Monarchs with the Most Monogamous Marriages

[Music] monarchs with the most monogamous marriages [Music] in many countries where polygamy is the practice kings and emperors have had harems of hundreds or even thousands of wives and concubines but in europe christianity has reigned for a millennia and the church is pretty strict on their one woman at a time policy but that didn't stop a handful of monarchs from taking multiple trips down the aisle royal brides were under immense pressure to produce as many heirs as possible and they died often in childbirth or because their bodies were worn out from constant pregnancy if a monarch wasn't getting the heirs he wanted from his wife or if he had grown tired of her and she hadn't done him the courtesy of dying there was always divorce or even murder to clear the throne for another consort to take her place many rulers managed to marry three times but today we'll be counting down six serial monogamist monarchs who had four or more marriages philip ii king of spain four wives philip was the son of holy roman emperor charles v charles inherited the holy roman empire from his paternal grandfather the netherlands from his father and spain from his mother when he died the empire went to his brother ferdinand the first and spain and the netherlands to his son who also inherited portugal from his mother's family philip ii was a strong leader during spain's golden age the spanish conquered the incan empire and the philippines were named in his honor philip married four times and all of his wives were relatives his first wife maria manuela of portugal was his double first cousin they shared all four grandparents she died at 17 giving birth to their son carlos philip's second wife was his first cousin queen mary the first of england the daughter of his aunt catherine of aragon and king henry viii she was desperate to conceive a child and keep the throne of england from her protestant sister elizabeth but after two humiliating psychosomatic pregnancies she died of uterine cancer before mary was even cold philip proposed to elizabeth but was rejected thirty years later philip tried to invade england with the mighty spanish armada but the english queen won an unlikely victory wife number three was third cousin elizabeth of valois they were married nine years and had two daughters before she too died in childbirth philip's fourth and final wife was his niece and first cousin anna of austria she died of heart failure at 30 after giving birth to her fifth child philip remained single for the final 18 years of his life he had 12 children with his four wives but only two of them outlived him his son with anna philip iii inherited the throne after he died at 71. william the silent prince of orange and ruler of the netherlands four wives william was the son of the count of nassau dellemborg then part of the holy roman empire at 11 he inherited the principality of orange in southern france from a childless cousin he was sent to the netherlands to be educated under the emperor's sister mary who was governor there at 18 he married anna of ekmund a wealthy dutch heiress they had a happy marriage and three children william inherited her father's titles lord of echund and count of buren anna died of illness at 25 and william was grief-stricken he had become a favorite of emperor charles v who leaned on him when he abdicated in favor of his son king philip ii of spain philip made william a stodholder of the provinces of holland zealand and utrecht william met secretly with philip and king henry ii of france and heard their proposal to exterminate protestants in france and the netherlands williams said nothing gaining the nickname the silent but he could not allow them to commit genocide and he himself had begun to convert to protestantism he returned to the netherlands and became a leader of rebellion against spanish occupation this sparked the 80 years war william's second wife anna of saxony was the wealthiest heiress in germany they wed in a lutheran service and had five children she was self-absorbed and cruel and the marriage was not happy anna had an affair with lawyer john rubins the father of painter peter paul rubens she became pregnant and william divorced her but he refused to return her massive dowry anna's family was so furious that they walled her up in a room with only a small hole through which she was given food she died there at 33 wife number three charlotte of bourbon was a french noblewoman and former nun her mother had secretly taught her the protestant faith when her father discovered the heresy he sent her to a convent charlotte escaped and fled to the netherlands where she fell in love with william they had a happy union and six daughters she was popular with the dutch in 1581 the netherlands declared independence from spain furious philip ii sent assassins after william he was shot in the neck but survived charlotte tirelessly nursed him back to health but she died of exhaustion at 36. william was heartbroken and her death was widely mourned he had nine daughters but only two living sons so at 50 he wed luisa de