Olav V of Norway

Biography

Olav was born Prince Alexander of Denmark at Appleton House on the Sandringham estate in England in 1903, the only child of Prince Carl of Denmark and Princess Maud of Wales. When his father was elected king of Norway as Haakon VII in 1905, the boy was renamed Olav and became heir, the first heir to the Norwegian throne raised in Norway since the Middle Ages.

He graduated from the Norwegian Military Academy in 1924 and studied law and economics for two years at Balliol College, Oxford. A keen sportsman, he jumped at Holmenkollen and won an Olympic gold medal in sailing at Amsterdam in 1928. In 1929 he married his cousin Princess Märtha of Sweden; they had two daughters and a son, the future Harald V.

When Germany invaded in 1940 he stood by his father and advised the government, then followed it into exile in Britain, where he visited Norwegian and Allied forces and was appointed chief of defence in 1944. He returned to liberated Norway on 13 May 1945 and directed the disarming of the German occupation forces.

Märtha died in 1954. Olav served as regent from 1955 and became king on his father's death on 21 September 1957. His informal, down-to-earth manner made him widely loved as 'the People's King', and he reigned until his death in Oslo in January 1991, with Harald acting as regent in his final months.