June 13th

Events - 

1625 - King Charles I of England married Princess Henrietta Maria of France, daughter of the late King Henry IV of France and Maria de' Medici, in Canterbury.  The couple had already been married by proxy on May 11th before Charles' first Parliament - he had just ascended the throne in March - could meet and forbid the marriage.  Many in England were against the marriage because Henriette Maria was Catholic, and they feared that Charles would move away from the Church of England and back to the old religion.  When Charles was crowned in February of the following year, Henrietta Maria was unable to be crowned due to the controversy over her religion.  Although the marriage did not start out well - Henrietta Maria was an extremely devote Catholic which made her unpopular in England and Charles forcibly removed most of the French entourage she had brought to England with her - Henrietta Maria eventually became Charles' closest advisor.  The couple had nine children, four sons and five daughters.  Two of their children were stillborn and two died in childhood.  Of the remaining five, two were future kings of England (Charles II and James II), one daughter was the mother of a future king (Mary, Princess Royal married William II of Orange and was the mother of William III of England), and another daughter (Henrietta) was the great-grandmother of Louis XV of France.  In addition to William III, the couple had two other grandchildren who would become queens of England - Mary II and Anne.

Born on this date - 

823 - Charles, youngest son of Emperor Louis I (Holy Roman Emperor and King of the Franks, son of Charlemagne) and Judith of Bavaria.  By the time of his birth, Charles' older brothers were all adults and had been assigned their own subkingdoms.  Louis attempted to provide his youngest son his own kingdom, but several attempts were unsuccessful.  Eventually, Louis made Charles heir to the land that would eventually become France.  When Louis insisted that the nobles honor Charles as their heir, Louis' older sons rebelled against their father.  After Louis' death in 840, the sons went to war with each other, with Charles aligning himself with his brother Ludwig of Bavaria against Lothair I, the new Holy Roman Emperor, and Pepin II of Aquitaine (son of Pepin I of Aquitaine and nephew of Charles, Ludwig and Lothair).  The war ended in 843 with the Treaty of Verdun, which gave Charles the kingdom of the West Franks, which roughly corresponds to present-day France.  Charles became Holy Roman Emperor in 875 after the death of his nephew Louis II (son of Lothair).  Ludwig, angered at being passed over for the imperial crown, then invaded France, but died the following year.  Charles reigned as emperor for only two years before dying of an illness on October 6, 877.  By his two wives, Ermentrude of Orléans and Richilde of Provence, he had 14 children, including his heir as King of the West Franks Louis, King of Aquitaine Charles, and Judith, who married two kings of Wessex and the first count of Flanders.

839 - Charles, youngest son of Ludwig of Bavaria and Emma.  In 865, Ludwig divided his lands among his heirs, with Charles receiving Alemannia (the German duchy of Swabia, the two names being used interchangeably) and a share of Lotharingia.  Charles later received Italy in 879 when his oldest brother Carloman had a stroke.  After the Papal States were invaded in 880, Pope John VIII appealed to Charles for help, crowning him emperor on February 12, 881.  In 882, he inherited East Francia when his brother Louis died, and was invited to be king of West Francia on the death of Carloman II in 884.  Charles proved to be an inept king and was deposed in 887.  He died six weeks later on January 13, 888. leaving no legitimate heirs, although he tried twice without success to make his illegitimate son Bernard his heir.

1673 - Anna Maria Franziska of Saxe-Lauenburg, oldest surviving daughter of Duke Julius Franz of Saxe-Lauenburg and Maria Hedwig of the Palatinate-Sulzbach.  On her father's death in 1689, she was the legal heir to the duchy of Saxe-Lauenburg since the male line had died out and Salic Law did not apply.  Her cousin Georg Ludwig of Branschweig-Lüneburg conquered the duchy the same year, while several other monarchs tried to stake their claims as well.  The resulting war ended in 1693 with Anna Maria and her sister being dispossessed from their claims.  By her second husband, Gian Gastone de' Medici, she became Grand Duchess consort of Tuscany in 1723.  She died October 15, 1741 at the age of 69.

1965 - Cristina Federica Victoria Antonia de la Santísima Trinidad de Borbón y de Grecia, younger daughter of the future King Juan Carlos of Spain and Sofia of Greece.  She was named Duchess of Palma de Mallorca by her father when she married team handball player Iñaki Urdangarín Liebaert in 1997, with whom she has four children.

