‘Do you think Frederick should marry again?’
The King shook his head. ‘Even so, I don’t think there would be a child. We were talking about Louise. She is astute; she is clever.’
‘Louise! How could Louise come into this?’
‘You are forgetting that as my sister you are in the line of succession. If Frederick should produce no heirs you could be the Queen of Denmark.’
‘I! Oh no, impossible! I should not be fitted for the task.’
‘I knew you would say that, Charlotte, and that is why I asked you to come here to discuss this plan of mine. I want you to claim the throne. I want you to be recognised as the heir provided Frederick does not produce a son; then I suggest that you pass your claim to Louise. Louise has a husband. He is not exactly brilliant but he is adequate. He is honest, good-looking and capable. With Louise to guide him he would be a good King.’
‘Louise and Christian, Queen and King of Denmark!’
‘Why not? I should feel much happier if they were next in succession than I do now with Frederick in that position.’
Charlotte was thoughtful. She had always said that she did not wish her daughter to degenerate into an ordinary hausfrau; as Queen of Denmark she would hardly do that. One might say she would be ruler of Denmark, because it was certain that she would be the one who guided her husband.
‘I see,’ said her brother, ‘that you are not displeased with my idea. Good. I will put it before my ministers.’
Prince Christian rode into the courtyard. It was noon; he always came in at precisely the same time. Louise often said that he was obsessed by time. ‘Punctuality is high on the list of good manners,’ he was fond of declaring. ‘One should never be even one minute late.’
His custom was to take off his uniform, put on a loose jerkin and go to a room which he called the gymnasium. There at precisely twenty minutes past twelve the children must assemble. He would then conduct physical jerks, which he said must be performed every day and were very necessary to good health.
Louise, who had been waiting for him, saw him arrive and hurried into the bedroom where he was changing his uniform.
‘Christian,’ she said, ‘I must speak to you.’
He looked at his watch. ‘After the exercises,’ he said. ‘There is no time now.’
‘This is more important than the exercises, Christian. My mother called this morning. I have had a very serious talk with her. It concerns our future.’
Christian paused as he was taking off his coat to look at her and an anxious frown furrowed his brow. He was always afraid that they were going to be turned out of the Yellow Palace and such news could very likely come through Louise’s mother.
Her next words made him feel that there was some foundation for his misgivings. ‘She came from the King, who is convinced that Frederick cannot produce an heir. On his death the throne will go to my mother and she will renounce it in favour of me.’
‘Good God!’
‘Yes, Christian, and I am to renounce it in favour of you.’
‘Me! King of Denmark!’
‘That’s what it would appear.’
‘Impossible!’
‘No, Christian, quite possible.’
‘A penniless, obscure member of the family!’
‘You would be neither if you were King.’
‘I couldn’t do it.’
‘Yes, you could, Christian, because I should be there.’
He looked at her and smiled slowly. ‘I believe you would be capable of anything.’
‘Do you think you would be a worse king than Frederick will be?’
‘He’s the King’s son. I’m not.’
‘There would be wonderful opportunities for the children.’
The children.’ Christian looked at his watch.
‘It’s all right,’ said Louise calmly. ‘You have ten minutes yet. We have four children – two boys and two girls. What do you think their prospects are going to be in our present circumstances?’
‘If they are happy that’s all I shall ask.’
‘There is no reason why they shouldn’t be happy and well placed. The two can go together and although in some cases poverty doesn’t prevent happiness, everybody is the better for not having to wonder whether they are going to have the roof over their heads suddenly removed.’
It was a sobering thought. But King! He was not suited for the role. He didn’t want it. He wanted to go on living quietly with his pleasant little family and his clever Louise.
His spirits lifted. It was a crazy notion. It would never come to pass. Frederick wouldn’t agree. He would marry and produce an heir. There was no need to worry unduly.
He looked again at his watch.
‘You will get there just in time,’ said Louise with a smile, and as he hastily slipped into his sporting clothes she couldn’t help marvelling at his lack of ambition. But it was gratifying in one way. It showed clearly that he had not married her because of her relationship to the King but because he had fallen in love with her. Wasn’t that better than ambition?
The children were waiting for him – with one exception. Alix.
He looked at his watch. It was exactly twenty minutes past twelve.
‘Where is your sister?’ he asked.
Willy said she was coming, she really was. Poor Willy, he always made excuses for Alix. But almost immediately Alix was there, breathless and so pretty that her father’s heart lifted with pride at the sight of her.
He forced himself to look stern. ‘You are one minute late.’
‘Yes, Papa.’
‘Why should you be one minute late?’
‘Well, Papa, I was playing with my doll and I had to put her away and …’
Christian shook his head sadly. ‘You must learn to be punctual, my child. It’s not the first time this has happened. If it happens again I shall have to punish you.’
All the children looked suitably horrified, except Alix who could not believe that dear kind Papa could really punish anybody. Mama could be much more stern.
‘Well,’ said Christian, ‘we must waste no more time. Take your place.’
So Alix stood in line and the children lifted their arms, touched the floor, swung this way and that, skipped and jumped; and it was all very exciting. Even Baby Dagmar did her best to follow them.
Then Christian stood on his hands and turned a somersault. Let them all try and do that. They did. Alix was best at it.
She stood on her hands, her skirts fallen over her face, her legs in their pantaloons waving in the air.
‘Bravo, Alix!’ cried Christian. ‘Now, you boys, you’re not going to let your sister beat you, are you?’
So the boys turned their somersaults and it was all very exhilarating.
‘Stand at ease,’ commanded Christian, and there they stood, little Dagmar imitating the others, a fine little family.
What did he want with a crown and the anxieties of government which went with it? This was his little world and he loved it.
No cause for anxiety, he assured himself. It was a crazy notion which would come to nothing. He thought he was right for when the King put his idea of the succession to his ministers it was shrugged aside and the matter rested there.
There was a new King in Denmark. When King Christian had felt that his end was near he had been right. His son Frederick now ruled Denmark.
‘What will become of us now?’ said Louise to her husband. ‘Frederick may well turn us out of the Yellow Palace. Where shall we go? We can of course take refuge in my parents’ home, but I do hope, Christian, that it won’t come to that.’
The country was in a state of great unrest – nor was it the only one. Revolution was sweeping across Europe. The French monarch was deposed; there was trouble in England where the Chartists were in revolt and there had been an occasion when it was thought they were marching on Buckingham Palace.