Death of Richard II, King of England (1400)

by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2020

Richard II, King of England was deposed by his first cousin Henry of Bolingbroke who then reigned as Henry IV, King of England. Held in captivity at Pontefract Castle in Pontefract, West Yorkshire, England, Richard is thought to have starved to death and died on or around February 14, 1400.

Richard II, King of England

Painting at Westminster Abbey by an unknown artist, circa 1394; Credit – Wikipedia

King Richard II of England was born in the Archbishop’s Palace in Bordeaux, then in the English-held Duchy of Aquitaine (now in France) on January 6, 1367. He was the second son and second of the two children of Edward, Prince of Wales (known as the Black Prince), eldest son and heir of King Edward III of England, and Joan of Kent, 4th Countess of Kent in her own right. Joan was a grandchild of King Edward I of England. Richard’s elder brother died young of the plague.

Nine-year-old Richard’s life changed when his father died at the age of 45 on June 8, 1376. Richard was now the heir to his grandfather’s throne. Because it was feared that Richard’s uncle John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster might usurp his place in the succession, Richard was quickly invested as Prince of Wales and given his father’s other titles. On June 21, 1377, King Edward III died and his ten-year-old grandson was then King Richard II.

King Richard II and Anne of Bohemia; Credit: Wikipedia

When Richard was fifteen, he married another fifteen-year-old, Anne of Bohemia, the eldest child of Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Bohemia. Richard and Anne had no children and Anne died of the plague when she was 28 years old. Four years later, Richard married seven-year-old Isabella of Valois, daughter of King Charles VI of France. The marriage was never consummated due to Isabella’s young age.

Henry versus Richard

Henry of Bolingbroke, later King Henry IV of England; Credit – Wikipedia

Many thought the succession of ten-year-old Richard II, a child king whose father had not been the king, was controversial. Some believed that one of King Edward III’s younger sons – there were three still alive – John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster; Edmund of Langley, Duke of York; and Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester – should be king. Parliament, which was in a dispute with John of Gaunt at that time, supported Richard’s accession to the throne. John of Gaunt and his two brothers were excluded from the councils which ruled during Richard’s minority but as the king’s uncles, they still held great informal influence over the business of government. Richard II was childless. Lionel of Antwerp, Duke of Clarence had been the second son of King Edward III so his heirs had a superior genealogical claim to the throne over that of Edward III’s third son John of Gaunt. Although Richard II officially recognized the claim of Lionel’s grandson Roger Mortimer, 4th Earl of March, the claim was unlikely to remain uncontested.

In 1387, Henry of Bolingbroke, the son of John of Gaunt and the future King Henry IV, participated in the rebellion of the Lords Appellant, a group of nobles who wanted to restrain some of King Richard II’s favorites from the power they held. The Lords Appellant were successful for a time until John of Gaunt, Richard’s uncle, threw his support behind Richard who was then able to gradually rebuild his power. Richard never forgave the Lords Appellant and many of them paid a price. His uncle Thomas of Woodstock, Duke Gloucester was murdered in captivity in Calais, France, probably on Richard’s orders. Richard FitzAlan, 4th Earl of Arundel was beheaded. Thomas de Beauchamp, 12th Earl of Warwick lost his title and his lands and was imprisoned on the Isle of Man until Richard was overthrown by Henry of Bolingbroke.

In 1398, Henry of Bolingbroke quarreled with Thomas de Mowbray, 1st Duke of Norfolk, who accused him of treason. The two men planned to duel, but instead, King Richard II banished them from England. In addition, Richard revoked the permission he had given them to sue for any inheritance that fell due, as it did in relation to Mowbray’s grandmother and, more significantly, of Henry’s father, John of Gaunt. The actions Richard took against his first cousin would ultimately result in his downfall.

Henry went to France, and on a visit to the court of Brittany, he met his future second wife Joan of Navarre, the widow of Jean V, Duke of Brittany. When John of Gaunt died on February 3, 1399, Richard did not consider pardoning his cousin Henry instead, he confiscated the estates of his uncle, and much of what Henry would have inherited was given away to his favorites. This caused Henry to make plans to return to England so he could claim his rights to the Duchy of Lancaster and his father’s properties.

Richard’s surrender to Henry at Flint Castle from the illuminated manuscript of Jean Creton’s La Prinse et Mort du roy Richart (“The Capture and Death of King Richard”), early 1400s; Credit – Wikipedia

Richard II had been on a military campaign in Ireland and left in May 1399 to deal with the unrest his cousin Henry might cause. On July 4, 1399, Henry arrived by boat in Yorkshire with a small army. As Henry made his way south, his army grew larger. King Richard II was eventually abandoned by his supporters and was forced to surrender to Henry at Flint Castle in Flint, Flintshire, Wales on August 16, 1399. He was then taken to London where he was held at the Tower of London.

Henry used the precedent established when King Edward II was forced to abdicate by Parliament in favor of his son King Edward III. However, Henry had a complication that his grandfather Edward III did not have. Henry was descended from Edward III’s third son and so, unlike Edward III, he was not the direct heir. Because Richard II was childless, the heir presumptive was eight-year-old Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March, the great-grandson of King Edward III’s second son Lionel of Antwerp. Because Edmund was a young child, Parliament saw no benefit in his succession and agreed Henry should succeed. On September 29, 1399, Parliament forced Richard to abdicate the crown to his cousin Henry. King Henry IV was crowned in Westminster Abbey on October 13, 1399.

What happened to Richard II?

Painting in Pontefract Museum of Pontefract Castle in the early 17th century by Alexander Keirincx; Credit – Wikipedia

Sometime before Christmas of 1399, Richard was moved to Pontefract Castle in Pontefract, West Yorkshire, England which had been the personal residence of his uncle John of Gaunt and was now the possession of John’s son King Henry IV. In January 1400, some supporters of Richard plotted a failed rebellion against Henry IV called the Epiphany Rising. Henry realized that left alive, Richard would remain a threat and it is probable that the deposed king was left at Pontefract Castle to starve to death.

Richard II’s body is brought to St Paul’s Cathedral to let everyone see that he is dead – engraving from A Chronicle of England: B.C. 55 – A.D. 1485 by James William Edmund Doyle (1864); Credit – Wikipedia

Although Henry IV has often been suspected of having Richard murdered, there is no substantial evidence to prove that claim. It can be positively said that Richard did not suffer a violent death. After his death, Richard’s body was put on public display for three days at Old St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, both to prove to his supporters that he was truly dead and also to prove that he had not suffered a violent death. Whether Richard did indeed starve himself or whether that starvation was forced upon him is still up for speculation.

Henry IV had Richard quietly buried in the King’s Langley Priory Church in King’s Langley, Hertfordshire, England. In 1413, King Henry V of England, son of King Henry IV, to atone for his father’s actions and to silence the rumors of Richard’s survival, had Richard’s remains moved to Westminster Abbey in London, England where they were placed in an elaborate tomb Richard had constructed for himself and his first wife Anne of Bohemia.

Tomb of Richard II and Anne of Bohemia at Westminster Abbey; Credit – westminsterabbey.org

The tomb, with bronze effigies of Richard and Anne, is in the Chapel of Saint Edward the Confessor at Westminster Abbey, at the foot of the tomb of Richard’s grandfather King Edward III. On October 13, 2018, this writer had the experience of attending the National Pilgrimage Day, which celebrates the life of Saint Edward the Confessor, King of England. The Chapel of Saint Edward the Confessor is usually not open to tourists but it is open on the National Pilgrimage Day and this writer had the awe-inspiring experience of seeing Edward the Confessor’s shrine surrounded by the tombs of kings and queens, including the tomb of King Richard II and Anne of Bohemia.

Embed from Getty Images 
The shrine of Edward the Confessor in the middle, Richard and Anne’s tomb is on the right

The Aftermath

The Red Rose of the House of Lancaster and the White Rose of the House of York; Credit – Wikipedia

The Wars of the Roses, fought between 1455 and 1487, was a series of English civil wars for control of the throne of England fought between supporters of two rival cadet branches of the  House of Plantagenet, the House of Lancaster and the House of York. The House of Lancaster and the House of York have their roots in the sons of Edward III. The House of Lancaster descended from Edward III’s son John of Gaunt, and the House of York descended from two of Edward III’s sons, Lionel of Antwerp and Edmund of Langley. Previously, for the most part, the sons of English kings had married foreign princesses. The sons of King Edward III married into the English nobility, and their descendants later battled for the English throne in the Wars of the Roses. The usurpation by Henry IV, the first of the House of Lancaster, of the throne of his first cousin Richard II, was the first step toward the Wars of the Roses.

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.

Works Cited

  • Ashley, M. and Lock, J. (1998). The Mammoth Book of British Kings & Queens. New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers.
  • Dodson, A. (2004). The Royal Tombs of Great Britain. London, p.Gerald Duckworth and Co. Ltd.
  • En.wikipedia.org. (2019). Richard II of England. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_II_of_England [Accessed 28 Dec. 2019].
  • Flantzer, Susan. (2016). King Richard II of England. [online] Unofficial Royalty. Available at: https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/king-richard-ii-of-england/ [Accessed 28 Dec. 2019].
  • Williamson, D. (1996). Brewer’s British Royalty. London: Cassell.

