The Kingdom of Bohemia has a unique place in European history. As the only kingdom within the boundaries of the Holy Roman Empire, and the only mostly Slavic state in a sea of German principalities, it was an anomaly, as were its leading noble families in the middle ages. These Bohemian lords, speaking Czech, alwaysContinue reading “Lobkowicz Princes: Survivors of the Great Bohemian Purge”
Author Archives: Jonathan Spangler
Royal Mistresses’ Kin: Dukes of La Vallière and Antin
One of the most powerful positions a woman could hold at any royal court, but particularly that of France, was the ‘recognised’ royal mistress, the open secret that everyone at court knew about. It was one of the only pathways for a woman to get a dukedom on her own in the ancien regime, asContinue reading “Royal Mistresses’ Kin: Dukes of La Vallière and Antin”
The Duke of Terceira and the House that Manuel built
In the middle of the Atlantic lies a small green island, known as Terceira, as the ‘third’ island to be discovered in the Azores archipelago by Portuguese navigators in the mid-15th century. At over a thousand miles off the coast of the mainland, Terceira would not normally be thought of as a likely seat forContinue reading “The Duke of Terceira and the House that Manuel built”
Anatomy of a British Queen: Scotland, the Netherlands, and beyond
September 2023 marks the one-year anniversary of the reign of Charles III in the United Kingdom, and in the list of British queen consorts, adds the name of Camilla Shand. In the history of royal consorts, in Britain or elsewhere in Europe, or indeed at the top of the European aristocracy—the dukes and princes—a familyContinue reading “Anatomy of a British Queen: Scotland, the Netherlands, and beyond”
Jacobite Dukes: the Drummonds of Perth and Melfort
Scotland has several families who obtained the highest rank in the peerage: a dukedom. Several of these families come from the borderlands between Highlands and Lowlands that runs from Argyll to Aberdeen. Perthshire is right in the middle of this, and the Drummond family have been a major power here for centuries. But their dukedom,Continue reading “Jacobite Dukes: the Drummonds of Perth and Melfort”
Dukes of Alburquerque: Royal Favourites and Colonial Governors
Once upon a time there was a Spanish outpost built in the far northern reaches of New Spain, in the Rio Grande Valley of the province of Santa Fe de Nuevo Mexico. Its founders named it after the Viceroy based in far-off Mexico City, the 10th Duke of Alburquerque. Some years later, the increasingly AnglophoneContinue reading “Dukes of Alburquerque: Royal Favourites and Colonial Governors”
Meet the Actons, English barons and Neapolitan princes
In the 18th century, political boundaries and national identities were a bit more fluid than they became in the 19th and 20th centuries. A person of great talent could move around the European continent and acquire position and status in a land very different from his or her place of origin. Such is the interestingContinue reading “Meet the Actons, English barons and Neapolitan princes”
Princes of Orange, Part II
At the end of Part I, in 1530 the Prince of Orange, Philibert de Chalon, left his possessions, including the principality of Orange in Provence, and lands in the Free County of Burgundy, to his sister’s son, René of Nassau, whose family–later called the House of Orange-Nassau, would dominate the history of the Low CountriesContinue reading “Princes of Orange, Part II”
Princes of Orange: a Franco-German-Dutch family (part I)
If you had to choose the most trans-national princely dynasty in all of European history, who would you choose? I’d certainly go for the House of Orange-Nassau, the current royal family of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, who, if their history is looked at from a long perspective, are revealed to be a blended FrenchContinue reading “Princes of Orange: a Franco-German-Dutch family (part I)”
The Howards: Premier peer of the realm as Duke of Norfolk and Earl Marshal
One of the two hereditary posts remaining amongst the Great Offices of State in the United Kingdom is the Earl Marshal, held continuously by the Howard dukes of Norfolk since the late 17th century, and even before that, off and on since the late 15th century. Even earlier, it was a post inherited by theirContinue reading “The Howards: Premier peer of the realm as Duke of Norfolk and Earl Marshal”
Dukes and Princes 