Haakon VII
Haakon VII was King of Norway from 1905 until his death in 1957. Having reigned for nearly 52 years, he was the second longest-reigning monarch in Norwegian history, after Christian IV.
He was born in Copenhagen during the reign of his grandfather, King Christian IX of Denmark; he was named Carl at birth and was the second son of the Crown Prince and Crown Princess of Denmark. Carl was educated at the Royal Danish Naval Academy and served in the Royal Danish Navy. After the 1905 dissolution of the union between Sweden and Norway, he was offered the Norwegian crown. Following a monarchy referendum, he accepted the offer and was formally elected King of Norway by the Storting and took the Old Norse name Haakon, thus ascended the throne as Haakon VII, becoming the first independent Norwegian monarch since Olav IV in 1387.
As king, Haakon gained much sympathy from the Norwegian people. Although the Constitution of Norway vests the King with considerable executive powers, in practice Haakon confined himself to a representative and ceremonial role while rarely interfering in politics, a practice continued by his son and grandson. Norway was invaded by Nazi Germany in April 1940. Haakon rejected German demands to legitimise the Quisling regime's puppet government, vowing to abdicate rather than do so. He refused to abdicate after going into exile in Great Britain. As such, he played a pivotal role in uniting the Norwegian nation in its resistance to the invasion and the subsequent five-year-long occupation during the Second World War. He returned to Norway in June 1945 after the defeat of Germany.
Haakon became King of Norway when his grandfather Christian IX was still reigning in Denmark, and before his father and elder brother became kings of Denmark. During his reign he saw his father Frederick VIII, his elder brother Christian X, and his nephew Frederik IX ascend the throne of Denmark in 1906, 1912, and 1947 respectively. Haakon died at the age of 85 in September 1957, after having reigned for nearly 52 years. He was succeeded by his only child and son, who ascended to the throne as Olav V.
Early life
Birth and family
Prince Carl was born on 3 August 1872 at his parents' country residence, Charlottenlund Palace north of Copenhagen, during the reign of his paternal grandfather, King Christian IX. He was the second son of Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark, and his wife Louise of Sweden. His father was the eldest son of King Christian IX and Louise of Hesse-Kassel, and his mother was the only daughter of King Charles XV of Sweden, and Louise of the Netherlands. At birth, he was third in the succession to the Danish throne after his father and older brother, but without any real prospect of inheriting the throne. The young prince was baptised at Charlottenlund Palace on 7 September 1872 by the Bishop of Zealand, Hans Lassen Martensen. He was baptised with the names Christian Frederik Carl Georg Valdemar Axel, and was known as Prince Carl.Carl belonged to the Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg branch of the House of Oldenburg. The House of Oldenburg had been the Danish royal family since 1448; between 1536 and 1814 it also ruled Norway, which was then part of the Kingdom of Denmark-Norway. The house was originally from northern Germany, where the Glücksburg branch held their small fief. The family had links with Norway beginning from the 15th century. Several of his paternal ancestors had been kings of Norway in union with Denmark and at times Sweden. They included Christian I, Frederick I, Christian III, Frederick II, Christian IV, and Frederick III. Frederick III integrated Norway into the Oldenburg state with Denmark, Schleswig and Holstein. His subsequent paternal ancestors had been dukes in Schleswig-Holstein. Christian Frederick, who was King of Norway briefly in 1814, the first king of the Norwegian 1814 constitution and struggle for independence, was his great-granduncle.
Childhood and education
Carl was raised with his siblings in the royal household in Copenhagen, and grew up between his parents' residence in Copenhagen, the Frederick VIII's Palace, an 18th-century palace which forms part of the Amalienborg Palace complex in central Copenhagen, and their country residence, Charlottenlund Palace, located by the coastline of the Øresund strait north of the city. In contrast to the usual practice of the period, where royal children were brought up by governesses, the children were raised by Crown Princess Louise herself. Under the supervision of their mother, the children received a rather strict Christian-dominated upbringing, which was characterized by severity, the fulfillment of duties, care and order.As a younger son of the Crown Prince, there was little expectation that Carl would become king. He was third in line to the throne after his father and elder brother, Prince Christian, and spent his early life in the shadow of his elder brother. Carl was less than two years younger than Christian, and the two princes were educated together at home by private tutors and had a joint confirmation at Christiansborg Palace Chapel in 1887.
After his confirmation, as was customary for princes at that time, Carl was expected to start a military education. It was decided that he, in accordance with his own wishes, should enter the Royal Danish Navy. He was educated at the Royal Danish Naval Academy from 1889 to 1893, graduating as a second lieutenant. He subsequently remained in service with the Royal Danish Navy until his appointment as Norwegian king in 1905. In 1894 he was promoted to the rank of first lieutenant and in 1905 to the rank of admiral. During his naval career, he took part in several naval expeditions, including one in 1904–1905 with the protected cruiser to the Mediterranean and the Atlantic.
