In 1852, Christian was chosen as heir presumptive to theDanish throne in light of the expected extinction of the senior line of theHouse of Oldenburg. Upon the death ofKing Frederick VII in 1863, Christian (who was Frederick's second cousin and husband of Frederick's paternal first cousin, Louise of Hesse-Kassel) acceded to the throne as the firstDanish monarch of theHouse of Glücksburg.[1]
The beginning of his reign was marked by the Danish defeat in theSecond Schleswig War and the subsequent loss of the duchies of Schleswig, Holstein and Lauenburg which made the king immensely unpopular. The following years of his reign were dominated by political disputes, for Denmark had only become aconstitutional monarchy in 1849 and the balance of power between the sovereign and parliament was still in dispute. In spite of his initial unpopularity and the many years of political strife, in which 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.
Through his father, Prince Christian was thus a direct male-line descendant of KingChristian III of Denmark and an (albeit junior)agnatic descendant ofHedvig of Holstein (countess of Oldenburg), mother of KingChristian I of Denmark, who was the "semi-Salic" heiress of her brotherAdolf of Schauenburg, last Schauenburg duke of Schleswig and count of Holstein. As such, Prince Christian was eligible to succeed in the twin duchies ofSchleswig-Holstein, but not first in line. Through his mother, he was thus a great-grandson of Frederick V, great-great-grandson ofGeorge II of Great Britain and a descendant of several other monarchs, but had no direct claim to any European throne.
Subsequently, the family moved toGlücksburg Castle, where Prince Christian wasraised with his siblings under their father's supervision. The Duke wrote to a friend:
I raise my sons with rigor, that these may learn to obey, without, however, failing to make them available to the requirements and demands of the present.[10]
However, Duke Friedrich Wilhelm died of a cold that had developed into pneumonia at the age of just 46 on 17 February 1831 and, at the Duke's own discretion, scarlet fever, which had previously affected two of his children. His death left the duchess widowed with ten children and no money. Prince Christian was twelve years old when his father died.
Following the early death of his father, King Frederick VI, together withPrince William of Hesse-Philippstal-Barchfeld, a close friend of the Duke, becamelegal guardians of Prince Christian and his nine siblings.[10] That same year, Prince Christian wanted to be educated as anaval officer, but during King Frederick VI's visit to Gottorp in 1831, shortly after Duke Wilhelm's funeral, the king agreed with his mother that Prince Christian would be sent toCopenhagen to receive anarmy officer training. Subsequently, in 1832, the year after his father's death, the 14-year-old Prince Christian moved to Copenhagen to be educated at the Land Cadet Academy, where he stayed at the house of Colonel Linde, the head of the Land Cadet Academy. He received private lessons at the academy and was rarely with the othercadets.[10][11] On the other hand, the sonless royal couple took good care of the boy, as Queen Marie was his mother's sister and King Frederick VI his mother's cousin. Also, in 1838, Prince Christian's eldest brother,Duke Karl of Glücksborg, married the king and queen's youngest daughter,Princess Vilhelmine Marie, which further strengthened the bonds between them.
Prince Christian's longtime home, theYellow Palace in Copenhagen (2006).
From 1839 to 1841, Prince Christian studiedconstitutional law and history with his half-cousinPrince Frederick William of Hesse-Kassel at theUniversity of Bonn in Germany. It was there that in December 1839 he received the news of the death of his benefactor King Frederick VI and the accession of his mother's cousin,King Christian VIII. During the holidays he went on various excursions in Germany and also traveled toVenice. In 1841 he returned to Copenhagen. On the way home, he paid a visit to the court in Berlin, where he rejected an otherwise flattering offer from KingFrederick William IV of Prussia to join thePrussian Army.[12]
Prince Christian's first marriage prospect,Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom.
As a young man, in 1838, Prince Christian, representing Frederick VI, attended thecoronation of Queen Victoria atWestminster Abbey.[13] During his stay in London, he unsuccessfully sought the hand of the young British queen in marriage. Even though she chose to follow her family's wishes and preferred to marry her cousin,Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the young queen had a good impression of her third cousin Prince Christian, who 25 years later would become father-in-law to her eldest son, thePrince of Wales.[14]
Louise was a wise and energetic woman who exercised a strong influence over her husband. After the wedding, the couple moved into theYellow Palace, where their first five children were born between 1843 and 1853:Prince Frederick in 1843,Princess Alexandra in 1844,Prince William in 1845,Princess Dagmar in 1847 andPrincess Thyra in 1853.[16] The family was still quite unknown and lived a relatively modest life by royal standards.
