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Despite the liberties taken with historical facts, Friedrich Schiller's play DON CARLOS (the basis for Giuseppe Verdi's opera by that title) is based on real-life persons and events. For instance, it's true that Elisabeth of Valois was originally betrothed to the son and heir of King Philip II of Spain, but was forced by her father (King Henry II of France) to marry (for political reasons) instead his father, the widowed King Philip II of Spain.

So the woman who would have become his bride ended up the stepmother of the young Infante Don Carlos (who was only three years her junior).

I was wondering about other cases in European royal history where the would-be bride of a son ended up marrying his father instead.

Princess Emma of Waldeck and Pyrmont, for instance, married a man over 40 years her senior -- becoming the second wife of a man almost old enough to be her grandfather. As it was, she could have married either of the two then-surviving sons if King Willem III of the Netherlands. However, she was never linked to either, romantically or dynastically. As it was, they acquired a stepmother younger than themselves. But I'm not sure if this examples counts.

What other royal sons had stepmothers younger than themselves?