2 June 1420 - Henry V, KIng of England married Katherine de Valois.

After his successful campaign in France 1417-19 Henry armies, in conjunction with their allies Burgundy, occupied much of northern France. By the end of 1419 they were outside Paris. The French, by now totally demoralised and with the feeble-minded King Charles VI unable to mount any form of defence, opened negotiations with Henry.

At Troyes on 21 May 1421 a treaty was signed, which in effect signalled the end of French independence. Henry was to marry King Charles' daughter Katherine, Charles would remain as King until his death, but Henry would act as Regent until that time and would succeed to the French Crown upon Charles' death with the Dauphin Charles thereby disinherited.

The first clause was enacted just 12 days later when King Henry married the 18 year old Princess Katherine in Troyes Cathedral.

For the next two years Henry was, in effect, the true ruler of France. During that time Katherine gave birth to a son Henry in December 1421. But the grand scheme began to unravel the following year when firstly Henry died suddenly in August followed by Charles two months later. The infant Henry was proclaimed King of France, but the disinherited Dauphin Charles seized the opportunity to proclaim himself King of France, the Hundred Years war was about to resume.

3 June 1844 - Louis, Duke of Angouleme, died.

Recorded in some histories as the world's shortest reigning Monarch.

The eldest son and heir of Charles X, King of France. In July 1830 a revolution against King Charles erupted, on 31 July, warned of an armed attack on Paris, the Royal Family fled to Rambouillet where on 2 August King Charles abdicated. In an attempt to save the dynasty Charles surrendered his Throne not to his son Louis, but to his grandson, nine year old Henri, Duke of Bordeaux, son of his deceased second son. (Louis was married but childless).

The abdication document was supposed to be signed by King Charles and Louis together, but Louis initially refused and therefore the Crown nominally passed to him. However 20 minutes later, after a heated arguement with his father, Louis agreed to sign the document thus giving up the Throne he had notionally occupied for 20 minutes as King Louis XIX. The Crown therefore nominally passed to the young Henri, but his reign was also to be short. On 9 August The National Assembly formally decreed that a distant cousin Louis-Philippe, Duke of Orleans had been chosen as King and thus the reign of the boy King Henri V ended after seven days.

The Duke of Angouleme fled into exile in England with the entire Royal Family. He lived in Edinburgh for two years until moving to Austria in 1832. He died at Goritz (now Gorica, Slovenia) in 1844. 

4 June 1738 - George III, King of GB 1760-1820, born.

Eldest son of Frederick, Prince of Wales who died in 1751, so succeeded his grandfather George II upon his death in 1760.

Longest reigning and longest lived King in British history, both records only beaten by Queen Elizabeth II. Mentally ill in later life, due to porphyria, a condition curable today, as a resuly he reigned under the Regency of his son the Prince of Wales from 1811 until his death.

5 June 1771 - Ernest, King of Hanover 1837-51, born.

Fifth son of George III, created Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale in 1799. In 1837 his elder brother King William IV died, his heir to the British Throne was his neice Victoria, but a woman could not inherit the Hanoverian Crown, so that passed to the nearest male heir who was the 66 year old Ernest.

He was extremely unpopular in England, despite his war service in the 1790s in which he lost the sight in one eye and carried a scar from a sword cut on his face, he was also an assiduous attendee at the House of Lords. Rumours persisted that he had murdered his valet and committed incest with his sister. After Victoria's accession Ernest became her heir and remained so until the birth of her first child in 1840, during those three years Ernest was accused by some of trying to poison the young Queen or have her deposed as insane. None of the rumours were remotely true.

As King of Hanover he restored strong government that had been lacking with a succession of absentee Kings (the Kings of GB/Hanover had only visted Hanover once between 1755 and 1837) so that by the time of his death Ernest had won the affection of the people he had been unable to achieve in GB.

6 June 1808 - Joseph Bonaparte proclaimed King of Spain.

Elder brother of Napoleon and his most valued and trusted sibling. In 1806 after he had conquered Italy Napoleon installed Joseph as King of Naples. Joseph had a largely successful reign, but his very success led Napoleon to offer him the infinitely more problematic Spanish Crown.

