All About Royal Families

King Charles VIII of France was born on 30 June 1470 at the Château d'Amboise in France. Family Charles was the only surviving son of King Louis XI and his second wife, Charlotte of Savoy. His godparents were: Charles II, Duke of Bourbon - where King Charles was named after; Joan of Valois, Duchess of Bourbon; Edward of Westminster, son of King Henry VI of England, who lived in France after his father was disposed. Love and Marriage On 22 July 1483, Charles was betrothed to the 3-year-old Margaret of Austria, daughter of Archduke Maximilian of Austria (who became later Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I) and Mary, Duchess of Burgundy. This arrangement was a part of the Peace of Arras of 1482 between France and the Duchy of Burgundy. However, things turned out different. In 1488, Francis II, Duke of Brittany died. He had a heiress: a daughter, Anne, who was 11 years old. Anne had arranged a wedding between her and Maximilian of Austria in 1490. But then th...

Dirk Bouts, portrait in Town Hall in Louvain, Belgium Dirk Bouts, also written as Dieric Bouts was born around 1410 in, probably, Haarlem. Nowadays Haarlem is located in The Netherlands. He moved to Leuven (Louvain) and married there in 1448. Leuven is a city located in the province Flemish Brabant in Belgium. Dirk Bouts married twice and had 4 children, 2 daughters and 2 sons. His 2 daughters went to convents and his 2 sons became painters who brought Bouts workshop into the mid-16th. century. Royal Art Dirk Bouts attained the rank of city painter in Leuven in 1468. That was during the reign of Charles The Bold, Duke of Burgundy. Amazing works The first documented works from Bouts dated from 1457. Last Supper The Last Supper - located in St. Peter's Church Louvain, Belgium   One of his famous paintings is the Last Supper, a central panel of the Altarpiece of the Holy Sacrament, commissioned by the Leuven Confraternity of the Holy Sacrament in 1...

On 23 June 1903, King Tribhuwan, also written Tribhuvan, was born in Kathmandu, the capital city of Nepal. Source picture: Wikipedia Family Tribhuvan was the son of Prithvi Bir Bikram Shah and Queen Divyeshwari Laxmi Devi Shah. Reign After the death of his father, Tribhuvan ascended the throne on 11 December 1911 at the age of 8. His mother was appointed as regent until King Tribhuvan would come to his age. Tribhuvan and his sons - Source picture: Wikipedia Love and marriage In March 1919, King Tribhuvan married Queen Kanti of Nepal as his first wife. In a double ceremony he took Queen Kanti's sister, Queen Ishwari as his second wife. He also had junior wives. King Tribhuvan had 3 sons and 13 daughters. Source picture: Wikipedia Duty In that time, the position of monarch was mainly titular. The real power in the country was executed by the conservative Rana family, which supplied the country with its hereditary Prime Minister. Du...

On 18 June 1901 (O.S. June 5) a new Grand Duchess was born at the Peterhof Palace in St. Petersburg, Russia. She received the name: Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia.  Source picture: Wikipedia Family Her parents were Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna.  Grand Duchess Anastasia was the sister of: Grand Duchess Olga, Grand Duchess Tatiana, Grand Duchess Maria and Alexei Nikolaevich, Tsarevich of Russia. The Tsar and his family - Taken at the exhibition in the Hermitage in Amsterdam in 2017 Early life When Anastasia was born, the Tsar and his family were disappointed that she wasn't a boy, who would be heir apparent to the throne.  At the Russian Royal Court, the Tsar's children were raised as simple as possible. They slept on hard beds, they took cold baths in the  morning and they were expected to tidy their rooms and to do  needlework (which was sold to charity events)....

The main residence of the Kings of Portugal in Lisbon for around 250 years was the Ribeira Palace. Source picture: Wikipedia Some history Before 1147 (The Siege of Lisbon), the Portuguese monarchs always had used the Castle of São Jorge as their residence in Lisbon. In 1225, Lisbon became Portugal's definitive capital. King Manuel I of Portugal set off on a building spree, renovating the Lisbon landscape and starting with the construction of a brand new Royal Palace. This new palace wasn't located on a high, easily protected fortress hill, it was built on the river shore of the Tagus river. That's why the new palace received the name: Ribeira Palace. A special Thank You for João Rita, who read one of my previous posts  about Portugal very well and who gave this explanation too.  Soon, Lisbon became one of the most important cities and ports in all Europe. The city had a lot of spice trade and from Lisbon many explorers left Europe for the wide w...

