Princess Margaret of Denmark

Biography

Her parents were Prince Valdemar of Denmark, youngest son of Christian IX of Denmark and Louise of Hesse-Kassel (or Hesse-Cassel), and Princess Marie d'Orleans. Her parents had agreed beforehand that all their sons would be raised Lutheran, their father's creed, and all their daughters Roman Catholic, their mother's faith. She was therefore the first Danish princess since the Reformation raised a Roman Catholic. She was named for her mother's sister Princess Marguerite d'Orléans.

She married a Catholic prince, her mother's relative, Prince René of Bourbon-Parma (Schwarzau, 17 October 1894 – Hellerup, Copenhagen, 30 July 1962) on 9 June 1921 in Copenhagen. He was the third youngest son (and seventh surviving son) of the many children of Robert I, Duke of Parma. His mother was the Duke's second wife Princess Maria Antonia, daughter of the exiled King Miguel I of Portugal. René was the brother of Empress Zita of Austria and of Felix, the consort of Charlotte, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg.

René and Margrethe had four children, sixteen grandchildren, twenty-five great-grandchildren and three great-great-grandchildren;

In June 1951, Margaret was travelling in a car her husband was driving when they ran over a 22-year-old man, Jaja Sorensen, who died soon after being taken to hospital.

The family was relatively poor. They chiefly resided in France, where all of their children were born. In 1939 the family fled from the Nazis and escaped to Spain. From there they went to Portugal and then to the United States. There, in New York, Margrethe made a living making hats while her husband worked at a gas company and her daughter as a shop assistant. They returned to Paris after the war. She died one day after her 97th birthday, on the 69th birthday of her daughter Anne.