King Harald V of Norway has died at the age of 89, the Norwegian royal palace announced on Friday.
He passed away at the National Hospital in Oslo, at 6.35am local time.
Harald had been Europe’s oldest monarch. His son, Crown Prince Haakon, automatically becomes the new king, taking the name King Haakon VIII.
Like other royal families in Europe, Norway’s king plays a mostly symbolic, ceremonial role. Real power in the country, home to about 5.5 million people (a similar population to New Zealand), rests with an elected parliament.
Harald became king in 1991, after his own father, King Olav V, died. He went on to lead Norway through a huge economic boom, driven by the country’s oil and gas industries.
Harald was born in 1937, and was only three years old when Nazi Germany invaded Norway during World War II.
To keep him safe, his mother took him and his two sisters first to Sweden, then by boat to the United States, while his father and grandfather escaped to Britain.
The family was finally reunited in Norway in 1945, once the war had ended.
Harald loved the sea and sailing, just like his father before him. He competed for Norway at several Olympic Games, and skippered his yacht to a world sailing title in 1987.
As a young man, Harald chose to marry his school sweetheart, Sonja Haraldsen, rather than a European princess as was expected of him at the time. Norwegians welcomed the couple with celebration when they married on 29 August 1968, and later embraced Sonja as their queen.
Throughout his 34 years on the throne, Harald worked to keep the monarchy close to ordinary Norwegians, using the same family motto as his father and grandfather: “All for Norway.”
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