In May 1808 Napoleon secured the abdication of both the King of Spain and his son and installed himself as temporary King. His aim was to hand it over to Joseph as soon as possible, but Joseph was reluctant to leave the comfort and safety of Naples for war-ravaged Spain. The wily Napoleon persuaded Joseph to leave Naples and head for Spain with a vague promise of allowing him to retain Naples. However when Joseph arrived at Bayonne on the French side of the border on 8 June he was informed that his brother had formally proclaimed him King of Spain two days previously and deprived him of the Neopolitan Crown (in August he installed his brother-in-law Joachim Murat as King of Naples).

Joseph reluctantly accepted this promotion and journeyed to Madrid where his troubles began. He fled Madrid after a few months and only returned under the protection of a huge French army. Several times he petitioned his brother to be allowed to abdicate, but the French Emperor persuaded him to stay on.

Eventually in 1813 the French were defeated in Spain and Joseph abdicated fleeing to France. In 1815 after the fall of Napoleon Joseph fled to the USA where he lived until 1832 when he returned to France.

Apparently he had a grand time while living in New Jersey.   He had a number of mistresses by whom he had several children.

It's those darn foreign accents Shula. You American girls fall for them every time. lol

Here's Joe House but it isn't standing anymore.

7 June 1329 - Robert I "The Bruce", King of Scots 1306-29, died.

For the story of Robert's rise to power see 27 March.

His reign was spent almost entirely at war with England as he strove to assert Scottish independence. His victory at Bannockburn in 1314 achieved that in all but name as the English doggedly refused to recognize Scottish independence, despite coming off worst in the battles that followed Bannockburn.

Eventually in 1328 Edward III accepted the obvious and signed the Treaty of Northampton recognizing Scottish independence.

Within a year Robert I was dead, most likely from leprosy.  

Well, I did know this little French guy once... I imagine that's the same thing all those New Jersey mistresses kept saying to their parents. Poor dears.

8 June 1795 - Louis XVII, titular King of France 1793-95, died.

Born in 1785 Louis was the ill-fated only surviving son of Louis XVI and Marie Antionette.

At the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789 the Royal Family were confined to the Tuileries Palace under "house-arrest". In 1792 after the abolition of the Monarchy they were removed to the notorious Temple fortress under far more strict conditions.

In January 1793 after King Louis was tried and executed; the seven year old Dauphin was accepted as King Louis XVII by Royalists, but of course he never reigned as such. In July he was separated from his mother whom he never saw again, she was executed in October.

Thereafter the story becomes unclear. Accounts differ as to the harshness of the conditions the boy was kept under. The most severe version states that for six months he was confined to a single room, his food delivered through a hatch in the door. The room was never cleaned, neither was his bedding nor his clothes. 

Under this neglect he fell seriously ill until July 1794, with the fall of Robespierre, Louis was afforded better treatment. However the damage had been done. He fell ill again in the early summer of 1795 and died aged ten on 8 June. A post mortem gave tuberculosis as the cause of death.

He was buried in the Sainte Marguerite Cemetery, the exact location remains unknown.

When the Monarchy was restored in 1814 in the person of Louis, Count of Provence, the boy King's uncle, he reigned as King Louis XVIII recognizing the "reign" of his tragic nephew.

Rumours persisted that the boy had been smuggled out of the Temple and an unamed peasant boy had taken his place, several pretenders came forward throughout the 19th century claiming to be the rightful King of France. However it's highly likely that the boy King died on or around the date officially stated.

It seems that most revolutions end up with a period of bloodletting and oppression worse than the "tyranny" they replaced. France and Russia are good examples.

Young Louis' sister Marie Therese did indeed survive, but only after much suffering. She was separated from them after her father's execution and held with her aunt Elisabeth until she was executed in 1794. It was not until the following year that she leant that her mother and brother were dead too. She was fortunate to outlive the worst of the Terror and was released at the end of 1795 in a prisoner exchange, she was 17 years old.

She went to Vienna and the Court of her cousin the Emperor Francis II. In 1799 she married another cousin, Louis, Duke of Angouleme who was momentarily King of France in 1830 (see 3 June). She died in 1851.  

9 June 1825 - Pauline Bonaparte, died.

The middle of Napoleon's three sisters, the liveliest and most loyal in adversity of the three.

Her first husband whom she married in 1797, Gen Victor Leclerc, died of fever in the West Indies in 1802, having fathered Pauline's only child, a son Dermide. In 1803 she married an Italian nobleman Count Camillo Borghese.

After her brother's conquest of Italy she was given, in March 1806, the tiny Duchy of Guastalla to rule. But she quickly tired of the responsibilities, such as they were governing even an insignificant territory of 50 sq miles and 5000 inhabitants. Just eight weeks after being proclaimed sovereign Duchess of Guastalla she sold the Duchy to her brother for 6 million francs.

