‘There is no reason why they shouldn’t be happy and well placed. The two can go together and although in some cases poverty doesn’t prevent happiness, everybody is the better for not having to wonder whether they are going to have the roof over their heads suddenly removed.’

It was a sobering thought. But King! He was not suited for the role. He didn’t want it. He wanted to go on living quietly with his pleasant little family and his clever Louise.

His spirits lifted. It was a crazy notion. It would never come to pass. Frederick wouldn’t agree. He would marry and produce an heir. There was no need to worry unduly.

He looked again at his watch.

‘You will get there just in time,’ said Louise with a smile, and as he hastily slipped into his sporting clothes she couldn’t help marvelling at his lack of ambition. But it was gratifying in one way. It showed clearly that he had not married her because of her relationship to the King but because he had fallen in love with her. Wasn’t that better than ambition?

The children were waiting for him – with one exception. Alix.

He looked at his watch. It was exactly twenty minutes past twelve.

‘Where is your sister?’ he asked.

Willy said she was coming, she really was. Poor Willy, he always made excuses for Alix. But almost immediately Alix was there, breathless and so pretty that her father’s heart lifted with pride at the sight of her.

He forced himself to look stern. ‘You are one minute late.’

‘Yes, Papa.’

‘Why should you be one minute late?’

‘Well, Papa, I was playing with my doll and I had to put her away and …’

Christian shook his head sadly. ‘You must learn to be punctual, my child. It’s not the first time this has happened. If it happens again I shall have to punish you.’

All the children looked suitably horrified, except Alix who could not believe that dear kind Papa could really punish anybody. Mama could be much more stern.

‘Well,’ said Christian, ‘we must waste no more time. Take your place.’

So Alix stood in line and the children lifted their arms, touched the floor, swung this way and that, skipped and jumped; and it was all very exciting. Even Baby Dagmar did her best to follow them.

Then Christian stood on his hands and turned a somersault. Let them all try and do that. They did. Alix was best at it.

She stood on her hands, her skirts fallen over her face, her legs in their pantaloons waving in the air.

‘Bravo, Alix!’ cried Christian. ‘Now, you boys, you’re not going to let your sister beat you, are you?’

So the boys turned their somersaults and it was all very exhilarating.

‘Stand at ease,’ commanded Christian, and there they stood, little Dagmar imitating the others, a fine little family.

What did he want with a crown and the anxieties of government which went with it? This was his little world and he loved it.

No cause for anxiety, he assured himself. It was a crazy notion which would come to nothing. He thought he was right for when the King put his idea of the succession to his ministers it was shrugged aside and the matter rested there.


* * *

There was a new King in Denmark. When King Christian had felt that his end was near he had been right. His son Frederick now ruled Denmark.

‘What will become of us now?’ said Louise to her husband. ‘Frederick may well turn us out of the Yellow Palace. Where shall we go? We can of course take refuge in my parents’ home, but I do hope, Christian, that it won’t come to that.’

The country was in a state of great unrest – nor was it the only one. Revolution was sweeping across Europe. The French monarch was deposed; there was trouble in England where the Chartists were in revolt and there had been an occasion when it was thought they were marching on Buckingham Palace.

Frederick – not the most attractive of monarchs – arrived in Copenhagen. He was no blond Scandinavian giant, but short, plump, hook-nosed and swarthy. His father had divorced his mother and there were rumours that Frederick was not in fact Christian’s son – and it seemed not unlikely for Frederick was the complete antithesis of King Christian. Christian had cared passionately for Denmark; Frederick was indifferent. Christian had refused to grant the country the constitution which all countries were seeking from their kings. What of Frederick?

At his first council meeting he was bland and careless. The people wanted a constitution? Then certainly they must have a constitution. He would not stand in their way. If by any chance they, like the rest of Europe, were tired of kings they had only to say so. He would retire to his estates in the country; he was quite ready to take on the life of an ordinary nobleman which he assured them was far more comfortable than that of a king.

