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The Danish Act of Succession, [1] adopted on 5 June 1953, restricts the throne to those descended from Christian X and his wife, Alexandrine of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, through approved marriages. By a change in the law in 2009, succession is governed by absolute primogeniture. [2]
Dynasts lose their right to the throne if they marry without the permission of the monarch, to be given in the Council of State. Individuals born to unmarried dynasts or to former dynasts who 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. If there is no eligible person(s) to inherit the throne, the Danish Parliament (the Folketing) has the right to elect a new monarch and determine a line of succession.
People in the line of succession are listed with a number signifying their place in the line.
King Frederik IX (1899–1972) Queen Margrethe II (born 1940) King Frederik X (born 1968) [2] [3] The consent to Princess Benedikte's marriage to Prince Richard of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg in 1968 was given on the condition that their children (and further descendants) would have to take up permanent residence in Denmark during the age of mandatory education if they were to retain their succession rights. Since the condition was not met, Princess Benedikte's children are not deemed to have succession rights and are not included in the official line of succession. [2] It is unclear whether their own descendants will have succession rights if residing in Denmark during the age of mandatory education. One Danish constitutional scholar, the late Professor Henrik Zahle, claimed that the children of Princess Benedikte do have succession rights, but without providing any arguments for the claim. [14]
From the London Protocol in 1852 till 1953, various male-line descendants of King Christian IX had succession rights in Denmark except King George I of Greece (former Prince William of Denmark) and subsequent Kings of Greece, whose rights to the Danish throne were blocked by Article VI of the 1863 treaty between Denmark, France, the United Kingdom and Russia recognising George I as King of the Hellenes (Article VI stated: In no case shall the Crown of Greece and the Crown of Denmark be united on the same head.), [15] although King George I never renounced his rights to the Danish throne when he assumed the Greek one, though he did defer his succession rights and agreed that his younger brother's would supersede his. [16]
King Haakon VII of Norway (former Prince Carl of Denmark) whose rights was blocked by Section XI of the Constitution of Norway which states The king must not receive any other crown or government without the Storting's consent, for which two-thirds of the votes are required, from 19 August 1908. [17]
The new Act of Succession terminated succession rights but left the excluded individuals 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).
From 1853 until 1953, the Crown passed according to agnatic primogeniture. The monarch in 1953, King Frederik IX, had three daughters but no sons. Before the 1953 Act, the heir presumptive to the throne was Hereditary Prince Knud, the King's younger brother. The Hereditary Prince was far less popular than the King was. Further, his mother-in-law, Princess Helena, was accused of supporting the Nazi 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. His sons married without the monarch's permission and lost both their royal titles and succession rights. Only Knud's daughter, the unmarried Princess Elisabeth, retained her rights to the throne. Since her death, the line of succession has consisted only of descendants of King Frederik IX.
Queen Margrethe II's youngest sister, Anne-Marie, married King Constantine II of Greece in 1964. As she was marrying a foreign ruler, although he was himself a prince of Denmark, consent to the marriage was given on the condition that Anne-Marie renounced her and her descendants' rights to the Danish throne. [14]
In 2008, the Danish parliament voted in favour of instituting absolute primogeniture, which would make the Danish monarch's first-born child heir apparent regardless of gender, similar to Sweden and Norway. The bill was voted through two successive parliaments, and submitted to a referendum. The change in succession law did not affect the immediate line of succession as all of Margrethe II's descendants would hold the same positions under both laws. [18] [19] Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary became parents to twins born 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 Vincent precedence over his older sister Princess Isabella. [20]
In 2022, Queen Margrethe II stripped the children of her son Prince Joachim of their princely titles, though they remain in the line of succession (see Count of Monpezat#2023 style changes for details).
