[December 21] Henry I, landgrave of Hesse

Sobriquet: "The Child" (das Kind)
Parents: Henry II, duke of Brabant, and Sophie of Thuringia
Date of Birth: 24 June 1244
House: Brabant-Hesse
Spouse(s): (1) Adelheid, daughter of Otto I, duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, then (2) Mechthild, daughter of Dietrich VI, count of Cleves
Predecessor: Henry Raspe (as landgrave of Thuringia)
Reign: 1247 – 1308
Brief: Born to Sophie of Thuringia, Henry was in a unique position to inherit all of his grandfather's vast lands in Germany. But a rival, Henry of Meissen, also had a claim to the territory. After many years of intermittent fighting and feuding, it was agreed that Henry would receive Hesse, and Henry of Meissen the remainder of Thuringia and the title. But Henry had been ruling his portion since 1247 and his lands were only confirmed in 1264. Another rivalry dominated the remainder of his reign, this time with the archbishop of Mainz, Werner II. Werner sought to control the land as a ecclesiastical fief, but agreed to leave it in Henry's hands. But when Henry I sought to annex a portion of Mainz, the archbishop fought back, calling in King Rudolf I of Germany and giving Henry the boot in 1274. Henry decided to join Rudolf's forces and ingratiate himself with the German king, thereby gaining his lands back in 1276. Fourteen years later, Henry defeated the archbishop at the Battle of Fritzlar, solidifying his control over Hesse for good. King Adolf, in 1292, granted Hesse full independence from Mainz and was given additional lands, expanding his territory. Sons born of multiple mothers forced Hesse to fold into a civil war around the same time. Henry I died in 1308 with the succession issue still unresolved. Two sons eventually divided the landgraviate in 1310, while a third, Louis, became bishop of Münster.

Date of Death: 21 December 1308

Successor: Otto I (in Upper Hesse), John (in Lower Hesse)

[August 13] Zwentibold, king of Lorraine

Lotharingia is the yellow area in the center between the green and orange.

Parents: Arnulf, emperor of Rome, and an unknown mistress
Date of Birth: 1 January 871
House: Carolingian
Spouse(s): Oda, daughter of Otto I, duke of Saxony
Predecessor: Lothair II
Reign: 895 – 900
Summary: Zwentibold was an unlikely last king of Lorraine, or the more appropriately named kingdom called Lotharingia, after its founder, Lothair II. Zwentibold was an illegitimate son of Arnulf, king of Germany and Roman Emperor. He first entered the political arena in West Francia when a feud broke out between Duke Odo of Paris and King Charles III the Simple. At first Zwentibold intended to act as an intermediary, but soon he began to covet the contested throne. Zwentibold had been removed from the Carolingian succession according to both the 870 Treaty of Meerssen and the 880 Treaty of Ribemont. Most of Lotharingia went to Germany. In 893, Zwentibold's hope to become his father's heir was destroyed when his father produced a legitimate son, Louis, who supplanted Zwentibold. To compensate the disenchanted princeling, Arnulf gave him Lotharingia as a sub-kingdom of Germany.

Zwentibold did little to rule Lorraine. He was an unskilled military and political leader. Failures in Italy during the previous decade had forced Zwentibold's father to step in and take control over military affairs. In Lorraine, the archbishops of Cologne and Trier contacted Arnulf rather than Zwentibold when instructions were needed. The nobility continuously called for help from Arnulf because Zwentibold preferred to help the commoners over the nobility. When Arnulf finally died in 899, Zwentibold made his power play in Lorraine, attempting to sever all ties with Germany. What actually happened, though, was that the nobility fled to Germany and requested the aid of King Louis' regents. Count Reginar I of Hainault finally killed the Lotharingian king in August 900 near the town of Susteren. Louis took over direct management of Lorraine afterwards. Lorraine would never rise to be a kingdom again and its administration fractured into several parts with the newly-named duchy of Lorraine forming out of the largest ruins of the old kingdom. Zwentibold was canonized by the Catholic Church as a martyr.
Date of Death: 13 August 900
Successor: Gebhard (as duke of Lorraine)