Suspicious Death of William II Rufus, King of England (1100)

by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2020

On August 2, 1100, William II Rufus, King of England rode out from Winchester Castle on a hunting expedition to the New Forest, accompanied by his brother Henry and several nobles. During the hunt, an arrow hit William Rufus in his chest, puncturing his lungs, and killing him.

William II Rufus, King of England

William II Rufus, King of England; Credit – Wikipedia

King William II Rufus of England was born in the Duchy of Normandy, now in France, between 1056 and 1060. He was the third of the four sons of King William I of England (the Conqueror) and Matilda of Flanders. At the time of William Rufus’ birth, his father was the Duke of Normandy. In 1066, William, Duke of Normandy invaded England and defeated the last Anglo-Saxon King, Harold Godwinson at the Battle of Hastings. The Duke of Normandy was then also King William I of England.

In 1087, King William I divided his lands between his two eldest surviving sons. The eldest son Robert Curthose was to receive the Duchy of Normandy and William Rufus, the second surviving son was to receive the Kingdom of England. William I’s other surviving son Henry (the future King Henry I of England) was to receive 5,000 pounds of silver and his mother’s English estates.

King William I of England died on September 9, 1087. Robert Curthose became Robert II Curthose, Duke of Normandy and William Rufus became King William II Rufus of England. Henry received the money, but no land. William Rufus never married and had no children.

In 1096, Robert Curthose left for the Holy Land on the First Crusade. To raise money for the crusade, he mortgaged the Duchy of Normandy to his brother King William II Rufus. The two older brothers made a pact stating that if one died without heirs, both Normandy and England would be reunited under the surviving brother. William then ruled Normandy as regent in Robert’s absence. Robert did not return until September 1100, one month after William Rufus’ death.

The Death of William Rufus

Death of William Rufus, 1895 lithograph; Credit – Wikipedia

On August 2, 1100, King William II Rufus rode out from Winchester Castle in Winchester, England on a hunting expedition to the New Forest, accompanied by his brother Henry and several nobles. His elder brother Richard and his nephew Richard, the illegitimate son of his brother Robert Curthose, had both been killed in hunting accidents in the New Forest.

According to most contemporary accounts, the hunting party spread out as they chased their prey. William Rufus, in the company of William Tirel, a noble, became separated from the others as he chased after a stag. William Rufus shot an arrow but missed the stag. He then called out to Tirel to shoot, which he did, but the arrow hit the king in his chest, puncturing his lungs, and killing him.

The Aftermath

Fearing reprisals, Walter Tirel immediately jumped on his horse and fled to France where he took refuge in one of his French castles. The other nobles who had been with William Rufus abandoned his body and fled to their Norman and English lands to secure their possessions following the king’s death.

The next day, William Rufus’ body was found by a group of local farmers. The farmers loaded the king’s body on a cart and brought it to Winchester Cathedral where he was buried under a plain flat marble stone below the tower with little ceremony.

In 1107, the tower at Winchester Cathedral near William Rufus’ grave collapsed and the presence of William Rufus’ remains was considered the cause. Around 1525, the royal remains in Winchester Cathedral were rearranged. William Rufus’ remains were transferred to one of the mortuary chests next to the mortuary chest of King Cnut the Great atop the stone wall around the high altar.

In 1642, Winchester Cathedral was sacked by Parliamentary Troops during the English Civil War. The remains in the mortuary chests were scattered around the cathedral. Later the remains were returned to the mortuary chests in no particular order. In 2015, a project to record and analyze the contents of the mortuary chests began.

Mortuary chest in Winchester Cathedral; Credit – www.findagrave.com

In the New Forest, a memorial stone, known as the Rufus Stone, claims to mark the spot where William Rufus died.

Rufus Stone; Credit – Wikipedia

Was there a conspiracy to assassinate William Rufus?

Walter Tirel was an excellent archer but he badly missed his shot. He vigorously denied killing William Rufus several times under oath to Abbot Suger of the Abbey of Saint-Denis, the principal minister of King Louis VI of France. There was no investigation into William Rufus’ death because it was thought that his death was an accident and not a deliberate act. Tirel was not subjected to any punishment or loss of land.

However, William Rufus’ younger brother Henry was among the hunting party that day and would have benefited directly from his death. Henry was among the nobles who abandoned William Rufus’ body in the New Forest. William Rufus’ elder brother Robert Curthose was still on crusade, so Henry was able to seize the crown of England for himself despite the pact his two elder brothers had made stating that if one of them died without heirs, both Normandy and England would be reunited under the surviving brother.

Henry hurried to Winchester to secure the royal treasury. The day after William Rufus’ funeral at Winchester, Henry was elected king by the nobles. Henry then left for London where he was crowned King Henry I of England three days after William Rufus’ death by the Bishop of London. Henry did not wait for the Archbishop of Canterbury to arrive. If William Rufus’ death was a conspiracy, the new King Henry I could have easily squelched any investigation and kept Walter Tirel free from any consequences. Some modern historians find the assassination theory credible. Others say that hunting accidents were common as evidenced by William Rufus’ brother and nephew dying in hunting accidents and there is not enough hard evidence to prove murder.

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.

Works Cited

  • Ashley, M. and Lock, J. (1998). The Mammoth Book of British Kings & Queens. New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers.
  • Dodson, A. (2004). The Royal Tombs of Great Britain. London, p.Gerald Duckworth and Co. Ltd.
  • En.wikipedia.org. (2019). Walter Tirel. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Tirel [Accessed 28 Dec. 2019].
  • En.wikipedia.org. (2019). William II of England. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_II_of_England [Accessed 28 Dec. 2019].
  • Flantzer, Susan. (2016). King William II Rufus of England. [online] Unofficial Royalty. Available at: https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/king-william-ii-rufus-of-england/ [Accessed 28 Dec. 2019].
  • Fr.wikipedia.org. (2019). Gautier II Tirel. [online] Available at: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gautier_II_Tirel [Accessed 28 Dec. 2019].
  • Fr.wikipedia.org. (2019). Guillaume le Roux. [online] Available at: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guillaume_le_Roux [Accessed 28 Dec. 2019].
  • Williamson, D. (1996). Brewer’s British Royalty. London: Cassell.

Assassination of Umberto I, King of Italy (1900)

by Scott Mehl  © Unofficial Royalty 2020

On July 29, 1900, while visiting Monza, Italy, King Umberto I of Italy was shot and killed by Gaetano Bresci, an Italian anarchist claiming to avenge the deaths of people in Milan during the riots of May 1898.

Umberto I, King of Italy

Umberto I, King of Italy – source: Wikipedia

King Umberto I was born in Turin on March 14, 1844, the eldest son of the future King Vittorio Emanuele II of Italy and Archduchess Adelheid of Austria. He married his first cousin, Princess Margherita of Savoy and had one son, later King Vittorio Emanuele II. Umberto became King of Italy upon his father’s death in January 1878 and reigned until his assassination in 1900.

For more information, see Unofficial Royalty: King Umberto I of Italy

The Assassin – Gaetano Bresci

Gaetano Bresci. source: Wikipedia

Gaetano Bresci was born in Prato, Tuscany, in 1869, and later emigrated to the United States. Bresci had been exposed to an anarchist group in Prato and his views continued to evolve while living in the United States. Following the Bava-Beccaris massacre, Bresci became determined to return to Italy and avenge the deaths of so many innocent people. He arrived back in Italy in May 1900, eventually making his way to Monza, where he tracked the movements of King Umberto I of Italy who typically spent his summers at the Royal Villa in Monza, Italy

The Assassination

source: Wikipedia

King Umberto I had already survived two previous assassination attempts, in November 1878 and again in April 1897. Unharmed in both, he would not be so lucky the third time.

In May 1898, workers organized a strike in Milan, protesting the rising food costs in Italy. A peaceful strike turned violent and riots broke out around the city. Umberto’s government brought General Fiorenzo Bava-Beccaris in to help restore order. However, the General ordered his troops to fire on the demonstrators on May 7, 1898, resulting in nearly 100 deaths and several hundred injuries. Further uproar came when King Umberto I honored General Bava-Beccaris the following month, presenting him with the Great Cross of the Order of Savoy.

On the evening of July 29, 1900, King Umberto attended an athletic competition in Monza. Having been the target of previous assassination attempts, he usually wore a protective vest under this coat, but because of the extreme heat, and against the advice of his security team,  he chose not to wear it that evening. In the crowd was Gaetano Bresci, an anarchist who was out to avenge the deaths in the Bava-Beccaris massacre. Leaving the athletic competition at around 10:30 pm, King Umberto returned to his carriage for the brief trip back to the Royal Villa of Monza. While he acknowledged the crowd who had come to see him, Bresci came forward and fired four shots. King Umberto was hit three times, in his shoulder, his lung, and his heart. He slumped forward in the carriage, allegedly saying “I think I’m hurt” and lost consciousness. The carriage quickly rushed back to the Royal Villa, where, despite the doctors’ efforts to save his life, King Umberto I died at 11:30 pm.

