MPs in Denmark Don’t Want Queen Margrethe’s Grandchildren To Receive An Appanage (Which They Likely Wouldn’t Anyway…)

With Queen Margrethe II of Denmark’s eldest grandchild, Prince Nikolai, turning 18 next year and becoming an adult, debate has been reignited in Denmark regarding whether or not the eight grandchildren of the 76-year-old monarch should receive their own appanage when they come of age.

Spokespeople for the various political parties in the country have come out saying that only the monarch and the heir should receive government funding. “Simple mathematics dictate that there needs to be some sort of limit. Otherwise within a few generations there will be several hundred princes and princesses who need an annual salary,” Jakob Elleman-Jensen of the Venstre party said, adding it “wouldn’t fly” to fund that many royals.

The feeling is also shared with the Danish public, of whom 70% said in a recent poll that Prince Joachim’s four children – Nikolai, Felix, Henrik and Athena – should definitely not receive an individual appanage in the future.

Most parties and the general public are in agreement that government funding should only be provided for the monarch, their heir and possibly the eldest child of the heir (in this case, Crown Prince Frederik’s eldest child, Prince Christian – excluding his three younger siblings).  This has been what was the traditional distribution of funding for almost 150 years, between 1849 and 1995, when only the monarch, the heir, their spouses and widowed Queens were entitled to an appanage.

Outside of these parameters, three royals receive an appanage: Prince Joachim, Princess Benedikte (who performs official engagements for Denmark), and the Queen’s cousin Count Ingolf of Rosenborg (his appanage is in compensation for the 1953 change in constitution that gave women rights to the throne which led to his father losing his place as first in line).

It is Prince Joachim’s appanage, allocated upon his marriage to Alexandra Manley in 1995 (whose continued appanage from the government even after she and Joachim divorced is also another major sore point in the whole appanage debate), that is the source of belief the monarch’s grandchildren will end up receiving an appanage, even though it has not been done before – and according to the Royal House, is not going to happen now:

“It is not expected, and it has never been, that other than Prince Christian in his time must have an appanage,” Lene Balleby, the Court’s communications chief, told the press today.

Queen Margrethe and her grandchildren on her birthday in April 2016

Filed under Denmark
Tagged Appanage, Government, Margrethe II of Denmark, Prince Christian of Denmark, Prince Felix of Denmark, Prince Henrik of Denmark, Prince Joachim of Denmark, Prince Nikolai of Denmark, Prince Vincent of Denmark, Princess Athena of Denmark, Princess Isabella of Denmark, Princess Josephine of Denmark, Public Opinion.

One Response to MPs in Denmark Don’t Want Queen Margrethe’s Grandchildren To Receive An Appanage (Which They Likely Wouldn’t Anyway…)