[July 18] Joachim III Friedrich, elector of Brandenburg

Parents: John George, elector of Brandenburg, and Sophie of Legnica

Date of Birth: 27 January 1546
Royal House: Hohenzollern
Spouse: (1) Catherine, daughter of John, margrave of Brandenburg-Küstrin, and Catherine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, then (2) Eleanor, daughter of Albert Frederick, duke of Prussia, and Marie Eleanore of Jülich-Cleves-Berg

Predecessor: John George
Reign: 1598 — 1608
Summary: Nothing is said of the early life of Joachim Friedrich. At the age of twenty, he was appointed the administrator of the Archbishopric of Magdeburg, although he lost technical rights to that post in 1570 when he married Catherine of Brandenburg-Küstrin. Since Magdeburg was a Catholic see and the Hohenzollern family was Lutheran, they only exercised political power in the archbishopric. The Bishop of Halberstadt was in charge of ecclesiastical affairs in Magdeburg between 1480 and 1680 when it was secularized and became a duchy. Joachim Friedrich became margrave and Holy Roman Imperial Elector of Brandenburg upon the death of his father in 1598, at which time he passed his authority in Madgeburg to his youngest son, Christian Wilhelm.


Of his reign, almost nothing is known. He became regent over the Duchy of Prussia in 1605 in the name of his relative, Albert Frederick, who had become feeble-minded. The Brandenburg-Ansbach branch of the family had technical control over Prussia, but it was decided that that control passed to the Electorate after Margrave George Friedrich's death in 1603. Joachim Friedrich's first wife died in 1602 and the margrave was forced to find another wife, whom he found among his cousin and ward's children. Marrying, Eleanor, the daughter of Albert Friedrich of Prussia helped emphasize his control and influence in Prussia while also giving him rights to Jülich-Cleves-Berg, a territory that Eleanor could one day inherit. Eleanor died in 1607 after giving birth to her only child, Maria Eleanore. Joachim Friedrich died the following year passing his margraviate to his eldest son from his first wife, John Sigismund.

Date of Death: 18 July 1608
Successor: John Sigismund

[June 22] Innocent V, pope of Rome

True Name: Pierre de Tarentaise

Date of Birth: circa 1225

Predecessor: Gregory X

Reign: 1276

Summary: A little-known pope of Rome, Pierre was born in Savoy or in La Salle around 1225. In either case, his overlord was the Holy Roman Emperor in the capacity of the King of Arles. Early in life, he joined the Dominican Order where he earned renown as a preacher. During his early years, he brushed shoulders with Thomas Aquinas and Albertus Magnus who together reorganized the Dominican Order. At the University of Paris, he became a doctor famosissimus, a leading theologian. Pope Clement IV requested that Pierre preach the crusade beginning in 1268 and he did so with a passion. By 1273, Pierre had risen to the rank of cardinal-bishop of Ostia which he held until his papal election. When Pope Gregory X died in 1275, the papal conclave elected Pierre as the first Dominican pope, electing him on the first round of balloting. Pierre took the regnal title Innocent V.

Innocent reigned for only six months. During the first month of his reign, Innocent permitted the coronation of Rudolf of Habsburg as the king of Germany, thereby ending the interregnum in the Holy Roman Empire. He was a staunch supporter of a reunification with the Eastern Orthodox Church and he sent legates to Emperor Michael VIII in Constantinople in response to the decisions made at the Second Council of Lyons. Unfortunately, Innocent died in Rome before the legates ever returned. The pope was the author of several philosophical and theological works, and addressed numerous issues of canon law. His death in June 1276 was caused by an unknown illness. The next papal conclave elected Ottobuono de' Fieschi as Pope Adrian V, another pope who reigned for only a few months. It was a number of years before longer-reigning popes took control over the Papacy. Innocent V was beatified in 1898 and his memorial day is celebrated on June 22nd.

