4 Royal Curses that Actually Came True

thank you for Royal curses that actually came true when infidelity early death suicide or murder strike a royal family they are not only tragedies they can be National or even Global catastrophes and when repeated calamities strike a dynasty a generation after generation Legends of long ago curses are bound to be Unearthed from a witch poisoning the love lives of 800 years of princes to Supernatural Ravens for warning early Imperial deaths from a grief-stricken mother cursing a young Emperor to a life of tragic losses to spilled milk dooming a dynasty to a massacre after 10 Generations let's explore four royal curses from history which actually seem to have come true the princes of Monaco thank you cursed in marriage in 1297 Lord reniere Scion of the powerful at genoese Grimaldi family and a band of loyal Knights dressed as priests to infiltrate the rock of Monaco once inside the knights took swords from under their holy robes and seized the Fortress Renee named himself Lord of Monaco and his descendants have ruled the Strategic Seaside rock ever since while celebrating his victory he captured a beautiful maiden and raped her according to Legend the woman learned the Arts of Witchcraft in order to seek revenge reniere had her arrested and burned at the stake as she died in agony she added a curse on her rapist and his family never will a Grimaldi find happiness in marriage this Legend has long been referred to when members of the princely family of Monaco and their spouses have found only misery and tragedy in matrimony in 1457 the throne went to a six-year-old girl Claudine she was engaged to her 37 year old cousin lombair he imprisoned his child bride and seized her throne in 1660 Prince Louis the first married sensuous French Aristocrat Katharine Charlotte de gramon she only agreed to marry him because her cousin refused to elope with her she preferred to remain at Versailles with her many lovers including King Louis XIV and his sister-in-law princess Henrietta of England katarine Charlotte gave birth to seven children the prince claimed them all though how he knew they were his is anyone's guess Louis doggedly defended his wife's honor and nearly had a duel with one of her paramours in the end katarine Charlotte's romantic entanglements caused her disgrace and she was exiled from court she died of cancer at 39. their son Antonio the first wed Mary du Lorraine she gave birth to six daughters and her husband blamed her for failing to deliver a male Heir this was before it was understood that the father provides the sex chromosome Antonio paraded his many mistresses who also gave birth to daughters in front of his heartbroken wife their daughter Louise became princess of Monaco she married Jacques du montagnon but he rarely left his Mistresses in Paris to visit her however when Louise died of smallpox at 34 Jacques finally showed up to seize power he was so hated by the monagasque people that they chased him back to France honoree III wed Maria Katarina Bernoulli of Genoa when her ship arrived the prince refused to go aboard declaring that as he was a monarch she must come to him she countered that as she was a member of a higher ranking royal family he must come to her as they couldn't decide who came first the ship remained stranded offshore for days finally a dock was built so the couple could meet halfway this shaky start did not lead to marital bliss infidelity was Rife on both sides when Maria Katarina inherited a fast Fortune she kept it from honoree he countered by keeping their children from her finally she ran away and her powerful lover the prince du Condi got her a legal separation and the right to see her children during the French Revolution Monaco's princely family was imprisoned and deprived of their wealth honoree IV married French Duchess Louise Domo for her money but he never got access to any of it because it was tied up in lawsuits in the new Republican court system instead she went through his remaining funds gambling and buying beautiful clothes the couple took advantage of the Republic's new divorce laws Charles III found happiness in marrying Antoinette dumorod they used her Dowry to build Monte Carlo Casino and began attracting tourists to Monaco but she died tragically young at 35 from cancer heartbroken Charles never remarried their son Albert the first wanted to Wed the cream of European royalty one of Queen Victoria's daughters but they all turned him down instead Victoria suggested Scottish noblewoman Lady Mary Victoria Douglas Hamilton she and Albert had one son but Mary hated the heat of the Mediterranean and left after a year Albert next married Jewish American heiress Alice Hein in the beginning all seemed well the couple shared a love of oceanography and she increased Monica's profile by opening an opera theater and ballet but he was frequently seen with courtesans including famous Spanish dancer Caroline Otero the couple had a screaming match in the theater and Albert slapped his wife in front of a packed House of high society guests she laughed and spent the rest of her life in London Louis II was raised by his mother and hated his father he was required to return to Monaco at 11 but as soon as he was old enough he laughed to join the French Foreign Legion during World War One he had an affair with a cabaret singer Marie Juliet LaVey he wanted to marry her but his father forbid it instead Marie and their daughter Charlotte followed Louie's military Camp posing as laundresses Charlotte was Louie's only child so he named her Heir and arranged her marriage to Pierre de Paul and Yak Duke of Valentino wah they had two children but he was gay so the marriage didn't last their son Renee