Early Life and Family
Ulrika was the daughter of King Frederick III of Denmark and his wife Queen Sophie Amalie of Brunswick-Lüneburg. In 1675 she was bethrothed to King Charles XI of Sweden. During the Scanian War between Denmark and Sweden in 1675–1679 she was encouraged to break the engagement and was considered as a possible bride by the Holy Roman Emperor, Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor, but she refused to do so. She gained a reputation for loyalty to her future home country by exhibiting kindness to Swedish prisoners during the war of 1675–79: she pawned her jewelry, even her engagement ring, to care for the Swedish prisoners of war.
She married Charles on 6 May 1680. They had seven children, of whom only three survived to adulthood;
- Hedwig Sophia, later Duchess of Holstein-Gottorp (1681–1708)
- King Charles XII (1682–1718)
- Gustav (1683–1685)
- Ulrik (1684–1685)
- Frederick (1685–1685)
- Charles Gustav (1686–1687)
- Queen Ulrika Eleonora (1688–1741)
Read more about this topic: Ulrika Eleonora Of Denmark
Famous quotes containing the words early, life and/or family:
“Here is this vast, savage, howling mother of ours, Nature, lying all around, with such beauty, and such affection for her children, as the leopard; and yet we are so early weaned from her breast to society, to that culture which is exclusively an interaction of man on man,—a sort of breeding in and in, which produces at most a merely English nobility, a civilization destined to have a speedy limit.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“This is one of the most serious intrusions into personal life that I can think of, and it’s as bad as anything I’ve ever experienced.”
—Ellen Wood Hall (b. 1945)
“A family in harmony will prosper in everything.”
—Chinese proverb.