Princess Alexandrine-Louise of Denmark


Princess Alexandrine-Louise of Denmark was a Danish princess as a daughter of Prince Harald of Denmark and granddaughter of Frederick VIII of Denmark.
As the wife of Count Luitpold of Castell-Castell she became a countess of Castell-Castell by marriage.

Early life

Princess Alexandrine-Louise was born on 12 December 1914 at the Jægersborghus country house in Gentofte north of Copenhagen, Denmark.
She was the third child and daughter of Prince Harald of Denmark, son of King Frederick VIII of Denmark and Princess Louise of Sweden. Her mother was Princess Helena of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, daughter of Friedrich Ferdinand, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg and Princess Karoline Mathilde of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg.

Marriage and issue

Before her marriage, Alexandrine-Louise was frequently mentioned as a possible queen consort to Edward VIII of the United Kingdom.
On 24 August 1936, her engagement to Count Luitpold of Castell-Castell, eldest child and son of Count Otto Friedrich of Castell-Castell and his wife, Princess Amélie of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Freudenberg, was announced by special permission of Alexandrine-Louise's uncle Christian X of Denmark. The couple had met for the first time in Berlin during the 1936 Summer Olympics. Following their first meeting, Luitpold and Alexandrine-Louise spent nearly every day together. Before her departure from Berlin, Luitpold proposed marriage and Alexandrine-Louise accepted. At the time of their engagement announcement, Luitpold was a law student residing in Munich.
Luitpold and Alexandrine-Louise were married on 22 January 1937 at Christiansborg Palace in Copenhagen, Denmark. Footage of the wedding on nitrate film is preserved by the Danish Film Institute in their bunker archive for nitrate film at Store Dyrehave in Hillerød. According to the film archivist Karin Bonde Johansen regarding the scenes captured by the film, "the atmosphere looks cheerful and wild looking, but unfortunately there is no audio to the footage."
The couple had three children:
Count Luitpold was killed in action in World War II in Bankya near Sofia, Bulgaria on 6/8 November 1941.
Countess Alexandrine-Louise died in Copenhagen on 26 April 1962.

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