Editing Prince Henrik of Denmark (section)

==Early life==
[[File:Henrik, Prince Consort of Denmark (1934-35).jpg|thumb|left|Henrik as a baby in 1934–35]]
[[File:Crown-princess Margrethe and Henri de Monpezat 1966.jpg|thumb|Henrik lighting a cigarette for Margrethe, 1966]]
Henrik was born in [[Talence]], [[Gironde]], [[French Third Republic|France]]. He was the son of André de Laborde de Monpezat (6 May 1907 in [[Mont-de-Marsan]] – 23 February 1998 in [[Le Cayrou]]) and his then-partner and future wife Renée-Yvonne Doursenot (24 October 1908 in [[Périgueux]] – 11 February 2001 in [[Le Cayrou]]<ref name="Obituary">{{cite web|last1=Svendsen|first1=Helge|title=Obituary: Countess de Monpezat|url=https://jyllands-posten.dk/indland/ECE3310195/Nekrolog-Grevinde-de-Monpezat/|website=jyllands-posten.dk|publisher=JP/Politikens Hus A/S|access-date=13 February 2018|language=da|date=12 February 2001}}</ref>), who was then married to Prof. Louis Leuret (1881–1962)<ref name=Valynseele/> whom she divorced only in 1940.<ref name=Valynseele/> André de Laborde de Monpezat and Renée Doursenot were married in 1948.<ref name=Valynseele/><ref>{{cite book |last= Chevé |first= Joëlle |title= La Noblesse du Périgord: Au pays des 1.000 châteaux |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=icdXDwAAQBAJ&q=andre+de+laborde+renee+doursenot+1948&pg=PT89|publisher=FeniXX|date= 1998 |language= fr |isbn= 9782262059743 |quote =''En 1948, André de Laborde de Monpezat épouse à Cahors, Renée Doursenot, née en 1908 à Périgueux, fille de Maurice, employé des chemins de fer, et de Marguerite Gay, repasseuse. De ce mariage naissent huit enfants dont l'aîné, Henri, sera prince consort de Danemark: né à Talence en 1934...'' (In 1948, André de Laborde de Monpezat married in [[Cahors]], Renée Doursenot, born in 1908 in Périgueux, daughter of Maurice, railway employee, and Marguerite Gay, ironer. From this marriage are born eight children, the eldest of whom, Henri, will be Prince Consort of Denmark: born in Talence in 1934...)}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last= de Diesbach |first= Ghislain |title= Les secrets du Gotha |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N06kCwAAQBAJ&q=renee+doursenot+monpezat+1940&pg=PT115|publisher=Éditions Place des éditeurs|date= 3 March 2016 |language= fr |isbn= 978-2-262-06650-5 |quote = ''Il suffit de rappeler qu'André Laborde de Monpezat, marié d'abord religieusement en 1934{{dubious|date=March 2021}}, contrairement à la loi, avec Renée Doursenot, déjà mariée et en instance de divorce, à dû attendre que celui-ci soit prononcé pour l'épouser, civilement cette fois (...) et du coup légitimer, en les faisant inscrire à l'état civil, tous les enfants nés déjà de son mariage religieux{{dubious|date=March 2021}}.'' (Suffice it to say that André Laborde de Monpezat, who was first religiously married in [6 January] 1934{{dubious|date=March 2021}}, in contravention of the law, to Renée Doursenot, already married [to Louis Leuret (on 29 September 1928), a [[Loss of clerical state (Catholic Church)|defrocked priest]]] and in the process of divorcing, had to wait until it [the divorce] was pronounced [by the French Civil Court in [[Ho Chi Minh City|Saigon]] on 21 September 1940] to marry her, civilly this time (...) and thus legitimise, by making them register with the civil status, all the children born already from his religious [unlawful] marriage{{dubious|date=March 2021}} [According to French republican law, approved by [[1905 French law on the Separation of the Churches and the State#Effects|State-Church agreements]], a religious marriage is sanctioned if pronounced before the civil marriage – and would not be more than a blessing].) }}</ref> He was the second of 9 children and eldest son. He had an older sister, Françoise (1932–2021); three younger brothers, Joseph "Jason" (1938–1957), Étienne (born 1942) and Jean-Baptiste (born 1944); and four younger sisters, Anne-Marie (1936–1938), Thérèse (1940–1959), Catherine (born 1946) and Maurille (1948–2015).

Henrik spent his first five years in Hanoi in [[Tonkin (French protectorate)|Tonkin]] in [[French Indochina]] (now part of Vietnam), where his father looked after family business interests.<ref name="kongehuset">{{cite web|author1=Danish Royal Family|title=HRH Prince Henrik|url=http://kongehuset.dk/den-kongelige-familie/regentparret/hkh-prins-henrik|website=kongehuset.dk|date=28 October 2011|publisher=Danish Royal Family|access-date=13 February 2018|language=da|archive-date=29 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170829175938/http://kongehuset.dk/den-kongelige-familie/regentparret/hkh-prins-henrik|url-status=dead}}</ref> In 1939, the family returned to Le Cayrou, where they remained during the [[Second World War]].<ref name="Obituary" /> Henrik received homeschooling until 1947, when he went to a [[Society of Jesus|Jesuit]] school in [[Bordeaux]].<ref name="kongehuset"/> He returned to Hanoi in [[Tonkin (French protectorate)|Tonkin]] in 1950, where increasing unrest forced him to fight the [[Việt Minh]], to protect his family's lands.<ref name="BT War" /> He graduated from the French secondary school in Hanoi in 1952.<ref name="kongehuset"/> Originally wanting to study to become a pianist at [[Conservatoire de Paris]], he instead chose an education more in line with his father's wishes.<ref name="DR Obituary">{{cite web|last1=Surrugue|first1=Stéphanie Marie|last2=Vestergaard|first2=Nikoline|title=Obituary: Prince Henrik had the joy of a hedonist and the soul of an artist|url=https://www.dr.dk/webfeature/prinshenrik|website=Dr.dk|access-date=14 February 2018|language=da|date=14 February 2018}}</ref> Between 1952 and 1957 he simultaneously studied law and political science at the [[University of Paris|Sorbonne]], Paris, and Chinese and Vietnamese at the ''École Nationale des Langues Orientales'' (now known as [[INALCO]]). He also studied in [[British Hong Kong|Hong Kong]] in 1957 and [[Saigon]] in 1958.<ref name="kongehuset"/>

He served as an infantry [[conscript]] in the [[French Army]] in the [[Algerian War]] between 1959 and 1962.<ref name="BT War">{{cite web|last1=Elkjær|first1=Kenneth|title=Prince Henrik Reveals His Bloody Past: We shot and human lives were lost|url=https://www.bt.dk/royale/prins-henrik-afsloerer-blodig-fortid-vi-skoed-og-menneskeliv-gik-tabt|website=BT.dk|publisher=Berlingske Media A/S|access-date=13 February 2018|language=da|date=18 June 2014}}</ref> He then joined the [[French Foreign Ministry]], working as a Secretary at the embassy in London from 1963 to 1967.<ref name="kongehuset"/> While there, he met [[Margrethe II of Denmark|Princess Margrethe]], who was studying at the [[London School of Economics]].<ref name="DR Obituary" /> The couple secretly dated for a year before Henrik proposed.<ref name="DR Obituary" />