Succession to the throne (Norway)

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Royal Norwegian coat of arms

history

Originally, the same rules applied to succession to the throne as to succession to property, but limited to male descendants. This meant that several sons of a ruler became king at the same time and next to each other. No distinction was made between legitimate and illegitimate sons. The royal dignity could also be conveyed through a woman. If she herself was of royal descent, she could not become queen herself, but her son could become king. But his claim to the throne was weaker, as shown by the competition between Håkon IV and Guttorm, son of Inge II.which can only be seen through the sister of King Sverre of royal descent. However, parentage alone was not enough. The people had to accept the heir to the throne on a thing. The acceptance of the king (konungstekja) was a separate homage ceremony that had to be carried out at all thing assemblies in the country, with the Øyrathing enjoying the highest esteem near Trondheim . As long as the possibilities and communication of a king in Norway were limited to the area where he was staying, the common kingship of several brothers was not problematic. That changed in the 11th century. King Sigurd jórsalafari was sole king after the death of his brothers and tried for the first time to enforce that only one king should rule. He made his illegitimate son Magnus the sole king. But then Harald Gille appeared and proved by an iron test that he was King Magnus Barefoot's illegitimate son . Sigurd accepted that he was also entitled to the throne, but made him promise not to assert this claim during the lifetime of son Magnus. This demand met with a general lack of understanding and led to civil war after Sigurd's death.

In 1163, under pressure from the church, a new law of succession to the throne was enacted: According to this, only one person should be king in Norway, namely the eldest son of the deceased king who was born in wedlock. Should he be incapable of governing , then the bishops should appoint one of the brothers. Here, too, the king should be accepted, but no longer at individual thing meetings, but at an imperial meeting. This law was never implemented. Rather, new civil wars broke out. However, the law became a model for later succession laws. Only in the Act of Succession to the Throne of 1260 did the one kingship prevail. However, to the annoyance of the church, illegitimate sons remained in the line of inheritance. The regulation from 1163 that the church was allowed to check the status and ability to be king was not adopted. God himself should directly determine the heir to the throne through the order of the births.

In 1302, Håkon V made an important change to the Act of Succession by placing the legitimate sons of his daughter in third place in the line of succession, the legitimate daughter herself in the seventh place, and the sons of an illegitimate daughter in the ninth place. It was the first time that the Norwegian right to the throne was opened to a reigning queen.

The regulation now in force was strictly observed until 1343. This year, the two-year-old Håkon Magnusson was elected King of Norway before his older brother Erik , which violated the legal requirement of the Norwegian birthright. When Olav Håkonsson died in 1387 without a physical heir, the following year Margarethe I was elected by the Imperial Council to "rikets mektige frue og rette husbonde" (the empire's powerful wife and regent) without being able to assert any right of inheritance to the rule. At the same time it was determined that the succession should now be calculated from her. What was decided at this Imperial Council meeting of 1388 was a revolution. Because the next heir would have been the descendants of Magnus Eriksson's sister Eufemia and her husband Albrecht II of Mecklenburg , who was now King of Sweden as Albrecht of Mecklenburg . But after the decision of the Imperial Council, the latter had forfeited his right to Norway because he had waged war against Norway. The stipulation that the right of inheritance should now be derived from Margarethe shows that the hereditary monarchy was still firmly anchored. Another indication is that the great-grandson of King Håkon V. Håkon Jonsson, who had no aspirations for royal dignity, formally had to renounce the right to the Norwegian throne.

In 1449 the hereditary kingship broke again when Christoph von Bayern died in 1448 . There were two candidates for the throne against each other: Christian von Oldenburg and Karl Knutsson . Both had submitted their election surrender and both were elected. The electoral surrender of Christian, who ultimately won the throne, implied that Norway should be an empire with elective kingship, with the election being restricted to representatives of the royal family. This should also be done for Denmark. This regulation was then laid down again in the Union Treaty of 1450. Until 1537, the Norwegian Imperial Council made the election of the king, then the Danish Imperial Council, since the Norwegian had been dissolved. This right of the Reichsrat to vote was a core element of Reichsrat constitutionalism . In addition to the election act, homage at a meeting of the imperial estates had to be added, a tradition that still stems from the acceptance of kings (konungstekja).

In 1660 absolutism and with it the hereditary monarchy was introduced. The royal law of 14 November 1665 determined more details. In 1814 Norway was given over to the Swedish King Karl XIII on the basis of the provisions of the Kiel Peace . assumed. The personal union was dissolved in 1905, and the members of the Danish royal family were used to elect the new king. The Norwegian parliament elected Haakon VII , who was also confirmed by referendum.

Legal regulation today

The legal succession to the Norwegian throne is regulated by Article 6 of the Norwegian Constitution.