Marriage
On 28 October 1895, at the age of 23, Carl was engaged to his first cousin Princess Maud of Wales. Princess Maud was the youngest daughter of the Prince and Princess of Wales. The Princess of Wales was Carl's aunt, being the eldest daughter of King Christian IX and Queen Louise. The wedding was celebrated on 22 July 1896, in the Private Chapel of Buckingham Palace, and was attended by the bride's grandmother, the 77-year-old Queen Victoria.After the wedding, the couple settled in Copenhagen, where Carl continued his career as a naval officer. They took up residence in the Bernstorff Mansion, an 18th-century Rococo style townhouse owned by their mutual uncle King George I of Greece, situated in Bredgade immediately adjacent to the Amalienborg Palace complex. Furthermore, the bride's father gave them Appleton House on the Sandringham Estate as a country residence for his daughter's frequent visits to England. It was there that the couple's only child, Prince Alexander, the future Crown Prince Olav, was born on 2 July 1903.
Accession to the Norwegian throne
Background and election
Following several years of disagreements on various topics, the Union between Sweden and Norway which had existed since 1814 was dissolved in 1905. The union was unilaterally dissolved by the Storting on 7 June, and the dissolution was later confirmed by the Norwegian people in the 1905 Norwegian union dissolution referendum held on 13 August. After weeks of negotiations, the dissolution of the union was then recognized by Sweden on 23 September in the Treaty of Karlstad, mediated by the great powers of Europe. Its provisions included the full recognition of Norway's sovereignty and the abdication of the Swedish King Oscar II from the Norwegian throne. One month later, the union was formally dissolved as King Oscar II on 26 October signed the documents recognizing Norway as an independent state, and abdicated as Norwegian king on the same day.Subsequently, a committee of the Norwegian government identified several princes of European royal houses as candidates for the vacant Norwegian crown. Although Norway had legally had the status of an independent state since 1814, it had not had its own king since 1387. Gradually, Prince Carl became the leading candidate, largely because he was descended from independent Norwegian kings. He also had a son, providing an heir-apparent to the throne, and the fact that his wife, Princess Maud, was a member of the British royal family was viewed by many as an advantage to the newly independent Norwegian nation.
The democratically minded Prince Carl, aware that Norway was still debating whether to remain a kingdom or to switch instead to a republican system of government, was flattered by the Norwegian government's overtures, but he made his acceptance of the offer conditional on the holding of a referendum to show whether monarchy was the choice of the Norwegian people. After the referendum overwhelmingly confirmed by a 79 percent majority that Norwegians desired to remain a monarchy, Prince Carl was formally offered the throne of Norway by the Storting and was elected on 18 November 1905. When Carl accepted the offer that same evening, he immediately endeared himself to his adopted country by taking the Old Norse name of Haakon, a name which had not been used by kings of Norway for over 500 years. In so doing, he succeeded his maternal great-uncle, Oscar II of Sweden, who had abdicated the Norwegian throne in October.
File:Norwegian_delegation_20_November_1905_at_Amalienborg.jpg|thumb|300px|A delegation from the Norwegian Parliament is received on 20 November 1905 at Amalienborg by King Christian IX of Denmark, who gives his consent to the election of his grandson Prince Carl as King of Norway. Painting by Paul Fischer.
Two days later, on the morning of 20 November, a large crowd gathered outside King Haakon and Queen Maud's residence in Bernstorff's Palace in Copenhagen. The attendees greeted the royal couple as they appeared in the window and started singing the patriotic song Ja, vi elsker dette landet. Later the same day, King Christian IX of Denmark received a delegation from the Storting in an audience in Christian VII's Palace at Amalienborg. The delegation conveyed the message that the king's grandson had been elected King of Norway, while Christian IX expressed his consent to the election of Prince Carl. The head of the delegation, the President of the Storting Carl Berner, conveyed a greeting and congratulations from the Norwegian people, and expressed the people's wishes for a happy cooperation. The king replied:
Mr. President of the Storthing, gentlemen: The first greeting from the Representatives of the Norwegian People, who in their unanimous Storthing decision on 18 November has elected me their King, has touched me very deeply. The people have thereby shown me a confidence which I know how to appreciate, and which I hope will still grow stronger as it gets to know my wife and me. As it will be known to you, gentlemen, it was at my request that the newly concluded referendum took place. I wanted to be sure that it was a people and not a party that wanted me to be king, as my task above all should be to unite, not divide. My life I will devote to the good of Norway, and it is the fervent wish of my wife and I that the people who have chosen us will unite to cooperate and strive towards this great goal, and with full confidence I can then take as my motto: ALL FOR NORWAY!