Her life thereafter was one of excess enlivened furthermore by numerous lovers. Her behaviour plus her dislike of Napoleon's second wife Marie Luise of Austria, put her into disfavour for years, but after her brother's fall in 1814 she rallied to his aid and moved to live with him on the island of Elba at the end of the year having sold many of her jewels and her Paris residence to support him on his tiny island exile.

In June 1815 Napoleon escaped from Elba and sailed for mainland France to regain the Throne. We know of course how that ended, for Pauline it meant exile in Rome under the protection of the Pope and there she died of cancer of the stomach (the same as her brother) in 1825 aged 44.

Not only immortalised, as with so many other figures in history in painting, she was sculptured semi-nude in marble by Canova in 1808.

10 June 1921 - Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, born.

He is 98 today. Born a Greek Prince on the island of Corfu, Prince Philip was the fifth child and only son of Prince Andrew of Greece and Princess Alice of Battenberg. 

He served in the Royal Navy in the Far East and the Mediterranean during WW II.

He was naturalzed a British citizen and created Duke of Edinburgh upon his marriage to Princess Elizabeth in 1947.

Although looking rather craggy now, as he's entitled to do at 98, he was a remarkably good-looking boy 90 years ago.

11 June 1727 - George I, Elector of Hanover 1698-1727 & King of GB 1714-27, died.

In 1701 the Act of Settlement was passed in GB regulating the line of succession to the Throne. It excluded Catholics and by-passed Protestants deemed of insufficient rank to wear the Crown. It was to come into effect upon the death of the last Stuart Monarch. This eventuality came about in 1714 with the death of Queen Anne, under the terms of the 1701 Act the Crown passed to a distant cousin, 54 year old George, Elector of Hanover. He was in fact 58th in line to the Throne, but under the Act the 57 "ahead" of him were excluded. 

He divided his tme between England and Hanover and due to his poor English and lack of understanding of the British Constitution he delegated much of his authority to his ministers, hence the rise of the office of Prime Minister under King George.

In June 1727 he began another journey across the Channel to Hanover sailing to the Dutch port of Schoonhoven where he boarded his carriage for the road journey to Osnabruck. On the morning of 10 June, whilst still in Dutch territory, he suffered a minor stroke but insisted he be taken on to his final destination. As his carriage rumbled on he became much worse and the Royal physician tended to him in an open field. It was decided to carry on to Osnabruck which they reached late in the evening. He was carried to bed where he lapsed into unconsciousness and died in the early hours of 11 June aged 67.

12 June 1734 - James, Duke of Berwick, killed.

Born in 1670 James was the eldest illegitimate son of James, Duke of York (later King James II) and his mistress Arabella Churchill. Destined for a lfe in the army he first tasted battle at the age of 15. In 1687 he was created Duke of Berwick by his father King James II. However the following year King James and his family fled into exile during the Glorious Revolution which installed the Protestants William II and Mary II.

Berwick, still in his teens, joined his father's campaign to regain the Throne in Ireland in 1689, but they were unsuccessful; the former King James returned to France in 1690 lreaving his son in command until he too returned to France in 1691. Thereafter he served in the Army of Louis XIV.

In 1695 was was stripped of his titles by the English Parliament, but this act was not recognized by the Jacobite Court in exile in France. Berwick developed into a remarkably able and courageous General. In 1707 during the War of Spanish Succession he won his greatest victory at Almanza in which his Franco-Spanish army defeated an Anglo-Portuguese-Dutch force, for this he was created Duke of Liria and Xerica by the King of Spain and the Duke of Fitzjames by the King of France. He was one of the most successful Franco-Spanish Generals in what was ultimately a lost cause.

After service for France against Spain 1718-20 he was not called upon again until 1733, when he was in his 60s, in the War of Polish Succession. The following year he was killed by a cannonball at the sirge of Philippsburg. 

13 June 1886 - Ludwig II, King of Bavaria 1864-86, died.

The eccentric and perhaps mad King who devoted his time and Bavaria's resources to building fairytale castles. By 1886 he had all but bankrupted the country, so his Ministers took matters into their own hands and had him declared insane on 10 June and placed under the Regency of his uncle Leopold.

