Harald V. (Norway)
Harald V of Norway (born February 21, 1937 on Gut Skaugum , Asker ) has been King of Norway since the death of his father Olav V on January 17, 1991 .
Life and royal family
Childhood and youth
Norwegian royal family |
SM King Harald V. *
* Members of the royal family |
King Harald V comes from the Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg family , a branch of the Oldenburg family . He is the son of King Olav V and Queen Märthas of Norway , a born princess of Sweden. He has two older sisters, Ragnhild and Astrid . Harald is the first Norwegian king born in Norway since Olav IV. In 1370. His motto , like that of his grandfather and father, is Alt for Norge (“Everything for Norway”).
During the Second World War , the young Prince Harald lived in Sweden for a few months and later in Maryland in the USA , but returned to Norway with his family on June 7, 1945. He attended a state elementary school, the Smestad skole, and later the Oslo Katedralskole, where he passed his Artium exams. He finished his education at the Norwegian Military Academy and Balliol College in Oxford in the UK . When King Håkon VII died in 1957, Prince Harald's father Olav V became King and he himself became Crown Prince . As early as 1958, he was crown regent in the statsråd during the absence of his father.
King Harald V is related to the Swedish and Belgian royal families through his mother, Crown Princess Märtha, who died of cancer in 1954 (the former King Albert II is his cousin) and to the British royal family through his grandmother Queen Maud ; As the great-grandson of King Edward VII , he still holds a rank in the British line of succession , he is the first non-British in the line of succession. Today's Norwegian royal family is a (not entitled to the throne) side line of the Danish royal family. As you can see from the family tree below, the various marriages of his ancestors resulted in the situation that he was three times great-great-grandson of the Danish King Christian IX. is. The Swedish King Charles XV. appears twice as his great-great-grandfather. Usually you have eight different great-great-grandfathers. In the case of King Harald, however, there are only five, which can be traced back to an intensive family marriage policy. This of course also applies to his great-great-grandmothers.
marriage and family
Crown Prince Harald married Sonja Haraldsen, who came from a middle-class background, in Oslo Cathedral on August 29, 1968 . His father had only given him permission to marry after nine years, fearing that a civil marriage could endanger the future of the monarchy in Norway. The royal couple belong to the Evangelical Lutheran national church . It has two children, Princess Märtha Louise and Crown Prince Haakon .
King Harald is now five times grandfather. His son, Crown Prince Haakon and his wife, Crown Princess Mette-Marit , have been the parents of Princess Ingrid Alexandra of Norway since January 21, 2004 , and the first son of the Crown Prince couple , Prince Sverre Magnus , was born on December 3, 2005 . Harald's daughter, Princess Märtha Louise , gave birth to their first daughter Maud Angelica Behn on April 29, 2003 ; on April 8, 2005 was followed by Leah Isadora and on September 29, 2008 Emma Tallulah. Like the children of the king's sisters, the girls do not have the title of princess or use the title of Royal Highness; the latter also applies to the youngest child of the Crown Prince couple, Prince Sverre.
Health problems
On December 1, 2003, the royal family announced that King Harald V had bladder cancer . He was operated on on December 8th in the Norwegian Radium Hospital . Crown Prince Haakon temporarily took over the duties of Head of State of Norway until the King was able to resume his duties on April 13, 2004.
On March 17, 2005, the royal family announced that the king had to undergo surgery for subvalvular aortic stenosis . Again the Crown Prince took over all duties of the King until June 7, 2005. Due to his illnesses, the king gave up smoking and, on the advice of his doctors, reduced his workload considerably.
Tasks and interests
Duties as head of state
The Kingdom of Norway is a constitutional monarchy with strong parliamentary features. As King of Norway, Harald V mainly has representative and constitutional tasks. The cabinets must be formally confirmed or dismissed by him in the respective parliamentary situation. The Storting (the Norwegian parliament) has, according to Norwegian Constitution every year are opened by the acting regent, where the monarch in the throne speech (trontale) (as in the Netherlands ) the political program of the government that governs in his name under the Constitution, the MPs for the coming legislative period.
As a rule, the Norwegian government meets every Friday in the State Council (statsråd) , chaired by the King and the Crown Prince being present . The meeting takes place in the royal palace in Oslo . There the decisions of the government are presented to the king, which he - according to parliamentary constitutional practice - always confirms, because without his signature they are not valid. In theory, the head of state has the power to veto unconstitutional decisions by the government . However, since Håkon VII the Norwegian king has not been directly involved in political decision-making.
Every week the king also receives the prime minister (state minister ) in private audience, as well as the foreign minister (utenriksminister) . He is informed about the most important domestic and foreign policy perspectives in the country. As the formal supreme commander of the Norwegian armed forces , the king also maintains close ties with the highest officers in the army , air force and navy and is trained as an officer himself . Until the reform of the state church law in 2012, he was the head of the Church of Norway .
Sporting commitment
As a regatta sailor , King Harald V represented Norway in several yachting competitions. He participated as a sailor in the Olympic Games in 1964 , 1968 and 1972 . At the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 1964 he was also the bearer of the Norwegian flag. The monarch has not only been an enthusiastic, but also a successful ocean sailor for decades. In 1987 he was sailing world champion with his yacht Fram X . In 2005 he won the IMS European Championship in Sweden with Fram XV . Harald V. sails in the so-called non-Corinthian class , i.e. with a professional crew. The king also sails the 8mR yacht Sira , built in 1938, very successfully as a helmsman. With her he became world champion in Hankø (Norway) in 2008. At the 2018 World Championships on Lake Constance , he finished third with Sira . King Harald V campaigned intensively for the 1994 Winter Olympics to be awarded to Lillehammer .
Orders and decorations
The Prince Harald Coast in Antarctica is named after him.
ancestors
Pedigree of King Harald V of Norway | ||||||||
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Old parents |
King |
King |
Prince |
King |
King |
Duke |
King |
King |
Great grandparents |
King |
King |
King |
King |
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Grandparents |
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Prince Carl of Sweden , |
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parents |
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predecessor | Office | successor |
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Olav V. |
King of Norway 1991– |
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Stuttgarter Nachrichten: Harald the V at the Sailing World Championship (June 29, 2018) , accessed on September 17, 2019
- ↑ Lasse Johannsen: World Championship in Honor of His Majesty. In: Yacht . May 16, 2017, accessed December 10, 2019 .
- ↑ Sailing reporter: 8mR-WM: Overall title goes to Austria - King Harald on the class podium (July 9, 2018) , accessed on September 17, 2019
- ^ VOE: Inquiry response. (PDF; 6.9 MB) April 23, 2012, accessed on July 10, 2012 (list of all decorations awarded by the Federal President for services to the Republic of Austria from 1952).
personal data | |
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SURNAME | Harald V. |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | norwegian king |
DATE OF BIRTH | February 21, 1937 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Skaugum |