Norway’s King Harald V dies, succeeded by son

Harald V, who was Europe’s oldest reigning monarch, has died at the age of ۸۹. His son will reign as King Haakon VIII.

Norway’s King Harald V has died at the age of ۸۹, after being hospitalised with a rare blood condition.

The death of Europe’s oldest reigning monarch was announced on Friday by the Royal Palace of Norway.

“King Harald passed away peacefully at Oslo University Hospital on Friday, Aug ۲۸ at ۶:۳۵ a.m,” the palace said in a statement.

His son, Crown Prince Haakon, automatically succeeds him and is expected to reign as King Haakon VIII.

Royal family members had visited the king on Thursday, and crowds gathered outside the palace and laid flowers for the king after officials warned that his condition had turned “extremely serious”.

Harald was hospitalised on August ۱۷, suffering from haemolytic anaemia, a condition caused by an abnormally rapid destruction of red blood cells which leads to fatigue and shortness of breath.

Harald, who ascended the Norwegian throne ۳۵ years ago, has had multiple health problems in recent years, forcing him to have a pacemaker fitted and to scale back his official schedule.

But he had always ruled out abdicating, arguing that he took a lifelong oath before the Norwegian parliament.

Harald was Norway’s first king born on Norwegian soil since the ۱۴th century. Taking the throne in January ۱۹۹۱, after the death of his father, Olav V, he presided over decades of oil-fuelled prosperity.

He was born in February ۱۹۳۷, near Oslo. When the Nazis invaded Norway his mother fled with him and his sisters to Sweden and then the United States, while his father and grandfather, Haakon VII, sat out the war in Britain.

Harald won lasting public affection for his speech in ۲۰۱۱ after Anders Behring Breivik‘s bomb attacks which killed ۷۷ people, telling mourners: “I remain convinced that the belief in freedom is stronger than fear.”

His death, however, comes at a fraught time for the monarchy, after documents published in January showed Crown Princess Mette-Marit corresponding with notorious US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, years after his conviction.

Her ۲۹-year-old son, Marius Borg Høiby, the new King Haakon’s stepson, was sentenced in June to four years in prison on two counts of rape and ۳۲ other charges, including domestic violence.