The Brockdorff family is a Schleswig-Holsteiner old noble house that belonged to German and Danish nobility.
It first appeared in a document from 1167 where Eilwardus de Bruchthorp was mentioned by Duke Henry the Lion of Saxony. Members of the family founded Brokdorf, Holstein, now part of Germany, from where the family originated.
On 24 May 1672 the family was granted the title of Lensgreve by King Christian V of Denmark heritable by masculine primogeniture, while on 3 June 1706 the family was awarded with the title of Imperial Count by Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor. [1] Later, in 19th century the family also obtained the title of Count in Prussia.
The Reventlow family is a Holstein and Mecklenburg Dano-German noble family, which belongs to the Equites Originarii Schleswig-Holstein. Alternate spellings include Revetlo, Reventlo, Reventlau, Reventlou, Reventlow, Refendtlof and Reffentloff.
Princess Alexandra of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg, Countess Ahlefeldt-Laurvig-Bille, is the first daughter and second of three children of Prince Richard of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg and Princess Benedikte of Denmark, sister of two Queens, Margrethe II and Anne-Marie of Greece.
Prince Charles of Hesse-Kassel was a cadet member of the house of Hesse-Kassel and a Danish general field marshal. Brought up with relatives at the Danish court, he spent most of his life in Denmark, serving as royal governor of the twin duchies of Schleswig-Holstein from 1769 to 1836 and commander-in-chief of the Norwegian army from 1772 to 1814.
Frederick Christian II, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg was a Danish prince and feudal magnate. He held the island of Als and some other castles in Schleswig.
The House of Ahlefeldt is an ancient German and Danish noble family. It has similar coat of arms with the von Rumohr family, which indicates that they have descended from one House.
Gråsten Palace is located at Gråsten in the Jutland region of southern Denmark. It is best known for being the summer residence of the Danish royal family. The main house has a modern, all-white facade, with Venetian doors opening onto sweeping, manicured lawns and gravel walkways. The grounds include a huge stables court.
The Duchy of Holstein was the northernmost state of the Holy Roman Empire, located in the present German state of Schleswig-Holstein. It originated when King Christian I of Denmark had his County of Holstein-Rendsburg elevated to a duchy by Emperor Frederick III in 1474. Members of the Danish House of Oldenburg ruled Holstein – jointly with the Duchy of Schleswig – for its entire existence.
Danish nobility is a social class and a former estate in the Kingdom of Denmark. The nobility has official recognition in Denmark, a monarchy. Its legal privileges were abolished with the constitution of 1849. Some of the families still own and reside in castles or country houses. A minority of nobles still belong to the elite, and they are as such present at royal events where they hold court posts, are guests, or are objects of media coverage, for example Kanal 4's TV-hostess Caroline Fleming née Baroness Iuel-Brockdorff. Some of them own and manage companies or have leading positions within business, banking, diplomacy and NGOs.
Anna Constantia von Brockdorff, later the Countess of Cosel, was a German lady-in-waiting and noblewoman, and mistress of Augustus the Strong, King of Poland and Elector of Saxony, in 1706–1713. Eventually he turned against her and exiled her to Saxony, where she died after 49 years of internal exile.
Holstein-Glückstadt or Schleswig-Holstein-Glückstadt is the historiographical name, as well as contemporary shorthand name, for the parts of the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein that were ruled by the Kings of Denmark in their function as dukes of Schleswig and Holstein, thus also known as Royal Schleswig-Holstein. Other parts of the duchies were ruled by the Dukes of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp. The territories of Holstein-Glückstadt are located in present-day Denmark and Germany. The main centre of administration was Segeberg and from 1648 Glückstadt on the River Elbe.
Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg was the name of a branch line of the House of Oldenburg as well as the name of their land. It existed from 1564 until 1668 and was a titular duchy under the King of Denmark, rather than a true territorial dukedom in its own right. The seat of the duke was Sønderborg. Parts of the domain were located in Denmark, mainly on the islands of Als and Ærø and around Glücksburg, whilst other lands were part of the Holy Roman Empire, including the Ämter of Plön, Ahrensbök, and Reinfeld. As a result of various inheritance arrangements it fragmented into numerous small territories which were eventually absorbed into Greater Denmark in the 18th century.
Christoph Prinz zu Schleswig-Holstein was the head of the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg and, by agnatic primogeniture, of the entire House of Oldenburg between 1980 and 2023. Traditionally he would have been the eighth Duke of Schleswig-Holstein and Duke of Glücksburg, styled as His Highness. He was a male-line descendant of Christian I of Denmark, and was also descended cognatically from numerous more recent monarchs, including Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, Emperor Alexander II of Russia and several more recent Danish kings. His paternal grandmother was Princess Marie Melita of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, a great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria.
The monarchy of Denmark is a constitutional institution and a historic office of the Kingdom of Denmark. The Kingdom includes Denmark proper and the autonomous territories of the Faroe Islands and Greenland. The Kingdom of Denmark was already consolidated in the 8th century, whose rulers are consistently referred to in Frankish sources as "kings". Under the rule of King Gudfred in 804 the Kingdom may have included all the major provinces of medieval Denmark.
Frederick Charles of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Plön, known as Friedrich Karl or Friedrik Carl of Holstein-Plön, was a member of a cadet branch of the Danish royal family and the last duke of the Duchy of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Plön, a Danish royal prince, and a knight of the Order of the Elephant. When he died without a male heir born of his marriage to Countess Christine Armgard von Reventlow, rule of the Duchy of Holstein-Plön returned to the Danish crown.
Eriksholm Castle is a manor house located at the foot of the Isefjord inlet, 6 km south-east of Holbæk, in east Denmark. The history of the estate dates back to 1400 but today's house was built in 1788 to a Neoclassical design by Caspar Frederik Harsdorff, the leading Danish architect of the time. It was listed in the Danish registry of protected buildings and places in 1918.
Dorothea Christina von Aichelberg was the spouse of Prince Christian Charles of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Plön-Norburg as Frau von Karlstein. Later, as a widow and mother of Frederick Charles, she stood for many years at the center of a succession dispute.
Mathilde von Keller (1853–1945) was a German courtier and memoir writer.
Carl von Ahlefeldt was a German-Danish statesman. He was a stadtholder and by birth a member of the House of Ahlefeld. He was part of the inner circle around Frederick IV until 1712 and then became Governor-general of Slesvig-Holsten.
Count Frederik of Ahlefeldt-Rixingen was a Danish landowner and statesman. By birth member of the House of Ahlefeldt, he was the first reigning Count of Rixingen. He was also Grand Chancellor during the reign of King Christian V. He was also Landgrave of Langeland.
Frederiksdal is a manor house and estate located 10 km northwest of Nakskov on Lolland, in southeastern Denmark. The estate covers 538 hectares of land. It is known for its fortified cherry wine.