Both Margrethe and Frederik couldn’t keep it dry.
Today is a big day in Denmark: Queen Margrethe said goodbye to her role as monarch, and her son Frederik succeeded her as monarch. The ceremony itself was completed within fifteen minutes, and not much later King Frederik X was officially proclaimed by the Danish Prime Minister.
Anniversary
Margrethe caused quite a surprise when she announced in her New Year’s speech that she would step down today, on her 52nd anniversary. She said she had thought about the choice for a long time – although she only shared the news with her intended successor three days before the big announcement.
Today was the big moment: at exactly 2 p.m. Their Royal Highnesses arrived in Christiansborg, where the Deed of Abdication was signed. With this signing, Frederick became king with immediate effect.
Emotions
Images broadcast from the meeting room showed Margrethe standing up after signing and presenting ‘her’ chair to son Frederik with a smile. Grandson Christian then took action to bring his grandmother her walking stick, and a particularly emotional moment followed. This showed how Margrethe turned to her son and murmured ‘Gud bevare Kongen’ – ‘God protect the King’. With this one sentence, Margrethe confirmed once again that an era had really come to an end. After this, it seemed that she could no longer keep it dry, and she quickly left the meeting room.
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Her Majesty then left for her residence by car. Thus, her 52 years on the throne came to an end in a matter of minutes.
Traditions
All day long, images appeared on social media of throngs of Danes gathering at Christiansborg Palace in the Danish capital. Here at exactly 3 p.m. the proclamation of King Frederik took place, where he showed himself to the people for the first time as the new king. The king couldn’t keep it dry and wiped away several tears without shame.
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Frederik also delivered his first speech as monarch and announced the motto he will use for his reign. This motto is a special tradition among Danish monarchs, and will be an important symbol of Frederick’s period on the throne over the years. For example, Margrethe’s motto was ‘God’s help, the love of the people, the strength of Denmark’.
Frederik’s motto became clear at the end of his speech: “Forbundne, forpligtet, for Kongeriget Danmark”. Loosely translated: ‘Out of solidarity, out of dedication, for the Kingdom of Denmark’, according to various online translation tools.
Royal family
The king was then joined by his wife, Queen Mary, and their children soon followed. The frenzied crowd was greeted extensively by Crown Prince Christian, Princess Isabella, Prince Vincent and Princess Josephine.
Sweet detail: several connoisseurs noticed that Queen Mary and Princess Isabella attempted a strong example of flag dressing together with their red and white outfit. According to the fashion experts at UFO No More, the Danish Billed Bladet has confirmed that Mary’s beautiful white dress is a creation of Soeren Le Schmidt and Birgit Hallstein.
After the family briefly left inside, they gave a small encore, where this particularly sweet moment between Frederik and Mary took place:
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Many royal weddings can still appreciate this loving balcony moment!
Party, no fanfares
The Danish abdication was not accompanied by a grand ceremony. Compared to the grand Coronation of King Charles III in May last year and the inauguration of our own King Willem-Alexander in 2013, everything was downright austere.
But this down-to-earth approach is part of Denmark. Normally a change of throne takes place with the death of the previous monarch, and that is of course not very festive. With her resignation, Margrethe has broken with this Danish tradition for the first time in about 900 years.
And now?
The new royal couple still have some time to recover from the day tonight. This afternoon, only the transition of the royal banner is on the program, and then the ceremonies will be over for a while.
Tomorrow, Frederick and Mary are expected at a meeting of the Danish parliament, and on January 21, Frederick’s first week on the throne will conclude with a church service at Aarhus Cathedral. With the immense popularity of his mother, the bar for Frederick’s kingship is very high – but after today the king can at least look back on a very good start to his reign. And that’s half the battle, right?
Source: UFO No More, Kongehuset.dk | Image: NL Image
