continued the tradition. Today, Queen Elizabeth II  also spends the holidays there, along with her family.

The rest of the family arrives on Christmas Eve. Guests include The Queen’s children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, as well as the families of her niece and nephew, Lady Sarah Chatto and The Earl of Snowdon (the children of the late Princess Margaret). The arrive in very precise order, based on precedence, with The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall the last to make their appearance.  Despite its size, Sandringham House is rather small when it comes to accommodations.  Often, members of the staff are moved elsewhere on the estate, and their rooms are used to house members of the Royal Family.

Sandringham House. photo: By Elwyn Thomas Roddick, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6200717

Once all have arrived and gotten settled in their rooms, the family meets for tea in the White Drawing Room at 4:00 pm. There, the younger members of the family help to put the last of the decorations on the large spruce tree, brought in from the estate. The tradition of a Christmas Tree first began in the late 18th century when Queen Charlotte, the wife of King George III, had a yew tree brought in and decorated. This continued for many years, but it wasn’t until the reign of Queen Victoria that it became popular. In 1848, the London Illustrated News published an image of the Royal Family gathered around their Christmas Tree at Windsor Castle. And in 1850, Queen Victoria commissioned James Roberts to paint a watercolor of The Queen’s Tree in the State Apartments at Windsor Castle. The painting shows the tree decorated with candles, and placed on a table surrounded by gifts from The Queen’s family. (See the painting here!) A second painting shows the trees of Queen Victoria’s children and her mother, The Duchess of Kent. (See the painting here!)

The White Drawing Room, Sandringham

Following tea, the family proceeds into the Red Drawing Room to exchange gifts. Tables are set up with each person’s gifts placed on them. And the gifts are not quite what one would expect! Apparently, gag gifts are the presents of choice, and the family goes out of their way to find the silliest things. One year, Prince Harry reportedly gave The Queen a bathing cap with “Ain’t life a bitch?” printed on it, and a light-up pepper mill was apparently one of the Duke of Edinburgh’s favorite gifts!

That evening, a formal dinner is held in the Dining Room, with the men in black-tie and the women in evening gowns and their best jewels. Following dinner, the women adjourn to the drawing room for coffee or tea, while the men enjoy some brandy in the Dining Room.

Church of Saint Mary Magdalene. photo: By Philip Halling, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6200708

Christmas Day begins with a full English breakfast followed by a private service at 9:00 am at the Church of Saint Mary Magdalene on the Sandringham Estate, at which the Queen receives communion privately.

photo: AP/Matt Dunham, source: The Telegraph

A second service is held at 11:00 am.  The Duke of Edinburgh traditionally leads the members of the family on the brief walk from the house to the church, while The Queen arrives by car, often accompanied by her daughter-in-law, The Countess of Wessex. Both before and after this service, members of the family greet the crowds of people who have gathered. The family then return to Sandringham House, where lunch is served in the Dining Room. Once the meal is done, The Queen invites the head chef to join the family in the dining room and raises a toast to him.

Her Majesty photographed during her Christmas Broadcast in 2016. photo: AP/The Independent

At 3 pm, the family all gathers around the television to watch The Queen’s Christmas Broadcast. The tradition of the Christmas Message began with a radio broadcast given by King George V in 1932. The King spoke live to the people of the British Empire from a small office at Sandringham. Impressed with the response, as well as the new technology which allowed him to reach the far corners of the Empire, King George V continued giving a Christmas Message each year until his death in early 1936. In 1939, after the outbreak of war, the Christmas Broadcast became firmly cemented as an annual tradition for the British sovereign. King George VI broadcast a message from Sandringham to the people of the Empire, offering them reassurances in the uncertain times they were all facing. The Queen gave her first broadcast from Sandringham in 1952, using the same desk and chair used by her father and grandfather. Since 1957, the Christmas Broadcast has been televised, with the exceptions of 1963 (a radio broadcast was done instead, as The Queen was pregnant with Prince Edward), and 1969 (the documentary Royal Family was re-aired in place of the Christmas message).
YouTube: The Queen’s first televised broadcast, 1957

The day ends with a cold buffet dinner that evening, followed by a round of Charades (reportedly a favorite of The Queen), puzzles and other games.

Boxing Day – December 26th – begins with a big breakfast before the men go off on a shoot.  They are often joined by the women for lunch out on the moors.  Others enjoy hiking through the grounds of the estate.  Another dinner rounds out the evening, and the guests begin to leave the following day.  One exception is usually the Duchess of Cornwall.  She usually leaves on Boxing Day to spend time with her children and grandchildren.

source: The Telegraph, credit: Andrew Matthews

It’s been announced that Zara and Mike Tindall are expecting their second child.  Zara is the daughter of Princess Anne, The Princess Royal, and the second eldest grandchild of Queen Elizabeth II.

The couple have a daughter Mia Grace, born in January 2014.  Zara also suffered a miscarriage in December 2016.

Telegraph: Queen ‘very pleased’ as Zara and Mike Tindall announce they are expecting another baby

Engagement Photo of Princess Eugenie of York and Jack Brooksbank; Photo Credit – https://twitter.com/RoyalFamily

Buckingham Palace announced on January 22, 2018: “The Duke and Duchess of York are delighted to announce the engagement of Princess Eugenie to Mr. Jack Brooksbank. Her Royal Highness and Mr. Brooksbank became engaged in Nicaragua earlier this month. The wedding will take place in the Autumn of 2018 at St George’s Chapel in Windsor, with further details to be announced in due course.”

Princess Eugenie of York is the younger of the two daughters of Prince Andrew, Duke of York and Sarah, Duchess of York and a granddaughter of Queen Elizabeth II. The princess had been in a long-term relationship with Jack Brooksbank. He is the former manager of the nightclub Mahiki, in Mayfair, London, frequented by the younger royals and is currently the brand ambassador of Casamigos Tequila, which was co-founded by George Clooney, Rande Gerber, and Mike Meldman.

Unofficial Royalty: Princess Eugenie of York

by Susan Flantzer

Jack Brooksbank and Princess Eugenie of York; Photo Credit – https://twitter.com/RoyalFamily

On January 22, 2018, Buckingham Palace announced the engagement of Princess Eugenie of York and Jack Brooksbank. Princess Eugenie is a granddaughter of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and the younger of the two daughters of Prince Andrew, Duke of York and Sarah, Duchess of York. Jack and Eugenie were introduced by mutual friends in 2010 during a skiing holiday in Verbier, Switzerland. The couple dated for seven years before becoming engaged.

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Jack and Princess Eugenie in 2010

Born on May 3, 1986, Jack Brooksbank is the elder of the two sons of George Brooksbank, an accountant and company director, and the former Nicola Newton. He has a younger brother Thomas born in 1988. Jack attended Stowe School, an exclusive independent school in Stowe, Buckinghamshire, England.

Jack skipped university and started working in the hospitality trade. He first worked in pubs including the Admiral Codrington in Chelsea, London then got a job at the trendy restaurant, the Markham Inn, also in the Chelsea area of London, which has since closed. Then Jack worked as the manager of the nightclub Mahiki in Mayfair, London, frequented by the younger royals. Currently, he is the brand ambassador of Casamigos Tequila, which was co-founded by George Clooney, Rande Gerber, and Mike Meldman. In 2017, Jack set up a wholesale company for the sale of wine, beer, and other alcoholic beverage called Jack Brooksbank Limited.

Jack and Eugenie are third cousins twice removed via their mutual descent from Thomas Coke, 2nd Earl of Leicester. Eugenie’s mother Sarah, Duchess of York is the great-great-granddaughter of Lady Julia Coke, the daughter of Thomas Coke, 2nd Earl of Leicester who is Jack’s great-great-grandfather.  For more information about Jack Brooksbank’s ancestors see Marlene Koenig’s 2016 article at Royal Musings: Perhaps an engagement…

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Jack and his future mother-in-law Sarah, Duchess of York at the 2017 Royal Ascot

by Scott Mehl

On March 10, 1863, the future King Edward VII of the United Kingdom married Princess Alexandra of Denmark, at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor. It would be the first royal wedding held at St. George’s.

Edward’s Early Life

Prince Albert Edward was born at Buckingham Palace on November 9, 1841, the second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. As the eldest son and heir, he was titled Duke of Cornwall from birth, and created Prince of Wales just a month later. Known within the family as Bertie, his education began with a strict program created by his father, but he was not a very good student. He later studied at the University of Edinburgh, Christ Church, Oxford, and Trinity College, Cambridge. His hopes for a military career were denied by Queen Victoria, however he did hold several honorary commissions.

For more about Edward see:
Unofficial Royalty: King Edward VII of the United Kingdom

Alexandra’s Early Life

Alexandra (far right) with her parents and siblings, 1862

Alexandra was born December 1, 1844 at the Yellow Palace in Copenhagen, the second child and eldest daughter of the future King Christian IX of Denmark and Princess Luise of Hesse-Kassel. Her siblings were the future King Frederik VIII of Denmark, King George I of the Hellenes, The Empress Maria Feodorovna of Russia, The Crown Princess of Hanover, and Prince Valdemar of Denmark. At the time of her birth, she was a Princess of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg. However, in 1853, her father was named as heir to the Danish throne and Alexandra became a Princess of Denmark. At that time, the family moved to Bernstorff Palace where, despite their royal status, Alexandra and her siblings received a very simple upbringing. Educated privately at home, Alexandra became fluent in English at a young age.

For more about Alexandra see:
Unofficial Royalty: Princess Alexandra of Denmark

The Engagement

By 1860, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were already searching for an appropriate bride for the future King. With the help of Bertie’s older sister Vicky – by then the Crown Princess of Prussia – Queen Victoria developed a list of prospective brides. Princess Alexandra of Denmark was fifth on the list, but Vicky found her to be the perfect match for Bertie. And his father agreed that Alexandra was “the only one to be chosen.” They couple first met at Speyer Cathedral in Germany, on September 24, 1861, in a meeting arranged by Vicky. The following year, on September 9, 1862, Bertie and Alexandra became engaged at the Royal Palace of Laeken in Belgium, the home of Bertie’s great-uncle, King Leopold I of the Belgians. Bertie presented Alexandra with a ring featuring six precious stones – purposely selected so that their names would spell out ‘Bertie’ — Beryl, Emerald, Ruby, Turquoise, Jacynth and Emerald.

The Marriage Treaty was signed in January 1863 and ratified three months later. It established that the marriage would take place in Britain, in a Church of England ceremony, and also provided financial arrangements for the future Princess of Wales. Under the terms, she would receive £10,000 annually for her sole use. And if she were to become widowed, she would receive £30,000 annually in lieu of any dower. Parliament agreed to the terms of the treaty, granting them a total of £50,000 per year (£10k of which was for the bride).

Pre-Wedding Festivities

Princess Alexandra’s arrival procession passing the Mansion House. painting by Robert Dudley

Princess Alexandra arrived in England on March 7, 1863, having sailed from Denmark aboard the British Royal yacht Victoria and Albert II. She was greeted upon her arrival in Gravesend, Kent the Prince of Wales, and large crowds who welcomed their future Queen to her new homeland. The couple, along with the bride’s family, traveled by Royal Train to London, where they processed by carriage through the streets of the city. Making their way to Paddington Station, they again boarded the train to make their way to Windsor. Disembarking at Slough, they began another carriage procession to Windsor Castle. Bad weather forced the use closed carriages, much to the dismay of the vast crowds gathered along the route, hoping to catch a glimpse of Alexandra. Upon their arrival, at 6:30 in the evening, they were greeted by a very anxious Queen Victoria, who had been patiently waiting to welcome her new daughter-in-law and her family.

After a day to rest, the festivities continued on March 9, with numerous delegations being presented to the couple, and presenting wedding gifts. These included the Lord Mayor of London and other officials, who presented the bride with a necklace and earrings of Golconda diamonds, which had previously been approved by the Prince Consort before his death. After receiving numerous guests, the couple took a carriage ride through the park, where they were greeted by the students of Eton – among them a young Randolph Churchill. That evening, a dinner party was held at the Castle followed by a fireworks display in the Home Park.

Wedding Guests

Despite the fact that this was the marriage of the future King of the United Kingdom, the guest list was kept rather small, with only a few foreign royals and members of the British aristocracy in attendance. As the British Court was still in mourning for Prince Albert, the ladies’ dresses were limited to grey, lilac or mauve.

The Groom’s Immediate Family
Queen Victoria
The Crown Prince and Crown Princess of Prussia
Prince Wilhelm of Prussia
Prince and Princess Ludwig of Hesse and by Rhine
Princess Louise
Princess Helena
Prince Arthur
Prince Leopold
Princess Beatrice

The Bride’s Immediate Family
Prince and Princess Christian of Denmark
Prince Frederik of Denmark
Prince Vilhelm of Denmark
Princess Dagmar of Denmark
Princess Thyra of Denmark

Other Royal Guests
The Duke of Cambridge
The Duchess of Cambridge
Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge
King Leopold I of the Belgians
The Count of Flanders
The Duchess of Brabant
Ernst II, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
Ernst Leopold, 4th Prince of Leiningen
Prince Edward of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach
Maharajah Duleep Singh
The Duke of Holstein
Prince Friedrich of Hesse-Kassel
Count and Countess Gleichen

Some Other Notable Guests
The Prime Minister, Viscount Palmerston
William Gladstone (future Prime Minister)
Benjamin Disraeli (future Prime Minister)
Charles Dickens
William Makepeace Thackeray
Alfred Tennyson
Charles Kingsley
Jenny Lind

The Wedding Attendants and Supporters

The bridesmaids of Alexandra of Denmark by unknown photographer. source: National Portrait Gallery, NPG x33255

For the ceremony the bride was supported by her father, Prince Christian of Denmark, and The Duke of Cambridge. The groom was supported by his brother-in-law, Crown Prince Friedrich of Prussia, and his uncle, Ernst II, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

In addition, the bride had eight bridesmaids, all of whom were unmarried daughters of British Dukes and Earls:

• Lady Diana Beauclerk, daughter of the Duke of St. Albans
• Lady Elma Bruce, daughter of the Earl of Elgin
• Lady Eleanor Hare, daughter of the Earl of Listowel
• Lady Victoria Howard, daughter of the Earl of Suffolk
• Lady Victoria Montagu Douglas Scott, daughter of the Duke of Buccleuch
• Lady Emily Villiers, daughter of the Earl of Clarendon
• Lady Feodore Wellesley, daughter of the Earl Cowley
• Lady Agenta Yorke, daughter of the Earl of Hardwicke

The Wedding Attire

The bride’s dress – a gift from King Leopold I of the Belgians – was made of white silk trimmed with orange blossoms and myrtle and was overlaid with flounces of tulle and Honiton lace. The train, 21-feet in length, was of silver moiré also trimmed in orange blossoms. Her veil, trimmed with the same lace as her gown, featured English roses, Irish shamrocks and Scottish thistles, and was held in place by a wreath of orange blossoms and myrtle atop her head.

