King Harald’s funeral

[JustAnotherWhinger]

Details about the funeral didn’t really seem to fit in any of the other threads so started this one

It’s looking like there’s going to be a very large turn out of royals at Harald’s funeral on Wednesday.

Prince William will be representing Charles III
Princess Anne will also attend - she is a godmother to Haakon.

The King & Queen of Sweden (he is one of haakon’s godparents)
Crown Princess Victoria & Prince Daniel (Harald was Victorias godparent)
Prince Carl-Philip & Princess Sofia
Princess Madeleine & Chris O’Neilk
Princess Cristina & Tord Magnusson

King Willem-Alexander & Queen Maxima
Princess Beatrix
Princess Amalia, The Princess of Orange

King Philippe & Queen Mathilde

King Frederik and Queen Mary
Queen Margarethe (also one of Haakon’s godparents)
Crown Prince Christian
Princess Benedikte

Crown Prince Fumihito & Crown Princess Kiko

Grand Duke Guillaume & Grand Duchess Stephanie
Grand Duke Henri

King Felipe & Queen Letizia
Queen Sofia

Prince Albert of Monaco

A big turn out from some of the royal houses, not unexpected, from the ones closest to the Norwegian families

Good news about Queen Margarethe.

I was on another thread in the RF section , and they were talking about curtseying.

I noticed that nearly everyone including the Royal family, curtseyed or bow to the 2 clergy people who took the service.

I was wondering why ?

British service personnel at Harald 's funeral. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-armed-forces-pay-tribute-to-late-king-of-norway-at-his-funeral-in-oslo

The Bishop at yesterday's funeral had fantastic hair!

Princess Astrid, King Harald's sister died today. She was at his funeral just two days ago. Very sad times for the family.

https://www.reuters.com/world/norways-princess-astrid-dies-aged-94-two-days-after-kings-funeral-2026-09-11/

She’s in the WhatsApp group chat.

That is very sad.

Very sad and stressful time for the whole family.

I was amazed at how like his father is King Wilhelm Alexander of the Netherlands. Being very old I remember when Princess Beatrix married Claus von Amsberg, a German diplomat , in 1966, the Dutch people were not happy to have the German connection and there was even a threat to put LSD into the water in Amsterdam.

I always thought he was very like his grandfather, Prince Bernhard, but he is getting more like his father.

Sad news about Princess Astrid although I understand she has been unwell for a while (heart failure?). She was in a wheelchair at all of King Harald's funeral events.

Sad news about Princess Astrid. Poor family to ssy goodbuy to another member so soon after the King.

Good news about Queen Margrethe out of hospitsl but she seems very fragile too.

Why not? Other Royals are going as couples.

Because British royals don't go to foreign state funerals as couples. The monarch never goes. That's just the way it is.

They can change any of those practices if they want to.

However, I think the royals on the continent have closer personal relationships than the British RF do with any of them. So spouses are attending for personal reasons as well as for state representation. You could see that in the interactions at the reception following Harald's funeral.

Quite disrespectful really

Why? That's how it's been since Victoria's time and I can't imagine there was much travel to royal funerals before her day, so that's pretty much how it's always been.

Considering the other royal families of Europe greatly admire the British royal family, I doubt they feel any disrespect.

I'm pretty sure if Catherine had gone they'd all have been trying to interact with her. The European royals greatly admire the British royal family and I've only ever seen enthusiastic interactions between the BRF and other royals.

Harald was a great-grandchild of Edward VII so there was a particular closeness between him and the BRF.

Let's not forget that this was a funeral, not a social gathering.

Sometimes it's just easier to maintain convention because it keeps things simple and avoids potential complications.

I think the personal relationships have to be taken into account as well.

For Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral Sweden sent their King and Queen, whereas for Harald’s funeral they had 10 people in attendance. At King Constantine of Greece’s memorial the British royals had a large turn out (and would have been higher had Charles and Catherine not been dealing with their cancer treatments).

There is a big difference when they attend in a more personal capacity than when they simply attend as another royal.

I think it is clearly much more a pro forma duty for the British RF. I don't see that as a criticism or as disrespectful; it's just the difference in how closely the continental royals, especially the Scandinavian ones, are on a personal and family level.

Why would they be wanting to interact with Kate - I imagine they hardly know her. Branches of other European countries are much closer - godparents to each others children etc.

I always think it is a mistake for the BRF to keep their distance from the other European royals. Interacting with them would provide a peer group who understand the challenges of royal life. You can see that with the way that the Scandinavian royals all support each other.

There has also been clear examples of them calling each other aunt and uncle. The official message from King Frederick and Queen Mary ( offering kondolenses for King Haralds death) speaks of Queen Sonja as "aunt Sonja" I recall when Queen Margrethe was celebrating her 80th birthday (during covid) there were video messages from the Norweigian and Sweedish houses titling her aunt Daisy.

I dont know that the other royal houses "greatly admire" the British royal house any more than they admire other royal houses. If Katherine had gone to the funeral they would have spoken friendly and politely to her like you saw Haakon do to William and Anne. However the close warth you see between. The Scandinavian houses and you saw with. Ingrid Alexandra and Catharina-Amalia I dont think you would have seen as that kind of warmth takes time to foster and effort, you don't tend to feel that for people you barely know.

I noticed that Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden read a prayer at the funeral. King Harald was her godfather.

there were video messages from the Norweigian and Sweedish houses titling her aunt Daisy.

From the Spanish RF as well.

Ah yes I had forgotten that. But also shows in the hug Filippe gave Haakon