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Princess Catherine Dolgorukova, morganatic second wife of Alexander II, Emperor of All Russia; Credit – Wikipedia
February 15, 1637 – Death of Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor in Vienna, Archduchy of Austria, now Austria; buried in the Mausoleum of Emperor Ferdinand II in Graz, Austria
In addition to being Holy Roman Emperor (reigned 1619 – 1637), Ferdinand was also Archduke of Inner Austria (reigned 1590 – 1637), King of Bohemia (1st reign 1617 – 1619, 2nd reign 1620 – 1637), and King of Hungary and Croatia (reigned 1618 – 1637). In 1600, he married his 26-year-old first cousin Maria Anna of Bavaria. They had seven children but only four survived childhood. After Maria Anna’s death, Ferdinand married his first cousin once removed Eleonora Gonzaga of Mantua but their marriage was childless. The Thirty Years’ War (1618 – 1648) began in 1618 as a result of the inadequacies of Ferdinand II’s predecessors Rudolf II and Matthias. The war was one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history, with an estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians dying as a result of battle, famine, and disease. On February 15, 1637, at the age of fifty-eight, Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor died in Vienna, Archduchy of Austria, now Austria.
Unofficial Royalty: Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor, Archduke of Inner Austria, King of Bohemia, King of Hungary and Croatia
February 15, 1710 – Birth of King Louis XV of France at the Palace of Versailles in Versailles, France
When he was five years old, Louis XV succeeded his great-grandfather King Louis XIV and reigned as King of France for 59 years. He is the second-longest reigning King of France after his great-grandfather King Louis XIV who reigned for 72 years. In 1725, Louis XV married Maria Leszczyńska, daughter of the deposed King Stanisław I of Poland. The couple had ten children but all their sons predeceased Louis XV and so he was succeeded by his grandson, the ill-fated King Louis XVI. King Louis XV’s reign saw France’s entry into The War of the Austrian Succession in 1740, with France gaining significant amounts of territory. However, at the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748, Louis returned the lands to their rightful owners. For this, he was greatly praised throughout Europe but became very unpopular within his own country. A few years later, Louis would find France at war with Great Britain in the French and Indian War and soon pulled into the Seven Years’ War. King Louis XV died of smallpox at the Palace of Versailles on May 10, 1774.
Unofficial Royalty: King Louis XV of France
February 15, 1761 – Birth of Luise of Hesse-Darmstadt, Grand Duchess of Hesse and by Rhine, wife of Grand Duke Ludwig I of Hesse and by Rhine, in Darmstadt, Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt, now in Hesse, Germany
Full name: Luise Henriette Karoline
In 1777, Luise married her first cousin, the future Grand Duke Ludwig I of Hesse and by Rhine. The couple had six children. Luise’s husband Ludwig succeeded his father in April 1790 as Ludwig X, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt. After the fall of the Holy Roman Empire, Hesse-Darmstadt was raised to the Grand Duchy of Hesse, with Ludwig becoming its first Grand Duke, Ludwig I. In 1816, at the Congress of Vienna, he was forced to cede his Westphalian territories, but in return was given the Rheinhessen region which included the city of Mainz. It was then that the Grand Duchy of Hesse became the Grand Duchy of Hesse and by Rhine. Luise died at her summer residence at the age of 68.
Unofficial Royalty: Luise of Hesse-Darmstadt, Grand Duchess of Hesse and by Rhine
February 15, 1788 – Death of Maria Josefa von Harrach-Rohrau, Princess of Liechtenstein, wife of her first cousin Johann Nepomuk Karl, Prince of Liechtenstein, in Roudnice nad Laberm, then in the Kingdom of Bohemia, now in the Czech Republic; buried in the Lobkowicz family crypt of her second husband at the Capuchin Church of St. Wenceslas in Roudnice nad Laberm in the Kingdom of Bohemia, now in the Czech Republic
In 1744, seventeen-year-old Maria Josefa married her first cousin, twenty-year-old Johann Nepomuk Karl, Prince of Liechtenstein, the son of her maternal uncle Josef Johann Adam, Prince of Liechtenstein. Maria Josefa and Johann Nepomuk Karl had three children but only one daughter survived childhood. After four years of marriage, Johann Nepomuk Karl, Prince of Liechtenstein died at the age of 24. In 1752, Maria Josefa made a second marriage to Prince Joseph Maria von Lobkowicz, a Field Marshal in the Imperial Austrian Army. The couple had four children. Maria Josefa predeceased her second husband and survived her first husband by forty years, dying at the age of 61 on February 15, 1788.
