the Kaiser meets the Duke of Cumberland

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February 17, 1906

Kaiser Wilhelm II arrived in Copenhagen this afternoon on board the German battleship, Preussen, reports the New York Times.  He will attend the funeral service tomorrow at Roskilde for the late King Christian IX of Denmark.

The German Emperor dined tonight at the palace, and spent twenty minutes in conversation with King Haakon of Norway, and also talked with the Duke of Cumberland, whose wife, Thyra, is one of the late king's children.

This was the first meeting between Wilhelm II and the Duke of Cumberland in many years.  Three years ago, the Duke was in Copenhagen, when Wilhelm was scheduled to visit the city.  The Duke departed before the Kaiser's arrival, and this action was seen as a "deliberate slight to the Kaiser."

The Duke is the legal heir to the Duke of Brunswick & Lüneburg, but has been excluded from reigning has he refuses to renounce his claim to the Hanover throne. He is the only son of the late King Georg V of Hanover, who lost his throne in 1866, when he sided with Austria in its war against Prussia.  This action led to Prussia annexing the kingdom into Prussia, and the Hanoverian royal family was forced into exile.

It is unlikely that the brief conversation between Wilhelm II and the Duke of Cumberland focused on Brunswick.