After many years of inbreeding, King Charles II of Spain was destined to die childless. He was described as, “short, lame, epileptic, senile and completely bald before 35, always on the verge of death but repeatedly baffling Christendom by continuing to live.” We are dealing with a man who died of poison two hundred years [read more]
Bathilde of Orléans was born on 9 July 1750 as the daughter of Louis Philippe d’Orléans, Duke of Chartres and Louise Henriette de Bourbon at the Château de Saint-Cloud. She lost her mother when she was just eight years old and was then sent to be raised at a convent. She would remain there until [read more]
Elisabeth was born on 3 May 1764 as the daughter of Louis, Dauphin of France and Marie-Josèphe of Saxony in the Palace of Versailles. She was a frail child, and there were fears that she would die in infancy. When her father died the following year, her brother Louis Auguste became the new Dauphin. She [read more]
Read part one here. Eugénie was now married to one of the most powerful rulers in the world, and she was determined to help her husband. The Second Empire happily coincided with an economic boom and France prospered. One of her roles would be to create a splendid court, and for that, she was certainly [read more]
Eugénie de Montijo was born on 5 May 1826 as the daughter of Cipriano de Palafox y Portocarrero and María Manuela Enriqueta Kirkpatrick de Closbourn y de Grevigné. The future Empress of the French was born as her mother took refuge in the garden during an earthquake. Her elder sister was María Francisca de Sales, [read more]
Dying before her twentieth birthday, Isabella of Hainaut is often seen as a passive victim, whose only accomplishment being that she gave birth to a future king of France. But Isabella was so much more than that. If she lived longer, she could have become one of France’s more memorable queens. Early Life Isabella of [read more]
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