Queen Margrethe 2nd of Denmark Abdication

[Enko]

I have just read the queens New Year speech (I am Danish living in the UK) and the queen will abdicate on the 14th January 52 years after her ascending the throne.

I am very moved. She is the only queen I remember of Denmark and currently the only reigning female Monarch. This will change as the next generations come through but not in Denmark where the next 2 are male.

Interesting @Aintnosupermum

My picture of Denmark moved from socialist paradise to somewhere quite smug that only liked you if you fit in. And made it very hard for you to do this - learning the language is just a baby step in the right direction.

However for my DM who left Denmark, her attitude of 'you have to fit in' stood her in good stead making a new life in another country.

Also interesting.
Integration is a massive issue in countries with well established cultural norms.

As this is the royals bit, do you think Denmark's sense of identity lies with it's monarchy or its government?

The G was to differentiate us from
little Britain ie Britany, so we were Grand Bretagne. As PP says, GB is the name of the island.

The UK encompasses NI as its the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

My mum loves the Danish royal family.

But I think Danish identity lies in a very very strong Danish culture. There are Danish traditions for practically everything and a sense that this is the best way.

And then there is the Law of Jante. While there may be a lot of fuss about not really doing that any more, it has a really really strong legacy and the group culture is very important.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_Jante

One of my final year undergraduates spent a semester as a visiting student in Denmark last year, and that intake of overseas students to Aarhus University had the Law of Jante dinned into them during orientation.

Really, that's shocking!

He was a bit taken aback! (A ‘young’ mature student in that he’s about 25, and mildly alternative in a slightly retro vinyl/long hair/ runs an indie film soc/paisley shirted way.)

Would you say the law of jante is a bit fifo.(fit in or fuck off)

I think Denmark would be a fascinating place to spend some time.

(Out of interest - how does your mum view the British Royals?)

Doesn't sound particularly united to me with NI tacked on as an afterthought (not to mention the whole devolution of home countries thing).

I will crack on using GB to be lovely and inclusive and see if it catches on

Except you're doing the precise opposite.

How is using GB ‘lovely and inclusive’ when it actively excludes NI?

It not just a whim , Northern Ireland will not thank you for downgrading them and lumping them in with the Island of Great Britain. The United Kingdom comprises the Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland , laws which refer only to Great Britain do not apply in Ireland , unlike Scotland and Wales Ireland is a separate Kingdom , very offensive to ignore that .

I have oversimplified here legally it is more complex but hopefully you now understand that it’s not a choice or just a turn of phrase .

My understanding was that the Scotland also has a separate legal system, at least when I looked at law 20 years ago England and Wales were often mentioned separately to Scotland.
The Welsh and Scots also have an independent existence within 'GB'.
Out of curiosity - you say Ireland is a separate kingdom, the island of Ireland is not all part of what we call the UK, you're just talking about NI are you? So should the title more correctly be United Kingdoms?

Yes that’s right I was trying to be brief . The original Act in 1801 refers to Ireland, in 1927 the definition was amended was to Northern Ireland following the Independence of Ireland Act 1920 .

Scotland does have a separate legal system but it is also geographically part of Great Britain . Great Britain is first and foremost a geographical and physical description. The Isle of Man and the Channel Islands are not part of Great Britain or the United Kingdom as they are crown dependencies .

@quantumbutterfly Thinking about it, she likes Queen Margarethe, and she thinks they lead more normal lives.

Looking at Fred's escapades in Madrid we can see that is just good PR as they are just doing super rich lifestyles the rest of the time.

She thinks the UK monarchy is up themselves and out of touch. However 50 years of reading the Daily Mail has an effect and she loves a good rant about Harry.

Queen Margarethe does seem admirable. You get the impression she would have made a success of civilian life in a chosen career.
Not quite so sure about UK royals.

How much difference do you think having a male monarch will make to Denmark?

I don’t think Queen Margrethe’s reign has been entirely scandal free though. Wasn’t her own marriage pretty rocky with her husband having several outbursts about her.

Who knows really? She has been surrounded by all the privilege and deference of royalty since the day she was born, so impossible to know if she, or any other royal, would be able to make it in the 'real world'.

I agree with other posters that Margarethe's reign hasn't been entirely free of problems, and that the Scandinavian royals, however much they may like to pretend to be down to earth 'bicycling royals', are just as out of touch and ultra privileged as the British royals, or close to it. And all of these royal families have their own scandals and problems. It's just that they're not nearly as internationally famous as the Windsors.

I think Margarethe had a lot of personal popularity. She also came in to a royal family massively popular post war - every Dane has been brought up on the King riding around Copenhagen in defiance during the war.

She's also famous for her designs which are steeped in Danish culture. Not many men are going to be doing this.

i think the new King may struggle to look like more than an expensive ribbon cutter.

And it's harder and harder to portray yourself as a down to earth bicycling monarch in the age of the Internet when anyone can see how many private jets you take.

My understanding is that Mary is more popular than her husband? But that he is well liked and seen as being 'down to earth', unlike his more aloof brother. But over all the Danish monarchy seems to be the most stable and popular of the surviving European royal houses, possibly due to having a small, deeply patriotic and, at least until the recent waves of immigration, very homogeneous population.

I'm quite interested in seeing how all the European royal families manage the transition to the new generations. As you say, maintaining the various illusions of royalty is more different in the modern age but then, every generation of royals have faced challenges and for the most part, managed to overcome them.

Not sure about outbursts about her, but he had a few moans about not being titled King.

He also had a bee in his bonnet about not being titled with more seniority than his sons and grandchildren. He also once left the country in a huff when an official event being hosted by his wife was to be hosted by his son when she had to pull out. He wasn’t happy at not being the replacement host and felt he should have a more important role than Frederik.

Tak for det!
My mother was Danish too, she left in 1968 at age 21 and lived in UK the rest of her life. She was all about fitting in. We did visit, my cousins always wanted to practice their English so it was hard to pick up the language. In my 20s, when I first got internet, I tried to learn more about DK. I asked her about Law of Jante and she claimed she had never heard of such a thing???

(My Dad is in his eighties now and struggling: I can understand why Daisy is ready for the crown to pass to Fred)

European Royalty awash with scandals, im agog listening to revelations (or allegations) that queen letizia had an affair with her x brother in law after she married Felipe.

Feel bad for Mary, is she locked in now?

When Mary married Fred, she gave up her British and Australian passports, converted to Lutheranism and signed a document saying that in the event of a divorce, her husband would get custody of the children and they would have to be resident in Denmark.

I think Mary has been fully committed to this from day one. If Fred is cheating, and it's hard to explain the Madrid photos any other way, I think she'll put up with it in order to be queen. She certainly won't be the first, or the last, royal wife to do so.