Alexandra’s jewels were all wedding gifts. She wore a pearl necklace, earrings and brooch given to her by The Prince of Wales, an opal and diamond bracelet from Queen Victoria, another opal and diamond bracelet from the Ladies of Manchester, and a diamond bracelet from the Ladies of Leeds.

She carried a bouquet of orange blossoms, white rosebuds, lily of the valley, orchids and myrtle. The flowers were held in a “bouquet holder of carved crystal adorned with pearls and coral. The stem features a band of emeralds and diamonds with a jeweled coronet; the foot is formed of a ball of crystal with rubies and diamonds. By turning the ball, the foot springs open into four supports, in each of which is a plume and cipher. Attached to the holder is a chain of gold and pearls, and a hoop ring of eight pearls.” The flower and bouquet holder were a gift from the Maharajah Dhuleep Singh.  (source: An Historical Record of the Marriage of The Prince of Wales and Princess Alexandra of Denmark, published by Darton and Hodge, London)

The groom was resplendent in full dress uniform of a British General beneath his Garter Robes.

The bridesmaids wore dresses of white glacé silk trimmed with tulle and roses, and wreaths of roses on their heads.

The Ceremony

painting by William Frith, c1865.

Despite her perpetual mourning for the late Prince Consort, Queen Victoria decreed that the Prince of Wales should be married with “the utmost magnificence”, and chose St. George’s Chapel, Windsor as the site of the ceremony. This would be the first of many royal weddings at St. George’s, a tradition which continues to this day for many members of the Royal Family.

Guests began to arrive at the Chapel at 10:30 on the morning of March 10, 1863, and by 11:30 the more prominent attendees were escorted to their seats. The Knights of the Order of the Garter were led in procession by Lord Palmerston, the Prime Minister. They were followed by the Lord Chancellor, carrying the Great Seal, and the Lord Chief Justice of all England. Next came the clergy – the Archbishop of Canterbury, followed by the Bishops of London, Oxford, Winchester and Chester, and the Dean of Windsor. The Diplomatic Corps were the last to take their seats before the royal processions began.

Carriage processions began from Windsor Castle at 11:30, beginning with the royal guests and the bride’s family, followed by members of the British Royal Family and then the groom and his supporters. The last procession was the bride. The Queen, still in mourning, made her way privately to the chapel, and did not take part in the carriage procession.

Just before noon, Queen Victoria, escorted by the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, made her way to the Catherine of Aragon Closet, a room with an oriel window overlooking the left side of the altar. Dressed in a black silk dress with white collar and cuffs, along with her widow’s cap, she took her seat largely out of view of the guests in the chapel, along with Lady Augusta Bruce – her Lady of the Bedchamber. (She can be seen in the upper right of the picture above)

At 12:00, the procession began, with the royal guests and family members making their way up the aisle, each offering a bow or curtsy to The Queen before taking their seats. Next came The Prince of Wales, accompanied by his brother-in-law and uncle, who processed to The Wedding March. They too stopped to bow to The Queen, who had now stood and come to the front of the balcony to receive their homage. Last to process was the bride, accompanied by her father and the Duke of Cambridge both in full uniform and decorations. After she reached the altar and curtseyed to The Queen, the choir sang a chant which had been written by The Prince Consort. Overcome with emotion, The Queen was seen to cry and step back, out of view from those gathered below.

The ceremony was conducted by the Archbishop of Canterbury. It began with the couple taking their vows, followed by a brief service of readings, prayers and an homily from the Archbishop. Following the benediction, the couple joined hands, turned to bow and curtsy to The Queen and began their procession out of the chapel. At this point, The Queen made her way quietly back to the castle.

The Witnesses

As is traditional at British royal weddings, many of the royal guests served as witnesses for the marriage register. These included the groom’s mother, Queen Victoria, his siblings and their spouses, the bride’s parents and her siblings. Other signers included the Danish Minister, church dignitaries, the Lord Chancellor and other ministers of the Crown.

The Wedding Banquet

St George’s Hall, Windsor (photo from the 2014 State Visit of the President of Ireland). source: Irish Independent

Following the wedding, the bride and groom, and their royal guests, processed back to Windsor Castle by carriage, arriving at the Grand Entrance where Edward and Alexandra were met by Queen Victoria. They made their way to the Green Drawing Room and then the White Drawing Room, where the marriage register was signed. Lunch was then served in the State Dining Room for the royal guests, and in St. George’s Hall for the Diplomatic Corps, members of the royal households, and the more prominent guests at the wedding – nearly 400 people.

There were two wedding cakes, one in each venue. The cake in the State Dining Room was octagonal, featuring a square altar at the center, and a Cupid on each angle holding a piece of wedding cake. The cake in St. George’s Hall weighed nearly 80 pounds. It was octagonal in shape, and displayed the arms of the Prince of Wales, the new Princess of Wales, Great Britain and Denmark alternately on each side. It was decorated with orange blossoms and jasmine, and surmounted by a vase filled with a jasmine bouquet.

At 4pm, the newly married couple took leave of their guests, and traveled by open carriage, accompanied by a guard of honor from the Coldstream Guards, to Paddington Station where they boarded a train which took them to Osborne House on the Isle of Wight for their honeymoon.

compiled by Susan Flantzer

Queen Victoria with some of her extended family in 1894; Photo Credit – Wikipedia

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert had 87 great-grandchildren.

• 3 were stillborn (not included in the list below)
• 1 was illegitimate
• 7 were born Prince/Princess, had titles changed in 1917 to British peerage titles or courtesy titles
• 1 had no title
• 75 had a royal title

Female descendants’ married titles are in parentheses as are some male descendants who had title changes for various reasons.  Great-grandchildren are second cousins.  Carl Johan Bernadotte, Count of Wisborg, who died in 2012, was the last living great-grandchild of Queen Victoria.

Other Queen Victoria resources here at Unofficial Royalty:

• Queen Victoria’s Children and Grandchildren
• Queen Victoria’s Great-Great-Grandchildren
• Queen Victoria’s Saxe-Coburg Relatives
• Hemophilia in Queen Victoria’s Family
• December 14 – Queen Victoria’s Dire Day

Grandchildren of Princess Victoria, Princess Royal (German Empress, Queen of Prussia) and Friedrich III, German Emperor and King of Prussia

Children of Wilhelm II, German Emperor, King of Prussia and Princess Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg (German Empress, Queen of Prussia)

Wilhelm II and his family in 1896, Photo Credit – Wikipedia from the German Federal Archives

• Crown Prince Wilhelm of Prussia (1882 – 1951)
• Prince Eitel-Friedrich of Prussia (1883 – 1942)
• Prince Adalbert of Prussia (1884 – 1948)
• Prince August Wilhelm of Prussia (1887 – 1949)
• Prince Oskar of Prussia (1888 – 1958)
• Prince Joachim of Prussia (1890 – 1920)
• Princess Viktoria-Luise of Prussia (Duchess of Brunswick) (1892 – 1980)

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Child of Princess Charlotte of Prussia (Duchess of Saxe-Meiningen) and Bernhard III, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen

Princess Feodora circa 1900; Photo Credit – Wikipedia

• Princess Feodora of Saxe-Meiningen (Princess Heinrich Reuss XXX) (1879 – 1945)

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Children of Prince Heinrich of Prussia and Princess Irene of Hesse and by Rhine (Princess of Prussia) (both grandchildren of Queen Victoria)

Prince Heinrich and Princess Irene with their two surviving sons Waldemar and Sigismund; Photo Credit – Wikipedia

• Prince Waldemar of Prussia (1889 – 1945)
• Prince Sigismund of Prussia (1896 – 1978)
• Prince Heinrich of Prussia (1900 – 1904)

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Children of Princess Sophie of Prussia (Queen of Greece) and King Constantine I of Greece

Photo circa 1910, Top left:  Constantine holding Irene, Top right: the future George II, Left: Sophia, Center: Helen, Right: the future Alexander I, Front: the future Paul I, Katherine is not yet born; Photo Credit – Wikipedia

• King George II of Greece (1890 – 1947)
• King Alexander I of Greece (1893 – 1920)
• Princess Helen of Greece and Denmark (Queen Mother of Romania) (1896 – 1982)
• King Paul I of Greece (1901 – 1964)
• Princess Irene of Greece and Denmark (Duchess of Aosta) (1904 – 1974)
• Princess Katherine of Greece and Denmark (The Lady Katherine Brandram) (1913 – 2007)

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Children of Princess Margarete of Prussia (Landgravine of Hesse) and Friedrich Karl, Landgrave of Hesse

Hesse-Kassel sons, Photo Credit – Pinterest

• Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Hesse-Kassel (1893 – 1916), killed in World War I
• Prince Maximilian of Hesse-Kassel (1894 – 1914), killed in World War I
• Prince Philipp of Hesse-Kassel (1896 – 1980)
• Prince Wolfgang of Hesse-Kassel (1896 – 1989)
• Prince Richard of Hesse-Kassel (1901 – 1969)
• Prince Christoph of Hesse-Kassel (1901 – 1943), killed in World War II

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Grandchildren of King Edward VII of the United Kingdom and Princess Alexandra of Denmark (Queen Alexandra)

Children of King George V of the United Kingdom and Princess Victoria Mary of Teck (Queen Mary)

 Family of King George V

• King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom (later Duke of Windsor) (1894 – 1972)
• King George VI of the United Kingdom (1895 – 1952)
• Princess Mary, Princess Royal (Countess of Harewood) (1897 – 1965)
• Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester (1900 – 1974)
• Prince George, Duke of Kent (1902 – 1942)
• Prince John of the United Kingdom (1905 – 1919)

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Children of Princess Louise, Princess Royal (Duchess of Fife) and Alexander Duff, 1st Duke of Fife

Princess Louise with her daughters Maud and Alexandra. Photo Credit – Wikipedia

• Princess Alexandra of Fife, 2nd Duchess of Fife (Princess Arthur of Connaught) (1891 – 1959)
• Princess Maud of Fife (Countess of Southesk) (1893 – 1945)

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Child of Princess Maud of Wales (Queen of Norway) and King Haakon VII of Norway

Maud with her husband and son; Photo Credit – Wikipedia

• King Olav V of Norway (1903 – 1991)

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Grandchildren of Princess Alice of the United Kingdom (Grand Duchess of Hesse and by Rhine) and Ludwig IV, Grand Duke of Hesse and by the Rhine

Children of Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine (Princess of Battenberg, Marchioness of Milford Haven) and Prince Louis of Battenberg (after 1917 Louis Mountbatten 1st Marquess of Milford Haven)

Victoria with her family; Photo Credit – Wikipedia

• Princess Alice of Battenberg (Princess Andrew of Greece) (1885 – 1969)
• Princess Louise of Battenberg (after 1917 Lady Louise Mountbatten, later Queen of Sweden) (1889 – 1965)
• Prince George of Battenberg ( later George Mountbatten, 2nd Marquess of Milford Haven) (1892 – 1938)
• Prince Louis of Battenberg (later Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma) (1900 – 1979)

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Children of Ernst Ludwig, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine and Princess Victoria Melita of Edinburgh (Grand Duchess of Hesse and by Rhine) (both grandchildren of Queen Victoria)

Princess Elisabeth of Hesse and by Rhine, Photo Credit – Wikipedia

• Princess Elisabeth of Hesse and by Rhine (1895 – 1903)

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Children of Ernst Ludwig, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine and Princess Eleanore of Solms-Hohensolms-Lich (Grand Duchess of Hesse and by Rhine)

Grand Duke Ernst of Hesse and by Rhine with his second wife and their sons; Photo Credit – Wikipedia

• Hereditary Grand Duke Georg Donatus of Hesse and by Rhine (1906 – 1937)
• Prince Ludwig of Hesse and by Rhine (1908 – 1968)

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Children of Princess Alix of Hesse and by Rhine (Empress Alexandra Feodorovna of Russia) and Nicholas II, Emperor of All of Russia

Russian Imperial family (circa 1913-1914); Photo Credit – Wikipedia

(Articles on the children below will be published in July 2018.)

• Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna of Russia (1895 – 1918)
• Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna of Russia (1897 – 1918)
• Grand Duchess Maria of Nikolaevna Russia (1899 – 1918)
• Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia (1901 – 1918)
• Tsarevich Alexis of Russia Nikolaevich, hemophiliac (1904 – 1918)

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Grandchildren of Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Grand Duchess Marie Alexandrovna of Russia (Duchess of Edinburgh, Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha)

Children of Princess Marie of Edinburgh (Queen of Romania) and King Ferdinand I of Romania

Queen Marie with her family in 1913: Photo Credit – Wikipedia

• King Carol II of Romania (1893 – 1953)
• Princess Elisabeth of Romania (Queen of Greece) (1894 – 1956)
• Princess Marie of Romania (Queen of Yugoslavia) (1900 – 1961)
• Prince Nicolas of Romania (1903 – 1978)
• Princess Ileana of Romania (Archduchess of Austria-Tuscany) (1909 – 1991)
• Prince Mircea of Romania (1913 – 1916)

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Children of Princess Victoria Melita of Edinburgh (Grand Duchess Victoria Feodorovna of Russia) and Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich of Russia

Victoria Melita with her second husband and their children; Photo Credit – Wikipedia

• Grand Duchess Marie Kirillovna of Russia (Princess of Leiningen) (1907 – 1951)
• Grand Duchess Kira Kirillovna of Russia (Princess of Prussia) (1909 – 1967)
• Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich of Russia (1917 – 1992)

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Children of Princess Alexandra of Edinburgh (Princess of Hohenlohe-Langenburg) and Prince Ernst II of Hohenlohe-Langenburg

Alexandra with her children; Photo Credit – Wikipedia

• Prince Gottfried of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, 8th Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg (1897 – 1960)
• Princess Marie Melita of Hohenlohe-Langenburg (Duchess of Schleswig-Holstein) (1899 – 1967)
• Princess Alexandra of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, unmarried (1901 – 1963)
• Princess Irma of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, unmarried (1902 – 1986)
• Prince Alfred of Hohenlohe-Langenburg (born and died 1911)

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Children of Princess Beatrice of Edinburgh (Infanta of Spain, Duchess of Galliera) and Infante Alfonso of Spain, Duke of Galliera

Beatrice with her three sons; Photo Credit – Wikipedia

• Infante Alvaro, Duke of Galliera (1910 – 1997)
• Infante Alonso of Spain (1912 – 1936), killed during the Spanish Civil War
• Infante Ataulfo of Spain (1913 – 1974)

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Grandchild of Princess Helena of the United Kingdom (Princess Christian of Schleswig-Holstein) and Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein

Illegitimate Child of Prince Albert, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein (mother’s identity has never been revealed)

• Valerie zu Schleswig-Holstein (1900 – 1953)

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Grandchildren of Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Princess Louise Margaret of Prussia (Duchess of Connaught)

Children of Princess Margaret of Connaught (Crown Princess of Sweden) and Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf of Sweden (later King Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden)

Margaret with her husband and their four older children; Photo Credit – Wikipedia

• Prince Gustaf Adolf of Sweden, Duke of Västerbotten (1906 – 1947)
• Prince Sigvard of Sweden, Duke of Uppland (later Sigvard Bernadotte, Count of Wisborg) (1907 – 2002)
• Princess Ingrid of Sweden (Queen of Denmark) (1910 – 2000)
• Prince Bertil of Sweden, Duke of Halland (1912 – 1997)
• Prince Carl Johan of Sweden, Duke of Dalarna (later Carl Johan Bernadotte, Count of Wisborg, last living great-grandchild of Queen Victoria) (1916 – 2012)

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Child of Prince Arthur of Connaught and Princess Alexandra of Fife, 2nd Duchess of Fife (Princess Arthur of Connaught)  (Arthur is a grandson of Queen Victoria and Alexandra is a great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria.)

