Danish royal death scandal: Why Prince Henrik is being cremated

Denmark's Prince Henrik, who passed away at the age of 83, will be cremated after he refused to be buried in a tomb prepared for him and his wife, Queen Margrethe, reports claim.

The Prince, who died 'peacefully in his sleep' at Fredensborg Castle on Tuesday, has been refusing to be buried in a sarcophagus prepared for him and Margrethe since 2017. The French-born royal is going to break a 459-year-old tradition due to his bitterness of never being made King, and not being treated as an 'equal' alongside his wife.

Resenting never being named king, in 2016, Henrik renounced the title of prince consort and spent much of his time at a chateau on a vineyard in southwestern France, although he remained married to the queen and officially still lived with her.

'My wife has decided that she would like to be Queen, and I’m very pleased with that,' he said at the time. '...But as a person, she must know that if a man and a woman are married, then they are equal. My wife hasn’t shown me the respect an ordinary wife should show her spouse.'

The Prince even said that his wife made a 'fool' out of him by not giving him the title of King. Traditionally, the title of King is not given to husbands of female monarchs. Queen Elizabeth's husband Prince Philip holds the title of prince not king.

'She’s the one playing me for a fool. I didn’t marry The Queen to get buried at Roskilde,' he once said.