It will be the first birthday without the crown on her head for Margaret, queen of Denmark from 1972 to January 1, 2024, the date on which she surprised her subjects by announcing her abdication in favor of her son.
Beloved by her people, she is an eccentric, curious, highly cultured woman. She is independent and capable of thinking outside the box. Placed on the throne by his father with a revolutionary reform – when Frederik IX understood that after having had three girls with his wife, Queen Ingrid, it was difficult for him to have a son, he promoted a constitutional reform that would make his rise to power possible also to women – it remained there for over fifty years.
We retrace his life to tell you some curiosities through the most significant and… colorful images! Yes, because Margrethe has always had a rather lively and recognizable style, which earned her a place in the Guardian’s “50 over 50 best dressed” list in 2013. Imposing, at just six feet tall, she doesn’t go unnoticed with her outfits in the formal context of the meetings in which he participates. Her hairdo is rarely in place, because she never stooped to bonnets (like the late Elizabeth II) nor to hairpins, like Queen Consort Silvia of Sweden. Her mission in terms of fashion has always been different from her British “colleague”: not to reassure, but amaze. Like when she wore a brightly floral raincoat made from a recycled plastic picnic tablecloth, in support of recycling in fashion.
The first of three sisters
Margrethe was born on April 16, 1940; she is the eldest daughter of then Crown Prince Frederick and Ingrid of Sweden. Her birth is a cause for joy but it occurs a week before Nazi Germany’s invasion of Denmark; for this reason the little princess is greeted only by hoisting the national flags, without firing the usual 21 cannon shots. She is the first of three sisters; after her Benedetta and Anna Maria will be born (who will be queen of the Hellenic kingdom alongside Constantine II); for this reason his father, who became king with the name of Frederick IX, proposed a constitutional amendment in 1953 that allowed women to be part of the line of succession, because her daughter could become the first sovereign in Denmark since the time of Margaret I, who ruled over the Kalmar Union.
A queen graduate and passionate about art and archaeology
Margrethe was not meant to study at the Palace. Passionate about the ancient world and archaeology, she decided to study at various universities in Denmark, the United Kingdom and France: political science, law, sociology, economics.
In 1961 she arrived at Cambridge to study Archeology and here she was nicknamed Miss Dane; it is a passion “inherited” from his maternal grandfather, King Gustav VI Adolf of Sweden, an authority in the field, who over the years brought it with him during his visits to the excavations in Egypt and to the temples of Abu Simbel, preserved also thanks to Scandinavian funds.
The vice he never hid
Margrethe has always been a chain smoker. She often had a cigarette in her mouth even during guest receptions at the Palace and she never hid her habit or asked to be portrayed without a cigarette in her hand. A choice of transparency that the Danes appreciated.
An intrusive and talkative husband
Before becoming queen, she also managed to marry the man she loved, whom she met in 1965 during a master’s degree at the London School of Economics. This is the French Count Henri de Laborde de Monpezat, married in 1967 in Holmens Church in Copenhagen wearing an ivory silk dress designed by the royal couturier Jørgen Bender. “I could never have gotten married without being madly in love,” she declared. The couple had two sons, Prince Frederik (now king) and Prince Joachim, born in 1968 and 1969.
Problems arrive when Margrethe becomes queen – on January 15, 1972 – and her husband begins to suffer his position “one step behind” her. Thirty years later, when she asks her son to replace her at a diplomatic corps ball, her husband packs her bags and leaves; Henrik’s problem was simple: why if a woman marries a king does she become a queen and if a man marries a queen or future queen does he only become a prince consort? “I hope that one day men will have equal rights with women in the palace,” he said in an interview.
A law was proposed to make him “king” but the Folketing, the Parliament, rejected it, and so Henrik asked not to be buried next to his wife. A wish that was fulfilled upon his death on 13 February 2018.
Margrethe and the arts
The queen has always been a woman of culture and lover of the arts: she was a set and costume designer herself and has already seen her life staged in musicals Margaret. In 2012 the ARKEN museum exhibited around 130 of his works; he has designed sets and costumes for the Royal Danish Ballet, for a film and a Netflix production. Under the pseudonym Ingahild Grathmer, she illustrated an edition of The Lord of the Rings and with her husband she translated All men are mortal by Simone de Beauvoir.
Unpopular decisions
Queen Margaret of Denmark strips four of her grandchildren of their royal titles
by Eva Grippa
In September 2022, Queen Margrethe made a decision that made her unpopular in the family: she decided to remove the titles of princes and the treatment of Royal Highness from the four children of her second son, the principe Joachim. Officially to give them more freedom, in fact to “streamline” the costs of the monarchy.
Nikolai, Felix, Henrik and Athena, from that day on were demoted compared to Prince Frederik’s cousin children, (Christian, Isabella and the twins Vincent and Josephine) and became “simply” counts of Monpezat with the treatment of Excellency. In an interview with the tabloid Ekstra Bladet Margrethe explained her reasons: “For me it was very important that Frederik should not be the one to make this decision. Better if an old lady did it.”
Scandals at court
Margrethe has had her fair share of worries in her family. The latest scandal arises from the publication of a photo shoot in the Spanish newspaper Lecturas in which Prince Frederik of Denmark is seen walking in Madrid together with his alleged lover, Geneveva Casanova. Everything would have happened on October 25, 2023, but the scoop was launched in the middle of the state visit of the kings of Spain, Felipe II and Letizia, to Copenhagen, causing a lot of embarrassment.
Years earlier, however, there was another story: Prince Joachim was secretly in love with his sister-in-law Mary, wife of his brother Frederik. Another Spanish magazine, Vanitatis Elconfidentcial, wrote that Prince Joachim had developed an “embarrassing crush” on her sister-in-law and had even tried to kiss her in a “drunken moment” at a gala in the past. These were just insinuations, unconvincing photographic evidence had been provided.
The abdication
“On 14 January 2024, 52 years after succeeding my beloved father, I will step down as Queen of Denmark. I will leave the throne to my son, Crown Prince Frederik”: Queen Margrethe’s announcement during her traditional New Year speech shocked the Danes. According to commentators, she may have decided to leave the throne to Prince Frederik, her son, to save him from the scandal mentioned above regarding his alleged extramarital affair. Officially, the reason is another: the sovereign would have reflected on this choice during the period of convalescence following her back surgery, which took place in February 2023: “The operation gave rise to thoughts about the future, about the fact that the time to pass on responsibilities to the next generation.” Frederik X ascended the throne together with his wife, Queen Mary, beloved by the people and also by her mother-in-law.
Margrethe and fashion
Her eccentric taste and decidedly lively style earned her a place in the list of the “50 best dressed over 50s” compiled by the Guardian in 2013. Flowers, bright colours, original combinations of shades and prints… Margrethe has never bent to a classic style, not even moving forward with age.
His stile was defined by the creations of Erik Mortensen, Pierre Balmain’s right-hand man, Jørgen Bender, Mogens Eriksen and Birgitte Thaulow. All Danish, of course.
His wardrobe has become a book in 2012 – The queen’s clothes by Katia Johansen – and one too show. On the occasion of her 75th birthday, her most beautiful dresses were displayed at Frederiksborg Castle, near Copenhagen. Her style is still an inspiration today and Margrethe is defined as the “queen of perennial influencers”.
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#wishes #Margrethe #Denmark #influencer #queen #ceased #amaze
– 2024-04-16 11:23:43
