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Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen, Queen of Bavaria; Credit – Wikipedia
July 8, 975 – Death of King Edgar (the Peaceable) of England in Winchester, England, buried at Glastonbury Abbey in England
Most House of Wessex kings had a coronation at Kingston-on-Thames, the traditional site for Wessex coronations, St. Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury felt there was a need for a major ceremony similar to the coronations of the King of the Franks and the German Emperor. Dunstan wrote the order of service for Edgar’s coronation based upon ceremonies used by the Kings of the Franks and ceremonies used in the ordination of bishops. The main elements of the British coronation service and the form of the oath taken by the sovereign can be traced to the order of service devised by Dunstan for Edgar’s coronation. Although there have been revisions in the order of the ceremony, the sequence of taking an oath, anointing, investing of regalia, crowning, and enthronement found in the Anglo-Saxon text has remained constant.
Unofficial Royalty: King Edgar of England
July 8, 1332 – Death of Mary of Woodstock, daughter of King Edward I of England, at Amesbury Abbey in Wiltshire, England; buried at Amesbury Abbey in Wiltshire, England
The tenth child and sixth daughter of Edward I and his first wife Eleanor of Castile, Mary became a nun in 1285 and lived the rest of her life at the Benedictine convent at Amesbury, Wiltshire, England where she died and was buried in 1332.
Unofficial Royalty: Mary of Woodstock
July 8, 1617 – Execution of Leonora Dori Galigaï, favorite of Marie de’ Medici, Queen of France, at the Place de Grève in Paris, France
Leonora Dori Galigai and her husband Concino Concini, were favorites of Marie de’ Medici, Queen of France, the second wife of Henri IV, King of France. The behavior and policies of Concino and Leonora caused hatred among the French people. The French nobility had to deal with their power being weakened because Concino and Leonora’s Tuscan followers were given preference in the awarding of positions and privileges. The French common people resented the power of these Tuscans who had become masters of France. Henri IV’s son and successor, sixteen-year-old King Louis XIII, who detested Leonora and Concino, stepped up and asserted his position as King. In April 1617, he organized a coup d’état that resulted in the assassination of Concino. Soon after her husband’s death, Leonora was arrested, accused of witchcraft, tried, and found guilty. On July 8, 1617, at the Place de Grève in Paris, now the Place de l’Hôtel-de-Ville, Leonora was beheaded, and then her headless body burned at the stake.
Unofficial Royalty: Leonora Dori Galigaï, favorite of Marie de’ Medici, Queen of France
July 8, 1640 – Birth of Henry Stuart, Prince of England, Duke of Gloucester, son of King Charles I of England, at Oatlands Palace, a Tudor and Stuart royal palace near Weybridge in Surrey, England
When Henry’s father King Charles I was deposed and beheaded during the English Civil War, Henry and his elder sister Elizabeth could not flee to France with their mother because they were not with her then. They remained in England under the care of the Parliamentarians and were moved from one residence to another. King Charles I was allowed to see 13-year-old Elizabeth and 8-year-old Henry before his beheading. Elizabeth died from pneumonia but Henry was eventually reunited with his mother Henrietta Maria in her native France. The monarchy was restored in 1660, and on May 23, 1660, King Charles II landed at Dover, England on his 30th birthday, accompanied by his brother Henry. There was a smallpox epidemic in London and twenty-year-old Henry became ill with the disease and died on September 13, 1660.
Unofficial Royalty: Henry Stuart, Prince of England, Duke of Gloucester
July 8, 1786 – Birth of Karl, Grand Duke of Baden at Karlsruhe Palace in Karlsruhe, Grand Duchy of Baden, now in Baden-Württemberg, Germany
Full name: Karl Ludwig Friedrich
Karl became Grand Duke of Baden upon the death of his grandfather Karl Friedrich, Grand Duke of Baden in 1811. In 1806, Karl had married Stéphanie de Beauharnais. They had five children but their only son died within a week of his birth. In 1817, with no living male heirs, and only one unmarried uncle to succeed him, Karl formally gave dynastic rights to his half-uncles – the sons of his grandfather Karl Friedrich from his second, morganatic, marriage. This kept the Grand Ducal throne of Baden from passing to Karl’s brother-in-law King Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria. In 1818, Karl oversaw the passing of a new and much more liberal constitution.
Unofficial Royalty: Karl, Grand Duke of Baden
July 8, 1792 – Birth of Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen, Queen of Bavaria, wife of King Ludwig I of Bavaria, at Jagdschloss Seidingstadt, the summer residence of the Dukes of Saxe-Hildburghausen in Straufhain, Duchy of Saxe-Hildburghausen, now in Thuringia, Germany
Full name: Therese Charlotte Luise Friederike Amalie
Therese was included on a list of prospective brides for Napoleon I, Emperor of the French who was looking to marry into one of the old royal houses of Europe. However, the future King Ludwig I of Bavaria would become her husband. The couple met in December 1809 when Ludwig visited Hildburghausen and became engaged on February 12, 1810. After prolonged negotiations, primarily due to Therese’s unwillingness to convert to Catholicism, she and her family traveled to Munich, Kingdom of Bavaria, now in the German state of Bavaria, for the marriage. Therese and Ludwig married on October 12, 1810, and celebrations were held for several days following at the Theresienwiese in Munich, a large outdoor space named in her honor. Theresienwiese is the site of Oktoberfest, held each year to commemorate the wedding.
