Queen Ingrid of Denmark, the Danish Queen Mother, was a
Swedish princess with pronounced English ancestry. She was the
only daughter of Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf, who succeeded as
King Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden in 1950. Her mother was
Princess Margaret, the elder daughter of the Duke of Connaught,
so Queen Ingrid was a great-grand-daughter of Queen Victoria,
one of a very few such survivors.
She was a greatly loved figure in Denmark, as evidenced by public
reaction to the celebrations for her 90th birthday in Copenhagen
last March. Queen Ingrid was also much admired for her
intelligence: she was often described as having been the first
Danish Queen Consort to take an almost professional approach to
her job, insisting on order and system in the conduct of her
undertakings.
Princess Ingrid Victoria Sofia Louise Margaret of Sweden was
born in Stockholm and educated there, but her looks and attitude
to life were essentially English. She loved dogs and horses, and
often dressed in tweeds. She had two older brothers and two
younger ones, and two of the four fell foul of the marriage laws of
the Swedish Royal House. Her elder brother, Gustaf Adolf, father
of the present King, was killed in a flying accident in 1947; the
next brother, Sigvard, was married morganatically in 1934, to her
great disappointment; the third brother, Prince Bertil (who died in
1997), was not allowed to marry in his father’s lifetime and was
for many years close in line to the Swedish throne, while the fourth
brother, Carl Johan, also married morganatically, in 1946.
Princess Ingrid’s mother died of erysipelas and blood poisoning in
1920 just before her tenth birthday. Ingrid was brought up by her
father and, after 1923, by his second wife, Princess Louise
(formerly Lady Louise Mountbatten), an aunt of the Duke of
Edinburgh.
Princess Louise was particularly fond of her stepdaughter and the
way she got on with her grandparents, and respected her love and
devotion to her wayward brothers.
During these years Ingrid was a frequent visitor to Britain, staying
for long periods with the Duke of Connaught at Clarence House
or Bagshot Park. Inevitably her name was linked with that of the
Prince of Wales, and even with Prince George, but nothing came
of this. In 1934 Princess Ingrid accompanied Princess Louise
when she visted the Russian church in Jerusalem, where her aunt,
Grand Duchess Serge, was buried.
At first neither Crown Prince Gustaf nor Crown Princess Louise
was particularly happy about the engagement between Ingrid and
Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark, but the bride’s contentment
and delight at the wedding won them over. The King and Queen
of Denmark also took an instant liking to her.
“Rico” was a man of simple tastes, primarily a sailor, with a love of
music. He had been a heavy drinker, though he had reformed by
1935. His slightly uncouth manner had deterred Princess Olga of
Greece from marrying him in 1922, and he had remained a
bachelor for many years. But the union with Ingrid was a popular
one, and the wedding in the Storkyrkan, near the Royal Palace at
Stockholm, in May 1935, was the occasion for one of the largest
gatherings of European royalty since the First World War,
attended by three kings and more than 60 princes. The bride wore
a white satin dress and held a bouquet of white Madonna lilies.
The wedding was a glamorous occasion, marred only by the
sudden and unexpected death of the man conducting it at the
Town Hall. The young couple left in a gold and blue barge which
took them to the Dannebrog, on which they sailed for Denmark,
the bride dressed in green. Two days later they were welcomed to
Copenhagen by a crowd of half a million people. They set up
home in the Amalienborg Palace, where they spent the winter,
going to Fredensborg Castle in spring and autumn, and Graasten
Palace in the summer.
They were Crown Prince and Crown Princess for 12 years, which
included the war years. Denmark was then under Nazi occupation,
during which time King Christian X lived quietly in his palace,
maintaining a dignified but aloof attitude to Hitler and riding
through the streets of Copenhagen every day on a white charger.
Frederik and Ingrid stayed in Denmark throughout the war as
virtual prisoners and gave support to the resistance movement.
They were imprisoned at the Amalienborg Palace in Copenhagen
during the spring of 1944. Frederik succeeded his father as King
Frederik IX in April 1947.
