Line of succession to the Danish Throne
Encyclopedia
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
used a system of male-preference primogeniture
Primogeniture
Primogeniture is the right, by law or custom, of the firstborn to inherit the entire estate, to the exclusion of younger siblings . Historically, the term implied male primogeniture, to the exclusion of females...
until 2009. The male preference cognatic primogeniture was changed in favour of an absolute primogeniture (eldest child, regardless of gender). The law was passed by two Parliaments in succession, and later approved by a referendum.
- HRHRoyal HighnessRoyal Highness is a style ; plural Royal Highnesses...
The Crown PrinceFrederik, Crown Prince of DenmarkFrederik, Crown Prince of Denmark, Count of Monpezat, is the heir apparent to the throne of Denmark. Frederik is the elder son of Queen Margrethe II and Henrik, the Prince Consort.-Name and christening:...
, Count of Monpezat (Frederik, elder son of The QueenMargrethe II of DenmarkMargrethe II is the Queen regnant of the Kingdom of Denmark. In 1972 she became the first female monarch of Denmark since Margaret I, ruler of the Scandinavian countries in 1375-1412 during the Kalmar Union.-Early life:...
) - HRH Prince Christian of DenmarkPrince Christian of DenmarkPrince Christian Valdemar Henri John of Denmark, Count of Monpezat , is a member of the Danish Royal Family. He is the elder son of Crown Prince Frederik and his wife, the Australian born Crown Princess Mary. He is a grandson of Queen Margrethe II of Denmark and her husband Prince Henrik...
, Count of Monpezat (elder son of The Crown Prince and Crown PrincessMary, Crown Princess of DenmarkMary, Crown Princess of Denmark, Countess of Monpezat, is the wife of Frederik, Crown Prince of Denmark...
) - HRH Princess Isabella of DenmarkPrincess Isabella of DenmarkPrincess Isabella Henrietta Ingrid Margrethe of Denmark, Countess of Monpezat , is a member of the Danish Royal Family. She is the daughter of Crown Prince Frederik and his wife, the Australian-born Crown Princess Mary....
, Countess of Monpezat (elder daughter of The Crown Prince and Crown Princess) - HRH Prince Vincent of DenmarkPrince Vincent of DenmarkPrince Vincent Frederik Minik Alexander of Denmark, Count of Monpezat , is a member of the Danish Royal Family. He is the third child and youngest son of Crown Prince Frederik and his wife, the Australian-born Crown Princess Mary. He is also the sixth grandchild and youngest grandson of Queen...
, Count of Monpezat (younger son of The Crown Prince and Crown Princess) (twin) - HRH Princess Josephine of DenmarkPrincess Josephine of DenmarkPrincess Josephine Sophia Ivalo Mathilda of Denmark, Countess of Monpezat , is a member of the Danish Royal Family. She is the fourth and youngest child of Crown Prince Frederik and his wife, the Australian-born Crown Princess Mary, and the seventh and youngest grandchild of Queen Margrethe II of...
, Countess of Monpezat (younger daughter of The Crown Prince and Crown Princess) (twin) - HRH Prince Joachim of DenmarkPrince Joachim of DenmarkPrince Joachim of Denmark, Count of Monpezat, , is a member of the Danish Royal Family. He is the younger son of Queen Margrethe II and Henrik, Prince Consort of Denmark....
, Count of Monpezat (younger son of The Queen) - HHHighnessHighness, often used with a possessive adjective , is an attribute referring to the rank of the dynasty in an address...
Prince Nikolai of DenmarkPrince Nikolai of DenmarkPrince Nikolai William Alexander Frederik of Denmark, Count of Monpezat , is a member of the Danish Royal Family. He is the elder son of Prince Joachim and his former wife, Alexandra, Countess of Frederiksborg...
, Count of Monpezat (elder son of Prince Joachim and the Countess of Frederiksborg) - HH Prince Felix of DenmarkPrince Felix of DenmarkPrince Felix Henrik Valdemar Christian of Denmark, Count of Monpezat , is a member of the Danish Royal Family. He is the younger son of Prince Joachim and his former wife, Alexandra Christina, Countess of Frederiksborg...
, Count of Monpezat (younger son of Prince Joachim and the Countess of Frederiksborg) - HH Prince Henrik of DenmarkPrince Henrik of DenmarkPrince Henrik of Denmark, Count of Monpezat is a Danish prince and a member of the Danish Royal Family.-Danish prince:Prince Henrik is the third and youngest son of Prince Joachim. The prince is Joachim's first child with his second wife, Princess Marie of Denmark...
