The Succession to Burgundy in 1461

The Burgundian state under
Philip the Bold, 1363 – 1404

In 1461, Philippe de Rouvres, the last duke of the senior line of the Capetian house of Burgundy, died leaving no obvious heir. He had no sisters, uncles, or aunts, although he did leave behind a wife, Marguerite III, countess of Flanders, Artois, Burgundy, Nevers, and Rethel. This came at a time of crisis in France. The Hundred Years War had only just paused the previous year and tensions were still high. Philippe, the young duke, was expected to live a long life and continue a dynasty that had existed since the eleventh century. Yet over the course of that century, almost every cadet line had ended after only a few generations, the most recent having ended in 1298.

In lieu of an obvious heir, the Burgundians had to figure out who should come next. There were two obvious candidates and an arguably more rightful, albeit overlooked option. The obvious choices were Carlos II, king of Navarre, and Jean II, king of France.

Carlos II the Bad, king of Navarre

Both Carlos and Jean were descended from sisters of Philippe's grandfather, Odo-Eudes IV. The elder sister was Marguerite, who married Louis X of France, had a daughter with him, the future Jeanne, and then promptly fell into ill-repute for sneaking off with a knight (the Tour de Nesle affair). She died under mysterious circumstances in 1315 while in a French prison, allowing her husband to remarry and promptly die shortly afterwards. That daughter, though, survived and became queen of Navarre in 1328. Carlos II, Jeanne's son and heir, bases his claim on her descent. Carlos, however, had become infamous in France as one of the most dangerous and recalcitrant vassals in French history. Due to his royal descent, he occasionally claimed the French throne, and he also stirred up all sorts of trouble in Paris between 1356 and 1360, when King Jean II was sitting comfortably in the Tower of London in England, a prisoner of Edward III. Although Carlos and Jean patched things up in 1360, they still were hardly friends. Nonetheless, Carlos could legitimately claim male-preference primogeniture as the reason for why he should become the next duke of Burgundy. The descent of his grandmother, as the eldest sister of Duke Robert II, should take precedent over a younger line.

Jean II the Good,
king of France

Jean II, however, was not about to allow the quarrelsome Navarrese king become the major power in both the south and east of France. Jean's mother was Jeanne the Lame, the younger daughter of Duke Robert II of Burgundy. This made him one degree closer to a previous duke. Jean was also the senior agnate of the entire Capetian dynasty and, as king of France, he was suzerain over Burgundy. Thus, he could use any or all of these excuses to claim Burgundian throne. Indeed, he won the debate, but he used his weakest argument to assert his claim. He argued that he was the head of the family and, as such, the title should revert to him since he was seniormost of the line. But there are two problems with this. First, Burgundy had never been a French apanage duchy. Indeed, Burgundy first joined the royal line through the merger of the former Burgundian royal line in the tenth century to a Capetian cadet branch. Therefore, women could inherit the throne and pass it on to their descendants through a process called substitution. The next agnate in line, then, was Carlos of Navarre. Following this same logic, Carlos also held the proximity of blood according to Roman and Burgundian law since he represented his deceased mother and grandmother. Jean may appear closer, but Carlos represents his grandmother, who was older than Jean's mother. Naturally, Carlos resisted Jean's encroachment on his rights, but to no effect. The recent treaties he had signed bound him to French authority and he essentially had no ability to adequately assert his case.

Pedro I the Just
king of Portugal

Second, while Jean may be the head agnate of the Capetian dynasty, there is still a single cadet branch of the Burgundian tree extant in 1361 and this line should get precedent over any of Jean's agnatic claims. Agnatic law says that when a male line goes extinct, one goes back in time along that line until another male line is found. In 1361, that line would have fallen squarely on Pedro I, king of Portugal, the agnatic heir to Philippe I of Burgundy. When Robert the Old, the first Capetian duke of Burgundy, died, his youngest grandson ventured into Castile, married a Castilian princess and was given the county of Portugal as a dowry. His son, Afonso, declared himself king of Portugal and fought a short war against León to assert his title. He and his legitimate descendants continued to rule Portugal until 1383, when Pedro's son Fernando I died leaving behind a daughter who was inconveniently married to the king of Castile. But in 1361, Pedro was still quite alive, making him the senior agnate of the Burgundian branch of the Capetian dynasty and the heir general to Philippe de Rouvres. Following Jean II's own logic, Pedro should become duke of Burgundy.

The obvious problem with this is that Pedro was in Portugal and was also, annoyingly, close allies with the English. There was no chance Pedro would be traveling to Burgundy anytime soon to claim his birthright. Instead, Jean seized the duchy and subsumed it within his royal title. When he died in 1364, his son, Charles V, granted it to his brother (following the will of his father), who became Philip the Bold, the first duke of the house of Capet-Valois-Burgundy. The duchy was now securely under dynastic control again. Philip married Marguerite III of Flanders in 1369 and received all her lands when her father died in 1384. Meanwhile, the legitimate Portuguese line went extinct in 1385, causing it to descend upon the illegitimate house of Aviz. The Iberian kings had lost their claim to Burgundy. Philippe could now rest assured that his claims were secure and his future bright. The rest is history.

