Queen Margrethe Of Denmark Just Made A Drastic Decision Concerning Her Grandchildren

The queen of Denmark just made a shocking decision that garnered mixed reactions across the monarchy.

In recent years, European royals have been making impactful changes in their respective sovereignties. In 2019, Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf decided to remove his grandchildren from the royal house, so they'll no longer be expected to carry out official royal duties, per BBC. Aside from two grandchildren in direct line to the throne, the rest have been relegated to dukes and duchesses and are not entitled to be recipients of taxpayer-funded grants. Meanwhile, in January 2022, the late Queen Elizabeth stripped her son, Prince Andrew, of royal patronages, following sexual assault allegations. The Duke of York lost his HRH status, along with his military titles, per NPR.

Now it looks like Queen Margrethe II, now the only reigning queen in the world, is following suit, having decided to strip her grandchildren of their royal titles but for entirely different reasons.

Queen Margrethe II has decided to strip four of her eight grandchildren of their royal title in an effort to "future-proof" the Danish monarchy, per CNN. The Danish Royal House announced that starting January 2023, Prince Joachim's children, Nikolai, Felix, Henrik, and Athena, will no longer have their HRH status and therefore cannot be referred to and addressed as princes and princesses.

A statement from the royal house revealed that the queen made this decision to allow her grandchildren to "shape their own lives" without being the burden of "special considerations and duties that a formal affiliation with the Royal House of Denmark as an institution involves." By next year, the four grandchildren will be addressed as His Excellency Count of Monpezat or Her Excellency Countess of Monpezat. And while they will lose their HRH status, they will still retain their spot in the line of succession to the Danish throne.

Not everyone in the family is happy with the decision. Nikolai and Felix's mother, Alexandra, Countess of Frederiksborg, told Danish newspaper B.T. that the kids felt "ostracized" upon finding out that they would lose their titles soon. "We are all confused by the decision," she said. "We are all confused by the decision. We are saddened and in shock. This comes like a bolt from the blue. The children feel ostracized. They cannot understand why their identity is being taken away from them."