Margrethe II is a member of the Danish royal family who reigned as Queen of Denmark from 14 January 1972 until her abdication on 14 January 2024. Having reigned for exactly 52 years, she was the second-longest reigning Danish monarch after Christian IV.
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Margrethe II (Danish: [mɑˈkʁeˀtə]; Margrethe Alexandrine Þórhildur Ingrid, born 16 April 1940) is a member of the Danish royal family who reigned as Queen of Denmark from 14 January 1972 until her abdication on 14 January 2024. Having reigned for exactly 52 years, she was the second-longest reigning Danish monarch after Christian IV.
Margrethe was born into the House of Glücksburg, a cadet branch of the House of Oldenburg, during the reign of her paternal grandfather, King Christian X. She is the eldest child of King Frederik IX and Queen Ingrid. She became heir presumptive to her father in 1953, when a constitutional amendment allowed women to inherit the throne. In 1967, she married Henri de Laborde de Monpezat, with whom she had two sons, Frederik and Joachim. Margrethe succeeded her father upon his death in January 1972.
Margrethe has worked as a scenographer, a costume designer, and an illustrator of works by J. R. R. Tolkien. Support for the monarchy in Denmark, alongside her personal popularity, gradually rose throughout the course of her reign, attaining around eighty percent by the time of her abdication. She was succeeded by her elder son, Frederik X.
Early life and education[edit]
Margrethe was born on 16 April 1940 at 10:10 CET at Frederik VIII's Palace, in her parents' residence at Amalienborg, the principal residence of the Danish royal family in the district of Frederiksstaden in central Copenhagen.[2] She was the first child of Crown Prince Frederik (later King Frederik IX) and Crown Princess Ingrid (later Queen Ingrid). Her father was the elder son of the then-reigning King Christian X, while her mother was the only daughter of Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf of Sweden (later King Gustaf VI Adolf). Margrethe's birth took place just one week after Nazi Germany's invasion of Denmark on 9 April 1940.[3]
Princess Margrethe was baptised on 14 May in the Holmen Church in Copenhagen.[4] Her godparents were her grandfathers, King Christian X of Denmark and Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf of Sweden; her maternal great-grandfathers, King Gustaf V of Sweden and Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn; her uncles Prince Knud of Denmark and Prince Gustaf Adolf, Duke of Västerbotten; as well as her first cousin twice removed, Prince Axel of Denmark.[2] She was named Margrethe – the Danish variation of her late maternal grandmother Crown Princess Margareta of Sweden's name – Alexandrine after her paternal grandmother, Queen Alexandrine, and Ingrid after her mother. Since her paternal grandfather was also King of Iceland at the time of her birth, she was given the Icelandic name Þórhildur.[5] Like her maternal grandmother, Margrethe is known affectionately as "Daisy" to her family and close friends.[6]
The birth of Margrethe's younger sisters Benedikte and Anne-Marie followed in 1944 and 1946 respectively. The princesses grew up in apartments at Frederik VIII's Palace at Amalienborg in Copenhagen and in Fredensborg Palace in North Zealand. Margrethe spent summer holidays with the royal family in her parents' summer residence at Gråsten Palace in Southern Jutland. On 20 April 1947, following the death of Christian X, Margrethe's father ascended the throne as Frederik IX.[7]
Education[edit]
Margrethe was educated at the private school N. Zahle's School in Copenhagen, from which she graduated in 1959. She spent a year at North Foreland Lodge, a boarding school for girls in Hampshire, England,[8] and later studied prehistoric archaeology at Girton College, Cambridge, during 1960–1961, political science at Aarhus University between 1961 and 1962, attended the Sorbonne in 1963, and was at the London School of Economics in 1965.[citation needed] She is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London.[3]
Margrethe is fluent in Danish, French, English, Swedish and German, and has a limited knowledge of Faroese.[citation needed]
Heir presumptive[edit]
At the time of her birth, only males could ascend the throne of Denmark, owing to the changes in succession laws enacted in the 1850s when the Glücksburg branch was chosen to succeed. As Margrethe had no brothers, it was assumed that her uncle Prince Knud would one day assume the throne.[9]
