Crown Prince Frederik

The Danish royal house is the oldest in Europe. From the founder of the royal house, Gorm the Old, who became king in the 10th century, the line leads - albeit by intricate detours - directly to Queen Margrethe II and the heir to the throne, Crown Prince Frederik.

There are more than 50 generations between the marauding Viking kings and the well-educated academic who with Crown Princess Mary at his side will carry on the Danish monarchy. With respect for tradition and flair for renewal.

Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary photographed the day of their engagement on 8 October 2003. Photo: Keld Navntoft/Scanpix.

The Role of Heir to the Throne

The Danish monarchy still has wide and enthusiastic support from the Danish population. Here Crown Prince Frederik has had his people’s confirmation that his popularity is worthy of a king. For several years running, he has been chosen as ’Dane of the Year’.

However, Crown Prince Frederik has not attained his position effortlessly. There have been personal crises along the way. And - especially in the early years of his youth - there have been periods when he doubted that he was able - or willing - to fill the role of Denmark’s king. But through mental and physical development, he has overcome the difficulties. He has accepted his destiny, which he will now share with the Australian-born Mary Elizabeth Donaldson, who at the wedding in Copenhagen Cathedral on 14 May 2004 became the new Crown Princess of Denmark.

The Crown Prince will enter the long list of Danish kings as King Frederik X. In Denmark it is not traditional for the monarch to abdicate, so Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary must be prepared to wait for many years before they succeed the ruling couple, Queen Margrethe (b.1940) and Prince Henrik (b.1934).

He has himself stated how he plans to spend his life as heir to the throne: ’My goal is to become a national rallying point and to be an ambassador for my country. You need to catch the pulse, and the rhythm of the society in which you live. I do not want to shut myself up in a castle. I want to live. I want to be human’.

Childhood

Crown Prince Frederik was born on 26 May 1968, 11 months after the wedding in the Royal Dockyards Church in Copenhagen, when the popular and artistically gifted heir to the Danish throne, Princess Margrethe - the eldest daughter of King Frederik IX (1899-1972) and Queen Ingrid (1910-2000) - married the French count Henri de Laborde de Monpezat. A year after the birth of Crown Prince Frederik, the couple had another son, Prince Joachim, who is second in line to the throne.

It was the ambition of the young successor couple to give their sons a firm, but loving upbringing. Demands were made on them, but they were also allowed to be children like other children. There was never any doubt that they would attend an ordinary school and that they would not receive special treatment. The choice fell on the private Krebs’ School in Copenhagen, a school with soul, where the teaching of history and languages played an important part.

During those years the Crown Prince was strongly influenced by the legendary principal Jørgen Stegelmann. He was a man who knew how to talk to children and with children. And he was a marvellous story teller. With his cheerful and cultured liberalism, he exerted a strong influence on the young Crown Prince Frederik.

Crown Prince Frederik’s maternal grandmother, the highly respected Queen Ingrid (1910-2000), a Swedish princess who came to Denmark in 1935, also played a part in forming him. In the book En familie og dens dronning (A Family and Its Queen, published in 1996), she paints a loving portrait of the heir to Denmark’s throne; ’The Crown Prince has a big heart. He is a very warm person. That will be one of his strengths as king. The Crown Prince reminds me of my husband (King Frederik IX). I believe the Prince’s character owes something to him. Also his joviality. And he is so full of the same kind of humour. And a strong sense of duty’.

School Attendance in France and Denmark

In 1982, Crown Prince Frederik and Prince Joachim were enrolled in the distinguished elite school Écoles des Roches in Normandy in France. Especially their father, Prince Henrik, wanted them to become acquainted with the French language and French history. In many ways, it was a tough experience for the two young princes, who came from a highly protected environment in Denmark.

At this time, Crown Prince Frederik began to realise that he would never be what he perhaps wanted most of all: an ordinary person. Later he has spoken in an interview about the gloomy thoughts he had about his future: ’Initially the idea of being king was something big and scary. Something dark and depressing. I felt as if a blanket had been thrown over me, something which limited my opportunities and my desire to explore the world’.

Click on the picture to see the html-version of: ‘‘The Order of Succession‘‘

When the princes returned from France, they continued their schooling at Øregaard Upper Secondary School in Northern Copenhagen. Linguistically, they were both well prepared: they spoke English and French fluently. And physically they were in top form. Throughout his life, Crown Prince Frederik has sought big physical challenges, also as a mental exercise. He is a good tennis player, an excellent yachtsman and a fine swimmer. And in recent years he has run several marathons in Denmark and abroad. He is a sportsman with a hot temper, a competitive person who hates losing. As heir to the throne, he does not yet have an official motto, but as his personal motto he has chosen: learning through trial.