[December 6] Afonso I, king of Portugal

Sobriquet: "The Conqueror" (O Conquistador)
Parents: Henrique, count of Portugal, and Theresa, countess of Portugal
Date of Birth: 25 June 1109
House: Capet-Burgundy
Spouse(s): Maud, daughter of Amadeo III, count of Savoy, and Mahaut of Albon
Predecessor: Henrique (as count)

Reign: 1139 – 1185
Brief: The first monarch of an independent, post-Carolingian Portugal, Afonso I began his tenure as a count and vassal of the kingdom of Léon. His father had been created count when he married King Alfonso VI of León's illegitimate daughter, Theresa, a woman who later ruled after her husband died alongside Afonso. After being forced out of the government in 1120, Afonso sought out on his own and became a knight, fighting his mother's troops at the Battle of São Mamede in 1128 at the age of nineteen. He proclaimed himself sovereign duke of Portugal after his victory, and he sent his mother into a monastery for the rest of her life. In 1129, after defeating King Alfonso VII of León, he promoted himself to prince, but was still a decade away from his true goal. That came after ten years of continuous fighting against the Moors of southern Spain and the successful Battle of Ourique, whereafter he proclaimed himself the King of the Portuguese. He transferred his allegiance to the Papacy in Rome, which was confirmed in 1179, and León was forced to accept the loss of its southern province. For most of the rest of his reign, Afonso sought to enrich the monasteries of Portugal in order to win over the pope. Despite years of civil war with León and fighting against the Moors, Afonso continued to engage in combat until 1184. He died the following year leaving his now-secure kingdom to his son, Sancho I.
Date of Death: 6 December 1185

Successor: Sancho I

Other Monarchs Who Died Today:

• Clement VI, pope of Rome (1352)
• John II Casimir, king of Poland (1672)
• Charles Michael, titular grand duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (1934)

[December 5] François II, king of France

Parents: Henri II, king of France, and Catherine de' Medici
Date of Birth: 19 January 1544
House: Capet-Valois-Angoulême
Spouse(s): Mary I, queen of Scots, daughter of James V, king of Scots, and Mary of Guise
Predecessor: Henri II

Reign: 1559 – 1560
Brief: One of the child kings of the later Valois dynasty, François rules for only a scant year and a half before dying from an ear infection caused by one of numerous possible diseases. During his brief life, however, a lot happened in France. In 1548, he married six-year-old Mary I, queen of Scots, and became the king consort of Scotland. In 1558, the two were crowned rulers of Scotland formally and, had François lived, their children would have been destined to be rulers of both France and Scotland (and, presumably, England). François became king of France in July 1559 and, though only fifteen, was deemed fit to rule France as an adult. He worked with his uncles, and Mary's mother, from the House of Guise, and immediately began persecuting Protestants in France. A conspiracy rose against the king and his Guise advisors which sought to replace the Valois dynasty with that of the Bourbons, who supported Protestantism. Conciliation attempts tried to ease the tension, but things only became worse and François was finally forced to directly confront the Protestant uprising by arresting its leader, his cousin, the prince of Condé in late 1560. Scotland rose up in revolt that same year, since François and Mary had signed a secret charter turning the kingdom into a crown fief of France if Mary died without children. Scotland declared itself free of French influence and a Protestant state, and Mary sequestered herself from government. Unfortunately for them, François died soon after, leaving Mary grieved with little military support to reassert herself in Scotland.
Date of Death: 6 December 1560

Successor: Charles IX

Other Monarchs Who Died Today:

• Ramon Berenguer II, count of Barcelona (1082)
• John III, duke of Brabant (1355)
• Pedro II, emperor of Brasil (1891)

[November 15] Maria II, queen of Portugal

Surnamed: "The Educator" (A Educadora) and "The Good Mother" (A Boa Mãe)
Parents: Pedro IV, king of Portugal, and Maria Leopoldina of Austria
Born: 4 April 1819
House: Capet-Burgundy-Aviz-Bragança
Spouse(s): (1) Auguste, 2nd duke of Leuchtenberg, son of Eugène de Beauharnais and Augusta of Bavaria, then (2) Fernando II, son of Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg & Gotha and Maria Antonia Koháry de Csábrág
Predecessor: Pedro IV

Reign: 1826 – 1828, 1834 – 1853
Brief: Maria II has the unique distinction of being the only European monarch in modern history to be born outside of Europe, being born in Brasil in 1819. Her father, Pedro, was the eldest son of King João VI and was Emperor of Brasil since 1822. A younger son, Miguel, had been exiled after prompting revolutions against his father during the Napoleonic Wars. Maria, his eldest granddaughter, was nominated as his heir until "the legitimate heir" returned to Portugal. Unfortunately, João did not note which son was his legitimate heir. Pedro sought a compromise: marry his daughter to his brother. This would solve any succession crisis. Miguel agreed, but when he finally arrived in Portugal, he proclaimed himself king and deposed his niece. Pedro replied violently in 1831, abdicating the Brasilian throne to his son, Pedro II, and invading Portugal with forces loyal to Maria. Miguel was finally forced to abdicate in 1834, leading a long life of exile abroad. Maria II was now in firm control over Brasil. After a short marriage to a grandson of Empress Josephine (Napoleon's wife), Maria married a prince of Saxe-Coburg & Gotha, who received the title "king consort" a year later. She successfully suppressed an insurrection in 1846, and completely avoided the crises of 1848. She focused on expanding education and public health in Portugal. Maria II died in 1853 due to complications from childbirth, leaving the country to her teenaged son, Pedro V.

Date of Death: 15 November 1853
Successor: Pedro V

Other Monarchs Who Died Today:

• Penda, king of Mercia (655)
• Constantine VIII, emperor of Constantinople (1028)
• Leopold III, margrave of Austria (1136)
• Jungjong, king of Korea (1544)
• Tsangyang Gyatso, dalai lama of Tibet (1706)

[October 25] Antoine, duke of Brabant

Parents: Philip II, duke of Burgundy, and Margaret III, countess of Flanders
Born: August 1384
House: Capet-Valois
Spouse(s): (1) Jeanne, daughter of Waleran III, count of Ligny, and Maud of Kent, then (2) Elisabeth, duchess of Luxembourg, daughter of John, duke of Görlitz, and Richardis Catherine of Sweden
Predecessor: Jeanne

Reign: 1406 – 1415
Brief: Although second in birth to his brother John, future duke of Burgundy, Antoine received the duchy of Brabant from his aunt who died without children in 1406. Little is known about his life prior to the battle of Agincourt. When he arrived at the battle, he worse improvised armor and a surcoat made from a flag. He arrived late, but quickly entered the fray During the battle, he fought well but was captured by a group of English archers. Being dressed so poorly, he was executed as a common knight later that day among a group of nobles that included the counts of Alençon, and Nevers, and the duke of Lorraine. King Henry V of England did not know that he had such valuable nobles in his possession and he was strapped for men and money, leaving him little option but to execute prisoners. The battle was a complete loss for France and intensified the Hundred Years' War. 

