[December 1] Alexander I, emperor of Russia

Local Name: Aleksandr I Pavlovich (Александр I Павлович)
Soubriquet: "The Blessed" (Blagoslovennyi)
Parents: Paul, emperor of Russia, and Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg
Date of Birth: 23 December 1777
House: Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov
Spouse(s): Louise Elizabeth Alexeievna, daughter of Charles Louis of Baden and Amalie of Hesse-Darmstadt
Predecessor: Paul

Reign: 1801 – 1825
Brief: The only European monarch to have defeated Emperor Napoleon I at his own game, Alexander was raised by his autocratic grandmother, Catherine the Great, and by a French enlightenment tutor, Frédéric-César de La Harpe, embracing both philosophies in an unnatural amalgam. When his father was assassinated in March 1801, possibly with his own collusion, Alexander set on a campaign of governmental reform and centralization. He also turned Russia on a course toward constitutional monarchy, establishing an upper chamber of Lords and reforming the Governing Senate into his Supreme  Court. After first recognizing Napoleon as leader of the French Republic, Alexander realized that Napoleon was an autocrat and against basic freedoms. The young emperor rallied together an alliance with his neighbors but found himself along in 1807 when France defeated Austria. The two countries made peace, with plans to divide Europe in half between them, but over the course of the next five years, these plans fell apart and the two countries again prepared for war. Napoleon invaded Russia in 1812 and burned Moscow before his army was utterly devastated on its long return to France. From the end of the war until the end of his life, Alexander became increasingly autocratic, abandoning much of his love for enlightenment philosophy and instead embracing the methods of Klemens Wenzel von Metternich, the Austrian prime minister. Emperor Alexander I died in 1825 after catching a cold which developed into typhus. His wife died a few months later. Legends suggest that Alexander actually lived and continued his life as a hermit until 1864, living under the name Feodor Kuzmich, who was sainted by the Russian Orthodox Church in 1984.
Date of Death: 1 December 1825

Successor: Nicholas I

Other Monarchs Who Died Today:

• Henry I, king of England (1135)
• Magnus II, king of Sweden (1377)
• Go-Komatsu, emperor of Japan (1433)
• Leo X, pope of Rome (1521)
• Pius VIII, pope of Rome (1830)

[July 17] St. Nicholas II, emperor of Russia

Full Name: Nikolay II, Nikolay Alexandrovich Romanov (Николай II, Николай Александрович Романов)
Surnamed: "The Martyr"
Parents: Alexander III, emperor of Russia, and Dagmar of Denmark

Date of Birth: 18 May 1868
Royal House: Oldenburg-Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov
Spouse: Alix, daughter of Louis IV, grand duke of Hesse, and Alice of the United Kingdom

Predecessor: Alexander III
Reign: 1894 — 1917
Summary: To summarize the life and many failures of Czar Nicholas II of Russia is an impossible task. Born to the German family that ruled Russia in the name of Romanov, Nicholas was the eldest son of Czar Alexander III. His cousins included his wife, Alix, Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany, and George V of the United Kingdom. He became the tsarevich (crown prince) upon the death of his grandfather, Alexander II, in 1881. He was sent in 1890 to Siberia where he witnessed the opening ceremony for the Trans-Siberian Railway. He then went on a world-tour that included Japan and much of Europe. Nicholas insisted on marrying Alix, the daughter of the Hessian grand duke, in 1894 and, reluctantly, his parents allowed it. But Russian society frowned on the marriage of the first cousins since Alix was German and viewed as an enemy of Russia. She maintained her Lutheran faith to the chagrin of many a Russian, but she never became popular. Alexander III unexpectedly died in late 1894 and Nicholas was thrust into the emperorship. Despite twenty-six years of upbringing, Nicholas was not prepared to lead Russia and, as many would discover, he would never really gain a knack for it.


Nicholas's first major mistake was denouncing thoughts of democracy in Russia. He chose instead to stick to the conservative position of his forefathers. When local assemblies popped up throughout Russia, Nicholas openly objected to him proclaiming his desire to retain the Russian autocracy. For the first decade of his reign, little changed in Russia. The gold standard was re-adopted allowing the national currency to undergo some much-needed reforms. The Trans-Siberian Railway was completed allowing direct trade with the Far East. In diplomacy, the relationship with France was increased and heavily emphasized. Things went sour in 1904 when the Russian fleet was suddenly attacked by Japan. The ensuing Russo-Japanese War cost Russia its Pacific fleet. Only American mediation ended a war that Nicholas refused to admit that he lost. Riots soon followed in 1905 leading to Bloody Sunday on January 9. Protesters marching peacefully through St. Petersburg were attacked by Russian infantry, killing 92 and wounding hundreds. Many fled and protests against Nicholas popped up throughout the Empire for the next thirteen years. After the riots, Nicholas decreed that he would allow basic civil liberties in Russia and allow a popular assembly, though he would retain ultimate oversight. It took three sessions of the assembly before Nicholas would tolerate its oversight, and, even still, he always kept a cautious eye on it. In his personal life, the successive births of four daughters caused Nicholas much worry of the succession. In 1904, his son, Alexei, was finally born, but his case of hemophilia B meant that he would probably never live long enough to produce offspring. His fate in 1918 ended any problems related to his succession. When Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in Sarajevo in 1914, Nicholas eventually declared a mass mobilization of Russia, setting the course of Europe toward war. When Austria declared war soon after, the European alliances were initiated and Russia joined the Allies against the Central Powers. Throughout the war, Russia would never defeat the Germans in open battle, though successes against Austria and Ottoman Turkey were much more frequent. Though Russia had the largest army in the war, it slowly was whittled away by a triple front of Austria, Germany, and Turkey. Russia would not survive this war of attrition. Nicholas was frequently near the front lines leaving his wife, Alix, and his advisor, Grigori Rasputin, ruling the country. But people did not trust Rasputin and Alix was distrusted for being German. Run-away inflation and impossibly high food prices mixed with severe winters and broken railways caused the entire Russian population to rise in rebellion. Over the course of 1917, the Romanov family was imprisoned by an upstart Provisional Government led by the former Russian assembly and the Soviet. Both demanded the resignation of Nicholas which he finally agreed to on 15 March 1917, passing the throne to his brother, Michael. 