Unofficial Royalty: Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen, Queen of Bavaria
Unofficial Royalty: Oktoberfest’s Royal Connection
July 8, 1824 – Death of Queen Kamāmalu of the Kingdom of the Hawaiian Islands, favorite the five wives of Kamehameha II, King of the Hawaiian Islands, in London, England; buried at Mauna ʻAla (Fragrant Hills), the Royal Mausoleum of Hawaii in Honolulu, Hawaii
While on a visit to London, England, King Kamehameha II and the favorite of his five wives, Queen Kamāmalu, caught measles and died. They had no natural immunity because the people of the Hawaiian Islands had lived in isolation until their contact with Europeans.
Unofficial Royalty: Kamāmalu, Queen Consort of the Hawaiian Islands
July 8, 1827 – Birth of Peter II, Grand Duke of Oldenburg in Oldenburg, Grand Duchy of Oldenburg, now in Lower Saxony, Germany
Full name: Nikolaus Friedrich Peter
After receiving his education, Peter served in both the Prussian and Hanoverian armies. In February 1852, he married Princess Elisabeth of Saxe-Altenburg, the daughter of Joseph, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg and Duchess Amelia of Württemberg. Peter became Grand Duke upon his father’s death in February 1853.
Unofficial Royalty: Peter II, Grand Duke of Oldenburg
July 8, 1848 – Birth of Roberto I, Duke of Parma in Florence, Grand Duchy of Tuscany, now in Italy
Full name: Roberto Carlo Luigi Maria
Roberto I was the last Duke of Parma. As a not-quite-six-year-old, he succeeded his father who was assassinated, and then lost his throne five years later due to the Italian unification movement. Despite losing his throne, Roberto and his family had considerable wealth traveled in a private train of more than a dozen cars, and had several residences. Roberto is known for having 24 children, 12 from each of his two marriages. Among his children are Princess Marie Louise of Bourbon-Parma who married Ferdinand I, Prince of Bulgaria (later Tsar), Princess Zita of Bourbon-Parma who married Karl I, the last Emperor of Austria, and Prince Felix of Bourbon-Parma who married Grand Duchess Charlotte of Luxembourg.
Unofficial Royalty: Roberto I, Duke of Parma
July 8, 1850 – Death of Prince Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge, son of King George III of the United Kingdom, at Cambridge House, Piccadilly in London, England; originally buried in the Cambridge Mausoleum at St. Anne’s Church in Kew, London, England; the remains of Adolphus and his wife were reinterred in 1930 in the Royal Vault in St. George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle at the instigation of their granddaughter Queen Mary
Adolphus was a paternal uncle of Queen Victoria and the grandfather of Queen Mary, wife of King George V, making him an ancestor of the current British royal family. Prince Adolphus died “of cramps in the stomach” at Cambridge House in Piccadilly, London at the age of 76. His niece Queen Victoria reported his death to her Uncle Leopold, King of the Belgians: “My poor good Uncle Cambridge breathed his last, without a struggle, at a few minutes before ten, last night.”
Unofficial Royalty: Prince Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge
July 8, 1853 – Death of Karl Friedrich, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach at Schloss Belvedere in Weimar, Grand Duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, now in Thuringia, Germany; buried in the Weimarer Fürstengruft in the Historical Cemetery in Weimar
After finishing his education, Karl Friedrich embarked on a Grand Tour of Europe. While visiting St. Petersburg in July 1803, Karl Friedrich met his future wife, Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia. She was the daughter of Paul I, Emperor of All Russia and his second wife Sophia Dorothea of Württemberg. They married in St. Petersburg, Russia on August 3, 1804, and had four children including Princess Augusta who married Wilhelm I, King of Prussia, German Emperor.
Unofficial Royalty: Karl Friedrich, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach
July 8, 1859 – Death of King Oscar I of Sweden at the Royal Palace in Stockholm, Sweden; buried at Riddarholmen Church in Stockholm, Sweden
Oscar I’s health had never been strong and he began to suffer periods when he would fall silent in mid-sentence and then continue a minute later as if nothing had happened. By the early 1850s, these symptoms worsened and in 1852 he was forced to make a trip to the spa at Bad Kissingen in Bavaria in hopes of recovery. In the fall of 1852, he became ill with typhoid fever and it took a year for him to fully recover. He continued to have neurological symptoms and by 1857, it was suspected that Oscar had a brain tumor. By September 1857, Oscar was paralyzed and the doctors recommended that he be relieved of his duties, and his eldest son Carl was declared Regent. After Oscar’s death, an autopsy confirmed that he had a brain tumor.
Unofficial Royalty: King Oscar I of Sweden
July 8, 1996 – Death of Albrecht, Duke of Bavaria, Head of the House of Wittelsbach and pretender to the former Bavarian throne from 1955 until his death, at Berg Castle in Starnberg, Bavaria, Germany; buried at the Wittelsbach cemetery at Andechs Abbey in Starnberg
Albrecht, Duke of Bavaria was Head of the House of Wittelsbach and pretender to the former Bavarian throne from 1955 until he died in 1996. He was the eldest surviving grandson of the last reigning King of Bavaria, Ludwig III, and also the heir to the Jacobite succession.
Unofficial Royalty: Albrecht, Duke of Bavaria
Unofficial Royalty: The Jacobite Succession – Pretenders to the British Throne
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