16 May 1770 - Louis XVI, Dauphin of France (later King Louis XVI) married Marie Antoinette of Austria.

One of the most famous marriages in history, both ended up on the guillotine during the French Revolution. Louis, heir to the Throne was 15 and Marie Antoinette 14, the 15th of 16 children of Marie Theresa, Archduchess of Austria.

The marriage was unpopular in France as the Franco-Austrian alliance was regarded as having no benefits for France but many for Austria.

Stories abounded about the lack of children born to the couple, their first was not born until 1778 when they were in their mid 20s. Louis' lack of confidence in the bedroom and even a physical defect later corrected by surgery have been suggested. They went on however to have four children.

17 May 1727 - Catherine I, Empress of Russia 1725-27, died.

A remarkable tale, quite literally, of rags to riches. She was born Martha Scavronskaya to a Lithuanian peasant family in what was then the Poilsh-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Orphaned by the age of five she was adopted by a Lutheran pastor in Marienburg. She grew into a beautiful teenager and in 1702 aged 18 married a Swedish soldier Johan Rabbe, the Swedes having captured the town in the early stages of the Great Northern War. However after just a few weeks together the Russians entered Marienburg and her husband was killed.

She was taken back to Russia in the train of Field Marshal Sheremetev who put her to work as a laundress. He then passed her on to Prince Alexander Menshikov a close friend of the Emperor Peter I "the Great". Hoping to impress the Tsar Menshikov passed the beautiful 20 year old Martha to Peter who made her his mistress.

So far, so normal, but here the story takes an amazing turn. Peter had divorced his wife some six years earlier, she had produced just one surviving son, Martha was almost constantly pregnant producing five children by 1712, furthermore she was just the companion he needed; cheerful, fun-loving and honest at a time when most feared to speak truth unto power. In 1712 they were married, she was adopted into the Russian Orthodox Church taking the name Catherine. Over the next ten years she gave birth to five more children.

Tsar Peter died in 1725, with no set laws of succession the nobles met to appoint a successor. Of Peter's immediate family only two grandchildren, aged nine and 11, from his first marriage survived. His children by Catherine were also very young, so the choice fell upon Catherine herself - the peasant laundress was now Empress of Russia.

However her reign was to be short. She took to the rule with great enegy indulging herself with everything her new role could offer, as a result she became fat and her health collapsed. By early 1727 she was dying and finally expired in May aged 43. The Crown passed to her step-grandson who had been passed over two years earlier.

She never learnt to read or write either. Russia had female rulers for most of the 18th century, apart from Peter the Great at the beginning the rest of the male Tsars were either too young to have any influence or were inadequate for the role.

18 May 1152 - Henry, Duke of Normandy and Count of Anjou (later Henry II, King of England) married Eleanor, Duchess of Aquitaine.

Eleanor was firstly married to Louis VII, King of France, but after 15 years of marriage she had produced just two daughters. By 1152 both were seeking a divorce. This was granted by the Pope on grounds of consanguinity (nearness of blood relationship) in March. She was now free, but as a ruler in her own right she was prey to any fortune hunter in Europe. As she travelled from the Royal French residence at Beaugency to her own capital of Poitiers two attempts were made to abduct her, but she arrived safely. From Poitiers she sent a message to Henry to come and marry her.

Precisely how the arrangement to marry was made is unclear. It has been suggested that they met and made the agreement in 1151 that when she was free they would marry. It was an advantageous match for both parties; Henry was 19 with the likliehood of becoming King of England (he was to be confimed as heir a year later and succeeded as King a year after that in 1154) she, although much older at nearly 30, was the ruler of a rich province.

They were married at the Cathedral of St Pierre, Poitiers on Whit Sunday 1152.

The marriage proved to be one of the most tempestuous in English Royal history, but that is another story.  

I think one of Russia's political or constitutional downfalls was that they seemed to readily accept peasants as leaders.

Imagine what the history books will say down the road then about political and constitutional downfalls that America made by electing Donald Trump as KIng. lol

Happy Victoria Day weekend by the way to all.

