Thank you for downloading the witness history podcast with me Ashley Byrne. Today I'm taking you back over half a century to when the Kingdom of Denmark crowd its first queen in 600 years.

Long live Her Majesty Queen Margareta the Second, a ninefold cheer.

Queen Margareta was 31 when she succeeded to the throne following the death of her father King Frederick IX on the 14th of January 1972.

Passing on the sense of responsibility is probably the most important thing for each generation within your royal family.

Queen Margareta became the first Danish queen for six centuries creating a huge moment in dance history.

I traveled to Copenhagen to meet Kel Olesen who was Denmark's foreign office minister in the early years of Margareta's reign and had regular audiences with the queen over a fairs of state.

Every Wednesday I went to the castle and delivered some information about the foreign policy and others, yes, at my own.

Yes, I do. It was a queen of course, but also a normal human being.

Kel now in his 90s grew up during the Second World War. At a time when Denmark was under Nazi occupation.

It was during this period that Kel began to appreciate the loyalty and commitment of his royal family to the service of their country.

From a democratic principle I was against monarchy, but I couldn't see any alternative.

So it was not on the agenda and can Christian the 10th it was gathering the population you can see in our assistance to the Germans.

In October 43 the Nazis would take the things to use and they only got 700 the rest out of 7000 were escaped to Sweden.

After the war the royal family's popularity in Denmark rose, but there was unease about how the succession always favored the first born male and in 1953 this led to a referendum to change the law.

There was a referendum concerning the constitution, but in 1953 the change so that a girl could become a queen was really the topic.

A queen could be the monarch.

The Danes voted overwhelmingly in favour of allowing women to a seat to the throne and the nation became excited at the prospect of one day having a young queen.

In the 1950s and 60s Princess Margaretta became a popular member of the Danish royal family and in 1967 the country's affection was further cemented with a royal wedding.

Thousands lined the streets of Copenhagen while hundreds of dignitaries saw her get married to a Frenchman called Honry.

On marrying his princess he became Prince Henryk of Denmark.

In late 1971 the queen's father became gravely ill with flu-like symptoms before having a heart attack.

King Frederick IX died surrounded by his close family on the 14th of January 1972 paving the way for the first queen of Denmark in 600 years.

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