Louise of Sweden

Louise of Hesse-Kassel (1817 to 1898) was Queen of Denmark as the wife of Christian IX and the matriarch of the modern House of Glücksburg. Born in Kassel, she was a niece of Christian VIII of Denmark, and it was partly through her own descent that her husband's claim to the Danish succession was strengthened. She married Christian in 1842 and had six children: Frederik VIII, Alexandra, George I of Greece, Dagmar, Thyra and Valdemar. A gifted musician and a determined organiser of her children's futures, she did more than anyone to arrange the marriages that carried her family into the British, Russian, Greek and later Norwegian royal houses.

Christian IX (1818 to 1906) was King of Denmark from 1863 until his death, and the ancestor from whom every later member of the House of Glücksburg descends. Born at Gottorp Castle in Schleswig into a cadet branch of the House of Oldenburg, he was named heir to the childless Frederik VII and came to the throne in a year of crisis, losing Schleswig and Holstein in the war of 1864 and later accepting the parliamentary reforms that shaped modern Danish politics. With his wife Louise of Hesse-Kassel he had six children whose marriages earned him the nickname father-in-law of Europe: Frederik VIII of Denmark, Alexandra, queen consort of the United Kingdom, George I of Greece, Dagmar, who became Empress Maria Feodorovna of Russia, Thyra, and Valdemar.

Alexandra of Denmark (1844 to 1925) was Queen consort of the United Kingdom and Empress of India as the wife of Edward VII. The eldest daughter of Christian IX and Louise of Hesse-Kassel, she grew up in modest circumstances in Copenhagen before her marriage in 1863 made her Princess of Wales, a role she held for 38 years, longer than anyone before her. Admired for her style and her charitable work, she founded the Imperial Military Nursing Service that bears her name and gave her name to Alexandra Rose Day. Her sister Dagmar became Empress of Russia, her brother became George I of Greece, and her daughter Maud became Queen of Norway.

George I (1845 to 1913) was King of the Hellenes for almost fifty years and the founder of the Greek branch of the House of Glücksburg. Born Prince Vilhelm of Denmark, the second son of Christian IX, he was elected to the Greek throne in 1863 at the age of seventeen after the deposition of Otto of Bavaria, and deliberately styled himself King of the Hellenes rather than King of Greece. His reign saw the cession of the Ionian Islands to Greece, the gradual consolidation of parliamentary government, the first modern Olympic Games in Athens in 1896, and the territorial gains of the Balkan Wars. He married Olga Constantinovna of Russia in 1867, and died in Thessaloniki in March 1913.

Constantine I (1868 to 1923) was King of the Hellenes from 1913 to 1917 and again from 1920 to 1922, the eldest son of George I and Olga Constantinovna of Russia. He commanded Greek forces in the Balkan Wars, when Greece nearly doubled in size, which made him immensely popular at his accession. His insistence on neutrality in the First World War brought him into open conflict with his prime minister Eleftherios Venizelos, splitting the country in the National Schism and forcing him from the throne in 1917. Restored in 1920, he lost the throne again after the defeat in Asia Minor and died in exile in Palermo. He married Sophia of Prussia and was the father of three Greek kings.

Nicholas II (1868 to 1918) was the last Emperor of Russia, reigning from 1894 until his abdication in March 1917. He was the eldest son of Alexander III and of Maria Feodorovna, the Danish-born daughter of Christian IX, which made him a grandson of the founder of the House of Glücksburg and a first cousin of both George V of the United Kingdom and Christian X of Denmark, whom he closely resembled. His reign saw rapid industrial growth alongside the defeat of the Russo-Japanese War, the revolution of 1905 and the creation of the Duma, and finally the strains of the First World War, which brought the three-century Romanov monarchy to an end. He died in 1918.

Maud of Wales (1869 to 1938) was the first queen of independent Norway, wife of Haakon VII. The youngest daughter of Edward VII and Alexandra of Denmark, she was also a granddaughter of Christian IX, which means both she and her husband descended from the founder of the House of Glücksburg. She married her first cousin Prince Carl of Denmark in 1896 and moved to Norway when he accepted the throne in 1905. Keenly interested in winter sports, music and fashion, she kept close ties to Britain while supporting Norwegian charities and the arts, and her wardrobe is now a studied collection at the National Museum in Oslo. She was the mother of Olav V.

George II (1890 to 1947) was King of the Hellenes from 1922 to 1924 and again from 1935 until his death, the eldest son of Constantine I and Sophia of Prussia. He came to the throne after the Asia Minor defeat, was pushed aside within two years when Greece declared a republic, and lived in exile in Romania and Britain for eleven years before a plebiscite restored the monarchy in 1935. His second reign saw the Metaxas government, the Italian invasion of 1940 and the German occupation, through which he led the Greek government in exile from Cairo and London. He returned to Greece in 1946 and died the following year, succeeded by his brother Paul.

Alexander (1893 to 1920) was King of the Hellenes from 1917 to 1920, the second son of Constantine I and Sophia of Prussia. He was placed on the throne by the Allies and the Venizelos government after his father and elder brother were forced out, and ruled as a largely powerless monarch while real authority rested with his prime minister, who kept him from political affairs and from contact with his exiled family. During his short reign Greece fought alongside the Allies and made large territorial gains in Thrace and Asia Minor. His marriage in 1919 to Aspasia Manos, a Greek commoner, was not initially recognised. He died in 1920 and was succeeded by his father.

Queen Sofía of Spain (born 1938) was Queen consort of Spain from 1975 to 2014 and is the eldest child of Paul of Greece and Frederica of Hanover. Born in Athens as a princess of Greece and Denmark, she was educated in Germany and Greece, trained as a paediatric nurse, and took part in the Greek sailing team's preparations for the 1960 Olympics alongside her brother Constantine II. She married Juan Carlos of Spain in Athens in 1962, converting from Orthodoxy to Catholicism, and became queen when he acceded on the death of Franco in 1975. Widely respected for her work on disability, music education and social welfare, she is the mother of King Felipe VI of Spain.

Constantine II (1940 to 2023) was the last King of the Hellenes, reigning from 1964 to 1973. The only son of Paul and Frederica of Hanover, he spent his early childhood in wartime exile and won an Olympic gold medal for Greece in Dragon class sailing at the Rome Games in 1960. He came to the throne at twenty-three; within three years the colonels' coup of April 1967 had stripped him of power, and after a failed counter-move that December he left the country. The junta abolished the monarchy, and a referendum in 1974 confirmed the republic. He lived mainly in London for decades before settling again in Greece, and remained a member of the International Olympic Committee. He married Anne-Marie of Denmark in 1964.