On This Day In Royal History . 25 April 1776 . Princess Mary, Duchess of Gloucester and Edinburgh was born . ◼ Princess Mary was born, on 25 April 1776, at Buckingham Palace, London. Her father was the reigning British monarch, George III. Her mother was Queen Charlotte, the daughter of Charles, reigning Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. . ◼ Princess Mary, Duchess of Gloucester and Edinburgh was the 11th child & fourth daughter of King George III of the United Kingdom. . ◼ She married her first cousin, Prince William Frederick, Duke of Gloucester & Edinburgh, when both were 40, & was his widow in later life. . ◼ In her last years, her niece, Victoria, was on the throne as the fourth monarch during Mary’s life, after her father & two of her brothers. . ◼ Princess Mary was the longest-lived (at 81 years) & last survivor of George III’s fifteen children; of those fifteen issue, thirteen lived to adulthood. . ◼ She died on 30 April 1857 at Gloucester House, London. . . . #OnThisDayInHistory #ThisDayInHistory #TheYear1776 #Princessmary #DuchessofGloucester #DuchessofEdinburgh #HouseofHanover #History #BritishMonarchy #d25apr #otd #OnThisDay #historyinpictures #Monarchy #RoyalHistory #RoyalFamily #Royalty #Royals #BritishRoyals #BuckinghamPalace #london #GreatBritain #Britain #BritishRoyalFamily #Britishroyalty #Princess #Royal #lovehistory #Historyfacts #Familyhistory Royal Collection Trust/© Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2021 (at Buckingham Palace, London) https://www.instagram.com/p/COGb5SpMtQR/?igshid=1dzg3hqs9i1ub

On This Day In Royal History . 25 April 1284 . King Edward II was born. . ◼ Edward II was born in Caernarfon Castle in North Wales on 25 April 1284, less than a year after Edward I had conquered the region, & as a result is sometimes called Edward of Caernarfon. The King probably deliberately chose the castle as the location for Edward’s birth, as it was an important symbolic location for the native Welsh, associated with Roman imperial history, & it formed the centre of the new royal administration of North Wales. . ◼ Edward’s birth brought with it predictions of greatness from contemporary prophets who believed that the Last Days of the world were imminent, declaring him to be a new King Arthur, who would lead England to glory. . ◼ Edward’s name was English in origin, linking him to the Anglo-Saxon saint Edward the Confessor, & was chosen by his father instead of the more traditional Norman & Castilian names selected for Edward’s brothers: Edward had three elder brothers: John & Henry who had died before Edward was born, & Alphonso, who died in August 1284, leaving Edward as the heir to the throne. . ◼ Although Edward was a relatively healthy child, there were enduring concerns throughout his early years that he too might die & leave his father without a male heir. . ◼ After his birth, Edward was looked after by a wet-nurse called Mariota or Mary Maunsel for a few months until she fell ill, when Alice de Leygrave became his foster mother. He would have barely known his natural mother Eleanor of Castile who was in Gascony with his father Edward I during his earliest years. An official household complete with staff was created for the new baby, under the direction of a clerk, Giles of Oudenarde. . . . #OnThisDayInHistory #ThisDayInHistory #TheYear1284 #King #KingofEngland #EdwardII #KingEdwardII #HouseofPlantagenet #Plantagenet #Plantagenets #History #EnglishMonarchy #BritishMonarchy #d25apr #otd #OnThisDay #historyinpictures #MedievalHistory #medieval #Medievalperiod #medievaltimes #medievalage #Theking #medievalking #Monarch #Monarchy #Royalty #Royals #RoyalFamily #EnglishHistory (at Caernarfon Castle) https://www.instagram.com/p/COGbEAfMaSb/?igshid=15b110oenpa32

On This Day In History . 25 April 1843 . Princess Alice of the United Kingdom was born . . ◼ Princess Alice of the United Kingdom; later Princess Louis of Hesse & Grand Duchess of Hesse & by Rhine) was the third child & second daughter of Queen Victoria & Albert, Prince Consort. . ◼ On 1 July 1862, Alice married the minor German Prince Louis of Hesse, heir to the Grand Duchy of Hesse, they had seven children. . ◼ Alice was a prolific patron of women’s causes & showed an interest in nursing, especially the work of Florence Nightingale. When Hesse became involved in the Austro-Prussian War, Darmstadt filled with the injured; the heavily pregnant Alice devoted much of her time to the management of field hospitals. One of her organisations, the Princess Alice Women’s Guild, took over much of the day-to-day running of the state’s military hospitals. As a result of this activity, Queen Victoria became concerned about Alice’s directness about medical, & , in particular, gynaecological, matters. . ◼ By Saturday, 14 December 1878, the anniversary of her father’s death, she became seriously ill with the diphtheria caught from her son. Her last words were “dear Papa”, &  she fell unconscious at 2:30 am. Just after 8:30 am, she died. Alice was buried on 18 December 1878 at the Grand Ducal mausoleum at Rosenhöhe outside Darmstadt, with the Union Flag draped over her coffin. .. ◼ Princess Alice was the mother of Tsaritsa Alexandra Feodorovna of Russia (empress consort of Tsar Nicholas II), maternal grandmother of Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, the last Viceroy of India, & maternal great-grandmother of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, consort of Queen Elizabeth II. Another daughter, Elisabeth, who had married Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich of Russia, was, like the tsaritsa and her family, killed by the Bolsheviks in 1918. . . . #onthisdayinhistory #thisdayinhistory #theyear1843 #d25apr #PrincessAlice #Houseofsaxecoburgandgotha #history #Britishmonarchy #otd #OnThisDay #historyinpictures #Monarchy #RoyalHistory #RoyalFamily #Royalty #Royals #BritishRoyals #BritishRoyalFamily #Britishroyalty #historyfacts #QueenVictoria #Princealbert #Art #Vintagephoto (at Buckingham Palace, London) https://www.instagram.com/p/COGcnJwMTkb/?igshid=e7buoj7fqo78