III transformed Monaco's lagging Casino economy into a vibrant tax Haven and cultural destination in 1955 the prince met Academy award-winning American actress Grace Kelly and they agreed to Wed in a business-minded arrangement 30 million people watch their fairy tale wedding but it was far from happily ever after while on their yachting honeymoon Grace and Renee realized they had little in common he began cheating as soon as they returned Grace loved her children but the marriage and the obligations of being a princess were straining she was forced to turn down an offer to return to acting in 1982 Grace suffered a stroke and drove off a cliff her daughter Stephanie survived but Princess Grace died at 52. her son Albert II is the current reigning Prince of Monaco as a bachelor he fathered at least two illegitimate children and faced several paternity lawsuits at 53 he settled down with 33 year old South African Olympic swimmer Charlene Woodstock rumors circled that Charlene tried to flee Monaco before the wedding but had her passport confiscated she gave birth to twins Gabriella and shock in 2014. in 2021 she spent nearly a year in her native South Africa while recovering from a serious infection more rumors predicted a pending divorce but the prince and princess have since been reunited and all appears well in the house of Grimaldi the prince's two sisters have also had disastrous love lives at 21 Caroline married a 38 year old Playboy but they split after two years next she had a happy Union and three children with Stefano casaragi but he was killed in a crash during the 1989 World powerboat Championship Prince Ernst Auguste Duke of Brunswick left his wife to become a Caroline's third husband but the princess has since separated it from the notoriously rude and violent Prince youngest sister Stephanie had a string of hit songs in the 1980s and dated race car drivers and actor Rob Lowe she had two children out of wedlock with her bodyguard they wed but he was photographed with Miss topless Belgium and Stephanie filed for divorce she had a third child and refused to name the father Stephanie next dated a married elephant trainer and moved her three children into his circus Caravan then she had an affair with an acrobat but they broke up and the family moved back to Monaco over seven centuries the princely family has had more than their share of disastrous marriages so were the Grimaldi's really a curse in Love by a 13th century witch or are they just chronically bad at relationships the habsburgs curse of the Ravens this Legend begins with a 10th Century night the count Von altenborg he was out hunting in the Swiss Alps when he got separated from his Entourage and stumbled into a rocky clearing the area housed several nests of eagles and feeling threatened the birds lunged at the count he might have been packed to death but a conspiracy of ravens flocked to his rescue fought off the Eagles and allowed the count to escape in thanks Von altenborg ordered a watchtower built to house the Ravens and he sent his own servants to feed and care for them over the next Century his family grew rich and Powerful in 10 20 his descendant count ratbot transformed the old Watchtower into a luxurious fortified Castle but workmen chased off the Ravens and even killed some of them it is not wise to anger such ominous Birds who have long been associated with death and a spirit world the new Fortress was called Habsburg meaning Hawk Castle the family took their name from the castle and continued to grow in strength and wealth by 1452 Frederick Von Habsburg was able to cajole the prince electors to name him Holy Roman Emperor for the next 400 years the habsburgs ruled the most powerful Empire in Europe but the Ravens were not happy about being cast out of their Tower and forgotten it was said that the black birds called turnfulkin in German mythology appeared to Ka ominously on the eve of a battle the habsburgs would lose and that they filled the trees outside the palace to forebode a tragedy in the Imperial family the habsburgs certainly had more than their fair share of Misfortune Max a million the first beautiful 25 year old wife Mary of burgundy was thrown from her horse and broke her back she died and passed the Netherlands to her young son Philip the handsome when he grew up he married Juana who inherited both Aragon and Castile from her parents uniting much of Spain Philip died of typhoid at 28 and mentally ill huana supposedly refused to allow him to be buried for weeks Philip's father Emperor Maximilian grew so morbidly depressed after the deaths of his wife and son that he brought his own coffin with him wherever he traveled he left instructions that his corpse be publicly displayed to show the perishableness of Earthly Glory he left the Empire to his grandson Charles V who had also taken control of Spain by locking his mother up in a Convent he married his cousin Isabella of Porsche and the pair were deeply in love when she died in childbirth he wore black surrounded himself with clocks and portraits of her and even staged a production of his own funeral after his real funeral Spain went to his son Philip II and the Empire to his brother Ferdinand the first both branches of the Habsburg family tree continued to suffer a tragedy after tragedy the famously unhealthy members of the House were as nothing to the many many babies lost to miscarriage stillbirth and infant mortality only about half of the Habsburg children survived to the age of 10. whenever Misfortune struck and another small black draped box was carried out of the palace people searched the skies for Ravens and whispered the great family was cursed it was even sad that Ravens appeared in the trees in Paris