Charlotte Amalie Winge (floruit 1766) was the royal mistress of King
Frederick V of Denmark
Frederick V (Danish and Norwegian: ''Frederik V''; 31 March 1723 – 14 January 1766) was King of Denmark–Norway and Duke of Schleswig-Holstein from 6 August 1746 until his death in 1766. He was the son of Christian VI of Denmark and Sophie Ma ...
. She is known as Madam Winge and was, alongside
Else Hansen
Else Hansen (''Cathrine Marie Mahs Hansen'') also called de Hansen (1720 – 4 September 1784), was the royal mistress of king Frederick V of Denmark. She was his most famous mistress and known in history as Madam Hansen, and was, alongside Char ...
, one of only two women known to have been long term lovers of the king.
[Bregnsbo, Michael (2014) ]
Til venstre hånd: Danske kongers elskerinder
'(Copenhagen: Gyldendal A/S)
Biography
Charlotte Amalie Winge was the widow of a priest when she became the lover of the king in 1762 during the time of his marriage to
Queen
Juliana Maria of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel. According to a traditional story, the king met Winge dressed as an
Amazon
Amazon most often refers to:
* Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology
* Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin
* Amazon River, in South America
* Amazon (company), an American multinational technology c ...
on a walk at
Bregentved manor, where he was staying with
Lord Chamberlain
The Lord Chamberlain of the Household is the most senior officer of the Royal Household of the United Kingdom, supervising the departments which support and provide advice to the Sovereign of the United Kingdom while also acting as the main cha ...
Adam Gottlob Moltke. King Frederick brought her back to
Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...
as his mistress, installing her in a house at
Vandkunsten.
If so, Moltke was likely the one arranging the meeting.
Winge is not believed by author and playwright
Dorothea Biehl (1731-1788) to have participated in the famously decadent
Bacchus
In ancient Greek religion and myth, Dionysus (; grc, Διόνυσος ) is the god of the grape-harvest, winemaking, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, festivity, and theatre. The Romans ...
parties (''Bacchusfesterne'') of the king, but rather was seen as someone who could ease the king's mind and nurse him during his decreasingly ill health. It is noted that during the king's illness, Queen Juliane Maria often found Winge nursing the king when she came to tend to his health.
Just as with the rest of Frederick's lovers, Winge was not an official mistress introduced at court, nor did she have any influence on state affairs. However, in contrast to most other lovers of the king, Winge managed to make him hand out favors to her relatives, and he gave her sister a pension, made her brother-in-law an official, and protected her two nephews in their careers was officers.
The relationship between the king and Winge lasted until the king's death in 1766. After the death of the king, Charlotte Amalie Winge was granted a pension as long as she stayed unmarried.
References
{{authority control
Mistresses of Danish royalty
18th-century Danish people
18th-century Danish women