Queen Mary + King Frederik
New regulations for gifts have been announced – but they don’t reveal everything
© Dana Press
King Frederik and Queen Mary faced heavy criticism for their handling of gifts in the first weeks after their proclamation. The palace reacted accordingly and the new rules have now been finalized. However, the planned publications are not yet enough for the Danish media.
Just around two weeks after the change of throne, King Frederik, 55, and Queen Mary, 52, were criticized. The trigger was a bracelet that Frederik wore during his proclamation on the balcony of Christiansborg: This could have been a generous gift from the “Shamballa” company. Nobility experts have called for – not for the first time – more transparency when it comes to gifts of this kind. The newly appointed royal couple reacted and had new rules drawn up, which have now been published.
King Frederik and Queen Mary: They don’t reveal all the gifts
Whether King Frederik’s bracelet was a gift from the “Shamballa” company or whether Mary wanted to make her husband happy with it remains uncommented. But as the royal family announced at the end of January at the request of “DR Nyheder”, the policies have been revised and can now be found on the website. From now on, King Frederik and Queen Mary will only accept gifts “in connection with official occasions, trips or visits, as well as special occasions such as birthdays and anniversaries”. In the future, such gifts will be “accompanied by the annual report of the royal family with a description of the gift and an indication of the donor and the occasion […] published”.
King Frederik wore a bracelet during his proclamation on January 14, 2024 that caused controversy.
© Dana Press
King Frederik and Queen Mary still allow themselves one exception: gifts that have “little (if any) financial value” will not appear in the annual report. It is not clear how high this financial value is, which the palace has set as a limit. The Danish website “Se og Hør” criticizes, among other things, precisely this unknown threshold and judges: “The guidelines do not offer complete transparency.” Danish journalists also don’t like the fact that gifts from family members and friends can still be kept secret.
It also emphasizes that the previous guidelines for receiving gifts “were not yet set in stone and written down publicly.” Conversely, this means that the new rules can be found on the royal family’s website, but it is not known which points were actually revised and which remained the same.
European royals show more transparency than Denmark’s royal family
In other countries there are already strict regulations regarding gifts from outside. In Norway, members of the royal family must even refuse gifts from commercial organizations and publish all gifts worth over 1,000 Norwegian kroner (around 90 euros) that do not come from family or friends on a list on the royal family’s website. The royal families in Spain and Great Britain also keep such a list. The following now applies to Danes: “The gifts will be published for the first time in August 2024 with effect for the first half of 2024, and thereafter annually with the annual report of the royal family.”
“The royal family has power. And in all sorts of other contexts in which you hold public office, you are not allowed to accept gifts,” said Jesper Olsen, chairman of Transparency International Danmark, to the Danish news network DR Nyheder. Olsen believes that it is a worrying signal that companies and private actors can secretly give expensive gifts to the royal family. “The royal family must stop accepting such gifts because that can be questioned. I’m not saying that this is the case, but it can be questioned whether you can actually gain an advantage through a gift,” explains he.
King Frederik and Queen Mary are given cars, boats and designer clothes
Michael Bregnsbo, professor of history at the University of Southern Denmark, agrees. He believes the change of throne is a good time to make the many secret gifts public. “It could be a really good idea for the relationship with the public that the royal family, even if they are not forced to, choose to be open about gifts,” he says. This would provide clarity and prevent rumors.
According to media reports, Mary received a number of designer dresses and bags in the past. In 2002, Queen Margrethe, 83, was delighted to receive a mink coat and a mink jacket from the company “Kopenhagen Fur”. It is said that the then Crown Prince also received a speedboat worth 2.7 million Danish crowns (around 360,000 euros) in 2007. For their wedding in 2004, the couple received, among other things, five cars. Since 2018, however, the royal family has no longer accepted vehicles as gifts.
Sources used: dr.dk, seoghoer.dk, kongehuset.dk