Accession during a visit to
Berlin in 1913|alt= On 14 May 1912,
King Frederick VIII died at the age of 68 after collapsing during an evening walk in
Hamburg, Germany. He had just returned from a recuperation stay in
Nice, France, and was staying in Germany before continuing to
Copenhagen. Christian, who was in Copenhagen when he heard about his father's demise, succeeded to the throne at the age of 41. He was
proclaimed king from the balcony of
Christian VII's Palace at
Amalienborg by the
Prime Minister Klaus Berntsen as King Christian X.
World War I and
Haakon VII of Norway at the meeting of the three Scandinavian kings in
Malmö in December 1914. At the start of the
First World War in 1914, King Christian and the
Danish government advocated that Denmark pursue a
policy of neutrality. The King supported the policy of neutrality by participating in the so-called meeting of the Three Kings held on 18 December 1914 in
Malmö in
Sweden. There, the three Scandinavian monarchs King Christian X of Denmark, King Haakon VII of Norway (Christian's brother) and King
Gustav V of Sweden (Christian's mother's cousin) met along with their foreign ministers to discuss and emphasize the neutrality of the Nordic countries, and in a joint declaration, confirmed the three states' strict neutrality during the war. The meeting in 1914 was followed by another three-kings meeting in Kristiania in November 1917. Denmark in fact managed to maintain its neutrality during the war. However, the Danish government bowed to pressure from
Germany, and had
naval mines laid in Danish waters with tacit
British acceptance, despite the fact that Denmark was obliged under
international law to
keep its territorial waters open. In 1915, the
Constitution of Denmark was changed to introduce
universal suffrage, and
women were given the right to vote along with
domestic servants. Although the king was reluctant to the constitutional changes, the
Danish Women's Society organized a procession with approximately 20,000 participants who went to Amalienborg to thank the king. In his address to the procession, the king stated, among other things: In one place, women cannot be dispensed with, and that is in the homes. Here, the influence of women cannot be replaced, because through the child's love for the home, the one for our common home, Denmark, is awakened.
Easter Crisis of 1920 In April 1920, Christian instigated the Easter Crisis, perhaps the most decisive event in the evolution of the Danish monarchy in the twentieth century. The immediate cause was a conflict between the King and the cabinet over the reunification with Denmark of
Schleswig, a former Danish
fiefdom, which had been lost to
Prussia during the
Second War of Schleswig. Danish claims to the region persisted to the end of
World War I, at which time the defeat of the Germans made it possible to resolve the dispute. According to the terms of the
Treaty of Versailles, the disposition of Schleswig was to be determined by two
plebiscites: one in Northern Schleswig (Denmark's
South Jutland County 1971–2006), the other in Central Schleswig (today part of the German state of
Schleswig-Holstein). No plebiscite was planned for Southern Schleswig, as it was dominated by an ethnic German majority and, in accordance with prevailing sentiment of the times, remained part of the post-war German state. In Northern Schleswig, seventy-five percent voted for reunification with Denmark and twenty-five percent for remaining with Germany. In this vote, the entire region was considered to be an indivisible unit, and the entire region was awarded to Denmark. In Central Schleswig, the situation was reversed with eighty percent voting for Germany and twenty percent for Denmark. In this vote, each municipality decided its own future, and German majorities prevailed everywhere. In light of these results, the government of Prime Minister
Carl Theodor Zahle determined that reunification with Northern Schleswig could go forward, while Central Schleswig would remain under German control. Many Danish nationalists felt that at least the city of
Flensburg, in Central Schleswig, should be returned to Denmark regardless of the plebiscite's results, due to the sizeable Danish minority there and a general desire to see Germany permanently weakened in the future. Christian X agreed with these sentiments, and ordered Prime Minister Zahle to include Flensburg in the re-unification process. As Denmark had been operating as a
parliamentary democracy since the
Cabinet of Deuntzer in 1901, Zahle felt he was under no obligation to comply. He refused the order and resigned several days later after a heated exchange with the King. in 1920 Subsequently, Christian X dismissed the rest of the
cabinet and replaced it with a
de facto conservative
caretaker cabinet. The dismissal caused demonstrations and an almost revolutionary atmosphere in Denmark, and for several days the future of the monarchy seemed very much in doubt. In light of this, negotiations were opened between the King and members of the
Social Democrats. Faced with the potential overthrow of the Danish Crown, Christian X stood down and dismissed his own government, installing a
compromise cabinet until elections could be held later that year. To date, this is the last time a reigning Danish monarch has attempted to take political action without the full support of parliament. Following the crisis, Christian X bowed fully to his drastically reduced status, and spent the last quarter-century of his rule as a model constitutional monarch.
