Few royal siblings had a more complicated relationship than that of Anne and Mary Boleyn. Mary was King Henry VIII’s mistress before she was married off to William Carey, a friend of the king, in 1521.
Her younger sister, Anne, was first betrothed to an Irish cousin, but the marriage fell through, leaving her open to new marital opportunities that would further her family’s favor in the royal court. Even after she was married, Mary remained in the king’s court alongside Anne, who spent six years attempting to court King Henry VIII, according to the BBC.
Anne finally succeeded in winning the king’s affection after he broke away from the Catholic church — because it would not allow him to divorce from his first wife, Catherine of Aragon — to marry her in 1533.
In 1534, Anne and Mary reportedly feuded after Mary secretly married William Stafford following William Carey’s death in 1528. Stafford, a commoner, was not seen as a suitable match for the queen’s sister and her entire family — though, most notably, Anne — were furious with her. Mary and Stafford were banished from court, leaving Mary’s son (widely believed to be from her relationship with the king) in the care of Queen Anne.
Anne was sentenced to death in 1536 after she was accused of committing adultery and incest with her brother, along with conspiring against the king. According to English History, Mary did not visit her imprisoned sister or her brother prior to their executions, and no evidence suggests that she wrote to them, either. Henry VIII went on to have four more wives.
However, Anne Boleyn is primarily credited with being the catalyst for the formation of the Church of England, despite her untimely end, and as the mother of Queen Elizabeth I.
Cleopatra is largely remembered for her beauty and intelligence, as well as her sometimes ruthless nature. However, she may have had a hand in the death of three of her siblings, likely to secure her own power and place as ruler of Egypt, according to the History Channel.
After she and her brother Ptolemy XIII were named co-rulers of Egypt, he exiled her from the country in an attempt to thwart her rise to power. Cleopatra then went to war against her brother, which led to his death by drowning in the Nile river during battle.
Cleopatra later married her younger brother Ptolemy XIV. However, it has been speculated that she had him murdered in order to make her son by Julius Caesar her co-ruler. It is also said that she orchestrated the execution of her sister, Arsinoe, whom she deemed to be a threat to her and her throne.
Queen Elizabeth and Princess Margaret were born four years apart, in 1926 and 1930 respectively. But their lives would prove to be vastly different: While Elizabeth was sworn to a life of duty and acted as leader of the Commonwealth for much of her life, Margaret was free to enjoy all that high-society life had to offer, from parties to traveling around the world.
Even after Queen Elizabeth was crowned on June 2, 1953, the two sisters remained close. They even had a direct phone line between their homes so they could talk to each other whenever they wished, royal family friend Reinaldo Herrera wrote in Vanity Fair in 2016.
However, their relationship reportedly became more strained when Princess Margaret fell in love with Captain Peter Townsend of the Royal Air Force, a divorced man nearly twice her age.
The Royal Marriages Act of 1772 decreed that all royal marriages had to be approved by the Queen, but amid pressure from then-Prime Minister Winston Churchill and the Church of England over Townsend’s divorce, the Queen would not give her permission, the BBC reported. Two years later, the Queen again refused, and new Prime Minister Anthony Eden instead suggested a plan to allow the marriage by removing Margaret and her children from the line of succession. The Queen agreed.
However, Princess Margaret chose instead to marry Antony Armstrong-Jones, a British photographer and filmmaker, on May 6, 1960.
After Princess Margaret passed away at the age of 71 on February 9, 2002, the Queen was seen crying at her funeral, a rare display of emotion shown in public by the United Kingdom’s longest-reigning monarch.
Prince Joachim, who is sixth in line to the throne of Denmark, is taking a page out of Prince Harry’s book and moving stateside after Queen Margrethe announced last year that she would be taking away his four children’s prince and princess titles and would instead receive the titles of counts and countesses.
The decision, which she said was to allow her grandchildren greater freedom, was “in line with similar adjustments that other royal houses have made in various ways in recent years,” according to a statement released by the Danish royal family.
The decision apparently came as a surprise to Joachim, who is living in Paris with his family.
“My kids don’t know which leg to stand on. What they should believe,” he said in a press statement, according to Town & Country. “Why should their identity be removed? Why must they be punished in that way?”
