Margrethe II of Denmark

At the time of her birth, only males could ascend the throne of Denmark, owing to the changes in succession laws enacted in the 1850s when the Glücksburg branch was chosen to succeed.

As Margrethe had no brothers, it was assumed that her uncle Prince Knud would one day assume the throne.

Margrethe II (Margrethe Alexandrine Þórhildur Ingrid, born 16 April 1940) is a member of the Danish royal family who reigned as Queen of Denmark from 14 January 1972 until her abdication on 14 January 2024.

Having reigned for exactly 52 years, she was the second-longest reigning Danish monarch after Christian IV.

Margrethe was born into the House of Glücksburg, a cadet branch of the House of Oldenburg during the reign of her paternal grandfather, King Christian X.

She is the eldest child of King Frederik IX and Queen Ingrid.

Margrethe was born on 16 April 1940 at 10:10 CET at Frederik VIII's Palace, in her parents' residence at Amalienborg, the principal residence of the Danish royal family in the district of Frederiksstaden in central Copenhagen.

She was the first child of the Crown Prince and Crown Princess (later King Frederik IX and Queen Ingrid).

Her father was the elder son of the then-reigning King Christian X, while her mother was the only daughter of the then Crown Prince of Sweden (who would later reign as King Gustaf VI Adolf).

Margrethe's birth took place just one week after Nazi Germany's invasion of Denmark on 9 April 1940.

Princess Margrethe was baptised on 14 May in the Holmen Church in Copenhagen.

Her godparents were her grandfathers, King Christian X of Denmark and Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf of Sweden; her maternal great-grandfathers, King Gustaf V of Sweden and Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn; her uncles Prince Knud of Denmark and Prince Gustaf Adolf, Duke of Västerbotten; as well as her first cousin twice removed, Prince Axel of Denmark.

She was named Margrethe – the Danish variation of her late maternal grandmother Crown Princess Margareta of Sweden's name – Alexandrine after her paternal grandmother, Queen Alexandrine, and Ingrid after her mother.

Since her paternal grandfather was also King of Iceland at the time of her birth, she was given the Icelandic name Þórhildur.

Like her maternal grandmother, Margrethe is known affectionately as "Daisy" to her family and close friends.

The birth of Margrethe's younger sisters Benedikte and Anne-Marie followed in 1944 and 1946 respectively.

The princesses grew up in apartments at Frederik VIII's Palace at Amalienborg in Copenhagen and in Fredensborg Palace in North Zealand.

Margrethe spent summer holidays with the royal family in her parents' summer residence at Gråsten Palace in Southern Jutland.

On 20 April 1947, following the death of King Christian X, Margrethe's father ascended the throne as King Frederik IX.

The process of changing the constitution started in 1947, not long after Margrethe's father ascended the throne and it became clear that Queen Ingrid would have no more children.

The popularity of Frederik and his daughters and the more prominent role of women in Danish life started the complicated process of altering the constitution.

She became heir presumptive to her father in 1953, when a constitutional amendment allowed women to inherit the throne.

The law required that the proposal be passed by two successive Parliaments and then by a referendum, which occurred on 27 March 1953.

The new Act of Succession permitted female succession to the throne of Denmark, according to male-preference cognatic primogeniture, where a female can ascend to the throne only if she does not have a brother.

Princess Margrethe therefore became heir presumptive.

Margrethe attended the traditional New Year Courts for the first time in 1956.

On her eighteenth birthday, 16 April 1958, Margrethe was given a seat in the Council of State.

She subsequently chaired the meetings of the Council in the absence of the King.

Margrethe was educated at the private school N. Zahle's School in Copenhagen, from which she graduated in 1959.

She spent a year at North Foreland Lodge, a boarding school for girls in Hampshire, England, and later studied prehistoric archaeology at Girton College, Cambridge, during 1960–1961, political science at Aarhus University between 1961 and 1962, attended the Sorbonne in 1963, and was at the London School of Economics in 1965.

She is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London.

Margrethe is fluent in Danish, French, English, Swedish and German, and has a limited knowledge of Faroese.

In 1967, she married Henri de Laborde de Monpezat, with whom she had two sons, Frederik and Joachim.

Margrethe succeeded her father upon his death on 14 January 1972.

As sovereign, Margrethe received 42 official state visits and she undertook 55 foreign state visits herself.

Margrethe has worked as a scenographer, a costume designer, and an illustrator of works by J. R. R. Tolkien.

She and the royal family have made several other foreign visits.

During her reign, support for the monarchy in Denmark remained consistently high at around 82%, as did Margrethe's personal popularity.

She was succeeded by her elder son, Frederik X.

In 2009, the law of succession was modified into absolute primogeniture.