May 17: Happy Birthday to Her Majesty Queen Máxima of the Netherlands.

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Birthday, Catharina-Amalia, Catharina-Amalia of Orange, Emma of Waldeck and Pyrmont, Jorge Zorreguieta, Máxima Zorreguieta Cerruti, Princess of Orange, Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, Queen Maxima of the Netherlands, Queen of the Netherlands, Willem-Alexander of the netherlands

Queen Máxima of the Netherlands (born Máxima Zorreguieta Cerruti; May 17, 1971) is the spouse of King Willem-Alexander. On April 30, 2013, she became the first queen consort of the Netherlands since Princess Emma of Waldeck and Pyrmont (queen consort from 1879 to 1890) and the first Argentine-born queen consort in the history of the Netherlands.

Queen Máxima of the Netherlands

Máxima Zorreguieta Cerruti was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She is the daughter of Jorge Zorreguieta (1928–2017), who served as Secretary of Agriculture under General Jorge Rafael Videla during Argentina’s last civil-military dictatorship (1976–1983), and his second wife, María del Carmen Cerruti Carricart (born 1944). She has two brothers, a sister (deceased), and three half-sisters by her father’s first wife, Marta López Gil. She is named after her paternal great-grandmother Máxima Bonorino González (1874–1965).

Her father was a scion of the Zorreguieta family who had been landed gentry, professionals, regional politicians, and statesmen for generations. Her maternal great-grandfather was also from the landed gentry; Domingo Carricart Etchart (1885-1953) was a landowner, politician, Director of the Banco Provincial de Buenos Aires, first mayor of González Chaves, and mayor of Tres Arroyos.

Máxima and Willem-Alexander

Máxima met Willem-Alexander in April 1999 in Seville, Spain, during the Seville Spring Fair. In an interview, they stated that he introduced himself only as “Alexander”, so that she did not know he was a prince. She thought he was joking when he later told her that he was not only a prince, but the Prince of Orange and heir apparent to the Dutch throne. They agreed to meet again two weeks later in New York, where Máxima was working for Dresdner Kleinwort Benson. Their relationship apparently began in New York, but she did not meet his parents, Queen Beatrix and Prince Claus, for some time.

Willem-Alexander and Máxima.

The news of the couple’s relationship and eventual marriage plans caused controversy in the Netherlands, due to the involvement of Máxima’s father Jorge Zorreguieta as a cabinet minister during the National Reorganization Process, the most recent Argentinian dictatorship. Her father’s tenure as a minister took place during the beginning stages of the Dirty War, a period of repression that saw 10,000–30,000 people killed or disappeared during the seven-year military regime. At the request of the States General, Michiel Baud, a Dutch professor in Latin American studies, carried out an inquiry into the involvement of Zorreguieta in the Dirty War (roughly, 1974–83).

Zorreguieta claimed that, as a civilian, he was unaware of the Dirty War while he was a cabinet minister. Baud determined that Máxima’s father had not been directly involved in any of the numerous atrocities that took place during that period. However, Baud also concluded that Zorreguieta was almost certainly aware of them; in Baud’s view, it was highly unlikely that a cabinet minister would not have known about them.

Marriage

The couple announced their engagement on March 30, 2001; Máxima addressed the nation in Dutch (which at the time she only spoke to basic conversational extent) during the live televised broadcast. Máxima was granted Dutch citizenship by a royal decree on May 17, 2001 and now has dual citizenship: Argentine and Dutch. The engagement was formally approved by the States General later that year—a necessary step for Willem-Alexander to remain in line to the throne.

Máxima and Willem-Alexander were married on February 2, 2002 in a civil ceremony in the Beurs van Berlage, Amsterdam, which was then followed by a religious ceremony at Amsterdam’s Nieuwe Kerk (“New Church”). She remained a Roman Catholic after her marriage.

Máxima’s parents were not present at the wedding; her father was told he could not attend due to his role as a cabinet minister during the National Reorganization Process, and her mother chose not to attend without her husband.

The King and Queen have three daughters:

* Catharina-Amalia, Princess of Orange, born December 7, 2003 at HMC Bronovo in The Hague.
* Princess Alexia, born June 26, 2005 at HMC Bronovo in The Hague.
* Princess Ariane, born April 10, 2007 at HMC Bronovo in The Hague.

Máxima is also godmother of:

* Countess Sophie Philippa Máxima Walburga Marie of Waldburg-Zeil, born June 29, 2000.
* Prince Sverre Magnus of Norway, born December 3, 2005.
* Countess Leonore Marie Irene Enrica of Orange-Nassau, born June 3, 2006.

