Category: Women in History

1. Almost Queens: Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, Princess of Wales

   Posted on 7:00am Wednesday 1st Jan 2020

   Caroline of Ansbach and Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Streilitz are the best known of the Hanoverian Queens. As the wives of, respectively, King George II and King George III, they wore the consorts crown. George I's wife Sophia had been imprisoned for years when he came to the throne, and George IV's wife Caroline of Brunswick was never crowned or recognised by her husband as Queen. William IV's wife Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen is generally forgotten about, possibly because attention tends to focus more on her husband's battles over their niece, the future Queen Victoria.

   But between Caroline and Charlotte should have been another Queen. The untimely death of George III's father, Frederick Prince of Wales, meant that his wife Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha suddenly went from Queen-in-Waiting to Dowager Princess of Wales, and would instead have to watch her daughter-in-law get the coronation she might otherwise have expected for herself.

2. Almost Queens: Margaret Stewart, Dauphine of France

   Posted on 10:40am Thursday 14th Nov 2019

   Princess Margaret Stewart was born at a time when the Scottish court was becoming a potentially useful ally for England’s other enemy – France. As with so many women her politically-necessary marriage ended up being an unhappy one, and in the end didn’t even lead to her gaining a French crown.

3. Almost Queens: Isabel Marshal

   Posted on 6:00am Monday 14th Oct 2019

   The “Almost Kings” blog series showed that on occasion a younger son can end up King due to the unfortunate early death of the eldest. Maybe this was a consideration for Isabel Marshall, but she certainly couldn’t have foreseen missing out on the title “Queen of the Romans”.

4. Almost Queens: Maria Anna Victoria of Bavaria

   Posted on 7:00am Monday 16th Sep 2019

   Maria Josepha of Saxony was not the only “Almost Queen” of France. In fact 17^th century France saw several women who missed out on the French crown due to their early deaths.

5. Almost Queens: Maria Josepha of Saxony

   Posted on 6:00am Wednesday 14th Aug 2019

   At one point the French monarchy went through a period of repeated Dauphin and Dauphine deaths. This led to several instances of the throne skipping a generation or two, and also gave history several “Almost Queens”.

6. Almost Queens: Alys of France

   Posted on 7:00am Monday 15th Jul 2019

   Alys of France was never originally intended to be a Queen of England. And she never got to be one either, thanks to all those pesky rumours about what she got up to with her potential father-in-law, King Henry II of England.

7. Almost Queens: Mary de Bohun

   Posted on 7:00am Friday 14th Jun 2019

   On her marriage in 1380 no one could have considered Mary de Bohun a potential future queen. While she was marrying in to the royal family, her husband’s cousin was King and there was no reason to think that he wouldn’t have sons of his own in time.

8. Almost Queens: Matilda of Anjou

   Posted on 6:00am Wednesday 15th May 2019

   Matilda of Anjou was one of the first almost Queens of England. The death of her husband, William Aetheling, led to a succession crisis for her father-in-law and a personal crisis for her.

9. Royal Mistresses: Karin Mansdotter

   Posted on 7:00am Wednesday 17th Apr 2019

   It’s rare that a royal mistress becomes a royal wife. Even rarer when the mistress isn’t from the nobility! By Karin Mansdotter wasn’t married to an ordinary King, and her fate wouldn’t quite be the same as other Queens.

10. Royal Mistresses: Nell Gwyn

    Posted on 6:00am Thursday 14th Mar 2019

    “Let not poor Nellie starve”.

    This is reported to be one of the last requests that King Charles II made to his brother James shortly before his death. Charles had had multiple mistresses during his life, and Eleanor “Nell” Gwyn was just one of several long-term favourites. But unlike her contemporaries, who had powerful families and connections to protect them after his death, Nell was a commoner who could easily be dropped by her supporters, thus the request that his brother help her after he was gone.