Haakon VII of Norway

Born Prince Carl of Denmark in 1872, the second son of a crown prince, he trained at the naval academy and seemed destined for a minor royal life. Then the union with Sweden dissolved in 1905, and Norway - after a referendum on whether to have a monarchy at all - offered him the throne. He accepted, took the Old Norse name Haakon, and became Haakon VII, the first independent Norwegian monarch since 1387. He styled himself as a constitutional figurehead, stepping back from executive power and earning quiet affection. When Germany invaded in April 1940, Haakon rejected demands to legitimize the Quisling puppet regime, vowed to abdicate rather than comply, then fled to Britain and refused to abdicate at all. For five years in exile he held the line - a king with no kingdom but all the moral weight. He returned in June 1945, reigned another twelve years, and died in 1957 at 85, having outlasted his father, brother, and nephew on the Danish throne and left Norway with a monarchy redefined by the war.