Prince Henrik of Denmark, the husband of Queen Margrethe, has died aged 83. The royal had been diagnosed with dementia last year and was admitted to hospital with a lung infection in January.
The controversial figure in the Danish royal family was most famous for his unhappiness at never being named as King.
So frustrated by his lack of title he announced in 2017 that he would not be buried next to his wife. The 77-year-old Queen accepted his decision despite it breaking a 459-year-old tradition of burying royal spouses together, and the fact she’d already had a specially-built sarcophagus made for them in a cathedral west of Copenhagen.
Born in France in 1934, he married the then-crown princess Margrethe in 1967 and was named Prince Consort. In Denmark when a princess becomes Queen her husband doesn’t gain the titles of King by default - something Prince Henrik has showed disdain for throughout his life.
In 2002 when his son was chosen over him to represent Queen Margrethe at a New Year's ceremony he dramatically fled to his chateau in the France for three weeks to ‘reflect on life’. At the time he told a Danish tabloid that he felt ‘pushed aside, degraded and humiliated.’
‘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,’ he said.