to watch as Queen Marie Antoinette a member of the House of Habsburg was guillotined in 1793. finally in the 19th century a more scientific explanation for the many Habsburg calamities was uncovered in breeding the Spanish and Austrian branches of the family ping-ponged Brides back and forth for centuries cousins married cousins and uncles married nieces all this intermarrying compounded genetic disorders causing multiple severe disabilities many kings and Emperors were Afflicted with the infamous Habsburg jaw their lower mandible was so extended that it was difficult for them to eat or speak all this inbreeding culminated in King Carlos II of Spain he was described as short lame epileptic senile and completely bald before 35 always on the verge of death but repeatedly baffling Christendom by continuing to live Carlos was known as the haxt his superstitious people called in priests to perform exorcisms and thought that he must have been cursed by some powerful sorceress or perhaps an ancient flock of ravens he was also impotent but his wife was blamed for failing to conceive a child she was fed toxic fertility potions and died at 26. Carlos's misery finally came to an end when he was 38 in 1700 and the line of the Spanish habsburgs died with him the Austrian habsburgs lived on but they would get a fresh curse and even more calamities Emperor Franz Joseph [Music] karoli curse by the 1800s the habsburgs had suffered many more possibly avian-related misfortunes including the fall of the Holy Roman Empire at the hands of Napoleon in 1806 but they held on to the reduced Austrian Empire and had lightened up on the inbreeding so they were hanging in there in 1848 18 year old Emperor Franz Joseph had a serious problem one of his remaining kingdoms Hungary wanted democracy the headstrong Young Ruler rashly and illegally revoked their new Democratic laws hungarians revolted on Franz Joseph sent in the Army the hungarians were defeated and the revolutionary leaders executed proud of his victory and secure on the throne Franz Joseph attended a grand ball in Vienna in his fine gold braided uniform he promenaded before the odd crowd just then a woman dressed in black stepped out of the masses she was the Countess Caroli and her beloved Son had been among the Hungarian revolutionaries he had been just 18 the same age as the emperor but his life was cut short at the end of a rope the Furious Countess bellowed out a curse at the unsuspecting Emperor may heaven and hell blast your happiness may your family be exterminated may you be smiten in the persons of those you love best May your children be brought to ruin and your life wrecked and yet may you live on in lonely unbroken horrible grief to tremble when you recall the name Carol Lee guards dragged the grief-stricken mother away and the emperor continued walsing but her words would haunt the house of Habsburg six years later Franz Joseph married the strikingly beautiful 15 year old Duchess Elizabeth in Bavaria called the couple had two daughters Sophie and Gisela the happy family went on holiday to the newly subdued Hungary but tragedy interrupted at their tranquil trip both daughters fell ill after drinking contaminated water and two-year-old Sophie died in her mother's arms was heartbroken and suffered depression as she finally delivered a male Heir Crown Prince Rudolph the emperor continued to be infatuated with her but she could not return his affections she became obsessed with dieting and exercise and traveled alone as much as she could she may have had an affair with a Hungarian politician and she convinced her husband to give Hungary equal rights and create the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary she had a fourth child Marie Valerie whom she raised in Hungary in 1864 Franz Joseph's younger brother Maximilian was invited to become emperor of Mexico this was based on his descent from Charles V the Holy Roman Emperor and king of Spain whose conquistadors had conquered the Aztec empire back in 1519. Maximilian arrived in Triumph but he clashed with Mexican politicians and the United States backed his rival after just three years on the throne Emperor Maximilian was arrested and executed by firing squad 30 year old Crown Prince Rudolph and his 17 year old mistress baroness Mary vetsera were found dead in his hunting lodge as the result of either a murder-suicide or a suicide pact was devastated at the loss of another child and were black for the rest of her life her husband tried to cheer her up but she spent even less time in his company in 1898 The elusive 60 year old Empress was out for a stroll in Geneva Switzerland a young man stumbled into her then took off the empress collapsed and her attendant discovered that she had been stabbed through the heart with a four inch needle file the Assassin was an Italian Anarchist who was out to kill any Royal he could find drifted off peacefully and died this was the crowning sorrow in the life of the otherwise unflappable Emperor after his wife's death he was never the same but the family tragedies weren't over Sissy's favorite sister Duchess Sophie Charlotte in Rivera was killed in a fire that swept through a charity Bazaar in Paris and killed 126. several of friends Joseph's grandchildren nieces and nephews were disgraced by scandals archduchess Elizabeth shot at her husband's actress lover Princess Louise published a sensational account of her sexual escapades Archduke Leopold married an actress and was deprived of his titles Archduke Johann Salvatore renounced his own titles to marry a different actress then took off on his yacht and was lost at sea and Archduke Otto became Infamous for his debauchery including prancing into a British duchess's dining