Early kingdom , attesting to Harald Bluetooth's unification and Christianization of Denmark The Danish monarchy is over 1200 years old, founded in the 8th century (or earlier). The line of kings of the modern kingdom of Denmark can be traced back to
Harthacnut father of
Gorm the Old (, ), who reigned in the early and mid 10th century. The kingdom itself though is probably a couple of hundred years older than that. The Danes were united (or more likely reunited) and officially
Christianized in 965 AD by
Harald Bluetooth, the story of which is recorded on the
Jelling stones. The exact extent of Harald's kingdom is unknown, although it is reasonable to believe that it stretched from the defensive line of
Dannevirke, including the Viking city of
Hedeby, across
Jutland, the Danish isles and into southern present day Sweden;
Scania and perhaps
Halland. Furthermore, the Jelling stones attests that Harald had also "won" Norway. The son of Harald,
Sweyn Forkbeard, mounted a series of wars of conquest against England, which was completed by Sweyn's son
Cnut the Great by the middle of the eleventh century. The reign of Cnut represented the peak of the Danish Viking age; his
North Sea Empire included England (1016), Denmark (1018), Norway (1028) and held strong influence over the north-eastern coast of Germany. The last monarch descended from
Valdemar IV,
Christopher III of Denmark, died in 1448 AD. Count Christian of Oldenburg, descendant of Sophia, the daughter of Valdemar IV's aunt
Richeza of Denmark, Lady of Werle, who was the daughter of
Eric V of Denmark, was chosen as his successor and became the next monarch of Denmark, ruling under the name
Christian I. Richeza thus can be considered as a sort of female
founder of the
House of Oldenburg.
Absolutism . Depicted is Frederick III and the event commemorated is the
failed Swedish attack on Copenhagen in 1659. Originally the Danish monarchy was elective, but in practice the eldest son of the reigning monarch was elected. Later a
Coronation Charter was signed by the king to restrict the powers of the Danish monarch. In 1657, during the
Second Northern War, King
Frederick III launched a war of revenge against Sweden which turned into a complete disaster. The war became a disaster for two reasons: Primarily, because Denmark's new powerful ally, the Netherlands, remained neutral as Denmark was the aggressor and Sweden the defender. Secondly, the
Belts froze over in a rare occurrence during the winter of 1657–1658, allowing King
Charles X Gustav of Sweden to
lead his armies across the ice to invade
Zealand. In the following
Treaty of Roskilde,
Denmark–Norway capitulated and gave up all of
Eastern Denmark (i.e.
Skåne,
Halland,
Blekinge and
Bornholm), in addition to the counties of
Bohuslän and
Trøndelag in Norway. But the Second Northern War was not yet over. Three months after the peace treaty was signed, Charles X Gustav held a council of war where he decided to simply wipe Denmark from the map and unite all of Scandinavia under his rule. Once again the Swedish army arrived outside Copenhagen. However, this time the Danes did not panic or surrender. Instead, they decided to fight and prepared to defend Copenhagen. Frederick III had stayed in his capital and now encouraged the citizens of Copenhagen to resist the Swedes, by saying he would "die in his nest", rather than to evacuate to safety in Norway. Furthermore, this unprovoked declaration of war by Sweden finally triggered the alliance that Denmark–Norway had with the Netherlands, and a powerful Dutch fleet was sent to Copenhagen with vital supplies and reinforcements, which saved the city from being captured during the
Swedish attack. Charles X Gustav suddenly died of an illness in early 1660, while planning an invasion of Norway. Following his death, Sweden made peace in the
Treaty of Copenhagen. The Swedes returned
Trøndelag to Norway and
Bornholm to Denmark, but kept the other territories gained two years earlier. The Netherlands and other European powers accepted the settlement, not wanting both coasts of the
Øresund strait controlled by Denmark. This treaty established the boundaries between Norway, Denmark, and Sweden that still exist today.
Absolutism was introduced in 1660–1661 and the elective monarchy was de jure transformed into an
hereditary monarchy. An official absolutist constitution, where absolute power and male primogeniture succession was laid down in the
King's Law (Lex Regia) of 1665.
Constitutional period , King
Christian X became a powerful symbol of national identity. This image dates from the King's birthday, 26 September 1940 When he succeeded to the throne in January 1848, King
Frederick VII was almost at once met by the demands for a constitution and an end to absolutism. The Schleswig-Holsteiners wanted an independent state while the Danes wished to maintain South Jutland as a Danish area. Frederick VII soon yielded to the Danish demands, and in March he accepted the end of
absolutism, which resulted in the
June Constitution of 1849. During the
First War of Schleswig against the German powers in 1848–51, Frederick appeared as "the national leader" and was regarded almost as a war hero, despite having never taken any active part in the struggles. On 5 June 1849 the constitution, known as the June Constitution, was altered to create the framework of a
constitutional monarchy for Denmark. The
Easter Crisis of 1920 was a
constitutional crisis which began with the dismissal of the elected government by
King Christian X, a
reserve power which was granted to him by the
Danish constitution. The immediate cause was a conflict between the king and the cabinet over the reunification with Denmark of
Schleswig, a former Danish
fiefdom which had been lost to
Prussia during the
Second War of Schleswig. According to the terms of the
Treaty of Versailles, the disposition of Schleswig was to be determined by two
Schleswig Plebiscites: one in Northern Schleswig (today Denmark's
South Jutland County), the other in Central Schleswig (today part of the
German state of
Schleswig-Holstein). Many Danish
nationalists felt that Central Schleswig should be returned to Denmark regardless of the plebiscite's results, generally motivated by a desire to see Germany permanently weakened in the future. Christian X agreed with these sentiments, and ordered Prime Minister
Carl Theodor Zahle to include Central Schleswig in the re-unification process. As Denmark had been operating as a
parliamentary democracy since the
Cabinet of Deuntzer in 1901, Zahle felt he was under no obligation to comply. He refused the order and resigned several days later after a heated exchange with the king. Subsequently, Christian X dismissed the rest of the government and replaced it with a de facto conservative care-taker cabinet under
Otto Liebe. The dismissal caused demonstrations and an almost revolutionary atmosphere in Denmark, and for several days the future of the monarchy seemed very much in doubt. In light of this, negotiations were opened between the king and members of the
Social Democrats. Faced with the potential overthrow of the Danish monarchy, Christian X backed down and dismissed his own government. This was the most recent time that a sitting Danish monarch made an executive decision without the support of a cabinet accountable to the legislature; following the crisis, Christian X accepted his drastically reduced role as symbolic
head of state. The
Act of Succession of 27 March 1953 was promulgated after a
1953 referendum introduced the possibility of female succession and, in effect, made Princess Margrethe the
heir presumptive to her father,
Frederik IX rather than her uncle
Prince Knud. Upon Frederik IX's death in 1972,
Queen Margrethe II ascended to the throne and reigned until her abdication in 2024. Following a
referendum in 2009, the Act of Succession was amended so that
primogeniture no longer puts males over females; a first-born child becomes heir to the throne regardless of gender. ==Constitutional and official role==