| Grandee | Reason | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Prince Vilhelm | elected King of the Hellenes in 1863 as King George I. | 30 March 1863 |
| Prince Carl | elected King of Norway in 1905 as King Haakon VII. | 18 November 1905 |
 Prince Constantine | ascended to the King of the Hellenes in 1913 as King Constantine I. | 18 March 1913 |
| Prince Aage | renounced in 1914 due to his marriage to Mathilde Calvi. | 1 February 1914 [21] |
| Prince Alexander | ascended to the King of the Hellenes in 1917 as King Alexander I. | 11 June 1917 |
| Prince George | ascended to the King of the Hellenes in 1922 as King George II. | 27 September 1922 |
| Prince Erik | renounced in 1924 due to his marriage to Lois Frances Booth. | 11 February 1924 [21] |
| Prince Viggo | renounced in 1924 due to his marriage to Eleanor Margaret Green. | 10 June 1924 [21] |
| Prince Paul | ascended to the King of the Hellenes in 1947 as King Paul I. | 1 April 1947 |
| Prince Philip | renounced in 1947 due to his marriage to Princess Elizabeth. | 28 February 1947 |
| Prince Oluf | renounced in 1948 due to his marriage to Annie Helene Dorrit Puggard-Müller. | 4 February 1948 [21] |
| Prince Flemming | renounced in 1949 due to his marriage to Ruth Nielsen. | 24 May 1949 [21] |
| Grandee | Reason | Date |
|---|---|---|
 Prince Olav | excluded by the new law. | 27 March 1953 |
| Prince Harald | ||
| Prince Gorm | ||
| Prince Axel | ||
| Prince Georg | ||
| Prince Constantine | ||
| Prince George | ||
| Prince Peter [22] | ||
| Prince Michael | ||
| Princess Anne-Marie | renounced in 1964 due to her marriage to King Constantine II of the Hellenes. | 18 September 1964 [21] |
| Prince Ingolf | forfeited in 1968 due to his unauthorised marriage to Inge Terney. | 13 January 1968 [21] |
| Prince Christian | forfeited in 1971 due to his unauthorised marriage to Anne Dorte Maltoft-Nielsen. | 27 February 1971 [21] |
Prince Henrik of Denmark was the husband of Margrethe II of Denmark. He served as her royal consort from Margrethe's accession on 14 January 1972 until his death in 2018.
Frederik IX was King of Denmark from 1947 to 1972.
Princess Benedikte of Denmark, Princess of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg is a member of the Danish royal family. She is the second daughter and child of King Frederik IX and Queen Ingrid of Denmark. She is the younger sister of Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, and therefore the aunt of Margrethe's son, the current King of Denmark, Frederik X. She is also an older sister of Queen Anne-Marie of Greece.
The Danish royal family is the dynastic family of the monarch of Denmark. While some members of the Danish royal family hold the title of Prince(ss) of Denmark, descendants of Margrethe II additionally bear the title Count(ess) of Monpezat. Children of the monarch are accorded the style of His/Her Royal Highness. The King and Queen are styled Majesty.
Christian, Crown Prince of Denmark, Count of Monpezat, is the heir apparent to the Danish throne. He is the eldest child of King Frederik X and Queen Mary. He was born during the reign of his paternal grandmother, Queen Margrethe II. He became Crown Prince of Denmark following his grandmother's abdication and his father's subsequent ascension to the Danish throne on 14 January 2024.
Princess Nathalie of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg is a Danish equestrian, an Olympian, and the daughter of Princess Benedikte of Denmark and Prince Richard of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg. She is the niece of Queen Margrethe II of Denmark and King Constantine II of Greece. Her first cousin is King Frederik X of Denmark.
Richard, 6th Prince of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg was the head of the House of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg and husband of Princess Benedikte of Denmark.
Princess Alexandra of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg, Countess Ahlefeldt-Laurvig-Bille, is the first daughter and second of three children of Prince Richard of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg and Princess Benedikte of Denmark. Under the succession rules set by King Frederik IX, since Princess Benedikte and her children, including Princess Alexandra, have not taken up permanent residence in Denmark, they have effectively waived their place in the line of succession to the Danish throne. Since 19 May 1998, Alexandra has been a Danish citizen.
