(See front cover)
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. (He liked his daughter Maud as much as he disliked his daughter-in-law Mary.)
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.