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Heartbroken Princess Mary and kids say final goodbye to Henrik
Alongside her husband Crown Prince Frederik and their four young children, Princess Mary farewelled her late father-in-law during a private service at Christiansborg Palace Church in Copenhagen on Tuesday.
Despite living a very public life, Denmark's Prince Henrik wished his funeral to be a private affair, with only his close friends and family in attendance.
As such, no foreign royals were expected, and among the 60 odd guests was his widow Queen Margrethe, son and daughter-in-law Prince Joachim and Princess Marie, Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen, and France's ambassador to Denmark.
Members of the public were given the opportunity to pay their respects to the French-born prince after the ceremony and people lined the streets outside of the church to pay their respects as the casket, draped in the national flag, was carried away.
Mary and the royal family are marking a month of mourning in which they won’t be attending any social events, and will be dressed in dark colours out of respect to the late prince.
The prince's wish to be cremated and have half his ashes scattered into the ocean, and the remainder taken to the private gardens outside of his home at Fredensborg castle, will be honoured.
Prince Henrik passed away in his sleep at Fredensborg Castle last week after contracting pneumonia.
He was also suffering from advanced dementia and had his wife and two sons Frederick and Prince Joachim, by his side when he died.
Prince Henrik lived a very colourful life, and was known for speaking his mind – particularly on the fact that he bore the title of ‘prince’ rather than ‘king’.
The 83-year-old gave a controversial interview last year revealing he was intent on breaking with Danish royal tradition and not being buried alongside his wife because he considered never becoming king as never being on equally footing with his wife.
“My wife does not give me the respect a normal wife must give her spouse,” he told a Danish publication, “It is her that is making a fool of me.”
“My wife has decided that she wants to be Queen, and I’m very happy about that. But as a human being she needs to know that if a man and wife are married, they are equal.”
Born in France, Henrik put his birth name - Henri Marie Jean Andre de Laborde de Monpezat - aside to be known as ‘His Royal Highness Prince Henrik of Denmark’, when he married Margrethe, then the Crown Princess, in 1967.
He moved to Denmark and was obliged to renounce his French citizenship, give up his job as a diplomat, and become a protestant - but when in 1972, Margrethe took over from her father and officially become the Queen of Denmark, Henrik retained his title as ‘prince’.
In 1997, he said people considered him as “a little dog that follows behind and gets a sugar cube once in a while.”
Meanwhile in 2002, he left Denmark entirely to retreat to the south of France alone, afraid that his standing in the family was dropping after his son Fredrik was asked to fill in for the Queen at a New Year’s Eve event instead of him.
“I need time to think,” he said at the time, “For many years I have been Denmark's number two. I've been satisfied with that role, but I don't want to be relegated to number three after so many years.”
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