PS, do you think down the road you will have a weekend holiday named Trump Day? Heee

19 May 1536 - Anne Boleyn, executed.

Her failure to produce just a daughter and no sons after three years of marriage persuaded King Henry that he had to rid himself of the woman for whom he had caused such an upheaval.

The final straw came in January 1536 when she miscarried, for the third time, of a child with the appearance of a boy. He began looking around for a suitable new wife and this, coupled with the Court factions of pro- and anti-Boleyn, led to his advisors coming up with a plan of action. She was to be accused of adultery, incest and treason which would not only end the marriage but have the advantages of placing the Boleyn faction beyond the pale.

How much Henry knew of this beforehand is debatable, but it seems likely that he left the means of Anne's removal to be determined by greater minds than his and he was prepared to go along with whatever they put before him. More uncertainties exist as to whether he actually believed the accusations or simply accepted them as a means to an end.

In any event she was arrested on 2 May along with four courtiers and her brother George, Viscount Rochford. The charges were patently absurd to our ears - adultery with at least four courtiers and incest with her brother, both of which amounted to treason. There was even an attempt to charge her with witchcraft, but that came to nothing.

The four courtiers were tried on 12 May while Anne and her brother were tried separately on 15 May. All six were convicted and sentenced to death. The five men were executed on 17 May and Anne two days later, not beheaded with an axe but with a single blow with a sword, all six executions took place at the Tower of London.

On the day before her death an ecclesiastical court pronounced the King's and Anne's marriage invalid on the grounds of a pre-contract between Anne and the Earl of Northumberland dating back 13 years. This act had the effect of rendering her daughter Elizabeth illegitimate.       

When the jury is told what verdict to reach "justice" was extremely swift.

After Anne's execution King Henry was left with no heir, he had allowed his two daughters; Mary by Katherine of Aragon and Elizabeth by Anne Boleyn to be proclaimed illegitimate by the repudiation of his two wives. They were only restored to the succession after he had produced a son by his third wife. All three were eventually to reign in turn.

Marrying into royalty doesn't always have a happily ever after ending.

20 May 1648 - Wladyslaw IV, King of Poland-Lithuania 1632-48, died.

An ambitious Monarch who claimed both the Thrones of Sweden and Russia. He was the son of Sigismund, King of Poland 1587-1632 and Sweden 1592-99. His father was deposed in Sweden in 1599 and replaced by his uncle; after Wladyslaw's accession in 1632 he unsuccessfully claimed the Swedish Throne. Furthermore in 1610 when he was 15 Wladyslaw was elected Tsar of Russia during the chaotic Time of Troubles, but his father refused him permission to take up the Crown. When he was older Wladyslaw raised an army and invaded Russia reaching Moscow in 1618, but failed to seize the Throne.

His reign in Poland after 1632 was one of great trial, he faced invasions from the Turks and the Russians both of which he successfully defended. He also had to deal with perodic revolts by Ukranian Cossacks in the south. At home his authority was constantly being eroded by the powerful Polish parliament which thwarted many of his reformist ideas. He did however keep Poland out of the Thirty Years War which devastated much of central Europe.

Happy Victoria Day to you too, PBA.  Every day is Trump Day in America. I don't think Trump is celebrating too much this weekend after having to drop the tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum and then him being told by the courts that he has to surrender all his taxes having to do with his family business dealings. Probably not to happy when he heard China now backs Iran after his threats on imposing rescheme change on Iran. Also being told by his own people to not pardon those to American serviceman up on murder charges. One of them a Seal decided to stab a prison in his custody and then cut off his head so that he could have his picture taken with it. Then bragged on face-book that he had also shot and killed an old man and a young girl. Obvious weren't give the shrink exam when they first joined. It would have been a very good weekend here other that the rain and strong winds we received from those American storms that first started out in Texas.

Rather similar to Franz Hals' Laughing Cavalier, both painted around the same time, the 1620s/30s.

