The Descent of King Haakon VII of Norway from King Friedrich-Wilhelm III of Prussia.

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Carl XV of Sweden-Norway, Frederick of the Netherlands, Frederick VIII of Denmark, Frederick William III of Prussia, Geneaology, Haakon VII of Norway, Louise of Prussia, Louise of Sweden, Louise of the Netherlands

Yesterday, August 3, was the anniversary of the birthday of King Friedrich-Wilhelm III of Prussia (1770 – 1840) and King Haakon VII of Norway (1873 – 1957). I noticed that the two looked similar and sure enough King Friedrich-Wilhelm III of Prussia is the great-great grandfather of King Haakon VII of Norway. I do find it fascinating how genes are passed throughout the Royal Houses of Europe.

Friedrich-Wilhelm III of Prussia

King Haakon VII of Norway

Here is how King Haakon VII of Norway descends from King Friedrich-Wilhelm III of Prussia.

Friedrich-Wilhelm III was King of Prussia from 1797 to 1840. Friedrich-Wilhelm was born in Potsdam in 1770 as the son of Friedrich-Wilhelm II of Prussia and Frederica-Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt. On December 24, 1793, Friedrich-Wilhelm married Luise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, the fourth daughter and sixth child of Duke Charles of Mecklenburg-Strelitz and his wife Princess Friederike of Hesse-Darmstadt. (the two Frederika’s of Hesse-Darmstadt mentioned here were first cousins).

Friedrich-Wilhelm III and Luise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz had 10 children and the the third surviving daughter and ninth child was Princess Louise of Prussia (February 1, 1808 – December 6, 1870).

Louise of Prussia

Frederick of the Netherlands

Louise was born in Königsberg or Berlin. She and Prince Frederick of the Netherlands knew each other from childhood because of Frederick’s frequent visits in Berlin. They became engaged in 1823, and married on May 21, 1825 in Berlin.

Louise of Prussia and Prince Frederick of the Netherlands, Prince of Orange-Nassau were also first cousins with him being the son of the second son of Willem I of the Netherlands and his wife, Wilhelmine of Prussia. His mother, Princess Wilhelmine, was born in Potsdam. She was the fourth child of eight born to King Friedrich-Wilhelm II of Prussia and Frederica-Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt and was the sister to Friedrich-Wilhelm III.

They had four children, and the eldest was Louise of the Netherlands (August 5, 1828 – March 30, 1871). In 1849, Louise was selected as a suitable spouse for Crown Prince Carl, the son of King Oscar I of Sweden and Norway and Josephine of Leuchtenberg. The marriage was arranged after the negotiations to arrange a marriage between Carl and his cousin Princess Louise of Prussia had failed.

Louise of the Netherlands

King Carl XV-IV of Sweden-Norway

Her husband, Carl XV (May 3, 1826 – September 18, 1872) was King of Sweden (Carl XV) and Norway, there often referred to accurately as Carl IV, from 1859 until his death.

Louisa and Carl XV had two children together. The eldest Louise of Sweden (October 31, 1851 – March 20, 1926), was Queen of Denmark as the spouse of King Frederik VIII, the eldest son and child of Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg (future King Christian IX of Denmark) and Princess Louise of Hesse-Cassel-Rumpenheim.

future Frederik VIII of Denmark and Louise of Sweden. (Parents)

She was the mother of both King Christian X of Denmark and King Haakon VII of Norway.

Haakon VII (born Prince Carl of Denmark; August 3, 1872 – September 21, 1957) was the King of Norway from his election in 1905 until his death in 1957.

August 3, 1872: Birth of King Haakon VII of Norway

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Christian IX, Christian X of Denmark, Frederick VIII of Denmark, King Haakon VII of Norway, Kingdom of Norway, Prince Carl of Denmark, Princess Maud of Wales

Haakon VII (born Prince Carl of Denmark; August 3, 1872 – September 21, 1957) was the King of Norway from 1905 until his death in 1957.

