“I pray God to give me the strength to take on my task…”
It was fifty years ago, January 15, 1972. On the balcony of Christiansborg Castle, seat of parliament and government, in Copenhagen.
The trembling voice, reading a speech she held in her hands, Margrethe II, draped in black, had just been proclaimed queen of Denmark that day, while the day before, her father, Frederik IX, had died in the age of 72, leaving his throne to the eldest of his three daughters (Margrethe, Benedikte, Anne-Marie).
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In front of tens of thousands of Danes moved to tears, Prime Minister Jens Otto Krag had pronounced the ritual phrase three times:
“King Frederik IX is dead.
Long live Queen Margrethe II
”, marking the beginning of the reign of the 31-year-old sovereign, married to the prince of French origin Henrik, and mother of two children, Frederik and Joachim.
Nothing, however, predisposed Margrethe to this fate.
As a child, she was not
"a model schoolgirl".
"My notes in ...
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