June 4th

Events - 

1039 - Heinrich III of Germany became Holy Roman Emperor following the death of his father, Conrad II.  Heinrich would reign as Emperor until his own death on October 5, 1056 at the age of 38.  By his second wife, Agnes of Aquitaine, he was the father of his successor Heinrich IV.

1411 - King Charles VI of France granted an exclusive license to the city of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon for the aging of Roquefort cheese.  To this day, only cheese which has been aged in the caves of this city may be labeled Roquefort.

1802 - King Carlo Emanuele II of Sardinia abdicated his throne in favor of his brother Vittorio Emanuele.  His wife, Marie Clotilde of France, had died a few months previously, and Carlo Emanuele was so grieved by her death that he decided to give up the throne.  In addition to being the King of Sardinia, Carlo was also considered the Jacobite Pretender to the throne of England after 1807 as a great-great-great-great grandson of Charles I of England.

2001 - Gyanendra of Nepal ascended to the throne of Nepal after the death of his nephew, King Dipendra.  Dipendra had perpetrated the Nepal royal massacre three days earlier, immediately ascending to the throne on the death of his father in the massacre.  However, Dipendra had been in a coma due to self-inflicted wounds since the massacre, with his uncle as regent.  Gyanendra was the last King of Nepal, as the constitution was amended in May 2008 to exclude a monarchy.

Born on this date -

1394 - Philippa of England, daughter of the future Henry IV of England and Mary de Bohun.  Philippa married King Eric VII of Denmark (also Eirik III of Norway and Ericus of Sweden), becoming Queen of Denmark, Norway and Sweden.  Philippa's wedding was the first recorded instance of a bride wearing a white wedding dress.  She died on January 7, 1430, at the age of 35, having given the King no children (a stillborn son was born in 1429).

1604 - Claudia de' Medici, daughter of Ferdinando I de' Medici and Christina of Lorraine.  By her second husband, Archduke Leopold V of Austria, she became the mother of a Holy Roman Empress, Maria Leopoldine of Austria (wife of Emperor Ferdinand III).  She died on Christmas 1648 at the age of 44.

1738 - George William Frederick of Great Britain, later King George III.  He was the son of Frederick, Prince of Wales, and Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, and was grandson of the reigning King George II.  His father's death in 1751, nine years before the death of George II, made George the heir to the throne, and he was created Prince of Wales three weeks later by his grandfather.  George ascended to the throne in October 1760, reigning until his death in January 1820 - the third-longest reign in British history after Queen Victoria (63 years) and Queen Elizabeth II (60 years).  George III was also the third-longest lived monarch after Elizabeth II (86 years) and Victoria (81 years).  Aside from the length of his reign and longevity, George III is perhaps best known for being King during the American Revolution.  Due to ill-health and insanity, believed to be caused by porphyria, George III was permanently confined to Windsor Castle after 1811, with his son the Prince of Wales serving as regent for the remainder of his reign.  George died January 29, 1820 at the age of 81, just six days after the death of his fourth son Edward, Duke of Kent (father of Queen Victoria).  By his wife, Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, he was the father of two future Kings of Great Britain, George IV and William IV.

Died on this date -

1039 - Conrad II, Holy Roman Emperor, at the age of approximately 49.  He was born around 990, the son of Heinrich of Spayer (great-grandson of Emperor Otto I) and Adelaide of Alsace.  He was elected King of Germany in 1024 after the Saxon line of Kings died out and became Holy Roman Emperor three years later.  He married Gisela of Swabia and was the father of his successor, Heinrich III.

1135 - Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty of China, at the age of 52.  He was the son of Emperor Shenzong and his wife Yinzhe and was born on November 2, 1082.  He succeeded his older half-brother, Zhezong, as Emperor in 1100, reigning until his abdication in favor of his oldest son Qinzong on January 18, 1126.   Another of his 32 sons would become Emperor Gaozong in 1127.  He also had 34 daughters.

1206 - Adèle of Champagne, third wife of King Louis VII of France, approximately aged 65-66.  She was born around 1140, the daughter of Count Theobald II of Champagne and Matilda of Carinthia.  She had married Louis just five weeks after the death of his second wife in childbirth and became mother of Louis' only son, Philippe II.

1257 - Przemysł I, Duke of Greater Poland, aged 36.  He was born on either 5 June 1220 or 4 June 1221 (if the latter, he would have died on his 36th birthday; if the former, the day before his 37th), the son of Duke Władysław Odonic and his wife Hedwig.  Przemysł became Duke on his father's death in 1239, formally ruling from 1241-1247 with his brother Bolesław, and afterwards alone.  By his wife, Elizabeth of Wrocław, he was the father of Przemysł II, who became the third King of Poland in 1295.

1394 - Mary de Bohun, first wife of the future King Henry IV of England, aged around 26.  She was born approximately 1368 as the daughter of Humphrey de Bohun, 7th Earl of Hereford, and Joan FitzAlan.  She was around 12 when she married Henry, and was the mother of the future Henry V of England.  She died giving birth to her daughter Philippa, the future Queen of Denmark, Norway and Sweden.

1941 - Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, aged 82.  He was born on January 27, 1859 to Prince Friedrich (later Kaiser Friedrich III) and Victoria, Princess Royal, daughter of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom.  He was born third in line to the throne of Prussia, after his father and grandfather.  Wilhelm came to the throne in June 1888, after his father's brief reign of 99 days, and ruled until his forced abdication at the end of World War I on November 9, 1918.  He lived the rest of his life in exile in the Netherlands.  He flirted with Nazism initially in the hopes of the monarchy being restored, but several atrocities soured him on them to the point that he virtually disowned his fourth son for being an ardent Nazi.  Despite Adolf Hitler's desire to bring Wilhelm's body back to Berlin for a state funeral, in order to connect the Third Reich with the Kaiserreich in the minds of the public, Wilhelm was buried at his home in exile in the Netherlands, as he had expressed a desire not to return to Germany until the monarchy was restored.  However, his wishes not to have any Nazi paraphernalia displayed at his funeral was ignored.

2001 - King Dipendra of Nepal, aged 29.  He was the son of King Birendra and and his wife Aiswarya, and was born on June 27, 1971.  He reigned as king for just three days, after murdering most of his immediate family at a dinner party on June 1, 2001, reportedly over a marriage dispute.  He shot himself in the head after the massacre and lingered in a coma during the three days he was king before dying of his injuries.