This NPR story came across my Twitter feed,
about the death
of Prince Henrik of Denmark. Henrik, husband-consort of Queen Margrethe,
was 83 and had apparently been in poor health. He and Margrethe were married
for more than 50 years, so I’m guessing she (and their family) are having a
rough Valentine’s Day, even if the end was expected.
But here’s what I find interesting: a good
chunk of this story (admittedly from a US media outlet) gives the impression
that—whatever his other stellar qualities—Henrik apparently had a 50-year case
of the sulks over his title and status. He wanted to be styled King Consort, instead
of Prince Consort, which would have given him a place in the succession to the
throne. (Although I do not know what that place would have been—ahead/behind of
Margrethe’s siblings, their children, or her cousins and her aunts. And, tbh, I
don’t care enough to look it up. I’m an American.)
I'm wracking my brain trying to hawk up an
instance more recent than Maria Theresia of Austria where the consort of an anointed
queen (or in MT’s case, empress) got the title of King, but I’m coming up dry.
(And Franz I came into the marriage as Holy Roman Emperor, so it was more an
instance of him keeping it. Franz also pretty much kept shtum and let Maria Theresia
run the family business, which was smart of him.)
In soon-to-be-not-part-of-Europe Britain, Victoria
and Albert got miffed when Parliament wouldn’t grant him the title King
Consort, but he, at least, got over it. Anne’s consort was a Danish Prince,
George; he was not made King. Not sure that the prospect of king-hood ever
cropped up in the case of Elizabeth II’s Prince Philip. If it did, it long
since disappeared.
(Okay, up the pike a bit, when Lord Charles
Darnley married Mary, Queen of Scots, he did get the title King Consort. But it
was short-lived, and didn’t do him much good. Also, for about 27 minutes,
Philip II of Spain was married to Mary I of England, and during that period, he
did have the title of King of England, and he co-reigned with her as Catholic
monarchs. However, at her death, he had no succession rights, and Elizabeth I
took over and returned the country to Protestantism.)
In Spain we had los Reyes Católicos—Ferdinand and
Isabella. But they were independently co-equal monarchs, bringing into the
marriage the provinces of Aragón (him) and Castilla (her). It was equal parts
marriage and merger. It’s always good for a woman to have sovereign possession
of valuable property; it concentrates the male brain somewhat. (Thinking Éléanore,
Duchess of Aquitaine, who inherited a vast swath of what we now think of as
France. She first took it to Louis VII of France, but when they divorced, it
went with her to Henry II of England. She was queen-consort to both kings, and
wielded considerable power as Queen dowager after Henry’s death, while Richard
I was off at the Crusades. Éléanore was a dame.)
The husbands of the most recent reigning queens
of the Netherlands, Wilhelmina, Juliana and Beatrix, all sucked up the titles
of Prince Consort (although, tbf, I think most of them came into the family
business as princes, so it was more or less of a muchness).
Juliana’s husband, Prince Bernhard, actually had
A Past: a German prince, he met Juliana (while she was still a princess) at the
Berlin Olympics in 1936. He’d been a (Nazi) Party member, and served in the
Reiter-SS (an SS cavalry brigade). However, when push came to shove and then turned
to invasion, Bernhard earned respect and admiration amongst the Dutch by
organizing armed defenses against the Germans while still in the Netherlands,
and then by serving Queen Wilhelmina’s government-in-exile in London. When he
accepted the surrender of German forces in 1945, he spoke only Dutch to them.
That’s class.
And I don’t know about Sweden or Norway, but I’m
guessing that if there are reigning queens, their husbands don’t get to use the
K-word.
So it’s kind of interesting that Henrik just
couldn’t get over it. My Danish friend, the Viking Maiden, says, “The Danes had
a hard time getting used to him, but because our Princess/Queen loved him they
gave him the benefit of doubt. The queen is very much loved.” He was a
Frenchman by birth, so I dunno if that has anything to do with it. The French
are big on airs and graces.
Okay, but here’s the thing. Why does this issue
of title and succession for the spouse only ever arise when the consort has the
XY chromosome configuration? Not that I’m a student of monarchies (aside from how
they fit into history in general), but there has never ever been a question of
a woman marrying a reigning monarch (or the crown prince) having any succession
rights. She almost always gets the title of queen, but everyone knows that she’s
there to do two things: look nice at court functions and produce heirs. Male
heirs.
Men marrying into the family business, on the
other hand, get ideas above their station, and seem to assume that of course they’ll be given equal status
with their wives, even though they may have only a glancing acquaintance with
the business and are frequently brought in from other countries. They don’t
seem to grasp that their role, in this admittedly anachronistic line of work,
is exactly the same as the queen-consort’s: to look good standing next to the
queen, and produce heirs. Male or female heirs.
(Franz I gave Maria Theresia 16 children, which
was really a stellar effort, I’d say. Way above the customary heir and a spare.
They were none of them 18th Century equivalents of rocket
scientists, but that’s not part of the job description. Royal heirs just have
to have a pulse and not drool a whole awful lot. Extra points if they’re good
looking, but as long as they look enough like their parents to not draw
questions, they’ve fulfilled their obligations.)
That’s it, folks; that’s the whole purpose of
the consort: complement the monarch during photo ops, don’t eat with your mouth
open (in fact—in general be very careful when you open your mouth; a duty
Prince Philip ought to have reread every once in a while) and ensure the line
of succession.
Henrik might have been a happier guy if he’d
taken this on board. He did fulfill the responsibilities of Prince Consort of
Denmark—he’s survived by two adult sons, in addition to the Queen, and photos
show him to have been quite the good looker. Also, he made wine at his French
estates. Seems like a pretty good life to me.
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