John Casimir of Saxe-Coburg was born at the Grimmenstein Castle in Gotha (now located in Germany) on 12 June 1564. Source picture: Wikipedia Family John Casimir was the middle of three sons of John Frederick II, Duke of Saxony and his wife Countess Palatine Elisabeth of Simmern-Sponheim. He was thus a member of the Ernestine branch of the House of Wettin. Early life On 15 April 1567, his father lost his dominions and freedom due to sanctions of the Holy Roman Empire. The boys and their mother went to the court of their uncle John William in Weimar and finally to Eisenberg in Thuringia. In 1570, the Diet of Speyer restored to the brothers the rights and privileges of their father. On 5 December 1572, John Casimir and one of his brothers moved to Coburg. Between 1578 and 1581, John Casimir studied at the University of Leipzig. Love and Marriage On 6 May 1584, John Casimir became engaged with Anna, the daughter of Augustus of Saxony. The two were married o...

Emperor Huizong of Song was born on 9 June 1082 in China. Family Emperor Huizong was born as the 11th. son of Emperor Shenzong. He ascended the throne in 1100 upon the death of his elder brother, Emperor Zhezong. Duty Emperor Huizong was a cultured leader who spent much of his time admiring the arts. He was a collector of paintings, calligraphy and antiques from previous dynasties, He owned huge collection of each for his amusement He wrote poems of his own, created his own calligraphy and style. The emperor also had interests in architecture and garden design and he even wrote treatises on medicine and Taoism. He is even considered as one of the greatest Chinese artists of all time. War In 1126, the Jurchen-led Jin dynasty invaded the Song dynasty during the Jin-Song Wars. Emperor Huizong abdicated and passed on his throne to his eldest son, Emperor Qinzong. He received the title "Retired Emperor". The next year, the Song capita...

On 5 June 1523, a very noble and royal girl was born in the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, near Paris in France. She received the name: Margaret of France. Sometimes she was called: Marguerite de Valois. Family Margaret of France was the daughter of King Francis I of France and Claude, Duchess of Brittany. She was thus a sister of inter alia: King Henry II of France (who had married Catherine de' Medici); Madeleine, Queen of Scots; Charles, Duke of Orléans; Margaret, Duchess of Savoy. Margaret was very close to her paternal aunt, Marguerite de Navarre, who took care of her, her sister Madeleine and her sister-in-law: Catherine de' Medici. Love and Marriage At the end of 1538, her father and Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor agreed that Margaret should marry Charles 's son, the future King Philip II of Spain. However this arrangement and wedding never took place. On 29 April 1530, at the age of 26, she was created: Duchess of Berry. Before he...

Hugo van der Goes, who lived between 1430/1440 and 1482 in the Low Countries, was one of the most significant and original Flemish painters of the late 15th. century. Life Hugo van der Goes was born in or around Ghent, but nothing is known about his life before 1467. In 1467 he became a master in the painter's guild of Ghent. His sponsors were Joos van Wassenhove, master painter in Ghent, and Daneel Ruthaert. In 1468 Hugo van der Goes was asked by the city of Ghent to execute some works in connection with the grant of the Great Indulgence of the city. On 18 October 1468, he and other members of the Ghent's painters guild hosted painters from Tournai to celebrate St. Luke's day together and St. Luke was the patron saint of the painters. At the Burgundian Court In 1468 Hugo van der Goes was also in Bruges, there he made the decorations for the wedding of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy and Margaret of York, sister of the King of England. Fr...

On 2 June 1202 a noble birth took place at Ghent. The baby was a girl, who received the name Margaret. Family Her father was Baldwin IX, Count of Flanders and Hainaut. Margaret 's mother was Marie of Champagne. Baldwin IX left the County of Flanders for the Fourth Crusade, before Margaret was born. In 1204, he even became the first Latin Emperor. The capital of the Latin Emperor was Constantinople. That's why Margaret was often called Margaret of Constantinople.  Her mother, on the other hand, Marie of Champagne was a granddaughter of King Louis VII of France and Eleanor of Aquitaine.  Youth When Margaret's mother died in 1404 and her father the next year, she and her sister, Joan, remained under the guardianship of their uncle: Philip of Namur. Soon he transferred the girls to King Philip II of France. Love and Marriage In 1211, Enguerrand III of Coucy offers to the King the sum of  50,000 Livres to marry Joan, while...