All About Royal Families

9 February 1846 marks the birth of Prince Leopold of Bavaria. This took place in Munich.  Family Prince Leopold of Bavaria was the son of Prince Regent Luitipold of Bavaria  and Archduchess Auguste Ferdinande of Austria. In the army Prince Leopold entered the Bavarian Army at the age of 15, and received his patent as a lieutenant dated 28 November 1861. He saw first combat during the Austro-Prussian War in 1866, where he commanded an artillery battery at Kissingen and Rossbrunn. In 1870, King Ludwig II of Bavaria sent Leopold to the battlefields of France, where the Bavarian Army was fighting alongside the Prussian Army in the Franco-Prussian War. He served with the 3rd Bavarian Artillery Regiment and saw action at Sedan and Beauvert. He was promoted to major in December 1870. For his bravery against the enemy he received both the Iron Cross 1st and 2nd Classes, the Bavarian Military Merit Order Knight 1st Class, the Knight's Cross of the Military Order of Max Joseph, Bavaria's

Recently I read a splendid book "My Queen, My Love: A Novel of Henrietta Maria" written by Elena Maria Vidal about Henrietta Maria of France. Who was she? Who was this French princess who became Queen of England?  So, time to make up another Royal History post. Family Henrietta Maria was born on 25 November 1609 in the Louvre Palace in Paris.  Her parents were Henry IV of France and Marie de' Medici. She was thus a member of the House of Bourbon. Of course Henriette Maria had other siblings. Among them were  King Louis XIII of France and Elisabeth, who became Queen of Spain. Henrietta Maria was trained, along with her sisters, in riding, dancing, and singing, and took part in court plays. Although tutored in reading and writing, she was not known for her academic skills.  As part of her religious training, the princess was heavily influenced by the Carmelites at the French court.  By 1622, Henrietta Maria was living in Paris with a household of some 200 staff, and marr

Oh Vienna ... the lovely capital of Austria has tons of Royal History. Walking around the city we passed lots of palaces. One of the most interesting was the Palais Trautson. own picture taken in 2011 Not only the building style of the Palace attracted us, but also the beautiful royal history. The Palace, located at the Museumstrasse 7, once was owned by the Trautson family. Some history The land on which the palace is built originally belonged to Countess Maria Margareta Trautson in 1657 and consisted of a small house and a vineyard.  After the Battle of Vienna, during repairs Johann Leopold Donat von Trautson , the prince of Troutson, commissioned Christian Alexander Oedtl to build the palace in 1712.  Oedtl used designs by Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach.  Source picture: Wikipedia In 1760, the palace was bought by Empress Maria Theresa of Austria for 40,000 Guilders, who then gave the palace to the Hungarian Guard.  The Hungarian Guard converted the palace's garden to a ridi

23 March 1887 marks the birth of Prince Felix Yusupov. He was born at Moika Palace in Saint Petersburg. Family His father was Count Felix Felixovich Sumarokov-Elston, the son of Count Felix Nikolaievich Sumarokov-Elston. Zinaida Yusupova, his mother, was the last of the Yusupov line, of Tatar origin, and very wealthy.  For the Yusupov name not to die out, his father (1856, Saint Petersburg – 1928, Rome, Italy) was granted the title and the surname of his wife, Princess Zinaida Yusupova, on 11 June 1885, a year after their marriage, but effective after the death of his father-in-law in 1891. The Yusupov family, one of the richest families in Imperial Russia, had acquired their wealth generations earlier. It included four palaces in Saint Petersburg, three palaces in Moscow, 37 estates in different parts of Russia, on the Crimea (at Koreiz, Kökköz and Balaklava), coal and iron-ore mines, plants and factories, flour mills and oil fields on the Caspian Sea.  Youth Felix led a flamboyant li

In November 2022 there was a lot to do about an article in the French newspaper Le Parisien. It stated that there was a robbery in the appartment of Queen Paola of Belgium in Paris.  Not much later, the newspaper retracted that report and reported that there was "ambiguity about the identity of the owner".  picture taken in November 2022 in Rome After which the spokesman for the royal palace also responded and reported that Queen Paola has no apartment at all in the district where the theft took place.  "The original article of 'Le Parisien' that linked the theft to an apartment of the Queen is therefore incorrect," the palace concluded. However Queen Paola of Belgium and King Albert II of  Belgium have other properties than their Belvédère Castle in Laeken, Brussels.  They would have residences in Châteauneuf-Grasse (France) and in Villers-sur-Lesse (Belgium). But also an apartment in Oostende (Belgium) and an apartment in Rome.  picture taken in November 2

How it started Franz Ferdinand became heir presumptive of the throne in 1889 after the suicide of his cousin Crown Prince Rudolf and after the death of his father Karl Ludwig in 1896. This gave him a great deal of trouble, for he could not marry the woman he loved: Sophie, Countess of Chotek. Her family was not of dynastic rank.Franz Ferdinand refused to renounce Sophie to marry. A marriage In 1899, under pressure from family members (especially the Archduchess Maria Theresa, the emperor's formidable sister-in-law and Franz Ferdinand's stepmother) the couple were granted permission to wed.  Franz Ferdinand was allowed to retain his place in the order of succession and a suitable title was promised for his future wife. However, to prevent Franz Ferdinand from attempting to proclaim his wife empress-queen or declaring their future children dynasts and thus eligible to inherit the crown (especially that of Hungary, where morganatic marriages were unknown to law) once he ascended t

31 October 1934 marks the birth of Princess Margaretha of Sweden. This took place at Haga Palace, Solna, Sweden. Family She was the eldest child of Prince Gustaf Adolf, Duke of Västerbotten and his wife Princess Sibylla of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Her paternal grandparents were  Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf of Sweden and his late wife Princess Margaret of Connaught. Her maternal grandparents were Prince Charles Edward, Duke of Saxe- Coburg and Gotha and his wife Princess Victoria Adelaide of Schleswig-Holstein.  Princess Margaretha had other siblings: Princess Birgitta of Sweden (born 19 January 1937); Princess Désirée, Baroness Silfverschiöld (born 2 June 1938); Princess Christina, Mrs. Magnuson (born 3 August 1943); and Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden (born 30 April 1946). She is a member of the house of Bernadotte. Love and Marriage In the 1950s Margaretha had a relationship with Robin Douglas-Home, a Scottish aristocrat and the nephew of the future Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Alec Dougla

The House of Habsburg, its dynasty, its ties and its different branches always have interested me. In this blogpost, the creation and the history of the House of Austria-Este is deepened out.  The start It was created in 1771 with the marriage between Ferdinand of Habsburg-Lorraine and Maria Beatrice d'Este, only daughter of the Duke of Modena, Ercole III d'Este. It also is known as the House of Habsburg-Este . Some history Ercole III d'Este , the last Este duke of Modena and Reggio in the direct male line, was deposed in 1796 by the French, and his Italian principality was incorporated into the Cisalpine Republic, later the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy.  In 1814, French rule in Italy ended. Modena was to be returned to his daughter Maria Beatrice and her son Francis of Austria-Este after Ercole's death.  Previously, Ercole had been compensated with the duchy of Breisgau in south-western Germany; the Habsburgs ceded this province to him in anticipation of it falling even