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King Felipe IV of Spain; Credit – Wikipedia

September 17, 1665 – Death of King Felipe IV of Spain in Madrid, Spain; buried at the Royal Site of San Lorenzo de El Escorial in San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Spain
Besides being King of Spain, Felipe was also King of Portugal (from 1621 to 1640) and King of Sardinia, King of Naples, King of Sicily, Duke of Milan, Duke of Lothier, Duke of Brabant, Duke of Limburg, Duke of Luxemburg, Count Palatine of Burgundy, Count of Flanders, Count of Hainaut and Count of Namur from 1621 until his death in 1665. Felipe first married Elisabeth of France. They had eight children but only their youngest child survived to adulthood. Elisabeth died in 1644 after a miscarriage. In 1649, 44-year-old Felipe IV married his son’s former fiancée, his 14-year-old niece Mariana of Austria. They had five children but only two survived childhood. The Spanish House of Habsburg would end with the reign of Felipe IV and Mariana’s physically and mentally disabled son Carlos II, King of Spain. Carlos II’s disabilities were due to the serious inbreeding within the House of Habsburg. After great suffering from dysentery, Felipe IV, King of Spain, aged 60, died on September 17, 1665.
Unofficial Royalty: King Felipe IV of Spain 

September 17, 1688 – Birth of Maria Luisa of Savoy, Queen of Spain, first wife of King Felipe V of Spain, at the Royal Palace of Turin in Turin, Duchy of Savoy, now in Italy
Full name: Maria Luisa Gabriella
Maria Luisa was the daughter of Vittorio Amedeo II, King of Sardinia and Anne Marie of Orléans. In 1701, she married King Felipe V of Spain, born a French prince Philippe, Duke of Anjou. Maria Luisa and Felipe V had four sons but only two survived childhood and they both had childless marriages. Maria Luisa and Felipe V had a loving, happy marriage. She acted as Regent of Spain from 1702 until 1703 during Felipe V’s absence due to the War of the Spanish Succession and had great influence over him as his adviser. Sadly, Maria Luisa died from tuberculosis at the age of 25 on February 14, 1714.
Unofficial Royalty: Maria Luisa of Savoy, Queen of Spain

September 17, 1767 – Death of Prince Edward of Wales, Duke of York and Albany, son of Frederick, Prince of Wales and the brother of King George III of the United Kingdom, at the Prince’s Palace in Monaco; buried at Norfolk House, St. James’s Square in London, England; buried at Westminster Abbey in the Hanover vault under the central part of the Henry VII Chapel
Edward was the second of the five sons of Frederick, Prince of Wales (who predeceased his father King George II), and held a high place in the line of succession to the British throne for his entire life. In 1760, when Edward’s brother succeeded to the throne as King George III, Edward was named a privy counselor and was the heir presumptive to the British throne until the birth of the future King George IV in 1762. Edward was destined for a career in the Royal Navy, a short career due to his early death. In 1767, while serving in the Mediterranean, Edward became ill while traveling to Genoa. He was taken to Monaco, the nearest port. Despite the care arranged by Honoré III, Prince of Monaco, 28-year-old Edward died at the Prince’s Palace in Monaco on September 17, 1767.
Unofficial Royalty: Prince Edward of Wales, Duke of York and Albany

September 17, 1799 – Birth of Marie of Württemberg, Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, second wife and niece of Ernst I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, in Coburg, Duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, now in Bavaria, Germany
Marie was the eldest child and the only daughter of Duke Alexander of Württemberg and Antoinette of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld.  Marie had four brothers, but only two survived childhood. Marie and her brothers were first cousins of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.  In 1832, Marie married her uncle Ernst I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. The groom was 48 and the bride was 33. Ernst had been anxious to find a new bride after the death of his first, estranged wife, Louise of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg. However, Ernst’s age and his negative reputation left him with limited choices for a bride. His mother, Augusta, Dowager Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, arranged the marriage between her son and her granddaughter. After her marriage, Marie was not only the first cousin but also the stepmother of her husband’s sons from his first marriage, Ernst (later Ernst II, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha) and Albert (later husband of Queen Victoria). Marie and Ernst had no children, but Marie had a good relationship with her stepsons and maintained a correspondence with Albert throughout their lives.
Unofficial Royalty: Marie of Württemberg, Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha

September 17, 1871 – Birth of Eleonore of Solms-Hohensolms-Lich, Grand Duchess of Hesse and by Rhine, second wife of Ernst Ludwig, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine, in Lich, Principality of Solms-Hohensolms-Lich, now in the German state of Hesse
Full name: Eleonore Marie Ernestine
In 1905, Eleonore became the second wife of Ernst Ludwig, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine, a grandson of Queen Victoria, and the couple had two sons. After World War I, while many of her husband’s counterparts were stripped of their possessions, and in some cases, exiled from their homelands, Eleonore and Ernst Ludwig remained much loved by the Hessian people. They lived out the rest of their lives at Wolfsgarten and the New Palace in Darmstadt. A little more than a month after Ernst Ludwig died in 1937, Eleonore boarded a plane bound for London accompanied by her elder son Georg Donatus, his wife, and their two sons. They were headed to London for the wedding of Eleonore’s younger son Ludwig. Tragically, the plane crashed in Ostend, Belgium, and all were killed.
Unofficial Royalty: Eleonore of Solms-Hohensolms-Lich, Grand Duchess of Hesse and by Rhine
Unofficial Royalty: November 16, 1937 – Deaths of the Grand Ducal Family of Hesse and by Rhine

September 17, 1968 – Birth of Crown Princess Marie-Chantal of Greece, wife of Crown Prince Pavlos of Greece, born Marie-Chantal Claire Miller in London, England
Marie-Chantal is the wife of Crown Prince Pavlos of Greece, the eldest son of King Constantine II of Greece who was deposed in 1973. Her father is Robert Miller, a billionaire entrepreneur and co-founder of Duty-Free Shops. Marie-Chantal and Pavlos met on a blind date arranged by a friend in 1992. The marriage proposal occurred on a ski lift in Gstaad, Switzerland over the Christmas holiday in 1994. Before the wedding, Marie-Chantal converted from Roman Catholicism to Greek Orthodoxy. The couple was married on July 1, 1995, at St. Sophia’s Cathedral in London, England, and has five children.
Unofficial Royalty: Marie-Chantal, Crown Princess of Greece

September 17, 1985 – Birth of Crown Prince Tupoutoʻa ʻUlukalala of Tonga, son of King Tupou VI of Tonga, in Nukuʻalofa, Tonga
In 2021, Crown Prince Tupoutoʻa ʻUlukalala married his double second cousin Sinaitakala Fakafauna. Through her mother, she is a member of the Tongan royal family and, in her own right, in the line of succession to the throne of Tonga. Both Sinaitakala’s parents are first cousins of King Tupou VI. It is the tradition in Tonga that all royal marriages are arranged and that members of the royal family may only marry members of the Tongan nobility to maintain the royal bloodline.
Unofficial Royalty: Crown Prince Tupoutoʻa ʻUlukalala of Tonga

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