The Yellow Palace - Copenhagen

*A Part of the Danish Cultural Heritage*
 
 

 

 

 

 

The Yellow Palace
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The Yellow Palace - And the Glückborg Dynasty
 
 
 
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The Yellow Palace was built in 1764 and located beside Amalienborg Palace.


The Yellow Palace and the foundation of the Glücksborg Dynasty

The Yellow Palace is an interesting historic building from 1764 in Louis Seize style and designed by the French architect Nicolas Henri Jardin for the merchant H.F. Bargum.

In 1810 King Frederik VI (1768-1839 - ruled 1808–39) acquired the mansion as a residence for relatives of the Royal family. The Yellow Palace is situated right at the side of Amalienborg Palace and presently used as the administrative part of the Royal Household called the Lord Chamberlain’s Office


King Frederik VI with Queen Marie and Princess Caroline and Vilhelmine – painted by C.W. Eckersberg in 1821. The King acquired The Yellow Palace in 1810 and handed it over to his favourite nephew Prince Christian from Glücksborg in 1837 - later King Christian IX.

Prince Christian and Princess Louise

In 1837, the Yellow Palace was handed over by King Frederik VI to his favourite nephew Prince Christian from Glücksborg - Germany, who was a young officer building up a career in the Royal Danish Horse Guard. In 1842 Prince Christian married Princess Louise of Hessen who was a niece of King Christian VIII (1786-1848 - ruled Denmark 1839-48 and was briefly King of Norway in 1814). The newly wedded couple started their new life in the Yellow Palace, which was a very modest residence and home for the Glücksborg family the next 22 years. In 1843 the first child was born and given the name Frederik – who became King Frederik VIII, 63 years later.


In 1842 Prince Christian married Princess Louise
of Hessen and was building up a career in the Royal Danish Horse Guard. The Prince was nephew to Queen Marie Sophie Frederikke, wife of King Frederick VI.
Princess Louise of Hessen was a niece of King Christian VIII and gave birth to six extremely successful children, who expanded the Glücksborg line of royalties all over Europe.

At that time no one could imagined that Prince Christian of Glücksborg and Princess Louise of Hessen one day would rule the Danish Kingdom and be the King and Queen of Denmark.

After the birth of Frederik in 1943, Princess Louise gave birth to five children in the following years - Alexandra in 1844 - Vilhelm in 1845 – Dagmar in 1847 – Thyra in 1853 and Valdemar in 1858. Prince Valdemar lived in The yellow Palace to his death in 1939 and was the last Royal person who resided here.


Portrait of King Frederik VII 1861 – was the last Oldenborg monarch.

The last Oldenborg King
During the past years the Glücksborg’s familiy fortune began to improve when the childless King Frederick VII being the last representative of the Royal House of Oldenburg (1808-1863 – ruled 1848-63) recognized Prince Christian as his heir to the Danish throne in 1852.
King Frederik VII signed the first Danish Constitution in 1849, which mainly gave all Danes their democratic rights and governing is still based on these more than 150 year old reforms.

King Frederik VII was the last Oldenborg King and the first constitutional monarch in Denmark.

Prince Christian of Denmark and King Christian IX

Prince Christian was not the closest relative to the throne, but belonged to a branch of the Royal House of Oldenburg and grew up here too under the guidance of his maternal aunt Queen Marie Sophie Frederikke, wife of King Frederick VI. Prince Christian was also a great-grandson of King Frederick V of Denmark, through his mother Louise Caroline, Duchess of Glücksborg, whose mother Luise (Landgravine of Hesse) was the daughter of King Frederik III.

After negotiations and mutual understanding between the great powers and the other Nordic countries the Treaty of London was signed in 1852, accepting Prince Christian as successor to the Danish throne. In agreement with the Act of Succession of 1853, Prince Christian was officially appointed and named Prince Christian of Denmark.

The Yellow Palace in 1880 with the Royal Life Guard guarding the building, while Prince Valdemar of Denmark and Princess Marie de Orleáns-Bourbon is in residence. Prince Valdemar was the last Royal person, who lived in The Yellow Palace until his death in 1939.
Interior from the living room during the residential period of Prince Valdemar of Denmark around 1890. The heavy furniture and stylish decoration is typical for the Victorian era, with upholstered furniture and elaborate drapes as well as various ornaments.

On the death of Frederik VII in 1863 - Prince Christian acceded the throne as King Christian IX - and became the first patriarch and founder of the Glücksborg dynasty.The Royal family moved into the Schacks mansion in 1865 at Amalienborg – later called Christian IX’s Palace where the King lived until his death in 1906. The former Kings palace was attractively renovated in 1967 and is now the residence of Queen Margrethe and her husband Prince Consort Henrik. The present Royal Family are direct descendants of the Royal House of Glücksborg.

King Christian IX and Queen Louise gave birth to six extremely successful children - who all contributed to expand the Glückborg line of royalties into dynastic relations with the most influential European Royal and Princely houses. All six brothers and sisters were born at The Yellow Palace.

- Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark (1843-1912 – ruled 1906-12) - later King Frederik VIII of Denmark. Married to Princess Lovisa of Sweden.

King Frederik VIII - 1910. Painting by Otto Bache.
Queen Lovisa -1910. Painting by Otto Bache.
King Frederik VIII – ruled from 1906-12 and was the eldest son of King Christian IX, who married Princess Lovisa of Sweden - later Queen Lovisa and daughter of the king of Sweden Carl XV. The Royal couple had four sons and four daughters.

- Princess Alexandra of Denmark (1844-1925) - later the Queen consort of the United Kingdom. Married to King Edward VII of the United Kingdom.

 
Queen Alexandra - Coronation -1902
King Edward VII - Coronation-1902.
Princess Alexandra of Denmark and eldest daughter of King Christian IX married Prince of Wales 1863 (1841-1910) and later King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra of the United Kingdom. Princess Alexandra was Princess of Wales from 1863 to 1901. From 1910, until her death, she was the Queen Mother, being a queen and the mother of the reigning monarch George V of the United Kingdom. Queen Alexandra lived her last years in Denmark with her sister Empress Dagmar of Russia.

- Prince Vilhelm of Denmark (1845-1913 – ruled 1863-1913) - later King George I of Greece. Married to Olga Konstantinova, Grand Duchess of Russia.

King George I of Greece - 1864
Queen Olga of Greece -1864
Prince Vilhelm of Denmark was the second son of King Christian IX and elected King of the Hellenes in 1863, ascending the royal throne before his father as King George I of Greece. In 1867 he married Grand Duchess of Russia Olga Konstantinovna and together they had eight children. King George I reign for 50 years and was a genuinely popular monarch together with Queen Olga.

- Princess Dagmar of Denmark (1847-1928) - later the consort of Tsar Alexander III of Russia.

Empress Dagmar of Russia
Tsar Alexander III of Russia
Princess Dagmar of Denmark was the second daughter of King Christian IX and after her marriage to Tsar Alexander III of Russia in 1866 she became the Empress Consort of Russia as Maria Feodorovna. Among her children was the last Russian monarch Tsar Nicholas II, whom she outlived by ten years after he and his family was executed in 1918 by the Bolsheviks. Empress Dagmar lived in Denmark the last year of her life together with her sister Queen Alexandra of the United Kingdom. Tsar Alexander III and Maria Feodorovna had four sons and two daughters.

- Princess Thyra of Denmark (1853-1933) later the consort of Ernst August of Hanover, 3rd Duke of Cumberland.

Princess Thyra of Denmark
Ernst August of Hanover - Duke of Cumberland
Princess Thyra of Denmark was the youngest daughter of King Christian IX and married in 1878 Ernst August of Hanover - 3rd Duke of Cumberland in Copenhagen. Princess Thyra became the Duchess of Cumberland and had six children with the Duke. Thyra was very close connected to her older sisters Queen Consort Alexandra and Empress Maria Fyodorovna of Russia.
- Prince Valdemar of Denmark, (1858-1939). Married Princess Marie de Orleáns-Bourbon from the House of Bourbon – France.

 
Prince Valdemar of Denmark was the youngest son of King Christian IX. He married Princess Marie d'Orleans in 1880 and had five children. Valdemar had a lifelong naval career and was offered two European thrones those of Bulgaria and Norway, but declined them due to international circumstances. Prince Valdemar was the last Royal person, who lived in The Yellow Palace until his death in 1939.
 

Grandparents of Europe

With the great dynastical achievement of the six children, King Christian IX and Queen Louise was given the title “Grandparents of Europe” and a imperial influence throughout the European continent.


Famous painting from 1883 by Laurits Tuxen with King Christian IX and Queen Louise and the Royal Family in the Garden Room at Fredensborg Palace together with all the heads of royalties from European Royal and Princely houses. During King Christian IX's long reign, the palace enjoyed a new golden age with the so-called Fredensborg days, when Europe's monarchs would gather to spend their holidays. The huge group painting can be seen at Christiansborg palace.

The Yellow Palace is a piece of Danish history about a building that housed a poor anonymous German Prince, who was not heir to the Danish throne, but became a national icon as a Danish King, with an supportive wife with dynastical ambitions and a outstanding loving family with a high social intelligence that most of Europe's reigning and ex-reigning royal families are direct descendants of.

Denmark is the oldest kingdom in the world and our currently reigning monarch Queen Margrethe II, has ancestral links stretching back more than 1,000 years.

Location
The Yellow Palace is located beside Amalienborg Palace and the Colonnade on Amaliegade. The property is used by the Royal Household and the Lord Chamberlain’s Office. The former Yellow Palace is not open for visitors.

The Yellow Palace

Address

The Yellow Palace
The Lord Chamberlain’s Office
Amaliegade 18
1256 Copenhagen K

Busses: 26

 
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