Wikipedia

Knud, Hereditary Prince of Denmark

Knud, Hereditary Prince of Denmark (Knud Christian Frederik Michael; 27 July 1900 – 14 June 1976) was a member of the Danish royal family, the younger son and child of King Christian X and Queen Alexandrine.

Knud
Hereditary Prince of Denmark
Knud in 1935
Born(1900-07-27)27 July 1900
Sorgenfri Palace, Lyngby-Taarbæk, Copenhagen, Denmark
Died14 June 1976(1976-06-14) (aged 75)
Copenhagen, Denmark
Burial
Roskilde Cathedral
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1933)​
IssuePrincess Elisabeth
Count Ingolf of Rosenborg
Count Christian of Rosenborg
Names
Knud Christian Frederik Michael
HouseGlücksburg
FatherChristian X of Denmark
MotherAlexandrine of Mecklenburg-Schwerin

From 1947 to 1953, he was heir presumptive to his older brother, King Frederik IX, and would have succeeded him as king following his death in January 1972 had it not been for a change in the Danish Act of Succession that replaced him with his niece, Queen Margrethe II.

Early life

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King Christian X, Queen Alexandrine and their two sons, Crown Prince Frederik and Prince Knud in 1912.

Prince Knud was born on 27 July 1900 at his parents' country residence, the Sorgenfri Palace, located on the shores of the small river Mølleåen in Kongens Lyngby north of Copenhagen on the island of Zealand in Denmark, during the reign of his great-grandfather King Christian IX.[1] His parents were Prince Christian of Denmark, son of the heir apparent Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark, and Alexandrine of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. Knud's only sibling, Prince Frederik, had been born one year before him.[1]

Christian IX died on 29 January 1906, and Knud's grandfather succeeded him as Frederik VIII. Six years later, on 14 May 1912, Frederik VIII died, and Knud's father ascended the throne as Christian X.

As was customary for princes at that time, Knud started a military education and entered the naval college.[2]

Engagement and marriage

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Princess Caroline-Mathlde of Denmark.

On 27 January 1933, at the age of 32, Prince Knud was engaged to his first cousin, the 20-year-old Princess Caroline-Mathilde of Denmark.[3] Princess Caroline-Mathilde was the second daughter of Prince Harald of Denmark and Princess Helena of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, and their fathers were brothers. The wedding was celebrated on 8 September 1933 at the chapel of Fredensborg Palace in North Zealand, Denmark.[1]

After the wedding, they were given a side wing of Sorgenfri Palace, Prince Knud's childhood home, as their residence.[4] Here they created a home for their three children: Princess Elisabeth (born in 1935), Prince Ingolf (born in 1940) and Prince Christian (born in 1944).[2]

The couple lived the rest of their lives at Sorgenfri Palace. In 1944, Prince Knud inherited Egelund House near Fredensborg in North Zealand from his uncle, Prince Gustav of Denmark, which the couple then used as their summer residence until the hereditary prince sold it to the Danish Employers' Association in 1954.[5] In 1952, Prince Knud also inherited his parents' holiday residence Klitgaarden in Skagen in North Jutland from his mother, Queen Alexandrine, which the couple then used as their holiday home, and which remained in the family's possession until 1997.[6]

Heir presumptive

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On 20 April 1947, Christian X died, and Knud's brother Frederick succeeded to the throne as Frederik IX. Since Frederik IX had fathered no sons and the Danish Act of Succession at the time followed the principle of agnatic primogeniture, Prince Knud became heir presumptive and first in line to succeed his brother as king.

Frederik IX had, however, fathered three daughters. In 1953, the Act of Succession was amended to follow the principle of male-preference primogeniture. The new law made Frederik IX's thirteen-year-old daughter Margrethe the new heir presumptive, placing her and her two sisters before Knud and his family in the line of succession.

Later life and legacy

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King Frederik IX died in 1972 and was succeeded by his daughter Queen Margrethe II. Prince Knud died in Gentofte on 14 June 1976. He was buried at Roskilde Cathedral. His widow died on 12 December 1995.

In 1953 a students' home in Frederiksberg was named "Arveprins Knuds Kollegium" in honor of Prince Knud. At the time, Prince Knud was protector of Sydslesvigsk Studie- og Hjælpefond (Study and relief fund of Southern Schleswig),(see Danish minority of Southern Schleswig), an area that could be considered the birthplace of the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, the royal family of which Knud was a part.