21 May 1471 - Henry VI, King of England 1422-61 & 1470-71, murdered.

The saintly King Henry was totally unsuited to the role of war leader when his right to the Throne was challenged by the Yorkists. Deposed in 1461 he was restored in October 1470 when the Yorkists principal supporter the Earl of Warwick deserted King Edward IV and changed sides.

Henry's second reign lasted just six months, he was suffering from a form of mental breakdown leaving the business of government in the hands of the Lord Warwick. In April 1471 Edward returned from temporary exile and regained the Throne, King Henry was deposed for a second time and imprisoned in the Tower of London. Further disaster soon followed, Warwick was killed in battle on 14 April and Henry's only son, Edward, Prince of Wales suffered a similar fate on 4 May (see 4 May). Now only the feeble Henry remained of the direct Lancastrian line.

On 21 May he was murdered in the Royal apartments in the Tower. Exactly what happened is unclear, but it seems certain that the deed was carried out on King Edward's orders, there have been suggestions that Edward's brother Richard, Duke of Gloucester (the future King Richard III) personally stabbed, strangled or suffocated the helpless Henry.

He was initially buried in Chertsey Abbey, Surrey but was reinterred in St George's Chapel, Windsor by Richard III in 1484.

22 May 1670 - Friedrich Augustus II "The Strong", Elector of Saxony 1694-1733 and King of Poland (as Augustus II) 1697-1704 & 1709-33, born.

Known for his immense size and physical strength, it is said he could bend horseshoes with his bare hands and at official occasions would pick up two trumpeters with each hand and hold them at arm's length while they played a fanfare. He also holds the (unverifiable) Royal record for the number of illegitimate children he fathered, an estimated 350, although he only acknowledged a fraction of that number.

Elected King of Poland in 1697 he lost that Crown in the Great Northern War to a Swedish appointee in 1704, but regained it when the Swedes withdrew five years later.

He also left a lasting legacy in the Arts, much of the Baroque beauty of Royal Saxony was due to him. The world famous Meissen pottery was established during his reign and thrived under his patronage.

So beautiful!

23 May 1533 - Henry VIII's marriage to Catherine of Aragon pronounced invalid.

In 1527 after 18 years of marraige and just one daughter Henry decided it was time to be rid of his wife, he had fallen for the vivacious Anne Boleyn and wanted to make her his Queen. However only the Pope could grant a divorce and Clement VII would not do so.

Over the next five years Henry sent envoys to Rome, Rome sent envoys to England, learned men were consulted and asked to give their opinion, but it all came to nothing. By 1530 Henry was convinced, following investigations, that his marriage was and always had been invalid. He had married his brother's widow and although the Pope at the time in 1509 had granted a dispensation, Henry believed that the marriage was cursed by God and therefore he was without a male heir.

In January 1533 while the debate raged still Anne informed the King that she was pregnant. This changed things entirely, no longer willing or able to wait for the Pope's decision Henry and Anne were secretly married on 25 January. This of course brought about a new difficulty, he was still married to Catherine. So a way out had to found fast. A garthering of Bishops was called in May at Dunstable Priory where they, and not the Pope, would make a judgement. Predictably, on 23 May, Archbishop Cranmer announced the result of all the years of inquiries - Henry's marriage to Catherine had been unlawful, there was no need for a formal divorce, just a statement that the marriage was not and never had been a true marriage. Five days later they pronounced his marriage to Anne legal and lawful. Three days after that a six month pregnant Anne was crowned Queen. 

Mark, it's a toss-up between the vase and Friedrich Augustus II.

Here is a picture of St. Modwen's.

Sir Thomas More was one of those learned men, wasn't he?  If memory serves, the  movie "A Man for all Seasons" chronicles Sir Thomas More's objection, imprisonment and ultimate execution over this matter.

He resigned as Lord Chancellor in 1532 after three years in office over Henry's proposed annulment, but his actual fall came in 1534 when he refused to accept the legality of the King's actions regarding Catherine and Anne Boleyn, it was treason under the Treason Act passed that year.