Yearly Archives: 2013

Prince Henrik of Denmark, husband of Queen Margrethe II of Denmark

by Emily McMahon and Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2013

photo: The Danish Monarchy, photographer: Jacob Jørgensen

photo: The Danish Monarchy, photographer: Jacob Jørgensen

Henri Marie Jean André de Laborde de Monpezat was born on June 11, 1934, in Talence, France. His parents, Count André de Laborde de Monpezat and Renee Doursenot, were members of the French nobility. Renee had previously been civilly married to another man before her marriage to Andre. Her first marriage allowed Renee to marry Andre religiously in 1934, but the couple did not marry civilly until 1948. Henri was the second of eight siblings, however, three of his siblings died in childhood.

Henri began his education at home with a private tutor, continuing on at a Jesuit school in Bordeaux, France. Henri spent several years of his childhood in Vietnam, then under French control, where his father ran a newspaper. He attended a French school in Hanoi, where he took an interest in Vietnamese and Chinese languages. Henri recalled his childhood as a very happy and extravagant colonial life, living in a big house with his parents, siblings, and a nanny.

 Henri as a baby with his two-year-old sister Françoise in Vietnam

 

Henri’s love for Southeast Asia continued into his adolescence and adulthood, as he continued his education at schools in Saigon and Hong Kong. He also studied at Paris University, earning a master’s degree in French literature. Henri was also awarded a diploma in Oriental languages from Ecole Nationale de Langues Oriental.

Henri’s developed a wide variety of interests ranging from flying planes to collecting Chinese porcelain to sailing. Like his future wife, Henri was multi-lingual from an early age. In addition to French, Danish, and English, Henri was fluent in Mandarin Chinese and Vietnamese.  After a brief stint in the military, Henri entered the French foreign services. At the time he met Princess Margrethe of Denmark, eldest daughter of King Frederik IX of Denmark and Ingrid of Sweden in 1965, Henri was working as the third secretary at the French embassy in the Department of Oriental Affairs in London.

While studying at the London School of Economics in 1965, Margrethe was invited to a dinner at the French embassy. As an employee of the embassy at the time, Henri was expected to attend but was ambivalent about meeting the Danish princess by whom he was to be seated. Henri later said that to his surprise he found Margrethe interesting from their first meeting, but was a bit intimidated by her and said little during the dinner as a result. Margrethe said she had no real impression of Henri from their first meeting.

Margrethe and Henri were both guests at a wedding shortly after the first dinner. The two chatted at the wedding reception and on the plane ride back to London, as they were seated together once again. Upon their return to London, Margrethe and Henri gradually began seeing more and more – and growing mutual fonder – of one another.

The couple kept a low profile for more than a year, made easier by the fact that Margrethe was not as well known in the United Kingdom. Their relationship was so private that upon the news that an engagement announcement was imminent, most Danes had no idea their princess had been exclusively dating anyone. Margrethe’s father Frederik was later to say to his daughter of her courtship with Henri, “He came, he saw, and you conquered.”

 

On June 10, 1967, Princess Margrethe married Henri at the Holmens Kirke in Copenhagen,  Denmark, followed by a banquet at Fredensborg Palace. After a honeymoon in Cozumel, Mexico, the couple took up residence at Amalienborg Palace, in Christian IX’s Palace (formerly Schack’s Palace).

The couple had two sons:

 

After the wedding, Henri became a Prince of Denmark and was known by the Danish version of his name, Henrik. On January 14, 1972, King Frederik IX died after a brief illness and Henrik’s wife ascended the Danish throne as Queen Margrethe II. In April 2016, Henrik renounced the title of Prince Consort, which he had been given in 2005.  He retired from public life and decided to participate in limited official events. Although Henrik remained close to Margrethe, he was vocal about the difficulties he experienced as a male consort (a historically female role) in terms of his personal income and his role in the affairs of the country.

Henrik published several books of poetry in his native language as well as additional books in Danish. Henrik and his wife owned Chateau de Cayx, a wine estate in southern France, where the two spent part of their summers.

The Danish Royal House announced on August 3, 2017, that Prince Henrik would not be buried with his wife Queen Margrethe II of Denmark at Roskilde Cathedral in Roskilde, Denmark, the traditional burial place of Danish royalty. The press release read:

The Royal House has announced today that His Royal Highness Prince Henrik does not want to be buried in Roskilde Cathedral, as it had been planned. The Prince’s decision implies that he will not be buried next to Her Majesty The Queen in the sarcophagus that Professor and sculptor Bjørn Nørgaard has prepared. The Queen has been aware of the decision for some time and supports the decision. The Prince’s decision does not change the Queen’s funeral plans. It has been stated in the media that the Prince wants to be buried in France. This is not correct. The Prince still wishes to be buried in Denmark, but the arrangements are not yet in place.

On September 6, 2017, it was announced that Prince Henrik was suffering from dementia. Prince Henrik was hospitalized on January 28, 2018. Later it was determined that he had a benign tumor in his left lung. On February 9, 2018, the Danish Royal Court announced that his condition had severely deteriorated. Crown Prince Frederik returned home from the Winter Olympics in South Korea which he was attending as a member of the International Olympic Committee. On February 13, 2018, Prince Henrik was transferred from the Rigshospitalet in Copenhagen to Fredensborg Castle, where he wished to stay during his remaining time.

Prince Henrik died peacefully in his sleep on Tuesday, February 13, 2018, at 11:18 pm, at Fredensborg Palace at the age of 83.  His wife Queen Margrethe II and their two sons Crown Prince Frederik and Prince Joachim were at his side.

Prince Henrik’s funeral was held on Tuesday, February 20th in the Palace Chapel at Christiansborg Palace in Copenhagen.  Per his wishes, it was a private service, with family and close friends in attendance.  His remains were cremated, with half of his ashes spread over the Danish seas, and the other half interred in the private garden at Fredensborg Castle.

Prince Henrik and his family in 2017; Photo Credit – The Danish Monarchy

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Kingdom of Denmark Resources at Unofficial Royalty

Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester

by Susan Flantzer © Unofficial Royalty 2013

Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, Credit – Wikipedia

Henry William Frederick Albert was the third son and fourth child of King George V of the United Kingdom and Princess Victoria Mary of Teck (Queen Mary).  He was born on March 31, 1900, at York Cottage on the Sandringham estate.  His great-grandmother Queen Victoria had created Letters Patent giving the style of Royal Highness to the children of the Duke and Duchess of York, so Henry was HRH Prince Henry of York from birth.  He had five siblings:

Prince Henry (front center) with his siblings, 1910. source: Wikipedia

Prince Henry (known as Harry) was christened on May 17, 1900, in the Private Chapel at Windsor Castle, by the Bishop of Winchester.  His godparents were:

Henry attended St. Peter’s Court School in Kent and then Eton College near Windsor, which was unusual for a royal child at that time.  He also attended the Royal Military College at Sandhurst and Trinity College, Cambridge. On his 28th birthday, his father King George V created him Duke of Gloucester.

Henry had a military career in the British Army and served with The King’s Royal Rifle Corps and the 10th Royal Hussars.  He retired from active duty in 1937 but served with the British Expeditionary Force during World War II. In 1940, he was wounded when the car he was in was attacked from the air.  The highest ranks Henry attained were Field Marshal (1955) and Marshal of the Royal Air Force (1958).

