Category Archives: Norwegian Royals

Princess Ragnhild of Norway

photo: The Royal House of Norway

photo: The Royal House of Norway

September 16 2012 – Death of Princess Ragnhild of Norway

Her Highness Princess Ragnhild, the eldest sister of King Harald V, died at her home in Brazil on September 16, 2012. She was 82.
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Read more here: Unofficial Royalty – In Memoriam: Princess Ragnhild, Mrs Lorentzen (1930-2012)

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Crown Princess Mette-Marit of Norway

by Scott Mehl  © Unofficial Royalty 2013

Mette-Marit Tjessem Høiby was born August 19, 1973, in Kristiansand, Norway, the daughter of journalist Sven Høiby and Marit Tjessem. She attended secondary school in Kristiansand and Australia, followed by some courses at Agder University College.

She has a son from a previous relationship, Marius Borg Høiby, born in 1997. She first briefly met Norway’s Crown Prince Haakon, son of King Harald V and Sonja Haraldsen, at a music festival in the mid-1990s. The two met again in 1999 and began a relationship. When their engagement was announced in late 2000, it was not without controversy. She was a commoner, with a child born out of wedlock, surrounded by rumors of a party-girl past and alleged drug use. The couple was also living together which didn’t sit well with the church. Public support for the monarchy suffered, and there were calls for Haakon to relinquish his place in succession if he chose to marry Mette-Marit. The couple did, however, have the support of the King and Queen, and after a series of public interviews, they also regained the support of the Norwegian people.

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Mette-Marit and Haakon were married on August 25, 2001, at the Oslo Cathedral, in the presence of their families and friends as well as a number of European royals. Following the marriage, Mette-Marit became Her Royal Highness The Crown Princess of Norway.

In addition to Mette-Marit’s son Marius, the couple has two children:

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In 2003, Mette-Marit attended the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, where she took examinations in Development-Experience, Theories of Development, HIV/AIDS and Development and The Global Refugee Crisis. She then spent three months as an observer at the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation where she focused on HIV/AIDS issues.  In the autumn of 2008, Mette-Marit began studying part-time at BI Norwegian School of Management in Oslo, where she completed her Master’s degree in Management in 2012.

Mette-Marit is a patron of:

  • Agder Academy of Sciences and Letters
  • Amandus Film Festival
  • FOKUS – Forum for Women and Development
  • Full-rigged Ship Sørlandet
  • Kristiansand International Children’s Film Festival
  • Oslo International Church Music Festival
  • Risør Festival of Chamber Music
  • The Hamsun Days
  • The Førde International Folk Music Festival
  • The Norwegian Council for Mental Health
  • The Norwegian Girl’s Choir
  • The Norwegian Guide and Scout Association
  • The Norwegian Library Association
  • The Norwegian Red Cross

It was announced on October 24, 2018, that Crown Princess Mette-Marit was diagnosed with chronic pulmonary fibrosis, a respiratory disease in which scars are formed in the lung tissue, leading to serious breathing problems. There is no known cure for the scars and damage in the lungs due to pulmonary fibrosis. Life expectancy is generally less than five years. In a statement, the Crown Princess said, “For a number of years, I have had health challenges on a regular basis, and now we know more about the cause. The condition means that my ability to work will vary. The Crown Prince and I chose to disclose this now because in the future there will be a need to plan periods without official programs. This may occur during treatments and when the disease is more active.”

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King Oscar I of Sweden and Norway

by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2013

King Oscar I of Sweden and Norway; Credit – Wikipedia

King Oscar I was born Joseph François Oscar Bernadotte on July 4, 1799, at 291 Rue Cisalpine (today’s address: 32 Rue de Monceau) in Paris, France.  His father was General Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, a Marshal of France and the French Minister of War.  His mother Bernardine Eugénie Désirée Clary, known as Désirée, was the first fiancée of Napoleon Bonaparte.  Julie Clary, his mother’s sister, was married to Joseph Bonaparte, Napoleon’s brother, and Jean-Baptiste and Désirée’s son was named after Joseph Bonaparte.  The name Oscar was suggested by Napoleon Bonaparte, the baby’s godfather.  Napoleon was an admirer of the 18th-century Scottish poet James Macpherson and the name Oscar was used in Macpherson’s works.

In 1810, just as Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte was about to start a new position as governor of Rome, the Swedish Riksdag elected him heir to the childless King Carl XIII of Sweden. The Riksdag wanted a soldier as the king because of their worries over Russia. In addition, Bernadotte was popular in Sweden because of his considerate treatment of Swedish prisoners during the recent war with Denmark. Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte became king on February 5, 1818, upon the death of King Carl XIII, reigning as King Carl XIV Johan and starting the House of Bernadotte which still reigns in Sweden.

