Louise of Hesse-Kassel (German: Luise Wilhelmine Friederike Caroline Auguste Julie von

Hessen-Kassel, Danish: Louise Wilhelmine Frederikke Caroline Auguste Julie; 7 September

1817 – 29 September 1898) was Queen of Denmark by marriage to King Christian IX of
Denmark.
Louise was born as the daughter of Prince William of Hesse-Kassel and Princess Charlotte of
Denmark. Her siblings included Princess Marie Luise Charlotte of Hesse-Kassel, Prince
Frederick William of Hesse-Kassel and Princess Auguste Sophie Friederike of Hesse-Kassel.
Louise of Hesse lived in Denmark from the age of three.
As a niece of King Christian VIII, who ruled Denmark between 1839 and 1848, Louise was very
close to the succession after several individuals of the royal house of Denmark who were elderly
and childless. As children, her brother Frederik Wilhelm, her sisters and she were the closest
relatives of King Christian VIII who were likely to produce heirs. It was easy to see that the
agnatic succession from King Frederick III of Denmark would probably become extinct within a
generation. Louise was one of the females descended from Frederick III of Denmark, and she
enjoyed the remainder provisions of the succession (according to the Semi-Salic Law) in the
event that his male line became extinct. She and her siblings were not agnatic descendants of
the House of Oldenburg and the Dukes of Schleswig-Holstein, thus ineligible to inherit the twin
duchies, since there existed a number of agnatic lines eligible to inherit those territories.
Louise was married at the Amalienborg Palace in Copenhagen on 26 May 1842 to her second
cousin Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glucksburg. He was soon selected
as hereditary prince of Denmark and later ascended the throne of Denmark as King Christian
IX. The marriage greatly strengthed Christian's efforts to secure the Danish throne, since it
joined two competing claimants whose children would have an enhanced connection to the
ancient bloodlines of the Danish monarchy. Louise and Christian lived a quiet family life.
Louise's mother and siblings renounced their rights to the Danish throne to her. Louise herself in
turn renounced her rights to the throne to her spouse Christian. In 1852, this succession order
was confirmed by the Nordic countries and foreign powers in London.
During her last years, she became deaf, and her needs were taken care of by two deaconesses
from the Deaconess institution she founded. Louise was queen for 35 years, longer than any
other Danish queen before her.
On her death in 1898, she was interred in Roskilde Cathedral near Copenhagen.