All About Royal Families

On 19 October 1469 Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon married in the Palacio de los Vivero in the city of Valladolid (Spain). Isabella of Castile was the daughter of King John II of Castile and Isabella of Portugal. She belonged to the noble house of Trastámara. Ferdinand of Aragon was the son of King John II of Aragon and Navarre and Juana Enríquez. This royal wedding really had a long history. Already at the age of 6, Isabella made her debut in the royal matrimonial market with a betrothal to Ferdinand, the younger son of John II of Aragon (who also belonged to the Trastámara family). However this arrangement did not last long. In 1458 Ferdinand's uncle Alfonso V of Aragon died. All of Alfonso's territories were left to his brother John II. A new arrangement was made between him and the King of Castile. Isabella would marry now Charles of Navarra, King John's eldest son. But ... Charles died in 1461. In 1465 there was an attempt to marry

Travelling and reading about royal history are two of my most favourite hobbies, so if I can combine the two in one blog post I'm very happy! This Onthisday post marks a very important date in the travelling history of the capital of Spain: Madrid. On 19 September 1916, a royal decree approved the 4-line plan for the creation of the metro of Madrid. The engineers were: Mendoza, González Echarte and Otameni. They started to raise 8 million pesetas to begin the first phase of the project. Then Carlos Mendoza made contact with Enrique Ocharán, director of the Banco de Vizcaya who offered 4 million pesetas on the condition that the public pledged an additional 4 million. The men were able to raise 2,5 million of the 4 million they needed. However King Alfonso XIII of Spain intervened and he invested 1.45 million pesetas of his own money. King Alfonso XIII was a keen promoter of tourism in Spain. He probably had  thought that the Madrid Metro would increase t

Recently, I saw this poster during an 2018 Exhibition about my hometown Sint-Niklaas (Sinnekloas Boven) in Belgium. Royal visit to Sint-Niklaas The poster showed the program of the celebrations on the occasion of the Royal visit of 12 October 1978.  However there was a small hitch. On 11 October 1978, Prime Minister Leo Tindemans said: "For me the constitution is not just a small piece of paper. I leave this tribune, I go to the King and I offer the resignation of the government." This happened indeed, the government fell the same day. So, on 12 October 1978 it was only Queen Fabiola of Belgium who brought a visit to Sint-Niklaas. My husband (I wasn't born then yet) remembered her visit very well. He said all the scholars went out to greet the Belgian Queen. All ended well, because on 26 October 1978 King Baudouin (in Dutch: Boudewijn) of Belgium finally could make a visit to Sint-Niklaas. I really like the way how posters of important

Plate with the coat of arms of Bavaria, Germany own picture taken in Munich With this blog post about the House of Wittelsbach I take you on a trip to Bavaria (Bayern) in Germany. Since 1996, the royal family's head is: Franz, Duke of Bavaria. So far is the situation nowadays but this royal familie has a very nice history. Own picture taken of the Coat of Arms of Bavaria The House of Wittelsbach: the origin Otto II, Count of Scheyern (who died on 31 October 1120) could acquire the castle of Wittelsbach near Aichach. Later the Counts of Scheyern left the castle in 1119 for Wittelsbach Castle and the former was given to monks to establish Scheyern Abbey. From 1180 till 1918 the Wittelsbach dynasty ruled several German territories in Bavaria and the Electorate of the Palatinate (till 1805). In 1329 under the Treaty of Pavia, the House of Wittelsbach split in two branches. Emperor Louis IV granted the Palatinate including the Bavarian Upper Palatinate t