Joachim claimed he was only given notice of the change in titles five days before it was made public. Princess Marie of Denmark, Joachim’s second wife and the mother of his two youngest children, also told a Danish news outlet that their daughter Athena, 11, is being bullied at school by kids ridiculing her for being “no longer a princess.”
“I have made my decision as Queen, mother, and grandmother, but, as a mother and grandmother, I have underestimated the extent to which much my younger son and his family feel affected,” Margrethe said in a statement. “No one should be in doubt that my children, daughters-in-law, and grandchildren are my great joy and pride. I now hope that we as a family can find the peace to find our way through this situation.”
Joachim’s rift doesn’t appear to just be with his mother. His older brother, Prince Frederik, who is heir apparent to the throne of Denmark, came out in support of Margrethe’s decision.
“My mother has made this decision alone, because it is what she can do and it is what she wants, and she thought now was the time to make a decision that I also support and see as the right thing to do,” Frederik said outside of a Copenhagen school where he attended an event in October 2022, People reported.
“I myself am interested in the Danish monarchy staying lean over time, so I, therefore, support my mother’s decision, which she has chosen to make,” he added.
When Emperor Naruhito ascended to power in 2019 after the abdication of his father, Emperor Akihito, his younger brother Crown Prince Akishino became first in line to the throne. However, there appeared to be a division between the two brothers about what the monarchy would now look like with Naruhito at the helm.
Months before Naruhito’s coronation, Akishino suggested the royal family pay for all expenses related to the ceremony and celebrations, rather than the Japanese government, according to ABC in Australia.
Akishino had previously requested in a speech to commemorate his 53rd birthday that the royal family also foot the bill for what is known as Daijosai, a religious ceremony performed when a new emperor is named. Akishino argued that since Japan’s constitution requires a separation between church and state, it wasn’t “appropriate” for the government to cover expenses related to the religious ceremony.
“It’s a royal family event, and it is highly religious,” Prince Akishino told reporters, according to ABC. “The question is if it is appropriate to use government funds to cover the cost of such a highly religious event.”
The cost of the ceremony performed for Emperor Akihito in 1989 was estimated to be around $27 million, according to ABC, and Naruhito’s Daijosai was estimated to cost around $20 million by today’s conversion rates.
Both Naruhito’s coronation and his Daijosai were paid for with public money.
Perhaps one of the biggest scandals to rock the royal family is that of the sexual-assault allegations against Prince Andrew and his connections to the late disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
In August 2021, Virginia Roberts Giuffre filed a lawsuit against Prince Andrew, accusing the prince of sexually assaulting her at Epstein’s mansion when she was 17.
The royal, who said he cut ties with Epstein, has repeatedly denied the allegations. (Epstein paid Giuffre $500,000 in a 2009 settlement agreement, without admitting liability or fault.)
In January 2022, Buckingham Palace announced it was stripping Andrew of his military titles, royal patronages, and HRH status in the fallout of the allegations.
A month later, a joint statement attached to a notice of settlement said Andrew would donate an undisclosed sum to Giuffre’s nonprofit advocating for victims of trafficking, Insider’s Jake Epstein and Jacob Shamsian reported. Andrew did not admit to sexually abusing Giuffre and did not disclose the amount of money he would pay, they reported.
In July 2022, royal expert Neil Sean claimed in a Fox News article that Andrew’s relationship with Charles was “virtually nonexistent.”
“Today the relationship is virtually nonexistent due to the extra workload that Charles and William have undertaken since the Queen has almost semi-retired now, which left Andrew to fill his time watching old movies on TV — visiting his mother at the castle and plotting that comeback which may now never happen,” he wrote for Fox News.
When Andrew attended an event honoring the late Queen alongside his family members in September 2022, a rare public sighting since the allegations were made public, a heckler called him a “sick old man.”
He was notably the only child of the Queen dressed in civilian attire, with royal expert Giselle Bastin, an associate professor at Flinders University in Australia, telling Time that the royal family hopes to draw as little attention to him as possible at public events.
“They don’t want it to be about William and Harry’s feud,” she said. “They don’t want it to be about Prince Andrew, and his potentially allegedly shady dealings with Jeffrey Epstein and so on.”
The Duke of York’s press office directed Insider to the joint statement released in February and declined to comment further. Buckingham Palace did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment on this story.
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