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Talk:Francis I of France

Untitled
Among the things I removed: he threw out the vast legacy of Mediaeval prohibitions. Now you may think that I'm a cranky medievalist (and I am - I've only had one cup of coffee so far), but this is virtually meaningless. Mediaeval prohibitions? Does that refer to laws? Customs? Legal codes? Please elaborate. Were they mediaeval, or perhaps Roman? French legal history is a vast and complicated sea of change, and saying that a king 'threw out the vast legacy' of the middle ages is silly. "Renaissance," by the way, is a very mixed term. One could, and I would, argue that the two paragraphs about the economic and military disasters of Francis's reign were caused by his openness to 'humanism' and its model of the absolute ruler rather than an accident of luck or poor planning. Those "mediaeval prohibitions" sometimes had the virtue of restraining royal action. MichaelTinkler

I find what you said very interesting. This information originaly came from a much longer essay I wrote. The argument I made in this essay was that Francis' humanism was the cause of his economic and military problems. In turning the essay from an argumentative one to a expository one I cut out pretty much all of that discussion. I personally think that it was the embrace of humanism by the French monarchy that put it on the path to the behaviour that would cause the French Revolution. I didn't think this opinion was NPOV enough, however, and thus left it out. -SimonP

Before I start copyediting: in addition to easy fixes (a comma here, "renowned" there), the word "chateaux" appears in a lot of places where I suspect the singular is called for. E.g., did Saint Germain-en-Laye ever have more than one chateau? (That one caught my eye because I've been there--the surviving chateau now houses the Museum of French Prehistory.) And does anyone know whether older browsers, and lynx, handle those long codes for apostrophes and quotation marks gracefully? Vicki Rosenzweig

Oy, I did use chateaux for the singular throughout didn't I. Many years of French teachers would be very dissapointed in me. -SimonP

- I've never heard of this guy referred to as Francis. If it's not John Charles of Spain, why is it Francis of France? - montréalais
 * Because that's the way he's known to English speakers. We never claimed to be consistant.  :-)  -- Zoe

Yeah, I was a bit baffled too. It's Francois, right? What do we call Carlos of Spain -- Charles or Carlos? -- Tarquin

 * He's called Juan Carlos in English (in Dutch too, btw) while Francis is not known as François. I guess the use of anglicised (localised) names for monarchs has diminished; it is only still used for non-current ones and the pope, I think. Jeronimo

 * That sounds correct. The heir is Prince Felipe, not Prince Philip.  I guess he'll be Philip VI, but he'll probably be refered to as Felipe VI. -- Zoe
 * Aargh! Even worse -- I would say either Francis or Francois is correct -- leaning towards Francis, because I just looked in Spitz's The Renaissance and Reformation Movements, Lockyer's Tudor and Stuart Britain, 1471-1714, and Smith's The Making of England.  And even if TODAY we call the heir Felipe (and he'll probably be Felipe VI), we still call his most famous (arguably) ancestor Philip II.  Go figure.

Like I said before -- it was Frederick William when I was in high school, but it's Friedrich Wilhelm now...As we English speakers try to become more culturally aware, we're going to get these changes. i don't think it's a big problem, as long as the article is in the most normal form -- we can create re-direct pages, and even swap content and redirects in future. Ah, the beauty of wiki. HK 14:47 Aug 13, 2002 (PDT)

It makes no sense to call someone "Francis" when in fact they are born and legally baptized as "François". And, anyone who has studied any amount of French history, refers only to him as François. But then again, being from France, maybe I should go change everything to "Georges Bush" and "Guillaume Clinton" etc ? ... DW

— This a strange comment, because (like English-speakers), French-speakers do this quite a lot, especially with historical names – so we have Raphaël, Tite-Live (the Roman historian), Pétrarque, Guillaume d'Orange, etc. I’m tempted to say everyone does it, and why not? The Italians call the guy Cristoforo Colombo but the French say Christophe Colomb, the Spanish Cristóbal Colón, and so forth. The king is certainly known as Francis I in English, just as the queen of Scotland is called Marie Stuart in French. No need to labour the point. Campolongo (talk) 07:43, 28 May 2008 (UTC) Campolongo

-Well, feel free to anglicise Joan Charles I, we spaniards still translate ALL the names of the monarchs. Yes, we call Her Majesty Isabel II and Príncipe Carlos de Inglaterra and even their sons Príncipe Guillermo. --84.126.10.233 (talk) 08:47, 25 September 2009 (UTC)

PS: Names of Prime Ministers and Presidents are not translated, at least not since the XVII century. Only royals and popes have that treatment.

 * In English, there is a tendency to translate the names of foreign monarchs . . . except for recent/current ones. We keep their native names. If Juan Carlos had reigned a century ago, we'd call him John Charles.  Why the double-standard, I don't know. Funnyhat (talk) 22:41, 17 June 2012 (UTC)

I don't know how to start a new section for discussion but this bothers me: three times in this article, it mentions that one of his nicknames was the 'Grand Colas," but this is nowhere translated.  His other nicknames (Francis of the Long Nose, etc.) are all translated.  What is "Grand Colas" and can we please put it in the article?  As a non-speaker of French I keep thinking of big soft drinks.  Pfft. 73.53.72.243 (talk) 21:49, 3 November 2019 (UTC)

Failed imperial candidacy
Does anyone know anything more about Francis' bid to become Holy Roman Emperor? I've heard this mentioned elsewhere (in passing, as in this article). It seems an intriguingly odd ambition on his part, as the rulers of Germany would have had several centuries worth of tradition in holding the title. Was there any chance that the electors might have chosen him? Was the fact that his rival Charles V was a "Spaniard" (not really, of course, but he did live in Spain by this time, I believe) a factor? --Jfruh 7 July 2005 15:24 (UTC)

Why exactly has no one, to this point, mentioned the Concordat of Bologna? It's arguably one of Francis I's greatest achievements...control over the Church is nothing to be sneezed at.

- A treatise on Fencing (By G. Hale Gent, 1614) mentions thet Frances I challenged Emperor Charles to a duel.

http://www.thehaca.com/Manuals/FullPSoDtext.htm

"The Second is, Publique good abroad, for avoyding bloud, if the State of a War should require a single Tryall, which howsoever was presumption in Goliath, was true valor in David: the imitation of this example, hath beene frequent in great Persons in forraigne, and memorable in our owne Country: as betweene Edmund, surnamed Ironside, and King Canute, to a happy issue. Neyther can I forget an offer in the same kinde made in more late yeeres, betweene Frances the first, King of France, and Charles the fift, Emperour, though without effect."

-

Sons
I was told that he left his sons as token hostages in Medinaceli when he was freed from Spain. However, since he refused to comply with his ransom, what happened to the sons?

I believe they were kept in captivity until the Treaty of Cambrai in 1529. john k 00:13, 28 July 2006 (UTC)

Francis ?
"Francis" is also a french name, like "françois". But "francis" really don't suit to a king (it sounds pejorative imo). Why don't keep his french name ? 213.103.243.191 21:08, 4 December 2006 (UTC)

 * Yes, if François is to be misnamed 'Francis' here, then Louis should be called 'Lewis'. No-one actually refers to the French kings as 'Francis' or 'Henry' or 'Lewis'. Maybe two or three hundred years ago, but today, no.88.167.22.75 (talk) 09:07, 22 June 2013 (UTC)

King of Navarre?
Francis I of France was never king of Navarre. He supported the claims of the House of Albret to the kingdom of Navarre that had been incorporated to the spanish monarchy. Thus, is necessary to remove the coat of arms of Navarre.--158.227.33.102 (talk) 16:02, 31 March 2008 (UTC)

Mistresses.
Why aren't the names of his mistresses listed in the article? Seems to be a gross oversight to me.Francoise de foix and Anne d'Heilly are worthy of a mention-in fact, the latter is worthy of her own article.She was very important at the French 13:39, 17 April 2008 (UTC)jeanne (talk)court.

Probably because nobody has attempted to improve the article in some time. You might do so yourself, if you ar interested in Francis and his court. But take note that both Françoise de Foix and Anne de Pisseleu d'Heilly already have their own articles. Dimadick (talk) 13:46, 20 April 2008 (UTC)

Duke of Brittany as Francis III?
Was he really Duke of Brittany as Francis III? I do believe that Francis was de jure uxoris Duke of Brittany by his marriage to Claude, Duchess of Brittany, but wasn't their son Duke of Brittany as Francis III? Surtsicna (talk) 07:58, 26 August 2008 (UTC)
 * Surtsicna: You are correct.  It is François de France (1518-1536), the Dauphin to the throne of France as eldest son of king François Ier & Claude de Bretagne, who was Francis III, Duke of Brittany, (François III, duc de Bretagne, in French), not his papa.  Frania W. (talk) 16:26, 26 August 2008 (UTC)

Francis I and Emperor Charles V and the Italian Wars
Someone had it that Francis I and Charles V had inherited their family feud of "Burgundy and Narvare". NO, not so. I corrected it to read "Burgundy and Orleans". Francis was the great grandson of Louis of Orleans and Charles was the great grandson of John of Burgundy. Burgundy and Orleans were engaged in a power struggle during the mad king Charles VI's reign. John had Louis murdered thus starting the family feud and many years of civil war. Then the dauphin Charles had John of Burgundy murdered. The family feud is now Burgundy against Orleans and the Crown. Actually both Louis and John were grandsons of the French king John the Good. When the English king Edward III tried to have Margaret, Countess of Flanders, marry one of his sons, the French king Charles the Wise snatched Margaret for his brother Philip of Burgundy. The French thought it was a victory over England. But, with control over Burgundy and Flanders (and various smaller territories), the House of Burgundy rose to become a power that challenged France. So, Charles the Wise unwittingly created the monster. Since Louis of Orleans married Valentine Viscounti, the daughter of Galeazzo, Duke of Milan, the House of Orleans was the legitimate heir to the territory of Milan when Filipo died without an heir. That's why the French kings, especially the Orleans branch, pursued the Italian Wars relentlessly trying to recapture this lost inheritence. --VimalaNowlis (talk) 09:56, 25 June 2010 (UTC) It's spelled Navarre. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Fale Aesgard (talk • contribs) 17:35, 16 June 2012 (UTC)

Hi, I am afraid you might be getting a bit carried away here. It is true that the Valois family had a dynastic claim to Milan and Naples. But it is rather far-fetched to say that Charles V was fighting Francis in his Burgundian capacity. As King of Spain and Emperor, Charles had plenty of beef with Francis. I do not recall ever reading about the Orleans-Burgundy feud as perpetuated in the Italian Wars. If you can prove me wrong by producing a reference, so much the better - I'll have learned something new. Till then, I remove this sentence. Cheers, Bazuz (talk) 17:39, 16 June 2012 (UTC)

Comment
Does anyone think it a little strange that two of his children were engaged to the same man, one from birth and after she died, the other took over and then died as well, and then he married someone else? I was just interested if this was common practice during those times.
 * It's just marriage diplomacy, plain and simple. The betrothals are made to seal alliance and when Spain and France goes to war its broken and if a daughter dies young, another candidate is chosen to replace her. --The Emperor's New Spy (talk) 03:33, 22 April 2013 (UTC)

New Angoulême
The sentence mentioning Verrazzano's reconnaissance of the present site of New York City has been reworded; he named this location New Angoulême, but I am not aware of any evidence that he actually "founded" a settlement there.