Tomb of Umberto I at the Pantheon in Rome. photo: By Jastrow – Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1820580

King Umberto’s body was returned to Rome where his funeral and burial took place on August 9. His remains were interred in the Pantheon in Rome, Italy beside his father. King Umberto I would be the last Italian King to be buried in Italy until his son’s remains were later returned to the country in 2017.

photo: By MarkusMark – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4365063

In honor of his father, Umberto’s son Vittorio Emanuele III, King of Italy had a chapel monument,  the Expiatory Chapel of Monza, built on the site where King Umberto was killed. It sits near the entrance to the Royal Villa of Monza and was inaugurated on July 29, 1910, the 10th anniversary of the King’s assassination.

What happened to Gaetano Bresci?

Remains of the Santo Stefano prison. source: Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=447753

Following the assassination, Gaetano Bresci was quickly subdued and taken into custody by the local police, who likely saved him from being killed by the crowds. He was tried for regicide and as the death penalty had been abolished in Italy years earlier, was sentenced to life in prison.

On May 22, 1901, Bresci was found dead, his lifeless body hanging from the railing in his cell in the Santo Stefano prison. Reportedly, the guard watching him had stepped away for a few minutes and found the body upon his return. Some reports state that he was beaten to death by the guards. The doctor who performed the autopsy wrote that the body was in a state of decomposition, suggesting that he had been dead for more than 48 hours, disputing the official suggestion that he had hanged himself. Bresci’s remains were buried in the prison cemetery.

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.

The Laird o’Thistle – Special Edition – The Sussex Adaptation

by The Laird o’Thistle
January 22, 2020

I was asked by my friends at Unofficial Royalty to share some thoughts on the changes in role and status for Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.  Like many, I was caught off guard by the sudden “crisis” with which the British royal family has begun the year, but in a way I think we should not have been very surprised at all.  The signs of a different tack have been emerging ever since the Sussexes engagement. And, while I have my concerns, I think something more important is afoot, something that has dogged the royal family for several generations.

The basic issue has, I think, been rightly framed as to who is a “working royal” and who is not?  And, if one is a “working royal” what does that entail? With the Sussex decision… as sorted out by the Queen, Prince Charles, Prince William, and Harry at their Sandringham gathering on January 13… there is now the outline of a pragmatic “in, or out” model for the future.  To see this, though, I think it is important to look to another relatively recent episode of royal family life involving the Queen’s youngest son, Prince Edward, the Earl of Wessex.

In several ways, Prince Edward and his now wife Sophie were trailblazers for the royal family.  The days when Edward left the Royal Marines to work in theatre now seem like the rather distant past, but at the time they were also seen as a crisis for the royals, a crisis “spun” by the media to their own advantage.  As Edward moved into his new life and work – moving toward becoming a producer of television documentaries, etc. – he also acquired a life-partner, Sophie Rhys Jones, with a career of her own in public relations. At the time, both intended to pursue their private careers, but ultimately… after several spectacular bumps along the way… found that a hybrid royal/private arrangement was unworkable.  And, so, they made the choice to be full-time working royals, supporting the Queen. In the years since, they have proved themselves to be solid and dependable members of “The Firm” and, with their children, they have also grown personally close to the Queen and Prince Philip from their Windsor home. That, I see, as “Model A” of royal/private adaptation. They are the “In” model.

What I see emerging for Harry and Meghan is “Model B” of royal/private adaptation.  They are pursuing the “Out” model… giving up the use of their HRH status, giving up other official roles, including Harry’s military roles, and so on.  (Giving up the Royal Marines role he took on from Prince Philip must be particularly poignant for both Harry and Philip.) For them this is facilitated by, for a time at least, living abroad in Canada for much of the time.  It currently seems that this is a more radical step than Harry himself wished, but it makes good institutional sense… especially as the House of Windsor, and other monarchies, move on from older gender-based models of who is “in” and “out” over time.  (As in Princess Margaret’s and Princess Anne’s “non-royal” children.)

What, I hope, is ultimately ended by this is the sort of hybrid model that has proved so troublesome across the generations of British and other monarchies.  The unfortunate example of the Duke of York, and his unrealistic hopes for his daughters, provides the current case-in-point. Ever since he left the Royal Navy, Andrew’s status has been problematic.  Without even taking up the whole Epstein Scandal, Prince Andrew’s penchant for hobnobbing with dodgy oligarchs, allegedly with some private dealings on the side, has tainted him. His further insistence on pushing the “royal” status of his daughters, who are never going to be true “working royals” in The Firm, is not only problematic for his relationship with his elder brother, but also unfair to Beatrice and Eugenie.  Edward and Sophie recognized that for their own offspring, Louise and James, long since. Harry and Meghan also realized that from the get-go with wee Archie.

In the future, then, what I foresee is a stronger delineation between being a “working royal” on the one hand, and a private member of the extended “royal family” on the other, and it may fall to personal choice as to which route a young royal (other than the “heir” him- or herself) takes.  It may be that someday, down the way, young Charlotte opts for “In” while Louis opts for “Out”, or vice versa.  Time will tell.

This, I think, is the substantive piece of the Sussex drama of the last few weeks.  At the personal level, concerning the choices made by them, I admit to being puzzled, and somewhat concerned.  What particularly strikes me is how… whatever the merit, or not, of doing so… first Meghan distanced herself from her father and half-siblings, and now Harry is rather distancing himself from his father and brother in particular.  I find that puzzling and worrisome. But, in their stepping back publicly, it also seems to be none of the public’s business. (Although, inevitably, they will still be in the public eye.) I just hope that in moving onward they do so with discretion and wisdom, for their own sake and for that of the Mountbatten-Windsor clan.

Yours aye,

Ken Cuthbertson

Assassination of Edward the Martyr, King of the English (978)

by Susan Flantzer © Unofficial Royalty 2020

On March 18, 978, 16-year-old Saint Edward the Martyr, King of the English was stabbed in the back while mounted on his horse. He fell off, but his foot caught in the stirrup and he was dragged to his death.

Saint Edward the Martyr, King of the English

Credit – Wikipedia

Edward the Martyr was the eldest son of Edgar the Peaceful, King of the English. He was born around 962 to Æthelflæd who possibly was a nun at Wilton Abbey, a Benedictine abbey in Wiltshire, England, whom Edgar seduced. It is unclear whether Æthelflæd and Edgar married.

In 975, King Edgar died, leaving his two surviving sons: Edward around 13 years of age and Edward’s half-brother Æthelred around 7 years old, the son of Edgar’s wife Ælfthryth. Both boys were too young to play any significant role in the political maneuvering, and the brothers’ supporters were responsible for the turmoil that accompanied the choice of a successor to the throne. In the end, Edward’s supporters, mainly Saint Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury and Oswald of Worcester, Archbishop of York, proved more powerful and persuasive, and he was crowned king before the year was out. The teenage Edward was famous for temper tantrums and insulting influential people due to his lack of diplomatic behavior.

The Assassination

The texts in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle say that Edward was “killed” or “martyred” and that “no worse deed for the English race was done than this was.” It appears that Edward’s stepmother Ælfthryth may have been linked to his murder. Ælfthryth, the first woman known to have been crowned and anointed as Queen of England, was a powerful political figure. The legality of her marriage to King Edgar the Peaceful was not in doubt and she was the mother of the future Æthelred II the Unready, King of the English. However, Ælfthryth had a previous marriage.

Ælfthryth’s father was Ordgar, son of an ealdorman, who owned much land in Somerset. King Edgar decided to marry Ordgar’s daughter Ælfthryth and sent Æthelwald, Ealdorman of East Anglia to make the arrangements. Instead, Æthelwald took Ælfthryth for his own wife, and reported to King Edgar that she was unsuitable.

Æthelwald died in 962 and there are two versions of the story of his death. One version has King Edgar being told of Æthelwald’s deception and then killing him during a hunt. The second version comes from Saint Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury. Dunstan believed that Æthelwald was murdered by his wife Ælfthryth who then seduced King Edgar. Whatever the circumstances of Æthelwald’s death, Ælfthryth married King Edgar and by 964, her father Ordgar had been created Ealdorman of Devon. Ordgar was one of King Edgar’s closest advisors and from 964 until he died in 971, he was a witness on almost all the charters Edgar issued.

A Victorian-era depiction of Ælfthryth putting her plan of murdering Edward the Martyr into motion; Credit – Wikipedia

It is reasonable to assume that Ælfthryth was not happy that her son Æthelred, born of a legal marriage, was not king. Furthermore, it is also reasonable to assume she might plot against Edward. On March 18, 978, 16-year-old Edward arrived at a hunting lodge probably at or near the mound on which the ruins of Corfe Castle in Dorset, England now stand. Aelfthryth had invited her stepson there and she arranged for him to be welcomed with a cup of wine. As Edward drank the wine, he was stabbed in the back while still mounted on his horse. He fell off, but his foot caught in the stirrup and he was dragged to his death.

