Jan Bernadotte proclaims himself Prince

On its front page today Expressen reveals that Count Carl Johan “Jan” Bernadotte af Wisborg in a letter of 11 May informed his second cousin King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden that he has decided to use the title of Prince Carl Johan. This is the latest chapter in a long story of dispute over the Swedish princely title.
Jan Bernadotte is the oldest son of the late Count Lennart Bernadotte af Wisborg, who was born a Prince of Sweden but was stripped of his royal titles when he married a commoner, Karin Nissvandt, in 1932. The Act of Succession of 1810, which was in force until 1980, forbade princes of the royal house to marry a “private man’s daughter” – in 1937 it was altered to “private Swedish man’s daughter”. If they did so they would automatically loose the right of succession to the throne for themselves and their descendants. The Act of Succession did however not say anything about the title issue.
The first prince who married in contravention of this act was Prince Oscar, the second son of King Oscar II, who married a Swedish noblewoman and former lady-in-waiting in 1888. It was then decided that he had forfeited the prefix HRH, his ducal title and the designation “of Sweden and Norway”, which were all seen as linked to his succession rights. He was on the other hand allowed to keep the title “Prince Oscar” to which was added the surname Bernadotte (it is not correct, as some have later argued, that he was created Prince Bernadotte in the Swedish nobility). The reason given for this was that the title “Prince” was his by birth, not by right of succession. His children, on the other hand, had no titles until Prince Oscar’s maternal uncle, Grand Duke Adolphe of Luxembourg, in 1892 created them Counts of Wisborg in the Luxembourg nobility.
Another solution was chosen the next time a Swedish prince, namely Jan Bernadotte’s father Lennart, son of Prince Wilhelm and grandson of King Gustaf V, married a commoner. All Lennart’s titles were taken away and he went from being “HRH Prince Lennart of Sweden, Duke of Smalandia” to being “Mr Lennart Bernadotte”. The same was the case with two of Lennart’s cousins, Prince Sigvard and Prince Carl Johan, who married unequally in 1934 and 1946, respectively, as well as for Gustaf V’s nephew, Prince Carl Jr, who married a Swedish noblewoman in 1937.
Prince Carl Jr was granted the title “Prince Bernadotte” in the Belgian nobility by his brother-in-law King Léopold III, who at the same time offered to make Lennart and Sigvard Counts Bernadotte. They refused the Belgian King’s offer as they thought it was not right that they should be only counts while Carl Jr became a prince. But in 1951 Lennart, Sigvard and Carl Johan all accepted Grand Duchess Charlotte of Luxembourg’s offer of the title Count of Wisborg.
Carl Johan Bernadotte, at 92 now the only survivor of the ex-princes and not to be confused with the new “Prince Carl Johan”, has always been happy about this solution, but when Prince Bertil in 1976 married a Welsh commoner and was allowed to keep his titles and succession rights Sigvard and Lennart Bernadotte wrote to King Carl XVI Gustaf asking him to restore the princely title to them. Their request was refused, which Lennart chose to accept even though he disagreed, while Sigvard on 28 May 1983 announced that from then on he would style himself “Prince Sigvard Bernadotte”. In 2001 he took his case to Strasbourg, but he died before it came up.
It is King Carl Gustaf’s decision that Crown Princess Victoria’s fiancé Daniel Westling will become a prince and a royal duke upon their marriage which has caused Jan Bernadotte’s reaction. He then asked the King to “restore” the princely title to him (who has himself never had that title) and now observes that his request was refused but that he will nevertheless use the title of Prince Carl Johan.
The new “Prince” apparently argues that he wants to restore his father’s honour, a father he was not on speaking terms with after an argument over his squandering of the inheritance from his grandfather in 1965. To me Lennart Bernadotte described his eldest son as “the family’s black sheep” while Jan Bernadotte wrote about his father with great bitterness in his worthless autobiography three years ago.
Count Jan Bernadotte has four children from his so far six failed marriages. In 1987 he adopted an adult man, an adoption he has later admitted to receiving payment for making (in itself an illegal act). This adopted son has for many years occasionally styled himself “Prince of Sweden”, so now his “father” joins him.
From his letter to the King of Sweden it appears that the new “Prince Carl Johan” could need a crash course in royal titles. The letter’s addressee is given as “HRH Carl XVI Gustaf”. Most princes would know that a king is not a royal highness but a majesty.

