LGBTQ Queens, Princesses & Duchesses

[Music] lgbtq queens princesses and duchesses through most of history homosexuality and gender and non-conformity were met with misunderstanding and intolerance and while men in power had some modicum of freedom to pursue their own desires women's sexuality and identity was much more tightly controlled lesbian relationships were conducted in secret or explained as intense friendships and women who didn't conform to traditional gender politics were puzzled over and vilified here are the stories of eight royal and noble women whose sexuality and or identity went against the grain crown princess sanbin bong of choi song sun was the consort of crown prince monjong of the choi song dynasty which ruled modern day korea for 500 years she was wed to the prince after his first wife was banished from court for practicing witchcraft when one of her husband's concubines became pregnant before she did son was disappointed and complained her husband spent more time with her and she became pregnant she claimed to have had a miscarriage and secretly buried the remains of her child but when the prince sent his servants to retrieve the baby all they found buried was an empty blanket son upset courtiers by sending royal clothes and left over food from banquets home to her family she broke protocol by receiving a visit from her aunt after the death of her father but the last straw was when it was discovered that princess son had been sleeping with one of her maids so sang when the crown prince questioned his wife about the relationship son replied that she loved him but he didn't love her she slept with her maid so that she would not have to sleep alone so sang told the court how princess son had undressed her and laid next to her as if with a man while the rest of the maids slept on the other side of a screen the prince and the court were more outraged that the princess had been sleeping with a member of the nobi enslaved class than that her lover was a woman princess son was demoted to a commoner and banished from the palace it is not known what became of her margaret of parma duchess consort of florence parma and governor of the netherlands margaret was the illegitimate daughter of holy roman emperor charles v her mother joanna maria vonderheinst was a flemish servant as her father was busy ruling an empire margaret was brought up under the supervision of two of her powerful royal habsburg relatives her great aunt archduchess margaret of austria and her aunt mary of austria who were successive governors of the netherlands when she was five her father acknowledged her as his own and she was allowed to use the royal name margaret of austria he also betrothed her to the nephew of pope clement vii patron of the powerful medici family at 11 margaret left home to be educated in the courts of florence rome and parma she loved to learn and gained many skills that helped her to grow into an independent woman she became enamored with italian culture and language while in her teens she met poet laudomia forteguera who was seven years her senior it was love at first sight and the pair formed an intense bond a fellow aristocrat wrote as soon as laudamia saw madame and was seen by her suddenly the most ardent flames of love each burned for the other and the most manifest sign of this was that they went to visit each other many times at 14 margaret was wed to 25 year old alessandro de medici duke of florence the brother of catherine de medici who would go on to become queen of france alessandro was stabbed to death by an assassin the following year widowed margaret was next married to octavio farnesi the 14 year old nephew of the new pope paul iii the couple were not happy together margaret refused to consummate the marriage for five years which was remarked and frowned upon by her contemporaries her father finally gave her an ultimatum to produce an heir with her husband at 23 she gave birth to twin sons charles and alexander charles died shortly after birth after having fulfilled her duty margaret moved out and lived separately from her husband for the rest of her life she did however continue her close friendship with ladomia renaissance italy was enthralled with ancient greek and roman poetry particularly that of socrates and sappho of lesbos both of whose homosexuality was no secret laudomia was famous throughout siena for her sapphic poetry only six of her sonnets survived today and five of them were dedicated to margaret happy planned so cherished in heaven where nature places all its most perfect things when it set out to create so much beauty i speak of my goddess margareta of austria contemporaries admired both women for their chastity noting that neither of them were interested in cheating on their husbands with men for 22 years the republic of siena was under the brutal occupation of margaret's family the holy roman empire in 1552 the people finally rose up and threw their occupiers out of the city but they knew they could not survive the imperial backlash every able citizen was mobilized in building fortifications laudomia herself led 1 000 noble and artisan women to aid in the construction but after a bloody battle sienna lay in ruins and was forced to surrender to margaret's relatives laudamia's fate is unknown she likely died in the siege but her legacy of bravery and poetry live on after the battle margaret left italy she delivered her four-year-old son alexander to the custody of her half-brother philip ii of spain where he would be raised as an honored hostage to ensure his father's loyalty to the spanish king who had named him duke of parma margaret traveled on back to her birthplace the netherlands where her brother had appointed her governor her time there was fraught the dutch were up in arms against spanish occupation