Norway's King Harald dead at 89
Norway's King Harald has died at the age of 89, it has been confirmed.
Norway's King Harald has died.
The 89-year-old king - who was the oldest reigning monarch in Europe - was hospitalised on 17 August with a bacterial blood infection and on Friday (28.08.26), the royal palace in Oslo announced he had passed away peacefully at 6.35am local time at the city's national hospital.
The royal flag on the roof of the palace has been lowered to half-mast.
Harald's condition was said to have worsened this week and on Thursday (27.08.26), it was announced things were "extremely serious".
Harald's wife, Queen Sonja and their son Crown Prince Haakon - who had been acting as regent amid his father's medical woes and is now king - cancelled all official engagements to gather at the king's bedside at Oslo University Hospital, joining other members of the royal family, including Haakon's wife, Crown Princess Mette-Marit and her son Marius Borg Hoiby, and the king's sister, Princess Astrid.
Haakon, 53, will hold an extraordinary council of state with the government later on Friday.
Harald - Norway's first king born in the country since the 14th century - ruled for 35 years after taking the throne in 1991 following the death of his father, King Olav, and was seen as a popular and reforming figure who worked to modernise the monarchy and broke with tradition by marrying a commoner.
He spent the war years in the US with his mother Martha and two older sisters, but when Norway was liberated in May 1945, they returned and he was educated at Smestad School in Oslo and then the city's university. Harlad undertook 16 months of miliary service at the Cadet College for Cavalry Officers then followed in his father's footsteps by attending the Norwegian Military Academy and Balliol College, Oxford, where he read Modern Greats and was on the college rowing team.
His mother died in 1954 and he became Crown Prince when his grandfather, King Haakon, died in 1957.
Harald's biggest passion was yachting and he represented his country in the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico, and as late as 2016, he came second in the classic fleet category at the sailing world championships in Canada.
He married Sonja Haraldsen in August 1968, nine years after he first met when she was an assistant in a department store, and they had daughter Martha Louise in 1971 and son Haakon Magnus two years later.
On taking the throne in 1991, Harald adopted the motto "All for Norway" and after being consecrated and blessed at Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim, he undertook tours of the country.
He was commander-in-chief of the armed forces and head of the State Church, but ceased to be the formal head of the Church of Norway in 2012.
He is survived by Sonja, the new King Haakon, daughter Princess Martha Louise, and six grandchildren.
