Royal Mistress Sophie Amalie Moth

via Wikimedia Commons

Sophie Amalie Moth was the first official royal mistress in Denmark. She gained her position during a kind of heyday for Danish royal mistresses, whose existence at court, not only weakened the position of the Queens but also played a role in destabilizing the relationship between the Kings and the nobility, as the Kings became increasingly powerful and used their illegitimate children as pawns in political marriages with the nobility.

Like many of the royal mistresses before her, Sophie Amalie Moth (1654-1719) seems to have been pushed forward by an ambitious mother. At the age of 16, Sophie Amalie, the daughter of the King's late teacher, became the mistress of King Christian V, shortly before he married Princess Charlotte Amalie of Hesse-Kassel. For the next decade, one or both women was pregnant, each presenting five children to Christian--usually with "Christian" or "Christiane" among the child's names. (His wife went on to give the King two more children later.)

Sophie Amalie was formally introduced at Court shortly after the birth of her first child. Then, she was granted the title Countess of Samsø. In 1679, all of her children were officially acknowledged by the King and given the surname Gyldenløve, which looks romantic to English speakers, but actually means "golden lion." It had been the name given to generations of illegitimate royal children.

In 1684, Sophie Amalie's mother and her two youngest daughter's died. A year later, her sons were sent to live with an illegitimate uncle to be better educated for their futures. Then, her eldest child, daughter Christiane was married at age 14 to an illegitimate cousin. Unfortunately, she died before the age of 18.

Sophie Amalie and her family, particularly her brother Matthias Moth, continued to grow in wealth and influence until the King's death in 1699. The new King Frederik V promptly dismissed Matthias Moth from his official duties, but treated his half-brothers well. One was postmaster general while the other, Ulrik Christian was an admiral in the navy and helped defeat the ambitions of the Swedish King against Denmark and its allies in the Great Northern War.

As for Sophie Amalie, she lived a quiet retirement for another couple of decades in her mansion, which is now the home of the French embassy in Sweden. Her descendants are among the highest nobles in Denmark today, and the line of Dannekiold-Samsø, which eventually married into the Augustenburg branch of the Schleswig-Holstein family also descends from her.

For more about Sophie Amalie:
Sophie Amalie Moth on Dansk Kvindebiografisk Leksikon (in Danish)

Camilla Shand, The Duchess of Cornwall

View image | gettyimages.com

Unless you've been blinded by an unfortunate collision with a fascinator at a royal wedding, you must be aware that today is the tenth anniversary of the wedding of The Prince of Wales and Camilla Shand (1947- ), more commonly known as Camilla Parker-Bowles, officially known as HRH The Duchess of Cornwall, and still known by her detractors as the "Rottweiler," a nickname given to her by the late Diana Princess of Wales.

But, those detractors are growing smaller in number and less severe in their criticisms. After 40 years of friendship/romance with her partner and ten years as a member of the royal family, Camilla has certainly overcome a lot of her negative image to emerge as a truly popular member of the family. She is clearly supportive of her husband, enthusiastically involved with her charities, and has always had a very loving relationship with her stepsons, Prince William and Prince Harry.

by Jose Cruz/ABr
via Wikimedia Commons

Born into the English aristocracy, but not into the nobility, Camilla was an unlikely (some say impossible) bride for the future king when they first struck up a romance in the early 1970s. Still in his early 20s and embarking on his military career, Charles wasn't ready for that step. When they split up because of his military commitments, she returned to a former love and married Andrew Parker-Bowles. Despite his Army postings, the couple had two children, Tom and Laura. However, they did not stay together. He was frequently abroad for his duties while she remained in England with the kids.

By the time, Charles finally settled down to marry the more noble (but less temperamentally suited) Lady Diana Spencer, the Parker-Bowles marriage was already moving in two different directions. As the relationship between Charles and Diana grew more volatile, he took comfort with his old friend Camilla, while Diana spent her time with Army officers and policemen. The most famous divorce since Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon took place in 1996, a year after Camilla and Andrew officially and finally parted ways.

Charles quickly moved to make Camilla part of his life, but the tragic death of Diana in 1997 likely put their marriage plans on hold for quite awhile. The public's deep love for Diana only caused the already deep hatred of Camilla--who many blamed for breaking up the marriage--to grow even more vile.

Camilla with her husband's daughter-in-law The Duchess of
Cambridge and his youngest son Prince Harry of Wales
by Carfax2 via Wikimedia Commons

Camilla, nevertheless, privately remained at Charles' side, and slowly moved out into the spotlight next to him. With their marriage in 2005, they acknowledged that Camilla could never fill Diana's place in the public's hearts by declaring that Camilla would be called Duchess of Cornwall, from one of his lower titles, rather than Princess of Wales. They even took a preemptive step by announcing that, if Charles becomes King, as expected, Camilla will use the unprecedented title of Princess Consort rather than Queen.

As time has passed, the couple has been more coy about their intentions regarding Camilla's future title, and the public, frankly has grown less concerned. Camilla's jolly attitude and her unflagging support for osteoporosis, rape victims, the military/veterans, literacy, poverty, and homeless charities has slowly but steadily won over people. At this rate, I will not be at all surprised if the next Queen is indeed named Camilla.

Official bios of Camilla:
On The Prince of Wales site
On The British Monarchy site
On the Duchy of Cornwall site

Blogs about Camilla:
Camilla's Girl on Tumblr
Duchess Cornwall on Tumblr
Duchess of Cornwall

More about Camilla:
10 Things You Didn't Know about The Duchess of Cornwall on Free Tours by Foot
Camilla The Duchess of Cornwall on Unofficial Royalty
The Duchess of Cornwall on Antique Jewelry Investor
How Do You Solve a Problem Like Camilla? on Scandalous Women
"No requirement" for the wife of a king to be Queen on Royal Central

Books about Camilla:

Today's Princess: Margaret of Saxony, Duchess of Brunswick-Luneburg

via Wikimedia Commons

The youngest daughter of Elector Ernest of Saxony and Elizabeth of Bavaria, Margaret of Saxony (1469-1528) was part of a Catholic family divided by the Reformation. Two of her five brothers were Catholic priests, one was even the Archbishop of Magdeburg while oldest brother Elector Frederick III was one of the earliest and most ardent defenders of Martin Luther. With only two daughters in the family, they were both saved for political marriages. Older sister Christina became the Queen of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, while Margaret was engaged to the young Duke Henry I of Brunswick-Luneburg from an early age.

With her fiance living in her family's Saxon court from the time he was 12 and she was 11, Margaret was certainly familiar with him by the time they finally married at the ripe, old ages of 19 and 18. In the meantime, Margaret had suffered a string of losses. Her mother passed away after a long illness when Margaret was 15. Sister Christina left for the north when Margaret was 16. Her father died after falling from a horse when she was 17.

With their marriage, Margaret and Henry took up residence at Celle Castle, which centuries later became the home of the infamous Queen Caroline Matilda of Denmark, when she was banished for her extramarital escapades.

Henry lacked the military and political acumen to maintain control of his own territory. After winning the Battle of Soltau in 1519, politics robbed him of his victory and his authority was given to his and Margaret's two eldest sons, who were both supporters of the Reformation. Henry enlisted the help of the anti-Reformation force to attempt a return in 1527, but was unsuccessful. Margaret died shortly after.

Together, they had seven children--all of their sons were Protestant Reformers while two daughters, including a nun named Apollonia, were stalwart Catholics.