Edward’s ten-year-old half-brother succeeded to the throne as Æthelred II the Unready, King of the English. Although Æthelred was not suspected of participation in the murder, the specter of his half-brother’s murder hung over him for the rest of his life.

The Aftermath

Ælfthryth served as regent for her son Æthelred until he came of age in 984. Her reputation was tarnished because she was implicated in Edward’s murder. She founded the Benedictine Wherwell Abbey in Hampshire, England, and retired there to do penance for her part in the murders of her first husband Æthelwald and her stepson Edward.

Edward was first buried at St. Mary’s Church in Wareham, Dorset, England. Soon people were saying miracles occurred at his burial place and he was declared a saint and a martyr. Edward is recognized as a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Roman Catholic Church, and the Anglican Church, and is known as Saint Edward the Martyr.

In 981, Edward’s remains were moved to Shaftesbury Abbey, a convent founded by his great-great-grandfather Alfred the Great. The remains were buried there with great pomp under the supervision of Saint Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury. Many miracles were claimed to occur at the tomb of Saint Edward the Martyr, including the healing of lepers and the blind. The abbey became the wealthiest Benedictine convent in England and a major pilgrimage site.

In 1539, Edward’s remains were hidden to avoid desecration during the Dissolution of the Monasteries during the reign of King Henry VIII. In 1931, some remains were recovered by J.E. Wilson-Claridge during an archaeological excavation of Shaftesbury Abbey. Their identity was confirmed by Dr. T.E.A. Stowell, an osteologist, who said the remains were those of a young man of about 20 who had injuries that corresponded to a person being dragged backward over the pommel of a saddle and having their leg twisted in a stirrup.

In 1970, another examination performed on the remains suggested that death had been caused by the manner in which Edward supposedly had died. However, a later examination showed the remains to be from the same time period as Edward but that they belonged to a man in his late twenties or early thirties rather than a youth in his mid-teens. Nevertheless, Wilson-Claridge donated the remains to the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, which interred them as King Edward the Martyr in a shrine at St. Edward the Martyr Orthodox Church in Woking, Surrey, England.

Shrine of St Edward the Martyr in St. Edward the Martyr Orthodox Church; Credit – Wikipedia

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.

Works Cited

  • Ashley, M. (1998). The Mammoth Book of British Kings & Queens. New York: Carroll & Graf Pub.
  • Cannon, J. and Griffiths, R. (1988). The Oxford Illustrated History of the British Monarchy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Clarke, J. (2019). St Edward the Martyr. [online] John-clarke.co.uk. Available at: https://www.john-clarke.co.uk/st_edward_the_martyr.html [Accessed 21 Feb. 2019].
  • Dodson, A. (2004). The Royal Tombs of Great Britain. London: Duckworth.
  • En.wikipedia.org. (2019). Ælfthryth, wife of Edgar. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%86lfthryth,_wife_of_Edgar [Accessed 11 Dec. 2019].
  • En.wikipedia.org. (2019). Edward the Martyr. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_the_Martyr [Accessed 21 Feb. 2019].
  • Flantzer, Susan. (2019). Edward the Martyr, King of the English. [online] Unofficial Royalty. Available at: https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/edward-the-martyr-king-of-the-english/ [Accessed 11 Dec. 2019].
  • Fr.wikipedia.org. (2019). Édouard le Martyr. [online] Available at: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89douard_le_Martyr [Accessed 21 Feb. 2019].
  • Williamson, D. (1998). Brewer’s British Royalty. London: Cassell.

Assassination of Edmund I, King of the English (946)

by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2020

On May 26, 946, Edmund I, King of the English was stabbed to death at a royal hunting lodge in Pucklechurch, north of Bath, England while celebrating the feast of St. Augustine of Canterbury. Recent research indicates that Edmund may have been the victim of political assassination.

Edmund I, King of the English

Edmund I, King of the English; Credit – Wikipedia

Edmund I, King of the English was born in 921, the elder of the two sons and the eldest of the three children of Edward the Elder, King of the Anglo-Saxons and his third wife Eadgifu of Kent, the daughter of Sigehelm, Ealdorman of Kent. He was also a grandson of Alfred the Great, King of Wessex, King of the Anglo-Saxons.

Edmund was just three years old when his father died on July 24, 924. His 30-year-old half-brother Æthelstan, King of the English. succeeded their father. When the unmarried Æthelstan died in 939, he was succeeded by his 18-year-old half-brother Edmund I, King of the English. Edmund was the first Anglo-Saxon monarch, whose dominion extended over the whole of England at the time of his accession.

Edmund married Ælfgifu of Shaftesbury around 940. They had two sons who both became King of England: Eadwig and Edgar the Peaceful, King of the English. In 944, after Ælfgifu’s death, Edmund married Æthelflæd of Damerham but the couple had no children.

The Assassination

An 18th-century engraving of the murder

On May 26, 946, Edmund I, King of the English was celebrating the feast of St. Augustine of Canterbury at a royal hunting lodge in Pucklechurch, north of Bath, England. During the celebrations, twenty-four-year-old Edmund was stabbed to death. Because Edmund’s two sons were very young, he was succeeded by his brother Eadred. Edmund was buried at Glastonbury Abbey in Glastonbury, Somerset, England. His tomb was destroyed during the Dissolution of the Monasteries during the reign of King Henry VIII.

The story usually told is from The Chronicle of John of Worcester: “While the glorious Edmund, king of the English, was at the royal township called Pucklechurch in English, in seeking to rescue his steward from the hands of Leofa, a most wicked thief, lest he be killed, was himself killed by the same man on the feast of St Augustine, teacher of the English, on Tuesday, 26 May, in the fourth indiction, having completed five years and seven months of his reign.”

Edmund seizing Leofa by the hair, from The Comic History of England, circa 1860

William of Malmesbury described the murder a bit differently in his chronicle Gesta Regum Anglorum (Deeds of the English Kings): “A thief named Leof, whom he had banished for his robberies, returned after six years, and on the festival of St Augustine, archbishop of Canterbury, at Pucklechurch, unexpectedly took his seat among the royal guests. It was the day when the English were accustomed to holding a festival dinner in memory of him who had preached the Gospel to them, and as it happened he was sitting next to the thegn whom the king had condescended to make his guest at dinner. The king alone noticed this, for all the rest were aflame with wine; and in sudden anger, carried away by fate, he leaped up from the table, seized him by the hair, and flung him to the ground. The man drew a dagger in stealth from its sheaf, and as the king lay on him plunged it with all his force into his chest. The wound was fatal and gave an opening for rumors about his death that spread all over England. The robber too, as the servants soon came running up, was torn limb from limb, but not before he had wounded several of them.”

A Victim of Political Association?

Recent research indicates that Edmund may have been the victim of political assassination and suggests that later chroniclers fabricated the characterization of Edmund’s killer as a thief to counter rumors that the king had been the victim of a political assassination. Kevin Halloran published a paper in 2015, A Murder at Pucklechurch: The Death of King Edmund, 26 May 946, explaining such a possibility.

In 944, Ælfgifu of Shaftesbury, the mother of Edmund’s two sons, Eadwig (born circa 940) and Edgar (born circa 943) died. She may not have been legally married to Edmund. No marriage record exists and she may not have been officially recognized as queen. Ælfgifu was styled as concubina regis (royal concubine) in a charter. In two later chronicles, she was styled as queen but this may be the result of her higher status after death as a saint and the mother of two kings. Possibly, the lack of a legal marriage between their parents could have questioned the succession rights of Eadwig and Edgar. Edmund’s brother Eadred appears to have been acknowledged as Edmund’s successor throughout his reign but if Edmund reigned until his sons reached maturity, the likelihood that Eadred would succeed to the throne would diminish. Edmund’s long absence away from court in 945 while on a military campaign in the north could have given Eadred the time to contemplate the situation and come up with a plan.

Halloran theorized that it is probable that Edmund’s killer was not apprehended or identified and so no motive for the murder could be established. Edmund’s killer was not named in any chronicles for more than 100 years after Edmund’s death and the name that eventually appeared was probably chosen on purpose because its meaning was understood all too well. In Old English leof(a) meant “beloved” and so the use of the name Leofa for an assassin seems quite ironic.

William of Malmesbury says in his chronicle that “…rumours about his death…spread all over England.” Some of these rumors may have blamed the person who had the most to gain from Edmund’s death – his brother Eadred. It is odd that a thief returned from an exile of six years and decided to attend a royal feast, uninvited, and that he did not hide in the back of the hall but sat next to a special guest. Furthermore, none of the guests recognized him but after his body was hacked, he was positively identified. It is also odd that King Edmund recognized the uninvited guest and attacked him.

Halloran says that the accounts of John of Worcester and William of Malmesbury, who were both monks, are “improbable and conflicting” and that they “may have been written deliberately to counter any suggestion that the king’s death resulted from a politically motivated conspiracy.” He further suggests that prior accounts of the murder that suggested a conspiracy were revised and that Leofa was invented with two storylines – the thief who returned from exile intent upon killing the king or the thief who wanted to kill the king’s unnamed steward. Halloran says that the purpose of John of Worcester’s and William of Malmesbury’s stories about King Edmund’s death was to protect the reputation of the monarchy and the church which greatly benefited from kings.

