Early Life
Princess Margrethe was born on 16 April 1940 at Amalienborg Palace in Copenhagen as the first child of Crown Prince Frederick and Crown Princess Ingrid of Denmark. Her father was the eldest son of King Christian X and Queen Alexandrine of Denmark, and her mother was the only daughter of Crown Prince Gustav Adolf and Crown Princess Margaret of Sweden. Her birth took place just one week after Nazi Germany's invasion of Denmark on 9 April 1940.
She was baptised on 14 May 1940 in the Church of Holmen in Copenhagen. The princess's godparents were King Christian X of Denmark, Prince Knud of Denmark, Prince Axel of Denmark, King Gustaf V of Sweden, Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf of Sweden, Prince Gustaf Adolf of Sweden and Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn.
She was named Margrethe after her maternal grandmother, Alexandrine after her paternal grandmother, and Ingrid after her mother. Since her paternal grandfather, the then-reigning King Christian X, was also the King of Iceland at the time, and Margrethe until 1944 was an Icelandic princess, the Princess was as a tribute to the people of Iceland given an Icelandic name, Þórhildur, consisting of "Thor" and the word for "battle" or "fight". The name is spelled with the thorn letter, which is a surviving rune, and is equivalent to "th". It is sometimes anglicized as Thorhildur.
When Margrethe was four years old, in 1944, her first sister Princess Benedikte was born. She later married Prince Richard of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg and lives in Germany. Her third sister Princess Anne Marie was born in 1946. She later married Constantine II of Greece and now lives in London.
On 20 April 1947, King Christian X died and Margrethe's father ascended the throne as King Frederick IX.
Read more about this topic: Margrethe II Of Denmark
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