On 12 June he was removed from Munich and taken to Berg Castle on the shore of Lake Starnberg under the "medical supervision" of Dr von Gudden the man who had signed the papers pronouncing the King insane. Early the following evening Ludwig and von Gudden went for a walk in the castle grounds. When they did not return after several hours search parties set out and at 2230 the bodies of Ludwig and the doctor were found in a few feet of water at the edge of the lake. There were marks of violence on von Gudden's body but none on the King's. The official explanation was that Ludwig had attempted suicide in the water and had killed von Gudden who had tried to stop him.

Because the post mortem results were never made public theories range from murder of the King during an escape attempt in a boat to an accident.

Assuming that the post mortem did not show signs of violence on the King's body the official explanation seems the most likely.

14 June 1894 - Marie Adelaide, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg 1912-19, born.

In August 1914 as German troops were about the invade Luxembourg the 20 year old Grand Duchess drive to the border and placed her car across the road and ordered the Germans out of her country. It was to no avail of course, but a spirited gesture.

Sadly at the end of the war Marie Adelaide, who had refused to flee, fell victim to a Belgian-inspired conspiracy that she had co-operated with the occupying German forces. When the French refused to allow the Luxembourg delegation to attend the Paris Peace Conference Marie Adelaide abdicated in favour of her sister.

She left her country and became a nun in Italy, but her health failed and she was taken to the family estate at Schloss Hohenburg in Bavaria where she died aged 29 in 1924.    

15 June 1888 - Friedrich III, King of Prussia and German Emperor 1888, died.

Son and heir of the first Emperor of a united Germany Wilhelm I, Friedrich married Queen Victoria's eldest daughter Victoria in 1858.

In 1887 he developed a serious throat complaint which failed to respond to treatment. His wife insisted that a British expert, Dr Mackenzie be consulted, but his diagnosis, supported by other German physicians, was disputed by some who believed the growth on his vocal chords to be a cancer rather than a non-malignant tumour favoured by Dr Mackenzie. Nevertheless when Friedrich and Victoria were in London that summer for Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee he was operated on by Mackenzie who removed most of the growth. 

At the end of the English summer the couple took up residence in the Austrian Tyrol where Friedrich was again examined by Dr Mackenzie who advised he spend the winter in the warmer climate of Venice. A few weeks later they moved to Baverno on Lake Maggiore and finally to San Remo on the Mediterranean. Here in November he suffered a relapse and a diagnosis of cancer was confirmed. He resisted a laryngectomy which would have left him unable to speak but consented to a tracheotomy to enable him to breathe easier, this was performed in February 1888.

It was only a matter of time though before his condition worsened. Then a month later his father died aged 90 and Friedrich, unable to speak and clearly dying himself, was Emperor.He returned to Berlin too ill to attend his father's funeral.

He quickly grew weaker but made great efforts to carry on with the business of government. On 11 June he wrote in his diary "I must get well again, I have so much to do". Four days later he died aged 56, He had reigned for 99 days. His son succeeded as Emperor Wilhem II.

It is widely accepted that had he lived the horrors of the First World War could have been avoided as Friedrich had the hallmarks of a moderate, liberal and reforming Emperor, unlike his warlike and Imperialist son. We shall never know.

16 June 1937 - Simeon II, King of Bulgaria 1943-46, born.

The last King of Bulgaria is 82 today.

Only son of King Boris III, Simeon succeeded to the Throne upon his father's sudden death following his return from a meeting with Hitler, poison was suspected. The six year old boy King reigned under the Regency of his uncle Prince Kyril at an extremely dangerous time for Bulgaria which had been forced by Hitler to join in the Axis war effort. Nevertheless King Boris had avoided war with Soviet Russia.

In 1944 the Russians invaded Bulgaria, deposed the Regency and installed a Regency Council of its own, Prince Kyril was subsequently executed by the Communists in February 1945. After the war in September 1946 a "referendum" on the Monarchy was held in the presence of the Soviet Army which resulted in a 97% vote for a Republic. The boy King and his mother were sent into exile.

Simeon eventually settled in Spain and married a Spanish aristocrat. After the fall of Communism he was allowed to return to Bulgaria and thus began his remarkable rehabilitation. In 2001 he founded his own political party, the National Movement Simeon II (NMSII). Just two months after its foundation the NMSII won the 2001 General Election in Bulgaria with exactly half of the seats in Parliament. He was appointed Prime Minister under the name Simeon Sakskoburggotski. He held the post for four years until defeated in the 2005 Election. He resigned as leader after a further fall in support in 2009. The main feature of his Premiership was Bulgaria's acceptance into NATO.

