Chapter 15 - Trond Isaksen
A Useless Ceremony of Some Use: A Comparative Study of Attitudes to Coronations in Norway and Sweden in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
From 1814 to 1905, Sweden and Norway formed a loose personal union in which only the King and the Foreign Service were shared by the two states. However, this arrangement was not always understood by foreigners, who tended to believe that Norway was subject to Sweden. This seems to explain the stark contrast between how coronations were viewed in the two countries. While coronations during the nineteenth century increasingly came under criticism as outdated, expensive and meaningless rituals in Sweden, there was virtually no criticism levelled at the ritual in Norway, where the fact that the kings were crowned in both countries were considered a useful and desirable affirmation and demonstration of Norway’s independence and equality with Sweden. However, when the union came to an end in 1905, coronations had outlived its usefulness and the coronation article was removed from the Norwegian Constitution three years later.
By Trond Isaksen
Trond Isaksen
Trond Norén Isaksen is an independent scholar and author of more than 250 articles and five books, including a study of Norwegian coronations from the twelfth century to the twentieth, Norges krone: Kroninger, signinger og maktkamper fra sagatid til nåtid (2015). His most recent book is Korsfareren: Sigurd Jorsalfare og hans verden (2018), a biography of King Sigurd the Jerusalemite of Norway, the first king to go on a crusade to Jerusalem.
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Related Chapters
Charlotte Backerra: Personal Union, Composite Monarchy, and “Multiple Rule” (See Chapter 6)
Kim Bergqvist: Kings and Nobles on the Fringe of Christendom: A comparative perspective on Monarchy and Aristocracy in the European Middle Ages (See Chapter 37)