From Oldenburg with Love (Oldenburgs, Part 3)

The House of Oldenburg has mostly certainly proved to be a grand and expansive house, ruling Denmark and Norway even today, and Russia in not yet a century ago. But Oldenburg was a very wide house, as demonstrated in my dynastic tree below (see notes below). In a relatively short time—700 years or so—it went from ruling a small county in northern Germany to the largest single country ever created. Yet in that time, the House of Oldenburg also managed to pick up some smaller entities, that are no less important.

The House of Oldenburg Dynasty Tree

Perhaps the most important and oft-overlooked of the Oldenburg possessions is the County of Oldenburg itself. The county was created in 1180 and eventually became a duchy and then grand duchy. At first they were a vassal state of the Duchy of Saxony, the largest German power in the area. However, Emperor Frederick Barbarossa dismembered the duchy and Oldenburg branched off on its own. A second portion of the county, Delmenhorst, was generally held by a member of a cadet branch, although it often found its way back to the main line. Oldenburg finally fell under the control of a cadet line when Christian I became king of Denmark in 1440. With titles in Norway, Sweden and Schleswig-Holstein following soon after, Christian simply didn't have time for the relatively simple Oldenburg. Over the years, Oldenburg chipped away at portions of Frisia and other neighbors, enlarging its territory bit by bit. During the disastrous Thirty Years War, Oldenburg was one of the lucky few states to remain neutral, and thereby not desolated, in the war.

The Grand Duchy of Oldenburg

In 1776, the county broke off on its own, completely removing itself from Danish politics. It was elevated to a duchy the next year and gained a number of nearby lands through the mediation of the French. The country was soon after occupied by Napoleon's empire from 1810 to 1814 but avoided most of the fighting. Its occupation angered the Oldenburgs in Russia, the Romanov, so much that the neutrality between France and Russia ended, leading to the eventual defeat of Napoleon's army. Meanwhile, Oldenburg gained new lands in the Congress of Vienna in 1815 and was elevated to a grand duchy in 1829. It mostly voluntarily joined the German Empire in 1871, and thus was able to retain its monarch, only to be dissolved at the end of World War I during the German Revolutions. The territories of Oldenburg became a part of the province of Lower Saxony following World War II. Today, the line of the grand dukes of Oldenburg continues with the current claimant, Anton Günther.

Adolf Frederick, King of Sweden

Sweden was mentioned before but it did fall back into the periphery of Oldenburg control for a brief time, albeit through a cadet branch of the family. In fact, the Swedish branch of the family begat the final Oldenburg branch (above). Now the thing to remember with Sweden is that it never actually likes its monarchs. Adolf Frederick was elected to the throne in 1751 by the parliament and was treated as a parliamentary pawn all his life. The only reason he was even elected to the throne was because he was related to the Russian Oldenburgs whom Sweden wanted to be on better terms with. Adolf ate too much and died, leaving little of a legacy behind.  His son, Gustav III, got uppity at parliament, declared himself absolute leader of Sweden, and was assassinated. Gustav IV, his son, was very dissatisfied with a lot of political and financial things, which allowed his uncle, Charles, to force Gustav to abdicate. Charles XIII succeeded him and was first seen as a more liberal king, but failed to do anything worthwhile. He died childless, leaving the country in the hands of the Napoleon-supported Frenchman Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, whose family rules Sweden to this day.

The Kingdom of Greece, showcasing the expansion of the state during the late 1800s and early 1900s

George I, King of the Hellenes (Greece)

Another rather forgotten kingdom in many peoples' minds was the Kingdom of the Hellenes, better known as Greece, which the House of Oldenburg ruled from 1862 until 1973. The dynasty took over after the previous dynasty, the Wittelsbach, disappointing the easily angered peoples of Greece. The family was a scion of the Danish Oldenburg house and helped bring Greece into the European sphere of politics after centuries under Turkish occupation. The first king, George I, ruled for 50 years and helped expand the meager borders of Greece outward in all directions. His son, Constantine, took Greece into the Balkan Wars of the early 1910s, but indecision during World War I led to his abdication in favor of his son, George II. George, though, wasn't in any better position to rule. A troubled government in 1923 asked the king to leave and the following year they formally deposed him. A decade later, in 1935, George II was reinstated but forced to acknowledge the fascist dictatorship of General Georgios Kondylis. Further indecision in the lead-in to World War II (George was pro-British, Kondylis was pro-Axis) caused the subsequent conquest of Greece by Italy and Germany in 1941. When George returned in 1946, his country was in ruin, corpses buried in shallow graves outside the raided royal palace. He died the next year and was succeeded by his brother, Paul. Paul ruled Greece during the decades of post-war rebuilding but the dynasty came under increasing threat by republicans. By the reign of his son, Constantine II, Greece was downright anti-royal. A coup against the monarchy forced Constantine to flee in 1967 and, although it took until 1973 to do so formally, the Greek monarchy came to an end at last. Constantine still is alive today and lives in numerous countries, including his former country of Greece.

 As an interesting aside, the House of Mountbatten, which will begin ruling the United Kingdom upon the death of Elizabeth II, is a cadet branch of the Greek Oldenburgs. Andrew married Princess Alice of Battenberg but the two became estranged after years of Andrew serving in the Greek army during World War I. Their only son, Philip, took the name Mountbatten due to anti-German sentiment in World War II and later married Princess Elizabeth prior to her elevation as Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom.

As you can see, the Oldenburg family is quite vast. This and the previous two weeks have established the breadth of the family, and I in no way covered everything. The family ruled over many different lands throughout their rather short existence, and the future seems quite bright for them. Denmark and Norway still retain Oldenburg monarchs while Britain will soon have one of its own. Meanwhile, Russia and Greece both have rather large pro-royal movements that have gained momentum in recent years. The future for the Oldenburgs seems bright indeed.