Unconventional princess
Princess Elisabeth of Denmark, who has died aged 83, was a month short of her fifth birthday when Hitler invaded her country on April 9, 1940. Her grandfather, Christian X, decided that, unlike his brother, King Haakon of Norway, he would not go into exile in Britain. Instead he chose to remain in the Amalienborg Palace in Copenhagen with his wife, Queen Alexandrine, and the rest of the royal family, including Crown Prince Frederick, and Elisabeth’s father, Prince Knud.
One of her most enduring memories was of the king setting off each morning, alone, on horseback, to ride through the streets of the capital, where he was greeted as a hero. The occupation ended on
May 5, 1945, when Elisabeth was 10, causing her not only to loathe totalitarianism and antisemitism, but to look to diplomacy as the best means of resolving the world’s problems.
As a princess in line of succession to the throne, she could have been expected to choose a representative role in public life. Alternatively, having studied fashion, she might have embarked on a discreet career in haute couture. Her choice, however, which she combined with her royal duties, was to serve as a member of the Danish foreign service, which twice posted her to its embassy in Washington and, later, sent her to the United Nations mission in Geneva.
In her private life she was equally determined to go her own way. She never married and had no children, but lived for many years with her partner, the late filmmaker Claus Hermansen – an arrangement that seemed in keeping with the more relaxed and modern approach favoured by the bicycleriding royals of continental Europe.
Elisabeth Caroline-Mathilde Alexandrine Helena Olga Thyra Feodora Estrid Margrethe Desiree, of the House of Glucksburg, was born in Copenhagen. Her father was the younger son of Crown Prince Christian (later Christian X) and his wife, Princess Alexandrine of Mecklenburg-Schwerin.
She had two younger brothers, Prince Ingolf and Prince Christian, both of whom, amid much furore, were forced to relinquish their royal titles when they married commoners. Her father was heir presumptive to his brother, who had three daughters but no sons. On Frederick’s death in 1972, Knud was knocked back in the line of succession after a change in the law that replaced him with his niece, now Queen Margrethe II.
Elisabeth continued to work for the foreign office while living, intermittently, in a wing of the Sorgenfri Palace, north of Copenhagen, where she had grown up and which she always thought of as home. It was there that she began her education, advancing, first, to a
Princess Elisabeth of Denmark Diplomat b May 8, 1935 d June 19, 2018
privately run secondary school, then to Brillantmont, an exclusive academy in Switzerland, before concluding with a year spent at the Suhrske Hush old ningssko le, where she studied cooking and domestic economy.
Approaching 20, when it might have been supposed she would be looking towards a suitable royal match, she broke with tradition by enrolling at the pioneering Margrethe Skolen, in Copenhagen, now the Scandinavian Academy of Fashion Design.
She joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1956, as a trainee, working her way up over the years to the rank of head of section. From 1973 to 1976, she was posted to Washington, where Denmark was under heavy fire for its decision to cut defence spending by 8 per cent.
Her second stint in the US, from 1981-85, during the Reagan years, proved happier. Denmark by now was a strong supporter of the Atlantic Alliance, and the opportunity to invite a royal to dinner was rarely passed up by Washington’s network of society hostesses.
Her last foreign posting was closer to home, in Geneva, where she was a senior member of the staff at the Danish mission to the UN, co-ordinating work on trade, development aid and humanitarian affairs.
Although she never married, her relationship with Hermansen, 16 years her senior, was central to her life for more than two decades, until his death in 1997, after which she moved back to the Sorgenfri Palace, where she was content to receive friends and family and to pass on her accumulated wisdom to younger members of the monarchy. ‘‘I watch everything possible on TV,’’ she told the newspaper Billed Bladet. ‘‘Nature programmes, entertainment and series. That means I never read a book. I’m rarely in the [palace] rooms because I find it hard climbing stairs.’’
She spent a lot of time with her nieces, Camilla and Josephine, who helped her with shopping and other jobs. ‘‘It’s not easy to grow old,’’ she confessed. ‘‘For me, the worst is not that health fails. The worst thing is missing my dearest one and the many friends who are not here any more.’’ – The Times
‘‘It’s not easy to grow old
. . . The worst thing is missing my dearest one and the many friends who are not here any more.’’