You know who’s interesting? Queen Margrethe of Denmark, whose Wikipedia page shall entertain and educate you for at least ten minutes. But I can also sum up:
a) She’s been queen for a long time! (Obviously, no one beats QEII in this category, but truly that’s a very hard bar to clear.) And she only came to the throne because they changed the rules to let women inherit, after her father had no sons, and is, in fact, Denmark’s first female ruling monarch since 1376 — the first Margaret, who seems like she was very smart and good. (If you have time to kill, by the way, this list of Danish monarchs is entertaining. The early ones have such great names. Eric the Memorable!) Fun fact: This Margrethe’s father almost married Anastasia Romanov but that got kiboshed when she, uh, was murdered. Then he was engaged to a Greek princess (who eventually ended up living with the Queen Mum and whose Wiki calls her “a demanding guest”) and then THAT didn’t happen. His Wiki is interesting. Until they changed the rule, the heir was this dude Prince Knud, whose Wikipedia contains disappointingly contains zero scandals.
b) Her husband was a notorious petty baby who once stormed off to another country IN THE MIDDLE OF THEIR MARRIAGE because he didn’t like that she was more important than he was. How is this new information?? He also brattily announced toward the end of his life that he didn’t want to be buried with her anymore even though she splashed out on a very fancy mausoleum for them to share already. (He was suffering from dementia, but he acted like this throughout his life so it was in character regardless.)
c) She is a painter, and also did the illustrations for the Danish edition of Lord of the Rings under a pseudonym. She also helped translate it. (I guess she really loves Lord of the Rings.)
d) She has also designed costumes for the Royal Danish ballet, and some of her own clothing.
e) She finally agreed to stop smoking in public in 2006. I truly have never seen so many photos of a public figure chain-smoking in the job in my life.
Let’s look at some pictures! There are some HATS within. Also: puppies, babies, wine cellars, furs, good cameos from other people, lots of waving out of windows, and ballgowns.