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.

Works Cited

  • Ashley, Mike. (1998). The Mammoth Book of British Kings & Queens. New York: Carroll & Graf Pub.
  • Cannon, J. and Griffiths, R. (1988). The Oxford Illustrated History of the British Monarchy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Dodson, A. (2004). The Royal Tombs of Great Britain. London: Duckworth.
  • En.wikipedia.org. (2019). Edmund I. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_I [Accessed 14 Feb. 2019].
  • Flantzer, S. (2019). Edmund I, King of the English. [online] Unofficial Royalty. Available at: https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/edmund-i-king-of-the-english/ [Accessed 10 Dec. 2019].
  • Halloran, Kevin. (2015). The Murder of King Edmund 26 May 946. [online] academia.edu. Available at: https://www.academia.edu/799350/The_murder_of_King_Edmund_26_May_946 [Accessed 10 Dec. 2019].
  • Williamson, D. (1998). Brewer’s British Royalty. London: Cassell.

Assassination of Empress Elisabeth of Austria (1898)

by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2020

On September 10, 1898, while walking to a ferry landing on Lake Geneva in Geneva, Switzerland with her lady-in-waiting, sixty-year-old Empress Elisabeth of Austria was stabbed in the heart by twenty-five-year-old Luigi Lucheni.

Elisabeth of Bavaria, Empress of Austria

Empress Elisabeth of Austria, 1897; Credit – Wikipedia

Elisabeth, Duchess in Bavaria, known as Sisi, was born on December 24, 1837, at Herzog-Max-Palais (Duke Max Palace) in Munich, Kingdom of Bavaria, now in Bavaria, Germany. She was the fourth of the nine children of Maximilian Joseph, Duke in Bavaria, from a junior branch of the House of Wittelsbach, and Princess Ludovika of Bavaria, the daughter of Maximilian I Joseph, King of Bavaria and his second wife Caroline of Baden.

In 1853, Helene, the eldest daughter in the family, traveled to the resort of Bad Ischl, Upper Austria with her mother and younger sister Elisabeth to meet her first cousin Franz Joseph, Emperor of Austria with the hopes that Helene would become his bride. Instead, Franz Joseph fell in love with the 15-year-old Elisabeth. Franz Joseph told his mother that if he could not marry Elisabeth, he would not marry at all. Five days later their engagement was officially announced. Franz Joseph and Elisabeth were married on April 24, 1854, at the Augustinerkirche, the parish church of the Imperial Court of the Habsburgs, a short walk from Hofburg Palace in Vienna, Austria.

Elisabeth and Franz Joseph had three daughters and a son. Their eldest daughter died in childhood. The heir to the throne was their son Crown Prince Rudolf. The marriage was not a happy one for Elisabeth. Although her husband loved her, Elisabeth had difficulties adjusting to the strict Austrian court and did not get along with Imperial Family members, especially Sophie Friederike of Bavaria, Archduchess of Austria, her controlling mother-in-law who was also her maternal aunt. Elisabeth felt emotionally distant from her husband and fled from him, as well as her duties at court, by frequent traveling.

Crown Prince Rudolf married Princess Stephanie of Belgium, daughter of King Leopold II of the Belgians. The couple had one child, a daughter. On January 30, 1889, at Mayerling, a hunting lodge in the Vienna Woods which Rudolf had purchased, Rudolf shot his 17-year-old mistress Baroness Mary Vetsera and then shot himself in an apparent suicide plot.

The Assassin – Luigi Lucheni

Lucheni’s police file; Credit – Wikipedia

Twenty-five-year-old Luigi Lucheni was born in Paris, France on April 22, 1873. His father is unknown and his mother was an Italian worker named Luigia Laccheni who left her son at a foundling hospital. Lucheni moved to Italy in 1874 and spent his childhood in orphanages and with foster families. He left foster care when he was sixteen years old and worked odd jobs in Italy, Switzerland, and Austria-Hungary. Lucheni served in the Italian Army from 1894 – 1897.

In 1898, Lucheni returned to Switzerland where he did some construction work. The poverty of the lower classes and of his own life made Lucheni hate authority. He began to turn to the philosophy of anarchy – a society without authorities or a governing body. Soon he began to call himself an anarchist although he was not in contact with any other anarchists. Lucheni came to the conclusion that emperors, empresses, kings, queens, princes, and princesses were annoying parasites.

In May 1898, when King Umberto I of Italy brutally suppressed a workers’ uprising in Milan, Lucheni vowed revenge. He made plans to assassinate Umberto I but had no money for a trip to Italy. King Umberto I was assassinated in 1900 by anarchist Gaetano Bresci, an act of revenge for what happened in Milan.

Lucheni then focused his attention on assassinating a royal person traveling in Switzerland. He originally wanted to assassinate Prince Philippe, Duke of Orléans, the Orléanist claimant to the throne of France, but he had left Geneva earlier than expected. Lucheni then selected Elisabeth as his victim when a Geneva newspaper revealed that the woman traveling under the pseudonym of “Countess of Hohenembs” was Empress Elisabeth of Austria. Because he did not have enough money to purchase a proper weapon, Lucheni chose a simple file to which he added a wooden handle as the murder weapon.

The file that was used to stab Elisabeth on display at the Hofburg Palace; Credit – http://www.hofburg-wien.at

The Assassination

Last photograph of Elisabeth and her lady-in-waiting the day before her death; Credit – Wikipedia

After Crown Prince Rudolf’s suicide, Elisabeth spent little time with her husband, preferring to travel. In September 1898, despite being warned about possible assassination attempts, Elisabeth traveled incognito to Geneva, Switzerland where she stayed at the Hotel Beau-Rivage.

An artist’s rendition of the stabbing of Elisabeth by Luigi Lucheni; Credit – Wikipedia

On September 10, 1898, Elisabeth was due to take a ferry across Lake Geneva to the town of Territet. As Elisabeth and Countess Irma Sztáray, her lady-in-waiting, were walking to the ferry’s landing, Luigi Lucheni rushed at her and stabbed her in the heart with a pointed file. The puncture wound was so small that it was initially not noticed and it was thought that Elisabeth had just been punched in the chest. Elisabeth thanked all the people who had rushed to help and conversed with Countess Irma Sztáray about the incident.

Embed from Getty Images 
Elisabeth being carried on an improvised stretcher

Only when onboard the ferry did she finally collapse and then the severity of Elisabeth’s injury was realized. The ferry captain ordered the ferry back to Geneva and the empress was taken back to the hotel on an improvised stretcher. A doctor and a priest were summoned. The doctor confirmed that there was no hope and a priest administered the Last Rites. Empress Elisabeth of Austria died without regaining consciousness.

The Funeral

The funeral procession Of Empress Elisabeth in Vienna, (September 17, 1898); Credit – Wikipedia

Elisabeth’s body was placed in a triple coffin: two inner ones of lead and the third exterior one in bronze. The coffins were fitted with two glass panels, covered with doors, which could be slid back to allow her face to be seen. On September 13, 1898, Emperor Franz Joseph’s official representatives arrived in Geneva to identify the body. The coffins were then sealed. The next day, Elisabeth’s final journey back to Vienna began aboard a funeral train. Upon arriving in Vienna, Elisabeth’s coffin was brought to the Hofburg Palace chapel to lie in state.

Embed from Getty Images
Empress Elisabeth’s coffin lying in state at Hofburg Palace chapel

Elisabeth had wanted to be buried in Corfu, Greece where she had built a home for herself near the sea. However, arrangements were made to bury her in the Imperial Crypt at the Capuchin Church in Vienna, the traditional burial site for the Habsburgs, which is in the care of the monks from the cloister. The burial place of the Habsburgs is so unlike the soaring cathedral containing the other royal burial sites that this author has visited. The Capuchin Church is small and is on a street with traffic, shops, stores, restaurants, and cafes. Walking past the church, one would never think the burial place of emperors is there.

Capuchin Church in Vienna (Cloister on left, Church in middle, Imperial Crypt on right); Credit – Susan Flantzer

On September 17, 1898, a procession formed at the Hofburg Palace to take Elisabeth the short distance to her final resting place at the Capuchin Church. Eighty-two sovereigns and other royalty along with high-ranking nobles, other dignitaries, court servants, pages, and footmen followed the funeral cortege to Capuchin Church where Cardinal Anton Josef Gruscha, Archbishop of Vienna conducted a short service. The coffin was then taken down the stairs to the Imperial Crypt (Kaisergruft in German) and the graveside committal service was held.

Embed from Getty Images
Empress Elisabeth’s coffin being carried into the Capuchin Church

By 1908, the seven vaults of the Imperial Crypt already held 129 coffins. In commemoration of Franz Joseph’s sixty years on the throne and to provide much-needed room for future interments, the Franz Joseph Vault was built along with the Crypt Chapel which now holds the most recent burials. Elisabeth’s coffin, along with that of her son Rudolf, were moved to the new Franz Joseph Vault. When Franz Joseph died in 1916, his coffin was placed in the middle with Elisabeth’s on the left and Rudolf’s on the right.