Date of Death: 25 October 1415
Successor: John IV

Other Monarchs Who Died Today:

• Marcellinus, pope of Rome (304)
• Boniface V, pope of Rome (625)
• Magnus I, king of Norway (1047)
• Stephen, king of England (1154)
• Charles, count of Dreux (1415)
• John I, count of Alençon (1415)
• Frederick, duke of Lorraine (1415)
• Philip II, count of Nevers (1415)
• João II, king of Portugal (1495)
• George II, king of Great Britain (1760)
• Abbas Mirza, shah of Persia (1833)
• Alexander I, king of Greece (1920)

[September 29] Ferdinand VII, king of Spain

Surnamed: "The Desired"
Parents: Charles IV, king of Spain, and Maria Luisa of Parma
Date of Birth: 14 October 1784
House: Capet-Bourbon
Spouse(s): (1) Maria Antonietta, daughter of Ferdinand I, king of the Two Sicilies, and Marie Caroline of Austria, then (2) Maria Isabel, daughter of João VI, king of Portugal, and Carlota Joaquina of Spain, then (3) Maria Josepha Amalia, daughter of Maximilian of Saxony and Caroline of Bourbon-Parma, then (4) Maria Christina, daughter of Francis I, king of the Two Sicilies, and Maria Isabella of Spain
Predecessor: Charles IV

Reign: 1808, 1813 – 1833
Brief: Ferdinand ascended the throne in the wake of his father's forced abdication. Few supported him and the new king turned to Napoleon for help. Instead, Napoleon deposed the king and imprisoned him at the Chateau of Valençay in France for six years. The Peninsular War was the direct result of his abdication and governments throughout the Spanish colonies in the New World began rebelling against French control. Napoleon installed his brother, Joseph, on the Spanish throne and only acknowledged Ferdinand VII as king again in 1813 after signing the Treaty of Valençay. Once king again, Ferdinand became an autocrat, prompting a large-scale revolt in 1820. As he approached death, he changed the order of succession to favor his daughter, Isabella, over his nephews, angering a segment of the royal family that would soon rise up and begin the Carlist Wars.

Date of Death: 29 September 1833

Successor: Isabella II

Other Monarchs Who Died Today:

• Lothair I, emperor of the Romans (855)
• Charles, duke of Brittany (1364)
• Gustav I, king of Sweden (1560)

[September 1] Louis XIV, king of France & Navarre

Surnamed: "The Sun King" (le Roi-Soleil)

Date of Birth: 5 September 1938
Parents: Louis XIII, king of France, and Anne of Austria
House: Bourbon
Spouse(s): (1) Maria Theresa, daughter of Philip IV, king of Spain & Portugal, and Elisabeth of France, then (2) Françoise, daughter of Constant d'Aubigné and Jeanne de Cardillac

Predecessor: Louis XIII

Reign: 1643 – 1715

Summary: The longest-reigning monarch in European history, Louis XIV began his rule as a five-year-old child, leaving the management of the state to various regents. Anne of Austria, his mother, served as the chief regent, with Cardinal Mazarin as the prime minister. In 1648, the Thirty Years' War ended with Dutch independence from Spain formalized. As the war ended, the Fronde, a French civil war, erupted. It was led by dissatisfied aristocrats who feared a centralized French monarchy. Anne fled Paris with her sons and some courtiers until the French army returned and reestablished order in the kingdom. A second Fronde, this time led by many members of the royal family, broke out, but ended when Louis came of age. 

Mazarin's death in 1661 began Louis' formal rule in France. Although he had been of age for three years already, he chose to allow his prime minister to rule. In 1665, Louis chose Jean-Baptiste Colbert as his controller of finances in a role that he would one day regret. Over the next few years, Louis attempted to gather all the varied legal codes from throughout France into one tome that was later known as the Code Louis. As a patron, Louis expanded many of his palaces and supported all forms of art. At Versailles, he built a new chateau to rival all of those of Europe. He remodeled Paris as well, demolishing city walls and expanding boulevards. Most of Louis' reign was frought with war, many that he started or maintained. The War of Devolution in the Spanish Netherlands began in 1665 and acted as a prelude to the War of the Spanish Succession in 1700. The Franco-Dutch War in 1672 helped bring William of Orange to power in the Netherlands and also brought enmity between the two monarchs. Outside of Europe, France expanded its holdings to nearly every habitable continent, especially America and India. Louis famously began requiring all his nobles attend him at court in Versailles on a regular basis, a means to control the aristocracy. He included military nobles in this game to ensure the loyalty of the army and navy. Religion, though, was something he had little control over. In 1685, he revoked the Edict of Nantes and began to actively persecute non-Catholics living in France. Up to 200,000 Huguenots fled France in the ensuing years. The War of the League of Augsburg began in 1688 and was a direct response to French aggression in Germany. Piggybacking off this war, the Glorious Revolution in France deposed the French-friendly Stuarts with the Dutchman William of Orange, who had been hurt by France before. Louis funded Irish revolt and backed the deposed English king James II, but to no avail. The Augsburg War ended in 1697 with France having the upper hand. Another war, this time over the Spanish Succession, consumed the remainder of Louis' reign. His grandson, Philip of Anjou, was the declared heir of the dying King Charles II of Spain. When the king died, Louis went to war over Philip's claim. Attempts to avoid war failed and world war followed, with theaters in Europe, Asia, and the Americas (Queen Anne's War). The Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 ended the war, with the Treaty of Rastatt ending the conflict between France and Austria. Philip retained his new throne as Philip V of Spain, while Austria gained the Austrian Netherlands and parts of Italy. Louis died of gangrene at Versailles in 1715, only days before his 77th birthday. His son, the Grand Dauphin, his grandson, the Petit Dauphin, and his great-grandson, the Duke of Brittany, had all predeceased him. A brother of the duke of Brittany, Louis, Duke of Anjou, therefore, became his successor as Louis XV.

