Queen Margarethe

I want to pay homage to Queen Margarethe II of Denmark. Or I guess she isn’t technically a Queen any more, as she abdicated earlier this year…

Marggie, full name Margrethe Alexandrine Þórhildur Ingrid, was born 16 April 1940 and reigned as Queen of Denmark from 1972 until her abdication in 2024. Having reigned for 52 years, she was the second-longest reigning monarch in Danish history after Christian IV.

Born into the House of Glücksburg, a cadet branch of the House of Oldenburg during the reign of her grandfather Christian X, Margrethe is the eldest child of King Frederik IX and Queen Ingrid. She became heir presumptive to her father in 1953, when a constitutional amendment allowed women to inherit the throne. In 1967, she married Henri de Laborde de Monpezat, with whom she had two sons: Frederik and Joachim. Margrethe succeeded her father upon his death on 14 January 1972.

As sovereign, Margrethe received 42 official state visits and she undertook 55 foreign state visits herself. Margrethe has worked as a scenographer, a costume designer, and an illustrator of works by J. R. R. Tolkien. She and the royal family have made several other foreign visits. During her reign, support for the monarchy in Denmark remained consistently high at around 82%, as did Margrethe's personal popularity.

She is to this day a style icon, but back in the day she was a babe! She also has a lot of fabulous jewelry!

My favorite of her tiaras? Easy! The Danish Emerald Parue Tiara!

The tiara dates from 1840, when King Christian VIII commissioned an anniversary present for his wife, Queen Caroline Amalie. C.M. Weisshaupt created the parure, including the tiara, using emeralds that had already been in the family for a century. Many of the emeralds were originally given by King Christian VI to his wife, Queen Sophie Magdalene, in 1723; others were previously owned by Princess Charlotte.

And the Pearl Poiré Tiara!

When Princess Louise of Prussia married Prince Frederik of the Netherlands in 1825, her father, King Friedrich Wilhelm III, gave her this tiara. Her daughter, Louise, took the tiara with when she married the King of Sweden; and then her daughter, also named Louise, took it with her when she married the King of Denmark. When Queen Louise died in 1926, she placed the tiara in the Danish Royal Property Trust, which means that it belongs to the currently-reigning monarch, not to any individual. Margrethe began wearing the suite after she became queen in January 1972.