Beyond Britain: A Guide to Europe's Other Royal Families

Britain is not the only country that still curtsies. Six other European nations keep a monarch on the throne, and each has built its own version of the job: a different palace, a different budget, a different idea of what a modern royal family is actually for.

Court & Capital has always been a house for royal-London stories. But the House of Windsor makes far more sense once you have seen what it is not. Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Spain all still crown a head of state, and between them they cover almost every model of monarchy Europe has left: from Scandinavia’s bicycle-riding, tax-funded royals to Spain’s deliberately quiet, low-cost crown.

This is the first in an occasional series looking beyond Britain. Here is where to start.

Denmark: a young king and a 900-year-old crown

Denmark’s monarchy is the oldest continuous one in Europe, tracing an unbroken line back more than a thousand years. Its most recent chapter, though, is remarkably fresh. On 14 January 2024, Queen Margrethe II stepped down after 52 years on the throne, the longest reign in Danish history and the country’s first voluntary abdication since 1146. She signed the papers at Christiansborg Palace, and her son was proclaimed King Frederik X from the palace balcony within the hour, before a crowd of more than 100,000 people.

Frederik reigns alongside Queen Mary, the Tasmanian-born former marketing executive he met at a Sydney pub during the 2000 Olympics, and their eldest son, Prince Christian, is now heir to the throne. The family’s official winter home is Amalienborg, a cluster of four rococo palaces around an octagonal courtyard in central Copenhagen, where the daily changing of the Royal Life Guards still draws a crowd. Denmark’s monarchy is funded through an annual civil list, reported to run to roughly £14 million a year, a fraction of the UK’s Sovereign Grant.

Norway: Europe’s newest king

Norway’s monarchy changed hands only weeks ago. King Harald V, who had reigned since 1991 following the death of his father, King Olav V, died on 28 August 2026 at the age of 89. His son was proclaimed King Haakon VIII the same day, and a state funeral followed on 9 September at Oslo Cathedral, with the late king laid to rest in the Royal Mausoleum at Akershus Fortress.

Harald’s 35-year reign was notable for how ordinary he made the job look: he was known for taking the tram, queuing for the ski lift, and once famously telling Norwegians during a rain-soaked national day speech that being Norwegian meant loving pickled herring “and pizza.” His son inherits a monarchy that is, by continental standards, informal and lightly funded, with a civil list estimated at around £11.5 million a year. It is also a young institution in its current form: Norway only regained a monarchy of its own in 1905, after more than five centuries under Danish or Swedish rule.

The Netherlands: Budget Day and the retired golden coach

King Willem-Alexander has reigned since 2013, when his mother, Queen Beatrix, abdicated in his favour after 33 years, continuing a Dutch tradition in which monarchs tend to step down rather than reign until death. His most visible day in the calendar is Prinsjesdag, or Budget Day, held every third Tuesday in September, when he delivers the Troonrede, a speech from the throne at the Royal Theatre in The Hague setting out the government’s plans for the year ahead.

For decades the king travelled to Prinsjesdag in the Golden Coach, an 1898 gift from the people of Amsterdam. Its side panels depict colonial-era tribute scenes that have not aged well, and the coach has not been used since 2015 while the Netherlands has an open conversation about its history; the king has said it will return “when society is ready.” In the meantime, the 1826 Glass Coach does the job instead. The other fixed date is Koningsdag, King’s Day, on 27 April, when the whole country turns orange for street parties marking the monarch’s birthday.

Sweden: fifty-three years and the Nobel stage

King Carl XVI Gustaf has reigned since 15 September 1973, when he succeeded his grandfather, Gustaf VI Adolf. That makes him the longest-serving monarch in Swedish history, with well over five decades now on the throne. Sweden went further than any other European monarchy in trimming the crown’s power: a 1975 constitutional reform stripped the king of every formal political function, leaving a role that is entirely ceremonial. He cannot appoint a government, sign a law, or dissolve parliament.

What he does do, every December, is hand out the Nobel Prizes at Stockholm’s Concert Hall, the single most-watched moment in the Swedish royal calendar and the closest thing the monarchy has to a global stage. He also chairs a weekly information council with the prime minister and represents Sweden on state visits, but the substance of governing has belonged to elected politicians for half a century.

