{"id":1045,"date":"2025-01-31T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-01-31T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/hellomagazinev2\/?p=1045"},"modified":"2025-01-30T10:35:03","modified_gmt":"2025-01-30T10:35:03","slug":"royaltys-biggest-age-gap-relationships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/hellomagazinev2\/2025\/01\/31\/royaltys-biggest-age-gap-relationships\/","title":{"rendered":"Royalty’s biggest age-gap relationships"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Royalty’s biggest age-gap relationships<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
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Royals face many obstacles in the pursuit of true love \u2013 just ask Prince Harry \u2013 but age gaps have never been one. Indeed, such are the number of royal relationships where the age gap is less a gap and more a chasm, it almost feels like those blue bloods are genetically predisposed to intergenerational love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, sensibilities were somewhat different in years gone by, when wedding a young bride was the modus operandi for older royal men. Yet as we will show, large royal age-gap relationships aren\u2019t just confined to the annals. Indeed, one modern royal couple are divided by 32 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read on to discover their identity, and to find out some more royals for whom age gaps were or are but a number\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prince Charles and Princess Diana \u2013 12 years<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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The controversial royal couple<\/a> were first introduced when Diana was just 16 years old. After a courtship and a whirlwind of press attention worldwide, they announced their engagement in 1981 when Diana was 19 and Prince Charles was 32.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Neither appeared concerned about their 12-year age gap during interviews. Charles said: “I think that Diana will keep me young, apart from anything else.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I think I shall be exhausted,” the Prince of Wales joked in an interview<\/a>. “I haven’t somehow thought about it. I mean, it’s only 12 years, and lots of people have got married with that sort of age difference. I just feel you are as old as you think you are.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The future Princess of Wales echoed the sentiment, adding she had “never thought about it”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prince Charles acknowledged Diana would be stepping into a royal role at a young age but felt it wouldn\u2019t be an issue: “She will be 20 soon. I was about that age when I started. It’s obviously difficult to start with, but you just have to plunge in.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marie de Medici and King Henry IV of France \u2013 19 years<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Marie and the French king married in 1600. She was part of the powerful Medici family, an Italian banking dynasty that ruled Florence and Tuscany. Marie, 27, brought substantial wealth in the form of a dowry to the 46-year-old monarch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The marriage was carried out by proxy and there was a 19 year age gap between them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marie bore six children including the future king Louis XIII, but her relationship with King Henry was strained as a result of his infidelity. In 1610, Henry was assassinated and Marie became regent for her young son but refused to give up power when he came of age, ruling France until her exile in 1617.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prince Albert of Monaco and Princess Charlene \u2013 20 years<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Princess Charlene, then Charlene Wittstock, was an Olympic swimmer competing for South Africa at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, the same year she met her future husband Prince Albert.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a while before the couple went public with their romance, and they wed 11 years after their first meeting. Charlene was 33 while Albert was 53, meaning the couple have a 20 year age gap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They welcomed twins, Prince Jaques and Princess Gabriella, in December 2014.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Infante Luis Fernando of Spain and Marie Say \u2013 31 years<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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A highly controversial royal marriage, the union between Luis and widow Marie proved it wasn\u2019t always the man who was the significantly older party (though it was very much the exception that proved the rule).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Luis was the youngest son of Infante Antonio, Duke of Galliera and Infanta Eulalia of Spain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1924, the young prince was expelled from France and Spain for allegedly trading in illegal drugs. The king of Spain deprived him of the privileges of the Infante title, and Luis moved to Lisbon where he was arrested two years later at the border between Spain and Portugal dressed as a woman with smuggled goods in his possession.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His troubles didn\u2019t stymie his romantic endeavours, and in 1930 he became engaged to Marie Say, the widow of another prince, Henri Am\u00e9d\u00e9e de Broglie, Prince de Broglie. Luis was 41 and his prospective bride was 72.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Incensed by the match, Marie’s nephew, Fran\u00e7ois de Coss\u00e9, 11th Duke of Brissac, brought about a lawsuit to try and stop the wedding, claiming that his aunt was mentally incompetent. Three doctors investigated Marie’s sanity and found nothing amiss as the couple wed later that year in both a religious and civil ceremony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the marriage lasted another thirteen years until Marie’s death in 1943, Luis was arrested in a vice squad raid and expelled from France for a second time in 1935. A book written by the 12th Duke of Brissac said his great-aunt had died destitute as Luis had spent the majority of her fortune.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lady Kitty Spencer and Michael Lewis \u2013 32 years<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Lady Kitty is the niece of the late Princess Diana. After introductions via mutual friends in 2018, the couple became official a year later and married in an extravagant ceremony at Villa Aldobrandini in Frascati, Italy in 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lady Kitty was 30 at the time, and Michael was 62, making their age difference 32 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite this disparity, there is plenty to connect the couple. Michael is from South Africa and Lady Kitty and her two sisters were brought up there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michael is chairman of the Foschini Group, which owns high street shops including Whistles and Phase Eight. He is estimated to be worth \u00a380 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The couple share a daughter, Athena, who will be two in April this year. In an interview with Tatler<\/em><\/a>, Kitty described her as: “very outdoorsy and like a little spinning top”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adeliza of Louvain and King Henry I of England \u2013 36 years<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adeliza is a fascinating figure in history, born in what is now Belgium in around 1103 and married to Henry I of England when she was just 18 years old and he was 54, 36 years her senior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Legend has it that Adeliza was very beautiful. Her husband Henry had two legitimate children and many illegitimate children, but throughout the entirety of their 15-year marriage Adeliza never became pregnant, though curiously in her second marriage she bore seven children before retiring to a convent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mary Stewart and James Hamilton, 1st Lord Hamilton \u2013 39 years<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The eldest daughter of King James II of Scotland and Mary of Guelders, Mary was just 13 when she married her first husband, Thomas Boyd, in 1467, bringing the Isle of Arran as a dowry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The king at the time, James III, sent Thomas to escort