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Prince Valdemar of Denmark

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Early life

Prince Valdemar was born on 27 October 1858 at Bernstorff Palace in Gentofte north of Copenhagen. His father was Prince Christian of Denmark, later King Christian IX. His mother was Princess Louise of Hesse-Kassel. He was baptised on 21 December 1858. He had five older siblings: Prince Frederick (1843–1912), Princess Alexandra (1844–1925), Prince William (1845–1913), Princess Dagmar (1847–1928), and Princess Thyra (1853–1933).

Prince Valdemar grew up in an increasingly international family. Despite the fact that the family had limited resources available and lived a relatively bourgeois life by royal standards, Valdemar's siblings managed to enter into some dynastically important marriages. In March 1863, the Danish royal family, including four-year-old Valdemar, travelled to London for the wedding of his eldest sister, Princess Alexandra, to the Prince of Wales, the son and heir-apparent of Queen Victoria. In June of the same year, Prince Valdemar's older brother Prince William was installed as King of Greece under the name of George I. And in November of the same year, his father succeeded to the throne of Denmark as King Christian IX following the death of King Frederick VII.

Prince Valdemar received his early education from tutors. In the summer of 1874, he accompanied his father during his visit to Iceland for the millennium celebrations. After his confirmation in 1874, as was customary for princes at that time, he started a military education and entered the naval college. In 1879, he was sub-lieutenant and in 1880 lieutenant. In the following years, he participated in several naval expeditions. Valdemar was homosexual, and from 1883 lived at Bernstorff Palace near Copenhagen with his nephew Prince George of Greece, who'd been taken as a boy to Denmark to be enlisted in the Danish royal navy, and be consigned to the care of Valdemar, who was an admiral in the Danish fleet. Feeling abandoned by his father on this occasion, George would later describe to his fiancée the profound attachment he developed for his uncle from that day forward.

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