| Thyra Amalie Caroline Glücksborg of | | | | baby in Athens, pretending that she was ill with |
| Denmark (1853-1933) married Ernest Augustus II | | | | jaundice and traveled because of her health. |
| of Hanover, the 3rd Duke of Cumberland and | | | | The little, innocent, newborn proof of love and |
| Teviotdale. He was the eldest child and the only | | | | "immorality", was adopted by a married couple in |
| son of King George V of Hanover so he was not | | | | Denmark. As to Vilhelm Frimann Marcher then his |
| a so-called "nobody". As some of the descendants | | | | life ended on 4 January 1872 when he committed |
| of their six children were very surprised and also | | | | sucide. According to legend he chose this way out |
| outraged when it was made known that Thyra | | | | of the situation because the King had confronted |
| had an illegitimate daughter by a commoner | | | | him by saying that if he (the King) had been guilty |
| before her marriage one might suspect that her | | | | of anything like this dastardly seduction of the |
| husband, George, did not know anything about | | | | young princess he would kill himself. |
| this child. The times being what they were the | | | | Princes, kings and some married princesses and |
| affair, the birth and the adoption of the child were | | | | queens had love affairs with commoners and |
| considered top secret so only a limited circle of | | | | some of their children were wellknown and |
| relatives and very close friends knew about it. | | | | accepted by their family and the people as such. |
| Otherwise it might have been seen as very | | | | However, the love seems to have been from |
| romantic that the young princess fell in love with | | | | upwards and directed downwards, not the other |
| lieutenant of the cavalry, Vilhelm Frimann Marcher, | | | | way around. For the men in power it was not |
| that they forgot the otherwise very prominent | | | | uncommon to have affairs with women who |
| class differences and had a love affair. When the | | | | belonged to the so-called "lower classes", but the |
| child was born on the 8 November 1871 the | | | | double-standard did not make it as easy for the |
| princess was only 18 years old so she was almost | | | | women to live that kind of life. What they did |
| a child herself. To avoid a major scandal - | | | | was revealed and proved by pregnancy, they |
| princesses are not expected to get pregnant by | | | | were condemned and many were ostracized. Had |
| attractive commoners, especially not when | | | | Thyra been a young prince she would have |
| unmarried - one of Thyra's brothers, the King of | | | | escaped scotfree from this affair, now she lost |
| Greece, George I, suggested that she had her | | | | her baby and her lover. |