Unofficial Royalty: Maria Josefa von Harrach-Rohrau, Princess of Liechtenstein
February 15, 1852 – Birth of Marie of Battenberg, Princess of Erbach-Schönberg, daughter of Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine, in Strasbourg, France
Full name: Marie Karoline
The Battenberg / Mountbatten family descends from Marie’s parents Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine and his morganatic wife Countess Julia von Hauke. In 1871, Marie married Gustaf Ernst, Count of Erbach-Schönberg and they had four children. An avid writer, Marie published translations of several prominent works and wrote My Trip to Bulgaria, a memoir of her visit to her brother Alexander who was reigning Prince of Bulgaria from 1879 to 1886. In her later years, several more memoirs were published, one of which detailed the relationship she had with her son Maximilian who was mentally unstable. Marie died in Schönberg, Hesse, Germany on June 20, 1923, at the age of 71.
Unofficial Royalty: Marie of Battenberg, Princess of Erbach-Schönberg
February 15, 1855 – Birth of Louisa McDonnell, Countess of Antrim, Queen Victoria’s Acting Mistress of the Robes 1894, Lady of the Bedchamber 1890–1901, and Queen Alexandra’s Lady of the Bedchamber 1901-1910, at St. James’s Palace in London, England
Born Louisa Jane Grey, she was the daughter of The Honorable Charles Grey, who served as the Private Secretary to Prince Albert from 1849 until the Prince’s death in 1861 and then as Private Secretary to Queen Victoria until his death in 1870. Louisa’s early life was spent very close to the royal circles because of her father’s position. The family had apartments at St. James’s Palace in London and lived in the Norman Tower at Windsor Castle and Osborne Cottage on the grounds of Osborne House on the Isle of Wight. In 1875, Louisa married William McDonnell, 6th Earl of Antrim and the couple had three children. After Queen Victoria’s death in 1901, Louisa served as a Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Alexandra, the wife of King Edward VII. After retiring from royal service, Louisa still kept in touch with many of her royal friends, and occasionally went on holiday with Princess Victoria, King Edward VII’s daughter. She was widowed in 1918 and survived her husband by 31 years dying in 1949 at the age of 94.
Unofficial Royalty: Louisa McDonnell, Countess of Antrim
February 15, 1922 – Death of Catherine Dolgorukova, Princess Yurievskaya, morganatic second wife of Alexander II, Emperor of All Russia, in Nice, France; buried at the Cimetière Russe de Caucade in Nice, France
Princess Yekaterina Mikhailovna Dolgorukova, Princess Catherine Dolgorukov in English, was first the mistress and then the second and morganatic wife of Alexander II, Emperor of All Russia. In 1880, six weeks after the death of his wife Empress Maria Alexandrovna from tuberculosis, Alexander II made a morganatic marriage with Catherine. This marriage caused a scandal in the Imperial Family and violated Russian Orthodox rules regarding the waiting period for remarriage following the death of a spouse. Alexander granted his new wife the title of Princess Yurievskaya and legitimized their four children who were then styled Prince/Princess. On March 13, 1881, Emperor Alexander was assassinated when a bomb was thrown into his carriage. Shortly after Alexander’s funeral, Catherine left Russia forever. She moved to France and, in 1888, settled in Nice on the French Riviera where she died on February 15, 1922, at the age of 74, forgotten and ignored, her obituary only three lines long.
Unofficial Royalty: Catherine Dolgorukova, Princess Yurievskaya
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