Michael soon after declined the throne and the Bolsheviks took control over Russia. The revolution in Russia gave the United States impetus to join the war, feeling that it was now a part of a democratic alliance. Nicholas attempted to go into exile to the United Kingdom but the Provisional Government decided to keep the family in Russian custody, moving them to the Ural Mountains. When the Bolsheviks took control of the government later that year, the Romanovs could do little. Vladimir Lenin, the new leader of the government, viewed the Romanovs as a threat to their government. In mid-July, the family was taken to the basement of a former governor's mansion and privately executed. Nicholas was shot three times in the chest. His four daughters survived the initial attack but were soon after speared with bayonets then shot in the head. The others in the room were killed indiscriminately in the first round of firing. The remains of all seven family members were only identified in 2008. Czar Nicholas was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church as a martyr in 2000. While he is still considered a weak and poor ruler, he has also been seen as a victim of his times.

Date of Death: 17 July 1918
Successor: Cyril (as pretender)

Other Monarchs Who Died Today:

• Uthman, caliph of Sunni Islam (656)
• Edward (I) the Elder, king of Wessex (924)
• Baldwin VI, count of Flanders (1070)
• Dmitry Shemyaka, grand prince of Moscow (1453)
• Tu Duc, emperor of Vietnam (1883)

[March 18] Magnus, king of Livonia

The region of Livonia before it became a kingdom in 1570

Parents: Christian III, king of Denmark, and Dorothea of Saxe-Lauenburg

Date of Birth: 14 August 1540

House: Oldenburg

Reign: 1570 – 1578

Summary: Born to the Danish Oldenburg family in Copenhagen, Magnus was the second son of the reigning king of Denmark. He spent much of his early adult years in Germany, touring German courts. In 1559, the prince-bishop of Ösel-Wiek in Livonia sold his lands to Frederick II, the brother of Magnus and new king of Denmark. The king deeded these lands to Magnus but forced the prince in exchange to renounce his rights to the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein which were hereditary in the Oldenburg family. Magnus agreed and in 1560 arrived in Ösel-Wiek with a small army and was proclaimed bishop. The problem was that the Russians had already invaded parts of Livonia in 1558 and were pushing ever westward toward Magnus's holdings. Magnus responded by purchasing the nearby Bishopric of Courland without permission of his brother. He also began pushing into neighboring states which threatened Swedish security. A new war broke out known as the Nordic Seven Years' War which raged until 1570. Magnus's territories were in the midst of the fighting and he was relatively powerless to do anything. During this time, his allegiance to his brother began to waver. Ivan IV of Russia finally decided to act and annexed all of Livonia in exchange for promoting Magnus to king of the territory. Magnus arrived in Moscow on 10 June 1570 to accept the Livonian crown.

Magnus, thus, became a vassal of the Russian Empire but all of Livonia was not in Russian or Livonian hands. Magnus returned to his newly raised kingdom with an army of 20,000 Russian soldiers to attempt the conquest of the remainder of Livonia from the Swedes. Within a year, Magnus began to regret his move and gave up on his siege of the Swedes. The support from his brother was failing as Ivan increasingly looked to be the worst of his two foes. In 1577, Magnus attempted to go independent of both Denmark and Russia. Ivan responded by attacking the king and taking him prisoner. When Magnus was released the next year by the king of Poland, Stefan Batory, he was forced to renounce all his titles and give them to the Poles. Magnus spent the last years of his life in exile in Courland where he died a vassal of the Polish king. In 1662, his body was returned to Denmark and reburied at Roskilde Cathedral.

Date of Death: 18 March 1583

Other Monarchs Who Died Today:

• Alexander Severus, emperor of Rome (235)
• Edward the Martyr, king of England (978)
• Honorius III, pope of Rome (1227)
• Ivan IV, tsar of Russia (1584)
• George I, king of Greece (1913)
• Farouk I, king of Egypt (1965)
• Umberto II, king of Italy (1983)
• Shenouda III, pope of the Egyptian Coptic Orthodox Church (2012)
• George Tupou V, king of Tonga (2012)

[February 12] Adolf Frederick, king of Sweden

Parents: Christian August, prince of Eutin, and Albertina Frederica of Baden-Durlach

Date of Birth: 12 February 1710

Royal House: Oldenburg-Holstein-Gottorp

Spouse: Louisa Ulrika, daughter of Frederick William I, king in Prussia, and Sophia Dorothea of Hanover

Reign: 1751 – 1771

Predecessor: Frederick I

Summary: Adolf Frederick came to the throne in a time when the Swedish parliament, the Riksdag, controlled the government. His father was the prince-bishop of Lubeck and ruled the Holstein-Gottorp during the Great Northern War. Despite a fair descent from many German families as well as the British royal house, Adolf Frederick was not meant to rule. He was elected heir to the throne by a faction of the Riksdag so that negotiations with Russia would go smoother. Elizabeth of Russia accepted his nephew as her heir in return and the two countries made peace in the Treaty of Turku.

