Olav V of Norway
Olav V (
July 2,
1903 -
January 17,
1991) reigned as King of
Norway from 1957 to 1991. Born in the
United Kingdom, the son of
Prince Carl of Denmark and of
Princess Maud, (daughter of King
Edward VII of the United Kingdom), and given the names and title of
Alexander Edward Christian Frederik, Prince of Denmark, he assumed the name
Olav when his father became King
Haakon VII of Norway in
1905.
Olav was the first heir to the throne since medieval times to grow up in Norway. He graduated from the
Norwegian Military Academy in
1924, and went on to study jurisprudence and economics at
Balliol College, Oxford.
On
March 21,
1929, he married Princess
Märtha of Sweden with whom he had one son,
Harald, and two daughters,
Ragnhild and
Astrid. As exiles during
World War II, Crown Princess Märtha and the royal children lived in
Washington, D.C., where she struck up a close friendship with
Franklin D. Roosevelt. She died in 1954, before her husband ascended the throne.
During
World War II Olav stood by his father's side in resisting the
occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany. When the government decided to go into exile he offered to stay behind with the Norwegian people. As crown prince he had received extensive military training and was respected by other allied leaders for his knowledge and leadership skills. He was appointed to the post of Norwegian
Chief of Defence in
1944 and led the Norwegian disarmament of German occupying forces.
Succeeding to the Norwegian Throne in 1957 (upon the death of
Haakon VII), Olav reigned as a "People's King," and became extremely popular. He liked to drive his own cars and would drive in the regular highway lanes though he was allowed to drive in the public transportation lane. During the
1973 energy crisis Norway banned car-driving on certain weekends, but the king, not wishing to miss an opportunity to go skiing outside
Oslo, took the tram. When he tried to pay for his tickets, the conductor told him that people further back had already paid for him. A journalist once asked him if he was afraid to walk around unprotected, he answered, "Why should I be afraid? I have 4 million bodyguards!"—referring to the Norwegian people.
King Olav also was an accomplished athlete. He jumped from
Holmenkollen ski jump in Oslo, and also competed in sailing regattas. He won a gold medal in the
Soling class at the
1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam and remained an active sailor into old age. For his athletic ability and role as king, King Olav V earned the
Holmenkollen medal in
1968. He had a strong interest in military matters and took his role as titular commander-in-chief very seriously. As well as his ceremonial roles in the Norwegian Army, he also served as
Colonel-in-Chief of the
Green Howards (Alexandra, Princess of Wales's Yorkshire Regiment).
In
1961 the King was a laureate of the
Nansen Refugee Award.
The night after he died (at the Royal Lodge,
Kongsseteren) and for several days up until the state funeral, Norway saw a great demonstration of mourning as Norwegians lit hundreds of thousands of candles in the courtyard outside the Royal Castle in Oslo, with letters and cards placed amongst them. The National Archives have preserved all these cards.
He was nicknamed
Folkekongen, or "The People's King."
Olav's son
Harald V succeeded him as King.
A 180 000 km² area (
Prince Olav Coast) and the
Prince Olav Mountains in
Antarctica are named in his honour.
In
2005, Olav was proclaimed the Norwegian of the century, with 41 percent of the votes.
In
2004,
biographer Tor Bomann-Larsen raised the possibility that Haakon VII might not have been the biological father of Olav. Bomann-Larsen provided non-conclusive evidence that Maud could have been made pregnant through
artificial insemination with the semen of either her doctor,
Francis Laking, or his son
Guy Laking. In addition to circumstantial evidence related to the whereabouts of Haakon (then Prince Carl) at the time of conception, Bomann-Larsen supported his hypothesis with photographs of Guy Laking which show a resemblance with Olav. [
1]
In a press release from the Royal House it was stated that King Harald "has no information suggesting that King Olav is not the son of King Haakon".
In March 2005, historian
Odd Arvid Storsveen at the
University of Oslo published a highly critical review of Bomann-Larsen's book. Storsveen claims that there does not exist adequate sourcing for Bomann-Larsen's "hypothesis" that Olav wasn't the biological son of Haakon and is further extremely critical of the way Bomann-Larsen uses photographic resemblance as "proof". In September 2005 historian
Bodil Katarina Nævdal,
Ph.D. at the
University of Uppsala published an academic review of Bomann-Larsen's hypothesis. She found the sources to be severely lacking and that there existed no doubt about King Haakon VII being Olav's biological father.
Even if Bomann-Larsen's theory were true, it would not have constitutional consequences for the royal house of Norway, in large part because the plebiscite that made Haakon king also included consideration of Olav's hereditary status. Furthermore, traditionally, the husband of a child's mother is considered to be legally its father so long as he acknowledges the child as his own.
Regarding his genealogical ancestry among earlier kings of Norway and other Scandinavian royals, him not being a blood son of Haakon VII actually changes very little. Olav was in any case a biological son of Maud (Haakon's own first cousin), who was daughter of
Queen Alexandra, herself daughter of
Louise of Hesse and
Christian IX of Denmark. Louise and Christian both were descendants of
Haakon V of Norway and of most Danish kings of Norway, such as
Christian I of Norway,
Frederick I of Norway, and
Frederick III of Norway, up to
Frederick V of Denmark. As biological son of Maud, Olav V is the great-great-grandnephew of the 1814 King
Christian Frederick of Norway.The only significant Norwegian dynasty
in that case not ancestors of Olav would be that of Haakon's mother
Lovisa of Sweden, daughter of
Charles IV of Norway and descendant of
Bernadotte kings of Norway, i.e
Charles III John of Norway and
Oscar I of Norway.
However, regarding children of Olav and Märtha, they, as children of Haakon's niece Märtha, are all descendants of Haakon's parents, totally irrespective of whether Olav was Haakon's son or not.
Märtha of Sweden, Crown Princess of Norway, was daughter of prince Carl of Sweden, duke of Westrogothia, and his wife princess
Ingeborg of Denmark, who herself, a sister of Haakon, was daughter of
Frederick VIII of Denmark and
Lovisa of Sweden. Through that ancestry, those Bernadotte kings of Norway are in any case ancestors of Olav's son
Harald, and of his two daughters,
Ragnhild and
Astrid, as well as of Harald's children,
Crown Prince Haakon of Norway and
Princess Märtha Louise of Norway.
Here is a list of the styles King Olav bore from birth to death, in chronological order:
His Highness Prince Alexander of Denmark
His Royal Highness The Crown Prince of Norway
His Majesty The King of Norway
*
The Royal Norwegian Order of St Olav - H.M. King Olav V the former Grand Master of the Order*
Official Website of the Norwegian Royal Family*
The Royals – Regularly updated news coverage of the Norwegian royal family (
Aftenposten)
