‘Freezing point’: Blunt Queen Mary and King Fred diagnosis

Who knew that major meteorological forces were as big Queen Mary fans as we are?

On Sunday, Copenhagen time, as the relatively brisk switcheroo of reigns took place in the Danish capital, the midwinter weather did its bit and played along. Temperatures might have been around freezing point but the estimated crowd of 100,000 that clogged the streets of the city still enjoyed a clear day.

24-hours later and the skies opened, dumping snow on cobblestone streets, forcing staff at the Danish parliament, called the Folketing, to get out their big brooms and to sweep snow from the red carpet in place for the King and Queen’s first official engagement.

Could we ask for a more perfect bit of symbolism?

In exactly the same vein, the weather, if you will, between newly ensconced King Frederik and Queen Mary on Sunday was unseasonably warm with them staging a kiss, a display that was more awkward end-of-first-date than charming display of marital bliss. Still, everyone was playing along.

King Frederik kisses Queen Mary on the balcony of Christiansborg Palace in Copenhagen, Denmark on January 14. Picture: Bo Amstrup / Ritzau Scanpix / AFP

Come Monday and not only had clouds swarmed overhead but gone was that obvious warmth. Frederik, Mary and their eldest son Crown Prince Christian all arrived at the Danish parliament chamber looking as stiff as a nice bit of mid-century Danish repro.

They decanted themselves front the famed Danish royal limousine nicknamed the ‘Big Crown’, a 1958 Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith, warmly greeted their waiting relatives Queen Margrethe, her sister Princess Benedikte and the new King’s younger brother Prince Joachim, and then proceeded with the ‘polite nodding at politicians’ portion of the day.

While the hallowed halls of democratic power are hardly the place to get all touchy-feely and to put on an icky display of PDA worthy of inclusion in the Daily Mail’s sidebar of shame, the shift between Frederik and Mary in only 24-hours seemed palpable.

Look back at photos of the King and Queen undertaking this very same parliamentary outing in previous years, when they were accompanying his mother Queen Margrethe, and the tonal shift is obvious. Back then it was less Arctic ice shelf, more happy-clappy proof that true love is real.

But that was PM – pre-Madrid; pre-Frederik’s unmitigated disaster of minibreak in the Spanish capital where he spent the night inside the apartment of reality star and the former Duchess of Alba’s ex-daughter-in-law Genoveva Casanova. (Casanova has vehemently denied any claims that they are having an affair.)

The publication of photos of the royal and Casanova struck a serious blow to the magical spell that was the King and Queen’s marriage. The whole Casanova debacle served to just dump a lot of cold water over the image of Frederik and Mary as nigh-on-perfect, as picture book-worthy. Suddenly it was adios fairy dust and all those gooey magazine portraits they used to like posing for and hello cold reality of a long-term relationship.

Queen Mary and King Frederik seemed less warm with each other on Monday. Picture: Ida Marie Odgaard / Ritzau Scanpix / AFP

In the 36 hours since the King’s accession, the Danish royal house, the Kongehuset has been beavering away on social media to try and glue the enchanted image of Frederik and Mary back together, adopting something of a sledgehammer approach. In only just over a day, their official Instagram account has posted 37 photos, including a number of exclusive artsy black and white behind the scenes shots, all energetically trying to sell the King and Queen as lovey-dovey as a couple of Bachelor winners.

Whatever the Danish word for ‘subtle’ might be, it is clearly not in Kongehuset’s social media team’s vocabulary.

What has been lost since those Madrid images came out is the wide-eyed belief we had in the wonder of Frederik and Mary, something that cannot be miraculously repaired with a ham-handed flurry of social media posts and a judicious application of some Coldplay to their videos.

Are Queen Mary and Prince Frederik at freezing point? Picture: Sean Gallup/Getty Images

No matter the palace marketing spin, Frederik and Mary are starting their reign on the backfoot. Oh sure, the crowd that greeted them outside Christiansborg on Sunday seemed entirely hooked, the level of public adoration they enjoy such that the Pope was probably taking notes. However they still face an uphill battle to move on from the biggest crisis ever.

However, Monday’s literal and figurative snowy appearance of the King and Queen at the parliament is a bit of a bum note for Frederik X to start out on.

Sadly this ‘Mary looks like human icy pole’ line is one that has been on repeat of late. Only two weeks ago the royal couple attended their first official event together in the wake of Queen Margrethe’s abdication and the vibe was all a bit grim.

Even the Danish press couldn’t ignore the state of the nation, with the Ekstra Bladet newspaper reporting that the couple’s “mood was at freezing point.”

Mary, according to the paper, did not “look like someone who was delighted to soon be able to call herself Denmark’s queen. Nor had Crown Prince Frederik brought the big smile.”

(Praise be to Google Translate, for this by the by.)

Unfortunately “freezing point” still seems all too apt, even after Frederik’s accession and even after the new King and Queen staged that bit of lip-lock theatre on the Christiansborg Palace balcony.

If we are looking to divine where things go for Mary and Frederik from here, we could always look to the weather, with the forecast for Copenhagen this week predicting a few spots of sunshine and then sleet. Spring and warmer temperatures, both inside and outside of the Palace, seem a way off yet.

SOURCE: NEWS.COM