Stig's picture of Karen Blixen with her friend and cousin, who committed suicide, sent me on an interesting journey into the Krag-Juel-Vind-Frijs family. Writer Arne Handberg-Jakobsen published in 2014 a "historical" novel "Countess Daisy" which is an interesting reflection of Danish society of that time. And what was expected from aristocratic women. Did she commit suicide or die of a drug overdose as a drug addict? Neither outcomes were acceptable to society, but they chose to call it suicide. Her father had all her letters, pictures, etc. destroyed, so little remained. I don't know how much of the truth is in this novel, but it is fascinating reading. Thank you, Stig -- always a trail leading into uncharted territory from your posts!
A bit odd for a noble family to have four names, isn't it? It seems that they added a couple of names from extinct noble families.
I can not give you a clear answer, but two things come to mind. Karen's husband, Bror von Blixen-Finecke, whom she had married in 1914, was a step-grandson of Queen Alexandra's maternal aunt Princess Augusta of Hessen-Kassel.
Queen Alexandra and Karen's mutual connections to the noble Krag-Juel-Vind-Frijs family might well have played a role, too. Karen and Bror were both closely related to this family, which was one of the richest and most prominent in the Danish aristocracy. In 1916, Bror's uncle, Count Mogens K-J-V-F, would have been head of this family who resided at Frijsenborg manor. Karen was a close friend of his daughters, who were also her own second cousins. Mogens K-J-V-F was married to Countess Fritze Danneskiold-Samsøe, whose mother was almost like a sister to Queen Alexandra, as she had lived with the royal family in Copenhagen as a child. Furthermore, King Edward was a friend of Mogens K-J-V-F, and while still Prince of Wales, he and Alexandra paid a visit to Frijsenborg in 1897. In 1913 Queen Alexandra returned to Frijsenborg with her sister Dagmar.
A photo of Karen Blixen (right) with her close friend and second cousin Countess Daisy Krag-Juel-Vind-Frijs a few years before she (Daisy) took her own life:
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