The process of changing the constitution started in 1947, not long after Margrethe's father ascended the throne and it became clear that Queen Ingrid would have no more children. The popularity of Frederik and his daughters and the more prominent role of women in Danish life started the complicated process of altering the constitution. The law required that the proposal be passed by two successive Parliaments and then by a referendum, which occurred on 27 March 1953. The new Act of Succession permitted female succession to the throne of Denmark, according to male-preference cognatic primogeniture, where a female can ascend to the throne only if she does not have a brother. Princess Margrethe therefore became heir presumptive.[3] In 2009, the law of succession was modified into absolute primogeniture.[10]
Margrethe attended the traditional New Year Courts for the first time in 1956.[2] On her eighteenth birthday, 16 April 1958, Margrethe was given a seat in the Council of State. She subsequently chaired the meetings of the Council in the absence of the King.[3] In 1960, together with her first cousin, Princess Margaretha of Sweden, and Princess Astrid of Norway, she travelled to the United States, which included a visit to Los Angeles, and to the Paramount Studios, where they met several celebrities, including Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis and Elvis Presley.[11]
She paid her first visit to the Faroe Islands in 1959, alongside her parents and sisters, and to Greenland in 1960.[2]
Marriage and family[edit]
While Margrethe studied in London, she met the French diplomat, Henri de Laborde de Monpezat, who was legation secretary at the French Embassy in London. Their engagement was announced on 5 October 1966. They were married on 10 June 1967, at the Holmen Church in Copenhagen, and the wedding reception was held at Fredensborg Palace.[3] Laborde de Monpezat received the style and title of "His Royal Highness Prince Henrik of Denmark" because of his new position as the spouse of the heir presumptive to the Danish throne.[3] They were married for over fifty years, until his death on 13 February 2018.[3]
Less than a year after the wedding, Margrethe gave birth to her first child, a son, on 26 May 1968. By tradition, Danish kings were alternately named either Frederik or Christian. She chose to maintain this by assuming the position of a Christian, and thus named her elder son Frederik. The following year, a second child, named Joachim, was born on 7 June 1969.[3]
In 1974, she and Henrik purchased Château de Cayx in the wine district of Cahors in Southern France.[2]
Margrethe announced in 2008 that her male-line descendants would bear the additional title of Count or Countess of Monpezat in recognition of her husband's ancestry.[12]
In 2022, the Queen announced that, from the start of 2023, the descendants of Prince Joachim will only be able to use their titles of Count and Countess of Monpezat, their previous titles of Prince and Princess of Denmark ceasing to exist. To allow the children, who were never expected to hold an official role within the royal family, to have normal lives, the Queen wanted "to create a framework for the four grandchildren, to a much greater degree, to be able to shape their own existence without being limited by the special considerations and obligations that a formal affiliation with the Royal House as an institution implies".[13] Her son, Joachim, daughter-in-law, Marie, former daughter-in-law, Alexandra, and eldest grandson, Nikolai, publicly expressed shock and confusion because of the decision,[14] after which Margrethe released a statement in which she said that it saddened her that she had upset Joachim's family.[15]
Along with her late husband, Margrethe has kept dachshunds since the 1970s.[2] She currently has one dog, the dachshund Tilia, who was Prince Henrik's dog until his death in 2018.
Reign[edit]
Accession[edit]
Shortly after King Frederik IX delivered his New Year's Address to the Nation at the 1971/72 turn of the year, he fell ill, and died 14 days later on 14 January 1972. Margrethe succeeded to the throne at the age of 31, becoming the first female Danish sovereign under the new Act of Succession. She was proclaimed Queen from the balcony of Christiansborg Palace the following day by Prime Minister Jens Otto Krag. She chose to be known as Margrethe II — the regnal number taken in recognition of the 14th century Danish regent, Margrethe, who was publicly known as "Queen Margrethe" despite never being crowned.[2]
The Queen chose the motto: "God's help, the love of the people, Denmark's strength" (Danish: Guds hjælp, folkets kærlighed, Danmarks styrke).[citation needed] She relinquished all the monarch's former titles except the title to Denmark, hence her style "By the Grace of God, Queen of Denmark" (Danish: Margrethe den Anden, af Guds Nåde Danmarks Dronning).
