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[naath]

Died on this day in 1182 aged 46 Marie Blois I, Countess of Boulogne (my toy,wikipedia). Daughter of King Stephen. Marie was a nun, and eventually Abbess of Romsey, from where she was abducted and forced into marriage by Matthew of Alsace. 10 years later this marriage was annulled, and Marie once again became a nun.

Born on this day in 1797 to Prince Frederick of Hesse-Kassel and Princess Caroline of Nassau-Usingen, Princess Augusta of Hesse-Kassel (my toy,wikipedia). Daughter-in-law of George III (she married the Duke of Cambridge when she was 20 and he was 44), grandmother of Mary of Teck who married George V, also great-grand-daughter of George II (incest! yay!). Augusta lived mostly in Hanover, where her husband was viceroy for his brothers who were both Kings of both England and Hanover.

Comments

[lethargic-man.livejournal.com]

Born on this day in 1797 to Prince Frederick of Hesse-Kassel and Princess Caroline of Nassau-Usingen, Princess Augusta of Hesse-Kassel (my toy,wikipedia). Daughter-in-law of George III (she married the Duke of Cambridge when she was 20 and he was 44), grandmother of Mary of Teck who married George V, also great-grand-daughter of George II (incest! yay!).

Oy! There's nothing wrong with marrying your second cousin—my grandfather's brother did it, and I have to stick up for him! (Well, it's probably a bit dubious, genetically, if you keep doing it in your family, but as a once-off it's all right.) Even first-cousin marriage is non-incestuous.

[naath.livejournal.com]

Well, the rules about what is or is not incest vary a lot between times and places - the Catholic church in the Middle Ages was concerned up to something like 3rd or 4th cousins. Although I mostly think this was in order to get people to send the pope money to be allowed to marry anyway. In pharonic Egypt it was normal for Pharoes to marry their sisters...

The Royals were big on cousin marriage, I guess because it was Important to marry someone of similar social status; I made that remark because the incest (ish) makes it harder to choose the "shortest" route to the British crown, and also because I couldn't think of anything else to say about her.

Personally I don't get on that well with my cousins... so I find cousin-marriage a bit weird; although I assume it wasn't really about getting-on-with so much as parents-wanting-to-make-the-match.