Man of letters - question mark
Francois I came on my radar from reading Benedict Anderson's Imagined Communities. In chapter three he refers to "The Coming of the Book" by Lucien Febvre and Henri-Jean Martin. Page 310-315 describe the (ultimately unenforceable) ban on all books by Francois I in 1535 in response to the overwhelming protestant or otherwise heretical thought being printed vs latin-language printing. This undermines the larged unsourced section in this article claiming Francois was enthusiastic about books... consideration for editing this section. Louise000 (talk) 04:31, 18 April 2020 (UTC)

 * Did you read all of page 310?? --Kansas Bear (talk) 05:08, 18 April 2020 (UTC)
 * Death by hanging, censorship and limitation on sales, what am I missing. Louise000 (talk) 11:12, 18 April 2020 (UTC)
 * That edict by Francis I, follows the Affair of the Placards(17-18 October, 1534), hence the death by hanging, censorship, limitation on sale, etc. What gives it away is the "Extirpation of heresy" part of the sentence. A later sentence, "Bude and Jean Du Bellay objected to the decree and it was finally revoked." Also, explains that Francis realized the limitations of that edict.
 * I think you can portray Francis as reacting to, as he saw it, heresy. That he issued an edict that was impossible to enforce and then later revoked it.
 * It is mentioned in passing in the article, "Printing was censored and leading Protestant reformers such as John Calvin were forced into exile.". I think you can add some information into the article(paraphrased and sourced).
 * I do not believe what we find on 310(et.al.) negates that Francis was a bibliophile. You might search through other books and see if they support what that "largely unsourced section" states. --Kansas Bear (talk) 17:07, 18 April 2020 (UTC)

Discussion
By "Incessant wars of his predecessors", you mean that the end of one war was the beginning of another against the same ennemy? Boutarfa1 (talk) 15:33, 6 September 2023 (UTC)

Grammatical problems
This sentence does not make grammatical sense:
 * Zuppa alla Pavese and supposed story of providing meals to the captured king right after the battle was made. 76.190.213.189 (talk) 19:39, 4 February 2024 (UTC)

 * Thank you for highlighting. I observe the sentence made sense until an edit in December, therefore I will restore the sentence to how it was prior to that. sovietblobfish (talk) 06:48, 5 February 2024 (UTC)

Captions
Recently I’ve been going back and forth a bit with an editor who’s been changing the standard captions for a few French monarchs, such as Charles VII, Louis XII, Francis I, Henry II, Francis II, Charles IX, Louis XVI, Louis XVIII, and Charles X. The standard caption is for example normally “Portrait by (artists name), c. 1500” or something similar to that. The captions this editor wants (because they say they’re following Wikipedia policy) is captions such as Portrait c. 1514 and 1559 portrait. Nearly every royal article uses the caption I’ve insisted remains. I and another editor (User:Randy Kryn) tried talking with them in their talk page and they still refuse to at least make a post in the talk pages of the articles to see if other editors agree with them. Two editors have openly disagreed with them about this issue but conversations have gone nowhere. I think it’s important that artists are credited in the caption because it’s important to the topic, the topic of the captions should be the artist who created it and the year it was created. I wanted to gain consensus to stop this editor from removing credits for the artist and keep the long standing captions that includes the artists, as the editor who’s making the change has refused to gain consensus to remove the artists. Kind regards,  Robertus Pius  (Talk • Contribs) 17:06, 8 March 2024 (UTC)

 * This isn't a key fact about the article subject. Nikkimaria (talk) 01:22, 9 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Crediting artist's works in captions is the guideline of the visual arts WikiProject (which was given the task of providing the language). Randy Kryn (talk) 01:40, 9 March 2024 (UTC)

 * The credit is appropriately included on the image description page. Nikkimaria (talk) 01:44, 9 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Did you read my comment above (we've had this talk before, at the Abigail Adams talk page), the guiding language asks for artists to be credited in artwork captions. If you want to employ the policy WP:IAR then please discuss how your point-of-view is essential to improve or maintain Wikipedia, thanks. Randy Kryn (talk) 02:34, 9 March 2024 (UTC)
 * I did indeed. Manual_of_Style/Captions indicates that image description page is an appropriate place for details to be hosted, and MOS:CREDITS indicates that this information should not be included in the context of the infobox caption; no IAR is required. Nikkimaria (talk) 03:16, 9 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Removing the artist credit does nothing to improve the article, quite the opposite actually. If nobody responds to this in the next few days supporting your change then I’ll go ahead and revert your removals of the artists from the French monarchs I’ve listed above.  Robertus Pius  (Talk • Contribs) 07:43, 9 March 2024 (UTC)
 * No need to wait a few days, see guideline comment below. Randy Kryn (talk) 10:18, 9 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Please read it again, this is applicable to all images in Wikipedia articles: Manual of Style/Captions, quote, "For works of art (see WikiProject Visual arts Art Manual of Style for fuller details) at "Who is the artist?" Randy Kryn (talk) 10:18, 9 March 2024 (UTC)
 * From the page you have linked
 * "An infobox image and, in the absence of an infobox, a photograph or other image in the article's lead section, serves to illustrate the topic of the article, as such, the caption should work singularly towards that purpose."
 * "Unless relevant to the subject, do not credit the image author or copyright holder in the article. It is assumed that this is not necessary to fulfill attribution requirements of the GFDL or Creative Commons licenses as long as the appropriate credit is on the image description page. If the artist or photographer is independently notable, then a wikilink to the artist's biography may be appropriate, but image credits in the infobox image are discouraged, even if the artist is notable, since the infobox should contain only key facts of the article's subject, per MOS:INFOBOX."
 * This seems fairly open and shut in favour of Nikkimaria's position, even if personally I think caption credits are nice and maybe the MoS should be reworked on this one. sovietblobfish (talk) 10:44, 9 March 2024 (UTC)
 * It's open and shut, but not in the way you describe (and the quotes you use are not consecutive, they are separated and refer to different topics). Maybe read it again and follow the link to the relevant wording at the visual arts guidelines. This is not about photographs or a general copyrighted image, it is about artworks, and the guideline says that the artist's name should be credited. Read the talk:Abigail Adams discussion as well. has a good handle on this situation. Randy Kryn (talk) 11:03, 9 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Just a reminder, this discussion is about the removal of Jean Clouet, the artist, from the infobox caption about the portrait of Francis I that he created. The visual arts guideline says that the name must be included. Randy Kryn (talk) 11:16, 9 March 2024 (UTC)
 * It seems to me WP:Visual Arts Manual of Style and MOS:Credits are in tension here and this is a broader problem that needs to be resolved on one of those two pages rather than something that should be fought in individual articles talk pages.
 * I disagree with you however that the passages I provided don't cover 'artworks', a) photographs are artworks, and b) the quote says "artist or photographer is independently notable"
 * Finally I confess I am confused how WP:ASTONISH which appears in the Abigail Adams talk page is meant to apply to this situation. The failure to include a painters name in the article body is not turning the painter into an easter egg because the painter is entirely incidental to this article. I am not going to be 'shocked surprised or confused' because the author of a painting is not immediately displayed to me on an article about a French king.
 * Anyway, I have nothing further to contribute to this discussion. Best wishes all. sovietblobfish (talk) 11:28, 9 March 2024 (UTC)

 * It seems to me WP:Visual Arts Manual of Style and MOS:Credits are in tension here Here, no - MOS:VA is quite clear that its scope is "writing about the visual arts", making this article out of scope. The tension is rather between a particular interpretation of Manual of Style/Captions on the one hand and MOS:VA, MOS:CREDITS, MOS:CAPLENGTH, and more on the other. I have not seen that tension reconciled.

 * Otherwise I would agree with your comments, particularly that if people want to change the wording of these guidelines that discussion doesn't belong here. Nikkimaria (talk) 14:29, 10 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Nevertheless, it seems there is a majority consensus to restore the captions that include the artists. They’re three editors who think the artists should remain and two who don’t. I’ll go ahead and restore the the old captions later today. Regards,  Robertus Pius  (Talk • Contribs) 22:01, 12 March 2024 (UTC)

 * Hi Robertus Pius, consensus is not a vote - what you're proposing would not be an appropriate action to take based on this discussion. Nikkimaria (talk) 22:07, 12 March 2024 (UTC)
 * I assume the only action acceptable to you would be to allow your captions to stay even though they’re more editors who disagree with your captions then agree with them. And in a way consensus is a vote, though, normally they’re more compromises. If a minority amount of editors want to change something but the majority don’t, the change will not happen. Regards,  Robertus Pius  (Talk • Contribs) 23:34, 12 March 2024 (UTC)
 * I can’t think of a compromise as it’s pretty cut and dry. I think the artists should be linked, you do not. Can you think of a compromise that might leave us both feeling satisfied with the outcome?  Robertus Pius  (Talk • Contribs) 23:39, 12 March 2024 (UTC)

 * No, consensus is not a vote, which is why selective notification remains problematic in determining majority vs minority opinion - and even if it was a vote, you can't apply the results from one article talk page across others.