, Count of Monpezat (son of Prince Joachim and Princess MariePrincess Marie of DenmarkMarie Agathe Odile, Princess of Denmark, Countess of Monpezat, is the second wife of Prince Joachim of Denmark.-Early life:...
) - HRH The Princess of Sayn-Wittgenstein-BerleburgPrincess Benedikte of DenmarkPrincess Benedikte of Denmark, Princess of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg, , , is the second daughter of King Frederick IX of Denmark and Ingrid of Sweden...
(Benedikte, daughter of King Frederick IXFrederick IX of DenmarkFrederick IX was King of Denmark from 20 April 1947 until his death on 14 January 1972....
and sister of Queen Margrethe II) - HH Princess Elisabeth of DenmarkPrincess Elisabeth of DenmarkPrincess Elisabeth of Denmark, is the daughter of Hereditary Prince Knud and Hereditary Princess Caroline-Mathilde of Denmark.-Biography:She is a first cousin of Queen Margrethe II, and is last in...
(granddaughter of King Christian X through his second son, Prince Knud)
Current rules
The Danish Act of SuccessionDanish Act of Succession
The Danish Act of Succession of March 27, 1953 was accepted after a 1953 referendum in Denmark and dictates the rules governing the Line of succession to the Danish Throne. The 1953 referendum changed the act so that it became possible for a woman to inherit the throne in the event that she has no...
adopted on 27 March 1953 restricts the throne to those descended from King Christian X
Christian X of Denmark
Christian X was King of Denmark from 1912 to 1947 and the only King of Iceland between 1918 and 1944....
and his wife, Alexandrine of Mecklenburg-Schwerin
Alexandrine of Mecklenburg-Schwerin
Alexandrine Auguste of Mecklenburg-Schwerin was the queen consort of King Christian X of Denmark.-Family:She was born a Duchess of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, in the city of Schwerin...
, through approved marriages.
Dynasts lose their right to the throne if they marry without the permission of the monarch given in the Council of State. Individuals born to unmarried dynasts or to former dynasts that married without royal permission, and their descendants, are excluded from the throne. Further, when approving a marriage, the monarch can impose conditions that must be met in order for any resulting offspring to have succession rights. Part II, Section 9 of the Danish Constitution of 5 June 1953 provides that the parliament will elect a king and determine a new line of succession should a situation arise where there are no eligible descendants of King Christian X and Queen Alexandrine.
History
The first law governing the Danish monarchy, Kongeloven (Lex Regia) dating from 1665, stated that the line of succession should follow agnatic-cognatic primogeniture, thus allowing female heirs if there was no surviving male heir to the throne. As for the duchiesDuke
A duke or duchess is a member of the nobility, historically of highest rank below the monarch, and historically controlling a duchy...
, Holstein
Holstein
Holstein is the region between the rivers Elbe and Eider. It is part of Schleswig-Holstein, the northernmost state of Germany....
and Lauenburg
Duchy of Saxe-Lauenburg
The Duchy of Saxe-Lauenburg between the 14th and 17th centuries), later also known as the Duchy of Lauenburg, was a reichsfrei duchy that existed 1296–1803 and 1814–1876 in the extreme southeast region of what is now Schleswig-Holstein...
where the King ruled as duke, these lands adhered to Salic law
Salic law
Salic law was a body of traditional law codified for governing the Salian Franks in the early Middle Ages during the reign of King Clovis I in the 6th century...
(meaning that only males could inherit the throne). The duchies of Schleswig
Schleswig
Schleswig or South Jutland is a region covering the area about 60 km north and 70 km south of the border between Germany and Denmark; the territory has been divided between the two countries since 1920, with Northern Schleswig in Denmark and Southern Schleswig in Germany...
(a Danish fief), and Holstein and Lauenburg (German fiefs) were joined by personal union
Personal union
A personal union is the combination by which two or more different states have the same monarch while their boundaries, their laws and their interests remain distinct. It should not be confused with a federation which is internationally considered a single state...
with the Kingdom of Denmark.
This difference caused problems when Frederick VII of Denmark
Frederick VII of Denmark
Frederick VII was a King of Denmark. He reigned from 1848 until his death. He was the last Danish monarch of the older Royal branch of the House of Oldenburg and also the last king of Denmark to rule as an absolute monarch...
was childless, so a change in dynasty was imminent and the lines of succession for the duchies and Denmark conflicted. That meant that the new King of Denmark would not also be the new duke of Holstein and duke of Lauenburg. So for this purpose, the line of succession to the duchies was modified in the London Protocol of 1852, which designated Christian, duke of Glücksburg
Christian IX of Denmark
Christian IX was King of Denmark from 16 November 1863 to 29 January 1906.Growing up as a prince of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, a junior branch of the House of Oldenburg which had ruled Denmark since 1448, Christian was originally not in the immediate line of succession to the Danish...
