Royal Family, Episode 6: Uncrowned Marriages (Documentary)

[Music] [Applause] [Music] at the end of the 19th century the Danish King Christian the ninth and his Queen Luise succeeded in marrying their six children into the leading European royal families and Christian the ninth thus became known as the father-in-law of Europe today his family is found all over Europe and quite exceptionally leaves royal descendants have chosen to come together and talk about their family's incredible story which they know from letters and diaries and from the stories that have been passed down to them through the generations in addition the family has also made private photos and films available many of which have never been seen in public before this episode is about Christian the ninth two youngest children Torah and Valdemar the relaxed Valdemar turned down numerous offers to be king he married a tattooed French princess with whom he had many disobedient children she taught me how to roll small balls out of the bread and to shoot them off into other people's champagne glasses [Music] little princess Tara arrives in 1853 a couple of months after her father Prince Christian has been named as heir to the throne Alexandra and Dagmar are delighted to have a little sister and Tara isn't very old before she is out riding with her elder sisters a few years later the family's youngest child Prince Valdemar is born at bounced off Castle Christians new summer residence it doesn't take Valdemar long to start joining in with his older siblings also when they're visiting the docks in Copenhagen he was taking very well care of by his brothers and sisters who loved him dearly and who supposedly often took him along for a stroll in the streets of Copenhagen particularly to New Haven a little Canal Street by the harbour of Copenhagen where a lot of sailors were sitting in and he might have caught interest in sailing later on his life through that part of his childhood Valdemar dreams of being a sailor and so is not especially pleased when he receives a gift from his elder brother the king of Greece Prince Valdemar was sent some Greek customs by his elder brother from Greece of course and as a small boy he was dressed up in this and one of one of the parts of this dress was a skirt which Valdemar wasn't very fond of wearing they thought I was so lovely in the little white starched skirt which is part of the Greek national costume but I being shown off and photographed and had found it quite awful and thought that the skirt was unworthy of clothing of a real man [Music] Valdemar and taurah are educated at home like his sister's Torah has inherited Queen Louise's artistic talents and she can often be found in the Queen's studio where she loves spending time with her paints and brushes but the best entertainment of all is when the famous writer hands Christian Anderson comes to visit and to read them his stories hence mr. Anderson of course was at a monumental snob and but but but a very but of course also a very great artist a wonderful writer and he had known the people around the royal family always they went to visit him until he was asked to come and to read his paper his stories and he dedicated many many volumes of his books to members of the royal family and Chris and Anderson had been to amalienborg for dinner and he didn't feel very well which happened once in a while the next morning the King was serve feeling worried about the health of Hans Christian Anderson so he went in the carriage with his son Prince Valdemar and when they arrived at Hans Christian Andersen's house the writer is immensely moved I was moved tears came to my eyes he affectionately shook my hand and said that I look better than he had thought and that I wasn't wearing my teeth suited me much better than the false teeth I had worn it's exciting to visit Hans Christian Andersen especially because the writers house is located in New Haven where the sailors sit and tell their tales yet Valdemar still has to wait a year or two before he can begin his maritime education Terra makes her social debut at 17 and begins to attract the interest of a number of foreign Prince's Jura writes to her sister Dagmar in Russia can you imagine anything is all full as turning 17 it's absolutely awful becoming this old if you were here we could enjoy ourselves I feel so immensely lonely poor little me Taurus sisters have already married well 1/2 the heir to the British throne and the other to the heir to the Russian throne and Queen Luise knows that it will be difficult to find an equally good match for Tura they think she was not there's a nicest of these sisters but I think the most interesting whilst her parents debate who she should marry tora falls in love with vilhelm akka an army officer and he is equally smitten with a young princess Queen Luise is aware of the romance but sees it as nothing more than a youthful slim after a long journey Taurus days in Greece back in Denmark a family council has decided that the official reason for tourist journey is to visit her elder brother King George of Greece yet her journey has been undertaken for an entirely different reason the 18 year old princess is pregnant TR had a daughter a child a daughter before she was married and the father was an officer of the guards it's not something you boast about but we've heard