Early Life and Family
Ulrika was the daughter of King Frederick III of Denmark and his wife Queen Sophie Amalie of Brunswick-Lüneburg. In 1675 she was bethrothed to King Charles XI of Sweden. During the Scanian War between Denmark and Sweden in 1675–1679 she was encouraged to break the engagement and was considered as a possible bride by the Holy Roman Emperor, Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor, but she refused to do so. She gained a reputation for loyalty to her future home country by exhibiting kindness to Swedish prisoners during the war of 1675–79: she pawned her jewelry, even her engagement ring, to care for the Swedish prisoners of war.
She married Charles on 6 May 1680. They had seven children, of whom only three survived to adulthood;
- Hedwig Sophia, later Duchess of Holstein-Gottorp (1681–1708)
- King Charles XII (1682–1718)
- Gustav (1683–1685)
- Ulrik (1684–1685)
- Frederick (1685–1685)
- Charles Gustav (1686–1687)
- Queen Ulrika Eleonora (1688–1741)
Read more about this topic: Ulrika Eleonora Of Denmark
Famous quotes containing the words early, life and/or family:
“We have good reason to believe that memories of early childhood do not persist in consciousness because of the absence or fragmentary character of language covering this period. Words serve as fixatives for mental images. . . . Even at the end of the second year of life when word tags exist for a number of objects in the child’s life, these words are discrete and do not yet bind together the parts of an experience or organize them in a way that can produce a coherent memory.”
—Selma H. Fraiberg (20th century)
“Most vices ... demand considerable self-sacrifices. There is no greater mistake than to suppose that a vicious life is a life of uninterrupted pleasure. It is a life almost as wearisome and painful—if strenuously led—as Christian’s in The Pilgrim’s Progress.”
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963)
“Of all the vices, lewdness is the worst; of all the virtues, family duty is the first.”
—Chinese proverb.
Rhyme.