The position of King of Norway has been in continuous existence since the
unification of Norway in 872. Although Norway has officially been a
hereditary kingdom throughout that time, there have been several instances of
elective succession: most recently, the people of Norway electorally confirmed the accession of
Haakon VII to the position of king through a
1905 plebiscite. In recent years members of the
Socialist Left party have proposed the abolition of the monarchy during each new session of
parliament, though without any likelihood of success. This gives the Norwegian monarchy the unique status of being a popularly elected royal family and receiving regular formal confirmations of support from the
Storting. out of his father's hands in this illustration from the 14th-century .
Germanic kingdom Prior to and in the early phase of the
Viking Age Norway was divided into several
smaller kingdoms. These are thought to have followed the same tradition as other
Germanic monarchies of the time: the king was usually elected by the high-ranking farmers of the area and served mainly as a judge at popular assemblies, as a priest on the occasion of sacrifices, and as a military leader in time of war.
Harald Fairhair was the first king of Norway. The date of the first formation of a unified Norwegian kingdom is set as 872 when he defeated the last petty kings who resisted him at the
Battle of Hafrsfjord; however, the consolidation of his power took many years. The boundaries of Fairhair's kingdom were not identical to those of present-day Norway, and upon his death, the kingship was shared among his sons. Some historians emphasise the actual monarchial control over the country and assert that
Olaf II, alias
Saint Olaf, who reigned from 1015 to 1028, was the first king to control the entire country. Olaf is generally held to have been the driving force behind Norway's final conversion to Christianity. Furthermore, he was in 1031 revered as
Rex Perpetuus Norvegiae ("Eternal King of Norway"), and subsequently, the
1163 Succession Law stated that all kings after Olaf II's son,
Magnus I, were not independent monarchs, but
vassals holding Norway as a fief from Saint Olaf.
Middle Ages . The
Finnmarken ("
Marches of the
Sami"), most of which paid
tribute to the kings of Norway, are shown in pink. In the 12th and 13th centuries the Norwegian kingdom was at its geographical and cultural peak. The kingdom included Norway (including the now
Swedish provinces of
Jemtland,
Herjedalen,
Særna,
Idre and
Båhuslen),
Iceland, the
Faroe Islands, Greenland,
Shetland,
Orkney and other smaller areas in the British Isles. The king had diplomatic relations with most of the European kingdoms and formed alliances with
Scotland and
Castile, among others. Large castles such as
Haakon's Hall and cathedrals, the foremost being
Nidaros Cathedral, were built. In the tradition of Germanic monarchy the king had to be elected by a representative assembly of noblemen. Men eligible for election had to be of royal blood; but 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. In practice the king was elected by the
Riksråd in a similar way to Denmark. He adhered to a
håndfæstning and governed in the council of Norwegian noblemen according to existing laws. After the death of
Haakon VI of Norway in 1380, his son
Olav IV of Norway succeeded to the thrones of both Norway and
Denmark and was also elected King of Sweden. After his death at the age of 17 his mother
Margrethe united the three Scandinavian kingdoms in personal union under one crown, in the
Kalmar Union. Olav's death extinguished the Norwegian male royal line; he was also the last Norwegian king to be born on Norwegian soil for the next 567 years. Norway was one of few countries where the
archdiocese was coterminous with the national territory. The church was an important factor in trying to maintain the separate Norwegian monarchy. In the 16th century the power struggle between the Norwegian nobles and the king culminated at the same time as the
Protestant Reformation. This prompted a set of events in which the struggle against Danish dominance in Norway was coupled with the struggle against the Reformation. When both failed the effects were harsh. The Norwegian Catholic bishops were replaced with Danes and the Norwegian church was subdued and made wholly Danish. The Norwegian Riksråd was abolished in 1536, and increasingly more foreigners were appointed to important positions in Norway. On hearing news of the treaty, the Prince of the
Kingdom of Denmark-Norway,
Christian Frederick, the resident viceroy in Norway, participated in founding a
Norwegian independence movement. The independence movement was successful, partly due to clandestine support from the Danish
Crown, but also because of the strong desire for independence in Norway. On 10 April, a national assembly met at
Eidsvoll to decide on a constitution. Norway declared independence on 17 May 1814, electing Christian Frederick as King. A short
war with Sweden later that year ended with the
Convention of Moss. This led to the ousting of Christian Frederick, and the Norwegian
Storting electing
Charles XIII of Sweden as King of Norway, creating the
union between Sweden and Norway. The union with Denmark also had its adverse effects on the monarchy: among other things it resulted in the Crown of Norway losing territory which today amounts to 2 322 755 km2 (although most of this was uninhabited areas of Greenland). Very little royal activity had been relocated to Norway; the country thus lacks the monumental palaces of the period which can be seen in
Copenhagen and other parts of Denmark.
Union with Sweden of Norway during the Union with Sweden The
Treaty of Kiel stipulated that Norway was to be ceded by the king of
Denmark–Norway to the king of Sweden. This was however rejected in Norway, where calls for
self-determination were already mounting. A Norwegian constituent assembly was called, and a liberal constitution was adopted on 17 May 1814. A short war ensued, ending in a new agreement between the Norwegian parliament and the Swedish king. [a.k.a.
