2 March 1835 - Francis, Holy Roman Emperor (as Francis II) 1792-1806, Emperor of Austria 1804-35, died.

The last Holy Roman Emperor. Within months of his succession to Austria and election as Emperor Austria was plunged into war with Revolutionary France which evolved into a even more dangerous war with Napoleonic France.

In 1804 after Napoleon created himself Emperor of France Francis elevated himself from Archduke of Austria to Emperor so as to be on a par with Napoleon in a territorial designation, the title of Holy Roman Emperor carried no territorial weight.

In 1806 Napoleon created a rival to Francis' Holy Roman Empire, the Confederation of the Rhine formed out of Imperial States either conquered by France or lured away. Faced with the imminent collapse of the 1000 year old Empire Francis dissolved it just weeks later.

Napoleon's ascendancy continued to the extent that in 1810 he married Francis' daughter Marie Louise. Nevertheless, despite several defeats at the hands of the French, Francis and Austria survived to emerge more powerful in 1815.

3 March 1554 - Johann Friedrich, Elector of Saxony 1532-47, died.

The influential leader of the Schmalkaldic League, the union of Protestant rulers spearheading the Reformation in Germany. However his leadership was to cost him his Throne.

He was defeated and captured by the Emperor Charles V at the Battle of Muhlberg in 1547 and deposed. The sentence of death as a convicted rebel was merely a device to bring about the swift surrender of Wittenberg, the spiritual centre of the Reformation then defended by Johann Friedrich's wife Sybille.

Sentenced thereafter to life imprisonment he was released in 1552 and died two years later.

Johann Friedrich of Saxony was personally involved, he was wounded with a sword cut to the face which disfigured him for the rest of his life. At this time Monarchs were personally expected to lead their troops if they were able to do so.

The last occasion I'm aware of was in the Napoleonic Wars, after that Monarchs tended to stay away, or at best out of the way, from the actual fighting.

Now can you imagine letting your King Trump lead your troops into battle Tommy?? He'd be holding up the first battle complaining about his heel spurs. lol

4 March 1394 - Prince Henrique of Portugal "Henry the Navigator", born.

Third son of Joao I, King of Portugal, Henry is regarded as the father of Portuguese and European maritime exploration.

After early service in his father's army in Morocco he developed an interest in maritime exploration basing himself at Sagres on the south-western tip of Portuga, from here he organized, financed, equipped and encouraged voyages south along the west coast of Africa.

Under his guidance the islands of Madeira, the Azores and Cape Verde were colonized along with forts and trading posts built along the African coast, each voyage sailing further south than the last. At the time of his death in 1460 Portuguese sailors had reached Sierra Leone.

His primary aim was not exploration as such but economic advancement - the ships sent south were looking for gold from Africa and by the 1440s slaves were being trafficked.

He never took part in any of the voyages himself, his only sorties from Portugal were military ventures to Morocco.  

The advancements he made in navigation etc enabled Dias, Colombus, da Gama and all those who followed him to embark on their extraordinary voyages of discovery 30 years after Prince Henry's death. 

5 March 1133 - Henry II, King of England 1154-89, born. Also Count of Anjou 1151-89 and Duke of Normandy 1149-89.

His grandfather Henry I, King of England died in 1135 leaving the Throne to his only surviving child Matilda, Countess of Anjou. However the Crown was usurped by her cousin Stephen, Count of Blois. Matilda eventually made her way to England and a civil war began. It only ended when Stephen's son and heir died in 1153 and the King gave up the fight. At the Treaty of Wallingford it was decided that Stephen would continue as King, but after his death the Crown would by-pass Matilda and go to her son Henry.

Within a year King Stephen was dead and the 21 year old Henry became King of England to add to the Crowns of Anjou inherited upon his father's death in 1151 and Normandy which had been ceded to him by his mother in 1149.  

6 March 1964 - Paul, King of the Hellenes (Greece) 1947-64, died.

Third son of King Constantine I he succeeded his brother in 1947 in the middle of a civil war with Soviet inspired Communists. His tireless leadership ensured that the Communists were defeated.

7 March 1550 - Wilhelm IV, Duke of Bavaria 1508-50, died.

One of the leaders of the Counter-Reformation against the spread of Protestantism in Germany.

Also remembered for issuing the Reinheitsgebot or purity law in 1516 in which he decreed that beer should only be brewed from water, barley and hops. It remained in force until 1987.

8 March 1702 - William III, Stadtholder of the Netherlands 1672-1702 and King of England & Scotland 1689-1702, died.

Born in 1650, just eight days after the death of his father, William was in no position to resist the republican movement which ousted the House of Orange from the hereditary role as Stadtholder of the Netherlands. Once old enough he in turn overthrew the Republic and was installed as Stadtholder in 1672.

