Prince Henrik of Denmark, the husband of Queen Margrethe, has died at the age of 83.
In a statement, the Danish Royal House confirmed that the French-born prince died “peacefully in his sleep”, two weeks after being diagnosed with a benign tumour. “Her Majesty the Queen and the two sons were at his side.”
The prince was a divisive figure in his adopted country. A flamboyant dresser with a passion for fine food, wine, poetry and art, he was “both loved and criticised by the Danes for his aristocratic manner,” says Reuters.
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Born Henri Marie Jean Andre de Laborde de Monpezat to a family of titled industrialists in south-west France in 1934, the future royal spent the first five years of his life in Vietnam, where his family had business interests.
He remained fascinated with the Far East for the rest of his life, returning to Hanoi to study as a teenager and later becoming fluent in Vietnamese and Chinese.
He joined the French embassy in London in 1962, leaving in 1967 to marry the then-princess Margrethe.
The royal couple set up home in Denmark, where “Henri” became Henrik. In the two years that followed, they welcomed two sons, Frederik and Joachim.
Never one for mincing words, Prince Henrik made his dissatisfaction with his title extremely public in the years after Queen Margrethe ascended to the throne in 1972.
In a tradition similar to that of the British royal family, the husbands of Danish queens are given the title of prince consort rather than king, as awarding them the higher role would elevate them above their wives in the traditional royal hierarchy.
The controversy took on a new dimension last August when the prince declared that he would not be buried at Roskilde Cathedral, the resting place of Danish monarchs and their spouses for the past 459 years, because of his long-standing grievance.
“The queen already had a specially designed sarcophagus waiting for the couple,” says The Independent. She is said to have accepted her husband’s decision.
Prince Henrik formally renounced the title of Prince Consort in 2016 when he retired from public duties. A year later, he was diagnosed with dementia.
Last week, it was reported that his health had taken a turn for the worse. Crown Prince Frederik cut short his visit to the Winter Olympics in South Korea to be with his father at Fredensborg Palace, where he spent his final days.
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