To mark what would have been the 85th wedding anniversary of King Frederik IX and Queen Ingrid, the Danish Royal House shared details about her family heirloom wedding crown on their social media channels.
Queen Ingrid wore a myrtle wedding crown as part of her bridal look on her wedding day, 24 May 1935. The myrtle came from a bush in Great Britain that her mother, Crown Princess Margareta, brought to Sofiero, Sweden, when she married Crown Prince Gustav Adolf of Sweden.
The practice of using myrtle in a bridal bouquet dates back to antiquity but Queen Victoria revived the tradition when she married Prince Albert in 1840 and the Danish Royal House notes that, as her granddaughter, Crown Princess Margareta was determined to carry on this tradition as she joined the Swedish Royal Family.
Crown Prince Gustav Adolf and Crown Princess Margareta had five children before she died of sepsis in 1920. Fifteen years later, her only daughter, Princess Ingrid, married Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark in Stockholm Cathedral and, wanting to honour her mother, wore myrtle in her wedding crown and used her mother’s Irish lace wedding veil, which has also become a staple of Danish royal weddings.
Since Queen Ingrid’s wedding all Danish royal brides have carried myrtle in their bouquets, including Queen Margrethe, Princess Benedikte, Queen Anne-Marie, Crown Princess Mary and Princess Marie. Queen Ingrid planted a sprig of myrtle at Fredensborg Castle from a bush at Sofiero in Sweden which is used to provide for Danish royal brides.
Queen Ingrid became Denmark’s queen consort on the death of her father-in-law in 1947 and maintained an active role by her husband’s side until his death in 1972. She carried on as Queen Mother after her daughter, Queen Margrethe, ascended to the throne and passed away in 2000.
Queen Ingrid’s myrtle crown is on public display as part of the Royal Collection.
