Norway celebrates 1905 arrival of first king
Norway opened celebrations today for the 100th anniversary of the arrival of its first royal couple in modern times.
In 1905, the Nordic nation broke out of a grudging 91-year union with neighbouring Sweden, and elected a Danish prince as the first king of its new constitutional monarchy.
The 33-year-old Danish prince with the imposing name Christian Frederik Carl Georg Valdemar Axel left Denmark aboard the ship Heimdal, and on November 25, 1905 stepped onto land in the Norwegian capital as King Haakon VII, having taken a traditional Norse monarch’s name.
The Danish prince was overwhelmingly elected king in a Norwegian national referendum in 1905.
His wife was Princess Maud, the youngest daughter of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra.
He is remembered for his resolute ’no’ to co-operating with Nazi forces that occupied Norway in 1940. He then led an exile government in Britain until the war ended in 1945.
