Eccentricities of Kings - Rosenborg Castle

We had a guided tour of the Rosenborg Castle.  It was built in the early 1600s by King Christen IV (who did a lot of the building around Copenhagen and subsequently drained the royal coffers).  It was a royal residence for about 100 years (through 4 monarchs) and was then turned into a royal museum by one of the kings who wanted to preserve all of the treasures the monarchy had acquired.

This was the kings reception room.  It was covered with paintings.  It was funny to learn that most of the paintings were not done to fill this space, but were purchased from the artists and then cut into smaller pieces to fit in the framed niches that covered the walls of the room.  Apparently if you are diligent enough, you can piece these all together by looking in rooms throughout the palace and finding which pieces belong to different larger works. 

You can see one square that is off from the rest.  The tile can be lifted off to allow the sound of a musical ensemble in the basement to be 'mysteriously' heard in the room.  The king used this to impress his visitors. 

King Christen IV (in Roman attire just like some of the statues we saw in London).

All of the King Christians (I-IX?) used this marking of a C with their number in the center.

Our guide told us a story about Christen IV and how he was often going to war (but seldom winning).  In one sea battle with the Swedes he was close to a shell explosion and lost his right eye.  He bled all over, but wrapped the wound and kept fighting (and lived).  In the display case are the clothes he was wearing during the battle, complete with his blood.  He preserved these himself so his people would know how brave he was. 

In all of his portraits after the battle, the right side of his disfigured face is never shown.

There were two wax figures of Christen IV and his wife in their own historical clothing.  The guide noted that her clothing was considerably larger than what fit on the wax sculpture.  Apparently she wanted to appear thinner than she actually was. 

She is portrayed as more heavy in her portrait. 

This is a very poor picture of a "trick" chair the king used on courtiers who were out of favor.  It had a reserve where water could be stored and then released, making it look like whoever was sitting there had wet their pants.  When they would rise from the seat it would make farting noises (original version of a whoopy cushion??)  This was a bit warped for kingly humor to me, but whatever...

The white throne was made of whale bone, but at the tie the spiral pillars on the sides of the backrest were said to be "unicorn horn"

This is one of three lions.  The Royal coat of arms of Denmark has three lions.  When a monarch dies, they are placed around their remains when they are being viewed before burial.