Margaret of Denmark turns 80: she is the only European sovereign with Queen Elizabeth

Lto queen Margaret of Denmark would have liked to celebrate (like all those celebrated) his 80 years in a different way on April 16th. The Coronavirus has ruined the plans of even the only European sovereign living like Queen Elizabeth, of which she is distant cousin.

Official photos

No celebrations, no cannon shots, no parades. Birthday on the sly for the Danish queen who, however, months before the lockdown she officially had herself portrayed with the heir to the throne Frederick, 51, and her son Christian, 15 born of the union with the Australian Mary Donaldson. Court photographer Per Morten Abrahamsen made three images inside the royal palace in Amalienborg and at Fredensborg Palace. Three generations in one shot.

Cousin of Queen Elizabeth

Her great-great-grandmother was Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, so Margaret II is a cousin of Elizabeth II and Sophia of Greece. She is the only European sovereign to lead her kingdom alone, like Queen Elizabeth. Until 2015, the other European queen was Beatrix of Holland. She succeeds the throne in 1972, on the death of her father Frederick IX and is the first Danish sovereign since the time of Margaret I (1375-1412) who also reigned in Sweden and Norway (Union of Kalmar).

A court model

In 1967, at the age of 27, Margaret of Denmark married the diplomat Henri de Laborde de Monpezat, with whom she had two sons: Crown Prince Frederik (born in 1968) and Prince Joachim (born in 1969). One of the grandsons, Nikolai, is now an established model.

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