50th Anniversary of the Death of King Frederik IX of Denmark and the accession of Queen Margrethe II

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Today marks the 50th anniversary of the death of King Frederik IX of Denmark and the accession of Queen Margrethe II of Denmark to the Danish throne upon her father’s death.

King Frederik IX died at the age of 72 after a reign of almost 25 years.

Frederik IX (Christian Frederik Franz Michael Carl Valdemar Georg; March 11, 1899 – January 14, 1972) was King of Denmark from 1947 to 1972.

Born into the House of Glücksburg, Frederik was the elder son of King Christian X and Alexandrine of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. He became crown prince when his father succeeded as king in 1912. As a young man, he was educated at the Royal Danish Naval Academy.

During Nazi Germany’s occupation of Denmark, Frederick acted as regent on behalf of his father from 1942 until 1943.

In the 1910s, Alexandrine considered the two youngest daughters of her cousin Emperor Nicholas II, Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna of Russia and Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia, as possible wives for Frederik, until the execution of the Romanov family in 1918. In 1922, Frederik was engaged to Princess Olga of Greece and Denmark, his second cousin. They never wed.

Instead, on March 15, 1935, a few days after his 36th birthday, Frederik was engaged to Princess Ingrid of Sweden (1910–2000), a daughter of Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf (later King Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden) and his first wife, Princess Margaret of Connaught.

They were related in several ways. In descent from Oscar I of Sweden and Leopold, Grand Duke of Baden, they were double third cousins. In descent from Emperor Paul I of Russia, Frederik was a fourth cousin of Ingrid’s mother.

They married in Stockholm Cathedral on May 24, 1935. Their wedding was one of the greatest media events of the day in Sweden in 1935, and among the wedding guests were the King Christian X and Queen Alexandrine of Denmark, the King Leopold III Queen Astrid of Belgium and the Crown Prince Olaf and Crown Princess Märtha of Norway.

Changes to the Act of Succession

As King Frederik IX and Queen Ingrid had no sons, it was expected that the king’s younger brother, Prince Knud, would inherit the throne, in accordance with Denmark’s succession law (Royal Ordinance of 1853).

However, in 1953, an Act of Succession was passed, changing the method of succession to male-preference primogeniture (which allows daughters to succeed if there are no sons).

This meant that his daughters could succeed him if he had no sons. As a consequence, his eldest daughter, Margrethe, became heir presumptive. By order of March 27, 1953 the succession to the throne was limited to the issue of King Christian X.

Frederik became king on his father’s death in early 1947. During Frederik IX’s reign Danish society changed rapidly, the welfare state was expanded and, as a consequence of the booming economy of the 1960s, women entered the labour market.

The modernization brought new demands on the monarchy and Frederik’s role as a constitutional monarch. Frederik IX died on January 14, 1972, and was succeeded by his eldest daughter, Queen Margrethe II.

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

In 1967, Margrethe married Henri de Laborde de Monpezat, with whom she had two sons: Crown Prince Frederik and Prince Joachim.

Margrethe is known for her strong archaeological passion and has participated in several excavations, including in Italy, Egypt, Denmark and South America. She shared this interest with her grandfather Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden, with whom she spent some time unearthing artefacts near Etruria in 1962.

As of 2021, Queen Margrethe II has, as sovereign, received 42 official state visits and she has undertaken 55 foreign state visits herself. In addition to this, the Queen and the royal family have made several other foreign visits. Support for the monarchy in Denmark has been and remains consistently high at around 82%, as does Margrethe’s personal popularity.

April 16: 80th birthday of HM Queen Margrethe II of Denmark

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Constitutional Role, Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark, Frederik IX of Denmark, Henri de Laborde de Monpezat, Ingrid of Sweden, Margrethe II, Prince Joachim of Denmark, Princess Margaret of Connaught, Queen Margrethe II of Denmark., Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, Royal Investigator

Margrethe II (full name: Margrethe Alexandrine Þórhildur Ingrid; born April 16, 1940) is Queen of Denmark, as well as the supreme authority of the Church of Denmark and commander-in-chief of the Danish Defence. Born into the House of Glücksburg, a royal house with origins in northern Germany, she was the eldest child of Frederik IX of Denmark and Ingrid of Sweden, was the daughter of King Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden and his first wife, Princess Margaret of Connaught (a granddaughter of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom).