Oscar was eleven years old when his father was elected Crown Prince of Sweden and he moved to Stockholm with his mother Désirée. Oscar was given the title Duke of Södermanland, and, unlike his mother, quickly learned Swedish and adapted to life in Sweden. As Crown Princess, Désirée had difficulty adjusting to the Swedish court and despised the weather in Stockholm. She left Sweden in 1811 and did not return until 1823, five years after her husband became king.  As a result, Oscar did not see his mother for twelve years.

Oscar’s father prescribed guidelines for his son’s education. Upon arriving in Sweden, Oscar was immediately schooled in Swedish, quickly became proficient, and served as his father’s translator.  Besides Swedish, Oscar was also taught Norwegian and German.  He studied humanities, administration, constitutional law, science, art, and music.  Oscar was particularly talented in music and composed a funeral march performed at King Carl XIII’s funeral in 1818.  When the composer Ludwig van Beethoven heard of this, he wrote to Oscar’s father and was invited to help develop Oscar’s musical talent.  Besides his musical talent, Oscar was an expert in social-political issues and wrote articles on education and prison reform.  He was elected an honorary member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and was appointed chancellor of Uppsala University.

Oscar married Princess Joséphine of Leuchtenberg (known by the Swedish form of her name Josefina) by proxy at the Leuchtenberg Palace in Munich, Kingdom of Bavaria on May 22, 1823, and in person at a wedding ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden on June 19, 1823.  Princess Joséphine of Leuchtenberg’s father was Eugène de Beauharnais, the son of Empress Joséphine (who was Napoleon’s first wife) from her first marriage to Alexandre, Vicomte de Beauharnais who had been guillotined during the French Revolution.   Her mother was Princess Augusta of Bavaria, a descendant of King Gustav I of Sweden and King Charles IX of Sweden, thereby ensuring that future members of the House of Bernadotte were descendants of the House of Vasa which ruled Sweden from 1523-1654.  Joséphine brought to Sweden jewelry that belonged to her grandmother Empress Josephine. Members of the Swedish and Norwegian royal families still wear the jewelry. For instance, Empress Jospéhine’s Cameo Tiara was worn by her descendant Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden on her wedding day.

Queen Josefina wearing the Cameo Tiara; Credit – Wikipedia

Oscar and Josefina  (as she was known in Sweden) had five children, four sons and one daughter.

Oscar and Josefina’s marriage was a happy one.  They shared interests in music and art and had similar personalities. While he was crown prince, Oscar had an affair with a lady-in-waiting which produced a daughter.  After his marriage, Oscar had another well-known affair with Emilie Högquist, a famous Swedish actress at the Royal Dramatic Theatre.  Oscar had two sons with his mistress Emilie.  In 1832, Queen Josefina wrote in her diary that a woman was expected to endure a husband’s extramarital affairs: “A woman should suffer in silence.”  Josefina and her husband continued to appear together in public.  Oscar discontinued his extramarital affairs when he became King of Sweden and Norway in 1844 upon the death of his father.

Oscar I’s health had never been strong and he began to suffer periods when he would fall silent in mid-sentence and then continue a minute later as if nothing had happened.  By the early 1850s, these symptoms worsened and in 1852 he was forced to make a trip to the spa at Bad Kissingen in Bavaria in hopes of recovery.  In the fall of 1852, he became ill with typhoid fever and it took a year for him to fully recover.  He continued to have neurological symptoms and by 1857, it was suspected that Oscar had a brain tumor.  By September of 1857, Oscar was paralyzed and the doctors recommended that he be relieved of his duties.  On September 25, 1857, Oscar’s eldest son Carl was declared Regent.  After being bedridden for a long period, King Oscar I died at the Royal Palace in Stockholm on July 8, 1859, at the age of 60. An autopsy confirmed that he had a brain tumor.  King Oscar I was buried in the Bernadotte Chapel at Riddarholmen Church in Stockholm.

Bernadotte Chapel at Riddarholmen Church; Photo Credit – Susan Flantzer

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Kingdom of Sweden Resources at Unofficial Royalty

Princess Ragnhild, Mrs. Lorentzen

by Emily McMahon and Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2013

 

Princess Ragnhild Alexandra of Norway was the eldest child of the future King Olav V of Norway and his wife Princess Märtha of Sweden. She was named for another Ragnhild, the wife of Harald Fairhair, the first king of a united Norway. Born at the Royal Palace in Oslo, Norway on June 9, 1930, Ragnhild was also the first native Norwegian princess born in the country in over 600 years.

