Maria of Hesse Cassel, wife of Frederik VI (1767-1839)
Marie Sophie Frederikke was Queen Consort of Denmark and Norway. She was born as "Marie Sophie Friederike von Hessen-Kassel", the eldest child of Prince Charles of Hesse-Cassel and Princess Louise of Denmark.
Her paternal grandparents were Landgrave Frederick II of Hesse-Cassel and Princess Mary of Great Britain. Mary was a daughter of George II of Great Britain and Caroline of Ansbach. Her maternal grandparents were Frederick V of Denmark and Louise, another daughter of George II of Great Britain and Caroline of Ansbach. Her father was the second son of the Landgrave and as such, had no own principality. Thus he acted in several such positions that were offered to cadet members of royal houses by their reigning relatives. Denmark was offering more and better positions than the small Cassel.
She grew up largely in Denmark, where her father held remarkable positions, such as governorate of provinces. Her mother was third and youngest daughter of king Frederik V of Denmark and his consort, Louise of Great Britain. As such, she was niece of King Christian VII and of Prince Regent Frederik, as well as first cousin of Regent, Crown Prince Frederik, the Danish rulers of that period.
In 1790 she married her first cousin, Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark (1768-1839), then Regent of the Realm, the future king Frederick VI of Denmark, despite objections from the government and the advisors of the Royal House. Her husband had been since 1784 (16 years old) the Regent on behalf of his insane father Christian VII of Denmark, who died 1808. The royal couple assumed the throne officially only upon king Christian's death, having acted as de facto monarchs already some couple of decades. In the aftermath of the defeat of Denmark's ally, Emperor Napoleon of the French, Denmark lost its dominion Norway, and the royal couple ceased to be Norway's king and queen in 1814.
They had eight children. However, none of Frederick VI's sons survived infancy and when he died in 1839, he was succeeded by his cousin, Christian VIII of Denmark. The surviving children of King Frederick VI and Queen Marie Sophie Frederikke were their two daughters:
- Caroline of Denmark (1793-1881), married her father's first cousin, Hereditary Prince Frederick Ferdinand of Denmark (died 1863), some months before his nephew Frederick VII of Denmark, Hereditary Prince of Denmark, youngest son of Hereditary Prince and sometime Regent Frederik of Denmark and as such brother of Christian VIII of Denmark. She had no children
- Wilhelmine of Denmark (1808-1891), firstly married her second cousin Prince Frederik of Denmark, the future Frederick VII of Denmark, but they divorced, and she married secondly Duke Charles of Lyksborg, Duke of Glucksburg, who was eldest brother of the future Christian IX of Denmark. Both her marriages were childless.
Queen Marie Sophie Frederikke lamented the total lack of sons and of grandchildren of her own. When her youngest sister, Duchess Louise Caroline of Lyksborg, became widow when most of her large brood of children yet very young, Queen Marie accepted some of the younger ones into her tutelage in the Royal Household. They were much younger than queen's own two surviving daughters, which implies that the queen felt like a grandmother. One such foster child of hers was prince Christian of Lyksborg, born 1818, the future Christian IX of Denmark.
Christian of Lyksborg and his wife Louise of Hesse named their second daughter, Marie Sophie Frederikke Dagmar of Lyksborg (born 1847), in Queen's honor and her namesake. After her death (1852), that girl became Tsarina Maria Fedorovna of Russia, preserving there the Queen's first name (Maria/Marie).
BTW, Princess Wilhelmine looks very pretty on those portraits.
Daniela
