Reason why Prince William is attending King Harald’s funeral and not King Charles
Prince William will represent the Royal Family at the state funeral of Norway’s King Harald V on Wednesday, in place of his father, King Charles III.
World leaders and dignitaries are expected to gather in Norway on 9 September to pay their respects to the late monarch.
King Charles, the UK’s head of state, will not attend, in keeping with the longstanding tradition that British sovereigns do not usually attend the funerals of other reigning heads of state.
He did pay tribute to the late monarch on social media, writing: It is with the most profound sadness that my wife and I have learned of the death of my dear cousin, King Harald V of Norway,” King Charles wrote.
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“For thirty-five years, King Harald served his people with unwavering dedication, guiding Norway through times of great change with warmth and humility.”
Many of Europe’s royal families are linked by generations of marriage and shared ancestry through networks established in the 19th century.
Queen Victoria, often referred to as the ‘grandmother of Europe’, and King Christian IX of Denmark were key to establishing a kind of royal matchmaking across Europe.
The Royal House of Norway says that Queen Elizabeth II and King Harald V were second cousins, sharing the same great-grandparents, King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra.
Because Elizabeth II and Harald were second cousins, King Charles III and his siblings are related to Harald, but they are second cousins once removed.
Instead, the King’s heir, Prince William, will attend the service. He will be joined by Princess Anne, who will attend in a private capacity as the godmother of King Harald’s son, Crown Prince Haakon.
In the past, the late Queen Elizabeth II only attended one state funeral as the reigning monarch - the funeral for King Baudouin of Belgium in 1993.
King Harald V of Norway died on Friday, 28 August, aged 89. He was Europe’s oldest reigning monarch.
"King Harald passed away peacefully at Oslo University Hospital on Friday 28 August, 06:35 (local time)," a statement confirmed.
The throne passed on automatically to his son, King Haakon VIII, upon his death.
King Harald famously went into exile as a child while Norway was occupied by the Nazis during the Second World War. He, his mother and his sisters, Ragnhild and Astrid, fled to Sweden, from where they travelled by boat to the US.
They were regular guests at the White House, and a six-year-old Harald took on his first royal responsibility while away from home by christening new warplanes at a Norwegian air base in Canada.
In 1945, the family were reunited in Norway, shortly after the conclusion of the War.
He married his school sweetheart Sonja Haraldsen after receiving his father, King Olav's, permission.
The couple had two children, Martha Louise and Haakon.
In 1990, the Norwegian Constitution changed the rules to allow for firstborn children to take precedence in the line of succession, no matter their gender.
The amendment was not applied retroactively, meaning that Haakon would take over the throne in the event of their father's passing.
Norway’s new King, Haakon VIII, succeeded his father on 28 August 2026 and was sworn in before parliament last week.
Topics: Prince William, Royal Family, King Charles III, UK News
Greg Harris