A link to Expressen’s story:

http://www.expressen.se/Nyheter/1.1567163/slaktbrak-om-daniel-westlings-prinstitel

Book news: Romanov jewels

On 30 June NMSE Publishing Ltd will release the book Hidden Treasures of the Romanovs: Saving the Royal Jewels. According to the publisher the book tells the story of how Albert Henry Stopford, "Edwardian man-about-town, member of the English aristocracy, dealer in object d'arts, and a regular guest at Romanov dinner tables" saved imperial jewels from the Vladimir Palace and brought them to Britain.
Some information from the website of the National Museums of Scotland:

http://shop.nms.ac.uk/products/Hidden-Treasures-of-the-Romanovs:-Saving-the-Royal-Jewels.html

Denmark to vote on the EMU within two years

At a meeting with the European Commission's President José Manuel Barroso today Denmark's new Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said that he intends to hold a referendum about Denmark joining the European Monetary Union (EMU) before the next general election, which must be hold no later than November 2011. Denmark last voted no to the single currency in a referendum in September 2000. Politiken has articles in both Danish and English:

http://politiken.dk/politik/article710127.ece

http://politiken.dk/newsinenglish/article710274.ece

On this date: Prince Carl Philip turns 30

Prince Carl Philip of Sweden celebrates his 30th birthday today and was profiled by the freelance journalist Andreas Utterström in Dagens Nyheter on Sunday:

http://www.dn.se/livsstil/carl-philip-en-prins-i-pappas-smak-1.862659

What to see: Villa Reale, Milan

The Villa Reale in Milan, also known as Villa Belgiojoso or Villa Bonaparte, is one of the most splendid buildings in Milan. Situated at Via Palestro the empire-style palace was commissioned by the Austrian politician Count Ludovico di Barbiano e Belgiojoso (1728-1801) from the Viennese-born architect Leopold Pollack (1751-1806) and completed in 1790.

Following the French conquest of Northern Italy the villa, now renamed Villa Bonaparte, became the home of Napoléon I’s adopted son, Prince Eugène, who reigned as Viceroy of Italy from 1805. With his wife Auguste he preferred the large villa, situated between two gardens, to the Royal Palace in the very centre of the city, which they only used for official and ceremonial functions. It was at the Villa Reale that their first child, the future Queen Josephina of Sweden and Norway, was born on 14 March 1807. Napoléon himself also stayed there when visiting Milan.
After Napoléon’s fall Northern Italy again came under the control of the Habsburgs. Field Marshal Count Josef Radetzky, who was in command of the Austrian army in Italy, later came to live at the villa, where he died in 1858. Today Villa Reale houses the Galleria d’Arte Moderna, which in Italy normally means 19th century art – indeed the museum is also known as “Museo Ottocento”. It also houses three other smaller art collections.
The first photo shows the garden façade, the second the façade towards the courtyard. In the third picture is the ballroom, followed by the dining room with its ceiling painting “Apollo and the Muses” by the great Italian neoclassical painter Andreas Appiani (1754-1817). Then a sculpture gallery and finally one of the palace’s many other sumptuous rooms.

What to see: Empress Joséphine’s tomb, Rueil-Malmaison

While hundreds or even thousands of people every day flock to the Invalides to see the sarcophagus of Emperor Napoléon I few go to see the tomb of his first wife, Empress Joséphine, in the parish church of Saint-Pierre-Saint-Paul in Rueil-Malmaison, just outside Paris.

