Sophia Magdalena of Denmark
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| Sophia Magdalena of Denmark | ||
|---|---|---|
| Queen consort of Sweden | ||
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| Reign | February 12, 1771 - March 29, 1792 | |
| Coronation | 1772 | |
| Born | July 3, 1743 | |
| Christiansborg Palace, Copenhagen, Denmark | ||
| Died | August 21, 1813 | |
| Ulriksdal Palace, Sweden | ||
| Consort to | Gustav III of Sweden | |
| Issue | Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden Charles Gustaf |
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| Royal House | House of Holstein-Gottorp House of Oldenburg |
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| Father | Frederick V of Denmark | |
| Mother | Louise of Great Britain | |
Sofia Magdalena of Denmark and Norway (Christiansborg Palace, Denmark, 3 July 1743 - Ulriksdal Palace, Sweden, 21 August 1813) was a Queen consort of Sweden.
She was eldest surviving child of King Frederick V of Denmark and Norway and Queen Louise. Her maternal grandparents were George II of Great Britain and Caroline of Ansbach.
At the age of five (1751), she was betrothed to the successor of the throne of Sweden, Gustav. In 1766 she was married to Gustav at Christiansborg Castle in Copenhagen. Her strict upbringing made it difficult for her to adjust to the environment of the Swedish court. After King Adolf Frederick of Sweden died in 1771, Gustav III became King of Sweden. The following year Sofia was crowned queen. The marriage was a typical arranged royal marriage of political convenience, and is described by her husband as cold as ice. In fact, it was not consummated until 1777, eleven years after the wedding, which was a topic of gossip and ridicule among the European courts; the king was a homosexual or sexually undeveloped and did in fact need instructions what to do.
In 1778, Sofia gave birth to Gustav Adolf, successor to the throne; and in 1782 she gave birth to a second son, Charles Gustaf who lived for only one year. It has been suggested that her children were fathered by someone else; the father pointed out, among others by the kings mother, was the count Adolph Frederick Munck of Fulkila, then chief of the royal stables. This romour was widely nelieved by both the public and within the court, but the actuall truth is even more interesting; by letters of the people invalwed, it seems that the count actually acted as sexual instructor. The king was possibly a virgin, as whas the queen, and the count was forced physically show them how to do and how to consummate their marriage. The count himself writes in his memoirs that he "had to touch them both with my own hands". People imagined that the count helped the king by having intercource with the queen with the king present and the counts penis between the king legs, but this is hardly lightly, as the king was very innocent when it comes to these things and the queen was even more so. The Queen dowager herself admitted that Sofia Magdalena was to cold to take a lover, if she was not ordered to do so by the king. Sofia Magdalena promissed that she would never speak to the queen dowager again, and she kept this promise. The years between 1777 and 1783 was probably the happiest in her life, her relatinship with the king was happier than ever before and she was treated with respect after having done her dynastical duty, but after her younger sons death, the marriage reverted to its former state of separation.
Queen Sofia Magdalena was a serious and shy person and she was never a member of the kings inner circle; she did her ceremonial dutys, but disliked the vivid lifestyle of the court that her husband was a center of. It is also said that she preferred the english fashion before the french because she found it less revealing.
Widowed in 1792, after her husband was murdered, Sofia lived a withdrawn life and spent much effort on charity. Her brother-in-law, Duke Karl, became regent, and she eschewed a political role. She never had any political influence and in 1809, she was forced to witness the abdication of her son, King Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden, after Sweden lost Finland to Russia. He was sent into exile and replaced by his paternal uncle Charles XIII, but she remained in Sweden until her death.
