Louise of Hesse-Kassel
Louise of Hesse-Kassel was Queen of Denmark by marriage to King Christian IX of Denmark.
Life
Early life
She was a daughter of Prince William of Hesse-Kassel and Princess Charlotte of Denmark. Louise of Hesse lived in Denmark from the age of three.As a niece of King Christian VIII, who ruled Denmark between 1839 and 1848, Louise was very close to the succession after several individuals of the royal house of Denmark who were elderly and childless. As children, her brother Frederik Wilhelm, her sisters and she were the closest relatives of King Christian VIII who were likely to produce heirs. It was easy to see that the agnatic succession from King Frederick III of Denmark would probably become extinct within a generation. Louise was one of the females descended from Frederick III of Denmark, and she enjoyed the remainder provisions of the succession in the event that his male line became extinct. She and her siblings were not agnatic descendants of the House of Oldenburg and the Dukes of Schleswig-Holstein, thus ineligible to inherit the twin duchies, since there existed a number of agnatic lines eligible to inherit those territories.
Marriage
Louise was married at the Amalienborg Palace in Copenhagen on 26 May 1842 to her second cousin Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glucksburg. He was soon selected as hereditary prince of Denmark and later ascended the throne of Denmark as King Christian IX. The marriage greatly strengthed Christian's efforts to secure the Danish throne, since it joined two competing claimants whose children would have an enhanced connection to the ancient bloodlines of the Danish monarchy. Louise and Christian lived a quiet family life. Louise's mother and siblings renounced their rights to the Danish throne to her. Louise herself in turn renounced her rights to the throne to her spouse Christian. In 1852, this succession order was confirmed by the Nordic countries and foreign powers in London.In 1847, Prince Christian was, with the approval of Europe's Great Powers, chosen as successor to the Danish throne by Christian VIII. This choice of heir was made more dynastically palatable by the fact that, thanks to the mass renunciations of the Hesses, Christian's wife Louise became the heiress eventual to the crown, meaning that the couple's children would be heirs to the throne both by right of international treaty and by compliance with the Lex Regia. This resolved the succession to the Danish crown, but not Denmark's claim on the twin duchies of Schleswig and Holstein. German Holstein's historic law of succession was Salic and could not so easily be reconciled with Christian's claim so long as the Augustenborgs survived and Prussia offered itself as the international champion of German nationalism. The result of this conflict was the Second War of Schleswig.
On 3 July 1853, King Frederick VII confirmed this succession. By that act, Louise and Christian became Crown Princess and Crown Prince of Denmark. Louise had a tense relationship with King Frederick VII, who contradicted the succession of her spouse, and whose marriage to the non-royal Louise Rasmussen she did not approve of. Therefore, the King and the Crown Prince couple did not see each other very often.
Queen of Denmark
On 15 November 1863, Louise and Christian became Queen and King of Denmark. The relationship between Louise and Christian seems to have been at least partially a marriage of love, and is described as happy: she supported him in his struggle to be acknowledged as heir to the throne of Denmark, and the couple became strongly attached to each other during the years of succession struggle. Her loyalty is said to have been of great importance to him, and Christian is described as dependent upon her intelligence, judgment and psychological strength, all of which were considered to be superior to his own. Their life style is described as simple and puritan, and as this suited the contemporary view of an exemplary family life, the royal family was regarded as a morally correct role model. Because of this, the pregnancy of her unmarried daughter Thyra in 1870 became a burden; Louise took control of the situation and hid it from public knowledge by sending Thyra to give birth abroad, keeping the whole affair a family secret.As queen, Louise lived a life isolated from the people and did not seek a relationship with or recognition from the public. She took no part in state affairs; her political interests focused on the arranged dynastic marriages of her children and were affected by her anti-German views. The high status marriages she arranged for her children secured the newly established Danish dynasty international status, connecting Denmark to Great Britain, Russia, Sweden and Greece. Known as "The Mother-in-law of Europe," her annual family gatherings at Bernstorff and Fredensborg attracted more attention every year and made her a popular symbol of family life. Significant events in her life included her wedding anniversary on 26 May 1867, when she received great public praise; her birthday celebration of 1887; the wedding anniversary of 1892, and her 80th birthday in 1897.
