Ingrid of Sweden

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Ingrid of Sweden bigraphy, stories - queen consort of King Frederick IX of Denmark

Ingrid of Sweden : biography

1910-3-28 – 2000-11-7

Ingrid Victoria Sofia Louise Margareta of Sweden (28 March 1910 – 7 November 2000) was queen of Denmark as the spouse of King Frederick IX.

Family

Princess Ingrid married Frederick, Crown Prince of Denmark and Iceland, in Stockholm on 24 May 1935. They were related in several ways. As descendants of Oscar I of Sweden, they were third cousins. Through Leopold, Grand Duke of Baden, they were third cousins. And finally through Paul I of Russia, Frederick was a fourth cousin of Ingrid’s mother. She became the Queen of Denmark upon her husband’s accession to the throne on 20 April 1947. The couple had three children:

  • Princess Margrethe Alexandrine Þórhildur Ingrid (born 1940), later Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, who married French Count Henri de Laborde de Monpezat, who was created Prince Henrik of Denmark, in 1967.
  • Princess Benedikte Astrid Ingeborg Ingrid (born 1944), who married Prince Richard of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg in 1968.
  • Princess Anne-Marie Dagmar Ingrid (born 1946), who married King Constantine II of the Hellenes (deposed in 1973) in 1964.

Notes

Honours and awards

Danish Honours
  • Dame of the Order of the Elephant – 1947
  • Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the Dannebrog
Foreign Honours
  • : Great Star of Honour for Services to the Republic of Austria (1962)
  • : Grand Cordon of the Order of Leopold
  • : Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the Queen of Sheba (Empire of Ethiopia)
  • : Dame Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour
  • : Dame Grand Cross of the Order of Saints Olga and Sophia
  • : Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the Falcon (2 September 1970) , Ingrid ; drottning Danmerkur ; Danmörk ; 1970-09-02 ; Stórkross (= Ingrid, Queen of Denmùark, Denmark, 2nd September 1970, Grand Cross)
  • : Dame Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (20 April 1964)
  • : Dame Grand Cross of the Civil and Military Order of Merit of Adolphe of Nassau
  • : Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the Netherlands Lion
  • : Dame Grand Cross of the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav
  • : Dame Grand Cross of the Order of Isabella the Catholic (15 March 1980)
  • : Member of the Royal Order of the Seraphim
  • : Lady of the Order of the Royal House of Chakri

In Denmark

Ingrid was well educated and interested in sports, especially horse-riding, skiing and tennis. She also got her driver’s licence early.

As a Crown Princess, she was the Official Patron of the Girl Guides (1936), after having taken, and passed, the same tests all applicants were given. In 1940, before the occupation, she was the leader of the Danske Kvinders Beredskab (The Danish Women’s war-effort society).Börge Outze & Aage Svendstorp (in Swedish): 5 år i bojor. Danmark under ockupationen 1940–1945 (5 years in chains. Denmark during the occupation) Aktiebolaget boktryck (1945) Hälsingborg During the German occupation of Denmark in World War II, Ingrid, with her personal courage and integrity, influenced the Danish Royal House and its conduct in relation to the occupation forces, and won great popularity as a symbol of silent resistance and public patriotic moral. She showed solidarity toward the Danish population, and could often be seen on her bicycle or with her baby carriage on the streets of Copenhagen during the war. Her open defiance of the occupation forces made her grandfather, King Gustav of Sweden, worry about the risks, and in 1941, he sent a demand to her to be more discreet "for the sake of the dynasty" and its safety, but she reacted with anger and refused to obey, and she had the support of her spouse, who shared her views. One display of defiance shown by Ingrid was her positioning of the flags of Denmark, Sweden and the United Kingdom in the window of the nursery at Amalienborg, the royal residence in the centre of Copenhagen.