Haakon VII of Norway
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King Haakon VII of Norway, born as Christian Frederik Carl Georg Valdemar Axel (August 3, 1872–September 21, 1957), was the first king of Norway after the 1905 dissolution of the personal union with Sweden in 1905. As one of the few elected monarchs, Haakon quickly won the respect and affection of his people and played a pivotal role in uniting the Norwegian nation in its resistance of the attack and five-year-long Nazi occupation during World War II.
Haakon is regarded as one of the greatest Norwegians of the twentieth century and is particularly revered for his courage during the German invasion and his leadership and preservation of Norwegian unity during the Nazi occupation. At the time of his death at age 85 in 1957, Haakon had led Norway for 52 years.
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Early years as a Danish prince
Known in his youth as Prince Carl of Denmark (namesake of his maternal grandfather the King of Norway etc), he was the second son of the future King Frederick VIII of Denmark, a younger brother of the future King Christian X of Denmark (he personally became a king before his father and his brother), a paternal grandson of King Christian IX of Denmark (during whose reign he was prince of Denmark) and a maternal grandson of King Charles IV of Norway (who was also King of Sweden).
Prince Carl was born in Charlottenlund. He 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, and between 1536-1814, also ruled Norway when it was part of the Kingdom of Denmark-Norway. The house was originally from northern Germany, where also the Glucksburg (Lyksborg) branch held their small fief. The family had permanent links with Norway already beginning from late Middle Ages, and also several of his paternal ancestors had been kings of independent Norway (Haakon V of Norway, Christian I of Norway, Frederick I, Christian III, Frederick II, Christian IV, as well as Frederick III of Norway who united Norway into the Danish kingdom, after which it was not independent at least until 1814). Christian Frederick, who was King of Norway briefly in 1814, the first king of Norwegian 1814 constitution and struggle for independence, was his great-granduncle.
In 1896, Prince Carl married his first cousin the Princess Maud, youngest daughter of King Edward VII of the United Kingdom and his wife, HRH Princess Alexandra of Denmark, daughter of King Christian IX of Denmark and Princess Louise of Hesse-Cassel. Their son, Prince Alexander, the future Crown Prince Olav and finally king Olav V of Norway, was born on July 2, 1903.
Accession to the Norwegian throne
After the Union between Sweden_and Norway was dissolved in 1905, a committee of the Norwegian government identified several members of European royalty as candidate for Norway's first king of its own in several centuries. Gradually, Prince Carl became the leading candidate. He had a son (and hence an heir to the throne) and Princess Maud's ties to the British royal family was viewed as advantageous to the newly-independent Norwegian nation.
The democratically-minded Carl, aware that Norway was still debating whether to retain its monarchy or to switch to a republican system of government, was flattered by the Norwegian government's overtures, but declined to accept the offer without a referendum to show whether monarchy was truly the choice of the Norwegian people.
After the referendum overwhelmingly confirmed by 79 percent majority that Norwegians desired to retain a monarchy, Prince Carl was formally offered the throne of Norway by the Storting (parliament) on November 18, 1905. When Carl accepted the offer the same evening, after his grandfather Christian IX of Denmark approved, Carl became Haakon VII. In so doing, he succeeded his great-uncle, Oscar II of Norway, who had abdicated the Norwegian throne in October following the agreement between Sweden and Norway on the terms of the separation of the union.
Haakon's coronation took place in Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim on June 22, 1906.
He arranged his heir, Crown Prince Olav, to marry a first cousin, Haakon's sister's daughter, Märtha of Sweden.
Resistance in World War II
During World War II, King Haakon, exiled in Rotherhithe in London, was an important national symbol in the Norwegian resistance.
At Haakon's death in 1957 Crown Prince Olav succeeded as Olav V.
Today, King Haakon is by many regarded as one of the greatest Norwegian politicians of the pre-war period, managing to hold his young and fragile country together in unstable political conditions. In 1927 he said "I am also the Communists' King." His loyalty to the democracy proved to be crucial for Norway's political situation during and after World War II.
See also
| Preceded by: Oscar II | King of Norway 1905–1957 | Succeeded by: Olav V |
Categories: Section stubs | Norwegian monarchs | Knights of the Garter | House of Glücksburg | Norwegian World War II people | Order of St. Olav | 1872 births | 1957 deaths | World War II political leaders
