World News
King Harald V dies in Oslo at 89 and his son becomes King Haakon VIII
By Staff Writer | 29 August 2026
The palace said he died at the National Hospital at 6.35am on Friday, after eleven days in hospital. The throne passed at that moment, with no vote, no ceremony and no interval.
King Harald V of Norway died in Oslo on Friday morning at the age of 89, the royal palace said. He had been in hospital since 17 August receiving treatment for a blood condition, and the royal household had said the previous day that his condition had become extremely serious. He was the oldest reigning monarch in Europe and had held the throne for thirty five years.
A whole nation is in mourning and the people of Norway are left with a deep sense of gratitude for a long life in the service of Norway
Jonas Gahr Store, Prime Minister of Norway
His son became King Haakon VIII automatically at the moment of the death. There was no interregnum and no ceremony to create one. An extraordinary meeting of the cabinet was held at the palace the same day. The Norwegian monarch's role is largely symbolic, with power resting in an elected parliament in a country of 5.5 million people.
A childhood in exile
Harald was born in 1937 at Asker, outside Oslo, the first Norwegian prince born in the country since the fourteenth century. He was three years old when Norway was occupied in 1940. His mother took him and his sisters, Ragnhild and Astrid, first to Sweden and then by boat to the United States, while his father and grandfather went into exile in Britain with the Norwegian government. The family was reunited at home in June 1945. He went on to the Norwegian military college and to Oxford.
He sailed for Norway at the Olympic Games of 1964, 1968 and 1972, and in 1987 skippered his own yacht to gold at the world championships. For nine years he declined a series of matches among the noble families of Europe, and in 1968 he married Sonja Haraldsen, a businessman's daughter he had known at school. They had two children, Haakon and Martha Louise. On taking the throne on 21 January 1991, on the death of his father Olav V, he adopted the motto his father and grandfather had used before him.
The rule that did not move
The Norwegian Constitution was altered in 1990 so that the first born takes precedence in the line of succession regardless of sex. The change was not applied retrospectively, so Haakon continued to rank ahead of his older sister, and Friday's succession followed the older rule rather than the newer one.
Two things happened at 6.35am and only one of them was a death. The Norwegian throne is not vacant for any period at all: it passes at the instant, and everything that follows, including the cabinet meeting held at the palace on Friday, records a transfer that has already taken effect rather than bringing one about.
He was pressed, after the abdication of a second cousin in Denmark in January 2024, on whether he would step down himself. He said the oath he had taken on ascending the throne lasted for life. He was twice taken to hospital abroad after that, in Malaysia in 2024, where he was fitted with a pacemaker, and on the Spanish island of Tenerife in February this year.
For 35 years, King Harald served his people with unwavering dedication, guiding Norway through times of great change with warmth and humility
King Charles III
Flags were lowered at Buckingham Palace, Clarence House, Windsor Castle and the Palace of Holyroodhouse on Friday. Harald was a second cousin of Queen Elizabeth II, and Britain was among the first states to recognise Norwegian independence in 1905 and to open diplomatic relations with it.
Flowers were left at the Palace Square in Oslo through Friday. The king who spent his childhood out of the country he was born to inherit held it for thirty five years and did not give it up.