Curated playlist
Extra Knights Companion of the Garter
- Francis II, Holy Roman EmperorOn the 6th of August 1806, a Habsburg monarch signed away a thousand years of European tradition. Francis II declared the bond tying him to the states of the Empire dissolved, and with that sentence the Holy Roman Empire of the German…
- Ferdinand VIIFerdinand VII of Spain was called "el Deseado" - the Desired One - by his people, who longed for his return while Napoleon held him captive in France. Yet the same man who inspired such yearning would earn a second nickname before his…
- Napoleon IIINapoleon III was born in the Tuileries Palace in Paris on the night of the 19th-the 20th of April 1808 - the first Bonaparte prince born after the proclamation of the First French Empire. His godfather was the Emperor Napoleon I himself.…
- Louis XVIIILouis XVIII spent twenty-three years as a king without a kingdom. Born on the 17th of November 1755 at the Palace of Versailles, he outlasted the Revolution that killed his brother, the exile that scattered his court, and the emperor who…
- Victor Emmanuel IIVictor Emmanuel II rode into Rome on the 20th of September 1870, entering a city that no Italian king had controlled since the fall of the Western Roman Empire over thirteen centuries before. He was not a romantic figure. A British…
- Carol II of RomaniaCarol II of Romania left his country on the 6th of September 1940 with a train loaded with 30 truckloads of his personal fortune. As the train passed through Timisoara station, the Iron Guard opened fire in a failed attempt to kill him.…
- Alexander III of RussiaAlexander III of Russia was born on the 10th of March 1845 at the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg, the second son of the future Alexander II. He grew up as a spare, not an heir. His elder brother Nicholas was the one schooled for empire,…
- Alexander I of RussiaAlexander I of Russia was born at 10:45 on the 23rd of December 1777 in Saint Petersburg, held at the baptismal font by Catherine the Great herself and counted Frederick the Great and Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor among his godfathers. He…
- Frederick William III of PrussiaFrederick William III entered the world on the 3rd of August 1770 in Potsdam. His father Frederick William II of Prussia neglected him during his childhood years. A tutor named Johann Jakob Engel taught the young prince alongside other…
- Nicholas I of RussiaNicholas I of Russia died on the 2nd of March 1855 at the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, refusing medical treatment as his empire crumbled around him. He caught a chill during the Crimean War, and rumor spread almost immediately that his…
- Alexander II of RussiaAlexander II of Russia was born on the 29th of April 1818, and by the time he died he had freed more than 23 million people from bondage, sold an entire continent's worth of territory, and been blown apart by a bomb on a canal road in…
- HirohitoHirohito reigned over Japan for 63 years, from 1926 until his death in 1989, the longest reign of any emperor in Japanese history. He sat on the Chrysanthemum Throne as the 124th emperor in the traditional order of succession. During those…
- Alfonso XIIIAlfonso XIII was carried naked to the prime minister on a silver tray moments after he was born, already a king. His father, Alfonso XII, had died the previous year, making this infant born on the 17th of May 1886 the ruler of Spain from…
- Louis Philippe ILouis Philippe I stepped onto the throne of France in August 1830 having already lived more lives than most kings ever get. He was born in the Palais-Royal on the 6th of October 1773, the eldest son of a prince who would one day vote to…
- Christian IV of DenmarkChristian IV of Denmark was crowned at the Church of Our Lady in Copenhagen on the 29th of August 1596, at the age of nineteen. He had already been king for eight years by that point, inheriting the throne as a ten-year-old boy when his…