Royal Divorce

[Kristallinchen]

King Carol II of Romania and his royal wife Princess Helen of Greece and Denmark.

It was surely humiliating for Helen. But in the end she could be happy to have escaped that marriage.

I've read that Helen's parents had very many doubts about the marriage, because of Carol's dubious character. I really wonder, where they drew that assumption from.

[Kristallinchen]

Duke Ernst I of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha and Princess Luise of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, the parents of Prince consort Albert.

After the divorce poor Luise wasn't allowed to see her two beloved sons anymore and died shortly afterwards of cancer (however presumably of a broken heart).

[Kristallinchen]

Napoleon I and Josephine divorced, because she couldn't give him an heir. He than married Marie Louise of Austria and had one son with her, known as Napoleon II to Bonapartists.

[Principessa]

Marianne of the Netherlands & Albert of Prussia

[Principessa]

Marianne of the Netherlands & Albert of Prussia

Oeps, I am getting old. Forgot I already had mentioned this couple in this topic (and that it subsequently had been discussed) 

[Principessa]

Louis II (26 December 1777 – 16 June 1848) was Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine from 6 April 1830 until 5 March 1848, resigning during the German Revolution of 1848. He was the son of Louis I, Grand Duke of Hesse, and Princess Louise of Hesse-Darmstadt.

On 19 June 1804, in Karlsruhe, he married his first cousin Princess Wilhelmine of Baden, youngest daughter of Charles Louis, Hereditary Prince of Baden, and his wife, Amalie of Hesse-Darmstadt.

Due to Louis's affairs, the union proved an unhappy one, and the couple separated after the birth of their third child. Through Wilhelmine, Louis had four surviving children.

Court rumors attributed the biological paternity of the youngest children to Baron August von Senarclens de Grancy, the Grand Master of the stables of the Grand Duke of Hesse. Although they were recognized by Grand Duke Louis II as his own. Their mother, although married to the grand duke, lived apart from her husband, who eventually divorced her but did not repudiate paternity of any of the four children born during the marriageOf those four children, Marie and her brother Alexander, who was a year older, lived to adulthood.

[Kristallinchen]

King Wilhelm I. of Württemberg (1781-1864) and Princesse Karoline Auguste of Bavaria (known as Charlotte, 1792-1873). Wilhelm wanted to marry Grandduchess Catherine Pavlovna (1788-1819), but as her family had feared that Napoleon might want her hand in marriage or would betrothe her to one of his allies, she was quickly engaged to Prince George of Oldenburg (1784-1812).

The same thing happened with Karoline in Bavaria. Her sister Auguste had been forced to marry Napoleon's stepson Auguste de Beauharnais (a marriage that would unexpectedly turn out to be very happy). Her father Maximilian I. feared for the worst and didn't want to sign up with Napoleon any further. Karoline and Wilhelm were therefore engaged and married hastily in 1808 before Napoleon could come up with any stupid ideas. The marriage was a failure from the start. Wilhelm found her ugly and refused to touch her and consumate the marriage (reminds me of Henry VIII. and Anne of Cleves). They were soon living separate lives and later on divorced.

Wilhelm would marry Catherine Pavlovna as his second wife in 1816, but she died already in 1819, her first husband having died in 1812. They became parents of two daughters, Marie (later Countess of Neipperg) and Sophie (the tragic Queen of the Netherlands, first wife of Willem III.)

Karoline would marry Emperor Franz I/II. of Austria (1768-1835) as his fourth wife in 1816 (his brother Ferdinand, the Grandduke of Tuscany, had also wanted to marry her, but was forced withdraw his proposal as you know the Emperor always comes first). Karoline diplomatically also knew whom she had to choose. They didn't have any children, but she became a good stepmother to his children from his second marriage and later on a stepgrandmother. She would also become stepmother-in-law of her own younger halfsister, Sophie, when she married Franz Karl. She became a sweet old lady and even Empress Elisabeth liked her.

In the end both parties made the best out of the divorce and they were subsequently happy in their second (and third) marriages.

[fairy]

The story is told a little different in Stuttgart (the capital of the Württemberg Kingdom):
King Friedrich Wilhelm was dead set against being forced into marriage to a Napoleon Family member (I think his sister had been forced into a marriage to a Napoleon brother) and persued a union with Bavaria (who also wanted to limit the Napoleon Family members).
Correct is that the new couple did not like eachother at all, and some accounts put the blame firmly on Friedrich Wilhelm's doorstep. Who knows.
FW was however a pretty big philanderer with several maitresses (and illegitimate children).
The dramatically sad love?story of him and Katharina is rather famous here. In any case the two left a big legacy here, esp after the terrible starvation disaster in 1816/17 and many institutions still carry their names.
FW married a third time, had three children with his new wife (who looked like a carbon copy of Katharina) and hated her in the end so much that when he died he left her out of his will.
Charming!