Spain: the monarchy that costs seventeen cents a head

King Felipe VI has reigned since 19 June 2014, when his father, Juan Carlos I, abdicated amid controversy over his finances. Felipe’s response was to make Spain’s monarchy strikingly cheap and strikingly transparent by comparison with its neighbours: the royal household’s declared annual budget is around £7 million, among the lowest of any European monarchy, and its accounts are now externally audited and published, a practice it adopted from the UK, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden and Norway.

Under Spain’s 1978 constitution, Felipe is head of state and the “arbiter and guarantor” of the country’s institutions, but he holds no veto and no independent political power; he signs laws passed by parliament and formally appoints the prime minister chosen by the Congress of Deputies. He renounced any inheritance from his father and cut off Juan Carlos’s annual allowance in 2020, a move widely read as an attempt to draw a clean line under the previous reign.

How they differ from the House of Windsor

Line them up next to Britain and the contrasts are sharper than the similarities. The UK’s Sovereign Grant runs to roughly £86 million a year and funds a working family of around a dozen royals carrying out thousands of engagements. Spain’s entire royal household costs less than a tenth of that. Sweden’s king has no reserve powers at all, where the British monarch retains ceremonial ones such as the state opening of Parliament. Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Belgium and the Netherlands are all sometimes grouped as Europe’s “bicycling monarchies,” a nod to the more informal, lower-key public style their royal families have cultivated, quite deliberately, since the mid-twentieth century.

Abdication is the other clear dividing line. Britain’s monarchs, by tradition and by the terms of the Sovereign Grant Act, reign until death; Elizabeth II and Charles III both followed that pattern. On the continent, stepping down in favour of an adult heir is close to the norm: Beatrix did it in the Netherlands, Margrethe did it in Denmark, and Juan Carlos did it in Spain, each timing their exit rather than waiting for the throne to be inherited unexpectedly.

Why it still matters

Six monarchies, six different answers to the same question: what is a crown for, once it no longer rules? Denmark keeps ceremony and history close together in a nine-hundred-year-old line. Sweden has reduced the role to pure symbolism and made peace with that. Spain has made frugality itself the point. Norway is, right now, watching a new king learn the job in public.

None of it makes the Windsors less interesting. If anything, it sharpens the picture: Britain has kept more pageantry, more public funding and more reserve power than almost anyone else still wearing a crown. Explore more of our Royal Figures stories to see how that balance plays out closer to home.

Frequently asked questions

How many countries in Europe still have a monarchy?

Ten European countries currently have a reigning monarch: the United Kingdom, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Spain, Belgium, Luxembourg, Monaco and Liechtenstein, along with the Vatican City’s elected papacy, which is sometimes counted as an eleventh.

Which European monarch has reigned the longest?

King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden has reigned the longest of any current European monarch, having acceded on 15 September 1973.

Who is the newest monarch in Europe?

King Haakon VIII of Norway is Europe’s newest monarch, having acceded on 28 August 2026 following the death of his father, King Harald V.

Do European royal families get on with each other?

Yes. Europe’s royal houses are closely related through generations of intermarriage, and monarchs regularly attend one another’s weddings, funerals, jubilees and coronations as a matter of course.

Which European monarchy costs the least to run?

Spain’s is generally cited as the cheapest to maintain, with a declared annual household budget of around £7 million, a fraction of the UK’s Sovereign Grant.

Why do some European monarchs abdicate while British monarchs do not?

It comes down to tradition rather than law. Continental monarchies including the Netherlands, Denmark and Spain have a modern pattern of monarchs stepping down in later life, while British monarchs have, in living memory, reigned until death.

Are any other European royal successions expected soon?

None are formally announced. Norway’s succession in August 2026 came after King Harald V’s health had visibly declined for some time, a reminder that these transitions can arrive with little warning even in monarchies with a clear line of succession.

What do people mean by the “bicycling monarchies”?

It is an affectionate nickname for the more informal, lower-key royal families of Scandinavia and the Low Countries, so called because their members have historically been photographed cycling or using public transport rather than travelling by chauffeured car.

Figures on royal funding change with each country’s budget cycle and are correct as of September 2026. For the current official figures, see each royal household’s own published accounts.