King Haakon VII of Norway

Originally a Danish prince, he was born in Copenhagen as the son of the future Frederik VIII of Denmark and Louise of Sweden. His father was the eldest son of King Christian IX and Louise of Hesse-Cassel, and his mother was the only daughter of King Carl XV of Sweden (who was also king of Norway as Charles IV), and Louise of the Netherlands.

future Frederik VIII of Denmark and Louise of Sweden. (Parents)

At Buckingham Palace on July 22, 1896, Prince Carl married his first cousin Princess Maud of Wales, youngest daughter of the future King Edward VII of the United Kingdom and his wife, Princess Alexandra of Denmark, eldest daughter of King Christian IX and Princess Louise. Their son, Prince Alexander, the future Crown Prince Olav (and eventually king Olav V of Norway), was born on July 2, 1903.

Princess Maud of Wales

Prince Carl was educated at the Royal Danish Naval Academy and served in the Royal Danish Navy. After the 1905 dissolution of the union between Sweden and Norway, Prince Carl was offered the Norwegian crown. Following a November plebiscite, he accepted the offer and was formally elected King of Norway by the Storting. He took the Old Norse name Haakon and ascended to the throne as Haakon VII, becoming the first independent Norwegian monarch since 1387.

Norway was invaded by Nazi Germany in April 1940. Haakon rejected German demands to legitimise the Quisling regime’s puppet government, and refused to abdicate after going into exile in Great Britain. As such, he played a pivotal role in uniting the Norwegian nation in its resistance to the invasion and the subsequent five-year-long occupation during the Second World War. He returned to Norway in June 1945 after the defeat of Germany.

King Haakon VII of Norway

He became King of Norway when his grandfather Christian IX was still reigning in Denmark, and before his father and elder brother became kings of Denmark. During his reign he saw his father, his elder brother Christian X, and his nephew Frederick IX ascend the throne of Denmark, in 1906, 1912, and 1947 respectively. Haakon died at the age of 85 in September 1957, after having reigned for nearly 52 years. He was succeeded by his only son, who ascended to the throne as Olav V.

March 11, 1899: Birth of King Frederik IX of Denmark

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Christian IX of Denmark, Christian X of Denmark, Frederick IX of Denmark, Frederick VIII of Denmark, Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna, Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna of Russia, Ingrid of Sweden, Kingdom of Denmark, Margarethe II of Denmark

Frederik IX (Christian Frederik Franz Michael Carl Valdemar Georg; March 11, 1899 – January 14, 1972) was King of Denmark from 1947 to 1972.

Four generations of Danish Kings. L-R. Christian IX, Christian X, Frederik VIII. in front future Frederik IX

Prince Frederik was born on March 11, 1899 at Sorgenfri Palace in Kongens Lyngby on Zealand during the reign of his great-grandfather King Christian IX. His father was Prince Christian of Denmark (later King Christian X), the eldest son of Crown Prince Frederik and Princess Louise of Sweden (later King Frederik VIII and Queen Louise). His mother was Alexandrine of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, a daughter of Friedrich Franz III, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Grand Duchess Anastasia Mikhailovna of Russia, the second of the seven children of Grand Duke Michael Nicolaievich of Russia and his wife, Princess Cecilie of Baden.

Christian IX died on January 29, 1906, and Frederik’s grandfather Crown Prince Frederik succeeded him as King Frederik VIII. Frederik’s father became, Crown Prince Christian and Frederik moved up to second in line to the throne. Just six years later, on May 14, 1912, King Frederik VIII died, and Frederik’s father ascended the throne as King Christian X. Frederik himself became Crown Prince.

Frederik was educated at the Royal Danish Naval Academy (breaking with Danish royal tradition by choosing a naval instead of an army career) and the University of Copenhagen. Before he became king, he had acquired the rank of rear admiral and he had had several senior commands on active service. He acquired several tattoos during his naval service.

In the 1910s Frederik’s mother Queen Alexandrine considered the two youngest daughters, Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna of Russia and Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia, of her cousin Emperor Nicholas II as possible wives for Frederik until the subsequent execution of the Romanov family in 1918. In 1922, Frederick was engaged to Princess Olga of Greece and Denmark, his second cousin. They never wed.

Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna of Russia

Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia

Instead, on 15 March 1935, a few days after his 36th birthday, he was engaged to the 25 year old Princess Ingrid of Sweden (1910–2000), a daughter of Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf (later King Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden) and his first wife, Princess Margaret of Connaught. They were related in several ways. In descent from Oscar I of Sweden and Leopold, Grand Duke of Baden, they were double third cousins. In descent from Paul I of Russia, Frederick was a fourth cousin of Ingrid’s mother.

Ingrid of Sweden

They married in Stockholm Cathedral on 24 May 1935. Their wedding was one of the greatest media events of the day in Sweden in 1935, and among the wedding guests were Frederik’s parents King Christian X and Queen Alexandrine of Denmark, and King Leopold III and Queen Astrid of Belgium and Crown Prince Olav (future King Olav V of Norway) and Crown Princess Märtha of Norway, (born a Princess of Sweden).

Upon their return to Denmark, the couple were given Frederik VIII’s Palace at Amalienborg Palace in Copenhagen as their primary residence and Gråsten Palace in Northern Schleswig as a summer residence.

Their daughters are:

* Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, born April 16, 1940, married to Henri de Laborde de Monpezat and has two sons
* Princess Benedikte of Denmark, born April 29, 1944, married to Prince Richard of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg and has three children
* Queen Anne-Marie of Greece, born August 30, 1946, married to King Constantine II of Greece and has five children

On 20 April 1947, Christian X died, and Frederik succeeded to the throne as King Frederik IX of Denmark. He was proclaimed king from the balcony of Christiansborg Palace by Prime Minister Knud Kristensen.

Frederik IX’s reign saw great change. During these years, Danish society shook off the restrictions of an agricultural society, developed a welfare state, and, as a consequence of the booming economy of the 1960s, women entered the labour market. In other words, Denmark became a modern country, which meant new demands on the monarchy.

Changes to the Act of Succession

As King Frederik IX and Queen Ingrid had no sons, it was expected that the king’s younger brother, Prince Knud, would inherit the throne, in accordance with Denmark’s succession law (Royal Ordinance of 1853).

However, in 1953, an Act of Succession was passed, changing the method of succession to male-preference primogeniture (which allows daughters to succeed if there are no sons). This meant that his daughters could succeed him if he had no sons. As a consequence, his eldest daughter, Margrethe, became heir presumptive. By order of March 27, 1953 the succession to the throne was limited to the issue of King Christian X.

Shortly after the King had delivered his New Year’s Address to the Nation at the 1971/72 turn of the year, he became ill with flu-like symptoms. After a few days rest, he suffered cardiac arrest and was rushed to the Copenhagen Municipal Hospital on January 3. After a brief period of apparent improvement, the King’s condition took a negative turn on 11 January, and he died 3 days later, on January 14, at 7:50 pm surrounded by his immediate family and closest friends, having been unconscious since the previous day.

He was succeeded by his eldest daughter, Queen Margrethe II. Queen Ingrid survived her husband by 28 years. She died on November 7, 2000. Her remains were interred alongside him at the burial site outside Roskilde Cathedral.

The Life of Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich of Russia. Part III, Marriage.

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Cannes, Emperor Nicholas II of Russia, Emperors of Russia, Frederick VIII of Denmark, Grand Duchess Xenia, Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich, Natalia Brasova, Tsarevich Alexei

In early December 1907, Michael was introduced to Natalia Sergeyevna Wulfert, the wife of a fellow officer, and from 1908 they began a deep friendship. Natalia was a commoner who had a daughter from her first marriage. By August 1909, they were lovers, and, by November 1909, Natalia was living apart from her second husband in an apartment in Moscow paid for by Michael.