The succession to the throne is linear and agnatic, so that only children born in legal marriage can succeed the queen or king or a person entitled to succeed, and so that the closer line of the more distant and the older in the line precedes the younger.
The unborn child who immediately after its birth takes its due place in the line of succession is also counted among the persons entitled to succeed.
However, no one has the right of succession who is not in a straight line with the queen or king who was last to rule, or with her or his sister, or with her or his brother, or is himself a sister or brother of them.
If a successor princess or prince is born in Norway, her or his name and her or his hour of birth should be announced to the first Storting meeting after the birth and recorded in his or her protocol.
For those born before 1971, however, Article 6 of this constitution, as it was passed on November 18, 1905, is to apply. For those born before 1990, however, the man should have priority over the woman.

Article 6 of the original constitution (passed on November 18, 1905) only allowed men to succeed to the throne, so Harald's sisters Ragnhild (born 1930) and Astrid (born 1932) and their descendants are excluded from the line of succession. For those born after 1971, the man has priority over the woman. Princess Märtha Louise (born 1971) is placed behind her younger brother Haakon and his descendants. In the 1990s, the Norwegian constitution was changed so that men no longer have priority over women in the line of succession. This regulation does not apply retrospectively, so the first member of the royal family for whom this regulation comes into force is Princess Ingrid Alexandra (born 2004). So she takes precedence over her younger brother, Prince Sverre Magnus.

Descendants of the members of the Norwegian royal family (since 1905)

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 King Haakon VII
 
 
 
 Queen Maud
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 King Olav V
 
 Crown Princess Märtha
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Princess Ragnhild
 
 Princess Astrid
 
 King Harald V
 
 Queen Sonja
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Princess Märtha Louise
 
 Ari Behn
 
 
 
 
 
 Crown Prince Haakon
 
 Crown Princess Mette-Marit
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Maud Angelica
 
 Leah Isadora
 
 Emma Tallulah
 
 Princess Ingrid Alexandra
 
 Prince Sverre Magnus
 
 Marius

Legend:

late king
 
 current king
 
 Heir to the throne
 
 

This results in the following list of heirs to the throne:

Succession list

Crown Prince Haakon with his daughter Ingrid Alexandra

Succession list for the death of the current King Harald V (born 1937)

1. Haakon of Norway , King Harald's son (born July 20, 1973)

2. Princess Ingrid Alexandra , daughter of Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit (born Jan. 21, 2004)
3. Prince Sverre Magnus, son of Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit (born December 3, 2005)

4. Princess Märtha Louise , King Harald's daughter (* 22 Sep 1971)

5. Maud Angelica Behn, Princess Märtha Louise's daughter (born Apr. 29, 2003)
6. Leah Isadora Behn, Princess Märtha Louise's second daughter (born April 8, 2005)
7. Emma Tallulah Behn, Princess Märtha Louise's third daughter (born Sep. 29, 2008)

additional

  • In 1959, today's Queen Sonja and today's King Harald of Norway met. It took nine years for the Crown Prince to get his father Olav V's consent to marry the commoners. Allegedly, Harald threatened his father to remain single forever if he was not allowed to marry Sonja. Because he was the only heir to the throne, his father saw the succession of the royal family at risk and allowed the marriage.
  • Mette-Marit's son Marius, who comes from a previous relationship with Morten Borg, is not included in the succession list.
  • Princess Märtha Louise's decision to go into professional life in 2002, which coincided with her wedding, creates a greater distance from the constitutional role of the royal family. After consulting with Princess Märtha Louise, King Harald V decided that she would give up her title of “Royal Highness”. However, she still bears the title of princess, with which she can always be addressed. Her three daughters, however, are not allowed to have a royal title. The positions in the line of succession remain unaffected by this change. After their marriage in 2002, she renounced her appanage.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Helle p. 12.
  2. ↑ Helle p. 183.
  3. ↑ "Kong Haakon Magnussöns Anordning om Forandringer i Kongearvetallet og om Risstyrelsen, naar Kongen efterlader umyndig Sön eller Datter." Of 9 (16) September 1302. In: R. Keyser and PA Munch: Norges gamle love indtil 1387. Volume 3 Christiania 1849. No. 14 pp. 44-55.
  4. ↑ Bjørkvik p. 130.
  5. ↑ Bjørkvik p. 131.
  6. ↑ Mayr.
  7. ↑ Extract from the Norwegian constitution, www.koenigshaus-norwegen.de
  8. ↑ Wedding of Harald von Norway and Sonja Haraldson, http://princessdiana.npage.de/ ( Memento of the original from March 5, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / princessdiana.npage.de
  9. ↑ http://www.koenigshaus-norwegen.de/
  10. ↑ http://www.koenigshaeuser.net/norwegisches-koenigshaus/

literature

  • Halvard Bjørkvik: Folketap og sammenbrudd 1350–1520. Oslo 1996. Aschehougs Norges historie. Vol. 4.
  • Knut Helle: Under kirke og kongemakt. 1130-1350. Oslo 1995. Aschehougs Norges historie. Vol. 3.
  • Steinar Imsen: Article “Tronfølge” in Norsk historisk leksikon . Retrieved January 23, 2012.

Web links