In the 1840s, it became increasingly clear that the Danish monarchy was facing asuccession crisis. When King Christian VIII succeeded his first cousin King Frederick VI in 1839, the elder male line of theHouse of Oldenburg was obviously on the point of extinction, as the king's only son and heir apparentCrown Prince Frederick seemed incapable of fathering children and the king's only brotherPrince Ferdinand's marriage to King Frederick VI's daughter was childless.[17] King Frederick VII's childlessness presented a thorny dilemma and the question of succession to the Danish throne proved complex, as the rules of succession in the different parts of the Danish monarchy united under the king's rule, the Kingdom of Denmark proper and the three duchies ofSchleswig,Holstein andSaxe-Lauenburg, not being the same, the possibility of a separation of the crown of Denmark from its duchies became probable.[18]
The succession in the Kingdom of Denmark was regulated by theLex Regia (Danish:Kongeloven;Law of The King), theabsolutist constitution ofDenmark and Norway promulgated byFrederick III in 1665.[19] With the Lex Regia, Denmark had adopted theSalic law, but restricted the succession to theagnatic descendants of Frederick III, who was the firsthereditary monarch of Denmark (before him, the kingdom was officiallyelective). Agnatic descent from Frederick III would end with the death of the childless Frederick VII and his equally childless uncle,Prince Ferdinand. At that point, the Lex Regia provided for asemi-Salic succession, which stipulated that after the extinction of all-male descendance, including all collateral male lines, a female agnate (such as a daughter) of the last male holder of the property would inherit, and after her, her own male heirs according to the Salic order. There were, however, several ways to interpret to whom the crown could pass, since the provision was not entirely clear as to whether a claimant to the throne could be the closest female relative or not. In the duchy of Holstein, where the king reigned as duke, the rules of succession also followed the Salic law, but did not limit the succession to the agnatic descendants of Frederick III. As there were several junior male lines of the House of Oldenburg, who were however not descendants of Frederick III, there were thus numerous agnatic descendants with succession rights in the Duchy of Holstein, who were however not eligible to succeed to the Danish throne. In addition, the two duchies of Schleswig and Holstein were permanently joined to each other by theTreaty of Ribe of 1460, which proclaimed that the two duchies should be "Forever Undivided".
The already complicated dynastic question of the succession was made even more complex as it took place against a background of equally complicated political issues. The movements ofnationalism and liberalism had been on the rise in Europe since theNapoleonic era. Whereas the concepts of nation andhomeland increasingly replaced dynastic questions for the nationalists, aristocratic privileges and the concept of anabsolute ruler of divine right were poorly accepted by the liberals. Denmark and the Duchies were no exception, and the political movement ofnational liberalism had been on the rise since the 1830s. While the Danish and German national liberals were united in their liberal political aspirations and in their opposition to the absolutist rule of the House of Oldenburg, the two political movements were heavily opposed in the national question. It mainly concerned the question of the affiliation of theDuchy of Schleswig. Constitutionally, the Duchy of Schleswig was a Danishfief, which had become increasingly independent from Denmark during theHigh Middle Ages.Linguistically, however, Danish, German andNorth Frisian existed asvernaculars in different parts of the Duchy, and German functioned as the language of law and the ruling class.
The Danish national liberals insisted that Schleswig as a fief had belonged to Denmark for centuries and aimed to restore the southern frontier of Denmark on theEider river, the historic border between Schleswig and Holstein. The Danish nationalists thus aspired to incorporate the Duchy of Schleswig into the Danish kingdom, in the process separating it from the duchy of Holstein, which should be allowed to pursue its own destiny as a member of theGerman Confederation or possibly a new united Germany. With the claim of the total integration of Schleswig into the Danish kingdom, the Danish national liberals opposed the German national liberals, whose goal was the union of the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein, their joint independence from Denmark and their membership in the German Confederation as an autonomous German state. The German nationalists thus sought to confirm Schleswig's association with Holstein, in the process detaching Schleswig from Denmark and bringing it into the German Confederation.
There was burgeoning nationalism within both Denmark and the German-speaking parts ofSchleswig-Holstein. This meant that a resolution to keep the two Duchies together and as a part of the Danish kingdom could not satisfy the conflicting interests of both Danish and German nationalists, and hindered all hopes of a peaceful solution.
As the nations of Europe looked on, the numerous descendants ofHedvig of Holstein began to vie for the Danish throne. Frederick VII belonged to the senior branch of Hedvig's descendants. In the event of extinction of the senior branch, the house ofSchleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg would become the most senior branch of the House of Oldenburg, but it did not descend from King Frederick III. However, in the duchies,Christian August II, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg, claimed the position ofheir to the throne of the duchies ofSchleswig andHolstein, being head of the house of Augustenburg, and thus became a symbol of the nationalist German independence movement in Schleswig-Holstein.
