Some elements will be familiar to those who watched the British ceremony after the death of Elizabeth II and the coronation of Charles III eight months later. It depicts the proclamation, the balcony scene, the king’s speech, and the procession.
Although there is only one, a golden carriage will also appear. Margrethe will ride this train to Christiansborg Palace, the seat of the Danish government, where she plans to sign the abdication declaration. Frederick, who became the new king, will use a horse-drawn carriage to return home, and his mother will go by car.
But as a London-based correspondent who regularly covers the British royal family, I was immediately struck by the simplicity of Denmark’s plan. There is no very heavy jeweled crown or anointing of the monarch behind a screen. While the British like to exaggerate the glitz and glamor by invoking ancient symbols of power, Danes seem to take a more business-like approach.
“The British place great value on mysticism. This old man is being massaged with a mysterious oil, which is very strange,” said Jakob Steen Olsen, royal commentator for Denmark’s Berlingske newspaper. Told.
“The Danish way is meant to show the connection between democracy and royalty,” he said, as a contrast to “how it used to be.”
“Back then the king decided us and our lives, but now it’s the other way around,” Olsen told me. “We have a democracy. They serve us, not the other way around.”
According to modern Danish tradition, the Prime Minister is not just a guest of succession to the throne, but also the one who proclaims the new monarch. On Sunday, on the balcony of Christiansborg Palace, Mette Frederiksen looks in three different directions and says, “Long live your Majesty, Frederik X.”
The Danes had an anointed throne that, according to legend, was made of unicorn horn, or narwhal tusk, according to modern analysis. However, when they abolished the absolute monarchy in the late 1840s, they abolished the anointing. The throne is on display at Rosenborg Palace in Copenhagen.
And what about the crown? Nowadays it is reserved for the funerals of monarchs, where it is placed on the coffin.
In Britain, those who object to how high the royal family’s taxes are often point to Scandinavian “bicycle monarchies” that can get by with far less money. And the Danish monarchy has become an even smaller operation since Margrethe stripped her four grandchildren of their titles of prince and princess.
In 2022, the Danish Royal Family was allocated $13 million in public funds. The British royal family received $109 million. Elizabeth’s funeral that year cost an additional $200 million. The cost of Charles’ coronation has not yet been announced, but some estimates put it at $125 million.
So could Denmark be an alternative model for the UK this weekend?
“Does the magic disappear if it’s too normal?” Olsen asked. “Or is the old idea of a noble, god-like royal family changing?”