Northern Queens: Margaret II of Denmark and her predecessors

At the end of 2023, Queen Margarita II of Denmark surprised everyone with news of her abdication. Next Sunday will mark fifty-two years of reign and she will allow her eldest son, Frederick X, to ascend the throne.. Margarita's reign is not only the longest in Danish history but also, following the death of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom in 2022 (Baz Vevia, 2023), it is the only female reign in Europe. Therefore, with her abdication there will be no reigning queens, a situation not seen since Empress Anna of Russia was proclaimed in 1730.

It's paradoxical that there are so few female monarchs today when it was a woman, also named Margaret, who united the kingdoms of Sweden (which then included Finland), Norway (including Iceland and Greenland) and Denmark. The confederation of these territories under one monarchy is known as the Kalmar Union.

Margaret Valdemarsdotter was a Danish princess who married Haakon VI of Norway. As a woman, Margaret initially had no options to succeed her father as king of Denmark in 1375, but she managed to transmit her rights to her son Olaf. Olaf also became king of Norway after the death of Haakon in 1380. Thus, Margaret was blocked from ascending to the Danish throne due to being a woman, but she could unite with the kingdom of Norway under the rule of Olaf, with Margaret as regent during his minority. King Olaf died in 1385 at sixteen years old and was succeeded by his mother. Four years later, Margaret was recognized as queen of Sweden after deposing Albert Mecklenburg. As she had no descendants and wished for the union of the realms to be permanent, she made the institutions of each realm recognize her nephew grandson Eric of Pomerania (Cuervo Álvarez, 2015, pp. 115-117) as successor.

The Kalmar Union survived Margaret's death in 1412, though only for a century. In 1521 Gustav Vasa proclaimed himself governor and two years later king of Sweden. The last ruler of the union, Christian II of Denmark, was deposed from his other domains in 1523 (Peix Geldart, 2010, pp. 334-335). Norway remained united with Denmark until 1814 and then with Sweden since then until 1905, but no monarch has ruled over the three territories again.

Two other women occupied the Swedish throne after Margaret. Perhaps the most well-known is Queen Christina, great-granddaughter of Gustav Vasa. She ascended to the throne in 1632 at age three. She developed a keen interest in arts and philosophy, becoming one of the greatest patrons of her time. Due to her refusal to marry and her desire to convert to Catholicism despite ruling a Lutheran realm, Christina abdicated in favor of her cousin Charles Gustav of Palatinate in 1654. The decision to renounce had been made in 1646, maneuvering since then to secure the position of her cousin as heir before ceding the crown. Freed from her duties as queen, she could convert to Catholicism and settle in Rome where she died in 1689 (Allendesalazar, 2009).

The last sovereign of Sweden until today was the granddaughter of Christina's cousin. Ulrica Leonor succeeded her brother Charles IX in 1718. In exchange, she had to cede many of her prerogatives and renounce her inheritance rights, being considered a queen elected by parliament. Her reign was very short as one year later she abdicated in favor of her husband Frederick of Hesse-Kassel (Roberts, 2003, pp. 7-8). Despite her resignation, Ulrica Leonor maintained an active role in politics, trying to keep her relatives away from the throne (Persson, 2023, p. 61).

No woman occupied a Nordic throne for over two hundred years. In the nineteenth century, agnatic succession was standardized, that is, exclusively male, in most European monarchies. Sweden and Norway imported French Salic law in 1810 when King Charles John adopted Oscar Bernadotte (Corcos, 2012, pp. 1591-1592). Denmark enacted a succession law in 1853 to ensure the personal union with the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein, where women had always been barred (Gosch, 1862, pp. 423-425).

During the second half of the twentieth century, social changes forced monarchies to revert to ancient succession customs, where women could inherit, though only in the absence of male brothers. In 1953 this measure was adopted in Denmark, whose king Frederick IX had only daughters. Norway changed its constitution to allow women's access to the throne in 1971. In 1980 Sweden became the first Nordic monarchy to introduce absolute primogeniture, under which a woman could no longer be passed over by younger brothers. Norway did not take this step until 1990 and Denmark until 2009 (Corcos, 2012, pp. 1625-1630).

The change in Danish law in 1953 allowed Princess Margarita to become heir. She was proclaimed on January 14, 1972, the same date she has chosen to end her reign in 2024. Unlike her predecessors, Queen Margarita did not have to face the supremacy of her son or husband, who remained second and third in line (Isaksen, 2014). On New Year's Eve last year, Queen Margarita II of Denmark (2023) announced her abdication because "one cannot manage as much as she did in the past."

Next Sunday will mark the end of the last female reign in Nordic countries, and indeed in the rest of the world. It is unlikely that there will be another queen in Denmark in the short term, as she will be succeeded by Frederick X, and it is expected that one day his crown will pass to his son Prince Christian. Similarly, King Carl Gustaf of Sweden is expected to be succeeded by his daughter Victoria, followed by her granddaughter Estelle, while eventually Princess Ingrid of Norway should ascend the throne of her grandfather.

In conclusion, throughout Nordic history few women have had the opportunity to reign. The first one, Margaret Valdemarsdotter, was the only one to govern all these territories and also the only one to die on the throne. Her Swedish successors had to abdicate for family reasons, while Christina did so due to her religious beliefs. Margarita II of Denmark is also stepping down but after a long reign and for health reasons. Thus ends an era where there has always been a reigning queen in Europe since 1725, but another one will come with the new generation of princesses who have not had to face the difficulties their predecessors did. Updating an old French expression: "The Queen abdicates, long live the King!"

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