ROBERT HARDMAN: The moment Denmark's (scandal-prone) new king sealed his reign with a kiss

Sealed with a kiss, a new era begins for the oldest monarchy in the world. Cheered by hundreds of thousands of his shivering subjects, Frederick

A little later he was joined by his new queen, Mary, and their four children. Finally, the new king and queen gave the people what they wanted: a kiss.

Here was a scene that was more reminiscent of a royal wedding than an abdication, but then the Queen was wearing a white dress and we were in truly uncharted territory.

No Danish monarch had done what the outgoing Queen Margrethe II did yesterday. Only two weeks earlier she announced that she was stepping aside, at the age of 83.

Previously, she had always maintained that she would never resign. “You're in it for life,” she told me in 2012.

Frederick

This explains why the Danes were so stunned by the regal bombshell in her annual New Year's Eve broadcast to the country. Extensive back surgery last year, she said, guided her decision. Yesterday it seemed as if a large proportion of Denmark's six million residents had come to the capital to say both hello and hello as she handed over the crown to her eldest son.

Not that there was any prospect of it being placed on his head. Denmark has not physically crowned a monarch since the introduction of a new democratic constitution in 1848. The closest thing a Danish sovereign has to wearing the Christian V-crown at his own funeral is when it is placed on the coffin.

Copenhagen was devastated all day as crowds of people – up to fifty people deep in some places – tried to get a good vantage point. There was also a particularly large media contingent from Australia, where royalists raved about the world's first Australian queen, in the form of Tasmania-born Mary.

The city was a sea of ​​red and white and everyone apparently owned a Dannebrog, as the Danes call their national flag.

The proceedings began with a smiling, waving Queen Margrethe traveling from Amalienborg Palace (Royal Headquarters) to Christiansborg Palace (Parliament) in the Golden Wedding Anniversary Carriage, escorted by the mounted squadron of the Guard Hussar Regiment. Her heir and daughter-in-law traveled in 1958 in the royal Rolls-Royce, the flagship of the royal fleet.

Queen Margrethe II gives a New Year's speech and announces her abdication from Christian IX's palace, Amalienborg Castle, in Copenhagen, Sunday, December 31, 2023

A child wearing a crown watches as people gather on the day Danish Queen Margrethe abdicates

In the Danish Palace of Westminster, Margrethe sat next to Frederick as she signed the end of her 52-year reign. She then handed the document to Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and stood up, still smiling but with tears in her eyes. As she was handed her baton by new Crown Prince Christian, she delivered a composed, parting speech, “God save the King.”

She then returned home in the Rolls-Royce, with her only escort, four police officers, jogging alongside the car. With crowds of this size and few crowd barriers, they seemed somewhat ineffective. Here was a reminder of the famous wartime response to the German soldier who asked why her grandfather, Christian

After signing his accession document, the new king appeared on the balcony, palpably stunned by the sight and warmth of the welcome before him. In Britain it is Garter King of Arms who proclaims a new monarch. In Denmark this is the Prime Minister.

In a variation on the 'recognition' element of our coronation ceremony at Westminster Abbey (where the 'undisputed' monarch is presented to each cardinal direction), Mrs Frederiksen formally proclaimed the new king to the left, to the right and straight. Frederick X then put on his glasses to read a short speech. “My hope is to become a unifying king of tomorrow,” he declared. 'It's a task I've been approaching all my life. It is a task that I take on with pride, respect and pleasure.' At which point he was joined by his queen and then their children, Christian, 18, Isabella, 16, and twins Vincent and Josephine, 13. After the children returned inside, the king and queen, holding hands, exchanged a meaningful smile as she heard more and more calls for a kiss – and he duly obliged. Let out the loudest cheer of the day. It was an emphatic response to the gossip following the king's meeting last year in a Madrid nightclub with a Mexican socialite (who strongly denied any inappropriate behavior).

It was now the turn of the new monarch and his consort to receive the full arsenal of a mounted escort as they rode home in the royal carriage.

Meanwhile, messages of goodwill poured in from world leaders, including a tribute from the world's second-newest monarch. “I look forward to ensuring that the enduring bond between our countries and our families remains strong,” Charles III wrote (after also writing privately to Margrethe).

I think we can predict a state visit in one direction or another quite quickly.