The new King and Queen were popular. He was a giant of a man,
both approachable and without affectation. In his speeches he
referred to himself and the Queen as “Mother and I”, which went
down well. Queen Ingrid often accompanied him on an evening
stroll along the waterfront. When she shopped, she was content to
wait in the queue. She attended book auctions and art exhibitions.
She ran their various homes with brisk efficiency, was a keen
gardener, particularly loving orchids, and a keen needlewoman.
She appeared to relish all royal engagements, especially royal
tours, and she brought her daughters up simply. Each afternoon
she served tea from a well-laden tray.
There were three children of the marriage, all daughters. Princess
Margrethe, the present Queen, was born in April 1940, a week
after the German occupation. The second daughter was Princess
Benedikte, born in 1944, and the youngest, Princess Anne-Marie,
born in 1946, who married King Constantine of Greece.
In 1953 the laws of succession were changed so that King
Frederik’s eldest daughter could inherit the throne instead of his
brother, Prince Knud. This was a sensible arrangement since
Queen Margrethe is intelligent and scholarly, whereas Prince Knud
(who died in 1976) was a simpleton.
Both King Frederik and Queen Ingrid were frequent visitors to
Britain. In 1937 they represented the King of Denmark at the
Coronation of King George VI, who later installed King Frederik
as a Knight of the Garter at Windsor (in May 1951, during a state
visit to Britain). In 1957 the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh
paid a state visit to Denmark, and they also visited the King and
Queen privately in 1960.
To the general public in the 1960s the Danish King and Queen
were especially well known, visiting Britain on numerous
occasions. In 1968 they presided over Danish Week. Likewise
Queen Ingrid attended the weddings of the Queen in 1947, of
Princess Margaret in 1960, and of Princess Alexandra in 1963.
King Frederik of Denmark once paid tribute to his wife and to the
happiness of his family life in a speech. “I have never found a
four-leaf clover,” he said, “but with the years one has grown up in
my home, you, my dear, and our three daughters. The four of you
have been the clover-leaf that has brought happiness into my life
and sunshine streaming into my heart.” The King died in January
1972, and was succeeded by Queen Margrethe, the first female
Danish monarch for five centuries.
In old age Queen Ingrid remained an elegant figure, though bowed
by age and leaning on a stick. She continued to travel between the
courts of Europe, attending the wedding of her grandson, Crown
Prince Paul of Greece, in London in 1995 and the funeral of
Prince Bertil in Sweden in 1997. During the Silver Jubilee
celebrations of Queen Margrethe II in January 1997 she made a
speech in which she said that her daugh-ter had lived up to all the
expectations of herself and the late King. She said that she was
pleased that her three daughters had married for love, and ended
with the words: “I can now close my eyes in peace.”
~*~
Queen Mother's Danish contemporary
dies at 90(UK Times)
BY ALAN HAMILTON
AS QUEEN ELIZABETH the Queen Mother, 100, continued to
rest at Clarence House yesterday after breaking her collarbone,
her royal contemporary the Queen Mother of Denmark died in
Copenhagen aged 90.
The Queen Mother was visited for the first time since her accident
on Friday by her elder daughter, the Queen.
The two had spoken by telephone at the weekend but the Queen
Mother’s condition was not regarded as sufficiently critical for her
daughter to interrupt her time at Windsor.
Her staff confirmed yesterday that the Queen Mother would not
take any part in this weekend’s remembrance ceremonies as she
had been ordered to rest for at least two weeks by her doctors.
Clarence House sources said that the Queen Mother was in good
spirits and able to get out of bed although in some pain from the
injury after she tripped on the edge of a carpet in her sitting room
and lay alone for some moments until a member of staff found her
and called a doctor.
“The Queen Mother’s main problem is that as she usually walks
with two sticks, she can put no weight on her left arm in its sling,
and is therefore somewhat immobile for the time being,” one of her
staff said.
