Grandchildren stripped of titles and quitting smoking at 83: the extraordinary life of Europe’s boldest queen

Margrethe was born on April 16, 1940, just a week after Nazi Germany invaded Denmark. Margrethe was the first of three daughters of Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Ingrid (later King Frederick IX and Queen Ingrid). Her sisters are Queen Anna Maria of Greece, who lost her husband Constantine II in January 2023, and Princess Benedict of Denmark.

The news that Margrethe was to become Queen of Denmark came to her when she was still a teenager. In 1953, a change in the country’s constitution led to the fact that for the first time a woman had priority over male relatives (otherwise her uncle, Prince Knud, would have inherited the throne).

So when she ascended the throne in 1972, Margrethe became only the second Queen of Denmark in history. The first was the Queen of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, Margrethe I, who lived and reigned in the XIV – early XV centuries.

But before the coronation, Margrethe managed, as they say, to live a full life. The girl spent her childhood in Copenhagen in palace apartments in Amalienborgm, was educated at a private school in the city and even spent a year abroad at the North Foreland Lodge in Hampshire in the UK. United. The future queen then studied archeology at the University of Cambridge and political science at the University of Aarhus. And then she also found time to study at the Sorbonne and the London School of Economics. Margrethe is fluent in five languages, including Danish, English, French, Swedish and German.

But the main thing (after state activity) in the life of the queen was art, which she loved from an early age. Margrethe created sketches for stamps, theater costumes and sets, and today her solo exhibitions take place in Denmark.

In the 1960s, Margrethe also plunged into bohemian life. Together with her cousins, Princess Astrid of Norway and Princess Margareta of Sweden, she visited Hollywood, where she met the most famous men of those years: Elvis Presley, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis.

The jet-set princess also did not aspire to lead a healthy life, and she acquired bad habits not somewhere in bad company, but at home. So, the parents of the future queen were smokers and once addicted to their daughter on cigarettes.

In her memoirs, Queen Margrethe recounts how she started smoking at the age of 17: “My father and my mother smoked when I was growing up. One day they asked me if I wanted a cigarette. In fact, I’ve been smoking ever since.”

Smoking eventually became part of his image, which, however, was a regular cause of public outrage. The Queen smoked in public, in front of her children and grandchildren, and reacted phlegmatically to any exhortation.

When recently she started having health problems and the doctors again tried to reason with Margrethe, she only retorted: “I’m already so old that it doesn’t matter anymore whether I smoke or not.”

But after undergoing back surgery at the age of 83, the Queen nevertheless broke a bad habit.

Queen Margrethe has often been compared to the late Elizabeth II. And there are indeed parallels: both ascended the throne due to a change in circumstances, reigned for a long time and were noted for their character. But there is another common feature – both queens are monogamous.

Margrethe also lived her entire life with one man and only death separated them. The Queen was widowed in 2018.

Margrethe was married to French diplomat Henri de Laborde de Monpezat for over 50 years. They met in London at a gala dinner at the French Embassy and kept their relationship a secret from the media until the official engagement. During the marriage proposal, the French romantic gave his fiancée a ring with two large square-cut diamonds – each stone was supposed to symbolize one of them, forever linked together.

The couple married on June 10, 1967. The bride wore a lace dress by her grandmother, Princess Margaret of Connaught, and wore the Danish royal wedding tiara, the Khedive of Egypt. This jewel of “Cartier” in 1905 was presented to grandmother Margrethe as a gift by the ruler of Egypt, Abbas II.

Despite such a luxurious entourage, the ceremony itself lasted only 20 minutes, at the request of the bride, who does not want to be different from “normal” couples. The groom, now known as Prince Henrik, learned his vows in Danish as a sign of respect for his new family. The couple had two children: Prince Frederik (he is now the Crown Prince) and Prince Joachim.

Throughout her reign, Margrethe enjoyed the incredible support of her subjects – the Queen’s approval rating reached a phenomenal 80%. But a few years ago, the sovereign made headlines across the country after her controversial decision to modernize the monarchy. Margrethe began by depriving her grandchildren, the children of her youngest son – Nicolas, Felix, Henrik and Athena – of their titles of princes and princesses.

This step was a shock not only for the country, but also for his own family. Subsequently, Margrethe apologized to those close to her, but nevertheless underlined her “duty and her will to ensure the formation of the monarchy in tune with the times”. Prince Joachim later announced his intention to move to Washington with his wife, Princess Mary, to take up a new post at the Danish embassy there.

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