Queen Margaret is the reigning Queen of Denmark for over 40 years. She succeeded the throne after her father, King Frederick IX, passed away in 1972. She has a very high approval rating in Denmark and has maintained the reputation of the royal family. She is also an accomplished painter and a costume designer.
Background
Ethnicity:
Her father was Danish while her mother was from Sweden
Queen Margaret was born into the royal House of Glucksburg, who originates from Northern Germany. Her father was Frederick IX, who later became King of Denmark, while her mother was Ingrid of Sweden, daughter of the Swedish king. Her full name is Margrethe Alexandrine Ingrid (after both her grandmothers and her mother). She is the eldest child of their parents. After her birth, she was styled as "Her Royal Highness Princess Margrethe".
Education
Nazi Germany invaded Denmark just one week before Queen Margaret was born, so her birth was seen as a glimpse of hope. She grew up at the Amalienborg Palace in Copenhagen with her two younger sisters, Benedikte and Anne Marie. In 1947, her grandfather died, so her father became the new King Frederick IX of Denmark.
As soon as it became clear that there will be no male heirs to the throne, King Frederick decided to make a constitutional amendment to allow females to ascend the throne. The Act of Succession passed the referendum on 27 March 1953 and Princess Margaret was now the heir presumptive and she started preparing for her future role.
Margaret successfully graduated from the N. Zahle’s private school in Copenhagen, moving on to an exclusively for girls boarding school in Hampshire, England in 1959. She enrolled at Girton College, Cambridge, to study prehistoric archeology in 1960, continuing to the Aarhus University to study political sciences. In 1963, she attended Sorbonne and rounded off her education in London, where she studied at the School of Economics.
She speaks five languages fluently - Danish, Swedish, german, English and French, and she also has a certain knowledge of Faroese.
Career
Margaret’s state duties started long before she was officially pronounced a Queen. She got the seat in the Council of State as soon as she came out of age in 1958 and later, in cases of the King’s absence, she even chaired the meetings. She also visited the United States in 1960, along with the princesses of Norway and Sweden, where one of her stops was Paramount Studios in Los Angeles. There she met Elvis Presley, Jerry Lewis, and Dean Martin.
While she was in London where she studied at the School of Economics, Margaret met Conte Henri de Laborde de Monpezat, a French Count, diplomat and her future husband. The couple married in Copenhagen in 1967 and Laborde de Monpezat became Prince Consort of Denmark (later King consort), receiving the title of "His Royal Highness Prince Henrik of Denmark". They have two kids together.
Upon King Frederick IX’s death in 1972, Margaret ascended the throne. She as officially proclaimed Queen of Denmark on 15th January 1572, when she went out on the balcony of Christiansborg Palace and waved to a huge crowd that came to wish their queen well. Queen Margaret II then became only the second female monarch of Denmark and the first ever that ruled the sovereign Denmark. In the 14th century, Queen Margaret I ruled the Scandinavian countries during the Kalmar union.
According to the Constitution, main roles of the Queen is to be the representative of the Danish Kingdom overseas and to be a uniting figure at home. She also awards medals and honors and receives foreign ambassadors. Queen is often invited to attend anniversaries, open exhibits and other events but she is considered as a public official that was not elected so she can’t express political opinions or engage in party politics. Queen Margaret even opted not to vote at the elections to avoid any possible trace of partisanship.
In cases when the incumbent Prime Minister doesn’t get a majority behind him at the election, the Queen calls for a meeting called “Dronningerunde”, where she meets chairmen of all relevant parties. They are off offered a choice to choose a Royal Investigator to lead negotiations between them or agree to give the incumbent Prime Minister the right to continue his mandate. If a political party manages to secure a majority of the seats in the Danish Parliament (The Folketing), the Queen issues a royal decree and gives him the right to for a new government. This is something Queen Margaret did numerous times as it never happened that a single party holds a majority.
In theory, it is the Queen that officially appoints the government once it is formed. She is considered the head of the government and presides over the Privy Council (Council of State), where all the acts of legislation are signed into law after passing the parliament. In practice, the Cabinet of Denmark exercises nearly all of the formal powers of the Queen.
Aside from performing her Queen duties, Margaret is also a reputable painter. She held numerous art shows and her illustrations are used for The Lord of the Rings books published in Denmark in 1977. Some sources state that she even took part in translating The Lord of the Rings to Danish. She also illustrated the poetry collection of Prince Consort Henrik “Cantabile” in 2000.
Queen Margaret is also an accomplished costume designer. She had designed the costumes for the ballet A Folk Tale and a movie The Wild Swans (De vilde swaner). Aside from wearing designs by famous creators, she also designs her own pieces of clothing.
The tradition that already existed in her family also assigned to Queen Margaret a role of the Colonel-in-Chief of the Royal Regiment of Princess of Wales, which is the British Army’s infantry regiment.
In 2012, Queen Margaret celebrated her 40th year on the throne, which is called the Ruby Jubilee. For this opportunity, she staged a gala banquet at her residence Christiansborg Palace and the jubilee was marked by a carriage procession.
(Cantabile is a book written by the Prince Consort of Denm...)
Religion
Queen of Denmark is a Christian and a member of Dansk Folkekirke (Evangelical Lutheran Church of Denmark), which is also the official religion in Denmark.
Politics
A queen is considered in Denmark to be a public official that was not elected so she can’t express political opinions or engage in party politics. Queen Margaret even opted not to vote at the elections to avoid any possible trace of partisanship..
Views
It is a tradition that the rulers of Denmark choose their own motto for the reign. Queen Margaret chose her motto to be “God’s help, the love of The People, Denmark’s strength”. When she was officially crowned, she asked for the same amount of trust that her father had. She justified the trust she was given by the people completely. Today, she is one of the persons with the highest approval ratings in Denmark. It is even believed that she would be elected as president if she isn’t already the Queen.
Queen Margaret’s tobacco habit is one of the rare things that’s not widely approved. It is even believed that she is a chain smoker, known to smoke several cigarettes one after another. However, the Royal Court stated in 2006 that the Queen will in the future only smoke in private.
In an authorized biography published about the Queen in 2005, it could be read what she thinks about Islam. Margaret stated that it is impressive that religion imbues existence for some people and it is endearing that they can completely give up to their faith. However, she also warns that there are risks emerging from a totality that is also a part of Islam.
In 2014, Queen Margaret visited China and paid her respect to the victims of the Nanjing Massacre that occurred in 1937-38 and took the lives of more than 200,000 people. During her visit to the Memorial Hall of the Victims, she laid a yellow rose in the memory of Bernhard Arp Sindberg, a Danish traveler who was one of only a handful of foreigners to experience the Nanjing Massacre. The Queen also watered a tree outside the Memorial hall as a symbol of peace.
Quotations:
"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." - during her first speech as a Queen
"We cannot change the cruel history, but can learn a historic lesson and experience from it", during the visit to China to pay respects to the people died in the Nanjing Massacre
Membership
Quen Margaret is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London.
Society of Antiquaries of London
,
England
Personality
her charisma helped her maintain high reputation of the royal family in Denmark.
Physical Characteristics:
Queen Margaret is praised for her sense of style. The Guardian named her as one of the fifty best-dressed women in the world who are over 50 years of age.
Interests
Painting, fashion, costume designing
Politicians
Queen Elizabeth II, Jens Otto Krag
Writers
Henri de Laborde de Monpezat
Artists
Dean Martin
Music & Bands
Elvis Presley
Connections
Queen Margaret married Conte Henri de Laborde de Monpezat, a French diplomat, in 1967. They have two sons together, Frederik and Joachim.