Hers was the “most extraordinary destiny in history”, wrote the historian André Castelot. Born on a plantation in Martinique she first came to France as the child-bride of the nobleman Alexandre de Beauharnais, who soon deserted her. Unlike him she narrowly escaped execution during the Terror of 1794, became the mistress of Paul Barras, one of the Directors who ruled France in those years, and then became the wife of the up-and-coming General Napoléon Bonaparte.
Soon he ruled most of Europe and after eight years of marriage Joséphine found herself Empress of the French and Queen of Italy. But after thirteen years of childless marriage the Emperor divorced her to be able to beget an heir. This longed-for heir was to die at 21, bringing Napoléon’s line to an end, while it was Joséphine’s grandson who restored the French Empire and her descendants who sit on five of the ten European thrones today.
The repudiated Empress died at her small palace Malmaison on 29 May 1814, just as Napoléon had fallen from power and been deported to Elba. The monument on the tomb was done by the sculptors Cartellier and Berthault and paid for by the Empress’s children Eugène and Hortense. It was completed in 1825 and shows Joséphine kneeling in her famous pose from Le Sacre, David’s painting of her coronation. Queen Hortense’s tomb is on the opposite side and in the church is also the tomb of Joséphine’s uncle, Robert Tascher de La Pagerie.
On 26 April 1821, nine days before he died at St Helena, lonely and deserted by his second wife, Napoléon had expressed a wish to be buried with Joséphine in Saint-Pierre-Saint-Paul if the Bourbons would not let him rest in Saint-Denis, but after nineteen years in a nameless grave on St Helena it was to the Invalides that his remains were brought.
There are always lots of people in the Invalides. The first time I visited Joséphine’s tomb the church was empty. The second time I came there it was also empty, but someone had left a flower for the good Empress.
The first two pictures show the Empress’s tomb, followed by the exterior and interior of the church and the tomb of Queen Hortense.

Book news: The 100 most important Swedes

Five days ago Bokförlaget Forum published Historiens 100 viktigaste svenskar by Niklas Ekdal and Petter Karlsson. As the title indicates the book ranks the 100 most important Swedes in history. The top ten of the list is as follows:

1. Gustaf I, King of Sweden (1496-1560)
2. Astrid Lindgren, author (1907-2002)
3. Axel Oxenstierna, Chancellor of the Realm (1583-1654)
4. Alfred Nobel, inventor (1833-1896)
5. Olof Palme, Prime Minister (1927-1986)
6. Marcus Wallenberg, businessman (1899-1982)
7. Evert Taube, poet and singer (1890-1976)
8. Lars Magnus Eriksson, entrepreneur (1846-1926)
9. Carl XIV Johan, King of Sweden and Norway (1763-1844)
10. Carl Larsson, artist (1853-1919)

Some information from the publisher’s website:

http://www.forum.se/Bocker/Bokpresentationssida/?Isbn=9789137134024

The complete list can be found at Dagens Nyheter’s website:

http://www.dn.se/blogg/historiens100viktigastesvenskar

At the end of the road: Ernest Millington (1916-2009), Britain's last WWII MP

Ernest Millington, the last surviving person to sit in the British Parliament during World War II, has died at 93. Millington became an MP for the left-wing Common Wealth party through a by-election in Chelmsford in April 1945, joined Labour in 1946 and lost his seat in Parliament in 1950. The BBC has more on this last survivor:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/8042565.stm

What to see: The former Royal Palace, Venice

When incorporating Venice into the Kingdom of Italy on 1 May 1806 Napoléon I, Emperor of the French and King of Italy thought he needed a suitable residence in that city. For various reasons the Doge’s Palace was rejected and the imperial eyes fell on the 16th century Procuratie Nuove along the southern end of St Mark’s Square. In the middle of the western end stood the small church of San Geminiano, which had to make way when the Emperor-King in January 1807 announced his intention to link the Procuratie Vecchie on the northern side of the square and the Procuratie Nuove on the southern side by creating the new royal palace, today known as the Ala Napoleonico (the Napoleonic Wing).
This plan had been worked out by the architect Giovanni Antonio Antolini (1756-1841), who had been commissioned by Napoléon’s adopted son Prince Eugène, Viceroy of Italy and Prince of Venice. Antolini was dismissed in 1810 and the work was continued by Giuseppe Soli (1745-1823) and Lorenzo Santi (1783-1866).
The palace came to consist of the new Napoleonic Wing and the Procuratie Nuove as well as the Biblioteca Marciana and part of the old Mint. It was however not yet completed when Napoléon fell from power and Venice once again came under Habsburg rule. Because of the Habsburgs’ wish for remodelling and changes the works continued until the 1840s. In 1919 the King of Italy gave the State the use of the palace, which came to house the Correr Museum and the National Archaeological Museum.
Napoléon himself was never much popular in Venice, where the harsh treatment of the first French occupation in 1797 was vividly remembered and where the choice of Milan as capital of the Kingdom of Italy was resented. He visited Venice only once, in November-December 1807, bringing with him Prince Eugène, the King and Queen of Bavaria, three of his siblings, his brother-in-law Joachim Murat and the Crown Prince and Crown Princess of Bavaria.
The first picture shows the façade of the Napoleonic Wing with the Procuratie Nuove to the left. Having become almost black with the years the façade is now being cleaned, which explains the scaffolding. Second is the monumental staircase, which took the place of the San Geminiano church. The third photo shows Antonia Canova’s “Venere Italica” in the Dining Hall (Sala da Pranzo). Another dining room is in the fourth photo, followed by a glimpse into the Ballroom (Salone da Ballo), which is now used for temporary exhibitions. The sixth picture shows the Napoleonic Gallery (Galleria napoleonica) and finally the ceiling of the Throne Room (Sala del Trono).