Died on this date -

1886 - King Ludwig II of Bavaria, aged 40.  He was born on August 25, 1845, the oldest son of then-Crown Prince Maximilian of Bavaria and Marie of Prussia.  He was named after his grandfather Ludwig I of Bavaria, with whom he shared a birthday (August 25th is also the feast day of St. Louis, who is the patron saint of Bavaria).  Ludwig was not close to his parents - his father refused to spend time with him and he called his mother "my predecessor's consort" - and was greatly influenced by his grandfather, who had abdicated in 1848.  Ludwig succeeded as king at age 18 on his father's death.  One of his first acts as king was to become the patron of composer Richard Wagner, an act which probably saved the constantly-in-debt Wagner's career.  Ludwig became engaged to his cousin Sophie in 1867 (younger sister of Empress Elisabeth of Austria), but broke off the relationship later that year.  He never married and fought an internal battle against his homosexual inclinations for most of his life.  Ludwig was also known for the fairy tale castles he had built, particularly Neuschwanstein, which became the model for Disneyland's Sleeping Beauty Castle.  his castles and other projects were paid out of his private funds, but when he demanded his finance ministers seek loans from other monarchs to continue his works, his cabinet acted (before he could dismiss them due to their opposition to his projects) and declared him unfit to rule due to mental illness.  His uncle was declared regent and Ludwig was eventually captured and sent into exile at Castle Berg, on the shore of Lake Starnberg.  The day after his capture, Ludwig invited psychiatrist Dr. Bernhard von Gudden (chief of the Munich asylum) to walk with him along the lake.  That evening, both men's bodies were pulled from the lake.  Ludwig's death was declared suicide by drowning, although an autopsy showed no water in his lungs.  The doctor had received blows to the head and neck and showed signs of being strangled.  Some believed that Ludwig was murdered trying to escape from his captors.

1918 - Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich of Russia, aged 39.  He was the youngest son of then-Tsesarevich Alexander Alexandrovich and Dagmar of Denmark and was born on December 4, 1878.  After the death of his brother George of tuberculosis in 1899, Mikhail became their brother Nicholas II's heir, until the birth of Tsesarevich Alexei in 1904.  After he was forbidden to marry his cousin Beatrice of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, daughter of his aunt Marie (marriage between first cousins being forbidden in the Russian Orthodox Church), he became involved with one of his sister's ladies-in-waiting, a relationship which was forbidden by his mother and brother.  He married in 1912 the ex-wife of a fellow Army officer, Natalia Sergeyevna Wulfert, who had given birth to his illegitimate son George in 1910.  Mikhail, who stood to become heir to the throne again if the hemophilic Alexei died, said that he married Natalia so that he would be removed from the succession.  The couple was banished from Russia, but were allowed back after World War I broke out.  When Nicholas was forced to abdicate in March 1917, it was in favor of Mikhail, due to Alexei's ill health.  Mikhail refused to accept the throne unless approved by the Provisional Government.  Since they did not approve, Mikhail was never officially tsar, although some still consider him to be Mikhail II, last Tsar of Russia.  In August, Mikhail and Natalia were placed under house arrest, along with Mikhail's secretary Nicholas Johnson.  The foreign minister said the Mikhail would be allowed to go into exile in England, but as with Nicholas and his family, England refused to accept him.  His house arrest was lifted and reinstated twice more, before he and his secretary were sent to Perm in Siberia in March 1918.  His wife had their son smuggled out of Russia and joined her husband in Perm in May, although she left a week later due to the advance of the White Army.  The local secret police planned to murder Mikhail, and forced him out of his hotel with a forged transfer order.  Mikhail and his secretary (who insisted on accompanying him) were taken into the woods outside Perm, on the pretext of going to catch a train, and were shot to death.  Mikhail was the first Romanov to be executed by the Soviets.  His body was never found.

1972 - Stephanie Julianne von Hohenlohe, aged 80.  When in her 20s, she had an affair with the son-in-law of Emperor Franz Josef I, Archduke Franz Salvator (husband of Franz Josef's daughter Marie Valerie).  When she became pregnant, she was married off to Prince Friedrich Franz von Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schillingsfürst.  She gave birth to Franz Salvator's son, Franz Josef Rudolf Hans Weriand Max Stefan Anton von Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schillingsfürst, on December 5, 1914.  After she and her husband divorced in 1920, she traveled throughout Europe as Princess von Hohenlohe.  Despite being of Jewish descent, she became close friends with several high Nazi officials, including Adolf Hitler.  After moving to London in 1932, she used her developing connections to Britain's elite to spy for the Nazis.  It was she who arranged the visit of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor to Germany in 1937.  She fled to the US after the outbreak of World War II and started an affair with the director of the INS.  After the attack on Pearl Harbor, she was arrested and detained until the end of the war.  She returned to Europe after the war and died in Switzerland.

1982 - King Khalid bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud of Saudia Arabia, aged 69.  He was born on February 13, 1913, the fifth son of King Abdulaziz and his one of his favorite wives, Al Jawharah bint bin Abdulaziz bin Musaed bin Jalawi.  Khalid was named Crown Prince in 1965 to his older half-brother Faisal, after his full brother Mohammed declined the position.  He became king on March 25, 1975, after the assassination of Faisal by their nephew.  His half-brother Fahd became Crown Prince and, since Khalid was uninterested in politics, took over the running of the government.  After reigning for seven years, King Khalid died of a heart attack and his brother Fahd became king.

