King of Norway

“ It belonged to a Norwegian, who, when called upon for an explanation, said: "I cannot drink such a toast as this, but I will drink the health of the King of Norway, who is also King of Sweden!"
One cannot find fault with a people for their patriotism. I have always admired that love of Gamle Norge which shines through Norwegian history, song, and saga—but when it is manifested in such ridiculous extremes, one doubts the genuineness of the feeling, and suspects it of being alloyed with some degree of personal vanity. ”

“ The Danes were beaten and their king disheartened, and in the peace of 1814 he ceded Norway to Sweden, receiving Swedish Pomerania in exchange.
For centuries Sweden had sought to absorb Norway, and now, by the action of this crown prince from a foreign land, the result seemed achieved. But the brave Norwegians themselves remained to be dealt with. They did not propose, if they could avoid it, to be forced into vassalage to the Swedes. A party arose in favor of the independence of Norway, a government was formed, and their Danish governor, Prince Christian Frederick, was elected king of Norway. ”

“ Now if King Olaf Haraldson wishes to remain king of Norway, he will come to King Canute, and receive his kingdom as a fief from him, become his vassal, and pay the scat which the earls before him formerly paid. ”

“ The Swedish Crown Prince Karl Johan led an invasion of Norway in July, and there was fighting until the Convention of Moss, August 14, in which he approved the Norwegian Constitution in return for the abdication of Christian Frederik. Negotiations then led to the federation of Norway as an independent kingdom with Sweden in a union. This was formally concluded on November 4, 1815, by the adoption of the Act of Union, and the election of the Swedish King Karl XIII as King of Norway. ”

“ Thus, after for five hundred and seventeen years standing empty, the throne of Norway was filled with a king of its own, and that old land, once more single and separate, swung back into the tide of the nations. ”

“ In his address delivered to the newly arrived sovereign on board the battleship Heimdal, Herr Michelsen, President of Council, and for six months virtual President of Norway, used these significant words: "For nearly six centuries the Norwegian people have had no king of their own. To-day a king of Norway comes to make his home in the Norwegian capital, elected by a free people to occupy, conjointly with free men, the first place in the land. The Norwegian people love their liberty, their independence, and their autonomous government which they themselves have won. ”

“ He calls him so because, ill-content with peace, he hunts eagerly after small things, and yet gets them not, while for their sake he throws away great and good things. I am deaf, but now so many have spoken that I have been able to understand that men both great and small like it ill that thou, sire, keepest not thy word with the King of Norway. And still worse like they this: that thou makest of none effect the judgment of the General Assembly at Upsala. Thou hast no need to fear King of Norway or of Danes, nor anyone else, while the armies of Sweden will follow thee. ”

“ Formal offer of the throne was made to the new king at Copenhagen on November 20 by a deputation from the Norwegian parliament, King Christian accepting it for his grandson, and saying:
"The young king does not come as a stranger to Norway, for he claims relationship to former Norwegian kings. Nor will the kingdom of Norway be strange to him, for everywhere in the land common recollections of the history of the kingdom and the history of his race will meet him." ”

“ He is king of Norway and he is king of Sweden, but he governs each country in accordance with its own laws and through distinct and separate ministries. Each country has its own parliament; no Swede holds office in Norway, and no Norseman in Sweden. The only offices which are open to citizens of both countries are those of the diplomatic and consular service. The general sentiment in Norway is opposed to a closer union. A stubborn insistence upon every feature of national distinctness has characterized the people, since the separation from Denmark. ”

“ There is a danger in doing injustice, even to the Black Death, and it has, until recently, been the fashion to make it solely responsible for the eclipse of Norway's glory.
Olaf, the only son of Haakon Magnusson and Margaret, was proclaimed King of Norway at his father's death. Five years earlier he had, after the death of his maternal grandfather, been elected king of Denmark. As he was yet a child, his mother Margaret and the Council of the Regency conducted the government in his name. ”

“ To Harald's messengers she answered in this wise: "I will not waste my maidenhood for the taking to husband of a king who has no more realm to rule over than a few folks. Marvellous it seems to me that there is no king minded to make Norway his own, and be sole lord thereof in such wise as Gorm of Denmark or Eric of Upsala have done." ”

“ It has now come so far that King Canute rules over Denmark and England, and has also conquered a great part of Scotland. And still he lays claim to the kingdom I have inherited. I think he ought to be satisfied with what he has. Does he wish to rule over all the countries of the North? Will he eat up all the cabbage in England? He will have to do so before I show him any kind of vassalage. Bring him this answer: I will defend Norway with battle-axe and sword as long as life is given me, and will pay tribute to no man for my kingdom. ”

“ Now I will win Norway for you, and kill Gold Harald, if you will promise me a good condition under you. I will be your earl; swear an oath of fidelity to you, and, with your help, conquer all Norway for you; hold the country under your rule; pay you the scat and taxes; and you will be a greater king than your father, as you will have two kingdoms under you." The king and the earl agreed upon this, and Hakon set off to seek Gold Harald. ”

“ The Norwegians denied the right of Denmark to Norway, refused to recognize the treaty of Kiel as having any binding force on them, as they were not parties to it, and invited Prince Christian Frederick of Denmark to accept the Norwegian throne from its people and to govern pursuant to a constitution adopted at Eidsvold, May 17, 1814. Among the provisions of this instrument are the following: That Norway should be a limited hereditary monarchy, independent and indivisible, whose ruler should be called a king ”

“ The political events which led up to the final crisis in 1905, by which the thrones were separated, are dealt with in the historical articles under Norway and Sweden. But it may be said that the peaceful solution eventually adopted could hardly have been attained but for the tact and patience of the king himself. He declined, indeed, to permit any prince of his house to become king of Norway, but better relations between the two countries were restored before his death, which took place at Stockholm on the 8th of December 1907. ”