On November 6, 1935, Henry married Lady Alice Montagu Douglas Scott, a daughter of John Montagu Douglas Scott, 7th Duke of Buccleuch.  The wedding was originally set to be held at Westminster Abbey, but when Lady Alice’s father died on October 19, 1935, the wedding venue was changed.  It was deemed more appropriate to have the wedding at the Private Chapel at Buckingham Palace. Among the bridesmaids were the groom’s nieces Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret Rose.

Henry with his wife and their two sons in 1945; Credit – Wikipedia

The couple had two sons, and the family lived at the 16th-century Barnwell Manor in Northamptonshire and York House, St. James’s Palace in London.

The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester with King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, 1945. source: Wikipedia

The Duke of Gloucester served as Governor-General of Australia from 1945 to 1947.  During the early reign of the Duke’s niece Queen Elizabeth II, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester carried out royal engagements, including some overseas tours.

In 1965, while driving back to Barnwell Manor after attending the funeral of Winston Churchill, the Duke suffered a stroke, causing a car accident.  The Duchess suffered injuries to the face, which required 57 stitches.  Three years later, the Duke suffered another stroke, which left him incapacitated. The Duchess continued to talk and read to her husband, hoping he could hear and understand.  She never did tell him about the death of their son in a plane crash, but she thought he understood from watching television.

Graves of Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester and Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester. photo: www.findagrave.com

On June 10, 1974, Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester died at Barnwell Manor, his country home at the age of 73.  He was buried at the Royal Burial Ground, Frogmore near Windsor Castle.  After the Duke’s death, his widow received permission from Queen Elizabeth II to style herself Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester, to distinguish herself from her son’s wife.  Princess Alice died in 2004 at the age of 102, the longest-living member of the British Royal Family so far.

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Princess Ragnhild, Mrs. Lorentzen

by Emily McMahon and Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2013

 

Princess Ragnhild Alexandra of Norway was the eldest child of the future King Olav V of Norway and his wife Princess Märtha of Sweden. She was named for another Ragnhild, the wife of Harald Fairhair, the first king of a united Norway. Born at the Royal Palace in Oslo, Norway on June 9, 1930, Ragnhild was also the first native Norwegian princess born in the country in over 600 years.

Ragnhild was christened on June 27, 1930, at the Royal Chapel of the Royal Palace in Oslo, Norway. Her godparents were:

Princess Ragnhild had two younger siblings:

Ragnhild (on the right) with her parents and siblings; Credit – Wikipedia

Ragnhild was also closely related to the Belgian royal and Luxembourg grand ducal families through her mother; she was the first cousin of Kings Baudouin and Albert II of Belgium and Grand Duchess Josephine-Charlotte of Luxembourg. As a toddler, a section of the Antarctic coastline was named in her honor. Princess Ragnhild Coast makes up a portion of the larger Queen Maud Land, named for Ragnhild’s paternal grandmother. Along with her sister Astrid, Ragnhild served as a flower girl at the wedding of her cousin Ingrid of Sweden to the future Frederik IX of Denmark.

Ragnhild spent most of her childhood at the Skaugum Estate, the family home (rebuilt after a fire shortly before Ragnhild’s birth) located just outside of Oslo. She accompanied her mother and siblings to the United States in 1940 following the German invasion and occupation of Norway while her father and grandfather were based in Britain. The family was reunited and returned to Norway in 1945.

 

On May 15, 1953, Ragnhild married Erling Lorentzen, a commoner and her former bodyguard. Reportedly, Ragnhild’s grandfather King Haakon VII consented to the marriage only after Crown Princess Märtha’s intervention as Ragnhild was the first Norwegian royal to marry a commoner. Ragnhild lost her style of Royal Highness with the marriage, becoming known instead as Her Highness Princess Ragnhild, Mrs. Lorentzen. The couple settled in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and had three children:

  • Haakon Lorentzen (born 1954), married Martha Carvalho de Freitas, had three children
  • Ingeborg Lorentzen (born 1957), married Paulo César Ribeiro Filho, had one daughter
  • Ragnhild Alexandra Lorentzen (born 1968), married Aaron Matthew Long, had two daughters

Ragnhild kept an apartment in Oslo and visited Norway often but did not undertake official duties. Often photographed wearing a rather sour expression, Ragnhild gained attention during a 2004 television interview when she expressed her intense displeasure with Crown Prince Haakon’s and Princess Märtha Louise’s respective spouses. Reportedly the remarks were made after King Harald and Queen Sonia abruptly canceled a visit to Brazil, hurting Ragnhild’s feelings. It is said that Ragnhild privately apologized to her brother’s family afterward, greatly regretting her unkind words. Conversely, Ragnhild was seen in her adopted country of Brazil as very friendly and warm-hearted due to her charity work. She was known among her friends and family to have a very sharp wit and a dry sense of humor.

 

Ragnhild died in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on September 16, 2012, following a bout with cancer. Her remains were transferred to Norway where her funeral was held on September 28, 2012. At her request, Ragnhild was buried at Asker Church in Asker, Norway. She was survived by her husband, three children, six grandchildren, and her siblings. Princess Ragnhild’s widower Erling Lorentzen died after a short illness on March 9, 2021, aged 98, in Oslo, Norway.

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Sophia of the Palatinate, Electress of Hanover

by Susan Flantzer © Unofficial Royalty 2013

Dowager Electress Sophia of Hanover, Credit – Wikipedia

If the Stuarts had been able to provide a Protestant heir to the British throne, Sophia of Hanover would not have become possibly the most famous footnote in British royal history.  Princess Sophia of the Palatine was born on October 14, 1630, at the Wassenaer Hof in The Hague, Dutch Republic, now in the Netherlands where her parents were in exile during the Thirty Years War.  Her father was Friedrich V, Elector Palatine, but Sophia’s more important dynastic line was through her mother.  Her mother was Elizabeth Stuart, the second child and eldest daughter of James VI and I, King of Scotland, England and Ireland, and his wife Anne of Denmark.

Sophie had twelve siblings:

Sophia married Ernst August, Elector of Brunswick-Lüneburg on September 30, 1658.  Ernst August became the first Elector of Hanover in 1692.  Sophia and Ernst August had seven children:

Sophia in 1650; Credit – Wikipedia

Sophia was intelligent and well-read. She was an admirer of the German philosopher and mathematician Gottfried Leibniz and the two regularly corresponded.  Sophia and her husband did much work improving the Hanover ancestral home at Herrenhausen, particularly the beautiful gardens.

Palace of Herrenhausen and the Great Garden, circa 1708; Credit – Wikipedia

The Stuarts came to the British throne after the death of Queen Elizabeth I.  King James VI of Scotland, the son of Mary, Queen of Scots, was the great-grandson of Margaret Tudor (the sister of King Henry VIII), and upon Elizabeth’s death became King James I of England.  James I was succeeded by his son King Charles I who was beheaded during the English Civil War. Oliver Cromwell ruled as Lord Protector for eleven years until the monarchy was restored in 1660 and Charles I’s son became King Charles II.  Despite having at least fourteen illegitimate children by his mistresses, Charles II and his wife Catherine of Braganza had no children.  Charles II was succeeded by his brother King James II in 1685.

King James II had eight children with his first wife Anne Hyde, who died before he became king.  Only two of the eight children survived childhood, the future Queen Mary II and the future Queen Anne.  James converted to Catholicism in 1668 or 1669 during his first marriage, kept his conversion secret, and continued to attend Church of England services until 1673 when his conversion became public.  Charles II refused to allow James’ daughters from his first marriage to become Catholic.  James married again to the Catholic Maria Beatrice of Modena and all of their children born between 1675 – 1682 died young.  The birth of James Francis Edward, a Catholic son of James and Maria Beatrice of Modena, in 1688 precipitated the Glorious Revolution which placed James’ elder daughter Mary and her husband and first cousin William III, Prince of Orange, jointly on the throne as the Protestant monarchs King William III and Queen Mary II.

