Princess Margaret of Denmark (Margrethe Françoise Louise Marie Helene; 17 September 1895 – 18 September 1992) was a Danish princess by birth and a princess of
Bourbon-Parma as the wife of
Prince René of Bourbon-Parma. She was the youngest grandchild of
Christian IX of Denmark and Queen Louise.
Biography
Early life
Princess Margaret was born on 17 September 1895, in
Bernstorff Palace north of
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 ...
. She was the fifth child and only daughter of
Prince Valdemar of Denmark, and his wife
Princess Marie of Orléans. Her father was a younger son of
King Christian IX of Denmark
Christian IX (8 April 181829 January 1906) was King of Denmark from 1863 until his death in 1906. From 1863 to 1864, he was concurrently Duke of Schleswig, Holstein and Lauenburg.
A younger son of Frederick William, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein- ...
and
Louise of Hesse-Kassel, and her mother was the eldest daughter of
Prince Robert, Duke of Chartres
Prince Robert, Duke of Chartres (Robert Philippe Louis Eugène Ferdinand; 9 November 1840 – 5 December 1910), was the son of Prince Ferdinand Philippe, Duke of Orléans, and thus grandson of King Louis-Philippe of France. He fought for the Unio ...
and
Princess Françoise of Orléans. Her parents' marriage was said to be a political match.
Her parents had agreed beforehand that all their sons would be raised Lutheran, their father's creed, and all their daughters Roman Catholic, their mother's faith. She was therefore the first Danish princess since the Reformation raised a Roman Catholic. She was named for her mother's sister Princess Marguerite d'Orléans. Her mother died in 1909.
Marriage
She married a Catholic prince, her mother's relative,
Prince René of Bourbon-Parma (
Schwarzau, 17 October 1894 –
Hellerup
Hellerup () is a very affluent district of Gentofte Municipality in the suburbs of Copenhagen, Denmark. The most urban part of the district is centred on Strandvejen and is bordered by Østerbro to the south and the Øresund to the east. It compri ...
,
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 ...
, 30 July 1962) on 9 June 1921 at Sacred Heart of Jesus Church in
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 ...
. His father was
Robert I, Duke of Parma. His mother was the Duke's second wife
Princess Maria Antonia, daughter of the exiled
King Miguel I of Portugal. René was the brother of
Empress Zita of Austria and of
Felix
Felix may refer to:
* Felix (name), people and fictional characters with the name
Places
* Arabia Felix is the ancient Latin name of Yemen
* Felix, Spain, a municipality of the province Almería, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, ...
, the consort of
Charlotte, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg
Charlotte (Charlotte Adelgonde Elisabeth Marie Wilhelmine; 23 January 1896 – 9 July 1985) reigned as Grand Duchess of Luxembourg from 14 January 1919 until her abdication on 12 November 1964.
She acceded to the throne on 14 January 1919 foll ...
.
René and Margrethe had four children:
* Prince Jacques of Bourbon-Parma (9 June 1922 – 5 November 1964;
traffic accident outside
Roskilde
Roskilde ( , ) is a city west of Copenhagen on the Danish island of Zealand. With a population of 51,916 (), the city is a business and educational centre for the region and the 10th largest city in Denmark. It is governed by the administrative ...
) married Countess Birgitte
Holstein-Ledreborg on 9 June 1947. They had three children and two grandsons.
*
Princess Anne of Bourbon-Parma
Princess Anne Antoinette Françoise Charlotte Zita Marguerite of Bourbon-Parma (18 September 1923 – 1 August 2016) was the wife of King Michael I of Romania. Michael abdicated the throne in 1947, and he and Anne married the next year. Nonethel ...
(18 September 1923 – 1 August 2016) she married King
Michael I of Romania on 10 June 1948. They had five daughters.
*
Prince Michel of Bourbon-Parma
Prince Michel of Bourbon-Parma (Michel Marie Xavier Waldemar Georg Robert Karl Eymar; 4 March 1926 – 7 July 2018) was a French businessman, soldier and racing car driver, who was a member of deposed sovereign ducal House of Bourbon-Parma.
He was ...
(4 March 1926 – 7 July 2018) he married Princess Yolande de
Broglie-Revel on 9 June 1951 and they had five children and twelve grandchildren. They divorced in 1966. He remarried
Princess Maria Pia of Savoy on 17 May 2003.
* Prince André of Bourbon-Parma (6 March 1928 – 22 October 2011) he married Marina Gacry on 2 May 1960. They had three children and six grandchildren.
Later life
The family was poor compared to other royalty. They chiefly resided in France, where all of their children were born.
[Beéche, p. 93] In 1939 the family fled from the Nazis and escaped to Spain. From there they went to Portugal and then to the United States. There, in New York, Margrethe made a living making hats while her husband worked at a gas company and her daughter as a shop assistant.
They returned to Paris after the war.
In June 1951, Margaret was travelling in a car her husband was driving when they ran over a 22-year-old man, Jaja Sorensen, who died soon after being taken to hospital.
[See http://hemeroteca.lavanguardia.es of 19 June 1951] She died one day after her 97th birthday, on the 69th birthday of her daughter Anne. She was the last surviving child of Prince Valdemar and the longest lived and last surviving grandchild of Christian IX.
Ancestors
References
Citations
Bibliography
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Margaret of Denmark
1895 births
1992 deaths
Danish princesses
House of Glücksburg (Denmark)
Princesses of Bourbon-Parma
Burials at Roskilde Cathedral
Danish Roman Catholics