An All-round Education

On 26 May 1986, Crown Prince Frederik was 18. Officially he was grown up and he joined the Council of State, where the sovereign of the constitutional monarchy meets his or her minister about 15 times a year to sign the Acts of the country. He can now rule on behalf of his mother, Queen Margrethe II, who succeeded to the throne when King Frederik IX died on 14 January 1972. A few weeks after joining the Council of State, Crown Prince Frederik passed his baccalaureate and immediately started military training as a recruit with the Household troops. He later requested a transfer to the Hussars, where he trained as an officer. He is now a major in the Army and Air Force and a commander in the Navy.

But a modern Crown Prince also needs a civilian education. And Crown Prince Frederik has a more allround education than any previous heir to the Danish throne. In 1989 he went on a study visit to Robert Moldavi’s famous vineyards in California to learn about viniculture. This interest in wine is due to his father’s owning a reputable wineproducing castle, the Château de Caïx near Cahors in Southern France. Here the royal family spends part of their holidays every year.

Political science studies are mandatory on a crown prince. But Crown Prince Frederik wanted more than a superficial acquaintance with the subject. As the first member of the Danish royal house, he wanted to complete a full academic education. In autumn 1989, he started to study political sciences at the University of Aarhus. ’The decision to pursue a proper academic education was a stage on the way to gaining more ballast and weight’, he later explained. ’It gives greater strength to conquer yourself and reach the goal you set. I do not want to be helped to anything. I want to test my own strength’. In 1992-1993, Crown Prince Frederik studied at Harvard University in the USA under the name Frederik Henriksen. He later established a fund to support young Danes studying at Harvard.

The official duties of the Crown Prince include participation in the New Year Levee. Here he joins Queen Margrethe and Prince Henrik in welcoming the Ambassador from the African state of Lesotho and his wife. Photo: Scanpix Nordfoto/Jens Nørgaard Larsen.

In Aarhus, the second-largest city in Denmark, the Crown Prince during his years of study found a sanctuary where he could live almost like any other young man of his age. Here he met young people from different and less privileged environments, and here he developed the social awareness that is part of the special talent he has for speaking to all kinds of people.

In 1995 Crown Prince Frederik obtained his MA degree in Political Science. He completed the course in the prescribed number of years with an exam result above average. His main paper was an analysis on the foreign policy of the Baltic States. And he visited these countries several times during his studies.

The Naval Diving Corps

The Crown Prince found a completely different basis for his life in the Naval Diving Corps. It was the ultimate challenge to apply for the elite unit, which physically and mentally may be the most demanding in the Danish armed forces. There were 300 applicants. Four passed. One of them was the Danish Crown Prince. Under the name Pingo, he completed the tough training which not only gave him weight and self-confidence. It also made him respected as an heir to the throne who set new standards with the demands he as a member of the royal house has made on himself. Crown Prince Frederik has never chosen the easy option. The period with the Diving Corps became a happy time for him. He conquered himself and became part of a fellowship where he found some of his best friends.

The Danish Crown Prince has received extensive and varied military training in the army, the airforce and the navy. Photos: Scanpix Nordfoto/Claus Fisker.

International Tasks

Other young people can measure themselves against clear criteria of success in their profession. By contrast, there is no clearly defined crown prince role. He has to create it himself. He can never have an ordinary job, but Crown Prince Frederik had a taste of it when he spent three months with the Danish UN mission in New York in autumn 1994. The Crown Prince was not merely a guest. He worked in the UN on human rights and social issues. He contributed to the drafting of documents and the preparation of meetings and himself gave a speech on behalf of Denmark about the protection of UN personnel in the field. The period in New York helped give the Crown Prince an international profile, which was further developed in 1998-1999 when he was stationed at the Danish Embassy in Paris as First Embassy Secretary and participated full-time in the day-to-day work.

On 7 April 2004, ARoS Aarhus Art Museum was inaugurated in the presence of Queen Margrethe and Prince Henrik as well as Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary. On this photo, the successor couple studies the sculpture Boy, symbolising the museum and created by the Australian artist Ron Muick, 1999. Photo: Claus Fisker/ Scanpix.