William and Mary had married in 1677.  William was the only child of Mary, Princess Royal, the daughter of King Charles I, and therefore was Mary’s first cousin.  Mary suffered a miscarriage early in her marriage which may have left her unable to have children.  She had several periods of illness which may have also been miscarriages.  Mary’s inability to have children caused her great grief.  Queen Mary II died of smallpox in 1694 at the age of 32.  King William III reigned until he died in 1702, and was succeeded by Anne, the younger daughter of King James II.

Queen Anne married George of Denmark in 1683. Anne had 17 pregnancies and tragically only three of the pregnancies resulted in children who lived longer than a few days.  The promise of the Stuart succession was with Anne’s only surviving child Prince William, Duke of Gloucester.  Prince William was a sickly child and probably had hydrocephalus. Less than a week after his 11th birthday, Prince William died and there was a succession crisis as his mother was the only person remaining in the Protestant line to the throne established by the Bill of Rights of 1689.

Sophia of Hanover’s family was the most junior of the Stuart lines but was the most Protestant.  In 1701, Parliament passed the Act of Settlement, giving the succession to the British throne to Sophia and her non-Catholic heirs. This act ensured the Protestant succession and bypassed many Catholics with a better hereditary claim to the throne.

On  June 5, 1714, 83-year-old Sophia fell ill after receiving an angry letter from Queen Anne. Two days later, while she was walking in the gardens of Schloss Herrenhausen, it began to rain quite heavily and Sophia ran to a shelter where she collapsed. Sophia of the Palatinate, Electress of Hanover, died on June 8, 1714, at Schloss Herrenhausen in Hanover, Electorate of Hanover, now in Lower Saxony, Germany. She was initially buried at the Chapel of Leineschloss in Hanover which was destroyed during World War II. In 1957, her remains were moved to the mausoleum of King Ernst August I of Hanover in the Berggarten of Herrenhausen Gardens.  She narrowly missed becoming queen, having died two months before Queen Anne. Sophia’s son George, Elector of Hanover, became King George I.

Berggarten Mausoleum at Schloss Herrenhausen in Hanover, Germany; Credit – Wikipedia

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Sigvard Bernadotte, Count of Wisborg

by Emily McMahon  © Unofficial Royalty 2013

Sigvard Bernadotte, Count of Wisborg, 1944; Credit – Wikipedia

Sigvard Bernadotte, Count of Wisborg, was born Prince Sigvard of Sweden on June 7, 1907, at Drottningholm Palace in Drottningholm, Sweden.  He was the second son of the future King Gustav VI Adolf of Sweden and his first wife, Princess Margaret of Connaught, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria.  He had four siblings:

Sigvard (left) with his parents and eldest siblings, 1912. source: Wikipedia

The family divided their time between homes in Stockholm and their summer residence at Sofiero Palace near Skåne. The family was a close one, and unlike royal parents of previous generations, Gustav Adolf and Margaret spent a great deal of time with their children. Sigvard’s mother died suddenly on May 1, 1920, shortly after undergoing mastoid surgery. She was eight months pregnant with her sixth child. The loss of Margaret was so devastating for the family that Gustav Adolf refused to let anyone speak of her out of grief. Three years later, Gustav Adolf married again to Lady Louise Mountbatten.

Sigvard was educated privately and later at the Lundberg School. He entered Uppsala University in 1926, studying political science and art history. Sigvard became the first Bernadotte to earn an academic degree in 1929, the same year he designed a church window at Lundberg. He continued his studies at Konstfack, a Swedish art and design college. He was among a group of painters selected to design the Stockholm Exhibit in 1930.

Sigvard (center) with his brothers Bertil (left) and Gustaf Adolf (right) in the 1930s. source: Wikipedia

Throughout his young adulthood, Sigvard was romantically linked to various European princesses. Maria Francesca of Italy and Juliana of the Netherlands were rumored to be nearly engaged to Sigvard. Even actress Greta Garbo was said to be involved with Sigvard. Although the two did know one another, it is unlikely they were more than friends.

In the early 1930s, Sigvard relocated to Germany (supposedly due to a romance with a commoner) where he worked as a set designer for several theaters. Through his theater work in Berlin, Sigvard met his first wife actress Erica Patzek. When Sigvard declared his intentions to marry Erica, his family and top Swedish government officials attempted to dissuade him. Sigvard’s grandfather King Gustav V was so disgusted with the third marriage to a commoner within the family (following Gustav’s brother Oscar and Gustav’s grandson Lennart) that he stopped speaking with Sigvard for a time.

Erica and Sigvard married quietly in London in 1934. The marriage removed Sigvard from the line of succession and meant a loss of his titles and appanage. The couple, now Sigvard and Erica Bernadotte, relocated to Hollywood, California to establish Erica’s movie career (without success), while Sigvard designed posters for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Sigvard and Erica divorced in 1943, and in the same year, he married Danish commoner Sonja Robbert. The couple had a son Michael, born in 1944. After their divorce in 1961, Sigvard married Marianne Lindberg with whom he stayed until his death.

During the following two decades, Sigvard divided his time between Copenhagen, Stockholm, and New York working at Bernadotte & Bjorn Industrial, a design firm he founded with Danish designer Acton Bjorn. Sigvard was well-known in Sweden for his design work, designing everything from machinery to appliances to cookware. He was particularly fond of designing items from silver.

In 1951, Grand Duchess Charlotte of Luxembourg conferred on him the title of Count of Wisborg. After marriages to commoners became a common practice among Swedish royals in the 1960s and 1970s, Sigvard decided to pursue the reinstatement of his princely title. Sigvard’s nephew, King Carl XVI Gustav, never consented to this, which caused a long-standing rift between the two. A lawsuit against the Kingdom of Sweden was ongoing at the time of Sigvard’s death.

Sigvard Bernadotte, Count of Wisborg, died on February 4, 2002, in Stockholm, Sweden. He was 94 years old, and for the last eight years of his life, had been the eldest living great-grandchild of Queen Victoria, and her longest-lived descendant. He is buried in the Royal Burial Ground in Haga Park in Solna, Stockholm, Sweden. His widow, Countess Marianne, remained active with several Swedish charities, some of which she founded with her late husband. She was often seen at family functions, including the weddings of Crown Princess Victoria in 2010, Princess Madeleine in 2013, and Prince Carl Philip in 2015.

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Maria Theresa of Naples and Sicily, Holy Roman Empress, Empress of Austria

by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2013

Maria Theresa of Naples and Sicily, Holy Roman Empress, Empress of Austria; Credit – Wikipedia

Maria Theresa of Naples and Sicily was born at the Royal Palace of Portici in Naples, Kingdom of Naples and Sicily, now in Italy, on June 6, 1772, the eldest child of King Ferdinando IV & III of Naples and Sicily (later King Ferdinando I of the Two Sicilies) and Archduchess Marie Caroline of Austria. She was named after her maternal grandmother, Maria Theresa of Austria, and was a niece of Queen Marie Antoinette of France.

Maria Theresa had sixteen siblings, but only six survived childhood. Eight of her siblings died from smallpox.

