by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2019

The last monarch of the House of Oldenburg and also the last absolute monarch of Denmark, Frederik Carl Christian was born on October 6, 1808, at Amalienborg in Copenhagen, Denmark. He was the only surviving child of King Christian VIII of Denmark and his first wife Charlotte Frederica of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. When Frederik was not even a year old, his mother was accused of adultery, divorced, and banished from the Danish court. Frederik never saw her again. His father married again to Caroline Amalie of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderborg-Augustenburg but the marriage was childless.

Because his father, as Governor-General of Norway, was often away, Frederik’s upbringing was left to relatives and strangers. A team of seven renowned professors was appointed to teach him Danish, Latin, French, German, religion, history, geography, geometry, mathematics, gymnastics, music, and dance. The professors’ orthodox teaching methods did little to stimulate Frederik and his favorite subject was gymnastics.

When Frederik was nearly 18-years-old, he was betrothed to Princess Vilhelmine Marie of Denmark, the younger of the two daughters of the reigning King of Denmark, Frederik VI. This marriage arrangement was mainly due to the desirability of a union of the two branches of the Danish royal family whose relationship was strained. Frederik was a direct male-line descendant of King Frederik V by his second queen Juliana Maria of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel. Vilhelmine Marie was a daughter of King Frederik VI of Denmark and a granddaughter of King Christian VII, son of King Frederik V by his first queen Louisa of Great Britain. Frederik and Vilhelmine Marie’s wishes and needs were not considered at all. The wedding was postponed for two years while Frederik was sent on an educational trip to Switzerland, France, and Italy.

Frederik and Vilhelmine Marie were married on November 1, 1828, at the Christiansborg Palace Church in Copenhagen, Denmark. The wedding was very popular with the Danish people who participated in many festivities. However, the marriage was childless and unhappy, mostly due to Frederik’s affairs and drinking. The couple separated in April 1834 and divorced on September 4, 1837.

In 1839, when Frederik’s father succeeded to the Danish throne, Frederik became Crown Prince. Frederik needed to marry again. He heard about Caroline Mariane of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, a German princess who had been taught Danish by a Danish poet. Caroline Mariane was the daughter of Georg, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz and Princess Marie of Hesse-Kassel. 33-year-old Frederik and 20-year-old Caroline Mariane were married in Neustrelitz in the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz on June 10, 1841. On June 21, they arrived in Denmark and made a festive entrance in Copenhagen. Once again, the marriage was childless and unhappy. Caroline Mariane was inexperienced, shy, and nervous and no match for Frederik’s boisterous temperament. In 1844, she visited her parents and refused to return to Denmark. The couple divorced on September 30, 1846.

In 1848, Frederik’s father died and he succeeded to the Danish throne as King Frederik VII. During the 1830s, he met Louise Rasmussen, a ballerina and stage actress. Frederik began a relationship with Louise during the 1840s and upon becoming king, he wished to marry Louise but the government was not in favor of the marriage.

In December 1847, a month before his death, Frederik’s father King Christian VIII commissioned the drafting of a new constitution in which the absolute monarchy would be abolished. He died before the draft was finished. Upon his deathbed, Christian VIII urged his son to continue with the work of the new constitution. On June 5, 1849, King Frederik VII signed the new constitution which made him a constitutional monarch.

The signing of the new constitution made Frederik so popular that the government granted him permission to marry Louise Rasmussen. On August 8, 1850, by royal decree, Louise Rasmussen was given the title Countess Danner and was married to King Frederik VII at Frederiksborg Palace Chapel in Hillerød, Denmark. However, the marriage was morganatic, and any children of the marriage would not be in the line of succession to the Danish throne. The marriage appears to have been happy but had much opposition and Countess Danner was treated poorly in social circles. Frederik and Louise did not have any children.

King Frederik VII had to deal with the succession crisis as he had no children. Princess Charlotte of Denmark was the daughter of Frederik, Hereditary Prince of Denmark, the surviving son of King Frederick V of Denmark and his second wife Juliana Maria of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel. As the sister of Frederik’s father King Christian VIII, Charlotte was King Frederik VII’s aunt. She had married Wilhelm, Prince and later titular Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel, and was the only sibling of King Christian VIII to have children. This meant that it was likely that one of Princess Charlotte’s children would inherit the Danish throne. Princess Charlotte supported the solution that her branch of the family should succeed to the throne.

Princess Charlotte’s daughter Louise of Hesse-Kassel had married her second cousin Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg. Christian had spent much of his youth in Denmark and also had a claim on the Danish succession. Through his father, he was a direct male-line descendant of King Christian III of Denmark. Through his mother, Christian was a great-grandson of King Frederik V of Denmark. King Frederik VI of Denmark was the first cousin of Christian’s mother and had been married to Christian’s maternal aunt Marie of Hesse-Kassel. Women could inherit the Danish throne only if there were no male heirs (Semi-Salic Law). On July 15, 1851, Charlotte and her son Friedrich renounced their claims to the Danish throne in favor of Charlotte’s daughter Louise, who in turn renounced her claim in favor of her husband Christian. The Act of Succession of 1853 officially made Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg the heir of King Frederik VII.

• Act of Acceptance and Assurance, July 15, 1851 (or how Christian became king)
• Royal Ordinance settling the Succession to the Crown on Prince Christian of Glücksburg

King Frederik VII of Denmark died from erysipelas on November 15, 1863, aged 55, in Glücksburg, Duchy of Schleswig-Holstein, now in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein. He was buried at Roskilde Cathedral in Roskilde, Denmark in the Frederik V Chapel.

Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg succeeded to the Danish throne as King Christian IX, the first monarch of the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg which still occupies the Danish throne today. Among King Christian IX’s children were King Frederik VIII of Denmark, King George I of Greece, Queen Alexandra of the United Kingdom (wife of King Edward VII) and Empress Maria Feodorovna of Russia (born Dagmar of Denmark, wife of Alexander III, Emperor of All Russia). King Christian IX is the ancestor of six of the ten current European royal families: Belgium, Denmark, Luxembourg, Norway, Spain, and the United Kingdom, and also two former monarchies: Greece and Romania.

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Kingdom of Denmark Resources at Unofficial Royalty

• Kingdom of Denmark Index
• Danish Orders and Honours
• Danish Royal Burial Sites: House of Oldenburg, 1448 – 1863
• Danish Royal Burial Sites: House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, 1863 – present
• Danish Royal Christenings
• Danish Royal Dates
• Danish Royal Residences
• Danish Royal Weddings
• Line of Succession to the Danish Throne
• Profiles of the Danish Royal Family

Works Cited

• Da.wikipedia.org. (2018). Frederik 7.. [online] Available at: https://da.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederik_7. [Accessed 19 Sep. 2018].
• En.wikipedia.org. (2018). Frederick VII of Denmark. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_VII_of_Denmark [Accessed 19 Sep. 2018].
• En.wikipedia.org. (2018). Duchess Charlotte Frederica of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duchess_Charlotte_Frederica_of_Mecklenburg-Schwerin [Accessed 17 Sep. 2018].
• En.wikipedia.org. (2018). Louise Rasmussen. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louise_Rasmussen [Accessed 19 Sep. 2018].
• En.wikipedia.org. (2018). Princess Vilhelmine Marie of Denmark. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vilhelmine_Marie_of_Denmark [Accessed 19 Sep. 2018].
• Flantzer, S. (2015). King Christian IX of Denmark. [online] Unofficial Royalty. Available at: https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/king-christian-ix-of-denmark/ [Accessed 19 Sep. 2018].