Thread by @marinamaral2

Queen Alexandra's coronation, 9 August 1902.

Alexandra of Denmark (Alexandra Caroline Marie Charlotte Louise Julia) was Queen consort of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Empress of India as the wife of King Edward VII.

Her family had been relatively obscure until 1852, when her father, Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, was chosen with the consent of the great powers to succeed his distant cousin, Frederick VII, to the Danish throne.

Princess Alexandra Caroline Marie Charlotte Louise Julia, or "Alix", as her immediate family knew her, was born at the Yellow Palace, an 18th-century town house at 18 Amaliegade, right next to the Amalienborg Palace complex in Copenhagen.

Her father was Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg and her mother was Princess Louise of Hesse-Kassel.

Although she was of royal blood, her family lived a comparatively normal life. They did not possess great wealth; her father's income from an army commission was about £800 per year and their house was a rent-free grace and favor property.

Occasionally, Hans Christian Andersen was invited to call and tell the children stories before bedtime.

In 1848, King Christian VIII of Denmark died and his only son, Frederick ascended the throne. Frederick was childless, had been through two unsuccessful marriages, and was assumed to be infertile.

A succession crisis arose as Frederick ruled in both Denmark and Schleswig-Holstein, and the succession rules of each territory differed.

In Holstein, the Salic law prevented inheritance through the female line, whereas no such restrictions applied in Denmark. Holstein, being predominantly German, proclaimed independence and called in the aid of Prussia.

In 1852, the great powers called a conference in London to discuss the Danish succession. An uneasy peace was agreed, which included the provision that Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg would be Frederick's heir in all his dominions.

Prince Christian was given the title Prince of Denmark and his family moved into a new official residence, Bernstorff Palace. Although the family's status had risen, there was little or no increase in their income.

They did not participate in court life at Copenhagen as they refused to meet Frederick's third wife and former mistress, Louise Rasmussen, because she had an illegitimate child by a previous lover.

Alexandra shared a draughty attic bedroom with her sister, Dagmar (later Empress of Russia), made her own clothes and waited at table along with her sisters.

Alexandra and Dagmar were given swimming lessons by the Swedish pioneer of women's swimming, Nancy Edberg.

Queen Victoria and her husband, Prince Albert, were already concerned with finding a bride for their son and heir, Albert Edward, the Prince of Wales. They enlisted the aid of their daughter, Crown Princess Victoria of Prussia, in seeking a suitable candidate.

Alexandra was not their first choice since the Danes were at loggerheads with the Prussians over the Schleswig-Holstein Question and most of the British royal family's relations were German.

Eventually, after rejecting other possibilities, they settled on her as "the only one to be chosen".

On 24 September 1861, Crown Princess Victoria introduced her brother Albert Edward to Alexandra at Speyer.

Almost a year later on 9 September 1862 (after his affair with Nellie Clifden and the death of his father), Albert Edward proposed to Alexandra at the Royal Castle of Laeken, the home of his great-uncle, King Leopold I of Belgium.

Thomas Longley, the Archbishop of Canterbury, married the couple on 10 March 1863 at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle. The choice of venue was criticized widely.

The Danes were dismayed because only Alexandra's closest relations were invited. The British court was still in mourning for Prince Albert, so ladies were restricted to wearing grey, lilac or mauve.

By the end of the following year, Alexandra's father had ascended the throne of Denmark, her brother George had become King of the Hellenes, her sister Dagmar was engaged to the Tsesarevich of Russia, and Alexandra had given birth to her first child.

Her father's accession gave rise to further conflict over the fate of Schleswig-Holstein. The German Confederation successfully invaded Denmark, reducing the area of Denmark by two-fifths.

To the great irritation of Queen Victoria and the Crown Princess of Prussia, Alexandra and Albert Edward supported the Danish side in the war. The Prussian conquest of former Danish lands heightened Alexandra's profound dislike of the Germans.

Albert Edward and Alexandra had six children in total. All of the children were apparently born prematurely; biographer Richard Hough thought Alexandra deliberately misled Queen Victoria as to her delivery dates, as she did not want the queen to be present at their births.

In public, she was dignified and charming; in private, affectionate and jolly. She enjoyed many social activities, including dancing and ice-skating, and was an expert horsewoman.

She also enjoyed hunting, to the dismay of Queen Victoria, who asked her to stop, without success.

Even after the birth of her first child, she continued to socialize much as before, which led to some friction between the queen and the young couple, exacerbated by Alexandra's loathing of Prussians and the Queen's partiality towards them.

Throughout their marriage Albert Edward continued to keep company with other women, including the actress Lillie Langtry; Daisy Greville, Countess of Warwick; humanitarian Agnes Keyser; and society matron Alice Keppel.