In an attempt to prevent scandal, Nicholas transferred Michael to the Chernigov Hussars at Orel, 250 miles from Moscow, but Michael travelled from there several times a month to see Natalia. Their only child, George (named after Michael’s dead brother) was born in July 1910, before her divorce from her second husband was finalised. To ensure that the child could be recognised as his, rather than Wulfert’s, Michael had the date of the divorce back-dated. Nicholas issued a decree giving the boy the surname “Brasov”, taken from Michael’s estate at Brasovo, which was a tacit acknowledgement that Michael was the father.

Natalia Brasova

In May 1911, Emperor Nicholas II permitted Natalia to move from Moscow to Brasovo and granted her the surname “Brasova.” In May 1912, Michael went to Copenhagen for the funeral of his uncle King Frederik VIII of Denmark, where he fell ill with a stomach ulcer that was to trouble him for years afterwards. After a holiday in France, where he and Natalia were trailed by the Okhrana, Michael was transferred back to Saint Petersburg to command the Chevalier Gardes. He took Natalia to the capital with him and set her up in an apartment, but she was shunned by society and, within a few months, he had moved her to a villa in Gatchina.

Marriage

In September 1912, Michael and Natalia spent a holiday abroad and, as usual, they were trailed by the Okhrana. In Berlin, Michael announced that he and Natalia would drive to Cannes and instructed his staff to follow by train. The Okhrana was under instructions to follow by train rather than car, so Michael and Natalia would be unaccompanied on their journey south. Michael’s journey was a deliberate ruse. On the way to Cannes, the couple diverted to Vienna, where they were married on October 16, 1912 by Father Misitsch at the Serbian Orthodox Church of Saint Sava.

Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich of Russia

A few days later, after travelling through Venice and Milan, they arrived at Cannes, where George and Natalia’s daughter from her first marriage joined them. Two weeks after the marriage, Michael wrote to his mother and brother to inform them. They were both horrified by Michael’s action. His mother said it was “unspeakably awful in every way”, and his brother was shocked that his brother had “broken his word … that he would not marry her.”

Emperor Nicholas II was particularly upset because his heir, Alexei, was gravely ill with haemophilia, which Michael cited as one of his reasons for marrying Natalia. Michael feared that he would become heir presumptive again on Alexei’s death and would never be able to marry Natalia. By marrying her beforehand, he would be removed from the line of succession early and preclude losing Natalia. In a series of decrees over December 1912 and January 1913, Nicholas relieved Michael of his command, banished him from Russia, froze all his assets in Russia, seized control of his estates and removed him from the Regency.

Society in Russia was shocked at the severity of Nicholas’s reprisal, but there was little sympathy for Natalia. She was not entitled to be known as Grand Duchess; she instead used the style “Madame or Countess Brasova”.[54]
For six months, they stayed in hotels in France and Switzerland without any decrease in their standard of living. They were visited by Michael’s sister Grand Duchess Xenia and cousin Grand Duke Andrew.

In July 1913, they saw Michael’s mother in London, who told Natalia “a few home truths”, according to Xenia’s diary. After another trip to continental Europe, Michael took a one-year lease on Knebworth House, a staffed and furnished stately home 20 miles north of London. Michael’s finances were stretched as he had to rely on remittances sent from Russia at Nicholas’s command, and Nicholas still controlled all his estates and assets.

Life of Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll. Part II.

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Alexandra of Denmark, Duchess of Argyll, Duke of Argyll, Frederick VIII of Denmark, John Campbell, Marquess of Lorne, Prince Alfred, Prince of Orange, Princess Louise of the United Kingdom, Princess of Wales, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom

Marriage

Suitors

As a daughter of the queen, Louise was a desirable bride; more so as she is regarded as the queen’s most beautiful daughter by both contemporary and modern biographers. However, she was accused by the press, without substantiation, of romantic affairs. This, coupled with her liberalism and feminism, prompted the queen to find her a husband. The choice had to suit Victoria as well as Louise, and the queen insisted that her daughter’s husband should live near her, a promise which had also been extracted from Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein, the husband of Helena, Louise’s sister.

Various suitors were proposed by the leading royal houses of Europe: Princess Alexandra, the Princess of Wales, proposed her brother, the Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark, (future Frederick VIII) but the queen was strongly opposed to another Danish marriage that could antagonise Prussia at a time of diplomatic tension over the Schleswig-Holstein question.

