Queen Margrethe II, Current Events Part 3: September 2023 -


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Queen Margrethe receives the Kristeligt Dagblads Prize 2024

She looks great! Retirement agrees with her I must say. Being able to take things at her pace w/out the pressures of being monarch. Enjoying her hobbies at her leisure. I think she looks better than she has in quite a while - Less frail!

Glad to see she's recovered from her injuries.
 
Here are some photos shared by the Palace:



“With your wit, diligence and compassion, you have had an impact on the social, cultural and ecclesiastical areas, which is already widely appreciated today, but which will perhaps only be fully recognized in a more historical light.”These were the words addressed to Her Majesty Queen Margrethe in the motivational speech from Chairman of the Board of Kristeligt Dagblad Mogens Madsen, when Queen Margrethe was presented with the Kristeligt Dagblads Prize 2024 at the National Museum this evening.The Kristeligt Dagblads Prize is awarded each year to a person or institution that has made a special effort in the social, cultural or ecclesiastical area.In connection with Queen Margrethe’s acceptance of the Kristeligt Dagblads Prize, Her Majesty participated in an interview with Kristeligt Dagblad earlier this month.



And a video:


 
“With your wit, diligence and compassion you had an impact on social, cultural and ecclesiastical areas, which is widely appreciated, but will only be fully recognized in a more historical light.”
The dedication (translation courtesy of the dear Christin @christinsqueens.bsky.social) moved the Queen so much that she had trouble composing herself enough to thank KD for the award.
 
Photos of Queen Margrethe shopping in London.

Pictured walking through Trafalgar Square … attending the National Gallery there … and the Harvey Nichols and Peter Jones department stores.

The small group travelled about the city in a minibus.

 
Photos of Queen Margrethe shopping in London.

Pictured walking through Trafalgar Square … attending the National Gallery there … and the Harvey Nichols and Peter Jones department stores.

The small group travelled about the city in a minibus.

Last year I spotted HM buying Christmas cakes downstairs in Fortnum and Mason - lovely to see her at the till with her lady-in-waiting, the latter paying with a credit card!
 
It is lovely to see QMII looking so well and enjoying herself. Retirement surely agrees with her. She is looking better than she has in quite a while (her unfortunate fall notwithstanding). She has enjoyed her past-times, she has had her engagements and served as regent a couple of times. It is great to see her out and about, active and enjoying herself. A well-earned and deserved retirement.
 
Last year I spotted HM buying Christmas cakes downstairs in Fortnum and Mason - lovely to see her at the till with her lady-in-waiting, the latter paying with a credit card!

This article caught my eye irish-royalist as I’m soon going to London and Christmas is an amazing time to be there.

The translation of the article quotes the Queen as saying cognac is poured over the plum pudding … also called a plum duff in Tasmania … and set alight, and how Mary likes to have it at Christmas.

It’s a bit surreal when you see someone in real life you have previously seen in magazines or on the news, and then there they are, real people doing real things.

It must have been a nice experience, and a fun thing to tell family and friends.
 
Nice to see her being accompanied by her close swedish friend since several decades Count Gustaf Trolle-Bonde…

Him being a professional expert in handcrafts and cultural history i’m sure they always have a great time whenever they hang out…
 
This article caught my eye irish-royalist as I’m soon going to London and Christmas is an amazing time to be there.

The translation of the article quotes the Queen as saying cognac is poured over the plum pudding … also called a plum duff in Tasmania … and set alight, and how Mary likes to have it at Christmas.

It’s a bit surreal when you see someone in real life you have previously seen in magazines or on the news, and then there they are, real people doing real things.

It must have been a nice experience, and a fun thing to tell family and friends.
Indeed! I managed to take a sneaky photograph, but NONE of my family or friends were able to identify her as the Danish Queen - which reminds me that I am part of such a small and exclusive club!
 
Margrethe holds New Year's Eve party for Queen Margrethe's patrons
 
Queen Margrethe participated in the 200th anniversary meeting of the Royal Nordic Antiquarian Society at the National Museum in Copenhagen today, January 28:




 
Today, Queen Margrethe visited the Centre for Textile Research (CTR) at the University of Copenhagen.

 
Archeological research into textiles.
If you look at QMII in the photos, she looks like a dog who has been handed the most delicious bone imaginable.
I bet there are still nailmarks on the floor from when they dragged her away by her feet.
 