In 1677 he married Mary, daughter of James, Duke of York who was heir to his brother King Charles II. James eventually became King in 1685, but his Catholicism in a Protestant country led to a call in 1688 for William and Mary to sail to England and overthrow James. William duly landed in England and by Christmas King James had fled.

William and Mary were proclaimed joint sovereigns in February 1689. Mary died childless in 1694 and William ruled alone until his death. For much of his reign he spent the summers in Europe fighting the French.

In 1701 a Act was passed which dealt with the problem of the Protestant Succession (as mentioned William was childless). He would be succeeded by his sister-in-law Anne and thereafter by the heirs of Sophia, Electress of Hanover. Within a year William was dead aged 51, he was thrown from his horse and broke his collar bone. He developed pleurisy and died.  

The manner of his death gave rise to the toast "To the little gentleman in black velvet". William's horse stumbled over a molehill on Kensington Common, so Catholics henceforth gave thanks to the mole - the little gentleman in black velvet.

9 March 1888 - Wilhelm I, King of Prussia 1861-88 & German Emperor 1871-88, died.

The first Emperor of a united Germany. He succeeded to the Prussian Throne upon the death of his brother having acted as Regent for the previous three years. In 1862 he appointed Otto von Bismarck as Chancellor and together they greatly expanded Prussia's power and influence.

Three victorious wars against Denmark (1863), Austria (1866) and France (1870-71) resulted in the minor German states offering the 73 year old Wilhelm the Imperial Crown as German Emperor which was proclaimed in the Palace of Versailles in France which the German Army had occupied in the advance on Paris.

He lived for a further 17 years dying aged 90 in 1888, sometimes at odds with Bismarck who wanted an overseas empire to reinforce Germany's role as a world power, Wilhelm was less inclined to such distant ventures.

10 March 1826 - John VI, King of Portugal 1816-26, died.

Eldest surviving son of Queen Maria I for whom he acted as Regent from 1792 when she was pronounced insane. In 1807 the Royal Court fled to Brazil to escape the invading French army. They found Brazil so amenable that the Royal Family refused to return to Europe after Napoleon had been defeated. Queen Maria died in Brazil in 1816 and John became King in his own right.

Only threats from the government in Lisbon to depose him forced him to return in 1821, leaving his eldest son Peter behind as Regent of Brazil. However once back "home" John's problems really began. His wife Queen Carlota and his second son Miguel plotted to have him declared insane like his mother. Two attempts at revolution in 1823 and 1824 failed and after the second he exiled Miguel to Vienna and confined his wife to the Palace of Queluz.

He died after several days of illness in 1826, most likely poisoned, an examination of his remains in the 1990s revealed the presence of arsenic.

Arsenic seemed to be used not only as poison but a cure all in that time frame.

Arsenic was used in cosmetics years ago, it killed some women who used it too much.

It was also found in paint and one theory is the arsenic in Napoleon's green wallpaper on the island of St Helena leached out in the damp climate impregnated the air he breathed, his post mortem revealed signs that could be ascribed to arsenic poisoning.

11 March 1275 - Bohemond VI, Prince of Antioch 1252-68 & Count of Tripoli (as Bohemond III) 1252-75, died.

At the end of the First Crusade in the late 1090s the Crusaders established four Christian states in the Holy Land - the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the Principality of Antioch and the Counties of Tripoli and Edessa.

However from the beginning they were under near constant attack from the north, south and east by the Muslim Kingdoms that surrounded them.

Bohemond VI was ruler of both Antioch and Tripoli and aware of the growing threat from the Mameluks from the east he entered into an alliance with the Mongols who were themselves advancing on the Mameluk's eastern border. This bought him a few years but in 1260 the Mongols were defeated by the Mameluks and their eastward advance ended. Bohemond was able to hold on to Antioch for a few more years by strategy and bribery, but it could not last. In 1268 Antioch fell and Bohemond was left with just Tripoli.

He managed to preserve Tripoli, partly due to the arrival of Prince Edward of England, son and heir of King Henry III, in 1271 who joined the effort to hold back the Mameluks. Bohemund died, still in possession of Tripoli, in 1275.

The Crusader States as established in the late 1090s. By Bohemond's time Edessa had been lost and the three remaining States were greatly reduced in size.

12 March 1638 - Anne Hyde, born.

She was the eldest child of Sir Edward Hyde who fled into exile in 1651 to join Prince Charles after the execution of his father King Charles I and the abolition of the Monarchy. Charles, who styled himself King Charles II, at his Court-in-exile in Breda in The Netherlands appointed Hyde Lord Chancellor and his most trusted advisor.

