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Olga Konstantinovna of Russia, Queen of Greece; Credit – Wikipedia
June 18, 1269 – Birth of Eleanor of England, Countess of Bar, daughter of King Edward I of England, wife of Henri III, Count of Bar, at Windsor Castle in Windsor, England
Eleanor married Henri III, Count of Bar. The Duchy of Bar was a sovereign state located in what is now northeast France. An alliance with Henri against King Philippe IV of France could provide a significant military advantage. Eleanor and Henri had one son and one daughter. Eleanor and Henri’s marriage lasted a little less than five years. On August 29, 1298, 29-year-old Eleanor died in Ghent, County of Flanders, now in Belgium, of unknown causes. Possibly, she died in childbirth (along with the baby), which at the end of the 13th century was a frequent cause of premature death of women.
Unofficial Royalty: Eleanor of England, Countess of Bar
June 18, 1318 – Birth of Eleanor of Woodstock Duchess of Guelders, daughter of King Edward II of England, at Woodstock Palace in Oxfordshire, England
In 1332, 14-year-old Eleanor married 37-year-old Reinald II, then Count of Guelders and later Duke of Guelders. The couple had two sons and Eleanor was stepmother to Reinald’s four daughters from his first marriage. In 1343, 48-year-old Reinald II, Duke of Guelders died after a riding accident. Eleanor was named one of the Regents for her nine-year-old son Reinald III, Duke of Guelders, but the other Regents made the situation so difficult for her that she was forced to resign. In 1350, with encouragement from his mother, Eleanor’s younger son Edward began a civil war against his brother Reinald III for control of the Duchy of Guelders. When Eleanor attempted to reconcile with her son Reinald, he rejected her reconciliation attempts and confiscated her property. Eleanor was then forced to retire to the Cistercian where she died in poverty on April 22, 1355, aged 36.
Unofficial Royalty: Eleanor of Woodstock, Duchess of Guelders
June 18, 1662 – Birth of Charles FitzRoy, 2nd Duke of Cleveland, an illegitimate son of King Charles II of England and his mistress Barbara Palmer, 1st Duchess of Cleveland (in her own right), in London, England
In 1679, Charles married Mary Wood, the only child and the heiress of Sir Henry Wood, 1st Baronet. A year later, sixteen-year-old Mary died of smallpox. After many legal maneuvers, Mary’s fortune passed to her widower 18-year-old Charles Fitzroy who remained unmarried for fourteen years. In 1694, Charles married Anne Pulteney, daughter of Sir William Pulteney, a Member of Parliament, and the couple had six children. When Charles’ mother Barbara Palmer, 1st Duchess of Cleveland died in 1709, he became 2nd Duke of Cleveland. On September 9, 1730, 68-year-old Charles FitzRoy, 2nd Duke of Cleveland died in London, England. He was succeeded by his eldest son William FitzRoy. However, William was childless and when he died in 1774, all his titles became extinct.
Unofficial Royalty: Charles FitzRoy, 2nd Duke of Cleveland
June 18, 1824 – Death of Ferdinando III, Grand Duke of Tuscany in Florence, Grand Duchy of Tuscany, now in Italy; buried in the Medici Chapel at the Basilica of San Lorenzo in Florence
In 1790, Ferdinando’s father Pietro Leopoldo I, Grand Duke of Tuscany was elected Holy Roman Emperor as Leopold II, and abdicated the throne of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany in favor of his second son Ferdinando who officially became Grand Duke of Tuscany. Ferdinando’s elder brother Franz would succeed to the Habsburg hereditary titles and be elected Holy Roman Emperor upon the death of his father in 1792. In 1790, Ferdinando married his double first cousin Luisa of Naples and Sicily, and they had five children. Luisa died in childbirth delivering a stillborn son in 1802. Twenty years after Luisa’s, death Ferdinando married Maria Ferdinanda of Saxony but the couple had no children. Ferdinando I, Grand Duke of Tuscany, aged 55, died three years later.
Unofficial Royalty: Ferdinando III, Grand Duke of Tuscany
June 18, 1849 – Birth of Sir Arthur Bigge, 1st Baron Stamfordham, Private Secretary to Queen Victoria and King George V
Lieutenant Colonel The Right Honourable Sir Arthur John Bigge was Private Secretary to Queen Victoria from 1895 until Queen Victoria died in 1901. He then served as Private Secretary to the future King George V from 1901 to 1910, and for twenty-one years of King George V’s reign until he died in 1931.
Unofficial Royalty: Sir Arthur Bigge, 1st Baron Stamfordham
June 18, 1866 – Death of Prince Sigismund of Prussia at the Neues Palais in Potsdam, Kingdom of Prussia, now in Brandenburg, Germany; buried at Friedenskirche in Potsdam
Prince Sigismund was the son of Victoria, Princess Royal and Friedrich III, German Emperor, and a grandson of Queen Victoria. He was the first grandchild of Queen Victoria to die. He died at age 21 months from meningitis. After Sigismund’s father died in 1888, the Kaiser Friedrich Mausoleum was added to the Friedenskirche, and Sigismund and his brother Waldemar, who died of diphtheria when he was eleven years old, were re-interred there.
Unofficial Royalty: Prince Sigismund of Prussia
June 18, 1901 – Birth of Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia, daughter of Nicholas II, Emperor of All Russia, at Peterhof near St. Petersburg, Russia
Anastasia, the fourth of four daughters, was named in honor of Princess Anastasia of Montenegro, a close friend of Anastasia’s mother and who married twice, both times to two grandsons of Nicholas I, Emperor of All Russia. There was, once again, disappointment that Empress Alexandra had not given birth to a boy. Anastasia had a close relationship with her younger brother Alexei. If he did not feel well because of his hemophilia, Anastasia was the one who was able to distract him from his pain and cheer him up. It is known from the DNA analysis of the family’s remains, that Anastasia was a hemophilia carrier.
Unofficial Royalty: Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia
June 18, 1926 – Death of Grand Duchess Olga Konstantinovna of Russia, Queen of Greece, wife of King George I of Greece, either in Rome, Italy or in Pau, Béarn, France; first buried in Italy, reburied at Tatoi Royal Cemetery in Greece
Olga was the elder daughter of Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolayevich of Russia and Princess Alexandra of Saxe-Altenburg, a granddaughter of Nicholas I, Emperor of All Russia, and the paternal grandmother of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.
Unofficial Royalty: Olga Konstantinovna of Russia, Queen of Greece
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