Timeline of Kings and Queens, page 15
1682
Russia The death of Fyodor III leads to the Moscow Uprising, when relatives of each of Fyodor’s two wives try to gain power; Peter the Great becomes tsar, sharing power with his sickly half-brother Ivan V; their sister, Sophia Alekseyevna, is regent during their minority.
Peter the Great
Reign: 1682–1725
Peter the Great (Peter I) has been credited with modernising Russia and turning it into an empire. He was born on 30 May 1672 in Moscow, the grandson of tsar Michael Romanov. Peter was proclaimed Tsar at the age of 10, but due to a power struggle had to rule together with his brother Ivan. As the brothers were both under age, they came under the patronage of their elder sister Sophia. Sophia appointed her lover Prince Golitsin as chief minister, but this caused such chaos in the government, Sophia was eventually overthrown and exiled to a convent. When Ivan died in 1696, Peter was left the sole leader.
Peter the Great was a giant of a man standing at nearly 7 ft, and he ruled his country with incredible power and fortitude. One of his main goals was to regain access to the Baltic Sea and Baltic trade. He started the Northern War with Sweden which lasted for 21 years, and founded St Petersburg in 1703. At the end of the war Russia was victorious and had conquered vast tracts of land. In 1712 Peter moved the Russian capital to St Petersburg and paid special attention to the construction of his new and vast city. By the end of the war in 1721, Russia was declared an empire and Peter the Great proclaimed himself its emperor.
1683
Portugal Pedro II becomes king, marrying Queen Marie-Françoise of Savoy, the wife of his brother, Afonso VI, the former king. Venice Leonardo Donato is elected doge; Marcantonio Giusinian is elected doge.
1685
Great Britain On the death of Charles II, his brother James II of England and VII of Scotland, takes the throne; the duke of Monmouth’s rebellion against the king is quashed. Montenegro Vasilije II Velikrasić becomes prince-bishop; Visarion II Bajica becomes prince-bishop.
1686
England James II ignores the Test Act and Catholics are appointed to public office.
1687
England James II extends tolerance to all religions in the Declaration of Indulgence. Hungary The Habsburg succession to the Hungarian throne is confirmed; Joseph I is crowned king.
1688
Great Britain James II and VII of England and Scotland’s unpopular espousal of Catholicism leads to the Glorious Revolution; he is deposed and William of Orange and his wife take the throne as joint monarchs, William III and Mary II. Venice Francesco Morosini is elected doge. Wallachia Constantin Brâncoveanu becomes prince.
1689
Russia Sophia Alekseyevna’s regency, on behalf of Peter the Great and his brother Ivan V, comes to an end. Rome The 81-year-old Cardinal Pietro Vito Ottoboni is elected pope as Alexander VIII.
“I have conquered an empire but I have not been able to conquer myself.”
Peter the Great
1690
Ireland William III invades Ireland to quash a rebellion by supporters of James II; he wins the decisive Battle of the Boyne. Germany Joseph I becomes co-king. Montenegro The prince-bishopric falls vacant until 1694.
1691
Rome Cardinal Antonio Pignatelli is elected pope as Innocent XII.
1694
Great Britain Queen Mary II dies, leaving William III as sole ruler. Venice Silvestro Valiero is elected doge. Montenegro Sava I Kaluđerović becomes prince-bishop.
1696
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth Frederick Augustus I, elector of Saxony, is elected king of Poland and grand duke of Lithuania as Augustus II the Strong; he embroils the Commonwealth in the Great Northern War and remains in power chiefly through Russian support. Montenegro Danilo I, known as Vladiko Danilo, becomes prince-bishop; the first from the House of Petrović-Njegoš, he establishes ties with Russia and recovers Zeta from the Ottomans. Russia Ivan V dies, leaving Peter the Great as sole ruler.
1697
Sweden Charles XII becomes king; he fights the Great Northern War against a coalition made up of Saxony, Denmark-Norway, Poland and Russia. Russia Peter the Great begins several years of travel through western Europe incognito.
1699
Hungary The Treaty of Karlowitz concludes the Austro-Ottoman war of 1683–1697, in which the Ottoman side has finally been defeated; the Austrian Habsburgs gain almost all of Hungary, Transylvania and Slavonia; Podolia is returned to Poland; the Peloponnese Peninsula and Dalmatia are returned to Venice; this treaty signals the decline of the Ottoman Empire and the rise of the Habsburg monarchy to be the dominant Central European power. Denmark and Norway Christian V dies in a hunting accident; Frederick IV succeeds him.
