CNN — He’s been known as the Crown Prince of Denmark since the age of three, but on Sunday, he will leave Copenhagen’s Christiansborg Palace as King Frederik X, sovereign of Europe’s oldest monarchy.
Denmark’s royal transition was sparked just weeks ago by the bombshell announcement from Queen Margrethe II on New Year’s Eve, when she revealed her intention to abdicate in early 2024. The news that Frederik’s hugely popular mother, the world’s only reigning queen, would relinquish the throne shocked Danes across the country.
Margrethe had become Europe’s longest-serving monarch on the death of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II in 2022. The pair were known to be close, and it was widely assumed that the Danish head of state, like her distant cousin, viewed her role as a job for life.
However, it seems the 83-year-old has had a change of heart and will step aside exactly 52 years to the day after she ascended the throne. So, who is Denmark’s soon-to-be king and what kind of monarch will he be?
A rebellious teen
While the Danish monarchy stretches back more than 1,000 years, today its royals have a limited role under the country’s constitution. Danes are immensely proud of their royal family and monarchs play an important ambassadorial role.
“He’s extremely popular. The polls show a very convincing support from the Danish people,” Birgitte Borup, culture editor at Danish newspaper Berlingske, told CNN. “Queen Margrethe is serving him the monarchy on a silver platter.”
Borup said Frederik will be “a different kind of king,” explaining that he is “very down to Earth and interested in sports whereas his mother is more culturally distinguished.” She added that “his main challenge might be his way with words,” as he is “not known to be great at freestyling in front of a crowd.”
Born in 1968, Frederik André Henrik Christian is the first child of Margrethe and her late husband, Prince Henrik, who died in 2018. His forename was chosen in line with the Danish royal custom of the heir apparent being named either Frederik or Christian. His only sibling, Prince Joachim, was born in 1969.
Growing up in the public eye was not easy for the shy young royal. He received his primary education at Krebs’ Skole, an elite private school in Copenhagen, before going to boarding school in Normandy, France. Frederik was uncomfortable with the media attention and anxious about his destiny. By the early 1990s, many saw him as a “party prince” with a penchant for fast cars.