The Royal Family of Naples by Angelica Kauffman; Credit – Wikipedia

On September 15, 1790, at the age of 18, Maria Theresa married her double first cousin, Archduke Franz of Austria. Franz and Maria Theresa had the same four grandparents: Franz I, Holy Roman Emperor and Maria Theresa, Archduchess of Austria, Queen of Hungary and Bohemia; and Carlos III of Spain and Maria Amalia of Saxony.

This was Franz’s second marriage and the only one of his four marriages that resulted in surviving children. Seven of their twelve children survived to adulthood. Among the children of Franz and Maria Theresa were: Marie-Louise, the second wife of Napoleon Bonaparte; Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria and Maria Leopoldina, the wife of Emperor Pedro I of Brazil.  The marriage lasted nearly seventeen years and was said to be very happy.  Maria Theresa enjoyed participating in social events such as balls and masquerades, even during her twelve pregnancies.  She loved music and was an important patron of Viennese music.

Franz and Maria Theresa’s children:

Franz, Maria Theresa, and their children; Credit – Wikipedia

Franz became Holy Roman Emperor at age 24 in 1792 after the two-year reign of his father Leopold. Holy Roman Emperor Franz II feared that Napoleon could take over his personal Habsburg lands within the Holy Roman Empire, so in 1804 he proclaimed himself Emperor Franz I of Austria. Two years later, after Napoleon’s victory at the Battle of Austerlitz, the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved. Lands held by the Holy Roman Emperor were given to Napoleon’s allies, creating the Kingdom of Bavaria, the Kingdom of Württemberg, and the Grand Duchy of Baden. Therefore, Maria Theresa was the last Holy Roman Empress and the first Empress of Austria.

While pregnant with her twelfth child, Maria Theresa fell ill with the lung infection pleurisy. Her doctor bled her, and this caused premature labor. Maria Theresa gave birth to her twelfth child, who lived only three days. On April 13, 1807, a week after giving birth, Maria Theresa died at the age of 34. Franz was inconsolable and had to be forcibly removed from his wife’s body. Maria Theresa was buried in the Imperial Crypt in the Franzensgruft (Franz’s Vault), where her husband and his three other wives are also buried. The infant Archduchess Amalia Theresa was buried in the Imperial Crypt in the northeast pier of the Ferdinandsgruft (Ferdinand’s Vault).

Austria_tomb of Maria Theresa af Naples

Tomb of Maria Theresa of Naples and Sicily, Photo Credit – Susan Flantzer

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Austria Resources at Unofficial Royalty

Prince Wilhelm of Sweden, Duke of Södermanland

by Emily McMahon and Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2013

Prince Wilhelm of Sweden, Duke of Södermanland; Credit – Wikipedia

Born on June 17, 1884, at Tullgarn Palace, a royal summer palace in the province of Södermanland, south of Stockholm, Sweden, Prince Wilhelm of Sweden (Carl Wilhelm Ludvig)  was the second of three sons of King Gustaf V of Sweden and Victoria of Baden.  Wilhelm saw little of his parents during his childhood, as his mother frequently traveled abroad. In his young adulthood, he became known as the “Sailor Prince,” due to his service in the navy.

Wilhelm had an older brother and a younger brother:

Wilhelm represented his father at the Jamestown Exposition in the United States in 1907 and was very well received by Swedish-Americans. At around the same time, Wilhelm became engaged to Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia, a granddaughter of Alexander II, Emperor of All Russia, and the only daughter and the eldest of the two children of Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich of Russia and Princess Alexandra of Greece and Denmark (Grand Duchess Alexandra Georgievna).  When Maria Pavlovna was only seventeen months old, her mother died shortly after giving premature birth to her second child, Maria Pavlovna’s brother.  Maria Pavlovna and her brother were raised by their childless uncle Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, and his wife Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna (born Princess Elisabeth of Hesse and by Rhine).

In 1907, Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna received a request from the Swedish royal court for a photograph of Maria Pavlovna. Wilhelm’s mother was looking for a bride for him. Marrying Maria Pavlovna to Wilhelm worked well with Elizabeth Feodorovna’s plans to retire from the Russian court and start a Russian Orthodox religious order.  It was decided that Prince Wilhelm would travel to Moscow to meet Maria Pavlovna. The day after they met, 23-year-old Wilhelm told 16-year-old Maria he wanted to marry her. Pressured by Elizabeth Feodorovna, Maria Pavlovna became engaged to marry a man that she had just met with the stipulation that the wedding was to be postponed until Maria was 18-years-old. The couple married at the Catherine Palace at Tsarskoye Selo near St. Petersburg, Russia on May 3, 1908.

Maria Pavlovna and Prince Wilhelm of Sweden on their wedding day

The couple had one son:

Wilhelm of Sweden with his wife, Maria Pavlovna of Russia and their son, Lennart. Photo credit: Wikipedia

Wilhelm and Maria Pavlovna settled in the Djurgarden, a fashionable section of Stockholm, where the couple’s home (Oakhill) was built. However, the couple could spend little time together due to Wilhelm’s military responsibilities. Maria was homesick in a strange country where the royal court was even more formal than the Russian court. In 1913, Maria left her husband and son and returned to Russia, causing a great scandal in Sweden. On March 13, 1914, the marriage was officially dissolved, and then confirmed by an edict issued by Nicholas II, Emperor of All Russia on July 15, 1914. Wilhelm and Maria’s son Lennart remained in his father’s custody, was raised primarily by his paternal grandmother Queen Victoria of Sweden, and rarely saw his mother during his childhood.

Around the time of his divorce, Wilhelm met a French woman, Jeanne de Tramcourt. Jeanne was divorced from a Swedish sculptor, who used her as a model in several of his works. Wilhelm lived with Jeanne at his new home Stenhammar Palace in Flen, Sweden. Although it was known within the family circle that Jeanne and Wilhelm were a couple, Wilhelm’s royal status prohibited him from marrying commoner Jeanne. For her part, Jeanne told Wilhelm when he mentioned marriage, that she did not want to be the “Swedish Mrs. Simpson” and was fine with cohabiting quietly. Jeanne was known instead as the “hostess” of Stenhammar.

Jeanne de Tramcourt, Wilhelm's longtime partner. Photo credit: polarbearstale.blogspot.com

Jeanne de Tramcourt, Wilhelm’s longtime partner. Photo credit: polarbearstale.blogspot.com

Jeanne was killed in a car accident near Stjärnhov in 1952 when the couple was on their way to visit Wilhelm’s son Lennart. The snowy weather and icy road conditions were determined to have caused the accident. However, Wilhelm, the driver, was heartbroken and blamed himself until the end of his life.

Like his grandfather King Oscar II of Sweden, Wilhelm was a poet, and wrote more than forty books between 1912 and his death. His 1955 book of poetry entitled Verklighetens Skuggbilder (The Shadow Images) reflects Wilhelm’s pain and desperation after Jeanne’s death. Wilhelm also produced several short films and authored numerous travel books, visiting Central America, Central Africa, and Thailand to conduct research for his works.

Wilhelm died of a heart attack at Stenhammar Palace in Flen, Sweden on June 5, 1965, twelve days before his 81st birthday. Unusual for a Swedish prince, he was not buried at the traditional Swedish royal burial sites but in the parish cemetery in Flen, Sweden.