Today, March 21, Queen Margrethe attended a memorial service in connection with the 80th anniversary of the mistaken bombing of the French School in Frederiksberg:


** ppe gallery **


 
More photos of Queen Margrethe at the Memorial Service in connection with the 80th anniversary of the bombing of the French School:

 
Yes, the bombing of the French School on 21st March 1945. A major tragedy of the Occupation of DK during WWII.
By 1945 the Gestapo and other German security services had thoroughly infiltrated the Danish Resistance movement. Many were arrested almost as soon as they joined. Some groups acted independently, others were little more that criminals acting under the guise of being the Resistance. There were informants and collaborators everywhere and many of those who signed up by now, should never have been allowed to join, they were simply too indiscreet. But the German intelligence units were also very good and very experienced.
Anyway, as the Resistance was on the verge of collapse and DK was on the brink of open anarchy in the streets, a number of senior members of the Resistance were rounded up and taken to the Gestapo HQ in the Shell (office) building in Copenhagen where they were detained pending interrogation. And of course everyone would talk, eventually. The members of the Resistance were urged to hold out for 24 hours of torture, if they possibly could. So an emergency request went out and RAF dispatched a crack squadron of Mosquitos to bomb the Gestapo HG. Destroy the HQ, the personnel and the files there and provide the imprisoned members of the Resistance and chance to escape - or kill them, if they couldn't...
So on that day the a large squadron of Mosquitos flew across most of DK, hugging the ground and only increasing their altitude just before the attack.
The first bombs did hit the Gestapo HQ. Unfortunately a Mosquito was shot down causing a fire in and around several buildings some distance away, including the French School, where nuns were teaching the children. It was basically a kind of international/Catholic school (J&M's children first attended that school when they moved to Copenhagen BTW).
Other mosquitos coming in noticed the fires and dropped their bombs there in the mistaken belief that this was their target. They after all only had a few seconds, under fire, to ID and approach their target. Increasing the carnage at the school. Additional planes coming in, realized the mistake and attacked the Gestapo HQ instead.
By some fantastic miracle quite a number of the Resistance members survived the attack. They were held in cells up under the roof. But the Mosquitos did not drop their bombs on the building, instead the lopped their bombs from a distance into the facade of the building, making the building collapse. And in the hope of that happening, other Resistance members outside were able to take these survivors to safety.
But it came with a price. Several air-crews were killed. 250 people were killed. 104 among them at the French School.
The RAF crews were of course horrified that they had killed so many children. But they met and were forgiven by the parents of these children a few months later. I admire the parents for doing that. It takes a lot to forgive but also show compassion for those who have killed the most precious thing you have, you children, even if it's by accident.

The French School: https://media.lex.dk/media/181963/article_topimage_FHM-195390.jpg
The attack: https://k9-drupal-images.k.dk/k9-drupal-images.k.dk/special_story/293312/images/flykommer.jpg
The Gestapo HQ: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/37/Shellhuset_210345.jpg

My mother witnessed the bombing of the Gestapo HQ in Aarhus in October 1944. Probably by the same RAF unit. And for exactly the same reasons. The Resistance had been rolled up.
She worked as a very young maid at the maternity ward at Aarhus Municipal Hospital, that is located right next to Aarhus University where Gestapo had their local HQ in one of the buildings.
She heard the air raid sirens wail and the anti-aircraft artillery beginning to fire. And curious as she was, she stepped out onto a balcony at the end of a corridor. here she saw the Mosquitos coming in low over the lakes at the University park and start bombing, in the exact same way as later on in Copenhagen. they lopped the bombs into the facade. The next things she remember is that she found herself behind some garbage bins further down the corridor, inside the building.
She and other coworkers went down on the street and being a part of the hospital, they saw wounded being dragged, carried, stumbling and in at least one case transported on a wheelbarrow towards the hospital. The Germans soon began to shoot both in the air and at the onlookers, who quickly dispersed.

During the attack. Most of the hospital is located on the far side of the street: https://antikmuseet.au.dk/fileadmin/_processed_/c/c/csm_Bombe_luftfoto_cc7ad401a8.jpg
The Gestapo HQ after the attack: https://auhist.au.dk/uploads/www.au...legium_truffet_biler_foran_-_raf_foto-700.jpg
It was a miraculous achievement by the RAF. Some 75 were killed, mostly Germans and collaborators and of course also some members of the Resistance. One elderly woman was killed in her home. A wheel dropped by a Mosquito went through the roof of her house.
The Mosquito bomber version: https://cdn.images.express.co.uk/img/dynamic/141/1200x712/4581678.jpg
 
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Today, April 1, Queen Margrethe attended the re-inauguration of a traditional Long House in Trelleborg, Slagelse:


** Pic **





 
I wonder who had most fun? The children or QMII?