November 26, 1847: Birth of Princess Dagmar of Denmark. Part I.

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Birthday, Christian IX, Dagmar of Denmark, Emperor Alexander III of Russia, Emperor Nicholas II of Russia, Kingdom of Denmark, Maria Feodorovna, Tsarevich Nicholas Alexandrovich

Maria Feodorovna (November 26, 1847 – October 13, 1928), known before her marriage as Princess Dagmar of Denmark, was a Danish princess and Empress of Russia as spouse of Emperor Alexander III (reigned 1881–1894). She was the second daughter and fourth child of King Christian IX of Denmark and Louise of Hesse-Cassel; her siblings included Queen Alexandra of the United Kingdom, King Frederik VIII of Denmark and King George I of Greece, Thera Duchess of Cumberland and Valdemar of Denmark. Her eldest son became the last Russian monarch, Emperor Nicholas II of Russia. She lived for ten years after he and his family were killed.

Princess Marie Sophie Frederike Dagmar was born at the Yellow Palace in Copenhagen. Her father was Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, a member of a relatively impoverished princely cadet line. Her mother was Princess Louise of Hesse-Kassel.

She was baptised as a Lutheran and named after her kinswoman Marie Sophie of Hesse-Cassel, Queen Dowager of Denmark as well as the medieval Danish queen, Dagmar of Bohemia. Her godmother was Queen Caroline Amalie of Denmark. Growing up, she was known by the name Dagmar. Most of her life, she was known as Maria Feodorovna, the name which she took when she converted to Orthodoxy immediately before her 1866 marriage to the future Emperor Alexander III. She was known within her family as “Minnie”.

Princess Dagmar, Prince Vilhelm, Christian IX of Denmark and Princess Alexandra

The rise of Slavophile ideology in the Russian Empire led Alexander II of Russia to search for a bride for the heir apparent, Tsarevich Nicholas Alexandrovich, in countries other than the German states that had traditionally provided consorts for the tsars. In 1864, Nicholas, or “Nixa” as he was known in his family, went to Denmark where he was betrothed to Dagmar. On April 22, 1865 he died from meningitis. His last wish was that Dagmar would marry his younger brother, the future Alexander III. Dagmar was distraught after her young fiancé’s death. She was so heartbroken when she returned to her homeland that her relatives were seriously worried about her health.

Dagmar of Denmark and Tsarevich Nicholas Alexandrovich

She had already become emotionally attached to Russia and often thought of the huge, remote country that was to have been her home. The disaster had brought her very close to “Nixa’s” parents, and she received a letter from Alexander II in which the Emperor attempted to console her. He told Dagmar in very affectionate terms that he hoped she would still consider herself a member of their family. In June 1866, while on a visit to Copenhagen, the Tsarevich Alexander asked Dagmar for her hand. They had been in her room looking over photographs together.

Dagmar of Denmark and the future Emperor Alexander III of Russia

She converted to Orthodoxy and became Grand Duchess Maria Feodorovna of Russia. The lavish wedding took place on November 9, 1866 in the Imperial Chapel of the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg. Financial constraints had prevented her parents from attending the wedding, and in their stead, they sent her brother, Crown Prince Frederick. Her brother-in-law, the Prince of Wales, had also travelled to Saint Petersburg for the ceremony; pregnancy had prevented the Princess of Wales from attending. After the wedding night, Alexander wrote in his diary, “I took off my slippers and my silver embroidered robe and felt the body of my beloved next to mine… How I felt then, I do not wish to describe here. Afterwards we talked for a long time.” After the many wedding parties were over the newlyweds moved into the Anichkov Palace in Saint Petersburg where they were to live for the next 15 years, when they were not taking extended holidays at their summer villa Livadia in the Crimean Peninsula.

On May 18, 1868, Maria Feodorovna gave birth to her eldest son, Nicholas. Her next son, Alexander Alexandrovich, born in 1869, died from meningitis in infancy. She would bear Alexander four more children who reached adulthood: George (b. 1871), Xenia (b. 1875), Michael (b. 1878), and Olga (b. 1882). As a mother, she doted on and was quite possessive of her sons. She had a more distant relationship with her daughters.