“ Norway is a strange country. There is a little king here and a little king there—hundreds of them scattered about. Now in Denmark there is but one great king over the whole land. And it is so in Sweden. Is no one brave enough to make all of Norway his own?"
She laughed a scornful laugh and walked away. The men stood with open mouths and stared after her. Could it be that she had sent that saucy message to King Harald? They looked at her foster-father. ”

“ Grandson of the late King Christian of Denmark, the young monarch is also nephew to King George of Greece, the Dowager Empress of Russia, and Alexandria of England, a grand-nephew to the late Oscar of Sweden, son-in-law to King Edward VII, and cousin to the Czar. To a relatively defenseless country like Norway, this means a good deal.
In himself the new king is a clean-lived, healthy young man of thirty-three, in personality quite fit to represent a nation which thinks well of itself. ”

“ The experience for which other states must suffer has taught the Deputies of the Norwegian people to guard the Constitution equally against the marks of despotism as against the abuses of a popular government.
This old Kingdom calls for a King, but he should no more be a despot in the form than in the government; — no he should be the first friend and father to his people. ”

“ It should be remembered that Norway is practically a free and independent state though it is under the crown of Sweden, and that the people are thoroughly democratic, having abolished all titles of nobility by enactment of the Storthing so early as 1821, at which time a law was also passed forbidding the king to create a new nobility. Nevertheless, the thought occurs to us that these are the descendants of those Northmen of whom one branch, under the name of Normans, conquered the British Isles, and founded the very nobility there which is the present boast and pride of England. ”

“ Norway's only connection with Sweden was that they had the same king—but the Norwegians had no use for a king that would place the interests of one country in precedence of those of another. The decisive move was made on June 7, when the Storthing—the parliament of Norway—announced itself as no longer in union with Sweden or under the rule of King Oscar, declaring that he had admitted that he was unable to govern Norway according to its constitution and therefore had ceased to rule as its king. ”

“ When he was still an infant the former King Olaf had baptized him and given him his own name, and the time came when his little namesake took up and finished his work. What most troubled the kings of Norway in that age was the power held by the tribal chiefs, who were difficult to control and ready to rebel; and this power came from the fact that they were not only chiefs, but were the priests of the old religion. As priest-kings their people followed them blindly, and no king could be sure of his crown while this system prevailed. ”

“ One of the chief principles of the Constitution — the most important of all, in point of fact — is that Norway shall be a Constitutional Monarchy. It is incompatible with this, that the King should sink to be a helpless tool in the hands of His Ministers. If, meanwhile, the members of the Council should have the power, by refusing countersignature, to hinder every future Royal Decree, the Norwegian King would be deprived of participating in the government. ”

“ After the separation of Sweden, Norway still continued under the Danish government until the fall of Napoleon, and then the Allied Powers, as a sort of punishment upon Denmark for her alliance with France, gave Norway to the king of Sweden; since which time Norway, though nominally subject to the Swedish king, has had her domestic legislature, and enjoyed a greater degree of political freedom than either of the other two countries. ”

“ King Christian I. (1450-1481) arrived in Norway in the summer of 1450, and was crowned in the cathedral of Drontheim. At a meeting of the Council of Regency in Bergen, it was resolved that Norway was to remain eternally united with Denmark under one [479] king, but that each kingdom should be free and the other's equal, and should be governed in accordance with its own laws and by native-born officials. ”

“ England bombarded Copenhagen and captured it and the Danish fleet. The war lasted seven years for Norway also, which was blockaded by the English fleet and suffered sorely for lack of the necessaries of life. But the nations sense of independence grew, and when the Peace of Kiel in January, 1814, separated Norway from Denmark, Norway refused to be absorbed by Sweden, and through a representative assembly at Eidsvold declared its independence, adopted a Constitution on May 17, 1814, and chose as King, Prince Christian Frederik, the later King Christian VIII of Denmark. ”

“ With a nature like his, however, no goal is final. The ease with which he had managed Harold Bluetooth and his nephew—using them as tools for his own ends—had, no doubt, inspired him with a supreme confidence in his ability, and a corresponding contempt of those whose shrewdness was inferior to his own. The purpose therefore soon matured in his mind to repudiate his obligations to the Danish king, and make himself the independent ruler of Norway. ”

“ The depredations committed by the Danish nobles, during the reign of Christian III., defy description. It was the darkest period in the history of Norway, and, as far as the people were concerned, very nearly the darkest, too, in the history of Denmark. The power of the nobles reached such a height that the king himself was merely the tool of their will and was used by them, as an instrument for the most cruel and heartless oppression. ”

“ No potentate of the time came near him except the king of Germany, the emperor, with whom he was allied as an equal. The king of the Norwegians, the Danes, and a great part of the Swedes, was in a position to found a Scandinavian empire with Britain annexed. Canute's division of his dominions on his death-bed, showed that he saw this to be impossible; Norway, for a century and a half after his strong hand was removed, was broken up amongst an anarchical crew of piratic and blood-thirsty princes, nor could Denmark be regarded as likely to continue united with England. ”

“ The face, while scarcely so handsome as the profile pictures lead us to think, is a distinguished one, and has for Norway this charm, that it is markedly not of the Bernadotte type, although his mother is a Bernadotte. Those who know him describe him as an extremely intelligent and sensible young man, easy and tolerant without being weak, and capable of strenuous devotion to hard work. These things bespeak an industrious, efficient, and tractable king, such as the Norwegians, who would equally resent either vacillation or tyranny, know how to appreciate. ”