The closest female relatives of Frederick VII were his paternal aunt,Princess Louise Charlotte of Denmark, who had married a scion of thecadet branch of theHouse of Hesse, and her children. However, they were not agnatic descendants of the royal family, so were not eligible to succeed in Schleswig-Holstein.
The dynastic female heir reckoned most eligible according to the original law of primogeniture of Frederick III wasPrincess Caroline of Denmark (1793–1881), the childless eldest daughter of the late kingFrederick VI. Along with another childless daughter,Princess Vilhelmine Marie of Denmark (1808–1891), Duchess of Glücksburg; the next heir was Louise, sister of Frederick VI, who had married the Duke of Augustenburg. The chief heir to that line was the selfsameFrederick of Augustenburg, but his turn would have come only after the death of two childless princesses who were very much alive in 1863.
TheHouse of Glücksburg also held a significant interest in the succession to the throne. A more junior branch of the royal family, they were also descendants of Frederick III through the daughter of KingFrederick V of Denmark. Lastly, there was yet a more junior agnatic branch that was eligible to succeed in Schleswig-Holstein. There was Christian himself and his three older brothers, the eldest of whom, Karl, was childless, but the others had produced children, and male children at that.
Prince Christian had been a foster "grandson" of the grandchildless royal couple Frederick VI and his Queen consort Marie (Marie Sophie Friederike of Hesse). Familiar with the royal court and the traditions of the recent monarchs, their young ward Prince Christian was a nephew of Queen Marie and a first cousin once removed of Frederick VI. He had been brought up as a Dane, having lived in Danish-speaking lands of the royal dynasty and not having become a German nationalist, which made him a relatively good candidate from the Danish point of view. As junior agnatic descendant, he was eligible to inherit Schleswig-Holstein, but was not the first in line. As a descendant of Frederick III, he was eligible to succeed in Denmark, although here too, he was not first in line.
Family of Christian IX
– Kings of Denmark – Dukes of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg – Dukes of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg – Dukes of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck
In 1851, the Russian emperor recommended that Prince Christian advance in the Danish succession. And in 1852, the thorny question of Denmark's succession was finally resolved by theLondon Protocol of 8 May 1852, signed by the United Kingdom, France, Russia,Prussia and Austria, and ratified by Denmark and Sweden. Christian was chosen asheir presumptive to the throne after Frederick VII's uncle, and thus would become king after the extinction of the most senior line to the Danish throne. A justification for this choice was his marriage toLouise of Hesse-Kassel, who as daughter of the closest female relative of Frederick VII was closely related to the royal family. Louise's mother and brother, and elder sister too, renounced their rights in favor of Louise and her husband. Prince Christian's wife was thereafter the closest female heiress of Frederick VII.
The decision was implemented by the Danish Law of Succession of 31 July 1853—more precisely, theRoyal Ordinance settling the Succession to the Crown on Prince Christian of Glücksburg which designated him as second-in-line to theDanish throne following King Frederick VII's uncle. Consequently, Prince Christian and his family were granted the titles of Prince and Princess of Denmark and thestyle ofHighness.[20]
As second in line, Prince Christian continued to live in the Yellow Palace with his family. However, as a consequence of their new status, the family were also granted the right to useBernstorff Palace north of Copenhagen as their summer residence. It became Princess Louise's favorite residence, and the family often stayed there. It was also at Bernstorff that their youngest son,Prince Valdemar, was born in 1858.[16] At the occasion of Prince Valdemar'sbaptism, Prince Christian and his family were granted the style ofRoyal Highness. Although their economy had improved, the financial situation of the family was still relatively strained.
However, Prince Christian's appointment as successor to the throne was not met with undivided enthusiasm. His relationship with the king was cool, partly because the colorful King Frederick VII did not like the straightforward, military prince, and had preferred to see Christian's eldest son, the young Prince Frederick, take his place, partly because Prince Christian and Princess Louise openly showed their disapproval of the king'smorganatic third wife, the actress Louise Rasmussen, who received the titleCountess Danner.[17] Politically, Prince Christian also had little influence during his tenure as second-in-line. This was partly due to the distrust of the Countess Danner, partly due to Christian's perceived conservatism, which earned him the distrust of the powerfulNational Liberal Party. It was not before 1856 that the politicianCarl Christoffer Georg Andræ, to whom Prince Christian always felt close, secured him a seat in theCouncil of State.[21]
The year 1863 became rich in significant events for Prince Christian and his family. On 10 March, his eldest daughter,Princess Alexandra married the Prince of Wales (the future KingEdward VII of the United Kingdom). On 20 March, his second son, Prince William was electedKing of the Hellenes and ascended theGreek throne taking the name of King George I.[16] And in June 1863, Prince Christian himself becameheir-presumptive upon the death of the elderly Prince Ferdinand before eventually becoming King Christian IX on 15 November that year.
