House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg

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House of Glücksburg
Schleswig-Holstein & Glücksburg
Country: Germany, Denmark, Greece and Norway
Parent house: House of Oldenburg
Titles: Duke of Schleswig-Holstein, King of Denmark, King of the Hellenes, King of Norway
Founder: Friedrich Wilhelm, Duke of Glücksburg
Current head: Christopher, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein
Founding year: 1825
Cadet branches: Mountbatten-Windsor Family

Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg (in Danish: Slesvig-Holsten-Sønderborg-Lyksborg), from Glücksburg in northernmost Germany, is a line of the House of Oldenburg that is descended from King Christian III of Denmark. Its members include the royal houses of Denmark and Norway, the deposed royal house of Greece, and the heirs to the throne of the United Kingdom and the fifteen other Commonwealth realms.

This particular line comes from the Dukes of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck. The last of them became Duke of Glücksburg and changed his title accordingly to Friedrich Wilhelm, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg. He was married to Luise Caroline, Princess of Hesse-Kassel, a granddaughter of King Frederick V of Denmark.

Neither the Dukes of Beck nor of Glücksburg were sovereign rulers - they held their lands in fief to the sovereign Dukes of Schleswig and Holstein - the Kings of Denmark and (before 1773) the Dukes of Holstein-Gottorp.

Christian IX, the fourth son of Friedrich Wilhelm. was chosen by the childless King Frederick VII of Denmark to be his heir, as Christian was married to Frederick's first cousin, Luise of Hesse. Wilhelm, the second son of Crown Prince Christian and Crown Princess Luise, was elected King of the Hellenes on March 30, 1863 to succeed the deposed Wittelsbach Otto of Greece and took the name George I of Greece. His father became King of Denmark as Christian IX on November 15, 1863. Prince Carl, the second son of Frederick VIII of Denmark, Christian IX's eldest son, became King of Norway on November 18, 1905 as Haakon VII of Norway. Christian IX's daughters, Alexandra of Denmark and Dagmar of Denmark (who became Maria Feodorovna), married Edward VII of the United Kingdom and Alexander III of Russia, respectively, meaning that by 1914, descendants of King Christian IX were nearly as prevalent on European thrones as those of Queen Victoria.

Contents

[edit] Dukes of Glücksburg (1825-1931), then Dukes of Schleswig-Holstein (1931-present)

[edit] Monarchs of Denmark, 1863-present

[edit] Kings of the Hellenes, 1863-1973

[edit] Kings of Norway, 1905-present

[edit] Other notable members