about it at least in the danger reports from athens that taurah is not well worried christian the 9th and together with Valdemar he decides to travel to Greece [Music] Duras daughter is put up for adoption at birth and after Turin has recovered the family travels to Rome they stay here for the next couple of months and Tara is doing very well considering her situation the Crown Prince of Hannover is also here he's really very nice except that he has no nose back in Denmark bill he'll maka is distraught at having placed his princess in such an untenable situation and he decides to take his own life in Rome Tara breaks down when she finds out that her beloved is dead at the same time she is also diagnosed as having ty for it Queen Luise is extremely concerned I am sitting in semi-darkness at Taurus side she is calm but weak though the doctor says her pulse is good the fever is stronger today by chance the British royal doctor is in the area and once the family watches despairingly he finally succeeds in saving Torres life enabling her to return to Denmark [Music] home safe a highly respected suitor announces his intentions it's the Dutch king and widower Wilhelm the third but he is 36 years older than Terra and has to accept being turned down and stile ghost X crown prince of hanover whom torah had met in Rome is also showing an interest in the young princess and he is Queen Louise's favorite even though his father George v had been forced from the throne Louisa is certain that Ernst August will one day be king of Hannover Ernst August blind father had to give up the throne when he found himself on the losing side in the war against Bismarck's great prussian kingdom because king george v was blind he couldn't really see the problems this was a disaster for the Hanoverian people and to all intents and purposes the son and stylist must accept being reduced to nothing when George v dies in exile Ernst algis chooses to adopt his father's British title the Duke of Cumberland the tall thin and star West is far from being the ideal prince with his flat face and poor taste in clothes he is the subject of much amused conversation amongst Europe's royalty yet he is also much loved by the mall and tourists sister Alexandra who was married to the heir to the British throne is keen to see Anne stal ghost marry into the Danish royal family [Music] during a family visit to Germany in 1878 Queen Luise announces that she has to attend a consultation with an optician but in reality she is to observe a meeting which she and Alexandre have arranged for Torah Torah is very excited she is to have a secret meeting with an stal ghost mama whispered to the whole family that she had an appointment with an eye doctor in Frankfurt and accompanied by unbelievably many apologies the three of us calmly left the meeting takes place at an aunt's house and from her position behind the door in an adjacent room it's possible for Alexandre to follow the development of the first signs of love between them she gave him her hand which he immediately kissed and then she said how very much she enjoyed seeing him again I could only see around the corner with one eye as they once again pressed each other's hands and he lay one kiss after the other upon them mom and I could have saved ourselves our long conversation with him because she cut the whole procedure short by proposing herself [Music] Britain's Queen Victoria has earlier attempted to marry off one of her sons tuturro but was turned down and now Queen Victoria exclaims that torus engagement is completely without foundation she believes that Ernst August is a prince without a kingdom without a fortune and without a future she has very little positive to say about Turner either her eyes are beautiful but I have never seen such an awful mouth without a chin and such a thick flat nose her figure is bony and she moves very clumsily [Music] Tura marries an starburst at Christmas the wedding is held in Copenhagen after the wedding the couple moves to Austria they lived in London which is a small village in Austria and first they were living in small O's and as a family grow and set a lot of children they build horse fortress Cumberland the children grow up in a warm home as Torah and an stoutest prefer the quiet of family life in Boonton to participating in European royal occasions and algis prefers to be at home where he can pursue his great passion he was a great shooter and hunting enthusiast and did particularly hunting in Austria for the chinois of the gimps in the Hutton Highlands and she sort of insisted to be stay with him by his side literally dura is only occasionally able to persuade her husband to make the journey to Denmark where the rest of the widely despised family chooses to gather and starburst hates to travel and he despises court etiquette the Greek princes however find his behavior somewhat strange Ernst August was very original and the only war tearily and attire when he very rarely ate at the court in Denmark he changed back into his tear aaliyan clothes the moment the dinner was over Turan loves spending time with her family in Denmark and she enjoys playing the piano eight handed together with her sisters and her mother [Music] in Denmark Torre's younger brother Valdemar is well underway with his naval training from abroad was brought up as a naval officer