House of Glücksburg
House of Glücksburg
House of Glücksburg | |
---|---|
Parent house | House of Oldenburg |
Country | Kingdom of Denmark Kingdom of Norway Kingdom of Iceland Schleswig-Holstein* |
Founded | 6 July 1825 |
Founder | Friedrich Wilhelm |
Current head | Christoph |
Titles | Current:
|
Glücksburg Castle, one of the most important Renaissance castles in northern Europe
The House of Glücksburg (also spelled Glücksborg), shortened from House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, is a Dano-German branch of the House of Oldenburg, members of which have reigned at various times in Denmark, Norway, Greece and several northern German states.
House of Glücksburg | |
---|---|
Parent house | House of Oldenburg |
Country | Kingdom of Denmark Kingdom of Norway Kingdom of Iceland Schleswig-Holstein* |
Founded | 6 July 1825 |
Founder | Friedrich Wilhelm |
Current head | Christoph |
Titles | Current:
|
History
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.[3] 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.[3]
In 1564, Christian I's great-grandson, King Frederick II, in re-distributing Schleswig and Holstein's fiefs, retained some lands for his own senior royal line while allocating Glücksburg to his brother Duke John the Younger (1545-1622), along with Sonderburg, in appanage.[3] John's heirs further sub-divided their share and created, among other branches, a line of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg dukes at Beck (an estate near Minden bought by the family in 1605), who remained vassals of Denmark's kings.[3]
By 1825, the castle of Glücksburg had returned to the Danish crown (from another ducal branch called Glücksburg, extinct in 1779) and was given that year by King Frederick VI, along with a new ducal title, to his kinsman Frederick of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck.[5] Frederick suffixed the territorial designation to the ducal title he already held, in lieu of "Beck" (an estate the family had, in fact, sold in 1745).[3] Thus emerged the extant Dukes of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg.
The Danish line of Oldenburg kings died out in 1863, and the elder line of the Schleswig-Holstein family became extinct with the death of the last Augustenburg duke in 1931. Thereafter, the House of Glücksburg became the senior surviving line of the House of Oldenburg. Another cadet line of Oldenburgs, the Dukes of Holstein-Gottorp, consisted of two branches which held onto sovereignty into the 20th century. But members of the Romanov line were executed in or exiled from their Russian Empire in 1917, while the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg was abolished in 1918, although its dynastic line survives.[3]
Neither the Dukes of Beck nor of Glücksburg had been sovereign rulers; they held their lands in fief from the ruling Dukes of Schleswig and Holstein, i.e. the Kings of Denmark and (until 1773) the Dukes of Holstein-Gottorp.
Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, the fourth son of Duke Friedrich of Glücksburg, was recognized in the London Protocol of 1852 as successor to the childless King Frederick VII of Denmark. He became King of Denmark as Christian IX on 15 November 1863.[3]
Prince Vilhelm, the second son of Crown Prince Christian and Crown Princess Luise, was elected King of the Hellenes on 30 March 1863, succeeding the ousted Wittelsbach Otto of Greece and reigning under the name George I.
Prince Carl, the second son of Frederick VIII of Denmark, Christian IX's eldest son, became King of Norway on 18 November 1905 as Haakon VII of Norway.
Christian IX's daughters, Alexandra of Denmark and Dagmar of Denmark (as Maria Feodorovna) became the consorts of, respectively, Edward VII of the United Kingdom and Alexander III of Russia. As a result, by 1914 descendants of King Christian IX held the crowns of several European realms, and he became known as the "Father-in-law of Europe".
Christian IX's older brother inherited formal headship of the family as Karl, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg. It is his descendants who now represent the senior line of the Schleswig-Holstein branch of the House of Oldenburg.
