King Harald of Norway

I was somewhat shocked at how the young couple were treated by the public. I thought of Norway always being so ahead of the world.

I suppose this statement can be explained by a lack of understanding of the system of kingdoms.

In the past, kings and queens were always required to marry someone of (high) nobility. This was not a matter of romantic love, but a strict obligation for political, strategic, and biological reasons.

By marrying a princess from another country, a king sealed a peace treaty or military alliance. Marrying a commoner could lead to international tensions or even war.
Marriages also contributed to the expansion of the kingdom through inheritance.

Within the European feudal system, there was a strong belief in dynastic legitimacy. Kings were considered to rule by the grace of God (droit divin). Marrying someone of lower social standing was viewed as a desecration of bloodlines or a decline in status (mesalliance). It was believed to weaken the royal status of the heirs to the throne.

If a king or prince did marry a commoner, any children they had would not be entitled to the throne, titles, or the king’s possessions. An example of this is King Leopold III in my own country, who married a commoner, Lilian Baels, in 1941. This was very poorly received by the Belgian people. Lilian did not become queen nor princess.

In extreme cases, the monarch had to abdicate the throne. The best-known example of this is King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom, who abdicated in 1936 in order to marry Wallis Simpson, an American citizen who had been divorced twice.

But times are changing...
If I'm not mistaken, it was Prince Rainier III, Prince of Monaco, who was the first to marry a commoner (movie star Grace Kelly) without any further implications in 1956.

Other examples would follow.

Crown Prince Pavlos of Greece and Marie-Chantal Miller (daughter of founder DFS) in 1993.

The current King of Norway, Haakon VIII, himself faced significant criticism from the public over his engagement to Mette-Marit Høiby in 2000.

Crown Prince Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands with female banker Máxima Zorreguieta in 2000 (now the king and queen).

King Felipe VI of Spain and Letizia Ortiz Rocasolano, a TV presenter, in 2003

Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden in 2009 with Daniel Westling, a gym owner.
...

This new "approach" among European royal families is bringing monarchs closer to their people and preventing genetic problems caused by centuries of inbreeding (P.S.: rules regarding inbreeding led to the downfall of the Spanish Habsburgs, for example).

We'll have to watch that. Last night we rewatched The Wave, based in Geiranger, on Prime.

I really enjoyed and recommend the miniseries Atlantic Crossing.

How can there be a crown prince of Greece when Greece is a republic?

How can there be a crown prince of Greece when Greece is a republic?

That's a sensitive question. But officially, you're right.
Article 4, paragraph 7 of the Constitution of Greece (1975) says: "Titles of nobility or distinction are neither conferred upon nor recognized in Greek citizens."
https://www.constituteproject.org/constitution/Greece_2008?lang=en

So perhaps 'former crown prince of Greece' would be better.

I find it baffling that with a quarter of the 21st Century behind us, people still want to preserve monarchies, ceremonial or otherwise. However, it's a decision each of these nations chooses to make collectively and independently. As a traveler and visitor, I do acknowledge that the church and aristocracy funded most of what we value as art.

I could have been King Harald of Norway too if I hadn't married a commoner. And if I had been of royal descent. And if I had been Norwegian. And I had been named Harald.

But I check a lot of the other boxes!

Happy travels

mammie

I watched Atlantic Crossing. Very good. Informative. And such a connection to The Commoner.

I am going to look up the Wave.

Windyram

Thank you for so much interesting information.

I am learning and so much to learn

I am fascinated by Royalty, all Royalty. It is not easy, is it?

Thank you David

and

alomaker

yes we love the art that was given to us by the churches and by Royalty

I wouldn’t say it’s a decision we get to make. I’ve certainly never been given a vote on it!

mnanie

If I am remembering correctly, I believe that King Harald was one of the children who went to stay with the Roosevelts in New York State and his father, King Olav, was the king who was exiled to England during WWII.

So as I said in an earlier post, it is all connected to the Atlantic Crossing.

I have read that The Atlantic Crossing while based on fact is not completely factual.

The Greek example is irrelevant. As noted, Greece is a republic that has abolished its monarchy. So who a member of the former Greek royal family marries is of no importance. It’s like the old Austrian Hapsburgs and French Bourbons. Sure, the family is still there but no one cares. But it’s true that in those countries that still have a monarchy it can matter.
And I agree that Atlantic Crossing, while dramatized, is very good. It’s too bad that Princess Martha died young before she could be Queen. King Harald was born the same year as my mother, 1937, and she’s still alive although increasingly frail.

