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Queen Margrethe II "surprised" the Danes on New Year's Eve, announcing to them her departure from the royal throne, after 52 years.
Danes were in for a surprise on New Year's Eve as Queen Margrethe II announced her abdication. The world's only reigning queen and Europe's longest-serving monarch will step down on January 14, 52 years since she became queen.
"I will leave the throne to my son, Crown Prince Frederik," she declared live on TV.
Crown Prince Frederik was known in Denmark as a gregarious prince in the early 1990s, but perceptions began to change after he graduated from Aarhus University in 1995 with a master's degree in political science. He was the first of the Danish royal family to complete a university education. During his studies he spent time at Harvard in the United States, where he registered under the pseudonym Frederik Henriksen.
He later served in the Danish navy, where he was nicknamed "Pingo", which according to the Mail was earned after his clothes filled with water during a diving course and he had to walk like a penguin. The 55-year-old made his name as a daredevil by taking part in a four-month skiing expedition across Greenland in 2000. He was hospitalized for sled and scooter accidents.
"I don't want to lock myself in a castle. I want to be myself, a human being,” he once said, insisting that he would stick to that even after taking the throne.
She once said in an interview that she didn't know he was the prince of Denmark when they met, saying: "Half an hour later someone came up to me and said, 'Do you know who these people are?'
They are considered by some to represent modern values and have tried to give their four children – a daughter, son and twins – as normal an education as possible, sending them mostly to state schools.
Contrary to British royal tradition, there will be no formal coronation ceremony for Crown Prince Frederik. Instead, his acceptance will be announced from Amalienborg Castle in Copenhagen that day. He will become King of Denmark and head of state in the country - which is a constitutional monarchy - as well as in Greenland and the Faroe Islands.
Queen Margrethe II is the world's only reigning queen and Europe's longest-serving current monarch, taking the throne after the death of her father, King Frederik IX in 1972. The 83-year-old revealed the decision was made after a period of reflection after back surgery in early 2023.
“Surgery naturally made you think about the future — whether the time had come to leave the responsibility to the next generation,” she said. "I have decided that now is the right time," she added and thanked the Danish public for their support over the years.
Crown Prince Frederik, like Britain's King Charles III, is known for his passion for the environment. He has vowed to "steer the ship" of Denmark into the future. His Australian-born wife, Princess Mary, grew up on the island of Tasmania and was working as a lawyer when the pair met in 2000 in a bar in Sydney during the Olympics. .
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