Alexandra knew about most of these relationships, and later permitted Alice Keppel to visit the king as he lay dying.

Alexandra herself remained faithful throughout her marriage.

An increasing degree of deafness, caused by hereditary otosclerosis, led to Alexandra's social isolation; she spent more time at home with her children and pets.

Her sixth and final pregnancy ended tragically when her infant son died only a day after his birth.

Despite Alexandra's pleas for privacy, Queen Victoria insisted on announcing a period of court mourning, which led unsympathetic elements of the press to describe the birth as "a wretched abortion" and the funeral arrangements as "sickening mummery"

even though the infant was not buried in state with other members of the royal family at Windsor, but in strict privacy in the churchyard at Sandringham, where he had lived out his brief life.

Alexandra undertook many public duties; in the words of Queen Victoria, "to spare me the strain and fatigue of functions. She opens bazaars, attends concerts, visits hospitals in my place ...

... she not only never complains, but endeavours to prove that she has enjoyed what to another would be a tiresome duty."

She took a particular interest in the London Hospital, visiting it regularly.

Joseph Merrick, the so-called "Elephant Man", was one of the patients whom she met.

The death of her eldest son, Prince Albert Victor, in 1892 was a serious blow to Alexandra. His room and possessions were kept exactly as he had left them.

She said, "I have buried my angel and with him my happiness."

With the death of her mother-in-law, Queen Victoria, in 1901, Alexandra became queen-empress consort to the new king.

Just a few days before the scheduled coronation in June 1902 the king became seriously ill with appendicitis. Alexandra deputized for him at a military parade, and attended the Royal Ascot races without him, in an attempt to prevent public alarm.

After his recovery, Alexandra and Edward were crowned together in August: he by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Frederick Temple, and she by the Archbishop of York, William Dalrymple Maclagan.

Despite being queen, Alexandra's duties changed little, and she kept many of the same retainers. Biographers have asserted that she was denied access to the king's briefing papers and excluded from some of his foreign tours to prevent her meddling in diplomatic matters.

In 1910, she became the first queen consort to visit the British House of Commons during a debate. For two hours she sat in the Ladies' Gallery overlooking the chamber while the Parliament Bill, a bill to remove the right of the House of Lords to veto legislation, was debated.

Shortly afterward, she left to visit her brother, King George I of Greece, in Corfu. While there, she received news that King Edward was seriously ill. Alexandra returned at once and arrived just the day before her husband died.

In his last hours, she personally administered oxygen from a gas cylinder to help him breathe.

She told Frederick Ponsonby, "I feel as if I had been turned into stone, unable to cry, unable to grasp the meaning of it all."

From Edward's death, Alexandra was queen mother, being a dowager queen and the mother of the reigning monarch. She continued the public side of her life, devoting time to her charitable causes.

One such cause included Alexandra Rose Day, where artificial roses made by people with disabilities were sold in aid of hospitals by women volunteers.

On 17 September 1916, she was at Sandringham during a Zeppelin air raid, but far worse was to befall other members of her family. In Russia, her nephew Tsar Nicholas II was overthrown and he, his wife and children were killed by revolutionaries.

Alexandra retained a youthful appearance into her senior years, but during the war her age caught up with her. She took to wearing elaborate veils and heavy makeup, which was described by gossips as having her face "enamelled".

Photo: Queen Alexandra, 1923.

She made no more trips abroad and suffered increasing ill health.

In 1920, a blood vessel in her eye burst, leaving her with temporary partial blindness. Towards the end of her life, her memory and speech became impaired.

She died on 20 November 1925 at Sandringham after suffering a heart attack, and was buried in an elaborate tomb next to her husband in St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle.

There are at least sixty-seven roads and streets in the Greater London area alone called Alexandra Road, Alexandra Avenue, Alexandra Gardens, Alexandra Close or Alexandra Street, all named after her.

Unlike her husband and mother-in-law, she was not castigated by the press.

Funds that she helped to collect were used to buy a river launch, called Alexandra, to ferry the wounded during the Sudan campaign, and to fit out a hospital ship, named The Princess of Wales, to bring back wounded from the Boer War.

During the Boer War, Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service, later renamed Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps, was founded under Royal Warrant.

She hid a small scar on her neck, which was probably the result of a childhood operation, by wearing choker necklaces and high necklines, setting fashions which were adopted for fifty years.

Alexandra's effect on fashion was so profound that society ladies even copied her limping gait, after her serious illness in 1867 left her with a stiff leg. This came to be known as the "Alexandra limp".

Alexandra Caroline Marie Charlotte Louise Julia

Born: 1 December 1844
Yellow Palace, Copenhagen, Denmark

Died: 20 November 1925 (aged 80)
Sandringham House, Norfolk