Alexandra with her son Alastair; Photo Credit – Wikipedia

• Prince Alastair, 2nd Duke of Connaught (1914 – 1943)

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Child of Princess Patricia of Connaught (Lady Patricia Ramsay) and The Honorable Alexander Ramsay

Patricia with her son Alexander; Photo Credit – Wikipedia

• Alexander Arthur Ramsay of Mar (1919 – 2000)

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Grandchildren of Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany and Princess Helena of Waldeck and Pyrmont (Duchess of Albany)

Children of Princess Alice of Albany (Countess of Athlone) and Prince Alexander of Teck (after 1917 Alexander Cambridge, 1st Earl of Athlone)

Princess Alice with her two surviving children May and Rupert; Photo Credit – Wikipedia

• Princess May of Teck (after 1917 Lady May Cambridge, after marriage Lady May Abel Smith) (1906 – 1994)
• Prince Rupert of Teck (after 1917 Rupert Cambridge, Viscount Trematon, hemophiliac) 1907 – 1928
• Prince Maurice of Teck (born and died 1910)

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Children of Prince Charles Edward, Duke of Albany, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (deprived of British titles in 1919) and Princess Victoria Adelaide of Schleswig-Holstein (Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha)

Charles Edward and his wife with their four older children in 1918; Photo Credit – Wikipedia

• Hereditary Prince Johann Leopold of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1906 – 1972)
• Princess Sibylla of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (Princess of Sweden, Duchess of Västerbotten) (1908 – 1972)
• Prince Hubertus of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1909 – 1943), killed in World War II
• Princess Karoline Mathilde of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1912 – 1983)
• Prince Friedrich-Josias of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1918 – 1998)

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Grandchildren of Princess Beatrice of the United Kingdom (Princess Henry of Battenberg) and Prince Henry of Battenberg

Child of Prince Alexander of Battenberg (after 1917 Alexander Mountbatten, Marquess of Carisbrooke) and Lady Irene Denison (Marchioness of Carisbrooke)

Lady Iris Victoria Beatrice Grace Kemp (née Mountbatten) by Bassano Ltd, whole-plate film negative, 26 November 1934 NPG x151240 © National Portrait Gallery, London

• Lady Iris Mountbatten (1920 – 1982)

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Children of Princess Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg (Queen Ena of Spain) and King Alfonso XIII of Spain

Queen Ena with her children. Photo: Wikipedia

• Infante Alfonso of Spain (1907 – 1938)
• Infante Jaime of Spain (1908 – 1975)
• Infanta Beatriz of Spain (Princess di Civitella-Cesi) (1909 – 2002)
• Infanta Maria Christina of Spain (Contessa Marone) (1911 – 1996)
• Infante Juan of Spain, Count of Barcelona (1913 – 1993)
• Infante Gonzalo of Spain (1914 – 1934)

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compiled by Susan Flantzer

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert with their nine children; Photo Credit – Wikipedia

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert have 142 great-great-grandchildren.  Note that many of the great-great-grandchildren used or are using styles and titles from monarchies that ceased to exist during the 20th century. The great-great-grandchildren are arranged according to their relationship to Queen Victoria’s children.  Death dates may be updated only for notable people.  Links below are for Unofficial Royalty articles or Wikipedia articles.  Not all the great-great-grandchildren have articles.

Other Queen Victoria resources here at Unofficial Royalty:

• Queen Victoria’s Children and Grandchildren
• Queen Victoria’s Great-Grandchildren 
• Queen Victoria’s Saxe-Coburg Relatives
• Hemophilia in Queen Victoria’s Family
• December 14 – Queen Victoria’s Dire Day

Notable Great-Great-Grandchildren

• Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom
• Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (born Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark)
• King Harald V of Norway
• King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden
• Queen Margrethe II of Denmark
• King Juan Carlos I of Spain
• Queen Sofia of Spain (born Princess Sophia of Greece and Denmark)
• King Constantine II of Greece
• Queen Anne-Marie of Greece (born Princess Anne-Marie of Denmark)
• King Michael I of Romania

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, born in 1921 and a descendant of Princess Alice, is currently the longest-lived, living great-great-grandchild of Queen Victoria.  Elizabeth Ramsay, born in 1923 and a descendant of Prince Arthur, is the youngest great-great-grandchild of Queen Victoria.

GREAT-GRANDCHILDREN OF VICTORIA, PRINCESS ROYAL, GERMAN EMPRESS, QUEEN OF PRUSSIA

• Prince Wilhelm of Prussia (1906 – 1940)
• Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia (1907 – 1994)
• Prince Hubertus of Prussia (1909 – 1950)
• Prince Friedrich of Prussia (1911 – 1966)
• Princess Alexandrine of Prussia (1915 – 1980)
• Princess Cecilie of Prussia (1917 – 1975)
• Princess Victoria Marina of Prussia (1917 – 1981)
• Prince Wilhelm-Victor of Prussia (1919 – 1989)
• Prince Alexander Ferdinand of Prussia (1912 – 1985)
• Prince Oskar of Prussia (1915 – 1939)
• Prince Burchard of Prussia (1917 – 1988)
• Princess Herzeleide of Prussia (1918 – 1989)
• Prince Wilhelm-Karl of Prussia (1922 – 2007)
• Prince Karl Franz Joseph of Prussia (1916 – 1975)
• Prince Ernst August of Hanover (1914 – 1987)
• Prince Georg Wilhelm of Hanover (1915 – 2006)
• Princess Friederike of Hanover, Queen of Greece (1917 – 1981)
• Prince Christian Oskar of Hanover (1919 – 1981)
• Prince Welf Heinrich of Hanover (1923 – 1997)
• Princess Barbara of Prussia (1920 – 1994)
• Prince Alfred of Prussia (1924 – 2013)
• Princess Alexandra of Greece and Denmark, Queen of Yugoslavia (1921 – 1993)
• Princess Sophie of Greece and Denmark, Queen Sofia of Spain (1938 – )
• King Constantine II of Greece (1940 – )
• Princess Irene of Greece and Denmark (1942 – )
• Prince Amedeo III of Savoy, 5th Duke of Aosta (1943 – )
• Richard Paul Brandram (1948 – )
• Landgrave Moritz of Hesse-Kassel (1926 – 2013)
• Prince Heinrich of Hesse-Kassel (1927 – 1999)
• Prince Otto of Hesse-Kassel (1937 – 1998)
• Princess Elisabeth of Hesse-Kassel (1940 – )
• Princess Christina of Hesse-Kassel (1933 – 2011)
• Princess Dorothea of Hesse-Kassel (1934 – )
• Prince Karl of Hesse-Kassel (1937 – )
• Prince Rainer of Hesse-Kassel (1939 – )
• Princess Clarissa of Hesse-Kassel (1944 – )

GREAT-GRANDCHILDREN OF KING EDWARD VII OF THE UNITED KINGDOM

• Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom (1926 – )
• Princess Margaret of the United Kingdom, Countess of Snowdon (1930 – 2002)
• George Lascelles, 7th Earl of Harewood (1923 – 2011)
• The Honorable Gerald Lascelles (1924 – 1998)
• Prince William of Gloucester (1941 – 1972)
• Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester (1944 – )
• Prince Edward, Duke of Kent (1935 – )
• Princess Alexandra of Kent (1936 – )
• Prince Michael of Kent (1942 – )
• James Carnegie, 3rd Duke of Fife (1929 – 2015)
• Princess Ragnhild of Norway (1930 – 2012)
• Princess Astrid of Norway (1932 – )
• King Harald V of Norway (1937 – )

GREAT-GRANDCHILDREN OF PRINCESS ALICE OF THE UNITED KINGDOM, GRAND DUCHESS OF HESSE AND BY RHINE

• Princess Margarita of Greece and Denmark (1905 – 1981)
• Princess Theodora of Greece and Denmark (1906 – 1969)
• Princess Cecilie of Greece and Denmark (1911 – 1937)
• Princess Sophie of Greece and Denmark (1914 – 2001)
• Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, Duke of Edinburgh (1921 – )
• Lady Tatiana Elizabeth Mountbatten (1917 – 1988)
• David Mountbatten, 3rd Marquess of Milford Haven (1919 – 1970)
• Patricia Mountbatten, 2nd Countess Mountbatten of Burma (1924 – 2017)
• Lady Pamela Mountbatten (1929 – )
• Prince Ludwig of Hesse and by Rhine (1931 – 1937)
• Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine (1933 – 1937)
• Princess Johanna of Hesse and by Rhine (1936 – 1939)

GREAT GRANDCHILDREN OF PRINCE ALFRED, DUKE OF EDINBURGH, DUKE OF SAXE-COBURG AND GOTHA

• Mircea Carol Hohenzollern (1920 – 2006)
• King Michael I of Romania (1921 – 2017)
• King Peter II of Yugoslavia (1923 – 1970)
• Prince Tomislav of Yugoslavia (1928 – 2000)
• Prince Andrej of Yugoslavia (1929 – 1990)
• Archduke Stefan of Austria-Tuscany Line (1932 – 1998)
• Archduchess Marie Ileana of Austria-Tuscany Line (1933 – 1959)
• Archduchess Alexandra of Austria-Tuscany Line (1935 – )
• Archduke Dominic of Austria-Tuscany Line (1937 – )
• Archduchess Maria Magdalena of Austria-Tuscany (1939 – )
• Archduchess Elizabeth of Austria-Tuscany Line (1942 – )
• Prince Emich of Leiningen, 7th Prince of Leiningen (1926 – 1991)
• Prince Karl of Leiningen (1928 – 1990)
• Princess Kira Melita of Leiningen (1930 – 2005)
• Princess Margarita of Leiningen (1932 – 1996)
• Princess Mechtilde of Leiningen (1936 – )
• Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Leiningen (1938 – 1998)
• Prince Peter Viktor of Leiningen (1942 – 1943)
• Grand Duchess Marie Vladimirovna of Russia (1953 – )
• Prince Kraft of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, 9th Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg (1935 – 2004)
• Princess Beatrix of Hohenlohe-Langenburg (1936 – 1997)
• Hereditary Prince Georg Andreas of Hohenlohe-Langenburg (1938 – )
• Prince Ruprecht of Hohenlohe-Langenburg (1944 – 1978)
• Prince Albrecht of Hohenlohe-Langenburg (1944 – 1992)
• Hereditary Prince Hans of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg (1917 – 1944)
• Prince Wilhelm Alfred of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg (1919 – 1926)
• Duke Peter of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg (1922 – 1980)
• Princess Marie Alexandra of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg (1927 – 2000)
• Princess Gerarda de Orleans-Borbon y Parodi-Delfino (1939 – )
• Prince Alonso de Orleans-Borbon y Parodi-Delfino (1941 – 1975)
• Princess Beatriz de Orleans-Borbon y Parodi-Delfino (1943 – )
• Prince Alvaro-Jaime de Orleans-Borbon y Parodi-Delfino (1947 – )

GREAT GRANDCHILDREN OF PRINCE ARTHUR, DUKE OF CONNAUGHT

• *Princess Margaretha of Sweden (1934 – )
• *Princess Birgitta of Sweden (1937 – )
• *Princess Désirée of Sweden (1938 – )
• *Princess Christina of Sweden (1943 – )
• *King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden (1946 – )
• Count Michael Bernadotte of Wisborg (1944 – )
• Queen Margrethe II of Denmark (1940 – )
• Princess Benedikte of Denmark (1944 – )
• Princess Anne-Marie of Denmark, Queen Anne-Marie of Greece (1946 – )
• Countess Monica Bernadotte (1948 – )
• Count Christian Bernadotte (1949 – )
• Katharine Fraser, Mistress of Saltoun  (1957 – )
• Alice Ramsay (1961 – )
• Elizabeth Ramsay (1963 – )

*Also great-grandchildren of Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany via their mother.

