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Norway's New King and His Lineage

Prince Charles of Denmark's election to the throne of Norway will have the effect of reconciling his mother, the Crown Princess of Denmark, to the gifted and fascinating little lady whom he insisted upon marrying. The Crown Princess of Denmark, who is a very masterful woman, alike in appearance and in character -- she is over six feet in height -- and firmly resolved in her own mind that Prince Charles should wed the young Queen of Holland, who was disposed to look upon his suit with a very kindly eye. He happened, however, to fall in love with Princess Maud of England, youngest daughter of King Edward, and who is his first cousin. His mother strongly opposed the match. Herself the daughter of Princess Louise of the Netherlands, thorough whom she derived that wealth which renders her the richest royal lady in Europe, she was particularly anxious that her son Charles should become the consort of the Queen of the Netherlands, convinced that in view of the presence in his veins of blood of the house of Orange the Dutch would readily accord to him the title of king, which they have refused to the Duke of Meeklenburg-Schwerin, who is now the husband of their Queen.

Owning to the displeasure of the crown princess, the position of Prince Charles' English wife was made so disagreeable at Copenhagen during the first few years of her marriage that she was unable to conceal the fact that she found her existence there almost intolerable and spent so much of her time in England as to excite public comment and criticism.

This became acute at the time when Edward VII succeeded to the throne, and the suggestion was made that in view of the fact that his youngest daughter Maud was in the line of succession to the throne, her husband should be naturalized as an Englishman, give up his Danish nationality, and become an officer on the active list of the English navy.

This did not meet with the approval of his grandfather, old King Christian of Denmark, and the plan was abandoned, the position of the Princess at Copenhagen undergoing a considerable improvement. Moreover, the birth of a son brought additional happiness to the young couple, who are as devoted to each other today as they were at the time of their marriage, some nine years ago.

The prince is very popular in England and a great favorite of the King and Queen, who have arranged English homes for the young couple at Appleton House, on the Sandrigham estate, and in St. James Palace, in London. The prince, moreover, has been granted honorary rank in the British navy.

The princess goes among her relatives by the name of "Harry," and, chaperoned by her trusted governess, now the wife of a territorial magnate in the west of England, traveled a great deal through the United Kingdom and on the Continent, incognito, mixing with people not as a princess, but as a young girl of ordinary station in life, few having the idea of her identity.

Both she and her husband are possessed of the most sunny disposition. They find it, therefore, somewhat difficult to accustom themselves to the rather somber, serious, and somewhat puritanical tendencies of the Norwegians.

Photo: The Coronation of Haakon VII and Queen Maud of Norway

That Prince Charles of Denmark should have chosen King of Norway is a bitter disappointment to his French aunt, Princess Waldemar of Denmark. the latter, a daughter of the Duc de Chartres, who served on McClellan's staff in the civil war here, and a sister of the late Prince Henry of Orleans, is as ambitious as she is brilliantly clever, and has always hungered for a role less obscure than the one to which she is relegated at Copenhagen. How clever she is may be gathered from the fact that she was the principal author of the formerly so weighty Franco-Russian alliance, managing her influence over her brother-in-law, the late Czar Alexander III, to alienate him from the so-called three Emperors' alliance, organized by Bismarck, and to convert into the firm ally of France. In fact, the princess may be said to have downed the great German chancellor.

On one occasion a throne seemed within her reach. It was at the time when the Bulgarians were hunting for a sovereign after the enforced abdication of Prince Alexander of Battenburg. The crown was proffered to her husband, who began by accepting it, but who thereupon was led by the expostulations of his brother-in-law, the late Czar, to reconsider his decision in a manner particularly humiliating to the Bulgarians. Princess Waldemar, whose sympathy for the navy, in which her husband holds the rank of admiral, has led her to have an anchor tattooed on her arm between the elbow and shoulder, is a wonderfully gifted artist with the brush, is a sculptress, author, and wit, and among her great admirers is Emperor William who makes no attempt to conceal his keen enjoyment of her brilliant, conversational powers whenever he visits Copenhagen.

Let me add that the Crown Princess of Denmark is the only child of the late King Charles XV of Sweden, so that through his mother, Prince Charles, the new King of Norway, may be said to belong to the same house of Bernadotte as King Oscar, whose Norwegian crown he is about to don.

Source: Article by Marquise de Fontenoy, printed in the Washington Post, October 23, 1905, Washington, District of Columbia, Page 23.