Royals Marrying Late In Life

[lightningbearer]

Okay apart from Charles and Camilla who married in their fifties (albeit with a lengthy romantic story behind them) are their any other royal couples who've married late in life, can't think of any. I know when Queen Louise of Sweden died in 1965, King Gustav considered marrying again (i read somewhere he proposed to Alice of Athlone, not sure how true that story is but anyway), anyone else think of any?

 

[principessa]

Prince Bertil and Princess Lilian of Sweden married late in life!

 

[lightningbearer]

Oh my god, how could i forget them!!!! *hangs head in shame*, but aside from C & C and now B & L, who else, just intrigues me so much, its a rare enough occurrence in "normal" life

 

[An Ard Ri]

Prince Bertil and Princess Lilian of Sweden married late in life!

Indeed they did and after such a long wait,one of my favourite ever royal couples.

 

[JR76]

Okay apart from Charles and Camilla who married in their fifties (albeit with a lengthy romantic story behind them) are their any other royal couples who've married late in life, can't think of any. I know when Queen Louise of Sweden died in 1965, King Gustav considered marrying again (i read somewhere he proposed to Alice of Athlone, not sure how true that story is but anyway), anyone else think of any?

I've also read about him proposing to Princess Alice but that she turned him down because she couldn't be bothered with being a Queen.

 

[Elly C]

Well Albert of Monaco was no spring chicken but of course Charlene was much younger.

 

[Duc_et_Pair]

In 1879 His Majesty Willem III Alexander Frederik Paul Lodewijk, King of the Netherlands, Prince of Orange-Nassau, Grand Duke of Luxembourg, etc. etc. etc. married at the age of 62 with Her Royal Highness Princess Adelheid Emma Wilhelmine Theresia Princess von Waldeck und Pyrmont then aged 21....

Their daughter Wilhelmina (grandmother of Princess Beatrix) would reign the Netherlands for almost 60 years (1890-1948)



Source Reformatorisch Dagblad (picture of the engaged couple): http://www.refdag.nl/polopoly_fs/em...lem_iii_te_sturen_1_34171!image/766110786.jpg

Source PPE Agency (Queen Beatrix, the Fürst Wittekind and Fürstin Caecilia von Waldeck-Pyrmont née Countess von Goëss-Saurau admire the wedding dress of Emma): http://www.ppe-agency.com/500px/Jul2008/PPE08070351.jpg

 

[C4A]

^^^ previous

Well, now THAT is an age gap...do you know whether she married him willingly or was it arranged?

 

[Duc_et_Pair]

^^^ previous

Well, now THAT is an age gap...do you know whether she married him willingly or was it arranged?

It was completely arranged from A to Z. Princess Emma's mother herself was born a Nassau, so of course she was willing to help her Orange-Nassau relative to a suitable bride. All her children married very well by the way:

Fürst Georg-Viktor and Fürstin Helene von Waldeck und Pyrmont née Princess of Nassau got the following surviving children:

Princess Pauline married the Fürst von Bentheim und Steinfurt
Princess Marie married the King of Württemberg
Princess Emma married the King of the Netherlands, Grand Duke of Luxembourg
Princess Helena married Prince Leopold of the United Kingdom, Duke of Albany
Prince Friedrich was the only son and Heir and married Princess Bathildis von Schaumburg-Lippe
Princess Elizabeth married the Fürst von Erbach und Schönberg

Pic: Queen Emma bedecked in stunning Orange-Nassau jewels (source pic: gogmsite.net): http://www.gogmsite.net/_Media/1882-emma-wearing-parure-2.jpeg

After 11 years of marriage, the King died in 1890. The young Dowager Queen became Regentess for 8 years, as long as her daughter Queen Wilhelmina had not reached the age of consent. Apparently, despite the age gap, the marriage was reported happy and the King, infamous for his temper, always showed his best side when he was with his young spouse and/or his infant daughter. Many of the gorgeous jewels Queen Máxima wears these days (like the diadem at Investiture Day) were once given by the old King to his young spouse. So we may assume the King was in love with her.

 

[Lee-Z]

^^^ previous

Well, now THAT is an age gap...do you know whether she married him willingly or was it arranged?

King William IV of UK married at age 52, his bride was 25
Older man and young wife happened quite a few times (usually because there was a need of offspring), both spouses being over 50 is a lot rarer...

King Willem III of NL was looking for a new wife after his first spouse died and he looked into various eligable ladies, but a few declined (the king was not the easiest person). He then turned his eye to Pauline of Waldeck Pyrmont, but as it turned out he got along better with her sister Emma. She could have denied if she had wanted (like some others did), but she didn't and their match is considered a lot better than Willem's first marriage

 

[C4A]

Thank you for these very informative responses. And if the marriage was a happy one, that's just wonderful then...

 

[Duc_et_Pair]

[....] She could have denied if she had wanted (like some others did), but she didn't and their match is considered a lot better than Willem's first marriage

Indeed. That first marriage, Willem III and Sophie, was one of the worst royal marriages ever. The couple were full cousins: the bride's mother Catharina Paulovna, Queen of Württemberg was a sister of the groom's mother Anna Paulovna, Queen of the Netherlands...

Picture of Sophie in the year of her marriage (1839), source athenaeum.nl : http://www.athenaeum.nl/dynamic/images/sophie-hamer.jpg

 

[Meraude]

Prince Bertil and Princess Lilian of Sweden married late in life!

Two of his brothers (re)married late in life, as well as his cousin.
Sigvard Bernadotte (age 54) married Marianne Lindberg (age 37) in 1961.
Carl Johan Bernadotte (age 72) married Gunnila Wachtmeister af Johannishus (age 65) in 1988.
Lennart Bernadotte (age 63) married Sonja Haunz (age 28) in 1972.