Expedition Sirius 2000

After the indoor life in Paris, Crown Prince Frederik went to Northern Greenland. He had volunteered as one of the six sledge drivers on the privately organised sledge expedition Sirius 2000. The expedition was to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Sledge Patrol Sirius, which is responsible for the surveillance of North and North East Greenland and the enforcement of Danish sovereignty. The 2,800 kilometres journey lasted four months. The Danes were able to follow the journey through a series of television documentaries, where the Crown Prince himself talked about the hardships and the wonderful nature experiences.

Crown Princess Mary

There was a second important event in the Crown Prince’s life in 2000. During a visit to Sydney in connection with the Olympics, he met Mary Elizabeth Donaldson.

The Crown Prince has never concealed that he wanted to have a good look round and think carefully before choosing his wife, the future Queen of Denmark. And that he wanted to ’choose with his heart’.

Crown Princess Mary, born on 5 February 1972, grew up in Tasmania. Her father is Professor of Mathematics John Donaldson. Her mother, Henriette Donaldson, died in 1997, and John Donaldson is now married to the crime writer Susan Moody.

In March 2004, the President of Rumania, Ion Iliescu, paid an official visit to Denmark and according to usual practice, Queen Margrethe hosted a gala dinner for the President. This photo shows Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary arriving at the dinner. Photo: Jørgen Jessen/ Scanpix.

Crown Princess Mary is the youngest of four siblings. She was educated at Hobart College and the University of Tasmania, where she obtained a BA degree in Law and Economics. She has worked for several companies, including the property group Belle Property.

The relationship between the Danish Crown Prince and the beautiful, stylish and well-educated Mary Donaldson developed slowly, but in late summer 2002 Mary Donaldson moved to Copenhagen, where she got a job as project consultant with the IT giant Navision/Microsoft in Vedbæk, near Copenhagen.

The engagement rumours began to fly. And three years after their first meeting it was confirmed. In the Council of State, the Queen gave Crown Prince Frederik and Miss Mary Elizabeth Donaldson her - and the Government’s - official permission to marry. An alliance which was enthusiastically received by the Danes.

Crown Princess Mary shares many of the Crown Prince’s interests, including sports. And after the engagement she started an intensive course in the Danish language - and in being Danish. Crown Princess Mary obtained Danish citizenship at the wedding on 14 May 2004.

Almost all Danish queens come from abroad, and the best of them have not just had a major influence on the presentation of the monarchy, but also as cultural mediators. Through them, new international currents have found their way to Denmark. Her childhood and youth in a country with wide horizons and an academic background in the Anglo-Saxon traditions will form a good ballast for the active wife of the future King.

The couple will live in Frederik VIII’s Palace in Amalienborg, the former residence of the late Queen Ingrid, and in the Chancellery at Fredensborg Castle in North Zealand, which for generations has been the summer residence of the Danish royal family. They will also inherit Gråsten Castle in North Schleswig from Queen Ingrid.

A Modern Successor Couple

In the coming years, the successor couple will step up their activities both in Denmark and abroad. On many occasions the Crown Prince has represented Denmark at official events and headed trade delegations. He is a Commissioner of the Danish Red Cross, a role that involves travelling to the trouble spots of the world.

The Crown Prince as a child with his mother, Queen Margrethe II, and his maternal grandfather, King Frederik IX. Photo: Polfoto.

Each generation in a monarchy will create its own style - while respecting tradition. In several candid interviews, the Crown Prince has defined the red thread in the personal and official life of himself and Crown Princess Mary as the future King and Queen of Denmark: He wants to shape his own role as a modern crown prince who is an ordinary person - and yet someone special. It is a subtle balance demanding a good social ear: ’The danger inherent in the office is of course that you become isolated. You have to beware of that. But in our country we can count ourselves lucky that our institution moves with the times. That is the main thing: to move with the times. Find out the lie of the land and be influenced by what you find. And create your institution on that basis. And of course you have to be there for the people who are really important to you, those you really love. There you must be prepared to go a long way. A very long way. Be there for someone. And in my case: Be there for my country’.

Annelise Bistrup
Journalist

Further Information

Denmark’s Official Web Site
www.denmark.dk

Hofmarskallatet
(The Lord Chamberlain’s Office)
Det Gule Palæ
Amaliegade 18
DK-1256 Copenhagen K
(+45) 3340 1010