Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild.
Speaker 2: Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
Speaker 2: is an open book, all of these amazing tales are
Speaker 2: right there on display, just waiting for us to explore.
Speaker 2: Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. What would you consider
Speaker 2: to be a good legacy for all of human history?
Speaker 2: People have wondered this. Is it an estate to leave
Speaker 2: to your children, grandchildren and so on? Is it a
Speaker 2: name that your descendants can.
Speaker 1: Be proud of? Is it a statue or a monument?
Speaker 1: You don't have to be a king or a head
Speaker 1: of state to have this kind of thought. Death is certain,
Speaker 1: so we all hope that some part of us can
Speaker 1: live on, if not through our family or our work,
Speaker 1: then through the ways in which we are remembered by
Speaker 1: our communities. Or to quote the great Bruce Lee, the
Speaker 1: key to immortality is first living a life worth remembering.
Speaker 1: But when you achieve a position of great influence, this
Speaker 1: question is practically decided for you. Whether you do good
Speaker 1: or great evil, you will always appear on some list
Speaker 1: of royalty or prime minister or generals. A title for
Speaker 1: better or worse is a guarantee that you are an
Speaker 1: exceptional person. If you go to Rome and you visit
Speaker 1: the papal Basilica of Saint Paul, outside of the walls,
Speaker 1: you will see a ring of mosaic portraits lining the walls.
Speaker 1: Each of these shows, in order, the line of popes
Speaker 1: leading back to the early four hundreds. It's an impressive
Speaker 1: piece of work, but I would draw your attention to
Speaker 1: one of these portraits. The pope between Benedict the sixth
Speaker 1: and Benedict the seventh. He's known as Pope Donnis the Second,
Speaker 1: and he reigned sometime in the nine seventies. And this was,
Speaker 1: to put it mildly, a pretty chaotic time for papal history.
Speaker 1: All throughout the Middle Ages, conflict within the Christian Faith
Speaker 1: led to several so called anti popes, people who claimed
Speaker 1: to be the true pontiff in defiance of the Roman
Speaker 1: Catholic Church. And it appears that the reign of Pope
Speaker 1: Donnis the Second was during the brief reign of the
Speaker 1: anti Pope Bonifice the seventh, who claimed to be pope
Speaker 1: for approximately a month in nine seventy four. Now, the
Speaker 1: funny thing about antipopes is that while none of them
Speaker 1: were seen as legitimate, men like Bonifice the seventh, would
Speaker 1: have a ripple effect on papal history. The next pope
Speaker 1: who wanted to choose the name Boniface would go for
Speaker 1: Bonifice the eighth rather than share a name with a
Speaker 1: former anti pope. Pope Donnis the Second, however, was no antipope,
Speaker 1: even if his reign was similarly brief. According to some records,
Speaker 1: it lasted for only three months between August and October
Speaker 1: of nine seventy four. He is remembered in papal histories
Speaker 1: as an honorable man of great integrity. And if that
Speaker 1: sounds like a generic, if maybe complementary, description of a pope,
Speaker 1: well there's a reason for that. It was common knowledge
Speaker 1: that the roster of popes was flawed, but it wasn't
Speaker 1: until nineteen forty seven that they finally conducted an audit
Speaker 1: of the official papal list. It turned up several bizarre
Speaker 1: errors and contradictions. For instance, Pope Anaclidus was listed as
Speaker 1: two different people, a number of popes were absent from
Speaker 1: the official count. And then there's Pope Donnis the Second,
Speaker 1: Monsignor Angelo Murcadi, the Vatican Archivist, determined that Donnis the
Speaker 1: Second never actually existed. Now, there was a Pope Donas
Speaker 1: who held the title in the six seventies, but the
Speaker 1: successor for the name appears to have been a clerical error.
Speaker 1: His predecessor, Pope Benedict the sixth, was listed with the
Speaker 1: title Dominus d Sutrie after his name in the year
Speaker 1: nine seventy four. Early record keepers appeared to have mistaken
Speaker 1: Dominus for another pope rather than an honorific title. The
Speaker 1: mural at Saint Paul's was created in the eighteenth century,
Speaker 1: long after the hopes of the Middle Ages were deceased,
Speaker 1: and thus it was perfectly normal for the artists to
Speaker 1: imagine what someone looked like based on the existing records,
Speaker 1: and yet the artwork outside of Saint Paul's remains. The
Speaker 1: portrait of Pope Donnis the Second, entirely fictionalized, stands alongside
Speaker 1: real men who lived at the same time. Due to
Speaker 1: an honest mistake, an imaginary man was memorialized in his
Speaker 1: own place of honor, like giving a tombstone to a typo.
Speaker 1: And it really does beg the question for us if
Speaker 1: someone who never existed can have such a robust legacy,
Speaker 1: who's to say that ordinary people like you and I
Speaker 1: can't and honestly, past a certain point of record keeping,
Speaker 1: That's all history is stories we've agreed to tell each
Speaker 1: other for so many centuries that they've practically become true,
Speaker 1: or at least until someone who's curious enough bothers to
Speaker 1: check your sources. Despite being a royal, Alexandra did not
Speaker 1: have a glamorous upbringing. She came from modest beginnings but
Speaker 1: would become a true storybook. Princess Alexander was born into
Speaker 1: the Danish royal family in eighteen forty four. Her family
Speaker 1: didn't have a last name in the modern sense that
Speaker 1: you and I would recognize. They were known as the
Speaker 1: House of Slushwig Holstein Sunderberg Glucksburg, but a traditional last
Speaker 1: name definitely would have made recording this episode easier. Her
Speaker 1: parents were fairly low in the royal line of succession.