Date of Death: 22 June 1276

Successor: Adrian V

[May 16] Mehmed VI, sultan of the Ottoman Empire

True Name: Meḥmed-i sâdis (محمد سادس)
Parents: Abdülmecid I, sultan of the Ottoman Empire, and Gülüstü

Date of Birth: 14 January 1861

House: Osman
Spouse: Emine Nazikeda Marjim-Abaza, Kadin, among others

Predecessor: Mehmed V

Reign: 1918 – 1922

Summary: Mehmed lived during the worst years of the Ottoman Empire's history and witnessed its eventual end. Much of the once expansive empire was already independent or in open rebellion when World War I started in 1914. The choice of the Ottomans to join the Central Powers during the war sealed its fate. Mehmed was not the sultan during most of the war; his brother, Mehmed V, had that honor. During the war, Baghdad, Damascus, and Jerusalem were all conquered by the British. The Hejaz, the region housing Mecca and Medina, likewise went independent. The Ottoman Empire had lost its control over Islam's most important sites and with that failure, the future of the empire was very much in doubt. Mehmed was still not the next in line at the start of the war, but his nephew, Yusuf Izzettin Efendi, committed suicide in 1916 leaving the succession to Mehmed. His brother died 3 July 1918 and Mehmed VI was girded with the sword of the empire.

Mehmed did not have to wait long to discover the fate of his empire. Syria and Lebanon were handed to the French while the British took control over Palestine and Iran. The Treaty of Sèvres reduced the size of the Ottoman Empire to almost its modern-day borders on Asia Minor. A new government headed by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk formed in 1920 to decide the fate of their sultan and empire. Mehmed VI was publicly denounced and a constitution was drafted. The sultanate survived for another two years amazingly, but Mehmed was finally forced to go into exile where he settled first in Malta and later on the Italian Riviera. His first cousin, ABdülmecid, was elected Caliph of Sunni Islam for a further two years until the post was ended. Mehmed died in 1926 at Sanremo, Italy, the last sultan of the Ottoman Empire. 

Date of Death: 16 May 1926

Successor: Abdülmecid II (only as Caliph of Sunni Islam)

[April 18] Vidi I Skanderbeg II, prince of Albania

True Name: Wilhelm Friedrich Heinrich
Parents: William, prince of Wied, and Marie of the Netherlands

Date of Birth: 26 March 1876

House: Wied-Neuwied

Spouse: Sophie, daughter of Victor of Schönburg-Waldenburg and Lucia of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg

Reign: 7 March 1914 – 3 September 1914

Summary: Wilhelm began his life as the third son of a prince who ruled a small region in Germany. While his family certainly had connections, namely with the Dutch and Saxon rulers, the principality was nothing overly important. William served as a Prussian cavalry officer in the mid-1900s and became a captain in the German General Staff in 1911. Elisabeth, queen consort of Romania, brought William to the forefront when she nominated him for the position of "prince of Albania" in 1913. The country had just become independent of Ottoman control and the Great Powers were seeking to install a monarch. All of the powers agreed with Elisabeth that William would be a good fit. In November of 1913, the provisional government accepted the appointment and in February 1914, William made his acceptance of the title official. Albania was a backwater country at the time with little law and much poverty. William had originally refused the offer, but with World War I building up, the Austrians convinced him to accept it.

In March 1914, William, now Vidi I, began appointing royal ministers and forming his cabinet. He opted to choose locals for almost all positions to avoid appearing as a foreign puppet monarch. But even so, he was not able to avoid problems. Muslims revolted when he arrived, claiming foreign domination of Albania. Greece also interfered. Fearing for the native Greeks in southern Albania, Greece encouraged a secessionist movement in the south. The Greeks occupied southern Albania, which they called North Epirus, throughout Viri I's reign. The prince suffered defections from within his own government as well. His chief minister, Essad Pasha, accepted money from Italy to stage a revolt and coup against Viri. Viri arrested his minister in May and sentenced him to death, but Italy was able to force an exile instead. When World War I broke out, Austria-Hungary demanded that Albania send troops to fight for the Central Powers. When Viri refused, citing the Treaty of London, Austria cut off funds. Everything fell apart after that. Albania was in a civil war from July 1914 to the end of his reign. Viri finally abandoned the country in September and rejoined the Imperial German Army. In 1916, Austria removed troops it had sent to occupy Albania, and Viri thought he may be able to reclaim his principality, but he was not invited back. He was officially deposed in 1925 when Albania proclaimed itself a republic. When President Ahmet Zogu proclaimed himself king in 1928, Viri reaffirmed his claim to the throne but his family was never restored. His claim passed to his son, Carol Victor, when Viri died in 1945.  Carol Victor died childless in 1973 and the family's claim to Albania went extinct.