Date of Death: 1 September 1715
Successor: Louis XV

Other Monarchs Who Died Today:

• Baldwin V, count of Flanders (1067)
• Adrian IV, pope of Rome (1159)
• Kujo Yoritsune, shogun of Japan (1256)
• Guru Ram Das, Sikh Guru (1581)

[August 22] Philippe VI, king of France

Parents: Charles, count of Valois, and Margaret, countess of Anjou
Date of Birth: 1293
House: Capet-Valois
Spouse(s): (1) Jeanne, daughter of Robert II, duke of Burgundy, and Agnes of France, then (2) Blanche, daughter of Philippe, count of Évreux, and Jeanne II, queen of Navarre
Predecessor: Charles IV
Reign: 1328 – 1350
Summary: With three male first cousins and significant claims from a female first cousin, it was unlikely that Philippe would ever ascend to the French throne. His father, Charles of Valois, had fought for years to secure a throne outside of France, all for naught. Thus, when Charles died, all Philippe had were some French lands in Anjou, Maine, and Valois. False-starts consumed Philippe's earlier years. His cousin, Louis X, died leaving a pregnant wife who bore Jean I, who died a few days later. Then an uncle, rather than a daughter, succeeded, followed by that uncle's brother. In 1328, Charles IV died leaving yet another pregnant wife. When the child was stillborn, the fight was on between Philippe, the senior male claimant to the throne, and Isabella's son, Edward III, the primogeniture heir. Other females were also excluded in order for Philippe to succeed, but the French magnates supported his bid for the throne. Centuries later, this law would be codified as the Salic Law, which forced male-only lines to succeed before any female line could inherit. Resolutions with Navarre, which held the truly legitimate claim to the throne, allowed Philippe to inherit France while Jeanne, his first cousin-once removed, inherited Navarre and vast lands in Normandy.

Even though he was now king, Philippe VI had a lot of problems throughout the early years of his reign. He inherited his cousin's war with Flanders. Conflict with England was common, with disputes over Aquitaine occurring throughout the 1330s and support of Scotland enraging Edward III by 1336. Further disputes ended when Philippe condemned Robert III of Artois to death in 1336 and chased him into England, where Edward III not only offered him refuge, but made him Earl of Richmond. On 24 May 1337, Philippe declared war on England by declaring all English lands in Aquitaine forfeited to the French crown for supporting rebellion and disobedience. The longest continuous war in European history—the Hundred Years' War—had begun. France had many early successes in the war, destroying English lands in France and along the English coast through piracy. At the 1340 Battle of Sluys, the English destroyed the French fleet stationed in Zeeland and the war entered a new phase. The War of the Breton Succession broke out in 1341, which allowed the English to set up base in Brittany in support of one of the claimants. Edward attempted to end the war in 1343 by exchanging Brittany for Aquitaine, but Philippe refused. England then routed the French and invaded Normandy where they burned and sacked much of the countryside. The Battle of Crécy ensued and was an English victory with the French army all but destroyed. The English went on to capture Calais while Philippe limped home to regroup. By the end of his reign, Philippe had lost much of his early gains in the war and Edward III had a firm upper hand in France. The French magnates refused to tax their people for more Valois warmongering and the black death swept through France, killing one-third of the population. Labor shortages caused prices to soar and the country went into an economic crisis. When Philippe married his daughter's betrothed, Blanche of Navarre, the magnates and Philippe's son had had enough. Philippe died in disgrace a year later, having brought perpetual war to France with little to show for it.
Date of Death: 22 August 1350
Successor: Jean II

Other Monarchs Who Died Today:

• Konoe, emperor of Japan (1155)
• Ferdinand II, king of Léon (1188)
• Gregory IX, pope of Rome (1241)
• Nicholas III, pope of Rome (1280)
• John II, count of Hainaut (1304)
• Vladislav II, voivode of Wallachia (1456)
• Richard III, king of England (1485)
• John George II, elector of Saxony (1680)
• Xianfeng, emperor of China (1861)

[August 4] Sebastião, king of Portugal

Parents: João Manuel, crown prince of Portugal, and Joanna of Austria

Date of Birth: 20 January 1554
House: Capet-Burgundy-Aviz-Beja
Predecessor: João III
Reign: 1557 – 1578
Summary: Born into the golden age of Portuguese exploration, it is no wonder that Sebastião had his sights on more things than his progeny. He was born in 1554 and given the highly-unusual name of Sebastião due to being born on the feast day of Saint Sebastian. He was born posthumously to his father, who had been the crown prince. It was not unexpected, then, when three years later, Sebastião became the king of Portugal. His mother left soon after he became king to rule as regent of Castile for her father, Emperor Charles V of Spain. She continued in that role for her brother, Philip II of Spain, when he was away on other business. Joanna never saw her son, Sebastião, again. His regency was handled by his grandmother, Catherine of Austria, and a great-uncle, Cardinal Henrique of Évora. During his minority, Portugal continued to conquer new lands in Angola, Mozambique, Malacca, and in Macau. Catherine was directly in charge of her grandson and raised him as best she could, but he grew up to be impulsive and rebellious. His upbringing was heavily influenced by the Jesuits. His tutor and teachers were all Jesuit priests, and Sebastião became a devout Catholic. He was constantly followed by two members of the Theatine Order whose job was to ensure the chastity of the king. Throughout his teen years, Sebastião almost married the daughter of King Henri II of France, Margaret of Valois, but his indecisiveness lost him the day and the girl married Henry of Navarre instead. Other marriage proposals were all rebuffed and Sebastião never ended up marrying, an event that precipitated the succession crisis of 1580 two years after his death.

