All About Royal Families

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...

On 2 February 2002, Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands married Máxima.  The bride wore a beautiful wedding dress made by Valentino. Who is this wonderful fashion designer, which is the history of this house and which are/were the royal clients? Check it in this fashion blog post. Who is Valentino? Valentino Clemente Ludovico Garavani (born 11 May 1932), known  as Valentino, is an Italian fashion designer and the founder of the Valentino brand and company.  Valentino was born in Voghera, in the province of Pavia, Lombardy, Italy. His mother named him after screen idol Rudolph Valentino. He became interested in fashion while in primary school in his native Voghera, Lombardy, northern Italy, when he apprenticed under his aunt Rosa and local designer Ernestina Salvadeo, an aunt of noted artist Aldo Giorgini. Valentino then moved to Paris to pursue this interest with the help of his mother Teresa de Biaggi and his father Mauro Garavani. There he studied at the École des Beaux...

Hadrian was born on 24 January 76, probably in Italy (near modern Seville) in the Roman province of Hispania Baetica. He was named Publius Aelius Hadrianus after his father. His father was a senator of praetorian rank.  Hadrian's mother was Domitia Paulina, daughter of a distinguished Hispano-Roman senatorial family from Gades (Cádiz).   Childhood Hadrian's father was thus a senator and would have spent much of his time in  Rome. Trajan was Hadrian's father's first cousin.  In 86, Hadrian's parents died. He was then only ten years old. He and his sister became wards of Trajan. Hadrian enjoyed hunting. When he was 14, Trajan ordered him to Rome and arranged his further education to become a young Roman aristocrat. Hadrian had an enthusiasm for Greek literature and  culture, which gave him the nickname: Graeculus ("Greekling"). Emperor Hadrian @ Louvre in France Source picture: Wikipedia  Love and Marriage Hadrian married Trajan's seventeen or eighteen-y...

On 18 September 53, Marcus Ulpius Trajanus was born in the Roman province of Hispania Baetica (in what is now Andalusia in modern Spain) near Seville.  Trajan was the son of Marcia, a Roman noblewoman and sister-in-law of the second Flavian Emperor Titus.  His father was Marcus Ulpius Trajanus the elder. He served under Vespasian in the First Jewish Roman War.  The army In 76-77, Trajan's father was governor of Syria, where Trajan himself remained as Tribunus legionis. After his father's replacement, Trajan moved to the Rhine department of the army. However his time in the army remained obscure. Love and Marriage Trajan married Pompeia Plotina. This was a happy marriage but the couple didn't have any children together.  Rise to power When Nerva became Roman Emperor, he was so unpopular with the army, he felt he had to gain the support of the military in order to avoid being ousted.  He accomplished this in the summer of 97 by naming Trajan as his adoptive  ...

Marcus Cocceius Nerva was born on 8 November 30 (his year of birth was disputed) in the village of Narni, 50 kilometres north of Rome.  Family He was the son of Marcus Cocceius Nerva, who was consul during the reign of Caligula and Sergia Plutilla.  Nerva was a member of the Italian nobility rather than one of the elite of  Rome. However the Cocceii were among the most esteemed and prominent political families of the late Republic and the early Empire.  Emperor Not much was known of Nerva before he became an Emperor. However on  18 September 96, Domitian was assassinated and the same day the Senate proclaimed Marcus Cocceius Nerva emperor. This was a remarkable choice. Nerva was old and childless and spent much of his career out of the public light.  Nerva was considered a safe choice precisely because he was old and childless. Furthermore he had close connections with the Flavian dynasty and he had  gained respect from the Senate.  Duty Nerv...

 On 24 October 51, Domitian was born in Rome. He was the youngest son of Titus Flavius Vespasianus - known as Vespasian - and Flavia Domitilla Major.  He had one older sister, Domitilla the Younger and a brother also named Flavius Vespasianus.  Childhood Domitian was not educated at court. He displayed considerable marksmanship with the bow and arrow.  He was tall, with a modest expression. His eyes were large, but his sight was somewhat dim. He was handsome and graceful too.  He received the education of young man of the privileged senatorial class, he studied rhetoric and literature. Domitian could quote important poets and writers such as Homer or Virgil on appropriate occasions. He was described as learned and educated. Among his first published works were poetry as well as writings on law and administration.  The Year of the four emperors On 9 June 68 , Nero committed suicide and with him the Julio-Claudian dynasty came to an end. Chaos occurred a...

Vespasian was born on 17 November 9 AD at Falacrine, a village at the north-east of Rome.  Colosseum in Rome own picture taken in 2017 Family Vespasian's paternal grandfather, Titus Flavius Petro, became a centurion and he fought at Pharsalus for Pompey in 48 BC. He also became a debt collector.  Titus Flavius Sabinus, Vespasian's father, worked as a customs official in the province of Asiia and he became a moneylender on a small scale. He married Sabinus. They had three children. The elder boy was Titus Flavius Sabinus.  The younger boy was Vespasian. He seemed far less likely to be successful than his elder brother. He married Flavia Domitilla, the daughter of Flavius Liberalis from Ferentium and formerly the mistress of a roman equestrian. They had two sons. Titus Flavius Vespasianus and Titus Flavius Domitianus and a daughter Domitilla. Both his daughter and his wife died before he became emperor.  His mistress Antonia Caenis became his wife in all but forma...

