Maria feodorovna biography – facts, family life, death

A family of modest means, the Glucksburg, as they were commonly known, raised their numerous progeny in an unostentatious, pious, yet carefree environment. Not one person would have imagined that the Glucksburg children would rule in Denmark, Greece and Norway.

Maria feodorovna and anastasia

In fact, their progeny would extend its influence throughout the European continent, giving Prince Christian and his wife, the title of "grandparents of Europe. Small-framed and vivacious, Dagmar was born at the family's modest home, the "Yellow Palace," in Copenhagen on November 26, At the time of Dagmar's birth her father served in the small Danish army, while her mother, born Princess Louise of Hesse-Cassel, tended to the growing family.

The family's finances were so strained that both parents actively participated in the education of Dagmar and her other siblings. Since the main line of the Danish royal family would become extinct upon Frederick VII's death, a royal heir had to be found. Prince Christian was not the closest relative to the throne, but his image was the least compromised by foreign entanglements.

In the meantime, Dagmar and her ravishing elder sister, Alexandra, continued their education at the Yellow Palace. The early 's witnessed three events that brought the Glucksburgs to international prominence. Suddenly, the matrimonial prospects of Princess Dagmar of Denmark were considerably improved. Her mother, now Queen Louise, had remained in contact with the Imperial Russian court, where she had wanted to find a substitute husband for her eldest daughter in the event that an alliance with Great Britain did not materialize.