A Viking longhouse is, as the word describes, a long building often shaped like a boat, which housed the extended family of a free man and their servants and retainers. Sometimes also some of their livestock in one end of the building. (Helped to warm up the house.) In the center was a longer open fireplace, both for warmth, cooking and light with perhaps three or even four fires going at the same time.
Trelleborg is one of the six known circle-castles from the Viking age. Apart from the fortification itself they contained a number of longhouses. Some for habitations, others for livestock, others served as depot for weapons and equipment and food and finally some were sued craftsmen. These castles or forts if you will, served as centers of mobilization during the reign of Harald Bluetooth.
BTW, very recent finds indicates strongly that Denmark was a regional power as early as the 600s, perhaps even a kingdom constituting most of what later became officially known as Denmark. No particular surprise there, because even though the Danish line of kings started with Gorm the Old, we have known for a long time that there were kings, and at least on occasion quite powerful kings in Denmark for several centuries before Gorm the Old.

Let's look at the gallery:
Pic 5: A typical retainer from the early part of the Viking Age. He is wearing no armor and in particular no helmet, a big no no otherwise! He would likely have stood guard at the entrance of a Viking farm.

Pic 6: This guy is dressed for combat. Short chainmail armor. They were expensive, but also good at scrubbing kettles/cauldrons. The spectacle-helmet so much used by Vikings and an absolute favorite among reenactors, because they look cool. He is very well equipped with a sword, a short saex (the knife) and long-ax, also known as the Danish Ax. A lance behind him and a pretty big round shield, for fighting in formations. This guy is no doubt a housecarl = a professional warrior. Emphasized by his belt that is tied in a knot, which for at least 1.500 years was one of the marks of a professional warrior.

Pic 7: An unmarried, 14 year old, affluent Viking girl. Unmarried because she is not wearing a headscarf.

Pic 8: Our housecarl from before. Viking men were quite vain, and took great care of their personal grooming, hair, beard and they washed at least once a week, on Saturdays. No wonder they the feet away of the English girls. Much to the annoyance of the local English lads, whose body-odor might have impressed a pig, but less so the local girls...

Pic 9: Two women, they really ought to be wearing headscarves, oh well. Viking women were no less vain than the men. The woman on the right is the mistress of the household. You can tell from the key she is wearing as a symbol of her status. She need not necessarily be the wife of the owner, she could be his sister or mother. She had absolute power within the household she would usually also be the one with the key to the money chest. And that remained so well into the 1900s, in some cases as late as the 1970s in fact. I had an uncle who on payday handed over his salary to his wife, who in return gave him some money to buy cigarettes. And that's as far as he went in regards to running the household.
Tattoos were common among Vikings. Rune-shrift predates the Vikings.

Pic 20: Our housecarl again. You can tell how long the ax is and why it was scary. You knew that if it hit you it would cut right through leather and chainmail.
He's a bit well-nourished though... There is a tale about a older warrior who was speared in battle. He pulled out the spear, looked at it and determined: I've got fat around my heart. - Then he died, to be spirited away by the Valkyries to Valhal, where he until Ragnarok came, would fight all day and drink all night.

Pic 23: Our housecarl demolishing another warrior. Going to battle without armor was folly. Going to battle without a helmet was scorned as idiotic. But that did happen. At Stamford Bridge in 1066 when King Harald defeated a Norwegian Viking army. They were caught off guard before they could don their armor. And thus defeated. - Some of them later joined King Harald, to fight again at Hastings. After all, why miss a good fight and a chance for some spoil?

Pic 26: The housecarl is defeated. In your dreams! The unarmored most likely wouldn't even get near enough to use his sword.

Pic 28: Viking shields were held in high regard and considered essential and as such beautifully decorated. More often than not when in battle the Vikings would fight in formation, in fact they practiced fighting in formation when mobilized to the forts like Trelleborg. When raiding or skirmishing they fought as individuals, albeit often teaming up with a mate or two. In both cases the shield was vital for your survival.

Pic 30: The couple residing in this longhouse in day to day attire. Practical and warm. Most Danes at the time were farmers and/or fishermen, who employed a couple of craftsmen at their farm. Not counting thralls = slaves. But everybody knew how to use a weapon, they had to, because raiding was far from uncommon. And that applied to men and women alike. - They were the ones who settled in England, after the Viking warrior class had conquered parts of it.

QMII is later on served mead. Fermented honey.
 
This afternoon, April 8, Queen Margrethe presented the Queen Margrethe II's Science Prize at The Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters in Copenhagen:


** Pic **




 
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