SHOULD KING CHARLES RESIGN?

I know, it sounds a crazy idea – particularly after he waited almost his entire life to accede to the throne.

- Emily Andrews

But I only ask as that’s exactly what Europe’s oldest and longest-serving living monarch has just done.

On Sunday, Denmark’s Queen Margrethe II stepped down, having announced her surprise abdication in a New Year’s TV address.

The 83-year-old Danish monarch took her country, and indeed the world, by complete surprise in handing over to her son, now King Frederik X and his Australian wife Queen Mary.

Queen Margrethe ruled for 52 years, and following in the footsteps of Spain and the Netherlands’ monarchs has now retired, rather than let her death ensure an uncertain succession.

I remember seeing her as she came to pay her respects to her cousin Queen Elizabeth II when her coffin lay in state in Westminster Hall. She wiped away a tear and was visibly moved by our Queen’s death; I do wonder if that prompted a reassessment of her own retirement (our Queen famously declaring she would never abdicate).

The spectre of King Edward VIII and the 1936 abdication crisis always haunted Elizabeth but it meant that Charles didn’t know how long he had to wait.