- The series will start in 1940, the year of the former Danish Queen’s birth
- READ MORE: King Frederik of Denmark releases surprise memoir days after taking the throne – and reveals Queen Mary reminds him he’s ‘not always right’ and why his 18th birthday felt like the ‘end of the world’
The Crown might have come to an end last year, but a new royal drama is already set to fill the gap left behind.
Just days after her abdication, it has been announced that the life events of Queen Margrethe II of Denmark are being turned into a televised series.
Titled ‘The Grace of God’, the series is set to start in Margrethe’s birth year of 1940 and will be produced by Norwegian channel TV 2 and Danish Sam Productions.
Margrethe, who took over the throne in 1972, was the longest-serving monarch in Europe following the death of Queen Elizabeth II in September 2022 before her abdication.
The series will centre around Margrethe’s life and ‘will embrace the royal family for better or for worse, on the hard floors and in the political dilemmas, but above all it is a story about a girl and her family,’ according to Soundvenue.
Just day after her abdication it has been announced that Queen Margrethe II of Denmark is set to receive a televised series of her life events in 2025
Producer Meta Louise Foldager Sorensen said the show will uncover a new side to the former monarch.
‘Now is the time to tell the magnificent story, which can give us an insight we haven’t had before,’ she said.
Following in the footsteps of The Crown, the show will also include details of the lives of several others in the royal family and the court at Amaliaenborg.
Details of the new project are scarce, and actors are yet to be cast, however, filming will begin in 2025.
Since 1972, the Queen managed to keep a some-what normal life, becoming known for her chain-smoking habits and being so ‘normal’ that has been spotted shopping in the supermarket.
The Queen of many talents even was hired as a set designer in 2021 for a romantic fantasy novel by Out of Africa’s Karen Blixen, one of Denmark’s most internationally recognised female authors, for a Netflix film.
Last year the monarch hit the headlines when she decided to remove royal titles from the four children of her son Prince Joachim.
The pair enjoyed a close relationship, having bonded during several state visits to each other’s countries down the decades – most recently in 2000, when Margrethe was received at Windsor.
Produced by Meta Louise Foldager Sorensen, the series will also include details of Margrethe’s relationship with Prince Henrik of Denmark (pictured in 1990)
The royal couple are photographed in 1969 on the day they presented their newborn Prince Joachim, and the then Crown Prince Frederik looked on
Margrethe and Henrik wed in 1967. He was a constant throughout much of her reign, until his eventual passing in 2018. The pair are pictured in 2002
Margrethe, now 83, attended the funeral of Queen Elizabeth but underwent major back surgery in February and was unable to be at the Coronation.
Margrethe was born on April 16, 1940, a week after Nazi Germany had invaded Denmark.
The occupation meant that the little princess became a symbol of hope for the Danes.
She ascended the throne on January 15, 1972, after the death of her father.
But, although she was his eldest child, she did not become heir presumptive until 1953, when Denmark’s constitution was amended to allow women to inherit the throne.
That followed a referendum in which more than 85 per cent of participants voted to allow female succession.
On the day she became monarch, she appeared on the balcony of Denmark’s Christiansborg Palace and pledged her allegiance to the nation.
Wearing a black veil and gown adorned with the regalia of the Order of the Elephant and her father King Frederick IX’s Family Order attached to her gown, the 31-year-old monarch stated: ‘My beloved father, our King, is dead.
‘The task that my father had carried for nearly 25 years is now resting on my shoulders. I pray to God to give me help and strength to carry the heavy heritage. May the trust that was given to my father also be granted to me.’
Becoming the first queen of Denmark since Margrethe I in the early 15th-century, the monarch blazed a trail that continues to this day.
A popular queen, she is known as the ‘people’s monarch’ thanks to the fact that, as well as doing her own shopping, she has a flourishing career as an illustrator and designer and, until 2015, defied convention by lighting up in public.
On her 83rrd birthday on April 16, Queen Margrethe waved to crowds of wellwishers outside the Palace in Copenhagen
Queen Margrethe eats a crepe at the World Ski Championships in Oslo in March 2011
Margrethe has also studied at five universities and is a committed anglophile.