Constitutional role[edit]
The Queen's main tasks were to represent the Kingdom abroad and to be a unifying figure at home. She performs the latter by opening exhibitions, attending anniversaries and inaugurating bridges, among other things. She receives foreign ambassadors and awards honours and medals.
As a constitutional sovereign, Margrethe took no part in party politics and does not express any political opinions. Although she had the right to vote, she opted not to do so to avoid even the appearance of partisanship.[3]
The Queen held a meeting with the prime minister and the foreign affairs minister every Wednesday, unless either she or the prime minister was outside of the kingdom.
After an election where the incumbent prime minister does not have a majority behind him or her, the Queen held a "Dronningerunde" (Queen's meeting) in which she met the chairmen of each of the Danish political parties.[16]
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Each party has the choice of selecting a royal investigator to lead these negotiations or alternatively, give the incumbent prime minister the mandate to continue his or her government as is. In theory each party could choose its own leader as royal investigator, as the social liberal Det Radikale Venstre did in 2006, but often only one royal investigator is chosen plus the prime minister, before each election. The leader who, at that meeting succeeds in securing a majority of the seats in the Folketing, is by royal decree charged with the task of forming a new government. (No party has held an absolute majority in the Folketing since 1903.)
Once the government had been formed, it was formally appointed by the Queen. Officially, it was the Queen who was the head of state, and she therefore presided over the Council of State (privy council), where the acts of legislation which have been passed by the parliament are signed into law. In practice, nearly all of the Queen's formal powers were exercised by the Cabinet of Denmark.
It was customary for Margrethe as the Danish monarch to host annual New Year levées. Every year on 1 January, a banquet was held for the government, the Speaker of the Danish Parliament, representatives of official Denmark and the Royal Court at Christian VIII's Palace at Amalienborg. On day two, a levée was held at Christian VIII's Palace for the justices of Supreme Court of Denmark and the Officer Corps of The Royal Life Guards and The Guard Hussar Regiment, followed by a levée at Christiansborg Palace for the diplomatic corps. On day three, a levée was held for officers from the Defence and the Danish Emergency Management Agency, the I., II. and III. ranking classes as well as invited representatives of major national organisations and the royal patronages.[17]
Official duties[edit]
Up to the end of her reign, Margrethe held 72 Danish and 8 foreign patronages as queen, including Aarhus Festuge, ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum, DaneAge Association, Danes Worldwide, the Danish Animal Welfare Society, the Danish Cancer Society, Den Gamle By, Det Classenske Fideicommis, the Danish Bible Society, Det Kongelige Vajsenhus, Diakonissestiftelsen, Foreningen Norden, Land of Legends (Sagnlandet Lejre), M/S Maritime Museum of Denmark, Moesgaard Museum, National Olympic Committee and Sports Confederation of Denmark, Nyborg Slot, Rebild National Park, the Royal Danish Academy of Music, Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, Royal Danish Yacht Club, Rungstedlund Foundation, Sankt Lukas Stiftelsen, Vallø stift and Vemmetofte.[18]
A pillar of her reign was an intricate knowledge of and connection to all parts of the Danish Realm. In 2016, she contributed to a book about Denmark's history.[19]
Until her abdication, Margrethe served as colonel-in-chief of the Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment, an infantry regiment of the British Army, following a tradition dating back to 1906 when Edward VII, married to Alexandra of Denmark, appointed his brother-in-law, Frederik VIII of Denmark, colonel-in-chief of the then Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment).[3][20][21]
As sovereign, Margrethe received 42 official state visits and she undertook 55 foreign state visits herself. She and the royal family have made several other foreign visits.[22][23]
Residences[edit]
As queen, her official residences were Amalienborg (where she resides at Christian IX's Palace) in Copenhagen and Fredensborg Palace near Hillerød. Her summer residences were Marselisborg Palace[24] near Aarhus and Gråsten Palace[25] near Sønderborg, the former home of her mother, Queen Ingrid, who died in 2000.[2
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