and and therefore was quite a lot at sea he had naval command so a bit on on several long trips it means everything to serve and twenty-six-year-old Valdemar does not wish to be given any special treatment he works as an equal with his comrades Queen Luise is now occupied trying to find a bride for Valdemar after the elder children successful marriages in Britain Russia Greece and Sweden it's difficult to ignore the great power France Emperor Napoleon the third has died in exile and louisa believes that there is a possibility that france will restore the monarchy the good old Bourbons from the country's great pre-revolutionary royal period might possibly make a return to the French throne so a marriage to a member of this family would obviously be a very good match a great-granddaughter of the last King of France proves to be a possibility she is the very independent and somewhat eccentric princess Marie of all young Queen Louisa has already established a good relationship with Marie's parents and in 1885 Marines father sends an invitation to Valdemar but princess Marie doesn't know she's receiving a visitor I was received most warmly by the Duke and Duchess and while we sat talking a young 20 year old girl opened the door in a surprise at seeing a guest she spilled a cup of paint she was holding in her hand all over herself blushing she disappeared to recompose herself when Midori young was living with her parents they were living in the elder avoir at a family which was very poor they had to maintain the place completed themselves they had no gardener no servants Marie has a very unusual and forceful personality she's intelligent quick-witted and completely unimpressed by the Royal Way of life and princess or not she does whatever she wants she was an unusual personality she had rather unusual interests and and she was very forthright especially she had she she would sort of say exactly what she felt in Britain Queen Victoria is well aware of the French princess's potential anne-marie has already been invited to Windsor I was so blinded by all of the unfurled magnificence and when the Queen finally asked me if I wanted to live in England I gave the awfully stupid answer no it's much too grand here and so the Queen gave up on me Valdemar has more luck Marie finds him very attractive and she accepts his proposal of marriage the hopeful parents have already taken care of all the formalities and it takes only three days for the Pope to grant permission for the couple to marry it is a highly unusual in fact because of course she was the Catholic and he was a Lutheran an arrangement was made with the Catholic Church that the sons of the marriage would become Lutheran and daughters would become Catholic Marie immediately starts preparing for her new life in Denmark and she corresponds regularly with Valdemar I hope that when I come to Denmark I can ride with you and the King because I would so very much like you to allow me to bring my good horse [Music] fifteen hundred guests take part in Murray and valdemar's wedding in France [Music] Marie and Valdemar arrived in Copenhagen as newlyweds at their new residence the yellow palace an official who holds a welcome speech in their honor greets the couple just as he was sort of standing and reading about aloud his speech and being a formal bouquet of flowers thrown by the crowd to the princess the coming princess but the sort of mishap had it that it went right through the carriage window instead of stopping in there in the hands of the princess went straight through the other window and landed in the face of this dignitary [Music] this is the first opportunity Copenhagen us have had to hear Marie's spontaneous laughter and with an unpretentious style it's not long before she is well loved by the Danes a year after the wedding Valdemar announces to Marie that he has been given the opportunity to take over the Bulgarian throne valdemar's brother-in-law Russia's Czar Alexander the third has had enough of the Sovereign Prince of Bulgaria who is taking more and more liberties yet Valdemar turns the offer down his wife Princess Marie there was no way you would drag her down to Bulgaria Prince Valdemar has no great desire to be king of Bulgaria either he was not too happy to go there first and foremost because they would immediately put him as an enemy of his very dear brother George of Greece Bulgaria and Greece were often in addition as enemies they had been wars between them and they were later on and I'm sure that their brothers felt that that situation would be impossible situation for them and in any case Valdemar and Marie very much enjoyed living in Denmark Marie is keen to learn Danish and listens intently to Valdemar and his friends as some of these friends were from the Navy and it was quite a dirty language very rough she of course learnt that and once in a while when she was out with people she said something in Danish and people were shocked of her tongue when other members of the family are visiting from abroad Marie teaches her nephews the heirs to the Greek Russian and British Thrones how to play a decent game of cards and she has her own very individual way of dealing with royal etiquette when it comes to playing the piano once when I was asked to play I did it in such a way that I put the musical part of the family to shame I was