colony a french huguenot whose first husband had been murdered at the saint bartholomew's day massacre they had one son henry william invited a french nobleman to his home although his wife had warned him that the man was sinister when william greeted the man who was really an agent of king philip with forged papers he produced a pistol and shot the prince twice in the chest killing him william was succeeded by three of his sons philip maurice and henry henry was the only son to have children and continue the orange nassau dynasty louisa lived to the age of 65. ferdinand the seventh king of spain four wives at 18 the crown prince wed his first cousin princess maria antonia of naples and sicily granddaughter of holy roman empress maria theresa she suffered two miscarriages before dying of tuberculosis at 21. though her heartbroken mother suspected poison ferdinand conspired with french emperor napoleon to force his father king charles iv to abdicate he only enjoyed his ill-gotten throne for a year before napoleon arrested him and placed his own brother joseph bonaparte on the spanish throne the people were discontent under french rule and the peninsular war broke out ferdinand regained the throne after five years he then married his niece maria isabel of portugal he was 32 and she 19. their first daughter died at 4 months old the delivery of her second child was incredibly difficult the baby was breech and maria isabel fell unconscious ferdinand ordered the doctor to perform a caesarean to extract his air at the time cesareans were nearly always fatal to the mother and were usually only done if she had already died when the doctor started cutting the queen's stomach she screamed in pain and fell unconscious again maria isabel bled to death at 21. the baby a daughter was stillborn ferdinand moved on to 16 year old maria josepha amalia of saxony she had a strict religious upbringing and was taught nothing about sex on their wedding night the king entered her chamber completely naked and she was so terrified she ran screaming from the room she was forced back in and was again so distraught that she urinated on herself ferdinand was furious but backed off it took a letter from the pope to convince the new queen that marital sex was not a mortal sin and she agreed to sleep with her husband providing that they pray together first unsurprisingly the marriage was childless maria josepha amalia bore the blame for the king's lack of heirs and she retreated from public life she died of a fever at 25. ferdinand's siblings began to spar over who would rule after him so he decided to marry for a fourth time in the hopes of finally siring an heir maria christina of the two sicilies was another of his nieces she was 23 and had already given birth to a secret love child so the king considered her a safe bet she did deliver ferdinand's long-awaited children but they were both daughters isabella and louisa fernandez the king changed the succession law to allow his eldest daughter to inherit his throne ferdinand was a poor leader and his rule saw revolts in spain and revolutions in the american colonies when he died at 48 the nation was divided between supporters of his daughter queen isabella ii and his brother carlos de bourbon and spain fell into civil war wadisworth ii jagewo king of poland and grand duke of lithuania four wives yolgaila inherited the grand duchy of lithuania from his father in his early twenties he was a pagan and faced invasion from the teutonic knights who wanted to convert him and his people to christianity by force to gain support in resistance he wed 11 year old queen yadwiga of poland and was baptized catholic nobles and peasants across lithuania soon followed him in converting the grand duke took the christian name wadisworth the second yaguel he and yadwiga reigned over both of their realms as co-monarchs she was a strong leader and the pair had a harmonious union as she was so young when they wed they waited to consummate the marriage yadwiga became pregnant for the first time at 25. her daughter was born prematurely and died within days yad viga died of childbed fever on her deathbed she advised her husband to marry anna of sili granddaughter of king casimir iii so that he could claim the polish throne she was leaving vacant when the king met his intended he found her very unattractive he postponed the wedding saying that she needed to learn polish but eventually he had to go through with it the king spent as little time with anna as he could five years in she gave birth to a daughter hedvig the king strongly suspected that the child was not his but he didn't make an adultery case public and claimed hedvig as his own fourteen years in anna became ill and called her husband to her deathbed he took his time and she died before he arrived several foreign rulers suggested their female relatives for vodislav's third wife but he shocked them all by falling in love with elizabeth of pelitza a 45 year old widow with few political connections their marriage was happy but she died of tuberculosis three years in the 70 year old king decided to take one more