Prince Axel of Denmark, (Danish: Prins Axel Christian Georg til Danmark; 12 August 1888 – 14 July 1964) was a member of the Danish royal family. He was the second son of Prince Valdemar of Denmark and Princess Marie of Orléans, and a grandson of King Christian IX of Denmark.
On his father's side, he was a first cousin of King Christian X of Denmark, King Haakon VII of Norway and his wife Queen Maud, King Constantine I of Greece, King George V of the United Kingdom, Emperor Nicholas II of Russia, Ernest Augustus III, Duke of Brunswick and Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark, father of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and on his mother's side of Henri, Count of Paris (1908–1999), Orleanist pretender to the French throne.
Prince Axel was a popular patron of sports. He was a prominent International Olympic Committee member and activist and also a business executive. In 1963, Prince Axel became the first honorary member of the IOC in history. He was an officer in the Royal Danish Navy.
Life and family
Early life and military career
Prince Axel was born on 12 August 1888, in the Yellow Palace, an 18th-century town house at 18 Amaliegade, immediately adjacent to the Amalienborg Palace complex in Copenhagen. He was the second child of Prince Valdemar of Denmark, and his wife Princess Marie of Orléans. His father was a younger son of King Christian IX of Denmark and Louise of Hesse-Kassel, and his mother was the eldest daughter of Prince Robert, Duke of Chartres and Princess Françoise of Orléans. His parents' marriage was said to be a political match.
Prince Axel served in the navy and gained the rank of admiral.
Marriage and family
On 22 May 1919, he married Princess Margaretha of Sweden, his first cousin once removed and the eldest daughter of Prince Carl, Duke of Västergötland. The wedding took place in the Cathedral of Stockholm and was celebrated with great festivities around the city. Princess Margaretha's mother, Princess Ingeborg of Denmark, was Prince Axel's paternal first cousin, as they shared the royal grandfather, King Christian IX of Denmark. The marriage was a love match and the bride's mother remarked that the couple were so much in love that they could not be left alone in a furnished room. He was the only one of his parents' sons to contract an equal marriage. Prince Axel and Princess Margaretha had two sons: Prince George Valdemar Carl Axel (16 April 1920 – 29 September 1986) he married Anne Bowes-Lyon on 16 September 1950. Prince Flemming Valdemar Carl Axel (9 March 1922 – 19 June 2002) he married Alice Nielson on 24 May 1949. They had four children.
Bernstorff
The couple was given the Bernstorffshøj, a villa located near Bernstorff Palace in Gentofte, outside Copenhagen, as their wedding gift and settled there immediately in 1919. The Bernstorff estate was the residence of Prince Valdemar and his family, inherited by him from his father, Christian IX, in 1906. The Bernstorffshøj was the birthplace of Prince Axel and Princess Margaretha's elder son, Georg Valdemar, in 1920. In 1922, the Prince lost most of his money when the Landmandsbanken collapsed. In June 1936 the original 19th-century house was seriously damaged by a fire caused by a maid leaving an electric iron plugged into a socket. After that accident, Prince Axel rebuilt it on a grander scale. He chose Helweg Møller as the main architect. Møller's logo, a star, appears on the door handles and other places in the home. Prince Axel had been a naval officer and the house was designed to evoke being on a ship, with the bridge situated on the top terrace and the compass set into the marble in the front hall. After the death of Prince Valdemar in 1939, the right to use the whole Bernstorff estate passed to Prince Axel, but he chose to remain in the more modest Bernstorffshøj. Since he ceased to use the palace and until very recently, it was used by the Danish Emergency Management Agency as an academy for non-commissioned officers. However, the Prince petitioned the government to permit him and his family to be buried on the grounds of the Palace.
During the German occupation of Denmark during the World War II, the Bernstorffshøj villa was the meeting place for members of the Danish Resistance and the neighbouring Brødrehøj was used as an arsenal for the Resistance. This led to Prince Axel being put under house arrest for a while.