As king, Adolf Frederick served as the figurehead of a parliamentary government. He was not content to stay a passive entity in his own kingdom, but he had little power or ability to break out of his shell. Twice he attempted to leave his estates in order to arrange a coup d'etat, and both times he failed. His wife, Louisa Ulrika, was the fiery daughter of the Prussian king and encouraged him in his efforts to assert himself. He almost lost the throne during his first attempt. His son, Gustav, supported his second coup attempt and succeeded in overthrowing the senate, but could not rally enough support to reinstate absolute rule. The king was a portly and unhealthy man and his death was famous for its extravagance. His final meal consisted of lobster, caviar, sauerkraut, kippers, champaign and fourteen servings of his favorite dessert, semla, served in a bowl of hot milk. Today he is remembered by Swedish schoolchildren as "the king who ate himself to death." 

Date of Death: 12 February 1771

Successor: Gustav III

Other Monarchs Who Died Today:

• Jane Grey, queen of England & Ireland (1554)

Royal Weddings and Curious Titles (William & Kate Wedding)

William and Kate

 It has been two weeks now since Prince William and Kate Middleton married at Westminster Abbey, yet questions continued to be raised regarding various aspects of the royal wedding and, in particular, the status of the couple in the royal hierarchy. I, therefore, hope to answer some of these persistent questions so all of us become better informed.

Why is Prince William now called the Duke of Cambridge?
Hours before the marriage ceremony, the queen endowed upon her grandson the titles of Duke of Cambridge, Earl of Strathearn and Baron Carrickfergus. Since Duke of Cambridge is the most preeminent of those titles, it is the one he thereby takes as his own.

Isn't a duke inferior to a prince?
 
William, Duke of Cambridge

 In this context, no. There has always been confusion regarding the title "prince". Technically speaking, any child of a monarch could be called a prince or princess. It is a default title denoting a recent descent from royalty. As the eldest son of the son of the reigning queen of England, William is, quite logically, a prince. However, his title doesn't really mean anything. It is a courtesy given to someone who has no other inherent titles. In contrast, his new title Duke of Cambridge is an official title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom and as such grants him certain rights and privileges. Historically, it would grant him lands, a seat in the House of Lords, and the right to attend the royal court. Now it is mostly a titular title with little power, but it is still superior to the simple title "prince". It should be noted, though, that he doesn't lose the the title "prince," it just isn't as important as "Duke of Cambridge".

As a quick aside, royal dukes hold a special place in British history. Most sons of the monarch become a duke. Charles is technically Duke of Cornwall, a title that the eldest male gets upon birth, and Andrew is the Duke of York. Edward, oddly, is styled the Earl of Wessex, but that title holds an historic legacy in Britain and is the highest earldom available to bestow in Britain. Duchies provide income from a small tax to their landowners even today.

But Charles is a prince, right?
 
Charles, Prince of Wales, Duke of Cornwall, et al.

 Prince Charles is indeed a prince, but he is a different type of prince than the courtesy title bestowed on all children of royals. Charles is the "Prince of Wales", which is an actual title. It is granted at some point to the eldest child to denote that they are next in line to the throne. Historically, the title presumed ownership of the Principality of Wales, an occupied country west of England. But during the reign of Henry VIII, Wales was permanently appended to England and the title became nothing more than that. It holds no official place in the British peerage, although the bearer of the title also is usually the Duke of Cornwall and thus the head of the peerage. Wales used to give a tax to the Prince but it no longer does since it technically doesn't exist separate from England. In any case, Charles is the Prince of Wales, technically a sovereign of a foreign land, which is very different than a royal prince.

Why is Charles' wife called Duchess of Cornwall, then? Shouldn't she be Princess of Wales?
 
Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall

Camilla is, in fact, the Princess of Wales. But out of respect for her step-children, William and Harry, and the memory of Charles' much-loved first wife, Diana, she chose (or Charles chose for her) to use a different title. The next highest title in Charles' collection is Duke of Cornwall, the place where he makes the majority of his income, so Camilla is the Duchess of Cornwall. If Charles and Camilla were to have any children, they would still be in the line of succession behind William and Harry.

So why isn't Kate a princess?
She is! Kate Middleton became a princess as soon as she was married to Prince William. Haven't you ever seen a Disney movie? There are two ways to become a prince or a princess: you can be born one or you can marry one. When Kate married William, she became Princess Catherine.

But why does everyone call her the Duchess of Cambridge?
Because that is a stronger title than princess. Just as Prince William has taken the title Duke of Cambridge, Kate has become the Duchess of Cambridge. Even for married peers, a royal duchess is better than a royal princess because it comes with benefits.

But why Cambridge?
 
Cambridge

Why not? Cambridge is a respectable town in England famous for its university. As a duchy, it was last held by the grandson of George III through his seventh son, Adolphus. The title went extinct in 1904. It had previously been granted to George Louis, who became George I of Great Britain, as well as four sons of James II, all of whom died in infancy. Cambridge was also created as a marquessate in 1917 for the queen's brother, Adolphus. That line ended in 1981 when George Francis died without issue.

