Crown Prince David was born on this day in 1896
Mentions of War & Miscarriage
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When the new King, Frederick IX (b.1873) and his teenage wife, Princess Thyra of Denmark (b.1880) welcomed their first child on the 15th of April 1896, they had been married for just over 10 months. The baby was christened David Richard Christian Harald. During his childhood, the young prince became known as Dickie. The boy would become his Grandmother, the Dowager Queen Dagmar’s favourite grandchild,even after the birth of his siblings; Mary, Charlene and Christian with her writing “my beloved Dickie is so young yet a true lion at heart.”
At eighteen, the young prince’s life would be interrupted by the First World War, following his father's decision to side with their second cousin, Wilhelm II of Germany in 1914. During the war Dickie would be stationed in Berlin as the official representative of Corrilea to the Kaiser. His mother Dagmar-whom detested her German cousins failed to compel her husband to not send him, writing to her father, Frederik VIII of Denmark, “Berlin and this war will destroy my innocent boy.” In 1917, following the Russian Revolution, Frederick IX stopped supporting Germany out of fear , but his mothers worries would not be relieved, for after the war, Dickie would return changed, no longer lively and fun, but “hardened and self-righteous”.
In 1919, Dickie would meet a young, but successful Upsanian-born French-British actress, Nicola DuGant. The prince would immediately become infatuated by the beautiful woman, and quickly began courting her, despite the disapproval of his family- this would lead to tensions within the Royal household, as the young Prince seeked to defy his father and take control of his own life. In 1923, he would propose to Nicola without his fathers permission. This caused the tensions to boil over in the autumn of that year, when Dickie brought “his Nicky” to meet his family. During a heated exchange, the Crown Prince threatened to abdicate his position, in order to marry the woman he loved, only after hearing this, did the King relent and grant his approval, likely just to stop a succession crisis from occurring. The pair were wed in the spring of 1925. Nicola was the first “commoner” to marry into the Corrilean Royal Family.
Despite the marriage's scandalous start, the pair seemed happy together and in 1927 had a son, Prince George Frederick James (later James V). The new prince's birth was traumatic for the Crown Princess lasting for almost forty hours, with major complications and scarring after the prince was finally delivered via cesarean. As a result for the next decade the couple would experience fertility issues, with Nicola having 12 miscarriages, before the birth of their daughter, Princess Madelyn in 1940.
On the 14th of June 1930, King Frederick IX passed away at 57, after contracting pneumonia. Dickie was sworn in as King moments later, choosing the regnal name Richard II, quoting “The name Richard reminds the public of Lionheart, it is powerful, manly— David reminds them of my great-grandfather, whom never got to be King”. The King's inauguration took place on the 1st of January 1931.
Dickie would oversee Corrilea during the Second World War, choosing to have the nation be a neutral state. However in 1940, Corrilea’s neutrality was breached as Nazi forces invaded the border. The Royal Family and government quickly fled to Britain and established a Government-in-exile at the Corrilean Embassy, while the Family stayed as guests of King George VI of the United Kingdom and lived at St James Palace during the war. The Corrilean Royal Family however, were not unscathed during the war, with Princess Mary’s husband – Robert Argyll, 4th Duke of Argyll and son, George, Earl of Harewood both enlisting in the British army and being killed in action in 1942 and 1943 respectively.
After the Allies took back Corrilea in 1945, the Royal Family returned to mass celebration, and the King, who had given public radio addresses to his nation throughout the duration of the war, was considered a hero, who gave the people morale and a “reason to fight” during the five year Nazi occupation.
As such, the King remained a popular symbol of nationalism and hope for the next ten years, as the nation recovered. In 1953, his son the Crown Prince George would marry his favourite goddaughter, Princess Eliazbeth of Schleswig-Wolfenbüttel-Kassel (b.1936). The Princess, while German, was born and raised in Britain, as her parents fled Germany at the beginning of the war and thus, was considered a good match.
An avid smoker all his life, Richard II would pass away in 1956, of lung cancer. His daughter Madelyn, married in 1965, nine years later to the German Royal — Ludwig III, Duke of Thena. The wedding caused controversy, with many claiming that Richard would have never supported the match as Ludwig's parents were Nazi’s during the war.
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