On 24 September 15, Aulus Vitellius was born in Rome, then a part of the Roman Empire. Family Aulus Vitellius was the son of Lucius Vitellius and his wife Sextila. He had one brother who also was named Lucius Vitellius. When Vitellius was born his horoscope was so horrified that his father tried to prevent Aulus from becoming a consul. Early Youth Vitellius was one of the noble companions of Tiberius' retirement on Capri and there befriended Caligula, whose favour he won, by sharing in his passion for chariot racing and games of dice.  Love and Marriage Before the year 40 - he married a woman named Petronia with whom he had a son Aulus Vitellius Petronianus. Around the year 50, Aulus Vitellius married secondly a woman named  Galeria Fundana. They had two children, a son called Aulus Vitellius Germanicus and a daughter Vitellia, who married Decimus Valerius Asiaticus.  Career In 48, Aulus Vitellius became a Consul. In either 60 or 61, he became a  proconsular gov...

On 27 March 1746, Carlo Maria Buonaparte also called Charles-Marie Bonaparte was born in Ajaccio Corsica (then a part of the Republic of Genoa) as the youngest of three children.  Family His parents were Giuseppe Buonaparte, who had represented Ajaccio at the Council of Corte in 1749 and Maria Saveria Paravicini.  The Corsican Buonapartes were descended from minor Italian nobility of Tuscan origin, who had come to Corsica from Liguria in the 16th. century.  Carlo studied to be a lawyer at the Pisa University but he left before earning his degree to take charge of family responsibilities.  Love and marriage Carlo married Donna Maria Letizia Ramolino. Both were of Corsican nobility and very young at the time of their marriage. Carlo was 17, Letizia was 13! Their marriage was arranged.  They would have 13 children between 1768 and 1784. Five of them died, eight children survived.  Among them: Napoleon Bonaparte, who became later Emperor of the French.  Ga...

Marcus Salvius Otho was born on 28 April 32 AD as the son of Lucius Alvius Otho and Terentia Albia. He was born in Ferento, a former city in Lazio (nowadays located in central Italy). Way to power Otho's grandfather had been a senator and Claudius granted Otho's father patrician status.  An aged freedwoman brought Otho in the company of the emperor Nero. Otho married the emperor's mistress Poppae Sabina. Later Nero forced Otho to divorce Poppae so that he himself could marry her. Otto was exiled to the province of Lusitania. There he became a capable governor.  Otho allied himself with Galba, then governor of neighboring Hispania Tarraconensis. Later Galba was proclaimed emperor by the Senate. Otho accompanied the new  emperor to Rome in October 68.  Galba was kiled by the Praetorians on 15 January 69. Otho was proclaimed Emperor. Reign Vitellius, the commander of the legions on the lower Rhine River, was already advancing upon Italy. Otho prepared for war.  Dea...

Napoléon François Joseph Charles Bonaparte was born on 20 March 1811 at the Tuileries Palace in Paris.  Family His parents were Emperor Napoleon I of France and Empress Marie Louise  born Marie Louise of Austria).  Since his birth Napoléon II had been Prince Imperial of France and King of Rome as well.  Childhood On 9 June 1811 Napoléon II was baptised in the Notre Dame de Paris. Napoléon was put in the care of Louise Charlotte Françoise Le Tellier  de Montesquiou. She was affectionate and intelligent. The governess assembled a considerable collection of books intended to give the infant a strong grounding in religion philosophy, and military matters.  Napoleon I saw his second wife and their son for the last time on 24 January 1814.  The Treaty of Fontainebleau in 1814 gave Napoleon II the right to use the title of Prince of Parma, of Placentia and Guastalla. His mother was styled the Duchess of Parma, of Placentia and of Guastalla.  On 13 April ...

68-69 The year of the Four Emperors Birth & family Serverius Sulpicius Galba (sounds as a name in Harry Potter) was born near Terracina on 24 December 3 BC.  He was not related to any of the emperors of the Julio-Claudian dynasty but he was a member of a distinguished noble family.  Love and marriage Galba had a sexual preference for men above women. Nevertheless he married a woman named Azmilia Lepida and he had two sons. Aemilia and their sons died during the early years of the reign of Claudius (41-54) and Galba would remain a widower for the rest of his life. Public life Galba became praetor in about 30, then he became governor of Aquitania for  about a year, then consul in 33.  In 39, Emperor Caligula learned of a plot against himself in which Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulus Gaetulicus, the general of the Upper German legions was a key figure. Caligula installed Galba in the post held by Gaetulicus. As commander, Galba gained a reputation as a disciplinarian....

Most people know Roman Emperor Nero due to its bad reputation and his  role  in the Great Fire of Rome. But how did he become as he was? What's his  background? You'll read it in this post of the Roman Series.  Was Nero a bad guy?  Family Nero was born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus on 15 December 37 AD in Antium. He was the only son of Gnaeus Domitius Ahnobarbus and Agrippina the Younger. His maternal grandparents were Germanicus and Agrippina the Elder.  Nero was thus a great-great grandson of Augusts and he descended from  the first Emperor's only daughter Julia.  Early Life in 40 AD Nero's father Domitius died. A few years before his death  Domitius had been involved in a political scandal. The next year Nero's mother Agrippina had been caught up in a scandal on her own. She was suspected of adultery with her brother-in-law Marcus Aemilius Lepidus. Agrippina and her sister Julia Livilla were banished by Caligula to a remote island in the Med...