Speaker 1: Her dad was the king's second cousin and her mom
Speaker 1: was his niece, making them I guess double second cousins.
Speaker 1: Today that might get some sideways glances, but that was
Speaker 1: actually pretty mild incest. By nineteenth century royal family standards,
Speaker 1: everything changed though, in eighteen forty eight, when the king
Speaker 1: died and his son took the throne, the son had
Speaker 1: no male heirs, and so a council was held to
Speaker 1: determine the line of succession, and ultimately it was decided
Speaker 1: that none other than Alexandra's father would become the new
Speaker 1: Prince of Denmark. Now, surprisingly, this didn't come with much
Speaker 1: in the way of wealth. Alexandra, her parents, and her
Speaker 1: siblings all lived in a town home in Copenhagen. It
Speaker 1: was a decent place to live by most standards, but
Speaker 1: far from a palace. Heck, Alexandra lived in the attic
Speaker 1: with her sister Dagmar, and both of the girls waited
Speaker 1: tables at a local restaurant, which wasn't actually very easy
Speaker 1: for Alexandra. She was partially deaf in one ear, which
Speaker 1: made it difficult to hear the customer's orders. She also
Speaker 1: had a scar on her neck from a childhood accident,
Speaker 1: which she had to cover with a choker necklace. Now,
Speaker 1: even though they were working class people, they did receive
Speaker 1: some perks as royals. The children had a tutor, a
Speaker 1: kind man who would tell them stories and taught them
Speaker 1: to read and write in English. This was important as
Speaker 1: England dominated European politics at the time, with Queen Victoria
Speaker 1: ruling since before Alexandra was born, and then in eighteen
Speaker 1: sixty three the king died and Alexandra's father took the throne.
Speaker 1: Alexandra and Dagmar suddenly became prime targets for marriages to
Speaker 1: other royal families. That same year, Alexandra's royal ties and
Speaker 1: strong education brought her to the attention of none other
Speaker 1: than Queen Victoria herself. She was looking for a bride
Speaker 1: for her son, Prince Edward. The two were married that
Speaker 1: same year. Alexandra was officially a Princess of Wales, the
Speaker 1: traditional title given to the wife of the heir to
Speaker 1: the English throne. A few years later, in eighteen sixty six,
Speaker 1: Dagmar married the Prince of Russia. They also had a
Speaker 1: brother who became the King of Greece. Their family had
Speaker 1: truly moved up in the world. Once in England, Alexandra
Speaker 1: encountered a decadent society, far removed from her life as
Speaker 1: a waitress. Edward and his friends loved to party, and
Speaker 1: Edward had many affairs. Alexandra took all this in stride.
Speaker 1: She focused on her home and soon their children. She
Speaker 1: had six of them between eighteen six sixty four in
Speaker 1: eighteen seventy one, almost one per year. This was incredibly
Speaker 1: taxing on her body, and it led her to catching
Speaker 1: a fever, which in turn resulted in her having a
Speaker 1: permanent stiffness in her right leg. She limped from there
Speaker 1: on out. With her limp, her next scar and partial deafness,
Speaker 1: she became very self conscious. She continued to wear choker
Speaker 1: necklaces and tried to have her dresses tailored to hide
Speaker 1: the limp. She smoked cigarettes to deal with the stress
Speaker 1: of being a princess, and this was uncommon for women
Speaker 1: at the time, but she used a cigarette holder to
Speaker 1: look more elegant. Before Alexandra realized what was happening, the
Speaker 1: young women in England began to take up the same habit.
Speaker 1: They also wore choker necklaces, and some of them even
Speaker 1: wore mismatt shoes and used a cane to imitate her limp,
Speaker 1: and at first she may have thought that they were
Speaker 1: mocking her. Her husband wasn't that popular. Actually, he was
Speaker 1: seen as a lazy playboy, so it would figure that
Speaker 1: the public would come after Alexandra too. But in actuality.
Speaker 1: When interviewed, many of the young women imitating Alexander's style
Speaker 1: and limp admired her. She seemed like a kind and
Speaker 1: down to earth leader compared to her husband. It was
Speaker 1: a rare case of a disability giving rise to a
Speaker 1: fashion trend. Edward became king after Victoria's death in nineteen
Speaker 1: oh one. His rule is generally overshadowed by his mother's
Speaker 1: as well as by his sons. George the Fifth took
Speaker 1: the throne in nineteen ten after Edward's death, and his
Speaker 1: mother was always close by his side. Alexander herself is
Speaker 1: often overshadowed by the more famous members of her family,
Speaker 1: but her childhood tutor remained proud of the little girl
Speaker 1: he helped crow into a real life princess. He recognized
Speaker 1: the power of her story and her personal growth, and
Speaker 1: he would know because he made his own mark on
Speaker 1: history as a lover of classic tales. The man who
Speaker 1: gave Us The Little Mermaid Hans Christian Anderson. I hope
Speaker 1: you enjoyed today's guided tour through the Cabinet of Curios.
Speaker 1: This show was created by me Aaron Manke in partnership
Speaker 1: with iHeart Podcasts. Researched and written by the Grim and
Speaker 1: Mild team and produced by Jesse Funk. Learn more about
Speaker 1: the show and the people who make it over at
Speaker 1: Grimandmild dot com slash Curiosities. You'll also find a link
Speaker 1: to the official Cabinet of Curiosity's hardcover book, available in
Speaker 1: bookstores and online, as well as ebook and audiobook. And
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Speaker 1: next time, stay curious.