Curtesy of a friend:
http://vip.tv2.dk/article.php/id-32706964:...tronfølgen.html
It is the first time, since absolutism was introduced in Denmark in 1660 that twins have been born into the (direct) line of succession.
Before then an heir had to be aknowledged. In theory anyone up until the introduction of Absolutism could be elected king or heir.
In reality it was a little more complicated than that. There were of course political considerations and the king was elected from a few families, who through intermarriage throughout the centuries basically belonged to the same family line. Which is of course why there is a direct line from the King Gorm the Old in the 900's up to the present Queen Margrethe.
One of the first things a king did when he had a son was to ensure that he was aknowleged as the heir, thus securing the succession and avoid civil war or bids for the throne from abroad.
That was a very serious issue for the first 500 years of Danish history. And there were quite a few rebellions, civil wars and assassinations - all basically within the same extended family.
The civil war in the 1530's, called: Grevens Fejde = The feud of the count, where the Reformation was introduced almost as an afterthought was a sobering experience.
But things didn't move that fast back then. By then the civil administration had become too large and too complex to move around with the king. The king was constantly on the move, taking care of all sorts of issue during his travels through his reign.
By 1600 or so, Copenhagen had become the de facto capital of Denmark with the central administration permanently based there.
And with the introduction of Absolutism in 1660 it was time to change the sometimes dangerous practise of aknowledging the heir. Now the oldest survivings son of the king automatically became the heir.
The interesting thing is that Frederik III, who introduced Absolutism in Denmark actually preferred a kind of Parliamentarisme along similar lines as the English system. The ruling elite back then was pretty well informed and the pro and cons of Absolutism was very much debated. It wasn't all about power.
Frederik III, knew perfectly well that his powerbase, like that of his predecessors, was townspeople and peasants, not the nobillity.
But Denmark wasn't ready for Parliamentarisme, so Absolutism was introduced. And after a number of serious issues during the next 50 years, it resulted in a system were the power was in the hands of civil servants. That had some disadvantages but Denmark was nevertheless at peace and prospered from 1720 until 1801, actually 1807.
An absolutely fascinating subject! I could write entire articles about this, but I'll stop boring you with more.
I thought it was about time if they were going to have another child, but TWINS?! WOW! When was the last time a ruling royal family had twins?
