King Harald V of Norway died on Friday, August 28. He was 89. The palace said he died at the National Hospital in Oslo at 6:35 a.m. Harald was Europe’s oldest monarch. His son automatically became King Haakon VIII. ALSO READ: King Oyo of Uganda’s Tooro dies aged 34 Harald was crowned after his British-born father, King Olav V, died in January 1991. “A whole nation is in mourning and the people of Norway are left with a deep sense of gratitude for a long life in the service of Norway,” Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said in a statement. “For more than three decades as monarch, Harald V demonstrated an unwavering faith in the Norwegian people. He helped us to see the best in ourselves — and in one another.” ALSO READ: Queen Elizabeth II dies at 96 Harald was born in 1937 in Asker, near Oslo, becoming the first Norwegian prince to be born in the country since King Olav IV in 1370. In the following centuries, Norway didn’t have a king of its own until Harald’s grandfather, Haakon VII, was elected king following the 1905 dissolution of the union between Sweden and Norway.