His lively and attractive daughter attracted the attention of Charles' younger brother James, Duke of York and they were married in Breda in November 1659.

Six months later the Monarchy was restored and Charles II took up his rightful Throne. In September 1660 James and Anne underwent a public wedding ceremony in London as doubts were expressed that their first marriage had not been lawfully conducted, by this time Anne was seven and a half months pregnant.

They had a total of eight children, but only their two eldest daughters survived.

Although baptised and married as Protestants both Anne and James converted to Catholicism in the 1660s, although their daughters were raised in the Protestant faith at King Charles' insistence.

Anne, Duchess of York died in 1671 aged 33. 14 years later her husband James became King James II and although Anne was never to wear the Crown herself her two daughters, Mary and Anne, both became Queens in the own right after James was deposed in 1689. 

13 March 1881 - Alexander II, Tsar of Russia 1855-81, assassinated.

A cautionary tale of how a little reform can lead to tragedy.

He succeeded to the Throne in the middle of the Crimean War and had to rebuild his country after that defeat. He adopted many liberal measures, liberal for Russia that is, and is best remembered for his Emancipation of the Serfs in 1864.

However his reforms were a step too far for some and not far enough for others. In 1879 a terrorist organization calling itself The Will of the People condemned Alexander to death. Several assassination attempts followed until the fatal attack in March 1881.

On the day of his death Tsar Alexander had approved a new Constitution and had agreed to sign it into law the following day. In the meantime he visited his cousin and was being driven back to the Winter Palace in St Petersburg with a bodyguard of Cossacks when a member of Will of the People threw a bomb under his carriage. The explosion killed a Cossack and a by-stander but the Tsar was unhurt. As he got out to enquire about the dead and injured a second terrorist, Ignatius Grinevitski, threw a bomb at his feet. The Tsar was mortally wounded with terrible lower leg injuries. He was driven to the Winter Palace where he died. Grinevitski also died from injuries sustained in the blast.

A church, the Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood was built on the site of Alexander's fatal attack by his son Alexander III who undid all of his father's reforms.

14 March 1820 - Victor Emmanuel II, King of Sardinia 1849-61 & King of Italy 1861-78, born.

The first King of a (mostly) united Italy. In 1859 he joined forces with France in a war with Austria to liberate the north Italian provinces from Austrian rule. In this he was partially successful with Lombardy being annexed, but Venetia remained under Habsburg rule. 

The war had the added bonus of sparking revolutions in the three small north Italian states of Parma, Modena and Tuscany all of which deposed their rulers and were annexed by Sardinia.

In the south Garibaldi overthrew the King of Naples in 1860 and handed over his conquests to Victor Emmanuel. In March 1861 he was in a position to proclaim himself King of Italy.

Venetia was finally annexed in 1866 after Italy joined with Prussia to defeat Austria and in 1870 the Papal lands were added after the French abandoned Rome to fight their own war with Prussia. 

15 March 1917 - Nicholas II, Tsar of Russia 1894-1917, abdicated.

With the war going badly Tsar Nicholas left Petrograd and his family to travel by train to his army's forward HQ at Mogilev. He left behind a simmering revolution the seriousness of which he failed to grasp.

By 11 March troops in the capital had muitinied with hundreds killed in the growing unrest. On 13 March he decided to return to Petrograd, but the direct route was blocked by mutinious soldiers, so a more circuitous journey was planned. On the evening of 14 March the Imperial train halted at the station at Pskov where the Tsar was given the news that almost the entire garrison at Petrograd had mutinied.

In the train he received a series of dignatries most of whom advised him to abdicate in favour of his son or his brother. There were also many telegrams sent between Pskov and the capital seeking advice or updates on the rapidly deteriorating situation.

By the morning of 15 March it was clear that the Tsar's position was hopeless, under advice that only his abdication could prevent a full scale civil war he signed a document handing over power to his son, the 12 year old haemophiliac Alexei, that afternoon. However six hours later he changed his mind about his son's suitability to reign given his age, condition and world situation and signed a second article of abdication this time in favour of his brother Michael.        

The Russian Monarchy had come to an end, although Michael was, in theory, Tsar for one day, as on 16 March he refused the appointment signing his own act of abdication.

Mark, growing up in an ethnic neighborhood in Buffalo I had lots of Italian friends who used the term "Mamaluke" (spelling) which meant "stupid." Is there a tie in here with your last post.

Italians use the word stupido to cover all things stupid.

Now can you imagine letting your King Trump lead your troops into battle Tommy?

Actually I can, but for the life of me, I couldn't envisage Turdope leading anything into battle, especially without his selfie camera, make-up and Gucci full length dress. And how's Brexit coming along Major. You don't seem to be keeping us up to speed on what's going on now.