House of Glücksburg | |
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Country |
Kingdom of Denmark Kingdom of Greece (former) Kingdom of Iceland (former) Kingdom of Norway Schleswig-Holstein (claimed) |
Parent house | House of Oldenburg |
Titles | |
Founded | 6 July 1825 |
Founder | Friedrich Wilhelm |
Current head | Christoph |
The House of Glücksburg (Danish: Huset Glücksborg; German: Haus Glücksburg; Greek: Οίκος του Γκλύξμπουργκ, Íkos tou Glíksbourg) (shortened version of the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg; Danish: Slesvig-Holsten-Sønderborg-Lyksborg, also spelled -Glücksborg) is a Danish-German ducal and royal family and a branch of the House of Oldenburg, members of which have at various times reigned in several northern German states and in the kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Greece.
Margrethe II of Denmark, Harald V of Norway, Constantine II of Greece, Queen Sofía of Spain and Charles, Prince of Wales are patrilineal members of cadet branches of the Glücksburg dynasty.
The family takes its ducal name from Glücksburg, a small coastal town in Schleswig, on the southern, German side of the fjord of Flensburg that divides Germany from Denmark. In 1460 Glücksburg came, as part of the conjoined Dano-German duchies of Schleswig and Holstein, to Count Christian VII of Oldenburg whom, in 1448, the Danes had elected their king as Christian I, the Norwegians likewise taking him as their hereditary king in 1450.