Read part one here. After she had been with the King for two years, rumours were circulating around Versailles that Marie-Louise wished to topple Madame de Pompadour as the King’s maîtresse-en-titre, the official mistress who lived in the palace. If Marie-Louise was planning to work her way up and overthrow the powerful Pompadour, this did [read more]
In 1714, a man named Daniel O’Murphy and a woman named Marguerite Iquy were married in the town of Rouen, France. The pair both came from Irish families who had followed King James II into exile in France when he had lost his throne to his daughter Mary II and her husband William III. The [read more]
Princess Marie of Orléans was born on 12 April 1813 as the third child and second daughter of Louis-Philippe, King of the French, and his wife, Maria Amalia of Naples and Sicily. She was one of ten siblings and her elder sister Louise became Queen of the Belgians. Marie was born in Palermo, Sicily, where [read more]
Taj al-Saltana was born in 1884 as the daughter of Naser al-Din Shah Qajar, the ruler of Iran, and a minor Princess called Turan al-Saltana. Her parents were also first cousins. Much of what we know about her, she chose to share with us in her memoirs written in 1914. Her early upbringing in the [read more]
Constance of Arles was born circa 986 as the daughter of William I, Count of Provence and Adelaide-Blanche of Anjou. In 1001, Constance became the third wife of King Robert II of France. He had divorced his first wife Rozala of Italy and his second marriage to Bertha of Burgundy had eventually been annulled. The [read more]
Read part one here. In November 1800, Louise turned 30 years old. She wrote to her mother, “I am very amazed that I am already 30 years old.[…] It’s like it was only yesterday that you were my age and I remember thinking how very old you were.” Her life in Brunswick remained pretty much [read more]
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