Denmark is about to host Spain for a State Visit. While State Visits can play an important political and diplomatic role, this visit will also be incredibly personal. King Felipe and Queen Letizia of Spain will be spending three days with Queen Margrethe of Denmark, allowing the close family members to reunite again. 

King Felipe has often referred to Margrethe as Aunt Daisy, a popular name that many European royals use for Margrethe. While Margrethe is not technically his aunt, Margrethe’s younger sister, the widowed Queen Anne-Marie of Greece, is Felipe’s aunt by marriage through his mother, Queen Sofia of Spain. (Anne-Marie, Margrethe’s younger sister, was married to King Constantine II of Greece, Sofia’s brother.)

Felipe and Margrethe share further familial connections, though. They are descendants of Queen Victoria, known as the Grandmother of Europe, and King Christian IX of Denmark, known as the Father-in-Law of Europe. Both nineteenth century monarchs had several children that they then intermarried across Europe’s royal houses creating an immensely complex modern royal family tree. 

Queen Margrethe is descended once from Queen Victoria through Queen Victoria’s granddaughter, Princess Maud of Connaught (who would go on to become Queen of Norway). King Christian IX is the Danish Queen’s great-grandfather. 

King Felipe is descended from Queen Victoria through three different lines: through Victoria’s granddaughter, Queen Victoria Eugenie of Spain, her grand-son, Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany, and her granddaughter, Queen Sophia of the Hellenes. The King’s great-grandmother, Thyra, Princess of Hanover, was the daughter of King Christian IX. 

But as well as connections from the past, the two monarchs share a friendship that links them in the present. As King Felipe and Queen Letizia visit Queen Margrethe, between November 6th and 8th, that bond will be strengthened again.