In 1873, Maria, Alexander, and their two eldest sons made a journey to the United Kingdom. The imperial couple and their children were entertained at Marlborough House by the Prince and Princess of Wales. The royal sisters Maria and Alexandra delighted London society by dressing alike at social gatherings. The following year, Maria and Alexander welcomed the Prince and Princess of Wales to St. Petersburg; they had come for the wedding of the Prince’s younger brother, Alfred, to Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna, daughter of Tsar Alexander II and the sister of the tsarevich.

November 15, 1498: Birth of Archduchess Eleanore of Austria, Queen Consort of Portugal and France.

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Birthday, Carlos I of Spain, Eleanore of Austria, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, Holy Roman Empire, King François I of France, King Henry VIII of England, Kingdom of Portugal, Kingdom of Spain, Queen Consort of Portugal and France

Eleanor of Austria (November 15, 1498 – February 25, 1558), also called Eleanor of Castile, was born an Archduchess of Austria and Infanta of Castile from the House of Habsburg, and subsequently became Queen consort of Portugal (1518–1521) and Queen Consort of France (1530–1547).

Eleanor was born in 1498 at Leuven, the eldest child of Philipp of Austria (King Felipe I of Castile) and Joanna of Castile, who would later become co-sovereigns of Castile. Her father was also the son of the reigning Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I and his deceased consort Mary of Burgundy, while her mother was the daughter of the Catholic Monarchs; namely Fernando II-V of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile.

Her siblings were Holy Roman Emperor Karl V (King Carlos I of Spain), Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I, Queen Isabella of Denmark (wife of King Christian II of Denmark and Norway), Queen Mary of Hungary (wife of King Louis II of Hungary and Bohemia), and Queen Catherine of Portugal (wife of King João III of Portugal). She was named after her paternal great-grandmother, Eleanor of Portugal, Holy Roman Empress (the consort of Holy Roman Emperor Friedrich III and the mother of Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I).

Eleanore of Austria, Queen Consort of Portugal and France

When she was a child, Eleanor’s relatives tried to marry her to the future King of England, Henry VIII, to whom she was betrothed. However, when Henry’s father died and he became King, Henry decided to marry Eleanor’s aunt, Catherine of Aragon, who was the widow of King Henry’s older brother, Arthur, Prince of Wales. Her relatives also tried to marry her to the French Kings Louis XII or King François I, or to the Polish King Sigismund I, but nothing came of these plans. Eleanor was also proposed as a marriage candidate for Antoine, Duke of Lorraine, in 1510.

In 1517 Eleanor may have had a love affair with Friedrich II, Elector Palatine. Her brother King Carlos I of Spain (Holy Roman Emperor Karl V) who had succeeded their elderly grandfather King Fernando II-V of Castile and Aragon as King of a United Spain the year before, once discovered her reading a love letter from Friedrich. Carlos forced Eleanor and Friedrich to swear in front of an attorney that they were not secretly married, after which he expelled Friedrich from court. She then followed her brother to Spain in 1517.

Holy Roman Emperor Karl V (King Carlos I of Spain).

Eleanor married her uncle by marriage, King Manuel I of Portugal, on July 16, 1518 after a proposed marriage with her cousin, the future King João III of Portugal did not occur. Her brother Carlos arranged the marriage between Eleanor and the King of Portugal to avoid the possibility of Portuguese assistance for any rebellion in Castile. Manuel had previously been married to two of Eleanor’s maternal aunts, Isabella of Aragon and Maria of Aragon.

Manuel and Eleanor had two children: the Infante Carlos (born February 18, 1520 – died April 15, 1521) and the Infanta Maria (born June 8, 1521, and who was later one of the richest princesses of Europe). She became a widow on December 13, 1521 when Manuel died of the plague. As Queen Dowager of Portugal, Eleanor returned to the court of Carlos in Spain. Eleanor’s sister Catherine later married Eleanor’s stepson, King João III of Portugal.

King François I of France

In July 1523, Eleanor was engaged to Charles III, Duke of Bourbon, in an alliance between Charles and Bourbon against France, but the marriage never took place. In 1526, Eleanor was engaged to King François I of France during his captivity in Spain.

In 1529, by the treaty called “La Paz de las Damas” (The Ladies’ Peace), it was stipulated that the marriage should take place. She was married to François on July 4, 1530. They had no children.

Eleanor left Spain in the company of her future stepsons, who were now to be released having been held hostage by her brother. The group met François at the border, where Eleanor and François were married, and then departed for an official entrance to Bordeaux. Eleanor was crowned Queen of France in Saint-Denis on May 31, 1531. She was dressed in purple velvet at her coronation. Eleanor was ignored by Francis, who seldom performed his marital obligations and preferred his lover Anne de Pisseleu d’Heilly.

