Denmark’s King Frederik has provided an update on the health of his mother, Queen Margrethe, after she was hospitalised following a fall.
The 84-year-old queen, who made the shock decision to abdicate in January to allow her son to succeed her, suffered a fall while at Fredensborg Castle this week.
A statement from the Palace released on Thursday confirmed that Margrethe was in a stable condition but would remain in hospital for monitoring.
Now King Frederick, 55, the eldest of Margaret’s two sons, has spoken publicly to give an update on his mother’s condition.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, he revealed that he had spoken to his mother and was confident that he was “in good hands.”
Queen Margrethe of Denmark has been hospitalised after suffering a fall at Fredensborg Castle. She is pictured last week at the Karen Blixen Museum in Copenhagen
He added: “We take it day by day. The doctors are the ones who decide.”
The King spoke on his arrival at the City Hall in the Danish capital to attend the centenary celebrations of the Royal Chapel Choir in Copenhagen.
Margrethe, Queen Elizabeth’s third cousin, was due to take part in an event at Aarhus University on Friday but has now cancelled her participation.
Her Majesty, known for her fondness for smoking and her love of dachshunds, was last seen on Monday attending the 2024 Rungstedlund Prize at the Karen Blixen Museum.
King Frederik (left) spoke to reporters at City Hall in the Danish capital and said his mother was “in good hands.”
Her condition is stable but she will remain in hospital for monitoring, the palace said in a statement. She was photographed last week at the Karen Blixen Museum in Copenhagen.
The Danish queen (right) was succeeded by her eldest son, Frederick (centre), pictured with his Australian-born wife, Mary.
Despite stepping down in her New Year’s Eve speech last year, the monarch remains active and performs royal duties alongside her son.
Fredensborg Castle on the Dutch island of Zealand is the royal family’s summer residence.
Margrethe shocked the nation with the announcement of her abdication during her live New Year’s Eve television segment.
Just 14 days later, Margaret, who had ruled for 52 years, ceded the throne at a meeting of the Council of State and her son, Frederick, was crowned King of Denmark.
He said one of the reasons he decided to give up the throne was because of his health problems, adding that he underwent back surgery in February 2023.
“Everything went well thanks to the qualified medical staff who looked after me,” he says. “Of course, the operation also made me think about the future: whether it was time to hand over the responsibility to the next generation.”
She is still known as Her Majesty Queen Margaret and can act as regent if King Frederick, Queen Mary and Crown Prince Christian are abroad, ill or on holiday.
Queen Margrethe is pictured smiling as crowds gather to watch her travel to the opening of the new Prins Henriks school.
Former Danish Queen Margaret smiled at those in the pews of Aarhus Cathedral as she arrived for the service on January 21.
Just one week after giving up the crown, the Queen attended a special church service at Aarhus Cathedral with her son, King Frederick, and his wife, Queen Mary.
In Denmark, formal power resides in the elected parliament and its government. The monarch is expected to stay out of partisan politics and represent the nation with traditional duties ranging from state visits to national day celebrations.
Born in 1940, Margrethe has enjoyed a lifelong support from Danes who appreciate her diplomatic yet creative personality; the Prime Minister has previously described her as “the epitome of Denmark”.
The monarch made headlines in 2022 when she stripped the royal titles of the four children of her youngest son, Prince Joachim.
She enjoyed a close relationship with her third cousin, Queen Elizabeth II, both descendants of Queen Victoria, having joined during several state visits to each other’s countries over the decades, most recently in 2000, when Margrethe was welcomed at Windsor.
Margrethe, who is 1.80 metres tall, has been one of Denmark’s most popular public figures. She often walked the streets of Copenhagen virtually unescorted and won the admiration of Danes for her warm manner and her talents as a linguist and designer.
A keen skier, she was a member of a Danish women’s air force unit when she was a princess and took part in judo courses and snow endurance tests.
In her New Year’s Eve speech, Queen Margrethe II said: “I have decided that now is the right time. On 14 January 2024, 52 years after I succeeded my beloved father, I will step down as Queen of Denmark.”
She is a chain smoker and is so “normal” that she does her own grocery shopping, but Queen Margrethe of Denmark is also Europe’s longest-reigning head of state. Above: The Queen smoking a cigar in 1997 (left); and attending the annual New Year’s Eve dinner at Christian VII’s Palace in Amalienborg, Copenhagen, in January
Margaret II was the eldest of the three daughters of King Frederick IX of Denmark and succeeded him to the throne in 1972.
In 2011, aged 70, he visited Danish troops in southern Afghanistan wearing a military jumpsuit.
As monarch, she toured the country, regularly visiting Greenland and the Faroe Islands, two semi-independent territories that are part of the Danish Kingdom, and was greeted everywhere by cheering crowds.
Denmark has the oldest ruling monarchy in Europe, tracing its ancestry back to the Viking king Gorm the Old, who died in 958. Although Margrethe is head of state, the Danish constitution strictly excludes her involvement in partisan politics.
Margrethe was born a week after Nazi Germany invaded Denmark. The occupation made the little princess a symbol of hope for the Danes.
He ascended to the throne on 15 January 1972, following the death of his father.
But although she was the eldest daughter, she did not become heir presumptive until 1953, when Denmark’s constitution was amended to allow women to inherit the throne.
This followed a referendum in which more than 85 percent of participants voted to allow female succession.
She married a Frenchman, Henri Marie Jean André de Laborde de Monpezat, later known as Prince Henrik, in 1967. They had two sons, Prince Frederic and Prince Joachim.
Despite enjoying a 50-year marriage, her relationship with Henrik was plagued by controversy. Henrik shocked Danes by saying he felt ostracised in his own home by his wife.
Prince Henrik died in 2018 at the age of 83.
On the day she became monarch, she stood on the balcony of Christiansborg Palace in Denmark and pledged her loyalty to the nation.