 * One potential solution for this particular article would be to add a paragraph in the article body discussing artistic portrayals of the subject, which could include a more extensive discussion of the artist. Nikkimaria (talk) 23:47, 12 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Perhaps. But it seems unnecessary as a
 * simple link in the caption could solve this issue.  Robertus Pius  (Talk • Contribs) 23:58, 12 March 2024 (UTC)

 * MOS:CREDITS is out of sync with the community, and should be altered. One wonders how and when that wording came in, and whether there was discussion. I think it is fine for most photographs, & I don't think eg "unknown artist" needs saying, but leading painters of the day should be named. Johnbod (talk) 13:41, 9 March 2024 (UTC)

Date of Marriage
Hi @Mandsford, saw your recent edit of the date of marriage. I suspect the reason it did not accord with the source attached to the line is less to do with carelessness from whoever wrote it and more to do with a confusion among the sources. I observe the line is sourced to a book from 1860. In the far more recent work by Jean Jacquart (1994) p. 221 we find the following.

"Le 6 juillet à l'abbaye de Saint-Laurent-de-Beyrie occupée par des clarisses, le roi peut embrasser ses enfants et sa fiancée, qu'il n'avait fait qu'entrevoir en Espagne, quatre ans plus tôt. Il fait célébrer la messe de mariage le lendemain matin vers six heures, sans attendre l'arrivée du grand aumônier, et les époux se retirent dans leur chambre." sovietblobfish (talk) 06:06, 1 July 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:Francis I of France


text:
Porvoo

Porvoo (Borgå ; Borgoa) is a city in Finland. It is located on the south coast of the country, on the Gulf of Finland. Porvoo lies in the eastern part of the Uusimaa region. The population of Porvoo is approximately 0, while the sub-region has a population of approximately 0. It is the most populous municipality in Finland, and the 15th most populous urban area in the country.

Porvoo is located on the southern coast of Finland, approximately 35 km east of the city border of Helsinki and about 50 km from the city centre. Porvoo was one of the six medieval towns of Finland, along with Turku, Ulvila, Rauma, Naantali and Vyborg, and is first mentioned as a city in texts from the 14th century. Porvoo is the seat of the Swedish-speaking Diocese of Borgå of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland. Porvoo briefly served as the capital of the former Eastern Uusimaa region.

Porvoo Old Town (Porvoon vanhakaupunki; Borgås gamla stan) is a popular tourist destination, known for its well-preserved 18th- and 19th-century buildings, and the 15th-century Porvoo Cathedral. The Old Town and the Porvoonjoki River Valley are recognized as, together, one of the National landscapes of Finland.

Porvoo is a bilingual municipality with Finnish and Swedish as its official languages. The population consists of NaN Finnish speakers, NaN Swedish speakers, and NaN speakers of other languages.

The municipalities neighbouring Porvoo are Askola, Loviisa, Myrskylä, Pornainen, and Sipoo; and the sub-region maintained by Porvoo includes Askola, Myrskylä and Pukkila.

Etymology
The town received its name from a Swedish medieval fortress near the river Porvoonjoki, which flows through the town. The name Porvoo is the Fennicised version of the Swedish name Borgå, which is derived from borg, meaning "castle" and å, "river".

Heraldry
The coat of arms of Porvoo, based on the medieval seal of the city, is "Azure [blue], a tulip-shaped letter C argent [silver]." The main object in the arms has been interpreted as either a fire iron or the letter C, referring to the Latin word for "castle" (castrum). A version of the arms redrawn by Gustaf von Numers was approved for official use by the Porvoo City Council on March 23, 1960, and the Ministry of the Interior confirmed the use of the coat of arms on June 1 the same year.

History
The area of Porvoo has been inhabited since the Stone Age. In prehistoric times, the river Porvoonjoki was a route of commerce for Finnish tribal Tavastians who primarily inhabited the inland regions. The Tavastians also had some permanent settlements in the area, such as the village of Hattula (later Strömsberg), which was named after an inland Tavastian village. The original name of the river Porvoonjoki was possibly Kukinjoki. The name derives from the name of the trade vessel cog which was a common merchant ship in the Baltic Sea in medieval times. The early center of the area was Saksala, meaning "the place of the Germans", and deriving from the merchants who were trading in Saksala.

Porvoo was colonised by Swedes in the 13th and 14th centuries after the so-called Second Crusade against Tavastians in 1249–1250. The colonisation was led by the Catholic Church and the kingdom of Sweden. The colonists originated from Svealand, and were provided with seeds, cattle and, tax exemption for four years.

The oldest known written mentions of Porvoo are from the early 14th century. In circa 1380, Porvoo became the third town in Finland to be granted official town rights, after Turku in 1229 and Ulvila in 1365. However, it is also claimed to have been founded as early as 1347, which would make it the second oldest after Turku. Due to land rise and loss of shipping access, Ulvila lost town rights to nearby Pori in 1558.

When Sweden lost the city of Vyborg to Russia in 1721, the episcopal see was moved to Porvoo in 1723. At this time, Porvoo was the second largest city in Finland.

In 1760, roughly two-thirds of all buildings in Porvoo burned to the ground in a conflagration. During rebuilding, the city planning wasn't altered, instead new buildings were built upon the existing medieval foundations.

After the conquest of Finland by Russian armies in 1808, Sweden had to cede Finland to Russia in 1809 (the Treaty of Fredrikshamn). The Diet of Porvoo in 1809 was a landmark in the History of Finland as tsar Alexander I made Finland an autonomous Grand Duchy. In 1923, six years after Finland's independence, the former Diocese of Vyborg, which operated in Porvoo, was replaced by a current Swedish-speaking diocese of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, the Diocese of Porvoo.

The Porvoo Common Statement is a report issued at the conclusion of theological conversations by official representatives of four Anglican churches and eight Nordic and Baltic Lutheran churches in 1989–1992. It established the Porvoo Communion, so named after the Porvoo Cathedral where the Eucharist was celebrated on the final Sunday of the conversations leading to the Statement.

The old city of Porvoo was formally disestablished and the new city of Porvoo founded in 1997, when the city of Porvoo and the rural municipality of Porvoo were consolidated.

Old Town
The town is famed for its "Old Town" (Vanhakaupunki in Finnish, Gamla Stan in Swedish), a dense medieval street pattern with predominantly wooden houses from the 17th and 18th centuries. The Old Town came close to being demolished in the 19th century by a new urban plan for the city, but the plan was canceled due to a popular resistance headed by Count Louis Sparre. With the need for growth, a plan was envisioned for a new town built adjacent to the Old Town, following a grid plan, but with houses also built of wood. Jokikatu (located eastside of the Porvoonjoki River) is one of Porvoo's pedestrian streets, and like the other similar streets of the Old Town, it also includes a variety of restaurants, coffeehouses, antique shops and other stores.

The central point of the old town is the medieval, stone and brick Porvoo Cathedral. The cathedral gave its name to the Porvoo Communion, an inter-church agreement between a number of Anglican and Lutheran denominations. The cathedral is reminiscent of similarly aged churches across Finland, such as the Church of St. Lawrence, Vantaa, as they were designed by the same person, the anonymous German architect Pernajan mestari. The Diocese of Borgå that unites the Swedish speaking lutheran congregations, resides here. The cathedral has burned down 5 times. The latest fire happened on 29 May 2006; the roof was totally destroyed but the interior is largely intact. A drunken youth had started a fire at the church, unaware of recent tar work and nearby tar containers, accidentally causing a large conflagration. He was later sentenced to a short prison term and restitutions of 4.3 million euro.

The Old Town is a significant source of tourism in the area. Visitors to the capital Helsinki can embark on day trips to visit the older city. The Old Town also hosts various events, such as an annual Christmas market.

Later developments
By the end of the 20th century, there was pressure to develop the essentially untouched western side of the river. There was concern that growth would necessitate the construction of a second bridge across the river into the town, thus putting further strain on the aging wooden town. An architectural competition was held in 1990, the winning entry of which proposed building the second bridge. Plans for the western side of the river have progressed under the direction of architect Tuomas Siitonen, and both a vehicle bridge and a pedestrian bridge have been built. The design for new housing is based on a typology derived from the old storehouses on the opposite side of the river. Yet another new development entails the construction of a large business park called King's Gate (Kuninkaanportti, Kungsporten), which is under construction.

The Porvoo railway station does not have a regular train service, but special museum trains from Kerava (either with steam locomotives or former VR diesel railcars from the 1950s) operate on summer weekends.

The new hotel called Runo Hotel was opened in the old town of Porvoo on May 31, 2021.

Districts
Hornhattula, Joonaanmäki (Jonasbacken), Jernböle, Kaupunginhaka (Stadshagen), Keskusta (Centrum), Etelä-Kevätkumpu (Södra Vårberga), Pohjois-Kevätkumpu (Norra Vårberga), Myllymäki (Kvarnbacken), Näsi (Näse), Pappilanmäki (Prästgårdsbacken), Skaftkärr, Suistola, Vanha Porvoo (Gamla Borgå).

Suburbs
Hamari (Hammars), Aunela (Ånäs), Eestinmäki (Estbacka), Gammelbacka, Huhtinen (Huktis), Katajamäki (Ensbacka), Kevätkumpu (Vårberga), Kokonniemi (Uddas), Kuninkaanportti (Kungsporten), Pappilanpelto, Peippola (Pepot), Tarkkinen (Tarkis), Tarmola (Östermalm).

Suomenkylä
Suomenkylä (Finnby) is a village north of the centre of Porvoo and beside the Porvoo river. Suomenkylä has an old school founded by Johannes Linnankoski in 1898. The village of Suomenkylä also has two burial places from the Bronze Age.

