When she introduced her abdication throughout a reside new 12 months TV tackle at first of this 12 months, Queen Margrethe II despatched shockwaves by way of Denmark as the primary Danish monarch to abdicate in nearly 900 years.
The Queen will formally step down this Sunday, paving the best way for her son, Crown Prince Frederik, to take her place as Denmark’s reigning monarch.
A continuing all through a lot of Queen Margrethe’s reign was her husband, Prince Henrik, who handed away in 2018. The prince was a flamboyant and eccentric character whose later life specifically was marred by controversy.
© GettyHe was a bon vivant with a penchant for poetry, cooking and wine who turned infamous for his unpredictable outbursts, which earned him the title of “Whiner of the 12 months” from one Danish TV channel.
Born Henri de Laborde de Montpezat in 1934 at Talence, Gironde in France, the prince spent a lot of his childhood in Hanoi, the place he turned fluent in Vietnamese, earlier than shifting to Paris to review legislation and political science on the Sorbonne.
He moved to London to work as a diplomat, the place he first met the then Princess Margrethe in 1967. Inside a 12 months of their marriage, they welcomed their first son and inheritor to the Danish throne, Prince Frederik.
© GettyIn keeping with Wim Dehandschutter, royal reporter at DPG Media, the prince made a constructive first impression on the Danish individuals. “To start with, usually he was greeted with massive feelings and love,” Wim completely instructed HELLO!. “He was a younger good-looking French man who took the younger Princess Margrethe by storm.”
The prince’s behaviour in later life grew more and more erratic as he opted to candidly share a lot of his private frustrations with the press, earlier than being identified with dementia shortly earlier than his demise.
He was a polarising determine who evoked delight and disapproval in equal measure from the Danish public. “Prince Henrik had a love-hate relationship with the Danish individuals,” Wim stated. “They liked to hate him.”
Be part of us as we glance again at a number of the standout moments within the vibrant and controversial lifetime of Prince Henrik.
Mid-life disaster
Prince Henrik sparked controversy in 2002 when he aired his frustrations together with his life within the shadows, deeming himself ineffective, relegated and within the “midst of a mid-life disaster”.
This revelation got here following experiences that he had been demoted to the third rank within the Danish royal household, after he had been the visitor of his son Frederik, who Queen Margrethe selected to symbolize her as an alternative of her husband, at an official New 12 months’s reception in Copenhagen earlier that 12 months. The prince instructed Danish newspaper BT that these circulating feedback had been the “last straw”.
He blamed the press for what he described to be the “worst disaster” of his life, and denied that his son was in any respect chargeable for his bruised shallowness. “He is an exquisite boy,” he stated. “It isn’t his fault. I believe he is timid and he is not content material with the present state of affairs. I wish to make that clear. I am not jealous of my very own son. He is not the one making an attempt to alter the order.”
Within the midst of this, Henrik fled to his chateau within the South of France to take a step away from royal life.
© GettyAversion to royal life
When Margrethe turned queen in 1972, the title of Prince Consort was instantly bestowed on her husband, as is conference. Henrik needed to overhaul his life when his spouse turned queen: he needed to change his faith, language and title to adapt to Danish royal life.
Nevertheless, the prince, who maintained in his writings that he nonetheless noticed the Frenchman Henri when he regarded within the mirror, didn’t draw back from voicing his displeasure with a number of the changes that royal life demanded.
Specifically, he brazenly criticised his Prince Consort title. Historically, when a queen is topped, her husband is called prince, whereas if a king ascends to the throne, his spouse instantly turns into often known as queen.
He instructed the French newspaper, Le Figaro, that he deemed this to be a type of gender discrimination: “Denmark, which is in any other case often known as an avid defender of gender equality, is seemingly keen to think about husbands as value lower than their wives.”
There was additionally criticism of the prince’s failure to completely embrace Danish tradition and combine himself in Danish society. “It has been stated that Henrik, a French-born royal, was by no means really accepted, as a result of he by no means discovered to talk correct Danish. If he had made extra effort, this might have been step one in full recognition,” Wim stated.
“Moreover, Danish individuals had the sensation that Prince Henrik didn’t make enormous efforts to combine himself. For instance, he acknowledged unabashedly that he would select French wine over Danish beer, the French automobile model Citroën above Scandinavian Volvo.”
Throughout the queen’s seventy fifth birthday celebrations, Prince Henrik brought on fairly the stir when he was noticed on vacation in Venice regardless of claims that he was unwell.
© GettyControversial burial plans
Shortly earlier than his demise in 2018, Prince Henrik marked his lifelong grievance together with his title by asserting that he didn’t want to be buried subsequent to his spouse.
In an interview with Se og Hor, he stated: “I did not marry the Queen to be buried at Roskilde. My spouse has determined that she desires to be Queen, and I am very joyful about that. However as a human being she must know that if a person and spouse are married, they’re equal.”
“It is my spouse and never me that may do something about this matter. If she desires me buried along with her, she has to make me King Consort,” Henrik added. “Finish of story – I could not care much less.”
Danish custom dictates that the partner of a monarch is buried with them in Denmark’s Roskilde Cathedral. Nevertheless, as per his needs, the prince was cremated, with half of his ashes scattered in Danish waters, and the opposite half interred within the personal gardens at Fredensborg Fort.
© GettyIn keeping with Wim, though a lot of his views and fight factors had been considered “infantile” by the Danish public, “his recognition improved in his last years”. ” Maybe as a result of occasions have modified,” Wim stated. “As a result of they realised that he was vital to the Queen and for fulfilling her position.
“After his demise, individuals had been very unhappy and acknowledged him and his position. My associates remembered how individuals had been in enormous strains to see the coffin […] the Queen wouldn’t have been the Queen she has been if it weren’t for Prince Henrik. We owe him a giant thanks in addition to the Queen.”
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