Monarchy of Denmark
The monarchy of Denmark is a constitutional institution and an office of the Kingdom of Denmark. The Kingdom includes Denmark proper and the autonomous territories of the Faroe Islands and Greenland. The Kingdom of Denmark was already consolidated in the 8th century, whose rulers are consistently referred to in Frankish sources as "kings". Under the rule of King Gudfred in 804 the Kingdom may have included all the major provinces of medieval Denmark.
The current unified Kingdom of Denmark was founded or re-united by the Viking kings Gorm the Old and Harald Bluetooth in the 10th century. Originally an elective monarchy, it became hereditary only in the 17th century during the reign of Frederick III. A decisive transition to a constitutional monarchy occurred in 1849 with the writing of the first democratic constitution, replacing the vast majority of the old absolutist constitution. The current Royal House is a branch of the ducal House of Glücksburg, originally from Schleswig-Holstein in modern-day Germany, the House of Glücksburg itself being a collateral branch of the House of Oldenburg. The House of Glücksburg also produced the monarchs of Norway, of the United Kingdom and the former monarch of Greece in the direct male line.
The Danish monarchy is constitutional and as such, the role of the monarch is defined and limited by the Constitution of Denmark. According to the constitution, the ultimate executive authority over the government of Denmark is still by and through the monarch's royal reserve powers; in practice these powers are only used according to laws enacted in Parliament or within the constraints of convention. The monarch is, in practice, limited to non-partisan functions such as bestowing honours and formally appointing the prime minister. The monarch and their immediate family undertake various official, ceremonial, diplomatic and representational duties.
King Frederik X ascended the throne following the abdication of his mother, Queen Margrethe II, on 14 January 2024. Danish regnal names have traditionally alternated between "Frederik" and "Christian". Accordingly, Frederik's heir apparent is Crown Prince Christian.
History
Early kingdom
The Danish monarchy is over 1200 years old, founded in the 8th century. The line of kings of the modern kingdom of Denmark can be traced back to Harthacnut father of Gorm the Old, who reigned in the early and mid 10th century. The kingdom itself though is probably a couple of hundred years older than that.The Danes were united and officially Christianized in 965 AD by Harald Bluetooth, the story of which is recorded on the Jelling stones. The exact extent of Harald's kingdom is unknown, although it is reasonable to believe that it stretched from the defensive line of Dannevirke, including the Viking city of Hedeby, across Jutland, the Danish isles and into southern present day Sweden; Scania and perhaps Halland. Furthermore, the Jelling stones attests that Harald had also "won" Norway. The son of Harald, Sweyn Forkbeard, mounted a series of wars of conquest against England, which was completed by Sweyn's son Cnut the Great by the middle of the eleventh century. The reign of Cnut represented the peak of the Danish Viking age; his North Sea Empire included England, Denmark, Norway and held strong influence over the north-eastern coast of Germany.
The last monarch descended from Valdemar IV, Christopher III of Denmark, died in 1448 AD. Count Christian of Oldenburg, descendant of Sophia, the daughter of Valdemar IV's aunt Richeza of Denmark, Lady of Werle, who was the daughter of Eric V of Denmark, was chosen as his successor and became the next monarch of Denmark, ruling under the name Christian I. Richeza thus can be considered as a sort of female founder of the House of Oldenburg.
Absolutism
Originally the Danish monarchy was elective, but in practice the eldest son of the reigning monarch was elected. Later a Coronation Charter was signed by the king to restrict the powers of the Danish monarch.In 1657, during the Second Northern War, King Frederick III launched a war of revenge against Sweden which turned into a complete disaster. The war became a disaster for two reasons: Primarily, because Denmark's new powerful ally, the Netherlands, remained neutral as Denmark was the aggressor and Sweden the defender. Secondly, the Belts froze over in a rare occurrence during the winter of 1657–1658, allowing King Charles X Gustav of Sweden to lead his armies across the ice to invade Zealand. In the following Treaty of Roskilde, Denmark–Norway capitulated and gave up all of Eastern Denmark, in addition to the counties of Bohuslän and Trøndelag in Norway.
But the Second Northern War was not yet over. Three months after the peace treaty was signed, Charles X Gustav held a council of war where he decided to simply wipe Denmark from the map and unite all of Scandinavia under his rule. Once again the Swedish army arrived outside Copenhagen. However, this time the Danes did not panic or surrender. Instead, they decided to fight and prepared to defend Copenhagen. Frederick III had stayed in his capital and now encouraged the citizens of Copenhagen to resist the Swedes, by saying he would "die in his nest", rather than to evacuate to safety in Norway. Furthermore, this unprovoked declaration of war by Sweden finally triggered the alliance that Denmark–Norway had with the Netherlands, and a powerful Dutch fleet was sent to Copenhagen with vital supplies and reinforcements, which saved the city from being captured during the Swedish attack.