Kerkkoo
Kerkkoo (Kerko) is a village north of the centre of Porvoo and beside the Porvoo river. It has an active school that is over 100 years old. In the village of Kerkkoo, archeologists and townspeople found a stone axe from the Bronze Age.

Other
Ali-Vekkoski (Söderveckoski), Anttila (Andersböle), Baggböle, Bengtsby (Pentinkylä), Bjurböle, Boe (Häihä), Bosgård, Brattnäs, Eerola (Eriksdal), Eestinmäki (Estbacka), Emäsalo (Emsalö), Epoo (Ebbo), Fagersta, Gammelbacka, Grännäs, Gäddrag, Haikkoo (Haiko), Henttala, Hinthaara (Hindhår), Hommanäs, Huhtinen, Hummelsund, Ilola (Illby), Jakari (Jackarby), Järnböle, Kaarenkylä (Karsby), Kalax (Kaalahti), Kallola, Kardrag, Karleby (Kaarlenkylä), Kiiala (Kiala), Kilpilahti (Sköldvik), Klemetti (Klemetsby), Kortisbacka, Kreppelby, Kroksnäs, Kråkö, Kulloo (Kullo), Kurböle, Kuris, Londböle, Mickelsböle, Munkkala (Munkby), Mustijoki (Svartså), Myllykylä (Molnby), Norike, Nygård, Onas, Orrby (Orrenkylä), Pappilanmäki (Prästgårdsbacken), Peippola (Pepot), Pellinki (Pellinge), Piirlahti (Pirlax), Ramsholmen, Renum, Saksala (Saxby), Sannainen (Sannäs), Seitlahti (Seitlax), Sikilä (Siggböle), Skavarböle, Sondby, Stensböle, Sundö (Suni)), Svartbäck, Tamminiemi (Eknäs), Tarkkinen (Tarkis), Teissala (Teisala), Tolkkinen (Tolkis), Tirmo (Tirmoo), Treksilä (Drägsby), Tuorila (Torasbacka), Tyysteri (Tjusterby), Vaarlahti (Varlax), Vanhamoisio (Gammelgård), Veckjärvi (Vekjärvi), Virtaala (Strömsberg), Virvik, Voolahti (Vålax), Västermunkby, Ylike, Yli-Vekkoski (Norrveckoski), Åby, Åminsby.

Population
The city of Porvoo has 0 inhabitants, making it the most populous municipality in Finland. The Porvoo region has a population of 0. In Porvoo, 8.8% of the population has a foreign background, which is slightly below the national average.

Languages
The city of Porvoo is officially bilingual, with both Finnish and Swedish as official languages. The majority of the population - 0 people or NaN% - speak Finnish as their first language. There are 0 Swedish speakers in Porvoo, or NaN% of the population. NaN of the population of Porvoo have a mother tongue other than Finnish or Swedish. As English and Swedish - or Finnish for Swedish speakers - are compulsory school subjects, functional bilingualism or trilingualism acquired through language studies is not uncommon.

At least 50 different languages are spoken in Porvoo. The most common foreign languages are Russian (1.3%), Estonian (1.2%), Arabic (0.8%) and Albanian (0.7%).

Immigration
, there were 4,492 persons with a migrant background living in Porvoo, or 8.8% of the population. The number of residents who were born abroad was 4,385, or 8.5% of the population. The number of persons with foreign citizenship living in Porvoo was 2,903. Most foreign-born citizens came from the Estonia, former Soviet Union, Sweden and Vietnam.

The relative share of immigrants in Porvoo's population is slightly below the national average. Moreover, the city's new residents are increasingly of foreign origin. This will increase the proportion of foreign residents in the coming years.

Religion
In 2023, the Evangelical Lutheran Church was the largest religious group with 64.8% of the population of Porvoo. Other religious groups accounted for 2.2% of the population. 33.0% of the population had no religious affiliation.

Economy
In 2011, there were 20,312 jobs in Porvoo, distributed as follows: primary production 1.6 per cent, processing 32.5 per cent and services 64.7 per cent. In December 2012, the unemployment rate in Porvoo was 8.4 per cent, compared to an average of 10.7 per cent in the rest of the country. At that time, there were 3,389 business locations in the city. According to Statistics Finland, more companies were established in Porvoo in 2009–2013 than closed down, and the number of companies has increased by about 140 each year. According to the Eastern Uusimaa Viability Survey, in 2013 there were a few large companies and a few medium-sized companies in the Porvoo region, but the majority (86 per cent) were companies with less than five employees.

In 2014, the largest employers in Porvoo were Neste (2,000 jobs in Porvoo), Borealis Polymers (962), Ensto (430), Viessman Refrigeration Systems (414), Varuboden-Osla (300) and Bilfinger Industrial Services Finland (299).

The Satakuntaliitto's Satamittari measures the competitiveness of Finnish regions annually. In 2012, the Porvoo region ranked number one. In 2013, there were 70 sub-regions involved, which were assessed using six factors: labor productivity, employment rate, innovation, level of education, business dynamics and industrial dominance. The Porvoo region ranked fourth after Vaasa, Helsinki and Tampere. The region's labor productivity and industrial intensity were the highest in Finland, but the employment rate and level of education were also at the highest level.

Sports
The local team Borgå Akilles plays the sport of bandy, in the highest division, Bandyliiga, and has become Finnish champions twice.

Sami Hyypiä, a former football player for Liverpool and the Finnish national team, originated from Porvoo.

Lauri Happonen, better known as Cyanide, a retired League of Legends professional player, is from Porvoo.

Food
A well-known Porvoo delicacy, a Runeberg torte, was developed by a local pastry master, and it is said that J. L. Runeberg ate them for breakfast. Fredrika Runeberg, the wife of the national poet also made tortes for her husband using the substances that happened to be found in the cupboards: wheat and breadcrumbs, biscuit crumbs, almonds, apple jam and sugar.

In addition to Runeberg torte, the second parish dish in Porvoo was grilled herring with onion rings and dill in the 1980s. Pellinki's fish soup and nettle soup were chosen as the main dishes of the Porvoo countryside.

Porvoo is also known for its local confectionery and ice cream factories, the most notable being the Brunberg Chocolate Factory and the Old Porvoo Ice Cream Factory (Vanhan Porvoon Jäätelötehdas).

Literature
J. L. Runeberg, today known as the "national poet of Finland", lived in Porvoo from 1837 until his death. His home has served as a museum since 1882.

Borgå Gymnasium in Porvoo is home to Finland's oldest public library from 1728. The oldest works in the library, which consists of rare works, are from the 15th century, and the collection includes, among other things, Mikael Agricola's original Se Wsi Testamenti from 1548. Today it functions as a museum library and is not open to the public.

Transport
Porvoo is on the route of the E18 road from Helsinki to Saint Petersburg, and the Porvoo Highway (part of the Finnish national road 7) along that route is one of the most important transport connections to Helsinki. Other important road connections are the Finnish Regional road 170 going via Sipoo to Helsinki, which continues from the East Helsinki area to the capital under the name Itäväylä, and the main road 55 leading northwest, via Monninkylä of Askola, to the Mäntsälä municipality.

It is currently the largest Finnish municipality without scheduled railway services, since passenger rail services to Porvoo ended in 1981 and freight services in 1990, however proposals exist to link Porvoo to the rail network as part of a new rail line from Helsinki to Kouvola via a tunnel between Pasila and Helsinki Airport, the Itärata. There is no airport at all in Porvoo, but another airport in the Helsinki metropolitan area is planned for the Backas area, which would serve the traffic of cargo and small airlines.

Finland's biggest port by total cargo tonnage is the Port of Kilpilahti (Sköldvik) located on the outskirts of Porvoo. In Porvoo River, on the eastern bank of the river right in the city center, there is a guest marina. In the village of Hamari, there is also an opportunity for visiting boats to anchor in the breakwater. Also, the ferry connection favored by tourism runs between Helsinki and Porvoo on the MS J. L. Runeberg ferry.

Politics
Results of the 2015 Finnish parliamentary election in Porvoo:

 * Swedish People's Party: 27.3%
 * Social Democratic Party: 16%
 * National Coalition Party: 15.4%
 * True Finns: 14.6%
 * Centre Party: 10.9%
 * Green League: 7.9%
 * Left Alliance: 4.2%
 * Christian Democrats: 1.8%

Distribution of the city council seats following the 2012 Finnish municipal elections:

 * Swedish People's Party: 16
 * Social Democratic Party: 12
 * National Coalition Party: 9
 * True Finns: 6
 * Green League: 4
 * Centre Party: 2
 * Left Alliance: 1
 * Christian Democrats: 1

Notable people

 * Remu Aaltonen (born 1948), a Finnish drummer and singer.
 * Carl Johan Adlercreutz (1757–1815), a Swedish (Finnish) general and statesman
 * Johan Bäckman (born 1971), a Finnish political activist and legal sociologist
 * Hjalmar Dahl (1891–1960), a Finnish-Swedish journalist, translator and author.
 * Albert Edelfelt (1854–1905), a Finland-Swedish painter with a his naturalistic, Realist approach.
 * Siri von Essen (1850–1912) a Swedish-speaking Finnish noblewoman and actress.
 * Alva Forsius (1866–1935), social worker and midwife; established the town's first maternity home
 * Tua Forsström (born 1947) a Finland-Swedish writer who writes in Swedish.
 * Lauri Happonen (born 1993), stage name Cyanide, former League of Legends world champion.
 * Klaus Härö (born 1971) a Finnish film director.
 * Saara Hopea (1925–1984) a Finnish designer of glassware and jewellery.
 * Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich of Russia (1917–1992), head of the Romanov Dynasty
 * Gun Lanciai (1920–2013), a Swedish-Finnish sculptor.
 * Olof Palme (1884–1918), a Finnish-born Swedish historian and uncle of Olof Palme, PM of Sweden
 * Hanna Poulsen (born 1984), Miss Finland 2005
 * Johan Ludvig Runeberg (1804–1877), a Finnish priest, lyric and epic, national poet.
 * Walter Runeberg (1838–1920) a Finnish neo-classical sculptor, son of poet Johan Ludvig Runeberg
 * Solveig von Schoultz (1907–1996), a Swedish-speaking Finnish writer and teacher.
 * Olli Soinio (1948–2018), film director and screenwriter
 * Georg Magnus Sprengtporten (1740–1819), a Finland-Swedish politician.
 * Jacob Magnus Sprengtporten (1727–1786) a Swedish-Finnish army officer and politician, and half-brother of Georg Magnus Sprengtporten.
 * Torsten Stålhandske (1593–1644), Swedish officer in the Swedish army during the Thirty Years' War.
 * Beda Stjernschantz (1867—1910), one of the first Finnish symbolist painters
 * Seppo Telenius (born 1954), writer and historian
 * Onni Tommila (born 1999), actor
 * Oppi Untracht (1922–2008), an American master metalsmith, educator, and writer
 * Ville Vallgren (1855–1940), a Finnish sculptor.
 * Osmo Antero Wiio (1928–2013), professor, politician, author of Wiio's laws of communication
 * Arvid Wittenberg (1606–1657), Swedish count, field marshal and privy councillor.
 * Margaretha Zetterberg (1733–1803), a Finnish textile and handcrafts worker.

