Christian was a quite good looking man; he was tall and always streightened, had a handsome face with deep blue eyes, a kind and gentle character and lacked of ambitions. He married on May 26 1842, the more ambitious Princess Luise of Hesse Kassel, who was a daughter of Landgrave Wilhelm X of Hesse kassel and of Princess Charlotte, a sister of King Christian VIII of Denmark. Christian and Luise were second cousins by two sides. They shared two great grandfathers, King Frederik V of Denmark and Landgrave Frederik II of Hesse Kassel. They were both related to the British Royal family since thier shared great grandmother, Mary of Hanover, the wife of the Landgrave, was daughter of King George II of Great Britain.
By a courtesy of King Christian VIII, Prince Christian and Princess Luise set their home in the Yellow Palace at Amliegade street in Cophenagen. They were lacked of money but they loved each other and lived very happy. Soon, children began to arrived: Frederik in 1843, Alexandra in 1844, Vilhelm in 1845, Dagmar in 1847, Thyra in 1853 and Valdemar in 1858. Prince Christian spent his time between his job in the Army and his home; he was a family man for whom punctuality was a very important rule to follow. He liked to do gymnastics at home and he inculcated his children this discipline. One constant visitor to the Christian's home was Hans Christian Andersen, who used to tell the children his faboulous fairy tales.
By the end of 1847, King Christian VIII, who was sure his only son Frederik would not produce any heir, decided that at his sons's death his niece Luise could claimed her rights to the throne , transfering them to her husband, who would be then King of Denmark. Never in his life did Prince Christian even imagined, he could one day be King, since he was far away from the line of succesion. Nevertheless, the unambitious Prince was afraid he couldn't afford such responsability. Meanwhile he was still living happily with his family.
In 1848, King Christian died and his son succeded him as Frederik VII. In the south part of Denmark, between the North and Baltic seas, jutting out from Germany toward Scandinavia, were located the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein, which belonged to the King of Denmark, but enjoyed of certain independence. The population of Schleswig was half Danish and half German, while Holstein was completely German; nevertheless both duchies were considered inseparable. At his accesion, King Frederik VII tried to incorporate Schleswig to the Danish territory. The duchy rebelled against Denmark and together with Holstein, established a provisional government in Kiel, naming Duke Christian Karl of Augustemburg as its leader.The Duke of Augustemburg asked for Prussian support against Denmark. Prussia recognized Augustemburg's government and sent troops to occupy the duchies. King Frederik also sent troops and Prince Christian was among them, but the Germans were superior in number. If the Germans won, the Duke of Augustemburg could even claim his rights to the throne of Denmark, since he was, as Christian, a direct descendant from Christian III. Unfortunately for Augustemburg, the Great Powers, England, Russia, France and Sweden advised King Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia to retreat his troops from the duchies and the Prussian King signed an armisice with Denmark and the Duke of Augustemburg was left alone and was forced to flee. In 1852 the Great Powers signed the Treaty of London which guaranteed the integrity of Denmark. It also recognized Prince Christian as heir to the throne. Schleswig and Holstein were still being property of the Danish King but Denmark was to respect their integrity by no trying anymore to incorporate them to its territory.
On November 15, 1863, King Frederik died and Prince Christian acceeded to the throne as Christian IX. Three days after his accesion, King Christian signed the new constitution which the Danish Parliament
had ratified before. It incorporated Schleswig into the kingdom of Denmark. This violation to the Treaty of London had its inmediately consecuences. Th Duke of Augustemburg had died but his son Frederik, who was the actual Duke, proclaimed himself Duke of Schleswig Holstein. He was inmediately supported by King Wilhelm I of Prussia, by his Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck and by the citizens of Schleswing and Holstein. But Bismarck's real plans were not to support forever the claims of the Duke of Augustemburg, but annex the duches to Prussia. With Austria as its aly, Prussia declared war to Denmark and the Austro-Prussian army occupied the duchies. King Christian was left alone before two great German powers. The whole Europe got along with his cause but nobody interfered in his favour.
The Danish troops were defeated at the battle of Duppel and al the Jutland penninsula was occupied by the Austro-German troops. On October 30, 1864 the Germans imposed an humilliant treaty to Denmark by which both duchies were ceded to Prussia and Austria. Later on in August 1865, by the treaty of Gasteim, Schleswig was annexed to Prussia and Hostein to Austria. A year later Bismarck got into war against Austria in order to annex Holstein to Prussia too.
King Christian became the best related monarch in Europe by his children' weddings. Of his six children, four were to seat in different European thrones. The eldest, Frederik, succeded him in 1906 as King of Denmark; the second son Vilhelm became King of Greece with the name of George I; Alexandra, the eldest daughter, married the Prince of Wales, the future King Edward VII of Great Britain; the second daughter, Dagmar, became Empress of Russia by her marriage with Tsar Alexander III. The last two children, Thyra and Waldemar, married Ernest of Hanover and Princess Marie of Orleans respectively. Thyra would eventually became the mother in law of Viktoria Luise of Prussia, Kaiser Wilhelm II's only daughter.
Queen Luise died on September 29,1898; Although she was mentaly alert to the very last, she was completely deaf, deafness which inherited her daughter Queen Alexandra.
On the morning of January 29, 1906, the old King Christian had audiences with umerous people, including the ninety-year-old actress Louisa Phister, with whom he chat for about an hour. His daughter Dagmar noticed he looked tired and she asked him if he was indeed. His answer was: "No, not at all, no more than an old man was allowed to be" (Aronson). After saying that, King Christian began to dance with his daughter around the room. Once they finished dancing, he anounced that he was going to look for a cigar; when he came back he looked pale and was breathing haevily. The doctore administrated a few drops, which made the King to feel better; he even joke with his son Waldemar. Dagmar was still worried and she left her father's room in order to write a note to her brother the Crown Prince. During her brief absence, King Christian died; he was about to be 88 years old.
At the outbreak of World War I, several of King Christian's grandchildren occupied thrones in Europe: King George V of Great Britain, Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, King Christian X of Denmark, King Haakon VII of Norway and his wife Queen Maud, and King Constantine I of Greece.