A king in waiting: Crown Prince Christian of Denmark marks his 21st birthday with dashing new military portraits

Crown Prince Christian of Denmark celebrates his 21st birthday, and the royal palace has marked the occasion by releasing a new portrait of the future king.

The eldest son of King Frederik X and Queen Mary posed for the photographs, taken a few weeks ago in the Vestibule of King Christian VII’s Palace at Amalienborg, wearing the gala uniform of the Royal Life Guards. Crown Prince Christian serves as a second lieutenant and platoon commander of the Guards and reports daily to the Guards Barracks in Høvelte.

In a statement released to mark the Crown Prince’s birthday, the Palace reiterated that he ‘does not receive a salary in the Armed Forces’, stressing that ‘the issue of annuities will only become relevant when His Royal Highness establishes his own household.’

One aspect of the portrait marks a milestone for Crown Prince Christian’s royal career. The 21-year-old can be seen wearing the Grand Commander’s Cross of the Order of the Dannebrog for the first time. The royal house announced that King Frederik has awarded his son the honour, which is the highest degree of the Order and is only granted to royals, to mark his birthday.

As a Grand Commander, Crown Prince Christian joins the King and the Queen, his grandmother Queen Margrethe, his uncle Prince Joachim, his great-aunt Princess Benedikte and King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden. Before his death in August, King Harald V of Norway also held the honour.

The future king is becoming increasingly independent as he enters this next chapter of his life, revealing in a rare interview with Danish newspaper Politiken that he has moved into a private apartment within the walls of Amalienborg Palace, where he will live when he is not stationed at his Guards Barracks.

The young royal opened up about how nervous he was to begin his military training, which started in early 2025, recalling how his ‘whole body was shaking’ on the drive down to the barracks. ‘I was like, “are you sure you want this?” I was actually in a lot of doubt, and I was like, “What if I don’t like it?”’ He also revealed that he would be ‘open’ to a secondment abroad, should the opportunity arise.

When asked about his succession to the throne, he told the outlet that it was ‘surreal for me to think about,’ adding: ‘I’m about to turn 21, and I know that this is what my future holds, among other things. I’ve known it from a young age and have been prepared for the task by my parents. So, it’s obviously something I’m both excited about and nervous about.’

His Royal Highness has ruled as regent of Denmark a number of times since his father took to the throne. Most recently, he fulfilled the role when his parents travelled to Australia for a memorial ceremony in honour of Queen Mary’s father, John Donaldson.

Born in Copenhagen on 15 October 2005, Crown Prince Christian was welcomed to the world with a 21-gun salute from Kronborg Castle in Elsinore. The Danish flag was flown throughout the country, and at sunset, bonfires were lit up and down the nation, with the Naval Home Guard pointing their searchlights towards Copenhagen to celebrate the birth of the future king.

His baptism was a traditional one. Held on 21 January 2006 at Christiansborg Palace, the heir to the throne wore the royal christening gown, which has been passed down through generations of the House of Glücksburg since it was crafted in 1870 for Christian’s great-great-grandfather, King Christian X. It is customary in Denmark that males set to inherit the throne alternate between the names Frederik and Christian. The Prince’s godparents included Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit of Norway, Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden (he would later serve as pageboy at her wedding in 2010), and his uncle, Prince Joachim of Denmark. One of the gifts bestowed upon the baby boy was a pony, named Flikflak – a present from the nation’s parliament.

The Crown Prince’s education, however, was a more modern affair. The first Danish royal to attend nursery school and a state public school, Christian was also raised with a nanny at the Palace. While he had planned to spend a term abroad in Verbier with his siblings – Princess Isabella, Prince Vincent, and Princess Josephine – the stay was cut short due to COVID-19. In 2021, he enrolled at Herlufsholm, a Danish boarding school previously attended by his cousin, Count Nikolai of Monpezat. Following the airing of a documentary that alleged bullying, violence, and sexual abuse at the school, Christian transferred to Ordrup Gymnasium, from which he graduated in 2024.

While completing his studies, Crown Prince Christian of Denmark was also stepping into his royal destiny. His first official engagement came in 2008, when the three-year-old Prince opened a new elephant house – a gift from the King and Queen of Thailand – at Copenhagen Zoo alongside his grandfather, Prince Henrik. Another showcase of the close relationship Christian shared with his grandparents came in 2010, when he and Prince Henrik unveiled a portrait of Prince Ulrik, and later in 2012, when he posed for a portrait with his father and Queen Margrethe II, with three generations of royalty marking the then-monarch’s Ruby Jubilee.

For his first international engagement, Christian joined his siblings and their parents in Greenland in 2014, where the young future king took part in multiple engagements. By January 2024, he was ready to be named regent for the first time, during King Frederik’s three-day state visit to Poland, and at the end of that month, he signed his first law at Amalienborg. 2024 was a milestone year for the young prince in general, seeing his first solo engagement at the Royal Run in May and his first solo engagement abroad that September during the Summer Paralympics in Paris.

But it was the Crown Prince’s 18th birthday that was perhaps the grandest milestone in his burgeoning royal career. Queen Margrethe, who hosted the gala, was keen that the evening be dedicated to the next generation of European royalty. As such, Christian was joined by a host of his fellow future monarchs, including Crown Princess Catharina-Amalia of the Netherlands, Princess Ingrid Alexandra of Norway, and Princess Elisabeth of Belgium. Also donning their finery for the party at Christiansborg Palace were the Crown Prince and Princess of Norway (now the King and Queen), the Crown Princess of Sweden, Queen Anne-Marie, Crown Prince Pavlov and Crown Princess Marie-Chantal of Greece and Princess Benedikte of Denmark. It was truly a party straight out of a fairytale. Case in point? The lone high heel left over the morning after, Cinderella-style.

Now, with a state banquet on the cards, Crown Prince Christian is preparing to enter a new chapter, one that will see him step up his preparations as a future king – however ‘surreal’ that might be.