Charlotte Amalie of Hesse-Cassel

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Queen Charlotte Amalie. Painted in oil on copper, probably by Jacob d'Agar

Charlotte Amalie of Hesse-Cassel (27 April 1650–27 March 1714) was queen-consort of Denmark and Norway, being the wife of King Christian V.

She was born in Kassel, Hesse, Germany. Her parents were Landgrave Wilhelm VI of Hesse-Kassel and his wife Hedwig Sophie of Brandenburg.

Charlotte Amalie was married on 25 June 1667 to Prince Christian and became the Queen of Denmark on his accession in 1670. As well as other children they had a son, later King Frederik IV, and a daughter Sophia Hedwig.

Charlotte Amalie was raised in the Reformed faith, which she stayed loyal to after her marriage to Christian, personally financing the erection, in 1688, of the first Reformed church building in Denmark, to serve a congregation formed three years earlier. She had requested, and had been granted for herself and her court, the right to profess freely the Reformed faith; however the hostility of the Lutheran clergy was so strong that she was never actually crowned Queen of Denmark.

She was a popular Queen, and her popularity increased in 1700, when she took part in organising the defence of Copenhagen after King Charles XII of Sweden invaded Zealand.

Charlotte Amalie owned several estates around the country and she administered them skilfully. After the death of Christian V in 1699, she moved to a mansion which she had bought: Charlottenborg Palace on Kongens Nytorv in Copenhagen, where she lived from 1700 until she died. The mansion, which is named after her, has housed the Royal Danish Academy of Art since 1754.

She died in Copenhagen and was buried in Roskilde Cathedral.

The town of Charlotte Amalie on St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands is named after her.

[edit] See also

• Reformed Synod of Denmark

[edit] External links

• (English) History of the Rosenborg Castle
• (Danish) Article in the Dansk biografisk Lexikon