Sport

 * Carl Aejemelaeus (1882–1935), a Finnish colonel, modern pentathlete and fencer.
 * Torvald Appelroth (1902–1984), fencer, competed at the 1928 Summer Olympics
 * Kjell Carlström (born 1976), a Finnish former road racing cyclist,
 * Sami Hyypiä (born 1973), former footballer with 589 club caps and captain of Finland with 103 caps
 * Sami Laakkonen (born 1974), bandy player; scored when Finland first won the World Championship.
 * Simo Lampinen (born 1943) a Finnish former rally driver, a former Flying Finn
 * Lauri Lehtinen (1908–1973) a Finnish long-distance runner, gold medallist at the controversial 5000 m race at the 1932 Summer Olympics
 * Adolf Lindfors (1879–1959), Finnish wrestler, gold medallist at the 1920 Summer Olympics
 * Arthur Lindfors (1893–1977) a Finnish wrestler, twice silver medallist in the Greco-Roman wrestling at the 1920 & 1924 Summer Olympics

In media
In the 1967 British-American espionage film Billion Dollar Brain, a small part of the plot takes place in Riga, the capital of Latvia, which is actually filmed in Porvoo. Also the 1997 American film The Jackal features scenes depicting Russia, which are partly shot in Porvoo.

In the 2021 Disney+ series Loki, Porvoo is listed as a location to which a time reset device was sent.

Twin towns – sister cities
Porvoo is twinned with the following cities:

 * 🇮🇸 Dalvíkurbyggð, Iceland
 * 🇩🇪 Dinkelsbühl, Germany
 * 🇳🇴 Hamar, Norway
 * 🇺🇸 Hancock, Michigan, United States
 * 🇵🇱 Kamień Pomorski, Poland
 * 🇸🇪 Lund, Sweden
 * Viborg, Denmark
 * 🇪🇪 Viimsi, Estonia
 * 🇪🇪 Viljandi, Estonia

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Porvoo


text:
User:James~enwiki

Hi! I'm James. Glad to meet you.

No, no. You sit. I'll pour.

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I said it just adds flavor.

Just drink it. It'll get cold. You don't want cold tea, do you?

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Fine, you win. I'll put some in my cup.

That was so the same bottle.

It was always blue. What you think I'm trying to do to you?

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title: User:James~enwiki


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Hello? ♦ Sir Blofeld ♦      "Talk"? 18:51, 14 September 2007 (UTC)

Huh?
The guy who owns this page is a freckin wierd-O

Look at my page and tell me what you think in the discussion

It's at User:Alex&Kyle —Preceding unsigned comment added by Alex&kyle (talk • contribs) 17:24, 18 April 2008 (UTC)

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Morganatic marriage

Morganatic marriage, sometimes called a left-handed marriage, is a marriage between people of unequal social rank, which in the context of royalty or other inherited title prevents the principal's position or privileges being passed to the spouse, or any children born of the marriage. The concept is most prevalent in German-speaking territories and countries most influenced by the customs of the German-speaking realms.

Generally, this is a marriage between a man of high birth (such as from a reigning, deposed or mediatised dynasty) and a woman of lesser status (such as a daughter of a low-ranked noble family or a commoner). Usually, neither the bride nor any children of the marriage has a claim on the bridegroom's succession rights, titles, precedence, or entailed property. The children are considered legitimate for all other purposes and the prohibition against bigamy applies. In some countries, a woman could also marry a man of lower rank morganatically. As a result of the above, a king deciding to enter into a morganatic marriage who does not have children from a previous marriage thereby gives up the chance of being succeeded by his own children and accepts that succession would pass to his other relatives.

German background
After World War I, the heads of both ruling and formerly reigning German dynasties initially continued the practice of rejecting dynastic titles and/or rights for descendants of "morganatic" unions, but gradually allowed them, sometimes retroactively, effectively de-morganatizing the wives and children. This was accommodated by Perthes' Almanach de Gotha (which categorised German princely families by rank until it ceased publication after 1944) by inserting the offspring of such marriages in a third section of the almanac under entries denoted by a symbol (a dot within a circle) that "signifies some princely houses which, possessing no specific princely patent, have passed from the first part, A, or from the second part into the third part in virtue of special agreements". The Fürstliche Häuser ("Princely Houses") series of the Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels ("Genealogical Manual of the Nobility") has followed this lead, likewise enrolling some issue of unapproved marriages in its third section, "III B", with a similar explanation: "Families in this section, although verified, received no specific decree, but have been included by special agreement in the 1st and 2nd sections".

Variations of morganatic marriage were also practised by non-European dynasties, such as the Royal Family of Thailand, the polygamous Mongols as to their non-principal wives, and other families of Africa and Asia.

Etymology
Morganatic, already in use in English by 1727 (according to the Oxford English Dictionary), is derived from the medieval Latin morganaticus from the Late Latin phrase matrimonium ad morganaticam and refers to the gift given by the groom to the bride on the morning after the wedding, the morning gift, i.e., dower. The Latin term, applied to a Germanic custom, was adopted from the Old High German term *morgangeba (modern German Morgengabe), corresponding to Early English morgengifu. The literal meaning is explained in a 16th-century passage quoted by Du Cange as, "a marriage by which the wife and the children that may be born are entitled to no share in the husband's possessions beyond the 'morning-gift'".

The morning gift has been a customary property arrangement for marriage found first in early medieval Germanic cultures (such as the Lombards) and also among ancient Germanic tribes, and the church drove its adoption into other countries in order to improve the wife's security by this additional benefit. The bride received property from the bridegroom's clan. It was intended to ensure her livelihood in widowhood, and it was to be kept separate as the wife's discrete possession. However, when a marriage contract is made wherein the bride and the children of the marriage will not receive anything else (other than the dower) from the bridegroom or from his inheritance or clan, that sort of marriage was dubbed as "marriage with only the dower and no other inheritance", i.e., matrimonium morganaticum.

Examples
Royal men who married morganatically:
 * Genghis Khan followed the contemporary tradition by taking several morganatic wives in addition to his principal wife, whose property passed to their youngest son, also following tradition.
 * King Erik XIV of Sweden married the servant Karin Månsdotter twice - once morganatically in 1567, and again although not morganatically in 1568.
 * Ludwig Wilhelm, Duke in Bavaria and actress Henriette Mendel. She was created Baroness von Wallersee, and their daughter, Marie Louise, Countess Larisch von Moennich, was a confidante of Empress Elisabeth ("Sissi") of Austria.
 * Archduke Ferdinand II of Austria, ruler of the Tirol, first married Philippine Welser, a bourgeoise of a wealthy family in 1557. Their children were given the title Margrave von Burgau, the issue of Ferdinand's second (and equal) marriage being of archducal rank and preferred for purposes of inheritance.
 * Victor Emmanuel II of Italy in 1869 married morganatically his principal mistress Rosa Teresa Vercellana Guerrieri. Popularly known in Piedmontese as "Bela Rosin" (Little Rosa the Beautiful), she was born a commoner but made Countess di Mirafiori e Fontanafredda in 1858.
 * Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine in 1851 married morganatically Countess Julia von Hauke. Instead of being part of the House of Hesse-Darmstadt to which their father belonged, their patrilinear descendants were created Princes of Battenberg, whose branch living in United Kingdom later became House of Mountbatten.
 * Late in his life, the widowed ex-king Fernando II of Portugal married the opera singer Elise Hensler, who was created Countess von Edla.
 * In 1917, the grandson of Fernando II of Portugal, Afonso, Duke of Porto, the last Prince Royal of Portugal, married the twice-divorced American socialite Nevada Stoody Hayes.
 * In 1929, Alfonso de Borbón y Borbón, a Spanish nobleman, married Julia Méndez y Morales, thereby losing all claims to the Spanish throne.
 * A list of morganatic branches of the Russian Imperial Family
 * The 1900 marriage of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, whose subsequent assassination triggered World War I, to Countess Sophie Chotek von Wognin was morganatic at the insistence of the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I.
 * Danish astronomer and nobleman Tycho Brahe married Kirsten Jørgensdatter morganatically in 1572. He was allowed to do so because he was close friends with King Frederick II. The king was sympathetic, as he was unable to marry his love due to class differences.