Grave of Prince Wilhelm and first daughter-in-law Karin Nissvandt; Credit – Wikipedia

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Wilhelm II, German Emperor and King of Prussia

by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2013

Kingdom of Prussia: The Protestant Franconian branch of the House of Hohenzollern ruled as Margraves of Brandenburg, Dukes of Prussia, Electors of Brandenburg, Kings of Prussia from 1415 until 1918. In November 1700, in exchange for supporting the Holy Roman Empire in the Spanish War of Succession, Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor agreed to allow Friedrich III, Duke of Prussia, Elector of Brandenburg to make Prussia a kingdom and become its first king. In the aftermath of World War I, Prussia had a revolution that resulted in the replacement of the monarchy with a republic. Wilhelm II, German Emperor, King of Prussia abdicated on November 9, 1918.

The Kingdom of Prussia had territory that today is part of Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Russia, and Switzerland. All or parts of the following states of today’s Germany were part of the Kingdom of Prussia: Brandenburg, Hesse, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, Saarland, Saxony-Anhalt, and Schleswig-Holstein.

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Wilhelm II, German Emperor and King of Prussia; Credit – Wikipedia

Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Albrecht was born on January 27, 1859, at the Crown Prince’s Palace in Berlin, Kingdom of Prussia, now in Brandenburg, Germany.  He was the first child of Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia (the future Friedrich III, German Emperor and King of Prussia) and Victoria, Princess Royal of the United Kingdom, and the first grandchild of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, whose names he was given.  Wilhelm’s 18-year-old mother had a difficult breech delivery which left Wilhelm with a withered left arm, about six inches shorter than his right arm, which he always tried to conceal.

Wilhelm had seven siblings:

Wilhelm (on the right in the back) with his parents and his siblings; Credit – Wikipedia

Wilhelm was related to many European royals.  His sister Sophie was the Queen Consort of Greece.  Among his first cousins were King George V of the United Kingdom, Queen Maud of Norway, Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig of Hesse and by Rhine, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna of Russia, Queen Marie of Romania, Duke Albert of Schleswig-Holstein, Crown Princess Margaret of Sweden, Duke Charles Edward of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and Queen Victoria Eugenie of Spain.

In 1868 when he was nine years old, Wilhelm first met Princess Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein, known as Dona, who was a few months older.  Dona was the eldest daughter of Friedrich VIII, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein and Princess Adelheid of Hohenlohe-Langenburg. Her maternal grandparents were Ernst I, Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg and Princess Feodora of Leiningen, half-sister of Queen Victoria. In the years that followed, Dona fell in love with her cousin Prince Ernst of Saxe-Meiningen and was sent to England to visit relatives to quash the romance.  Wilhelm had proposed to his first cousin Princess Elisabeth (Ella) of Hesse and by Rhine, daughter of his maternal aunt Alice.  Ella, however, turned him down, and later would marry into the Russian Imperial Family and be murdered by the Bolsheviks in 1918.

Wilhelm in 1877; Credit – Wikipedia

Dona and Wilhelm were reacquainted in the summer of 1878 in Potsdam, Prussia.  The Prussians did not look favorably upon Dona as a possible wife for Wilhelm.  There were questions about whether the marriage would be equal because Dona’s father was not a sovereign. Furthermore, there were political complications from the Prussian annexation of Schleswig-Holstein when Dona’s father claimed them.  However, Chancellor Otto von Bismarck was a strong proponent of the marriage because he believed it would end the dispute between the Prussian government and Dona’s father.  The engagement was announced officially on June 2, 1880, and the couple married on February 27, 1881, in Berlin.  Dona and Wilhelm had a very happy marriage.  Wilhelm was a man who needed to be pampered and since Dona adored him, she had no trouble pampering him.  She had more artistic interests than he did, but they shared very conservative political views and a deep religious faith. Dona had to endure a rough start to her married life because of her in-laws who did not think her rank was sufficient for the wife of a future emperor.

Dona and Wilhelm, Credit – Wikipedia

The couple had seven children, six sons and one daughter:

  • Crown Prince Wilhelm (1882–1951), married Duchess Cecilie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. They had six children. Their eldest son Prince Wilhelm of Prussia (1906–1940) was killed in World War II.
  • Prince Eitel Friedrich (1883–1942), married Duchess Sophia Charlotte of Oldenburg. They were divorced and had no children.
  • Prince Adalbert (1884–1948), married Princess Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen. They had three children.
  • Prince August Wilhelm (1887–1949), married Princess Alexandra Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg. They had one child.
  • Prince Oskar (1888–1958), married Countess Ina Marie von Bassewitz. They had four children. Their eldest son Prince Oskar Wilhelm Karl Hans Kuno of Prussia was killed in 1939 in World War II.
  • Prince Joachim (1890–1920), married Princess Marie-Auguste of Anhalt. They had one son. His great-grandson Grand Duke George Mikhailovich of Russia, Prince of Prussia (born 1981) is a pretender to the Russian throne. Prince Joachim died by suicide.
  • Princess Viktoria Luise (1892–1980),  married Ernst August of Hanover, Duke of Brunswick. They had five children. Among their descendants are Prince Ernst August of Hanover, husband of Princess Caroline of Monaco; former King Constantine II of Greece; and Queen Sofia of Spain.

Wilhelm and Dona’s family in 1896, Credit – Wikipedia from the German Federal Archives

1888 was called the Year of the Three Emperors.  On March 9, 1888, Wilhelm’s grandfather Wilhelm I, German Emperor died. Already ill with throat cancer, Wilhelm’s father became Friedrich III, German Emperor.  His reign lasted only 99 days as he died on June 15, 1888, and Wilhelm became German Emperor at the age of 29.

Wilhelm has been a controversial figure for historians, past and present.  From Wilhelm’s Wikipedia article: “Three trends have characterized the writing about Wilhelm. First, the court-inspired writers who considered him a martyr and a hero. Often they uncritically accepted the justifications provided in the Kaiser’s memoirs. Second, those who judged Wilhelm as completely unable to handle the great responsibilities of his office, a ruler who was too reckless to deal with power. Third, after 1950, scholars sought to transcend the passions of the 1910s and attempted an objective portrayal of Wilhelm II and his rule.”

Wilhelm was very militaristic and wanted to increase the strength of Germany’s armed forces, particularly the German Imperial Navy, which he wanted to be the equal of the United Kingdom’s Royal Navy. Although Wilhelm appeared to have some doubts after the assassination of the heir to the Austrian throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand on June 28, 1914, in Sarajevo, Serbia, Wilhelm incited Austria-Hungary to take revenge against Serbia for the assassination. Events worsened throughout July 1914 resulting in the beginning of World War I in August 1914. Years before the start of World War I, Germany had developed the Schlieffen Plan, a one-front war-winning offensive against France which was the thinking behind the German invasion of France and Belgium on August 4, 1914.

Wilhelm in 1915; Credit – Wikipedia

In the aftermath of World War I, Germany had a revolution resulting in the replacement of the monarchy with a republic. Wilhelm abdicated on November 9, 1918.  On November 10, 1918, Wilhelm Hohenzollern crossed the border by train, and went into exile in the Netherlands, never to return to Germany.  He first settled in Amerongen, living in the castle there.

In 1919, Wilhelm purchased Huis Doorn, a small manor house outside of Doorn, a small town near Utrecht in the Netherlands, and moved there in 1920.  As a condition of his exile, Wilhelm was allowed to travel freely within a radius of 15 miles from his house.  Traveling further required that advance notice had to be given to local government officials.  As Wilhelm did not like to be under the thumb of minor officials, he rarely traveled further than the 15 miles.

