Children
She had 12 children. The youngest, Dorothea Elisabeth, was rumoured not to have been the king's child;
- Unnamed Stillborn child (b. & d. 1615)
- Unnamed infant (b. & d. 1617)
- Countess Anna Christiane of Schleswig-Holstein (10 August 1618 – 20 August 1633)
- Countess Sophie Elisabeth of Schleswig-Holstein (20 September 1619 – 29 April 1657); married Christian von Pentz
- Countess Leonora Christina of Schleswig-Holstein (8 July 1621 – 16 March 1698); married Corfitz Ulfeldt
- Count Valdemar Christian of Schleswig-Holstein (1622 – 26 February 1656)
- Countess Elisabeth Auguste of Schleswig-Holstein (28 December 1623 – 9 August 1677)
- Count Friedrich Christian of Schleswig-Holstein (26 April 1625 – 17 July 1627)
- Countess Christiane of Schleswig-Holstein (15 July 1626 – 6 May 1670); married Hannibal Sehested
- Countess Hedwig of Schleswig-Holstein (15 July 1626 – 5 October 1678)
- Maria Katharina of Schleswig-Holstein (29 May 1628 – 1 September 1628)
- Countess Dorothea Elisabeth of Schleswig-Holstein (1 September 1629 – 18 March 1687)
Her children intermarried with the nobility of Denmark, Corfitz Ulfeldt and Hannibal Sehested being among her ambitious sons-in-law. From the king's death in 1648 to 1652, five of her daughters' husbands were known as the so-called Sons-in-law Party, wielding dominant influence in the Rigsråd. Previously, Kirsten's son Count Valdemar of Schleswig-Holstein, had shown promise, becoming engaged to Tsarevna Irina Mikhailovna Romanov, daughter of Michael I of Russia. The alliance was prevented by Danish objections to Valdemar's conversion to the Russian Orthodox Church, yet the king's disappointment on the betrothal's rupture was believed at the time to have hastened his death.
One of Kirsten's daughters, Countess Leonora Christina, distinguished herself by an internationally adventurous life, followed by imprisonment for decades in Denmark's royal dungeon, and by the posthumous publication of her memoirs, still well regarded both as Scandinavian prose and as early feminist literature. Despite the turmoil of her parents' marriage and the conflicts between her brothers and brothers-in-law, according to her own writings Leonora Christina's youth and early married years at the Danish royal court were happy.
Read more about this topic: Kirsten Munk
Famous quotes containing the word children:
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“It is the responsibility of every adult—especially parents, educators and religious leaders—to make sure that children hear what we have learned from the lessons of life and to hear over and over that we love them and they are not alone.”
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