Royal women who married morganatically:
 * Marie Louise, Duchess of Parma (by birth an archduchess of the Imperial House of Habsburg, and by her first marriage a French empress) married morganatically twice after the death of her husband, the emperor Napoleon I. Her second husband was Count Adam Albert von Neipperg. After his death, she married Count Charles-René de Bombelles, her chamberlain, in 1834.
 * Queen Maria Christina of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, regent of Spain after her husband's (Ferdinand VII) death while their daughter, Isabella II, was a minor. She married Agustín Fernando Muñoz y Sánchez, 1st Duke of Riánsares, who was one of her guards in a secret marriage.
 * Princess Stéphanie of Belgium, the widow of Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria, married Count Elemér Lónyay de Nagy-Lónya et Vásáros-Namény after the death of her first husband. In 1917, Emperor Charles I of Austria conferred upon Lónyay a non-dynastic title of Prince (Fürst).

Denmark
Succession to the Danish throne followed the specifications of the Lex Regia until the Danish Act of Succession was passed in 1953. Prominent morganatic marriages include the 1615 marriage of King Christian IV of Denmark to noblewoman Kirsten Munk. Kirsten was titled "Countess of Schleswig-Holstein" and bore the King 12 children, all styled "Count/Countess of Schleswig-Holstein". King Frederick VII married the ballerina Louise Rasmussen, who was raised to the rank of "Countess Danner" in 1850. There were no children of this marriage. When Christian IX of Denmark's brother, Prince Julius of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glucksburg married Elisabeth von Ziegesar in 1883, the king granted her the title "Countess af Røst".

Until 1971, Danish princes who married women who did not belong to a royal or noble family were refused the sovereign's authorization, renouncing their right of succession to the throne and royal title (Prince Aage of Denmark morganatically eloped with Matilda Calvi, daughter of Count Carlo Giorgio di Bergolo, in January 1914 but renounced his dynastic rights and titles subsequently). They were granted the non-royal prefix of "Prince" and their descendants bear the title Count af Rosenborg in the Danish nobility.

Neither of the children of Queen Margrethe II has married a person of either royal birth or of the titled aristocracy. Members of the Royal Family may still lose their place in the line of succession for themselves and their descendants if they marry without the monarch's permission.

France
Morganatic marriage was not recognized as a concept in French law. Since the law did not distinguish, for marital purposes, between ruler and subjects, marriages between royalty and the noble heiresses to great fiefs became the norm through the 16th century, helping to aggrandize the House of Capet while gradually diminishing the number of large domains held in theoretical vassalage by nobles who were, in practice, virtually independent of the French crown: by the marriage of Catherine de' Medici to the future King Henry II in 1533, the last of these provinces, the county of Auvergne, came to the crown of France.

Antiquity of nobility in the legitimate male line, not noble quarterings, was the main criterion of rank in the ancien régime. Unlike the status of a British peer's wife and descendants (yet typical of the nobility of every continental European country), the legitimate children and male-line descendants of any French nobleman (whether titled or not, whether possessing a French peerage or not) were also legally noble ad infinitum. Rank was not based on hereditary titles, which were often assumed or acquired by purchase of a noble estate rather than granted by the Crown. Rather, the main determinant of relative rank among the French nobility was how far back the nobility of a family's male line could be verifiably traced. Other factors influencing rank included the family's history of military command, high-ranking offices held at court and marriages into other high-ranking families. A specific exception was made for bearers of the title of duke who, regardless of their origin, outranked all other nobles. But the ducal title in post-medieval France (even when embellished with the still higher status of "peer") ranked its holder and his family among France's nobility and not, as in Germany and Scandinavia (and, occasionally, Italy, viz. Savoy, Medici, Este, della Rovere, Farnese and Cybo-Malaspina) among Europe's reigning dynasties which habitually intermarried with one another.

Once the Bourbons inherited the throne of France from the House of Valois in 1589, their dynasts married daughters of even the oldest ducal families of France — let alone noblewomen of lower rank — quite rarely (viz., Anne de Montafié in 1601, Charlotte Marguerite de Montmorency in 1609 and, in exile from revolutionary France, Maria Caterina Brignole in 1798). Exceptions were made for equal royal intermarriage with the princes étrangers and, by royal command, with the so-called princes légitimés (i.e., out-of-wedlock but legitimised descendants of Henry IV and Louis XIV), as well as with the nieces of Cardinal-prime ministers (i.e., Richelieu, Mazarin). Just as the French king could authorize a royal marriage that would otherwise have been deemed unsuitable, by 1635 it had been established by Louis XIII that the king could also legally void the canonically valid, equal marriage of a French dynast to which he had not given consent (e.g., Marguerite of Lorraine, Duchess of Orléans).

Moreover, there was a French practice, legally distinct from morganatic marriage but used in similar situations of inequality in status between a member of the royal family and a spouse of lower rank: an "openly secret" marriage. French kings authorized such marriages only when the bride was past child-bearing or the marrying prince already had dynastic heirs by a previous spouse of royal descent. The marriage ceremony took place without banns, in private (with only a priest, the bride and groom, and a few legal witnesses present), and the marriage was never officially acknowledged (although sometimes widely known). Thus, the wife never publicly shared in her husband's titles, rank, or coat of arms. The lower-ranked spouse, male or female, could only receive from the royal spouse what property the king allowed.

In secret marriage, Louis XIV wed his second wife, Madame de Maintenon, in 1683 (she was nearly 50, so no children were likely); Louis the Grand Dauphin wed Marie Émilie de Joly de Choin in 1695; Anne Marie d'Orléans (La Grande Mademoiselle) wed Antoine, Duke de Lauzun in 1682; and Louis Philippe I, Duke of Orléans wed the Marquise de Montesson in 1773. The mechanism of the "secret marriage" rendered it unnecessary for France to legislate the morganatic marriage per se. Within post-monarchical dynasties, until the end of the 20th century the heads of the Spanish and Italian Bourbon branches, the Orléans of both France and Brazil, and the Imperial Bonapartes have, in exile, exercised claimed authority to exclude from their dynasty descendants born of unapproved marriages — albeit without calling these marriages "morganatic".

German-speaking Europe
The practice of morganatic marriage was most common in the German-speaking parts of Europe, where equality of birth (Ebenbürtigkeit) between the spouses was considered an important principle among the reigning houses and high nobility. The German name was Ehe zur linken Hand ("marriage by the left hand") and the husband gave his left hand during the wedding ceremony instead of the right.

Perhaps the most famous example in modern times was the 1900 marriage of the heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, and Bohemian aristocrat Countess Sophie Chotek von Chotkowa. The marriage was initially resisted by Emperor Franz Joseph I, but after pressure from family members and other European rulers, he relented in 1899 (but did not attend the wedding himself). The bride was made Princess (later Duchess) of Hohenberg, their children took their mother's new name and rank, but were excluded from the imperial succession. The Sarajevo assassination in 1914, killing both the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie, triggered the First World War.

Although the issue of morganatic marriages were ineligible to succeed to their families' respective thrones, children of morganatic marriages have gone on to achieve dynastic success elsewhere in Europe. Descendants of the 1851 marriage of Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine to the German-Polish noblewoman Countess Julia von Hauke (created Princess of Battenberg) include Alexander, sovereign prince of Bulgaria, queen-consorts of Spain (Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg) and of Sweden (Louise Mountbatten), and, in the female line, Charles III (through his paternal grandmother, Alice of Battenberg).

Likewise, from the morganatic marriage of Duke Alexander of Württemberg and Countess Claudine Rhédey de Kis-Rhéde (created Countess von Hohenstein) descends Mary of Teck, who became Britain's queen in 1911 as the consort of King George V.

Occasionally, children of morganatic marriages have overcome their non-dynastic origins and succeeded to their family's realms. Margrave Leopold inherited the throne of Baden, despite being born of a morganatic marriage, after all dynastic males of the House of Zähringen died out. The son of Charles Frederick, Grand Duke of Baden, by his second wife Louise Caroline Geyer von Geyersberg, who belonged to the minor nobility, Leopold became a prince in 1817, at the age of 27, as the result of a new law of succession. Baden's grand-ducal family faced extinction, so Leopold was enfranchised by international treaty and married to a princess, ascending the throne in 1830. His descendants ruled the grand duchy until the abolition of the monarchy in 1918.

Other reigning German families adopted similar approaches when facing a lack of male heirs. In 1896 the Princely House of Schwarzburg, with the Sondershausen branch numbering two elderly childless princes and Rudolstadt just one childless prince, recognised Prince Sizzo von Leutenberg, morganatic son of Friedrich Günther, Prince of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, as a Prince of Schwarzburg and heir to the two principalities.

The senior line of the dynasty ruling the Principality of Lippe was bordering on extinction as the 20th century approached, prompting a succession dispute between the Lippe-Biesterfeld and Schaumburg-Lippe branches of the dynasty which evoked international intervention and troop movements. It centered on whether some ancestresses of the Biesterfeld branch had been legally dynastic; if so, that line stood next to inherit the princely crown according to primogeniture. If not, the Biesterfelds would be deemed morganatic and the Schaumburg-Lippes would inherit the throne. Lippe's Parliament was blocked from voting on the matter by the German Empire's Reichstag, which instead created a panel of jurists selected by the King of Saxony to evaluate the evidence concerning the historical marital rules of the House of Lippe and render a decision in the matter, all parties agreeing to abide by their judgment. In 1897 and 1905 panels ruled in favour of the dynasticity of the challenged ancestresses and their descendants, largely because, although neither had been of dynastic rank, the Lippes had historically accepted such marriages for the junior lines when approved by the Head of House.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a few families considered in Germany to be morganatic were considered for crowns elsewhere, constituting unexpected rehabilitation of their status. The first of these was Prince Alexander of Battenberg, who in 1877 was agreed upon by the Great Powers as the best candidate for the new throne of Bulgaria. He was, however, unable to hold onto his crown, and was also unable to obtain the hand in marriage of Princess Viktoria of Prussia despite the efforts of her imperial mother and grandmother.

