I'm interested in knowing who they were in the European kingdoms (I mean to exclude the grand duchies, duchies, and principalities from the discussion), whether consort or regnant, distant and recent history --
England: Victoria (overall), Elizabeth II (recent)
Scotland: Mary Stuart (overall), Elizabeth I (recent)
Norway: Maud (recent); not sure about the distant past or overall history
Sweden: Christina (overall) -- not sure, though; can anybody fill me in on this? It would be Silvia in recent history, however.
Denmark: Margrethe II (recent); not sure about overall history
Spain: Isabel II (overall); Victoria Eugenie (recent)
Belgium: Louise
The Netherlands: Wilhelmina
Is all this correct? Can anybody fill me in on France, Portugal, Italy (Sardinia, the Two Sicilies, the united kingdom), Russia, Austria, and the German kingdoms?
I believe Empress Elisabeth, born Duchess in Bavaria, was the youngest queen in Austrian history. And Marie, consort of King Maximilian II, was the youngest queen in Bavarian history.
I find a number of eerie similarities between Queen Marie of Bavaria and Queen Astrid of the Belgians (granted that the latter was not the youngest queen in the country's history):
(1) Both were born royals who came from reigning kingdoms (Prussia and Sweden, respectively)
(2) Both were granddaughters, but never daughters, of kings (and would have been denied the title of Princess with the qualification of Royal Highness, if today's practice of restrictions applied)
(3) Both came from Protestant religious backgrounds
(4) Both were direct descendants of King George I of Great Britain (and therefore born in line to the British throne)
(5) Both married Catholics (and hence lost their places in line to the British throne)
(6) Both husbands were crown princes -- heirs apparent to enthroned kings -- at marriage
(7) Both eventually converted to Catholicism themselves (although this was not a legal requirement for either)
(8) Both became mothers of two sons -- delivering heirs to the thrones several years after marriage (meaning that both had *misses* earlier: Marie suffered a miscarriage seven months after her wedding; Astrid had a girl firstborn, eleven months after her wedding)
(9) Both became queens young (while still in their 20's), thanks to the unexpectedly early accessions of their husbands (who themselves were in their 30's)
(10) Both were pregnant when their husbands became kings
(11) Both queens were delivered of second sons after accession to the thrones -- thereby producing *spares* to the royal successions
(12) Both second sons eventually succeeded as kings themselves
Of course, there will almost always be coincidences when you compare the lives of two people -- especially royal ...
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