This January 14, Margaret of Denmark turns 50 as sovereign of her country. But he was on the verge of not occupying the throne, which was going to go directly to his uncle Canute. It was not her destiny: the law did not allow it because she was a woman. It took two parliaments and a referendum to approve that Margarita Alexandrina Thorhildur Ingrid could become heiress. The eldest of the three daughters of Federico IX came into the world a week after Nazi Germany invaded Denmark and after her came Benedicta and Ana María —today the wife of Constantine of Greece—, but no man. That meant that, when he ascended the throne in 1947, Federico wanted to make sure that his eldest daughter, then only seven years old, became his heir. It cost him a good constitutional shed and almost six years of legal battle.
So, Margarita was still more than 20 years away from becoming queen.
She enjoyed her days as crown princess, her early days, her marriage and her children.
The French Enrique de Monpezat was not a common bet for a consort, but it was the one that she herself decided.
Together they had two children, a relatively low number for a queen.
But both were men.
And the years have shown that the monarch has not always had it easy with the men of her family.
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If her husband Henry did not like the title of prince (he always longed for that of king consort) or his role as second-in-command – reasons why he even moved to France for decades to escape the court – tensions rose when they arrived. Federico, the current heir, and Joaquín. With the firstborn, everything went well until the arrival of Mary Donaldson, his wife, with whom the queen took a long time to connect. With Joaquín the father's pattern was repeated: the complicated management of considering himself a vase brother, a loose verse and, nevertheless, always observed.
Margarita, who also bears Thorhidur, which literally means Thor's warrior, among her names, has fought against internal family tensions and has managed, however, to become a beloved queen, who knows how to be close to her people. For his 80th birthday, celebrated less than a year ago, he did not hesitate to show himself in a nightgown in some snapshots in which the palace employees sang to him from a distance. Or, when her husband died four years ago – who expressly asked to be cremated, breaking the tradition of being buried with the monarch in his €3 million tomb – she declared: “We loved each other very much. It was a really passionate love on both sides.” Some surprising statements after 40 years of marriage by a reigning figure,who also confessed that it was "overwhelming" to see how much Enrique cared about his people, despite the consort's elusive and capricious character. "I would have liked my husband to experience a little of all that sympathy," she went on to say. But in Denmark no one complained about his lament.
Despite her family tensions, this former heavy smoker, who gave up tobacco in 2006 publicly but has never done so privately, has formed a clan with eight grandchildren who guarantee the succession to the throne and whom she sees often. Although she is sincere: “I am definitely not the best grandmother in the world,” she told a Swedish newspaper in 2019. “I think it is wonderful that mothers and grandmothers hug children a lot. I'm not that good at it." And he concluded: "I do not have any kind of angelic patience." But no one in your country receives such ideas as anything other than a valuable display of your sincerity and character.
© / Free PostNord Denmark will publish a sheet on January 3 regarding the 50th anniversary of the Queen's rule. On January 14, 1972, King Frederick IX died, and the 31-year-old heir to the throne became regent of the country. The change of throne was announced the following day from the balcony of Christiansborg Castle Square by the then Prime Minister Jens Otto Krag (S).
Another of the dichotomies that characterize her so well is in her training and her tastes.
She was educated at Cambridge, London and the Sorbonne, studied Political Science, Economics and Archaeology, speaks five languages perfectly... but what interests her is manual labor.
Under the pseudonym Ingahild Grathmer, Margarita has written short stories and translated and illustrated books (including the Danish version of
The Lord of the Rings
), loves to embroider (years ago she sewed a bag cover for her daughter-in-law Mary) and has designed costumes for works such as
The Wild Swans
, in 2009, where she played a small role as a peasant,
The Nutcracker
, in 2017 or, recently, for the Netflix film
Ehrengard
.
His paintings and embroidery have even been exhibited in museums.
10 years ago, when she turned 40 on the throne, Margarita granted a multitude of interviews, offered a grand gala party with other European monarchs and princes and took a mass bath with a carriage ride through the streets of Copenhagen. This Golden Jubilee will have to be more discreet for Daisy, as she is affectionately called in the family, even in other royal houses. He has given a great interview for which 18 Danes have come to Fredensborg Palace to ask him questions in person, and where he has allowed himself to be questioned about his privileges (he is very aware of them, as were his parents, and tries to impress upon them that same alert to her children and grandchildren), about whether she likes to have dinner watching TV (she is in favor of separating both activities) or when she will come down from the throne. To the latter, he replied that he will not do it because,as he always declares when he has the opportunity, his is a public service that will last until his death. Although she would like to embroider more.
