The cliche back in the day, when a woman wasn’t interested in going out with a man was: “I’m washing my hair” – even when the proposed date was months in advance.
So it might be a little hair-raising to some that Queen Margrethe II has already turned down a function more than five weeks away on May 18 because she will still be recovering from her back surgery in February – particularly as she was spotted walking with a cane whilst waving to crowds outside Fredensborg Castle yesterday.
True, the event in question – the confirmation of her grandson Henrik, who turns 14 on May 4 – is taking place at Frederikskirken in Paris, and getting aboard a plane might be defying doctor’s orders.
But confirmations are a big deal for Danish teenagers – a rite of passage right up there with having your first Carlsberg, getting drunk on Labour Day and winter holidaying in Prague.
Loss of status all round
Of course, the confirmation on this occasion is not of a prince, but of a count – so it’s lost a ranking point as far as royal observers are concerned.
And now the orchestrator of that January 1 demotion – which also included Henrik’s 11-year-old sister Athena and half-brothers Nikolai and Felix losing their HRH titles – has further reduced its status by choosing not to attend.
The official Danish Church in Paris has been robbed of a visit of its queen – a disappointment for Bishop Henrik Wigh-Poulsen, who will conduct the service, as the monarch visited Frederikskirken’s London sister, St Katherine’s, late last year.
However, that visit was held to mark the 50th anniversary of the church’s inauguration as the official Danish church in the UK capital – and Frederikskirken’s own golden jubilee is coming up in 2025, by which time Margethe will be ‘back’ with a vengeance.
Still, it’s a sickener for her second son Prince Joachim, who together with his family are moving to the US later this year. May 18 may be Ascension Day, but as far as the Royal Family are concerned it will be another descent in relations between the pair.
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