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

King Harald V of Norway died at 06:35 local time on Friday, 28 August, at Oslo University Hospital Rikshospitalet. He was 89. The Royal Palace said he died peacefully after treatment for a bacterial infection of the blood. His son, Crown Prince Haakon, became King Haakon VIII at once under the constitution. Haakon is 53. His eldest child, Princess Ingrid Alexandra, 22, is now heir.

Harald was admitted on 17 August. The palace later said he had haemolytic anaemia, a condition in which red blood cells break down faster than the body can replace them, and that fluid had collected in his body. An infection followed. Relatives visited him on Thursday after officials described his state as extremely serious. Crowds left flowers at the palace before the death notice went out.

Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre cancelled a trip to Germany, including a working dinner with Chancellor Friedrich Merz, to stay in Oslo. After the announcement he said a whole nation was in mourning and that Harald had found the words to bind Norwegians together when they needed them. At noon the Armed Forces fired a 21-gun salute from Akershus Fortress. A hearse then carried the coffin from the hospital chapel to the Royal Palace. Norway’s public broadcaster put the street crowd near 10,000. Oslo’s mayor cancelled her wedding, which had been set for Friday.

Haakon held an extraordinary council of state with ministers the same day and kept the family motto, All for Norway. He is due to take an oath before the Storting on Tuesday and later attend a consecration service. Norway no longer holds a full coronation. Queen Sonja, Harald’s wife of 57 years, survives him, as does their daughter Princess Märtha Louise. Mette-Marit is now queen consort.

Harald was born on 21 February 1937 at Skaugum, the only son of the future King Olav V and Princess Märtha of Sweden. He was the first Norwegian-born prince in the direct line since the fourteenth century. In 1940 the family fled the German occupation. Harald spent the war years in the United States, including a period in Washington. He returned in 1945, later studied at Oslo Cathedral School, the Norwegian Military Academy and Balliol College, Oxford, and served in the cavalry.

He became king on 17 January 1991 after Olav died. He was 53. The role is ceremonial. Real power sits with the Storting and the government in a country of about 5.5 million people. Harald still refused to abdicate when health failed in later years. He said the oath he took before parliament was for life. In 2024 he was treated for an infection while on holiday in Malaysia, received a temporary pacemaker, was flown home by the armed forces and later had a permanent device fitted. He scaled back official work but stayed on the throne. At his death he was Europe’s oldest reigning monarch.

The reign coincided with Norway’s oil and gas boom and with a series of family breaks from older court custom. In 1968 Harald married Sonja Haraldsen, the daughter of a Oslo clothing merchant, after years of resistance from the palace and from parts of the political class. Other European houses had already accepted commoner spouses. Norway had not. Their son later married Mette-Marit Tjessem Høiby, who had a son from a previous relationship. Their daughter married Ari Behn, a writer, and later Durek Verrett, a self-described shaman. Those choices kept the family in tabloid view even as Harald’s public manner stayed plain.

2026 has been a harder year. Reporting on Mette-Marit’s earlier contact with Jeffrey Epstein put the new queen consort under pressure. She called the association embarrassing and said she had shown poor judgement. Harald’s death therefore lands on a household that is already answering questions about judgement and distance, not only about succession.

The new king is not a stranger to government. He served as regent during his father’s hospital stays and has spoken in public on climate, the High North and the condition of young people. The council of state on Friday was the first act of a reign that will be watched for how he handles both the Epstein file around his wife and Norway’s place between NATO, the European Economic Area and a more contested Arctic.

Footballer Erling Haaland was among those who sent public condolences, as did several European monarchs. The palace has not yet set a date for the state funeral. Until then the flag on the palace roof stays at half-mast, and the practical work of a new reign has already started.