Rabat – Norway’s King Harald V has died at the age of 89, a week after being hospitalized with a bacterial bloodstream infection while undergoing treatment for a rare blood condition, ending a 35-year reign.
The Norwegian Royal Court said he passed away peacefully at 6:35 am local time on Friday at Oslo University Hospital Rikshospitalet.
Norway declared a period of national mourning following the monarch’s death, with the royal flag lowered to half-mast above the palace in Oslo. Crowds gathered to lay flowers and national flags amid a wave of condolences from European leaders and royal houses.
Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store has described Harald as a unifying figure who had served the country for more than three decades, while Britain’s King Charles III and other European royals also paid tribute to the late monarch.
Harald had been receiving treatment for hemolytic anemia when he was hospitalized with a bacterial bloodstream infection. His condition briefly stabilized before worsening on Thursday, prompting Queen Sonja and Crown Prince Haakon to cancel scheduled appearances.
Following King Harald’s death, Crown Prince Haakon, 53, succeeded his father as King Haakon VIII, while his daughter Ingrid Alexandra became Crown Princess and heir apparent.
From wartime exile to the throne
Born in 1937 in Asker, near Oslo, Harald was the first prince born on Norwegian soil in over five centuries, since King Olav IV in 1370. He was just three when his early childhood was upended by Nazi Germany’s invasion of Norway during World War II, forcing the royal family into wartime exile.
While Crown Prince Olav and King Haakon VII remained in Britain with Norway’s government-in-exile, Harald fled with his mother and sisters to Sweden and later the United States. At six, he carried out his first royal engagement by christening Norwegian military aircraft in Canada.
Shortly after the end of World War II in Europe, the eight-year-old prince returned home to Norway in June 1945. He subsequently attended local public schools, studied at the Norwegian Military Academy, and continued his higher education at Oxford University, preparing him for decades of royal service.
Outside his royal duties, Harald pursued a lifelong passion for sailing, representing Norway at three consecutive Olympic Games and becoming a world champion with the crew of Fram X in 1987, continuing a family sporting legacy inherited from his father, King Olav V.