, as the new heir apparent
Heir apparent
An heir apparent or heiress apparent is a person who is first in line of succession and cannot be displaced from inheriting, except by a change in the rules of succession....
. Originally, the Danish prime minister Christian Albrecht Bluhme
Christian Albrecht Bluhme
Christian Albrecht Bluhme was Prime Minister of Denmark 1852–1853 as head of the Cabinet of Bluhme I and again 1864–1865 as head of the Cabinet of Bluhme II....
wanted to keep the separate principles, but in the end the government decided on a uniform agnatic primogeniture, which was accepted by the parliament. According to the 1853 Act of Succession, the throne passed to those descended from duke, now King Christian IX of Denmark (having ascended the throne in 1863) who was the grandfather of King Christian X.
The monarch in 1953, King Frederick IX, had three daughters but no sons. Under the 1853 act, the heir-presumptive to the throne was Prince Knud, the King's younger brother. Prince Knud was far less popular than the King was. Further, Knud's mother-in-law, Princess Helena, was accused of supporting the Nazi
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
movement during the Second World War. These factors, combined with a belief that the Salic Law was outdated, resulted in the movement to change the succession law so that Frederick's eldest daughter, the then Princess Margrethe, could inherit the throne. Thus, the Salic law was changed to male-preference primogeniture in 1953, meaning that females could inherit, but only if they had no brothers.
Prince Knud had three children. Ingolf lost his rights to the throne in 1968 when he married without the monarch's permission. He was given the title Count of Rosenborg at that time. Similarly, Knud's younger son, Christian, lost his royal rights and became a Count of Rosenborg when he married without royal permission in 1971. In Denmark, those deprived of their rights to the throne also lose their royal rank and title. Count Ingolf and Count Christian are not to be referred to as princes except in an historical context from the period before they lost their rights. Only Knud's daughter, the unmarried Princess Elisabeth, retains her rights to the throne and the title Princess of Denmark.
Queen Margrethe II's youngest sister, Anne Marie, married King Constantine II of Greece
Constantine II of Greece
|align=right|Constantine II was King of Greece from 1964 until the abolition of the monarchy in 1973, the sixth and last monarch of the Greek Royal Family....
in 1964. In view of the fact that she was marrying a foreign ruler, King Frederick IX decided that neither Anne Marie nor her children would have any right to the Danish throne. When the Queen's other sister, Princess Benedikte, married Prince Richard of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg in 1968, King Frederick IX decreed that her children would need to be raised in Denmark in order to have succession rights. Since the condition was not met, Princess Benedikte's three children do not have any right to the Danish throne. It is unclear (and probably irrelevant) whether her grandchildren and further issue will have succession rights if raised in Denmark.
Before 1953, various descendants of King Christian IX had succession rights in Denmark. The new Act of Succession terminated those rights but left the individuals involved in possession of their titles. This created a class of people with royal titles but no rights to the throne. As a distinction, those entitled to inherit the throne are called "Prins til Danmark" (Prince to Denmark, although this distinction is not made in English) while those without succession rights are referred to as "Prins af Danmark" (Prince of Denmark).
Although the Greek and Norwegian (and partly British) royal families are genealogically part of the Danish royal family, they are not descended from King Christian X and do not have any rights to the Danish throne. Norwegian royals dropped all references to Denmark in their titles but Greek royals continue to use the title "Prince(ss) of Greece and Denmark."
2009 changes to succession
In 2008, the Danish parliament voted in favour of a new royal succession law that allows a first-born child to one day ascend the throne regardless of whether it is a boy or a girl, similar to that of Sweden and Norway. The bill was voted through two successive parliaments, and submitted to a referendum, ensuring that, in future, the heir apparent to the throne of Denmark would be the monarch's first-born child. However, the 'yes' did not change the actual line of succession at that time. The Crown Princess gave birth to twins on 8 January 2011. Upon their birth, the twins assumed the fourth and fifth place in the line of succession, according to the absolute primogeniture principle adopted, thereby not giving Prince VincentPrince Vincent of Denmark
Prince Vincent Frederik Minik Alexander of Denmark, Count of Monpezat , is a member of the Danish Royal Family. He is the third child and youngest son of Crown Prince Frederik and his wife, the Australian-born Crown Princess Mary. He is also the sixth grandchild and youngest grandson of Queen...
precedence over his older sister Princess Isabella
Princess Isabella of Denmark
Princess Isabella Henrietta Ingrid Margrethe of Denmark, Countess of Monpezat , is a member of the Danish Royal Family. She is the daughter of Crown Prince Frederik and his wife, the Australian-born Crown Princess Mary....
.