King Harald V of Norway, until now the dean of European monarchs, passed away on Friday at the age of 89, announced the Royal Palace, with his son Haakon automatically becoming the new monarch.
“With deep sadness we announce that His Majesty King Harald left us today. King Harald passed away peacefully at the national hospital (Rikshospitalet) on Friday, August 28, at 6:35 AM” (04:35 GMT), the Palace wrote in a statement.
The king suffered from hemolytic anemia, a blood disease characterized by an abnormally rapid destruction of red blood cells.
Despite repeated health problems in recent years, he had refused to abdicate, arguing that he had sworn his position for life before Parliament.
Since Thursday, almost the entire family had been accompanying the monarch hospitalized since August 17, including the son of his daughter-in-law and new queen Mette-Marit, Marius Borg Høiby, recently sentenced to four years in prison for two rapes.
When it was announced on Thursday that his health condition was “extremely serious,” numerous ordinary citizens passed in front of the Royal Palace to lay flowers in honor of their king.
“Of course it is sad. He is a symbol of our country. And naturally, it is sad that something so beautiful ends,” Maja Otvik, 36, told AFP in front of the Palace.
“Many of us feel like we have lost the grandfather of the entire nation,” Caroline Vagle, a royalty expert from the newspaper SE og Hør, told AFP.
Upon the announcement of his death, the flag flying over the palace was lowered to half-mast.
With this, the heir to the throne, Prince Haakon, 53, automatically becomes king. His daughter Ingrid Alexandra, 22, in turn becomes the crown princess.
Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store expressed his “deep sadness,” and a national mourning was declared until the day of the funeral.
European royal houses were quick to pay tribute to the late monarch, related to the reigning families of England and Spain.
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Carlos III praised the “warmth and humility” of his “dear cousin” Harald, while the Spanish Royal House commended his “tireless dedication to the service of Norway and its people, before and during his 35 years of reign.”
There were also messages of condolences and tribute from the kings of the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, and Denmark.
Modernity and scandals
Harald V ascended to the throne of Norway in 1991 after the death of his father Olav, and embodied an open and tolerant Norway.
“Norwegians are girls who love girls, boys who love boys, and girls and boys who love each other,” he said in 2016 in a speech on the occasion of his 25 years as monarch. “Norwegians believe in God, Allah, the Universe, and in nothing,” he added.
The royal family also faced numerous scandals in recent years, two of them related to Mette-Marit.
This January, the publication of a set of files from the American sex offender Jeffrey Epstein revealed the previously unknown friendship with Princess Mette-Marit, wife of Haakon.
Among the messages were some formulated in an intimate tone, between 2011 and 2014, when the American financier had already been convicted in his country for soliciting sexual services from a minor.
The princess, affected by an incurable lung disease that forced her to receive a lung transplant in June, has had to face the legal problems of her son Marius Borg Høiby, born in 2001 from a relationship prior to her marriage with Haakon.
The 29-year-old was sentenced in June to four years in prison for two rapes – one of them committed in 2018 at the official residence of his mother and the crown prince – and 32 other charges.
The young man appealed his sentence, and while awaiting that new process, he is under house arrest with an electronic bracelet.
