King Harald V of Norway has died at 89 after more than three decades on the throne.
Norway’s royal palace said Harald died Friday morning at a hospital in Oslo. His son, Crown Prince Haakon, succeeds him as King Haakon VIII.
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Harald, who took the throne in 1991, was Europe’s oldest reigning monarch. Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said, “A whole nation is in mourning,” after his death.
Harald’s role was largely symbolic rather than political.
Harold’s life and time as King
World War II disrupted his childhood almost immediately. After Germany occupied Norway when he was 3, Harald eventually spent much of the war in the United States with his mother and sisters. His father and grandfather remained in exile in Britain with Norway’s government.
After the war, Harald returned to Norway, trained at the country’s military college and later studied at Oxford University. Sailing became one of his defining interests, and he represented Norway at three Olympic Games.
During his reign, Harald worked to make the royal household feel more in step with modern Norway.
In 2011, after a far-right extremist killed 77 people in a pair of attacks in Norway, Harald told mourners that “freedom is stronger than fear.”
Five years later, he drew international attention with a speech embracing a broad view of Norwegian identity. Harald spoke in support of religious tolerance, immigrants and LGBTQ+ people.
Harald resisted stepping aside even as his health declined. In 2024, he said the oath he took as king “lasts for life.”
The new king
Haakon becomes king with several controversies still hanging over the royal family.
His wife, Mette-Marit, has apologized for her past contact with Jeffrey Epstein. She has not been accused of wrongdoing.
Her son from a previous relationship, Marius Borg Høiby, received a four-year prison sentence this year in a high-profile rape case. He has appealed.
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