On 10 June 1967, the heiress presumptive to the Danish throne Princess Margrethe married the French diplomat Henri de Laborde de Monpezat at the Holmen Church in Copenhagen. Today would have been their Emerald wedding anniversary, but tragically Prince Henrik, as he was then known, passed away in 2018. So today, we take a look at their wedding.
The couple had met during an official dinner at the French Embassy and began a relationship not much later. However, their relationship had been kept secret, and so the official engagement announcement on 4 October 1966 came as a surprise to many. Margrethe’s engagement came from Van Cleef and Arpels and featured two square-cut diamonds set at a diagonal. Henri did not move to Copenhagen until shortly before the wedding.
Margrethe’s wedding was designed by Jørgen Bender, and it was a silk long-sleeve gown with a long silk train. The lace on the bodice was heirloom lace that had once belonged to Margrethe’s grandmother, Princess Margaret of Connaught. She wore a daisy brooch on the front of the dress, which belonged to her mother, Queen Ingrid (born of Sweden). Margrethe was gifted the brooch from her mother for her 60th birthday in 2000. She also wore the Khedive of Egypt tiara.
The wedding ceremony lasted just 20 minutes, and the French-born Henri said his vows in Danish. After the ceremony, the newlyweds appeared on the balcony of Amalienborg Palace before heading to the first of two receptions. Upon marriage, Henri became His Royal Highness Prince Henrik of Denmark. He also received the Order of the Elephant, the highest Danish order.
The wedding was attended by plenty of Danish and foreign royals, but one notable absentee was Margrethe’s sister Queen Anne-Marie of Greece. She had recently been exiled from Greece and was thus an unwanted guest for the Danish government.
Margrethe and Henrik went on to have two sons together: Crown Prince Frederik (born 1968) and Prince Joachim (born 1969). Margrethe succeeded her father as Queen in 1972, but Henrik was not named as Prince Consort until 2005. He reverted to his former style of Prince Henrik in 2016. They were married for almost 51 years when Prince Henrik died in 2018.
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