William II, Prince of Orange (1626 - 1650)

William II, Prince of Orange, was the son of Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange, and Amalia of Solms-Braunfels. Frederick Henry was the youngest son of William the Silent (stadtholder 1559-1584); his older half brother Maurits of Nassau was stadtholder (1585-1625); he was stadtholder from 1625 to 1647. The stadtholders governed in conjunction with the States-General, […]

Mary, Princess Royal and Princess of Orange (1631 - 1660)

Princess Mary Henrietta was born at St. James’s Palace, London. Charles I designated her Princess Royal in 1642, thus establishing the tradition that the eldest daughter of the British Sovereign might bear this title. The title came into being when Queen Henrietta Maria, the daughter of King Henry IV of France wished to imitate the […]

Mary, Queen of Scots (1542 - 1587)

Mary, Queen of Scots (8 December 1542 – 8 February 1587), also known as Mary Stuart[3] or Mary I of Scotland, was Queen of Scotland from 14 December 1542 to 24 July 1567 and Queen consort of France from 10 July 1559 to 5 December 1560.  Mary, the only surviving legitimate child of King James […]

Isabella of Portugal (1503 - 1539)

Isabella was the second child and eldest daughter of King Manuel I of Portugal and his second spouse, Infanta Maria of Castile and Aragon. She was named after her maternal grandmother, Isabella I of Castile, and her aunt Isabella, Princess of Asturias, who had been her father’s first spouse.  Through her father, she was a […]

Catherine of Aragon (1485 - 1536)

Catherine of Aragon (Castilian: Catalina; also spelled Katherine of Aragon, 16 December 1485 – 7 January 1536) was Queen of England from 1509 until 1533 as the first wife of King Henry VIII; she was previously Princess of Wales as the wife of Prince Arthur.  The daughter of Queen Isabella I of Castile and King […]

Frances Grey, Duchess of Suffolk (1517 - 1559)

Lady Frances Brandon was born in Hatfield, Hertfordshire and spent her childhood in the care of her mother. She was close to her aunt Catherine of Aragon, first wife of her uncle King Henry VIII, and a childhood friend of her first cousin, the future Queen Mary I. Lady Frances received permission from the King […]

Elizabeth of York (1466 - 1503)

Elizabeth of York was born at the Palace of Westminster as the eldest child of King Edward IV and his wife, Elizabeth Woodville. Her christening was celebrated at Westminster Abbey, sponsored by her grandmothers Jacquetta of Luxembourg, Duchess of Bedford, and Cecily Neville, Duchess of York. Her third sponsor was her cousin, Richard Neville, 16th […]

Cecily Neville, Duchess of York (1415 - 1495)

Cecily Neville was a daughter of Ralph Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland, and Joan Beaufort, Countess of Westmorland. Her paternal grandparents were John Neville, 3rd Baron Neville de Raby and Hon. Maud Percy, daughter of Henry de Percy, 2nd Baron Percy. Her maternal grandparents were John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster, and Katherine Swynford. […]

Catherine of Valois (1401 - 1437)

Catherine of Valois was the youngest daughter of King Charles VI of France and his wife Isabeau of Bavaria. She was born at the Hôtel Saint-Pol (a royal palace in Paris) on 27 October 1401. Early on, there had been a discussion of marrying her to the prince of Wales, son of Henry IV of […]

Joan of Kent (1328 - 1385)

Joan was the daughter of Edmund of Woodstock, 1st Earl of Kent, and Margaret Wake, 3rd Baroness Wake of Liddell. Her father Edmund was the son of King Edward I and his second wife, Margaret of France, daughter of Philip III of France. Edmund’s support of his older half-brother, King Edward II of England, placed […]

Isabella of Hainault (1170 - 1190)

Isabella was born in Valenciennes on 5 April 1170, the daughter of Baldwin V, Count of Hainaut, and Margaret I, Countess of Flanders. At the age of one, her father had her betrothed to Henry, the future Count of Champagne. He was the nephew of Adèle of Champagne, who was Queen of France. In 1179, […]

Sophia of Hanover (1630 - 1714)

Before her marriage, Sophia, as the daughter of Frederick V, Elector Palatine of the Rhine, was referred to as Sophie, Princess Palatine of the Rhine, or as Sophia of the Palatinate. The Electors of the Palatinate were the Calvinist senior branch of House of Wittelsbach, whose Catholic branch ruled the Electorate of Bavaria.  On 30 […]

Sophia Dorothea of Celle (1666 - 1726)

Sophia Dorothea was born on 15 September 1666, the only child of George William, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg by his long term mistress, Eleonore d’Esmier d’Olbreuse (1639–1722), Countess of Williamsburg, a Huguenot lady, the daughter of Alexander II d’Esmiers, Marquess of Olbreuse. George William eventually married his daughter’s mother officially in 1676 (they had been married […]

Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha (1719 - 1772)

Princess Augusta was born in Gotha to Frederick II, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg (1676–1732) and Magdalena Augusta of Anhalt-Zerbst (1676–1740). Her paternal grandfather was Frederick I, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, eldest surviving son of Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg.  At age sixteen and speaking virtually no English, Augusta arrived in Great Britain in order to marry 29-year […]

Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (1744 - 1818)