and the inquisition and religious persecution forced upon them philip had given margaret very little power of her own forcing her to follow his orders and those of his appointed counselors the result was the revolt of the netherlands margaret tried to appease the dutch and ease the religious suppression but her brother sent the duke of alba at the head of an army to quash the dutch rebels and he granted alba power to override margaret furious she resigned in protest and returned to italy there she was appointed governor of aprusso and had a much easier time margaret served as an adviser to her son alexander and when he was appointed governor general of the netherlands in 1578 she went with him but the mother-son co-regents didn't work well together and margaret retired to her beloved italy once and for all she died at the age of 63. queen christina of sweden christina was the only legitimate child of king gustav adolphus and inherited the throne at the age of six when her father died in battle her mother maria eleanora of brandenburg had serious mental health problems and demanded that her husband's body remained unburied so that she could visit with him his open coffin was kept in the palace for 18 months until a chancellor finally told the royal guard to keep the queen away and bury the king's corpse the young queen was educated as a prince would have been and thrived in learning she had particular interest in religion philosophy mathematics and alchemy and spoke eight languages in a time when women were seen as intellectually inferior one of her tutors said that she is not at all like a female and that she had a bright intelligence her passion for study was so much that she slept only three to four hours a night and took to wearing men's clothing and shoes for convenience she had no interest in spending hours dressing in fine gowns like the other ladies of the court her tangled unkempt hair became her trademark at 18 christina's minority ended and she began ruling the swedish empire she pushed for and won a peace treaty which ended the 30 years war between various protestant and catholic states the peace of westphalia added territory to the swedish empire and expanded its power her closest friend and lover was iba spare known as la belle comtesse the beautiful countess the pair shared a bed and christina bragged to the english ambassador that eba's intellect is as striking as her body christina showed little interest in most of her ladies in waiting considering them vain and vapid she mentions them in writing only to compare herself as far more masculine than they however she did have a small inner circle which included eba jane ruffin and louise van der noff once queen christina was under mounting pressure to marry and produce an heir from an early age she had been fascinated with catholicism and the celibate life of nuns and priests in particular she read a biography of queen elizabeth the first of england and was deeply impressed with the virgin queen's lifelong resistance to matrimony at 23 christina announced that she would never marry and named her cousin charles as her heir the nobility objected but the rest of the country accepted her decision queen christina was a patron of the arts theater mathematicians scientists and many other great thinkers of the day she sought to make stockholm the athens of the north she spent extravagantly on these pursuits nearly bankrupting the state and causing public unrest she also decided to convert to catholicism which was not welcomed by her protestant people at the age of 28 after 22 years on the throne christina abdicated in favor of her cousin who became charles the tenth gustav she then moved to rome where she became an integral part of the theatrical and musical culture there and continued to sponsor artists the pope described christina as a queen without a realm a christian without faith and a woman without shame she continued to write passionate love letters to eba spare but iba's family prevented the lovers from ever meeting again while in rome christina enjoyed relationships with french aristocrat gabrielle de mortemart and singer angelina giorgino christina died at the age of 62 and is one of the few women buried in the vatican grotto her sexuality and androgyny has led to speculation that she may have been intersex to the extent that her remains were exhumed and examined in 1965 however the postmortem and reports from her doctors in life make it likely that she was a physically typical female were queen christina alive today she may very well have identified as a trans man but as there was no such concept in the 17th century she lived as and would have identified herself as a woman and a queen likewise there were certainly several royals like roman emperor eligabalus or philippe the first duke of orleans who if they were alive today may have identified as trans women you can learn more about both of them in previous videos which i will link in the description duchess hortense mancini italian-born hortense and her four sisters all renowned for their beauty moved to the court of louis xiv of france after the death of their father in the hopes of securing advantageous marriages their maternal uncle cardinal mazarine took them under his wing the five mancini sisters and their two equally lovely mazzareen cousins were collectively known as the mazarinettes at the french court hortense received a marriage proposal from the exiled son of beheaded english king charles the first who was living at the french court with his family however her uncle refused the offer as he didn't believe the young man had any prospects cardinal mazzereen regretted his decision when the english royal family was reinstated and the young man crowned king charles ii a few months later the cardinal offered a sizable dowry