his new bride, Margaret, from Denmark. While he was away, Thomas was falsely accused of treason, and summoned to answer the charges against him. Hearing the news and fearing for her husband’s life, Mary raced to the dock where Thomas’s ship was arriving to warn him of the impending danger, and they both sailed to Denmark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mary’s fidelity to her husband is something to be admired. When he was detained, she returned to Scotland to clear his name, but her brother detained her until her marriage to Thomas could be annulled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She was then forced to marry James Hamilton, whom she wed in 1474 with almost 40 years between them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They had three children and Mary died in 1488 aged just 35. James had several illegitimate children, so their marriage may not have been a happy one, but their offspring went on to be key players in the political landscape of Scotland, influencing the reign of Mary, Queen of Scots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Margaret of France and King Edward I of England \u2013 40 years<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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The path to marriage was a complex one for Margaret and Edward. When Edward’s first wife, Eleanor of Castile, died in 1290, the couple only had one surviving son out of the 16 she had borne. In need of more male heirs, Edward betrothed his son to Blanche of France, the half-sister of King Philip IV. The idea was to bring peace between England and France, but what happened next meant the diplomatic engagement spectacularly backfired.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Edward, hearing of Blanche’s beauty, decided that he and not his son would marry her. He sent emissaries to the French king, who agreed to the match on the condition that Edward give up the province of Gascony and have a truce with France.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Edward was double-crossed. Blanche was to be married to the eldest son of King Albert I of Germany instead. In an attempt to placate Edward, King Philip offered him Blanche’s younger sister Margaret, but Edward, spurned and misled, declared war on France, which raged for five years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eventually it was agreed 60-year-old Edward would marry Margaret, who was around 20 years old, and his son would marry Philip’s daughter. England was given land and money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite their 40-year age difference, the royal couple had three children together and Margaret did not remarry after Edward died, despite being a widow at only 28. She reportedly said: “when Edward died, all men died for me”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Catherine of Saxony and Sigismund, Archduke of Austria \u2013 40 years<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Catherine came from aristocratic stock as the daughter of a duke and Bohemian princess, and in 1484, aged 16, married Archduke Sigismund. At 56 years old, he was 40 years her senior. The marriage produced no children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the same year Sigismund died, Catherine, aged 28, married Eric I, Duke of Brunswick-L\u00fcneburg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Princess Emma of Waldeck-Pyrmont and King Willem III \u2013 41 years<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Emma, princess of the small German principality of Waldeck and Pyrmont, became Queen of the Netherlands when she married King Willem III in 1879. She was his second wife; his first, Sophie of W\u00fcrttemberg, had died two years previously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

King Willem was much older than his 20-year-old bride \u2013 41 years to be exact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He had three children from his first marriage, the youngest of whom was seven years older than Emma, and the two surviving sons attended their nuptials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They welcomed a child of their own in 1880, a daughter who would become the future Queen Wilhelmina. King Willem outlived both his remaining children and retired from public life shortly after the death of his third son.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Queen Emma took on the role of nurse to her ailing husband, and three days before his death became regent. It was a position she retained until Wilhelmina came of age in 1898.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She was the first female ruler of the Netherlands in a century, and worked diligently on maintaining political relations, meeting with each government minister every two weeks to ensure she was kept up to date with the political situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maria Leopoldine of Austria-Este and Charles Theodore, Elector of Bavaria \u2013 52 years<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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The largest royal age-gap relationship in the list is also one of the most ill fated. While 18-year-old Maria may at first have consented to wed 70 year-old Charles, the marriage was doomed from the outset.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Charles had no legitimate children from his first marriage and required a son for succession, so he solicited a marriage with an Archduchess of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine, a noble house that would give legitimacy to his heirs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The wedding took place in 1795 in the Innsbruck Hofburg, a grand palace in Austria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ostensibly a result of the 52-year age gap between husband and wife, Maria struggled within the marriage, reportedly refusing to perform her marital duties and avoiding her elderly spouse in favour of younger company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She had affairs with multiple men and cut ties with her family from Austria, aligning herself instead with Charles’s main rivals, who would inherit his title and lands should he die without issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Charles died in 1799 after suffering a stroke and Maria became Dowager Electoress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She would lead a complicated life, retiring for two years in self-imposed exile as she became pregnant while unmarried. She later married then separated from her second husband, Count Ludwig Joseph von Arco, whom she had three children with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1825 she was travelling by carriage to Salzburg when it crashed and overturned, crushing her beneath. She was freed after a few hours but died soon after from fatal internal injuries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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BY<\/strong> MILLIE JACKSON<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Royalty’s biggest age-gap relationships Royals face many obstacles in the pursuit of true love \u2013 just ask Prince Harry \u2013 but age gaps have never been one. Indeed, such are the number of royal relationships where the age gap is less a gap and more a chasm, it almost feels like those blue bloods are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":1051,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-royals","category-top-stories"],"acf":{"article_authors":"","send_as_draft":false,"send_as_paid":true,"send_as_featured":false},"modified_by":"MIllie Jackson","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/hellomagazinev2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/hellomagazinev2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/hellomagazinev2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/hellomagazinev2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/hellomagazinev2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1045"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/hellomagazinev2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1045\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1065,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/hellomagazinev2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1045\/revisions\/1065"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/hellomagazinev2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/hellomagazinev2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/hellomagazinev2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/hellomagazinev2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}