Queen Ingrid (1910-2000)


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Queen Ingrid never held the title Dowager Queen but was styled Queen Ingrid for life. Meaning that during her daughters reign and while she was still alive Denmark oficially had two queens. Though only one Monarch.

This was the request of the young Monarch back in 1972 when her father had just died, that her mother not be dowager queen, but to be titled Queen Ingrid also in future.

:)
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Margrethe did much more than letting Ingrid keep her title as Queen. She included Ingrid as a regent, when she herself was out of the country. This was done in the summer of 1972, when Queen Ingrid signed the Danish Constitution and thereby swore to uphold it. It was the first time in Denmark that a regent was picked from outside the line of succession. It was a great honour and signalled that even though Ingrid was now a widow , she was still a very important member of the royal family. :flowers:
 
Ingrid of Sweden was indeed a dowager queen. Every woman who holds a title by marriage becomes a dowager if she outlives her husband, though she can opt not to use the word dowager as part of her style. Therefore, Ingrid of Sweden was a dowager queen styled HM Queen Ingrid of Denmark. Between King Frederick IX's death and Ingrid of Sweden's death, only one woman was Queen of Denmark and that's Her Present Majesty. Technically, Ingrid of Sweden became Queen of Denmark upon her husband's accession and ceased to be Queen of Denmark upon his death. However, it's correct to say that there were two queens in Denmark between King Frederick IX's death and the death of Ingrid of Sweden.
 
Thank you, Catharina! She was a very pretty little girl.
 
It's too bad she seemed to be a cold and vindictive stepdaughter.

I mean, her stepmother seemed like a nice person yet Ingrid treated her rather cruelly. :nonono:
 
But didn't she (and her brothers) warm up to Louise as time went by?
 
I do remember reading something on the order of this; that she always referred to Louise as her "Stepmother". I believe that their relationship was quite frosty. I don't know how it was between her brothers and Louise, but there was not any love lost between Louise and Ingrid. Actually, she always had photos and items of her mother's about her. I believe that she always felt the loss of her mother and that was why she was an extraordinary mother and wife and her daughters as well as their children are so close. She was an extraordinary woman and Queen, in my honest opinion.

Extraordinary women are not cold and cruel to people who never did any harm to them.
Her stepmother was married to her father for over 40 years, she deserved some kind of respect, plus I think she deserved to be a grandmother to Ingrid's daughters. How narrow-minded and cruel of Ingrid.
Sorry, family is family, it doesn't have to be BLOOD.
 
What did Ingrid do to her stepmother that was so cruel? I don't know very much about her relationship with Louise, I just had the general idea that it wasn't very warm.
 
Well, it does seem cruel on Ingrid's part! However..imagine her situation:
you lose your beloved mother as a ten year old. At the royal court the grief is smoothed over, denied, they just didn't deal with it. In royal environments you didn't expose your grief in those days.

Her father is busy with his duties, and Ingrid is left with nannies most of the time. She can open her little heart to Stina Reutersvärd, a lady in waiting of Princess Margaretha.

The introduction of Lady Louise Mountbatten in 1923 was a almost a "fait-accompli". According to a source of mine (see below), Crown Prince Gustav Adolf asked his two elder sons "would they mind if he marry again?" , but they don't speak their mind. As it turned out, "Aunt Louise" was introduced at the royal court at a formal event event staged by Queen Victoria, and the esp. the younger children found the situation akward and difficult to deal with.

Ingrid's elder brother Sigvard later wrote in his memoirs, that as the only girl Ingrid was used to being the centre of attention, she was strong willed and her father adored her. Aunt Louise never stood a chance in that relationship.

Sigvard thought that "the little angel" must have been the subject of many a marital argument between CP Gustaf Adolf and CP Louise!

The first time CP Louise went to Sofiero, the summer home in southern Sweden, Princess Ingrid has placed pictures of her mother all over the place! BTW a trick Ingrid would use later!!
(My source: Annelise Bistrup: Dronning Ingrid, Aschehoug 1997.)

