The death of King Harald V: the end of an era and the accession of King Haakon in Norway

Such as his love for Queen Sonja, who was the same age as him but not a princess, as his father would have wished. They first met when they were 15, during a royal family sailing trip, then again at the age of 22 at a party, and that is when their romantic relationship began.

In a 2015 interview with NRK, the Norwegian public service broadcaster, the monarch admitted that he felt torn between following his heart and respecting his father’s wishes and his institutional duties.

The Norwegian press at the time reported that if the Crown Prince were to marry a woman from the middle classes, it would spell the end of the monarchy. “I said that if I couldn’t marry her, I would remain a bachelor,” he recounted, whereupon the King consulted his ministers and finally gave his approval for the marriage, after nine years together.

The couple had two children: Marthe-Louise and then Haakon. However, it was the second-born who would succeed to the throne, in accordance with the law in force at the time. The children of the ‘forbidden couple’ in turn made choices in love that caused a scandal in the Norwegian press.

Prince Haakon met his wife Mette-Marit at a music festival; not only was she not of noble birth, but she was also separated and had a three-year-old son, Marius Borg Hoiby, to support. At the time, the matter caused a scandal in Norway, particularly amongst the bishops of the Norwegian Lutheran Church.

Before the constitutional reform in 2012, the King of Norway was also the head of the Church of Norway, just as the British monarch still is the head of the Church of England.

Princess Martha-Louise - aged 54 - divorced her first husband and then remarried, this time to an American shaman, Durek Verret, who caused a scandal during the pandemic when he tried to sell anti-Covid amulets.

The royal family has also been embroiled in scandals recently, including the revelation of the friendship between Mette-Marit and Jeffrey Epstein, which came to light thanks to the Epstein files, and the legal proceedings involving Marius Borg Hoiby, who was convicted at first instance on two counts of rape.

Recent crises have seen support for the monarchy in Norway fall to an all-time low, but according to figures presented by NRK, 60 per cent of Norwegians still support it.

King Harald, who passed away today, will be remembered as a sporty monarch, with a strong passion for sailing (the Canadian press nicknamed him the ‘sailor-king’) which he had nurtured since his youth and which led him to compete for the Norwegian national team at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, the 1968 Mexico City Olympics and the 1972 Munich Olympics. At the 1964 Tokyo Games, he was the flag-bearer at the opening ceremony. At the World Championships, with his sailing crew, he won bronze in 1988, silver in 1982 and gold in 1987. His last World Championship was in 2022, at the age of 85.

Following the Norwegian football team’s success at the World Cup, where they reached the quarter-finals, King Harald welcomed the players one by one to the Royal Palace, and his son Haakon then joined the team outside the palace for a final group celebration. The Norwegian throne now passes to King Haakon and Queen Mette-Marit, both aged 53.

Their eldest daughter, Ingrid-Alexandra, aged 22, is now the heiress to the throne.