Royals & Nobles Who Died in Childbirth

[Biri]

Given that we have today the day of ones who passed away, an idea came to me to make a thread concerning women of royalty for whom a moment which should be the happiest one for a woman, cost them their own lives.

We know from the history that there were quite a number of such women, though they were rich and should have obtained the best care possible.

Sometimes we know what was the exact cause of their death (for ex. the haemorrage), sometimes don't.
Once their children survived, once were stillborn or died after a few days.
Some died on the day of the birth, some few days later, or even few weeks later.
Reactions of their husbands' were also different, although, AFAIK, most of them were devastated...

Here is a list of famous women whose untimely deaths were related to complications during pregnancy/childbirth/confinement - as you see, most of them are royals (although in some cases cause of death is uncertain):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_women_who_died_in_childbirth

Do you know some more? (including also women who died giving life to the child of the Monarch/Prince)

 

[rominet09]

Don't you think it is rather a sad thread to launch.....

 

[Biri]

There is a thread about miscarriages, about murders, sadness of royals, and it's also sad.

 

[Katrianna]

I see nothing sad about this thread. What I find sad is that in the 21st Century women not only in Third World countries continue to die in childbirth, but in the so-called Developed Western countries, especially in the US and UK among them.
When I viewed how many Royal and prominent women died over the centuries, these were women who were wealthier than the lower classes and could have had "better healthcare", can you imagine the number of lower class women who died without the care the wealthier had?

 

[Curryong]

Princess Charlotte, the only legitimate daughter of the Prince Regent, (later George IV of Great Britain,) had led a rather sad life until she married Prince Leopold of Saxe Coburg Saarfield in May 1816 when she was twenty. (He later became the first King of the Belgians.) They were happily married, but it soon ended. Charlotte miscarried in 1816 but in November 1817 she gave birth to a stillborn son and died the next day at the age of 21.

She was regarded with great love by the people of Britain and mourning for Charlotte was widespread. However, her doctor, who later committed suicide, had allowed her labour to go on too long without using forceps. She was exhausted and did not recover. If she had lived it would have been Queen Charlotte from 1830 when her father died and there would have been no Victorian Age.

 

[Lee-Z]

Here is a list of famous women whose untimely deaths were related to complications during pregnancy/childbirth/confinement - as you see, most of them are royals (although in some cases cause of death is uncertain):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_women_who_died_in_childbirth

Do you know some more? (including also women who died giving life to the child of the Monarch/Prince)

The ones i know are indeed on this list first one to come to my mind was P.Maria Pia of Bourbon-Two Sicilies who died in childbirth at the birth of her 12th (!) child
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Maria_Pia_of_Bourbon-Two_Sicilies_(1849–1882)
Her husband remarried and with his second wife had another 12 children

 

[Biri]

First wife of Shah Reza Pahlavi, Maryam Khanum died in childbirth before 21 March 1905; the baby didn't survive - she bereft a daughter Fatima Ashraf Khanum (b.22 February 1904):

https://www.royalark.net/Persia/pahlavi3.htm

Sheikha Aisha bint Hamad al Attiya of Qatar died on 1 January 1952, giving birth to Shaikh Hamad bin Khalifa al Thani, Amir of the State of Qatar from 1995 to 2013 (her third child):

https://www.royalark.net/Qatar/qatar7.htm

Series "Carlos, Rey Emperador" - birth of Don Carlos and death of his mother, Princess Mauela of Portugal:

Death of Manuela's mother-in-law (and aunt) Princess Isabella of Portugal (wife of Emperor Charles V) ten days after giving birth to her sixth, stillborn child (a son):

Pauline Felicite du Mailly, lover of King Louis XV of France died of convulsions a week after giving birth to his son, Charles Emmanuel Marie Magdelon de Vintimille:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pauline_Félicité_de_Mailly
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_de_Vintimille

The most known ficticious noble who died in childbirth is probably Princess Liza Bolkonskaya from the novel War and Peace.

 

[CyrilVladisla]

On November 15, 1853, thirteen hours after the onset of labor of the stillborn Infante Eugenio, her eleventh son, Queen Maria II of Portugal died.

