The Queen of Denmark recently unveiled a special exhibition dedicated to one of her most interesting predecessors, Countess Danner, wearing several jewels linked to the royal family’s past.
On April 30, Queen Mary arrived at Frederiksborg Slot in Hillerød for the opening of a special new exhibition dedicated to Countess Danner, the morganatic third wife of King Frederik VII of Denmark.
Born Louise Rasmussen, the Countess was a ballet dancer when she met Crown Prince Frederik in the 1830s. By the time of his accession in 1848, Frederik was twice divorced. He married Louise over objections from the government and members of Danish society in 1850, granting her the title of “Countess Danner” because she was not eligible to become Queen.
Frederik and Louise spent a good deal of time at Frederiksborg Castle. They were married in the castle’s chapel and spent much of the first decade of their marriage in residence there. On the castle grounds, Frederik had a special garden landscaped in Louise’s honor, including an artificial island named for her, where they spent time in a rustic manor house. They remained devoted to each other until Frederik’s death in 1863, when a cousin, King Christian IX, inherited the throne. Louise spent the rest of her days at the couple’s private manor house, Jægerspris Slot. She devoted much of her time and money to caring for disadvantaged young women until her death in 1874.
When Mary Elizabeth Donaldson married the future King Frederik X in 2004, she became the second commoner, after Louise, to marry a Danish sovereign. In the months since King Frederik’s accession in January 2024, Mary has participated in several initiatives to honor Louise’s memory, especially her charity work. Among these is a new exhibition at Frederiksborg Slot’s museum, titled Danner af Danemark.
The museum’s website explains, “Danner af Danemark is the first major exhibition about Countess Danner–a woman who challenged her contemporaries and left a significant mark on posterity. The exhibition is about who Countess Danner was, but also about how she has been used and interpreted by succeeding generations,” adding, “Today she stands as a symbol of social mobility, women’s liberation, and the fight against injustice. Danner’s history is closely intertwined with the development of modern Denmark.”
For the official opening of the exhibition, Queen Mary wore a pair of earrings from Countess Danner’s collection. Made of gold, the intricate earrings are set with citrines, amethysts, diamonds, and pearls.
The earrings are part of a larger demi-parure of jewels commissioned for Louise by her husband and made by the Danish court jeweler, Julius Diderichsen. The set, which includes a necklace, two bracelets, two brooches, and a pair of earrings, dates to around 1860. The pieces belong to the Carlsberg Foundation, the non-profit organization that operates the museum at Frederiksborg Slot.
The foundation acquired Countess Danner’s citrines in the 1980s and loaned them permanently to the Danish Royal Collection. When Queen Mary isn’t wearing pieces from the set, the jewels are displayed alongside the Danish crown jewel collection at Rosenborg Slot.
In November 2024, Queen Mary became the first member of the Danish royal family to wear pieces from Countess Danner’s citrine suite in public. Appropriately, she made her debut in the smaller brooch from the set when she unveiled a new statue of Countess Danner in Copenhagen.
She also wore the earrings and small brooch from the demi-parure when she traveled to Helsinki for a state visit with the President of Finland in March 2025. On that occasion, she paired the jewels with Queen Caroline Amalie’s Italian Tiara, a petite bandeau set with carved gemstones, and a special bracelet that belonged to Princess Vilhelmine Marie of Denmark, who was King Frederik VII’s first wife.
For the Danner af Danemark opening on April 30, Mary reflected the purple amethysts in the earrings with her choice of clothing, wearing a purple blouse (from Prada, UFO No More tells us). She added more gold touches with bracelets from Rebekka Notkin and Dulong Fine Jewelry.
Queen Mary also participated in the filming of a new documentary about Countess Danner, which was produced to accompany the exhibition.
She wore a familiar dress and jewelry as she filmed her segments of the documentary, including a special brooch that links her to another famous Danish royal wife—King Frederik X’s grandmother, Queen Ingrid.
The jewel, the Connaught Sapphire Brooch, has a long history with the Swedish and Danish royal families. It belonged to Princess Louise Margaret, Duchess of Connaught, who was the mother of Crown Princess Margareta of Sweden. After Margareta’s untimely death, the sapphire, diamond, and pearl brooch was inherited by her only daughter, Queen Ingrid, who later passed the brooch down to her eldest daughter, Queen Margrethe.
In 2006, when Crown Prince Christian was born, Margrethe gave the brooch to Mary as a present to mark the birth of a future Danish monarch. Mary wore the brooch for the first time at Christian’s baptism. In interviews for the documentary De Kongelige Juveler, Mary reflected on the brooch’s importance: “Some people learn history through wars or famous people, but jewelry is just as good a possibility to learn history. It shows how the families have married through the generations. And it doesn’t only talk about lineage, but it also relates to personal events in families. For example, we know that this brooch has always been worn for family-related events. Except that now I have it, and I tend to wear it a little bit more generally.”
When Christian celebrated his 18th birthday in October 2023, Mary wore the brooch with the same blue Soeren Le Schmidt dress that she chose for the Danner af Danemark film interviews. She’s continued to wear it regularly since her husband’s accession to the throne, underscoring her own place in the line of Danish royal history—even though she, like Countess Danner, was born a commoner.
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