World War II , the King's daily ride through Copenhagen became a symbol of Danish sovereignty. This picture was taken on his birthday in 1940|left On 9 April 1940 at 4 am Nazi Germany
invaded Denmark in a surprise attack, overwhelming Denmark's Army and Navy and destroying the Danish Army Air Corps. Christian X quickly realized that Denmark was in an impossible position. Its territory and population were far too small to hold out against Germany for any sustained period of time. Its flat land would have resulted in it being easily overrun by German
panzers;
Jutland, for instance, would have been overrun in short order by a panzer attack from
Schleswig-Holstein immediately to the south. Unlike its Nordic neighbours, Denmark had no mountain ranges from which a drawn-out resistance could be mounted against the German army. With no prospect of being able to hold out for any length of time, and faced with the explicit threat of the
Luftwaffe bombing the civilian population of
Copenhagen, and with only one general in favour of continuing to fight, Christian X and the entire Danish government capitulated at about 6 am, in exchange for retaining political independence in domestic matters, beginning the
occupation of Denmark, which lasted until 5 May 1945. In contrast to his brother King
Haakon VII of Norway and Queen
Wilhelmina of the Netherlands, King
George II of Greece,
Grand Duchess Charlotte of Luxembourg, King
Peter II of Yugoslavia and President
Władysław Raczkiewicz of Poland, all of whom went into exile during the Nazi occupation of their countries, Christian X (like King
Leopold III of the Belgians, unlike President
Albert Lebrun of France who was deposed) remained in his capital throughout the
occupation of Denmark, being to the Danish people a visible symbol of the national cause (Haakon escaped the German advance after
refusing to accept a Nazi-friendly puppet regime). ; a popular symbol of patriotism during the war|alt= Until the
imposition of martial law by Germany in August 1943, Christian's official speeches reflected the government's official policy of cooperation with the occupying forces, but this did not prevent his being seen by the Danish people as a man of "mental resistance." During the first two years of the German occupation, despite his age and the precarious situation, he took a daily ride on his horse, Jubilee, through Copenhagen, unaccompanied by a groom, let alone a guard. A popular way for Danes to display patriotism and silent resistance to the German occupation was wearing a small square button with the Danish flag and the crowned insignia of the king. This symbol was called the
Kongemærket (''King's Emblem pin''). In addition, he helped finance
the transport of Danish Jews to unoccupied Sweden, where they would be safe from Nazi persecution. In 1942,
Adolf Hitler sent Christian a long telegram congratulating him on his seventy-second birthday. The king's reply telegram was a mere,
Spreche Meinen besten Dank aus. Chr. Rex (
Giving my best thanks, King Christian). This perceived slight, known as the
Telegram Crisis, greatly outraged Hitler and he immediately recalled his ambassador from Copenhagen and expelled the Danish ambassador from Germany. German pressure then resulted in the dismissal of the government led by
Vilhelm Buhl and its replacement with a new cabinet led by non-party member and veteran diplomat
Erik Scavenius, whom the Germans expected to be more cooperative. (In any event, whatever independence Denmark had been able to maintain during the first years of the occupation ended abruptly with the German
Putsch in August 1943.) After a fall with his horse on 19 October 1942, Christian was more or less an invalid for the rest of his reign. The role he played in creating the
Easter Crisis of 1920 had greatly reduced his popularity, but his daily rides, the Telegram Crisis, and the admiring stories spread by
Danish-American circles once again made him popular to the point of being a beloved national symbol.
Reign over Iceland The accession of a new
Danish–Icelandic Act of Union in late 1918 redefined
Iceland, a longtime part of the
Danish realm, as a sovereign state in a
personal union with the Kingdom of Denmark. This made Christian the king of the mostly autonomous
Kingdom of Iceland in addition to being King of Denmark. Christian (whose name in Iceland was officially
Kristján X) was the first and only monarch to ever reign over Iceland as a sovereign kingdom as opposed to ruling it as a province of a larger kingdom. In 1941, after the German occupation of Denmark and the
Allied occupation of Iceland, the Icelandic government concluded that Christian was unable to perform his duties as head of state of Iceland, and thus appointed
Sveinn Björnsson as
regent to act as provisional head of state. Sveinn had previously been Iceland's ambassador in Copenhagen. In 1944, while Denmark was still under German occupation, Icelanders voted in a plebiscite to sever all ties with the King of Denmark and to found a republic. Thus, Christian's title as King of Iceland became null and void and Sveinn Björnsson was elected the first
President of Iceland by the
Icelandic parliament. Christian, who believed that Sveinn had given him assurances that Iceland would not make further moves toward independence while the occupation was ongoing, felt quite badly betrayed. However, at the urging of his relative, the King of Sweden, Christian still accepted the outcome and sent a message of congratulations to Iceland during the celebration of the founding of the Republic on 17 June 1944. The reading of the King's letter provoked cheers at
Þingvellir during the celebration. Despite this implicit acceptance of Iceland's independence, Christian never actually stopped using the title "King of Iceland", and continued including it in his regnal name until his death in 1947.
Death Christian X died at the
Amalienborg Palace in Copenhagen, on 20 April 1947, at the age of 76. Christian X was
interred along with other members of the Danish royal family in
Roskilde Cathedral near Copenhagen. A cloth armband of the type worn by members of the
Danish resistance movement was placed on his coffin under a
castrum doloris. ==Legends==