And what about Strathern and Carrickfergus?
Having an English title makes William a bit too pro-England for the likes of Scotland and Ireland. And so William was also granted subsidiary titles in those two realms. He was created Earl of Strathern which was an ancient earldom in Scotland dating from around the 1130s or earlier. In recent history, it has been created into a duchy but always dependent on another duchy, usually Cumberland or Kent. The last such duchy was Connaught and Strathearn, whose last holder died in 1942. The title Baron Carrickfergus is a minor one, at best, and represents a region in Northern Ireland. The title was only used once before, from 1841 and 1883, after which it went extinct. Together, William's three tiles represent his claims to England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, with his eventual title of Prince of Wales giving him Wales as well.

Can Kate become Queen of England?
 
 Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge

Yes and no. There has always been confusion in the United States about queens. The current ruling monarch of the United Kingdom is Queen Elizabeth II. She is queen because she has no brothers and she was the eldest child of the former king, George VI. The UK still uses male-preference primogeniture for their succession system, which favors sons, but that doesn't mean women can't rule. Kate, however, is not the eldest daughter of a son-less monarch, nor even the granddaughter. She is married to the eldest son of the eldest son of the monarch. Assuming all goes well, William will someday become King William V of the United Kingdom. Kate will then become Queen Catherine. But she will not be a ruling queen, but rather a queen consort—the spouse of the king. Her power will rest entirely in William's power, and if he predeceases her, she will become Queen Mother and their eldest son (or eldest daughter if they have no sons) will become the next monarch.

But isn't Queen Elizabeth married?
 
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh

 Yes she is. She is married to Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Just like Kate, he is a prince because he married royalty. However, it was decided during the reign of Queen Anne back in 1702 that the husbands of ruling queens should not be called "king". In those days, kings had a lot of power and queens did not. Thus, if the queen wanted to rule uncontested, she had to marginalize her spouse in the realm of monarchical politics. What Anne, Victoria, and Elizabeth II all did was grant their spouses titles and jobs, maintaining them much in the same way that a king treats his queen consort. Indeed, only one "King Consort" has ever existed in England, and that was from 1555 until 1558. Queen Mary I (Bloody Mary) named her husband, Philip of Spain, king consort and delegated some powers to him, much to the dismay of England's Protestants.

Will William and Kate's children be eligible for the crown?
Of course! They are the children of a legally married royal couple. People often talk about Kate as a "commoner" but that doesn't make children ineligible in England. Most royals these days marry into the nobility, some into foreign royalty, but marring into the peasantry isn't unknown and it certainly doesn't stop people from inheriting the throne.

Why did William decide not to wear a wedding ring?
Because he didn't want to. Being in the military may have something to do with it, but royals, just like anyone else, can choose to wear or not to wear a wedding ring. Whether Kate agreed with William's decision is up in the air, but William has every right to refuse to wear a ring.


I think that will be all for now. If anyone has any further questions regarding the wedding, please feel free to comment here. I will reply as soon as possible with an answer. Until next time, cheers!

When Dynasties Grow on Trees (Dynastic Trees)

I have been working on a project off and on for quite a while now regarding Dynastology. Since I don't have my usual amount of time today to talk about a specific dynasty anyway, it seems appropriate to discuss my new concept. It's called a Dynastic Tree. In many ways, it is the same as a family tree, except that it charts all the branches of a family (the entire family) rather than specific people. Last week in my final Oldenburg post, I showed my first such tree. It was a rather poor example, though, because the Oldenburg family was a quite expansive (wide) family, with many branches over its generations. I guess it was actually a fairly good example, but it didn't really fit on the page. A little later, I will provide a link to view the larger tree.

Now, the purpose of a Dynastic Tree is to document the development, expanse, and Salic inheritance of a specific dynasty. It could easily be adapted to other systems as well, but my examples thus far have been focused on Germanic Salic Law (male-line) dynasties. The most important function of the chart, and the easiest visual aspect of it, is to determine seniority between family branches. The senior line is always to the extreme left, while lines of decreasing importance are to the right.

Enough conceptual talking, let's look at a tree:

The House of Habsburg Family Tree

Above we see the Illustrious House of Habsburg. Now, the House of Habsburg is an extinct house, and I will explain shortly how that is noted on this tree. Extant houses appear differently and that will be explained later. On this tree, it begins with an upward arrow indicating that the family's origins go back into the distant past. All Dynastic Trees begin this way since no family is spontaneous but has some distant origin. The lines then proceed downward at measured rates equal to the individual generations in the family. In other words, even though no people appear on the chart, the lines still represent generations. When a branch forms (usually going right), that represents a single generation with the two lines descending from brothers. Minor cadet branches, such as those that die out after only two generations, are not shown on Dynastic Trees unless the line was especially important historically or dynastically.

Where possible, all lines are named. Sometimes lines retain the name of their predecessor branch, at which point it may not be written again upon the chart. For the Habsburgs, the senior line has always been the Austrian line. It is the heart of the dynasty. However, as the senior Austrian line descends, various other branches break off—the Swabian and Styrian branches. Styria, at this time, was an independent duchy attached to Austria, while Swabia was a separate entity entirely.

Now note the fates of these three branches:

• The Austrian branch ends with an inverted "F". The means that the line continued but only through females (Salic Law bars them from inheritance).
• The Swabian lines end with a definitive "L", which implies that the line is extinct (no male or female branches).
• The first Styrian line ends with a downward half arrow. That means that the line continued, but was illegitimate and never legitimized (a legitimized line would have an arrow but continue past it).
• The second Styrian line continues as a separate branch that passes the end of the senior branch, implying that it became the new senior line.

