GEORGE OF DENMARK, PRINCE, has a place in English history as the husband of one of our queens, and as having resided many years in England, and held • high public office. He was born April 21et 1853, and was the youngest son of Frederick III., king of Denmark, and the only brother of Frederick's successor, Christian V. His mother wan Sophia Amelia, daughter of George, duke of Ltineburg. lie made his first visit to England, after n short tour In Frauce, in July 1669, when be was introduced at court, but remained only a few days. At the battle of Lunde°, fought between the Danes and the Swedes, December 14th 1676, Prince George is stated to have distin guished himself by hie bravery ; and the rescue of the king his brother, after be had been taken prisoner by the enemy, is attributed mainly to him. The Princess Mary of York having been married to the Priuce of Orange In 1877, the duke her father is said te have pressed his brother the king to leave to him the disposal of his other daughter Anne ; but Charles thought it more advisable to comply in this instance with the national wish, and to have her also married to a Protestant. Anne's first suitor was the Prince of Hanover (afterwards her successor, George I.), who came over to pay his addresses to her in 1681, but had scarcely landed when he was recalled by his father, who had negotiated a marriage for him with the daughter of the Duke of Zell. Some time afterwards overtures were made in behalf of his brother by the king of Denmark; and, Prince George having come over, he and Anne were married at St. James's on the evening of the 2Sth of July 1683.
On the accession of his father-in-law as James II., Prince George was made a privy councillor ; and he was not understood ever to have made any oppositiou to the measures of the court till the last moment.
The truth however appears to be that he was a mere cypher. Charles II. is said to have declared that he had tried him drunk and sober, and, he added with an oath, there was nothing in him. Nobody seems to have thought it worth while at this time even to try to make a tool of him. When the revolution came he is understood to have acted under the direction of his wife. It had been arranged some days before by her and Lord Churchill (afterwards the Duke of Marlborough), who was much in their confidence, that he should go over to the Prince of Orange, and Anne had transmitted to William an express promise to that effect. Prince George however continued
with the king till the night of the 24th of November (1698), when, being at Andover, on his leaving table after having supped with James by his majesty's invitation, he rode off in company with the Duke of Ormond, Lord Drumlanrig, and Mr. Boyle, and joined William at Sherborno Castle; having left behind him a letter to his father-in-law, in which he attributed what he had done to zeal for the Protestant religion. " What I" said James, when he was told of his flight, " eat-il possible gone tool" This, it seems, was the prince's common phrase on all occasions; and it had been in great requisition during some preview days, when reports of one desertion after • another were constantly coming in.
After the acceptance of the crown by William, Prince George was naturalised by act of parliament, and immediately before the coronation of the new king and queen, in April 1889, he was created an English peer by the titles of Baron of Wokingham, Earl of Kendal, and Duke of Cumberland. He accompanied the king to Ireland in 1690, and was present at the battle of the Boyne. He used to attend and vote in the House of Lords both in the reign of William and in that of Anne, and he was oven made occasionally to vote against the court in the former reign. His name stands affixed to the protest made against the rejection of the Place Bill of 1692, which had passed the Commons, and the defeat of which was only effected in the Upper House by the greatest exertions of the government. In other cases, again, they would get him to vote against his own convictions; as, for inst ince, in that of the bill against Occasional Conformity brought in by the Tory ministry In the first year of Queen Anne. Indeed he was only an occasional conformist himself, being in the habit of attending the Lutheran service in a chapel of his own, although he submitted to take the sacrament according to the forms of the Church of England when it became necessary to do so ou his being appointed to office.