Maud Charlotte Mary Victoria of Wales, GCStJ, GCVO, VA, CI was Queen of Norway
as spouse of King Haakon VII. She was the youngest daughter of King Edward VII
of the United Kingdom and Queen Alexandra; the younger sister of King
George V. Maud of Wales was the first queen of Norway since 1380 who was not
also queen of Denmark or Sweden. Early life
Maud was born on 26 November 1869 at Marlborough House, London. She was the
third daughter and fifth child of Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, the eldest son
of Queen Victoria and the husband of Princess Alexandra of Denmark. She was
christened "Maud Charlotte Mary Victoria" at Marlborough House by John
Jackson, Bishop of London, on 24 December 1869. Her godparents were her
paternal uncle Prince Leopold, for whom the Duke of Cambridge stood proxy;
Prince Frederick William of Hesse-Kassel, for whom Prince Francis of
Teck stood proxy; Count Gleichen; the Duchess of Nassau, for whom Princess
Francis of Teck stood proxy; Charles XV of Sweden, for whom Baron Hochschild,
the Swedish minister, stood proxy; Princess Marie of Leiningen, for whom
Princess Claudine of Teck stood proxy; her maternal aunt the Empress Maria
Feodorovna of Russia for whom Baroness de Brunnow stood proxy; Crown Princess
Louise of Denmark, for whom Madame de Bülow, the Danish Minister's wife, stood
proxy; and her great-grand aunt the Duchess of Inverness.
Maud had a relatively happy childhood compared to her siblings, who found
their upbringing "oppressive" and "stifled". Her father's favourite child,
she was high-spirited and enjoyed riding and sports. The "tomboyish" Maud was
known as "Harry" to the royal family, after Edward VII's friend Admiral Henry
Keppel, whose conduct in the Crimean War was considered particularly courageous
at the time. Maud took part in almost all the annual visits to the Princess of
Wales's family in Denmark and later accompanied her mother and sisters on
cruises to Norway and the Mediterranean. She was a bridesmaid at the 1885 wedding
of her paternal aunt Beatrice to Prince Henry of Battenberg, and at the wedding
of her brother King George V to Mary of Teck in 1893.
Maud, along with her sisters, Victoria and Louise, received the Imperial Order
of the Crown of India from Queen Victoria on 6 August 1887. Like her
sisters, she also held the Royal Order of Victoria and Albert and was a Dame
Grand Cross of the Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem.
Princess of Denmark Maud married relatively late, waiting
until her late twenties to find a husband. She had initially wanted to
marry Prince Francis of Teck, elder brother of her sister-in-law Mary.
Despite being relatively impoverished from mounting gambling debts and being
in a position to possibly benefit from Maud's status, he ignored her advances.
On 22 July 1896, Princess Maud married her first cousin, Prince Carl of
Denmark, in the private chapel at Buckingham Palace. Prince Carl was the
second son of Crown Prince Frederick of Denmark, Queen Alexandra's elder
brother, and Princess Louise of Sweden. The bride's father, the Prince of Wales,
gave her Appleton House on the Sandringham Estate as a country
residence for her frequent visits to England. It was there that the couple's
only child, Prince Alexander, was born on 2 July 1903.
Prince Carl was an officer in the Danish navy and he and his family lived mainly
in Denmark until 1905. In June 1905 the Norwegian parliament, the Storting,
dissolved Norway's 91-year-old union with Sweden and voted to offer the
throne to Prince Carl. Maud's membership of the British royal house had some part
in why Carl was chosen. Following a plebiscite in November, Prince Carl
accepted the Norwegian throne, taking the name of Haakon VII, while his young
son took the name of Olav. King Haakon VII and Queen Maud were crowned at
Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim on 22 June 1906, that being the last
coronation in Scandinavia. Queen of Norway
Queen Maud never lost her love of Britain, but she quickly adapted to her
new country and duties as a queen consort. Maud played a strong and
dominant role within the court and family, but a discreet role in public.
