On this day in 1246, queen consort of England as the second wife of King John, from 1200 until John’s death in 1216, renowned beauty, the “Helen” of the Middle Ages, and mother of the future King Henry III, Isabella of Angoulême died at Fontevraud Abbey in France at the approximate age of 57.
The Final Footprint – By her own prior arrangement, she was first buried in the Abbey’s churchyard, as an act of repentance for her many misdeeds. On a visit to Fontevraud, Henry III was shocked to find his mother buried outside the Abbey and ordered her immediately moved inside. She was finally placed beside Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine.
On this day in 1809, composer, “Father of the Symphony” and “Father of the String Quartet”, Joseph Haydn died at his home in the Vienna suburb of Gumpendorf, at the age of 77. Born Franz Joseph Haydn on 31 March 1732 in Rohrau, Austria. Haydn spent much of his career as a court musician for the wealthy Esterházy family at their remote estate. Until the later part of his life, this isolated him from other composers and trends in music so that he was, as he put it, “forced to become original”. Yet his music circulated widely, and for much of his career he was the most celebrated composer in Europe.Haydn was a prolific and prominent composer of the Classical period. He was reportedly a friend of Mozart and a teacher of Beethoven.
The Final Footprint – Some of his last words reportedly were attempts to calm and reassure his servants as the French army under Napoleon launched an attack on Vienna: “My children, have no fear, for where Haydn is, no harm can fall.” On 15 June 1809, a memorial service was held in the Schottenkirche at which Mozart’s Requiem was performed. Haydn’s remains were interred in the local Hundsturm cemetery until 1820, when they were moved to the Bergkirche in Eisenstadt, Austria by Prince Nikolaus. His head took a different journey; it was stolen by phrenologists shortly after burial, and the skull was reunited with the other remains only in 1954.
#RIP #OTD in 2013 actress of stage, television (All in the Family) film (Up the Down Staircase) Jean Stapleton died at her apartment in Manhattan aged 90. Lincoln Cemetery in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania
#RIP #OTD 2014 actress (Some Came Running, The Sons of Katie Elder, The Chase), screenwriter (Rooster Cogburn) Martha Hyer died from natural causes in Santa Fe, aged 89. Great Mausoleum, Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, California
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