Prince Aage, Count of Rosenborg

Prince Aage, Count of Rosenborg, (Aage Christian Alexander Robert; June 10, 1887 – February 19, 1940) was a Danish prince and officer of the French Foreign Legion. He was born in Copenhagen the eldest child and son of Prince Valdemar of Denmark and Princess Marie d'Orléans.

Romance and marriage
Prince Aage carried on a passionate flirtation with Princess Marie Bonaparte, the wife of his cousin Prince George of Greece and Denmark, who had also enjoyed intimacies with his father. In neither case does it appear that Prince George objected, or felt obliged to give the matter any attention. In 1909 Prince Aage joined the Danish Army, and by 1913 had risen to the rank of lieutenant. During World War I he served as an observer in Italy for a year. Returning home to Denmark he was promoted to captain.

Without the legally required permission of the Danish king, Aage married Matilda Calvi dei conti di Bergolo (Buenos Aires, 17 September 1885 – Copenhagen, 16 October 1949), daughter of Carlo Giorgio Lorenzo Calvi, 5th Count di Bergolo by his wife Baroness Anna Guidobono Calvalchini Roero San Severino, in Turin on 1 February 1914. A few days later, he renounced his place in the line of succession to the Danish throne, forfeiting the title "Prince of Denmark" and the style of Royal Highness (the latter having only been granted to him and his brothers by the king on 5 February 1904). With the king's authorisation, he assumed the title "Prince Aage, Greve af (Count of) Rosenborg" and the style of Highness on 5 February 1914. Although the comital title in the Danish nobility was made hereditary for all of his legitimate descendants in the male line with the rank and precedence (above other counts) of a Lensgreve, use of the princely prefix was restricted to himself and his wife alone. Aage and Mathilde had one son before their divorce in 1939:
 * Valdemar Alexander Georg Luigi Maria, Count of Rosenborg (Turin, 3 January 1915 – Paris, 1 April 1995), married at Villefranche-sur-Mer, Nice, on 20 April 1949 Floria, Baronne d'Huart-Saint-Mauris (Paris, 10 August 1925 – Paris, 20 August 1995), (divorced from Charles Emmanuel, Count de La Rochefoucauld-Montbel, died 30 January 2000), without issue.

Foreign Legion
In 1922, Aage received permission from the King, as required by Danish law, to leave the Danish army in order to join the French Foreign Legion. After negotiations between the Danish and the French governments Prince Aage entered the Foreign Legion with the rank of captain.

He was sent to Morocco as part of the French involvement in the Rif War within a year of service. He received the Croix de Guerre after being shot in the left leg. During his seventeen years in the Foreign Legion Prince Aage attained the rank of lieutenant colonel, and also received France's highest order, the Légion d'honneur.

In 1927 he published the book "A royal adventurer" in English about his time in the Foreign Legion.

Death
Prince Aage died of pleurisy in Taza, Morocco, in 1940, and was buried at the French Foreign Legion's headquarters at Sidi Bel Abbès, Algeria.

Before the Foreign Legion left Algeria in 1962, it was decided that the remains of three selected soldiers should be buried near the new headquarters of the Foreign Legion at Aubagne in southern France. The remains of Prince Aage were selected as the representation of the foreign officers in the Foreign Legion. His remains now lie next to those of Général Paul-Frédéric Rollet (known as the Father of the Legion) and Légionnaire Zimmermann in the town of Puyloubier, France.

Titles and styles

 * 10 June 1887 – 4 February 1904: His Highness Prince Aage of Denmark
 * 5 February 1904 – 4 February 1914: His Royal Highness Prince Aage of Denmark
 * 5 February 1914 - 29 February 1940: His Highness Prince Aage, Count of Rosenborg