Elisabeth’s tomb on the left, Franz Joseph’s tomb in the middle, Rudolf’s tomb on the right; Credit – Susan Flantzer

What happened to the assassin, Luigi Lucheni?

Luigi Lucheni, smiling and proud after his first interrogation regarding the assassination of Empress Elisabeth, is returned to jail; Credit – Wikipedia

After stabbing Elisabeth, Lucheni ran along the Rue des Alpes heading toward the Square des Alpes. However, he was grabbed by two cab drivers who had witnessed the stabbing. They escorted Lucheni to a police officer who escorted him to a police station­. Lucheni did not resist arrest. In fact, he seemed to be joyful about as he sang, “I did it! She must be dead!” When Lucheni went before a magistrate, he confessed to the murder saying, “I am an anarchist by conviction…I came to Geneva to kill a sovereign, with the object of giving an example to those who suffer and those who do nothing to improve their social position; it did not matter to me who the sovereign was whom I should kill…It was not a woman I struck, but an Empress; it was a crown that I had in view.”

Lucheni’s trial began in October 1898 and he was furious that the Canton of Geneva did not have the death penalty. He demanded his extradition to Italy, where the death penalty had not been abolished. Lucheni wanted to be executed so he could be a martyr for the anarchist movement. On November 10, 1898, Lucheni was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Lucheni acted aggressively while imprisoned, and several times he was in solitary confinement. Most of the time, he was in a large cell, with a comfortable bed, a writing desk, and a bookcase filled with books. On October 17, 1910, he became very violent, smashed everything in his cell, and was put in a straitjacket. When Lucheni became calmer, the straitjacket was removed. During the afternoon of October 19, 1910, the guards heard him singing for several hours. As night fell, the singing stopped. The guards became alarmed with the sudden silence. When they checked Lucheni’s cell, they found him hanging from the window bars by his belt which he had twisted around his neck. Efforts to revive him failed.

After Lucheni’s suicide, his head was severed from his body. His brain was removed and examined with no abnormalities detected. The head was then stored in a jar of formaldehyde at the Institute of Forensic Science of the University of Geneva. In 1985, the head was given to the Federal Museum of Pathology and Anatomy in Vienna, Austria. Lucheni’s head was buried at the Zentralfriedhof (Central Cemetery) in Vienna in 2000.

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.

Works Cited

  • De.wikipedia.org. (2019). Elisabeth von Österreich-Ungarn. [online] Available at: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elisabeth_von_%C3%96sterreich-Ungarn [Accessed 9 Dec. 2019].
  • De.wikipedia.org. (2019). Luigi Lucheni. [online] Available at: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luigi_Lucheni [Accessed 9 Dec. 2019].
  • En.wikipedia.org. (2019). Empress Elisabeth of Austria. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empress_Elisabeth_of_Austria [Accessed 9 Dec. 2019].
  • En.wikipedia.org. (2019). Luigi Lucheni. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luigi_Lucheni [Accessed 9 Dec. 2019].
  • Flantzer, Susan. (2012). A Visit to the Kaisergruft (Imperial Crypt) in Vienna. [online] Unofficial Royalty. Available at: https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/royal-burial-sites/austrian-imperial-burial-sites/a-visit-to-the-kaisergruft-imperial-crypt-in-vienna/ [Accessed 9 Dec. 2019].
  • Flantzer, Susan. (2016). Elisabeth of Bavaria, Empress of Austria. [online] Unofficial Royalty. Available at: https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/elisabeth-of-bavaria-empress-of-austria/ [Accessed 9 Dec. 2019].
  • Timesmachine.nytimes.com. (1910). EMPRESS’S ASSASSIN A SUICIDE IN JAIL; Luccheni, Who Killed Elizabeth of Austria in 1898, Hangs Himself in His Cell.. [online] Available at: https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1910/10/20/102049489.html [Accessed 9 Dec. 2019].
  • Timesmachine.nytimes.com. (1898). EMPRESS OF AUSTRIA SLAIN; Stabbed on a Geneva Quay by an Italian Anarchist. THE MURDERER ARRESTED Says He Went There to Kill the Duc D’Orleans. PART OF AN ANARCHIST PLOT? Reported Movement to Assassinate Principal European Sovereigns. Emperor Francis Joseph Apprised of the Tragedy While on His Way to the Army Manoeuvres in Hungary.. [online] Available at: https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1898/09/11/102076759.html?pageNumber=1 [Accessed 9 Dec. 2019].
  • Timesmachine.nytimes.com. (1898). THE EMPRESS LAID AT REST; Vienna Crowded with Dignitaries and Visitors Generally Who Witnessed the Ceremonies. CITY DRAPED WITH BLACK Sad and Impression Scenes in the Church Attended the Benediction — Twenty-three Persons Fainted During the Procession.. [online] Available at: https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1898/09/18/102077419.html?pageNumber=7 [Accessed 9 Dec. 2019].

Assassination of Alexander I, King of Yugoslavia (1934)

by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2020

On October 9, 1934, 45-year-old Alexander I, King of Yugoslavia was assassinated in Marseilles, France, by Bulgarian assassin Vlado Chernozemski during a state visit to France.

Alexander I, King of Yugoslavia; Credit – Wikipedia

Alexander I, King of Yugoslavia

The fourth of the five children of the future King Peter I of Serbia and Princess Zorka of Montenegro, King Alexander I of Yugoslavia was born on December 1, 1888, in Cetinje, Montenegro. Alexander’s elder brother Crown Prince George had anger issues. In 1909, Crown Prince George killed his valet by kicking him to death. Despite a cover-up, the truth came out and George had to renounce his succession rights and Alexander became Crown Prince of Serbia. In 1914, Alexander became Regent when his father turned over his royal prerogatives.

The Kingdom of Serbia went through some name changes in the early 20th century. After the First and Second Balkan Wars (1912-1913), Serbia annexed Sandžak-Raška, Kosovo Vilayet, and Vardar Macedonia. In November 1918, at the end of World War I, Serbia united with Vojvodina and the Kingdom of Montenegro. The next month, Serbia merged with the newly created State of Slovenes, Croats, and Serbs to form the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, which became known as the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1929.

Alexander’s father died on August 16, 1921, and succeeded as King Alexander I of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. The following year, on June 8, 1922, he married Princess Maria of Romania, the daughter of King Ferdinand of Romania and Princess Marie of Edinburgh, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria. The couple had three sons including Alexander’s successor King Peter II of Yugoslavia.

What caused the assassination of Alexander I, King of Yugoslavia?

After the Croatian People’s Peasant Party leader and opposition leader Stjepan Radić was shot dead by Montenegrin Serb nationalist Member of Parliament Puniša Račić in the Serbian Parliament in Belgrade in 1928, the opposition Croatian Members of Parliament refused to continue to attend parliamentary sessions and questioned the continued existence of the current state system. Because of this, King Alexander carried out a coup d’état on January 6, 1929. He suspended the constitution of 1921, dissolved the parliament, and proclaimed a royal dictatorship.

Alexander renamed the nation from the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia came from the Slavic words “jug” (south) and “slaveni” (Slavs). The use of the national designations Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes for political purposes was banned. All citizens were ordered to consider themselves only as “Yugoslavs”. This move alienated the non-Serbs from the idea of unity. When it became clear that Alexander wanted to maintain a central state order and rule predominantly with the help of army officers of Serbian descent, he was met with growing opposition, especially from Croats.

Ante Pavelić, previously chairman of an ultra-nationalist Croatian political party, founded the  Ustaša Croatian Revolutionary Movement and called for a violent overthrow in Yugoslavia. To overthrow the current regime in Yugoslavia, the Ustaša movement in collaboration with the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization, and probably with the support of the Italian foreign intelligence service, planned the assassination of King Alexander I of Yugoslavia.

The Assassination

Two of the conspirators Vlado Chernozemski (in the middle), and Zvonimir Pospišil (on the right) at a training camp; Credit – Wikipedia

The assassin, 36-year-old Vlado Chernozemski, a Bulgarian of Macedonian descent, was a member of the Bulgarian nationalist Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization and had carried out previous assassinations. Chernozemski became the instructor of three members of the Ustasha movement who were planning to assassinate King Alexander: Mijo Kralj, Zvonimir Pospišil, and Milan Rajic. The four men arrived in Paris, France on September 29, 1934, and on October 6, 1934, they split into two groups. Chernozemski and Kralj went to Marseille, France where King Alexander was expected to arrive on October 9, 1934. Pospišil and Rajic went to Versailles where a second attack was planned in case the first attack failed. Ultimately, Chernozemski decided to carry out the assassination after concluding that the other members of the group were unprepared psychologically.

