The Danish Monarchy

The Danish monarchy is one of the longest running monarchies in the world, second only to Japan's. Like most monarchies today, Denmark's is a constitutional monarchy, which in layman's terms pretty much means they are basically figureheads. Danish monarchs function mostly as ambassadors and like other monarchies are known for doing a lot of philanthropy, in addition to wearing funny hats.

Currently, the reigning queen is Margrethe II (here's her website), who as far as I can tell is only the second queen of Denmark (the first being Margaret I*). Besides being considered intelligent and progressive , she appears to be best known for chain smoking and illustrating the covers of the Danish version of Lord of the Rings.

With the exceptions of England and Monaco, the Danish monarchy recently seems to be getting the most press of the European monarchies. In large part, this has to do with the marriage of Crown Prince Frederik to Mary Elizabeth Donaldson, a marketing consultant from Australia in 2004 and their first child being born in early 2006.

*In case you were wondering, the names are spelled different because Margrethe is an Icelandic name. When she was born, the King of Denmark was also the King of Iceland, and giving his daughter an Icelandic name was like a shout out to the Icelanders.