Denmark's former Queen Margrethe, 86, hospitalized with blood clot days before Norwegian state funeral

Denmark's 86-year-old former Queen Margrethe II is back in the hospital with a blood clot in her hip, the latest in a string of health setbacks for the monarch who stepped down after more than five decades on the throne.

The Danish royal house announced Sunday that Margrethe had been admitted to Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen's leading university hospital, for observation and further examinations. Danish news agency Ritzau reported that she was suffering from a blood clot in the hip area along with mild dehydration.

A palace statement said Margrethe was "in good spirits and doing well given the circumstances." She will remain at Rigshospitalet while doctors conduct additional tests.

The hospitalization carries an immediate diplomatic consequence: Margrethe will miss the state funeral for Norwegian King Harald V, scheduled for Wednesday in Oslo. The former queen served alongside Harald for decades as fellow Scandinavian monarchs, making her absence a notable one.

Three hospital stays in a matter of months

This is not an isolated episode. Margrethe was admitted to the hospital twice in May, first with angina pectoris, a form of chest pain caused by reduced blood flow to the heart. Doctors performed a procedure to widen her blood vessels during that stay.

She returned to the hospital later that same month after a fall. A CT scan revealed significant bleeding in her hip area, the same region now affected by the blood clot that prompted Sunday's admission.

Whether the current clot is connected to the earlier hip bleeding remains unclear. The palace statement did not address that question, and no further medical details have been released.

A 52-year reign ended with a surprise abdication

Margrethe served as Denmark's head of state for 52 years before stepping down in 2024 in a move that caught much of the country off guard. Her son now occupies the throne as King Frederik X.

Even after abdicating, Margrethe remained a towering figure in Danish public life. Her long tenure made her one of Europe's most recognizable royals, and her recurring health problems have drawn steady attention from across the continent.

At 86, with three hospitalizations in recent months and a pattern of complications centered on her hip and cardiovascular system, the former queen's condition bears watching, regardless of the palace's reassurances.

Crowns pass. The duty to pray for the people who wore them does not.