Norway is a fairly new country that voted to create a new Royal line from heirs to the Danish Throne. That didn’t work so well for Greece but why not throw the dice. Royal duties are so tiresome and doors open up for them into the jet set lifestyle. Soon how Royal are they really and how much are they costing the country. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
The nice thing about a late middle age Prince taking over for his elderly father was that continuity seems assured. On this stamp, you have to look several times to notice King Herald V is not a stamp from 20 years before featuring his father. The first Norwegian King Herald had been the Herald the Fairhair, well that was a long time ago. Looks can be deceiving, Herald had married a commoner and the generations would get ever more common. So I hope Norway is ready for jet set Royals.
Todays stamp is issue A349, a 3.5 Krona stamp issued by Norway in 1992. It was a 15 stamp issue in various denominations, the lower ones featuring now Queen Consort Sonja. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.
King Herald was born shortly before the German invasion of 1940 so spend part of his youth in exile in the UK, the USA, and Canada. He avoided neutral Sweden which hosted other Norway Royals because there were politicians there that would have turned Harald over to the Quisling government where he could be declared a boy King. He developed a love for sailing and represented Norway at the Olympics of 1964, 1968, and 1972. His team won no medals but the Prince carried the flag during opening ceremonies.
During the 1960s, Harald dated a commoner and dressmaker Sonja Heraldson. Herald’s father King Olav thought the potential marriage not suitable. At the time Herald’s sisters were not at all in the line of succession and so one of the sisters had been allowed to marry a divorced commoner. Harald announced that if he was not allowed to marry Sonja, he would not marry anyone else and that would be the end of the Royal line in Norway. After considering and rejecting the idea of declaring the Duke of Schleswig- Holstein as heir apparent he gave in on the marriage. Sonja was given a title and took others. She was named a Rear Admiral in the Norwegian Navy, though she never served. She claims she took a class. At Norway Rear Admiral School? Those concerned with the defense of Norway will be heartened to know Queen Consort Sonja has also been named a Brigadier General in the Army. Yes she took the class. The sailing the Royal family love so has been recast as a Royal Duty of visiting. Sonja has taken a part in charities especially those welcoming refugees. She has also opened the Royal stables to the public so they get to see the Royal Horses.
The job of a Royal first off is to provide heirs and here Herald came through, a girl and a boy. The daughter is now in the line of succession. No one is now marrying Royal. The current Crown Prince even managed to find a commoner that was a single mother. Well at least she was pretty and a close friend of Jeffrey Epstein, so there were all those invitations to sex slave island. Princess Martha who claims to have ESP, married an anarchist writer who went by the made up name of Ari Behn. His artistic friends were part of the “new wine” school. Yes he was a fan of the grape. Even Behn’s relatives called him Prince Fool von and zu Fake. In his last days before his suicide due to mental illness and alcoholism, he was being followed around for a reality tv show called “Ari and the Half Kingdom”
Norway is a very rich country, North Sea oil, so can weather lousy Royals if it choses to. Unless of course they are invaded and have to rely on their Brigadier Generals and Rear Admirals.
Well my drink is empty and so I will put away the bottle. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.