The lower section of the chart shows the dynasty from 1500 until the 1770s. As the chart shows, the family split into two large sections, overemphasized by the moving of the senior branch back to the far left. The Spanish line didn't have any branches and ends with only female descendants. Meanwhile, the Austrian line, broken into three branches—Tyrol, Sytrian & Imperial—continues for a few generations past the Spanish, implying that it became senior eventually. The Tyrol line ended with an illegitimate branch and so the titles passed immediately to a branch of the Styrian line, which was now named the Tyrol line. The Imperial line was short and, historically, a rather odd occurrence with the titles returning to the Austrian senior line when it died out. That ends the House of Habsburg dynastic tree. It is a fairly straight-forward tree with few problems. Since no male lines survived, it can be inferred from the tree that one of the female lines probably inherited the titles.

Now let's look briefly at the tree from last week. A larger version of it can be found here:

The House of Oldenburg Dynasty Tree

Now the Oldenburg tree, despite its massive width, goes back about as far as the Habsburg's. It just had many more branches and inheritances over the generations. To consolidate width, short-lived branches are placed above other branches, since they never were in serious competition for seniority. Many of the branch names are made-up, based on locations ruled rather than actual names the family would have given their branch (they all would have just named themselves Oldenburg, or the name of the larger branch).

This tree follows the same rough general rules of the Habsburg tree but does have an extra notation. The inverted "P" shown on the Glücksburg, Danish, Norwegian, Hellene, Mountbatten, Romanov, and (Grand Ducal) Oldenburg lines implies that the families are still extant (here in the "P"resent). Unlike in the Habsburg chart, there are numerous small branches in this tree that don't have names beside them. The Romanov and (Grand Ducal) Oldenburg lines especially demonstrate this. The names are missing because the families have no other designating factors separating them from their parent branches. The Romanovs all call themselves Romanovs, despite the fact that there are rival lines. The (Grand Ducal) Oldenburgs all just consider themselves princes of the ducal house. In some cases, the omission was done because it just made sense, such as the slight stair-step for the Beck branch, which almost immediately succeeded its predecessor.

Regardless, the same rules apply. If a female line continues a dynasty (such as Habsburg-Lorraine), it can be included on the tree by continuing the line past the inverted "F". Likewise, legitimized lines can continue past the half arrow. Extant ("P") lines always go to the youngest member of the generation, not necessarily the ruling person, to show the full extent of the dynasty. Thus, even though the Glücksburg branch is the most senior Oldenburg branch extant, the Norwegian and Hellene branches are the youngest generations of the family.

Also interesting to note, as families decrease in seniority, it takes fewer generations to reach the present. Thus, the (Grand Ducal) Oldenburg branch is many generations older than the Norwegian branch, despite the fact that they both survive today. This is partially because younger children reproduce after older children (because younger children get married later in life), and also because minor lines of families aren't prone to as much inbreeding (which stifles reproduction) and intrigue (which often kills off monarchs prematurely).

So here I have my proposal for Dynastic Trees. They take quite a while to make but look fairly nice when done. I hope someday soon to make a book and website about dynasties using this system, but I need to find a quicker way to make the trees—Photoshop takes too long!

From Oldenburg with Love (Oldenburgs, Part 3)

The House of Oldenburg has mostly certainly proved to be a grand and expansive house, ruling Denmark and Norway even today, and Russia in not yet a century ago. But Oldenburg was a very wide house, as demonstrated in my dynastic tree below (see notes below). In a relatively short time—700 years or so—it went from ruling a small county in northern Germany to the largest single country ever created. Yet in that time, the House of Oldenburg also managed to pick up some smaller entities, that are no less important.

The House of Oldenburg Dynasty Tree

Perhaps the most important and oft-overlooked of the Oldenburg possessions is the County of Oldenburg itself. The county was created in 1180 and eventually became a duchy and then grand duchy. At first they were a vassal state of the Duchy of Saxony, the largest German power in the area. However, Emperor Frederick Barbarossa dismembered the duchy and Oldenburg branched off on its own. A second portion of the county, Delmenhorst, was generally held by a member of a cadet branch, although it often found its way back to the main line. Oldenburg finally fell under the control of a cadet line when Christian I became king of Denmark in 1440. With titles in Norway, Sweden and Schleswig-Holstein following soon after, Christian simply didn't have time for the relatively simple Oldenburg. Over the years, Oldenburg chipped away at portions of Frisia and other neighbors, enlarging its territory bit by bit. During the disastrous Thirty Years War, Oldenburg was one of the lucky few states to remain neutral, and thereby not desolated, in the war.

The Grand Duchy of Oldenburg

In 1776, the county broke off on its own, completely removing itself from Danish politics. It was elevated to a duchy the next year and gained a number of nearby lands through the mediation of the French. The country was soon after occupied by Napoleon's empire from 1810 to 1814 but avoided most of the fighting. Its occupation angered the Oldenburgs in Russia, the Romanov, so much that the neutrality between France and Russia ended, leading to the eventual defeat of Napoleon's army. Meanwhile, Oldenburg gained new lands in the Congress of Vienna in 1815 and was elevated to a grand duchy in 1829. It mostly voluntarily joined the German Empire in 1871, and thus was able to retain its monarch, only to be dissolved at the end of World War I during the German Revolutions. The territories of Oldenburg became a part of the province of Lower Saxony following World War II. Today, the line of the grand dukes of Oldenburg continues with the current claimant, Anton Günther.

