| Margrethe II | |
|---|---|
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| Reign | 14 January 1972 – present |
| Predecessor | Frederick IX |
| Heir apparent | Frederik, Crown Prince of Denmark |
| Prime Ministers | |
| Spouse | Henrik, Prince Consort of Denmark (1967–present) |
| Issue | |
| Crown Prince Frederik Prince Joachim |
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| Full name | |
| Margrethe Alexandrine Þórhildur Ingrid | |
| House | House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glucksburg [1] |
| Father | Frederick IX |
| Mother | Ingrid of Sweden |
| Born | 16 April 1940 Amalienborg Palace, Denmark |
| Religion | Lutheranism |
| Monarchical styles of Queen Margrethe II of Denmark |
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| Reference style | Her Majesty |
| Spoken style | Your Majesty |
| Alternative style | Ma'am |
Margrethe II (Danish pronunciation: [mɑˈg̊ʁæːˀd̥ə]; Margrethe Alexandrine Þórhildur Ingrid) (born 16 April 1940) is the Queen regnant of the Kingdom of Denmark. She is the eldest daughter of King Frederick IX and Queen Ingrid of Denmark. In 1967, she married Henri de Laborde de Monpezat, with whom she has two sons: Crown Prince Frederik (born 1968) and Prince Joachim (born 1969). When her father Frederick IX died in 1972, Margrethe succeeded him as Queen of Denmark and became the first female monarch of Denmark since Margaret I, ruler of the Scandinavian countries in 1375-1412 during the Kalmar Union.
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Princess Margrethe was born on 16 April 1940 at Amalienborg Palace in Copenhagen as the first child of Crown Prince Frederick and Crown Princess Ingrid of Denmark. Her father was the eldest son of King Christian X and Queen Alexandrine of Denmark, and her mother was the only daughter of Crown Prince Gustav Adolf and Crown Princess Margaret of Sweden. Her birth took place just one week after Nazi Germany's invasion of Denmark on 9 April 1940.
She was baptised on 14 May 1940 in the Church of Holmen in Copenhagen. The princess's godparents were King Christian X of Denmark, Prince Knud of Denmark, Prince Axel of Denmark, King Gustaf V of Sweden, Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf of Sweden, Prince Gustaf Adolf of Sweden and Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn.
She was named Margrethe after her maternal grandmother, Princess Margaret of Connaught, Alexandrine after her paternal grandmother, Duchess Alexandrine of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, and Ingrid after her mother. Since her paternal grandfather, the then-reigning King Christian X, was also the King of Iceland at the time, and Margrethe until 1944 was an Icelandic princess, the Princess was as a tribute to the people of Iceland given an Icelandic name, Þórhildur, consisting of "Thor" and the word for "battle" or "fight". The name is spelled with the thorn letter, which is a surviving rune, and is equivalent to "th". It is sometimes anglicized as Thorhildur.[2]
When Margrethe was four years old, in 1944, her first sister Princess Benedikte was born. She later married Prince Richard of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg and lives in Germany. Her third sister Princess Anne Marie was born in 1946. She later married Constantine II of Greece and now lives in London.
On 20 April 1947, King Christian X died and Margrethe's father ascended the throne as King Frederick IX.
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 she had no brothers, it was assumed that her uncle Prince Knud would one day assume the throne.
The process of changing the constitution started in 1947, not long after her 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. That proposal had to be passed by two Parliaments in succession and then by a referendum, which was held on 27 March 1953. The new Act of Succession permitted female succession to the throne of Denmark, according to male-preference primogeniture, where a female can ascend to the throne only if she does not have a brother. Princess Margrethe therefore became the Heiress presumptive.
On her eighteenth birthday, 16 April 1958, the Heiress Presumptive was given a seat in the Council of State, and the Princess subsequently chaired the meetings of the Council in the absence of the King.
In mid-1960, together with the Princesses of Sweden and Norway, she traveled to the United States, which included a visit to Los Angeles, California, and to the Paramount Studios, where they were met by several celebrities, including Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis and Elvis Presley.
She studied prehistoric archaeology at Girton College, Cambridge during 1960–61, political science at Aarhus University between 1961–1962, at the Sorbonne in 1963, and at the London School of Economics in 1965, and is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London.
Queen Margrethe is fluent in her native tongue, Danish; the native tongue of her husband, French; as well as English, Swedish and German.[3]
On 10 June 1967, Princess Margrethe married a French diplomat, Count Henri de Laborde de Monpezat, at the Church of Holmen in Copenhagen. 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 Heiress Presumptive to the Danish throne.
Margrethe gave birth to her first child, Prince Frederik, on 26 May 1968. A second child, Prince Joachim, was born on 7 June 1969.