crack at fathering a male heir so he wed 17 year old lithuanian noblewoman sophia of hashani she delivered three sons what is swaff kazimir who died in infancy and another kazimir the family was embroiled in an inheritance dispute vwadiswav wanted his son to succeed him but the polish nobles reminded him that his only claim to the throne was through his first and second wives only his daughter hedvig had polish royal blood and therefore she was the only one with a claim to the throne princess hedwig died of a mysterious illness at 23. and it was suspected that her stepmother had poisoned her vuadiswaf died at 82 and the polish nobility reluctantly accepted his son as their king queen mother sophie lived to 56 henry viii king of england six wives henry vii came out of the wars of the roses victorious and founded the tudor dynasty his eldest son arthur made a powerful dynastic marriage to catherine of aragon daughter of the monarchs of spain but he died at 15 of the sweating sickness second son henry viii got the throne at 18. he married his brother's widow and they had a happy marriage for several years she suffered several miscarriages and their only son henry duke of cornwall died at just 52 days old her only surviving child was a daughter mary being only the second tudor king henry was obsessed with fathering a son to secure his dynasty when catherine entered menopause henry decided to divorce her he had a replacement picked out catherine's lady in waiting and belen it was nearly unheard of for a king to marry a commoner but anne had refused to sleep with him unless they were married henry appealed to the pope to annul his first marriage on the grounds of incest as catherine had been married to his older brother but the queen swore that she had never slept with arthur and the pope refused outraged henry used the protestant movement to make himself head of the new church of england and grant himself a divorce catherine of aragon died of cancer at 50. to henry's disappointment anne also gave birth to a daughter elizabeth and then miscarried her enemies whispered lies to the king that anne was committing adultery and incest with her brother henry had her found guilty of treason and beheaded 11 days later he married jane seymour also a lady in waiting she gave the king his long-awaited son edward and then died of childbed fever next henry was encouraged to make a political match and to add a spare to the heir but princesses were not lining up to marry the wife murdering monarch one said that if she had two heads she'd be happy to marry him a treaty was finally made for anne of cleves sister of a german elector henry became infatuated with her portrait and decided to surprise her when she arrived but when anne was shocked rather than enamored with the old overweight stranger who burst in on her henry was humiliated he complained that it was anne who was ugly and thus he was unable to consummate the marriage anne was happy to accept a divorce a generous settlement and to escape with her head fifty-year-old henry next wed sixteen-year-old catherine howard a cousin of anne boleyn he doted on her but was informed that she had not been a virgin and was cheating on him she was beheaded sixth and final wife catherine parr nursed the ailing old king she angered the cantankerous old king by arguing religion with him and he was on the brink of arresting her and moving on to wife number seven when she calmed him down henry viii died at 55 and was succeeded by his only son edward vi then by both of his daughters mary the first and elizabeth the first before we reveal the monarch who made the most trips down the aisle let's take a look at a few honorable mentions who qualify on quantity of spouses but are knocked out of the running on other criteria charlemagne conquered a vast empire in central europe and forced the pope to crown him holy roman emperor on christmas day 800. he was a christian but in the religion's early days monogamy was more of a suggestion he had nine known women by his side though the legality of his relationships were a bit hazy and certainly not monogamous hemel trude may have been a wife or a concubine she bore him one son but he left her for political marriage to desiderata one year later the pulp annulled that marriage so charlemagne could make a different political alliance with hildegard of the vinsgal she died giving birth to her ninth child next he married fastrada who bore two daughters after her death came a childless marriage to lutgart charlemagne had six more children with four concubines gershwinda madelgaard regina and ethelind by having so many wives and concubines charlemagne secured his dynasty with plenty of heirs but his frankish lot divided everything between brothers rather than eldest takes all this backfired charlemagne's many descendants sliced up his empire and fought over the pieces for a century casimir iii the great king of poland he transformed war-torn poland into a wealthy kingdom and doubled its size his first wife aldona of lithuania gave birth to two daughters and died at 29. kasamir next wed adelaide of hess but