During the last years of the reign of King Frederick VII, his health was increasingly poor, and in the autumn of 1863, during a visit to theDanevirke fortification, he contracted a severe cold, which after his return toGlücksburg Castle turned intoerysipelas. Shortly after, on 15 November, King Frederick VII died unexpectedly at the age of 55 after a sixteen-year reign, thus ending the 415-year reign of the main line of theHouse of Oldenburg on the Danish throne. Upon the death of Frederick VII, Christian succeeded to the throne at the age of 45. He was proclaimed king from the balcony ofChristiansborg Palace by theCouncil presidentCarl Christian Hall on 16 November 1863 as Christian IX.
Under pressure, Christian signed the November Constitution, a treaty that made Schleswig part of Denmark. This resulted in theSecond Schleswig War between Denmark and a Prussian/Austrian alliance in 1864. ThePeace Conference broke up without having arrived at any conclusion; the outcome of the war was unfavorable to Denmark and led to the incorporation of Schleswig into Prussia in 1865. Holstein was likewise incorporated into Austria in 1865, then Prussia in 1866, following further conflict between Austria andPrussia.
Following the loss, Christian IX went behind the backs of the Danish government to contact the Prussians, offering that the whole of Denmark could join theGerman Confederation, if Denmark could stay united with Schleswig and Holstein. This proposal was rejected byOtto von Bismarck, who feared that the ethnic strife in Schleswig between Danes and Germans would then stay unresolved. Christian IX's negotiations were not publicly known until published in the 2010 bookDommedag Als byTom Buk-Swienty, who had been given access to the royal archives by QueenMargrethe II.[23]
The defeat of 1864 cast a shadow over Christian IX's rule for many years and his attitude to the Danish case—probably without reason—was claimed to be half-hearted. This unpopularity was worsened as he sought unsuccessfully to prevent the spread of democracy throughout Denmark by supporting the authoritarian and conservative prime ministerEstrup, whose rule 1875–94 was by many seen as a semi-dictatorship. However, he signed a treaty in 1874 that allowed Iceland, then a Danish possession, to have its own constitution, albeit one under Danish rule. In 1901, he reluctantly askedJohan Henrik Deuntzer to form a government and this resulted in the formation of theCabinet of Deuntzer. The cabinet consisted of members of theVenstre Reform Party and was the first Danish government not to include the conservative partyHøjre, even though Højre never had a majority of the seats in theFolketing. This was the beginning of the Danish tradition ofparliamentarism and clearly bettered his reputation for his last years.[24]
Another reform occurred in 1866, when the Danish constitution was revised so that Denmark's upper chamber would have more power than the lower. Social security also took a few steps forward during his reign. Old age pensions were introduced in 1891 and unemployment and family benefits were introduced in 1892.
In spite of the King's 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.[25] The celebration of thegolden wedding anniversary of King Christian and Queen Louise in 1892 thus became a great and authentic tribute from the people to the king and queen which contrasted profoundly with the sober marking of theirsilver wedding anniversary in 1867.[26]
In 1904, the King became aware of the efforts ofEinar Holbøll, a postal clerk in Denmark, who conceived the idea of sellingChristmas seals at post offices across Denmark to raise badly needed funding to help those afflicted withtuberculosis, which was occurring in alarming proportions in Denmark. The King approved of Holbøll's idea and subsequently the Danish post office produced the world's first Christmas seal, which generated more than $40,000 in funding. The Christmas seal portrayed an image of his wife,Queen Louise.[27]
After his death, a competition was announced for a doublesarcophagus for him and Queen Louise to be placed inFrederick V's Chapel. The competition was won by the artistJens Ferdinand Willumsen, but his proposal was deemed too controversial and was not accepted. Instead, two completely different artists were assigned the task, the Dano-Icelandic sculptorEdvard Eriksen and the Danish architectHack Kampmann. They created a large sarcophagus in whitemarble flanked by three graceful sculptures symbolizingRemembrance,Love andGrief.
Upon King Christian IX's death, Crown Prince Frederick ascended the throne at the age of 62 as KingFrederick VIII.
