Denmark’s Queen Margrethe broke ‘invisible pact’ between Scandinavian monarchs to never abdicate, royal expert says – but could her shock announcement cause a domino effect in Sweden and Norway?

Queen Margrethe of Denmark shocked royal watchers around the world as she rang in the new year by announcing her abdication following 52 years on the throne. 

By stepping down, Margrethe, 83, has made way for her son Frederik to take over as king, and his wife Mary as Queen. 

It is a decision that has shocked the people of Denmark, as the incumbent Queen has previously ruled out any suggestion of abdicating. During an interview in 2016, she said: ‘It’s always been: you stay as long as you live. That’s what my father did and my predecessors. And the way I see it too.’

As European monarchies are rocked by Queen Margrethe’s shock decision, a royal expert has suggested the Danish monarch has broken an ‘invisible pact’ between heads of state in the Scandinavian countries that none would step down from the throne.

Roger Lundberg told STV that, after Denmark’s changeover, there is a chance King Harald of Norway, 86, and King Carl Gustaf of Sweden, 79, might follow suit and step down to allow their eldest children to take the throne.

After the Danish royal family spent the last two years grappling with various scandals including the Queen’s surprise decision to strip her grandchildren of their princely titles and rumours of an ‘affair’ after Crown Prince Frederik was spotted out in Madrid with Mexican socialite Genoveva Casanova, the monarch’s decision to retire may provide a much-needed fresh start.

But Denmark is not the only monarchy in the Scandinavian nations to have had a bumpy few years – with Norway’s royal family experiencing its very own ‘Megxit’. Although the Swedish royals have enjoyed a relatively comfortable few years, the heir apparent Crown Princess Victoria has stepped in for her father on several occasions. 

The Danish head of state shocked the nation and many royal watchers around the world when she used her annual New Year’s Eve speech to announce live on television that she was stepping down as Queen after 52 years.

In her address the 83-year-old said she had taken stock after undergoing back surgery last year and had decided it was it was time ‘to leave the responsibility to the next generation’ – namely her eldest son Crown Prince Frederik.

In February, Margrethe underwent a successful back surgery. ‘The surgery naturally gave rise to thinking about the future – whether the time had come to leave the responsibility to the next generation,’ she said in her speech.

However, the timing of the move has raised questions, as it comes just weeks after Frederik hit the headlines when he was pictured on a night out in Madrid with a Mexican socialite, sparking rumours of an alleged ‘affair’.

Speculation is mounting that the decision was made to keep Frederik’s wife of 19 years Princess Mary, who is extremely popular with the public, on side.

Princess Mary, who is set to become the nation’s first Australian-born queen in a number of weeks, has won over the Danish public with her dedication to royal duty and her fluency in the language.

Her husband is also similarly popular, having turned his public image around from being a rebel tearaway and party boy during his youth to becoming a family man.

However, their relationship came under scrutiny last year when Frederik was spotted on a night out with Mexican reality star Genoveva Casanova in October.

While the Royal Household refused to comment on photos of the pair together, Genoveva issued a public statement denying any kind of romantic relationship and called the rumours ‘malicious’.

And in 2022, Margrethe stripped her younger son Prince Joachim’s children Athena, 11, Prince Felix, 20, Prince Henrik, 13, Prince Nikolai, 23, of their prince and princess titles. 

Margrethe said at the time she hoped the move would allow the siblings to ‘shape their own lives without being limited by the special considerations and duties’ that a formal affiliation with the Danish Royal Family involves.

She said she thought that it was better for her to take action than then leave the burden to Frederik as the future King.

The decision split the family and caused a deep rift, with Prince Joachim, who was living in Paris with his family at the time, hitting out at his mother in an impromptu television interview.

He said the queen’s decision had ‘punished’ his children and claimed he had only been told the news five days before it was made public – despite the Royal Household insisting the move  had been ‘a long time coming’. 

After weeks of a deepening crisis within the Danish royal family, Queen Margrethe called her sons together for peace talks at the palace and, after issuing an unprecedented public apology for the way in which she announced the decision, she appeared to smooth things over with Joachim.

Denmark is not the only Scandinavian monarchy to have grappled with adversity over the last few years, with Norway also experiencing turmoil at the heart of its royal family when King Harald and Queen Sonja’s only daughter Princess Märtha Louise, who was fourth in line to the throne, stepped down as a working royal in 2019.

It was announced in 2022 that the mother-of-three would no longer represent the Royal household in any form following her engagement to an American Shamanic healer who had been criticised for his controversial views. 

King Harald said that Martha would not be allowed to use her royal title any future commercial partnerships with her partner Durek Verrett, 47. 

Shortly after the mother-of-three announced her engagement to Verrett, a Norweigan publishing house dropped his book ‘Spirit Hacking’ over pseudoscientific claims, including ‘children can get cancer from being unhappy’.

Among his other claims, Durek says he once came back from the dead, recovering from a month-long coma, by letting his soul ‘burn’ and he has also spoken of having to undergo a kidney transplant from his sister as a child.

Following Martha Louise’s decision to step down, King Harald stressed that his daughter has remained a princess at his request, saying: ‘She is our daughter, and she will continue to be. So she is Princess Märtha Louise.’ 

The princess was previously married to Ari Behn, whom she wed in 2002 and had three children together Maud Angelica, 19, Leah Isadora, 17, and Emma Tallulah, 14. They split in 2016, and Ari took his own life on Christmas Day in 2019. 

Crown Prince Haakon, Martha-Louise’s older brother, is Norway’s heir apparent – and the future King has already had a taste of what it will be like to ascend the throne after stepping in for his father on several occasions over the past few years.

Like Queen Margrethe, King Harald has taken sick leave in the past year after being hospitalised. He suffered an infection last may and remained on sick leave for some time – during which his son stepped in to perform royal duties. 

King Carl Gustaf XVI of Sweden has also relied on his heir apparent, Crown Princess Victoria, to step in for him in recent years to carry out royal duties.

The King, 77, is the first king in the Swedish monarchy’s more than 1,000-year history to reach 50 years on the throne.

The Crown Princess, now 45 years old, began to assist her parents King Carl Gustaf and Queen Silvia with their work after turning 18 in 1995.

But this came at a cost, she has explained. Being first in line to the Swedish throne meant she put intense pressure on herself to the detriment of her health.

She met her now-husband, Prince Daniel, 49, who was her former personal trainer following doctor-ordered sessions as she recovered from an eating disorder. 

When she is crowned, Victoria will become the first reigning queen in the royal family of Sweden since 1818 following the parliamentary change to the Act of Succession that introduced absolute primogeniture.

However in 2017, the king made it clear he had no plans to abdicate. 

Asked when he thought he would be ready to hand over power to his daughter, he said the question was ‘a matter for God’.

‘I will ask God when I die,’ he said, before saying he would try to remain king for as long as phsyically possible.