June 12th

Born on this date - 

1107 - Zhao Gou (趙 構) of China, son of Emperor Huizong (徽宗) of China and his concubine, later dowager Empress Xianren ((顯仁皇后).  After his father and his older half-brother Emperor Qinzong (欽宗) were captured by the Jurchen, Gou became emperor of China as Emperor Gaozong (高宗) and established the Southern Song empire.  After years of fighting the Jurchen, Gaozong turned pacifist, a major reason being that he did not want his brother released and restored to the throne.  Gaozong abdicated in 1162 after a reign of just over 35 years, but lived in retirement for 25 more years until his death on November 9, 1187.  He was a notable poet of his time, his work influencing other Chinese poets.  As his only son predeceased him, his successor was his sixth cousin, Emperor Ziaozong (孝宗), a descendant of Emperor Taizu (太祖), the founder of the Song dynasty.

1519 - Cosimo de' Medici, son of Giovanni dalle Bande Nere and Maria Salviati.  Cosimo became Grand Duke of Tuscany when he was 17, after his distant cousin Alessandro de' Medici was assassinated.  Since Cosimo was relatively unknown in Florence at the time of his ascension, the city's nobles favored him as heir because they thought they could control him.  Once he was in power, Cosimo rejected the agreement he had signed which gave much of his power to a council of Forty-Eight.  Later that year, Cosimo was recognized as grand duke by Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.  Charles would remove imperial garrisons from Tuscany, while Cosimo would provide help against France in the Italian Wars.  Cosimo is most known today for his creation of the Uffizi, which is now a museum with one of the most important art collections in the world.  Cosimo died in 1574 at the age of 54 and was succeeded by his oldest son Francesco I de' Medici, who had taken over day-to-day administration of Tuscany a decade earlier.  By his first wife, Eleanora di Toledo, he had 11 children, several of whom were infamous in Italian history.  His daughter Isabella was famously murdered by her husband for adultery in 1576.  Another daughter, Lucrezia was the wife of Alfonso II d'Este and was the subject of Robert Browning's poem, "My Last Duchess".  Her mysterious death when she was 17 was suggested to be due to poisoning because of her loose morals.  Cosimo's youngest son, Pietro, murdered his wife and cousin, Eleanora di Garzia di Toledo, due to adultery five days before his sister Isabella died for the same reason.  It is believed the two murders were coordinated between Pietro and Isabella's husband with the tacit approval of Francesco I de' Medici.

Died on this date - 

918 - Æthelflæd of Wessex, aged about 48-49.  She was born around 869-870, the oldest child of King Alfred and Ealhswith.  Before 890, she was married to Æthelred of Mercia, by whom she had a daughter Ælfwynn.  After her husband's death in battle in 911, she became Lady of the Mercians, ruling Mercia as her husband's successor.  Unusually for women at the time, she was considered to be a master tactician and military leader.  After her death, she was succeeded by her daughter Ælfwynn.  Ælfwynn's rule did not last long, as she was forced to submit to her uncle Edward the Elder, merging Wessex and Mercia into a single kingdom.

1675 - Carlo Emanuele II of Savoy, aged 40.  He was born on June 20, 1634, the son of Duke Vittorio Amedeo I of Savoy and Christine of France.  Carlo became duke at the age of 4 on his older brother's death in 1638.  He was known for his persecution of the Vaudois, a heretical Christian sect, leading to a massacre of Vaudois in 1655.  He married twice, and had by his second wife, his successor Vittorio Amedeo II of Savoy, who was the first King of Sicily, although he was forced to give up the title and become King of Sardinia.  The Kings of Italy of the late 19th and early 20th centuries are descended from Carlo and Vittorio.

1758 - August Wilhelm of Prussia, aged 35.  He was the son of Friedrich Wilhelm I of Prussia and Sophia Dorothea of Hanover and was born on August 9, 1722.  His older brother was Frederick the Great.  By his wife Luise of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, August was the father of Friedrich II of Prussia, who inherited the throne from the childless Frederick the Great.  His daughter Wilhelmina was the Princess Consort of Orange and the mother of the first King of the Netherlands.

1818 - Emperor Egwale Seyon of Ethiopia, unknown age.  He was the son of Emperor Hezqeyas.  His father lost the throne in 1794 and a number of appointees became emperor before until several nobles brought Egwale Seyon back as emperor.  He married Walatta Iyasus and had five children.  His reign was marked by civil war among the nobles.  After his death, he was succeeded as emperor by his brother Iyoas, instead of his sons, supposedly due to his sons' bad character.

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.