Poor Princess Athena; she’s living a fairytale in reverse

Spare a thought for 10-year-old Princess Athena of Denmark, who’s living out The Princess Diaries in reverse. On the stroke of midnight on December 31, Her Royal Highness will devolve into Her Excellency, as her demotion to a countess takes effect as decreed by her grandmother, Queen Margrethe.

In late September, Europe’s longest-reigning living monarch announced all four of the children of her second-eldest son, Prince Joachim, would be stripped of their royal titles in 2023.

Princess Marie and Prince Joachim with their soon-to-be demoted children Prince Felix, Princess Athena, Prince Henrik and Prince Nikolai in September.Credit: AP

They’re the casualties of an institution seeking to move with the times. Reducing the number of royals is seen as a modernising step undertaken by monarchies as economies quake and public sentiment towards The Crown risks souring. The Swedish King revoked five of his grandchildren’s royal titles in 2019. King Charles is also reportedly looking to trim the royal payroll as the pound plummets.

But Queen Margrethe’s move unleashed a House of the Dragon-style schism within one of the world’s most popular royal families.

Prince Joachim and wife Princess Marie complained to the Danish press they were blindsided by the Queen’s decision and the removal of the children’s royal status had “harmed” them.

“Athena is bullied at school,” Princess Marie confessed to Danish news outlet BT during an interview at Paris’s Parc Monceau. “They come and say: ‘Is it you who is no longer a princess?’”

Joachim’s eldest, 23-year-old Dior model and Vogue cover star Prince Nikolai was also wounded by the announcement, saying he was “shocked and confused”.

Queen Margrethe apologised for the hurt caused but refused to renege on the royal title cull.

“It is my duty and my desire as Queen to ensure that the monarchy always shapes itself in keeping with the times,” she said in a statement, adding she saw the decision as a “necessary future-proofing of the monarchy”.

Professor of European history at the University of Sydney, Robert Aldrich, said it’s a unique affray.

“It seems to be a quarrel within the royal family. It’s not provoked by misbehaviour by one of the royals. It’s not something that particularly involves the wider public.”

Princess Athena is living a Princess Diary life in reverse.Credit: Ritzau Scanpix Foto

The Queen justified depriving Prince Joachim’s children of royal titles by saying it would allow them “to shape their own lives to a much greater extent”. Alrich wonders if part of the decision was based on Prince Nikolai’s pursuits on the runway. “Maybe the Queen thought that sort of activity was not quite appropriate for a prince.”

But will the move strengthen or damage Margrethe’s monarchy, particularly as it seems to acknowledge that royalty is not just about blood and birthright?

A royal house’s allure springs from its institutional enshrinement of lineage; the bloodlines of one family reaching back through centuries. Monarchies know this, which is why royal ceremonies linked to inheritance – births, marriages, funerals – are so hallowed. It’s the reason we’re fed every detail, from the 55 flower species stitched into Meghan Markle’s wedding veil to the sprigs of rosemary plucked from Buckingham Palace garden and woven into Queen Elizabeth’s funeral wreath.

“The royals, such as the Windsors and the Danish royal family, understand that one way they must remain relevant is by ensuring that the public is interested in what they do,” Associate Professor of English at Flinders University and royal media expert Dr Giselle Bastin said.

When it comes to family events, even small details such as the motifs on the veil worn by the Duchess of Sussex at her wedding are fed to the public. Credit: PA

“As such, enormous emphasis is placed on milestone events such as weddings, royal babies, funerals and coronations – all public displays of both tradition and ceremony, but also carefully staged PR events that cement the royal house in national cultural narratives.”

Events that split the royal family unit risk undermining traditional royal mythologies, from adultery to Megxit – and maybe spats over titles, too. But the modern European royals are evolving. For one thing, they can no longer hide in their castles to avoid public scrutiny.

“As the late Queen Elizabeth II used to say, royals – and the Sovereign in particular – must ‘be seen to be believed’. They understand that they have to remain in the public eye and be considered relevant to the public that funds so much of what they do in order to keep their ‘jobs’.”