Wilhelm, Duke of Urach (1864–1928), whose father was the morganatic son of a Württemberg prince, had the distinction of being under consideration for the crowns of five realms at different times: that of the Kingdom of Württemberg in the 1890s, as the senior agnate by primogeniture when it became likely that King William II would die without male descendants, leaving as heir Duke Albrecht of Württemberg, a more distantly related, albeit dynastic, royal kinsman; the Principality of Albania in 1913; the Principality of Monaco at turn of the 20th century, as the next heir by proximity of blood following the Hereditary Prince Louis, until the Monaco succession crisis of 1918 was resolved as the First World War ended; the prospective Grand Duchy of Alsace-Lorraine in 1917; and his abortive election by the Taryba as King Mindaugas II of Lithuania in July 1918. In the event, Duke Wilhelm obtained none of these thrones.

Relying upon the Almanach de Gotha to gazette dynastic events, Germany's deposed heads of state continued to notify its editors of changes in family members' status and traditional titles. In 1919 the morganatic wife and children of Prince Oskar of Prussia, the counts and countesses von Ruppin, were upgraded to princes and princesses of Prussia by the exiled Kaiser Wilhelm II. In 1928 Georg, Count von Carlow, morganatic son of Duke George Alexander of Mecklenburg and commoner Natalia Vanljarskaya, became a duke of Mecklenburg and heir to his uncle Duke Charles Michael. In 1949, and again in 1999, various morganatic members of the Bavarian Royal House were recognised as princes and princesses of Bavaria, with the current head of the house, Franz von Bayern, being among the beneficiaries of his father's ruling, having been born of a marriage initially deemed morganatic.

In the former Royal Family of Saxony Maria Emanuel, Margrave of Meissen adopted and designated as his heir his nephew Alexander Afif, thus bypassing his agnatic cousin's morganatic son, Rüdiger von Sachsen, and his three sons.

Luxembourg
When the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg found itself without a male heir at the beginning of the 20th century, the morganatic counts von Merenberg proposed themselves as heirs, being the last legitimate descendants in the male line of the House of Nassau. Grand Duke William IV, however, chose to confirm the law of succession stipulated in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna to allow a female descendant in the Nassau male line to become successor to the throne (his own daughter Marie-Adélaïde) instead.

Russia
Paul I of Russia promulgated a strict new house law for Russia in 1797, eliminating the sovereign's right to designate the heir to the throne, but requiring that dynasts be born of authorized marriages. In 1820 a new law also stipulated that only children of Romanovs born of marriages with persons of equal status, i.e., members of a "royal or sovereign family", could transmit succession rights and titles to descendants. Alexander III forbade Romanov morganatic marriages altogether by issuance of ukase #5868 on 24 March 1889 amending article #63 of the Statute on the Imperial Family in the Pauline laws. By ukase #35731, dated 11 August 1911, Nicholas II amended the amendment, reducing application of this restriction from all members of the Imperial Family to grand dukes and grand duchesses only. This decree allowed marriages of the princes and princesses of the Blood Imperial with non-royal spouses, on the conditions that the emperor's consent be obtained, that the dynast renounce his or her personal succession rights, and that the Pauline laws restricting succession rights to those born of equal marriages continue in force.

An early victim of the Pauline laws was Grand Duke Constantine Pavlovich, grandson of Catherine the Great, and viceroy of Poland. On 20 March 1820 his marriage to Princess Juliane of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld was annulled to allow him to morganatically wed his longtime mistress, Countess Joanna Grudna-Grudzińska, in Warsaw on 24 May 1820, who was elevated to the title "Princess Łowicza" upon marriage, which produced no children.

One emperor, Alexander II, married morganatically in 1880. Princess Ekaterina Mihailovna Dolgorukova, Alexander's second bride, had previously been his long-term mistress and the mother of his three legitimised children, the princes and princesses Yurievsky.

Beginning a novel tradition, one of that couple's daughters, Princess Olga Aleksandrovna Yurievskaya (1873–1925), in 1895 married the child of an 1868 morganatic marriage in the House of Nassau, George, Count von Merenberg (1871–1965). His mother was a daughter of renowned author Alexander Pushkin but, despite being of noble birth, she could not in 1868 dynastically marry the younger brother of a then-exiled Duke of Nassau. The count filed a futile suit to establish that his morganatic status in Germany should not exclude him from succession to the throne of Luxembourg after the last male of the House of Orange, King William III of the Netherlands, died in 1890 and it became apparent that the House of Nassau faced the imminent extinction of its male members, as well, upon the eventual death of Grand Duke William IV. Olga's brother, Prince George Aleksandrovich Yurievsky (1872–1913), in 1900 wed Countess Alexandra von Zarnekau (1883–1957), daughter of the morganatic marriage of the Russo-German Duke Constantine Petrovich of Oldenburg with Agrafena Djaparidize. Merenberg's sister, Sophia (1868–1927), likewise contracted a morganatic marriage in 1891, with Grand Duke Michael Mikhailovich of Russia, whose cousin, Emperor Nicholas II banished them to England, unwittingly saving the couple from the maelstrom of the Russian Revolution which proved fatal to so many Romanovs. She and her children were made counts de Torby, her younger daughter, Countess Nada (1896–1963) marrying, in 1916 Prince George of Battenberg, future Marquess of Milford Haven and scion of the House of Battenberg, a morganatic branch of the grandducal House of Hesse which had settled in England and inter-married with descendants of Queen Victoria.

Less fortunate among the Romanovs was Grand Duke Paul Aleksandrovich, who went into exile in Paris to marry a commoner, Olga Valerianovna Karnovich in 1902. Paul returned to serve in the Russian army during the First World War, and Nicholas II rewarded his uncle's loyalty by elevating Olga and her children as Princess and Princes Paley in 1915. Paul's patriotism, however, sealed his fate, and he died at the hands of Russia's revolutionaries in 1919. One of his daughters, Princess Irene Pavlovna Paley (1903–1990), was married while in exile in 1923, to her cousin, Prince Theodor Aleksandrovich of Russia, (1898-1968).

Nicholas II forbade his brother, Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich of Russia, from marrying twice-divorced noblewoman Natalya Sergeyevna Wulfert (née Sheremetevskaya), but the couple eloped abroad in 1911. The Tsar refused his brother's request to grant the bride or their son, George Mikhailovich (1910–1931) a title, but legitimated George and incorporated him into the Russian nobility under the surname "Brassov" in 1915: nonetheless he and his mother used the comital title from 1915, only being granted a princely prefix in exile by Cyril Vladimirovich, Grand Duke of Russia in 1928. In the throes of the First World War, Nicholas II allowed his sister Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna of Russia to end her loveless marriage to her social equal, Duke Peter Alexandrovich of Oldenburg, and quietly marry commoner Colonel Nikolai Alexandrovich Kulikovsky. Both Michael's and Olga's descendants from these marriages were excluded from the succession.

After the murder of Nicholas II and his children, the Imperial Family's morganatic marriages restricted the number of possible claimants. Grand Duke Cyril Vladimirovich, Nicholas's cousin, proclaimed himself as Emperor in exile. Controversy accompanied the marriage of his son Grand Duke Vladimir Cyrillovich to Princess Leonida Georgievna Bagration-Mukhransky, a descendant of the deposed Royal House of Georgia. After the annexation of Georgia in 1801, Leonida's family were deemed ordinary nobility in Imperial Russia rather than royalty, leading to claims that her 1948 marriage to Vladimir (who, however, also belonged to a deposed dynasty by then) was unequal and should be considered morganatic. As a result, some factions within Russia's monarchist movement did not support the couple's daughter, Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna, as the rightful heir to the Romanov dynasty.

Sweden
King Eric XIV of Sweden married Karin Månsdotter, a farmer's daughter, in 1568.

Transkei
Standards of social classification and marital rules resembling the traditions of dynastic Europe can also be found in a number of sovereign nations in Africa. Here, a number of its peoples have legalized traditional authority as manifested in the recognized hereditary transmission of chieftaincy in historically relevant regions of the continent (e.g., the Asantehene of Ghana).

An example of the form that morganatic unions tend to take amongst African royalty can be found in the biography of Nelson Mandela, the late leader of South Africa. Mandela, a nobleman by birth of the Xhosa Thembus that reside in the Transkei region of the Cape coast, was nevertheless unable to ascend the throne of the Kumkani (or king) of the entire Thembu tribe, even though he descended in the legitimate, male line from the holders of this title. Nearly two centuries ago, Ngubengcuka (d. 1832), who ruled as the Kumkani of the Thembu people, married and subsequently left a son named Mandela, who became Nelson's grandfather and the source of his surname. However, because Mandela was only the Inkosi's child by a wife of the Ixhiba lineage, a so-called "Left-Hand House", the descendants of his cadet branch of the Thembu royal family remain ineligible to succeed to the Thembu throne, which is itself one of the several traditional seats that are still officially recognized by South Africa's government. Instead, the Mandelas were given the chiefdom of Mvezo and made hereditary counsellors to the Kumkani (i.e., privy counsellors) in deference to their royal ancestry. Following the loss of this chiefdom (which has since been restored to the family) in the Apartheid era, the Mandelas retained their positions as nobles of the Transkei. This status entailed, however, a degree of subjugation to the head of the dynasty, in particular in the matter of marital selection, which proved so onerous an issue to Nelson Mandela that it prompted the departure to Johannesburg that eventually led to his political career. Like the House of Battenberg in Europe, Mandela's family has since rehabilitated its dynastic status to some extent: Mandela was still in prison when his daughter Zenani was married to Prince Thumbumuzi Dlamini in 1973, elder brother of both King Mswati III of Swaziland and Queen Mantfombi, Great Wife of Goodwill Zwelithini, King of the Zulus.

Travancore and Cochin
In the erstwhile princely state of Travancore, in India, the male members of the Travancore Royal Family were, under the existing matrilineal Marumakkathayam system of inheritance and family, permitted to contract marriages with women of the Nair caste only. These were morganatic marriages called Sambandhams wherein the children gained their mother's caste and family name, due to Marumakkathayam. Although they could not inherit the throne, they did receive a title of nobility, Thampi (son of the Maharajah) and Kochamma (daughter of the Maharajah). These were the members of the Ammaveedus and their titles ensured a comfortable lifestyle and all other luxuries. The descendants of these Ammaveedu members were simply called Thampi and Thankachi and they didn't get any other distinguishing privileges.

