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Princess Thyra of Denmark (1853-1933) |
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by Jesus Ibarra |
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Return to King Christian IX |
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King Christian's youngest dauhter was born on September 29, 1853; she was named Thyra. She had not the beauty of her sister Alexandra or the vivacity of her sister Dagmar, but nevertheless she was an attractive and gentle young woman, with blonde hair and dark blue eyes with wonderful expression. Thyra had the sweetest nature of the three sisters. Queen Luise wanted her youngets daughter to make a good marriage as her elder daughters had. Thyra's first pretender was King Willem III of the Netherlands, but as he was thirty six years older than her, she rejected him. |
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Princess Thyra of Denmark, afterwards, Duchess of Cumberland |
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It was then suggested a a match between Thyra and Prince Arthur of Great Britain (Queen Victoria's third son), but it came to nothing. Princess Thyra was to married to Prince Ernest Augustus of Hanover, Duke of Cumberland, who she first met in 1872. His father was the last reigning King of Hanover, the blind George V, first cousin of Queen Victoria. After the Austro-Prussian war, Hanover had been annexed to victorious Prussia because of its refusal to join her during the war, and its startus of independence kingdom had been abolished and the king lost his title and his fortue. So Thyra's fiance was a prince with no kingdom, no fortune and no future. According to Princess Alexandra's words, he was the ugliest man there even was made. Eventough, Alexandra supported her sister Thyra's determination to marry the Duke. They finally got married on December 21, 1878 and went to live to Gumden in Austria, where they lived a quiet life. Thyra's life at Ernest August's side was not easy since he had a difficult character and didn't like parties or family gatherings. Nevertheless they were happy.
Thyra and her sisters, as well as the whole Danish Royal family had always been anti-Prussian, and when her son Ernest Augustus married Kaiser Wilhelm II's younger daughter, Alexandra and Dagmar took it as a betrayal by Thyra's part. The fact that during World War I, Thyra was in the opposite side than both her sisters, widened the estrangement between them. Thyra's husband was deprived from her British peearge and removen from the Order of the Garter when an anti-German feeling sprang out in England during the War.
The Duke died in 1923; Thyra survived him 10 years. She died on February 26, 1933 when she was 79. She was the last surviving of her sisters. |
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Thyra's family, From left to right: her daughter-in-law Viktoria Louise, her son Ernst August and their three children, Princess Thyra, her unmarried daughter Olga and her husband the Duke of Cumberland. |
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Princess Thyra's children: |
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| Princess Marie Luise of Hanover (1879-1948): She married Prince Max of Baden, German Chancellor at the end of World War I. |
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Prince Max of Baden, Princess Marie Luise and their two children |
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Prince George Wilhelm of Hanover (1880-1912) |
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Princess Olga of Hanover (1884-1958) |
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Prince Christian of Hanover (1885-1901) |
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Princess Alexandra of Hanover (1882-1963): She married Grand Duke Friedrich Franz IV of Meckenburg Schwerin. |
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Princess Olga of Hanover |
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Prince Ernest Augustus of Hanover, Duke of Brunswick (1887-1953): He married Viktoria Luise of Prussia (daughter of Kaiser Wilhelm II); they were grandparents of the present Queen Sofia of Spain. |
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Ernest Augustus of Hanover, Duke of Brunswick |
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Bibliography |
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Aronson, Theo: A Family of Kings |
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