Date of Death: 18 April 1945

Successor: Carol Victor

[April 15] Adolf I, archbishop of Cologne

The Banner of the
Archbishopric of Cologne

Parents: Eberhard, count of Berg-Altena, and Adelheid

Date of Birth: circa 1157

House: Bonngau

Predecessor: Bruno III

Reign: 1193 – 1205

Date of Death: 15 April 1220

Successor: Bruno IV

[March 6] Isa, emir of Bahrain

Parents: Salman, hakim of Bahrain

Date of Birth: 3 June 1933

House: Al Khalifa

Spouse: Hessa bint Salman

Reign: 1971 – 1999

Predecessor: Salman bin Hamad

Summary: Isa lived through World War II and grew up in Bahrain during its time as a dependency of the British Empire. His father became hakim, or hereditary ruler, of Bahrain in 1942. Isa succeeded his father two decades later in 1961. In 1971, Isa secured Bahrain's independence from British control and he proclaimed himself emir.

When Bahrain became independent, other local oil states also gained their independence. Some of them formed the United Arab Emirates, a loose confederation of Arab states bound together by a single national constitution. Bahrain declined admission to the union, as did Qatar, over disagreements with the proposed constitution. Isa then introduced his own constitution to Bahrain that would establish a parliamentary democracy. Men were given the vote in the first elections, which were held in 1973. But two years later, Isa dissolved parliament because the assembly refused to support his laws. Parliament has been in an indefinite recess ever since with periodic protests and riots breaking out from the left and the conservative Islamic right. Despite the authoritarianism of the royal family, Isa's death in 1999 was viewed by both the United States government and the United Nations as a blow to regional stability. The emir was succeeded by his son, Hamad, who proclaimed himself king in 2002.

Date of Death: 6 March 1999

Successor: Hamad

[February 29] Ludwig I, king of Bavaria

Parents: Maximilian I, king of Bavaria, and Augusta Wilhelmine of Hesse-Darmstadt

Date of Birth: 25 August 1786

House: Wittelsbach

Spouse: Therese, daughter of Frederick, duke of Saxe-Altenburg, and Charlotte Georgine of Mecklenburg-Strelitz

Reign: 1825 – 1848

Predecessor: Maximilian I

Summary: A victim of the 1848 revolutions, Ludwig of Bavaria began his life with the cursed name of Ludwig, named after King Louis XVI of France. Still, the prince was lucky in that the elder line of the Wittelsbach, the Sulzbach-Palatine line, died out in 1799 leaving his father with the entire Wittelsbach inheritance. In the midst of the Napoleonic Wars, Maximilian became the first king of Bavaria. Ludwig, meanwhile, went on to study in Landshut and married Theresa of Saxe-Hildburghausen in 1810, prompting the first of the annual Oktoberfests. Ludwig served as a commander of the Bavarian army on the side of the French during the Napoleonic Wars despite his reservations. His father died in 1825 leaving him the throne.


