by Emily McMahon  © Unofficial Royalty 2017

 

Crown Prince Frederik (the future King Frederik IX of Denmark) married Princess Ingrid of Sweden on May 24, 1935, at Stockholm Cathedral (Storkyrkan) in Stockholm, Sweden.

• YouTube: Princess Ingrid’s Wedding

Frederik’s Family

Frederik, born on March 11, 1899, at Sorgenfri Palace near Copenhagen, Denmark, was the eldest son of the future King Christian X of Denmark and Alexandrine of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. At the time of Frederik’s birth, his great-grandfather, Christian IX, was King of Denmark. Frederik was baptized the following month, also at Sorgenfri. Prince Knud, Frederik’s only sibling, was born the following year.

Frederik became Crown Prince of Denmark on May 14, 1912, upon the death of his grandfather, Frederik VIII. Whereas most of the previous Danish princes served in the army, young Frederik entered the Royal Danish Naval Academy. After furthering his education at the University of Copenhagen, Frederik served in the navy, attaining the rank of rear admiral and performing as an able commander. Like many of his naval comrades, Frederik acquired a number of naval-themed tattoos.

Frederik grew into a tall (he was well over six feet in height), lean, dark-haired, and somewhat serious young man. He was notably quite shy. Frederik was specifically noted to dislike sports but had a love for music inherited from his mother. He was an excellent piano player, an able composer, and had a particular interest in conducting. As a young adult, he frequently served as a guest conductor of the royal orchestra. Like his future wife, Frederik enjoyed driving his own car.

Frederik also had an unusually gifted memory for railway schedules. He was quite proud of this odd talent, so much so that he welcomed telephone calls from the Copenhagen elite inquiring about distance, fares, travel time, departures, and arrivals of trains all over Europe.

Frederik’s father, Christian X, spent his reign as an alternately popular (during both World Wars) and unpopular (following the Easter Crisis of 1920) monarch. Christian was known as a very strict father whose sons feared him, but the marriage between Frederik’s parents appeared to be a happy one. Alexandrine was described as a woman devoted both to her husband and children and spent much of her time as a patron of various musical societies and gardening.

• Unofficial Royalty: King Frederik IX of Denmark

Ingrid’s Family

Ingrid, the only daughter of the future King Gustav VI of Sweden (then Crown Prince) and Margaret of Connaught, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria, was born on March 28, 1910, in Stockholm, Sweden.

Margaret founded a school for Ingrid with a small circle of Swedish noble girls. Ingrid was also given some domestic instruction as part of her education. As a child, she practiced cooking in her model cottage on the palace grounds and even washed the dishes after meals. The ability of a girl to cook, sew, and manage a household was seen as important at the time even for royalty.

When Ingrid was ten years old, her mother died unexpectedly following an operation. Gustav married his second wife and distant cousin, Lady Louise Mountbatten, in 1913. After her mother’s death, Ingrid spent several months of each year in the United Kingdom in the care of her grandfather, Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught.

Ingrid made her debut at the opening of the Swedish Riksdag in 1928 when she was noted to be “smartly dressed.” She was also noted to be an accomplished linguist, an excellent horsewoman, a good skier and skater, and a talented dancer.  Ingrid often played matches against her tennis enthusiast grandfather Gustav V. During her young adulthood, Ingrid was often seen about Stockholm, driving her own two-seat car.

Besides gaining a reputation as a stylish young woman, Ingrid was known as being quite attractive. She was tall, had light brown hair, hazel eyes, and a warm smile. Curiously, she was also described as having a “well-shaped head.” Americans described Ingrid after her visit to the United States in 1939 as “tall and very slender” with a “nicely modeled mouth and exquisite teeth.”

• Unofficial Royalty: Ingrid of Sweden, Queen of Denmark

The Engagement

Despite an 11-year difference in age, Ingrid and Frederik were said to have been a couple for some time. The two were distant cousins on both sides. Their closest mutual relations were Leopold, Grand Duke of Baden and King Oscar I of Sweden.

Curiously, Frederik’s and Ingrid’s supposed engagement was rumored repeatedly years before it actually occurred. In 1918 word spread that Frederik and Ingrid were betrothed and an engagement announcement imminent, despite the fact that Ingrid was only 8 years old at the time. In 1929, announcements were again made for Ingrid’s and Frederik’s engagement, possibly as a part of royal wedding fever surrounding the marriage of Märtha of Sweden and Olav of Norway, when Ingrid served as a bridesmaid. At least one source cited the reasons for the “false starts” to the fact that Ingrid was the only granddaughter of King Gustav V and that several of her brothers had pursued commoner spouses.

In 1934, rumors surfaced a third time about a soon-to-be-announced engagement between Frederik and Ingrid. The source of the rumors were unnamed members of the Swedish court who insisted that the announcement would be made when Ingrid and her father returned from a vacation in France. Ingrid denied the news of any engagement, but curiously, Frederik was noted to have been in France at the same time.