In the pre-World War II era, French Foreign Minister Louis Barthou was attempting to build alliances. King Alexander was making a state visit to France to sign a Franco-Yugoslav agreement. Barthou met King Alexander when he arrived in Marseilles, France on the Royal Yugoslav Navy destroyer Dubrovnik. The pair slowly traveled in a motorcade through the streets of Marseilles, lined with people eager to see the king. Chernozemski emerged from the crowd and jumped onto the running board of Alexander and Barthou’s car. He was carrying a bouquet of flowers, in which his pistol was concealed, and shouted “Vive le roi!” (“Long live the king!”) Chernozemski shot Alexander, hitting him once in the abdomen and once in the heart, killing the king within minutes.

The chauffeur, who had tried to push Chernozemski off the car, and French Foreign Minister Louis Barthou were also shot. The chauffeur was killed instantly and because he had his foot on the brake, the car had stopped and there were photographs and even a film of the assassination. A bullet hit Barthou in the arm, severing an artery. He died of excessive blood loss less than an hour later. A ballistic report on the bullets was made in 1935 but the results were not made available to the public until 1974. The report revealed that Barthou had been hit by a bullet from a revolver carried by French police. Therefore, he was killed during the police response rather than by the assassin.

One of the most notable newsreel films in existence is the film showing the assassination of King Alexander. While the exact moment of the shooting was not captured on film, the events leading to the assassination and the immediate aftermath were captured.

What happened to the conspirators?

French Colonel Piole slashes assassin Vlado Chernozemski with his saber; Credit – Wikipedia

Vlado Chernozemski tried to flee the scene of the assassination but he was slashed by an army officer’s saber (see above photo). He was then non-fatally shot by a police officer and was allowed to be severely beaten by the angry crowd while the police watched. In critical condition, Chernozemski was brought to a police station and interrogated but his condition did not permit him to respond to questions and he died later that evening. The French police were unable to identify him but they made note of his tattoo, a skull with crossbones, and a sign reading “V.M.R.O.” A Yugoslav journalist identified the tattoo as the symbol and the initials of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization. Chernozemski was buried in a Marseilles cemetery in an unmarked grave with only two detectives and the gravediggers present.

On October 10, 1934, French police arrested Zvonimir Pospišil and Milan Raijc. Five days later, Mijo Kralj was arrested and he admitted everything. Chernozemski’s body was exhumed and his fingerprints were sent to Sofia, Bulgaria and Belgrade, Serbia. Bulgarian police announced on October 17, 1934, that the assassin was Vlado Chernozemski. The other conspirators, Mijo Kralj, Zvonimir Pospišil, and Milan Rajic, were tried and sentenced to life in prison. In 1940, after the Fall of France to Germany during World War II, all three conspirators were released from prison by the Nazis.

King Alexander’s Funeral

Embed from Getty Images 
The royal family of Yugoslavia attending the funeral of King Alexander- from left to right: The king’s son 11-year-old King Peter II of Yugoslavia; the king’s veiled wife Queen Maria of Yugoslavia (born a Romanian princess); Princess Olga, also veiled (born a Greek princess) and her husband, Prince Paul of Yugoslavia, the king’s first cousin; behind them: King Carol II of Romania in the peaked cap, brother of Queen Marie; and behind him Prince Nicholas of Greece, Prince George, Duke of Kent, and Prince Kirill of Bulgaria (Note: the caption on photo on Getty Images incorrectly identifies the people)

The day after his death, King Alexander I’s body was transported back to Yugoslavia by the ship that had brought him to France, the Royal Yugoslav Navy destroyer Dubrovnik escorted by French, Italian, and British ships.

On October 18, 1934, 500,000 people lined the streets of Belgrade to see King Alexander’s funeral procession. The funeral was attended by royalty and leading statesmen from Europe. Alexander was buried next to his mother in the royal crypt at St. George’s Church, also known as Oplenac, Yugoslavia, now in Serbia.

Alexander was succeeded by his 11-year-old son who ascended the throne as King Peter II of Yugoslavia. Because of his age, a Regency Council was established, led by his father’s first cousin Prince Paul of Yugoslavia. In November 1945, the Yugoslav monarchy was formally abolished and King Peter II was deposed but he never abdicated.

Grave of Alexander I, King of Yugoslavia; Credit – www.findagrave.com

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.

Works Cited

  • En.wikipedia.org. (2019). Alexander I of Yugoslavia. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_I_of_Yugoslavia [Accessed 30 Nov. 2019].
  • En.wikipedia.org. (2019). Vlado Chernozemski. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vlado_Chernozemski [Accessed 30 Nov. 2019].
  • Mehl, Scott. (2016). King Alexander I of Yugoslavia. [online] Unofficial Royalty. Available at: https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/king-alexander-i-of-yugoslavia/ [Accessed 30 Nov. 2019].
  • Sr.wikipedia.org. (2019). Александар I Карађорђевић. [online] Available at: https://sr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%90%D0%BB%D0%B5%D0%BA%D1%81%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B4%D0%B0%D1%80_I_%D0%9A%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%B0%D1%92%D0%BE%D1%80%D1%92%D0%B5%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%9B [Accessed 30 Nov. 2019]. (Alexander I Karadjordjevic from Serbian Wikipedia)
  • Sr.wikipedia.org. (2019). Марсељски атентат. [online] Available at: https://sr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9C%D0%B0%D1%80%D1%81%D0%B5%D1%99%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B8_%D0%B0%D1%82%D0%B5%D0%BD%D1%82%D0%B0%D1%82 [Accessed 30 Nov. 2019]. (Assassination of Alexander I from Serbian Wikipedia)

Assassination of Alexander I, King of Serbia and his wife Queen Draga (1903)

by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2020

On June 11, 1903, 26-year-old Alexander I, King of Serbia and his 38-year-old wife Queen Draga were brutally shot, mutilated, and thrown out a window at the Stari Dvor (Old Palace) in Belgrade, Kingdom of Serbia.

Alexander I, King of Serbia

Alexander I, King of Serbia; Credit – Wikipedia

The only surviving child of King Milan I of Serbia and his wife Natalija Keschko, Alexander I, King of Serbia was born on August 14, 1876, in Belgrade, Kingdom of Serbia. On March 6, 1889, King Milan unexpectedly abdicated in favor of his twelve-year-old son. A regency was supposed to be in place until his 18th birthday but in 1893, 17-year-old King Alexander proclaimed himself of age and dismissed the regency council to take royal authority for himself. The following year, King Alexander abolished the 1889 liberal constitution and restored the former conservative 1869 constitution.

King Alexander and Queen Draga; Credit – Wikipedia

On July 8, 1900, 24-year-old King Alexander suddenly announced his engagement to 36-year-old Draga Mašin, a widow and a former lady-in-waiting to his mother. The proposed marriage was met with great opposition. Draga was of unequal birth but more importantly, since Alexander had no siblings, he needed to have a child to secure the succession and there were doubts that Draga could provide an heir. Alexander’s parents were banished from Serbia because of their opposition to the marriage.

King Alexander attempted to reconcile the political forces in Serbia by granting a new liberal constitution, introducing into Serbia for the first time a two-chamber national legislature system. On May 8, 1901, King Alexander announced that Queen Draga was pregnant and that Serbia would soon have an heir to the throne. However, it soon became apparent that Queen Draga was not pregnant. Whether Draga deliberately told a lie about being pregnant or whether she was the victim of a delusion by a doctor is not known. The incident completely undermined the reputation of King Alexander and Queen Draga.

On March 25, 1903, irritated by the independence of the Senate and the Council of State, King Alexander suspended the constitution for thirty minutes which was enough time enough to publish decrees dismissing and replacing the members of the Senate and Councilors of State. This act greatly increased dissatisfaction in the country. In addition, the Serbian Government had decided to proclaim Prince Mirko of Montenegro as heir-presumptive to the Serbian throne, but King Alexander had his own ideas. Rumors began to circulate that Nikodije Lunjevica, one of the two unpopular brothers of Queen Draga, was to be proclaimed heir-presumptive to the throne.

To learn more about Alexander and Draga see:

The Assassination

Dragutin Dimitrijevic Apis, leader of the conspirators; Credit – Wikipedia

The army had had enough. A conspiracy called the May Coup was organized by the military,  to replace King Alexander I of the House of Obrenović with Prince Peter Karađorđević of the rival House of Karađorđević which had held power in Serbia in earlier times. The coup was carried out by a large group of officers and civilian conspirators led by Captain Dragutin Dimitrijevic Apis, later promoted to Colonel. Among the conspirators was Alexander Mašin, an army officer and the brother of Queen Draga’s first husband Svetozar Mašin. Svetozar Mašin had died at age 35 in somewhat mysterious circumstances. A questionable doctor’s report said the cause of death was a heart attack. Draga inherited Svetozar’s pension and his name. Alexander Mašin was so opposed to this that he later accused Draga of killing his brother and became one of the conspirators in the May Coup.

On the night of June 10-11, 1903, the conspirators, divided into five groups, met in cafes in Belgrade. At 12:45 AM, Dragutin Dimitrijevic commanded the five groups to proceed to the Stari Dvor (Old Palace). Retired Lieutenant General Alexander Mašin, brother of Queen Draga’s first husband, had already entered the Twelfth Regiment barracks to take command. Lieutenant Colonel Petar Mišić was preparing to go to the palace with his Eleventh Regiment. Other conspirators had already surrounded the homes of government ministers to block any action from the ministers.

