Her Majesty, Queen Margrethe II, 82, had a big surprise yesterday when her two sons, Crown Prince Frederik and Prince Joachim, made a surprise appearance at the military parade at the Fleet Station Korsor.
The military parade was watched by school children from Slagelse Municipality, employees at the Fleet Station as well as local associations and the public.
Crown Prince Frederik and his younger brother, Prince Joachim
The military parade is in connection with the ongoing celebration of Her Majesty's Golden Jubilee year. It is officially called the 50th Anniversary of the Government of Her Majesty, Queen Margrethe II.
The Queen's two sons are both military officers. Crown Prince Frederik is Rear Admiral in the Danish Royal Navy and Major General in the Air Force and Army. While Prince Joachim is a Brigadier General in the Danish army.
Warm kisses and hugs from sons. Left: Crown Prince Frederik. Right: Prince Joachim
Prince Joachim is currently the Military Attaché at the Royal Danish Embassy in Paris, France, by the Danish Ministry of Defense.
The two royal brothers were in high spirits as they surprised their mother during the event. They also donned military uniforms based on their respective ranks in the Danish armed forces.
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Queen Margrethe II of Denmark |
The Queen ascended the Danish throne in January 1972 upon the death of her father, King Frederik IX. Prior to that, she was heir-presumptive to the Danish throne.
In 1953, the Danish succession law was changed to male-preference primogeniture, allowing Princess Margrethe, the eldest of the three daughters of King Frederik and Queen Ingrid, to be heir-presumptive, replacing her uncle, Prince Knud.
Queen Margrethe II of Denmark
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Queen Margrethe II of Denmark |
Since 2009, the Danish succession law followed the Absolute Primogeniture Succession, where the eldest child of the sovereign irrespective of gender will be the heir-apparent. It has no effect on the Danish Royal Court, however, because the eldest child of the Queen is a male (Crown Prince Frederik), and the eldest child of Crown Prince Frederik is also a male, Prince Christian.
The speculation on a "fractured" relationship
Watching the Crown Prince and his younger brother joined forces to support their mother on her Jubilee year, made royal fans happy as these brothers had been speculated to be having silent "feud", just like their distant cousins, Prince William and Prince Harry.
Crown Prince Frederik, Queen Margrethe II, and Prince Joachim
The situation of being an heir and a spare reportedly raised tension between Frederik and Joachim, just like William and Harry, according to reports published by Yahoo in 2019.
So intense was their rivalry that at one point their respective wives, Crown Princess Mary and Princess Marie, reportedly weighed in.
In 2019, speculation of a tense relationship between these royal brothers reached fever-pitch when Prince Joachim, his wife, Princess Marie, and two children, Prince Henrik and Princess Athena, moved to France.
Prince Joachim's two older sons, Prince Nikolai and Prince Felix, stayed in Denmark due to their studies and modeling commitments, but often visited France.
The royal brothers had only a year apart in age difference. Crown Prince Frederik was born in May 1968 while his younger brother, Prince Joachim was born in June 1969, but it’s the elder brother who will one day be crowned king.
The pair have reportedly harbored a grudge over their respective roles, with Prince Joachim apparently frustrated with Fred’s ‘lax attitude’ to his royal duties.
Parental favoritism is also said to have driven a wedge between the two brothers. However, as a future monarch, it's expected that Queen Margrethe II will lean more and more toward Fred.
But the Danish royal court quashed these "rift" rumors, and explained Prince Joachim will take part in a military training course in France.
“The additional training in France supplements Prince Joachim’s current post in the Danish Defense, where the Prince is a special advisor to the chief of defense in relation to the reserve since 2015,” the Danish palace said in a statement.
Their rift was fixed!
The so-called silent rift between Prince Joachim and Crown Prince Frederik was reportedly fixed in July 2020 when Prince Joachim had life-threatening brain surgery in France.
In early August this year, they were seen spending summer break with their respective families, cousins, and maternal aunts in Jutland.
This recent military parade, however, is the first time that the royal brothers were seen attending a public event together. And their mother, the Queen, was visibly surprised and happy seeing her two sons united for her Golden Jubilee parade.
Military Careers
Both Crown Prince Frederik and Prince Joachim completed extensive military education and trainings and currently hold high ranks in the Danish Armed Forces.
The Crown Prince is currently Rear Admiral in the Danish Royal Navy and has a Major General rank both in the Danish Air Force and Army.
In 2015, Prince Joachim was appointed special advisor to the Chief of Defense in the Royal Danish Army. In 2019, he was admitted to the highest-ranking military educational program at École Militaire in France. He graduated on June 26, 2020, being the first Danish Officer to complete the two-part special education.
Around the same month, the Danish Secretary of Defense promoted the Prince to Brigadier General due to his new acquired educational merits at École Militaire.
He was subsequently named Military Attaché at the Royal Danish Embassy in Paris, France, by the Danish Ministry of Defense. A position he is expected to hold for at least three years while maintaining his patronages and royal engagements in Denmark when possible.
We're glad to hear Crown Prince Frederik and Prince Joachim were able to fix whatever differences they had and put all those nasty speculations behind them.
It's always possible to fix "fractured" relationships between siblings, thus, we have high hopes for The Duke of Cambridge and The Duke of Sussex to med their differences one of these days.
Congratulations to Her Majesty, Queen Margrethe II, on her Golden Jubilee Year!
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