 

[Cris M]

In 2003, Princess Maria Gabriela of Orleans-Braganza married, at the age of 44, Mr. Theodoro de Hungria Machado, who was 52. Sadly, they divorced in 2005. She's now in a relationship with Mr. Marcos Pilli.

Her twin sister, Princess Maria Thereza of Orleans-Braganza, married in 1995, at the age of 36, with Mr. Johannes Hessel de Jong, who was 41. They live in Belgium and have a son and a daughter.

 

[MAfan]

Source PPE Agency (Queen Beatrix, the Fürst Wittekind and Fürstin Caecilia von Waldeck-Pyrmont née Countess von Goëss-Saurau admire the wedding dress of Emma): http://www.ppe-agency.com/500px/Jul2008/PPE08070351.jpg

Talking about royals who married late in life, another example is Fürst Witteking zu Waldeck und Pyrmont, who was 52 when he married to the 32-y-o Countess Cecilie von Goëß-Saurau, in 1988.

 

[Mimi1984]

Wihelm of the Netherlands married second in 1880, 'cause two of three sons of his first marriage died before him and he needed a presumptive.

Do you know, if Wilhelm was sad/angry, when Emma gave birth to a daughter, Wilhelmina and not to a son ?

Wilhelms third son died around 1900, without issue, so Wilhelmina became the only surviving child of her father.

 

[Marengo]

Uncharacteristically he was actually delighted that he had a daughter. His two sons who survived to adulthood were somewhat disappointing, perhaps that influenced his opinion.

--
There is an anecdote about the meeting of the king with the Pyrmont sisters. According to a family story, princesses Pauline, Marie and Emma looked through the window when the old king arrived. The eldest one Pauline said: 'I already have somebody' , the second one, Marie said: 'I don't want him', after which Emma replied: 'but we can't let that poor old man return home by himself again'.

 

[Mimi1984]

@Marengo

Oh I see, Wilhelm was happy about his daughter.

-

I like the ancedote about him.

"poor, old man". Yes.

-

Sorry for every mistake. English is not my mothers language. My mothers language is Austrian.

 

[Noble Consort Ming]

Prince Louis II of Monaco did not get married until he was 75. His wife, Ghislaine Dommanget, was 46.

 

[Mimi1984]

So many examples: Often the man was older than his wife.

And the other way round ?

Not yet ?

Or is any case known ?

 

[acegirl1978]

Umm, for the modern royal...I would say King Phillipe of Belgium. He is ~12 years older than Queen Mathilde too.

 

[Duc_et_Pair]

So many examples: Often the man was older than his wife.

And the other way round ?

Not yet ?

Or is any case known ?

Heu... from the present-day royals:
Princess Laurentien (1966) is older than her husband Prince Constantijn of the Netherlands (1969);
Princess Märtha Louise of Norway (1971) is older than her husband Ari Behn (1972);
Princess Tessy (1984) is older than her husband Prince Louis of Luxembourg (1985);
Princess Sophie (1967) is older than her husband Hereditary Prince Aloïs von and zu Liechtenstein (1968):
Infanta Doña Cristina (1965) is older than her husband Iñaki Urdangarín (1968);

Etc. Etc. Etc.

 

[Lee-Z]

But the combination of 'royals marrying later in life' amd 'woman older than spouse' is not very common; it did happen occassionally (i don't have an example at hand right now), but realistically, in older times the two main reasons for marriage (not only for royals) were 1) to be able to get through life (in other words: have enough money to live) and 2) to reproduce (iow, have kids).
In a lot of cases, if a woman didn't (re)marry at an advanced age meant that she had enough money to get through life without a man (this was seen as quite an achievement for the woman), and women after a certain age are not able to reproduce, so that reason would be off the table as well...

But i'm sure there are some examples of women getting married later in life to a same-age or younger man, sometimes even a lover who she had not been allowed to marry when younger..

 

[Lee-Z]

Okay, strictly speaking not royal (but noble) but a lady who did marry later in life is the current duchess of Alba, who married her second husband at age 52 (if i'm not mistaken) who was 8 years her junior and her third husband at age 85 and he was 24 years younger

 

[Danishla]

Okay, strictly speaking not royal (but noble) but a lady who did marry later in life is the current duchess of Alba, who married her second husband at age 52 (if i'm not mistaken) who was 8 years her junior and her third husband at age 85 and he was 24 years younger

Actually, the Duchess married in third nutptials in 2011 to her current husband
Luis Martínez de Irujo y Artázcoz (m. 1947; dec. 1972)
Jesús Aguirre y Ortiz de Zárate (m. 1978; dec. 2001)
Alfonso Díez Carabantes (m. 2011

 

[MAfan]

A couple of examples of Royal men who married (late in life) to much older women were Infante Luis Fernando of Spain (1888-1945), who aged 42 married in 1930 to 73-year-old Marie Say (widow of Prince Henri Amedée de Broglie), and Prince Christopher of Greece and Denmark (1888-1940), who married in 1920 to 47-year-old American Nancy Leeds, née Stewart.

 

[CyrilVladisla]

Emperor Francis I of Austria married his fourth wife, Caroline Augusta in 1816 when he was 48.

 

[MAfan]

She was Princess Caroline Auguste of Bavaria (1792-1873), a daughter of King Maximilian I of Bavaria. At the time of her wedding to Emperor Franz she was 24 and was divorced from King Wilhelm I of Württemberg, to whom she has been married from 1808 until 1814.

 

[CyrilVladisla]

Who was the oldest King to father a child?

 

[SLV]

Who was the oldest King to father a child?

I think King William III of the Netherlands might be a good contestant. I believe he was in his 70-80s when he remarried (to the 21 year old Enma).
I will check the dates.