Prince Joachim and Princess Marie’s little son Henrik’s first Christmas is approaching, and the parents have already begun the planning. Prince Joachim told reporters that it would be a good guess to say that they will spend it at Marselisborg Castle.

However, Princes Nikolai and Felix will unfortunately not be able to there, as they spent their last Christmas with their father, and therefore, as per their usual arrangement, will spend this one with their mother the Countess of Frederiksborg and their step-father Martin Joergensen.

It is also expected that the Crown Princely family will spend Christmas with the Queen and the other Prince Henrik in Marselisborg as well.

For more information, please see this thread.

alex001 Danish Royals Christmas, Countess Alexandra, HH Prince Henrik, Martin Jørgensen, Prince Felix of Denmark, Prince Joachim, Prince Nikolai, Princess Marie

 The Danish Royal Family today attended the opening of the 2009/2010 Danish parliamentary season at Christiansborg Palace in Copenhagen. The royal family traditionally attends the opening each year, where the current Prime Minister opens the season.

Click to see the image at Billed-Bladet

HRH Princess Benedikte, the younger sister of HM Queen Margrethe, arrived at Folketinget (the Danish parliament) first just after 11:45 local time. She was followed by TRH Prince Joachim and Princess Marie, who was dressed in a green coat-dress and a matching beret-style hat; and then TRH Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary. The Crown Princess was wearing a black coat and skirt, with a grey hat and accessories.

Click to see the image at Billed-Bladet

HM Queen Margrethe II and HRH Prince Henrik arrived shortly after their eldest son and daughter-in-law, and the Queen was greeted by the Speaker of the Danish parliament, Thor Pedersen, before the royal family entered the parliament building. A video of the arrivals, and of inside parliament, can be found here.

At noon, the royal family took their places in the royal box and Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen began his first speech at the opening of parliament (he became Prime Minister earlier this year). As usual, the Danish royals had a hard time keeping their eyes open during the event, and images of the monarch and her consort catching forty-winks is not unusal.

Click here to view the Opening of Danish Parliament thread, which includes photos from previous years.

JessRulz Danish Royals Margrethe II, Parliament, Prince Frederik, Prince Henrik the Prince Consort, Prince Joachim, Princess Benedikte, Princess Marie, Princess Mary

It has been announced that on the 1st October Prince Joachim will take over as Chancellor of the Order of the Dannebrog and the Order of the Elephant from the Prince Consort, Prince Henrik.  This means that Prince Joachim shall be responsible for overseeing the administrative side of the orders and for the signing of the orders’ certificates.

Prince Joachim will, according to working secretary Henning Fode, be able to carry out much of the work from Schackenborg, but will of course be required in Copenhagen from time to time.

The Order of the Dannebrog is a “means of honouring and rewarding the faithful servants of the modern Danish state for meritorious civil or military service, for a particular contribution to the arts, sciences or business life or for those working for Danish interests” and was established after a 1660 move to break out of the absolutism of the Danish aristocracy.

The unusually named Order of the Elephant is Denmark’s highest order, founded in 1693 by King Christian V and amended in 1958 so that both men and women could become members of the order. The order, headed by the Danish monarch, is worn by the members of the royal family and can be granted to foreign heads of state and, in some circumstances, to an ordinary ‘commoner’. Currently, the only commoner in the order is philanthropist Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller. Other notable knights and former knights include the Emperor of Japan, the King of Sweden, Nelson Mandela and Nicolae Ceauşescu, who is notable as the only knight to have had to leave the order.

For more information, please see this thread.

alex001 Danish Royals Orders, Prince Henrik the Prince Consort, Prince Joachim

According to politiken.dk, the Danish Royal Family will next year receive an increase in their allowances totalling 1.9 million kroner.

The Queen’s husband Prince Henrik will receive a total budget of 7.1 million kroner, which is a rise of 200,000 klroner from last year, whilst Prince Joachim and Princess Marie will receive an increase of 100,000 kroner, for a total of 3.1 million. Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary will have their budget increased by 400,000 kroner, to a total of 17.6 million. Princess Benedikte, sister of Queen Margrethe, will be given a total of 1.1 million kroner, and even Count Ingolf, the cousin of the Queen, will receive an increase of 100,000 kroner.

The former wife of Prince Joachim, Countess Alexandra, will also be given an increased budget of 2.1 million kroner, an increase of 100,000 upon last year. However, as a private citizen, the Countess does not have tax-exempt status and will as such  be paying tax upon it.

For more information, please see this thread.

alex001 Danish Royals Count Ingolf, Countess Alexandra, Finances, Margrethe II, Prince Frederik, Prince Henrik the Prince Consort, Prince Joachim, Princess Benedikte, Princess Marie, Princess Mary

Click here to see the image from bt.dk

Today was the christening of Prince Henrik Carl Joachim Alain, the son of Prince Joachim and Princess Marie in Mogeltonder. The Prince is Henrik after his paternal grandfather, Carl after an old king, Joachim after his father and Alain after his maternal grandfather. The names have been kept secret in accordance with tradition, known only to the family and Bishop of Copenhagen.

The christening took place at 5:30 this afternoon when Princess Marie entered with Prince Henrik, dressed in a christening robe designed by Henrik Hvis, dozing in her arms, although he did not manage to sleep once the organ began.