GREAT GRANDCHILDREN OF PRINCE LEOPOLD, DUKE OF ALBANY

• Anne Abel Smith (1932 – )
• Richard Abel Smith (1933 – 2004)
• Elizabeth Abel Smith (1936 – )
• Princess Marianne of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1933 – )
• Prince Ernst Leopold of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1935 – 1996)
• Prince Peter of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1939 – )
• Count Bertram of Castell-Rüdenhausen (1932 – )
• Count Conradin of Castell-Rüdenhausen (1933 – 2011)
• Countess Victoria of Castell-Rüdenhausen (1935 – )
• Calma Schnirring (1938 – )
• Dagma Schnirring (1940 – )
• Michael Schnirring (1943 – 1966)
• Prince Andreas of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1943 – )
• Princess Claudia of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1949 – 2016)
• Princess Beatrice of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1951 – )
• Prince Adrian of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1955 – 2011)

GREAT GRANDCHILDREN OF PRINCESS BEATRICE OF THE UNITED KINGDOM, PRINCESS HENRY OF BATTENBURG)

• Robin Alexander Bryan (1957 – )
• Alfonso de Borbon y de Dampierre, Duke of Cadiz (1936 – 1989)
• Gonzalo de Borbon y de Dampierre, Duke of Aquitaine (1937 – 2000)
• Princess Alessandra Torlonia of Civitella-Cesi (1936 – 2014)
• Marco Alfonso Torlonia, 6th Prince of Civitella-Cesi (1937 – 2014)
• Prince Marino Torlonia of Civitella-Cesi (1939 – 1995)
• Princess Olimpia Torlonia of Civitella-Cesi (1943 – )
• Vittoria Marone-Cinzano (1941 – )
• Giovanna Marone-Cinzano (1943 – )
• Maria Teresa Marone-Cinzano (1945 – )
• Anna Marone-Cinzano (1948 – )
• Infanta Pilar of Spain, Duchess of Badajoz (1936 – )
• King Juan Carlos I of Spain (1938 – )
• Infanta Margarita of Spain, Duchess of Soria (1939 – )
• Infante Alfonso of Spain (1941 – 1956)

Queen Victoria’s family in 1846 by Franz Xaver Winterhalter; left to right: Prince Alfred, The Prince of Wales, Queen Victoria, Prince Albert, Princess Alice, Princess Helena and Victoria, Princess Royal; Credit – Wikipedia

by Susan Flantzer

Queen Victoria and her family were my gateway to becoming a royalty aficionado but I procrastinated watching Victoria Season 2. I had seen articles in the British media about the many inaccuracies when Victoria Season 2 was shown in the United Kingdom. I DVRed all the shows when Season 2 started in the United States in January 2018. I noticed that right after the shows aired on Sunday nights and into Monday, a lot of people viewed Unofficial Royalty’s article about Ernst II, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Prince Albert’s brother. That made me wonder what they had Ernst doing in Season 2 – probably the same inaccurate thing he had been doing in Season 1. As of the date of this article’s publication, Ernst’s article has had 50,000+ views, is Unofficial Royalty’s tenth most viewed article and is our most viewed biography article. What they had Ernst doing (and what they had many other characters – or should I say real people – doing) never happened.

In my article What’s Wrong With Victoria Season 1, I wrote about the poetic license in historical fiction. I certainly realize that the creators of historical fiction have some poetic license to change the facts of the real world to make their story more interesting. But how much poetic license should historical fiction creators take with facts? Should they change characteristics of a real person because it will make the plot more dramatic? Should they change the facts so much that a real person is misrepresented or even defamed? How much should real events change? What responsibility do the creators of historical fiction have to tell the truth that the historical facts reveal?

Many things about many secondary characters – real people – are inaccurate and I feel the need to tell the story of these real people. I have compiled a timeline with real events and included comments after most of the events. At the end of the timeline, there is some brief information about the true lives of some of these real people.

There are many timeline inaccuracies and events that occur out of order in Victoria Series 2. Because of this, it is very difficult to tell the time span of each episode. When Victoria Season 2 ends, Queen Victoria has three children and she is pregnant with another child. That child must be her fourth child Prince Alfred who was born in August 1844 so Season 2 must end at Christmas 1843 and yet events have occurred in Season 2 that in reality occurred after 1843.

• Unofficial Royalty: Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom
• Unofficial Royalty: Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, The Prince Consort
• Unofficial Royalty: Queen Victoria’s Children and Grandchildren Index
• Unofficial Royalty: Bibliography of Royal Biographies: Queen Victoria and Family

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Timeline

I have included the birth dates of Queen Victoria’s first five children, born 1840 – 1846. They are the children in the family portrait above. The ages of the children in Victoria Season 2 are all wrong.   In December 1843, when Season 2 ended, Victoria, Princess Royal (Vicky) would have been 3 years old, her brother the Prince of Wales (Bertie) would have been 2 years old, and Alice would have been 8 months old.

March 30, 1792 – Birth of Edward Drummond, personal secretary to Prime Minister Robert Peel (Drummond in Victoria Season 2 was in his 20s – 30s. In reality, he was 24 years older than Lord Alfred Paget with whom he has a relationship in Victoria Season 2. The real Drummond died in 1843 before Lord Alfred held a position in Queen Victoria’s household. Drummond and Lord Alfred did not have a relationship.)

April 17, 1795 – Birth of Lady Elizabeth Wilhelmina Coke, daughter of Thomas Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester (I think the writers just picked a random person as this character.  The real Wilhelmina Coke was not the niece or great-niece of the Duchess of Buccleuch who was not born until 1811 and she did not marry Lord Alfred Paget. I find no evidence that she ever served as a lady-in-waiting. The real Wilhelmina married John Spencer-Stanhope and had six children.)

May 21, 1806 – Birth of Lady Harriet Howard, the future Duchess of Sutherland, Mistress of the Robes (Harriet in Victoria Season 2 is much too young. She was 13 years older than Queen Victoria and 12 years older than Prince Ernst of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. The real Harriet’s husband George Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, 2nd Duke of Sutherland did not die until 1861. Harriet and Prince Ernst did not have a relationship. More information below.)

April 10, 1811 – Birth of Lady Charlotte Thynne, the future Duchess of Buccleuch, Mistress of the Robes (The real Charlotte was 8 years older than Queen Victoria, not an old woman named Matilda as portrayed by actress Diana Rigg. More information below.)

June 26, 1816 – Birth of Lord Alfred Paget (Lord Alfred was Chief Equerry and Clerk Marshal to Queen Victoria from July 1846 to March 1852, from December 1852 to March 1858, and from June 1859 to 1888. If Victoria Season 2 ends in December 1843, the real Lord Alfred had not yet started serving in Queen Victoria’s household. He did not have a relationship with Edward Drummond. More information below.)

August 9, 1832 – King Leopold I of Belgium (Uncle Leopold) married Princess Louise-Marie of Orléans, daughter of Louis Philippe I, King of the French (Where is Queen Louise-Marie? Why is King Leopold not spending Christmas with his wife and their three young children?)

1837 – 1847 – Baron Christian von Stockmar acted, first as Victoria’s, and then as Victoria and Albert’s, unofficial counselor (Where is Baron Stockmar? More information below.)

1837 – 1862 – Marianne Skerrett served as Head Dresser and Wardrobe-Woman to Queen Victoria. (Her name was not Nancy and she was 26 years older than Queen Victoria. Her entire story in Victoria is utterly false. She did not take the place of a pregnant cousin’s intended position as dresser. More information below.)

November 21, 1840 – Birth of Victoria, Princess Royal (Vicky)

March 9, 1840 – March 31, 1842 – Employment of Charles Elmé Francatelli as Queen Victoria’s maitre d’hôtel and chief cook in ordinary. (Francatelli worked at the palace for only two years. He did not come back to work at the palace after leaving and he did not have a relationship with Marianne Skerrett who was 12 years older than him. More information below.)

November 9, 1841 – Birth of Albert Edward, Prince of Wales (Bertie)

January 1842 – 2-year-old Vicky was very ill. (In Victoria Season 2, Vicky is ill after the birth of Princess Alice and is older than age 2.)

May 3, 1842 – Prince Ernst of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha married Princess Alexandrine of Baden before he succeeded as Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (In Victoria Season 2, Ernst is not yet married in December 1843. Where is Alexandrine? More information below.)

July 25, 1842 – Baroness Louise Lehzen was dismissed by Prince Albert (In Victoria Season 2, Lehzen is dismissed after the birth of Princess Alice.)

April 25, 1843 – Birth of Princess Alice (Her uncle Prince Ernst did not attend her christening although he does in Victoria Season 2.)

June 18, 1843 – King Ernest Augustus I of Hanover, Duke of Cumberland and Victoria’s uncle, attended the wedding of his niece Princess Augusta of Cambridge at Buckingham Palace. This does not occur in the show but I mention it because it was the only time Ernest was in England after he became King of Hanover in 1837. (He did not visit England at Christmas 1843 as shown in Victoria Season 2.)

January 25, 1843 – An assassination attempt was made on Prime Minister Robert Peel (The killer mistook Edward Drummond, Peel’s personal secretary, for Peel, and shot and killed Drummond, age 51. The real Drummond did not jump in front of the bullet and did have a fiancée to mourn him as he did in Victoria Season 2.)

1843 – Queen Victoria and Prince Albert visited Louis Philippe I, King of the French (Louis Philippe I’s son Antoine, Duke of Montpensier did not marry Queen Isabella II of Spain as was said in Victoria Season 2. He married her sister Infanta Luisa Fernanda of Spain. Albert and Victoria’s cousin Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha was never considered as a husband to Queen Isabella II of Spain. Ferdinand married Queen Maria II of Portugal.)

August 6, 1844 – Birth of Prince Alfred (Affie)

January 29, 1844 – Prince Ernst succeeded his father Ernst I as Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (In Victoria Season 2 which ends in December 1843, he is already Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.)

1845 – 1849 – Irish Potato Famine (In Victoria Season 2, which ends in December 1843, the Irish Potato Famine has already occurred.)

May 25, 1846 – Birth of Princess Helena (Lenchen)

June 25, 1846 – Repeal of the Corn Laws (In Victoria Season 2, which ends in December 1843, the Repeal of the Corn Laws has already occurred.)

June 29, 1846 – Prime Minister Robert Peel forced to resign because of his support of the repeal of the Corn Laws. (In Victoria Season 2, which ends in December 1843, Peel’s resignation has already occurred.)

1847 – Death of Irish clergyman Robert Traill from typhus (Traill established a soup kitchen in his home to help victims of the Irish Potato Famine. He is the great-great-great-grandfather of Daisy Goodwin, the creator of Victoria. In Victoria Season 2, which ends in December 1843, Traill’s death has already occurred.)

November 24, 1848 – Death of William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne (Lord Melbourne) at age 69 (Did Melbourne die as he sat in his chair? I am confused!)

1848 – Aina, born in 1843, renamed Sara Forbes Bonetta, was rescued from the Kingdom of Dahomey in Africa by Captain Frederick Forbes of the Royal Navy. (The real Sara was born in 1843 and was not with Victoria and her family at Christmas 1843 as shown in Victoria Season 2. I can find no evidence that she ever lived in the palace.)

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Marianne Skerrett; Photo Credit – The Library of Nineteenth-Century Photography

Marianne Skerrett (1793 – 1887) was the Head Dresser and Wardrobe-Woman to Queen Victoria from 1837 to 1862. The daughter of a British Army officer who owned a plantation in the West Indies, Marianne was born in 1793, so she was 44 years old when Victoria became queen. She was extremely well-read and was fluent in Danish, French, and German.

Author Carolly Erickson has references to Marianne in her biography of Queen Victoria, Her Little Majesty. From Erickson’s book: Marianne Skerrett was “the head of Victoria’s wardrobe, overseeing all the practical work of ordering all her clothing, shoes, hats, gloves, and undergarments…She kept the wardrobe accounts, checking all the bills to make certain no one tried to cheat her mistress, and supervised the purveyors, hairdressers, dressmakers, and pearl-sewers whose task it was to keep the royal wardrobe in good repair.”

In addition, Marianne and Victoria had a lot in common. From Erickson’s book: “Both were intelligent, loved animals, spoke several languages…shared a great interest in paintings and painters. Marianne was well educated, with cultivated tastes, and in time to come Victoria would rely on her to help with the purchase of paintings and in corresponding with artists.”

Although she retired in 1862, Marianne remained in contact with Queen Victoria until her death in 1887 at the age of 94.

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Harriet Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, Duchess of Sutherland by Franz Xaver Winterhalter, 1849; Credit – Wikipedia

Harriet Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, Duchess of Sutherland (1806 – 1868) was born Lady Harriet Howard, the fifth of the twelve children and the third of the six daughters of George Howard, 6th Earl of Carlisle and Lady Georgiana Cavendish. In 1823, Harriet married George Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, Earl Gower who succeeded his father in 1833 as the 2nd Duke of Sutherland. Harriet and her husband had a successful, loving marriage and had eleven children.  One of their daughters was named Victoria and another was named Alexandrina – named after Queen Victoria whose given names were Alexandrina Victoria. Their grandson John Campbell, 9th Duke of Argyll married Queen Victoria’s daughter Princess Louise.

Harriet served Queen Victoria as Mistress of the Robes whenever the Whigs were in power until her husband’s death: August 1837 to September 1841, July 1846 to March 1852, January 1853 to February 1858, and June 1859 to April 1861. In the weeks following Prince Albert’s death in 1861, Harriet, who had lost her own husband earlier that year, was Queen Victoria’s sole companion.

Harriet’s last public appearance was at the Prince of Wales’s marriage in 1863. Later that year, she developed an illness from which she never recovered. She died on October 27, 1868, at the age of 62.
Wikipedia: Harriet Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, Duchess of Sutherland

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Charlotte Montagu Douglas Scott, Duchess of Buccleuch with her daughter Lady Victoria Alexandrina, named after Queen Victoria by Robert Thorburn. The painting was given from the Duchess to Queen Victoria in 1847; Credit – Wikipedia

Charlotte Montagu Douglas Scott, Duchess of Buccleuch (1811 – 1895) was born Lady Charlotte Thynne, the youngest of the three daughters and tenth of the eleven children of Thomas Thynne, 2nd Marquess of Bath and The Honorable Isabella Elizabeth Byng. In 1829, Charlotte married Walter Montagu Douglas Scott, 5th Duke of Buccleuch and the couple had seven children.  Like Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, Charlotte and her husband are great-great-grandparents of Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester, a first cousin of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom. They are also great-great-great grandparents of Sarah, Duchess of York. Charlotte’s husband died on April 16, 1884, at the age of 77.

Charlotte served Queen Victoria as Mistress of the Robes from 1841 – 1846 when the Conservative Party was in power and Robert Peel was Prime Minister. Charlotte and Queen Victoria remained close friends and Queen Victoria was a godmother to Charlotte’s daughter Lady Victoria. Charlotte’s daughter-in-law Louisa Montagu Douglas Scott, Duchess of Buccleuch was Mistress of the Robes to Queen Victoria from 1885 – 1892 and from 1895 until Queen Victoria’s death in 1901 and was also Mistress of the Robes to Queen Alexandra, wife of King Edward VII, from 1901 until her death in 1912.

Charlotte Montagu Douglas Scott, Duchess of Buccleuch died on March 18, 1895, at the age of 83.
Wikipedia: Charlotte Montagu Douglas Scott, Duchess of Buccleuch

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Lord Alfred Henry Paget by Southwell Brothers, albumen carte-de-visite, 1860s, NPG x46527 © National Portrait Gallery, London

Lord Alfred Paget (1816 – 1888) was the fourth of the ten children and the second of the five sons of Field Marshal Henry Paget, 1st Marquess of Anglesey and his second wife Lady Charlotte Cadogan. Alfred had eight half-siblings from his father’s first marriage to Lady Caroline Villiers.

Alfred was a lieutenant in the Royal Horse Guards and served as a Liberal Member of Parliament from 1837 – 1865. From July 1846 to March 1852, from December 1852 to March 1858, and from June 1859 to 1888, Alfred served Queen Victoria as Chief Equerry and Clerk Marshal. The offices of Chief Equerry and Clerk Marshal were combined until 1874 when they were separated. From 1874 – 1888, Alfred was only Chief Marshal. An Equerry serves as an aide-de-camp. As Clerk Marshal, Alfred was responsible for the payment of all Royal Household officers and servants. He was also responsible for submitting the Royal Household to the Board of Green Cloth which audited the accounts of the Royal Household.

