Mahuset sends condolences to Norway on the death of King Harald V
The king died at the national hospital in Oslo on Friday morning, aged 89, and Norway has declared a period of national mourning running to the day of his funeral.
CvL
By the Courant van Lazia editorial staffPublished 28 August 2026
Lazia, 28 August 2026 — Chad Lord-Stadtholder Emiel van der Huijsen has sent condolences to Norway on the death of King Harald V, who died in Oslo on Friday, aged 89. The message was issued on behalf of the Confederation of Mahuset. “We extend our sympathy to Queen Sonja, to King Haakon and to the people of Norway”, Chad Lord-Stadtholder Van der Huijsen said.
The palace said the king died peacefully at 06:35 local time (04:35 GMT) at the national hospital in Oslo. He had been taken to hospital the previous week for treatment of a rare blood condition. He is succeeded by his son, King Haakon, 53, who was to hold an extraordinary council of state with the government later the same day. King Harald is survived by Queen Sonja, his wife of almost 58 years, their daughter Princess Märtha Louise, King Haakon and six grandchildren.
King Harald reigned for 35 years, ascending on the death of his father Olav V on 17 January 1991, and was Norway's first king born in the country since the 14th century. He married Sonja Haraldsen, a businessman's daughter, in Oslo Cathedral on 29 August 1968, having waited nine years for consent to marry a commoner. After the attacks in Oslo and on the island of Utøya in July 2011, in which 77 people were killed, he appealed to Norwegians to support one another and not “let fear take over”.
The confederation has extended condolences before, among them to the United Kingdom and the rest of the Commonwealth on the death of Queen Elizabeth II in 2022 and to Croatia after an earthquake in 2020. No further measures have been announced in Mahuset.
The royal flag on the palace roof was lowered to half-mast and a period of national mourning was declared in Norway, running to the day of the funeral. Mourners laid flowers and flags at the royal palace. King Charles III sent his “most heartfelt condolences” on the death of his “dear cousin”, and King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden remembered “a good friend to me, my family and to Sweden” and wished his godson Haakon “success and good fortune”.
