Following the death of his grandfather King Haakon VII in 1957, Harald became crown prince as his father became king. Harald became king following his father's death in 1991. He married Sonja Haraldsen in 1968, their relationship having initially been controversial due to her status as a commoner. They have two children, their elder child Märtha Louise and their younger child Haakon, who became heir apparent due to male-preference primogeniture.
In 1940 the entire royal family had to flee Oslo because of the German invasion. It was deemed safer for the family to split up. The King and Crown Prince Olav would remain in Norway and the Crown Princess was to make her way to Sweden with the three children. The latter party reached Sweden on the night of 10 April, but although Crown Princess Märtha was Swedish-born, they encountered problems at the border station. According to Princess Astrid and others who were present, they were admitted only after the driver threatened to ram the border gate. Another account does not describe the escape so dramatically.[3] However, when the King and Crown Prince inquired of Swedish foreign minister Christian Günther whether they could sleep one night in Sweden without being interned, their request was refused.[3]
Harald spent the following days in Sälen before moving to Prince Carl Bernadotte's home in Frötuna on 16 April. On 26 April the group moved to Drottningholm in Stockholm. King Gustaf V has been accounted to have had an amicable relationship with his Norwegian guests, but the topic of the war in Norway was not to be raised. However, influential Swedish politicians, including Minister of Justice Westman, wanted the Crown Princess and Prince Harald to be sent back to Norway so he could be proclaimed King by the Germans.[3][4] After the King and Crown Prince had to leave Norway on 7 June they felt Sweden might not be the best place for the rest of the family, and started planning for them to go to the United States. On 17 August the Crown Princess and her children left for the United States from Petsamo, Finland, aboard the United States Army transport ship American Legion.[3]
Harald, his mother, and his sisters lived in Washington, D.C. and Scottsdale, Arizona during the war,[5] while his father, Crown Prince Olav, and his grandfather, King Haakon, stayed in London with the Norwegian government-in-exile. One of the notable events he remembers from that time is standing behind Franklin D. Roosevelt when he was sworn in for his fourth term on the South Portico of the White House in 1945. Such childhood experiences are reflected in a trace of an American accent when he speaks English.[6] The Doris Kearns Goodwin book No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt and the Home Front in World War II contains a picture of the King (then Prince) playing with FDR's dog, Fala, on the North Lawn of the White House in 1944.
Harald visited Norwegian servicemen training in the United States. The prince also made visits outside America, travelling north to visit Norwegian personnel at the training base "Little Norway" in Ontario, Canada. He attended The White Hall Country School from 1943. Prince Harald returned to Norway with his family at the war's end in 1945.
Return
In the autumn of 1945 he was enrolled in third grade of Smestad skole as the first member of the royal family to attend a public (state) school.
Amidst this when he was only 17 years old in 1954, his mother died of cancer. The Crown Princess's death was a tremendous loss for him and his family as well as for Norway,[7] and he named his daughter Märtha to honour her memory. Four years later in 1958 he would lose his maternal grandmother, Princess Ingeborg of Denmark.
Crown Prince
Prince Harald as a student in the Cavalry Officers' Candidate School, Trandum, 1956/1957
In 1955 he graduated from Oslo katedralskole and in the autumn of that year, Harald began studies at the University of Oslo. He later attended the Cavalry Officers' Candidate School at Trandum, followed by enrollment at the Norwegian Military Academy, from which he graduated in 1959. On 21 September 1957 at the death of his grandfather, Harald became crown prince at the age of 20 and he attended the Council of State for the first time six days later and took the oath to the Constitution of Norway on 21 February 1958. In the same year, he also served as regent in the King's absence for the first time.