1700
Spain Charles II of Spain dies without issue, bringing the Spanish Habsburg line to a close and throwing Europe into the Spanish War of Succession until 1701. Monaco Antonio I becomes sovereign prince of Monaco. Venice Alvise II Mocenigo is elected doge. Rome Giovanni Francesco Albani is elected pope as Clement XI.
1701
Great Britain The Act of Settlement establishes Protestant Hanoverian succession in Britain; the exiled James II dies. Prussia The elector of Brandenberg, Frederick III, takes the Prussian throne as Frederick I, after Leopold I, archduke of Austria and Holy Roman Emperor, is persuaded by Frederick to allow Prussia to be ruled as a kingdom.
1702
Great Britain William III dies; Princess Anne, sister of Queen Mary, becomes queen of England and Scotland.
1703
Hungary Ferenc II Rákóczi leads a Hungarian uprising against the Habsburgs, lasting until 1711, as prince of the ‘Estates Confederated for Liberty of the Kingdom of Hungary’. Russia Peter the Great founds St Petersburg.
1705
Holy Roman Empire Joseph I, archduke of Austria, king of Hungary and Bohemia, becomes emperor.
1706
Portugal João V becomes king, aged 17; he strengthens the monarchy with the wealth of the newly discovered diamond and gold mines in the Portuguese colony of Brazil. Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth The Swedish king, Charles XII, defeats a Polish-Saxon army several times in battle, forcing Augustus II to yield his throne to a Swedish candidate, the Polish nobleman Stanisław Leszczyński.
1707
Great Britain The Act of Union unites the parliaments of England and Scotland; having shared the same monarch for just over 100 years, the countries merge to form the Kingdom of Great Britain.
1709
Sweden Charles XII loses to Russia in the Battle of Poltova, marking the end of the Swedish Empire and the beginning of the Russian Empire; Charles goes into exile in Moldovia in the Ottoman Empire. Venice Giovanni Corner is elected doge. Polish-Lithuanian Common-wealth Augustus II is restored to the throne under Russian auspices and remains subservient to Russia for the remainder of his reign.
1711
Holy Roman Empire Emperor Joseph I dies of smallpox; Charles VI succeeds him as king of Hungary, Bohemia and Holy Roman Emperor. Wallachia The Phanariote Epoch begins in Wallachia and Moldavia, lasting until 1821; princes are mainly Phanariotes – Greeks from Phanar, the main Greek quarter of Constantinople – and are given the position of prince chiefly as a promotion by the dragoman offices of the Ottoman Empire.
1712
Liechtenstein Josef Wenzel, eldest son of Prince Philip Erasmus of Liechtenstein, becomes prince of Liechtenstein; he is a great military commander, appointed generalissimo in Italy and general chief commander in Hungary; he reorganizes the Habsburg artillery, partly from his own pocket. Russia Peter the Great marries Catherine, a woman of humble origins, and gives her the title empress, the first woman to be so-called in Russia.
1713
Spain The Treaty of Utrecht ends the war of Spanish Succession, confirming Philip V, grandson of Louis XIV of France, as the first Bourbon king of Spain; Spain is forced to give away Spanish Netherlands, Sicily and Naples. Austria Charles VI has no male heirs and, consequently, introduces the Pragmatic Sanction; it ensures that his realm cannot be divided and permits daughters to inherit the throne in the event of there being no male heir. Prussia Frederick William I becomes king of Prussia; he establishes a standing army of 80,000 men. Sicily Victor Amadeus II, duke of Savoy, becomes king of Sicily.
1714
Great Britain Queen Anne dies having given birth to 18 children, none of whom live beyond 11 years. George I, the elector of Hanover, great-grandson of James I, becomes the first Hanoverian king of Great Britain and Ireland. Wallachia Ştefan Cantacuzino becomes prince.
1715
Great Britain The first Jacobite rising takes place in Britain in support of James the Old Pretender, son of James II. France Louis XIV dies after the longest reign by a European monarch, 72 years and three months; Louis XV becomes king.
1718
Sicily Philip V of Spain invades Sicily, trying to win it back; the Quadruple Alliance of Great Britain, France, Austria and the Dutch Republic is formed, and defeats Spain.