In 1847, Alfred married Cecilia Wyndham, co-heiress with her elder sister of George Thomas Wyndham. Alfred and Cecilia had fourteen children including two pairs of twins. Their first child was named Victoria Alexandrina after Queen Victoria. He died on August 24, 1888, at the age of 72.

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Charles Elmé Francatelli, drawn by Auguste Hervieu and engraved by Samuel Freeman, 1846; Credit – Wikipedia

Charles Elmé Francatelli (1805 – 1876) was born in London, England. He was educated in France at the Parisian College of Cooking where he studied culinary arts with Antonin Carême, known as “The King of Chefs and the Chef of Kings.” When Francatelli returned to England, he became chef de cuisine (executive chef) to several members of the nobility. He then became chef de cuisine at the St. James’s Club, popularly known as Crockford’s.

For two years only, from March 9, 1840 to March 31, 1842, Francatelli served as maitre d’hôtel and chief cook in ordinary to Queen Victoria. For some reason, he was dismissed, perhaps because Queen Victoria did not like his French cuisine, and he returned to Crockford’s. Francatelli did have one more royal client. From 1863 – 1863, he served as chef de cuisine to The Prince and Princess of Wales (the future King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra) at their London home, Marlborough House

During his career, Francatelli was chef de cuisine at the Coventry House Club and the Reform Club. Afterward, he managed the St. James’s Hotel in Piccadilly London and finally the Freemasons’ Tavern, a position he held until shortly before his death.

Francatelli was a very successful cookbook author. In 1845, he published The Modern Cook which ran through twelve editions. His next book was The Cook’s Guide and Butler’s Assistant published in 1861. The same year, he published Plain Cookery Book for the Working Classes which contained practical information valuable to the less affluent people. In 1862, The Royal English and Foreign Confectionery Book was published.

Francatelli did marry (but not to Marianne Skerrett) and have children. One of his granddaughters was a survivor of the Titanic disaster. He died in Eastbourne, England on August 10, 1876, at the age of 71.

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Prince Ernst, lithograph by Franz Hanfstaengl, 1842; Credit – Wikipedia

Ernst II, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1818 – 1893) was a year older than Prince Albert and was the elder of the two sons of Ernst I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and his first wife Louise of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg. Since Ernst and Albert were close in age, they were also close companions during their childhood. However, as mentioned in Victoria, their childhood was marred by their parents’ disastrous marriage, separation, and divorce.

At the urging of his brother Albert, who had married Queen Victoria in 1840, Ernst began his search for a bride. However, Ernst was suffering from a venereal disease as a result of his many affairs. However, he did not have an affair with Harriet Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, Duchess of Sutherland as depicted in the television series Victoria. Ernst had been warned that continued promiscuity could leave him unable to father children. On May 13, 1842, in Karlsruhe, Baden (now in Germany) Ernst married Princess Alexandrine of Baden, the daughter of Leopold I, Grand Duke of Baden and Princess Sofia of Sweden. Ernst had at least three illegitimate children but his marriage was childless, perhaps due to Ernst passing the venereal disease to Alexandrine causing her to become infertile. Alexandrine was loyal and devoted to her husband despite his infidelities, and believed that their lack of children was her fault.

On January 29, 1844, Ernst’s father died and he became Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Ernst had financial difficulties throughout his reign due to his extravagance. He was an excellent musician, an amateur composer, and a great patron of the arts and sciences in Coburg. Ernst II, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha died after a short illness in Coburg on August 22, 1893, at the age of 75.
Unofficial Royalty: Ernst II, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha

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Christian Friedrich, Baron Stockmar by Franz Xaver Winterhalter, 1847; Credit – Wikipedia

Where is Baron Stockmar?
Christian Friedrich, Freiherr von Stockmar (Baron Stockmar) (1787 – 1863) was a physician and a statesman from Saxe-Coburg and Gotha who was sent to Victoria in 1837, the year of her accession, by her uncle King Leopold I of Belgium to advise her. Stockmar had accompanied Leopold to England when he married Princess Charlotte of Wales in 1816 and served as his personal physician, private secretary, comptroller of the household, and political advisor. When Albert and Ernst made a six-month tour of Italy in early 1839, Stockmar accompanied them. Baron Stockmar was Albert’s negotiator during the discussions regarding the marriage of Victoria and Albert and stayed in England after the marriage of Victoria and Albert, acting as their unofficial advisor. He was an important person to both Victoria and Albert and is missing from Victoria.
Wikipedia: Christian Friedrich, Baron Stockmar

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photo: By Northern Ireland Office – https://www.flickr.com/photos/niogovuk/17016997351/, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=65214202

Prince Philip, The Duke of Edinburgh, has been admitted to the King Edward VII Hospital in Marylebone, London, to undergo hip surgery.  The surgery is scheduled for tomorrow, Wednesday, April 4, 2018.

The statement from Buckingham Palace:

His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh was admitted to King Edward VII Hospital in London this afternoon, for planned surgery on his hip which will take place tomorrow.  Further updates will be issued when approrpriate.”

BBC: Duke of Edinburgh admitted to hospital for hip surgery

The Duchess of Cambridge has given birth to a son, at 11:01 local time today, at the Lindo Wing of St. Mary’s Hospital, London.  The baby weighed 8 pounds 7 ounces.  The Duke of Cambridge was present for the birth, and mother and son are doing well.

The new Prince is 5th in line for the throne, and the 6th great-grandchild of Queen Elizabeth II.

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The Duke of Cambridge briefly left the hospital this afternoon and returned with Prince George and Princess Charlotte to meet their new little brother.  Princess Charlotte waved to the crowds, and even turned around at the top of the stairs to give one more adorable wave!

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The Duchess of Cambridge and her son have left St. Mary’s Hospital this evening, and returned to Kensington Palace.

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More information will be posted as it becomes available.

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Today it was announced that the name of the newborn son of The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will be Louis Arthur Charles with Louis being pronounced Loo-ee.  He will be known as His Royal Highness Prince Louis of Cambridge.

More associated with French royalty, the name Louis has never been used as a first name for a British prince.   King George I was named Georg Ludwig in German, George Louis in English. King George III’s father, the Prince of Wales who never became king because he predeceased his father, was named Frederick Lewis.

The uncle of Prince Philip, the new prince’s great-grandfather, was named Louis. Born Prince Louis of Battenberg and a great-grandson of Queen Victoria, Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma served in World War II and was the last Viceroy of India.  He was assassinated by an Irish Republican Army bomb in 1979.

Also in Prince Louis’ ancestry from his great-grandfather Prince Philip’s side of the family is Ludwig IV, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine, the husband of Queen Victoria’s daughter Princess Alice and Prince Ludwig of Battenberg, later Louis Mountbatten, 1st Marquess of Milford Haven. the father of both Prince Philip’s mother Alice and Philip’s uncle Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma.

The baby’s father, named William Arthur Philip Louis, has two of his son’s names, as does the baby’s paternal grandfather Charles Philip Arthur George.  King Henry VII’s eldest son who predeceased him was Arthur, Prince of Wales and one of Queen Victoria’s sons was Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught.

by Susan Flantzer

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Prince Louis Arthur Charles of Cambridge is the second son of the two sons and the youngest of the three children of Prince William, The Duke of Cambridge, and The Duchess of Cambridge, the former Catherine Middleton. He was born at 11:01 AM London time on April 23, 2018, at the Lindo Wing, St. Mary’s Hospital in London.

Prince Louis had two older siblings:

• Prince George of Cambridge (born 2013)
• Princess Charlotte of Cambridge (born 2015)

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Prince George and Princess Charlotte arrive at the hospital with their father to see their new brother

The Succession to The Crown Act 2013, which formally went into effect on March 26, 2015, put in place absolute primogeniture, which means for those born after October 28, 2011, the eldest child born becomes the heir to his or her parent, regardless of gender. This means that at the time of his birth Prince Louis was fifth in the line of succession after his grandfather The Prince of Wales, his father The Duke of Cambridge, his elder brother Prince George of Cambridge, and his elder sister Princess Charlotte of Cambridge. With the birth of Prince Louis, Princess Charlotte became the first princess not to be overtaken in the line of succession by her younger brother. Louis is the sixth great-grandchild of Queen Elizabeth II and The Duke of Edinburgh.

Later on the day of Louis’ birth, Prince William brought Prince George and Princess Charlotte to the hospital to meet their new baby brother. Just a few hours later, The Duke and Duchess and their newborn son left the hospital and returned home to Kensington Palace. Four days later, the couple announced their son’s name – Louis Arthur Charles.

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More associated with French royalty, the name Louis (pronounced Lou-ee) has never been used as a first name for a British prince. King George I was named Georg Ludwig in German, George Louis in English. King George III’s father, the Prince of Wales who never became king because he predeceased his father, was named Frederick Lewis.

The uncle of Prince Philip, Prince Louis’ great-grandfather, was named Louis. Born Prince Louis of Battenberg and a great-grandson of Queen Victoria, Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma served in World War II and was the last Viceroy of India. He was assassinated by an Irish Republican Army bomb in 1979.

Also in Prince Louis’ ancestry from his great-grandfather Prince Philip’s side of the family is Ludwig IV, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine, the husband of Queen Victoria’s daughter Princess Alice and Prince Ludwig of Battenberg, later Louis Mountbatten, 1st Marquess of Milford Haven. the father of both Prince Philip’s mother Alice and Philip’s uncle Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma.

Prince Louis’ father, named William Arthur Philip Louis, has two of his son’s names, as does the baby’s paternal grandfather Charles Philip Arthur George. King Henry VII’s eldest son who predeceased him was Arthur, Prince of Wales and one of Queen Victoria’s sons was Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught.

Wikipedia: Prince Louis of Cambridge

by Susan Flantzer

Wedding of Matilda of England, King Henry I’s daughter, and Heinrich V, Holy Roman Emperor; Credit – Wikipedia

• House of Normandy
• House of Angevin
• House of Plantagenet
• House of Lancaster
• House of York

The duty of a medieval king was to have sons to succeed to the throne because women were considered unfit to rule. The political advantage of the marriage was the prime consideration – not the looks, the personality or whether the couple liked each other. In Scotland, it was common for the King of Scots to marry a daughter of a Scottish peer but it was not so in England. A foreign alliance was of the utmost importance.

Princesses were often sent off to their wedding without even meeting their future groom. However, royal children were brought up knowing their eventual fate and their duty to king and country. Young princesses were often sent to be brought up in their future husbands’ kingdoms to learn the language and the customs. King Henry I’s daughter Matilda was betrothed to marry Heinrich V, Holy Roman Emperor, who was sixteen years older than her. At the age of eight, she was sent off to Germany and placed into the custody of Bruno, Archbishop of Trier, who educated her in the German language and culture and in the government of the Holy Roman Empire. When the 22-year-old Matilda returned to England as a widow, the courtiers were amazed at how German she had become.

When the eldest daughter of the King of England married, a tax was collected from the barons to provide her with a dowry. The King provided his younger daughters with dowries with his own funds. It was common that royal dowries not only included cash but also land and goods. Proxy betrothals and proxy weddings were often necessary if the royal parents refused to send their daughter away because she was still a child. A proxy marriage was arranged between 28-year-old James IV, King of Scots and twelve-year-old Margaret Tudor, eldest daughter of King Henry VII with Patrick Hepburn, 1st Earl of Bothwell standing in for King James IV. Margaret was exactly the same age as her grandmother Margaret Beaufort had been when she married Edmund Tudor. Margaret Beaufort was determined that her granddaughter not consummate her marriage at such an early age and insisted that Margaret must remain in England until she was older.

The wedding of King Henry VI and Margaret of Anjou; Credit – Wikipedia

The royal bride’s arrival in her new country resulted in massive festivities as soon as she entered the country and continued as she traveled along the roads to the capital. When Margaret of Anjou, the bride of King Henry VI, entered London, she was met with tableaux vivants created and performed by citizens including an allegory of Peace and Plenty, and representations of Noah’s Ark, the Resurrection, and the Last Judgement.

Unfortunately, there is not much information on medieval royal wedding dresses. Most chroniclers were monks who did not describe what the bride wore but a few descriptions do exist. When Elizabeth of Rhuddlan, daughter of King Edward I, married John I, Count of Holland, she wore a gown of embroidered silk with silver gilt buttons and a crown set with rubies, emeralds, and pearls. When King Edward IV’s sister Margaret of York married Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, she wore a surcoat and mantle of crimson velvet embroidered with gold and a magnificent crown adorned with pearls and enameled white roses for the House of York set between red, green and white enameled letters of her name in Latin.

Crown of Margaret of York in Aachen Cathedral; Photo Credit – By Photo by CEphoto, Uwe Aranas, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=34659301

Chroniclers gave no specific account of wedding ceremonies but it can be assumed that the ceremony was the typical Roman Catholic ceremony at that time perhaps with the addition of music. The bride of the King of England was usually crowned Queen right after the wedding ceremony. After the wedding ceremony, the wedding banquet was held. The feasts lasted for several days and included dancing, singing, and jousts. The amount of food consumed was amazing. For the wedding of King Henry III’s daughter Margaret to Alexander III, King of Scots in York, England, the citizens of York contributed all the bread, 200 deer, 300 does, 200 young bucks and 100 boars. The Archbishop of York donated 60 oxen and the King of England’s fishermen gave 230 fish.

Crowning of King Edward III’s bride Philippa of Hainault; Credit – Wikipedia

Weddings of Norman and Plantagenet Kings and Their Children

Some weddings of Kings of England and their children were held in England and some were held in other countries.

• Westminster Abbey was completed around 1060 and was consecrated in 1065.  It was the wedding venue for several royal weddings in this time period including that of King Richard II to Anne of Bohemia in 1382.  The next royal wedding in Westminster Abbey would be the wedding of Queen Victoria’s granddaughter Princess Patricia of Connaught in 1919.
• Windsor Castle, with its building started by King William I in the decade after the Norman conquest of 1066,  was the setting for a few weddings in this time period. King Henry III had built the Chapel of Edward the Confessor there in the early 13th century.  However, St. George’s Chapel, the site of many recent royal weddings, was not built there until the late 14th century. Henry III’s Chapel of Edward the Confessor was incorporated into the new chapel.  The first wedding at St. George’s Chapel was that of Queen Victoria’s son, the future King Edward VII, in 1863.
• Other wedding venues that have official websites or Wikipedia articles will be linked below.  Sometimes the city where the wedding took place is known but the actual wedding venue is unknown.

