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…