The Cochin Royal family also followed the system of Marumakkatayam. Traditionally the female members of the family married Namboodiri Brahmins while male members marry ladies of the Nair caste. These wives of the male members are not royalty or didn't receive any royal titles or power, per the matrilineal system but instead get the title of Nethyar Amma. Their position ceases when the Maharaja dies. The children born to Neytharammas will be known by their mother's caste and hold no key royal titles. Currently the family marries mostly within the Kerala Kshatriya class.

United Kingdom
The concept of morganatic marriage has never clearly existed in any part of the United Kingdom, and historically the English crown descended through marriages with commoners as late as the 17th century. Only two of the six marriages Henry VIII made to secure an heir were with royal brides, and Elizabeth Woodville, queen of Edward IV of England, was also a commoner.

Another link in the English succession involving marriage with a commoner was between John of Gaunt and Katherine Swynford. When they married after co-habiting for several years all children born previously were subsequently legitimated by Act of Parliament. King Henry IV later declared that they could not inherit the crown, but it is not clear that he had the right to do this. This marriage was important, as King Henry VII was descended from it, but Parliament still declared that he was king, so some issues remained unresolved.

The marriage of George IV as Prince of Wales to Maria Fitzherbert in 1785 is frequently referred to as morganatic: it was in fact doubly in breach of law, as a marriage to a Catholic and one not having been sanctioned by the king.

As in nearly all European monarchies extant in the 21st century, most approved marriages in the British royal family are with untitled commoners and have been for several generations. In 1923, the future George VI (then second in line to the throne as Duke of York), was the first future British monarch to marry a non-princess or prince since 1659 when the future James VII & II eloped with Anne Hyde. Wives of British peers are entitled to use the feminine form of their husbands' peerages under English common law, while wives of royal princes share their husbands' styles by custom unless the Sovereign formally objects.

For example, Catherine Middleton, a commoner, became the Duchess of Cambridge upon her marriage on 29 April 2011 to Prince William, who had been created Duke of Cambridge that morning. Camilla Parker Bowles, second wife of Charles, Prince of Wales (as he was at the time), legally held the title "Princess of Wales" but at the time that the engagement was announced it was declared that she would be known by the title "Duchess of Cornwall" and, in Scotland, Duchess of Rothesay (derived from other titles her husband held as heir apparent) in deference, it has been reported, to public feelings about the title's previous holder, the Prince's first wife Lady Diana Spencer. It was simultaneously stated that at such time, if any, her husband acceded to the throne, she would be known as "Princess Consort" rather than "Queen", although as the king's wife she would legally be queen. However, in her 2022 Accession Day message, Queen Elizabeth II stated that it was her "sincere wish" for Camilla to be "known as Queen Consort", and, on Charles' accession, Camilla took this title.

Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson
On 16 November 1936 Edward VIII informed Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin that he intended to marry the American divorcée Wallis Simpson, proposing that he be allowed to do so morganatically and remain king. Baldwin expressed his belief that Mrs. Simpson would be unacceptable to the British people as queen due to her status as a divorcee, which contradicted Church of England doctrine at the time, but agreed to take further soundings. The prospect of the marriage was rejected by the British Cabinet. The other Dominion governments were consulted pursuant to the Statute of Westminster 1931, which provided in part that "any alteration in the law touching the Succession to the Throne or the Royal Style and Titles shall hereafter require the assent as well of the Parliaments of all the Dominions as of the Parliament of the United Kingdom." Baldwin suggested three options to the prime ministers of the five Dominions of which Edward was also king: Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and the Irish Free State. The options were:

 * 1) Edward and Mrs. Simpson marry and she become queen (a royal marriage);
 * 2) Edward and Mrs. Simpson marry, but she not become queen, instead receiving some courtesy title (a morganatic marriage); or
 * 3) Abdication for Edward and any potential heirs he might father, allowing him to make any marital decisions without further constitutional implications.

The second option had European precedents, including Edward's own maternal great-grandfather, Duke Alexander of Württemberg, but no unambiguous parallel in British constitutional history. William Lyon Mackenzie King (Prime Minister of Canada), Joseph Lyons (Prime Minister of Australia) and J. B. M. Hertzog (Prime Minister of South Africa) opposed options 1 and 2. Michael Joseph Savage (Prime Minister of New Zealand) rejected option 1 but thought that option 2 "might be possible ... if some solution along these lines were found to be practicable" but "would be guided by the decision of the Home government". Thus the majority of the Commonwealth's prime ministers agreed that there was "no alternative to course (3)". On 24 November, Baldwin consulted the three leading opposition politicians in Britain: Leader of the Opposition Clement Attlee, Liberal leader Sir Archibald Sinclair and Winston Churchill. Sinclair and Attlee agreed that options 1 and 2 were unacceptable and Churchill pledged to support the government.

The letters and diaries of working-class people and ex-servicemen generally demonstrate support for the King, while those from the middle and upper classes tend to express indignation and distaste. The Times, The Morning Post, the Daily Herald, and newspapers owned by Lord Kemsley, such as The Daily Telegraph, opposed the marriage. On the other hand, the Express and Mail newspapers, owned by Lord Beaverbrook and Lord Rothermere, respectively, appeared to support a morganatic marriage. The King estimated that the newspapers in favour had a circulation of 12.5 million, and those against had 8.5 million.

Backed by Churchill and Beaverbrook, Edward proposed to broadcast a speech indicating his desire to remain on the throne or to be recalled to it if forced to abdicate, while marrying Mrs Simpson morganatically. In one section, Edward proposed to say: "Neither Mrs. Simpson nor I have ever sought to insist that she should be queen. All we desired was that our married happiness should carry with it a proper title and dignity for her, befitting my wife. Now that I have at last been able to take you into my confidence, I feel it is best to go away for a while, so that you may reflect calmly and quietly, but without undue delay, on what I have said."

Baldwin and the British Cabinet blocked the speech, saying that it would shock many people and would be a grave breach of constitutional principles.

Ultimately, Edward decided to give up the throne for "the woman I love", whereupon he and his descendants were deprived of all right to the Crown by Parliament's passage of His Majesty's Declaration of Abdication Act 1936. He was created Duke of Windsor on 8 March 1937 by his brother, the new George VI. He would marry Wallis Simpson in France on 3 June 1937, after her second divorce became final. In the meantime, however, letters patent dated 27 May 1937, which re-conferred upon the Duke of Windsor the "title, style, or attribute of Royal Highness", specifically stated that "his wife and descendants, if any, shall not hold said title or attribute". This decree was issued by the new king and unanimously supported by the Dominion governments. The king's authority to withhold from the lawful wife of a prince the attribute hitherto accorded to the wives of other modern British princes was addressed by the Crown's legal authorities: On 14 April 1937, Attorney General Sir Donald Somervell submitted to Home Secretary Sir John Simon a memorandum summarising the views of Lord Advocate T. M. Cooper, Parliamentary Counsel Sir Granville Ram, and himself:
 * 1) We incline to the view that on his abdication the Duke of Windsor could not have claimed the right to be described as a Royal Highness. In other words, no reasonable objection could have been taken if the King had decided that his exclusion from the lineal succession excluded him from the right to this title as conferred by the existing Letters Patent.
 * 2) The question however has to be considered on the basis of the fact that, for reasons which are readily understandable, he with the express approval of His Majesty enjoys this title and has been referred to as a Royal Highness on a formal occasion and in formal documents. In the light of precedent it seems clear that the wife of a Royal Highness enjoys the same title unless some appropriate express step can be and is taken to deprive her of it.
 * 3) We came to the conclusion that the wife could not claim this right on any legal basis. The right to use this style or title, in our view, is within the prerogative of His Majesty and he has the power to regulate it by Letters Patent generally or in particular circumstances.

The new King's firm view, that the Duchess should not be given a royal title, was shared by Queen Mary and George's wife, Queen Elizabeth. The Duchess bitterly resented the denial of the royal title and the refusal of the Duke's relatives to accept her as part of the family. In the early days of George VI's reign the Duke telephoned daily, importuning for money and urging that the Duchess be granted the style of Royal Highness, until the harassed King ordered that the calls not be put through. However, within the household of the Duke and Duchess, the style "Her Royal Highness" was used by those who were close to the couple.

Morganatic vs. invalid
The Royal Marriages Act 1772 made it illegal for all persons born into the British royal family to marry without the permission of the sovereign, and any marriage contracted without the sovereign's consent was considered invalid. This led to several prominent cases of British princes who had gone through marriage ceremonies, and who cohabited with their partners as if married, but whose relationships were not legally recognised. As a result, their partners and children (which would be considered illegitimate) held no titles, and had no succession rights. This differs from morganatic marriages, which are considered legally valid.

James II/VII and Anne Hyde
It has been suggested that William, Prince of Orange, expected to have a strong claim to the throne of England after the Duke of York during the reign of Charles II. In fact, the Duke's two daughters from his first marriage, Princess Mary and Princess Anne, were considered to have the stronger claim by the English establishment. William's expectation was based on the continental practice of morganatic marriage, since the mother of both princesses, Anne Hyde, was a commoner and a lady-in-waiting to William's mother, Princess Mary. It was through his mother, a sister of Charles II and the Duke of York, that William claimed the throne, because, to his mind, the son of a princess had a stronger claim than the daughter of a commoner. It was to shore up his own claim to the throne that he agreed to marry his first cousin, Princess Mary. When James II fled at the Glorious Revolution, William refused to accept the title of king consort (which Philip II of Spain had been granted under Queen Mary I in the 1550s) and insisted on being named King in his own right. The compromise solution involved naming both to the crown as had rarely happened in the past (see for example King Henry II and his son Young King Henry, who ruled England simultaneously).

Unequal marriage

 * Concubinage
 * Courtesan
 * Gold digger
 * Hypergamy
 * Inter-caste marriage
 * Marriage à la façon du pays
 * Misyar marriage
 * Plaçage
 * Signare
 * Sugar baby
 * War bride

title: Morganatic marriage