My latest article: The troubled history of kings consort

Earlier this month, Prince Henrik of Denmark caused quite an uproar when he announced that he no longer wants to be buried together with his wife of fifty years, Queen Margrethe II. In a series of interviews he also launched a personal attack on his wife, who he claimed makes a fool of him, and stated that he would be willing to reconsider the decision about his burial place if she would agree to make him King Consort.
It was explained that the Prince’s decision was made because of his dissatisfaction with his title and function, something a spokeswoman said had become more and more important for him in recent years. It is far from the first time Prince Henrik raises the issue of his title and the fact that he believes that as the wife of a king is queen, a queen’s husband ought to be king (i.e. king consort and not, as some ill-informed people have claimed, take over as monarch).
Many seem to think that this is an idea Prince Henrik has grasped out of thin air, but in a long article in today’s issue of the broadsheet Politiken (external link) I recount the history of kings consort, which began in the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem in the twelfth century and soon spread to Naples, Spain, Navarre, Portugal, Poland, England, Scotland and Cyprus. In fact, the husbands of queens regnant were actually usually (although not always) styled kings and many of them took part in the governance of the realm. The so far last king consort in Europe died as recently as 1902, and it is only during the last century and a half that it has become more common for male consorts not to be called kings. Thus, although Prince Henrik may have history and principles on his side, it seems highly unlikely that he will ever achieve his dream of becoming King Consort of Denmark.

Norwegian state visit to Poland and Finnish state visit to Sweden

The Norwegian royal court has announced that the King and Queen will pay a state visit to President Bronislaw Komorowski of Poland from 9 to 11 May, spending two days in Warsaw and one in Cracow.
The King and Queen last made a state visit to Poland in 1996, when they were hosted by the then President Aleksander Kwasniewski and his wife Jolanta Kwasniewska.
The Kwasniewskis paid a state visit to Norway in 2003, while President Lech Walesa and his wife Danuta paid a state visit to Norway in 1995. The King was supposed to have attended the funeral of President Lech Kaczyński in April 2010, but was forced to cancel because of the ash cloud which grounded planes all over Europe.
It has also been announced that the new President of Finland, Sauli Niinistö, who was elected a month ago and sworn in on 1 March, will pay a state visit to Sweden on 17 and 18 April, accompanied by his wife Jenni Haukio.
It is customary that a new Finnish President makes a state visit to Sweden very shortly after his or her inauguration, reflecting the close relationship between the two countries which were one state for centuries until 1809.

Scandinavian state visits to Central Europe

Earlier this week the Norwegian Royal Court announced that the King and Queen will pay a state visit to Slovenia and its President Danilo Türk on 9 and 10 May. The King and Queen will also make a state visit to Croatia and its President Ivo Josipović on 12 and 13 May.
Yesterday the Swedish Royal Court also announced that King Carl Gustaf and Queen Silvia will make a state visit to Poland between 4 and 6 May. They will be received by the new President, Bronislaw Komorowski.
Meanwhile the Queen and Prince Consort of Denmark are currently in Bahrain (3-6 February) as the guests of King Hamad, but this is an official visit and not a state visit.

At the road’s end: Lech Kaczyński (1949-2010), President of Poland

The President of Poland, Lech Kaczyński, was among 96 people killed in a plane crash while trying to land at the military airport in Smolensk in Russia this morning. Among the victims of the accident were also his wife Maria, the chief of the defence staff, the deputy foreign minister, the president of the country’s national bank and 17 MPs.
Kaczyński, who belonged to the populist right-wing party Law and Justice, had served as president since 2005, when he defeated Donald Tusk from the Civic Platform party.
Born in 1949, the late President was a professor of law and had been part of the Solidarity movement which played a leading part in bringing down the Communist regime in Poland. He supported Lech Walesa as president in 1990, but later fell out with the leader of Solidarity and formed Law and Justice with his identical twin brother, Jaroslaw Kaczyński.
The younger of the twins by 45 seconds, Lech Kaczyński became mayor of Warsaw, minister of justice and head of Poland’s audit office before being elected president five years ago. His twin brother subsequently become prime minister, but was defeated by Donald Tusk in 2007.
The death of the President makes the Speaker of Parliament, Bronislaw Komorowski, acting president. According to the Constitution a new presidential election must be held within two months. A presidential election was scheduled to be held in October and the latest opinion polls left him little chance of a second term; only 16 % favoured his re-election.
The President, known for his antipathy towards Russia, was on his way to Russia to take part in commemorations of the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre, where 15,000 Polish officers were executed by Soviet Russia.
The late President was at the beginning of his term described by Timothy Garton Ash as “much given to conspiracy theories about both domestic and international politics, seeing the hidden hand of security services where others cannot detect it”. It remains to be seen how soon the conspiracy theories concerning the circumstances of his death will appear.

Among the victims of the crash was also Ryszard Kaczorowski, the last Polish President-in-exile. Following the end of World War II Poland maintained a government-in-exile in London until the fall of communism. It was, significantly, from Kaczorowski rather than from the de facto president, General Wojciech Jaruzeski, that Lech Walesa chose to receive the presidential insignia when inaugurated as president in 1990.