And in three of the four wives of King Fernando VII. whre married to him when he was King. Previous Message
Charlemagn, King of the Franks, Emperor of the Romans had four wives.
Desiderata
(m. c. 770; annulled 771)
Hildegard of Vinzgouw
(m. 771; d. 783)
Fastrada
(m. c. 783; d. 794)
Luitgard
(m. c. 794; d. 800) Previous Message
There have undoubtedly been numerous queens throughout history who were second wives of kings. Heck, England even had a queen REGNANT (Mary I Tudor) who was the second wife of a king. It's just that her husband (Felipe II of Spain) ruled another land. Earlier, I posted about kings who were second husbands of their wives, and I omitted Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (Kohary). But I supposed he would count, since he received the title of King Consort of Portugal (his wife was one of those queens in history who were married more than once).
Anyhow, I was wondering about other queens regnant who were second wives of their husbands, regardless of whether the said husbands were kings. Was Mary I Tudor technically a queen of Spain, as the consort of a king, in addition to being a queen regnant of England? In that case, she would have been like her Scottish namesake, who was queen regnant of her native country and queen consort of a foreign (her first husband being King François II of France).
And I'm interested in the more extensive list of queens consort who were second (or third or fourth) wives. We all know that Henry VIII of England was married six times; and to the best of my knowledge, all his wives were styled with the title of queen.
I believe that Holy Roman Emperor Francis II was married four times, and his latter three wives were all queens.
What are some other examples of kings who had three or more queens?
As for kings with two queens: Great Britain has never had one; but England and Scotland have undoubtedly had several each, other than Henry VIII. Norway since 1905, Sweden since the Bernadottes, and Denmark since Christian IX have never had any.
However, Queen Louise of Sweden (consort of King Gustaf VI Adolf) was a second wife; it's just that her husband's first wife was never a queen. In this, she was like Queen Caroline of Bavaria, consort of King Maximilian II: his first wife, born Princess Auguste of Hesse-Darmstadt, died before he became king (Bavaria was not yet a kingdom). Similarly, Infanta Maria Isabel of Spain became the queen consort of King Francesco I of the Two Sicilies, as his second wife, but his first wife was never a queen.
Both Queens Maria Cristina of Spain and Emma of the Netherlands were second wives, whose husbands' first wives were queens who left no surviving issue. Both women served as regents on behalf of minor children.
The morganatic second wife of King Leopold III of the Belgians, born Lilian Baels, was never styled with the title of queen; so she wouldn't count. And I don't believe the second wife of King Willem I of the Netherlands, whom he married after abdication, was ever styled with the title of queen. But the second wife of Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany was universally acknowledged as Empress Hermine and addressed as Imperial Majesty.
I don't believe there are other examples of women who belong to the second wives' club in the other German kingdoms. But in the kingdom of Two Sicilies, King Ferdinando II was married twice, just like his father (Francesco I). In his case, both wives became queens.
Can anybody fill me in on other examples, such as in France and Portugal? What about Russia? One should exclude the morganatic second wife of Czar Alexander II from the discussion; but there could be other examples ...