Europe's Father-In-Law Trivia Quiz

Answer: False

In fact, at birth Christian, a son of the duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glucksburg, was not expected to succeed to the throne. Aside from having three older brothers, Christian was, through his mother, the great-grandson of King Frederick V of Denmark, making him only a distant relation of the Danish king Christian VIII.

However, as it became less and less likely that Christian VIII's heir, Prince Frederick, would produce a son of his own, the king arranged for the younger Christian to be named as next in line to the throne after Frederick.

Answer: Frederick VII

Although Christian was selected as the heir during the reign of Christian VIII, this was as heir to that king's son. It was, therefore, not until the death of Frederick VII in 1863 that Christian of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glucksburg ascended the Danish throne as Christian IX.

1863 was a momentous year for Christian and his family. Not only did he become king of Denmark but his son Vilhelm became king of Greece, and his daughter Alexandra married Albert Edward, Prince of Wales.

Answer: Princess Louise of Hesse-Kassel

By marrying Louise, a niece of King Christian VIII, Christian strengthened his position as heir to the throne.

Answer: Alexander III of Russia

Dagmar had previously been betrothed to Alexander's elder brother, the Tsarevich Nicholas Alexandrovich. However, he died in 1865 and she married Alexander instead.

Her full name was Marie Sophie Frederikke Dagmar. She converted to the Russian Orthodox faith in order to marry Alexander and adopted the name Maria Fedorovna. When he became Tsar Alexander III in 1881 she became known as the Empress Maria.

She was the mother of the last tsar, Nicholas II. She survived the Bolshevik revolution and only left Russia in 1919, two years after the monarchy was overthrown. She died in Denmark in 1928.

Answer: George I

Vilhelm was only 17 at the time. He was the grandfather of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, husband of Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom. He was also the great-grandfather of Queen Sofia, wife of King Juan Carlos of Spain.

Answer: Frederick

When Christian died in 1906 he was succeeded by his son as Frederick VIII. Christian's great-great-granddaughter, Margaret (Margrethe) II succeeded to the Danish throne in 1972.

Answer: Norway

Norway had become independent of Sweden in 1905. It was originally proposed that a son of the Swedish king, Oscar II, take the Norwegian throne. However, King Oscar forbade this and so Prince Carl was chosen instead.

As the son of Princess Louisa of Sweden and Norway, Carl was the grandson of King Carl XV of Sweden and IV of Norway. On ascending the Norwegian throne Carl took the regnal name Haakon VII.

Answer: The United Kingdom

Alexandra was Princess of Wales from 1863 to 1901, the longest anyone has held the title. When her husband, Prince Albert Edward, became King Edward VII she became Queen Alexandra.

Answer: Hanover

The Hanoverian throne had been abolished when Hanover was forcibly absorbed by Prussia in 1866 and so Thyra's husband, Ernst August, never became king.

The couple's great-grandson, Prince Ernst August of Hanover, married Princess Caroline of Monaco in 1999.

Answer: Denmark, Greece, the United Kingdom, Norway and Russia

They were King Christian X of Denmark (r.1912-47), King Constantine I of Greece (r.1913-17 & 1920-22), King George V of the United Kingdom (r.1910-1936), King Haakon VII of Norway (r.1905-57) and Tsar Nicholas II of Russia (r.1894-1917).

In 2005 the reigning monarchs of Denmark, the UK, Belgium, Luxembourg and Norway were all descended from Christian, as well as the former kings of Greece and Romania. In addition, as Queen Sofia of Spain is a direct descendant of Christian so, therefore, is her son Prince Felipe, heir to the Spanish throne.