At the official entrance of Eleanor to Paris, François displayed himself openly to the public in a window with his lover Anne for a period of two hours.

Queen Eleanor performed as the queen of France at official occasions, such as at the wedding between her stepson Henri and Catherine de’ Medici in 1533. She also performed charity and was praised for this. She also took her stepdaughters, Madeleine and Margaret, into her household to raise them further.

As the French queen, Eleanor did not have any political power; however, she was used as a contact between France and the Holy Roman Empire. Queen Eleanor was present at the peace negotiations between and Carlos in Aigues-Mortes in 1538. In 1544, she was given the task of entering peace negotiations with Charles and their sister Mary. In November 1544, she visited Carlos in Brussels.

Later life

François died at the Château de Rambouillet on March 15, 1547, on his son and successor’s 28th birthday. It is said that “he died complaining about the weight of a crown that he had first perceived as a gift from God.” He was interred with his first wife, Claude, Duchess of Brittany, in Saint Denis Basilica. He was succeeded by his son, Henri II.

As a queen dowager, Eleanor left France for Brussels in 1548. She witnessed the abdication of Carlos I of Spain in October 1555 and left for Spain with him and their sister Mary in August 1556. She lived with her sister in Jarandilla de la Vera, where they often visited their brother, who retired to a monastery nearby. In 1558, she met her daughter Maria in Badajoz for the first time in 28 years. Eleanor died in 1558 on the return trip from Badajoz. Her brother Carlos, former Holy Roman Emperor Emperor and King of Spain, died in September of the same year.

Happy Birthday HRH The Princess Royal

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Birthday, Church of Scotland, Duke of Edinburgh, Elizabeth II, kings and queens of the United Kingdom, Mark Phillips, Peter Phillips, Prince Phillip, Princess Anne, The Princess Royal, Victoria of Edinburgh, Zarah Phillips

Anne, Princess Royal, (Anne Elizabeth Alice Louise; born August 15, 1950) is the second child and only daughter of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. At the time of her birth, she was third in the line of succession to the British throne, behind her mother – then Princess Elizabeth – and her elder brother, Charles, the Prince of Wales. She rose to second in the succession to the throne after her mother’s accession, but is currently 14th in line as of May 2019 with the birth of Archie Mountbatten-Windsor the son of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.

HRH The Princess Royal

Anne is known for her charitable work, and is a patron of over 200 organisations. She is also known for equestrian talents; she won two silver medals (1975) and one gold medal (1971) at the European Eventing Championships, and is the first member of the British Royal Family to have competed in the Olympic Games.

On November 14, 1973, Princess Anne married Mark Phillips, a lieutenant in the 1st Queen’s Dragoon Guards, at Westminster Abbey in a ceremony that was televised around the world, with an estimated audience of 100 million.

As was customary for untitled men marrying into the royal family, Phillips was offered an earldom. He declined this offer leading to their children being born without courtesy titles. The couple would have two children, Peter (born 1977) and Zara Phillips (born 1981).

On August 13, 1989, Princess Anne and Mark Phillips announced their intention to separate, as the marriage had been under strain for a number of years. The couple had been rarely seen in public together, and both were romantically linked with other people. They continued to share the custody of their children, and initially announced that “there were no plans for divorce.” They eventually divorced on April 23, 1992. Anne and Mark Phillips have four grandchildren.

Anne met Timothy Laurence while he was serving on the Royal Yacht Britannia. Their relationship developed in early 1989, three years after he was appointed as an equerry to the Queen. Anne married Laurence, then a Commander in the Royal Navy, at Crathie Kirk, near Balmoral Castle, on 12 December 1992. The couple chose to marry in Scotland as the Church of England did not at that time allow divorced persons whose former spouses were still living to remarry in its churches.

The Church of Scotland does not consider marriage to be a sacrament, and thus not binding forever, and has no moral objection to the remarriage of divorced persons. In participating in this ceremony, Anne became the first royal divorcée to remarry since Victoria, Grand Duchess of Hesse and by Rhine, granddaughter of Queen Victoria, married Grand Duke Cyril Vladimirovich of Russia in 1905.

Princess Anne has held the title of Princess Royal since 1987 and is its seventh holder.

Anne is the seventh Princess Royal, an appellation given only to the eldest daughter of the sovereign, the previous holder being George V’s daughter, Princess Mary, Countess of Harewood.

