House of Glücksburg

The House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, also known by its short name as the House of Glücksburg, is the senior surviving branch of the German House of Oldenburg, one of Europe's oldest royal houses. Oldenburg house members have reigned at various times in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland, Greece, several northern German states, and Russia. It takes its name from the family seat in Glücksburg, a small town in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany.
Current monarchs King Charles III and King Harald V, former monarch Queen Margrethe II and former consorts Queen Anne-Marie of Greece and Queen Sofia of Spain are patrilineal members of cadet branches of the House of Glücksburg.
The present senior member of the House of Oldenburg and the House of Glücksburg and traditional heir to the family's ancestral lands, including Glücksburg itself, is Friedrich Ferdinand, Prince of Schleswig-Holstein, who heads the foundation that owns the family's ancestral seat, Glücksburg Castle.
File:Schloss-Glücksburg-Luftaufnahme-0073-msu-2020-.jpg|thumb|Glücksburg Castle, with the Flensburg Firth in the background

Etymology

"House of Glücksburg" is the shortened form of "House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg"a collateral branch of the House of Oldenburg. The house derives its name from two regions and two towns on the Jutland Peninsula.
The two regions of Schleswig and Holstein are divided by the Eider River. While Schleswig for centuries constituted the southernmost region of Denmark, Holstein historically has been the northernmost area within the Holy Roman Empire. The northern border of Holstein along the Eider had already formed the northern border of Francia and the Carolingian Empire, after Emperor Charlemagne upon the Saxon Wars reached an agreement with King Hemming of Denmark in 811. The lands of Schleswig beyond the river remained a fief of the Danish Crown, while Holstein became an integral part of East Francia, the Kingdom of Germany and the Holy Roman Empire. Even earlier, the Eider had already been the border river between Saxons and Polabian Slavs to the south, and Danes and North Frisians to the north. This is evidenced in the largely Slavic-derived toponomy in Eastern Holstein, as opposed to the many Danish-derived place names in Schleswig including Southern Schleswig. Since the 1920 Schleswig plebiscites, Schleswig has been divided between Denmark, and Germany.
The town of Sønderborgthe German name of which is "Sonderburg"is located on the northern shores of the Flensburg Firth in Denmark, while Glücksburg lies on the southern shores of the firth in Germany.
Since Glücksburg Castle is the ancestral seat of the house, the house is mostly shortened to just "House of Glücksburg". It is also spelled "House of Glücksborg" or "House of Lyksborg".
The literal translation of "Glücksburg" is "Luck's Castle". Glücksburg is officially bilingual and since 2016, there are German/Danish city limit signs in the town.

