2024-01-02 15:20:04
When King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia recently made a state visit to Denmark, it was not suspected that Queen Margaret II had abdicated in mind. This event, that of the abdication of a monarch, has not traditionally been the usual way to end a reign. Naturally, we have precedents throughout Europe, but they are few. Although this phenomenon is becoming more and more frequent.
In the Netherlands, its last three queens, Wilhelmina, Juliana and Beatriz, abdicated. In Luxembourg, Grand Duke John, in Belgium, King Albert II, in Spain, King Juan Carlos I, in the United Kingdom, King Edward VIII, and even in the Holy See, Pope Benedict XVI. Perhaps the most famous abdicating Scandinavian queen was Christina of Sweden, whose life represented on film – with many cinematographic licenses – by Greta Garbo, made her world famous.
However, the usual thing is to die on the throne. Margarita II – Daisy, as her intimates know her or Ingahild Grathmer, her artistic pseudonym – has not decided this way after ascending to that throne in 1972 and being considered and respected by all of her crowned “colleagues” and by the entire Danish society. On January 14, 2024, she will cease to be not only the monarch of the Scandinavian country but also the head of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Denmark. She is queen “by the grace of God” and God has been present in her reign, including through her motto “The help of God, the love of the people and the strength of Denmark.” A woman of enormous abilities, imaginative and creative, she was the first titular queen of her country since Margaret I, who reigned in the Scandinavian countries at the transition from the 14th to the 15th centuries.
A good cartoonist, illustrator, story writer and translator, she is also a chain smoker, although for many years she has done so only in private, as was certainly the case a century ago, when it was considered inelegant for a lady to smoke in public. Very close to her sisters Benedicta, widow of Richard, VI prince of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg, and Anna Maria, dowager queen of the Hellenes, her surprising marriage in 1967 to a young French diplomat, Henri de Laborde de Monpezat, broke a tradition of centuries of weddings between members of the Scandinavian royal houses, since the links between Danish, Swedish and Norwegian princes are abundant. Our beloved queen mother Doña Sofia, born princess of Greece and Denmark, comes from the same lineage as Queen Margaret II, the Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, which we abbreviate by calling it the House of Glücksburg.
In January 2023 he made the decision to withdraw the title of prince and the treatment of Royal Highness from the children of his son Prince Joachim of Denmark, reserving for them the title of counts of Monpezat – which they already enjoyed by royal decision in 2008. – and the treatment of Excellence. This fact and the fact that Margaret II’s husband, officially Prince Henry of Denmark, never obtained the title of king consort and stated that he did not want to be buried next to his wife in the royal necropolis of Roskilde, were moments of a certain family crisis. Margarita II has a very particular and original elegance, with dresses often designed or inspired by her.
He even designed his own tomb, made of glass and supported by elephants to evoke the Order of the Elephant of which he is the head. He used the palaces of Amalienborg, Fredensborg, Christianborg and Gråsten with a mixture of majesty and discretion. He was monarch of Denmark, thanks to a change in the Succession Law that occurred in 1953, when it was approved by referendum, which allowed women to access the throne, something that had been impossible a century before. Educated in England, France and naturally Denmark, she knows topics as diverse as archaeology, political science or economics and she is fluent in five languages. Impeccable in her constitutional role, neat and respectful of the neutrality that should characterize her – she never voted in the Danish elections despite being able to do so – she retires at the height of her glory – as many great actresses do – leaving a good taste in her mouth. to their countrymen.
For the new reign that will begin shortly (January 14), that of her son Frederick, we could exclaim – as Margaret II used to do in her New Year messages – “Gud bevare Danmark” (God save Denmark). So be it.
#Margaret #Denmark #creative #queen