September 23

John I, Duke of Lorraine died on the 23rd in 1390. He was an aristocrat and discovered very early that simply being born into the aristocracy, while having innumerable advantages, puts huge amounts of pressure on your path in life. He had become Duke of Lorraine when his father, Rudolf, died in battle on August 26, 1346. John was just six months old at the time. Not a bad entry on his resume, don’t you agree? Records however are meant to be broken. Almost two centuries later, Mary I, Queen of Scots, technically became Queen of Scotland after her father, James V, died on December 14, 1542. She was six days old when she assumed the mantel of power.