In shadow of pandemic, Danish queen marks 50 years on throne
COPENHAGEN — Denmark’s Queen Margrethe II marked her 50 years on the throne of Europe’s oldest ruling monarchy Friday, with some of the planned festivities postponed for September due to the pandemic.
The outbreak, which also stopped public celebrations for the popular monarch’s 80th birthday in 2020, forced several guests to stay away from the two-day celebrations. They included Margrethe’s younger sister, former Queen Anne-Marie of Greece whose husband has tested positive for COVID-19. The Greek monarchy was abolished in the 1970s.
Flanked by her other sister, Princess Benedikte, her two sons — including Crown Prince Frederik, the heir to the throne — and their spouses, Margrethe laid a wreath at the grave of her parents at the Roskilde cathedral, west of Copenhagen, where Danish royals have been buried since 1559.
She also met with the government and attended a reception at Parliament.
“You are a moral compass,” Henrik Dam Kristensen, speaker of the Danish Parliament said in an address. He noted that Margrethe is Denmark’s first queen since her namesake Queen Margrethe I, who ruled from 1375–1412.
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