HISTORY MEME: (3/6) women: Queen Elizabeth I
Elizabeth Tudor is considered by many to be the greatest monarch in English history. When she became queen in 1558, she was twenty-five years old, a survivor of scandal and danger, and considered illegitimate by most Europeans. She inherited a bankrupt nation, torn by religious discord, a weakened pawn between the great powers of France and Spain. She was only the third queen to rule England in her own right; the other two examples, her cousin Lady Jane Grey and half-sister Mary I, were disastrous. Even her supporters believed her position dangerous and uncertain. Her only hope, they counseled, was to marry quickly and lean upon her husband for support. But Elizabeth had other ideas.
She ruled alone for nearly half a century, lending her name to a glorious epoch in world history. She dazzled even her greatest enemies. Her sense of duty was admirable, though it came at great personal cost. She was committed above all else to preserving English peace and stability; her genuine love for her subjects was legendary. Only a few years after her death in 1603, they lamented her passing. In her greatest speech to Parliament, she told them, ‘I count the glory of my crown that I have reigned with your love.’ And five centuries later, the worldwide love affair with Elizabeth Tudor continues.
Princess Grace of Monaco passed away on this day in 1982. While driving with her daughter back to Monaco from their country home, Princess Grace suffered a stroke, causing the her to drive her car off the side of the road. Her daughter survived.
September 10, 1898: Elisabeth, Empress of Austria, is assassinated in Geneva, Switzerland by Italian anarchist Luigi Lucheni.
Elisabeth and her lady-in-waiting were walking along a promenade when Lucheni approached them. He seemed to stumble and made a movement with his hand, as if to maintain his balance. In reality, he had stabbed Elisabeth with a 4-inch sharpened needle file inserted into a wooden handle.
Lucheni later said: “I came to Geneva to kill a sovereign…it did not matter to me who the sovereign was whom I should kill…It was not a woman I struck, but an Empress; it was a crown that I had in view.”
The Empress was sixty-years old.
”I think the biggest disease the world suffers from in this day and age is the disease of people feeling unloved. I know that I can give love for a minute, for half an hour, for a day, for a month, but I can give. I am very happy to do that, I want to do that.” — Princess Diana of Wales, July 1, 1961 — August 31, 1997
Astrid of Sweden was born on November 17, 1905 in Stockholm, Sweden. She married the Crown Prince of Belgium Prince Leopold in November of 1926 and they became King and Queen of Belgium in 1934. They had three children together: Joséphine-Charlotte, Baudouin, and Albert II.
On August 29, 1935, while the Queen and King were on vacation in Switzerland, Queen Astrid was killed in a car accident. She was pregnant with what would have been their fourth child.
Princess Alexandra Amalie of Bavaria was born on August 26, 1826 in Bavaria. Her father was King Ludwig I and her mother was Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen.
Princess Alexandra suffered from psychological issues, including the belief that as a young child she had swallowed a glass grand piano (which was still lodged inside of her). The BBC Radio 3 later did a piece on this eccentric belief.
Princess Alexandra died on September 21, 1875 in Bavaria.
"None of you can ever be proud enough of being the child of such a Father who has not his equal in this world - so great, so good, so faultless. Try, all of you, to follow in his footsteps and don’t be discouraged, for to be really in everything like him none of you, I am sure, will ever be. Try, therefore, to be like him in some points, and you will have acquired a great deal."Queen Victoria of England
Elizabeth II was crowned Queen of England on June 2,1953.
Empress Elisabeth of Austria (born Her Royal Highness Duchess Elisabeth Amalie Eugenie) was born Christmas eve 1837 in Munich.
The Empress was known for her beauty and stood at 5’8” and weighed around 110 lbs for most of her life. She was known for rigorously keeping up with the fashion trends of the time and eventually developed an unhealthy obsession with her exercise and diet. At her lowest weight, she weighed a staggering 95 lbs.
She was tragically assassinated in Geneva on September 10, 1898.
Queen Victoria married Albert on February 11, 1840. Queen Victoria is noted as starting the trend of wearing a white wedding dresses, however, Mary, Queen of Scots, wore white when she wed in 1559.
