Louise of Sweden | |||||
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Queen consort of Denmark | |||||
Tenure | 29 January 1906 – 14 May 1912 | ||||
Born |
, , Sweden |
31 October 1851||||
Died | 20 March 1926 Amalienborg Palace, Copenhagen, Denmark |
(aged 74)||||
Burial | Roskilde Cathedral | ||||
Spouse | Frederick VIII of Denmark | ||||
Issue |
Christian X of Denmark Haakon VII of Norway Princess Louise Prince Harald Princess Ingeborg Princess Thyra Prince Gustav Princess Dagmar |
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House | Bernadotte | ||||
Father | Charles XV of Sweden | ||||
Mother | Louise of the Netherlands | ||||
Religion | Lutheran |
Full name | |
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Louise Josefina Eugenia |
Louise Josephine Eugenie of Sweden (Swedish: Lovisa Josefina Eugenia; 31 October 1851 – 20 March 1926), was Queen of Denmark as the spouse of King Frederick VIII. She was the only surviving child of Charles XV of Sweden and his consort, Louise of the Netherlands.
Louise was born in . After the death of her brother, Carl Oscar (1852-1854), she became an only child at the age of three, and remained one because of her mother's inability to have more children due to an injury. This meant that the throne would pass to her uncle Oscar because, although Sweden had previously had the occasional female monarch, the constitution of 1809 stipulated agnatic succession. Her father made repeated attempts to obtain a constitutional amendment which would recognize her as heir presumptive to the thrones of Sweden and Norway. These attempts were in vain, because there was simply no crisis of succession; Louise's uncle Oscar became the father of several sons, beginning with the birth of the eldest in 1858, and the existence of males in the Bernadotte dynasty rendered action unnecessary. The king could not secure support for a constitutional change which would disinherit his brother and nephews merely to satisfy his desire for his own progeny to ascend the throne; in any case, a daughter could make an advantageous marriage and become the queen of another realm, which is exactly what happened with Louise.
Having no son, and sorely feeling the lack of one, Louise's father compromised by treating her the way that boys were usually treated at the time, often saying about her: "She's an ugly devil, but she's funny!" He treated her in the gruff manner that was then normative between father and son, teasing her if she displayed any feminine or 'sissy' behavior, and consequently, Louise did not develop feminine graces or make any efforts to embellish her looks. This worried her mother, Queen Louise, herself a lady of refinement and grace. While her father often referred to her as "Sessan" (in English: "Sissy"), Louise was commonly known in Sweden as "Stockholmsrännstensungen" (Stockholm urchin), and she often used that term in reference to herself. Her uncle, the future king Oscar II, found it shocking that the word was used for a princess, and tried to curb its use, often admonishing Louise for allowing the word to pass her lips. He was perhaps the only one to try to impose any discipline on her, and Louise is invariably described as a loved and spoiled only child, doted upon by her parents: she is said to have been like her mother in appearance, but like her father in behavior, and she is described as energetic, gregarious, masculine and rather unprepossessing.