but the newly minted english king decided not to make cortens his queen the 15 year old hortense was instead wed to armand charles de la porte de la mille one of the richest men in europe but the couple had a miserable marriage hortense was bright and social while armand was miserly jealous and mentally unstable he was oddly uptight about sex he had all the private parts chipped off of his statues and painted out of his paintings and even had his female servants front teeth knocked out so that they would be unable to attract male attention armond was so intensely jealous of his wife's stallions with other men and women that he locked her up in a convent she was able to escape with the help of her brother now penniless she used her ample charms to her advantage to commence an affair with the duke of savoy who set her up in a house in the french alps there she held salons for authors philosophers and artists but when the duke died his widow turned hortense out on the street with no income or support she was persuaded by the english ambassador to travel to england and attempt to seduce her former paramour king charles ii around this time she began dressing as a man hortense's dark beauty and sleek sophistication won the english king's infatuation she displaced his mistress louise de carowell who became extremely jealous but jortens's promiscuity soon ironically cooled the desires of one of the most famously promiscuous kings in history she was dubbed the italian by the english portenz's worst offense was an affair with charles's own illegitimate daughter 17 year old and countess of sussex the lovers had a fencing match in saint james park wearing only their nightgowns and were oggled by the public after this debacle anne's husband sent her away to a convent where she pined for hortense laying in bed all day and kissing a miniature of her beloved and was later sprung from the convent and seduced by her mother's lover ralph montague king charles dismissed hortense but they remained friends she was set up with a country house and a pension she was one of the first women to have her memoirs published in france hortens also had an affair with author and playwright alfred bean who wrote of her most illustrious princess how infinitely one of your own sex adored you and that among all the numerous conquests your grace had not subdued a more entire slave i assure you hortense died at the age of 53 her insanely jealous husband armand was finally able to control her in death he purchased her body from her creditors and carded it all over france with him she was eventually buried in the mazarin family tomb queen anne of great britain anne was the second daughter of james the younger brother of king charles ii and his commoner wife anne hyde at the age of six she met and formed a close friendship with sarah jennings at 18 she entered in to a political marriage with prince george of denmark the couple grew to have a close and devoted relationship they bonded over their shared heartbreak and had 17 pregnancies though tragically nearly all ended in miscarriage or stillbirth four of her children were born alive but three died in infancy her only surviving child her great hope for the future her son prince william died at the age of 11 of smallpox after the death of her uncle anne's father became king james ii but he was forced off the throne in 1688 because of his catholic faith parliament offered the throne to his eldest daughter mary ii who is protestant and her husband william of orange insisted on being crowned as her co-sovereign william was interested in men and the pair didn't have any children mary died in 1694 and william in 1702 leaving the throne to 37 year old anne she was the first married queen to rule on her own her husband george was laid back and unambitious he was often criticized for not trying to take his wife's power anne reveled in the ceremony and majesty of monarchy and brought back many medieval royal traditions like laying hands on the sick in 1707 parliament passed the acts of union which made england and scotland a single sovereign state called great britain a combination of the two countries flags became widely used as several kings before her had male favorites and had female favorites the most significant was her childhood friend sarah jennings now married and called sarah churchill she was an ancestor of world war ii prime minister winston churchill sarah's husband was a top military commander and sarah's close friendship to the queen made her the second most powerful woman in england sarah was beautiful and charming while anne was plain shy and often sick her many pregnancies having ruined her health sarah often used her influence to her advantage and wasn't afraid to disagree with the queen the couple were politically opposed sarah supported the progressive wigs and queen anne the religious and conservative tories and grew tired of sarah's political lectures and attempts to influence policy particularly in prolonging the war on the continent led by sarah's husband eventually anne transferred her affections to one of her ladies in waiting abigail marsham who was young demure and quite the opposite of sarah in the midst of this new relationship anne banished her first love from court this triangle is portrayed in the film the favorite with no clear air to take the throne after anne it was vital that parliament decide who the next monarch should be so they passed the act of settlement which laid down the rules of succession by which the british line of monarchs is still decided today and next relative in the succession was sophia of hanover who despite being in her 80s was determined to outlive the sickly 49 year old anne and be named queen she almost succeeded but a letter from anne accusing her of plotting to take the throne so shocked