Friday, April 15, 2011

Future queen is a public school teenager

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 April 15, 1955

Princess Margrethe, the future Queen of Denmark, will celebrate her 15th birthday tomorrow.   Known as Denmark's "sunshine princess" because she was born exactly one week after Germany occupied Denmark in 1940, Margrethe's birth "gave the Danes a new outlook and united them in resistance" against the Nazis," reports the Chicago Daily Tribune.

In 1953, the Danish constitution was changed to allow for female succession.  Margrethe, the eldest of three daughters of King Frederik IX and Queen Ingrid, replaced her uncle, Prince Knud, as the heir to the throne.

The princess spent the Easter holiday with her family in Rome.  She will complete her Danish public school education this spring.  She has been attending a public school in Copenhagen since she was 7.  Her younger sisters, Princess Benedikte, 11, and Princess Anne Marie, 9, also attend the same school.

She is know as "plain Margrethe" although school records list her place of residence at Amalienborg castle, and her father's profession as King of Denmark.  Friends and playmates call her Daisy.  She was once asked what she liked most about school, and the young princess said she liked "being pushed around like all the others when we play."

In the fall, Princess Margrethe will travel to England to attend a boarding school for girls.  She is expected to stay for at least six months.

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