Victoria and Christian IX also started spreading their descendancy in non-catholic houses.
Well, that was to be expected, since both were Protestants. However, it's interesting to note that both claim more descendants sitting on European thrones as reigning monarchs today. Victoria has five, while Christian IX has six (three of them being Catholics, no less). Both also have numerous descendants, Catholics and non-Catholics, who are heads of non-reigning houses. I'm less certain about mediatized and noble houses ...
João VI was the same age as Victoria's father, the Duke of Kent: so one might say that he had a "head start" in spreading his wings.
The truly intriguing case of a Protestant sovereign spreading his wings was King George II of Great Britain (a mutual great-great-grandfather of Victoria and Christian IX). Through his eldest daughter, Anne, he was a grandfather of Princess Carolina of Orange-Nassau, who had two granddaughters who married into the Habsburg imperial dynasty of Austria-Hungary -- and with numerous ramifications.
Duchess Maria Dorothea of Württemberg was the ancestor of three queens -- Marie Henriette of Belgium, Maria Cristina of Spain (King Felipe VI descends from her), and Maria Theresia of Bavaria (who was also a Jacobite pretender).
Princess Henrietta of Nassau-Weilburg was an ancestor of the present heads of the following houses -- Württemberg, Spain, Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, Two Sicilies (disputed), and Austria. I believe in the past, there was Parma.
I believe that through additional
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