1719
Liechtenstein The Liechtenstein family’s purchase of the lands of Schellenberg and Vaduz, between Switzerland and Lower Austria, qualifies it for a seat in the Reichstag, the parliament of the Holy Roman Empire; Emperor Charles VI declares that Schellenberg and Vaduz are united and names them Liechtenstein, which becomes a sovereign member state of the empire; the princes of Liechtenstein do not actually live in their principality until 1938; Josef Wenzel steps down and Anton Florian becomes the first prince of the Principality of Liechtenstein; Luxembourg and Liechtenstein are the only two states of the Holy Roman Empire that still exist.
1720
Spain and Sicily The Treaty of the Hague is signed between the Quadruple Alliance and Spain, concluding the war of the Quadruple Alliance; Philip V agrees to abandon his Italian claims; King Victor Amadeus is forced by the Alliance to change his title to the less important ‘King of Sardinia’; he cedes Sicily to Austria; Charles IV, son of Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor, becomes king; he is also king of Bohemia and Hungary and a claimant to the Spanish throne; Sicily comes under direct Austrian rule. Sweden Charles XII is killed while invading Norway; he is unmarried and his sister, Ulrika Eleonora, regent while he has been absent, is elected queen, and then abdicates in favour of her husband Frederick I, son of Landgrave Charles I of Hesse-Kassel in the Holy Roman Empire.
1721
Rome Cardinal Michelangelo Conti is elected pope as Innocent XIII. Liechtenstein Josef Johann Adam becomes prince of Liechtenstein. Russia Peter the Great is acclaimed ‘Emperor of all Russia’.
1722
Venice Sebastiano Mocenigo is elected doge.
1724
Spain Philip V of Spain abdicates in favour of his 17-year-old son Louis, but Louis dies after nine months; Philip returns to the throne and reigns for a further 22 years. Rome Cardinal Pierfrancesco Orsini is elected pope as Benedict XIII.
1725
Russia Peter the Great dies, having westernized Russia, creating an empire and transforming it into a major European power; Empress Catherine I, his second wife, succeeds to the throne on her husband’s death; she continues his modernisations.
1727
Great Britain George II becomes king. Spain is at war with Britain and France (until 1729). Russia Peter II, son of Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich, and grandson of Peter I, becomes emperor.
1730
Rome Cardinal Lorenzo Corsini is elected pope as Clement XII; he is blind and bedridden. Denmark and Norway Christian VI becomes king. Russia Peter II dies of smallpox on his wedding day; his new wife jumps into his deathbed in a futile effort to become pregnant; he is buried in the Kremlin, the only Russian monarch after Peter the Great to be given that honour; with him, the direct male line of the Romanov dynasty comes to an end; Anna Ioannovna, daughter of Ivan V, becomes empress.
1731
Monaco Antonio I dies without male issue; his daughter Louise Hyppolyte becomes sovereign princess; it has already been decided, with the permission of the French king Louis XIV, that her future husband will take the name Grimaldi and will rule Monaco jointly with her; in 1715 she marries Jacques Francois Goyon de Matignon; she dies of smallpox 10 months later and her husband becomes Jacques I, sovereign prince.
1732
Liechtenstein Josef Wenzel acts as regent for 8-year-old Johann Nepomuk Karl, prince of Liechtenstein, until 1745. Venice Carlo Ruzzini is elected doge.
1733
Monaco Honoré III becomes sovereign prince of Monaco; he chooses to live in Paris, and Antoine Grimaldi, known as ‘le Chevalier de Grimaldi’, is regent until 1784. Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth August II the Strong dies, having fathered, according to some reports, more than 300 children during his life; opposed by Russia, Stanisław I Leszczyński is elected king of Poland and grand duke of Lithuania for a second time; the Russians decide to elect August III, son of August the Strong, as ruler; the war of the Polish Succession begins, in which the two Bourbon powers, France and Spain, try to limit Habsburg ambition in western Europe, going to war against Austria and Russia.
1735
Venice Alvise Pisani is elected doge. Naples and Sicily Retaken by Spain during the war of the Polish Succession, Sicily is merged with Naples, and Charles V, son of Philip IV of Spain, is named king. Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth The war of the Polish Succession ends with victory for Spain and France; the Treaty of Vienna confirms Augustus as undisputed king; Stanisław I is compensated with the duchy of Lorraine, which passes, on his death, to France; Charles III of Spain gives up his right to the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, but is confirmed as king of Sicily and Naples. Montenegro Sava II Petrović Njegoš becomes prince-bishop.
