Christian IX of Denmark Oldenburg ^{1 2 3}

  General Notes:

CHRISTIAN IX was a direct descendant of Christian III through the Glücksburg line. In 1852, with the consent of the reigning Frederick VII, a council of the great powers recognized Christian as heir apparent to the Danish throne. On the death of Frederick in 1863, Christian became king. The following year, after a war with Prussia and Austria, Denmark was forced to renounce its claims to Schleswig-Holstein by the Treaty of Vienna. In domestic affairs, Christian IX's reign was marked by a struggle between liberal and conservative elements for control of the Folketing, the lower house of the Danish Rigsdag, the legislature. Christian sided with the conservatives, but when the liberals gained control of the Folketing, he consented to the formation of a liberal ministry. By his wife, Louise, princess of Hesse-Cassel (1817-98), he had six children. Of these, his eldest son succeeded him as Frederick VIII; his daughter Alexandra (1844-1925) married the prince of Wales, later King Edward VII of Great Britain and Ireland; another daughter, Dagmar (1847-1928), married Grand Duke Alexander of Russia, later Czar Alexander III; and a younger son, George, became George I, king of Greece. Christian was sometimes called the Grandfather of Europe.

Danish king who came to the throne at the height of a crisis over Schleswig-Holstein in 1863 and who later resisted the advance of full parliamentary government in Denmark.

Christian was the son of Duke William of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck (and after 1825 Duke of Glücksburg). He entered the Danish army in 1835, serving in the Schleswig War (1848-50). In 1842 he married Louise of Hesse-Kassel, cousin of the childless Danish king, Frederick VII, and he was named successor to the throne of Denmark, Schleswig-Holstein, and Lauenburg in the London protocol of 1852. When Christian came to the throne at Frederick's death in November 1863, he was forced by popular feeling in Denmark to sign the November constitution, which incorporated Schleswig into the state and made war with the German states inevitable.

In the years after the disastrous war of 1864, Christian IX supported conservative minority governments against the ever-expanding democratic forces in Denmark. He finally submitted to them in 1901 by appointing a majority cabinet. This change brought full parliamentary government to Denmark.

  Noted events in his life were:

• Acceded: 1863. King of Denmark.

Christian married Louise Wilhelmina of Hesse-Kassel, daughter of William X of Hesse-Cassel and Louise Charlotte Oldenburg, on 26 May 1842 in Copenhagen, Denmark. (Louise Wilhelmina of Hesse-Kassel was born on 7 Sep 1817 in Cassel, died on 29 Sep 1898 in Bernstorff and was buried in Roskilde Cathedral, Denmark.)