Thank you, Iceflower
Summary of article in Billed Bladet #40, 2010.
Købte blomster til Dronningen - Bought flowers for the Queen.
Written by Annelise Weimann.
The Regent Couple went to the town of Køge, to commemorate the Battle of Køge Bay, in 1710, between DK and Sweden. (*)
At Køge Bay the Danish flagship, Dannebroge (**) which blew up during the battle at the cost of 600 hundred lives. (***)
The Regent Couple arrived at Køge townhall and here an unofficial flowergirl, in the shape of twelve year old Cecilie Altenburg was waiting. She had from her own money bought a bouquet of flowers for QMII. That so delighted Queen Margrethe, that she carried the bouquet from the townhall to Køge Church, where the was a service in memory of the battle 300 years ago.
Cecilie told our reporter afterwards: "I bought them myself for my pocket allowance, because I like the Queen so much". She had also bought a bouquet for Mary in March, but the article does not mention whether she got the opportunity to give it to Mary.
Before all that wreaths had been laid at the harbour in honor of the fallen sailors. Representatives of the Danish, the Norwegian (****) and the Swedish navies were also present.
Prince Henrik, wearing the full dress uniform of an admiral in the navy. While walking through Køge town, a mature gentleman gave Henrik a friendly pad on the shoulder. Henrik returned the compliment by tapping the gentleman's cap.
(*) That took place during the Great Nordic War, which ended Swedens status as a major European power.
The roughly 80 years of nearly continous warfare Sweden had been involved in since then, had decimated the male population and while the nobillity grew rich from the spoils of the wars of the period, the same thing certainly cannot be said about the rest of the population.
The Swedish armies of the period relied primarily on Swedish nationals, rather than professional mercenaries. That meant that the Swedish armies, at least initially, were much more reliable, felt a stronger allegiance towards their own king and where cheaper, than comperable European armies.
The price was thousands upon thousands of able bodied Swedish men being sucked into the army. Most never returned home.
Not to metion the ever increasing taxes to fund such an army.
Sweden was simply not rich enough to afford that in the long run.
The fame of the Swedish "warrior kings" came at a hefty price.
(**) Old spelling. The modern spelling is Dannebrog.
(***) To put that into perspective. 600 was the adult population of a average small town in DK in 1710. A serious loss.
(****) Norway was back then in union (rigsfællesskab) with Denmark. In reality Norway was a part of Denmark and had been so for several hundred years. But many Norwegians naturally served in the navy and also among those killed onboard Dannebroge.
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