Adolf Frederick, King of Sweden

Sweden was mentioned before but it did fall back into the periphery of Oldenburg control for a brief time, albeit through a cadet branch of the family. In fact, the Swedish branch of the family begat the final Oldenburg branch (above). Now the thing to remember with Sweden is that it never actually likes its monarchs. Adolf Frederick was elected to the throne in 1751 by the parliament and was treated as a parliamentary pawn all his life. The only reason he was even elected to the throne was because he was related to the Russian Oldenburgs whom Sweden wanted to be on better terms with. Adolf ate too much and died, leaving little of a legacy behind.  His son, Gustav III, got uppity at parliament, declared himself absolute leader of Sweden, and was assassinated. Gustav IV, his son, was very dissatisfied with a lot of political and financial things, which allowed his uncle, Charles, to force Gustav to abdicate. Charles XIII succeeded him and was first seen as a more liberal king, but failed to do anything worthwhile. He died childless, leaving the country in the hands of the Napoleon-supported Frenchman Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, whose family rules Sweden to this day.

The Kingdom of Greece, showcasing the expansion of the state during the late 1800s and early 1900s

George I, King of the Hellenes (Greece)

Another rather forgotten kingdom in many peoples' minds was the Kingdom of the Hellenes, better known as Greece, which the House of Oldenburg ruled from 1862 until 1973. The dynasty took over after the previous dynasty, the Wittelsbach, disappointing the easily angered peoples of Greece. The family was a scion of the Danish Oldenburg house and helped bring Greece into the European sphere of politics after centuries under Turkish occupation. The first king, George I, ruled for 50 years and helped expand the meager borders of Greece outward in all directions. His son, Constantine, took Greece into the Balkan Wars of the early 1910s, but indecision during World War I led to his abdication in favor of his son, George II. George, though, wasn't in any better position to rule. A troubled government in 1923 asked the king to leave and the following year they formally deposed him. A decade later, in 1935, George II was reinstated but forced to acknowledge the fascist dictatorship of General Georgios Kondylis. Further indecision in the lead-in to World War II (George was pro-British, Kondylis was pro-Axis) caused the subsequent conquest of Greece by Italy and Germany in 1941. When George returned in 1946, his country was in ruin, corpses buried in shallow graves outside the raided royal palace. He died the next year and was succeeded by his brother, Paul. Paul ruled Greece during the decades of post-war rebuilding but the dynasty came under increasing threat by republicans. By the reign of his son, Constantine II, Greece was downright anti-royal. A coup against the monarchy forced Constantine to flee in 1967 and, although it took until 1973 to do so formally, the Greek monarchy came to an end at last. Constantine still is alive today and lives in numerous countries, including his former country of Greece.

 As an interesting aside, the House of Mountbatten, which will begin ruling the United Kingdom upon the death of Elizabeth II, is a cadet branch of the Greek Oldenburgs. Andrew married Princess Alice of Battenberg but the two became estranged after years of Andrew serving in the Greek army during World War I. Their only son, Philip, took the name Mountbatten due to anti-German sentiment in World War II and later married Princess Elizabeth prior to her elevation as Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom.

As you can see, the Oldenburg family is quite vast. This and the previous two weeks have established the breadth of the family, and I in no way covered everything. The family ruled over many different lands throughout their rather short existence, and the future seems quite bright for them. Denmark and Norway still retain Oldenburg monarchs while Britain will soon have one of its own. Meanwhile, Russia and Greece both have rather large pro-royal movements that have gained momentum in recent years. The future for the Oldenburgs seems bright indeed.

Two Romanovs for the Price of One (Oldenburg, Part 2)

Some people may find it strange that the best-known dynasty in Russian history was partially (predominantly) German. I mean, it didn't start that way. The original Romanov family was from Russia, but the Danish-German Oldenburg family eventually inherited the throne through a female line and, much like the Habsburgs, kept the name of the older family for tradition's sake. But Russia's sullied past has many similar moments and the story of the House of Romanov, both Russian and German, is a rather interesting one.

Michael and Alexis, Tsars of Russia

The story of the original Romanovs begins with Ivan IV, first Tsar of Russia. His wife, Anastasia, was the daughter of an increasingly prominent politician named Roman and when she was murdered, Ivan IV became Ivan the Terrible as he spread a wave of angry destruction across Russia. Anastasia's son, Feodor, was a sickly and bad king who rivaled with his brother-in-law and various factions of the Romanov family for power. His death in 1605 ended the 700-year-old House of Rurik and prompted an era of civil war in Russia. After an almost complete loss of political power through the first decade of the 17th century, the Russian magnates gave the throne to Michael Romanov who hesitantly took power, using his in-law relationship to Ivan IV as a propaganda tool. It was a successful gambit and the early Romanov rulers were almost university acclaimed by the populace.

Peter I the Great, Tsar of Russia

Yet the old Romanov family was never one to succeed for long. Michael was succeeded by Alexis, who was a wise tsar able spread the borders of Russia far into the east. His one major mistake, however, was being too prolific. Four sons survived him as well as an ambitious daughter. When Alexis died, the five of them struggled and fought over the throne, throwing Russia back into dynastic mayhem. Feodor III came first. His progressive reforms such as removing noble privilege for a meritocracy stagnated Russian politics for centuries. His somewhat expected death in 1682 led to a rare joint-rule by his two brothers, Peter I and Ivan V. Ivan was the legitimate heir but was disfigured and mentally ill, and so Peter ruled with him. Peter I is better known now as Peter the Great, for it is he who expanded Russia's borders to the far east and modernized the state to nearly western European norms. In 1721, Peter declared himself Emperor of All Russia, a title which remained with the family until 1917. Upon Peter's death in 1725, his wife Catherine I ruled since no immediate heir was present to succeed. Catherine's rule maintained Peter's bureaucracy and established the precedent of female rule.

