Figure 1.--.
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Figure 1.--. |
Christian X was born in 1870 at Charlottenlund. He married Queen Alexandrine, born Hertuginde, Duchess of Mecklenburg-Schwerin in 1898. They had two sons. Frederick the Crown Prince was born in 1898. Knud was born in 1900. Some of the major achievements of his reign were a new democratic constitution granting the vote to women and the sale of the Virgin Islands to the United States. After the German invasion in 1940 the King led his people in passive resistance to attempts to bring the Danes into the NAZI order. The King's bravery was an inspiration to the Danish people, one of the few countries to have sdome success in resisting the Germans. This was in part possible because the Germans with their racially based world view were unwilling to be as brutal in Denmark as they were in other countries like Poland.
His parents were King Frederik VIII and Princess Lovisa of Sweden.
King Frederick's parents were King Christian IX (1818-1906) and Princess Luise of Hesse-Cassel (1817-1898).
Princess Lovisa's parents were King Carl XV of Sweden and Norway (1826-1872) and Princess Louise of the Netherlands (1828-1871).
Prince Christian (1870- ) was the eldest son and succeeded his father as king of Denmark. Prince Carl (1872- ) became King Haakon VII of Norway, the first independent king of Norway in centuries. Princess Ingeborg (1878- ) married Prince Carl of Sweden and became the Duchess of Västergötland. Princess Thyra (1880-1945) was the nexy child. Followed by Prince Gustav (1887-1944). The last child was Princess Dagmar (1890- ) who married Jörgen Castenskiold.
Christain was born during 1870 in Charlottenlund close to Copenhagen. We have no information on hosd childhood at this time.
We have no information on Prince Christian's childhood clothing at this time.
Christian became chief of the royal guard in 1898.
Chritian married Alexandrine (1879- ) born Hertuginde, Duchess of Mecklenburg-Schwerin in 1898 in Cannes, France. The Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin was a German principaliy.
Figure 3.--This photograph shows the Danish royal family in a photograph taken about 1910. Pictured are King Christian X and Queen Alexandrine and their two sons, Frederick and Knud. The older boy is the future Frederick IX. |
King Christain and Queen Alexandrine had two sons.
Prince Frderick was born in 1898. His whole life centered on the sea and music. Frederick was educated as a Navy Officer as well as an orchestra Conductor. He mairred Queen Ingrid (born in Sweden in 1910). Their eldest daughter, Margrethe Alexandrine Torhildur Ingrid, was born on April 16, 1940, during the dark days following the German invasion. The popular Crown Prince and his consort, stayed with the King in German to face the Germans with his people. Hitler's troops had invaded defenceless Denmark on April 6 (only months after signing a non-aggression pact) in preparation for the invasion of Norway. The birth of the little princess acquired a symbolic value as a ray of hope in a time of darkness. During the war years, Crown Prince Frederik the IX and Crown Princess Ingrid were very active instrengthening the Danish identity. They travelled
all over the Danish realm (i.e. Faerorene and Greenland) and this beca a major part of their lives as a Royal Family when peace finally arrived.
Prince Knud Christian Frederik was born in 1900. We know very little about him. As the boys were very close in age, they must have been very close. We note that they were often dressed alike, commonly in sailor suits.
The young princes' mother appears to have been partial to sailor suits. As young boys they wore white sailor middy blouses and skirts. They also appear to have worn smocks. As older boys they wore long pants sailor suits as an older boy. He wore both white and dark middy blouses with his sailor suits. Prince Fredeick and Prince Knud were close in age and appear to have been often dressed identically as boys. By about age 15 or 16, they were wearing conservative dark double-breasted suits.
Christain became crown prince in 1906. He led the opposition to the sale of the Danish West Indies (Virgin Islands) to the United States in 1911.
Christian assumed the throne on his father's death in 1912. Christian attended the first in a series of meetings of Scandinavian kings during World War I at Malmö in December 1914. He was instrumental in introducing a new progressive constitution, signing it into law in 1915. The new constitution provided for a two-chamber parliament with equal suffrage for men and women. He approved making Iceland an independent kingdom in 1918. In July 1920 he received a warm welcome in North Schleswig, the part of Schleswig-Holstein returned to Denmark by Germany under a provision of the Treaty of Versailles (1919) authorizing a referendum. The Prussians had seized Schleswig-Holstein in the Prusso-Danish War of 1864. The only exception was Flensborg. The English Queen Mother Alexandra, a Danish Princess, complained that the only reason that Flenborg voted to stay in Germany was that the Germans had evicted all the Danish speakers.
World War II involved virtually every part of the world during the years 1939-45. The principal belligerents were the Axis powers (Germany, Italy, and Japan) and the Allies (France, Great Britain, the United States, the Soviet Union, and, China). The Soviet Union, while not a member of the AXIS, was until the German invasion in June 1941, a virtual ally of the Germans-seizing territory from neigboring states and occupying the Baltic states.
After the German invasion in 1940 the King led his people in passive resistance to attempts to bring the Danes into the NAZI order. The King's bravery was an inspiration to the Danish people, one of the few countries to have sdome success in resisting the Germans. This was in part possible because the Germans with their racially based world view were unwilling to be as brutal in Denmark as they were in other countries like Poland. The King during his reign had made a point of riding in the morning throughout the streets of Copenhagen without the protection of bodyguards. He thoroughly trusted his subjects, and wanted to syay in touch and be seen. The Danes wondered after the German invasion if their king would continue his morning rides. He did and to the annoyance of the Germans, often attracting crows. The King felt that these rides showed that he had not abandoned his claim to national sovereignty or his people. He rejected the Nazi demand for anti-Jewish legislation in September 1942. King Christian was limited in what he could, but what he did best was ignored them as much as possible. This enfuriated the NAZI occupation authorities. The NAZIs forced the King in May 1943 to condemn Danish sabotage of munitions works and railways. His memorable speech against the occupation forces in August 1943, after fighting had broken out between the Germans and Danish resistance fighters caused the German occupation authorities to imprison him and Crown Prince Frederick until the end of the war. The NAZIs forced King Christian from the throne and broke up Denmark's government and military. Even without the King, the Danes in one of the most heroic episodes of resiastance to the NAZIs, managed to spirit most of them to saftey in Sweden before a planned NAZI roundup. In the end the German actions of dismantling the Danish Government made it increasingly difficult for them to govern Denmark.
The king died April 20, 1947, in Copenhagen. He was succeeded on his death by his elder son, who became Frederick IX.
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