never asked to repeat the experiment [Music] during a six year period marie gives birth to the couple's first four children the princes or axel Eric and Viggo after the birth of Viggo Marie's doctor prescribed some pain killing morphine for her very subsequently finds it difficult to control her consumption of the drug and only the family is aware of the real reason for her lengthy period of rehabilitation in the summer of 1894 in Russia Valdemar sister and Lord Dagmar is worried about Marie's condition just as long as she hasn't started drinking again which she fortunately otherwise had stopped doing Paul Valdemar I feel so terribly sorry for he must be desperate in every way but with God's assistance it is only temporary and I hope she will recover completely and never again touch the gruesome morphine which ruins your health after an absence of three weeks Marie is clearly well on the way to recovery when she returns to Copenhagen the following year Marie gives birth to the couple's last child little princess margretta the nickname was the naughty children from the yellow palace that was becomes the one not always very well behaved anne-marie has more than enough to do trying to keep control of her lively sons when they take their annual family portrait [Music] one day the naughty ones are invited to tea with their distinguished aunts the Queen of England and the Empress of Russia who have a summer residence north of Copenhagen they leave by train dressed in newly washed and pressed white sail outfits and they crawl over characters until they came to the tender and then they are bowed at the stoker with choler and he doesn't didn't approve of it so him but bombarded them with choler the naughty ones are not easy to control at home either they are looking forward to winter when the winter double glazing is put up in the yellow palace they asked one of her servants to open a top window as soon as he is up there they they closed the second window so he's in between them and cannot get out and he was actually there for for quite some time the marriage does not change valdemar's lifestyle and he continues his naval career his cruises take him to the West Indies Constantinople India China and Japan where he successfully represents Denmark when he is finally home with Marie the house is always full of visitors and the guest book reveals a somewhat non-traditional royal existence they saw actors painters and generally people from the artistic world they've they must have had a very entertaining life in that sense because they really knew everybody who's on stage during those years literally on stage but also whoever was hip and it's always exciting spending time in Princess Marie's company she also has an extraordinary artistic talent she was a very good artist very good artist she painted especially watercolors and especially fruits flowers and she's made some marvelous paintings of mushroom marvellous mushrooms really beautifully done our artistic talents are not limited to painting alone mostly she designed before the Royal postin Factory the series of exotic animals such as a hippopotamus is for RIT they're the best known artifact from her as the wife of a sailor Prince Murray has an anchor tattooed on her left arm and she's an expert at embarrassing her husband when she makes fun of the distinguished women of the Royal Court mrs. Malay used to call the ladies and weddings which in the French is damned owner she called them damn to well which is the horrible ladies Murray is happiest away from stiff royal etiquette and she thoroughly enjoys her daily rides on her horse boy my grandmama enjoyed riding very much she also had ladies settle made for Bulls who she also tried riding a bull which was wild like shorter I think she wasn't but she was much said mad and I think in people enjoy this very different sort of person that she was when Murray hears that one of Copenhagen's lonely eccentrics has died she turns up unannounced at the funeral there was a lady in or a woman here in Denmark called the Virgin pastime and at the at her funeral actually princess Molly was only one attending there's a fire in Copenhagen and on her way past Marie hears that a fireman has fallen to his death when she discovers that the man's widow and children will now have to fend for themselves she establishes a fund for fireman's widows she is presented with a fireman's helmet in thanks and is named an honorary fireman and every time that she would listen at the bell of Fi even if it was during an official function she would leave the table take off her tiara put her cask of a fireman or rush to the place of the fire to try to help delighted the Danes are beginning to get used to their fearless French princess who more than lives up to her own publicly known motto let them grumble I don't care she was totally eccentric she did whatever she wanted she was very happy in Denmark and also under that eccentricity of an artistic the princess I think she was deeply interested in politics like all the members of the early or family amongst others Marie provides her nephew tsar nicholas ii with a lot of unsolicited advice and he learns to get straight to the point when replying I have done what you asked of me and can now give you a completely clear answer it is a categorical No and the case can now be closed however