By Stewart Carr and Harry Howard, History Correspondent
17:34 31 Dec 2023, up to date 18:55 31 Dec 2023
- Denmark’s Queen Margrethe II will step down on January 14 after a 52-year reign
Denmark’s Queen Margrethe II will abdicate on January 14 subsequent yr after 52 years on the throne, she introduced throughout her conventional New Year’s Eve speech.
The monarch, famed for her chain-smoking in addition to her flamboyant sense of favor, will likely be succeeded by her eldest son Crown Prince Frederik.
The 83-year-old queen, who took over the throne in 1972, is the longest-serving monarch in Europe following the loss of life of Queen Elizabeth II in September 2022.
In February, she underwent a profitable again surgical procedure.
‘The surgical procedure naturally gave rise to serious about the longer term – whether or not the time had come to depart the duty to the following era,’ she stated in her speech.
‘I’ve determined that now could be the precise time. On January 14, 2024, 52 years after I succeeded my beloved father, I’ll step down as Queen of Denmark.
‘I depart the throne to my son, Crown Prince Frederik.’
The Danish Royal Family has been rocked by rumours in recent weeks – after pictures emerged of Crown Prince Frederik having fun with an evening out with Mexican socialite Genoveva Casanova in Madrid in October.
Despite the swirling rumours of the alleged ‘affair’, Crown Prince Frederik, 55, and his Australian-born spouse Crown Princess Mary 51, made a present of unity as they headed into Aarhus cathedral on Sunday, December 24.
In Denmark, formal energy resides with the elected parliament and its authorities. The monarch is anticipated to remain above partisan politics, representing the nation with conventional duties starting from state visits to nationwide day celebrations.
Born in 1940, Margrethe has all through her life loved broad assist from Danes, who’re keen on her tactful and but artistic persona.
The monarch hit the headlines final yr when she eliminated royal titles from the 4 youngsters of her younger son Prince Joachim.
She loved a detailed relationship along with her third cousin Queen Elizabeth II, each descendants of Queen Victoria, having bonded throughout a number of state visits to one another’s international locations down the many years – most lately in 2000, when Margrethe was obtained at Windsor.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen confirmed the choice in a information launch that paid tribute to the 83-year-old monarch, providing a ‘heartfelt thanks to Her Majesty the Queen for her lifelong dedication and tireless efforts for the Kingdom’.
Margrethe is the ‘epitome of Denmark’ Ms Frederiksen’s assertion learn, and ‘all through the years has put phrases and emotions into who we’re as a folks and as a nation’.
The six-feet-tall Margrethe has been some of the well-liked public figures in Denmark. She typically walked the streets of Copenhagen nearly unescorted and received the admiration of Danes for her heat manners and for her abilities as a linguist and designer.
A eager skier, she was a member of a Danish girls’s air pressure unit as a princess, participating in judo programs and endurance checks within the snow.
In 2011, at age 70, she visited Danish troops in southern Afghanistan sporting a navy jumpsuit.
As monarch, she crisscrossed the nation and frequently visited Greenland and the Faeroe Islands, the 2 semi-independent territories that are a part of the Danish Realm, and was met in all places by cheering crowds.
Denmark has Europe’s oldest ruling monarchy, which traces its line again to the Viking king Gorm the Old, who died in 958. Although Margrethe is head of state, the Danish Constitution strictly dominated out her involvement in occasion politics.
Margrethe was born on April 16, 1940, per week after Nazi Germany had invaded Denmark. The occupation meant that the little princess turned an emblem of hope for the Danes.
She ascended the throne on January 15, 1972, after the loss of life of her father.
But, though she was his eldest little one, she didn’t grow to be inheritor presumptive till 1953, when Denmark’s structure was amended to permit girls to inherit the throne.
That adopted a referendum by which greater than 85 per cent of members voted to permit feminine succession.
She was married in 1967 to a Frenchman, Henri Marie Jean André de Laborde de Monpezat, later styled as Prince Henrik. They had two sons, Prince Frederick and Prince Joachim.
Despite having fun with an extended marriage of fifty years, her relationship with Henrik was plagued with controversy. Henrik surprised Danes by saying he felt he had been pushed apart in his personal home by his spouse.
Prince Henrik died in 2018 aged 83.
On the day she turned monarch, she appeared on the balcony of Denmark’s Christiansborg Palace and pledged her allegiance to the nation.
Wearing a black veil and robe adorned with the regalia of the Order of the Elephant and her father King Frederick IX’s Family Order hooked up to her robe, the 31-year-old monarch said: ‘My beloved father, our King, is useless.
‘The process that my father had carried for practically 25 years is now resting on my shoulders. I pray to God to present me assist and energy to hold the heavy heritage. May the belief that was given to my father even be granted to me.’
Becoming the primary queen of Denmark since Margrethe I within the early Fifteenth-century, the monarch blazed a path that continues to this present day.
A well-liked queen, she is named the ‘folks’s monarch’ due to the truth that, in addition to doing her personal buying, she has a flourishing profession as an illustrator and designer and, till 2015, defied conference by lighting up in public.
In 2021, it was introduced she had been employed because the set designer for a Netflix movie the place she would design the units for an adaptation of a romantic fantasy novel by Out of Africa’s Karen Blixen, considered one of Denmark’s most internationally recognised feminine authors.
Margrethe has additionally studied at 5 universities and is a dedicated anglophile.
She spent a yr at North Foreland Lodge boarding college in Hampshire, and went on to review prehistoric archaeology at Girton College, Cambridge.
The then princess additionally studied on the London School of Economics in 1965.
Speaking in an interview to mark the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee final June, Margrethe advised how the Queen had made an ‘huge impression’ on her, due to the way in which she has ‘confronted her duties, the way in which she is devoted but additionally that she does it with a smile.’
The pair are stated to have used nicknames for one another, with the Queen calling her Danish counterpart ‘Daisy’ and Margrethe utilizing ‘Lilibet’ – the identify utilized by her closest household.
Margrethe is named ‘Daisy’ or ‘aunt Daisy’ as a result of the flower of the identical identify is named ‘marguerite’ in each Sweden and Denmark.
Both monarchs additionally shared a love of dogs, with the Queen being well-known for her love of corgis – having had greater than 30 in her life – and Margrethe favouring Dachshunds.
Queen Margrethe was associated to Her Late Majesty by means of Queen Victoria, whose third son Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught, was Margrethe’s great-grandfather and Her Majesty’s great-uncle.
Margrethe’s House of Glücksburg and the House of Windsor are additionally linked by Margrethe’s great-great-grandfather, Christian IX.
His daughter, Alexandra, married Edward VII, the eldest son of Queen Victoria.
He was the Queen’s great-grandfather and King Charles III’s great-great-grandfather.
Her Majesty visited Denmark for the primary time in 1957, when Margrethe’s dad and mom – King Frederick IX and Queen Ingrid have been on the throne.
Her second journey in 1979 is remembered for the awkward second when a Danish soldier was thrown from his horse throughout the parade in Copenhagen – and Her Majesty broke right into a smile.
Margrethe clapped her hand to her mouth in embarrassment, however couldn’t assist betraying a smile too.
Another hussar then had bother controlling his steed and it galloped up from the rear of the troupe earlier than prancing across the royal coach.
Thankfully, the remainder of the go to handed with none additional drama.
When Margrethe visited Britain in 1974, the Queen greeted her with a joke, saying: ‘There as soon as was a time when information of Danes arriving on our east coast was something however excellent news.’
