Lady Juliana

Lady Juliana was a woman who lived at the court of Mughal emperor Akbar. She is said to have been the physician in charge of Akbar's royal harem, and to have married the legendary Bourbon prince Jean-Philippe de Bourbon-Navarre, and to have been the sister of one of Akbar's wives. She is credited with building the first church in Agra (now in India).

Origins

Lady Juliana was the sister of Akbar's Christian wife and was the physician in charge of the royal harem. At some point these sisters were brought to Agra.

One account is that Juliana and her sister were the daughters of Abdul Hai, Akbar's Chief Justice and that they were from Cilicia in Western Armenia.

Rev. Thomas Smith, an historian, scholar and journalist who was born into an Indo-Armenian family in Agra reports Lady Juliana as Armenian and given to Jean-Phillipe by Akbar.

In Prince Michael of Greece's research on the descendants of Jean-Phillipe de Bourbon, he feels "certain that he [Jean-Phillipe] was the son of Charles III, the Constable of France, the richest and most famous and powerful member of the family". In Prince Michael's book Le Rajah de Bourbon, Jean-Phillipe married the Portuguese sister of the Christian wife of Akbar, was also given a large amount of land and became a Rajah (king) in India. His subsequent marriage to Lady Juliana after she tended to him during a severe illness and was then gifted to him by Akbar, produced a long line of Bourbons in Bhopal, India.

Others too, have claimed her as Portuguese but research published by Zaman in 2012 has disputed Portuguese scholar, J. A. Ismael Gracias's belief that Akbar's wife or her sister were Portuguese. Many other ladies were also named Juliana.

Life in India Akbar allegedly arranged Juliana's marriage to Prince Jean Philippe de Bourbon of France in 1560 and paid for the construction of the church they built in 1562.

Death According to the Agra Mission archives, she was buried with her husband in the church they established in 1562, although their remains were never found. Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan had the church demolished in 1636. The Native chapel was rebuilt over the site and in the compound of St Peter's Roman Catholic Cathedral.