Queen
Louise rescinded her succession rights to her spouse in 1851. She became Crown Princess in 1853 and Queen consort in 1863. Louise had a tense relationship with King Frederick VII, whose marriage to the low-born and disreputable Louise Rasmussen she did not approve of. Her own marriage is believed to have been happy, and the couple became strongly attached to each other during the years of succession struggle. Louise was devoutedly loyal to her spouse, and he is said to have relied on her intelligence, judgment and psychological strength, all of which were considered to be superior to his own.
The couple continued the simple and intimate family life they had grown accustomed to after they became king and queen. When Louise's daughter Thyra gave birth to an illegitimate child after her relationship with a military officer in 1871, Queen Louise arranged for the whole affair to be kept a secret from the public. Queen Louise lived a life isolated from the people and did not seek recognition from, or a relationship with, the public, but rather focused on energetic family politics, and made much effort in arranging dynastic marriages for her children. The brilliant matches arranged for her children gave the Danish dynasty international status. Her annual family gatherings at Bernstorff or Fredensborg drew more attention every year and made her a popular symbol of family life.
Louise was active as a patronnes of a large number of charitable organisations already as a crown princess: in 1862, she founded Louisestiftelsen, where orphan girls were brought up to a life as servants, something which illustrated her conservative ideas. She was interested in music and painting and financed many artists. Some of her own paintings were exhibited and given as gifts to members of other dynasties. During her last years she became deaf, and two nurses from a nursing school she had founded saw to her needs. Louise was Queen of Denmark for 35 years, longer than any other Danish queen consort before her.
Read more about this topic: Louise Of Hesse-Kassel
Famous quotes containing the word queen:
“We have defined a story as a narrative of events arranged in their time-sequence. A plot is also a narrative of events, the emphasis falling on causality. “The king died and then the queen died” is a story. “The king died, and then the queen died of grief” is a plot. The time sequence is preserved, but the sense of causality overshadows it.”
—E.M. (Edward Morgan)
“If it were worth while to argue a paradox, one might maintain that nature regards the female as the essential, the male as the superfluity of her world. Perhaps the best starting-point for study of the Virgin would be a practical acquaintance with bees, and especially with queen bees.”
—Henry Brooks Adams (1838–1918)
“...he sent letters to all the royal provinces, to every province in its own script and to every people in its own language, declaring that every man should be master in his own house.”
—Bible: Hebrew, Esther 1:22.
King Ahasuerus, after his Queen Vashti refused to come at the king’s command.