On her 18th birthday, in 1958, Princess Margrethe took her seat in the State Council as heir apparent to the throne of Denmark. The heir to the throne passed her matriculation examination in 1959, with distinction. Then came her student days, taking her from the universities of Copenhagen and Århus to Cambridge, Paris, and London, where she studied on the same footing as her fellows and lived the ordinary life of a young student.
On the 10th June 1967, at the Holmens Kirke of Copenhagen, Hereditary Princess married Henri Marie Jean André, Count de Laborde de Monpezat, born on the 11th June 1934 at Talence, Gironde, France, the eldest son of Count André de Laborde de Monpezat and Countess Renée de Monpezat, born Doursenot. HRH Prince Henrik, as he was henceforth titled, lived his first five years in Indochina. In 1938, the family moved back to France to the family residence le Cayrou in Cahors. He studied at the Jesuit boarding school in Bordeaux and studied for his A-levels in Cahors and in Hanoi.
The Prince graduated from the Sorbonne University in 1957 and from Paris University of Oriental languages with proficiency in Chinese and Vietnamese. He spent a year at Hong Kong University from 1958 to 1959. He did military service in France and Algeria between 1959 and 1962 and entered the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1963. He was later appointed to the French Embassy in London as a Third Secretary.
Her Majesty and His Royal Highness have two sons, HRH Crown Prince Frederik André Henrik Christian of Denmark, born on the 26th May 1968 and HRH Prince Joachim Holger Waldemar Christian of Denmark, born on the 7th June 1969. After only a few years of a more or less casual life, HRH Hereditary Princess Margrethe acceded the throne on the death of her father, King Frederik IX, on the 14th January 1972, adopting the motto “God's help, the Love of The People, Denmark's strength”. In the long line of Danish monarchs, Queen Margrethe II occupies a place apart as she is the first queen regnant of Denmark. Her predecessor and namesake, Margrethe I (13531412) ruled on behalf of her son Oluf.
According to tradition and the Danish Constitution, HM The Queen does not participate actively in Danish party politics and does not express any personal political opinions. However, in her traditional televised New Year's Eve speech she speaks to the whole nation and often covers ethical and cultural issues. Time and again Queen Margrethe has emphasized that first and foremost she is Queen, Head of State. That is her heritage, her job, her duty. But it is as an active artist that the Danes have come to know this intelligent, sensitive, and unorthodox female (as a Danish author has called her) as a living and vibrant human being.
The Queen is a person of many talents. In her youth archaeology was the object of her great interest. If in those years she had had to choose a career, she would probably have made an outstanding archaeologist. She has been a very active participant in a number of excavations, for instance in Rome with her maternal grandfather, King Gustav VI Adolf, the late King of Sweden, and also in Sudan. But it is in the field of art, and as an active artist, that Queen Margrethe emerges as an exceptional Dane. The Queen's encounter with the fairytale world of J.R.R. Tolkien was crucial for her development as an artist. She corresponded personally with Tolkien and later pointed out how Tolkien's words as if by an inner compulsion transformed themselves into pictures. In 1977, The Lord of the Rings was published with illustrations by Ingahild Grathmer, a pseudonym which the Queen used for her first works.
Now Her Majesty dares to work under her own name and has shown her works at a number of exhibitions both in Denmark and abroad. Alongside painting, the Queen has worked with handicrafts, book illustrations, embroidery, Christmas seals, and church textiles, in which she has renewed the old traditions and paved the way for a new generation of artists.
HM The Queen is patroness of a great many organisations, foundations and associations such as The Royal Danish Geographical Society, The Hans Christian Andersen Ballet Award, The Danish Immigrant Museum, Iowa, USA, The Queen’s Association of the Princess of Wales’ Royal Regiment, The Danish Shooting Associations, Danish UNICEF Committee and many others. Likewise, HRH the Prince Consort has been Honorary Commissioner of the Danish Red Cross since 1969, President of the Danish branch of the WWF Worldwide Fund for Nature since 1972, President of the Europa Nostra, European Association for preservation of architectural and natural heritage, since 1991.
Prince Henrik takes an active interest in Danish trade promotion overseas, in economic symposiums for his country and is the patron of a number of organisations and associations such as Lions Club International, Regates La Croix Blanche, The International Nicolai Malko Competition for Young Conductors, Alliance Française, The Danish UNICEF Committee. He speaks Danish and French as well as Chinese, Vietnamese and English. His hobbies include music - he is an accomplished pianist and organist, yachting, horsemanship, shooting, skiing and tennis. HRH the Prince Consort travels frequently, both privately and officially. The Prince runs a large wine estate in Cahors in France, where the Château de Caïx yearly produces an average of 120.000 bottles of red wine and 15.000 bottles of white wine which are exported world wide. HRH the Prince Consort has been an active pilot until recently and holds the honorary rank of General in the Royal Danish Army and Royal Danish Air Force and Admiral in the Royal Danish Navy.
The Queen and Prince Consort’s youngest son, HRH Prince Joachim, married Miss Alexandra Manley on the 18th November 1995. The young and glamorous couple has two sons, HH Prince Nikolai and HH Prince Felix. The eldest son and heir of the Danish sovereign, HRH Crown Prince Frederik is engaged and about to marry Miss Mary Donaldson.