My latest article: The Norwegian Royal Arms

In the new issue of Heraldisk Tidsskrift (volume 10, issue 99, dated March 2009), which has just arrived from the printers, I have a short article on the change to the Royal Arms of Norway when the union with Sweden was dissolved in 1905.
My article is a commentary to a longer article on the same subject by Hans D. Cappelen in Heraldisk Tidsskrift, volume 10, number 94, dated October 2006, where he identified the Norwegian art historian Harry Fett and the Danish archivist and heraldist Anders Thiset as those who worked out the new coats of arm for the state and the royal house, which were then designed by Eilif Peterssen. Cappelen also addressed the question of why the new king’s family heraldry was not included in the royal arms.
Based on the diaries of the historian Yngvar Nielsen, which I read in the National Library some years ago, I can add that Professor Nielsen was approached by the Norwegian government in July 1905 and asked to assist in this issue. Nielsen suggested that one should use the red flag with the golden lion carrying the golden axe of St Olav which had been the emblem of the medieval kings of Norway, but was unable to find a way to include the Bernadotte arms in it.
Nielsen was then under the impression that Oscar II would accept the Norwegian Parliament’s proposal to make a Bernadotte prince King of Norway, but as we know it was in the end a Danish prince who assumed the Norwegian throne. Yngvar Nielsen’s proposal was accepted and in the picture we can see the Royal Standard fluttering above the Royal Palace in Oslo and the equestrian statue of King Carl XIV Johan.
A link to Heraldisk Tidsskrift’s website:

http://www.heraldik.org/

A Bernadotte wedding at Mainau

On Thursday this week Count Björn Bernadotte af Wisborg, son of the late former Prince Lennart of Sweden and great-grandson of King Gustaf V, married his long-time girlfriend Sandra Angerer at Mainau Palace on the island of Mainau in Lake Constance, Southern Germany. The wedding took place on what would have been the 65th birthday of his mother, Countess Sonja Bernadotte, who died from breast cancer last October.
The wedding was followed the next day by a concert and the opening of an exhibition celebrating the centenary of the birth of the groom’s father, who passed away in December 2004. Crown Princess Victoria represented the senior branch of the Bernadotte family at the wedding, while Queen Silvia joined her for the centenary celebrations. Count Björn, who is 34, has since 2007 been in charge of the Lennart Bernadotte Foundation, while the new Countess Sandra is also involved with Mainau.
The German weekly Bunte has a photo special about the celebrations at Mainau. Behind Crown Princess Victoria in the second picture is the groom’s 76-year-old half-sister, Countess Birgitta Bernadotte, who is close to the children of her father’s second marriage:

http://www.bunte.de/adel/hochzeit-bernadotte_did_4227.html

Jacob Zuma sworn in as president

Yesterday Jacob Zuma was sworn in as President of South Africa in front of a crowd of 30,000 in Pretoria which included his predecessors Thabo Mbeki and Nelson Mandela as well as many foreign heads of state. Jacob Zuma was formally elected president by the country’s Parliament on Wednesday.

A Prince of Denmark born today

At 4.57 this morning Princess Marie of Denmark gave birth to a son at Copenhagen University Hospital (Rigshospitalet). The Prince was 49 cm long and weighed 3032 gr. He is the first child of Prince Joachim and Princess Marie, who married in May last year, but Prince Joachim has two sons, Princes Nikolai and Felix, from his first marriage. The newborn prince is seventh in line to the Danish throne. The Danish royals normally keep the child's names secret until the christening.

