History of the Norwegian monarchy
The Kingdom of Norway as a unified realm dates to the reign of King
Fairhair dynasty, traditional and modern views
According to the traditional view, Norway was the hereditary kingdom of the 'Fairhair' dynasty, agnatic (patrilineal) descendants of the first unifier-king, Harald Fairhair. The successors to the throne after year 872 were all placed by among Harald's male descendants in historical accounts from centuries later. In the 13th century, the kingdom was officially declared hereditary by law, in contrast with the other Scandinavian monarchies which were elective kingdoms in the Middle Ages.
Harald Fairhair was the first king of all Norway, bringing the lands of what had previously been several distinct petty-kingdoms under his control. The foundation of this unified Norwegian kingdom is traditionally dated to 872, when he defeated the last
The Fairhair dynasty may, however, be an artificial construct. The murder of king
The Hårdråde and the Sverre dynasties
Under Harald Hårdråde, Norway was firmly established as an independent kingdom and all later kings would claim to be descendants of him. With a few notable exceptions all successful claims are well supported and not disputed by modern historians. This succession of kings is sometimes called the "Hårdråde ætten" to distinguish them from the certain issue of Harald Fairhair. If Hårdråde is accepted as a descendant of Fairhair this dynasty would be just a branch of a larger Fairhair dynasty. The kings themselves are not known to have referred to their dynasty with any official name.
Until the 13th century there were no clearly defined succession laws. Instead the succession was based on customs with origins in old
The result of these customs was that brothers and half-brothers would inherit the throne to rule jointly, but such arrangements rarely lasted. As a result, succession was generally a matter of conflict, intrigue, and at times minor civil war. From the 1130s, strifes escalated to a more or less continuous civil war until 1240.
However, during the reign of the Hårdråde branch of the dynasty, it was generally agreed that only patrilineal male descendants of King Harald III, were entitled to the kingship.
Many of the claims by later royal pretenders to belong to the Fairhair dynasty are obvious falsehoods (most notably that of
1163, Magnus V of Norway, the son of a daughter of a previous ruler, ascended to the throne. He was supported by the church, but despite initial success, and the first example of a codified law of succession (allowing his own cognatic heirship), he was overthrown by putative male-line members of the old royal dynasty.
In the 13th century, the kingdom was officially declared hereditary by king
In the tradition of the Germanic monarchy the king had to be elected by a representative assembly of noblemen. Men eligible for election had to be of royal blood; the eldest son of the previous king was not automatically chosen. During the civil war era the unclear succession laws and the practice of power-sharing between several kings simultaneously gave personal conflicts the potential to become full-blown wars. Over the centuries kings consolidated their power and eventually a strict succession law made Norway a principally hereditary kingdom. As a result of the unions with Denmark and Sweden, the heredity principles were several times flouted in the succession to the throne, until they were explicitly abolished in 1450.
Unions with Denmark and Sweden
After the extinction of the male lines of the perceived Fairhair dynasty in 1319, the throne of Norway passed through matrilineal descent to
The Black Death of 1349–1351 was a contributing factor to the decline of the Norwegian monarchy as the noble families and population in general were gravely affected. But the most devastating factor for the nobility and the monarchy in Norway was the steep decline in income from their holdings. Many farms were deserted and rents and taxes suffered. This left the Norwegian monarchy weakened in terms of manpower, noble support, defence ability and economic power.[1]
After the death of
After the death of
Starting with Margaret I of Denmark, the throne of Norway was held by a series of non-Norwegian kings (usually perceived as Danish) who variously held the throne to more than one Scandinavian countries, or of all of them.
In 1440, the Norwegian privy council reluctantly deposed king
In 1448 when Christopher died without close heirs, the union between Sweden and Denmark dissolved, as the two countries chose different kings. Sweden chose
Denmark–Norway
On 6 June 1523, Sweden left the union for good, leaving Norway in an unequal union with a Danish king already embarked on centralising the government of the Union.
In the following centuries the Norwegian monarchy was characterised by a king mostly residing abroad. This weakened the monarchical governing structures of Norway; the Riksråd, for example, was gradually undermined as the Norwegian nobles were not able to enjoy the King's confidence to the same extent as their Danish counterparts. The King was also less able to govern according to Norwegian needs as the distance meant he and his advisors had less knowledge of the conditions in Norway.[4]
Norway was one of few countries where the
In 1661, Frederick III introduced absolute monarchy in Denmark and Norway and introduced a new law, the Lex Regis in both countries to that effect. In this law the kingdoms of Denmark and Norway were proclaimed to be hereditary.
Emerging independence
During the Napoleonic Wars the King aligned Denmark–Norway with France. When Napoleon lost the war Denmark was forced to cede Norway to the king of Sweden under the Treaty of Kiel in 1814. It was initially proposed that the Norwegian dependencies of Greenland, Iceland and the Faroes would remain with Norway, but that point was dropped during the negotiations so they became Danish.[5]
On hearing news of the treaty, Prince
The end result was that the Norwegian monarchy became a constitutional monarchy. In this new union the King was much more a King of Norway than under the previous Danish system. Norway was not to be treated as a Swedish conquest but rather as an equal party in a union of two independent states. Both the principle and substance of the Norwegian Constitution were accepted, and Norway retained its own parliament and separate institutions, except for the common king and foreign service. The only area of policy not in the hands of the Norwegians was foreign policy.
Norway had been brought along into the new developments of the world as they arrived in Denmark. However, with the break the Norwegians were able to forge a more progressive political development than was the case in Denmark. Denmark introduced a constitutional monarchy 35 years after Norway.
