April 19, 2012

ROYAL BIRTHDAYS

King Mswati III of Swaziland   {1968}

Count Leopold of Limburg-Stirum   {2011} [son of Archduchess Marie Christine of Austria, Countess of Limburg-Stirum (daughter of Archduchess Marie Astrid of Austria, Princess of Luxembourg {sister of Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg & daughter of Grand Duke Jean of Luxembourg})]

                                    (pictured here in blue in the arms of his mother, with his father & maternal grandparents)


ROYAL WEDDING ANNIVERSARIES

Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig [Ernest Louis] "Ernie" of Hesse + by Rhine & Princess Victoria Melita "Ducky" of Saxe-Coburg + Gotha   {1894} [divorced Dec.21, 1901]

Prince Rainier III of Monaco & Grace Kelly   {1956} [religious]

ROYAL CHRISTENING

James Mountbatten-Windsor, Viscount Severn (technically Prince James of Wessex)   {2008} [son of The Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex (son of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom of Great Britain + Northern Ireland)]

HISTORICAL ROYAL EVENTS

1713   With no living male heirs, Holy Roman Emperor Charles/Carolus VI issues the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 to ensure that Habsburg lands and the Austrian throne would be inherited by his daughter, Maria Theresia of Austria (not actually born until 1717).

1770   Archduchess Maria Antonia [Marie Antoinette] of Austria and Louis-Auguste, Dauphin of France, are married in a proxy wedding in the Church of Augustine Friars in Vienna, Austria, with her brother, Archduke Ferdinand of Austria standing in for the bridegroom (she does not actually arrive in France to meet her husband until May 1770, thereafter a marriage ceremony in-person is conducted).

1839   The Treaty of London established Belgium as a Kingdom.

2005   His Eminence Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger is elected the 265th Pope of the Catholic Church following the death of Pope John Paul II.  The new Pope takes the regnal name Benedict XVI.

HISTORICAL ROYAL BIRTHS

1658   Johann Wilhelm [Jan Wellem] II, Elector Palatine, Duke Palatine of Neuburg-Danube, Duke of Julich + Berg, Count of Megen (d.1716)

1793   Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria, King of Hungary + Croatia [as Ferdinand V], King of Bohemia, King of Lombardy-Venetia, King of Dalmatia, Slavonia, Galicia, Lodomeria + Illyria, Archduke of Austria, Grand Duke of Tuscany + Krakow, Duke of Lorraine, Salzburg, Styria, Carinthia, Carniola, Upper + Lower Silesia, Modena, Parma, Piacenza, Teschen, Friuli, etc., Grand Prince of Transylvania, Margrave of Moravia, Princely Count of Habsburg, Kyburg, Tyrol, Gorizia, etc., Prince of Trent + Brixen, Margrave of Upper + Lower Lusatia & in Istria, Count of Hohenems, Sonnenberg, etc., Lord of Trieste, the Windic March, etc., (abdicated Dec.2, 1848;  d.1875)

DEATHS

1054   Pope Leo IX

1390   King Robert II of Scotland {King of Scots}, Earl of Strathearn

1689   Queen Christina/Kristina of Sweden {Queen regnant of Swedes, Goths + Vandals}, Grand Princess of Finland, Duchess of Ingria, Estonia, Livonia + Karelia, Duchess of Bremen + Verden