room room naked and walking into his Lover's hotel room wearing only a sword he died of syphilis at 41. all of these family scandals made the emperor's old age a misery but in 1914 he was dealt a final devastating blow his Heir his nephew Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie went to Bosnia they hoped a royal visit would smooth over mounting political tensions the Imperial motorcade made a wrong turn and got stuck down a narrow Street a 19 year old revolutionary gabrillo princip who had been part of a failed assassination attempt on the couple earlier in the day just happened to be having a drink in a cafe on that very Street he took the opportunity and charged at the couple shooting them both at point-blank range the death of the Habsburg air was the spark that ignited the power keg of growing tension between the great powers of Europe exploding into World War One Emperor Franz Joseph was devastated by this final tragedy after a lifetime of unbearable grief he died two years later at the age of 86 one has to wonder if in his final moments he thought back on the name cattle Lee the Shahs of Nepal cursed for ten Generations in 1743 prithvi Narayan Shah inherited the Throne of Gorka one of 54 small states south of the Himalayan Mountains he looked out over the Kathmandu Valley and decided that one day it would all be his he set out to conquer his neighbors the city of kotpur agreed to welcome him but they changed their minds and the Shah laid a devastating Siege upon them once he sacked the city he ordered every man within to have his nose and lips cut off prithvi forged the kingdom of Nepal in Blood and became its supreme ruler according to Legend he was walking through the forest when he encountered a yogi dutifully the Shah offered him a bowl of curd the old man drank it then regurgitated it back into the bowl then he ordered the shaw to drink the foul curd to show his humility and devotion but the Shah had no humility only Pride disgusted he threw the bowl to the ground and the spoiled milk covered his feet the Yogi was in fact 11th century Hindu Saint gorknath in Disguise he was Furious and cursed the Shah saying your Dynasty will only last the number of generations that you have toes inherited the throne in 1816 at the age of three he was kept in isolation by his powerful Regent a childhood of neglect caused severe mental illness he created laws then changed them the next day he was cruel and punished his enemies by smearing them with human feces and removing their castes rajendra had two queens and the court was divided between them the Shah favored his younger wife Razia lakshima and she was ambitious to place her own son on the throne her political Ally was found murdered and she called all the Nobles to court and ordered the guards to execute the killer but no one was sure who it was the Lords and Ladies fought with each other and the guards charged in slaughtering nearly all the Nobles present the kot massacre weakened the royal family and allowed a powerful Dynasty of prime ministers to make them puppet Kings for a century in the 1940s tribhuvan Shah was able to regain absolute power but his son and Grandson faced a changing world under pressure from protesters who wanted democracy and maoist revolutionaries birindra Shah introduced a constitution in 1990 which limited his own Royal Authority but his family was furious with him for giving up their absolute power he was also ruling in the shadow of the royal curse birindra was the tenth king of Nepal on June 1st 2001 While most of the royal family was attending a party in the palace Gardens the Shah's eldest son Crown Prince dependra walked in and opened fire he shot and killed his father his mother Queen ashwaria his younger brother and sister and other members of the royal family before shooting himself in the head he survived what was in a coma he was technically the 11th generation Shaw for three days but he died without regaining Consciousness there are several theories as to why Prince dependra murdered his family it may have been his Fury over the loss of absolute monarchy or that he had been in love with divyani Rana due to her belonging to a lower caste his family had not allowed them to Wed his uncle guyendra who was not at the party became the next king of Nepal he dismissed the government and declared himself absolute ruler protesters were killed in the streets and India stepped in to broker peace in 2008 the new Nepalese government deposed the Shah and abolished the monarchy ganendra was ordered to vacate Narayan Haiti Palace which was opened as a public museum the former King still commands act and refuses to accept the loss of his throne but if historic Legends are to be believed he was cursed to be the final king of Nepal want even more tea on History check out the history Tea Time podcast if you enjoyed this video please like subscribe comment your thoughts and check out my other Royal history videos if you really want to help please consider supporting me on patreon a link is in the description thank you for watching

Channel: History Tea Time with Lindsay Holiday

Views: 719,368

Keywords: history, documentary, royal family, royalty, bbc, royal wedding, queen, queens of the world, european royalty, Royal history, Lindsay Holiday, Lindsay Holliday, History tea time, History tea time with Lindsay Holiday, royal curses, royal curse, spooky history, monaco history, grace kelly, habsburgs history, habsburgs inbred, hapsburgs, habsburgs curse, emperess elisabeth of austria, royal family of nepal massacre, charles ii of spain, coincidences in history, curses in history

Id: _B7z8RBlE7I

Length: 28min 53sec (1733 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 24 2023