The world suddenly lost a reigning queen (a queen born to the throne, not a queen married into the royal family) when Queen Margrethe of Denmark made the shocking announcement on New Year's Eve that she would abdicate the throne on January 14, after 52 years. Queen Margrethe, like her third cousin Queen Elizabeth, is Denmark's longest reigning monarch, and the loss is significant for both Denmark and the global royal stratosphere.

Yes, royal families around the world may now be steered by boys' clubs, but that will not last long. Sweden, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Norway all have female heirs. May she reign long.

Crown Princess Victoria, 46, is the eldest of the three children of King Carl Gustaf and Queen Sylvia, until Sweden amended its constitution after the birth of her brother Prince Carl Philip in 1979 so that the order of succession to the throne is determined by birth order regardless of gender. Princess Victoria was behind Prince Philip because he was male. This change took effect on January 1, 1980, and Victoria was again the heir to the throne seven months later as second in line (most women here would be on the throne thanks to absolute precedence, just as happened in Sweden). If Victoria ascends to the throne, she will be Sweden's fourth regal queen since 1720. Victoria married Daniel Westling in 2010 and they have two children.

Princess Elisabeth, 22, the eldest of four children of King Philip and Queen Mathilde, became Duchess of Brabant and heir to the throne in 2013 after her grandfather, King Albert, abdicated; after attending her first royal engagement in 2006 at the age of only 5, she made her first public She gave her first public speech (in Dutch) in 2011 at the age of 9. She received military training for her future role as queen and enrolled at the Royal Military Academy in Brussels in August 2020, where she studied social and military sciences; she was sworn in as an officer in September 2023 and commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Belgian Army; in September 2023, she was appointed to the Royal Academy of Military Science in Brussels, where she studied social sciences and military science. He studied history and politics at Lincoln College, Oxford University, and rows under the name "Elisabeth de Saxe-Cobourg." She speaks Dutch, French, German, and English and has taken classes in Chinese. She also works closely with children with learning difficulties, the elderly, the homeless, and the disabled.

Princess Katharina-Amaria, 20, was the first in line to the throne when her father, King Willem-Alexander, ascended the throne in 2013. The eldest of the three daughters of King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima, Katharina-Amalia is the first herself, Princess of Orange (Princess of Orange is a title given to the heir to the throne in the Netherlands). She made headlines when she announced in June 2021 that she would refuse an annual income of €1.6 million. (Respect) She is currently studying politics, psychology, law, and economics at the University of Amsterdam, taking classes in Mandarin Chinese in addition to Dutch, English, and Spanish.

After the birth of Princess Ingrid Alexandra in 2004, the already popular Norwegian royal family's popularity soared. Perhaps because Ingrid, 19, will one day become Norway's second and first female monarch since the 15th century. Ingrid is the eldest child of Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit, and is the grandson of King Harald, who is currently on the throne. Ingrid has a younger brother, Prince Sverre Magnus, who is higher in the line of succession due to the introduction of absolute monarchy in Norway in 1990. This year, she will undergo 12 months of military training with the Nord Brigade's Battalion of Engineers.

18-year-old Princess Leonor, the eldest of two daughters born to King Felipe and Queen Letizia, became the first in line to the throne after her grandfather, King Juan Carlos, abdicated in 2014 when she was eight years old. Since then, Leonor has had a number of firsts, including her first public engagement in 2018 at age 12, her first public speech on her 13th birthday that year, her first public solo engagement in 2021, and her first trip abroad without her parents in 2022. In September of this year, Leonor took the oath of succession to the throne and was officially declared heir to the throne, pledging her allegiance to the Spanish Constitution. Leonor, known as the Princess of Asturias, entered the Military Academy last August, received three years of military education, and is currently a cadet at the Spanish Military Academy. She is fluent in Spanish and English and is also studying Chinese, and if she ascends the throne, she will be the first Spanish princess since the mid-1800s.