Frederik VIII, King of Denmark (1843-1912)
Lovisa of Sweden, Queen of Denmark, wearing the tiara inherited from her grandmother, Queen Josephine of Sweden
King Frederik VIII of Denmark
Frederik, the eldest son of the future King Christian IX and Queen Luise, was born on June 3, 1843. When his father was chosen as heir to the Danish throne, Prince Frederik was taken out of his public school and was put in charge of a private tutor. In October 1863, he went to Oxford for a year of study, but he had to return home at his father accesion to the throne, to take up his duties as Crown Prince; Frederik became a member of his father's Private Council. He took part in the War against Prussia in 1864. In 1891 he was named inspector general of the Army.
Prince Frederik was affable assured and elegant young man; he was frank and cheerful as all the memebers of King Christian's family.
Queen Luise wanted her eldest son married as brilliantly as her two daughters, Alexandra and Dagmar had. Quuen Victoria had two yet unmarried daughters, Helena and Louise, and Luise tried to married Frederik to one of them, but the British Queen didn't want her daughters to marry the heir of a foreigner crown, who could take them away from her, she wanted for them some German princeling who could be able to set his home in England besides her. Moreover, Victoria had always been pro-German and another Danish alliance (Frederik' sister, Alexandra, had married Victoria's eledst son, the Prince of Wales), would not be propper for her German interests. So Queen Luise had to look up for another wife for her son. In July 1868, Frederik became engaged to the seventeen-year-old only daughter of King Charles XV of Sweden, Princess Lovisa. Princess Lovisa's family was somehow ralted to Napoleon Buonaparte. She belonged to the Bernadotte dynasty, which ruled in Sweden since 1818. The founder was John Bernadotte, who had been one of Napoleon's generals, and who was elected King of Sweden with the name of Charles XIV.. He married Desiree Clary, who had once had a love affaire with the French Emperor. Charles XIV's son, Oscar I, married Josephine de Beauharnais, Princess of Leuchtenberg, grandddaughter of Napoleon's first wife, the Empress Josephine. King Oscar I and Queen Josephine were Princess Lovisa's grandparents.
Crown Prince Frederik and Princess Lovisa married in Stockholm on July 28, 1869. Lovisa was a shy and plain girlwith much formal manners; she had the nickname of "Swan". She was so pious that she fall in bigotry. Compared to Prince Frederik's sisters, Lovisa was dull and boring, but she was very rich, coming her fortune from her mother, Lovisa of the Netherlands. As the years passed, Prince Frederik found his wife so priggiish and solemn thaty he couldn't avoid looking for some more frivoulous companies somewhere else. He had always an eye for pretty girls; nevertheless he devotedly fulfilled his marital duties. After a year of marrigae Lovisa gave birth to their first son and heir, the future King Christian X of Denmark, and along the following twenty years, they had seven children more.
The old King Christian IX died in 1906 and Frederik at last acceded the throne as King Frederik VIII; he was already 63 years old. As King, he tried to identify his throne with all the progressive movements of the time. he saw the need of popularize the monarchy and tried to achieve it by traveling all around the country and abroad, delivering eloquent speeches, supporting charities and fighting for the rights of the Danish people living in the German-ruled duchy of Schleswig. For this purpose he visited Kaiser Wilhelm II in Berlin establishing for the first time since the Schleswig-Holstein affair, a friendly relation with Germany. He gained a greater independence for Iceland and when he visited the island he was acclaimed as any other Danish king had been.
In 1912, King Frederik was suffering of a weak heart and he and his family went to the South of France in order to rest and recover. During the second week of May, the King, feeling much better, started his way back home. He and his family stopped in Hamburg for some days and in the evening of May 14, King Fredrik went out for a walk by himself. While crossing the Gransemarky, he tottered, being help by a stranger, who resulted to be a doctor named Seeligmann. The King assured the man he was all right and continued his walk. After having giving a few steps, Fredrik collapsed. Dr.Seeligmann, helped by a policeman, put the King into a cab (they didn't know who he was) and told the driver to take him to a hospital. King Frederik died in the cab. His unidentified body was taken to a mortuary. His family found him until four in the morning. King Frederik VIII's body was taken back to Copenhagen on board of the Royal yacht Danneborg.
Bibliography
Aronson Theo: A Family of Kings