200th Anniversary of the Birth of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom: May 24, 1819.

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Birthday, Duchess of Kent, Empress of India, George III, George IV, King William IV of the United Kingdom, Kingdom of the Belgians, kings and queens of the United Kingdom, Leopld of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, Leopold I, Prince Regent, Princess Charlotte of Wales, Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld., Queen Victoria, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, The Duke of Kent

Following the death of Princess Charlotte Augusta of Wales in November 1817, the only legitimate grandchild of George III at the time, the royal succession began to look uncertain. The Prince Regent and his younger brother Frederick, the Duke of York, though married, were estranged from their wives and had no surviving legitimate children. King George’s surviving daughters were all past likely childbearing age. The unmarried sons of King George III, the Duke of Clarence (later King William IV), the Duke of Kent, and the Duke of Cambridge, all rushed to contract lawful marriages and provide an heir to the throne. The fifth son of King George III, the Duke of Cumberland, was already married but had no living children at that time, whilst the marriage of the sixth son, the Duke of Sussex, was void because he had married in contravention of the Royal Marriages Act 1772.

However, it was not that simple. For the Duke of Kent providing for the succession was not his sole motivator in finding a wife. Even before he disposed of the amiable Madame de Saint Laurent, the Duke of Kent had been secretly looking for a legitimate wife for financial reasons rather than dynastic reasons. The Duke of Kent knew that once he contracted a legitimate marriage he would be granted a steady income by Parliament. Princess Charlotte was still alive at this time and he promised her, along with her consort, Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, to furnish continuity for the throne of Hanover.

HRH The Duchess of Kent

The Duke of Kent also realized that in Hanover, where the Salic Law applied to the German kingdom, only male heirs could reign in Hanover, therefore, if Princess Charlotte became Queen of the United Kingdom this would separate the personal union of the two countries and a secession of her oldest surviving childless uncles would, one after another, become the King of Hanover. The Duke of Kent envisioned that he would one day be the King of Hanover. For that he would need a Queen and an heir.

The Duke of Kent’s idea of a suitable bride was a wealthy woman with proper Royal Ancestry for an approved royal marriage. Because the Duke of Kent had been helpful to his niece, Princess Charlotte of Wales, and her husband Prince Leopold, they were eager to match the Duke with Leopold’s younger sister the Dowager Princess of Leiningen. The Duke agreed to visit the widowed Princess Victoria in Darmstadt, one of the larger cities close to the borders of a Amorbach, after which he dispatched a lengthy letter expressing his affection and proposing marriage believing she would make an appropriate Queen of Hanover. With the death of Princess Charlotte of Wales, who died giving birth to a stillborn son in November 1817, the Duke of Kent realized that the succession to the British throne was now in jeopardy and this expediated his marriage to the Dowager Princess of Leiningen.

In Coburg Germany, on May 29, 1818 at 9:30 in the evening the Dowager Princess of Leiningen (aged 32) was married in the Lutheran rights to the Duke of Kent (aged 52) a man she had only met once before. The Duke was arrayed in his English field marshal’s uniform, while the Princess was resplendent in pale silk lace. Afterwards, the new Duchess of Kent wrote in her diary that she had hoped that in her second marriage she would find the happiness that she never found in the first.

Within four days after the wedding the Duke and Duchess of Kent left for England. And at Kew Palace on July 13, 1818 at four in the afternoon, they were married again this time in accordance to the Church of England. However, the ceremony was doubled for there was also two brides for the Prince Regent to give away. Not only was the Duke of Kent marrying Princess Victoria once again, Prince William, Duke of Clarence and the 25 year old Princess Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen (August 13, 1792 – December 2, 1849) [the daughter of Georg I, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen, and Luise Eleonore of Hohenlohe-Langenburg] were united as well. The Archbishop Bishop of Canterbury officiated the ceremony assisted by the Bishop of London. Since King George III was blind and incapacitated, fragile old Queen Charlotte, mother of both of the Dukes, was the chief celebrant at the wedding banquet.

HRH The Duke of Kent

Because of the Duke of Kent’s financial situation the newlyweds moved back to Germany. By November 18, 1818 the Duke of Kent sent a letter to the Prince Regent’s private secretary, Sir Benjamin Bloomfield, indicating that the Duchess of Kent was pregnant and that the child was due in May the following year. The Duke of Kent believed it would be his duty to bring the Duchess back to England early in April so that the Royal birth could take place in England. The Duke also petitioned his brother the Prince Regent to allocate funds sufficient for the move and the care of his growing family.