17 June 1239 - Edward I, King of England 1272-1307, born.

One of England's greatest Kings. He conquered Wales in the 1280s and Scotland in the 1290s, (only for it to regain its independence under his son 30 years later).

In 1297 he re-issued the Magna Carta, that version being the one upon which much of British law is founded. Earlier in 1295 the Model Parliament became the template for all future Parliaments.

18 June 1824 - Ferdinand III, Grand Duke of Tuscany 1790-1801 & 1814-24, died.

His reign highlights the vissitudes faced by the rulers of Europe during the upheaval of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.

In 1792 he was the first Monarch to recognize the French Republic and sought to work peacefully with it. However pressure from the Allied Powers forced Ferdinand to join the anti-French coalition the following year. He played very little part in the war and withdrew in 1795 proclaiming his neutrality, but to no avail, a French inspired Republican uprising forced him out of Tuscany in 1799 and in 1801 his country was taken over by the French as Napoleon's puppet Kingdom of Etruria.

As compensation Napoleon created him Elector of Salzburg 1802-05 and Grand Duke of Wurzburg 1805-14. With the fall of Napoleon in 1814 Ferdinand was restored to Tuscany where he died ten years later.

19 June 1566 - James VI, KIng of Scots 1567-1625 and King of England (as James I) 1603-25, born.

Only child of Mary, Queen of Scots and Lord Darnley. His father was murdered when James was just eight months old and before he had reached his first bithday he was taken from his mother never to see her again. She abdicated in his favour when he was 13 months old leaving him under the Regency of his uncle the Earl of Moray. James, although baptized a Catholic, was raised a Protestant indoctrinated to care little for his mother held prisoner in England, her eventual execution in 1587 had only a minimal effect on James.

In 1603 he inherited the English Crown upon the death of Elizabeth I and immediately moved to Londom only returning to Scotland once in the remaining 22 years of his life.

His reign is marked by the Gunpowder Plot in 1605, the greatest terrorist plot in British history; the publication of the King James Bible in 1611 and the establishment of the first permanent English colony in the Americas. He also sowed the seeds of the Civil War of the 1640s by his belief in the Divine Right of Kings and the subsequent battles with Parliament.

20 June 1837 - William IV, King of GB and Hanover 1830-37, died.

Third son of George III he succeeded to the Throne aged 64 following the death of his elder brothers who left no surviving issue. He too left no legitimate children (but at least 12 illegitimate children) and was succeeded by his niece Victoria. His short reign was marked by two important Acts - the abolition of slavery and the reform of Parliament.

22 June 1101 - Roger I, Count of Sicily 1072-1101, died.

Roger and his elder brother Robert, Duke of Apulia conquered the Muslim Emirate of Sicily in 1072 thus bringing to an end 240 years of Islamic rule. 

The conquest of Sicily was long and hard fought. The two brothers crossed from Apulia to Sicily in 1061 but it was not until 1072 that the majority of the island was in Christian hands and Roger was appointed Count of Sicily under the suzerainty of his brother Robert. He only succeeded in controlling the entire island with the fall of the last Muslim stronghold in 1091. That same year he invaded and occupied Malta ending Muslim rule in those islands.

His successes mark the beginning of the decline of Islamic rule in the western Mediterranean.

23 June 1763 - (Marie Rose) Josephine de Beauharnais, born.

The Empress Josephine, first wife of Napoleon.

She was born on Martinique in the French West Indies to a lieutenant of marines Joseph Tascher de la Pagerie. A renowned beauty by her mid teens she went to Paris in 1779 and married an army officer Alexandre, Vicomte de Beauharnais. He rose through the ranks becoming a General, but he fell victim to the Revolution and was guillotined in 1794 leaving Josephine with two young children.

The beautiful widow soon attracted the attention of a rising figure in the French Army, Napoleon Bonaparte, six years her junior. They were married in 1796. However his subsequent political rise and his frequent absences on military duties led to a gradual estrangement during which time both had numerous affairs. Nevertheless she became Empress upon his self elevation to Emperor of the French in 1804.

However her failure to produce a child plus her extravagence and rumours of her infidelity led Napoleon to seek a divorce so he could remarry. The marriage was annulled in 1809.

She lived in comfortable retirement outside Paris remaining on good terms with the Emperor until her sudden death in 1814 at the age of 50.