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Princess Louise Charlotte of Denmark

1789–1864

Born
30 Oct 1789, Christiansborg Palace
Country of birth
Denmark
Died
28 Mar 1864, Amalienborg
facts
8
sources
3
images and files
0

Facts and their sources

Tap a fact to see where it comes from.

A life in time

  1. Born · Christiansborg Palace

    Birth, Christiansborg Palace

  2. Child born: Louise of Hesse-Kassel

    Birth, Kassel

  3. Child born: Prince Frederick William of Hesse-Kassel

    Birth, Copenhagen

  4. Died · Amalienborg

    Death, Amalienborg

What was it like?

The world around Christiansborg Palace, 1789: who ruled, who else was alive, how people lived. This is general history, not a record about the family, and every item shows where it comes from.

Princess was born around the same time as Carl Maria von Weber, Marceline Desbordes-Valmore, and Ferdinand Raimund.

Known for

Princess Louise Charlotte of Denmark was a Danish princess, and a princess of Hesse-Kassel by marriage to Prince William of Hesse-Kassel.

Born around the same time
  • Carl Maria von Weber

    1786 · German Romantic composer (1786–1826)

  • Marceline Desbordes-Valmore

    1786 · French poet and novelist

  • Ferdinand Raimund

    1790 · Austrian dramatist, actor and writer (1790-1836)

  • John Tyler

    1790 · president of the United States from 1841 to 1845

  • Alphonse de Lamartine

    1790 · French author, poet and statesman (1790-1869)

  • Shaka Zulu

    1786 · leader of the Zulu Kingdom

Fashion

Fashionable wide hip pads

Wealthy women used hip pads made of whalebone under their dresses to create an fashionable wide silhouette, sometimes so wide they had to walk sideways through doors.

Peasant everyday clothing colors

Ordinary peasant men wore non-dyed homespun clothing that turned grey and muddy with wear, while women's everyday clothes were typically black or dark blue.

Music

Music in Christiansfeld community

In the Moravian community of Christiansfeld, unmarried women gathered in the sisters' house to play instruments like harps, violins, and the harpsichord. The community also utilized a trombone choir for outdoor services, such as funerals, and for festive church occasions like Easter.

Town musician performance fees

Professional town musicians, known as stadsmusikants, were hired for weddings and social gatherings, with fees set for specific ensembles; for example, violin and cello cost 6 daler, while adding trumpet, bassoon, and others increased the price to 16 daler. These musicians also performed in churches and for festive processions.

Getting around

Slow horse-drawn travel between Danish towns

Travel between towns primarily relied on horse-drawn carriages, and journeys were slow, taking several days for even moderate distances. For example, a carriage leaving Copenhagen on Wednesday afternoon was only expected to reach Aalborg by the following Monday morning in summer.

Travel hardships and self-protection measures

Travelers on major routes often had to share rooms and even beds with strangers, leading many to carry specialized sleeping bags and metal bowls to protect themselves from vermin. Additionally, travelers were advised to carry a small pistol for protection, and valuables were kept in a locked box bolted to the floor of the carriage.

Daily life

Introduction of chimneys in peasant homes

Many peasant homes were renovated to include chimneys, which replaced the previous method of using open fires on the floor with a smoke hole in the roof. This allowed for ceilings to be installed, preventing smoke from lingering under the beams.

Schooling and pay for boys in Nyboder

In Nyboder, boys started school at age 6 and finished at confirmation to become naval apprentices, receiving part of their pay in rye, specifically 4.5 kg per month. Education here was considered part of the naval service and was of a high standard compared to the non-military norm.

Food

Common breakfast foods and habits

Ordinary breakfasts often consisted of ale porridge (øllebrød), porridge, milk, or bread with salted herring. In some households, children drank from bowls, while adults used tea cups.

Institutional diets in Copenhagen

In Copenhagen institutions around this period, a medically sound diet included a daily allowance of 125 grams of beef in soup with vegetables, one pound of bread, and three pots of ale. Diet varied seasonally, with summer meals often featuring garden herbs, peas with pork, and cabbage.

Prices and wages

Cost of boys' shoes in Copenhagen

At the Royal Orphanage in Copenhagen, a pair of boy's shoes cost 68 skilling in 1777, 76 skilling in 1792, and 80 skilling in 1798.

Wages paid in goods instead of money

For many long-term manor workers, payments in kind like grain accounted for nearly half of their total salary value, though some individuals received up to 99 percent of their pay in products.

Work

Common occupations by skill level

Common unskilled jobs included day laborers and farm laborers, while stonemasons and carpenters were medium-skilled; women frequently worked as washerwomen, domestic servants, and milkmaids. Children were also commonly employed as domestic servants and milkmaids.

Long and intense working hours

Under 1771 regulations, villeins worked from 6 am to 7 pm in summer with two hours of rest, but some manors later prohibited breaks entirely from September to April. During the 1790s, some workers were observed starting as early as 3 am and finishing after 10 pm.

During their lifetime

  1. 1794

    Fire destroys Christiansborg Palace (1794)

    In 1794, the royal palace Christiansborg burned down, causing the royal family to relocate to Amalienborg.

  2. 1794

    First labor strike in Denmark (1794)

    Approximately 2,000 craftsmen went on strike in Copenhagen in 1794, in what is considered Denmark's first labor strike.

  3. 1795

    Major Copenhagen fire (1795)

    In 1795, a major fire in Copenhagen destroyed 941 houses, leaving 6,000 people homeless.

  4. 1813

    Danish State Bankruptcy

    Denmark suffered a state bankruptcy on January 5, 1813, following the economic devastation of the Napoleonic Wars.

  5. 1814

    Compulsory Education Law

    Compulsory education for children aged 7-14 was introduced in Denmark in 1814.

  6. 1847

    First Railway Line Opens

    Denmark's first railway line opened on June 26, 1847, connecting Copenhagen and Roskilde.

Family

Ancestors and children

Open the full tree

Four generations back to the right, the children to the left. The number beside a child counts the generations of descendants known after them.