The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1864-01-01
SAINT PAUL. FRIDAY JANUARYl 1868 If NEW s.
ROMANCE OF A KINGS LIFE.
The Late Monarch of Denmark.

ROMANCE OF A KINGS LIFE.
The Late Monarch of Denmark.
From the London Spectator. .s.L
The late monarch of Denmark was born
October 6, 1908, twelve months after the
bombardment of Copenhagen by the
British fleet, at time when the crown of
Denmark did not seem to be worth many
years. purchase. His father, too, was but
the cousin of the reigning king, who had
two daughters, and being only forty years
of age had hopes of still possessing male
offspring. Under these circumstances the
prospects of young Prince Frederick ap-
peared to be not particularly brilliant |;
and his father being proud, though sin
gularly unostentatious man, he was left
almost entirely to himself, and permitted
to grow up among peasants, sailors and
soldiers, from whom he imbibed strongly
democratic tastes.
When only four years of age, great
misfortune befell the poor boy. His par
ents, after several years of unhappiness,
were separated by a divorce, which de-
creed that he should be torn from his af-
fectionate mother and be left under the
care of strangers. Among strangers, &C.
cordingly, he grew up, the father being so
entirely engrossed by political affairs, in
the course of which the crown of Norway
was placed on his head for four short
months, as almost 10 forget the existence
OF his son.
A new marriage, which gave Frederick
a stepmother, estranged the paternal feel
ings still more, and the young Prince was
glad enough, when, at the age of sixteen,
he was permitted to leave Denmark on
travels through Europe, nominally to COM
pete his education, in reality to begin it.
He duly made the then customary "tour
de pEurOpe," and then settled down for
several years at Geneva
Here, in the country of Jean Jacques
Rousseau, he imbibed ultra-republican
principles, for the reception of which his
rragioHs training, or absence of training,
had already well fitted him. With these
ideas Prince Frederick went back to Dem
mark at the age of twenty. Things,
meanwhile, had changed at the Danish
court in regard to the succession to the
throne. The reigning King, now sixty
years old, had given up all hope of having
male offspring, and Frederick's father,
Prince Christian, cousin of the monarch,
had become heir apparent to the crown
The aged King was exceedingly anxious
to marry off his two daughters, the eldest
past 80, and no suitor coming from abroad
he offered them to the only disposal male
relations at hOme-the one, the young
man just returned from Geneva; and the
other, his uncle Prince Ferdinand The
young republican Prince would fain have
declined the honor of being united to
Kings daughter; but refusal was not
permitted to him, and by orders of his
father and the King, he was married, I'M
der strong military escort, to his cousin,
Princess Wilhelmina, on the 1st Novem-
Der, 1928. Frederick took from the first
strong dislike to his wife, which was
greatly increased in time by her naughty
disposition, utterly foi eign to his own
habits. Before long he left his royal
spouse altogether, taking refuge at man
sion, distant f. ON the capital, among his
old friends and humble companions.
He here made the acquaintance, for the
first time, of Louise Rasmussen, sprightly
little damsel of sixteen, the daughter OF
poor tradesman, but with some education
and more grace and neither wit. Such
society was altogether more to his tastes
than that OF the stiff court of Copenhagen,
at which he did not make his appearance
for long time. By royal decree, Sep
tember 10. 1897, he was banished to the
fortress of Fredricis. and even little Louise
Rasmussen could not find her way to the
fortress, but with many tears, on the Or
der of her parents, set out on a journey
to Paris, where she became an ornament
to the corps de ballet. A few days after
Frederck's arrival at the place OF his ban
ishment, decree of divorce between him
and Princess Wilhelmina was issued at
Copenhagen.
The death of the King and the ascension
of his father to the throne, released Prince
Frederick from prison at the end of little
more than two years, and he was then ap-
pointed Governor of the Hand of Funen.
But being inclined to fall again into his
old way of living, his royal father soon af-
ter insisted that he should marry once
more, and after some negotiations Princess
Caroline, of Mecklenburg- -Strelitz, was
chosen to be the second wife. In the full
bloom of youth, very pretty, and highly
accomplished, it was hoped that she would
wean Prince Frederick from his low-born
companions, AMI bring him back to Court,
and to sense of his Crown-princely duties.
But this the young Princess signally failed
to do. Frederick, although he acknowl-
edged her to be prettier, thought her as
proud as his first wife, and before long alb
sented himself more than ever from the
Court and his new home. What, proba-
bly, greatly contributed to this estrange-
ment was an accidental meeting with an
old friend of his youth, Louise Rasmus-
sen. Poor Louise had seen hard times
since She left Denmark for France.