Would he marry? they wanted to know. No, he would not marry. Would he give up his mistress? No, he would not do that either. If they wished for a conventional king who would give them their constitution and an heir they had only to say so and he would happily abdicate.

The people were nonplussed. They had been ready to plunge into revolution, to drive the new King from his newly acquired throne, but how could they when he had no desire to retain it and was ready to save them the trouble of revolution by immediate abdication?

They were amused. He had promised them their constitution. Let them accept it and with it their new King, who was colourful and made them laugh. They quickly discovered that they were content with their King.

So, much to the surprise of all those who had feared that Frederick’s accession might precipitate the country into revolution, he became in a few days more popular than his father had ever been.

The people of Denmark wanted no revolution. They had their new constitution and they wanted Frederick as the King, for it was quite clear that he was going to be a very free and easy monarch with the gift of amusing them by his unconventional behaviour.

Frederick showed no surprise at their attitude. He settled into the Royal Palace with his ex-midinette and they were often seen strolling along the streets of Copenhagen much to the amusement of the people.

He quickly realised the anxiety of the family at the Yellow Palace and one day in his unceremonious manner he called.

Christian was in the middle of giving the gymnastic lesson and the King, having told the servant not to announce him, stood at the door watching them.

‘I wish I could do that!’ he cried.

Christian stood on ceremony; the children were very still.

‘No need to stand on ceremony,’ said Frederick.

But Christian signed to them to bow and curtsey.

‘His Majesty has honoured us with a visit,’ he said.

‘You’d better call me Uncle Frederick,’ replied the King.

Louise came hurrying in.

‘Your Majesty …’

Frederick smiled. ‘I wanted to have a talk with you,’ he explained.

‘Then if you will come into the drawing-room … They should not have let you come in unannounced.’

‘Oh, don’t worry. I’m not used yet to being treated like a king.’

Christian dismissed the children. Alix took Dagmar by the hand and led her away, the boys following.

‘Nice little family,’ said the King. ‘Pretty little girls.’

Christian and Louise exchanged glances. They couldn’t help wondering whether this visit meant they were going to be told they could no longer have the Yellow Palace. But surely if this had been the case someone else would have told them? But how could they be sure with a king as unconventional as Frederick.

In the drawing-room Frederick sprawled on the sofa as he spoke, pulling at the place there which Louise herself had darned.

‘Don’t imagine,’ he said, ‘that my coming to the throne makes any difference as far as this place is concerned. It’s yours while you want it.’

The relief was too intense to hide.

‘My place in the Guards …’ began Christian.

‘You don’t think I want to disband my army and lose my best men,’ said Frederick with a grin. ‘There’s a possibility that you will be heir to the throne, you know.’

‘Oh no, Your Majesty will have sons.’

‘I think that’s hardly likely. I’d have to find a wife first, wouldn’t I? As a matter of fact I’m going to marry Countess Danner.’ He laughed. ‘You look surprised. Perhaps you know her better as Mademoiselle Louise Rasmussen. I’ve just made her a Countess. But of course they’d call that a morganatic marriage, wouldn’t they, and even if we had children they wouldn’t be allowed to inherit.’ He pointed gleefully at Christian. ‘You may well be for it, my boy. So enjoy your freedom from the affairs of state while you can.’

A very undignified monarch, thought Louise. When her Christian was King – which he might well be – it would be a very different matter. She was secretly elated because her eldest son Frederick could very likely in due course follow his father and be King of Denmark.

In the meantime there was nothing to worry about. The country was no longer on the edge of revolution and the new King was even more benevolent than the old.


* * *

There was tension throughout the Yellow Palace. Fredy knew why. It was war. He whispered it to Alix in the little room which she shared with Dagmar. Funny Uncle Frederick would put on his beautiful coat with all the gold braid and buttons and the medals and march to war. Papa would go with him because he was a soldier.

‘Bang, bang,’ said Fredy. ‘Then Uncle Frederick and Papa will come home and all the bands will play and we’ll stand on the balcony and watch.’