Sophia Charlotte was born on 19 May 1744. She was the youngest daughter of Duke Charles Louis Frederick of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Prince of Mirow and his wife Princess Elizabeth Albertine of Saxe-Hildburghausen. Mecklenburg-Strelitz was a small north German duchy in the Holy Roman Empire.  The children of Duke Charles were all born at the Untere Schloss […]

William IV of the United Kingdom (1765 - 1837)

William was born in the early hours of the morning on 21 August 1765 at Buckingham House, the third child and son of King George III and Queen Charlotte. He had two elder brothers, George and Frederick, and was not expected to inherit the Crown. He was baptised in the Great Council Chamber of St […]

King George IV of the United Kingdom (1762 - 1830)

George was born at St James’s Palace, London, on 12 August 1762, the first child of King George III of the United Kingdom and Queen Charlotte. As the eldest son of a British sovereign, he automatically became Duke of Cornwall and Duke of Rothesay at birth; he was created Prince of Wales and Earl of […]

Edward VIII of the United Kingdom (1894 - 1972)

Edward VIII was born on 23 June 1894 at White Lodge, Richmond Park, on the outskirts of London, during the reign of his great-grandmother Queen Victoria. He was the eldest son of the Duke and Duchess of York (later King George V and Queen Mary). His father was the son of the Prince and Princess […]

George V (1865 - 1936)

George was born on 3 June 1865, in Marlborough House, London. He was the second son of the Prince and Princess of Wales, Albert Edward and Alexandra. His father was the eldest son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, and his mother was the eldest daughter of King Christian IX of Denmark. As a son […]

George II of Great Britain (1683 - 1760)

George was born in the city of Hanover in Germany, and was the son of George Louis, Hereditary Prince of Brunswick-Lüneburg (later King George I of Great Britain), and his wife, Sophia Dorothea of Celle. Both of George’s parents committed adultery, and in 1694 their marriage was dissolved on the pretext that Sophia had abandoned […]

George I of Great Britain (1660 - 1727)

George was born on 28 May 1660 in Hanover in the Holy Roman Empire. He was the eldest son of Ernest Augustus, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, and his wife, Sophia of the Palatinate. Sophia was the granddaughter of King James I of England through her mother, Elizabeth of Bohemia.  For the first year of his life, […]

DeWitt Wallace (1889 - 1981)

Born in St. Paul, Minnesota, where his father was on the faculty (and later president) of Macalester College, he attended Mount Hermon School as a youth (now Northfield Mount Hermon School). Wallace attended college at Macalester from 1907 to 1909 but transferred to the University of California, Berkeley for two years. He returned to St. […]

Roy Wilkins (1901 - 1981)

Wilkins was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1901. His mother died when he was four years old, after which Wilkins and his siblings were raised by an aunt and uncle in St. Paul, Minnesota, where they attended local schools. Wilkins graduated from the University of Minnesota with a degree in sociology in 1923. In 1929, […]

Bobby Sands (1954 - 1981)

Sands was the firstborn son of a Roman Catholic family. His parents were both raised in the Catholic slums of Belfast. After marrying, they relocated to the new development of Abbots Cross in Newtownabbey, County Antrim outside north Belfast in an effort to avoid the poverty and sectarian violence of their youth. His parents were […]

Edith Head (1897 - 1981)

She was born Edith Claire Posener in San Bernardino, California, the daughter of Jewish parents, Max Posener and Anna E. Levy. Her father, born in January 1858, was a naturalized American citizen from Germany, who came to the United States in 1876. Her mother was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1875, the daughter of […]

Richard Dysart (1929 - 2015)

Richard Dysart Richard Dysart, the Emmy-winning actor who portrayed the cranky senior partner Leland McKenzie in the slick, long-running NBC drama L.A. Law, has died. He was 86. Dysart, who also played Coach in the original 1972 Broadway production of Jason Miller’s Pulitzer Prize-winning That Championship Season, died Sunday at home in Santa Monica after […]

James Best (1926 - 2015)

James Best Actor James Best, who played the often confused Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane on “The Dukes of Hazzard,” died on Monday evening after a brief illness and battle with pneumonia, according to his rep. He was 88. Best got his start as an actor during World War II when he joined the military theatrical […]

Ben Powers (1950 - 2015)

Ben Powers Comedian, actor, composer and artist, Alton ‘Ben” Powers, best known for his role as Thelma Evans’ husband, and football player, Keith Anderson, in the 1970’s hit series “Good Times” has died. Ben, also played “Moochie” on the CBS-TV hit “Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer” starring with Stacey Keach. Ben made numerous TV guest appearances […]

Sawyer Sweeten (1995 - 2015)

Sawyer Sweeten Gathering at a funeral home in Riverside, California, approximately 200 family and friends stood in silence as six pallbearers – including the former Everybody Loves Raymond actor‘s twin brother Sullivan and his stepfather Jerry Gini – loaded Sawyer’s casket into a hearse trailer attached to a motorcycle. “He loved his Harley-Davidson,” Gini and […]

Buddy Emmons (1937 - 2015)

Buddy Emmons Influential pedal steel guitarist Buddy Emmons, who recorded with country music greats and toured as a bass player for Roger Miller, has died at age 78, the Nashville Musicians Association said on Thursday. Emmons arrived in Nashville in 1955 to play with Little Jimmy Dickens’ Country Boys, then considered the liveliest band in […]