Viv
 
I didn't know that the relationship between Louise and her stepdaughter Ingrid has been cold. I always read in books about Lord Mountbatten that she had a good and warm relationship to her stepchildren. However, its a bit sad because Louise was in a rather difficult situation I think. Its never that easy to be a stepmother especially in this position and Louise after giving birth to a stillborn child wasn't able to have own children. I always had the slightly feeling Louise was a bit of a stop-gap.
 
Did Ingrid have any other reason to dislike her stepmother beyond the fact that she must have seen her as "replacing" her mother? I'm sure that would be reason enough for a 10-year-old, but was Louise unkind to her at all?
 
Did Ingrid have any other reason to dislike her stepmother beyond the fact that she must have seen her as "replacing" her mother? I'm sure that would be reason enough for a 10-year-old, but was Louise unkind to her at all?

I don't think she was ever unkind to her.
But I think Ingrid had ever right to not like her step-mother, Ingrid was 10 when her mother died and she possible felt that Louise was trying to replace her mother.
Does anyone know if Louise every met Margrethe, Benedikte or Anne-Marie?

:flowers:
 
Does anyone know if Louise every met Margrethe, Benedikte or Anne-Marie?

She did no doubt, after all she was married to their grand father :)! Ingrid went to Stockholm for private visits and vice versa, King Gustav Adolf went to Denmark. However I'd imagine that the relationship was friendly, but formal. I cannot find any pictures of Queen Louise and the three sisters, maybe someone out there can help?

Viv
 
How was the relationship of Ingrid with her sisters-in-law, Sybilla and the others ?
 
This may not be the best thread to post this in as it's quite a few members of the extended family, but Queen Ingrid's at the center. The first 30 seconds look like footage of Margrethe's birthday circa 1970, but after that it's Ingrid in the nursery with a bunch of her grandchildren. My guesses on who's who: Margrethe is holding Joachim, Frederik has on the red shirt and plays with the little car, Alexia is the little girl (obviously), Niklaos is the baby in Ingrid's arms, Pavlos is the bigger blond boy, and Gustav is the other little boy?

Ingrid's voice sounds very grandmotherly. :flowers: I'm assuming she is speaking Danish, which is interesting because I've read that Anne-Marie's children didn't learn Danish. What language did their grandparents speak to them in? Obviously later it could have been English, but what about when they were little? :ermm:

YouTube - Danish Royal playgroup
 
Thanks for the lovely video, Maura724 :flowers: Interesting question. Was Ingrid able to speak greek or french maybe with them?
 
Thank you very much for posting the video above Maura724! When teh video is over, you can click on teh boxes below and see other videos and it's a fascinating insight into the Danish Royal Family - before I had only seen photos of their afternoon teas! Queen Ingrid does sound very grandmotherly and it seems her voice is a slightly deeper version of Queen Margrethe's.
 
Was Ingrid able to speak greek or french maybe with them?

I don't think Ingrid spoke Greek. I'm sure she knew French, but I doubt the children would have been able to speak it at such a young age. I don't think AM and Constantine raised them to be bilingual from the beginning (like Margrethe and Henrik did with their boys, where Margrethe spoke Danish to them and Henrik spoke French), so I would assume they only spoke Greek when they were little. Maybe Ingrid and Frederik learned a few basic phrases in Greek, relied on Anne-Marie as a translator sometimes, and otherwise just didn't do much talking with Alexia and Pavlos? At that age maybe you don't really need much chatting with your grandparents as long as you get lots of affection? :flowers:
 
I know I am coming to this thread late, but I would imagine that losing her mother at the age of 10 certainly had an effect on Ingrid. And anyone woman who attempted to take her place, would have noticed tons of pictures of Princess Margaret around the house. Most likely any womanw with the potential to take her mother's place would have faced the same issue.