Victoria, Louise’s eldest sister, Victoria, Crown Princess of Prussia, proposed the tall and rich Prince Albert of Prussia, but Queen Victoria disapproved of another Prussian marriage that would have been unpopular in England. Prince Albert was also reluctant to settle in England as required. Willem, Prince of Orange, was also considered a suitor, but because of his extravagant lifestyle in Paris, where he lived openly with a lover, the queen quickly vetoed the idea.

Louise viewed marriage to any prince as undesirable, and announced that she wished to marry John Campbell, Marquess of Lorne, heir to the Dukedom of Argyll. No marriage between a daughter of a monarch and a British subject had been given official recognition since 1515, when Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk, married King Henry VIII’s sister Mary. Louise’s brother, the Prince of Wales, was strongly opposed to a marriage with a non-mediatized noble.

Furthermore, Lorne’s father, George Campbell, was an ardent supporter of William Ewart Gladstone, and the prince of Wales was worried that he would drag the royal family into political disputes. The queen averred that Louise’s marriage to a subject would bring “new blood” into the family, while all European princes were related to each other. She was convinced that this would strengthen the royal family morally and physically.

Louise became engaged to the Marquess of Lorne on October 3, 1870 while they were visiting Balmoral. Lorne was invited to Balmoral Castle in Scotland, and accompanied Louise, the Lord Chancellor, Lord Hatherley and Queen Victoria’s lady-in-waiting Lady Ely on a drive. Later that day, Louise returned and announced to the queen that Lorne had “spoken of his devotion” to Louise, and she accepted his proposal in the knowledge of the queen’s approval.

Princess Louise and John Campbell, Marquess of Lorne.

The Queen found it difficult to let go of her daughter, confiding in her journal that she “felt painfully the thought of losing her”. The new breach in royal tradition caused surprise, especially in Germany, and Queen Victoria wrote to the Queen Augusta of Prussia that princes of small impoverished German houses were “very unpopular” in Britain and that Lord Lorne, a “person of distinction at home” with “an independent fortune” was “really no lower in rank than minor German Royalty”.

The ceremony was conducted at St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle on 21 March 21, 1871, and the crowd outside was so large that, for the first time, policemen had to form chain barriers to keep control. Louise was escorted into the Chapel by her mother, and her two eldest brothers, the Prince of Wales and the Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh. On this occasion, the usually severe black of the queen’s mourning dress was relieved by the crimson rubies and blues of the Garter star. Following the ceremony, the queen kissed Louise, and Lorne – now a member of the royal family, but still a subject – kissed the queen’s hand.

November 18, 1905: Prince Carl of Denmark elected King of Norway as King Haakon VII.

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Alexandra of Denmark, Christian IX, Denmark, Frederick VIII of Denmark, Haakon VII, Haakon VII of Norway, Norway, Prince Carl of Denmark, Princess Maud of Wales, Sweden

Born Christian Frederik Carl Georg Valdemar Axel on 3 August 1872 at Charlottenlund Palace near Copenhagen, known as Prince Carl of Denmark (namesake of his maternal grandfather the King of Sweden-Norway) was the second son of (the future) King Frederik VIII of Denmark and his wife Louise of Sweden (She was the only surviving child of Carl XV of Sweden and his consort, Louise of the Netherlands). Carl was also a younger brother of Christian X, a paternal grandson of King Christian IX of Denmark, and a maternal grandson of King Carl XV of Sweden (who was also king of Norway as Carl IV). He was christened on 7 September 1872 at Charlottenlund Palace.

Prince Carl of Denmark

Prince Carl belonged to the Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg branch of the House of Oldenburg. The House of Oldenburg had been the Danish royal family since 1448; between 1536–1814 it also ruled Norway when it was part of the Kingdom of Denmark-Norway. The house was originally from northern Germany, where the Glucksburg (Lyksborg) branch held their small fief. The family had permanent links with Norway beginning from the late Middle Ages.

