May 12: Today in Royal History


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King Gustav I of Sweden; Credit – Wikipedia

May 12, 1191 – Wedding of King Richard I of England and Berengaria of Navarre at the Chapel of St. George in Limassol, Cyprus
Richard and Berengaria were to have married in Sicily, but Richard postponed the wedding and set off for the Holy Land to fight in the Third Crusade accompanied by Berengaria and his widowed sister Joan who were on a separate ship. Two days after setting sail, Richard’s fleet was hit by a strong storm. Several ships were lost and others were way off course. Richard landed safely in Crete, but the ship Berengaria and Joan were on was marooned near Cyprus. Berengaria and Joan were about to be captured by the ruler of Cyprus when Richard’s ships appeared to rescue them. Richard married Berengaria of Navarre at the Chapel of St George in Limassol, Cyprus, and then his fleet, along with Berengaria and Joan, traveled to the Holy Land. Berengaria and Richard’s marriage was childless.
Unofficial Royalty: King Richard I of England
Unofficial Royalty: Berengaria of Navarre, Queen of England

May 12, 1496 – Birth of King Gustav I Vasa of Sweden at Rydboholm Castle in Lindholmen, Uppland, Sweden
Gustav Vasa I, the first king of the House of Vasa, is considered the founding father of the modern Swedish state. He ranks among Sweden’s greatest monarchs and some argue that he was the most significant ruler in Swedish history. He ended foreign domination in Sweden, centralized and reorganized the government, cut religious ties to Rome, established the Church of Sweden, and founded Sweden’s hereditary monarchy. In the late 1550s, Gustav I’s health declined. He died, aged 64, at Tre Kronor Castle (Three Crowns Castle) which stood on the site of the present Stockholm Palace in Stockholm, Sweden. The official cause of death was cholera but it may have been dysentery or typhoid.
Unofficial Royalty: King Gustav I Vasa of Sweden

May 12, 1893 – Death of Georg Viktor, Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont in Marienbad, Bohemia, now in the Czech Republic; buried at Princely Burial Crypt in Rhoden, Principality of Waldeck-Pyrmont, now in Hesse, Germany
In 1845, Georg Viktor’s father died and his mother Emma served as Regent of the Principality of Waldeck-Pyrmont until he reached his majority in 1852. In 1853, Georg Victor married Helena of Nassau. Helena proved to be very successful in finding suitable marriages for their children by making contact with various European royal houses. Because of her efforts, the relatively poor House of Waldeck-Pyrmont was linked to the richer ruling dynasties of Würtemberg, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. Their daughter Emma married King Willem III of the Netherlands and their daughter Helena married Queen Victoria’s son Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany. Georg Viktor and his wife Helena are the ancestors of the Dutch royal family through their daughter Emma and the Swedish royal family through their daughter Helena. Three years after Georg Viktor’s wife Helena died in 1888, he married Louise of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg. They had one son, Prince Wolrad, who was killed in action during World War I. A year after the birth of his son Wolrad, Georg Viktor, aged 62, died from pneumonia on May 12, 1893.
Unofficial Royalty: Georg Viktor, Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont

May 12, 1937 – Coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth of the United Kingdom at Westminster Abbey in London, England
Unofficial Royalty: Coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth

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