her that she died two months before anne and died in 1714 and was buried with her husband george and her children in westminster abbey the crown went to sophia's son george and a new german dynasty took the british throne princess isabella of parma isabella was the daughter of anfont philippe of spain and louise elizabeth eldest daughter of louis xv of france at 18 she was married to archduke joseph ii of austria brother of the french queen marie antoinette joseph later became the holy roman emperor he was enamored of his young bride but the more affection he lavished upon her the more she drew away from him she preferred the company of her husband's sister arch duchess maria christina isabella and maria nicknamed mimi were inseparable at court and compared to legendary lovers orpheus and eurydice the two young women shared a love of music and art and exchanged some 200 letters maria was a talented artist this is a self-portrait of her she had a happy and carefree nature while isabella expressed her hatred of court pomp and ceremony and longed for a more sensual life isabella had a great fear of pregnancy and considering the morbidity of childbirth at the time her fears were not unfounded however much isabella would have preferred to avoid her husband she had a duty to produce an heir a year into their marriage she was with child and after a difficult pregnancy and delivery she gave birth to a daughter maria theresa isabella fell into depression and was terrified of conceiving again but joseph infatuated and inexperienced failed to empathize with his wife she had two additional pregnancies but both ended in miscarriage and more heartache at the age of 22 while six months pregnant with her fourth child isabella contracted smallpox she went into labor early and the baby daughter was stillborn a week later isabella succumbed to the disease and followed her daughter in death joseph was heartbroken and though he remarried he had an unhappy relationship with his second wife and fathered no children with her isabella's beloved mimi also devastated later married the couple's mutual friend prince albert of saxony duchess louisa isabelle alvarez de toledo luisa was the only child of joaquin alvarez duke of medina cedonia one of the most important noble families in spain whose hereditary title had been granted in 1445 at the age of 19 her father died and louisa became the 21st duchess of medina sidonia that same year she married fellow aristocrat jose leoncio gonzalez de gregorio imarti louisa gave birth to three children fulfilling her role in the hereditary line three years into their marriage in 1958 the unhappy couple separated though they remained legally married unlike most aristocrats luisa was outspoken and controversial she earned the name the red duchess because of her association with the underground spanish socialist workers party she opposed the dictatorship of francisco franco and was imprisoned by the regime in the 1960s she was also a historian and managed her family's extensive archives of historic documents the archivo de la casa de medina cedonia is one of the most important collections in europe she published several papers including her findings that the americas may have been explored a long time before columbus by moroccan sailors in the 1980s louisa began a relationship with her secretary leliana maria dalman same-sex marriage was made legal in spain in 2005 and louisa finally had a reason to divorce her long estranged husband in 2008 on louisa's death bed she married her longtime love liliana in a civil ceremony louisa died 11 hours after the wedding as her legal widow liliana now holds the title of dowager duchess she also inherited presidency of the family archive which louisa was afraid her children would sell off upon inheriting her children continued to fight legal battles over the estate worth an estimated 47 million euro princess abigail kauanakoa of hawaii abigail sometimes called kekua is the grand niece of liliukilani the last queen of hawaii before the united states annexed the island nation in 1898. abigail is considered the heir apparent should the hawaiian monarchy ever be restored she is called a princess by her people though she holds no official position or power she is also the great granddaughter of james campbell an irish sugar plantation owner from whom she inherited a massive fortune and the largest land trust in hawaii worth an estimated 250 million dollars she is an expert horsewoman owns several ranches and has spread a number of champion horses she has played an active role in the preservation of native hawaiian culture including the restoration of iolani palace in the 1990s abigail began a relationship with veronica worth 27 years her junior the couple were married in 2017 after same-sex marriage became legal in the state the couple have since been embroiled in a legal battle with abigail's former lawyer who has claimed that the princess is not mentally fit to control her own fortune or leave any of it to her wife as much of abigail's wealth is expected to go to native hawaiian charities and cultural institutions the case is highly controversial on the islands 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: 784,464

Keywords: history, documentary, royal family, nobility, royalty, the crown, british history, queen, queens of the world, european royalty, womens history, lesbian history, sapphos, lgbtq history, lgbtq history documentary, lesbian history documentary, queer history, lgbtq royals, lgbtq queens, lesbians in history, trans history, Queen Anne, the favourite, queen christina of sweden, princess abigail of hawaii, margaret of parma, Isabella of Bourbon-Parma, Hortense Mancini, lesbian queen

Id: Ej-xEGrzta4

Length: 27min 32sec (1652 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 22 2021