It was attended by 140 relatives and friends of the Prince and Princess, including Marie’s mother Francoise Grassiot, the Queen and the elder Prince Henrik, Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary, Princes Felix and Nikolai, Joachim’s two sons from his marriage to the-now Countess of Frederiksborg, who did not attend, and Princess Benedikte.

For more information, please see this thread.

alex001 Danish Royals Christening, HH Prince Henrik, Prince Joachim, Princess Marie

Click here to see the image from Berlingske

Prince Joachim and Princess Marie, along with their new baby son, arrived today on the royal ship Danneborg, joining Queen Margrethe and Princes Henrik, Nikolai and Felix at Haderslev ahead of the christening, due to take place this Sunday at Møgeltønder Church, the same church where Prince Joachim and Princess Marie were married.

The christening will take place at 17:30, with two hundred guests attending and is likely to be a relatively informal affair, with a reception at 19:15 at Schackenborg, the family home of Joachim and Marie.

It will also be then when, in keeping with tradition, the names – probably four – of the baby prince shall finally be revealed (and forum members will find out which of the over 276 guesses was correct/closest).

Queen Margrethe and Prince Henrik are currently continuing their annual tour on the Dannebrog.

For more information, please see this thread.

alex001 Danish Royals Christening, Dannebrog, HH Prince Henrik, Margrethe II, Prince Felix of Denmark, Prince Henrik the Prince Consort, Prince Joachim, Prince Nikolai, Princess Marie

 Earlier this week, the Danish Royal Court released a series of ten images featuring the newborn son of Prince Joachim and Princess Marie. Prince Joachim’s eldest sons, Nikolai and Felix, also appear in the series.

Click to see the gallery at Kongehuset

The image series, photographed at the couple’s Schackenborg Castle home by royal photographer Steen Brogaard; comprises of two photographs of the proud parents with their son, one of the nearly two-month-old prince with his parents and brothers, a tender portrait of a sleeping prince on his mother Marie’s shoulder, and six individual shots showing the prince’s gorgeous dark blue eyes and an apparent inquisitive nature.

The next big event for the little prince is his christening on July 26th, at the Møgeltønder Church, where his parents wed in May 2008.

Please visit this thread to read comments and post your own about the portraits. If you feel up to guessing what the little prince will be named visit this thread, suggestions for godparents can be made here.

JessRulz Danish Royals HH Prince Henrik, Portraits, Prince Felix of Denmark, Prince Joachim, Prince Nikolai, Princess Marie

 On the back of Prince Henrik’s extravagant 75th birthday celebrations yesterday and the day before, statistics compiled by Rambøll for Jyllands-Posten have shown that while all the royal family has dropped in approval ratings, it is Queen Margrethe II’s husband and younger son who have dropped their approval ratings dramatically since 2004.

The stats, released yesterday, show that the Danish public have lost confidence in how the two men handle their public roles. Henrik’s approval rating is down 12%, from 41.8% in 2004 to 29.8% this year. A further 30.7% believe that the 75-year-old has been doing a poor job.

But it is Prince Joachim’s approval rating that has essentially snowballed over the past five years. Back in 2004, when the Prince was still married to the Countess of Frederiksborg (the poll was taken before their divorce was announced), Joachim enjoyed at 84.6% approval rating. Today, it stands at nearly half that, at 44.6%. Joachim’s second wife, Princess Marie, has an equally dismal approval rating of almost 37%.

The heir to the Danish throne, Crown Prince Frederik, dropped 10% in his approval rating, from 90.7% to 80.4%. His wife, Crown Princess Mary – who did not appear in 2004 poll – broke into the fold with a rating higher than her husband’s, at 82.2%. Mary also slightly surpassed her mother-in-law in ratings, with Queen Margrethe receiving a 81.3% rating.

JessRulz Danish Royals Margrethe II, Prince Frederik, Prince Henrik the Prince Consort, Prince Joachim, Princess Marie, Princess Mary, Public Opinion

It has been announced that the christening of Prince Joachim and Princess Marie’s new baby son will take place in Møgeltønder Church, the same church where Prince Joachim marrie Princess Marie, at 17:30 on July 26th. As is customary, the name for the new prince has yet to be announced, but nevertheless TRF members have been putting forward possible names and suggesting who will be the prince’s godparents.

The baby was born earlier this month, on May 4th, and is Prince Joachim and Princess Marie’s first child together, although Prince Joachim alreayd has two sons, Princes Nikolai and Felix, from his previous marriage to the Countess of Frederiksborg.

alex001 Danish Royals Christening, HH Prince Henrik, Prince Joachim, Princess Marie

Click here to see the image from dr.dk

At 1pm today Princess Marie and Prince Joachim left Rigshospitalet in Copenhagen with their new baby son. As they walked out, balloons were realeased by the hospital workers to celebrate the baby’s birth.

Although Princess Marie was a little hesitant in answering questions in Danish, understandably as she has not been learning the language for long, she did confirm that the baby’s name would be a secret for now and that he will be bilingual, as is Prince Joachim (his father, Prince Henrik, is French and that is the language in which they converse). Prince Joachim told the reporters “you can see a mother who is radiant and I think that speaks for itself”. And Marie certainly was looking radiant – indeed, some posters commented that Joachim was looking more exhuasted than she!

For more information, please see this thread.

alex001 Danish Royals HH Prince Henrik, Prince Joachim, Princess Marie