Note: Only married monarchs and their married children are listed. Links are to Unofficial Royalty articles and only links for monarchs, their children, and their spouses are listed. Note that not all children and spouses have Unofficial Royalty articles.

William I (the Conqueror), King of England, Duke of Normandy married (1053) Matilda of Flanders at the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Eu, Normandy now in France

• Robert Curthose, Duke of Normandy married (1100) Sybil of Conversano in the bride’s hometown of Apulia, now in Italy
• Constance of Normandy married (1087) Alan IV, Duke of Brittany in Caen, Normandy
• Adela of Normandy married (1081) Stephen II, Count of Blois, in Breteuil. Normandy

Henry I, King of England (son of William I) (1) married (1100) Edith of Scotland (renamed Matilda upon her marriage) at Westminster Abbey; (2) married (1121) Adeliza of Louvain at Windsor Castle

• William Ætheling married (1119) Matilda of Anjou in Lisieux, Normandy
• Matilda of England (1) married (1114) Heinrich V, Holy Roman Emperor at Mainz Cathedral now in Germany; (2) married (1128) Geoffrey of Anjou at the Cathedral of Saint Julian of Le Mans now in France

Stephen, King of England (grandson of William I) married (1125) Matilda of Boulogne, wedding venue unknown but probably in France

• Eustace IV, Count of Boulogne married (1140) Constance of France, in Paris, France
• William of Blois, Count of Boulogne, Earl of Surrey (married 1148) Isabel de Warenne, 4th Countess of Surrey, wedding venue unknown
• Marie I, Countess of Boulogne married (1160) Matthew of Alsace, wedding venue unknown

Henry II, King of England (grandson of Henry I) married (1152) Eleanor, Duchess of Aquitaine in Poitiers in the County of Poitou

• Henry the Young King married (1160) Marguerite of France in Rouen, Normandy
• Matilda of England married (1168) Heinrich the Lion, Duke of Saxony and Bavaria at Minden Cathedral now in Germany
• Geoffrey II, Duke of Brittany married (1181) Constance, Duchess of Brittany, wedding venue unknown
• Eleanor of England married (1177) King Alfonso VIII of Castile at Burgos Cathedral in Spain
• Joan of England (1) married (1177) King William II of Sicily 1177 at Palermo Cathedral in Sicily (Italy); (2) married (1196) Raymond VI, Count of Toulouse in Rouen, Normandy

Richard I, King of England (son of Henry II) married (1191) Berengaria of Navarre at the Chapel of St George in Limassol, Cyprus

John, King  of England (son of Henry II) (1) married (1189) Isabella, Countess of Gloucester at Marlborough Castle in Wiltshire, England (marriage annulled); (2) married (1200) Isabella of Angoulême in Bordeaux in the Duchy of Aquitaine

• Richard, Earl of Cornwall (1) married (1231) Isabel Marshal at St. Mary the Virgin’s Church in Fawley, England (2) married (1243) Sanchia of Provence at Westminster Abbey (3) married (1269) Beatrice of Falkenburg in Stiftkirche in Kaiserslautern now in Germany
• Joan of England married (1221) Alexander II, King of Scots at York Minster in York, England
  Isabella of England married (1235) Friedrich II, Holy Roman Emperor in Worms Cathedral now in Germany
• Eleanor of England (1) married (1224) William Marshal, 2nd Earl of Pembroke at the Temple Church in London (2) married (1238) Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester in the private chapel at the Palace of Westminster in London

Henry III, King of England (son of King John) married (1236) Eleanor of Provence at Canterbury Cathedral in Canterbury, England

• Margaret of England (1251) married Alexander III, King of Scots at York Minster in York, England
• Beatrice of England married (1260) John II, Duke of Brittany at the Basilica of St. Denis in Paris, France
• Edmund Crouchback, 1st Earl of Lancaster (1) married (1269) Aveline de Forz at Westminster Abbey; (2) married (1276) Blanche of Artois in Paris, France

Edward I, King of England (son of Henry III) (1) married (1254) Eleanor of Castile at the Abbey of Santa María la Real de Las Huelgas in Burgos, Castile (now Spain) (2) married (1299) Margaret of France at Canterbury Cathedral in Canterbury, England

• Eleanor of England married (1293) Henry III, Count of Bar in Bristol Cathedral in England
• Joan of Acre (1) married (1290) Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Hertford at Westminster Abbey (2) married (1297) Ralph de Monthermer, wedding venue unknown
• Margaret married (1290) John II, Duke of Brabant at Westminster Abbey
• Elizabeth of Rhuddlan (1) married (1297) John I, Count of Holland in Ipswich, England (2) married (1302) Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of Hereford at Westminster Abbey
• Thomas of Brotherton, Earl of Norfolk married (1326) Alice de Hales in Loddon, Norfolkshire, England
• Edmund of Woodstock, Earl of Kent married (1325) Margaret Wake, 3rd Baroness Wake of Liddell, wedding venue unknown

Edward II, King of England (son of Edward I) married (1308) Isabella of France in Boulogne, France

• Eleanor of Woodstock married (1332) Reinoud II, Count of Guelders in Nijmegen in the County of Guelders now in the Netherlands
• Joan of The Tower married (1328) King David II of Scotland in 1328 at Berwick-upon-Tweed, England

Edward III, King of England (son of Edward II) married (1328) Philippa of Hainault at York Minster in York, England

• Edward, Prince of Wales, the Black Prince married (1361) Joan of Kent, 4th Countess of Kent at Windsor Castle
• Isabella of England married (1365) Enguerrand VII de Coucy, 1st Earl of Bedford at Windsor Castle
• Lionel of Antwerp, 1st Duke of Clarence (1) married (1342) Elizabeth de Burgh, 4th Countess of Ulster at the Tower of London (2) married (1368) Violante Visconti in Milan, Italy
• John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster (1) married (1359) Blanche of Lancaster in the Queen’s Chapel at Reading Abbey (2) married (1371) Infanta Constance of Castile in Roquefort, France (3) married (1396) Katherine Swynford (formerly his mistress) at Lincoln Cathedral
• Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York (1) married (1372) Infanta Isabella of Castile at Wallingford, Oxfordshire, England (2) married (1393) Joan Holland, wedding venue unknown
• Mary of Waltham married (1361) John V, Duke of Brittany at Woodstock Palace in Woodstock, Oxfordshire, England
• Margaret of Windsor married (1359) John Hastings, 2nd Earl of Pembroke in Reading, England
• Thomas of Woodstock, 1st Duke of Gloucester married (1376) Eleanor de Bohun, wedding venue unknown

Richard II, King of England (grandson of Edward III) (1) married (1382) Anne of Bohemia at Westminster Abbey (last royal wedding at Westminster Abbey until the wedding of Queen Victoria’s granddaughter Princess Patricia of Connaught in 1919)  (2) married (1396) Isabella of Valois at the Church of St. Nicholas in Calais, France

Henry IV, King of England (grandson of Edward III) (1) married (1380) Mary de Bohun at Arundel Castle in West Sussex, England (2) married (1403) Joan of Navarre at Winchester Cathedral (Note: Mary de Bohun died before Henry became king.  She was the mother of all his children.)

• Thomas of Lancaster, Duke of Clarence married (1411) Margaret Holland, wedding venue unknown
• John of Lancaster, Duke of Bedford (1) married (1423) Anne of Burgundy in Troyes, France (2) married (1433) Jacquetta of Luxembourg in Thérouanne, France
• Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester (1) married (1423) Jacqueline, Countess of Hainaut and Holland in Hadleigh, Essex, England (2) married (1428) Eleanor Cobham
• Blanche of England married (1402) Louis III, Elector Palatine at Cologne Cathedral now in Germany
• Philippa of England married (1406) Eric of Pomerania, King of Denmark, Norway and Sweden at Lund Cathedral in Lund, Sweden

Henry V, King of England (son of Henry IV) married (1420) Catherine of Valois in Troyes, France

Henry VI, King of England (son of Henry VI) married (1445) Margaret of Anjou at Titchfield Abbey in Titchfield, Hampshire, England

• Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales married (1470) Lady Anne Neville at Angers Cathedral in France

Edward IV, King of England (great-great-grandson of Edward III) married (1464) Elizabeth Woodville at Elizabeth’s family home in Grafton Regis, Northamptonshire, England

• Elizabeth of York married (1486) Henry VII, King of England in St. Stephen’s Chapel in the Palace of Westminster
• Cecily of York (1) married Ralph Scrope of Upsall, wedding venue unknown (2) married (1487) John Welles, 1st Viscount Welles, wedding venue unknown  (3) married (circa 1502-1504) Sir Thomas Kyme, wedding venue unknown
• Anne of York married (1495) Thomas Howard at Greenwich, England (after Anne’s death was 3rd Duke of Norfolk)
• Catherine of York married (1495) William Courtenay, 1st Earl of Devon, wedding venue unknown

Richard III, King of England (great-great-grandson of Edward III, brother of Edward IV) married (1472) Lady Anne Neville in St. Stephen’s Chapel in the Palace of Westminster

Works Cited

• Ashdown, D. (1981). Royal Weddings. London: Robert Hale Limited.
• Genealogics.org. (2018). [online] Available at: http://www.genealogics.org [Accessed 2 Apr. 2018].
• Unofficial Royalty. (2018). Unofficial Royalty. [online] Available at: http://www.unofficialroyalty.com [Accessed 2 Apr. 2018]. (for wedding venue and genealogy information)
• Westminster-abbey.org. (2018). Westminster Abbey » Home. [online] Available at: http://www.westminster-abbey.org/home [Accessed 2 Apr. 2018]. (for wedding venue information)
• Wikipedia. (2018). Main Page. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/ [Accessed 2 Apr. 2018].  (for wedding venue and genealogy information)

by Susan Flantzer

Double Portrait of Elizabeth of York and King Henry VII; Credit – Wikipedia

• Unofficial Royalty: House of Tudor

On August 22, 1485, at the Battle of Bosworth Field, the last significant battle of the Wars of the Roses, the last king of the House of York and the Plantagenet dynasty, King Richard III of England, lost his life and his crown. The battle was a decisive victory for the House of Lancaster, whose leader Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, became King Henry VII, the first monarch of the House of Tudor.

Even though the first Parliament of Henry VII’s reign passed a bill confirming his right to the throne and settling the succession upon the heirs of his body, his genealogical claim to the English throne through his mother Lady Margaret Beaufort was tenuous. And so, he did what his Plantagenet ancestors did – he made a political marriage and that marriage helped validate Henry VII’s claim to the throne. Henry VII married Elizabeth of York, the eldest child of the Yorkist King Edward IV, thereby uniting the House of York and the House of Lancaster. Elizabeth had no surviving brothers and her uncle Richard III had no surviving children, and so her genealogical claim on the English throne was very much stronger than Henry VII’s. By today’s standards of absolute primogeniture, Elizabeth of York would have been the heir to the English throne.

During his reign, Henry VII’s two main goals were peace-keeping and economic prosperity, and he succeeded at both. He did not try to retake the territories lost in France during the reigns of his predecessors. Instead, he concluded a peace treaty with France, which helped fill the coffers of England again. Again, like his Plantagenet ancestors, Henry VII made political marriages for his two eldest children which helped fulfill his goals. He made a pact with Spain with the marriage treaty of his eldest son Arthur, Prince of Wales and Catherine of Aragon, the daughter of King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castile. He also allied himself with Scotland by marrying his daughter Margaret to King James IV of Scotland. Ultimately, this marriage would unite England and Scotland when King Henry VII’s great-great-grandson King James VI of Scotland succeeded King Henry VII’s granddaughter Queen Elizabeth I of England. Through his daughter Margaret Tudor, Henry VII is the ancestor of the British royal family and many other European royal families.

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To help foster the legitimacy of the House of Tudor, Henry VII made sure that the wedding of his heir Arthur, Prince of Wales to Catherine of Aragon was a festive and grand affair. When 16-year-old Catherine arrived in London, she was greeted by jubilant citizens and a number of tableaux vivants including one depicting the life of her patron St. Catherine. On November 14, 1501, Arthur and Catherine were married in a splendid ceremony at the Old St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. Old St. Paul’s was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666 and its replacement was consecrated in 1697. There would not be another wedding at St. Paul’s Cathedral until 1981 when another Prince of Wales, Prince Charles, married Lady Diana Spencer.

A six-foot high platform was built in Old St. Paul’s from the cathedral door to the altar so that all the guests could see all parts of the ceremony. The bride was escorted to the cathedral and led to the altar by the groom’s 10-year-old brother Henry, Duke of York, who, as King Henry VIII, would eventually become her second husband. Arthur and Catherine were dressed in white satin. Catherine’s dress was the first farthingale dress worn in England. The farthingale dress with hoop skirt stiffened with wood, became an essential part of Tudor fashion. A white silk veil bordered with gold and set with jewels was worn over the bride’s long, auburn flowing hair.

Wedding Feast of Arthur, Prince of Wales and Catherine of Aragon; Credit – Wikipedia

Festivities continued for days after the wedding for both the city of London and the royal court. There were so many people in the street that one observer noted, “There was nothing to the eye but only visages and faces, without the appearance of bodies.” Banquet after banquet was held in Westminster Hall for the royal court. Catherine and her ladies demonstrated Spanish dances and Prince Henry danced with his sisters and other ladies. Soon after their marriage, Catherine and Arthur went to live at Ludlow Castle in Shropshire, close to Wales, where, as Prince of Wales, Arthur presided over the Council of Wales and the Marches. Less than five months later, on April 2, 1502, Arthur died, probably of the sweating sickness, and 16-year-old Catherine was left a widow.

King Henry VII did not want to lose Catherine of Aragon’s dowry or the alliance he had made with Spain, so he offered his new heir Henry, who was five years younger than Catherine, to be her husband. A number of problems with negotiations made it doubtful that the marriage would ever take place. With little money, Catherine lived as a virtual prisoner at Durham House in London from 1502 – 1509.

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The marriage of Henry VII’s eldest daughter Margaret was a very political one. In 1502, England and Scotland concluded the Treaty of Perpetual Peace, agreeing to end the warfare between England and Scotland which had occurred over the previous two hundred years. As part of the treaty, a marriage was arranged between 28-year-old James IV, King of Scots and twelve-year-old Margaret Tudor. A proxy marriage was held on January 25, 1503, at Richmond Palace with Patrick Hepburn, 1st Earl of Bothwell standing in for King James IV. Margaret was exactly the same age as her grandmother Margaret Beaufort had been when she married Edmund Tudor. Margaret Beaufort was determined that her granddaughter not consummate her marriage at such an early age and insisted that Margaret must remain in England a while longer.