The Duke and Duchess of Kent’s only child, Victoria, was born at 4.15 a.m. on May 24, 1819 at Kensington Palace in London. Victoria was christened privately by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Charles Manners-Sutton, on June 24, 1819 in the Cupola Room at Kensington Palace. She was baptised Alexandrina after one of her godparents, Emperor Alexander I of Russia, and Victoria, after her mother. Additional names proposed by her parents—Georgina (or Georgiana), Charlotte, and Augusta—were dropped on the instructions of Kent’s eldest brother, George, the Prince Regent.

At birth, Alexandria-Victoria was fifth in the line of succession after the four eldest sons of George III: George, the Prince Regent (later George IV); Frederick, the Duke of York; William, the Duke of Clarence (later William IV); and Victoria’s father, Edward, the Duke of Kent. The Prince Regent had no surviving children, and the Duke of York had no children; further, both were estranged from their wives, who were both past child-bearing age, so the two eldest brothers were unlikely to have any further legitimate children.

HM Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Empress of India.

With Alexandrina-Victoria being fifth in line to the succession to the throne, her ascending the British throne was not assured. She could have been supplanted by a brother born to the Duke and Duchess of Kent, or any children from the union of the Duke and Duchess of Clarence. However, the Duke of Clarence’s legitimate daughters died as infants. The first of these was Princess Charlotte, who was born and died on March 27, 1819, two months before Victoria was born. Victoria’s father died in January 1820, when Victoria was less than a year old. A week later her grandfather, George III died and was succeeded by his eldest son as George IV. Victoria was then third in line to the throne after York and Clarence. The Duke Clarence’s second daughter was Princess Elizabeth of Clarence who lived for twelve weeks from December 10, 1820 to 4 March 1821 and, while Elizabeth lived, Victoria was fourth in line. The Childless Duke of York died in 1827 which paved the way for Victoria’s own succession after her uncles, George IV and William IV.

50th Birthday of Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark

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50th Birthday, Birthday, Copenhagen, Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark, European Royalty, Frederik IX of Denmark, Gustaf VI Adolph of Sweden, Kings and Queens of Denmark, Prince Henrik of Denmark, Queen Margrethe II of Denmark.

Today HRH Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark, Count of Monpezat, celebrates his 50th Birthday!


Frederik was born at Rigshospitalet which is the Copenhagen University Hospital in Copenhagen, on May 26, 1968, to the then Princess Margrethe, heir presumptive to the Danish throne, and Prince Henrik, Count of Monpezat. Princess Margrethe was oldest daughter of King Frederik IX of Denmark and Princess Ingrid of Sweden. At the time of Crown Prince Frederik’s birth, his maternal grandfather was on the throne of Denmark and his matrilineal great-grandfather (Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden) was on the throne of Sweden.

He was baptized on June 24, 1968, at Holmens Kirke, in Copenhagen. He was christened Frederik after his maternal grandfather, King Frederik IX, continuing the Danish royal tradition of the heir apparent being named either Frederik or Christian. His middle names honor his paternal grandfather, André de Laborde de Monpezat; his father, Prince Henrik; and his maternal great-grandfather, Christian X.


Frederik’s godparents include Count Etienne de Laborde de Monpezat (paternal uncle); Queen Anne-Marie of Greece (maternal aunt); Prince Georg of Denmark; Baron Christian de Watteville-Berckheim; Grand Duchess Joséphine-Charlotte of Luxembourg; and Birgitta Juel Hillingsø.


He became Crown Prince of Denmark when his mother succeeded to the throne as Queen Margrethe II of Denmark on January 14, 1972. Upon his fathers death this past April, Crown Prince Frederik also inherited the title Count of Monpezat.


In the Council of State on October 8, 2003, Queen Margrethe II gave her consent to the marriage of Crown Prince Frederik to Mary Elizabeth Donaldson, an Australian marketing consultant whom the prince met when he was attending the Sydney Olympics in 2000. The wedding took place on May 14, 2004 at Copenhagen Cathedral, Copenhagen.


The couple have four children:

* Prince Christian Valdemar Henri John, born October 15, 2005
* Princess Isabella Henrietta Ingrid Margrethe, born April 21, 2007
* Prince Vincent Frederik Minik Alexander, born January 8, 2011
* Princess Josephine Sophia Ivalo Mathilda, born January 8, 2011

Tonight in Copenhagen there are festivities being planed with many, many reigning and non-reigning royals in attendance.