1740
Prussia Frederick II the Great becomes king, greatly expanding Prussian territory and making it a major power in Europe; Prussia attacks Austria and drags much of Europe into the war of Austrian Succession, until 1748. Holy Roman Empire Cardinal Prospero Lorenzo Lambertini is elected pope as Benedict XIV. Russia Empress Anna Ioannovna dies, and her 8-month-old grand-nephew, Ivan VI, whom she has adopted, succeeds her.
1741
Venice Pietro Grimani is elected doge. Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia Emperor Charles VI’s Pragmatic Sanction allows his daughter, Maria Theresa, to become queen of Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia. Russia Thirteen months after Ivan VI has come to the throne, a coup replaces him with the daughter of Peter the Great, Tsarevna Elizabeth; Ivan and his family are imprisoned; Ivan’s guards are instructed to kill him if anyone tries to free him; he will be killed after 20 years of solitary confinement, when sub-lieutenant Vasily Mirovich attempts to free him and proclaim him emperor.
1742
Germany and the Holy Roman Empire Charles VII, son of the elector of Bavaria and husband of Maria Amalia, daughter of Joseph I, becomes king and emperor.
1745
Great Britain The ‘Forty-Five’ – a Jacobite rebellion in Great Britain led by Charles Edward Stuart, the ‘Young Pretender’; government forces are defeated at the Battle of Prestonpans.
Austria In the war of Austrian Succession, French forces defeat an Anglo-Dutch-Hanoverian army in the Battle of Fontenoy. Holy Roman Empire The grand duke of Tuscany, Franz I, becomes emperor, founding the Habsburg-Lorraine dynasty; he is married to Maria Theresa, daughter of Emperor Charles VI, who is queen of Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia; she styles herself ‘Holy Roman Empress’; the couple will soon be parents of Marie-Antoinette, queen of France.
The ‘Forty-five’
1745
The major Jacobite Risings of 1715 and 1745 were known respectively as ‘The Fifteen’ and ‘The Forty-five’. They formed part of a larger series of military campaigns by Jacobites who were attempting to restore the Stuart kings to the thrones of Scotland and England. The ‘Forty-five’ was led by Bonnie Prince Charlie and, despite having all the odds against against him and his 20,000 clansmen, they went on to defeat the government forces at Prestonpans. However, threatened by superior forces Charlie and his clan retreated to Scotland. The Jacobites’ hopes were dashed when the Duke of Cumberland went in pursuit and Charlie lost over 1,200 men on Culloden Moor in April 1946. In the aftermath of the uprising, the wearing of tartan, the bearing of arms and the playing of bagpipes were all banned in Scotland.
1746
Great Britain The Jacobites are defeated at the Battle of Culloden; Charles Stuart flees, Highland clan culture is suppressed – including the banning of the kilt – and many Scots emigrate. Spain Ferdinand VI the Wise becomes king. Denmark and Norway Frederick V becomes king.
1748
Liechtenstein Johann Nepomuk Karl dies without male issue; Josef Wenzel returns to rule as prince of Liechtenstein for a third time.
1750
Portugal José I becomes king; he places power in the hands of Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo, better known today as the marquis of Pombal, who becomes head of government; José declares his daughter Maria, princess of Beira, to be his heir; he creates her princess of Brazil, the official title of the heir to the Portuguese throne. Montenegro Vasilije III rules jointly with Sava II as prince-bishop, until 1766.
1751
Sweden Adolf Frederick is elected king; he is the son of Christian August of Holstein-Gottorp and is descended from Gustav I and Charles X; he is ineffectual, the real power lying with his imperious wife Louisa Ulrika, sister of Prussian king Frederick the Great.
1757
Venice Francesco Loredan is elected doge. Prussia The Battle of Rossbach; Prussian King Frederick the Great defeats the French and the Austrians.
1758
Rome Cardinal Carlo della Torre Rezzonico is elected pope as Clement XIII.
1759
Spain Ferdinand VI dies insane; Charles III, his brother and fifth son of Philip V, becomes king; he begins Bourbon reforms, expelling the Jesuits from Spain. Naples and Sicily Charles IV abdicates in favour of his son, Ferdinand III, in order to take the Spanish throne as Charles III.
1760
Great Britain George III, grandson of George II, becomes king; he will have 15 children. Portugal Maria, princess of Brazil, marries her uncle, Pedro; he becomes prince of Brazil in his wife’s right.
