Else Hansen

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jens Thrane: Madame Hansen

Else Cathrine Marie Mahs Hansen , also known as Madame Hansen or Madam de Hansen (* 1720 ; † September 4, 1784 ) was a Danish long-time lover of King Frederick V of Denmark . They had four daughters and a son. Her story was best known through the writer Dorothea Biehl .

Life

There is no reliable knowledge of their origins or their life before the encounter with King Frederick V. A persistent rumor that she was the sister of the valet Henrik Vilhelm Tillich and that he was secretly brought to the king at night in 1743 could not be confirmed by modern research. The king was known for a dissolute life. As you can read with Dorothea Biehl, he is said to have taken part in alcoholic Bacchus parties , at which he liked to strip prostitutes naked and dance with a stick and whip. He had a long relationship with only two of his lovers: Else Hansen and Charlotte Amalie Winge.

Else Hansen gave birth to five children between 1746 and 1751, whose father was obviously the king. At least her three younger children were born in the Ulriksholm manor on the island of Funen . The property belonged to Major Ulrik Frederik von Heinen, a brother-in-law of Oberhofmarschall Adam Gottlob von Moltke . Moltke had already served the seven-year-old Crown Prince as a page , had risen to become his influential Oberhofmarschall and presumably handled his discreet affairs. The king's children with Else Hansen were baptized in the local parish church near the manor. They were officially entered in the baptismal register as the legitimate children of the wife of a nonexistent captain named Frederick Hansen, who was on a boat trip from Gothenburg to China . The name of the royal father got around at least because of the frequent trips to Ulriksholm by the pregnant Else Hansen.

The relationship was probably ended around 1752. After the death of King Frederick in 1766, the Danish court unofficially looked after the children. The four daughters received a dowry and were married to nobles or royal officials, even grandchildren received financial support. Else Hansen bought the Klarskov estate on Fyn and lived there, with a brief stopover in Odense , until her death in 1784 as the widow of the late sea captain Hansen. It had never been officially presented at court and had no influence on affairs of state. Three portraits of Madame de Hansen and a painting depicting Else Hansen's daughter Frederike Catherine with son-in-law Colonel Hans Frederik von Lützau are part of the portrait collection of the Danish National History Museum in Frederiksborg Castle , painted in 1764 by Jens Thrane the Younger in the Ulriksholm manor.

literature

  • Charlotte Dorothea Biehl: Interiører fra Frederik V's Hof , published by Louis Bobé .
  • Aage Christens, Slægten de Hansen , 1968.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Michael Bregnsbo, Til venstre hånd. Danske kongers elskerinder , Gyldendal Verlag, Copenhagen 2010. ISBN 87-02-06574-6 , p. 152 f
personal data
SURNAME Hansen, Else
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Madam Hansen; Madam de Hansen; Hansen, Else Cathrine Marie Mahs (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Beloved King Frederik V
DATE OF BIRTH 1720
DATE OF DEATH September 4, 1784