Princess Astrid of Norway died on Friday at the age of 94, only days after she made her last public appearance at the funeral of her brother, King Harald. Her death closes a brief and sobering chapter that began with one royal farewell and ended with another.
The timing is what gives her death its force today. Astrid had stood in Oslo Cathedral on Wednesday to say goodbye to Harald, the older brother she outlived by just days, and was reported to have thanked him for “everything we’ve had together.” Harald died last month at 89 after more than 35 years on the throne, and his son has already taken the oath of allegiance to Norway’s constitution in parliament.
Her last appearance came at a funeral that drew foreign royals and leaders from across Europe and beyond. A 21-gun salute sounded over Oslo as the funeral procession moved from the royal palace to Oslo Cathedral, and Norway fell silent for a minute as the service began. The public scale of that farewell underlined how closely Astrid’s final days were tied to the moment her brother’s reign ended.
Yet the sequence carries a quiet friction. Astrid had appeared in public just after the country had gathered to honor Harald, but the palace also said flags will be flown at half mast to commemorate her. No cause of death has been given, leaving the final details of her last days unwritten even as the royal house prepares to mark her loss.
King Haakon VIII once described Astrid as someone who represented the Royal House in a warm and dutiful manner throughout her long life. That judgment now frames the closing of an era for the Norwegian royal house, which has long been linked by family ties to other European monarchies. Her death, coming so soon after Harald’s funeral, leaves Norway with one more public tribute to make and one fewer figure from that older generation of the family.
