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Louis XVII.

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Princess Irene of Greece, granddaughter of Olga Konstantinovna.

Irene was the second daughter of King Constantine I and Queen Sophie; her younger sister was Katherine and her older sister was Helen, known as Sitta. All three of her brothers - George II, Alexander I, and Paul I - served as Kings of Greece. She was born in 1904 and thus the same age as Alexei Nikolaevich. After several failed (or perhaps merely rumored?) engagements, she married Italian prince Aimone, Duke of Aosta in 1939, and had one son, Amedeo, in 1943.

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Portrait of Louis XIV as a child in Coronation robes. Attributed to Henri Testelin.

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As a scion of the Leopoldian line of the Habsburgs, Frederick IV (1382-1439) ruled Further Austria and the County of Tyrol from 1406. In 1407 he married Elisabeth of the Palatinate; on her death in 1408 he remarried Anna of Brunswick Wolfenbüttel, with whom he had Margaret (1423-1424), Hedwig (1424-1427), Wolfgang (1426) and Sigismund (1427-1496). Sigismund married twice: the first with Eleanor of Scotland (daughter of James I) and the second with Catherine of Saxony. Neither of his marriages produced any offspring, consequently the Tyrolean line of the Habsburgs died out in 1496.

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Marie de Guise, Queen of Scotland. By William Essex.

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Empress Margaret Theresa of Spain by Jan Thomas van Ieperen.

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One for old times....

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Elena Stefanovna of Moldavia (1464/66-1505) was a daughter of Stephen III of Moldavia, who later became the grand princess consort of Moscow in 1483 as the wife of Ivan the Young, the heir of Ivan III of Russia.

After her husband's death in 1490, their son Dmitry Ivanovich was made co-ruler in 1498 until her faction lost in 1502; she and her son were then imprisoned.

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Empress Joséphine by Henri-François Riesener.

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The Battle of Kulikovo. By Adolphe Yvon.

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James IV, King of Scotland. By William Essex.

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Portrait of Prince Alexander Mikhailovich Beloselsky and his Family in a landscape. By Johann Christian Klengel.

The House of Belosselsky-Belozersky is a Rurikid Russian princely family that descends in a direct male line from the Earliest Kievan Rus rulers and later of the medieval sovereigns of the Principality of Beloozero.

The family traces its patrimonic, father-to-son roots throughout the ruling houses of Russia until the mid 16th century, to Yuri Dolgoruky (founder of Moscow) and his grandsons who were grand-dukes/princes of Kiev as well as of Rostov, Vladimir-Suzdal principality. After the ascendance of Ivan Kalita ("Moneybags") and the Romanov dynasty, the family were rulers of the Belozersk (White Lake) principality, north of Moscow. Gleb Vassilkovich was the first Belozersky prince to rule there.

While on one of the required annual visits to Sarai, the headquarters of the Golden Horde, near today's Astrakhan, to renew his patent (yarlik) received from the reigning Khan and ruler of the Golden Horde Sartak Khan, allowing thus Gleb to rule and tax his lands for another year. On this visit, Gleb married Feodora, Sartak's daughter Feodora Sartakovna, also granddaughter of the Mongol ruler Batu Khan and great-great-granddaughter of Genghis Khan. Gleb Vassilkovich thus consolidated the power of the dominant Tatar-Mongol rulers and the Belozersky clan.

The offspring of Gleb and Feodora Sartakovna, the current Belosselsky-Belozersky family, are thus descendants of Genghis Khan as well as of the founder of Russia, Prince Rurik. Subsequently, the family, after having lost the majority of its men in the historical "watershed" battle for Russia's independence, the battle of Kulikovo in 1380, against the Tatar-Mongol dominance, the few remaining Belozersky princes slowly lost the control of the lands in the Belo Ozero/Belozersk principality area (White Lake). The family was relegated thereafter to a more minor ruling role over the lands of "Belo Selo" south of Belozersk ("Belosselsky" - of White Village) when the Moscow principality led by Moscow Romanovs were slowly taking control over all the former semi-independent principalities of Russia.

After a period of lesser prominence, but still providing military and political leaders, it became a major factor in support to Peter the Great's reforms, in building the Russian navy and providing diplomats and military leaders. In early 1800 Alexander Mikhailovich Belosselsky-Belozersky, due to his significant contributions to Russia in diplomacy, science and culture, was granted the right to bear the double princely name of Belosselsky-Belozersky from Emperor Paul I, in recognition of the Belosselsky branch being the single remaining such branch of the princes having ruled Belo Ozero and being of the Belozersky dynasty.

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Philip the Fair (Philip the Handsome), Lord of the Netherlands. By Louis Gallait.

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Queen Adélaïde by William Essex.

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The Capture of Kazan by Ivan the Terrible. By Grigory Ugryumov.

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Charles de Blois (1319-1364), nephew of King Philip VI of France, was a French nobleman, Baron of Mayenne and Lord of Guise, who became Count of Penthièvre by marrying the granddaughter of the Duke of Brittany Arthur II, niece of Duke John III.

Appointed successor to John III, but opposed by John de Montfort, half-brother of John III, he became involved in the War of the Breton Succession (1341-1364), which took place at the same time as the start of the Hundred Years' War between France and England. He died on the battlefield of Auray, which marked the defeat of the House of Penthièvre, supported by the King of France.

He was beatified in 1904. His feast day is 29 September in general, but 12 October in Brittany.

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Joan of Penthièvre (1319-1384), known as the Lame, was Duchess of Brittany from 1341 to 1364. She also held the titles of Lady of Mayenne, Avaugour, l'Aigle and Châtelaudren, Countess of Penthièvre and Goëllo and Viscountess of Limoges. She was the daughter of Guy de Bretagne and Jeanne d'Avaugour, Countess of Goëllo.

When Jean III, Duke of Brittany, died without direct heirs in 1341, she took up arms to assert her rights to the succession of Brittany against Jean de Montfort, her uncle and husband of Jeanne de Flandre, which gave rise to the War of the Breton Succession.

Joan had lost the ducal title and powers of Brittany for her descendants, and despite attempts to reclaim the ducal crown the loss was permanent. However, her descendants were appointed from time to time to high administrative posts in Brittany under the future Kings of France. Her title and rights as Countess of Penthièvre were inherited, only to be lost from time to time to the Duke of Brittany, as her descendants continued their conflicts with the House of Montfort.