The announcement and some information on the Danish royal website:

http://kongehuset.dk/publish.php?id=21147

http://kongehuset.dk/publish.php?id=21148

A sunny May Day in Oslo

Thousands of people turned out for the International Workers' Day celebrations in a warm and sunny Oslo today. As usual in general elections year the main address was given by the leader of the Labour Party, Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg. Among the other speakers was the leader of the Socialist Left Party, Finance Minister Kristin Halvorsen. The pictures show the parade past the Parliament Building, the packed Young’s Square, the Prime Minister speaking and Jens Stoltenberg and Kristin Halvorsen walking at the head of the parade.

Dutch attacker dies in hospital

Karst Tates, the 38-year-old man who yesterday attempted to attack Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands during the celebrations of the country's national holiday, died in hospital at 3 a.m. The attack has so far claimed seven lives.

Articles in De Telegraaf, The Guardian and The Times:

http://www.telegraaf.nl/binnenland/3827456/__Zevende_dode_na_aanslag_Apeldoorn__.html?p=2,1

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/01/dutch-royal-car-driver-dies

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article6203780.ece

Notable architects: Carl Ludvig Engel (1778-1840)

Carl Ludvig Engel is best remembered as the creator of Helsinki’s beautiful neoclassical centre. His empire architecture has often been considered a branch of Prussian neoclassicism, but, as the late art historian Nils Erik Wickberg stressed, there is also a significant Russian influence. Engel visited St Petersburg in 1813 and in 1815-1816.
Engel was born and educated in Berlin, but following Prussia’s defeat by Napoléon in 1805/1806 prospects in his native country seemed bleak. Engel therefore went eastwards to try his luck in Tallinn, where he became town architect. A few years later he received some commissions in Turku, the capital of the Grand Duchy of Finland.
In 1812 Emperor Alexander I moved the Grand Duchy’s capital to Helsinki, which had been the victim of a great fire a few years before. In 1814 Engel came into contact with Johan Albrecht Ehrenström, the chairman of the Commission for the Rebuilding of Helsinki, who soon asked Engel to come and use his skills in Helsinki.
Engel arrived in 1816 and stayed until his death in 1840, although he sometimes contemplated going back to Prussia. Ehrenström had planned the new capital; Engel came to build it. He wrote to a friend back in Prussia: “My dearest wish seems to be granted; I get an almost unlimited field on which to use my gifts, something which only a few architects are granted, and I can count myself among those happy, as the luck to build an entire town is something very unusual”.
The first picture shows an evening view of Senate Square, which became the focal point of the new city. At its eastern end is the Senate House (1818-1822), which is still the seat of the Finnish government; at the corner is the Bock House which Engel rebuilt as the residence of the Governor General (1817-1819).
Towering over the Square is the Cathedral (1830-1852), seen in the second picture, which was not completed until after Engel’s death and then altered in a way he would not have approved of.
At the west end of the Senate Square, as a pendant to the Senate House, is the University House (1828-1832), seen in the third picture. In the fourth photo is the Union Street; the University House can be seen on the left, followed by the National Library of Finland (1836-1844) and the buildings of the former Cantonist School (1823-1825), which are now used by the University.
In the fifth picture is the former Society House (1831-1833), now the City Hall. The sixth photo shows the Naval Barracks (1817-1820, last parts built 1986-1989) at Katajanokka (Skatudden in Swedish) which is now the offices of the Foreign Ministry.
The seventh photo is the Othodox church of St Alexandra the Martyr in Turku (Åbo) (1838-1846) and finally a former noble mansion in Tallinn (1809-1814), which is now the office of the Chancellor of Justice.
Among Engel’s many other buildings in Helsinki are the Guards Barracks (1820-1822, now the Ministry of Defence), the Astronomical Observatory (1831-1833), the Old Church (1825-1826) and the Orthodox Church of Holy Trinity (1825-1826).

Four killed in attack directed at Queen Beatrix

During the celebrations of the Dutch national holiday, Queen's Day, in Apeldoorn today four people were killed when a 38-year-old man drove his car at great speed towards an open-top bus carrying Queen Beatrix and members of her family. The car narrowly missed the royal bus and crashed into a monument to Queen Wilhelmina, killing four and injuring thirteen. A Dutch public prosecutor later said it was a deliberate attack directed at the Queen.
Queen's Day is celebrated annually on the anniversary of the birth of the late Queen Juliana. Queen Juliana, the present Queen's mother, would have turned 100 today.

