King Frederik VIII of Denmark KG GCB GCVO

On 9th November 1906 King Edward VII celebrated his 65th birthday and appointed his brother-in-law King Frederik VIII of Denmark as Colonel-in-Chief of the Buffs. At this time it was customary for the European royals to be honorary Colonels of each others' finest regiments. King Edward had been Colonel of the Danish Hussars of the Guard since 1892 Christian Frederik Vilhelm Carl was born on 3rd June 1843 in the Yellow Palace in Copenhagen and was King of Denmark from 29th Jan 1906 until his death on 14th May 1912. His mother, Louise of Hesse-Kassel, wanted him to marry one of Queen Victoria's daughters but Victoria's son Edward was already married to Frederik's sister, Alexandra and she preferred to have German in-laws rather than too many Danes. So in 1869 he was married to Princess Louise of Sweden which pleased many Scandinavians. However, the marriage was not a happy one and it did not have the desired effect of better relations between the two countries. Frederik was 62 when he became King. He was a liberal ruler but did not have enough time to make much of an impression, besides he suffered from ill health in his later years. On a return trip to Nice in May 1912 he stopped off at Hamburg and took a walk on the Jungfernstieg. He collapsed and died on a bench and was found by a policeman.