After a denial of any union of the two by both Swedish and Danish court officials in January, the engagement of the couple was formally announced to the public on March 15, 1935, in Stockholm. When the engagement became a reality, Frederik had requested that the presses of both countries say nothing about it until it was announced officially. This agreement was honored, but the news was eagerly awaited by both countries excited at the prospect of a royal wedding. Frederik left for Stockholm on March 14 to be with his new fiancee.

The Danish Crown Princely couple was also in Sweden for the event. At the time of the formal announcement, a May wedding was hinted. Ingrid met her fiancé upon his arrival by train in Soedertelje (outside Stockholm), driving Frederik by herself back to the palace in Stockholm. As expected, the engagement was received very well in both countries and declared a “love match.”

A candlelight dinner was held the evening of the announcement in celebration of the engagement. The dinner included several toasts given to the happiness and good health of the new couple.

A number of European royal houses were linked by the engagement. Ingrid’s cousins Märtha and Astrid were Crown Princess of Norway and Queen of Belgium respectively, and Ingrid naturally had close ties to her British family.

Pre-Wedding Festivities

The festivities in Stockholm were said to be the most lavish seen since the civil wedding of Astrid of Sweden and Crown Prince Leopold of the Belgians in 1926. Frederik arrived in Sweden for the wedding week on the morning of May 19, 1935, drawing a large crowd at the Stockholm train station. The week before the wedding saw a number of festivities held in honor of the couple. King Leopold III of Belgium and his wife Astrid (Ingrid’s cousin and a Princess of Sweden) hosted a reception at the Belgian Legation.

King Christian X and Queen Alexandrine arrived in Sweden on May 21, 1935, on the Danish royal yacht. The couple was greeted in the Stockholm harbor by the colorfully decorated 40-foot Swedish royal barge, which carried them to the royal landing area. Several thousand uniformed troops and ordinary Swedes watched and cheered as the Danish royals were lead from the harbor to the royal palace.

King Gustav held a dinner and music concert for 800 guests (mostly royals and dignitaries) on May 22, 1935. Among the attendees were the Danish royals, the Belgian Crown Prince and Princess, and Wilhelm and Cecilie, former Crown Prince and Crown Princess of Germany. Most of the royal guests attended a second reception on the evening of May 23, 1935, followed by a gala performance at the Royal Opera House.

Unlike several of their foreign guests, the Swedish and Danish royals had minimal security. However, with such a large group of royalty gathered for the events, there was a considerable concern for the possibility of kidnapping, assault, or assassination of one or more guests. The city of Stockholm posted detectives at every entrance of the Royal Palace, along with additional police officers on horseback patrolling the streets. Additional auxiliary officers were needed for escorts and guards. Messengers and delivery persons were given careful inspection for possible weapons or bombs.

As with previous weddings, rumors of engagements between other European royals started to surface just before the Stockholm celebrations. The announcement of an engagement between Princess Juliana of the Netherlands and Prince Carl of Sweden, a cousin of Ingrid’s and brother of Astrid, Crown Princess of Belgium and Märtha, Crown Princess of Norway, was said to be imminent. Although Queen Wilhelmina and the Dutch government considered Carl a prime candidate for the marriage, Juliana found him dull and unintellectual. She married Bernhard of Lippe-Bisterfeld in 1937.

Wedding Attire

Ingrid’s dress was a “simply cut” white gown, described alternately as silk or crepe satin. The gown featured a high neck, a draped bodice, and long sleeves with a 20-foot train, trimmed with point de venise lace worn by Ingrid’s mother Margaret of Connaught on her own wedding day in 1906. The veil was made of the same lace and has since been worn by many descendants of Ingrid or their brides on their own wedding day. Atop the veil, Ingrid wore the crown of myrtle common for Swedish brides. She wore the Khedive of Egypt Cartier tiara she had inherited from her mother and a strand of simple pearls.

Ingrid also wore a special gift commissioned by her new husband for their wedding day. Frederik ordered a brooch from Carlman of Sweden, made of Crown Princess Margaret’s diamonds into a namesake daisy shape. The brooch is now a much-loved piece of the Danish Royal Family. Ingrid’s daughter Queen Margrethe II wore the daisy brooch on her own wedding day.

Ingrid carried a bouquet of long-stemmed lilies, plum roses, and myrtle tied with trailing ribbons.  She also carried a fan and a handkerchief that was part of her mother’s wedding ensemble.

Frederik wore a black uniform with a blue sash, along with several orders. These orders included the Swedish Order of Seraphim, the Danish Order of the Elephant, and the Danish Order of the Dannebrog.

Wedding Guests

The wedding guests included 66 members of various European royal houses, ruling and defunct.  Royal attendees included three kings, two queens, several crown princes and princesses, and a former grand duke and duchess.