[Kristallinchen]

The story is told a little different in Stuttgart (the capital of the Württemberg Kingdom):
King Friedrich Wilhelm was dead set against being forced into marriage to a Napoleon Family member (I think his sister had been forced into a marriage to a Napoleon brother) and persued a union with Bavaria (who also wanted to limit the Napoleon Family members).
Correct is that the new couple did not like eachother at all, and some accounts put the blame firmly on Friedrich Wilhelm's doorstep. Who knows.
FW was however a pretty big philanderer with several maitresses (and illegitimate children).
The dramatically sad love?story of him and Katharina is rather famous here. In any case the two left a big legacy here, esp after the terrible starvation disaster in 1816/17 and many institutions still carry their names.
FW married a third time, had three children with his new wife (who looked like a carbon copy of Katharina) and hated her in the end so much that when he died he left her out of his will.
Charming!

Thanks for the additional info.
I believe his sister, another Katharina, was married to Napoleon's brother, Jerome.

[Principessa]

https://en.wikipedia.org/...#Death_of_Queen_Catherine

https://en.wikipedia.org/...f_W%C3%BCrttemberg#Family

https://en.wikipedia.org/...h_the_dynasties_of_Europe

On 8 June 1808, in Munich, he married Caroline Augusta (1792–1873), daughter of King Maximilian I of Bavaria (1756–1825) and Princess Augusta Wilhelmine of Hesse-Darmstadt (1765–1796). They divorced in 1814.

1816, in Saint Petersburg,he married his first cousin, Grand Duchess Catherine Pavlovna of Russia (1788–1819), daughter of Emperor Paul I of Russia (1754–1801) and Princess Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg (1759–1828). The couple had two children:

In 1820 in Stuttgart, he married another first cousin, Duchess Pauline Therese of Württemberg (1800–1873), daughter of Duke Louis of Württemberg (1756–1817) and Princess Henrietta of Nassau-Weilburg (1780–1857). The couple had 3 children

Relationships with the dynasties of Europe
Austria: William's paternal aunt, Duchess Elisabeth, was the first wife of the Austrian Archduke Franz Josef Karl. She died before Franz became Emperor Francis II. After William divorced Caroline Augusta of Bavaria in 1814, she married the Emperor in 1816. Francis was thus both the husband of William's aunt and then the new husband of his ex-wife.

Russia: Another paternal aunt of William's, Sophie, married the future Paul I of Russia and took the name Maria Feodorovna. This family tie to Russia had important political consequences for the later Kingdom of Württemberg since the reorganisation of Europe in the wake of the Congress of Vienna. William's second wife, Catherine Pavlovna, was his first cousin as the daughter of Paul and Maria Feodorovna. After Catherine died in 1819, the family relationship with Russia was renewed with the wedding of William's eldest son, Charles, to Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna. Olga was the granddaughter of Maria Feodorovna and the niece of William's second wife, Catherine. Her father was Nicholas I and her mother was Alexandra Feodorovna, the sister of the Prussian kings Frederick William IV and William I, later the German Emperor.

France: William's sister Catherine was married in 1807 to Jérôme Bonaparte, brother of the French Emperor Napoleon I and uncle of French Emperor Napoleon III.

United Kingdom: The British royal family were relatives of William's maternal grandmother Princess Augusta, the elder sister of King George III. George III's eldest daughter Charlotte, was the second wife of Frederick I of Württemberg and thus his stepmother.

Netherlands: Sophie, Wilhelm's second daughter from his marriage to Catherine, married in 1839 her cousin, Willem, prince of Orange, who in 1849 became King of the Netherlands. Willem III was the son of Catherine's sister Anna Pavlovna of Russia.


As known Willem III of the Netherlands and his first wife (and first cousin) Sophie didn't have a happy marriage. There was a story that Sophie wanted to marry another first cousin but wasn't allowed, based on some Russian "rules". But still was later on married off to another first cousin.

In 1839 Sophie and Willem III were married. The couple returned to the Netherlands and established themselves at the Plein Palace and—after they had become king and queen—at the Noordeinde Palace. They had three children. The marriage was not a success. King William's mother, whom he completely relied on, was totally against the marriage to a daughter of the sister she loathed and treated her daughter-in-law and niece with disdain. Intellectually, Queen Sophie was superior to her husband. She, on the other hand, did not fit his sensual character. While he loved contemporary painting, music and theatre, she was a lady of letters with a specific interest in history. Willem III had several extramarital relations. She let it be publicly known that she found him inferior and unsuitable to be king and that she would do better as a regent for her son.