Gustav, 7th Prince of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg, is the eldest child and only son of Princess Benedikte of Denmark and Richard, 6th Prince of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg.
Princess Isabella of Denmark, Countess of Monpezat, is a member of the Danish royal family. She is the second child and elder daughter of King Frederik X and Queen Mary.
Count Ingolf of Rosenborg is a Danish count and former prince. Born Prince Ingolf of Denmark, he appeared likely to some day become king until the constitution was changed in 1953 to allow females to inherit the crown, placing his branch of the dynasty behind that of his first cousin Princess Margrethe and her two younger sisters. He later gave up his princely rank and his rights to the throne in order to marry a commoner.
Count Christian of Rosenborg was a member of the Danish royal family. Born Prince Christian of Denmark, from 1947 he was third in the line of line of succession until the constitution was changed in 1953 to allow females to inherit the crown, placing his branch of the dynasty behind that of his cousin Margrethe and her two younger sisters. He later gave up his princely rank and his rights to the throne in order to marry a commoner.
The monarchy of Denmark is a constitutional institution and a historic 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 House of Monpezat is a French old bourgeois family from the province of Béarn associated with the Danish royal family by marriage after 1967, when Henri de Laborde de Monpezat wed Princess Margrethe of Denmark, then the heir presumptive of the ruling House of Glücksburg, who was subsequently the Queen of Denmark as Margrethe II. The current Danish monarch, King Frederik X is agnatically a Laborde de Monpezat.
Prince Vincent of Denmark, Count of Monpezat, is a member of the Danish royal family. He is the third child and younger son of King Frederik X and Queen Mary, the sixth grandchild and youngest grandson of Queen Margrethe II and Prince Henrik, and the older twin brother of Princess Josephine.
Countess Athena of Monpezat is a member of the Danish royal family. She is the younger child and only daughter of Prince Joachim and Princess Marie of Denmark. She is the youngest grandchild of Queen Margrethe II and Prince Henrik, and the niece of King Frederik X. Athena is currently ninth in the line of succession to the Danish throne.
The wedding of Frederik, Crown Prince of Denmark, and Mary Donaldson took place on 14 May 2004 in the Copenhagen Cathedral.
Count of Monpezat, or Countess of Monpezat when the holder is female, is a hereditary title of Danish nobility. It was granted on 30 April 2008 by Queen Margrethe II to her two sons, Crown Prince Frederik and Prince Joachim, and their legitimate patrilineal (male-line) descendants of both sexes. The title is derived from the French title of "comte de Laborde de Monpezat", which was used by Frederik and Joachim's father, Prince Henrik.
The wedding of Princess Margrethe of Denmark and Henri de Laborde de Monpezat took place on Saturday, 10 June 1967, at the Holmen Church in Copenhagen, Denmark.
The throne is inherited in King Christian 10. and Queen Alexandrine's posterity.
The Crown Prince is the son of Queen Margrethe II and HRH Prince Henrik of Denmark. He is in line to succeed to the throne and is the regent when the Queen is out of the country.
HRH Prince Christian is included in the order of succession to the Throne after HRH the Crown Prince.
Princess Isabella is included in the order of succession to the Throne after Prince Christian.
HRH Prince Vincent is included in the order of succession to the Throne after HRH Princess Isabella.
HRH Princess Josephine is included in the order of succession to the Throne after HRH Prince Vincent.
His Royal Highness Prince Joachim is the son of Queen Margrethe II and Prince Henrik of Denmark. He is included in the order of succession to the Throne and may act as Regent when the Queen and Crown Prince Frederik are abroad.
Prince Nikolai is included in the order of succession to the Throne.
Prince Felix is included in the order of succession to the Throne.
Prince Henrik is included in the order of succession to the Throne.
Princess Athena is included in the order of succession to the Throne.
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