Queen Silvia of Sweden is marking 37 years on the throne this year - hubby is three years ahead
While Silvia arrived at the regnal party three years after her king, Paola of the Belgians had been a royal wife for 33 years before become a queen. On her wedding day, she had few illusions about being consort of the Belgians as her handsome prince, Albert, was the younger brother of King Baudouin and although heir to the throne, he expected to be ousted by his brother's children. But Baudouin and his wife, Fabiola, suffered five miscarriages and the throne passed to Albert in 1992.
Somewhere amongst all those flowers is a future queen - Paola marries Albert in 1959 and takes her first steps towards the throne of Belgium
Queen Sonia had a 23 year wait before seeing her husband take on the role to which he was born. Her marriage to the then Crown Prince Harald of Norway in 1968 was not without controversy as Norwegian royals didn't wed commoners at the time but the Crown was down to one heir and he wanted a non royal bride. Faced with a choice of losing the crown to distant relatives or a future commoner queen, option A won the day and Sonia Haraldsen married the heir to the throne before settling into a two and a bit decade wait for her consort's crown. Her accession gave Norway its frist queen consort for almost 60 years.
Sonia Haraldsen dances her way into the Norwegian royal family following her wedding to future king, Harald, in 1968
Princess Beatrix of the Netherlands had been married for fourteen years before she became Queen Regnant on the abdication of her mother, Juliana, in 1980. Her wedding to Claus von Amsberg in 1966 needed the approval of the Dutch parliament and after a double dose of 'I do' in a civil then religious ceremony, Claus became a prince and Beatrix became the only heiress in Europe with a hubby. It was all but guaranteed that Juliana would abdicate at some point in the future but Beatrix and Claus enjoyed fourteen years of preparation time before taking on the role of Queen Regnant and consort.
Princess Beatrix on her wedding day to Claus
It was a fourteen year gap between marriage and monarchy for the new queen of the Belgians too. Mathilde and Philippe married in Brussels in 1999 and until early this year probably had little idea that they would be taking the throne so soon. But Albert's decision to abdicate on July 21st 2013 gave Belgium its first homegrown queen ever.
Mathilde of Belgium married her king in waiting in 1999
Sofia, Princess of Greece and Denmark had been married for thirteen years before becoming Queen of Spain but although her husband had been spoken of as a future head of his country, at the time of their marriage he wasn't technically even a king in waiting. Juan Carlos was sent to Madrid at the age of ten and had largely grown up there but on his wedding day, in Athens in 1962, he was an Infante of Spain which was still under the rule of General Franco. The fact that Franco allowed coverage of the wedding in a couple of Spanish papers and that he spoke, just before the ceremony of restoring the monarchy on his death, led to an intensifying of speculation that Juan Carlos would one day be in line to be king of Spain. But even when he was appointed heir in 1969, there was still no guarantee that he would be king. He brought a queen with him on his accession in 1975 but together they had to negotiate the transition to democracy that followed the death of Franco and secure their throne.
That's some queue for the buffet. Sofia was a princess twice over on the day she married Juan Carlos who was still not guaranteed a throne.
No such problems for Maxima Zorreguieta who married her king in waiting eleven years before he took the throne. Their crowns were secure and on their wedding day they knew that the strong tradition of monarchs in the Netherlands abdicating and enjoying a form of semi retirement meant that they'd be called on to reign sooner rather than later.
Maxima's frock took up most of the royal setting for the official wedding photos following her marriage to Willem-Alexander in 2002
Europe's two queen regnants had far less time to settle into married life and marriage before they were called on to rule. Margrethe of Denmark married Henri de Laborde de Monpezat in 1967 when she was 27 and her father, King Frederik IX, was aged 68. But in the early hours of New Year's Day 1972, the king fell suddenly and unexpectedly ill and he died on 14th January making Margrethe king. Her children were not quite four and three years old and she became monarch while a young mother, making Henri a Prince Consort after just five years of marriage.
Margrethe, still a princess, on her wedding day to Henri in 1967
It was a position that Elizabeth II of Great Britain had found herself in twenty years before. The then princess Elizabeth had married Philip Mountbatten in 1947 and had enjoyed life as a navy wife during which time she gave birth to her son and heir, Charles, and her only daughter, Anne. The health of her father, George VI, had been poor for several years but he was thought to be doing well when Elizabeth left for a trip to Kenya in January 1952. The king died, unexpectedly and aged just 56, on February 2nd 1952 making his daughter queen at the age of 26. Philip became consort after just four years of marriage.
The Queen on her wedding day in 1947 - she became monarch less than five years later
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