As of 14 January 2022, HM The Queen has been the sovereign in Denmark for 50 years. The Queen began the day with the Council of State at Christiansborg Palace together with HRH The Crown Princess. In the gallery, a selection of Councils of State through the years can be seen. The Council of State was established in connection with the introduction of Kingdom of Denmark’s Constitution of 1849 and is the body in the administration of state in which all laws and important government measures are dealt with. The main content of the meetings is ratification of the bills that the Danish Parliament has passed and submission to the regent of the bills the government intends to introduce. Thus, all changes to laws since the Constitution’s introduction have been handled in the Council of State. The regent leads the meetings (presides) in the Council of State, which is made up of all the ministers. The heir to the throne likewise has a seat in the Council of State when he or she is of age. In addition to that, the department head of the Office of the Prime Minister is the secretary for the Council of State and is the only civil servant present during the meetings. In the picture, Christian the 9th is seen presiding at a council of state meeting at the end of the 1800s.

The tradition has continued ever since, and Frederik the 9th thus began to preside over the Council of State after the death of his father, Christian the 10th, on 20 April 1947.

With the throne succession act of 27 March 1953, conditional female succession was introduced in Denmark, which meant that a female descendant of the sitting sovereign could thereafter inherit the throne, while male descendants, however, retained a first right to the throne. On 16 April 1958, on her 18th birthday, The Queen as heir to the throne was admitted to the Council of State and could thereafter lead meetings in the Council of State in the king’s absence.

On this special spring day in 1958, Heir to the Throne Princess Margrethe at the same time signed the Constitution with these words: “I, Margrethe Alexandrine Thorhildur Ingrid, Heir to the Throne, Princess of Denmark, hereby give, in accordance with paragraph 8 of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Denmark of 5 June 1953, in honor and conscience, the assurance that I will firmly uphold the kingdom’s Constitution.”

The evening of 14 January 1972, Frederik the 9th died, and, the following day, The Queen presided over the Council of State for the first time.

Since 1972, The Queen, together with several prime ministers and even more governments, has handled and ratified the bills that the Danish Parliament has passed. When The Crown Prince turned 18 in 1986 and thus became of age, His Royal Highness was seated in the Council of State for the first time.

If The Queen is prevented from attending to the duties as head of state, such as during visits abroad for example, these duties are handled by The Crown Prince as regent, and if the heir to the throne is prevented, the duties are attended to by an acting regent. In 2019, on 2 October, The Queen got approval in the Council of State so that HRH The Crown Princess could henceforth could serve as an acting regent and thus also attend to The Queen’s duties as head of state, and likewise for the country’s other acting regents, TRH Prince Joachim and Princess Benedikte.

As a consequence of the situation with COVID-19, the Council of State on 16 March 2021 was carried out digitally for the first time ever.