• King Christian X and Queen Alexandrine of Denmark
• Crown Prince Gustav Adolf and Crown Princess Louise of Sweden
• Prince Gustav Adolf (Ingrid’s brother) and Princess Sibylla of Sweden
• Prince Carl Johan of Sweden
• Prince Wilhelm of Sweden
• Prince Carl of Sweden
• King Gustav V of Sweden
• King Leopold III and Queen Astrid of the Belgians
• Crown Prince Olav and Crown Princess Martha of Norway
• Friedrich Franz IV and Alexandra, former Grand Duke and Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg
• Prince Valdemar of Denmark
• Prince Harald of Denmark
• Prince Gustaf of Denmark
• Prince Axel of Denmark
• Princess Thyra of Denmark
• Princess Helene of Denmark
• Princess Margaretha of Denmark
• Princess Louise of Denmark
• Princess Alexandrine of Denmark
• Lady Patricia Ramsay (aunt of the bride and a British royal representative)
• Prince George of Greece
• Wilhelm and Cecilie, former German Crown Prince and Crown Princess
• The Duke of Connaught (Ingrid’s maternal grandfather)
• Prince Arthur and Princess Alexandra of Connaught (aunt and uncle of Ingrid and British royal representatives)

The Wedding Ceremony

On May 24, 1935, a reported 100,000 spectators gathered around the Royal Palace in Stockholm to watch the royal procession. Wilhelm, the former Crown Prince of Germany, led the procession along with Arthur, Duke of Connaught, the bride’s maternal grandfather.

Ingrid chose to have no adult bridesmaids at the wedding, possibly as a show of austerity during the global Great Depression. Instead, Princess Astrid and Princess Ragnhild of Norway, daughters of Ingrid’s cousin Crown Princess Märtha, served as flower girls. Frederik’s supporter was Gustaf Bernadotte of Wisborg, the eldest son of Folke Bernadotte, Count of Wisborg, and his American wife, Estelle.

The ceremony began at 11:30 AM at Storkyrkan (also known as St. Nicholas) Cathedral, a 13th-century cathedral where all of the Swedish Bernadotte monarchs had been crowned.  Ironically, one of the main features of the church was a statue of St. George fighting a dragon – a symbol of Swedish defense against medieval aggression by Danish kings.

The cathedral was decorated with a great deal of larkspur (also known as delphinium), a favorite flower of Ingrid’s. So much larkspur was needed to fill the church that a special plane was flown from London filled with the flower.

The procession of royalty began with Ingrid’s cousin, Queen Astrid of the Belgians, and her husband King Leopold III. Frederik was escorted into the church by his father. Crown Prince Gustav Adolf of Sweden escorted Ingrid down the aisle, following by the Norwegian flower girls.

Archbishop Erling Eidem of the Swedish Lutheran Church officiated at the ceremony. Both Frederik and Ingrid were noted as having pledged to love and care for one another happily and clearly. Frederik presented his bride with a plain gold band for a wedding ring. The two held the ring together as they recited their vows before Frederik slipped it onto Ingrid’s finger.

A mixed choir sang Swedish and Danish wedding hymns throughout the service, some of which were composed specifically for the wedding. The choir was conducted by Sven Lizell of the Stockholm Choral Society. However, tragedy struck just after the service as Mr. Lizell suddenly died of heart failure.

The Grenadiers of the Guard stood at attention outside the cathedral during the service. The Grenadiers wore some of the original deerskin uniforms, boots, breastplates, and plumed hats presented by Catherine the Great of Russia nearly two centuries before. Swedish navy ships fired a salute in the harbor as a signal that the service had concluded.

After the Ceremony

A wedding breakfast was held at the Royal Palace, following the couple’s cavalry-escorted coach ride from the church through the streets of Stockholm. Several thousand spectators cheered along the Standvägen, a main street in Stockholm, to watch the procession and cheer for the new couple.

During the reception, a Danish choir serenaded Frederik and Ingrid outside the palace. Ingrid and Frederik then made a stop at the grave of Crown Princess Margaret, where Ingrid laid her bridal wreath.

Following the reception, Frederik boarded the Swedish royal sloop. They were carried across the harbor to the Danish royal yacht, the Dannebrog, bound for Copenhagen. A crowd of 200,000 Swedish and Danish citizens packed the Stockholm harbor to bid goodbye to the princess and her new husband. The couple’s departure was saluted with a series of cannon fires. A carnival followed in the streets of Stockholm into the night and through the following morning.

The Honeymoon

A Swedish warship escorted the yacht carrying the new couple to Danish waters, arriving in Copenhagen the next day. Fireworks lit up the Copenhagen harbor to greet Frederik and Ingrid. The new crown princely couple were then welcomed with more waving and cheering Danes during their drive through the streets of Copenhagen. King Christian X was noted to be the first person to greet his son and new daughter-in-law as they stepped into the harbor.

Frederik and Ingrid attended a dinner for 150 guests on the evening of their arrival in Copenhagen. A ball was held at Christianborg Castle following the dinner for visiting dignitaries and nobility. After spending several days attending events in Copenhagen, the couple left for a short honeymoon on the French Riviera, the rumored location of their courtship.

Children

Embed from Getty Images 
Frederik, Ingrid, and their three daughters

Frederik and Ingrid had three daughters:

• Queen Margrethe II of Denmark (born 1940), married Henri de Laborde de Monpezat, had two sons, the Danish Royal Family descends from this marriage
• Princess Benedikte (born 1944), married Richard, 6th Prince of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg, had one son and two daughters
• Princess Anne-Marie (born 1946), married King Constantine II of Greece, had three sons and two daughters, the Greek Royal Family descends from this marriage

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