Elizaveta Petrovna, also known as Yelisavet and Elizabeth, was the Empress of Russia (1741–1762) who took the country into the War of Austrian Succession (1740–1748) and the Seven Years' War (1756–1763). On the eve of her death in 1762, the...

Francis I was Holy Roman Emperor and Grand Duke of Tuscany, though his wife effectively executed the real power of those positions. With his wife, Maria Theresa, he was the founder of the Habsburg-Lorraine dynasty. From 1728 until 1737 he w...

Willem, Count Bentinck, Lord of Rhoon and Pendrecht was a Dutch nobleman and politician, and the eldest son from the second marriage of William Bentinck, 1st Earl of Portland. He was created Count (Graf) Bentinck of the Holy Roman Empire in...

Charles VII was the prince-elector of Bavaria from 1726 and Holy Roman Emperor from 24 January 1742 until his death in 1745. A member of the House of Wittelsbach, Charles was the first person not born of the House of Habsburg to become empe...

Unico Wilhelm, Count van Wassenaer Obdam, was a Dutch nobleman who was a diplomat, composer, and administrator. He reorganized the Bailiwick of Utrecht of the Teutonic Order. His most important surviving compositions are the Concerti Armoni...

Frederick William I was the King in Prussia and Elector of Brandenburg (as Frederick William II) from 1713 until his death. He was in personal union the sovereign prince of the Principality of Neuchâtel. The King acquired a reputation fo...

Landgravine Marie Louise of Hesse-Kassel was a daughter of Charles I, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel and Maria Amalia of Courland. By her marriage to John William Friso, Prince of Orange, she became Princess consort of Orange, a title last held...

Charles VI was the penultimate Habsburg sovereign of the Habsburg Empire. He succeeded his elder brother, Joseph I, as Holy Roman Emperor, King of Bohemia, Croatia and Hungary, Archduke of Austria, etc., in 1711. He unsuccessfully claimed t...

Catherine I, the second wife of Peter I of Russia, reigned as Empress of Russia from 1725 until her death. The life of Catherine I was said by Voltaire to be nearly as extraordinary as that of Peter the Great himself. There are no documents...

Philip V (Spanish: Felipe V, French: Philippe;) was King of Spain from 1 November 1700 to 15 January 1724, when he abdicated in favour of his son Louis, and from 6 September 1724, when he assumed the throne again upon his son's death, to hi...

George II was King of Great Britain and Ireland. He was the last British monarch to have been born outside of Great Britain, and was famous for his numerous conflicts with his father and, subsequently, with his son. As King, he exercised li...

Charles XII (Swedish: Karl XII) was the King of Sweden from 1697 to 1718. Charles was the only surviving son of King Charles XI of Sweden and Ulrika Eleonora the Elder, and he assumed the crown at the age of fifteen, at the death of his fat...

Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor, King of Bohemia, King of Hungary, King of the Romans was the elder son of Emperor Leopold I and his third wife, Eleonore-Magdalena of Pfalz-Neuburg, who was the daughter of Philipp Wilhelm, Elector Palatine. Bo...

Ahmed III was Sultan of the Ottoman Empire and a son of Sultan Mehmed IV (1648–87). His mother was Mâh-Pâre Ummatullah (Emetullah) Râbi'a Gül-Nûs; Valide Sultan, originally named Evmania Voria, who was an ethnic Greek. He was born at Hajiog...

Peter the Great ruled the Tsardom of Russia and later the Russian Empire from 7 May 1682 until his death, jointly ruling before 1696 with his elder half-brother, Ivan V. Through a number of successful wars he expanded the Tsardom into a muc...