Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark

Factsheet Denmark

Queen Margrethe II70 years

The Danish Queen celebrating her 70thbirthday on 16 April 2010 is verypopular. In her heart of hearts, she maywell be looking back at her 38 years onthe throne with satisfaction. If so, this isfully justified. Not only has Margrethe IIreigned for longer than any other Danishmonarch in the past century, but she hasrenewed the Danish royal house with asteady hand and handled difficultsituations in such a way that themonarchy has not suffered. However, hergreatest happiness must be to see that hersuccession is secure for two moregenerations.

From wilderness to parkQueen Margrethe was born just after theGerman occupying power had takencontrol of the Danish territory on 9 April1940. It was a dark time for the country

and many regarded her birth as awelcome light in adversity. Since then,she has frequently said that World War IIestablished the conceptual framework inwhich she has seen Europe and thereforethe conditions under which Denmark hadto develop. In an address to the EuropeanParliament in 1987, she tellinglycompared the old Europe to a wildernesswhere all the plants fought each other forthe light and went on to describe post-war Europe as an effort to establish apark with organised conditions so that“every kind of plant will thrive”.

French spouseShe herself led the way towards thisvision of a peaceful Europe. For centuries,the Danish royal house has had aNorthern European, Lutheran horizonand generally married members of

March 2010

The Queen gives her New Year address, New Year’s Eve 2009. Photo: Keld Navntoft, Scanpix.

royal houses of a similar rank from thisregion. Margrethe went against bothtraditions when she chose the Frenchdiplomat and count, Henri deMontpezat. They were engaged in 1966and married in Holmens Church inCopenhagen on 10 June 1967. Their twosons were born within the next two years,Crown Prince Frederik in 1968 andPrince Joachim in 1969.

University studiesMargrethe also signalled new times inother ways. She did so by addinguniversity studies to her royal status. Sheenrolled at several Danish and Europeanuniversities in the period 1960-1965. Shepassed the first year philosophy exam atCopenhagen University in 1960 and thesame year went to the University ofCambridge to study archaeology, asubject which has interested herthroughout her life. The following years,she pursued political science studies atAarhus University, followed by studies atSorbonne in Paris in 1963 and at theLondon School of Economics in 1965. Inthat way, she became the best-educatedmonarch in Denmark so far.

Name carrying responsibilitiesMargrethe did not become reigningQueen as a matter of course, for theDanish Constitution of 1849 onlyallowed male succession. This waschanged by the adoption of the Act ofSuccession at a referendum in 1953. Thisallowed conditional female succession(changed in 2009 to equal access to thethrone for both genders). The Act becamerelevant sooner than anyone hadexpected. In January 1972, the oldFrederik IX died after a short illness andas the eldest of three daughters,Margrethe was proclaimed Queen underthe name Margrethe II. The name carriedresponsibilities. Margrethe I united theScandinavian countries in the KalmarUnion in 1397 and was famous for herwisdom.

Popular anchoringThe young Queen was 31 when shesucceeded to the throne. In one way, thatwas a great advantage for she understoodthe mood of the time. The 1970s hadvery little respect for the past andinherited traditions and the new monarchwished to continue the modernisation of

the royal house which her father hadstarted. He was popularly known as thesailor king, partly due to his many yearsin the navy, partly because he alwaysincluded a mention of “those at sea” in hisNew Year addresses. Margrethe did nothave her father’s down-to-earth nature,but she was analytically sharp, as alreadyPrime Minister Jens Otto Krag noted inhis diaries. She took the view that theroyal house, despite its aristocratic nature,needed popular anchoring if it was tosurvive in the long term.

ModernisationAn important step on the way was theappointment of former Social DemocraticMinister Hans Sølvhøj as the new LordChamberlain. The Queen also slimmeddown the official royal title and the royalcrest was redesigned to match. Inaddition, it no doubt made a differencethat Margrethe in the 1970s allowedherself to be photographed shopping inthe streets of Copenhagen without an

expensive car and large entourage,walking on her own like an ordinaryperson. Like the equally famous photo ofthe policeman helping a duck with herducklings pass a busy road, the snapshotsbecame synonymous with Danishsolidarity across old social boundaries andmodern alienation.

Press conferencesThe press was the key to a new and moreopen communication with thepopulation. Before Margrethe’s time, theDanish royal house never held pressconferences. The Queen changed that inher first year as a monach, when she andPrince Henrik received 124 invitedjournalists from all over the world atFredensborg Castle. Since then, manypress conferences have been held both inDenmark and at the summer residence,Chateau de Caïx in Southern France,which belongs to the Prince Consort. TheQueen has also given numerousinterviews, several of which have been

The Queen and the Prince Consort visit Greenland, 2000. Photo: Jørgen Jessen, Scanpix.

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expanded into actual books. Televisionchannels have often visited her castles andsent reports from them. The royal houselaunched a website in the early 1990s.