King Charles XIV John], Marshal of France, King of Sweden'' (1818). Joseph Nicolas Jouy, after
François Kinson. As Crown Prince, Jean Baptiste Bernadotte was primarily responsible for establishing the union. The
Convention of Moss was from a Norwegian point of view a significant improvement over the terms dictated to Denmark-Norway at the treaty of Kiel. Notably, Norway was no longer to be treated as a Swedish conquest but rather as an equal party in a personal union of two independent states. Both the principle and substance of the Norwegian Constitution were preserved, with only such amendments as were required to allow for the union with Sweden. Norway retained its own parliament and separate institutions, except for the common king and foreign service. The Norwegian
Storting would propose Norwegian laws without interference from Sweden, to be approved by the common King in his capacity as King of Norway. The King would occasionally 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. These would most often be vetoed by the king, but as he only had the power to veto the same law twice, it would eventually be passed. The constitution of 1814 already specified that Norway would have a
separate flag, and the present design was introduced in 1821. The flags of both kingdoms were
defaced with the
union mark in 1844 to denote their equal status within the union. Despite royal objections, this was removed from the Norwegian flag in 1898. In 1837
local self-government in certain areas of policy was introduced in rural areas as well as towns. A
Parliamentary system was introduced in 1884. The Royal
House of Bernadotte tried hard to be a Norwegian royal house as well as a Swedish one. The
Royal Palace in Oslo was built during this period. There were separate
coronations in
Trondheim, as stipulated in the Constitution. The royal princes even had a hunting lodge built in Norway so that they could spend more private time there. King
Oscar II spoke and wrote Norwegian fluently.
Full independence In
1905 a series of disputes between parliament and the King culminated with the matter of separate Norwegian
consuls to foreign countries. Norway had grown into one of the world's leading shipping nations, but Sweden retained control of both the diplomatic and consulate corps. Although businessmen needed assistance abroad, the Swedes had little insight into Norwegian shipping, and
consulates were not even established in several important shipping cities. The demand for separate Norwegian consuls was seen as very important by the Norwegian parliament and society. The Storting proposed a law establishing a separate Norwegian consulate corps. King
Oscar II refused to ratify the law and subsequently the Norwegian cabinet resigned. The king was unable to form any other government that had the support of parliament, and so it was deemed on 7 June that he had failed to function as King of Norway. In a plebiscite of the Norwegian people on 13 August, there were an overwhelming 368,208 votes (99.95%) in favor of dissolution of the Union, against 184 (0.05%) opposed, with 85% 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. Under the 1814 constitution, while Haakon was nominally vested with executive power, he was not responsible for exercising it. In keeping with his democratic inclinations, Haakon largely limited himself to a ceremonial and representative role, while fully accepting the principles of parliamentary democracy. One important incident in the early years of the new monarchy was in 1928 when the king appointed the first government headed by the
Norwegian Labour Party. At the time, the Labour Party was quite radical, and even had the abolition of monarchy as part of their programme. It was the custom for the king to rely on the advice of the previous prime minister in deciding whom to give the assignment as new prime minister. In this case, the previous conservative prime minister was opposed to giving power to Labour, and advised the appointment of someone else. However, the king adhered to the established practice of parliamentarism and decided to appoint
Christopher Hornsrud as the first Labour prime minister. The Labour Party later dropped the abolition of monarchy from their programme. During the
German occupation of World War II, the king was an important symbol of national unity and resistance. His steadfast opposition to the German demands of surrender was important for the fighting spirit of the Norwegian population. When Germany demanded that Haakon appoint a government headed by
Vidkun Quisling, head of the fascist
Nasjonal Samling, Haakon refused. Haakon told his ministers that neither the people nor the Storting had confidence in Quisling, and was so strongly opposed to appointing a Quisling-led government that he would abdicate before doing so. This is one of the few known instances since the end of the union with Sweden that a Norwegian king directly intervened in the country's politics. The constitutional powers granted to the king in the Norwegian monarchial system made his position very important and enabled the
government in exile to continue its work with the utmost legitimacy. After the war, the Norwegian royal house succeeded in maintaining a balance between regality and approachability. After 52 years as crown prince,
Olav V ascended the throne upon his father's death in 1957. Places was deemed the people's king and the spontaneous show of mourning from the population upon his death in 1991 demonstrated the high standing he had among the Norwegian people. Even republicans were among the masses lighting candles in front of the Palace. In later years the marriages of the then crown prince
Harald in 1968, and of Crown Prince
Haakon in 2001 sparked considerable controversy, but the lasting effect on the popularity of the monarchy has been minimal. Although decreased from its level of above 90 percent after the war, support for the monarchy in 2004 seemed to remain stable, around and mostly above 70 percent. In an opinion poll in 2012, 93% of respondents agreed that the monarch was doing a good job for the country. ==Constitutional and official role==