In Denmark Queen Mother Ingrid, a great-granddaughter of
Queen Victoria, had been seriously ill for several days and was
said by Danish royal sources on Monday to be failing, with her
heartbeat becoming weak and irregular. She was surrounded at
her bedside by many members of her family including her
daughters Margrethe, the Danish monarch, Anne-Marie, the
former Queen of the Hellenes, and Princess Benedikte of
Denmark.
The Swedish-born Queen Ingrid, daughter of King Gustav VI
Adolf and Victoria’s granddaughter, Princess Margaret, was a
popular consort to King Frederik IX during his reign in 1947-72,
and helped to modernise the monarchy.
Her major contribution was to lobby for a change in the Danish
constitution in 1953 which allowed women, and therefore her
eldest daughter, to ascend the throne for the first time.
~*~
Prince denounced as 'arrogant and
ignorant'(UK Times)
BY CRAIG CLARKE
THE Prince of Wales was branded “arrogant” and “ignorant”
yesterday by a leading scientist over a speech in which he blamed
mankind for the deadly storms and floods that have lashed Britain.
Lewis Wolpert, a professor of anatomy and developmental
biology, accused the Prince of “abusing” his position. “I feel the
Prince is very arrogant and he speaks from a position of
ignorance,” Professor Wolpert said. “He is anti-science and
anti-technology. He abuses his position. He talks about things he
knows nothing about . . . and he cannot be challenged because
he’s a royal. If he wants to debate science, he should leave the
Royal Family or consult more widely.”
Professor Wolpert also blasted the Prince over his remarks about
genetically modified food and BSE.
The Prince told the British Medical Association’s Millennium
Festival of Medicine on Monday that the severe weather was the
result of “mankind’s arrogance” and disregard for the delicate
balances of nature.
Professor Wolpert said that he was “enraged” when he heard the
speech, which took the “high moral position”. “To say the current
weather is caused by global warming is absurd,” Professor
Wolpert said. “He is using his privileged position to make
statements for which there is no evidence.
“This is a very, very complex issue and anybody who is absolutely
confident about this is not to be trusted. I don’t think any
respectable scientist would lay their hands on their heart and say it
was due to global warming.”
John Butler, a climate researcher at the Royal Armagh
Observatory, has added his weight to Professor Wolpert’s
comments, saying: “The world’s climate has always been variable.
It is premature to jump to the conclusion that this is a man-made
factor.”
Possible explanations for the storms were changes to the Sun or
Earth’s patterns, Dr Butler said. But last night respected
climatologists and environmentalists rallied to the Prince’s defence.
Phil Jones, a professor with the climatic research unit at the
University of East Anglia, said: “I think Prince Charles is being fair.
He is just saying it in a simple way . . . to a lay audience. There are
scientists who are sceptical about the evidence of global warming,
but I think they would be in the minority.”
John Lawton, chief executive of the Natural Environment Research
Council, said that the Prince had “got it right. Human-induced
global warming is a reality. We cannot attribute one single weather
event to global climate change but long-term trends have predicted
what we are experiencing,” Mr Lawton said.
Stephanie Tunmore, with the environmental group Greenpeace,
accused Professor Wolpert of being among a small group of
“denialists”, adding: “Scientific evidence indicates that the Earth is
warming with the 1990s being the hottest decade on record.”
Many experts believe that rising temperatures may be the result of
increased carbon dioxide levels. The Earth’s atmosphere acts like
the glass of a greenhouse, letting light through to the surface and
preventing heat from radiating back into space. Carbon dioxide
increases the atmosphere’s ability to conserve heat, warming the
Earth and contributing to unpredictable weather.
~*~
Queen visits recovering Queen Mother(Yahoo: Ananova)
The Queen Mother, recovering from a broken collar bone, has been visited by the
Queen.
The 100-year-old Royal is resting at her London residence, Clarence House, with her left
arm and shoulder in a sling.
The Prince of Wales, who visited last night, said the Queen Mother is in "remarkably
good form."
Clarence House confirmed that the elderly Royal, who fell and broke her collar bone on
Friday, will take no part in this year's Remembrance commemorations at the weekend.