Who is Princess Helena of Denmark? Tatler revisits the story of the country’s “betrayal princess” who was the king’s sister-in-law

Prince Harald and Princess Helena (later “The Traitorous Princess”), 1909

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Operation Weselbung saw Germany attack Denmark in 1940, formally breaking the peace agreement established at the start of World War II. Despite the subsequent German occupation, King Christian X remained on the throne. The Danish royal family thus became a national symbol of resistance at a time of great uncertainty, violence, and widespread repression. However, among them was an exile named Princess Helena.

According to Danish royal author Jon Noren Isaksen, German-born Princess Helena was “exiled” during the liberation of Denmark in 1945. The princess, Prince Harald’s wife and King Christian’s sister-in-law, was considered a de facto traitor, so much so that, according to Danish press at the time, she left the country “with the king’s full approval.” He is said to have been expelled. But what exactly did she do to justify her expulsion?

The marriage of Helena and Harald was seen as a great symbol of Danish unity, uniting the royalist and ducal factions of the monarchy. However, the effect seemed to be quite the opposite.

Helena was hated both publicly and privately.

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Harald and Helena married in April 1909 at Glucksburg Castle outside Copenhagen and had five children, all of whom were heirs to the Danish throne. Even though she founded an orphanage in the 1920s, Isakensen suggests that Helena was a strong and cruel mother.

It appears that Helena’s brutality at home was just the beginning of a deeply problematic perspective within her psyche. Although their marriage got off to a hopeful start, with artist Charles Binger saying the country gave her “laughter and kind words,” the public’s perception of the princess changed after the occupation, and she openly spoke to Germany. It is said that he began to sympathize with Germany, and therefore began to align himself with Germany. Nazi party. The Danish Resistance Movement (a group that rebelled against the Nazi occupation) labeled Helena the only member of the royal family who had betrayed Denmark with allegiance to Germany. Helena reportedly not only hosted Germans at her home and tourist hotels during the war, but also tried to persuade her husband Harald to admit Nazi members into the Danish government.