Elizabeth, Tsarina of Russia

Russia's history only gets more muddled after this. In normal succession practice, wives never succeed husbands, yet in Russia this happened twice. Catherine I was succeeded by Peter II, a grandson of Peter the Great by his first wife. In 1727 he succeeded to the throne but he died three years later on the day of his marriage, having accomplished nothing. His distant relative, Anna, daughter of Ivan V, came next. Anna was an intelligent ruler who worked against noble control of the government. But she was bitter and attempted to quiet the happy memory of Peter I by setting up her grandnephew, Ivan VI, to succeed her. Upon Anna's death, though, Ivan was locked up by the legitimized daughter of Peter I, Elizabeth, and died twenty years later in prison. Elizabeth inherited the throne, the last of the original Romanovs. Elizabeth is fondly remembered in Russian history as the one Romanov ruler not to surround herself with German courtiers. Rather ironically, therefore, it was Elizabeth who ensured that the dynasty continued through the line of her German nephew, Peter.

Catherine II the Great, Empress of Russia

Peter III was the first and shortest reigning emperor of the House of Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov, which was a cadet branch of the House of Oldenburg. He was an unstable and immature ruler who was very pro-Prussian in his political views. In 1745, he married his German cousin, Sophia, who was converted to the Russian Orthodox faith and renamed Catherine. The couple only produced one son, Paul, whom Catherine would later claim was a bastard. At the time of Peter's death six months after his accession, he had succeeded in moving Russia toward a more capitalistic society. Unfortunately, Peter was arrested and murdered under orders of his wife, and Catherine II ascended the throne. Catherine the Great was a non-dynastic ruler who took the Russian Empire and made it into a Great Power in the age of absolutism. From 1762 until 1796 she ruled Russia with the authority of an autocrat, but she also spread the bureaucracy across the whole of Russia, dividing the country up into districts, townships, etc.

 With her death, the Romanov family began its slow decline as a force to be reckoned with. Peter III and Catherine II's son, Paul I, succeeded to the throne finally but his primary goal was to pass legislation to establish succession law. He downsized the military and bureaucracy and, because of that, was assassinated in 1801. Alexander I, his son, succeeded and the Napoleonic Wars came soon after. Although Alexander began his reign by being a reformist, he ended it repealing the majority of those reforms. He mysteriously died in 1825 and was succeeded by his brother, Nicholas I. Nicholas began the persecution of non-Russians and non-Orthodox which would continue into the 1910s. He led successful wars against the Ottomans but died during the Crimean War in 1855. Alexander II, his son, came next and Alexander was again a liberal emperor. His great achievement was the emancipation of the serfs (peasants), which somewhat led to the overthrow of the monarchy two generations later. His assassination in 1881 led to his son's short reactionary reign where Alexander III undid much of his father's progressive reforms. His son, Nicholas II, was likewise against reform, preferring to maintain the autocracy that had been a part of Russian politics since time immortal. Entry into World War I sparked the end of the Romanov dynasty as disenchanted peasants and communists rallied against the state-run tyranny of conscription. Nicholas was finally forced to abdicate the throne in 1917 but even in prison, his family was deemed too dangerous. In 1918, all of them—Nicholas, his wife, and his five children—were murdered by their Bolshevik captors. The Bolsheviks then went throughout Russia, hunting down and killing any Romanovs they could find. Most fled to western Europe where they still live in exile today.

Emperor Nicholas II of Russia and his Family

The end of the Romanov dynasty in Russia was a harsh and bitter moment in history. In reality, it paralleled the fate of many Russian monarchs throughout the centuries, but no royal murder has become as well-known. The surviving Romanovs descend from Alexander II or through female lines from Alexander III. Their are two rival lines of pretension: that of Cyril, Grand Duke of Russia, and that of Nicholas, a descendant of Nicholas I. The rivalry is due to different interpretations of succession law regarding unequal marriages (those between royalty and a commoner).

What's So Old About an Oldenburg? (Oldenburg, Part 1)

House of Oldenburg Coat of Arms

 I have spent considerable time discussing extinct and dissolved dynasties but have not yet completed my survey of extant dynasties. There are primarily two remaining for Europe, and a few smaller singular ones as well. However, no other has been able to maintain such an expansionist vision as the House of Oldenburg.

The Kalmar Union

The Kalmar Union was in crisis in 1448. The precarious union of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway had never been strong and certainly was wavering when the former king, Christopher of Bavaria, died. His widow, the Dowager Queen Dorothea of Brandenburg, needed to keep the union together and the Danish courts turned to a distant descendant of a bygone king, Count Christian of Oldenburg, to reunify the three states. Sweden and Norway were caught unawares. Sweden elected its own king, Charles VIII, instead of returning to the union, while Norway was fought over by the two rivals. Norway first went to Sweden, but quickly an agreement was made that attached it to Denmark in perpetuity. At the same time, Christian I married Dorothea, solidifying his claim to the Danish throne. Political catastrophe befell Charles VIII and the Kalmar Union was reestablished under the rule of Christian I and the the House of Oldenburg. In 1460, Christian I added to his Oldenburg lands the duchy of Schleswig, in Denmark, and country of Holstein, in the Holy Roman Empire. Holstein was elevated to a duchy soon after, allowing Christian I to play in the realm of German politics.