Touring the countryThe openness towards the mediacoincided with regular touringthroughout Denmark and within theDanish realm, to the Faroe Islands andGreenland. Every summer, the royalyacht Dannebrog weighed anchor andtook the Queen and the Prince Consortto Danish towns and regions to openexhibitions, mark anniversaries or graceother local events. This practice marked acontinuation of previous monarchs’ viewof representative tasks. The Faroe Islandsand Greenland in the North Atlanticwere also included. The Queen herselfspeaks Faroese and when visiting theFaroes has shown a truly royalunderstanding of the importance ofgetting to as many islands as possible toensure that nobody felt overlooked

or forgotten. Greenland, which is well-known for its special relationship with theroyal house, was a greater challenge aslarge parts of the country are veryinaccessible. In 1982, the royal yacht wasstuck in the ice off the coast ofGreenland. Four years earlier, the Queenhad the task of handing Greenland theAct granting the country greaterindependence in the form of Home Rule.However, this arrangement has notreduced the monarch’s popularity inGreenland. The close relationship withGreenland has been maintained byCrown Prince Frederik, for instance inthe form of his months-long sleigh rideacross the ice cap in 2000, which was byno means risk-free.

New Year addressesThe Queen has created a specialconnection with her people through herNew Year addresses. The addresses wereintroduced by Frederik IX in 1959, buthis daughter has displayed a special talent

for refining them. It is a difficult art, asthe Queen must be above party politicsand cannot or must not express opinionsof a political nature. Nonetheless, she hasmanaged to give the addresses a formwhich makes people look forward tothem and listen to their Queen everyNew Year’s Eve, for instance byformulating them as reflections on thehuman condition. Her addresses in themid 1980s, exhorting the Danes tobehave decently in inter-humanrelationships, are particularly memorable.

Denmark’s identityThe Queen’s 50th birthday in 1990, herSilver Wedding in 1992 and the 25thanniversary of her accession to the thronein 1997 became unprecedentedmanifestations of the good relationshipbetween the Queen and the nation, asalways expressed through pomp andcircumstance, but also with intensivemedia coverage. The Social DemocraticPrime Minister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen

The Queen is celebrated on her 69th birthday, 16 April 2009. Photo: Keld Navntoft, Scanpix.

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promised the monarchy his completesupport and wrote that the Queen is “animportant part of Denmark’s identity”. Inopinion polls, 85 per cent were in favourof the monarchy.By comparison, therewere as many republicans as supporters ofthe monarchy when Margrethe II becameQueen. The royal family now receivesmore media exposure than any otherDanish family. This also applied in 2004,when it experienced its first divorce inrecent times, which at a deeper levelthreatened its nature of role model.However, Margrethe unsentimentallyannounced that divorces are part oftoday’s family pattern and the royal familywas no exception, as it is not above itstime, thus turning the solidarity with herpeople into a strength.

ArtistThroughout her life, the Queen has had aspecial relationship with the arts. Overthe years, she has also dared to expressherself artistically, despite her role.

The positive reception has helped. Shehas worked within many genres. Herchasubles for Fredensborg Church in1976 resulted in several commissions forDanish cathedrals. In 1977, she publishedbook illustrations for Tolkien’s “Lord ofthe Rings”, continuing with the nativeNordic mythical world (“Regnar Lodbrog”,1979 and “Bjarkemål”, 1982). In 1987, shedesigned costumes for a television versionof Hans Christian Andersen’s “TheShepherdess and the Chimney Sweep”.Actual stage designs followed with “A FolkTale” at the Royal Theatre in 1991. Herfirst solo exhibition was in 1988.Since then, she has exhibited in manycountries, first in the Nordic region from1989, later on the Continent from 1994and eventually outside Europe, mostrecently in Mexico in 2010. In 2001, shedesigned the altarpiece for Skei Fjellkirkein Norway. Her most recent majorcommission was in 2009, when sheprovided decoupages for a film version of

Hans Christian Andersen’s “The WildSwans”.

SmokerAs an internationally travellingrepresentative of Denmark, the Queenhas encountered and seen most of theworld. She has been personally affectedby today’s globalisation, as both her sonsfound their wives on the other side of theworld. The Crown Princess has her rootsin Tasmania. A probably unforeseenconsequence of the internationalisationhas been a new kind of equalisation ofthe rules of public behaviour. The Queen,who has smoked since her youth, neverused to distinguish between private andpublic behaviour in this respect, but inrecent years her personal freedom hasbeen restricted by the standardisation ofthe role model across national borders.The Crown Prince’s description of hismother on her 60th birthday as “a rolemodel for the European reigning family”has caught up with her like a boomerang.

Quick-witted retortThe Queen has never concealed that herChristian faith is very important to her.In a classic way, she has united aChristian outlook with a humanisticeducation. In addition, she is famous forher quick-witted retorts, even in difficultsituations. When the Chairman of theCommunist party in 1973 during theformation of a government visited“madam”, he asked the apolitical andinexperienced monarch whether she hadfollowed the election campaign? “Yes,indeed, from A to Z,” replied the Queen,thus cleverly turning the election lettersof the parties into a familiar saying.

Lars Bisgaard

Lars Bisgaard is a lecturer in history atthe University of Southern Denmark inOdense.

The Queen makes decoupages for “The Wild Swans”, 2009. Photo: JJ Film.