At 2 AM, Commander of the Palace Guard, Petar Živković, later Prime Minister of Yugoslavia, opened the palace doors to the conspirators. The conspirators stormed the palace and clashed with some members of the Palace Guard. Two conspirators, members of the Palace Guard, were supposed to have unlocked the doors to the royal chambers, but they were discovered dead. No keys were discovered in the pockets of the two deceased conspirators and so the royal chamber doors were opened by dynamite.

The royal chambers were extensive and the conspirators had searched for a long period but had not found King Alexander and Queen Draga. As the conspirators searched the royal bedroom once again, they noticed a slit in an upholstered wall where a door to a secret room was hidden. King Alexander and Queen Draga had hidden in the secret room. King Alexander thought the conspirators were members of the Palace Guard and the secret door opened and out came King Alexander and Queen Draga.

The Stari Dvor (Old Palace) where Alexander and Draga were assassinated. They were thrown out the open window after being shot and mutilated; Credit – Wikipedia

The conspirators opened fire with their revolvers and rifles. Queen Draga tried to protect her husband with her body. Other conspirators from other parts of the palace, hearing what was happening, ran into the royal bedroom and emptied their revolvers and rifles into the king and queen. Their bodies were then stabbed and slashed with sabers and bayonets and finally thrown from the window into the courtyard.

Along with the king and queen, the conspirators also killed Prime Minister Dimitrije Cincar-Marković, Minister of the Army Milovan Pavlović, and General-Adjutant Lazar Petrović.

The autopsy of King Alexander and Queen Draga; Credit – Wikipedia

An autopsy was carried out in the early morning hours on the pool table in the palace. Queen Draga’s two brothers, Nikodije and Nikola Lunjevica, were executed by a firing squad on the same day. Alexander I, King of Serbia and Queen Draga were secretly buried at St. Mark’s Church in Belgrade, Serbia. The assassination resulted in the extinction of the House of Obrenović. Prince Peter Karađorđević was then proclaimed as the new King of Serbia and the House of Karađorđević reigned until the monarchy was abolished in 1945.

Tomb of King Alexander and Queen Draga; Credit – Wikipedia

What happened to the conspirators?

For the most part, the conspirators were not punished. Under pressure from some foreign governments, the new King Peter removed any palace aides-de-camp that had taken part in the coup but promoted them to higher positions. Some conspirators were brought to trial but were only forced into early retirement. Junior conspirators were never punished for their participation in the coup.

Many prominent conspirators, led by Dragutin Dimitrijević Apis, founded a secret military organization called the Unification of Death, popularly known as the Black Hand. The Black Hand was best known for being involved in the 1914 assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria in Sarajevo, Serbia, a catalyst for the start of World War I.

Two years later, Serbian Prime Minister Nikola Pašić decided to get rid of the most prominent members of the Black Hand movement despite being officially disbanded. Dimitrijević and several others were arrested in December 1916 on false charges for the attempted assassination of Prince Regent Alexander, the future King Alexander I of Yugoslavia, in September 1916. Dimitrijević and the others were found guilty of treason and executed by firing squad. In 1953, Dimitrijević and his co-defendants were all posthumously retried by the Supreme Court of Serbia and found not guilty because there was no proof of their alleged participation in the assassination plot.

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.

Works Cited

  • En.wikipedia.org. (2019). Alexander I of Serbia. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_I_of_Serbia [Accessed 28 Nov. 2019].
  • En.wikipedia.org. (2019). Black Hand (Serbia). [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Hand_(Serbia) [Accessed 28 Nov. 2019].
  • En.wikipedia.org. (2019). Draga Mašin. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draga_Ma%C5%A1in [Accessed 28 Nov. 2019].
  • En.wikipedia.org. (2019). Dragutin Dimitrijević. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragutin_Dimitrijevi%C4%87 [Accessed 28 Nov. 2019].
  • En.wikipedia.org. (2019). May Coup (Serbia). [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_Coup_(Serbia) [Accessed 28 Nov. 2019].
  • Flantzer, Susan. (2019). Draga Mašin, Queen of Serbia. [online] Unofficial Royalty. Available at: https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/draga-masin-queen-of-serbia/ [Accessed 28 Nov. 2019].
  • Flantzer, Susan. (2019). King Alexander I of Serbia. [online] Unofficial Royalty. Available at: https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/king-alexander-i-of-serbia/ [Accessed 28 Nov. 2019].
  • Sr.wikipedia.org. (2019). Мајски преврат. [online] Available at: https://sr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9C%D0%B0%D1%98%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B8_%D0%BF%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%B2%D1%80%D0%B0%D1%82 [Accessed 28 Nov. 2019]. (May Coup from Serbian Wikipedia)

Haitham bin Tariq Al Said, Sultan of Oman

by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2020

Haitham bin Tariq Al Said, Sultan of Oman; Credit – Wikipedia

Arabic Naming Conventions

  • Al – family/clan of…
  • bin or ibn – son of…
  • bint – daughter of…

Haitham bin Tariq Al Said, Sultan of Oman was born on October 11, 1954, in Muscat, the Sultanate of Muscat and Oman, now the Sultanate of Oman. His father Tariq bin Taimur Al Said was the son of Taimur bin Feisal, Sultan of Muscat and Oman who reigned from 1913 until 1932 when he abdicated in favor of his eldest son Said bin Taimur Al Said, Sultan of Oman, the father of the late Sultan Qaboos of Oman. Haitham’s mother was Shawana bint Hamud bin Ahmad Al-Busaidiyah, the first of his father’s three wives.

Haitham has six brothers (listed first) and two sisters. Because his father had three wives some of these siblings are half-siblings.

  • Talal bin Tariq (born 1947), married Tahira (from Turkey), had four children
  • Qais bin Tariq (1952 – 2011), married Susan Schafer (Princess Sayyida Susan Al-Sa’id), had four children
  • Asad bin Tariq (born 1954), Deputy Prime Minister of Oman since 2017, married Na’emah bint Badr Al-Busa’idiyah, had five children
  • Shihab bin Tariq (born 1956), married ? , had six children
    Adham bin Tariq (born 1959), married ?, had three children
  • Fares bin Tariq (1961 – 1982)
  • Amal bint Tariq (born 1950) married a Lebanese national
  • Nawal bint Tariq (Kameela) (born 1951), married Qaboos, Sultan of Omanin 1976, divorced 1979, no children

In 1979, Haitham graduated from the Oxford University’s Foreign Service program and then continued his postgraduate studies at Pembroke College, Oxford.

Haitham’s wife Ahad bint Abdullah bin Hamad Al Busaidia, 2021; Credit – By مداد عمان – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=103975696

Haitham married Ahad bint Abdullah bin Hamad Al Busaidia and the couple had two sons and two daughters:

On January 11, 2021, Theyazin bin Haitham, the eldest son of Sultan Haitham, became the Sultanate’s first Crown Prince following constitutional amendments approved by Sultan Haitham.

Haitham was the President of the Oman Football  Association (soccer) from 1983 to 1986. In 1986, Haitham joined the Omani Ministry for Foreign Affairs and held the following positions in the Omani government:

  • Under Secretary 1986-1992
  • Under Secretary for Political Affairs 1992-1996
  • Secretary-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs 1996-2002
  • Minister for Heritage & Culture 2002-2020

Before January 11, 2021, the succession to the throne was handled in a somewhat unusual way. Upon the death of the Sultan, the royal family council was charged with naming his successor within three days. If they were unable to agree upon their choice, there was a sealed envelope from the late Sultan naming his personal choice to succeed him.  On January 11, 2020, the day after the death of Sultan Qaboos of Oman, Haitham’s first cousin, Haitham was named as Sultan of Oman after a sealed letter from Qaboos was opened identifying whom he wished to take his place. On the same day, Haitham was sworn in as the Sultan of Oman during an emergency session of the Council of Oman at the Al-Bustan Palace in Muscat, Oman. In his first public speech, Sultan Haitham promised to continue Sultan Qaboos’ peace-making foreign policy and to further develop Oman’s economy.

Embed from Getty Images 
Sultan Haitham speaks during the swearing-in ceremony

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.

Works Cited

  • Ar.wikipedia.org. (2020). هيثم بن طارق آل سعيد. [online] Available at: https://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%87%D9%8A%D8%AB%D9%85_%D8%A8%D9%86_%D8%B7%D8%A7%D8%B1%D9%82_%D8%A2%D9%84_%D8%B3%D8%B9%D9%8A%D8%AF [Accessed 12 Jan. 2020]. (Haitham, Sultan of Oman in Arabic)
  • En.wikipedia.org. (2020). Haitham bin Tariq Al Said. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haitham_bin_Tariq_Al_Said [Accessed 12 Jan. 2020].
  • Royalark.net. (2020). Oman Genealogy. [online] Available at: https://www.royalark.net/Oman/oman9.htm [Accessed 12 Jan. 2020].