If while chatting with a Norwegian lady one unwittingly refers to
“the time when Norway was a part of Sweden,” the chances are
four out of five that hot tears of indignation will rush to her light
blue eyes. “Norway was never a part of Sweden!” she will
exclaim. “Once we had the same king, but Norway was not a part of
Sweden—oh!!” clenching the fingers of one hand. Proudly last week
all Norway celebrated the kingdom's “Silver Jubilee,” the
25th anniversary of the ascension of a 100% Norwegian throne by His
Majesty Haakon VII. The last exclusively Norwegian King, Haakon VI,
died 550 years ago. Edward VII, late British King-Emperor, had a
wasp-waisted tomboy daughter Maud who swam, rowed, handled a yacht
smartly, ran a typewriter, bound books, carved wood, played chess,
advocated female suffrage—energetic traits which she inherited from
her Danish mother, the dazzling and haughty British Queen-Empress
Alexandra, sister of still more dazzling, still more imperious Marie
Feodorovna, Empress of All The Russias. The two Empresses were resolved
that Maud should become at least a queen— of what? On a Danish warship
a young man darned his own socks, sewed on his own buttons. The two
Empresses did not think much of him, though he was their nephew and a
prince. But his cousin Tomboy Maud, against her mother's council, fell
in love with him, and with her father's encouragement married him July
22, 1896. He was then promoted to the rank of lieutenant in the Danish
Royal Navy.Seemingly headstrong Princess Maud had thrown
away the many chances she had had to marry onto a Throne—but the Norns
of Norway were busy weaving her Fate, ably assisted by foxy Edward VII.
Nine long years passed. The spirit of Norwegian nationalism was
spontaneously stirring. On June 7, 1905 the Norwegian Prime Minister
informed his royal master the King of Sweden & Norway that he was
only King of Sweden. On Aug. 13 the Norwegian people confirmed this
rash act by a national plebiscite, only 184 voting to preserve the
Union of Sweden & Norway, while 368,211 were for independence.
But that did not settle who was to be King of Norway. There was much
talk of choosing the late Explorer Fridtjof Nansen who, in his less
famed role of Norwegian statesman, had ceaselessly striven to free his
country. The authentic Norwegian Royal House had been extinct for some
27 generations, for more than half a millennium. The Norwegian people
had learned to speak Danish under Danish kings for several hundred
years before their “union” with Sweden. In 1905, although
they might not exactly want to pick a king from Denmark, could the
Norwegian people, all things considered, do better than to choose the
husband of Tomboy Princess Maud, daughter of Mighty Britain, niece of
Colossal Russia? In a second plebiscite 259,563 Norwegians voted for
the young man who used to darn socks, sew on buttons; 69,264 voted
against him. He was proclaimed King of Norway just 25 years ago last
week, changing his name from Carl to Haakon.