It was certainly up to Ingird's father to interject.

And what Queen Victoria are we talking about it? Surely, not Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, she had been dead by the 1920's for a couple of years.

Any sources regarding the relationship between Ingrid and Louise.
 
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You're right, Maura724 and it is said that especially very young children can learn languages very easily. So they might have learned a bit from their grandmother or at least understood what she was meaning if she only talked in Danish to them, even they never learned Danish itself.
 
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And what Queen Victoria are we talking about it? Surely, not Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, she had been dead by the 1920's for a couple of years.
Ingrid's grandmother was Victoria of Baden. She was married to King Gustav V and was a queen of Sweden. Maybe you're thinking about her?
 
When Prince Joachim brought home Alexandra Manley did Queen Ingrid take an active part in helping Princess Alexandra become the wonderful princess she became ????

Did anyone ever tell Queen Ingrid that the marriage of Joachim & Alexandra was coming to a rocky closure ???
 
When Prince Joachim brought home Alexandra Manley did Queen Ingrid take an active part in helping Princess Alexandra become the wonderful princess she became ???

I'd imagine that Queen Ingrid gave Princess Alexandra the occasional advice, but I doubt that Ingrid took A. under her wings, as she did with Queen Silvia. I'll gladly stand corrected on this in case any compatriots know otherwise; I for one don't remember reading anything about it.

Did anyone ever tell Queen Ingrid that the marriage of Joachim & Alexandra was coming to a rocky closure ???

No! Queen Ingrid died in November 2000, fours years before the separation was announced. She may have known though - in fact I'd find it strange if she didn't - that the marriage was in problems pretty early on. There were rumours in the media as early as 1998 and the reason I remember it is, that the magazine in question normally never published rumours or anything controversial about our royal family. However they had a case and pictures to prove it: Alexandra and Joachim arguing in the Royal Theatre (caught on TV camera, I watched it myself), Alexandra extending her sojourns with her family in HKG, her absence from events in their circle of friends or, if she was present - Joachim wasn't. It happened as early as 1998!

Viv
 
Thanks for all those old lovely pictures. We all know Queen Ingrid & CP Frederik were very close. What about Queen Ingrid other grandchildren---how close was she to them, afterall Joachim lived in Denmark
 
Thanks for all those old lovely pictures. We all know Queen Ingrid & CP Frederik were very close. What about Queen Ingrid other grandchildren---how close was she to them, afterall Joachim lived in Denmark

Both Joachim and Frederik lived in Denmark.
She had Gratsen i believe with Alexandra and Nathalie each year, not sure about the Greek side.
I presume she saw them only on special occasions.

I have always believe that Frederik was her favourite. :)
 
Queen Ingrid had a close relation to all her grandchildren. It was very importent to her that they had a good relation to each other. Each summer Ingrid invited all the grandchildren to stay with her in gråsten castel.
For a period after the greek royal family left Greece, Alexia and Pavlos lived with there grandmother in Denmark.
 
In Jan Bloch Skipper's "Tre Sostre," Margrethe, Benedikte, and Anne-Marie mention how Ingrid was never a "general grandmother" and had a unique relationship with each of the 10 grandkids. Margrethe says her mother was very good at relating to them all as individuals and understanding what was special about each of them. :)
 
I think that Queen Ingrid always looked much older than her birthdate proofs.
On Facebook there is a photo of Phillipos´ baptism and though she was "only" 76 at that time she looks IMO at least ten years older. Same with the time of Anne-Marie´s wedding: It´s almost unbelieveable that such an "old looking" woman had a daughter with the age of 18. Don´t know but might it come from her having been a heavy smoker?
 
I've noticed that too, Stefanie. It's not so much that she aged badly, as I think she was always an attractive woman, as it is that she aged unusually quickly.
 
I cannot help but wonder, I know Scandinavian languages are close, but did Queen Ingrid ever learn to speak Danish like a native speaker of Danish?
 
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