Who is Queen Margrethe II of Denmark?

Princess Margrethe was born 16 April 1940 at Frederik VIII's Palace, her parents residence at the Amalienborg palace complex, the principal residence of the Danish royal family in the district of Frederiksstaden in central Copenhagen. 

Foto: Steen Brogaard, Kongehuset

Family

She was the first child of the Crown Prince and Crown Princess (later King Frederick IX and Queen Ingrid). Her father was the elder son of the then-reigning King Christian X, while her mother was the only daughter of the Crown Prince of Sweden (later King Gustaf VI Adolf). Her birth took place just one week after Nazi Germany's invasion of Denmark on 9 April 1940.

Margrethe was baptised on 14 May in the Holmen Church in Copenhagen.
The Princess's godparents were: 

King Christian X (paternal grandfather);
Hereditary Prince Knud (paternal uncle);
Prince Axel (her paternal grandfather's first cousin);
King Gustaf V of Sweden (maternal great-grandfather);
Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf of Sweden (maternal grandfather);
Prince Gustaf Adolf, Duke of Västerbotten (her maternal uncle);
Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn (maternal great-grandfather).

She was named Margrethe after her late maternal grandmother, Crown Princess Margaret of Sweden, Alexandrine after her paternal grandmother, Queen Alexandrine, and Ingrid after her mother. Since her paternal grandfather was also the King of Iceland, she was given the Icelandic name Þórhildur.

When Margrethe was four years old, in 1944, her younger sister Princess Benedikte was born. Princess Benedikte later married Prince Richard of Sayn-Wittgenstein- Berleburg and lives now some of the time in Germany. Her second sister, Princess Anne-Marie, was born in 1946. Anne-Marie later married
King Constantine II of the Hellenes and currently lives in Greece.

Margrethe and her sisters grew up in apartments at Frederick VIII's Palace at Amalienborg in Copenhagen and in Fredensborg Palace in North Zealand. She spent summer holidays with the royal family in her parent's summer residence at Gråsten Palace in Southern Jutland. 

On 20 April 1947, King Christian X died and Margrethe's father ascended the throne as King Frederick IX. Margrethe is known affectionately as "Daisy".

When she was born, 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.

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 Frederick 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 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.

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.

In 1960, together with the princesses of Sweden and 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.

Education

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,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.She is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London.

Margrethe is fluent in Danish, French, English, Swedish and German, and has a limited knowledge of Faroese as well. 

Love and Marriage

Princess Margrethe married a French diplomat, Henri de Laborde de Monpezat, on June 10, 1967, at the Holmen Church in Copenhagen. Laborde de Monpezat received the style and title of "His Royal Highness Prince Henrik of Denmark"  

Margrethe gave birth to her first child 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 eldest son Frederik. A second child, named Joachim, was born on 7 June 1969.

Queen of Denmark

Shortly after King Frederick IX 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, 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 15 January 1972 by Prime Minister Jens Otto Krag. Queen Margrethe II 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). The Queen chose the motto: God's help, the love of The People, Denmark's strength. 

In her first address to the people, Queen Margrethe II said:

My beloved father, our King, is dead. The task that my father had carried for nearly 25 years is now resting on my shoulders. I pray to God to give me help and strength to carry the heavy heritage. May the trust that was given to my father also be granted to me.

On her accession, Queen Margrethe II became the first female monarch of Denmark since Margrethe I, ruler of the Scandinavian countries in 1375‒1412, during the Kalmar Union.

Duty

The Queen's main tasks are to represent the Kingdom abroad and to be a unifying figure at home. The Queen performs the latter task by accepting invitations to open exhibitions, attending anniversaries,
inaugurating bridges, etc. She receives foreign ambassadors and awards honours and medals.

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.

The Queen holds a meeting with the prime minister and the foreign affairs minister every Wednesday, unless she or the prime minister is outside of the kingdom.

After an election where the incumbent prime minister does not have a majority behind him or her, the Queen holds a "Dronningerunde" (Queen's meeting) in which she meets the chairmen of each of the
Danish political parties. In practice, however, nearly all of the Queen's formal powers are exercised by the Cabinet of Denmark.  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

Good to know

The official residences of the Queen are Amalienborg Palace in Copenhagen and Fredensborg Palace. Her summer residences are Marselisborg Palace near Aarhus and Gråsten Palace near Sønderborg,
the former home of her mother, Queen Ingrid, who died in 2000.

Margrethe is an accomplished painter and has held many art shows over the years. Her illustrations—under the pseudonym Ingahild Grathmer—were  used for Danish editions of The Lord of the Rings, which she was encouraged  to illustrate in the early 1970s.

She sent them to J. R. R. Tolkien, who was struck by the similarity of her  drawings to his own style. Margrethe's drawings  were redrawn by the British artist Eric Fraser for the Folio Society's English 

edition of The Lord of the Rings, first published in 1977 and reissued in  2002. In 2000, she illustrated Prince Henrik's poetry collection Cantabile.  

Another skill she possesses is costume designing, having designed the costumes for the Royal Danish Ballet's production of A Folk Tale and for the  2009 Peter Flinth film, De vilde svaner (The Wild Swans).

She also designs her own clothes and is known for her colourful and sometimes eccentric clothing choices. Margrethe also wears designs by  former Pierre Balmain designer Erik Mortensen, Jørgen Bender, and Birgitte Taulow.The Guardian in March 2013 listed her as one of the fifty best-dressed over 50s.

Margrethe is a chain smoker and is well known for her tobacco habit. However, on 23 November 2006, the Danish newspaper B.T. reported an announcement from the Royal Court stating that in the future the Queen would smoke only in private.

A golden jubilee

The Queen's Golden Jubilee is planned for 2022 although postponed due to the covid pandemic.

A royal descendant of queen Victoria

Queen Margrethe II of Denmark is a royal descendant of Queen Victoria via Prince Arthur, Duke of Duke of Connaught and Strathearn,  Margaret, Crown Princess of Sweden; and Princess Ingrid of Sweden (Margethe's mother). 

More on this link. 

Abdication

On 31 December 2023, during her New Year's Eve speech, she announced her abdication, which will take place on 14 January 2024. She will be succeeded by her elder son Crown Prince Frederik.

Conclusion

To be honest: I always adored this quirky Queen.  I hope the festivities in 2022 can go trough later this year to put her in the picture.  Although the announcement of her abdication came quit as a shock for me, I hope there will be plenty of celebrations for her, her reign and the accession of the throne of Frederik as King Frederik X. 

Source pictures: Wikipedia