It has been announced that Prince Joachim’s wife Princess Marie will take upon the role of Patron of the Danish National Commission for UNESCO. The official ceremony will take place on Tuesday 17th November in the Fencing Hall in the Ministry of Education.

Princess Marie, who will be making an official visit to Hong Kong with Prince Joachim on the 21st, has already been involved with UNESCO, recently opening an environmental conference for school leaders from Europe and Asia.

This will be Princess Marie’s fourth patronage, her first being the Toender Music Festival, her second the Annual Literature Prize, a patronage previously held by her father-in-law Prince Henrik and her most recent the Syddansk University in Odense.

For more information, please see this thread.

For more information on the upcoming visit to Hong Kong, please see this thread.

alex001 Danish Royals Patronage, Princess Marie, UNESCO

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

Click here to see the image from Billed-Bladet

Princess Marie yesterday opened a UNESCO environmental conference for school leaders from both Asia and Europe in Soenderborg.

The 100 educationalists will be working together on joint projects over the internet to help better the environment, which is, as Princess Marie said, very relevant with the climate summit being held in Copenhagen next month.

For more information, please see this thread.

alex001 Danish Royals Environment, Princess Marie, UNESCO

 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

Having handed over his job as Order Chancellor to Prince Joachim, Queen Margrethe’s husband has now handed over his duties as the Patron of the Annual Literature Prize to his daughter-in-law Princess Marie. This means that Marie will be, on behalf of the francophone ambassadors to Denmark, hand out an annual prize for French-language literature in Copenhagen. Of course, both Prince Henrik and Princess Marie are perfectly suited to this job, both being native speakers of French and natives of France itself; as Billed-Bladet writes, the Prince Consort could “…scarcely have found a better successor…”

However, freed of two extra duties,Prince Henrik still has plenty to keep himself busy with; he is patron of 71 charities/organisations, Honoury Chairman of another 51 and President of another 8.

For more information, please see this thread.

alex001 Danish Royals Patronage, Prince Henrik the Prince Consort, Princess Marie

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

 Denmark’s two princesses, Mary and Marie, have both been out this week to support the Danish fashion industry. The pair have attended several fashion shows and events connected to Copenhagen Fashion Week, and for Crown Princess Mary, her patronage of the Copenhagen International Fashion Festival (CIFF).

Crown Princess Mary’s first Fashion Week event was on Wednesday the 5th, when she attended the Ole Yde fashion show at the Copenhagen Town Hall. Wearing an outfit which was, in this blogger’s opinion, much less than inspiring; Mary sat front row with her stylist Anja Camilla Aladi and friend Jean Ahlefeldt-Laurvig to watch the collection paraded before them. Yde’s most notable garment is probably the ice-blue gown he designed for the Crown Princess to wear at the wedding of Prince Joachim and Princess Marie last year.

The following day, Thursday August 6th, Mary attended CIFF at the Bella Centre. She toured several stands of Danish designers’ collections, and then watched the CIFF Kids fashion parade. Wearing a lovely white sleeveless dress with a black belted waist, Mary spoke with reporters from BT, and told how much she loves Danish fashion. In the evening, the Crown Princess attended the BOSS Orange collection show, once again accompanied by Aladi.

Read more…

JessRulz Danish Royals CIFF, Fashion, Patronage, Princess Marie, Princess Mary

The Tønder Festival has been announced as the first patronage of HRH Princess Marie.

Click to read Marie's biography

The annual folk music festival, which takes place in the southern-Danish city of Tønder neighbouring Marie’s home at Schackenborg Castle, has been running since 1975. The festival traditionally runs on the last weekend of August each year, the dates for this year’s concert being August 27-30. As well as local Danish artists, performers from Ireland, Scotland, England, the US and Canada come to Tønder each year to perform for the 22,000 people who come through the gates at the festival.

Click here to read more about the Princess’ first patronage.

JessRulz Danish Royals Music, Patronage, Princess Marie

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