it's considered quite natural that the Russian czar interferes in European politics in 1905 when Norway needs a king nicholas ii and kaiser wilhelm in germany agree that Valdemar would be a fine choice for his Emperor Wilhelm says Valdemar has the required experience a delightful and elegant wife and healthy offspring yet Valdemar refuses instead he would like to see the task passed unto his nephew Prince Karl Valdemar really has no other ambition in life than to be a sailor Prince [Music] many new forms of transport make their appearance during this time and in Copenhagen horse-drawn carriages now have to share the streets with electric trams and the royal family watches with great interest when in 1907 a Dame Ella Halle manages to fly an aircraft 461 yards the longest ever flown by a European the time Valdemar spends together with his wife and children is limited due to the fact that he has an exceptionally close relationship with his Greek nephew Prince George whose company he values very highly George or known as Kogi or uncle goujian the family was very close to to to Prince Valdemar and they went everywhere together they were very firm friends in the final years of her life Marie is lonely and her husband's absence when Valdemar leaves once again for Asia this time with his three eldest sons none of them know that they have seen Marie for the last time Marie is ill and when Dagmar visits her sister-in-law Marie appears to be very confused from the first moment she didn't recognize me she sat on the bed in a shift and bare feet and insisted on dressing to go hunting the illness has affected her mind completely [Music] Marie has acute pneumonia and her doctors are powerless to help a week after Dagmar's visit Marie drifts into unconsciousness and dies the evening that my grandmother died Molly Uncle Bobby saw a butterfly flying over the ship he knew she'd been there she was she died it is impossible to preserve Marie's body due to the temperature and the yellow palace and only her closest relatives managed to say farewell before she is placed in a zinc coffin which is then welded shut upon valdemar's return Marie's sealed coffin lies in Hallman's Church awaiting its final journey and Valdemar must now begin to get used to the idea of being a widower for the next thirty years [Music] they'll just remember that my grandfather went found him up always kept apartments like it she just was still there that she's gone on her on her journey and just came back we weren't allowed as children to go there not to move anything the many parties and society events previously held the yellow Palace are no longer anne-marie and valdemar's five children leave home as they marry the eldest of Valdemar anne-marie son's aura has inherited his mother's Gallic temperament and without consulting his father he marries an Italian Duchess in Rome in 1914 Valdemar immediately demands a meeting with his son the first thing he did was to a slab Prince always face but then he turned around to his future daughter-in-law and congratulation the marriage does not work out an o'er loses his fortune when denmarks largest bank collapses in 1922 he yearns to get away and joins the Foreign Legion in which he serves until dying of pneumonia 18 years later the second son axel marries princess margarita of Sweden he joins the East Asiatic company a large Danish multinational where he becomes a director but when he is with his siblings it's easy to recognize the disobedient children from the yellow palace may allah and his brothers and sister they got an idea of they should try to put their cars in reverse and then go as slowly as possible and in the or go to house stood on the front steps and the one who got hit first had lost axel and margarita are the parents of count Flemming of rosenborg who was married to countess Ruth until his death in 2002 [Music] Viggo has a very close relationship with his brother Axl who he often holidays with in Sweden Viggo becomes an army officer and marries the immensely wealthy American Eleanor green but the couple have no children the social couple who were known as prince and princess Viggo remain in Denmark Erick chooses to become a farmer and his training takes place partly in Canada while he was there he met Louis Booth my grandmother who was served Dora for timber King in Canada amongst Eric's descendants today is the ship broker count Valdemar of rosenborg who is married to a French woman [Music] the daughter margretta marries the French Prince Rene Bob on palm and settles in Paris during the Second World War they escaped with their children to the USA where margretta finds employment in an exclusive hat shop one day the Norwegian Crown Princess matter comes into the shop looking for a new hat while she's trying on a new hat she places her own hat on a nearby chair another lady came in and put it on her look at all that so ii said doesn't it suit you so then the lady said it's very nice can I get a can i buy it so my mail call said of course you know what to say the price of a know Latin or on matter was another side trying hats on the other side say when she had to leave she said to mummy but where's my hat I had a hat when I came is something going on here because they were cousins so mommy said I'm off I saw it made a good deal with your hat didn't get a happen laughed margretta