Sebastião slowly took direct control over his government beginning in 1568 when he began a scholarship program for impoverished noble children hoping to study medicine at the University of Coimbra. In 1569, he also ordered that all official laws and legal documents in the kingdom be combined and centralized in a collection known as the Leis Extravagantes. When an outbreak of plague occurred that same year, Sebastião requested doctors be sent from Saville and he created two hospitals to treat those afflicted. Sebastião was intensely interested in the well-being of his native allies in Brazil and India, and in 1570 ordered that all natives be released as slaves and treated as normal people. Sebastião was a standardizer, and in 1573 established a system of measurement for solid and liquid goods. This standardization helped in distributing goods to the poor and valuing items for sale. His final legal act was establishing court laws to regulate the time lapse between accusation and trial, and the roles lawyers play in the process. In 1576, the deposed Moroccan sultan, Abu Abdallah Mohammed II Saadi, fled to Portugal and requested help in reclaiming the throne from his uncle, who was backed by the Ottoman Empire. Sebastião attempted to rally support with his cousin in Spain but was declined. Regardless, he ventured to Morocco in front of an army of 17,000 troops including most of Portugal's nobility. At the Battle of Alcácer Quibir, the joint Portuguese-Moroccan army was obliterated by the army of ABu Abdallah's uncle, Abd Al-Malik, who commanded 50,000 men. The Portuguese king was last seen riding into the enemy lines. His body was never found, though Philip II of Spain later received remains that were supposedly Sebastião's. His uncle, Cardinal Henrique, succeeded him to the Portuguese throne. A hope—or rather myth—that Sebastião survived persisted into the 1610s, with four people claiming to be the deceased king. A movement, known as Sebastianism, persisted even longer and is but one apocalyptic tradition of a king that will return at the End of Days.

Date of Death: 4 August 1578
Successor: Henrique

Other Monarchs Who Died Today:

• Henri I, king of France (1060)
• Wenceslaus III, king of Bohemia (1306) 

[July 31] João V, king of Portugal

Surnamed: "The Magnanimous"

Full Name: João Francisco António José Bento Bernardo

Parents: Pedro II, king of Portugal, and Maria Sofia of the Palatine-Neuburg

Date of Birth: 22 October 1689
Royal House: Capet-Burgundy-Avis-Bragança
Spouse: Maria Anna, daughter of Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor, and Eleonore Magdalena of the Palatine-Neuburg
Predecessor: Pedro II
Reign: 1706 – 1750
Summary: A son of the relatively new ruling dynasty in Portugal, João was destined to succeed his father from birth, being the first male born to his father and the long-awaited heir. His father was already elderly when he was born but surprisingly lived another seventeen years, finally dying in 1706. João succeeded his father at that time.

João became involved in politics immediately, sending his general, the Marquês das Minas, into Castile and capturing Madrid briefly for the Grand Alliance. He married a first cousin in 1708 and strengthened his alliance with the Habsburgs who were still slightly miffed about Portugal declaring independence from Spain seventy years earlier. João continued his war with Spain and France for the War of the Spanish Succession until 1713 and 1715 respectively. Gold and diamonds found in Brasil strengthened the Portuguese economy and made João one of the wealthiest monarchs in Europe. The increased funds allowed the king to rule without parliamentary oversight and João never called the Cortes once during his forty-four year reign, ruling as an absolute monarch. Mimicking the court of Louis XVI in France, João centralized his government at the Royal Palace of Mafra and summoned all his high lords to live there, taming the upper nobility. João purchased great works of art from throughout Europe with his vast treasure troves. He expanded the royal library and added original musical manuscripts. Virtually all of these treasures were destroyed by an earthquake and ensuing tsunami and fire in 1755. It was a loss that the art world never truly recovered from. After the Spanish war, João kept Portugal out of European conflicts during his reign, preferring instead to expand the local economy, patronize the arts, and ensure Portugal's continued independence. He spent a large portion of his wealth on ensuring that the church support his family's position. It was only in 1748, though, that Pope Benedict XIV finally recognized the Bragança dynasty as the legitimate rulers of Portugal, bestowing upon them the title "Most Faithful King." But by that time, João had already removed himself from politics, having suffered a minor stroke in 1742 which left him partially paralyzed. The government and centralization began to fall apart in his last years as they were directly dependent on a strong absolute monarch, which João was failing to be. The aging king died in 1750 and his son, José, succeeded him to the throne.

Date of Death: 31 July 1750
Successor: José

Other Monarchs Who Died Today:

• Na'od, emperor of Ethiopia (1508)
• Kien Phuc, emperor of Vietnam (1884)
• Baudouin I, king of Belgium (1993)
• Friedrich Franz, pretender to Mecklenburg-Schwerin (2001)

[July 16] Charles I, king of Hungary & Croatia

Parents: Charles, duke of Anjou, and Klementia of Habsburg

Date of Birth: 1288
Royal House: Capet-Anjou-Hungary
Spouse: (1) Maria, daughter of Casimir of Byton and Helena, then (2) Beatrix, daughter of Henry VII, Holy Roman Emperor, and Margaret of Brabant, then (3) Elisabeth, daughter of Wladyslaw I, king of Poland, and Hedwig of Kalisz