Christian IX appeared on a DenmarkChristmas seal, issued the same year as his death in 1906
Christian's family links with Europe's royal families earned him thesobriquet "thefather-in-law of Europe". Four of Christian's children sat on the thrones (either as monarchs or as consorts) of Denmark,Greece, theUnited Kingdom andRussia. His youngest son, Valdemar, was on 10 November 1886 elected as new Prince of Bulgaria byThe 3rd Grand National Assembly of Bulgaria, but Christian IX refused to allow Prince Valdemar to receive the election.[28][29]
The great dynastic success of the six children was to a great extent not attributable to Christian himself but the result of the ambitions of his wifeLouise of Hesse-Kassel. An additional factor was that Denmark was not one of theGreat Powers, so the other powers did not fear that thebalance of power in Europe would be upset by a marriage of one of its royalty to another royal house.
As Sovereign, Christian IX used the greater (royal)coat of arms of Denmark. The arms were changed in 1903, as Iceland from then was represented by a falcon rather than its traditional stockfish arms.
^In spite of the fact that Denmark lost the duchies as a consequence of theTreaty of Vienna in 1864, this style continued to be used until the 1972 accession of QueenMargrethe II.[31]
^abHindø, Lone; Boelskifte, Else (2007). "Døbt i Gottorp Sloskapel" [Baptised in the Gottorp Castle Chapel].Kongelig Dåb. Fjorten generationer ved Rosenborg-døbefonten [Royal Baptisms. Fourteen generations at the Rosenborg baptismal font] (in Danish). Forlaget Hovedland. p. 83.ISBN978-87-7070-014-6.
^ab"Denmark".Titles of European hereditary rulers.Archived from the original on 10 February 2020. Retrieved23 July 2023.
^Bille-Hansen, A. C.; Holck, Harald, eds. (1863) [1st pub.:1801].Statshaandbog for Kongeriget Danmark for Aaret 1863 [State Manual of the Kingdom of Denmark for the Year 1863]. Kongelig Dansk Hof- og Statskalender (in Danish). Copenhagen: J.H. Schultz A.-S. Universitetsbogtrykkeri. pp. 3, 5. Retrieved30 April 2020 – viada:DIS Danmark.[permanent dead link]
^Bille-Hansen, A. C.; Holck, Harald, eds. (1906) [1st pub.:1801].Statshaandbog for Kongeriget Danmark for Aaret 1906 [State Manual of the Kingdom of Denmark for the Year 1906](PDF). Kongelig Dansk Hof- og Statskalender (in Danish). Copenhagen: J.H. Schultz A.-S. Universitetsbogtrykkeri. pp. 2–3. Retrieved30 April 2020 – viada:DIS Danmark.
^Hof- und Staats-Handbuch des Herzogtum Anhalt (1867) "Herzoglicher Haus-orden Albrecht des Bären" p.17
Aronson, Theo (2014).A Family of Kings: The descendants of Christian IX of Denmark (2nd ed.). London: Thistle Publishing.ISBN978-1910198124.
Bramsen, Bo (1992).Huset Glücksborg. Europas svigerfader og hans efterslægt [The House of Glücksburg. The Father-in-law of Europe and his descendants] (in Danish) (2nd ed.). Copenhagen: Forlaget Forum.ISBN87-553-1843-6.
Chaffanjon, Arnaud (1980).Histoires de familles royales : Victoria d'Angleterre – Christian IX de Danemark et leurs descendances de 1840 à nos jours (in French). Paris:Ramsay.ISBN9782859561840.
Fabricius-Møller, Jes (2013).Dynastiet Glücksborg, en Danmarkshistorie [The Glücksborg Dynasty, a history of Denmark] (in Danish). Copenhagen: Gad.ISBN9788712048411.
Lerche, Anna; Mandal, Marcus (2003).A royal family : the story of Christian IX and his European descendants. Copenhagen: Aschehoug.ISBN9788715109577.
Olden-Jørgensen, Sebastian (2003).Prinsessen og det hele kongerige. Christian IX og det glücksborgske kongehus [The princess and the whole kingdom. Christian IX and the royal house of Glücksburg] (in Danish). Copenhagen: Gad.ISBN8712040517.
Scocozza, Benito (1997). "Christian 9.".Politikens bog om danske monarker [Politiken's book about Danish monarchs] (in Danish). Copenhagen: Politikens Forlag. pp. 182–189.ISBN87-567-5772-7.
1 Also prince of Norway 2 Also prince of Greece 3 Also prince of Iceland 4 Also prince of the United Kingdom 5 Not Danish prince by birth, but created prince of Denmark Princes that lost their title are shown in italics
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