tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4897554020551470090.post2821656422533963668..comments2024-02-14T19:25:38.935+01:00Comments on Trond Norén Isaksen: At the road's end: Johan Martin Ferner (1927-2015), businessman and royal husbandUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4897554020551470090.post-15466181896287888682015-01-27T13:11:04.418+01:002015-01-27T13:11:04.418+01:00There was no official announcement to that effect,...There was no official announcement to that effect, but I remember first hearing of it in early August 2002.Trond Norén Isaksenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15744875538993319059noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4897554020551470090.post-20780291390403048022015-01-27T12:44:49.117+01:002015-01-27T12:44:49.117+01:00Thank you for elaborating. An understandable fear,...Thank you for elaborating. An understandable fear, and possibly why foreign spouses have been preferred in other monarchies. <br /><br />Was there a specific date in 2002 on which the royal family's membership was expanded?Enoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4897554020551470090.post-2608688329071079312015-01-26T01:29:52.887+01:002015-01-26T01:29:52.887+01:00Apparently, at that time it rather appeared to be ...Apparently, at that time it rather appeared to be the other way around: Royals were still expected to marry royals, so when one princess had married a commoner that was seen as "enough" and her sister expected that she could not do the same. Obviously that turned out to be wrong. Much of the opposition to such marriages was based on fear that the royal in-laws would become some sort of "semi-nobility", which was undesirable in a country where the actual nobility was abolished in 1821. That no such thing happened was thanks to the discretion of the Lorentzens, Ferners and Haraldsens.<br /><br />Yes, Erling S. Lorentzen and Johan Martin Ferner (and Ari Behn, Marius Borg Høiby and Princess Märtha Louise's children) became members of the royal family in 2002.Trond Norén Isaksenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15744875538993319059noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4897554020551470090.post-68186290292288356162015-01-25T14:49:37.568+01:002015-01-25T14:49:37.568+01:00Thank you for this obituary, which fleshed out a l...Thank you for this obituary, which fleshed out a little-known royal spouse for me. The strength of opposition to the Ferners' marriage was surprising to read about.<br /><br />Would you mind clarifying Princess Astrid's statement that "after her elder sister had married a commoner she was convinced that it would not be possible for her too to do the same"? One might have expected it would set a favorable precedent, or that a princess's marriage would not be much of an issue in the mid-twentieth century because her husband and children would not be princes(ses) of Norway, members of the royal family, or successors to the throne. I assume Erling Lorentzen and Johan Martin Ferner's membership of the royal family was decided sometime during King Harald's reign.<br /><br />Thank you again for these fascinating details from a bygone time.Enoreply@blogger.com