Crown Prince Harald with Australian Prime Minister John Gorton in 1970
Harald married Sonja Haraldsen at Oslo Domkirke in Oslo on 29 August 1968. The pair had dated for nine years, but Olav was reluctant to allow his son to marry a commoner. Olav only relented when Harald told his father that if he was not allowed to marry Sonja he would not marry at all. This would have ended the reign of his family and the Norwegian monarchy, as Harald was the sole heir to the throne. The couple had two children, Princess Märtha Louise and Crown Prince Haakon, heir apparent to the Norwegian throne.
Reign
On the death of his father on 17 January 1991, Harald succeeded to the Norwegian throne. He became the first Norwegian-born monarch since Olav IV died in 1387, a gap of 604 years. Harald is the sixth King of Norway to bear that name, and the first in 855 years. The five other kings who have borne the name are Harald Fairhair, Harald Greycloak, Harald Bluetooth, Harald Hardrada, and Harald Gille. Harald Bluetooth is usually not given a number in the Norwegian list of kings, therefore Harald is 'only' numbered as Harald V. King Harald made the decision to use his grandfather's royal motto, "Alt for Norge". The King also chose to continue the tradition of royal benediction, a tradition that had been introduced with his father, and was consecrated together with Queen Sonja in the Nidaros Cathedral on 23 June 1991.[10]
The reign of King Harald has been marked by modernization and reform for the Norwegian Royal family. The King has cooperated closely with Queen Sonja and the Crown Prince in making the royal household more open to the Norwegian public and the Norwegian media. King Harald's decision to accept two more commoners into the royal family, Crown Princess Mette-Marit and Ari Behn, has been interpreted as a sign of modernization and adjustment.[11][12] Under King Harald and Queen Sonja's leadership, comprehensive renovation projects on the Bygdøy Royal Estate, the Royal Palace, the royal stables and Oscarshall have also taken place. The latter three have also been opened to the public and tourists.[13] Together with Queen Sonja, the king has also for decades attempted to establish a palace museum in Oslo.[14][15]
While the Constitution vests the King with executive power, he is not politically responsible for exercising it. This is in accordance not only with provisions of the Constitution, but with conventions established since the definitive establishment of parliamentary rule in Norway in 1884. His acts are not valid without the countersignature of a member of the Council of State (cabinet)–usually the Prime Minister–and proceedings of the Council of State are signed by all of its members. Although he nominally has the power of veto, no Norwegian king has exercised it since the dissolution of the union with Sweden in 1905. Even then, the King's veto power is suspensive, not absolute as is the case with British monarchs. A royal veto can be overridden if the Storting passes the same bill following a general election.
While the Constitution nominally vests the King with the power to appoint the government, in practice it is impossible for a King to keep a government in office against the will of Parliament. By convention, the King appoints the leader of the parliamentary bloc with the majority as prime minister. When the parliamentary situation is unclear, the King relies on the advice of the President of Parliament and the sitting prime minister. Unlike most constitutional monarchs, Harald does not have the power to dissolve Parliament; the Constitution does not allow snap elections.
The King meets with the Council of State at the Royal Palace every Friday. He also has weekly meetings with the Prime Minister and the Minister of Foreign Affairs. He receives foreign envoys, and formally opens parliament every October delivering a speech from the throne during each opening. He travels extensively throughout Norway and makes official state visits to other countries, as well as receiving and hosting guests.
Until 2012, the King of Norway was, according to the constitution, the formal head of the Church of Norway. The constitutional amendment of 21 May 2012 made the King no longer the formal head, but he is still required to be of the Evangelical Lutheran religion.
In 1994, both the King and Crown Prince Haakon played roles during the opening ceremony of the Lillehammer Olympics. The King opened the games, while the Crown Prince lit the cauldron, paying tribute to both the King and his grandfather as Olympians. The King has also represented Norway at opening ceremonies of Olympic Games, among them Torino and Beijing. However, he was not present in Vancouver; the Crown Prince attended instead, with the King and Queen attending later in the games.