A video of the attack:

http://www.vgtv.no/?id=22245

Articles on the attack in The Guardian and The Times:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/30/queen-beatrix-car-deaths

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article6200367.ece

Historian reveals that Skaugum was not a gift

In yesterday's Budstikka the historian Dag T. Hoelseth revealed that the Skaugum estate, since 1929 the home of the heir to the Norwegian throne, was after all not a gift to the then Crown Prince Olav, as has been commonly believed until now, but that King Haakon had to pay for it.
It was the diplomat and self-styled Baron Fritz Wedel Jarlsberg who in connection with Crown Prince Olav's and Crown Princess Märtha's wedding in March 1929 contacted the royal family and offered them his estate Skaugum in Asker as a home for the Crown Prince and Crown Princess. The offer was gladly accepted by the royals, particularly after the plans to rebuild Oscarshall Palace had been scrapped.
Hoelseth reveals that Wedel in August 1929 demanded that King Haakon should pay for the "gift". The King paid 120,00 kroner, which is roughly the equivalent of 3,500,000 NOK today.
King Haakon's biographer Tor Bomann-Larsen says he has come across the same information in his work on the fifth volume of his biography, which is expected to be published in 2011.

http://www.budstikka.no/sec_nyheter/article240271.ece

On this date: The 63rd birthday of the King of Sweden

Today is the 63rd birthday of King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden. When he was born at Haga Palace on 30 April 1946 it came as a great joy and relief to his parents, Prince Gustaf Adolf and Princess Sibylla – they already had four daughters, but at the time only princes could inherit the throne and therefore the Bernadotte dynasty’s future had for a time seemed threatened. Tragically Prince Gustaf Adolf was killed in a plane crash less than nine months after the birth of his son.
The prince was given the names Carl Gustaf Folke Hubertus and the title Duke of Jämtland. YouTube has an interesting video from his christening in the Palace Church on 7 June 1946. The godparents were his great-grandfather King Gustaf V; his grandfather Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf; Crown Prince Olav of Norway; Princess Juliana of the Netherlands (who would herself have celebrated her 100th birthday today); Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark; Crown Princess Ingrid of Denmark; his maternal grandfather Duke Carl Eduard of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha; Count Folke Bernadotte af Wisborg; and Countess Maria Bernadotte af Wisborg.
A famous photo was taken after the christening, showing Prince Carl Gustaf with his father, his grandfather and his great-grandfather. King Gustaf V had himself been held over the font by his great-grandmother, the Dowager Queen Desideria, when he was baptised in 1858. Desideria was the widow of the founder of the Bernadotte dynasty and by having known her as well as the present King of Sweden Gustaf V came to span seven generations of Bernadottes.
YouTube has a video from the christening:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lntgZAJuNbk

Canadian State Visit to Norway

The Governor General of Canada, Michaëlle Jean, and her husband Jean-Daniel Lafond today began their three-day state visit to Norway. They were received by the King and Queen and the Crown Prince and Crown Princess at a welcoming ceremony in the Palace Square, followed by a wreath-laying ceremonies at the National Monument and Canadian war graves at the Western Cemetery as well as visits to the Parliament and the Prime Minister. Later tonight there will be a state banquet at the Royal Palace.
After two days in Oslo the Canadian guests will spend the final day visiting Tromsø. It is the second Canadian state visit to Norway ever and comes seven years after King Harald and Queen Sonja visited Canada.
In the autumn the King and Queen are expected to pay a state visit to South Africa’s new President Jacob Zuma, eleven years after they visited President Nelson Mandela.
There have been rumours in Norwegian media that President Nicolas Sarkozy of France will pay a state visit to Norway this year. He accepted an invitation from King Harald when meeting with Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg in Paris in May last year, but normally a longer period of preparation is necessary before a state visit can take place. Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands is also expected to pay a state visit to Norway in a not too distant future.

The complete schedule for the Canadian state visit can be found at the Governor General's website:

http://www.gg.ca/gg/sv/norway2009_e.asp

Michaëlle Jean also writes about the state visit in her blog:

http://www.citizenvoices.gg.ca/en/blogs/rideau_hall/243