Slate

How did Princess Martha die and how old was she?

It is only in the last several years that I have become acquainted with European Royalty and with Europe itself. I am learning by traveling. I want to know about the places that I am going to visit or I want to know more when I come home from a visit so I search and I watch movies and documentaries.

Many. if not most European marriages were arranged based on politics I have come to realize.

the art that we love so much was often stolen or created by the oppression of the people. But I still love it and still go to see it.

The History of Europe is fascinating but so is the history of the world. It is all so interesting and maybe more so when it is not all that nice such as the Tower of London.

Hi bostonphil, unfortunately Princess Martha of Norway died at 53 in 1954, either of cancer or liver disease (sources vary), several years before her husband became King.

Slate

That is unfortunate.

My memory is that the people of Norway really loved her.

I am planning to cruise Iceland and Norway September 2027.

Yes, the people of Norway loved Märtha.

Märtha (Sofia Lovisa Dagmar Thyra) was born a princess of Sweden and grew up with her sisters, Princess Margaretha and Princess Astrid, and her younger brother, Prince Carl. She was the most self-assured of the group and eyecatcher at many balls.

During the 1928 Olympic Games, she became engaged to her cousin (!), Prince Olav. [Märtha's mother (Ingeborg of Sweden) was a sister of Olav's father (King Haakon VII of Norway)].
Their marriage in 1929 marked an improvement in relations between Norway and Sweden. Twenty-five years earlier, the union between Norway and Sweden had been dissolved, and Märtha’s grandfather, Oscar II of Sweden, had been deposed from the Norwegian throne.

At that time, Märtha distinguished herself from other female members of royal families by delivering countless speeches; within the limits of her position, she was quite emancipated.

When World War II broke out in 1940, it was Märtha who called on Norwegian women to participate in the mobilization to defend Norway.
From the U.S., the Crown Princess was very active in her efforts on behalf of occupied Norway.

Upon her return to Norway, she received a hero’s welcome and was called “the mother of the nation,” thanks to all her efforts. The impact she had on the Norwegian people was comparable to that of Princess Diana on the British people in the 1980s and 1990s.

What about her sisters and brother?

Princess Margaretha (Margaretha Sofia Lovisa Ingeborg) married Prince Axel of Denmark in 1918. After the death of her sister Märtha in 1954 she regularly assisted her brother-in-law, King Olaf V of Norway. She died in 1977.

Princess Astrid (Astrid Sofia Lovisa Thyra) became engaged to Crown Prince Leopold, son of King Albert I of Belgium.
The couple married in Sweden on November 4, 1926; six days later, on November 10, a second wedding ceremony took place in Belgium.
There was concern within the royal family because of her Lutheran faith. A few years after her marriage, she converted to Roman Catholicism.
Upon the death of Albert I in 1934, her husband became King Leopold III and she herself became Queen of Belgium.
In 1935, at the age of 29, our Queen was killed in a car accident in Küssnacht am Rigi, Switzerland, where the couple had been on an incognito outing under the name Renard before returning home.
Her unborn fourth child also died with her, while her other children had traveled home by train the night before.
Küssnacht donated the land where the accident occurred to Leopold, on which he had a chapel built in her memory.
Leopold III will remarry in 1941 to a commoner, Lilian Baels, as I already mentioned in my earlier reply.
Astrid gave the dynasty the future kings of Belgium, Baudouin and Albert II, and Grand Duchess Josephine Charlotte of Luxembourg.

Prince Carl (Carl Gustaf Oscar Fredrik Christian), for some time, was considered a potential suitor for the Dutch Crown Princess (future queen) Juliana. In 1934, an arranged meeting between the two took place at the British court. According to the Dutch envoy in London, however, Juliana displayed so little tact and sense of etiquette during the meeting that Prince Charles withdrew from the match after just the first meeting.
In 1937, he renounced his claim to the Swedish throne to marry the divorced Swedish Countess Elsa von Rosen. He was no longer Prince of Sweden but simply Carl Bernadotte.
In 1938, his brother-in-law, King Leopold III, admitted him into the Belgian nobility with the personal title of prince and the title of count/countess for his descendants. His marriage ended in divorce in 1951.
His second marriage in 1954 to Ann Margareta Larsson also ended in divorce in 1961.
In 1978, he married for the third time, this time to Kristine Rivelsrud.
He died in 2003.