Such an alliance would bring to her house a princess who, of all those whom her boy could marry, would be the one that Denmark would acclaim with the greatest joy.
The Royal Marriage Market of Europe, 1915.
Princess Radziwill apparently knew nothing about the rapid progress of democratisation in Denmark, from Christian IX's acceptance of parliamentary government (instead of royally appointed cabinets) in 1901 (
Systemskiftet - the Change of System) to Christian X's failure to appoint a lasting extra-parliamentary cabinet that would work aggressively towards incorporating Flensburg into Denmark (
Påskekrisen - the Easter Crisis) in 1920. In such an atmosphere the crown prince's marriage to a daughter of Europe's most vilified autocrat would not be acclaimed with great joy, at least not by the urban working class and rural crofters - groups which in this period were rather anti-monarchical, but which the Danish monarchy later were able to ingratiate itself with and become popular with.
Of course Maria or Anastasia had the following arguments in favour of themselves:
- Granddaughters of Denmark's great pride, Maria Fyodorovna.
- Representatives of a great anti-German power that could secure a substantial chunk of or all of South Jutland returning to Denmark.
But their father's bloody reputation probably outshone these arguments.
It should be noted that Queen Alexandrine, although born to a Russian mother and from one of Germany's most reactionary, backwards and feudal monarchies, integrated herself very well in the rather different Danish political reality, both ideologically and nationally.