As princesses go, Maria Sofia von Neuburg was a very insignificant one at the time of her birth in 1666.  Her father, Duke Philipp Wilhelm, though a member of the illustrious house of Wittelsbach, was merely the Duke of Neuburg, a very small state on the banks of the Danube in southern Germany.  Other branches of the family ruled the larger, richer states of the Palatinate and Bavaria.  In fact, they were very nearly sovereigns, except that that they nominally owed allegiance to the Holy Roman Emperor in Vienna.  Diminishing Maria Sofia’s prospects even further, she was not even an heiress.  Women could not inherit the duchy, and in any case she was only one of seventeen children.

The ducal palace in Neuburg. Credit: Mendli at German Wikipedia – own work of Mendli, Originally from de.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1728849

Things began to look up for Maria Sofia and her siblings when their relative the Elector Palatine died sonless in 1685 and Duke Philipp Wilhelm succeeded him.  The family duly moved to the Palatine capital at Heidelberg.

It was on this day in 1754 that the future Louis XVI was born.

His parents were Louis, Dauphin of France (1729-1765), and Marie-Josèphe, Dauphine of France, née princess of Saxony-Poland (1731-1767).  The infant prince was immediately named Duc de Berri by his grandfather, Louis XV, and was soon christened Louis-Auguste to distinguish him from his elder brother, Louis-Joseph.

Louis, Dauphin de France (1729-1765). I photographed this bust of him in his sister Victoire’s drawing room at Versailles in March, 2016.

Louis-Auguste was in fact the third child in the family.

It was on this day in 1830 that Louis-Philippe, Duc d’Orléans, took power in the wake of the so-called July Revolution that toppled his cousin, Charles X, who had abdicated in favour of his grandson.  Charles had intended for Louis-Philippe to rule as regent for the little boy, but the latter had other ideas and raised no objection when the National Assembly offered to make him king in his own right.  Departing from tradition, he proclaimed himself Louis-Philippe, King of the French, rather than Louis XIX (or XX, depending on your point of view), King of France.

Louis-Philippe as photographed in 1842. Credit: By Lerebours et Claudet – page, image, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8462011

Here at Versailles Century we take a dim view of this wily monarch, mainly because of his ham-handed interventions at Versailles.  Three years into his reign, Louis-Philippe decided to undertake a partial restoration of the Château de Versailles and also to create a museum of French history in it.  We’ve previously touched on one of his modifications, namely the eponymous staircase in the King’s private apartments.

The Louis-Philippe Staircase in March, 2017.

I actually like this staircase, which brings some much-needed light into this part of the Château.

Following on from last week’s post about the house, today we visit the beautiful gardens of the Palacio Fronteira in Lisbon.

The most famous part of the gardens is undoubtedly the tile-lined water tank.

The water tank at the Palacio Fronteira, Lisbon, in April, 2016.

The upper walk is known as the Gallery of Kings, after the busts of Portugal’s monarchs set in the niches of the blue-tiled wall.

Anne Stuart, Queen of Great Britain and Ireland, died on this day in 1714, thus bringing to and end the Protestant branch of the Stuart dynasty, which had ruled England and Ireland for 111 years, and Scotland for 343 years.

Queen Anne by Le Marchand. Photographed at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO), 2016.

Born the daughter of James Stuart, Duke of York, the second son of Charles I, and Anne Hyde, daughter of Charles II’s minister the Earl of Clarendon, in 1665, she likely never expected to succeed to the throne.

Although her father was Catholic, she and her elder sister Mary were raised in the Church of England, to which their mother belonged.  After their mother’s death, James married Mary of Modena, who gave birth to their half-brother, also James, who superseded them in the line of succession.  When James II (who had succeeded his childless brother Charles II in 1685) was deposed, however, the infant James was excluded from the succession, as were all Catholics.  Mary and her husband William of Orange took the throne in 1688 as Mary II and William III, the only joint monarchs in British history.  They too were childless, so Anne became heiress to the throne.

In the meantime, Anne had married Prince George of Denmark, who came to live in England.  Poor Anne endured 17 pregnancies, most of them difficult, of which only one resulted in the birth of a living baby that survived its infancy.  This was William, created Duke of Gloucester by William and Mary.  Tragically, he died aged 11 in 1700.  This left Anne herself as the last living Protestant Stuart.  As such, she succeeded William III on his death in 1702, becoming Queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland, then of Great Britain and Ireland subsequent to the 1707 Acts of Union.

By the 1701 Act of Settlement it had already been determined that Anne would be succeeded by her nearest Protestant relative, the Electress Sophia of Hanover, who was a grand daughter  of James I through his only daughter Elizabeth, who had married the Elector Palatine, briefly also King of Bohemia.  Sophia, however, predeceased Anne by 2 months, so it was her son who succeeded Anne as George I, the director ancestor of the present queen, Elizabeth II.

The Leal Senado building in Macau isn’t quite as iconic as the ruins of the church of São Paulo, but it comes close.  The square in front of it is perhaps more famous.

  Senado Square in Macau as seen from a window on the upper floor of the Leal Senado building, 2014.

The building itself is a handsome Portuguese baroque-style edifice.  Nowadays a busy thoroughfare runs directly in front of it, which you have to cross to get to the square, and vice-versa.

The Palacio Fronteira is perhaps my favourite stately home anywhere.

The Palace of the Marquises of Fronteira, seen from the famous water tank in April, 2016.

I like stately homes a lot, so that’s a big statement.  I prefer occupied stately homes, and if they’re still occupied by the descendants of the builder, so much the better.  It’s very much in the Palacio Fronteira’s favour that the 13th Marquis of Fronteira, the direct descendant of the 1st Marquis who built the place, lives in it with his family.

Our friends at the official Château de Versailles website have published this stunning rooftop view from the centre block (I assume) down the central axis of the gardens to the Tapis Vert and the Grand Canal beyond.

View from the roof of the Château de Versailles towards the Grand Canal. Credit: http://www.chateaudeversailles.com

Looking at this view makes me feel quite kingly.  Why?  Because Louis XV is known to have enjoyed spending time on the roof of the Château.

The French furniture in the Gulbenkian Museum is impressive.  The collection includes pieces by two great masters: Séné and van Risen Burgh (also spelled van Risamburgh).

In a previous post, we looked at a set of Beauvais-upholstered chairs by Séné.

Pair of fauteuils by J.B.C. Séné in the Gulbenkian Foundation museum in Lisbon.

Today we’ll examine four pieces by van Risen Burgh/van Risamburgh.

When you visit the gardens of Versailles today, the plantings you see are not those of Louis XIV and Le Nôtre.

The Sun King and his great gardener together oversaw the design and planting of the gardens in a series of campaigns that was largely completed by the late 1680s, though the King continued to tinker with various elements until the end of his life.  The only major alteration in the reign of Louis XV was the construction of the Bassin de Neptune in the northeastern corner of the gardens.  Le Bien Aimé otherwise concentrated his gardening efforts on the Petit Trianon.

The Bassin de Neptune on a rainy day in late March, 2016.

The layout of the gardens as we see them today, then, is still more or less as it was at the death of Louis XIV in 1715.  Plants are living things, however, and though some live long, none are eternal.  According to ‘The Gardens’ page on the Château’s official website, it was understood from the start that the gardens would have to be replanted once every hundred years or so.