Christian IX of Denmark

Christian IX of Denmark (the April 8th 1818 Gottorp - the January 29th 1906), king of Denmark of the November 15th 1863 with the January 29th 1906. It was called the " Father-in-law of Europe " , having married several of his/her children to heirs to European big families.

He is the fourth wire of the duke Frederic Guillaume de Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderbourg-Glücksbourg and Louise Caroline, princess of Hesse-Kassel. By his mother, he is back grandson of Frederic V of Denmark, back-back grandson of George II of Great Britain and descendant of several other monarchs, but without true claim with a European throne.

Raised with the Denmark, he studies with the Military academy of Copenhagen. He asks in vain the hand of the Reine Victoria, then he marries in 1842 Louise de Hesse-Kassel, a niece of Christian VIII of Denmark.

In 1847, with the protection of the great capacities of Europe, it is named heir to the Danish throne by Christian VIII, because his/her only alive son, the future Frederic VII, is without wire. This choice of heir comes formally from Louise de Hesse-Kassel, the wife of the king, small-niece of Christian VII nearer “in the line” to the throne than her husband.

It thus succeeds Frederic VII, on the throne, the November 15th, 1863. Plunged at once in the crisis of property and statute of Schleswig and Holstein, two territories of the south of Denmark, it signs, under various pressures, the Constitution of November, treaty which formalizes the membership of Schleswig in Denmark. It results from it a short war between Denmark and a Prussia-Austria alliance, in 1864. The war ends in the integration of Schleswig to the Prussia in 1865. Holstein is built-in same manner in Prussia in 1865, after engagements between the Austria and Prussia.

Policy

Christian IX in vain tries to prevent the diffusion of the democracy in Denmark. He however signs a treaty in 1874, which allows the Iceland, Danish possession, to have his own constitution. In 1900, it approves the establishment of a Danish Parliament, which puts an end to the absolutism.

By another reform of 1866, the Danish constitution is revised to give more capacity to the Higher Room, with the detriment of the Lower House. And of the laws of social security are voted and applied under its reign: retirements for the elderly in 1891, and an insurance unemployment and elements of family policy in 1892.

The " Father-in-law of Europe "

Christian and Louise gave rise to six children;

Four of his/her children became monarchs, rising on the thrones (directly or as a consort) of the Denmark, of the the United Kingdom, Russia and Greece. A fifth, his/her Thyra daughter, would have become Reine of Hanover if the throne of her husband had not been removed before the beginning of its reign. The great dynastic success of the six children was not due, mainly, in Christain IX itself, but with the dynastic ambitions of his wife Louise de Hesse-Kassel. Some compared them with those of the Reine Victoria of the the United Kingdom.

In the grandchildren of Christian, one counts Nicolas II of Russia, Constantin Ier of Greece, George V of the United Kingdom, Christian X of Denmark and Haakon VII of Norway. It, in the last years of its life, was called the " Father-in-law of Europe ". Today, the majority of the royal families in Europe, reigning or having reigned, are direct descendants of Christian IX.

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