Family
Princess Marie Sophie Fredrica/Frederikke Dagmar was born at the Yellow Palace in Copenhagen. Her father was Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, a member of a relatively impoverished princely cadet line. Her mother was Princess Louise of Hesse-Kassel.
She was baptized into the Lutheran faith and named after her kinswoman Marie Sophie Fredrica of Hesse-Kassel, Queen Dowager of Denmark as well as the medieval Danish queen, Dagmar of Bohemia. Growing up, she was known by the name Dagmar. Most of her life, she was known as Maria Feodorovna (Russian: Мария Фёдоровна), the name which she took when she converted to Orthodoxy immediately before her 1866 marriage to the future Emperor Alexander III. She was known within her family as Minnie.
In 1852, Dagmar's father became heir-presumptive to the throne of Denmark, largely due to the succession rights of his wife Louise as niece of King Christian VIII. In 1853, he was given the title Prince of Denmark and he and his family were given an official summer residence, Bernstorff Palace. Dagmar's father became King of Denmark in 1863 upon the death of King Frederick VII.
Due to the brilliant marital alliances of his children, he became known as the "Father-in-law of Europe." Maria Feodorovna was the younger sister of Alexandra, Queen Consort of King Edward VII and mother of George V of the United Kingdom, which helps to explain the striking resemblance between their sons Nicholas II and George V. Her older brother was King George I of Greece. Her eldest brother became King Frederick VIII of Denmark. Her youngest sister was Thyra, Duchess of Cumberland.
During her upbringing, Dagmar, together with her sister Alexandra, was given swimming lessons by the Swedish pioneer of swimming for women, Nancy Edberg; she would later welcome Edberg to Russia, where she came on royal scholarship to hold swimming lessons for women.
Read more about this topic: Maria Feodorovna (Dagmar Of Denmark)
Famous quotes containing the word family:
“Family lore can be a bore, but only when you are hearing it, never when you are relating it to the ones who will be carrying it on for you. A family without a storyteller or two has no way to make sense out of their past and no way to get a sense of themselves.”
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