Queen Sophie tried to separate from him, but this was refused; the state interest had to prevail. From 1855 the couple lived separately during the summer season, he at Het Loo Palace and she at Huis ten Bosch Palace. She also spent time in Stuttgart, with her own family. Queen Sophie died at Huis ten Bosch Palace in the Hague. She was buried in her wedding dress, because, in her own view, her life had ended on the day she married.

[Konradin]

The story is told a little different in Stuttgart (the capital of the Württemberg Kingdom):
King Friedrich Wilhelm was dead set against being forced into marriage to a Napoleon Family member (I think his sister had been forced into a marriage to a Napoleon brother) and persued a union with Bavaria (who also wanted to limit the Napoleon Family members).
Correct is that the new couple did not like eachother at all, and some accounts put the blame firmly on Friedrich Wilhelm's doorstep. Who knows.
FW was however a pretty big philanderer with several maitresses (and illegitimate children).
The dramatically sad love?story of him and Katharina is rather famous here. In any case the two left a big legacy here, esp after the terrible starvation disaster in 1816/17 and many institutions still carry their names.
FW married a third time, had three children with his new wife (who looked like a carbon copy of Katharina) and hated her in the end so much that when he died he left her out of his will.
Charming!

There is a very well known story about a couple of princes, who dislike one another, that the groom told her bride «we are victims of politics». I think they were these 2.

[Kristallinchen]

The story is told a little different in Stuttgart (the capital of the Württemberg Kingdom):
King Friedrich Wilhelm was dead set against being forced into marriage to a Napoleon Family member (I think his sister had been forced into a marriage to a Napoleon brother) and persued a union with Bavaria (who also wanted to limit the Napoleon Family members).
Correct is that the new couple did not like eachother at all, and some accounts put the blame firmly on Friedrich Wilhelm's doorstep. Who knows.
FW was however a pretty big philanderer with several maitresses (and illegitimate children).
The dramatically sad love?story of him and Katharina is rather famous here. In any case the two left a big legacy here, esp after the terrible starvation disaster in 1816/17 and many institutions still carry their names.
FW married a third time, had three children with his new wife (who looked like a carbon copy of Katharina) and hated her in the end so much that when he died he left her out of his will.
Charming!

There is a very well known story about a couple of princes, who dislike one another, that the groom told her bride «we are victims of politics». I think they were these 2.

You're right. This was Wilhelm and Karoline.

[Konradin]

The story is told a little different in Stuttgart (the capital of the Württemberg Kingdom):
King Friedrich Wilhelm was dead set against being forced into marriage to a Napoleon Family member (I think his sister had been forced into a marriage to a Napoleon brother) and persued a union with Bavaria (who also wanted to limit the Napoleon Family members).
Correct is that the new couple did not like eachother at all, and some accounts put the blame firmly on Friedrich Wilhelm's doorstep. Who knows.
FW was however a pretty big philanderer with several maitresses (and illegitimate children).
The dramatically sad love?story of him and Katharina is rather famous here. In any case the two left a big legacy here, esp after the terrible starvation disaster in 1816/17 and many institutions still carry their names.
FW married a third time, had three children with his new wife (who looked like a carbon copy of Katharina) and hated her in the end so much that when he died he left her out of his will.
Charming!

There is a very well known story about a couple of princes, who dislike one another, that the groom told her bride «we are victims of politics». I think they were these 2.

You're right. This was Wilhelm and Karoline.

[CyrilSebastian]

Isabella, Countess of Gloucester was an English noblewoman who was married to King John of England prior to his accession.   
John acceded to the throne in 1199. Before the end of August 1199, he obtained an annulment of the marriage. He married Isabella, Countess of Angouleme in 1200.

[bumbershoot]

Before Henry VIII's time, I think European royals had a very very very hard time getting divorced. But those who found themselves in impossible marriages sometimes could, if they  had what lawyers call ``good facts'' and the right connections, persuade the Catholic Church to grant them an annulment. But I often wonder how often those grounds were really flimsy and were granted for political favors or cold hard cash. Seems to me there have been royal scandals in connection with annulments but I can't think of any off the top of my head.

Anne of Cleves got some sort of an annulment, but that was after Henry exited the RC church.  Didn't Henry VIII's sister Margaret get an annulment? And were Josephine and Napoleon divorced or did he manage to get an annulment?