Shortly after King Frederik IX had delivered his New Year's Address to the Nation at the 1971/72 turn of the year, he fell ill. At his death 14 days later on 14 January 1972, Margrethe succeeded to the throne as Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, becoming the first female Danish sovereign under the new Act of Succession. She was proclaimed Queen from the balcony of Christiansborg Palace by Prime Minister Jens Otto Krag on 15 January 1972. The Queen chose the motto: God's help, the love of The People, Denmark's strength.[4]
After an election where the incumbent Prime Minister does not have a majority behind him, a “Dronningerunde” (Queen's meeting) between the chairmen of each of the Danish political parties attends a meeting with the monarch.
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 government as is.
In theory each party could choose its own leader as Royal Investigator, the globalistic party Det Radikale Venstre did so 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. (It has never happened in more modern history that any party has held a majority on its own.)
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HM The Queen HRH Princess Benedikte Extended royal family
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Once the government has been formed, it is formally appointed by the Queen. Officially, it is the Queen who is the head of government, and she therefore presides over the Council of State, where the acts of legislation which have been passed by the parliament are signed into law. In practice, however, nearly all of the Queen's formal powers are exercised by the Council of State, and she is required by convention to act on its advice.
The Queen's main tasks are to represent the Kingdom abroad and to be a unifying figurehead at home. The queen performs the latter task by accepting invitations to open exhibitions, attending anniversaries, inaugurating bridges, etc. As an unelected public official, the Queen takes no part in party politics and does not express any political opinions. Although she has the right to vote, she opts not to do so to avoid even the appearance of partisanship.
In addition to her roles in her own country, the queen is also the Colonel-in-Chief of the Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment (Queen's and Royal Hampshires), an infantry regiment of the British Army, following a tradition in her family.
The official residences of the Queen and the Prince Consort are Amalienborg Palace and Fredensborg Palace in Copenhagen. Their summer residence is Gråsten Palace near Sønderborg, the former home of the Queen's mother, Queen Ingrid, who died in 2000.
The Queen is an accomplished painter, and has held many art shows over the years [5]. Her illustrations—under the pseudonym Ingahild Grathmer—were used for the Danish edition of The Lord of the Rings published in 1977 and the re-issue in 2002[6]. In 2000 she illustrated Henrik, the Prince Consort's poetry collection Cantabile.
She is also an accomplished translator and is said to have participated in the Danish translation of The Lord of the Rings[7].
She is also a costume designer, having designed the costumes for the 2009 Peter Flinth film, "De vilde svaner" (the Wild Swans).[8] Margrethe also designs some of her own clothes.
Margrethe is a chain smoker, and she is famous for her tobacco habit.[9] However, on 23 November 2006 the Danish newspaper B.T. reported an announcement from the Royal Court stating that the Queen would never again be seen smoking in public. Still, she does continue to smoke but in the future she will do so only privately. The announcement may be due to the fact that the Danish parliament recently has decided on strict rules concerning smoking.[10]
She suffers from arthritis and has had both her knees replaced as a result.
A statement in a 2005 authorized biography about the Queen (entitled Margrethe) focused on her views of Islam: "We are being challenged by Islam these years. Globally as well as locally. There is something impressive about people for whom religion imbues their existence, from dusk to dawn, from cradle to grave. There are also Christians who feel this way. There is something endearing about people who give themselves up completely to their faith. But there is likewise something frightening about such a totality, which also is a feature of Islam. A counterbalance has to be found, and one has to, at times, run the risk of having unflattering labels placed on you. For there are some things for which one should display no tolerance. And when we are tolerant, we must know whether it is because of convenience or conviction."[11]
The Queen and The Prince Consort have two children and seven grandchildren:
In 2008 the Queen announced that her male-line descendants would bear the additional title of Count of Monpezat,[12] which they inherit from the Queen's husband and consort, Henri-Marie-Jean André Count de Laborde de Monpezat.[13]
She is the 1,188th Dame of the Order of the Golden Fleece in Spain and the 961st Knight/Lady of the Order of the Garter.
| Patrilineal descent |
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Margrethe's patriline is the line from which she is descended father to son. Patrilineal descent is the principle behind membership in royal houses, as it can be traced back through the generations—which means that if Margrethe II were to choose an historically accurate house name it would be Oldenburg.
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Margrethe II
Cadet branch of the House of Oldenburg
Born: 16 April 1940 |
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| Regnal titles | ||
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| Preceded by Frederick IX |
Queen of Denmark 1972–present |
Incumbent Heir apparent: Frederik |
| British royalty | ||
| Preceded by Count Carl Johan Bernadotte of Wisborg |
Line of succession to the British throne | Succeeded by Frederik, Crown Prince of Denmark |
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