Ragnhild was christened on June 27, 1930, at the Royal Chapel of the Royal Palace in Oslo, Norway. Her godparents were:

Princess Ragnhild had two younger siblings:

Ragnhild (on the right) with her parents and siblings; Credit – Wikipedia

Ragnhild was also closely related to the Belgian royal and Luxembourg grand ducal families through her mother; she was the first cousin of Kings Baudouin and Albert II of Belgium and Grand Duchess Josephine-Charlotte of Luxembourg. As a toddler, a section of the Antarctic coastline was named in her honor. Princess Ragnhild Coast makes up a portion of the larger Queen Maud Land, named for Ragnhild’s paternal grandmother. Along with her sister Astrid, Ragnhild served as a flower girl at the wedding of her cousin Ingrid of Sweden to the future Frederik IX of Denmark.

Ragnhild spent most of her childhood at the Skaugum Estate, the family home (rebuilt after a fire shortly before Ragnhild’s birth) located just outside of Oslo. She accompanied her mother and siblings to the United States in 1940 following the German invasion and occupation of Norway while her father and grandfather were based in Britain. The family was reunited and returned to Norway in 1945.

 

On May 15, 1953, Ragnhild married Erling Lorentzen, a commoner and her former bodyguard. Reportedly, Ragnhild’s grandfather King Haakon VII consented to the marriage only after Crown Princess Märtha’s intervention as Ragnhild was the first Norwegian royal to marry a commoner. Ragnhild lost her style of Royal Highness with the marriage, becoming known instead as Her Highness Princess Ragnhild, Mrs. Lorentzen. The couple settled in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and had three children:

  • Haakon Lorentzen (born 1954), married Martha Carvalho de Freitas, had three children
  • Ingeborg Lorentzen (born 1957), married Paulo César Ribeiro Filho, had one daughter
  • Ragnhild Alexandra Lorentzen (born 1968), married Aaron Matthew Long, had two daughters

Ragnhild kept an apartment in Oslo and visited Norway often but did not undertake official duties. Often photographed wearing a rather sour expression, Ragnhild gained attention during a 2004 television interview when she expressed her intense displeasure with Crown Prince Haakon’s and Princess Märtha Louise’s respective spouses. Reportedly the remarks were made after King Harald and Queen Sonia abruptly canceled a visit to Brazil, hurting Ragnhild’s feelings. It is said that Ragnhild privately apologized to her brother’s family afterward, greatly regretting her unkind words. Conversely, Ragnhild was seen in her adopted country of Brazil as very friendly and warm-hearted due to her charity work. She was known among her friends and family to have a very sharp wit and a dry sense of humor.

 

Ragnhild died in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on September 16, 2012, following a bout with cancer. Her remains were transferred to Norway where her funeral was held on September 28, 2012. At her request, Ragnhild was buried at Asker Church in Asker, Norway. She was survived by her husband, three children, six grandchildren, and her siblings. Princess Ragnhild’s widower Erling Lorentzen died after a short illness on March 9, 2021, aged 98, in Oslo, Norway.

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Märtha of Sweden, Crown Princess of Norway

Märtha of Sweden, Crown Princess of Norway. Photo credit tiara-mania.blogspot.com

April 5, 1954 – Death of Märtha of Sweden, Crown Princess of Norway

Martha’s Wikipedia page

Märtha was the second of three daughters of Carl of Sweden and his wife Ingeborg of Denmark. Carl was a son of Oscar II of Sweden. Märtha grew up with her sisters Margaretha and Astrid (later Queen of Belgium) and brother Carl grew up in a palace outside Stockholm and had a laid back early life for a royal woman. She and her sisters were often seen shopping in Stockholm unaccompanied.

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Märtha spent much of WWII in exile due to Nazi occupation of Norway. She spent a significant amount of time in the United States, where she became fascinated with college sorority life and was consequently sworn in as a member of Delta Zeta sorority in 1939. Märtha also spent much time with Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt; rumors still swirl that Märtha was romantically involved with the president. Upon her return to Norway in 1945, Märtha was well received by her people.

Märtha developed cancer soon after the end of the war and died in 1954. A coast in Antarctica, a memorial fund, and one of her granddaughters (Märtha Louise) is named in honor of her. Olav became king a little over three years after her death.

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