didn't like her and declared himself divorced never bothering to seek a legal end to their union he bribed a priest to marry him to his mistress christina of rokichana and both adelaide and the pope complained that the union was bigamous kasimir again declared himself divorced from christina and made a political marriage to hedvig of sagon using a forged papal dispensation they had three daughters kasamir died at 60 and as he had no male heir the throne passed to his nephew louis the first the father of yadwiga of poland his daughter anna was the mother of anne of silly wadisworth the second yaguero's second wife queen catherine parr henry viii of england's sixth and final wife had four husbands but as she was a queen consort not a monarch she doesn't count at 17 she married sir edward berg who was sickly and died second husband john neville baron vladimir was twice her age they got on well and she raised his children and nursed him in his final years catherine fell in love with jane seymour's brother thomas but when the elderly king proposed to her she couldn't turn him down without risking her neck after henry viii's death she was free to marry thomas seymour at 35 catherine became pregnant a surprise as she had never conceived before during her pregnancy she caught her husband embracing her stepdaughter princess elizabeth catherine died giving birth to a daughter her widower quickly proposed to elizabeth but was turned down he was beheaded for treason a year later and now the monarch with the most monogamous marriages ivan the terrible tsar of russia six or eight wives ivan became grand prince of moscow at the age of three his mother was poisoned and he was neglected and abused by courtiers he witnessed countless acts of cruelty and violence the troubled prince soon became violent himself at 14 ivan took control by having an enemy dragged out of a banquet and fed to the dogs ivan built a vast empire and had himself crowned the first tsar of all the russia's he invited all of the noble houses to present their eligible daughters so that he might choose a bride from 1500 young women he selected anastasia romanovna the pair had six children and a happy marriage she calmed his violent urges and their court became a center of culture but after 14 years anastasia was poisoned by ivan's enemies the tsar was shattered and his cruelty morphed into mania he put dozens of once trusted advisors to death though he was heartbroken he needed to remarry four of his six children had died and two sons were not enough to secure the dynasty he wed maria timnukovna a 16 year old converted muslim she had one son who died in infancy maria pushed her husband towards further violence rebellions against the tsar caused him to form the oprichniki secret police who brutalized and murdered thousands of people the entire city of novgorod was massacred rumors of witchcraft circled maria who fell dead of poison ivan executed 20 servants for her assassination but he most likely murdered her himself the tsar called for another bride show and selected 18 year old marfa sobakina her mother fed her fertility potions which killed her 16 days into their honeymoon wife number four was the runner up in the bride show anna koltovskaya after two years she failed to become pregnant so ivan banished her to a convent wife number five was anna vasilcekova she only lasted a year before she too was banished to a convent wives six and seven may have been made up to exaggerate ivan's terrible image according to legend wife six vasilisa melinda was caught in an affair ivan forced her to watch as her lover was impaled and she was sent to a convent ivan discovered that wife seven maria dulgarukaya was not a virgin on their wedding night and in a rage he drowned her wife number eight or six maria nagaya did undoubtedly exist the now surly 50 year old king treated his bride coldly and would have banished her to a convent as well had she not bore him a son dimitri ivan nearly divorced her to marry queen elizabeth the first cousin mary hastings but the english queen declined during an argument with his eldest son that tsar hit him in the head and killed him ivan the terrible died of a stroke at 55 and was followed by his second son theodore want even more tea on history check out the history teatime podcast available on spotify apple podcasts and google podcasts 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 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Channel: History Tea Time with Lindsay Holiday

Views: 329,451

Keywords: history, documentary, royal family, royalty, bbc, british history, royal wedding, historic costumes, queens of the world, european royalty, Lindsay Holiday, Lindsay Holliday, History tea time, History tea time with Lindsay Holiday, more wives than Henry viii, henry viii, six wives of henry viii, kings with the most wives, royal divorce, royal marriage, Ivan the terrible, william the silent, Charlemagne, Casimir III the Great, King of Poland, jadwiga of poland, Ferdinand VII

Id: AfkKaN4HDPo

Length: 26min 13sec (1573 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 26 2022