Oldenburg power in Sweden declined steadily over the next 100 years until Christian II, in 1520, massacred 100 anti-Union protesters in the Stockhold Bloodbath. The subsequent withdrawl by Sweden from the Kalmar Union the next year was no surprise and the House of Vasa took power there for the next century or so. Norway suffered from the dissolution, and in 1536 was permanently made into a Danish province, with all its hereditary lands such as Greenland and Iceland being transferred to Danish control (Greenland remains a Danish possession today). Denmark then jumped headlong into the Reformation, with Frederick I declaring Denmark-Norway to be a Lutheran country in 1526. However, religious tolerance toward Catholics caused internal strife and external war. When Frederick I died, the Catholic members of the Danish courts refused to acknowledge Frederick's son, Christian III, as king. The Catholics raised up Count Christopher of Oldenburg, a distant cousin of Christian's, as a possible regent for Christian III, while other Catholics tried to return Christian II, who had been deposed in 1523, to the throne. All of it was for naught, though. Despite a thorough ravaging across his lands, Christian III survived it all, defeated all his enemies, and reestablished Danish control. Denmark has been Lutheran ever since.

Christian IV, King of Denmark

Denmark was now a power to be reckoned with. After watching the progress of the Thirty Years War, in 1625 King Christian IV built up an army and set out for Catholic possessions in Germany. Unfortunately, his allies were weak and distracted, unwilling to give him more than lip-service aid. The Catholic army of Emperor Ferdinand II, on the other hand, was strong and had the element of surprise, since Christian IV didn't know it existed. After many failures and the conquest of half of Denmark, Christian IV negotiated a treaty that removed Denmark from German politics in perpetuity. More failures in the Torstenson War against the Netherlands and Sweden resulted in the loss of duties from ships passing through Danish waters in the Baltic Sea. Sweden took control of a large chunk of southern Norway and the Dutch no longer had to pay transport taxes to trade with Sweden. When Christian died, Frederick III decided to get revenge on Sweden. The Second Northern War, as it was called, was yet another Danish failure. Denmark was ravaged by Sweden and the Swedes were even able to invade Copenhagen, with the ice connecting it to the mainland frozen over in a rare cold spell. Charles X of Sweden wished to remove Denmark from existance but Copenhagen held fast against the Swedish army, especially once Dutch help finally came. When Prussia, Poland, and Austria all joined the side of Denmark, Sweden finally capitulated. In the Treaty of Copenhagen, borders were agreed upon and the territorial borders of Denmark and Sweden have remained the same ever since.

Frederick III and his successors entered into the age of absolutism as monarchs with a cause but no power to do anything about it. Twice they tried to go to war with Sweden again in hopes of reclaiming lost lands, and twice they failed to do so. Over the course of the 18th century, Denmark centralized around Copenhagen even while the Danish nobles stole power from the king. This all ended in 1807. The Napoleonic Wars had forced most of Europe to take sides, but Denmark was resolute on remaining neutral. Nonetheless, Britain feared that France would invade Denmark and take their ships, so Britain captured the majority of the Danish navy and added it into their own. Denmark stayed out of the war until it joined with France against the Sixth Coalition. It won some victories but lost the war and, in 1814, was forced to cede Norway to Sweden despite strong Norweigan resistance.

Kingdom of Denmark-Norway

The age of revolutions followed and on June 5, 1849, Denmark became a constitutional monarchy. King Frederick VII was forced to cede some power to the courts although he still retained significant executive power. Meanwhile, the problem of what to do with the Duchies of Schleswig-Holstein, which was majority German, came to the forefront. Two wars took place from 1849 until 1864 to determine its rightful place in the Danish government. In the end, Prussia won out and annexed both duchies to Brandenburg-Prussia. Denmark had to reinvent itself after this, and in 1901, King Christian IX finally allowed the population to run itself by permitting the majority in parliament to run the government. Prior to this time, the nobles still controlled govenrment regardless of parliamentary majorities.

Queen Margarethe II of Denmark

King Christian X was the last king to truly use his executive power when he dismissed the government in 1920. This sparked an event known as the Easter Crisis, after which the king promised to not interfere in politics again, despite the constitution permitting royal interference. In 1918, Iceland became an independent country in personal union with Denmark, with Christian X remaining king of both. However, after Iceland's conquest by Britain during World War II, the union dissolved in 1944 with Iceland becoming a republic. Queen Margarethe II has been the ruler of Denmark since 1972 and when she dies, the House of Oldenburg will at last be at an end in Denmark, being replaced with the House of Laborde de Monpezat.

In Norway, despite Sweden's annexation of the state in 1814, the House of Oldenburg returned in 1905. Political unrest against the Swedes ended with Sweden renouncing their overlordship over Norway and Norway becoming an independent kingdom. The government rejected a republican government and instead elected Prince Charles of Denmark, second son of King Frederick VIII Denmark, as their new king. Charles took on the regnal name Haakon VII and led his country through a harsh neutrality during World War I. He attempted the same during World War II but was forced to flee in 1940 to London, where he set up his wartime headquarters to retake Norway.

Harald V, King of Norway

Since the war, the kings of Norway have been held in the highest esteem and are quite possibly the most highly favored monarchs in Europe. Both Haakon VII and his son, Olav V, had massive funeral ceremonies fully funded by the people with overwhelming public support. The current king, Harald V, is popular in both Norway and the United Kingdom, where he spent much of his youth. His powers are much weaker than those of his predecessors but he still retains some say in the Norwegian government.