At the end of their State Visit to Denmark, Queen Máxima and King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands were invited by Queen Margrethe and Prince-consort Henrik to continue a long standing Danish royal tradition. They were asked to sign a window pane, which will be replace an as yet unsigned window at Fredensborg Palace.
The Garden Room of the Palace for instance already has many signed windows. Willem-Alexander's parents Queen Beatrix and Prince Claus signed in 1984 during their State Visit to Denmark. Queen Elizabeth ('Lilibet') and Prince Philip, King Harald and Queen Sonja, King Carl Gustaf and Queen Silvia, but also Winston Churchill's autograph can be found here, written with a diamond on top of a pen. In the old days, Queen Margrethe suggested, the guests might have used their own diamonds as the tradition goes back to King Christian IX, 'the father in law' of Europe.
In the 19th century Fredensborg was the gathering place of his extended family, and the guests – kingds, queens, tsar and tsarina, princes and princesses – wrote their names or littele messages on the windows. Margrethe's father King Frederik IX recommenced the tradition and Margrethe has continued it.
© RB; Photos: © Dutch and Danish Courts; © RB Marius Cirtiu
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