Read Denmark’s Popular Queen Margrethe II Marks 50th Jubilee

Denmark’s artistic and chain-smoking Queen Margrethe II has been hailed for unifying and modernising the monarchy in her 50 years on the throne, a milestone to be celebrated in pomp and circumstance this weekend.

The 82-year-old Margrethe, with her trademark white-haired bun is the first woman to hold the position of reigning queen. And she has become the second longest-serving monarch in Danish history.

Having come to power amid waning support for the royals in 1972, she helped restore its standing in the decades that followed.