Predecessor: Béla V
Reign: 1312 –  1342
Summary: As circumstances go, Charles' claim to the Hungarian crown in 1312 was strong, but distant. His grandmother was the sister of Ladislaus IV. When he died, she claimed the crown but a distant cousin, Andrew III, was given it instead. Fearing that Hungary was not ready to crown a female its monarch, Mary designated her son, Charles Martel, her heir in 1292. He was also the heir to Naples. He died in 1295 and Charles inherited the rights to Hungary. Meanwhile, King Charles II of Naples appointed his younger son, rather than his elder grandson, Charles, his heir, thereby dividing the Anjou inheritance before they could ever be combined. Charles trucked around Central Europe for most of his life. In 1300, a Hungarian magnate invited him to Hungary to take the crown since no king had been universally recognized since the death of Ladislaus IV in 1290. When the rival king, Andrew III, died the next year, Charles was crowned king of Hungary, but the majority of the magnates chose Wenceslaus instead. Despite King Wenceslaus fleeing Hungary in 1305, the magnates would still not support Charles' rule. Wenceslaus abdicated in favor of Otto III, duke of Bavaria, and Otto was crowned in December. Meanwhile, Charles began aggressively conquering Hungary, seeing no other option left to them. Otto eventually fled to abandoning Hungary to the House of Anjou, yet still the magnates would not give up the Holy Crown. Eventually Pope Clement V had to force some of the major magnates to support him, and even had a replacement crown made since the prince of Transylvania would not release the official crown. Charles was crowned for a third time in 1310. By 1312, he was recognized by much of the kingdom, though some segments of society still rebelled against his authority. In 1316 he had to face a rival claim but they were put down by the next year. When Máté Csák died in 1321, Charles could finally go about the business of running his kingdoms.


Once secure in power, Charles began by restoring certain royal prerogatives to avoid future problems with the aristocracy. He created an honor system of rewards to faithful servants that could be withdrawn if he became displeased. Charles controlled inflation by creating new and creative taxes and minting some coins. By the 1330s, Hungary was minting more gold coins than any country in Europe. He worked with Poland and Bohemia to establish a mutual defense agreement against Habsburg aggression. The Congress of Visegrád where the final details were established was also one of the first joint congresses of European monarchs. He also worked with Poland and the Papacy to ensure that one of his sons inherited Poland while another inherited Naples once the current monarchs died. He attempted to secure his borders by pushing into Wallachia, Bulgaria, Serbia, and Bosnia, and then converting its residents to Catholicism from Greek Orthodoxy. This backfired in the long run, though, as Wallachia went into open rebellion and the other three states had smaller disputes. Charles moves in the Balkans helped the Ottoman Empire capture much of the region fifty years later because Charles decentralized and divided the people.  Charles died in 1342 and his son, Louis, succeeded him.

Date of Death: 16 July 1342
Successor: Louis I

Other Monarchs Who Died Today:

• Inoocent III, pope of Rome (1216)
• Go-Uda, emperor of Japan (1324)
• Yu Gu, pretender to Korea (2005)

[July 14] Philippe II, king of France

Surnamed: "Auguste (Augustus)" and "Dieudonné (God-given)"
Parents: Louis VII, king of France, and Adèle of Champagne

Date of Birth: 21 August 1165
Royal House: Capet
Spouse: (1) Isabella, daughter of Baldwin V, count of Hainaut, and Margaret I, countess of Flanders, then (2) Ingeborg, daughter of Valdemar I, king of Denmark, and Sofia of Minsk, then (3) Agnes, daughter of Bertold IV, count of Andechs, and Agnes of Rocklitz

Predecessor: Louis VII
Reign: 1180 – 1223
Summary: Philippe was born late in the life of his father, giving him his first surname: "God-given". His father, Louis VII, had him crowned co-king at the age of fourteen and married him to Isabella of Hainaut the next year. This brought the county of Artois into the French domain. From the time of his coronation onwards, he was the true king of France. His father was ailing after having suffered a stroke, and slowly became senile. Philippe was still a very young ruler who exercised complete power, angering his nobles and family members alike. When his father died in 1180, his consolidation of power was complete.

Philippe II was an army-builder and fought hard to avoid falling back on his nobles. His royal army at the time of his ascension was composed of around 3,000 soldiers. By the end of his reign, he could call upon more than 20,000 soldiers and his navy included 10 fleet ships and many smaller boats. His victory over the count of Flanders in 1181 earned him his infamous nickname "Augustus" because of his expansion of the French domain. Throughout his life, he would continue to uphold that nickname. When Henry the Young King of England died in 1183, Philippe insisted that his lands, all French, be returned to France. A war was avoided when Henry's widow, Margaret, was married to Béla III of Hungary, forcing the dower to be transferred. But when English royal duke, Geoffrey II of Brittany, died in 1186, Philippe insisted that the duke's son, Arthur, should be placed under the guardianship of France rather than England. War naturally followed although nothing was resolved. Philippe at first allied with Richard the Lionheart and John Lackland, two sons of the English monarch. Over the next three years, Richard and Philippe would ravage England's lands, forcing King Henry II of England to acknowledge Richard as his heir before dying in 1189. Henry's death coincided with the fall of Jerusalem to Saladin, and with that the short Franco-English War ended. Philippe and Richard ventured to the Holy Land together on the Third Crusade between 1189 and 1192. Once in Palestine, Philippe became ill with dysentery while Richard became the hero of Acre. The two finally split over political and military disagreements and Philippe returned to France. With Richard still away, Philippe took advantage of the king's absence and began his reconquest of Western France. He gained the support of Prince John and invaded Normandy. He made significant progress until Richard returned in 1194 eager to fight the French king. The two kings played cat-and-mouse for a number of months before finally agreeing to a truce. The two resumed the fight in 1195 then agreed to another truce. When Count Baldwin of Flanders switched to the English side in 1197, the tide finally turned against the French. The new Holy Roman Emperor Otto IV was Richard's nephew and ally, and many Norman lords were returning to Richard. By 1198, Richard had reclaimed almost all of his lost lands and Philippe was desperate for a peace treaty. Richard died before a truce could be decided upon. In 1200, King John of England agreed to the Treaty of Le Goulet that ended the war and settled boundaries between France and Normandy. John's mismanagement of Aquitaine caused the entire duchy to rise in rebellion  in 1201. Philippe supported the rebellion and then went back into open warfare with England following the death of Duke Arthur of Brittany, the legitimate heir to England. By 1204, most of Normandy and Aquitaine were in French hands. When John refused to travel to Paris and account for the murder of Arthur, Philippe used his power as French overlord to forcibly take John's French lands away. When the Holy Roman Empire broke out into civil war following the death of Philip of Swabia in 1208, Philippe took the initiative and attempted to invade England. While he was never given the opportunity, he was able to briefly install his son, Louis, as the English king until John died a few months later and John's son, Henry III, was nominated as king. The last ten years of Philippe's life were spent resolving the Champagne succession issue and improving Paris. He built the Louvre and continued the construction of Notre-Dame while also approving the charter for the University of Paris. He was a wine connoisseur and commissioned the Battle of the Wines in 1224. He died a year earlier and was buried in Saint Denis Basilica, the resting place of all French monarchs. His son, Louis, succeeded him.