 

[Biri]

Maria Antoinette von Leykam, Countess von Beylstein, second wife of Prince Klemens von Metternich (First Chancellor and second Foreign Minister of the Austrian Empire) died on 17 January 1829, exactly a week after giving birth to her only child (and their only together) Richard, second Prince of Metternich:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klemens_von_Metternich#Issue
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klemens_Wenzel_Lothar_von_Metternich#Privatleben

Also Metternich's out-of-wedlock daughter, Princess Marie-Clementine Bagration (fruit of his romance with Princess Catherine Bagration, nee Countess Pavlovna Skavronskaya, niece of Grigory Potemkin and wife of Prince Pyotr Bagration, prominent general of the Napoleonic Wars) died on 26 May, aged exactly 18 and eight months, eight days after giving birth to her only child, Otto Paul Julius Gustav, Lehnsgraf von Brome.

Curiosity: Out of 15 children of Chancellor Metternich only five outlived him.

 

[Mimi1984]

Maria Anna (1718-1744), married to Karl of Lothringen , in January 1744 and died in December the same year, gave birth to a stillborn daughter, in Brussels.
Mother and daughter are buried in Vienna in the Imperial Crypt.

Maria Leopoldine (1732-1749), the second wife of Ferdinand III. , died at the age of 17 in childbirth. He son outlived the birth, but died at the age of 15.

Martina von Trapp (17.02.1921 - 25.02.1951), a member of the Trapp Family, died suddenly at the age of 30 in childbird, with her stillborn daughter.

 

[Biri]

The Spanish serie "Isabel" 3 season - death of Isabella, Princess of Asturias (firstborn daughter of Queen Isabella I of Castille and King Ferdinand II of Aragon, wife of King Manuel I of Portugal, the Fortunate, at the birth of her only child, Miguel da Paz, Prince of Portugal (who died aged 2):

 

[CyrilVladisla]

Queen Maria Isabel of Spain, the spouse of King Ferdinand VII of Spain, died in 1818 when she had Infanta Maria Luisa Isabel.

 

[Biri]

Queen Maria Isabel of Spain, the spouse of King Ferdinand VII of Spain, died in 1818 when she had Infanta Maria Luisa Isabel.

Her death was in fact a horror:

Maria Isabel was pregnant soon after the birth of María Luisa Isabel, but the birth was indeed a difficult one the baby was in breech and the physicians soon found that the child had died. Maria Isabel stopped breathing soon thereafter and the doctors thought she was dead.

Maria Isabel’s sister protested against the doctors' thoughts on presuming her dead. The king, however, ordered a fatal caesarean. When they started cutting her stomach to extract the dead fetus, she suddenly shouted in pain and collapsed on her bed, bleeding heavily. She died soon afterwards on 26 December 1818

 

[CyrilVladisla]

The Infanta Maria Luisa Isabel who did not live in 1818 was given the same names as her predeceased older sister Infanta Maria Luisa Isabel.

 

[Prinsara]

There's a fairly strong argument Charlotte's death was not due to malpractice or incompetence but was simply unpreventable, especially at the time. The Unpreventable Death of Princess Charlotte of Wales – Kyra Cornelius Kramer

 

[sarahedwards2]

There's a fairly strong argument Charlotte's death was not due to malpractice or incompetence but was simply unpreventable, especially at the time. The Unpreventable Death of Princess Charlotte of Wales – Kyra Cornelius Kramer

I read that even a C-section would have killed Charlotte.

 

[Blog Real]

Teresa d'Entença died whilst giving birth to her son Sancho on 20 October 1327 at Zaragoza, only days before her husband (Alfonso IV of Aragon) became king of Aragon.

 

[BigLenny]

On June 17, 1631, Mughal Empress Mumtaz Mahal died giving birth to her 14th child Gauhar Ara Begum while accompanying her husband Shah Jahan during his war in the Deccan Plateau.

On September 5, 1548, King Henry VIII's sixth and last wife Catherine Parr died from birth complications after giving birth to her daughter Mary Seymour six days ago.

 

[Prinsara]

Can I mention Theodore Roosevelt's first wife anyway? (Since he founded the Imperial Presidency and all.)

Her pregnancy apparently masked her failing kidneys and she died about 48 hours after giving birth.

Not only did TR never speak of her again, their baby daughter was already called Alice as well — and for much of her life, her father called her "Baby Lee" or "Sissy" when he had other children, because he just couldn't manage it.