Marie of Orléans (1865–1909)

Princess Marie Amélie Françoise Hélène d'Orléans (13 January 1865, Richmond, Surrey – 4 December 1909, Copenhagen) was a French princess by birth and a Danish princess by marriage.

Life

Marie was the eldest child of Robert, duke of Chartres (the second son of Ferdinand Philippe, Duke of Orléans and Duchess Helena of Mecklenburg-Schwerin) and his wife, Princess Françoise d'Orléans. Françoise was the daughter of François d'Orléans, prince de Joinville and Princess Francisca of Brazil.

Born during the reign in France of her family's rival, Napoléon III, she grew up in England.

Marriage

She married Prince Valdemar of Denmark, the youngest son of Christian IX of Denmark, on 20 October 1885 in a civil ceremony in Paris and again in a religious ceremony in the Château d'Eu two days later. She remained a Roman Catholic, he a Lutheran. They adhered to the dynastic arrangement usually stipulated in the marriage contract in such circumstances: sons were to be raised in the faith of their father, daughters in the denomination of their monther.

The couple took up residence in the castle of Bernstorff in Copenhagen, in which Valdemar had been born. Since 1883, Valdemar had lived there with his nephew and ward, Prince George of Greece, a younger son of Valdemar's elder brother, Vilhelm, who had become king of the Hellenes in 1863. The king had taken the boy to Denmark to enlist him in the Danish navy, and consigned him to the care of his brother, Valdemar, who was an admiral in the Danish fleet.

Feeling abandoned by his father on this occasion, George would later describe to his "fiancée", Princess Marie Bonaparte, the profound attachment he developed for his uncle from that day forward. [cite book|last= Bertin|first= Celia|title= Marie Bonaparte: A Life|year= 1982|publisher= Harcourt Brace Jovanovich|location= New York|isbn= 0-15-157252-6|pages=85–86|chapter = A False Happiness|quote= From that day, from that moment on, I loved him and I have never had any other friend but him...You will love him too, when you meet him.|]

It was into this household and relationshiop that Marie came to live. In 1907, when George brought his bride to Bernstorff for the first family visit, Marie d'Orléans was at pains to explain to Marie Bonaparte the intimacy which united uncle and nephew, so deep that at the end of each of George's several yearly visits to Bernstorff, he would weep, Valdemar would take sick, and the women learned the patience not to intrude upon their husbands' private moments. [cite book|last= Bertin|first= Celia|title= Marie Bonaparte: A Life|year= 1982|publisher= Harcourt Brace Jovanovich|location= New York|isbn= 0-15-157252-6|pages= 96–98|chapter= A False Happiness|]

On this and subsequent visits, the Bonaparte princess found herself a great admirer of the Orléans princess, concluding that she was the only member of her husband's large family in Denmark and Greece endowed with brains, pluck, or character. Marie, in addition to her duties as mother and royal hostess, painted. During the first of these visits, Valdemar and Marie Bonaparte found themselves engaging in the kind of passionate intimacies she had looked forward to with her husband who, however, only seemed to enjoy them vicariously, sitting or lying beside his wife and uncle. On a later visit, George's wife carried on a passionate flirtation with Prince Aage, Valdemar's eldest son. In neither case does it appear that Marie objected, or felt obliged to give the matter any attention. [cite book|last= Bertin|first= Celia|title= Marie Bonaparte: A Life|year= 1982|publisher= Harcourt Brace Jovanovich|location= New York|isbn= 0-15-157252-6|pages= 96–97, 101|chapter=A False Happiness|]

Problems

George criticized Marie to his wife, alleging that she was having an affair with his uncle's stablemaster. He also contended that she drank too much alcohol, and could not conceal the effects. But Marie Bonaparte found no fault with Marie d'Orléans, rather, she admired her forbearance and independence under circumstances which caused her bewilderment and estrangemet from her own husband. [cite book|last= Bertin|first= Celia|title= Marie Bonaparte: A Life|year= 1982|publisher= Harcourt Brace Jovanovich|location= New York|isbn= 0-15-157252-6|pages= 97|chapter= A False Happiness|]

Marie's husband and three sons were in India "en route" to Siam when they received word that she had died at Bernstorff. [cite book|last= Bertin|first= Celia|title= Marie Bonaparte: A Life|year= 1982|publisher= Harcourt Brace Jovanovich|location= New York|isbn= 0-15-157252-6|pages=|chapter=|quote=|]

The couple had five children:

*Prince Aage of Denmark (1887–1940)
*Prince Axel Christian George (1888–1964)
*Prince Erik Frederik Christian Alexander (1890–1950)
**later Count Erik of Rosenborg
*Prince Viggo Christian Adolph George (1892–1970)
**later Count Viggo of Rosenborg
*Princess Margrethe Françoise (1895–1992)

Ancestry

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1= Marie d'Orléans
2= Robert d'Orléans
3= Françoise d'Orléans
4= Ferdinand Philippe, Duke of Orléans
5= Helena of Mecklenburg-Schwerin
6= François d'Orléans
7= Francisca de Bragança
8= Louis-Philippe I of France
9= Maria Amalia of the Two Sicilies
10=Friedrich Ludwig of Mecklenburg-Schwerin
11=Karoline of Saxe-Weimar
12=Louis-Philippe I of France
13=Maria Amalia of the Two Sicilies
14=Pedro I of Brazil
15=Maria Leopoldine of Austria

Notes