Date of Death: 14 July 1223
Successor: Louis VIII

Other Monarchs Who Died Today:

• Arnulf, duke of Bavaria (937)

[June 16] Marie, princess of Neuchâtel

Parents: Henri II, duke of Longueville, and Louise de Bourbon-Estouteville

Date of Birth: 5 March 1625

House: Valois-Orléans-Longueville

Spouse: Henri II, duke of Nemours

Predecessor: John Louis Charles

Reign: 1694 – 1707

Summary: The line of the Longueville dukes was well known and respected in France despite being descended from an illegitimate son of Louis I, duke of Orléans, the younger son of King Charles V of France. Marie's father, Henri II, was a peer of France and served as the governor of Picardy and Normandy during the civil war known as the Fronde. In 1648, in his capacity as prince of Neuchâtel, Henri II finalized the removal of the Swiss Confederation from the Habsburg-controlled Holy Roman Empire. Thus, the Neuchâtel that Marie inherited from her three brothers in 1694 was wholly independent of any external power save the loose confederation of Swiss Cantons that surrounded it. While the rights to Longueville went extinct with the death of her youngest brother, Jean Louis Charles,  upon his death, Neuchâtel remained a family possession ruled by the only daughter of the line, Marie. 

Marie ruled her small principality from the safety of France. In 1657, she had married Henri of Savoy, the duke of Nemours. He died only two years later leaving her alone and childless. Much of her remaining fifty years were spent fighting for control over her marriage lands which she had a right to until death. Her stepmother did not help the matter as she fought for the rights of her own daughters to Neuchâtel and Longueville. Distraught, Marie spent all of her thirteen-year reign in Paris, writing memoirs and reporting on Parisian news to an early weekly gazette. It is unlikely that Marie ever visited Neuchâtel while she was its princess, being in her seventies and eighties. She may have visited it earlier in life, though. When she died in 1707, the rights to the territory passed to Frederick I, king in Prussia, whole ruled the territory in dynastic union until Napoléon Bonaparte deposed his descendant some hundred years later. Neuchâtel finally joined the Swiss Confederation as a full member in 1814. It became a republic in 1848 deposing the reinstated Hohenzollern monarch.

Date of Death: 16 June 1707

Successor: Frederick I

Other Monarch Deaths:

Christian, duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg-Wolfenbüttel (1623)

[June 15] Philip III, duke of Burgundy

Surnamed: "The Good"
Parents: John II, duke of Burgundy, and Margaret of Bavaria

Date of Birth: 31 July 1396

House: Valois-Burgundy

Spouse: (1) Michelle, daughter of Charles VI, king of France, and Isabella of Bavaria-Ingolstadt, then (2) Bonne, daughter of Philip, count of Eu, and Marie, duchess of Auvergne, then (3) Isabella, daughter of John I, king of Portugal, and Philippa of Lancaster

Predecessor: John II (in Burgundy

Reign: 1419 – 1467

Summary: Philip may well be the most important figure in Burgundian history due to his inheritance of much of the Low Countries during his reign. He was married at the age of four to a French princess and, after she died, married two more women in quick succession. Only his third marriage, to a Portuguese princess, did he produce any children and only one, Charles, survived to succeed him. Philip, however, had at least eighteen illegitimate children, some of whom rose to prominence in the clergy. When Philip's father was assassinated in 1419, Philip became duke of Burgundy and count of Flanders, Artois and Franche-Comté. Since he suspected French involvement in the assassination, Philip allied himself with England during the Hundred Years' War.

Philip became famous in 1430 for capturing Joan of Arc at Compiègne and handing her over to the English where she was tried and burned at the stake for heresy. However, he largely stayed out of the war and eventually, in 1435, decided in favor of Charles VII as king of France against the claims of the English. In 1429, he purchased the marquisate of Namur, followed in 1432 with the conquest of Hainault, Holland, Frisia, and Zealand in what was known as the Hook and Cod War. The duchies of Brabant and Limburg as well as the margraviate of Antwerp were inherited in 1430, and Luxembourg was purchased in 1443. Many years later, in 1456, Philip installed his son as bishop of Utrecht and his nephew as prince-bishop of Liège. Thus, Philip controlled an area encompassing most of what is today Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg in one vast territory that became known as the Burgundian Inheritance. Philip's fame comes not entirely from his military conquests or expansion, but also from his famous royal court. The court of Burgundy flourished during his reign and the duke regularly changed capitals. His court was known as the most splendid in Europe and between the arts and the luxuries, it is no wonder that alliances with Burgundy were regularly sought. Philip died in 1467 after having fought a short war with France to ensure the succession of his son, Charles, who later became known as Charles the Bold and was the penultimate Valois dukes of Burgundy.

