1671–1730
Frederik IV
Frederik IV was the eldest son of Christian V and Charlotte Amalie of Hesse-Kassel.
✩ 27 April 1650 ✝ 27 March 1714 ♔ 1670–1699
Queen Charlotte Amalie
Devout and savvy businesswoman
Childhood
Charlotte Amalie of Hesse-Kassel was the daughter of Landgrave Wilhelm VI of Hesse-Kassel and Hedwig Sophie of Brandenburg. She was raised in a Calvinist family, and Reformed Christianity remained a major influence during her upbringing and throughout her life. Charlotte Amalie received extensive education in languages, physics, geography and philosophy.
At the age of 15, she met the four-year-older Danish Prince Christian (V), for the first time, when he visited Hesse. The couple were soon engaged, and Charlotte Amalie began to learn Danish. When she arrived in Denmark for her wedding in 1667, she was able to speak, read and write Danish, which made her very popular with the Danish people. Her marriage contract secured the right to the free exercise of religion for herself and the members of her court. Because Charlotte Amalie held on to her Reformed faith even after she had married, she was not anointed along with her husband, when he inherited the throne from his father, Frederik III, in 1670. By then, The King was subject to Lex Regia, the Danish Act of Succession of 1665, which required the monarch to be a member of the Lutheran Church.
An arranged marriage
Charlotte Amalie and Christian V were very different people. Christian V was a down-to-earth outdoorsman and keen hunter. Charlotte Amalie was an avid reader, devout and highly intelligent. She also had a sense of the intricate politics of the royal court, where she enjoyed great respect.
During the 17th and 18th centuries, royal marriages were important alliances between nations. Therefore, most marriages were arranged, which was also the case for Charlotte Amalie and Christian V’s union. However, they seem to have had a harmonious life together. By all accounts, they enjoyed each other’s company for hours, with card games as one of their shared passions. It took some time before the marriage produced children. It was not until 1671, after four years of marriage, that they welcomed their son Frederik (IV)). Between 1672 and 1687, Charlotte Amalie gave birth to another six children.
A marriage of three
Around 1670, Christian V initiated a relationship with the then 16–year-old Amalie Moth.
There was nothing new in a king having mistresses, and Charlotte Amalie’s position at the royal court was never jeopardised by Sophie Amalie Moth, who kept her distance, even as she discreetly followed Christian V and Charlotte Amalie on their travels around the country. Christian V’s relationship with Sophie Amalie Moth resulted in six children, and in 1679, Christian V publicly acknowledged the children, who were henceforth to be titulated Gyldenløve. He also made Sophie Amalie Moth the Countess of Samsø.
Businesswoman
Charlotte Amalie was an independently minded and enterprising woman. Her jointure (the property she was given to support her if she was widowed) included estates on the islands of Lolland and Falster. She also bought additional land. She was a hard-working businesswoman and a deft manager of her many estates. She was also good at spotting new promising investment opportunities. Among other initiatives, she established paper mills and a copper mill. She continued to practise her religion and consistently supported the cause of her fellow Calvinists. In 1685, she helped secure freedom of religion for Reformed Christians in Denmark. Around this time, the Reformed Church was built, on Gothersgade in Copenhagen. The chalice bore her monogram.
Interceding for Leonora Christina
Charlotte Amalie mother-in-law, Sophie Amalie, was not exactly fond of Leonora Christina (the daughter of Christian IV and Kirsten Munk). When Charlotte Amalie married Christian (V), Leonora Christina was still imprisoned in Blåtårn (the Blue Tower). However, Charlotte Amalie did not share her mother-in-law’s resentment of Leonora Christina. She repeatedly interceded with her husband to ask for more lenient conditions for Leonora Christina in prison and to plead for her release.
However, Leonora Christina remained imprisoned until the death of Charlotte Amalie’s mother-in-law, Sophie Amalie, in 1685.
Dower house at Charlottenborg
After the death of Christian V in 1699, Charlotte Amalie moved out of the Queen’s Apartments at Copenhagen Castle, to make room for the new queen, her daughter-in-law Louise. Instead, Charlotte Amalie acquired Det Gyldenløveske Palæ on Kongens Nytorv in central Copenhagen. She named her new dower house in Copenhagen after herself: Charlottenborg, as it still known today. Charlottenborg was a modern palace and a more comfortable residence than her former home at the old, outdated Copenhagen Castle. In a reflection of her thirst for knowledge, she established her own pharmacy at Charlottenborg. She died at Charlottenborg from scarlet fever in 1714, 63 years of age. Charlotte Amalie is entombed next to her husband in the choir of Roskilde Cathedral.
