{"id":105784,"date":"2026-06-11T17:20:58","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T17:20:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/105784\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T17:20:58","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T17:20:58","slug":"remembering-prince-henrik-of-denmark-the-husband-of-queen-margrethe-ii-who-spent-his-life-longing-to-be-king","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/105784\/","title":{"rendered":"Remembering Prince Henrik of Denmark, the husband of Queen Margrethe II, who spent his life longing to be King"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2018For many years, I have been Denmark\u2019s number two. I\u2019ve been satisfied with that role, but I don\u2019t want to be relegated to number three,\u2019 the Prince told the tabloids at the time, adding that he felt \u2018pushed aside, degraded and humiliated\u2019 by the Palace. Prince Henrik did not join his wife at the wedding of King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima of the Netherlands<\/a>, and Margrethe was forced to fly out to France to meet him.<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/p>\n

Prince Henrik fought hard to ensure that his children carried his surname<\/p>\n

Keystone\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

His desire for recognition was placated in 2008, when his youngest son, Prince Joachim, was given the new title \u2018Count of Monpezat\u2019 ahead of his marriage to Marie Cavallier. Queen Margrethe decreed that the title would be hereditary for the male-line descendants, and Joachim\u2019s children \u2013 Henrik, Nikolai, Felix, and Athena \u2013 are all known now as Counts and Countesses of Monpezat after being stripped of their prince and princess titles.<\/p>\n

\u2018The Queen and the Prince Consort have considered this for quite some time, and it has led to the belief that it was the right thing to do,\u2019 Margrethe\u2019s private secretary said at the time. Prince Henrik had been pushing for the change since 1996, when he wrote in his memoir that \u2018the future sovereign will perhaps receive approval to see \u201cMonpezat\u201d added to the dynastic name of \u201cOldenburg-Gl\u00fccksburg\u201d\u2019. In 2005, just after the birth of Frederik\u2019s son, now Crown Prince Christian, Henrik told Point de Vue of his pride<\/a> in Monpezat being added to the future king\u2019s name: ‘It is a great joy for me that his French roots will also be remembered.\u2019<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/p>\n

Prince Henrik and Queen Margrethe on a state visit in 2015<\/p>\n

Ulet Ifansasti\/Getty Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u2018For many years, I have been Denmark\u2019s number two. I\u2019ve been satisfied with that role, but I don\u2019t…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":105785,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[1517,27,26,5403,30],"class_list":["post-105784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-denmark","tag-danish-royal-family","tag-danmark","tag-denmark","tag-features","tag-royals"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/116732630685782228","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105784"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105784\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}