Written by Robert Hardman, Daily Mail
22:55 January 14, 2024, updated 23:19 January 14, 2024
Sealed with a kiss, a new era begins for the world’s oldest monarchy. King Frederick
Soon he was joined by the new Queen Mary and her four children. In the end, the new king and queen got what everyone wanted: a kiss.
The scene here was more reminiscent of a royal wedding than an abdication, but the Queen wore a white dress and we were truly in uncharted territory.
No Danish monarch has ever done what outgoing Queen Margrethe II did yesterday. It was only two weeks ago that she announced her retirement at the age of 83.
She had previously insisted she would never abdicate. “You’re in that job for the rest of your life,” she told me in 2012.
This explains why Danes were so surprised by the brazen bombshell made in the annual national broadcast on New Year’s Eve. She said extensive back surgery last year prompted her decision. Yesterday, as she handed over the throne to her eldest son, most of Denmark’s six million people appeared to have flocked to the capital to say farewell and hello.
Not that there was any possibility that it would be placed on his head. Denmark has never physically crowned a monarch since a new democratic constitution was enacted in 1848. In fact, the closest the Danish sovereign will come to wearing the Christian V crown is when he is placed in a coffin at his own funeral.
In Copenhagen, crowds continued throughout the day, with around 50 people crammed together to get a good vantage point. There has also been a particularly large media contingent from Australia, where royalists are excited about the birth of Tasmanian-born Mary, the world’s first Australian queen.
The city was a sea of red and white, and everyone seemed to have a Dannebrog, which the Danes call their national flag.
The ceremony began with Queen Margrethe smiling and waving as she traveled from Amalienborg Palace (Royal Palace) to Christiansborg Palace (Houses of Parliament) in a golden wedding carriage escorted by a cavalry company of the Hussars. Her heiress and her daughter-in-law traveled in her 1958 Royal Rolls Royce, the flagship of the British fleet.
In a palace comparable to Denmark’s Westminster Palace, Margrethe sat next to Frederic as she signed the petition at the end of her 52-year reign. She then handed the document to Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and stood up. She kept smiling, but there were tears in her eyes. She was handed a cane by the new Crown Prince Christian, who calmly said her parting words, “God save the King.”
She then drove home in a Rolls Royce, accompanied only by four police officers jogging alongside her car. With crowds of this size and little crowd barrier, they seemed somewhat ineffective. This was reminiscent of his famous wartime retort against a German soldier who asked why his grandfather Christian X was walking through the streets without a bodyguard. “All of Denmark is his bodyguard.”
After signing the coronation documents, the new king appeared on the balcony, clearly surprised by the sight before him and the warmth of his welcome. In Britain, it is the Garter King of Arms who proclaims the new monarch. In Denmark it’s PM.
In a variation on the “recognition” element of the coronation ceremony in Westminster Abbey (where each point on a compass indicates an “undoubted” monarch), Ms. Frederiksen formally declared the new king left, right, and straight ahead. did. . Then Frederick X put on his glasses and read a short speech. “My hope is to be the unified king of tomorrow,” he declared. “It’s a challenge I’ve worked on all my life. It’s a job I approach with pride, respect and joy.” There, the queen and her children Christian (18), Isabella (16), They were joined by twins Vincent and Josephine, 13. After the children returned home, the king and queen held hands and exchanged knowing smiles. I heard the growing calls for a kiss, which I duly complied with. This was the loudest cheer of the day. This was a clear response to gossip after the king was spotted with a Mexican socialite (who categorically denies any inappropriate behavior) at a Madrid nightclub last year. Ta.
Now it was the new monarch and her consort’s turn to be summed up by a mounted escort as they rode home in the royal carriage.
By now, messages of goodwill were pouring in from world leaders, including a tribute from the world’s second-newest monarch. “I look forward to the lasting ties between our two countries and our families remaining strong,” wrote Charles III (who also wrote personally to Margrethe) .
I think we can definitely predict some kind of state visit in the near future.