remains the family is always entertaining favorite aunt we used to laugh a lot of her at her and the way she spoke and the way she told stories and I think a small children we looked up to her because she had a sort of quite a naughty sort of twinkle in her eye even an old age margretta loves nothing more than disrupting the great Royal occasions of the day I remember at a rather grand dinner at ferns ball I sat next to her and she taught me how to roll small balls out of the bread and to shoot them off into other people's champagne glasses and I remember when she she did her I wouldn't say cruder class but her bullseye shot she had my father's champagne glass just by the time he was taking it so that and he knew exactly where to turn to that was what shocked me most it wasn't to me it was to her since 1948 margretta only daughter Anne has been married to another of Christian ix descendants Michael the former king of Romania [Music] back in 1887 torah and an stylist have been married for nine years when torah begins to exhibit a form of very strange behavior she runs around the house at night in a state of confusion because she thinks that she can hear a child crying Torah is admitted to a clinic yet her sister Dagmar does not agree with the Austrian methods of treatment what will she think when she asks where she is and they tell her she is traveling and when she doesn't see any of the usual faces around her it is much too awful to think of her in such agony it is established that Tara is pregnant and she will not return home until six months later Ernst August is now easily annoyed and irritable he also suffers from the occasional anxiety attack and Tura has to sit and calm him for hours on end the Duke of Cumberland had him skinned Lilith and he couldn't use new you new closest they must have been used at least a year advanced by a servant Dagmar comes to hear of an stal ghosts problems Tara said that he cried every morning like a baby and complained that he felt his clothes made him feel uncomfortable Ben's Taoists health improves for periods and he even chooses to travel with Tara to Denmark here surrounded by her family Dagmar cannot resist teasing an stylist Ernst is well again and when hunting today in such a shabby and dirty suit that I gave him 25 era because I assumed he was a beggar [Music] members of the Danish royal family have always been very keen on games and croquet has been played at the summer gatherings for many years and Christian ix enjoys playing whist with his daughters Torah Dagmar and Alexandra during her visit this time Tura presents her father with a somewhat unusual gift an electric cigar lighter it is given pride of place on his desk at home in a million Borg Torre's brother Frederick the eighth of Denmark dies in 1912 and a few days later Tura and Anne stongest received some shocking news about their eldest son George being a very close relative to King Frederick the eighth he has to go to the funeral on his way to Copenhagen he has a car accident he is killed and obviously his younger brother and stylist then becomes the head of the family and that's how the hand of a family have continued as a thing as the accident has taken place in Germany Kaiser Wilhelm organizes a guard of honour and Torah and Ernst August politely send their youngest son who's also called Han stylist to Berlin to represent them and thank the Kaiser for his efforts on behalf of their dead son whilst in Berlin the 25 year old NSTAR ghost falls in love with the kaisers daughter Victoria and a wedding is soon arranged yet it is difficult for Turin and Ernst August to accept that their son is now marrying into the family that forced the Hanoverians from the throne the Cumberlands have suffered much at the hands of the ambitious Kaiser and they can never be a happy reconciliation between the families yet an stongest will not stand in the way of his son's happiness and at the wedding in Berlin he finds himself driving in an open carriage sitting beside his archenemy Kaiser Wilhelm I think that was the last time all the heads of state of the Europe of that time ever met in other words the tsar was there the king of england was there and certainly the Kaiser was there by virtue of his marriage to the kaisers daughter a instal ghost becomes the reigning prince in the duchy of brunswick but the pleasure is short-lived as the following year the First World War breaks out destroying the Imperial Thrones of Germany Russia and Austria some years previously in goo muntin Tura and an stylists eldest daughter Marie Louise had married Prince Maximilian of Baden a highly respected officer attached to the court of Kaiser Wilhelm Turin and an stongest have a very good relationship with their son-in-law as long as he doesn't talk too much about the German Kaiser in their home at the end of the First World War Kaiser Wilhelm makes Maximilian the German Chancellor in the hope that he will be able to save what remains of the German Empire in the chaos to follow yet Maximilian sees only one solution and announces the kaisers abdication and Kaiser Wilhelm is therefore forced to spend the rest of his life in exile in Holland after 1918 there were no duchesses anymore the war was over the king and Emperor didn't exist anymore as the aging and stylist has supported Austria during the war the British strip him of