The Unknown King

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 904, 22 February 1930, Page 18

The Unknown King

Haakon of Norway Has Always Dodged Publicity

' ING HAAKON of Norway I is a Royal figure who i is for the most part ob- | scure. He is what 1 might be called the unj known King, for it is m that he finds his way

for her much-beloved husband, with whom the King delighted to tramp and shoot. Princess Maud did not agree with her father, but he won her over to his point of view. He also suggested to the Norwegian people that the goodwill of the British Navy would be an asset to a young kingdom with an enormously long coastline. . Meanwhile King Edward’s nephew, Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany, also cast his eye upon the empty throne and thought it a proper place for a nice young German princeling of his own choosing. He even went so far as to call upon the King of Denmark and remark that it was not the place for his son, Prince Charles. However, the Interests of the Norwegian people lay with their English friends, and when they cast a vote of 259,563 in favour of the Prince, against 69,264 dissenting, the vote was quite as much for an English queen as for a Danish King.

vcij Bciuum tuau uc uuua Julies w <xy on to the front page. Yet 25 years ago he was, for a while, the most talked up man of the day. He is a reigning monarch who can boast that he was raised to his royal post.by popular vote of the people and by an overwhelming majority as well. Back of his election to the Viking throne lie hundreds of years of romantiCihistory. The throne itself' had stood vacant for 500 years while alien lines ruled over the old and picturesque land of the Norse folk.

It was in 1905 that Norway finally won the right to separate herself from Sweden, and to set up a sovereignty of her own. She had to begin all over again. She had cathedral for the coronation and a throne, but of king, court and ceremonial she was entirely bereft.

Prince Charles told Norway frankly that he could not afford Royal honours. He was a comparatively poor,: man ana even the simplest of Royal dignities are costly. But Norway wanted a king and was willing to pay for one so they assured Prince Charles not only of adequate support on the throne, but promised him adequate pension if they changed their minds after he had been with them for a while, and decided to abolish kingship.

The new King found himself with an area of 125,000 square miles, and a population of about two and threequarter millions. Oslo, the largest city, has only about 260,000 population. Two years after his arrival the State granted women equal franchise rights, and during the war another law was passed giving them also the right to sit in the King’s Council. However, none of them has claimed that privelege so far. The Lutheran Church is the State Church of Norway, and all but 70,000 people belong to the King’s Church. Under this quiet, sport-loving, outdoors King of their choice, Norway has revived many of its old Norse traditions. The King chose the name of their last great King, Haakon, as his official name in place of his own, and this has helped to focus the attention of the' people on their glamorous past. There has been a national desire to preserve the lovely old Norse buildings which date back for many centuries, to revive old crafts and to tell again the heroic sagas of the storied Vikings.

Over in Denmark was a charming young man named Prince Charles, second son of the king. He had married a fair-haired English girl, the youngest and favourite daughter of King Edward, and Qf the prince’s aunt. Queen Alexandra. He had two more celebrated aunts, one the Empress of Russia, the other the Queen of Greece. King Edward looked at the empty throne of Norway and thought it an adequate setting for his daughter and