James IV, King of Scots and Margaret Tudor; Credit – Wikipedia

In 1503, Margaret left London with her father to make the journey to Scotland. Her formal court farewell was held at her paternal grandmother’s home Collyweston Palace near Stamford, Northamptonshire, England. After two weeks of celebrations, Margaret rode out to her new life with only one relative, Sir David Owen, the illegitimate son of her great-grandfather Owen Tudor. On August 3, 1503, at Dalkeith Castle in Midlothian, Scotland, Margaret first met King James IV. The couple was married in person on August 8, 1503, at Holyrood Abbey in Edinburgh, Scotland.

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King Henry VII died on April 21, 1509, and 17-year-old Henry succeeded him. Henry VIII’s reign seems to be the beginning of the period when royal weddings were mostly private and held in palace chapels, the Queen’s Closet (a small room used as a private chapel or prayer room) or bedchambers. This tradition continued with the Stuarts and the Hanovers. It was not until the reign of Queen Victoria that royal weddings became more public.

16th-century woodcut of the coronation of King Henry VIII of England and Catherine of Aragon showing their heraldic badges, the Tudor Rose and the Pomegranate of Granada; Credit – Wikipedia

Henry VIII’s first wedding to his brother’s widow Catherine of Aragon was quite sedated. Henry and Catherine walked from Greenwich Palace to a nearby Franciscan abbey, Grey Friars’ Church, and were married. Henry VIII’s marriage to Anne Boleyn was anything but public. Anne was pregnant and Henry was still legally married to Catherine of Aragon. On January 25, 1533, Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn were secretly married at York Place in London which later became Whitehall Palace. Eleven days after the execution of Anne Boleyn in 1536, Henry VIII quietly married his third wife in the Queen’s Closet at Whitehall Palace. Seventeen months later, Jane Seymour would be dead due to childbirth complications after giving birth to Henry’s only son.

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Anne of Cleves has the distinction of being considered Henry VIII’s most fortunate wife. She arrived in Deal, England on December 27, 1539, and then she proceeded to Rochester on New Year’s Day. Henry VIII was so eager to see Anne, that he went to Rochester incognito. Henry was terribly disappointed by his new bride. He found Anne humorless and boring. She looked unimpressive in her German costume, acted shy and did not speak English. Henry postponed the wedding for two days and regretted that he could not withdraw from the marriage contract.

King Henry VIII and Anne of Cleves; Photo Credit – Wikipedia

Reluctantly, Henry married Anne of Cleves on January 6, 1540, at Greenwich Palace in Greenwich, London. The marriage was never consummated, and it was said that the couple spent the night playing cards. Henry told his chief minister Thomas Cromwell, “I liked her before not well, but now I like her much worse.” On July 6, 1540, Anne of Cleves was informed that Henry wanted to end the marriage and Anne agreed to an annulment which was finalized on July 9, 1540, on the grounds of non-consummation. Anne of Cleves remained in England. Henry VIII’s “most fortunate wife” was given a generous financial settlement and the use of Richmond Palace and Hever Castle. Anne was frequently at court, had a cordial relationship with Henry and his children, and was referred to as “the King’s Beloved Sister.” She survived Henry and all his wives.

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Henry secretly married his fifth wife, teenaged Catherine Howard at a very private wedding at Oatlands Palace in Surrey, England on July 28, 1540, the same day Thomas Cromwell, the scapegoat for the failed marriage to Anne of Cleves, was executed for treason and heresy. Henry called his teenaged bride his “rose without a thorn.” Catherine soon proved to be a rose with many thorns because of her affair with Thomas Culpeper, a Gentleman to the King’s Privy Chamber and like her first cousin Anne Boleyn, she was executed.

King Henry VIII and Catherine Howard: Credit – Wikipedia

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Catherine Parr, Henry VIII’s sixth wife was more of a nursemaid to the ailing king. Catherine had fallen in love with Thomas Seymour, brother of Henry VIII’s late third wife Jane Seymour, and the two hoped to marry. However, Henry VIII began to show an interest in Catherine and she felt it was her duty to choose Henry’s proposal of marriage over Thomas Seymour’s. Seymour was appointed an ambassador to the Netherlands to get him out of England. In 1543, Catherine Parr and Henry VIII were married in the Queen’s Closet at Hampton Court Palace in front of twenty guests. Catherine proved to be a good nurse to Henry and a kind stepmother to his three children. After Henry VIII’s death in 1547, Catherine finally married Thomas Seymour, uncle of the new King Edward VI. Tragically, Catherine died on September 5, 1548, of childbed fever after giving birth to a daughter who appears to have died young. Six months after Catherine’s death, her widower Thomas Seymour was beheaded for treason.

King Henry VIII and Catherine Parr; Credit – Wikipedia

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All of Henry VIII’s children succeeded to the throne: his son by Jane Seymour King Edward VI, his daughter by Catherine of Aragon Queen Mary I and his daughter by Anne Boleyn Queen Elizabeth I. However, only Mary I married. Roman Catholic Mary I was 37 when she came to the throne and it was vital that she marry and produce an heir to supplant her Protestant sister Elizabeth. Mary had her heart set on marrying Prince Philip of Spain (later King Philip II of Spain), the only son of Mary’s first cousin Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. Philip was a widower and was eleven years younger than Mary. Parliament begged her to reconsider fearing the threat a marriage to a foreign royal might have for English independence.

Queen Mary I and her husband Philip of Spain, Bedford Collection, Woburn Abbey; Credit – Wikipedia

Nevertheless, Mary and Philip were married at Winchester Cathedral on July 25, 1554. This was the first public wedding of a monarch since the wedding of Mary’s grandparents King Henry VII and Elizabeth of York in 1486. Philip wore a splendid outfit: a white doublet and breeches and a mantle of clot-of-gold trimmed with crimson velvet, and embroidered with gold thistles. Mary I wore a black velvet gown glittering with jewels of all colors and a cloth-of-gold mantle matching Philip’s. A lavish feast followed the wedding.

The marriage was not successful. Although Mary was in love with Philip, he found her repugnant. In September 1554, Mary thought she was pregnant and continued to exhibit signs of pregnancy until July 1555, when her abdomen returned to normal. There was no baby. After 14 months of marriage, Philip returned to Spain in August 1555. Mary was heartbroken and went into a deep depression. Philip did return to England in 1557 and was happily received by Mary. Philip wanted England to join Spain in a war against France. Mary agreed and the result was the loss of Calais, England’s last remaining possession in continental Europe. Philip left England in July 1557, never to return. Mary said of these losses, “When I am dead, you will find the words ‘Philip’ and ‘Calais’ engraved upon my heart.”

King Henry VII’s vision of a new dynasty lasted for only three generations.  After Queen Elizabeth I died in 1603, a messenger was sent at once to Scotland to bring King James VI of Scotland, the great-grandson of Margaret Tudor, the news of his accession to the English throne as King James I of England.  The House of Stuart did not do much better – their dynasty lasted for only four generations.

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Weddings of Tudor Monarchs and Their Children

There were not a lot of Tudor weddings. Henry VIII’s six weddings accounted for nearly half of them. Wedding venues that have official websites or Wikipedia articles will be linked below.  Sometimes the city where the wedding took place is known but the actual wedding venue is unknown. Only married monarchs and their married children are listed. Links are to Unofficial Royalty articles for the monarchs, their children, and their spouses. Note that not all the spouses have Unofficial Royalty articles.

Henry VII, King of England (great-great-great-grandson of Edward III) married (1486) Elizabeth of York at St. Stephen’s Chapel in the Palace of Westminster

• Arthur, Prince of Wales married (1501) Catherine of Aragon at the Old St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, England
• Margaret Tudor (1) married (1503) James IV, King of Scotland at Holyrood Abbey in Edinburgh, Scotland (2) married (1514) Archibald Douglas, 6th Earl of Angus in Kinnoull, Scotland (3) married (1528) Henry Stewart, 1st Lord Methven, wedding venue unknown
• Mary Tudor (1) married Louis XII, King of France (1514) at Abbeville, France (2) married (1515) Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk at the Hôtel de Cluny in Paris, France

Henry VIII, King of England (son of Henry VII)
(1) married (1509) Catherine of Aragon at the Grey Friars’ Church in Greenwich, England
(2) married (1533) Anne Boleyn at York Place which later became Whitehall Palace
(3) married (1536) Jane Seymour in the Queen’s Closet at Whitehall Palace in London, England
(4) married (1540) Anne of Cleves at Greenwich Palace in Greenwich, England
(5) married (1540) Catherine Howard at Oatlands Palace in Surrey, England
(6) married (1543) Catherine Parr at Hampton Court Palace in Richmond, England

Mary I, Queen of England (daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon) married (1554) Prince Philip of Spain (later King Philip II of Spain) at Winchester Cathedral in Winchester, England

Works Cited

• Ashdown, D. (1981). Royal Weddings. London: Robert Hale Limited.
• Genealogics.org. (2018). [online] Available at: http://www.genealogics.org [Accessed 2 Apr. 2018].
• Unofficial Royalty. (2018). Unofficial Royalty. [online] Available at: http://www.unofficialroyalty.com [Accessed 2 Apr. 2018]. (Tudor articles)
• Weir, A. (2001). Henry VIII: The King and His Court. New York: Ballantine Books.
• Wikipedia. (2018). Main Page. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/ [Accessed 2 Apr. 2018].  (for wedding venue and genealogy information)

by Susan Flantzer

Union of the Crowns Badge Tudor Rose dimidiated with the Scottish Thistle, used by King James VI/I to symbolize the personal union of his realms; Credit – Wikipedia

• Unofficial Royalty: House of Stuart

During the reign of the Stuart monarchs, England transitioned from monarchs who believed in the divine right of kings to constitutional monarchs. In his book The Sickly Stuarts: The Medical Downfall of a Dynasty, Frederick Holmes, a former Professor of Medicine at the University of Kansas Medical Center writes: “While it might be imagined that Parliament grew in strength throughout the seventeenth century because right was on their side and Englishmen were successful in their demand to rule themselves, this, in fact, is only part of the picture, and perhaps the smaller part. In reality, the Stuarts were a sickly lot who were sapped of their strength and vitality by disease and disability during the four generations their six monarchs ruled England. The power of the Stuarts and the English monarchy slowly faded throughout the long seventeenth century as the Stuarts were brought down by a variety of medical problems and Parliament simultaneously increased in power to fill the void.”

Illness, the inability to conceive children, the inability to bring a pregnancy to term, and giving birth to weak children affected the Stuarts ability to fulfill the primary duty of a king: to marry and have sons (or even daughters) to succeed to the throne. A look at a short history of the children or lack of children of the six Stuart monarchs will illustrate this.

King James I/King James VI of Scotland

• had seven children
• four died before the age of two
• the eldest and the heir Henry, Prince of Wales died of typhoid fever at age 18
• two survived to adulthood: King Charles I and Elizabeth who married Friedrich V, Elector Palatine of the Rhine and their grandson George, Elector of Hanover succeeded to the British throne upon the demise of the House of Stuart

King Charles I

• had nine children
• three died before the age of three
• Elizabeth died from pneumonia at the age of 15
• Henry, Duke of Gloucester died of smallpox at age 20
• four survived to adulthood: King Charles II, King James II, Mary, Princess Royal (mother of King William III) and Henrietta who married into the French royal family – her Catholic descendants were barred from the British line of succession by the Bill of Rights 1689 which prohibited Catholics from inheriting the British throne

King Charles II

• no legitimate children, it is thought that his wife Catherine of Braganza had at least three miscarriages
• had at least 14 illegitimate children

King James II

• had eight children with his first wife Anne Hyde
• six died before the age of three
• two survived to adulthood: Queen Mary II and Queen Anne
• his second wife Maria Beatrice of Modena had 12 pregnancies, gave birth to five live children
• only two survived to childhood: James Edward Francis Stuart (The Old Pretender) and Louisa Maria Teresa who died of smallpox at age 20
• deposed in 1688, children from second were Catholic and were ineligible for the British throne

Queen Mary II and King William III

• no children, Mary had at least one miscarriage and possibly more

Queen Anne

• had 17 pregnancies but only five live births
• only Prince William, Duke of Gloucester survived early childhood but he died at age 11

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King James VI of Scotland/King James I of England

James I and Anne of Denmark; Credit – Wikipedia

Throughout his life, King James VI of Scotland had close relationships with male courtiers, which has caused debate among historians about the nature of the relationships. However, a marriage was necessary to provide heirs to the throne of Scotland. On August 20, 1589, James was married by proxy to Anne of Denmark at Kronborg Castle in Helsingør, Denmark. Anne was the eldest daughter of King Frederik II of Denmark and Sophia of Mecklenburg-Güstrow, who conducted the marriage negotiations after the death of her husband in 1588. Ten days after the proxy wedding, Anne set sail for Scotland, but severe storms forced her to land in Norway. Upon hearing this, James set sail to personally bring Anne to Scotland. On November 23, 1589, the couple was formally married at the Old Bishop’s Palace in Oslo, Norway. After a prolonged visit to Denmark, James and Anne landed in Scotland on May 1, 1590. On May 5, 1590, Anne made her state entry into Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. She was crowned Queen of Scots on May 17, 1590, at the Holyrood Abbey in Edinburgh.

The first Stuart King of England got the throne because the Tudors failed to provide for the succession. King James VI of Scotland, the son of Mary, Queen of Scots, succeeded to the English throne in 1603 upon the death of Queen Elizabeth I. James VI was the great-great-grandson of the first Tudor king, King Henry VII of England, through Henry’s daughter Margaret who had married King James IV of Scotland. James VI had been King of Scots since he was eleven months old. He succeeded to the English throne as King James I of England when he was 37 years old. He was already married and five of his seven children had already been born.

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Wedding of  Elizabeth Stuart and Friedrich V, Elector Palatine of the Rhine

Elizabeth Stuart and Friedrich V, Elector Palatine of the Rhine; Credit – Wikipedia

Sadly, James I’s eldest son and heir, Henry, Prince of Wales died in 1612 from typhoid fever. James I had planned a Catholic wedding for Henry and had arranged a Protestant marriage for his only surviving daughter Elizabeth to Friedrich V, Elector Palatine of the Rhine and the wedding plans went on as planned despite Henry’s death. There had not been a royal wedding in England since that of Queen Mary I and Prince Philip of Spain in 1554 and never had there been a royal wedding so magnificent and expensive.