During her first years in Norway, she and her spouse were photographed in
Norwegian folk costumes, and enjoying winter sports such as skiing, to give
them a Norwegian appearance in the eyes of the public. She disliked
representation but performed her role as a queen with great care, and used
clothes and jewelry to make a regal impression. She supported charitable
causes, particularly those associated with children and animals, and gave
encouragement to musicians and artists. Among her projects was Dronningens
Hjelpekomité during World War I. She supported the feminist Katti Anker
Møller's home for unwed mothers, which was regarded as radical, designed
furniture for the benefit of the Barnets utstilling in 1921, and sold photographs
for charitable purposes. Maud continued to regard Great Britain
as her true home even after her arrival in Norway, and visited Great Britain
every year. She mostly stayed at her Appleton House, Sandringham, during her
visits. She did, however, also appreciate some aspects of Norway, such
as the winter sports, and she supported bringing up her son as a Norwegian. She
learned to ski and arranged for an English garden at Kongsseteren, the
Royal lodge overlooking the nation's capital Oslo. She is described as
reserved as a public person but energetic and with a taste for practical
jokes as a private person. Her influence over her spouse and politics is not much
examined, but she is described as a forceful and dominant person within the
royal court, though her public role was less visible.
Queen Maud's last public appearance in Britain was at the coronation of her
nephew, King George VI of England, in May 1937 at Westminster Abbey. She sat
in the royal pew at Westminster Abbey next to her sister-in-law Queen Mary and
her niece Mary, Princess Royal, as part of the official royal party.
Maud also acquired a reputation for dressing with fashionable chic. An
exhibition of numerous items from her elegant wardrobe was held at the
Victoria and Albert Museum in 2005 and published in the catalogue Style and
Splendour: Queen Maud of Norway's Wardrobe 1896-1938.
Maud's death Maud came to England for a visit in
October 1938. Initially she stayed at Sandringham, but then moved into a hotel
in London's West End. She became ill and was taken to a nursing home, where an
abdominal operation was performed on 16 November 1938. King Haakon immediately
travelled from Norway to her bedside. Although she survived the surgery, Maud
died unexpectedly of heart failure at Appleton House on 20 November 1938, six
days before her 69th birthday. Norwegian newspapers were allowed to break the law
forbidding publication on Sundays in order to notify the Norwegian public of
her death. Her body was returned to Norway on board HMS Royal Oak, the
flagship of the Second Battle Squadron of the Royal Navy's Home Fleet. Her body
was moved to a small church in Oslo before the burial. Queen Maud was buried
in the royal mausoleum at Akershus Castle in Oslo. At her death, Queen Maud
was the last surviving child of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra.
Titles, styles, honours and arms = Titles and styles=
26 November 1869 – 22 July 1896: Her Royal Highness Princess Maud of Wales
22 July 1896 – 18 November 1905: Her Royal Highness Princess Carl of Denmark
18 November 1905 – 20 November 1938: Her Majesty The Queen
= Honours= Norway Grand Cross of the Royal
Norwegian Order of St. Olav Norway Royal Family Order of King Haakon
VII Norway Coronation Medal of 1906
United Kingdom Companion of the Imperial Order of the Crown of India
United Kingdom First Class of the Royal Order of Victoria and Albert
United Kingdom Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the Hospital of St. John of
Jerusalem United Kingdom Dame Grand Cross of the
Royal Victorian Order United Kingdom Royal Family Order of
King Edward VII United Kingdom Royal Family Order of
King George V = Arms=
Upon her marriage, Maud was granted the use of a personal coat of arms, being
those of the kingdom, with an inescutcheon of the shield of Saxony,
differenced with a label argent of five points, the outer pair and centre
bearing hearts gules, the inner pair crosses gules. The inescutcheon was
dropped by royal warrant in 1917. Ancestors
Legacy Maud's great-granddaughter, Princess
Märtha Louise, named her eldest daughter after the queen.
Queen Maud Land and Queen Maud Mountains in Antarctica; Queen Maud Secondary
School in Hong Kong; and Queen Maud Gulf in Nunavut, Canada, are named after Maud
of Wales. The ship Maud, designed to the
specifications of Roald Amundsen for service in the Arctic Ocean and launched
in 1916 to traverse and explore the Northeast Passage, was christened in
honor of Maud of Wales. The Queen Maud fromage is named after
her. Citations and references
= Citations= = References=
Hibbert, Christopher. Edward VII: The Last Victorian King. London, UL:
Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-1-4039-8377-0.
King, Greg. Twilight of Splendor: The Court of Queen Victora During her
Diamond Jubilee. NJ, USA: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. ISBN 978-0-470-04439-1.
External links Website of the Royal House of Norway:
Queen Maud "Style & Splendor – Who was Queen Maud
of Norway?". Victoria and Albert Museum. Retrieved 2007-06-04.