Huis Doorn in 1925; Credit – Wikipedia

Wilhelm’s son Joachim was unable to accept his new status as a commoner and became severely depressed. He died by suicide using a gun on July 18, 1920, in Potsdam, Germany.  The shock of abdication and exile, combined with Joachim’s suicide, proved too much for Dona. She died in 1921, at Huis Doorn.  The Weimar Republic in Germany allowed her remains to be transported back to Germany to be buried at the Temple of Antiquities near the New Palace in Potsdam.  Wilhelm was not allowed to go to Germany and could accompany his wife’s body only as far as the border.

Dona in 1913; Credit – Wikipedia

In January 1922, Princess Hermine Reuss of Greiz‘s son sent birthday wishes to Wilhelm, who then invited the boy and his mother to Doorn. Wilhelm found Hermine very attractive and greatly enjoyed her company. Having both been recently widowed, the two had much in common.  Wilhelm was determined to marry Hermine despite objections from his children. 63-year-old Wilhelm and 34-year-old Hermine married on November 5, 1922, in Doorn.  Hermine returned to Germany after Wilhelm’s death.  After World War II, Hermine was held under house arrest at Frankfurt-an-der Oder in the Soviet Zone of Germany. She died at Paulinenhof, a Soviet internment camp near Brandenburg, Germany on August 7, 1947.  She was buried at the Temple of Antiquities in Potsdam with Wilhelm’s first wife.

Hermine and Wilhelm at Huis Doorn in 1933; Credit – Wikipedia

On June 4, 1941, Wilhelm II, formerly German Emperor and King of Prussia, died of a pulmonary embolism at Huis Doorn, his home in exile in Doorn, the Netherlands.  He was 82 years old and had lived at Huis Doorn since 1920.

After Wilhelm’s death, Adolf Hitler wanted to bring his remains back to Germany for a state funeral and burial.  Even though Hitler felt animosity toward the former Kaiser, he thought that as a symbol of Germany during World War I, honoring Wilhelm would show the German people the legitimate succession from the Kaiserreich to the Third Reich.  Wilhelm had stated in his will that he did not want to return to Germany unless the monarchy was restored, and his wishes were granted.  However, Wilhelm’s request that the swastika and other symbols of Nazism not be displayed at his funeral was not followed.

Wilhelm’s eldest son, Crown Prince Wilhelm, asked architect Martin Kieszling to design a mausoleum in the gardens of Huis Doorn near his father’s favorite rhododendrons.  On the mausoleum’s roof is a brass ball with a cross on top, made by a Doorn blacksmith out of pots from the Huis Doorn kitchen after all copper was ordered to be turned into the German occupation of the Netherlands to make weapons.  On the anniversary of Wilhelm’s death, German monarchists still gather at his mausoleum.

Mausoleum of Wilhelm II, Photo Credit – Wikipedia

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Prussia Resources at Unofficial Royalty

Prince Baudouin of Belgium

by Emily McMahon, revised by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2013

Prince Baudouin of Belgium; Credit – Wikipedia

Born on June 3, 1869, at the Palais de la Régence in Brussels, Belgium, Prince Baudouin was the eldest son of Philippe, Count of Flanders, second son of Leopold I, King of the Belgians, and Marie of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen. His birth was met with great celebration in the Belgian royal family. Earlier that year, on January 22, 1869, Prince Leopold, Duke of Brabant, Baudouin’s nine-year-old cousin and the only son of King Leopold II died of pneumonia after falling into a pond. His death left no other male heirs aside from Baudouin’s father, so Baudouin was seen as the eventual heir to the Belgian throne.  He was baptized on June 26, 1869, at the Palais de la Régence, the home of his father the Count of Flanders in Brussels, Belgium with a long string of names: Baudouin Léopold Philippe Marie Charles Antoine Joseph Louis.

Baptism of Prince Baudouin; Credit Wikipedia

Baudouin had four younger siblings:

Baudouin grew up with his sisters and brother at his father’s palace and was prepared for his future role as king.  He was confident, very social, pious, and highly intelligent. An eager and able sportsman, Baudouin was, according to his sister Henriette, a “born leader,” who looked to lead Belgium as a traditionalist. His younger siblings adored him and looked up to him. Although the siblings’ strict and pious mother was at times critical of him, Baudouin was very much the apple of his parents’ eye as well.

12-year-old Prince Baudouin in September 1881; Photo Credit – Wikipedia

Baudouin was informally betrothed to his cousin Clementine, the youngest daughter of King Leopold II. Although accounts differ as to whether or not Baudouin was in favor of this arrangement, it was generally seen as the best way of uniting the cadet and main branches of the Belgian royal family.

In early 1891, Baudouin became ill with influenza that had made its way through most of the members of the Flanders family already. He likely caught the illness from his sister Henriette, whom he insisted on visiting during her illness despite warnings from doctors. Although he appeared to be handling the illness better than his sister, Baudouin’s condition suddenly deteriorated on January 22, 1891. He died early the following morning at the age of 21 at the Palace of the Count of Flanders in Brussels, Belgium.

Baudouin’s death was kept from his sister Henriette at first due to the fear of worsening her grave condition. It was expected that she too would die due to the severity of her illness, but she survived. Baudouin died 22 years to the day of the death of his cousin Prince Leopold, Duke of Brabant, the boy whom Baudouin had replaced as heir.

The country of Belgium was plunged into mourning for their promising prince. Parliament was adjourned, theaters and libraries were closed, and mourning was ordered until the beginning of the spring. Outpourings of grief flooded the Flanders family from the Belgian people and other royal families of Europe.

As Baudouin’s condition had been largely kept from the public until his death, suspicion of the true cause quickly arose. With the 1889 Mayerling incident, resulting in the suicide of Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria and his mistress, fresh in the minds of the royal family’s detractors, rumors quickly spread that Baudouin’s death had been caused by suicide or murder over a woman. The likely unrelated dismissal of a German governess in the household appeared to give credence to the rumor, but the story died down fairly quickly after Baudouin’s death.

Funeral of Prince Baudouin; Credit – Wikipedia

The funeral was held on January 29, 1891, at the Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula in Brussels. King Leopold II, the Count of Flanders, and Baudouin’s younger brother Albert were all said to have appeared profoundly grieved during the service. Burial at the royal vault at the Church of Our Lady of Laeken followed.  Baudouin’s death left his brother, the quiet and bookish Albert, as the heir to the Belgian throne. Although Albert became a very able, successful, and beloved king, he often lamented that Baudouin would have done much better. Baudouin, King of the Belgians from 1951 until 1993, was named in honor of his deceased great-uncle.

Tomb of Prince Baudouin, Photo Credit – By Carolus –  https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=24155591

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Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II

 by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2013

Credit – By BiblioArchives / LibraryArchives from Canada – Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II / uronnement de la Reine Elizabeth IIUploaded by oaktree_b, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=19783528

June 2, 2013 was the 60th anniversary of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.  This occasion was marked by a service of celebration at Westminster Abbey on June 4, 2013, at 11 AM attended by The Queen, The Duke of Edinburgh, and other members of the Royal Family.

The Queen had acceded to the throne on February 6, 1952, upon the death of her father King George VI.  She was 25 years old at the time and the mother of two young children under the age of four.  Queen Mary, the new queen’s grandmother, died on March 24, 1953.  Before her death, Queen Mary insisted that the coronation go on as scheduled on June 2, 1953. The ceremony in Westminster Abbey, with the exception of the anointing and communion, was televised for the first time.

Westminster Abbey was closed for five months prior to the coronation so that the construction needed for 8,000 people to attend could be completed.  See the BBC news video for more details below.