She spent a year at North Foreland Lodge boarding school in Hampshire, and went on to study prehistoric archaeology at Girton College, Cambridge.
The then princess also studied at the London School of Economics in 1965.
Speaking in an interview to mark the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee last June, Margrethe told how the Queen had made an ‘enormous impression’ on her, because of the way she has ‘faced her duties, the way she is dedicated but also that she does it with a smile.’
The pair are said to have used nicknames for each other, with the Queen calling her Danish counterpart ‘Daisy’ and Margrethe using ‘Lilibet’ – the name used by her closest family.
Margrethe is seen aged 14 lighting a cigarette for her mother Queen Ingrid in the 1950s
Queen Margrethe II of Denmark pictured with her husband Henrik, Prince Consort of Denmark as they wave to crowds from a balcony at Christiansborg Palace in Copenhagen, Denmark on 15th January 1972, after the proclamation of her succession to the Danish throne upon the death of her father King Frederick IX
Margrethe is known as ‘Daisy’ or ‘aunt Daisy’ because the flower of the same name is known as ‘marguerite’ in both Sweden and Denmark.
Both monarchs also shared a love of dogs, with the Queen being famous for her love of corgis – having had more than 30 in her life – and Margrethe favouring Dachshunds.
Queen Margrethe was related to Her Late Majesty through Queen Victoria, whose third son Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught, was Margrethe’s great-grandfather and Her Majesty’s great-uncle.
Margrethe’s House of Glücksburg and the House of Windsor are also linked by Margrethe’s great-great-grandfather, Christian IX.
His daughter, Alexandra, married Edward VII, the eldest son of Queen Victoria.
The couple, pictured at a party in the 1970s, went on to welcome two sons in the early years of their marriage
Margrethe ascended the throne upon her father Frederick IX of Denmark’s death on 14 January 1972. This year marks the 50th of her reign (pictured, in her first official portrait)
He was the Queen’s great-grandfather and King Charles III’s great-great-grandfather.
Her Majesty visited Denmark for the first time in 1957, when Margrethe’s parents – King Frederick IX and Queen Ingrid were on the throne.
Her second trip in 1979 is remembered for the awkward moment when a Danish soldier was thrown from his horse during the parade in Copenhagen – and Her Majesty broke into a smile.
Margrethe clapped her hand to her mouth in embarrassment, but could not help betraying a smile too.
Another hussar then had trouble controlling his steed and it galloped up from the rear of the troupe before prancing around the royal coach.
Thankfully, the rest of the visit passed without any further drama.
When Margrethe visited Britain in 1974, the Queen greeted her with a joke, saying: ‘There once was a time when news of Danes arriving on our east coast was anything but good news.’
Queen Elizabeth II at Windsor castle greets her cousin Danish Queen Margrethe of Denmark with a kiss in 2000, when Margrethe made a three-day state visit to the UK
On her second visit in 2000, she spoke of her ‘sympathy’ for the young British royals, saying: ‘It is much easier to be a Prince of Denmark than a Prince of Wales. Our youngsters have been left alone more than the young Royal Family members in Britain.’
Margarethe issued a touching tribute to the Queen when she died last September, before coming to Britain for her funeral.
She was also close to the Duke of Edinburgh and expressed her sadness at his death aged 99 in April 2021.
The pair had endured a tumultuous union, with Henrik at one point leaving his country for several weeks after a bust-up.
The couple met met in London during Margrethe’s time as a student there.
They married in 1967 and welcomed their first son Frederik – the current heir to the throne – the following year. Prince Joachim then arrived in 1969.
Earlier this year she explained her shock decision to strip Joachim’s children – Prince Nikolai, 23, Prince Felix, 20, Prince Henrik, 13, and Princess Athena, 11 – from his first marriage of their prince and princess titles, which provoked an unseemly family row.
In October 2022, she did apologise for the fact that she had ‘underestimated’ the extent that Joachim and his family felt ‘affected’ by her decision.
Margrethe wanted to slim down the Danish monarchy and reduce the number of working royals and she said she thought it was better for her to take action rather than leaving the burden to her eldest son when he becomes king.