Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark travelled to the United Kingdom to participate in a crucial military engagement on behalf of his mother, Queen Margrethe II, who is still recovering from extensive back surgery.
His Royal Highness was at the Royal Artillery Barracks on 22 April to present a new banner to The Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment’s Fourth Battalion.
The banner was supposed to be presented by Queen Margrethe II, who is the Colonel-in-Chief of the Regiment. However, Her Majesty is still recovering from her back surgery in February.
Since then, she has spent some time in the hospital and continued her rehabilitation at home. Her first public engagement since the procedure was a balcony appearance to celebrate her 83rd birthday on 16 April.
On that occasion, she also had her entire family surrounding her, a particularly poignant moment since there had been indications of a potential rift within the family when Her Majesty announced her decision to strip Prince Joachim’s children of their princely titles; since 1 January, they are referred to as Counts/Countess.
Since her surgery, many of her family members, mainly Crown Prince Frederik, Crown Princess Mary and Princess Benedikte, have undertaken engagements on her behalf, and this was no exception.
Crown Prince Frederik was wearing the gala uniform of the Danish Navy and stood on his podium as he watched the battalion parade in front of him with their new flag.
A banner represents the identity of the group to which people under it belong and the loyalty to the authority that handed it out – normally the unit’s commander. More practically, in history, it served the purpose of making workforces easily recognisable, thus simplifying the process of identifying and creating gathering points on the battlefield.
