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Tsesarevich Alexei of Russia; Credit – Wikipedia

August 12, 1503 – Birth of King Christian III of Denmark and Norway at Gottorp Castle in Schleswig, Duchy of Schleswig, now in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein
Christian III lived during the time of the Reformation. After the death of his father, the Catholic Frederik I, the Council of State had a lengthy discussion on whether the Danish throne should go to Christian, Frederik I’s Lutheran son from his first marriage, or Frederik I’s Catholic twelve-year-old son Johann from his second marriage. In 1534, Christian was proclaimed Christian III, King of Denmark at an assembly of Lutheran nobles in Jutland. However, the Council of State, made up of mostly Catholic bishops and nobles, refused to accept Christian III as king. Johann, Frederik’s son from his second marriage, was deemed too young and the council was more amenable to restoring the deposed King Christian II to the throne because he had supported both the Catholics and Protestant Reformers at various times. Christopher, Count of Oldenburg, the grandson of a brother of King Christian I of Denmark and the second cousin of both Christian II and Christian III, led the military alliance to restore King Christian II to the throne. What resulted was a two-year civil war, known as the Count’s Feud, from 1534 – 1536, between Protestant and Catholic forces, that led to King Frederik I’s son from his first marriage ascending the Danish throne as King Christian III. In 1537, Christian III was also recognized as King of Norway.
Unofficial Royalty: King Christian III of Denmark

August 12, 1674 – Birth of Marie of Lorraine, wife of Antonio I, Prince of Monaco in Paris, France
In 1688, in the Chapel Royal at the Palace of Versailles in Versailles, France, 14-year-old Marie married 27-year-old Antonio, the future Prince of Monaco. Antonio and Marie had six daughters but only two survived to adulthood. The elder surviving daughter Louise-Hippolyte succeeded her father as the reigning Princess of Monaco. The marriage was not happy. In what seems to have become a Grimaldi tradition, Antonio had several illegitimate children from different affairs. Marie responded by finding lovers of her own. In 1701, Antonio became Prince of Monaco upon the death of his father Louis I, Prince of Monaco. Marie spent the last years of her life quietly, frequently returning to the French court. She died at the Prince’s Palace in Monaco on October 30, 1724, at the age of 50.
Unofficial Royalty: Marie of Lorraine, Princess of Monaco

August 12, 1762 – Birth of King George IV of the United Kingdom at St. James’s Palace in London, England
George’s birth marked the first time an heir had been born to a reigning monarch since the birth of King James II’s son in 1688. At birth, George was automatically Duke of Cornwall as the eldest son of the reigning monarch. Five days after his birth, George was created Prince of Wales. George was created a Knight of the Garter at age three and was introduced to ceremonial functions at an early age. In 1795, George married Caroline of Brunswick, his first cousin. This marriage is one of the worst ever royal marriages. Upon first seeing Caroline, George said to his valet, “Harris, I am not well. Pray get me a glass of brandy.” Caroline said George was fat and not as handsome as his portrait. It is doubtful that the couple spent more than a few nights together as husband and wife. Their only child, Princess Charlotte of Wales, was born nine months later. They both found each other equally unattractive and never lived together nor appeared in public together.  Their daughter Charlotte married Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (the uncle of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert and the future King of the Belgians), but she predeceased both her parents, dying in childbirth in 1817 at the age of 21, along with her son. Had Charlotte lived, she would have succeeded her father on the throne.
Unofficial Royalty: King George IV of the United Kingdom

August 12, 1779 – Birth of Georg, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz in Hanover, Electorate of Hanover, now in Lower Saxony, Germany
In 1807, Georg represented his father in Paris to negotiate the Duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz’s entry into the Confederation of the Rhine. He again represented his father seven years later at the Congress of Vienna. Through his efforts, Mecklenburg-Strelitz was raised to a Grand Duchy. Georg became Grand Duke in 1816, upon his father’s death. Georg found Mecklenburg-Strelitz in great debt and in need of much rebuilding. To eliminate much of the debt, he sold several towns to Prussia, towns given to the Grand Duchy at the Congress of Vienna. He abolished serfdom and throughout his reign, he worked to raise education standards, building schools and instituting compulsory education. He made vast improvements to the infrastructure which would help to energize the grand duchy’s economy.
Unofficial Royalty: Georg, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz

August 12, 1872 – Birth of Princess Marie Louise of Schleswig-Holstein, granddaughter of Queen Victoria, at Cumberland Lodge in Windsor, England
Full name: Franziska Josepha Louise Augusta Marie Christina Helena
Marie Louise was the daughter of Princess Helena, the third daughter of Queen Victoria, and Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein. In 1890, Marie Louise married Prince Aribert of Anhalt. However, the marriage was unsuccessful. In 1900, the marriage was dissolved by Marie Louise’s father-in-law, at her husband’s insistence. It has been speculated that the marriage was never consummated and implied that Aribert was homosexual, and had been caught in a delicate situation by either his wife or his father. In her memoirs, Marie Louise states that even though her marriage was annulled, she maintained the vows she had made at her wedding, and would never remarry.
Unofficial Royalty: Princess Marie Louise of Schleswig-Holstein

August 12, 1904 – Birth of Tsesarevich Alexei of Russia, son of Nicholas II, Emperor of All Russia, at Peterhof Palace in St. Petersburg, Russia
Alexei’s mother Empress Alexandra, born Princess Alix of Hesse and by Rhine, was the daughter of Grand Duke Ludwig IV of Hesse and by Rhine and Princess Alice of the United Kingdom, and a granddaughter of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. Before Alexei’s birth, Queen Victoria’s son Prince Leopold, two of her grandsons, and two of her great-grandsons had been born with hemophilia, a genetic disease that prevents the blood from clotting properly. One of the grandsons was Empress Alexandra’s brother Prince Friedrich of Hesse and by Rhine (Frittie) who died of a brain hemorrhage at age 2 ½ after falling out a low window to the ground below. Therefore, there was a risk that Empress Alexandra was a hemophilia carrier. Even before Alexei was two months old, when he suffered severe bleeding from his navel, it was evident that he too had been born with hemophilia. After Alexei’s birth, three more great-grandsons of Queen Victoria would also be diagnosed with the disease.  In 2009, DNA analysis done on the remains of Empress Alexandra, Alexei, and his sister Anastasia, the only sister who was a carrier, revealed that Alexei suffered from the rare, severe form of hemophilia, known as Hemophilia B or Christmas Disease. Throughout his short life, Alexei suffered greatly.
Unofficial Royalty: Tsesarevich Alexei Nikolaevich of Russia
Unofficial Royalty: Hemophilia in Queen Victoria’s Descendants

August 12, 1932 – Birth of Queen Sirikit of Thailand, widow of King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand; born Sirikit Kitiyakara at the home of Lord Vongsanuprabhand, her maternal grandfather, in Bangkok, Siam, now Thailand
Sirikit’s paternal grandfather Prince Kitiyakara Voralaksana was the twelfth son of King Chulalongkorn of Siam.  She shared a descent from King Chulalongkorn with her husband King Bhumibol Adulyadej and they are first cousins once removed.  While he was attending the University of Lausanne in Switzerland, King Bhumibol Adulyadej frequently visited Paris and it was there that he met his future wife Sirikit Kitiyakara who was the daughter of the Thai ambassador to France. Both Sirikit and King Bhumibol Adulyadej were studying at the Thai embassy and a relationship developed. They married in 1950, just a week before the king’s coronation. After the coronation, the 22-year-old king and the 17-year-old queen returned to their studies in Lausanne, Switzerland. The couple had three daughters and one son including the current King of Thailand, King Maha Vajiralongkorn.
Unofficial Royalty: Queen Sirikit of Thailand

August 12, 2013 – Death of Prince Friso of Orange-Nassau, son of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, at Huis ten Bosch Palace, his mother’s residence in The Hague; buried at the Dutch Reformed Cemetery in Lage Vuursche, Utrecht,  the Netherlands
On February 17, 2012, while on the royal family’s annual skiing holiday in Lech, Austria, Prince Friso was buried under an avalanche and was in a coma. According to medical reports, he had been buried for 25 minutes and suffered neurological injuries due to the lack of oxygen. On March 1, 2012, he was moved to Wellington Hospital in London, England, nearer to his family’s home. In the summer of 2013, he was declared to be in a minimally conscious state and no longer in need of hospital care. He was moved again on July 9, 2013, to Huis ten Bosch Palace, his mother’s residence in The Hague in the Netherlands. It was there that Prince Friso passed away at the age of 44.
Unofficial Royalty: Prince Friso of Orange-Nassau

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