King Harald V dies at 89 and Haakon VIII takes the Norwegian throne

King Harald V of Norway died at 6:35 a.m. on Friday, 28 August, at Oslo University Hospital. He was 89. The Royal Palace said he died peacefully after eleven days in hospital. His son took the throne at once as King Haakon VIII.

Harald had been admitted on 17 August with haemolytic anaemia, a condition in which red blood cells break down faster than the body can replace them. The palace later said he developed a bacterial infection in the blood. On Thursday it described his state as extremely serious. Queen Sonja, Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit spent much of that day at his bedside.

Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre cancelled a planned trip to Germany, including a working dinner with Chancellor Friedrich Merz, to remain in Oslo. After meeting the new king he said an era had ended and another had begun. Flags across the country dropped to half mast. Church bells rang at noon. Crowds left flowers and flags at the palace railings.

A reign that began in 1991

Harald became king in January 1991 after the death of his father, King Olav V. He was 53. He was Europe's oldest reigning monarch at the time of his death and had refused to abdicate, arguing that the oath he swore before the Storting was for life. Other European houses had seen older sovereigns step aside. He did not.

He was born on 21 February 1937, the first Norwegian prince born on Norwegian soil in 567 years. In 1940 the royal family fled the German occupation. Harald spent the war years in the United States with his mother, Crown Princess Märtha, and his sisters. He returned in 1945 and later trained at the Norwegian Military Academy and at Oxford.

In 1968 he married Sonja Haraldsen, a commoner he had known for years, after a long public argument about whether a future king could marry outside the European nobility. The marriage lasted 57 years. They have two children, Haakon and Princess Märtha Louise, and five grandchildren.

His reign coincided with Norway's oil and gas boom and with a turn toward a more informal monarchy. Real power sits with the elected Storting in a country of 5.5 million. The king opens parliament, receives ambassadors and travels as head of state. He also sailed at Olympic level and remained a public presence even as his health declined.

Health, a pacemaker and a delayed abdication debate

Harald's later years were marked by repeated hospital stays. In 2024 he was treated for an infection while on holiday in Malaysia and received a temporary pacemaker. The Norwegian armed forces flew him home. A permanent device was fitted later. He cut his official schedule but kept the title.

The succession now lands on a family already under strain. Mette-Marit, now queen consort, has faced public scrutiny this year over past contact with Jeffrey Epstein. She has called the association embarrassing and said she showed poor judgment. Ingrid Alexandra, 22, becomes crown princess under the 1990 change that lets a firstborn daughter inherit the crown.

What happens next

Haakon, 53, told an extraordinary Council of State on Friday that he would reign as Haakon VIII and take the motto Alt for Norge, All for Norway, the same phrase used by his grandfather Haakon VII. He is due to swear the accession oath before the Storting on Tuesday. A later consecration service will stand in for a coronation. Norway stopped crowning its kings decades ago.

Støre described Harald as a monarch who helped Norwegians see the best in themselves and in one another. Footballer Erling Haaland and several European houses sent tributes. The palace has not yet set a date for the state funeral.

The immediate question for the new court is whether Haakon can steady a house that has lost its longest-serving modern king while the queen consort remains under public examination. The legal transfer of the crown is already complete. The political work of the next weeks will be the oath, the funeral and the first public appearances of Ingrid Alexandra as heir.