I wonder why the monarchs of Scandinavia (and Spain, but that is less surprising) have been the most questioning of the ancient European tradition that a married woman takes on the status of her husband.
King Harald V of Norway: When his son Crown Prince Haakon became engaged to marry Mette-Marit Tjessem Høiby, the
then Prime Minister claimed Mette-Marit would automatically receive the titles of Crown Princess and later Queen. But
the Palace pushed back against his claim, and subsequently
King Harald V issued a statement saying that he, the King, had decided what Mette-Marit’s title would be.
Queen Margrethe II of Denmark: When her son Prince Joachim became engaged to marry for the second time to Marie Cavallier,
he told the press that Queen Margrethe II had only recently decided that Marie would become a princess, and that this was the Queen’s decision to make.
King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden: When it was announced in 2019 that the King's younger children’s children would never perform official duties or receive funding from the state, the head of the royal court
stated that the children would not share their titles with any future spouses.
King Juan Carlos I of Spain
also decreed that the wife of an Infante will not automatically become an Infanta, but the Spanish peninsula has a long tradition of nomenclature being less gender discriminatory than elsewhere in Europe.
In Scandinavia, on the other hand, laws required women to take their husbands’ surnames only a few decades ago, and nobility continues to pass through the male line only. So I wonder why the Scandinavian monarchs have been the only ones, outside of Spain, to question the assumption that wives automatically take on their husbands’ titles?