Tillykke med fødselsdagen Daisy!

April 16, 2012 at 9:30 pm by JessRulz

Queen Margrethe II of Denmark today celebrated her 72nd birthday in Copenhagen.

View the full gallery at Kongehuset

As per tradition, the Queen appeared on the balcony of Christian IX’s Palace, Amalienborg, accompanied by her husband and their children. The ever-expanding royal family this year was not able to all squeeze on to one balcony at the same time, which meant that the families of Crown Prince Frederik and Prince Joachim split their time on the balcony.

Queen Margrethe led the flag-waving crowd in a round of birthday cheers. The Queen and Prince Henrik were then joined by five of their eight grandchildren – Princes Christian, Nikolai, Felix and Henrik and Princess Isabella – on the balcony for a final wave to the crowd. The smaller grandchildren – Prince Vincent, Princess Josephine and the as-yet-unnamed daughter of Joachim and Marie – stayed inside with their parents.

April 16 also brought some sad news for Denmark, as His Excellency Mr Maersk McKinney-Møller, the owner of the largest shipping-container company in the world, passed away in his sleep at the age of 98. He was the only living Knight of the Order of the Elephant who was not royal nor a head of state.