As king, Ludwig I was an autocratic king, though one who enjoyed culture. In 1837, he reorganized Bavaria into its historic regions and also re-erected several closed and dilapidated monasteries. Ludwig also worked to unite the Palatinate with the rest of Bavaria, but ended up losing around two-thirds of it to regional powers. Still, as a modernist, Ludwig spent great amounts of money creating the Ludwig Canal, building the first German railroad, and encouraging independence movements around Europe. His second son, Otto, was even elected the first king of Greece. After 1830, though, Ludwig began to stamp out liberal movements within Bavaria. This made the people mad. The Roman Catholic Church, which had strong support in Bavaria, supported a movement known as the Ultramontes, which sought to remove Protestant provisions from the Bavarian constitution. The movement died out, but it was not forgotten. The king continued to censor the press and beer riots broke out in 1844 after Ludwig added a tax to beer. During the 1848 Revolutions, the middle class demanded a new constitution and the king refused. The cabinet, in response, forced him to abdicate the throne. He spent the rest of his life in Munich promoting the fine arts with his own capital. He died in Nice on the French Riviera and was buried in Munich.

Date of Death: 29 February 1868

Successor: Maximilian II

[February 27] Theophylact, patriarch of Constantinople

Constantinople Patriarchate coat of arms

True Name: Theophylaktos Lakapenos (Θεοφύλακτος Λακαπηνός)

Parents: Romanos I, emperor of Constantinople, and Theodora

Date of Birth: 917

House: Macedonia

Reign: 933 – 956

Predecessor: Tryphon

Summary: From infancy, Emperor Romanos I wished his son to be raised to the patriarchate. It was the emperor's desire to achieve this in 925 with the death of Nicholas Mystikos, but the emperor had to wait eight more years before the church would allow the boy to rule. At some point during this time, Theophylact was castrated to make him appear a more suitable candidate. Theophylact finally was elected in 933, the third son of an emperor to be elected to the post and the first elected while his father still reigned. Romanos secured the support of the Papacy and when the Macedonian dynasty fell from power in 945, Theophylact retained his post.


As patriarch, Theophylact maintained close ties with the patriarchates of Antioch and Alexandria. He sought to convert the Magyars of Hungary and he urged the emperor of Bulgaria, Peter I, to suppress the Bogomil heresy. The Bogomils sought a return to early Christianity, the destruction of the church hierarchy, and resistance to the state. Meanwhile, the patriarch committed an accidental heresy of his own by introducing theatrical elements to the Orthodox liturgy, angering many conservative clergy. Theophylact loved horses and even abandoned a service at the Hagia Sophia to be present at the birth of a mare. Tragically, a few years later he died from a fall from a horse. His patriarchate was not well remembered by his peers despite ruling for over twenty years.

Date of Death: 27 February 956

Successor: Polyeuctus

[January 26] George Alexander, titular grand duke of Mecklenburg

Parents: George, grand duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, and Irina Mikhailovna Raievskaya

Date of Birth: 21 August 1921

Royal House: Mecklenburg-Strelitz

Spouse: Ilona, daughter of Joseph Francis of Austria and Anna of Saxony

Reign: 1963 – 1996

Predecessor: George

Summary: George Alexander never ruled Mecklenburg-Strelitz. He was a titular ruler reigning 45 years after the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz was dissolved in the aftermath of World War I. Unlike most other deposed dynasties, the pretenders to Mecklenburg-Strelitz were permitted to live in Germany. During World War II, this meant they were constantly under suspicion by the Gestapo and George Alexander and his father were briefly held by them during the war. However, both were released and, after the war, George Alexander went to study law at Freiburg. For most of his professional life, he worked for an advertising company.

On July 6th, 1963, George Alexander became grand duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. Since this title had no actual function other than royal prestige, little changed for George Alexander. Nonetheless, George Alexander moved back the Mecklenburg and was able to get an apartment in his ancestral ducal residence or Mirow Castle, and he spent much of the remainder of his life in its reconstruction. In his personal life, George Alexander married Ilona of Austria, the descendant of a minor branch of the Habsburg-Lorraine family. The couple had four children, three daughter and a son, before divorcing in 1974. George Alexander was succeeded by his son, Borwin, as titular grand duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. In 2001, Borwin became the head of the unified (though still titular) Duchy of Mecklenburg as its only known male descendant, except for his two sons.

Date of Death: 26 January 1996

Successor: Borwin