Patrilineal ancestry of Duke Friedrich Wilhelm
Elimar I, Count of Oldenburg
Elimar II, Count of Oldenburg
Christian I, Count of Oldenburg (Christian the Quarrelsome)
Maurice, Count of Oldenburg
Christian II, Count of Oldenburg
John I, Count of Oldenburg
Christian III, Count of Oldenburg
John II, Count of Oldenburg
Conrad I, Count of Oldenburg
Christian V, Count of Oldenburg
Dietrich, Count of Oldenburg
Christian I of Denmark
Frederick I of Denmark
Christian III of Denmark
John II, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg
Alexander, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg
August Philipp, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck
Frederick Louis, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck
Peter August, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck
Karl Anton August, Prince of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck
Friedrich Karl Ludwig, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck
Friedrich Wilhelm, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg
Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg
Coat of arms of the Dukes of Schleswig-Holstein
The Dukes of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg constitute the senior male line of the branch. They hold the headship by primogeniture of the cadet house of Glücksburg. The headship by agnatic primogeniture of the entire House of Oldenburg is held by Christoph, Prince of Schleswig-Holstein.
The heir apparent is Friedrich Ferdinand, Hereditary Prince of Schleswig-Holstein (b. 1985).
Denmark
Coat of arms of the Queen of Denmark
In 1853, Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg became heir to the Kingdom of Denmark, and in 1863, he ascended the throne. He was the third son of Friedrich Wilhelm, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, whose elder brother (and male-line descendants) retained the Glücksburg dukedom. The Danish royal family call itself Glücksborg, using a slightly Danicized form of Glücksburg.
The heir apparent is Frederik, Crown Prince of Denmark (b. 1968), who belongs agnatically to the Monpezat family. See the present line of succession. Although there are no more male members of the dynastic line of Glũcksburgs domiciled in Denmark, there are descendants of Christian IX who married without the monarch's permission, thus forfeiting their royal status.[6] They bear the Danish noble title "Count of Rosenborg" (and the style of Excellency), heritable by their descendants in the legitimate male line.
Greece
Coat of arms of the King of the Hellenes
Thirty-drachma coin of 1963, commemorating the centennial of the reign of the House of Glücksburg. Clockwise from the top: Paul, George II, Alexander, Constantine I and George I.
In 1863 and with the name George I, Prince Wilhelm of Denmark was elected King of the Hellenes on the recommendation of Europe's Great Powers. He was a younger son of King Christian IX of Denmark.
The Hellenic constitutional monarchy was usurped in a coup d'état by a military junta in 1968 and the royal family fled into exile. In a 1974 referendum, 69.18% of the voters decided against the return of the monarchy.
Norway
Coat of arms of the King of Norway
In 1905 and with the name Haakon VII, Prince Carl of Denmark became King of Norway. His father was King Frederick VIII of Denmark, and one of his uncles was King George I of Greece.
The heir apparent is Crown Prince Haakon of Norway (b. 1973). See the present line of succession.
Iceland
Kingdom of Iceland
In 1918, Iceland was elevated from an autonomous Danish province to a separate Kingdom of Iceland. Christian X of Denmark was henceforth King of Denmark and Iceland until 1944, when Iceland dissolved the union between the two countries.
The heir apparent was his son Frederick IX of Denmark (1899–1972).
Duke of Edinburgh
Coat of arms of the Duke of Edinburgh
In 1947, Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark (who relinquished his princely titles and adopted the surname of Mountbatten upon becoming a British subject prior to his wedding) was created Duke of Edinburgh by his father-in-law, George VI. Descendants in the male line of his marriage to Queen Elizabeth II belong, by decree, to the House of Windsor and use "Mountbatten-Windsor" as a surname, when one is needed. The first twenty places in the line of succession to the British throne are held by the Duke's descendants.
Portrait | Name | Life | Reign | Additional titles |
---|---|---|---|---|
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh[3] | 1921– | 1947– | Earl of Merioneth Baron Greenwich |
The heir-apparent is Charles, Prince of Wales (born 1948).[1]
Family tree
See also
House of Oldenburg
House of Oldenborg (Danish)
Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg (elder line)