ROYAL JUBILEES

2012 will bring major jubilees in the two countries I am most associated with. Next weekend marks the 40th anniversary of the accession of Denmark's Queen Margrethe II. While later in the year the U.K. will celebrate the 60th anniversary of the accession of Queen Elizabeth II.

The two women share more than just distant kinship (Edward VII, Queen Victoria's successor, married a Danish princess). The first is that they are women in what, throughout history, has been very much a male profession. Women in England have always been able to ascend the throne, though it has happened only rarely. But in Denmark, the constitution had to be changed in a referendum so that Margrethe could become queen, after the political elite took fright at the prospect of her father's nearest male heir.

Secondly, they both bear the name of a famous predecessor. Elizabeth 1 of England was Henry VIII's daughter and ruled for most of the second half of the turbulent 16th century, playing off other countries against each other and overseeing the great victory of 1588 over the Spanish Armada. Margrethe I of Denmark was a powerful woman of the Middle Ages, engineering the Union of Kalmar in 1397 that brought Norway, Sweden and Denmark together under one monarch, an arrangement which lasted until the 1500's.

Thirdly, they have both been monarch for a long time. Longevity is a huge asset for a monarch. Since they are supposed to represent the nation in some way, it helps if generations grow up, knowing no other. Furthermore, in their dealings with Prime Ministers and others, experience counts for a lot. Many "new" political policies are, in the way of these things, in reality returns to old ones, and you have an advantage if you were on the throne when they were implemented first time round. Been ther, done that.

Both monarchs are extremely popular in their countries, even if some of their nearest and dearest are not. So I fully expect the jubilees to be happy occasions, confining those who believe that monarchies are anachronisms and/or expensive sideshows to the fringes.

Walter Blotscher