Game of Gay Thrones 6: Norway, Poland and Portugal

Here we are with five more lgbt people who have been heirs, claimants, candidates, usurpers or imposters of various royal thrones. Their quests to pull their own “sword from the stone” were unsuccessful. Included for the first time are two people who were consorts to those heirs, etc., and would have sat beside their spouse on the royal throne.

1) Prince François Louis de Bourbon, Prince of Conti (1664-1709); titular King of Poland and Prince of Neuchâtel.

Prince François Louis was the nephew of Prince Louis, Duke of Condé, who was twice an unsuccessful candidate for the elective throne of Poland-Lithuania. In 1697 the throne was up for election again and the King of France put Prince François Louis’ name forward. Unlike his uncle Prince François Louis was successful, although it was obtained mainly through bribes. The Prince didn’t seem too eager to occupy his throne. After a couple of months delay he arrived in Poland to find that his rival in the election had seized the throne from him. The Prince just turned around and went back home.

Perhaps Prince François Louis didn’t want a repeat of a previous attempt to occupy a throne. In 1694 he inherited the sovereign principality of Neuchâtel in the will of the previous prince. Unfortunately, this previous prince’s sister thought she was the rightful ruler and Prince François Louis took her to court. The court found in his favour, but the King of France refused to support his claim and ordered François Louis to let the sister keep Neuchâtel.

Prince François Louis was openly bisexual and often blatant about his affairs, which caused tension in his family.

2) Prince Eugen of Sweden and Norway, Duke of Närke (1865-1947); proposed king of Norway.

In 1905 the joint kingdom of Sweden and Norway decided to split. The King and Crown Prince were to remain on the Swedish throne, and a younger son would be the first king of an independent Norway. Of the younger sons Prince Eugen, Duke of Närke was the one considered most favourably, as he was known to be a great Norwegaphile.

Norwegian politicians had been calling for full independence from Sweden since 1814. Prince Eugen had even been suggested as a future King of Norway in 1893, but his father made it clear that he wanted none of his sons on a Norwegian throne. In 1905 the newly independent Norway gave the crown to a Danish prince instead.

Prince Eugen was himself reluctant to accept any throne. He was more interested in art and painting than politics and was a well-known artist. He never married and Scandinavian writers and journalists often include him in lists of famous lgbt Norwegians.

3) Prince Francisco José de Bragança (1879-1919); claimant to the throne of Portugal.

Prince Francisco’s father was Prince Miguel, Duke of Braganza, claimant to the throne of Portugal. Miguel’s father, another Miguel, had usurped the throne from his own brother in 1828 and was himself deposed in 1834. Supporters of Miguel’s restoration to the throne were called the Miguelista.

When Portugal became a republic in 1910 the younger Prince Miguel launched an uprising to regain his father’s throne but was unsuccessful. In an effort to unite the Miguelista and another group supporting a rival monarchist claim Miguel and his eldest son renounced all rights to the throne. The united monarchists considered Miguel’s younger son, Prince Francisco José, as the head of the claim to restore the monarchy with his as King of Portugal.

Scandal followed Prince Francisco José. He was arrested in London in 1902 for gross indecency with a 15-year-old boy. Although he was found not guilty he was accused of a similar crime a few years later in Austria. He was also swindled out of £325,000 in 1909 by someone claiming to be a member of the Vanderbilt family.

During World War I Prince Francisco José fought with the Austro-Hungarian army. He was captured and died, still in captivity, in 1919 at the age of 39.

4) Princess Anna Sforza d’Este (1476-1497); Hereditary Duchess of Ferrara.

Princess Anna is the first of the “Queer Consorts” who missed their chance to sit on a throne beside their spouse. Anne was the daughter of the Duke of Milan. In 1477 her father arranged her marriage to Alfonso d’Este, Hereditary Duke (heir) of the sovereign Duchy of Ferrara. The wedding ceremony took place in 1491.

The marriage was not a happy one. Princess Anna was said to be rather unfeminine in looks and behaviour. She spent most of her time dressed as man and preferred the company of women. It is believed by historians that she had several lesbian affairs, and it is known that she refused to consummate the marriage and shared her bed every night with a female black slave.

Eventually Anna agreed to consummate the marriage in order to provide an heir to the throne of Ferrara. In 1497 she became pregnant but, sadly, died in childbirth at the age of 21.

Anna’s widower, Prince Alfonso, remarried in 1503 to Lucrezia Borgia. Yes, the same Lucrezia Borgia whose life of debauchery and murder is legendary (and probably false). It was Lucrezia who later became Duchess of Ferrera when Alfonso inherited the title.

5) Sir George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham (1592-1628); consort to the heir of the Scottish and English thrones.

Buckingham was the lover of King James I of England, and VI of Scotland. James probably didn’t realise that he also arranged for Buckingham to marry a bloodline heir to both of his thrones. In 1620 Buckingham married the Lady Katherine Manners, daughter of the Earl of Rutland, who brought a lot of money and rich estates with her.

In 1290 the 7-year-old Queen Margaret of Scotland died unexpectedly leaving no close relatives or clear successor. Thirteen men came forward with claims to the throne through various old royal lines. No-one could decided who had the best claim, so the Scottish nobles asked King Edward I of England to chose one. Lady Katherine Manners’ ancestor, Lord de Ros, was the nearest bloodline heir of Queen Margaret through an illegitimate line. King Edward chose someone from a more junior line to be king instead. Lady Katherine became the eventual heir of the de Ros claim and she became Baroness de Ros herself when her father died.

Lady Katherine also had a claim to the English throne through the de Ros line. An earlier de Ros heiress carried the title into the Manners family on her marriage. The Manners were heirs of Princess Anne of England (1439-1476), the eldest sister of Kings Edward IV and Richard III. Anne’s brothers and their descendants were barred from the throne, even (technically) Princess Elizabeth of York who married the Tudor usurper King Henry VII. Various relatives of Anne tried to get the throne back but were unsuccessful. Eventually they gave up. The descendants of Anne carried the senior claim to the English throne through the Manners family to Lady Katherine, Baroness de Ros.