During and after my recent trip to Copenhagen, I have
been reading up on Dutch history and became particularly interested in the few,
but important, queens the monarchy has seen.
There are quite a few choices, one of them being the
present monarch and queen, Queen Margrethe II. I am not writing about her, as I
prefer already deceased subjects. Another choice was Queen Victoria, who is
wildly popular as being the known as the queen who put her children on many of
the thrones of Europe (no joke—she was queen of the United Kingdom, and put her
children on the thrones of Greece, Wales, Luxembourg, Germany, Norway, Spain,
Sweden and Belgium). But as she is so well-known, I would rather write about
someone who hasn’t gotten very much spotlight, so I chose Queen Louise of
Denmark, who was married to King Frederick VIII.
She was born in Sweden, and because her father had no
male heir, was often treated as a boy. This led her to have a laid-back
attitude towards making herself look pretty with makeup and the newest gowns,
but also led to her having quite an informal attitude. It should be noted that
this informal attitude would probably have been fine had it been accompanied
with a boy, but with a girl it was not tolerated well and even led to problems
with her future mother-in-law.
During her childhood she was well educated, and also
became a spokesgirl, along with her mother, for women’s inclusion in the sport
of swimming, which until then had been labeled as a boys-only sport. When it
came time for her marriage, her father did not want to force her into anything
arranged, and let her choose entirely.
She married Prince Frederick in Stockholm, and the
marriage was celebrated as a symbol of the new Scandinavia, as it was the first
Swedish and Danish royal marriage since the Middle Ages. As a princess, her
gruff manner and informal ways won her no favors at court, and even caused her
and her husband to be sent out of the country for three months once after she
replied to her mother-in-law with what could be translated as “Take it easy!”
In spite of this, she was enormously popular with the people.
Louise led a full life in spite of her husband’s numerous
affairs, and had many hobbies, such as literature, leather work, and painting,
and is known for the numerous charitable organizations that she created while
Crown Princess and then later as Queen. In other words, she was a woman of her
own creating, and that is to be admired.