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Princess Louise of Denmark

1726–1756

Born
19 Oct 1726, Copenhagen
Country of birth
Denmark
Died
1756, Hildburghausen
facts
11
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 · Copenhagen

    Birth, Copenhagen

  2. Died · Hildburghausen

    Death, Hildburghausen

What was it like?

The world around Copenhagen, 1726: 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.

Men switched from tall conical hats to low, broad-brimmed black felt hats during the 1700s.

Known for

Louise of Denmark and Norway was a Danish and Norwegian princess, the daughter of King Christian VI of Denmark and his wife Sophie Magdalene of Brandenburg-Kulmbach. Following her marriage to Ernest Frederick III, Duke of Saxe-Hildburghausen, she became Duchess of Saxe-Hildburghausen.

Fashion

Men's hat styles changed

Men switched from tall conical hats to low, broad-brimmed black felt hats during the 1700s.

Skirt colors indicated status

Women used skirt colors to signal status: red for unmarried girls, green for married women, and blue for festive occasions.

Music

Common Instruments for Village Dancing

Village dances commonly featured the violin as the main instrument, alongside traditional drone instruments like the hurdy-gurdy, bagpipes, and drums.

Minuet Popularity Among Ordinary People

In the 1740s, peasants danced the minuet at fine occasions, and authorities even caught guests dancing it at a suburban Copenhagen inn in 1736.

Daily life

Long school days and restricted access

Formal schooling for boys in Danish towns involved long days, typically running from 6:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m., except on Wednesdays when it ended at 8:00 a.m. Girls were generally barred from these schools, though some were taught by female teachers who were restricted to instructing girls regardless of age.

Naval school pay in rye

At the Nyboder naval housing, school was integrated into naval service, and part of the boys' pay was 4.5 kg of rye per month. Boys entered school at 6 years old and remained until confirmation, focusing on training for future work as sailors or specialists.

Food

Clarifying coffee with fish skin

Coffee was boiled in copper kettles and sometimes clarified with a piece of dried flounder skin, as coffee filters did not exist.

Herring was the common daily meal

For ordinary people, salted herring eaten with water porridge was the most common daily meal, often consumed morning, noon, and evening.

Work

Day laborer earnings in Odense

A common day laborer in Odense earned 16 skilling for a 12-hour workday during summer, and 12 skilling during winter.

News and letters

Mail collection in Aabenraa

Residents of Aabenraa had to pick up their mail at the customs house in Toldsted until the first royal postmaster was appointed in the town in 1729.

Travel time by carriage and foot

In the early Danish postal system, the route between Copenhagen and Hamburg used carriages, while others were served by foot messengers with a travel time of 8 days.

During their lifetime

  1. 1728

    1728 Copenhagen fire destroys city infrastructure

    In 1728, a massive fire in Copenhagen destroyed 74 streets and 1,670 of the city's 4,087 houses, leading to the creation of a fire insurance company.

  2. 1731

    Guild autonomy abolished by law

    The Imperial Diet passed a law that ended the autonomy of craft guilds, making it easier for people to enter trades.

  3. 1733

    1733 stavnsbånd law restricts peasant movement

    In 1733, the state introduced the stavnsbånd, a law forbidding men between 14 and 36 years old from leaving the estate where they were born.

  4. 1740

    1740s cattle plague destroys livestock numbers

    Beginning in the mid-1740s, a devastating cattle plague killed between 300,000 and 400,000 animals by the time it subsided in 1752.

  5. 1756

    Seven Years' War casualties and destruction

    During the Seven Years' War, some 160,000 Prussian soldiers died in battle or from disease, devastating the population.

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.