Northern Crowns

The monarchs of modern Scandinavia have received scant attention from previous biographers, and yet they played an important role not only in the development of their countries into individual modern states but, through the network of family, in other European countries as well. In this book, John Van der Kiste describes the lives of the Kings of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, from the birth of Christian IX of Denmark in 1818, the so-called 'Grandfather of Europe' whose children included Queen Alexandra, George I of the Hellenes and Marie Feodorovna, Empress of Russia, to Gustav VI Adolf of Sweden - who was twice married, to a granddaughter and a great-granddaughter of Queen VictoriaKing Haakon VII of Norway, a son-in-law of Edward VII, and Olav V of Norway who died in 1991. Also among these 'Northern Crowns', as they were known, are Frederick VIII and Frederick IX of Denmark and Gustav V of Sweden. The author also deals with the political background to the monarchs' reigns. In particular the book sheds light on the impact of the two world wars on the countries; the suspected pro-German leanings of Gustav V, Haakon VII's period as 'King in Exile' in London during the Second World War, and the occupation of Denmark.