Royals marrying commoners keeps the fairytale alive: Danish Crown Prince Frederik and his wife Mary Donaldson on their wedding day.Credit: DPA DEUTSCHE PRESS-AGENTUR

Royals marrying “commoners”, itself a modern phenomenon, also endears the monarchy to the people and furthers the Disney fantasy of being swept off the streets and into a palace by a whirlwind of royal romance. Who can resist the mythological meeting of Princess Mary and Prince Frederik in a Sydney pub, or the tale of Sweden’s Crown Princess Victoria falling for the personal trainer who aided her recuperation from bulimia? Spain’s commoner Queen Letizia, a former newsreader, has been credited with helping drag Spain’s embattled monarchy into the 21st century.

But royals walk a tightrope strung between being of and above the people. Professor Dennis Altman, whose book God Save the Queen examines the evolution and relevance of monarchy, writes: “If the royals become like everyone else, what is the point of having them? But if they remain aloof, how do they maintain popular support?”

It’s a tightrope Queen Margrethe has walked expertly for half a century. Support for the monarchy sat at about 45 per cent when Margarethe took to the throne in 1972. But recent surveys show between 70 and 85 per cent of Danes support the crown. She herself is a beneficiary of modernisation. A rule that forbade women from ascending to the throne was reversed while she was a princess.

Professor Aldrich, said Queen Margrethe’s hobbies endeared her to the nation. “She’s a very good artist,” Aldrich said. “Every year she designs a calendar for charity. She’s translated some writings from French into Danish.”

Queen Margrethe has been adept at walking the tightrope between being royal and being relatable.Credit: Getty

Once, Aldrich went to see a traditional Christmas ballet while on holiday in Copenhagen. At the end of the performance, the Danish queen strode on stage and took a bow – she had designed the set.

Professor Altman said Margrethe “manages to present herself as simultaneously one of the people and yet destined to reign”.

Altman’s interest in monarchy was piqued when he realised eight out of 10 of the world’s most successful democracies – as deduced by The Economist – were constitutional monarchies. He wonders if the stability and identity imbued in royal families acts as a balm for political malaise and a bastion against authoritarian extremism.

“Yes, hereditary monarchies are absurd relics of feudalism, but as I explain in God Save the Queen they have persisted with popular support where they seem to embody the nation and, I suspect, because of distrust of politicians,” Altman said.

Charles might have some difficulty slimming down the British royals.Credit: Getty

“I suspect King Charles will have great difficulties in slimming down the British royals to a Dutch or Swedish style model, but so great is the cynicism about political leadership in the UK that I suspect the Windsors will last long beyond my lifetime.”

While Queen Margrethe said her decision “had been a long time in coming”, the timing of its announcement was interesting. Like much of Europe, Denmark is struggling with rising energy and consumer prices.

Bastin notes that public backlash against the cost and usefulness of the British royals always flares during economic hardship. The royals risk appearing too out-of-touch and rarefied in a world of rattled markets and soaring grocery bills, and must work harder to convince the public of their usefulness. Cue Princess Anne carrying her own luggage through JFK airport this week before catching – gasp – a commercial flight home to Britain.

The tension played out in real time last year in the Netherlands. A roar of public outcry rang out when King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima spirited their family away to their £3.7 million villa in southern Greece even as COVID cases were climbing. They didn’t breach lockdown rules, but the government had discouraged unnecessary travel; the royal family abandoned the holiday after a day sprawled on the villa’s private beach.

Following the controversy, their eldest child and heir to the Dutch throne Princess Amalia sent a handwritten letter to the Prime Minister informing him she would forgo the €1.6 million annual royal stipend that was set to kick in when she turned 18.

It was a far better response to a vacation scandal compared with Spain’s ex-king Juan Carlos. In 2012, the disgraced monarch was blasted by Spaniards – who were suffering an unemployment rate of 23 per cent – for a hunting trip in Botswana that cost tens of thousands of dollars per day. He posed in front of an elephant he killed, cradling a rifle, before he was airlifted home after injuring himself in a fall. In 2014, he abdicated the throne and in 2020 exiled himself to the UAE as authorities investigated the links between $100 million Carlos received from Saudi Arabia and a high-speed rail contract.

Spain’s monarchy – abolished in 1931 and reinstated in 1947 – indeed seems the shakiest. But as symbols of continuity in troubled times, we’ll see no monarchies dissolved in our lifetime, Aldrich predicts.

“I see no monarchy in immediate danger given the current state of global politics. Most of them have lived through far worse scandals than the slimming down of the royal nomenclature, which is all that has happened in Denmark.”

The Morning Edition newsletter is our guide to the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up here.