The great dynastic success of Louise's six children was to a great extent a result of Louise's own ambitions rather than the efforts of her husband Christian IX. Some have compared Louise's dynastic capabilities with those of Queen Victoria.
She was interested in music and painting. She acted as the patron of artists such as Elisabeth Jerichau Baumann. Some of Louise's own paintings were exhibited and given as gifts to members of other royal dynasties.
Louise supported 26 different charity organizations. Among them were Vallø stift; Kronprinsesse Louises praktiske Tjenestepigeskole and the Dronning Louises Børnehospital. In 1857, she founded the Louisestiftelsen, an orphanage for girls with the purpose of raising them to a life of domestic servants, which illustrated her deeply conservative ideals. Her most known project, and one which she herself referred to as her most important, was the Diakonissestiftelsen in 1863, which introduced the Deaconess profession in Denmark. In 1891, she initiated the Foreningen til Oprettelse af Friskolebørneasyler i Kbh.s Arbejderkvarter. She founded the Belønnings- og Forsørgelsesforeningen in 1881, supported domestic servants by providing financial aid to the ill, during unemployment and in retirement. Louise was deeply conservative, and her charitable work has been interpreted as a fear of socialism and the growing workers movement.
During her last years, she became deaf, and her needs were taken care of by two deaconesses from the Deaconess institution she founded. Louise was queen for 35 years, longer than any other Danish queen before her.
On her death in 1898, she was interred in Roskilde Cathedral near Copenhagen.
Children
Louise had the following six children with Christian. Eventually, they had thirty-nine grandchildren.| Name | Birth | Death | Spouse | Children |
| Frederick VIII of Denmark | 3 June 1843 | 14 May 1912 | Princess Louise of Sweden | Christian X of Denmark Haakon VII of Norway Louise, Princess Frederick of Schaumburg-Lippe Prince Harald of Denmark Princess Ingeborg, Duchess of Västergötland Princess Thyra of Denmark Prince Gustav of Denmark Princess Dagmar, Mrs. Castenskiold |
| Princess Alexandra of Denmark | 1 December 1844 | 20 November 1925 | Edward VII of the United Kingdom | Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale George V of the United Kingdom Louise, Princess Royal and Duchess of Fife Princess Victoria of the United Kingdom Maud, Queen of Norway Prince Alexander John of Wales |
| George I of the Hellenes | 24 December 1845 | 18 March 1913 | Grand Duchess Olga Constantinovna of Russia | Constantine I of the Hellenes Prince George of Greece and Denmark Grand Duchess Alexandra Georgievna of Russia Prince Nicholas of Greece and Denmark Grand Duchess Maria Georgievna of Russia Princess Olga of Greece and Denmark Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark Prince Christopher of Greece and Denmark |
| Princess Dagmar of Denmark | 26 November 1847 | 13 October 1928 | Alexander III of Russia | Nicholas II of Russia Grand Duke Alexander Alexandrovich of Russia Grand Duke George Alexandrovich Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich of Russia Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna |
| Princess Thyra of Denmark | 29 September 1853 | 26 February 1933 | Ernest Augustus, Crown Prince of Hanover | Marie Louise, Margravine of Baden Prince George William of Hanover Alexandra, Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-Schwerin Princess Olga of Hanover Prince Christian of Hanover Ernest Augustus, Prince of Hanover and Duke of Brunswick |
| Prince Valdemar of Denmark | 27 October 1858 | 14 January 1939 | Princess Marie of Orléans | Count Aage of Rosenborg Prince Axel of Denmark Count Erik of Rosenborg Count Viggo of Rosenborg Princess Margaret |
in 1883 by Laurits Tuxen
Honours
Danish honours
- Honorary Grand Commander of the Dannebrog, 7 September 1883
- Dame of the Elephant, 26 May 1892
- Dame of the Royal Family Decoration of King Frederick VII
- Dame of the Royal Family Decoration of King Christian IX
Foreign honours
- Electorate of Hesse: Dame of the Golden Lion
- : Grand Cordon of the Precious Crown
- : Dame of the Order of Queen Saint Isabel
- :
- * Grand Cross of St. Catherine
- * Red Cross Medal
- : Dame of the Order of Queen Maria Luisa, 25 January 1878
- :
- * Royal Order of Victoria and Albert, 1st Class
- * Honorary Lady of Justice of St. John
Ancestry