Discussions about the Imperial Family and European Royalty > The Danish Royal Family

Prince Harald & Princess Helena

(1/11) > >>

Kevin_Australia:
I recently came across a copy of Princess Louise Sophie of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg's (wife of Prince Friedrich Leopold of Prussia) memiors.

In it she talks about the War (WW1) and how at the end of it her brother, Duke Ernst Gunther, tried to retain ownership of his properties in Schleswig by putting them in his neice's, Princess Helena, name.  Princess Helena was the wife of Prince Harald, a brother of the then King, Christian X.

"This brave woman, in spie of all sorts of threats against herself and her husband (including that of banishment to Iceland), did not give way either to the Ministers or to the King and finally, an arrangement with the Danes was achieved by which my brother gave up his beautiful estates, but was indemnified by a large sum of money;"

Has any one heard any more of this??

Svetabel:
The book of Princess Louise Sophie's memoirs is a rare find. Congrats!

grandduchessella:
Sure is--I paid a good amount on ebay for it once and never received it.  >:(

Kevin_Australia:
Unfortunately (or luckily) it was in our National Library. I am seriously thinking of photo-copying the whole book as it would be certainly cheaper than buying it, from the 1 or 2 times I have seen it available.

I also posted this emssage on the Skandanavian Royals Message board, and on there they say that the property that was taken over was Graasten.

grandduchessella:
To flesh it out some here's what another poster put:

The estate in question would be Graasten [Gravenstein in German], which was acquired about 1750 by Christian August of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg from the Ahlefeldt family. It was rebuilt in 1759 after a fire in 1757 and restored in 1840 and again in 1920. Graasten was acquired by the Danish state in 1921 and given to Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Ingrid as a wedding present in 1935. It remained their summer residence from that time.

and another added

Mind you Graasten Castle was not de jura given to TRH Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Ingrid - the royal family just got the right to use it (and the Danish state still owns the building today!).

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

Go to full version