She was born during the reign of her grandfather the then-reigning King Christian X. Her birth took place just one week after Nazi Germany’s invasion of Denmark on April 9, 1940.

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 some of the time in Germany. Her second sister, Princess Anne-Marie, was born in 1946. Anne-Marie later married Constantine II of the Hellenes and currently lives in Greece.

At the time of her birth, 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 she 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 her father ascended the throne and it became clear that Queen Ingrid would have no more children. The popularity of Frederik IX 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 March 27, 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.

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

Princess Margrethe married a French diplomat, Henri de Laborde de Monpezat, 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” because of his new position as the spouse of the heir presumptive to the Danish throne. They were married for over fifty years, until his death on February 13, 2018.

Succession

Shortly after King Frederik 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”

Constitutional role

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.

Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, heir to the throne Crown Prince Frederik and his son, second in line to the throne, Prince Christian.

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. Each party has the choice of selecting a Royal Investigator to lead these negotiations or alternatively, give the incumbent Prime Minister the mandate to continue his government as is.

In theory each party could choose its own leader as Royal Investigator, the social liberal Det Radikale Venstre did so in 2006, but often only one Royal Investigator is chosen plus the Prime Minister, before each election. The leader who, at that meeting succeeds in securing a majority of the seats in the Folketing, is by royal decree charged with the task of forming a new government. (It has never happened in more modern history that any party has held a majority on its own.)

Once the government has been formed, it is formally appointed by the Queen. Officially, it is the Queen who is the head of government, and she therefore presides over the Council of State (privy council), where the acts of legislation which have been passed by the parliament are signed into law. In practice, however, nearly all of the Queen’s formal powers are exercised by the Cabinet of Denmark.

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

Margrethe is a chain smoker, and she is famous for her tobacco habit. However, on November 23, 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.

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 in the translation published in 1977 and re-issued in 2002. In 2000, she illustrated Henrik, the Prince Consort’s poetry collection Cantabile. She is also an accomplished translator and is said to have participated in the Danish translation of The Lord of the Rings.

March 11, 1899: Birth of King Frederik IX of Denmark

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Frederik IX (Christian Frederik Franz Michael Carl Valdemar Georg; March 11, 1899 – January 14, 1972) was King of Denmark from 1947 to 1972.

Four generations of Danish Kings. L-R. Christian IX, Christian X, Frederik VIII. in front future Frederik IX

Prince Frederik was born on March 11, 1899 at Sorgenfri Palace in Kongens Lyngby on Zealand during the reign of his great-grandfather King Christian IX. His father was Prince Christian of Denmark (later King Christian X), the eldest son of Crown Prince Frederik and Princess Louise of Sweden (later King Frederik VIII and Queen Louise). His mother was Alexandrine of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, a daughter of Friedrich Franz III, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Grand Duchess Anastasia Mikhailovna of Russia, the second of the seven children of Grand Duke Michael Nicolaievich of Russia and his wife, Princess Cecilie of Baden.

Christian IX died on January 29, 1906, and Frederik’s grandfather Crown Prince Frederik succeeded him as King Frederik VIII. Frederik’s father became, Crown Prince Christian and Frederik moved up to second in line to the throne. Just six years later, on May 14, 1912, King Frederik VIII died, and Frederik’s father ascended the throne as King Christian X. Frederik himself became Crown Prince.

Frederik was educated at the Royal Danish Naval Academy (breaking with Danish royal tradition by choosing a naval instead of an army career) and the University of Copenhagen. Before he became king, he had acquired the rank of rear admiral and he had had several senior commands on active service. He acquired several tattoos during his naval service.

In the 1910s Frederik’s mother Queen Alexandrine considered the two youngest daughters, Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna of Russia and Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia, of her cousin Emperor Nicholas II as possible wives for Frederik until the subsequent execution of the Romanov family in 1918. In 1922, Frederick was engaged to Princess Olga of Greece and Denmark, his second cousin. They never wed.

Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna of Russia

Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia

Instead, on 15 March 1935, a few days after his 36th birthday, he was engaged to the 25 year old Princess Ingrid of Sweden (1910–2000), a daughter of Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf (later King Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden) and his first wife, Princess Margaret of Connaught. They were related in several ways. In descent from Oscar I of Sweden and Leopold, Grand Duke of Baden, they were double third cousins. In descent from Paul I of Russia, Frederick was a fourth cousin of Ingrid’s mother.

Ingrid of Sweden

They married in Stockholm Cathedral on 24 May 1935. Their wedding was one of the greatest media events of the day in Sweden in 1935, and among the wedding guests were Frederik’s parents King Christian X and Queen Alexandrine of Denmark, and King Leopold III and Queen Astrid of Belgium and Crown Prince Olav (future King Olav V of Norway) and Crown Princess Märtha of Norway, (born a Princess of Sweden).

Upon their return to Denmark, the couple were given Frederik VIII’s Palace at Amalienborg Palace in Copenhagen as their primary residence and Gråsten Palace in Northern Schleswig as a summer residence.

Their daughters are:

* Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, born April 16, 1940, married to Henri de Laborde de Monpezat and has two sons
* Princess Benedikte of Denmark, born April 29, 1944, married to Prince Richard of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg and has three children
* Queen Anne-Marie of Greece, born August 30, 1946, married to King Constantine II of Greece and has five children

On 20 April 1947, Christian X died, and Frederik succeeded to the throne as King Frederik IX of Denmark. He was proclaimed king from the balcony of Christiansborg Palace by Prime Minister Knud Kristensen.

Frederik IX’s reign saw great change. During these years, Danish society shook off the restrictions of an agricultural society, developed a welfare state, and, as a consequence of the booming economy of the 1960s, women entered the labour market. In other words, Denmark became a modern country, which meant new demands on the monarchy.

Changes to the Act of Succession

As King Frederik IX and Queen Ingrid had no sons, it was expected that the king’s younger brother, Prince Knud, would inherit the throne, in accordance with Denmark’s succession law (Royal Ordinance of 1853).

However, in 1953, an Act of Succession was passed, changing the method of succession to male-preference primogeniture (which allows daughters to succeed if there are no sons). This meant that his daughters could succeed him if he had no sons. As a consequence, his eldest daughter, Margrethe, became heir presumptive. By order of March 27, 1953 the succession to the throne was limited to the issue of King Christian X.

Shortly after the King had delivered his New Year’s Address to the Nation at the 1971/72 turn of the year, he became ill with flu-like symptoms. After a few days rest, he suffered cardiac arrest and was rushed to the Copenhagen Municipal Hospital on January 3. After a brief period of apparent improvement, the King’s condition took a negative turn on 11 January, and he died 3 days later, on January 14, at 7:50 pm surrounded by his immediate family and closest friends, having been unconscious since the previous day.

He was succeeded by his eldest daughter, Queen Margrethe II. Queen Ingrid survived her husband by 28 years. She died on November 7, 2000. Her remains were interred alongside him at the burial site outside Roskilde Cathedral.

This date in History. October 13, 1911: Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn is appointed Governor General of Canada.

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Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn (Arthur William Patrick Albert; May 1, 1850 – January 16, 1942) was the seventh child and third son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. He served as the Governor General of Canada, the tenth since Canadian Confederation and the only British prince to do so. In 1910 he was appointed Grand Prior of the Order of St John and held this position until 1939.

Queen Victoria and Prince Arthur.

On his mother’s birthday (May, 24) in 1874, Arthur was created a royal peer, being titled as the Duke of Connaught and Strathearn and Earl of Sussex. Some years later, Arthur came into the direct line of succession to the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in the German Empire upon the death in 1899 of his nephew, Prince Alfred of Edinburgh, the only son of his elder brother, Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh. He decided, however, to renounce his own and his son’s succession rights to the duchy, which then passed to his other nephew, Prince Charles Edward, the posthumous son of Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany.

At St. George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle, on March 13, 1879, Arthur married Princess Louise Margaret of Prussia, the daughter of Prince Friedrich-Carl of Prussia and Princess Maria Anna of Anhalt-Dessau. Princess Louise Margaret of Prussia was a great-niece of the German Emperor, Arthur’s godfather, Wilhelm I.

