King Harald V of Norway dies at 89, son succeeds as King Haakon VIII

King Harald V of Norway, Europe's oldest reigning monarch, has died at the age of 89, the Royal House of Norway said on August 28.

Harald died at the National Hospital in Oslo at 6:35 a.m., the palace said, and is automatically succeeded by his son, the former crown prince, who becomes King Haakon VIII.

His death removes a widely popular figure who reigned for 35 years and modernised the monarchy while declining to abdicate in old age as several other European royals have done.

The king had been in and out of hospital over the past two years and was admitted on August 17 for treatment of blood anaemia. He had a heart pacemaker fitted in 2024.

Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store said a whole nation was in mourning, adding that Norwegians were left with a deep sense of gratitude.

Harald acceded to the throne after the death of his father, King Olav V, in January 1991, and reigned through a period shaped by Norway's oil-and-gas-driven prosperity. His granddaughter, Princess Ingrid Alexandra, becomes heir to the throne.

He is survived by Queen Sonja, his wife of 57 years, two children and five grandchildren.

Harald was born in 1937 in Asker, near Oslo, the first Norwegian prince born in the country since 1370. He was three when Nazi Germany invaded in 1940, fleeing with his mother and sisters first to Sweden and then to the United States, while his father and grandfather, King Haakon VII, went into exile in Britain with the Norwegian government. As monarch he held a largely ceremonial role, with power resting with the elected parliament.