The wedding of Elizabeth Stuart and Friedrich V, Elector Palatine of the Rhine, both 16-year-olds, was held on St. Valentine’s Day in 1613 at the Chapel Royal at the Palace of Whitehall in London, England. As the wedding was a private affair and not the large public, royal weddings we have become accustomed to, only the courtiers saw Elizabeth in her magnificent attire. The bride was dressed in a white satin gown with diamonds sewn upon the sleeves. Elizabeth’s hair was plaited down her back to her waist with gold spangles, pearls, and diamonds between every plait. Upon her head, she wore a gold crown with pearls and diamonds. The court celebrated the wedding with days of feasts, sports in the palace tiltyard, and performances of masques. London’s citizens were treated to mock battles between galleons in the Thames by day and fireworks along the Thames at night. No other Stuart wedding would be as grand.

Elizabeth proved to be the most successful Stuart in having children – fourteen children with only one dying in childhood. Her daughter Sophia of the Palatinate who married Ernest Augustus, Elector of Hanover was the mother of King George I of Great Britain, the first monarch of the House of Hanover, and is the ancestress of the current British Royal Family.

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Wedding of King Charles I and Henrietta Maria of France

Charles I and Henrietta Maria; Credit – Wikipedia

With Elizabeth leaving home in 1613, her 12-year-old brother Charles, the heir to the throne since the death of his brother and the future King Charles I, was the only child left at home. As a child, Charles was frail and late in development, possibly from rickets, and could not yet walk or talk by the age of three. He overcame his early physical problems, although he grew no taller than five feet four inches, and learned to ride, shoot, and fence. However, he was no physical match for his stronger and taller elder brother Henry, Prince of Wales, whom he adored.

King James I, seeking a Spanish alliance, had visions of Charles marrying Infanta Maria Anna of Spain, the youngest daughter of King Philip III of Spain. In 1623, Charles went to Madrid with his father’s favorite George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham for marriage negotiations regarding the Infanta. The negotiations had long been at a standstill, and although religion was a stumbling block, it is believed that Buckingham’s offensive behavior was a key to the total collapse of the negotiations.

While Charles was traveling to Spain in 1623, he first saw Henrietta Maria, the French king’s sister and his future wife, in Paris as she rehearsed a court entertainment with other members of the French royal family. On March 27, 1625, King James I died and Charles succeeded him. Since the Spanish negotiations failed, King Charles I now looked toward a French alliance and a marriage with Henrietta Maria was successfully negotiated. Henrietta Maria was the youngest daughter of King Henri IV of France and his second wife Marie de’ Medici. Henri IV had been assassinated in 1610 when Henrietta Maria was still a baby and her brother King Louis XIII had succeeded their father. Charles I and Henrietta Maria were married by proxy on May 1, 1625, on the steps of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, France.

15-year-old Henrietta Maria had stormy weather as she crossed the English Channel on her voyage from France to England. Her ship was tossed by storms for a day and upon reaching Dover on June 12, 1625, she had to be carried to Dover Castle. A messenger was sent to ask Charles I to postpone his arrival for a day so she could recover. The next day Charles I and Henrietta Maria were married at Canterbury Cathedral in Canterbury, England. As his bride was young and had recently left her family, Charles did her a kindness on their wedding night. As the embarrassing bedding ceremony was approaching, Charles elbowed his attendants away, went alone into Henrietta Maria’s bedchamber and barred the door against them.

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Wedding of Mary, Princess Royal and Willem II, Prince of Orange

Mary, Princess Royal and Willem II, Prince of Orange; Credit – Wikipedia

The first of Charles I and Henrietta Maria’s children to marry was their eldest daughter Mary, Princess Royal. Charles I wanted Mary to marry one of the sons of King Felipe IV of Spain or her first cousin Karl I Ludwig, Elector Palatine of the Rhine but both marriage prospects failed. Instead, Mary was betrothed to Willem, Hereditary Prince of Orange the future Willem II, Prince of Orange), son of Frederik Hendrik, Prince of Orange.

On May 2, 1641, at the Chapel Royal of the Palace of Whitehall, nine-year-old Mary married Willem, who would have his 15th birthday in a couple of weeks. The whole wedding was truly a children’s affair. Mary was led to the altar by her ten-year-old brother Charles (the future Charles II) and her eight-year-old brother James (the future James II). The six bridesmaids were all young girls no older than the bride. Willem wore a velvet suit embroidered with gold thread while Mary wore a white silk dress embroidered in silver. Her hair was tied up with silver ribbons and on her head, she wore a pearl circlet. There were no festivities. The family ate lunch as usual, then took an afternoon walk in Hyde Park and ate supper together. Because of Mary’s young age, the marriage was not consummated for several years. Instead of the traditional bedding ceremony, Mary and Willem simply sat on a bed side by side for about an hour.

Charles I had demanded in the marriage contract that Mary remain in England for several years. However, by 1642, he was dealing with so many political problems that he needed Dutch support. In February 1642, Mary, accompanied by her mother, sailed from England to The Hague in the Dutch Republic. Once in The Hague, Mary was warmly greeted by her in-laws and her paternal aunt Elizabeth, Electress Palatine of the Rhine and some of her children. A second marriage ceremony was held in The Hague on November 4, 1643. By the time Queen Henrietta Maria returned to England in February 1643, England was in the midst of a civil war which would result in King Charles I losing his head in 1649.

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Wedding of King Charles II and Catherine of Braganza

Charles II and Catherine of Braganza; Credit – Wikipedia

While Oliver Cromwell had ruled England as Lord Protector, Charles II, who had been the de jure King since his father’s execution, lived in mainland Europe. After Cromwell’s death, Parliament formally invited Charles, as King Charles II, to be the English monarch in what has become known as the Restoration. Charles II returned to England in 1660.

Catherine of Braganza, the daughter of King João IV of Portugal, had first been suggested as a bride for Charles II in 1645 during the reign of Charles I and again in 1660 when the monarchy was restored in England. Already there were rumors of Catherine’s inability to have children but the newly restored King Charles II was eager to have the £300,000 dowry. The marriage contract was signed on June 23, 1661. Catherine set sail for England in April of 1662 and landed at Portsmouth, England on May 13, 1662. On May 21, 1662, King Charles II and Catherine were married.  First, a secret, brief Catholic ceremony was held in Catherine’s Portsmouth bedchamber with only her Portuguese attendants as witnesses. Then, the legal Church of England ceremony took place in the Great Chamber in Governor of Portsmouth’s home. Catherine wore a rose-colored gown covered in lover’s knots made from blue ribbon. Her lace veil was covered with symbols of her new country including Tudor roses.

Catherine was horrified to find out that her lady-in-waiting was Barbara Villiers, Charles II’s current mistress. After the initial shock, Catherine maintained a dignified attitude towards her husband’s mistresses and showed many acts of kindness to his illegitimate children. Despite fathering at least 14 illegitimate children with his mistresses, Charles II had no children with Catherine. It is thought that Catherine did have at least three miscarriages. Despite having many mistresses, Charles insisted that Catherine be treated with respect, and sided with her over his mistresses when he felt she was not receiving the respect she was due.

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William and Mary

Mary II and William III; Credit – Wikipedia

During Charles II’s reign, two of his nieces: Mary (the future Queen Mary II) and Anne (the future Queen Anne), the only surviving children of his brother James, Duke of York from his first marriage, were married. James would reign as King James II for three years after his brother’s death before being deposed in 1688 during the Glorious Revolution.

In 1677, when Charles II’s niece Mary was 15-years-old, it became apparent that Catherine of Braganza, the wife of King Charles II, would not provide a Stuart heir. In addition, Maria Beatrice of Modena, the second wife of James, Duke of York, had two miscarriages and two daughters, one who had died in infancy and one who was sickly and not expected to survive. Mary’s marriage became a matter of dynastic importance for the House of Stuart. The bridegroom her uncle chose for her was William III, Prince of Orange, her first cousin. William was the only child of Mary’s paternal aunt Mary, Princess Royal and Willem II, Prince of Orange who had died of smallpox a few days before his son’s birth. William was fourth in line to the English throne after his uncle James and his cousins Mary and Anne.

15-year-old Mary and 27-year-old William were married on November 4, 1677, in Mary’s bedchamber at St. James’ Palace with only the closest relatives attending. The bride was miserable, the groom acted with cool correctness, the father of the bride was grimly resigned to the marriage, and the stepmother of the bride, who was very pregnant, was in tears at the prospect of losing her stepdaughter. The bride’s aunt Catherine of Braganza tried to comfort Mary saying, “When I came to England I had not even seen the King,” to which Mary replied, “Madam, you came into England, but I am going out of England.” Mary’s sister Anne and her governess Lady Frances Villiers were unable to attend as they were both ill with smallpox. Only the bride and groom’s uncle, King Charles II, was his usual cheerful and tactless self. Upon closing the curtains around the marital bed during the bedding ceremony, Charles II remarked, “Now nephew, to your work! Hey! St. George for England!”

William and Mary made a formal entry into The Hague, the seat of William’s Dutch Republic, on December 14, 1677. Mary soon became pregnant but suffered a miscarriage which may have prevented any successful pregnancies. It is suspected that she had at least two more miscarriages. Her inability to have children was Mary’s greatest unhappiness. Despite their physical mismatch, Mary was quite tall (5 feet 11 inches; 180 cm) and towered over the undersized and asthmatic William (5 feet 6 inches; 167 cm), William adored Mary and Mary was devoted to William. After the Glorious Revolution of 1688 deposed Mary’s father King James II, Parliament asked William and Mary to reign jointly as King William III and Queen Mary II.

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The Last Stuart

Anne and George of Denmark; Credit – Wikipedia

In December 1680, George, The Hereditary Prince of Brunswick-Lüneburg (the future King George I of Great Britain) made a three-month visit to England and rumors were flying that he would become the husband of his second cousin Princess Anne, the future Queen Anne, whom he later succeeded. However, on July 28, 1683, at the Chapel Royal in St. James’ Palace in London, Anne married Prince George of Denmark, son of King Frederick III of Denmark and the brother of King Christian V of Denmark. It was a small, happy wedding as Anne would be able to remain in England. After the ceremony, there was a small family supper and then the traditional bedding ceremony. Even though the marriage was arranged, the marriage was happy and Anne and George were faithful to each other.

Anne became pregnant a few months after the wedding but she gave birth to a stillborn daughter in May 1684. Anne’s obstetrical history is tragic. She had 17 pregnancies with only five children being born alive. Two died on the day of their birth, two died at less than two years old within six days of each from smallpox, and one died at age 11. Anne suffered from what was diagnosed as gout and had pain in her limbs, stomach, and head. Based on these symptoms and her obstetrical history, Anne may have had systemic lupus erythematosus which causes an increased rate of fetal death.

On December 28, 1694, Anne’s sister Queen Mary II died of smallpox. She was just 32 years old. King William III continued to reign alone for the remainder of his life. As William and Mary had no children, Anne was now the heir presumptive to the throne and her son Prince William, Duke of Gloucester was second in the line of succession.  However, on July 30, 1700, 11-year-old Prince William, Duke of Gloucester died.

The death of Prince William and the failure of the Protestant Stuarts to produce heirs meant the end of the Protestant Stuart dynasty as the legitimate descendants of King Charles I were either childless or Roman Catholic. The passage of the Bill of Rights 1689 which prohibited Catholics from inheriting the British throne exacerbated the Stuarts’ succession problems. To solve the succession crisis, Parliament passed the Act of Settlement 1701 which secured the Protestant succession to the throne after King William III’s sister-in-law and heir presumptive Princess Anne.

The Act of Settlement 1701 excluded the former King James II (who died a few months after the act received royal assent) and the Roman Catholic children from his second marriage and also excluded the descendants of King James II’s sister Henrietta, the youngest daughter of King Charles I as they were all Roman Catholic.  Parliament’s choice was limited to the Protestant descendants of Elizabeth, Electress Palatine of the Rhine, the only other child of King James I not to have died in childhood. The senior Protestant descendant was Elizabeth’s youngest daughter Sophia, Electress of Hanover. The Act of Settlement put Sophia of Hanover and her Protestant heirs in the line of succession after Anne.

Anne succeeded her brother-in-law and first cousin King William III upon his death in 1702 and reigned until her death in 1714. Sophia, Electress of Hanover, the heir to the throne according to the Act of Settlement, had died on June 8, 1714, just six weeks before the death of Queen Anne, and so Sophia’s son became King George I and started the Hanover dynasty.

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Weddings of Stuart Monarchs and Their Children

Like, the Tudors, the Stuarts did not have a lot of weddings. Wedding venues that have official websites or Wikipedia articles will be linked below.  Sometimes the city where the wedding took place is known but the actual wedding venue is unknown. Only married monarchs and their married children are listed. Links are to Unofficial Royalty articles for the monarchs, their children, and their spouses. Note that not all the spouses have Unofficial Royalty articles.

James I, King of England/James VI, King of Scots (great-great-grandson of Henry VII) married (1589) Anne of Denmark at the Old Bishop’s Palace in Oslo, Norway

• Elizabeth Stuart married (1613) Friedrich V, Elector Palatine of the Rhine at the Chapel Royal at the Palace of Whitehall in London, England

Charles I, King of England (son of James I) married (1625) Henrietta Maria of France at Canterbury Cathedral in Canterbury, England

• Mary, Princess Royal married (1641) Willem II, Prince of Orange at the Chapel Royal of the Palace of Whitehall in London England
• Henrietta of England married (1661) Philippe, Duke of Orléans at the Palais Royal in Paris, France

Charles II, King of England (son of Charles I) married (1662) Catherine of Braganza in Portsmouth, England

James II, King of England (son of Charles I) (1) married (1659) Lady Anne Hyde in Breda, the Netherlands (2) married (1673) Maria Beatrice of Modena in England

Mary II, Queen of England (daughter of James II) married (1677) Willem III, Prince of Orange (later William III, King of England), grandson of Charles I, in the bride’s bedchamber at St. James’ Palace in London England

Anne, Queen of Great Britain (daughter of James II) married (1683) George of Denmark at the Chapel Royal in St. James’ Palace in London, England

Works Cited

• Ashdown, D. (1981). Royal Weddings. London: Robert Hale Limited.
• Fraser, A. (1979). King Charles II. London: Onion Books Ltd.
• Genealogics.org. (2018). [online] Available at: http://www.genealogics.org [Accessed 2 Apr. 2018].
• Holmes, F. (2003). The Sickly Stuarts: The Medical Downfall of a Dynasty. Thrupp UK: Sutton Publishing.
• Unofficial Royalty. (2018). Unofficial Royalty. [online] Available at: http://www.unofficialroyalty.com [Accessed 2 Apr. 2018]. (Stuart articles)
• Waller, M. (2002). Ungrateful Daughters: The Stuart Princesses Who Stole Their Father’s Crown. New York: St. Martin’s Press.
• Wikipedia. (2018). Main Page. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/ [Accessed 2 Apr. 2018].  (for wedding venue and genealogy information)