The Princess Caroline-Mathilde Alps in Greenland were named by the 1938–39 Mørkefjord Expedition in his wife's honour for Prince Knud had been the patron of the expedition.[7]

The popular saying “En gang til for Prins Knud” (“One more time for Prince Knud”) is sometimes used when repeating or clarifying because the interlocutor is a bit slow-witted or didn't immediately grasp something.[8] The expression was first used in an article by Bent Thorndahl in the Copenhagen newspaper Politiken to describe the November 24, 1958 premiere, at the Falkoner Center in Frederiksberg, of the ballet “Det Forsinkede Stævnemøde” (“The postponed rendezvous”). Prince Knud and Princess Caroline Mathilde had sat in the former royal loge at the far left of the hall (i.e., stage right), but one especially memorable scene had not been fully visible from where they had sat. The ballet director, Ingvar Balduin Blicher-Hansen (1911–1995) persuaded the ballet ensemble to re-enact the scene for the royal couple. The following year, Birgitte Reimer, at the theatrical revue known as Cirkusrevyen, performed a song,[9] written by Erik Leth to a tune by Sven Gyldmark, which immortalized Prince Knud, somewhat unfairly mocking him as supposedly being a dullard: “Så ta'r vi den en gang til for Prins Knud.” (“Now we'll do it one more time for Prince Knud.”)[10]

Issue

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Honours

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Danish and Icelandic honours[11]
Foreign honours[11]

Ancestors

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See also: Descendants of Christian IX of Denmark

References

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Citations

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  1. ^ a b c Engelstoft 1937, p. 581.
  2. ^ a b Bech 1981.
  3. ^ Engelstoft, Povl (1934). "Caroline-Mathilde" (PDF). In Engelstoft, Povl; Dahl, Svend (eds.). Dansk Biografisk Leksikon (in Danish). Vol. 3 (2. ed.). Copenhagen: J.H. Schultz Forlag. p. 544.
  4. ^ Henriksen, Mette (10 September 2022). "Arveprinsesse Caroline-Mathilde". Sjællandske Nyheder (in Danish). Archived from the original on 13 February 2024. Retrieved 11 February 2024.
  5. ^ "Slottet – Egelund Slot" (in Danish). Egelund Slot. 2 June 2016. Retrieved 7 February 2024.
  6. ^ "Om Klitgaarden" (in Danish). Klitgaarden Refugium. Retrieved 7 February 2024.
  7. ^ "Catalogue of place names in northern East Greenland". Geological Survey of Denmark. Archived from the original on 13 May 2020. Retrieved 18 June 2016.
  8. ^ [1], Den Danske Ordbog. Accessed 5 April 2021.
  9. ^ Birgitte Reimer, Ørkenens Sønner: Een gang til for prins Knud - Gyllegården. Accessed 5 April 2021.
  10. ^ Bo Børresen, Det var i Falkonersalen, at man første gang 'tog den én gang til for Prins Knud' ("It was in the Falkoner hall that they first did ‘one more time for Prince Knud’,” 2 September 2020, Frederiksberg Liv, Ugeavisen. Accessed 5 April 2021.
  11. ^ a b Kongelig Dansk Hof-og Statskalendar (1963) (in Danish), "De Kongelig Danske Ridderordener", p. 17
  12. ^ Elenco dei Cavalieri dell'Ordine supremo della Santissima Annunziata
  13. ^ Mouran, H. (5 March 1936). "ORDONNANCES SOUVERAINES" (PDF). JOURNAL DE MONACO. p. 7. Retrieved 14 June 2023.
  14. ^ "Den kongelige norske Sanct Olavs Orden", Norges Statskalender for Aaret 1930 (in Norwegian), Oslo: Forlagt av H. Aschehoug & Co. (w. Nygaard), 1930, pp. 993–994 – via runeberg.org
  15. ^ "Sveriges Statskalender (1940), II, p. 7" (in Swedish). Retrieved 2018-01-06 – via runeberg.org.
  16. ^ Royal Thai Government Gazette (23 February 1929). "พระราชทานเครื่องราชอิสริยาภรณ์" (PDF) (in Thai). Archived from the original (PDF) on March 4, 2016. Retrieved 2019-05-08. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)

Bibliography

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  • Bech, Claus (1981). "Knud (arveprins)". In Cedergreen Bech, Svend (ed.). Dansk Biografisk Leksikon (in Danish). Vol. VIII (3rd ed.). Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
  • Bramsen, Bo (1992). Huset Glücksborg. Europas svigerfader og hans efterslægt [The House of Glücksburg. The Father-in-law of Europe and his descendants] (in Danish) (2nd ed.). Copenhagen: Forlaget Forum. ISBN 87-553-1843-6.
  • Lerche, Anna; Mandal, Marcus (2003). A royal family : the story of Christian IX and his European descendants. Copenhagen: Aschehoug. ISBN 9788715109577.
  • Engelstoft, Povl (1937). "Knud" (PDF). In Engelstoft, Povl; Dahl, Svend (eds.). Dansk Biografisk Leksikon (in Danish). Vol. XII (2nd ed.). Copenhagen: J.H. Schultz Forlag. p. 581.
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Knud, Hereditary Prince of Denmark
Born: 27 July 1900 Died: 14 June 1979
Danish royalty
Preceded byas Crown Prince Heir to the Danish throne
1947–1953 		Succeeded by
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