For the First Time in 60 Years, a Danish Princess Comes of Age
Princess Isabella, the elder daughter of the King and Queen of Denmark, will celebrate her eighteenth birthday next month, which means a fashion show, a concert performance—and, of course, a tiara
When Princess Isabella, the second child of King Frederik X and Queen Mary of Denmark, was born on April 21, 2007, she became the first princess born into the Danish royal family since the birth of Queen Anne-Marie in 1946. Next month, Isabella turns 18, and her voyage into adulthood will be celebrated with a pair of public events—and, almost certainly, a special tiara gift from her parents. Today, we’re previewing the upcoming birthday festivities and looking back on the birthday tiaras given to Danish princesses past.
On March 6, the Danish royal court announced a series of upcoming events to mark the eighteenth birthday of Princess Isabella, the elder daughter of King Frederik and Queen Mary. Isabella’s birth was heralded as a novelty in 2007. It had been a remarkable 61 years since a girl was born into the Danish royal family. Since then, two more daughters, Isabella’s sister, Princess Josephine, and their cousin, Countess Athena, have joined the royal ranks.
Milestone royal birthdays in Denmark, and throughout Scandinavia, are celebrated with big family gatherings and private festivities, but there are often public events included as well. King Frederik’s 50th birthday was feted with a tiara-filled gala dinner in 2018, and Queen Margrethe’s 80th and Queen Mary’s 50th birthdays would have been marked with similar celebrations in 2020 and 2022 had the pandemic not intervened.
Happily, the coming-of-age birthday celebrations for Isabella’s older brother, Crown Prince Christian, were able to go ahead as planned in October 2022. Several of the teenage prince’s royal contemporaries, including Princess Ingrid Alexandra (the future Queen of Norway), Princess Amalia (the future Queen of the Netherlands), and Princess Elisabeth (the future Queen of the Belgians) were all in attendance wearing sparkling tiaras and jewels.
Now, Isabella will join their ranks. Though she is not expected to inherit the Danish throne—that job will go to her brother and his descendants—she will become an important supporting partner for her parents and her brother as an adult member of the royal family. She will likely be joining them in the near future for occasions like the annual New Year’s Levee as well as for state banquets and gala dinners. All of those events have a dress code that will require her to wear a tiara—which is why a tiara is generally supplied to Scandinavian princesses as a special gift on their eighteenth birthdays.
Will we see Isabella wearing a tiara during her public birthday celebrations? We don’t know for sure, but it’s a possibility. Currently there are two public events on the calendar to celebrate the princess’s milestone birthday. On Friday, April 11, Aarhus Municipality will host a birthday event in Isabella’s honor at the local city hall. The event will showcase the talents of the young people of the municipality: “designers will present a fashion show with a focus on sustainability and future materials, upcoming musicians will entertain on stage, elite dancers in training will perform and students from vocational education will offer a birthday cake.”
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