Below is listed some of my articles, which deal with different aspects of the royal and princely history and the monarchy history of Europe and the royal and princely genealogy of Europe.
The Nordic Kingdoms – A Monarchy Perspective on Dynastic Nordism 1914-1936
Nordism came into existence gradually in the period after The Danish-German War in 1864. The process of formation of nation states in North came to its interim closing with Finland (1917) and Iceland (1918). The aim of the article’s Monarchy Perspective is to provide research in Dynastic Nordism, a field which has not been examined before. The article will seek to use the North as an example of a well-defined supranational thought of unity, which competes with national basis as the external framework for the Nordic royal houses, i.e. the Danish (1918-44 Danish-Icelandic), Norwegian and Swedish royal house, in relation between nationalism and Nordism by using a comparative analysis of descriptions in Danish, Norwegian, Swedish and Icelandic public opinion regarding various events in the three Nordic royal houses in the period of 1914-36. Selected events are: The Meeting of the Three Kings in Malmø 1914, the wedding of the Norwegian and Danish heir to the throne in 1929 and 1935 respectively and the visits of the Danish-Icelandic royal house in the Kingdom of Iceland (1921, 1926, 1936).
Christian IX – A European Perspective on Denmark’s “father-in-law of Europe”
Denmark’s King Christian IX (1863-1906) and his Queen Louise (1817-98) became ancestors of a great European royal and princely family. Four of the Danish royal couple’s children were placed on European thrones, either as reigning monarchs or as consorts to European monarchs. Christian IX was therefore known as “the father-in-law of Europe”, already in his age. This article will seek to demonstrate that the story of more comprehensive European tendencies of development with transition from a Europe dominated by dynastic states to a Europe composed of nation states. It was a development, which started in the 19th Century by nationalism as political movement. The narrative of the descendants of King Christian IX and their prominent positions in European monarchies in the following generations exposes to a great extent the transformation from the dynastic states to nation states of Europe, but at the same time it is the thesis of the article that this transformation in itself is an essential condition of the origin of “the father-in-law of Europe”. The story of King Christian IX, “the father-in-law of Europe”, is quite special in the royal and princely history of Europe, but not, however, without precedents, nor in the Danish monarch’s own age, which this article will underline by drawing parallels between King Christian IX and other European royals with dynastic sobriquets: Prince Nicholas I (1841-1921, Prince of Montenegro from 1860-1910 and King of Montenegro from 1910-18), “the father-in-law of Europe”, the British Queen Victoria (1837-1901), “the grandmother of Europe”, Portugal’s King Miguel I (1828-34), “the grandfather of Europe”, and Romania’s Queen Marie (1875-1938, queen consort from 1914-27), “the mother-in-law of the Balkans”. Finally, the position of King Christian IX as “the father-in-law of Europe” will be compared to the German princely House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.
The election of the Danish Prince Carl to Norwegian King in November 1905 in a European Perspective
The election of the Danish Prince Carl to Norwegian King under the name of Haakon VII on the basis of a referendum is not without precedents in European royal and princely history, which this article will underline by drawing parallels to other European examples. This article will also make an analysis of arguments used in parliamentary debate in the Storting, the Norwegian Parliament, late in October 1905 about the form of the future government of Norway. The problem of this analysis relates to arguments used both for and against constitutional monarchy as government. A crucial question is how monarchy in this discussion was placed in relation between dynastic and national principles. Was it perceived as possible to restore a national kingdom in Norway? The article will therefore draw on a number of empirical examples from European monarchies, which in the 19th and 20th centuries in a nation-building process and nation state process tried to bring themselves in a close connection to the nation.
“He has never quite been our own” – A Dynasty Perspective on the dissolution of the Union between Norway and Sweden 1905-1906
My thesis takes a Dynasty Perspective on the dissolution of the union between Norway and Sweden in 1905 from two central pivotal points. The first part deals with the Norwegian declaration of the dissolution by the Storting, the Norwegian Parliament, on 7 June 1905 with an argument analysis behind the “Bernadotte Offer”. The second part is concerned with an argument analysis between the parliamentary debate in the Storting in October 1905 whether the country should remain a monarchy or become a republic and the parliamentary debate in Rigsdagen, the Danish Parliament, in Denmark in 1905-1906 about the monarchy and its position in the new century. The Dynasty Perspective is able to capture international aspects, which the traditional national emphasized historiography in Norway has overlooked.
