House of Oldenburg
The House of Oldenburg is a German dynasty with links to Denmark since the 15th century reigning there from 1448 to 1863. Oldenburgs once supplied monarchs to thrones of Russia, Norway, Sweden and Greece as well. Very close dynastic relations existed between the House of Holstein-Gottorf-Oldenburg and the Russian tsarist family from the second half of the 18th century on and in the 19th century.
History
The royal and noble house was founded in 1101 by Elimar I, Count of Oldenburg. Their paternal ancestry is obscure other than the fact that they are Germanic, emerging as counts in an area known as Oldenburg in Northern Germany which was for a time a vassal-state of the Duchy of Saxony. They first arose to the monarchial level when German noble Christian VII. Graf von Oldenburg und Delmenhorst was elected and crowned King of Denmark as Christian I in 1448. He was later elected both King of Norway and King of Sweden; in the latter case Charles VIII an unpopular monarch had been driven into exile. Under them the Kalmar Union had been restored, but power struggles between Denmark and Sweden led to the latter placing the House of Vasa on their throne by 1523.
- In the late 11th century—the same time Windsor Castle was being built by the Normans in England—a Saxon count named Egilmar established himself at a strategic crossing of the river Hunte on the very flat north German plain to the west of the city of Bremen. Here he built a castle called Oldenburg. He married a noblewoman from the other side of the massive Elbe estuary, Dithmarschen, establishing a link between these two low-lying and rather marshy territories that would endure for centuries, and would continually entwine Denmark in north German politics. This is the same area from which the Angles and the Saxons emigrated across the North Sea to Britannia in the 5th century, so perhaps it is fitting that the Oldenburg name has finally arrived on these island shores. Oldenburg Castle was the seat of a long line of counts—often using the name Christian—who were subsidiary to the dukes of Saxony, then autonomous princes of the Holy Roman Empire until the extinction of the ruling line in 1667. The castle seen today in the city of Oldenburg was rebuilt in the Renaissance style in the early 17th century, and still dominates the centre of town with its bright yellow towers. After 1667, the county was ruled by Denmark and the castle became the seat of a Danish governor, until a junior branch was re-established as dukes (1776), then grand dukes (1815) of Oldenburg, and the Castle was restyled once more in a neoclassical style. Today it is a museum of art and culture, together with the nearby Prinzenpalais, built in the 1820s to become the official residence of the grand dukes, and the Elisabeth-Anna-Palais, the family’s residence from the 1890s until their abdication in 1918.[1]
As well as Scandinavian monarchial crowns, the dynasty also held the Duchy of Schelswig which was a fief of the Danish crown and the Duchy of Holstein, which was a fief of the Holy Roman Empire. Initially Catholic, the leader of the dynasty became Lutheran during the reign of Christian III. A civil war was fought over the issue known as the Count's Feud in which Christian III overcame the deposed Christian II. The crown also attempted to regain control over Sweden in the Northern Seven Years' War, but failed. Under Christian IV of Denmark, the Danes gained supremacy in the Baltic Sea. Their territory was briefly occupied by the Holy Roman Empire, drawing them into the Thirty Years' War, but the Treaty of Lübeck was signed in 1629, restoring their position in exchange for exiting the conflict.
Oldenburg developed a centralised monarchy during the 17th century and eventually initiated the legal Danish Code. Conflicts with Sweden continued to define much political events, though a successful defence of Copenhagen was achieved in 1659. During the reign of Frederick VII in the 19th century, Denmark was transformed into a constitutional monarchy. A succession crisis after his reign led to a cadet branch known as the House of Glücksburg taking to the throne. A branch of the same dynasty would also ascend in Norway, in both they reign to this day. While Sweden, briefly under the Holstein-Gottorp branch fell under the rule of the House of Bernadotte, after crowning a general of Napoleon Bonaparte.
See also
- House of Holstein-Gottorp (1544–present)