Charles X Gustav suddenly died of an illness in early 1660, while planning an invasion of Norway. Following his death, Sweden made peace in the Treaty of Copenhagen. The Swedes returned Trøndelag to Norway and Bornholm to Denmark, but kept the other territories gained two years earlier. The Netherlands and other European powers accepted the settlement, not wanting both coasts of the Øresund strait controlled by Denmark. This treaty established the boundaries between Norway, Denmark, and Sweden that still exist today. Absolutism was introduced in 1660–1661 and the elective monarchy was de jure transformed into an hereditary monarchy. An official absolutist constitution, where absolute power and male primogeniture succession was laid down in the King's Law of 1665.
Constitutional period
When he succeeded to the throne in January 1848, King Frederick VII was almost at once met by the demands for a constitution and an end to absolutism. The Schleswig-Holsteiners wanted an independent state while the Danes wished to maintain South Jutland as a Danish area. Frederick VII soon yielded to the Danish demands, and in March he accepted the end of absolutism, which resulted in the June Constitution of 1849. During the First War of Schleswig against the German powers in 1848–51, Frederick appeared as "the national leader" and was regarded almost as a war hero, despite having never taken any active part in the struggles. On 5 June 1849 the constitution, known as the June Constitution, was altered to create the framework of a constitutional monarchy for Denmark. As King Frederick VII was without legitimate issue, Prince Christian of Glücksborg was chosen in 1853 as heir presumptive to the Danish throne, with the approval of the great powers of Europe, in light of the expected extinction of the senior line of the House of Oldenburg. A justification for this choice was his marriage to Louise of Hesse-Kassel, who as a niece of Christian VIII, was a more close relative to the incumbent king than her husband.Upon the death of King Frederick VII of Denmark in 1863, Christian IX acceded to the throne as the first Danish monarch of the House of Glücksburg. Christian IX eventually became known as Father-in-law of Europe due to his family ties with most other ruling dynasties of Europe: His daughter Princess Alexandra married Edward VII of the United Kingdom, another daughter Princess Dagmar married Alexander III of Russia and Princess Thyra married Crown Prince Ernst August of Hanover. His son Vilhelm went on to become George I of Greece. Further, his grandson Carl became Haakon VII of Norway. To this day the Danish Royal Family are related to most other reigning European dynasties.
The Easter Crisis of 1920 was a constitutional crisis which began with the dismissal of the elected government by King Christian X, a reserve power which was granted to him by the Danish constitution. The immediate cause was a conflict between the king and the cabinet over the reunification with Denmark of Schleswig, a former Danish fiefdom which had been lost to Prussia during the Second War of Schleswig. According to the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, the disposition of Schleswig was to be determined by two Schleswig Plebiscites: one in Northern Schleswig, the other in Central Schleswig. Many Danish nationalists felt that Central Schleswig should be returned to Denmark regardless of the plebiscite's results, generally motivated by a desire to see Germany permanently weakened in the future. Christian X agreed with these sentiments, and ordered Prime Minister Carl Theodor Zahle to include Central Schleswig in the re-unification process. As Denmark had been operating as a parliamentary democracy since the Cabinet of Deuntzer in 1901, Zahle felt he was under no obligation to comply. He refused the order and resigned several days later after a heated exchange with the king.
Subsequently, Christian X dismissed the rest of the government and replaced it with a de facto conservative care-taker cabinet under Otto Liebe. The dismissal caused demonstrations and an almost revolutionary atmosphere in Denmark, and for several days the future of the monarchy seemed very much in doubt. In light of this, negotiations were opened between the king and members of the Social Democrats. Faced with the potential overthrow of the Danish monarchy, Christian X backed down and dismissed his own government. This was the most recent time that a sitting Danish monarch made an executive decision without the support of a cabinet accountable to the legislature; following the crisis, Christian X accepted his drastically reduced role as symbolic head of state.
The Act of Succession of 27 March 1953 was promulgated after a 1953 referendum introduced the possibility of female succession and, in effect, made Princess Margrethe the heir presumptive to her father, Frederik IX rather than her uncle Prince Knud. Upon Frederik IX's death in 1972, Queen Margrethe II ascended to the throne and reigned until her abdication in 2024.
Following a referendum in 2009, the Act of Succession was amended so that primogeniture no longer puts males over females; a first-born child becomes heir to the throne regardless of gender.