Surprising measure: Queen Margrethe II revokes the titles of Prince Joachim of Denmark and family
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“Shocked”
Prince Joachim of Denmark and family lose titles
30/09/2022, 09:54 (updated)
The news comes out of the blue: Queen Margrethe II is revoking the titles of her son Prince Joachim, his wife and their children. Next year they will not be allowed to call themselves prince or princess. An expert from the royal family questions the Queen’s official justification.
There are some innovations in the Danish royal family: as the royal family announces via Instagram, the titles and forms of address of many members are changing. Queen Margrethe II has therefore decided to revoke the titles of Prince and Princess from 1 January 2023 from the family branch of her youngest son Joachim of Denmark and his wife Marie of Denmark. The two will be called Count and Countess of Monpezat in the future. The children of the two also have to get used to new forms of addressing. Prince Nikolai, Prince Felix, Prince Henrik and Princess Athena may no longer be addressed as Prince or Princess from the beginning of next year, but only with “Excellence”.
Apparently this step was not agreed with those involved. The royal family is therefore surprised by the innovations, as Countess Alexandra von Frederiksborg, mother of the Princes Nikolai and Felix, told the Danish newspaper “BT”: “We are sad and in shock,” she quotes the newspaper. The paper also quotes: “The children feel left out. They don’t understand why their identity is being taken away.”
Does Queen Margrethe II want to “clean up”?
In contrast, in the official statement from the Royal Family, it sounds as if Queen Margrethe wanted to please her grandchildren by revoking their titles: “With her decision, Her Majesty the Queen wishes to create the framework for the four grandchildren to live their lives in a much larger scale forms itself without being constrained by the special considerations and obligations that formal institutional affiliation entails.” It goes on to say that the change is “in line with similar adjustments made by other royals”.
Jakob Steen Olsen, expert on the royal family at “Berlingske”, does not believe in a decision that should primarily benefit the grandchildren. It is mainly done in the interest of the royal family, as Queen Margrethe “wants to clean up”. She’s afraid to confuse the Danes when Prince Joachim and his family “play prince and princess” when they don’t get appanage anyway and won’t play any future role in the royal family.
Olsen doubts the queen’s action was wise. “We see that it inflicts a kind of unfortunate wound on the family, which reminds us of the crisis that has been patched up with energy for many years, namely when Prince Knud was deprived of the right of inheritance in favor of Queen Margrethe by the constitutional amendment of 1953.”
According to a spokeswoman for the royal family, Prince Joachim has known since May 5 that the titles of his children would change. However, “BT” also reports that the royal family has been systematically reducing Prince Joachim’s influence since 2018.
(This article was first published on Wednesday, September 28, 2022.)