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Guests: Westminster Abbey opened at 6:00 AM on Coronation Day to the approximately 8,000 invited guests including members of the Queen’s family and foreign royalty, the peers of the United Kingdom, heads of state, Members of Parliament from the Queen’s various legislatures, and other guests from the member countries of the  Commonwealth of Nations. Guests seated on stools were able to purchase their stools following the ceremony, with the profits going towards the cost of the coronation. Below are listed members of The Queen’s family, members of The Duke of Edinburgh’s family, and foreign royalty who attended the coronation.

Guests from the British Royal Family

  • Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, the Queen’s husband
  • Prince Charles, Duke of Cornwall, the Queen’s son and heir
  • Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, the Queen’s mother
  • Princess Margaret, the Queen’s sister
  • Princess Mary, Princess Royal, the Queen’s paternal aunt
  • George Lascelles, 7th Earl of Harewood and Marion Lascelles, Countess of Harewood, the Queen’s first cousin and his wife
  • The Honorable Gerald Lascelles, the Queen’s first cousin
  • Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester and Alice, Duchess of Gloucester, the Queen’s paternal uncle and aunt
  • Prince William of Gloucester, the Queen’s first cousin
  • Prince Richard of Gloucester, the Queen’s first cousin
  • Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent, the Queen’s paternal aunt by marriage and the Duke of Edinburgh’s first cousin
  • Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, the Queen’s first cousin
  • Princess Alexandra of Kent, the Queen’s first cousin
  • Prince Michael of Kent, the Queen’s first cousin
  • Princess Marie Louise, the Queen’s first cousin twice removed and a granddaughter of Queen Victoria
  • Lady Patricia Ramsay (a granddaughter of Queen Victoria, born Princess Patricia of Connaught) and The Honorable Sir Alexander Ramsay, the Queen’s first cousin twice removed and her husband
  • Alexander Ramsay of Mar, the Queen’s second cousin once removed
  • Alexander Cambridge, 1st Earl of Athlone and Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone, the Queen’s paternal great-uncle and great-aunt (Princess Alice was the Queen’s first cousin twice removed and a granddaughter of Queen Victoria)
  • Lady May Abel Smith and Colonel Sir Henry Abel Smith, the Queen’s first cousin once removed and her husband
  • Richard Abel Smith, the Queen’s second cousin

Guests from the Bowes-Lyon Family

  • Albemarle Bowes-Lyon, the Queen’s first cousin
  • James Bowes-Lyon, the Queen’s first cousin once removed

Guests from the Teck-Cambridge Family

  • George Cambridge, 2nd Marquess of Cambridge and Dorothy Cambridge, Marchioness of Cambridge, the Queen’s first cousin once removed and his wife
  • Lady Mary Whitney and Peter Whitney, the Queen’s second cousin and her husband
  • The Duchess of Beaufort (born Lady Mary Cambridge) and Henry Somerset, 10th Duke of Beaufort, the Queen’s first cousin once removed and her husband
  • Lady Helena Gibbs, the Queen’s first cousin, once removed, born Princess Helena of Teck

Guests from The Duke of Edinburgh’s Family

  • Princess Andrew of Greece and Denmark, the Duke of Edinburgh’s mother, born Princess Alice of Battenberg
  • The Princess and Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, the Duke of Edinburgh’s sister Margarita and brother-in-law Gottfried
  • Princess Beatrix of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, the Duke of Edinburgh’s niece
  • The Margravine and Margrave of Baden, the Duke of Edinburgh’s sister Theodora and brother-in-law Berthold
  • The Hereditary Prince of Baden, the Duke of Edinburgh’s nephew Maximilian
  • Princess and Prince Georg Wilhelm of Hanover, the Duke of Edinburgh’s sister Sophie and brother-in-law Georg Wilhelm
  • Princess Christina Margarethe of Hesse, the Duke of Edinburgh’s niece
  • Prince and Princess George of Greece and Denmark, the Duke of Edinburgh’s paternal uncle George and aunt Marie Bonaparte, representing King Paul of Greece

Guests from the Mountbatten Family

  • Nadejda Mountbatten, Dowager Marchioness of Milford Haven, the Duke of Edinburgh’s maternal aunt by marriage (and widow of the Queen’s second cousin once removed)
  • David Mountbatten, 3rd Marquess of Milford Haven, the Duke of Edinburgh’s first cousin (and the Queen’s third cousin)
  • Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma and Edwina Mountbatten, Countess Mountbatten of Burma, the Duke of Edinburgh’s maternal uncle and aunt (and the Queen’s second cousin once removed and his wife)
  • Lady Pamela Mountbatten, the Duke of Edinburgh’s first cousin (and the Queen’s third cousin)

  • Irene Mountbatten, Marchioness of Carisbrooke, wife of the Queen’s first cousin twice removed

Rulers of British Protectorates

  • Sheikh Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa I of Bahrain
  • Sheikh Abdullah III Al-Salim Al-Sabah of Kuwait
  • Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien III of Brunei
  • Sultan Ibrahim IV of Kelantan
  • Sultan Hisamuddin and Raja Jemaah of Selangor
  • Sultan Ibrahim and Sultanah Helen Ibrahim of Johor
  • Sultan Khalifa bin Harubn and the Sultanah Nunu of Zanzibar
  • Sultan Ali III ibn ‘Abd al-Karim al-‘Abdali of Lahej
  • Sultan Yusuf Izzuddin Shah of Perak
  • Queen Salote of Tonga
  • Sheikh Ahmad bin Ali Al Thani, representing Ali bin Abdullah Al Thani of Qatar

Members of Foreign Royal Families

  • Crown Prince Olav and Crown Princess Märtha of Norway, the Queen’s first cousin once removed and his wife representing his father King Haakon VII of Norway
  • Princess Astrid of Norway, the Queen’s second cousin
  • Prince Axel and Princess Margaretha of Denmark, the Duke of Edinburgh’s first cousin once removed and his second cousin (representing his first cousin once removed, King Frederik IX of Denmark)
  • Prince Bertil of Sweden, Duke of Halland, the Queen’s second cousin once removed (representing his father King Gustav VI of Sweden)
  • Prince Albert, Prince of Liège (representing his brother King Baudouin of the Belgians)
  • Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands (representing his wife Queen Juliana of the Netherlands)
  • Crown Prince Sisavang Vatthana of Laos (representing King Sisavang Phoulivong of Laos)
  • Prince Himalayapratrap Vir Vikram Shah and his wife Princess Princep Shah (representing King Tribhuwan Bir Bikram Shah of Nepal)
  • Hereditary Prince Bao Long (representing Bảo Đại, the Chief of State of Vietnam)
  • Crown Prince Akihito of Japan (representing Emperor Hirohito of Japan)
  • Crown Prince Amha Selassie of Ethiopia (representing Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia)
  • Prince Fahad Ibn Abdul Aziz (representing King Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia)
  • Shah Wali Khan (representing King Mohammed Zahir Shah of Afghanistan)
  • Crown Prince Abdul Ilah (representing King Faisal II of Iraq)
  • Prince Sisowath Monireth (representing King Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia)
  • Prince Chula Chakrabongse and Princess Chula (representing King Bhumibol Adulyadej  of Thailand)
  • Prince Saif Al Islam Al Hassan (representing King Ahmad bin Yahya Hamidaddin of Yemen)
  • The Nabil Suleyman Daoud (representing the King Fuad II of Egypt)
  • Hereditary Grand Duke Jean and Hereditary Grand Duchess Joséphine-Charlotte of Luxembourg (representing Grand Duchess Charlotte of Luxembourg)
  • Prince Karl Alfred and Princess Agnes of Liechtenstein (representing Prince Franz Joseph II of Liechtenstein)
  • Prince Pierre of Monaco (representing Prince Rainier III of Monaco)

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The Coronation Dress; Credit – Royal Collection Trust / © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2022

The Coronation Gown: Queen Elizabeth’s coronation gown was designed by her favorite designer, Norman Hartnell, and featured embroidered floral emblems of the Commonwealth countries: English Tudor rose; Scots thistle, Welsh leek,  Irish shamrock,  Australian wattle, Canadian maple leaf, New Zealand silver fern, South African protea, lotus flowers for India and Ceylon, and Pakistan’s wheat, cotton, and jute.