With his sailing crew he won World Championship bronze, silver and gold medals, in 1988, 1982 and 1987, respectively. In July 2005, the King and his crew aboard the royal sailboat Fram XV won the gold medal at the European Championships in Sweden. In the 2007 World Championship the King came in sixth place.[17]
In 2015, he became the world's first reigning monarch to visit Antarctica, specifically the Norwegian dependencyQueen Maud Land.[22] In 2016, King Harald V competed with a team for the sailing World Championships on Lake Ontario, Toronto. The king came second in the classic fleet category.[23] He was dubbed "Sailor-King" by Canada's National Post as he slept on board his yacht Sira.[24]
In 2016 Harald, in a speech marking 25 years on the throne, sought to unify Norwegians coming from Afghanistan and Pakistan as well as "girls who love girls, boys who love boys and girls and boys who love each other."[25]
Since the start of the twenty-first century, King Harald has been unable to perform his duties as sovereign due to ill health on a few occasions: from December 2003 to mid-April 2004 due to urinary bladder cancer, from April to early June 2005 due to aortic stenosis, and in 2020 due to cardiac surgery (replacement of a heart valve). Crown Prince Haakon served as the country's regent on these occasions, including giving the King's Speech at the State opening of parliament in 2020.[26]
When the King and Queen turned 80 years old in 2017, the King decided to open the former royal stables to the public as a gift to his wife, the Queen. The new venue was named The Queen Sonja Art Stable and is the first institution owned by the royal family which is permanently open to the public.[27] King Harald was made Name of the Year by the newspaper VG in 2017.[28]
On 17 January 2021, King Harald celebrated 30 years on the Norwegian throne.[29] On 11 September 2022, he visited Denmark to celebrate Margrethe II's Golden Jubilee.[30] Harald was hospitalized in August 2022 with a fever, being again admitted to hospital that December for an infection. He was also hospitalized for an infection once again in May 2023 just before Constitution Day. On 15 September 2023 he also attended the celebrations of Carl XVI Gustaf's Golden Jubilee in Stockholm, Sweden. In October 2023, Harald tested positive for coronavirus, having previously tested positive for the disease in March 2022.[31] Since the death of Elizabeth II in 2022, Harald is Europe's oldest hereditary reigning monarch, at the age of 87.[32] Since 9 September 2024 he is the oldest monarch in over 1,150 years of Norwegian monarchy, living longer than his father Olav V, who died at the age of 87 years and 199 days.
On 31 January 2024, the royal palace announced that King Harald was on "sick leave" until 2 February due to a respiratory infection.[33] On 27 February, while on holiday in Malaysia, he was again hospitalized on the resort island of Langkawi; he was admitted to the royal suites of Sultanah Maliha Hospital, a government hospital and the only major hospital on the island, and had a temporary pacemaker implanted due to a low heart rate.[34][35] During his hospitalization, he was accorded protection and security similar to that of a reigning state ruler of Malaysia. He was discharged on 3 March and was transported back to Norway on a medical evacuation flight to continue his recovery in a hospital, during which he would be on sick leave for two weeks.[36][37] He received a permanent pacemaker on 12 March.[38] Two days later, he was discharged but remained on sick leave.[39] He resumed his duties on 22 April, with the royal household saying that his official activities would be reduced in light of his condition.[40]
^Coronation requirement discarded by constitutional amendment in 1908. Harald V swore the Royal Oath in the Storting on 21 January 1991 and received the benediction in the Nidaros Cathedral on 23 June 1991.
^Moxnes, Agnes (27 December 2018). "På tide med et slottsmuseum". NRK (in Norwegian Bokmål). Archived from the original on 8 November 2020. Retrieved 27 December 2018.
^Nyfløt, Hilda (21 August 2011). "- Hans aller beste tale". Dagbladet (in Norwegian). Archived from the original on 21 October 2017. Retrieved 24 January 2018.
^Slovak republic website, State honoursArchived 13 April 2016 at the Wayback Machine : 1st Class received in 2010 (click on "Holders of the Order of the 1st Class White Double Cross" to see the holders' table)
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