Prince George of Denmark
Prince George of Denmark and Norway (Danish: Jørgen; 2 April 1653 – 28 October 1708) was the husband of Anne, Queen of Great Britain. He was the consort of the British monarch from Anne's accession on 8 March 1702 until his death in 1708.
For other uses, see Prince George of Denmark (disambiguation).Prince George of Denmark
8 March 1702 – 28 October 1708
2 April 1653[a]
Copenhagen Castle, Copenhagen, Denmark
28 October 1708 (aged 55)
Kensington Palace, London, England
13 November 1708
The marriage of George and Anne was arranged in the early 1680s with a view to developing an Anglo-Danish alliance to contain Dutch maritime power. As a result, George was disliked by his Dutch brother-in-law, William III, Prince of Orange, who was married to Anne's elder sister, Mary. Anne and Mary's father, the British ruler James II and VII, was deposed in the Glorious Revolution in 1688, and William and Mary succeeded him as joint monarchs with Anne as heir presumptive. The new monarchs granted George the title of Duke of Cumberland.
William excluded George from active military service, and neither George nor Anne wielded any great influence until after the deaths of Mary and then William, at which point Anne became queen. During his wife's reign, George occasionally used his influence in support of his wife, even when privately disagreeing with her views. He had an easy-going manner and little interest in politics; his appointment as Lord High Admiral of England in 1702 was largely honorary.
Anne's seventeen pregnancies by George resulted in twelve miscarriages or stillbirths, four infant deaths, and a chronically ill son, Prince William, Duke of Gloucester, who died at the age of eleven. Despite the deaths of their children, George and Anne's marriage was a strong one. George died aged 55 from a recurring and chronic lung disease, much to the devastation of his wife, and he was buried in Westminster Abbey.
Early life[edit]
George was born in Copenhagen Castle, and was the younger son of Frederick III, King of Denmark and of Norway, and Sophie Amalie of Brunswick-Lüneburg. His mother was the sister of Ernest Augustus, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, later Elector of Hanover. From 1661, his governor was Otto Grote, later Hanoverian minister to Denmark. Grote was "more courtier and statesman than educator" and when he left for the Hanoverian court in 1665, he was replaced by the more effective Christen Lodberg.[2] George received military training, and undertook a Grand Tour of Europe, spending eight months in 1668–69 in France and mid-1669 in England.[3] His father died in 1670, while George was in Italy, and George's elder brother, Christian V, inherited the Danish throne. George returned home through Germany.[2] He travelled through Germany again in 1672–73, to visit two of his sisters, Anna Sophia and Wilhelmine Ernestine, who were married to the electoral princes of Saxony and the Palatinate.[2]
In 1674, George was a candidate for the Polish elective throne, for which he was backed by King Louis XIV of France.[4] George's staunch Lutheranism was a barrier to election in Roman Catholic Poland,[5] and John Sobieski was chosen instead.[6] In 1677, George served with distinction with his elder brother Christian in the Scanian War against Sweden.[3]
As a Protestant, George was considered a suitable partner for the niece of King Charles II of England, Lady Anne. They were distantly related (second cousins once removed; they were both descended from King Frederick II of Denmark), and had never met. George was hosted by Charles II in London in 1669, but Anne had been in France at the time of George's visit.[7] Both Denmark and Britain were Protestant, and Louis XIV was keen on an Anglo-Danish alliance to contain the power of the Dutch Republic. Anne's uncle Laurence Hyde, 1st Earl of Rochester, and the English Secretary of State for the Northern Department, Robert Spencer, 2nd Earl of Sunderland, negotiated a marriage treaty with the Danes in secret, to prevent the plans leaking to the Dutch.[8] Anne's father, James, Duke of York, welcomed the marriage because it diminished the influence of his other son-in-law, Dutch Stadtholder William III of Orange, who was naturally unhappy with the match.[9]