Princess Benedikte and her sisters grew up in apartments at Frederik VIII's Palace at Amalienborg in Copenhagen and in Fredensborg Palace in North Zealand. She spent the summer holidays with the royal family at her parents' summer residence at Gråsten Palace in Southern Jutland. On 20 April 1947, King Christian X died and Benedikte's father ascended the throne as King Frederik IX.
At the time of her father's accession to the throne, only males could ascend the throne of Denmark. As her parents had no sons, it was assumed that her uncle Prince Knud would one day assume the throne. The popularity of Frederik IX and his daughters and the more prominent role of women in Danish life paved the way for a new Act of Succession in 1953 which permitted female succession to the throne following the principle of male-preference primogeniture, where a female can ascend to the throne if she has no brothers. Benedikte's elder sister Margrethe therefore became heir presumptive, and Princess Benedikte and Princess Anne-Marie became second and third in the line of succession.
The King had decreed that Princess Benedikte's children would need to be raised in Denmark in order to have succession rights. Since the condition was not met, Princess Benedikte's three children are not in line to succeed to the throne. The children of Princess Benedikte are styled as Highnesses by a Danish Order in Council.
Princess Benedikte is very much involved in the Girl Guide and Girl Scout organization in Denmark as well as internationally. When she was a child, a special Scout unit was created so that she could join the Guides. Now her involvement is more at the organisational level as she is chairman for Pigespejdernes Fællesråd Danmark (Joint Committee of Girl Guides in Denmark). She is patron of De grønne pigespejdere (The Green Girl Guides, Denmark) and Det Danske Spejderkorps (The Danish Guide and Scout Association). In addition, she is patron of the Olave Baden Powell Society (OB-PS), a support organisation for the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts. She is an honorary member of the St George's Guilds in Denmark. In 2007 she was awarded with a prize of honour by this Scout association for adults.[7]
She is also involved in equestrian sport, and has acted as an honorary patron of the World Breeding Federation for Sport Horses.[8] In 2006, she ran in an election for president of the International Equestrian Federation, but she was heavily defeated, earning only 16 votes and placing last out of the three candidates.[9]
^Courtney, Nicholas (1986). Princess Anne: A Biography. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson. ISBN9780297789581. Retrieved 22 April 2020. The school helped too, although Miss Gee admitted to having a Royal charge 'a bit of a shock, but we had had a princess at Benenden before - a Danish one [Benedikte] - and after she [Anne] had arrived, it was all perfectly normal.
^Rosenbom, Niels (December 2007). "Prize of honour to HRH Princess Benedikte". World Gazette Mondiale-News from the International Scout and Guide Fellowship (an organisation for adults)-ISGF. Archived from the original on 9 May 2008. Retrieved 2 February 2008.
Bloch Skipper, Jon (2008). Tre søstre : samtaler mellem dronning Margrethe, prinsesse Benedikte og dronning Anne-Marie [Three sisters: conversations between Queen Margrethe, Princess Benedikte and Queen Anne-Marie] (in Danish). Copenhagen: Lindhardt og Ringhof. ISBN978-87-11-30060-2.
Bramsen, Bo (1992). Huset Glücksborg. Europas svigerfader og hans efterslægt [The House of Glücksburg. The Father-in-law of Europe and his descendants] (in Danish) (2nd ed.). Copenhagen: Forlaget Forum. ISBN87-553-1843-6.
Lerche, Anna; Mandal, Marcus (2003). A royal family : the story of Christian IX and his European descendants. Copenhagen: Aschehoug. ISBN9788715109577.
1 Also princess of Norway 2 Also princess of Greece 3 Also princess of Iceland 4 Not Danish princess by birth, but created princess of Denmark Princesses that lost their title are shown in italics
