Princess Thyra of Denmark

Princess Thyra
Crown Princess of Hanover
Duchess of Cumberland and Teviotdale
Born (1853-09-29)29 September 1853
Yellow Palace, Copenhagen, Denmark
Died 26 February 1933(1933-02-26) (aged 79)
Gmunden, Austria
Burial 7 March 1933
Gmunden, Austria
Spouse Ernest Augustus, Crown Prince of Hanover
Issue Marie Louise, Margravine of Baden
George William, Hereditary Prince of Hanover
Alexandra, Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-Schwerin
Princess Olga
Prince Christian
Ernest Augustus, Prince of Hanover and Duke of Brunswick
Full name
Thyra Amalie Caroline Charlotte Anna
House Glücksburg
Father Christian IX of Denmark
Mother Louise of Hesse-Kassel

Princess Thyra of Denmark, Danish pronunciation: [ˈtyːʁə], (29 September 1853 – 26 February 1933 in Gmunden) was the youngest daughter and fifth child of Christian IX of Denmark and Louise of Hesse-Kassel. In 1878, she married Ernest Augustus, the exiled heir to the Kingdom of Hanover. As the Kingdom of Hanover had been annexed by Prussia in 1866, she spent most of her life in exile with her husband in Austria.

Thyra was the younger sister of Frederik VIII of Denmark, Queen Alexandra of the United Kingdom, George I of Greece, Empress Maria Feodorovna of Russia and an elder sister of Prince Valdemar of Denmark.

Birth and family

Christian IX of Denmark with his wife and their six children in 1862. Left to right: Dagmar, Frederick, Valdemar, Queen Louise, Christian IX, Thyra, George and Alexandra.

Princess Thyra was born on 29 September 1853 at the Yellow Palace in Copenhagen as the third daughter and fifth child of Prince Christian and Princess Louise of Denmark. As a child, she shared a bedroom with her elder sisters, Alexandra and Dagmar, and was taught how to sew and knit her own clothes and socks. Her family had been relatively obscure but happy until her father, Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, was chosen with the consent of the great powers to succeed his childless distant cousin, Frederick VII, to the Danish throne. Just two months before Thyra's birth, the new Act of Succession had been passed and Prince Christian given the title of Prince of Denmark.

Early life

Princess Thyra of Denmark (right) with her sister-in-law Louise of Sweden.

In 1863, when Thyra was 10 years old, King Frederick VII died, and her father succeeded to the throne of Denmark as King Christian IX. Earlier the same year, her brother Vilhelm had been elected King of Greece, and her sister Alexandra had married Edward, Prince of Wales. In 1866, her other sister Dagmar married the tsarevich of Russia, Alexander.

Thyra was an attractive and gentle young woman, with dark hair and dark blue eyes, and Queen Louise wanted her youngest daughter to make a good marriage as her elder daughters had. Thyra's first suitor was King Willem III of the Netherlands, but as he was thirty-six years older than she was, she rejected him.

In her youth, Thyra had fallen in love with Vilhelm Frimann Marcher, a Lieutenant in the Cavalry, which resulted in a pregnancy.[1] Her brother George I of Greece suggested that she have the baby in Athens to avoid scandal; the Danish press was told Thyra had been taken ill with jaundice.[1] She gave birth to a girl, Maria, on 8 November 1871 at Schloss Glücksburg, who was adopted by Rasmus and Anne Marie Jørgensen of Odense shortly after birth and renamed Kate; she married in 1902 Frode Pløyen-Holstein and died in 1964.[2] Marcher killed himself on 4 January 1872 after a confrontation with the King.[3]

Marriage

The Duchess of Cumberland with her daughter, Princess Olga.

On 21 December/22 December 1878, she married Crown Prince Ernest Augustus of Hanover, 3rd Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale, at the chapel of Christiansborg Palace in Copenhagen. Ernst Augustus was the eldest child and only son of King George V of Hanover and his wife, Princess Marie of Saxe-Altenburg.

Ernest Augustus had been born as a Crown Prince of Hanover, but in 1866 his father had been deprived of his throne, when the Kingdom of Hanover was annexed by Prussia after siding with Austria in the Austro-Prussian War.

Thanks to her marriage, Thyra became Duchess of Cumberland and Teviotdale, and Duchess of Brunswick-Luneburg; although she was styled Crown Princess of Hanover. After her father in-law died on 12 June 1878, in pretense, she became the Queen Consort of Hanover.

Later life

Her husband died on 14 November 1923. Thyra survived him by nine years and died in Gmunden, Upper Austria, on 26 February 1933.

Issue

The Duke and Duchess of Cumberland with their children.

The Duke and Duchess of Cumberland had six children:

NameBirthDeathNotes
Princess Marie Louise of Hanover and Cumberland11 October 187931 January 1948married Prince Maximilian of Baden (10 July 1867 – 6 November 1929); had issue
Prince George William of Hanover and Cumberland28 October 188020 May 1912
Princess Alexandra of Hanover and Cumberland29 September 188230 August 1963married Friedrich Franz IV, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (9 April 1882 – 17 November 1945); had issue
Princess Olga of Hanover and Cumberland11 July 188421 September 1958
Prince Christian of Hanover and Cumberland4 July 18853 September 1901
Prince Ernest Augustus of Hanover, Duke of Brunswick17 November 188730 January 1953married Princess Viktoria Luise of Prussia (13 September 1892 – 11 December 1980); had issue

Titles, styles, honours and arms

Titles

Honours

Ancestry

References

  1. 1 2 Bramsen, Bo. Huset Glücksborg i 150 år, 1825 6. juli-1975. Copenhagen: Forum, 1975
  2. ↑ Genealogy of the Royal Family of Denmark at the Wayback Machine (archived October 28, 2009) at www.geocities.com
  3. ↑ DIS-Forum :: AneEfterlysning :: Prinsesse Thyras uægte barn at www.dis-danmark.dk
Princess Thyra of Denmark
Cadet branch of the House of Oldenburg
Born: 29 September 1853 Died: 26 February 1933
Titles in pretence
Preceded by
Marie of Saxe-Altenburg		 — TITULAR —
Queen consort of Hanover
22 December 1878 – 14 November 1923
Reason for succession failure:
Hanover annexed by Prussia in 1866		 Succeeded by
Victoria Louise of Prussia
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