History

Glücksburg is a small coastal town on the German southern side of the fjord of Flensburg that divides Germany from Denmark. In 1460, Glücksburg came, as part of the conjoined Dano-German duchies of Schleswig and Holstein, to Count Christian of Oldenburg whom, in 1448, the Danes had elected their king as Christian I, the Norwegians likewise taking him as their hereditary king in 1450.
In 1564, Christian I's great-grandson, King Frederick II, in re-distributing Schleswig and Holstein's fiefs, retained some lands for his own senior royal line while allocating Glücksburg to his brother Duke John the Younger, along with Sønderborg, in appanage. John's heirs further sub-divided their share and created, among other branches, a line of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg dukes at Beck, who remained vassals of Denmark's kings.
By 1825, the castle of Glücksburg had returned to the Danish crown and was given that year by King Frederick VI, along with a new ducal title, to his kinsman Frederick of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck. Frederick suffixed the territorial designation to the ducal title he already held, in lieu of "Beck". Thus emerged the extant Dukes of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg.
The Danish line of Oldenburg kings died out in 1863, and the elder line of the Schleswig-Holstein family became extinct with the death of the last Augustenburg duke in 1931. Thereafter, the House of Glücksburg became the senior surviving line of the House of Oldenburg. Another cadet line of Oldenburgs, the Dukes of Holstein-Gottorp, consisted of two branches which held onto sovereignty into the 20th century. But members of the Romanov line were executed in or exiled from their Russian Empire in 1917, while the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg was abolished in 1918, although its dynastic line survives.
Neither the Dukes of Beck nor of Glücksburg had been sovereign rulers; they held their lands in fief from the ruling Dukes of Schleswig and Holstein, i.e. the Kings of Denmark and the Dukes of Holstein-Gottorp.
Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, the fourth son of Duke Friedrich of Glücksburg, was recognized in the London Protocol of 1852 as successor to the childless King Frederick VII of Denmark. He became King of Denmark as Christian IX on 15 November 1863.
Prince Vilhelm, the second son of Crown Prince Christian and Crown Princess Luise, was elected King of the Hellenes on 30 March 1863, succeeding the ousted Wittelsbach Otto of Greece and reigning under the name George I.
Prince Carl, the second son of Frederick VIII of Denmark, Christian IX's eldest son, became King of Norway on 18 November 1905 as Haakon VII.
Christian IX's daughters, Alexandra and Dagmar became the consorts of, respectively, King Edward VII of the United Kingdom and Emperor Alexander III of Russia. As a result, by 1914 descendants of King Christian IX held the crowns of several European realms, and he became known as the "Father-in-law of Europe".
Christian IX's older brother inherited formal headship of the family as Karl, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, followed by their brother Friedrich, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg. It is his descendants who now represent the senior line of the Schleswig-Holstein branch of the House of Oldenburg, with Friedrich Ferdinand, Prince of Schleswig-Holstein, as its current head.

Patrilineal ancestry of Duke Friedrich Wilhelm

The Dukes of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg constitute the senior male line of the branch. They hold the headship by primogeniture of the cadet house of Glücksburg. The headship by agnatic primogeniture of the entire House of Oldenburg is held by Friedrich Ferdinand, Prince of Schleswig-Holstein.

Portrait	Name	Life	Reign
	Friedrich Wilhelm, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg	1785–1831	1825–1831
	Karl, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg	1813–1878	1831–1878
	Friedrich, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg	1814–1885	1878–1885
	Friedrich Ferdinand, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein	1855–1934	1885–1934
	Wilhelm Friedrich, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein	1891–1965	1934–1965
	Peter, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein	1922–1980	1965–1980
	Christoph, Prince of Schleswig-Holstein	1949–2023	1980–2023
	, Prince of Schleswig-Holstein	born 1985	2023–present

The heir apparent is Prince Alfred of Schleswig-Holstein.

Denmark

In 1852, Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg became heir-presumptive to the Kingdom of Denmark, and in 1863, he ascended the throne. He was the fourth son of Friedrich Wilhelm, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, whose elder brother retained the Glücksburg dukedom. The Danish royal family still calls itself Glücksborg, using a slightly Danicized form of Glücksburg.

Portrait	Name	Life	Reign	Additional titles
	Christian IX	1818–1906	1863–1906	King of the Wends King of the Goths Duke of Schleswig, Holstein, Stormarn, Dithmarschen, Lauenburg and Oldenburg Prior to ascending the throne: Prince of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg
	Frederik VIII	1843–1912	1906–1912	King of the Wends King of the Goths Duke of Schleswig, Holstein, Stormarn, Dithmarschen, Lauenburg and Oldenburg
	Christian X	1870–1947	1912–1947	King of Iceland King of the Wends King of the Goths Duke of Schleswig, Holstein, Stormarn, Dithmarschen, Lauenburg and Oldenburg
	Frederik IX	1899–1972	1947–1972	King of the Wends King of the Goths Duke of Schleswig, Holstein, Stormarn, Dithmarschen, Lauenburg and Oldenburg
	Margrethe II	born 1940	1972–2024
	Frederik X	born 1968	2024–present	Count of Monpezat