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The Queen traveled from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Abbey in the Gold State Coach which was built in 1762 and has been used for the coronation of every monarch since King George IV.  It is estimated that 3 million people lined the streets of London that day.

Gold State Coach, Photo Credit – Wikipedia

Upon arrival at Westminster Abbey, Queen Elizabeth was attended by six aristocratic young women who served as Maids of Honor.  Sixty years later, all six were still alive.

    • Lady Moyra Hamilton, 22, daughter of the Marquess of Hamilton, later 4th Duke of Abercorn
    • Lady Anne Coke, 20, daughter  of the 5th Earl of Leicester
    • Lady Jane Vane-Tempest-Stewart, 20, daughter of the 8th Marquess of Londonderry
    • Lady Mary Baillie-Hamilton, 19, daughter of the 12th Earl of Haddington
    • Lady Jane Heathcote-Drummond-Willoughby, 18, daughter of the 3rd Earl of Ancaster
    • Lady Rosemary Spencer-Churchill, 23, daughter of 10th Duke of Marlborough

 The Queen arrives at Westminster Abbey

Charles bored coronation

A rather bored looking Prince Charles at the coronation with his grandmother The Queen Mother and his aunt Princess Margaret, Photo Credit – www.abc.net.au

After the Queen’s procession into Westminster Abbey, the coronation service started.

The Recognition: The Archbishop of Canterbury along with Lord Chancellor, Lord Great Chamberlain, Lord High Constable, and Earl Marshal proceeded to the East, South, West, and North sides of the coronation theater.  Each time the Archbishop said, “Sirs, I here present unto you Queen ELIZABETH, your undoubted Queen: Wherefore all you who are come this day to do your homage and service, Are you willing to do the same?”  The People replied each time, “God Save Queen Elizabeth.”

The Oath: The Queen, seated in the Chair of Estate, took the Coronation Oath administered by the Archbishop of Canterbury.  She then proceeded to the altar and solemnly swore the Oath with her right hand on the Bible.  Afterward, she kissed the Bible and signed the Oath.

The Communion Service: Traditional service of the Anglican Church

The Anointing:  After being disrobed of her crimson robe, the Queen sat in King Edward’s Chair.  Four Knights of the Garter held a canopy over her.  The Dean of Westminster took the Ampulla which held the Holy Oil and poured some into the Spoon.  The Archbishop then anointed the Queen in the form of a cross on the palms of both hands, the breast, and the crown of the head.  The canopy was removed and the Queen was dressed in the Colobium Sindonis, a simple sleeveless white linen shift,  and the Supertunica, a long coat of gold silk that reaches to the ankles and has wide-flowing sleeves.

British Crown Jewels

Regalia used in the coronation; Photo Credit – rachelsprengeler.blogspot.com

The Presenting of the Spurs and Sword, and the Oblation of the Sword of State: The Spurs were brought from the altar by the Dean of Westminster, and given to the Lord Great Chamberlain who presented them to the Queen.  Afterward, the Spurs were returned to the altar.  Next, the Archbishop took the Sword from the altar and assisted by the Archbishop of York and the Bishops of London and Winchester put the Sword the Queen’s hands and said a prayer.  The Queen then went to the altar, returned the sword to its scabbard, and sat down in King Edward’s Chair.

Dressed in the Sindonis and Supertunica, the Queen returns the Sword of State to the altar, Photo Credit – members.boardhost.com

The Investing with the Armills, the Stole Royal and the Robe Royal: and the Delivery of the Orb: The Dean of Westminster delivered the Armills to the Archbishop, who said a prayer while putting them on the Queen’s wrists.  The Queen stood and was clothed with the Robe Royal.  After she sat down, the Sovereign’s Orb was brought from the altar by the Dean of Westminster and delivered into the Queen’s right hand by the Archbishop of Canterbury.  The Queen then gave the orb to the Dean of Westminster who returned it to the altar.

Sovereign's Orb

Sovereign’s Orb; Photo Credit – https://www.royalcollection.org.uk

The Investiture per annulum, et per sceptrum et baculum: The Keeper of the Jewel House gave the Queen’s Ring, which was set with a sapphire and a ruby cross, to the Archbishop of Canterbury who put it on the fourth finger of the Queen’s right hand, and said a prayer.  The Dean of Westminster brought the Sceptre with the Cross and the Rod with the Dove to the Archbishop, who put it in the Queen’s left hand and said a prayer.

The Putting on of the Crown:  The people stood up and the Archbishop of Canterbury took St. Edward’s Crown from the altar, then laid it back on the altar, and said a prayer.  The Archbishop then proceeded to the Queen who was sitting in King Edward’s Chair.  The Dean of Westminster brought him the crown and the Archbishop reverently put the crown on the Queen’s head.  The people repeatedly shouted, “God Save The Queen.”  The Princes and Princesses, the Peers and Peeresses put on their coronets and caps, and the Kings of Arms their crown.  Trumpets sounded, and the great guns at the Tower of London were fired.

Elizabeth_crowning

The Archbishop of Canterbury prepares to crown the Queen; www.dailymail.co.uk

Elizabeth_crowned

The crowned Queen; Photo Credit – www.telegraph.co.uk

The Benediction:  Now that the Queen had been anointed and crowned, and had received all the signs of the sovereign, the Archbishop of Canterbury blessed her and all those assembled at Westminster Abbey replied with a loud Amen.

The Enthroning:  The Queen went to the throne, and was lifted up into it by the Archbishops and Bishops, and other Peers of the Kingdom.  Lords bearing the regalia stood on the steps around the throne.

The Homage: After the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Duke of Edinburgh offered their fealty to the Queen, all princes and peers present did likewise, saying to her, ” I, (name) Duke, or Earl, etc., of (name) do become your liege man of life and limb, and of earthly worship; and faith and truth I will bear unto you, to live and die, against all manner of folks. So help me God.”

 

The Communion: Queen Elizabeth knelt and took communion, in a service that included a general confession and absolution, and, along with the people, recited the Lord’s Prayer.

The Recess: The Queen proceeded to Saint Edward’s Chapel, gave St. Edward’s Crown and the Sceptre and the Rod to the Archbishop of Canterbury who laid them on the altar in the chapel.  The Queen was then disrobed of the Robe Royal and clothed in a Robe of purple velvet and the Imperial State Crown.  The Archbishop of Canterbury put the Sceptre with the Cross into her right hand and the Orb in her left hand.  The Queen left the St. Edward’s Chapel to the singing of the National Anthem and then proceeded up the aisle.

Queen Elizabeth proceeding up the aisle of Westminster Abbey after her coronation, Photo Credit – www.guardian.co.uk

This article is the intellectual property of Unofficial Royalty and is NOT TO BE COPIED, EDITED, OR POSTED IN ANY FORM ON ANOTHER WEBSITE under any circumstances. It is permissible to use a link that directs to Unofficial Royalty.