his royal title Duke of Cumberland both he and Terra are heartbroken my poor Duke suffers much from it though he won't think ill of people's intentions it seems that England has destroyed my Duke and accuses him of treason [Music] Durer becomes very lonely when Ernst August after 45 years of marriage dies in 1923 and she plans a visit to the family in Denmark later in the summer I hope to travel to Denmark after 11 years absence I am so grateful now at not having travelled home during these years I stayed purely out of fear that something would happen to my Duke in my absence in goo Morten t'rar moves out of sloths Cumberland and into a smaller residence close by and Tiras new residence becomes a place for her children and grandchildren to meet Here Come Taurus three daughters who visit as often as they possibly can and much Tudor as pleasure they stayed for days at a time together with their own families Torah has become a white-haired slightly deaf old lady when she writes to her nephew George the fifth in Britain now I am growing very old dear Georgie I am glad to be able to thank you for all of your sweet letters please give my love to dear Mae it's all so long long ago the year before her death Torah visits Denmark for the last time and in 1933 Torah passes away peacefully in her home in common [Music] among jurors descendants is her great grandson Prince Heinrich of Hanover he is a businessman and lives near Hanover together with his wife and children his elder brother is Prince Ernst Albert of Hanover who bears the same name as his father grandfather and great-grandfather he is married to princess Caroline of Monaco the couple both have children from previous marriages as well as their own daughter Princess Alexandra [Music] Tura and Anne's downbursts other descendants today include Constantine the second of Greece Queen sofía of Spain Duchess Donata of Mecklenburg salaat cough who lives together with her family near Kia as well as Princess Elizabeth Easton borg on booting him who today runs Glucksberg castle the castle were nearly 200 years ago the father-in-law of Europe lived as a boy [Music] in 1939 the last of Christian the ninth children Prince Valdemar the man who did not want to be king dies peacefully after a short illness aged 80 voluma became known as his older days as the uncle of all Kings all his nephews were tars or kings in Russia Denmark England Greece Norway so he was it was a fantastic time now I would say to me [Music] when Europe's Royals meet today the great majority of them come from the same family a dynasty that can trace its roots back to the Danish King Christian the ninth the father-in-law of Europe in numerous cases both spouses are descendants of Christian the ninth this applies to Britain's Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip constantine ii of greece and queen anne marie as well as Romania's former king michael and his wife Queen Anne Christian ix had six children and despite the fact that they ended up living a long way from each other the six siblings maintained their very close relationship throughout their lives the eldest son became as Frederick the eighth King of Denmark on the death of his father and through his children the descendants found their way to Norway Sweden Belgium and Luxembourg Christian the ninths eldest daughter Alexandra became queen of Great Britain through her marriage to Edward the seventh today her descendants can be found in Britain and Norway the second daughter Dagmar was the last great Serena yet the Revolution and a murder of her son nicholas ii put an end to the Czar's in russia two daughters who escaped from russia have descendants in the USA canada and europe christian the ninth second son became king george the first of greece when only seventeen years old today greece italy yugoslavia and romania are without a crowned head of state but not without a royal family and all have descendants of george the fast in addition to his descendants married the Spanish and British monarchs the youngest daughter princess Torah never became queen of Hanover as her mother had hoped yet through her the descendants of the Father and lore of Europe have ended up in Germany Austria and most recently the Principality of Monaco the youngest son Prince Valdemar turned down the opportunity to sit on two Thrones and today his descendants are principally to be found in Denmark France and Switzerland the story of the father and lore of Europe begins when the poor Prince Christian of glücksburg castle becomes King of Denmark and when the matchmaking games were over his descendants came to mark a key period of Europe's history [Music] from a time of dynastic politics to today's modern Europe the descendants of the Father and lore of Europe have maintained their close ties across all borders [Music] [Applause] [Music] you [Music]

Channel: Scandinavian Royalty

Views: 573,311

Rating: 4.6902628 out of 5

Keywords: crown prince frederik, queen margrethe ii, queen elizabeth ii, prince michael of kent, prince joachim, crown prince haakon, grand duchess josephine-charlotte, danish royal family, norwegian royal family, swedish royal family, british royal family, royal, royalty, royal family, queen victoria, king christian ix

Id: h-P54cv5v70

Length: 52min 30sec (3150 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 19 2017