Date of Death: 15 June 1467

Successor: Charles

Other Monarch Deaths:

Robert I, king of France (923)

Go-Sanjo, emperor of Japan (1073)

Frederick II, duke of Austria (1246)

Andronikos III, emperor of Constantinople (1341)

John VI, emperor of Constantinople (1383)

Murad I, sultan of the Ottoman Empire (1389)

Frederick III, emperor of Germany (1888)

[May 28] Afonso IV, king of Portugal

Surnamed: "The Brave"

Parents: Denis, king of Portugal, and Elizabeth of Aragon

Date of Birth: 8 February 1291

House: Capet-Burgundy
Spouse: Beatrice, daughter of Sancho IV, king of Castile, and Maria de Molina

Predecessor: Denis

Reign: 1325 - 1357

Summary: Born in Lisbon, he was the eldest but less favored son of King Denis of Portugal. An illegitimate son of the king curried more favor and it took all of Afonso's power to secure the throne for himself. Civil wars between Afonso and his brother were commonplace before his coronation. When Afonso became king, he sentenced his brother to exile in Castile, stripping him of all lands and titles. For many years, his brother continued to incite rebellions in Portugal until the two finally signed a peace treaty.

During Afonso's lifetime, new alliances were formed with Castile. Afonso himself married a Castilian princess in 1309, and he married his daughter, Maria, to a Castilian king in 1328. His son, Pedro, was betrothed to a Castilian princess as well. Portugal then went to war with Castile because the king, Alfonso XI, was abusing Afonso's daughter, Maria. The two Iberian powers finally came to terms in 1339 and the next year, they led a joint invasion of Moorish Iberia (Southern Spain). During the later years of his reign, Castilian exiles flooded into Portugal fleeing from the civil war between Pedro the Cruel of Castile and his half-brother Henry of Trastamara. When Afonso's son, Pedro, openly acknowledged a Castilian heiress as his mistress, the political intrigue in Portugal reached its height. Aging, Afonso was unable to stop his son from making a mockery of his court. Pedro's illegitimate children with Ines de Castro grew in power and authority within Portugal while Pedro's legitimate son, Fernando, remained sickly.  In 1355, Afonso had enough. He had Ines executed. Pedro responded by  taking control of the military and devastating Portugal. The two only reconciled in 1357, and Afonso died only days later. Afonso's only real contribution to the future of Portugal was the enlargement and state financing of the Portuguese navy, which in the next century would reach India under Vasco da Gama. The Age of Exploration began during his reign, though discoveries only came years later.

Date of Death: 28 May 1357

Successor: Pedro I

Other Monarch Deaths:

Caterina, countess of Forli (1509)

Saito Dosan, daimyo of Japan (1556)

Sakuramachi, emperor of Japan (1750)

Edward VIII, king of the United Kingdom (1972)

[May 12] Joan I, queen of Naples

Parents: Charles, duke of Calabria, and Marie of Valois

Date of Birth: 1328

House: Capet-Anjou
Spouse: (1) Andrew, duke of Calabria, then (2) Louis, prince of Taranto, then (3) James IV, king of Majorça, then (4) Otto, duke of Brunswick-Grubenhagen

Predecessor: Robert

Reign: 1343 – 1382

Summary: Joan was the granddaughter of Robert, king of Naples, and as such she was second-in-line after her father, Charles. Her mother was the sister of Philip VI of France and thus Joan was both French and Neapolitan. When she was seven, she was betrothed to another member of the house of Anjou, Andrew, whose claim to the throne of Naples was nearly as strong as her own. When her grandfather died in 1343, he bequeathed the whole of the kingdom to Joan, not even mentioning her husband. The crown was to pass to her sister, Maria, if she were to die without issue. Joan was crowned the sole monarch of Naples in 1344 but after a petition from her mother-in-law, she allowed Andrew to be crowned king consort the next year. Unfortunately for Andrew, he was murdered in 1345 before he could receive his crown. She was pregnant at the time of his murder and the queen quickly found a new spouse in her cousin, Louis. Joan's reign was off to a politically hostile start.

Her reign was dominated by rivalries between the Neapolitan and Hungarian branches of the House of Anjou. The murder of Andrew, of the Hungarian branch, brought a Hungarian army to Naples. Joan only survived by fleeing to France and then selling her rights to Avignon to the pope, thereby ensuring his support. A new trial was arranged regarding Andrew's assassination and Joan was acquitted. Louis was finally crowned king consort in 1353. When the Western Schism broke out within the Papacy, Joan supported the French, adopting Louis, yet another cousin and the son of King John II of France, as her heir. This choice caused the legitimate pope, Urban VI, to declare her a heretic and he forfeited her kingdom to Charles of Durazzo, her niece's husband. Joan decided to remove Louis from the succession and replace him with another Louis, this one the brother of King Charles V of France. But Charles Durazzo felt increased safety in this decision because Louis could not mount a proper attack at the time. Durazzo went on to become king of Naples in 1381 as Charles III, in opposition to Joan who was still alive at the time. Joan's fourth husband, Otto, failed to hold off the Hungarian troops as they marched on Naples. She finally was forced to surrender the city to Charles in August 1381. Fearing an uprising, Charles had Joan killed in 1382 for her murder of Andrew. Her death prompted a century of recurring warfare in Naples over the lawful succession to the throne. She left no children

Date of Death: 12 May 1382

Successor: Charles III

Other Monarch Deaths:

Silvester II, pope of Rome (1003)

Sergius IV, pope of Rome (1012)

Thomas, despot of Morea (1465)

Adolf Frederick II, duke of Macklenburg-Strelitz (1708)