Margrethe II of Denmark

Margrethe II (Margrethe Alexandrine Þórhildur Ingrid; born 16 April 1940) is the Queen regnant of Denmark. Only very rarely is her name anglicized as Margaret II.

Margrethe II
Queen of Denmark
Queen Margrethe II of Denmark in 2012
Reign14 January 1972 – present
PredecessorFrederik IX
Heir-ApparentFrederik, Crown Prince of Denmark
Born (1940-04-16) 16 April 1940
Amalienborg Palace, Copenhagen, Denmark
Spouse
Henrik, Prince Consort of Denmark
(m. 1967; his death 2018)
IssueFrederik, Crown Prince of Denmark
Prince Joachim
HouseHouse of Glücksburg
FatherFrederik IX of Denmark
MotherIngrid of Sweden

Life

Princess Margrethe was born at Amalienborg Palace, Copenhagen. Her parents were Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Ingrid. She was baptised on 14 May 1940 at the Naval Church in Copenhagen. As King Christian X of Denmark was also the King of Iceland at the time of her birth, the Princess was given an Icelandic name, Þórhildur (spelled with the Icelandic thorn character, simplified as "th").

She studied archaeology at Girton College, Cambridge, from 1960 to 1961. She was also at the London School of Economics in 1965.

Margrethe was not born to be monarch, even though she was the eldest child of the Crown Prince, later King. At the time of her birth, only males could ascend the throne of Denmark.

The act of succession was changed in 1953.

Her father King Frederik IX died in 1972, and Queen Margrethe II became the first female Danish Sovereign.[1]

In 2018, her husband Prince Henrik died of pneumonia in February and her first cousin Princess Elisabeth died in June.

Notes
  1. Queen Margrete I ruled Denmark, Norway and later also Sweden between 1387 and 1412. She was a Danish princess, who married the King of Norway, and thus became Queen. She had a baby boy, and when her husbond died, the little boy was formally chosen to be king of both Norway and Denmark. Because the new king was still very young, his mother, Queen Margrete ruled in his name. The young king died when he was 17 years old, but his mother continued to rule both countries, and from 1397 Sweden was added, and she became the ruler of all of Scandinavia. She was however never a Sovereign.

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