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Norway's King Harald V dies aged 89
BBC News··28 Aug
Norway's King Harald V died on Friday aged 89, a week after he was hospitalised for a rare blood condition. He passed away at 6:35 am at the national hospital in Oslo, the palace said. Harald reigned for 35 years and was known for modernising the monarchy and marrying a commoner. His son Haakon will succeed him.
Prism
What It Means For You
- Norway's constitutional monarchy passes immediately and without interruption to King Haakon, Harald's son.
- Harald's move to marry commoner Sonja opened the way for his own children to also marry outside royalty, changing the family's makeup.
- Harald's 2011 address following an attack that killed 8 people in Oslo and 69 more on Utoya island is remembered as a defining moment of his 35-year reign.
What's Happening
- Harald's father King Olav V died in 1991, after which Harald ascended the throne; Harald had been born in Norway in 1937, ending a run of foreign-born kings since the 14th century.
- Harald married Sonja Haraldsen in 1968 after waiting nine years for his father's approval to marry a commoner.
- In a 2016 speech, Harald said Norwegians come 'from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Poland, from Sweden, Somalia and Syria', highlighting the country's diversity.
A King Who Modernised The Monarchy
- Harald studied social science, history and economics at Balliol College, Oxford, from 1960 to 1962, before becoming king.
- He is survived by his wife of almost 58 years, Queen Sonja, daughter Princess Martha Louise, King Haakon and six grandchildren.
- Harald was an environmentalist who helped start the Norwegian branch of the World Wide Fund for Nature.
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