The Norwegian Storting would propose laws based in Norway and the King would even on occasion enact laws unfavourable to Sweden. As the Norwegian movement towards full independence gained momentum the King approved the building of forts and naval vessels intended to defend Norway against a Swedish invasion.
The union was nevertheless marked by the Norwegians' constant and growing discontent with being in a union of any kind. The Storting would propose laws to reduce the king's power or to assert Norwegian independence. This would most often be vetoed by the king, but as he only had the right to veto the same law twice it would eventually be passed. Already in 1814 the Norwegians instituted a
Quite often, crown princes of the dynasty served some time in the position of Viceroy of Norway at Oslo, as sort of training for their future reign.
Charles II, as he was officially known in Norway, was succeeded in both kingdoms by his adopted son
It also has to be said that the Royal House tried harder to be a Norwegian Royal House as well. The
The second independent Norway
Change of dynasty
The third
Lovisa's son, Prince Carl of Denmark (namesake of his maternal grandfather the King of Norway and Sweden) was the second son of the future King
The future
His family had permanent links with Norway already beginning from late Middle Ages, and also several of his father's ancestors had been kings of independent Norway (such as
In 1905, Carl, taking the name Haakon, ascended the throne of independent Norway to succeed his deposed great-uncle Oscar II.
Full independence
In
The Norwegian people gave their consent in a plebiscite held on 13 August which resulted in an overwhelming 368,208 votes (99.95%) in favor of dissolution of the Union, against 184 (0.05%) opposed, with 85 percent of Norwegian men voting. No women voted, as universal suffrage was not granted until 1913, however Norwegian feminists collected more than 200,000 signatures in favor of dissolution.[5][8]
On 12 November and 13 November, in the second constitutional plebiscite in three months, Norwegian voters decided by a nearly 79 percent majority (259,563 to 69,264) to keep the monarchy instead of establishing a republic.[8]
During the summer a Norwegian delegation had already approached the 33-year-old
Prince Carl impressed the delegation in many ways, not the least because of his sensitivity to the liberal and democratic movements that had led to Norway's independence. Though the Norwegian constitution stipulated that the Storting could choose a new king if the throne were vacant, Carl was aware that many Norwegians — including leading politicians and high-ranking military officers — favored a republican form of government. Attempts to persuade the prince to accept the throne on the basis of election at Parliament failed; Carl insisted that he would accept the crown only if the Norwegian people expressed their will for monarchy by referendum and if the parliament then elected him king.
Following the November plebiscite affirming Norwegians' desire for a monarchy, the parliament by an overwhelming majority offered Carl a clear mandate to the Norwegian throne on 18 November. The prince accepted the same evening, choosing the name Haakon, a traditional name used by Norwegian kings. The last king with that name had been
The new king therefore became Haakon VII, King of Norway. His two-year-old son
A new monarchy
The early years of the new Norwegian monarchy were marked by a shortage of funds. The Norwegian state was poor and funds were needed elsewhere than in the upkeep of a large court. In that sense it was a stroke of good fortune that Prince Carl had set as a condition for accepting the throne that he would not be forced to keep a large court. However the royal travels and the upkeep of the royal residences, after the initial refurbishment in 1905, were to some extent neglected. One example of the negative financial situation is that Prince Carl had been promised a
One important incident in the early years of the new monarchy was in 1928 when the King appointed the first Labour government. The
During the
After the war the Norwegian royal house succeeded in maintaining a balance between regality and approachability. King
In later years the marriages of the then Crown Prince
Heir of Norway
Use of the title "Heir of Norway" (Arving til Norge) established in the 17th century. Firstly, several junior agnatic members of the
From the 15th century, at least up to 1660, the heir apparent of the King of Denmark and Norway was generally titled "Prince of Norway", in recognition to his hereditary right to succeed to the Norwegian throne upon the death of the king, as opposed to the need to pass an election in order to succeed to the Danish throne. Other members of House of Oldenburg, including any younger siblings of the Prince of Norway, were not called princes or princesses of Norway, but the title "Heir of Norway" was sooner or later accorded to them.
Next, the heads of the line descending from
See also
- Ahnentafel of Harald V of Norway
- Kings of Norway family tree
- Norwegian nobility
- List of Norwegian monarchs
- List of possessions of Norway
References
- ^ a b c History of Norway from the Norwegian government web site Retrieved 21 November 2006
- ^ Hødnebø, Finn, ed. (1974). Kulturhistorisk leksikon for nordisk middelalder, bind XVIII. Gyldendal norsk forlag. p. 691.
- ^ Diplomatarium Norvegicum (volumes I–XXI)
- ^ a b (in Norwegian) The history of power during the Danish era Archived 2006-02-14 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 21 November 2006
- ^ a b c d History of Norway on historyworld.com Retrieved 21 November 2006
- ^ The introduction of parliamentarism is not as clear cut in Denmark and Sweden as in Norway. In Denmark the year 1901 is usually given, but the years 1905 and 1920 are also important in this respect. In Sweden parliamentarism was re-introduced in 1917.
- ^ This number is found by adding up the areas of Jämtland, Härjedalen, Bohuslän, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Greenland, Shetland and Orkney. The entire area of Greenland was not effectively controlled by anyone at the time, however it is today under the Crown of Denmark and therefore would have been under the Crown of Norway.
- ^ a b c d e Royal House web page on the dissolution of the union Archived 2005-08-27 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 21 November 2006
- ^ RNoN web page on the HNoMY Norge (Norwegian) Archived 2006-10-08 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 21 November 2006
- ^ VG article on Socialist Left party leader's critique of the palace refurbishment where the republican admits to revering King Olav (Norwegian) Retrieved 21 November 2006
- ^ Aftenposten article on the Popularity of the Monarchy Archived 2007-11-03 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 21 November 2006