Several of his paternal ancestors had been kings of independent Norway (Haakon V of Norway, Christian I of Norway, Frederik I, Christian III, Frederik II, Christian IV, as well as Frederik III of Norway who integrated Norway into the Oldenburg state with Denmark, Schleswig and Holstein, after which it was not independent until 1814). Christian Frederik, who was King of Norway briefly in 1814, the first king of the Norwegian 1814 constitution and struggle for independence, was his great-granduncle.

Princess Maud of Wales

At Buckingham Palace on 22 July 1896, Prince Carl married his first cousin Princess Maud of Wales, youngest daughter of the future King Edward VII of the United Kingdom and his wife, Princess Alexandra of Denmark, eldest daughter of King Christian IX and Princess Louise. Their son, Prince Alexander, the future Crown Prince Olav (and eventually king Olav V of Norway), was born on July 2, 1903.

The tomboyish Maud was known as “Harry” to the royal family, after Edward VII’s friend Admiral Henry Keppel, whose conduct in the Crimean War was considered particularly courageous at the time. Maud married relatively late, waiting until her late twenties to find a husband. She had initially wanted to marry a distant cousin, Prince Francis of Teck, younger brother of her sister-in-law Mary of Teck, wife of the future King George V of the United Kingdom. Despite being relatively impoverished from mounting gambling debts and being in a position to possibly benefit from Maud’s status, Prince Francis ignored her advances.

Prince Carl and Princess Maud greet Queen Victoria at their wedding.

After the Union between Sweden and Norway was dissolved in 1905, a committee of the Norwegian government identified several princes of European royal houses as candidates to become Norway’s first king of its own since 1387. Gradually, Prince Carl became the leading candidate, largely because he was descended from independent Norwegian kings. He also had a son, providing an heir-apparent to the throne, and the fact that his wife, Princess Maud, was a member of the British Royal Family was viewed by many as an advantage to the newly independent Norwegian nation.

The democratically-minded Carl, aware that Norway was still debating whether to remain a kingdom or to switch instead to a republican system of government, was flattered by the Norwegian government’s overtures, but he made his acceptance of the offer conditional on the holding of a referendum to show whether monarchy was the choice of the Norwegian people.

After the referendum overwhelmingly confirmed by a 79 percent majority (259,563 votes for and 69,264 against) that Norwegians desired to retain a monarchy, Prince Carl was formally offered the throne of Norway by the Storting (parliament) and was elected on November 18, 1905. When Carl accepted the offer that same evening (after the approval of his grandfather Christian IX of Denmark), he immediately endeared himself to his adopted country by taking the Old Norse name of Haakon, a name which had not been used by kings of Norway for over 500 years. In so doing, he succeeded his maternal great-uncle, Oscar II of Sweden, who had abdicated the Norwegian throne in October following the agreement between Sweden and Norway on the terms of the separation of the union.

King Haakon VII of Norway

The new royal family of Norway left Denmark on the Danish royal yacht Dannebrog and sailed into Oslofjord. At Oscarsborg Fortress, they boarded the Norwegian naval ship Heimdal. After a three-day journey, they arrived in Kristiania (now Oslo) early on the morning of November 25, 1905. Two days later, Haakon took the oath as Norway’s first independent king in 518 years. The coronation of Haakon VII and Maud took place in Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim on June 22, 1906.

He became King of Norway when his grandfather, Christian IX was still reigning in Denmark; and before his father and older brother became kings of Denmark. During his reign he saw his father, his elder brother Christian X, and his nephew Frederik IX ascend the throne of Denmark, in 1906, 1912, and 1947 respectively. Haakon died at the age of 85 in September 1957, after having reigned for nearly 52 years. He was succeeded by his only son, who ascended to the throne as Olav V.