Duke & Duchess of Connaught and family.

The couple had three children: Princess Margaret Victoria Charlotte Augusta Norah (born January 15, 1882), Prince Arthur Frederick Patrick Albert (born January 13, 1883), and Princess Victoria Patricia Helena Elizabeth (born March 17, 1886), who were all raised at the Connaughts’ country home, Bagshot Park, in Surrey, and after 1900 at Clarence House, the Connaughts’ London residence.

Through his children’s marriages, Arthur became the father-in-law of Crown Prince Gustaf Adolph of Sweden; Princess Alexandra, Duchess of Fife; and Sir Alexander Ramsay. Arthur’s first two children predeceased him; Margaret while pregnant with his sixth grandchild. For many years, Arthur maintained a liaison with Leonie, Lady Leslie, sister of Jennie Churchill, while still remaining devoted to his wife.

Governor General of Canada

Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn

It was announced on March 6, 1911 that King George V had, by commission under the royal sign-manual, approved the recommendation of his British prime minister, H.H. Asquith, to appoint Arthur as his representative.His brother-in-law, the Duke of Argyll, had previously served as the country’s governor general, but when Arthur was sworn in on October 13, 1911 in the salon rouge of the parliament buildings of Quebec, he became the first Governor General of Canada who was a member of the British royal family.

To Canada, Arthur brought with him his wife and his youngest daughter, Princess Victoria Patricia, the latter of whom would become an extremely popular figure with Canadians. The Governor General and his viceregal family travelled throughout the country, performing such constitutional and ceremonial tasks as opening parliament in 1911 (to which Arthur wore his field marshal’s uniform and the Duchess of Connaught wore the gown she had worn at the King’s coronation the previous year) and, in 1917, laying at the newly rebuilt Centre Block on Parliament Hill the same cornerstone his older brother, the late King Edward VII, had set on 1 September 1860, when the original building was under construction.

Duke & Duchess of Connaught, Princess Victoria Patricia and staff.

The family crossed the country a number of times and the Governor General made another trip to the United States in 1912, when he met with President William Howard Taft.

When in Ottawa, Connaught maintained a routine of four days each week at his office on Parliament Hill and held small, private receptions for members of all political parties and dignitaries. The Duke learned to ice skate and hosted skating parties at the royal and viceroyal residence— Rideau Hall— to which the Connaughts made many physical improvements during Arthur’s term as governor general. The royal family also took to campingand other outdoor sports, such as hunting and fishing.

In 1914, the First World War broke out, with Canadians called to arms against Germany and Austria-Hungary. Arthur maintained a wider role in the empire— for instance, from 1912 until his death, serving as Colonel-in-Chief of the Cape Town Highlanders Regiment — but the Connaughts remained in Canada after the beginning of the global conflict, with Arthur emphasising the need for military training and readiness for Canadian troops departing for war, and giving his name to Connaught Cup for the Royal Northwest Mounted Police, to encourage pistol marksmanship for recruits.

He was also active in auxiliary war services and charities and conducted hospital visits. Though well intended, upon the outbreak of the war, Arthur immediately donned his field marshal’s uniform and went, without advice or guidance from his ministers, to training grounds and barracks to address the troops and to see them off before their voyage to Europe. This was much to the chagrin of Prime Minister Robert Borden, who saw the Prince as overstepping constitutional conventions. Borden placed blame on the military secretary, Edward Stanton (whom Borden considered to be “mediocre”), but also opined that Arthur “laboured under the handicap of his position as a member of the royal family and never realised his limitations as Governor General.”

Duke of Connaught later in life with his granddaughter Princess Ingrid of Sweden and her husband, future King Frederick IX of Denmark (parents of current Queen Margarethe II of Denmark).

At the same time, the Duchess of Connaught worked for the Red Cross and other organisations to support the war cause. She was also Colonel-in-Chief of the Duchess of Connaught’s Own Irish Canadian Rangers battalion, one of the regiments in the Canadian Expeditionary Force, and Princess Victoria Patricia also lent her name and support to the raising of a new Canadian army regiment— Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry.

His term as Canada’s Governor General ended in 1916.