Survival of Monarchies: Denmark Part V

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Christian IX of Denmark, Christian X of Denmark, Constitutional Monarchy, Frederick IX of Denmark, Frederick VII of Denmark, Frederick VIII of Denmark, Queen Margrethe II

King Frederick VII of Denmark died on November 15, 1863 and despite two marriages he did not leave any heirs. Therefore under the agreement of the London Protocol of 1852 Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, a junior branch of the House of Oldenburg, mounted the throne as King Christian IX. Since the balance of power between the sovereign and parliament was still in dispute, therefore, the early part of his reign was dominated by political disputes. In spite of his initial unpopularity and the many years of political strife, where the king was in conflict with large parts of the population, his popularity recovered towards the end of his reign, and he became a national icon due to the length of his reign and the high standards of personal morality with which he was identified.

Christian IX died in 1906 and was succeeded by his eldest son as King Frederik VIII. Frederik was liberal and he had a much more favorable to the new parliamentarian system than his father had. He came to the throne very late in life and was already in ill health and reigned for a short period, dying in 1912. His son and successor, Christian X, faced a constitutional crisis, one of the largest crisis since the adoption of the constitution in 1849.

The conflict was over the long debated issue of the reunification with Denmark of Schleswig, a former Danish fiefdom, which had been lost to Prussia during the Second War of Schleswig. The King and the cabinet were in dispute over this issue. One of the issues was the future of the city of Flensburg, in Central Schleswig. A plebiscite was to decide whether or not to return central Schleswig to either Denmark or Germany. Danish nationalists felt that at least that city should be returned to Denmark regardless of the plebiscite’s results. Christian X agreed with this premise and ordered Prime Minister Zahle to include Flensburg in the re-unification process. Zahle felt he was under no obligation to comply. He refused the order and resigned several days later after a heated exchange with the King.

Afterward, Christian X dismissed the rest of the cabinet and replaced it with a conservative cabinet. The dismissal caused an almost revolutionary atmosphere in Denmark, and for several days the future of the monarchy seemed very much in doubt. Christian X, seeing the light of this, opened between the crown and members of the Social Democrats. Realizing the monarchy was about to be overthrown he backed down on his demands and dismissed his conservative cabinet, installing a compromise cabinet until elections could be held later that year. This was the last time a sitting Danish monarch attempted to take political action without the full support of parliament. Following the crisis, Christian X accepted his drastically reduced role and became a symbolic head of state. His son, Frederik IX (1947-1972, and granddaughter, Queen Margrethe II (1972-) have continued being non-political figureheads.

Cut here from Wikipedia is the Danish monarchs’ Constitutional role.

The Queen’s main tasks are to represent the Kingdom abroad and to be a unifying figurehead at home. She receives foreign ambassadors and awards honours and medals. The queen performs the latter task by accepting invitations to open exhibitions, attending anniversaries, inaugurating bridges, etc.

As an unelected public official, the Queen takes no part in party politics and does not express any political opinions. Although she has the right to vote, she opts not to do so to avoid even the appearance of partisanship.

After an election where the incumbent Prime Minister does not have a majority behind him or her, the Queen holds a “Dronningerunde” (Queen’s meeting) in which she meets the chairmen of each of the Danish political parties.

Each party has the choice of selecting a Royal Investigator to lead these negotiations or alternatively, give the incumbent Prime Minister the mandate to continue his government as is. In theory each party could choose its own leader as Royal Investigator, the social liberal Det Radikale Venstre did so in 2006, but often only one Royal Investigator is chosen plus the Prime Minister, before each election. The leader who, at that meeting succeeds in securing a majority of the seats in the Folketing, is by royal decree charged with the task of forming a new government. (It has never happened in more modern history that any party has held a majority on its own.)

Once the government has been formed, it is formally appointed by the Queen. Officially, it is the Queen who is the head of government, and she therefore presides over the Council of State, where the acts of legislation which have been passed by the parliament are signed into law. In practice, however, nearly all of the Queen’s formal powers are exercised by the Council of State, and she is required by convention to act on its advice.

In addition to her roles in her own country, the queen is also the Colonel-in-Chief of the Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment (Queen’s and Royal Hampshires), an infantry regiment of the British Army, following a tradition in her family.

Next week, I will look at the conservative state of Prussia.