Wedding of Princess Ragnhild of Norway, 1953

The Wedding of Princess Ragnhild of Norway and Erling Lorentzen at the Asker Parish Church near Oslo on this day in 1953. The bride was the daughter of the then Crown Prince Olav of Norway and Princess Martha of Sweden (in the Norwegian Emerald Parure) and granddaughter of the then reigning King Haakon VII, and the groom was her former bodyguard, a member of a prominent shipping family. The couple had three children and eventually settled in Brazil, remaining happily married until her death in 2012.

Royal guests included Princess Ingeborg of Sweden (grandmother of the bride, wearing a Diamond Tiara), King Frederik and Queen Ingrid of Denmark (cousins of the bride’s parents, in the Pearl Poiré Parure), Princess Margaret of Britain (wearing the Halo Scroll Tiara), Prince Axel of Denmark and Princess Margretha of Sweden and Denmark (aunt, wearing Princess Ingeborg’s Turquoise Star Tiara, Prince Bertil of Sweden, and Princess Margretha of Denmark and Bourbon Parma (wearing a Floral Tiara).

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6 thoughts on “Wedding of Princess Ragnhild of Norway, 1953

    1. Well, the Norwegian Royals left the country at the last possible moment, the King and Crown Prince to Great Britain, and the Crown Princess Martha and their children to the United States. The later were the guests of President Roosevelt and Mrs. Roosevelt for a while before settling in a rented house in Georgetown for the duration. She led fundraising activities in the US while the King and CP Olav led the Norwegian Resistance from the UK. The Netherlands’ Queen Wilhelmina fled to the United Kingdom to direct her country’s resistance from there as well, while her daughter Princess Juliana and her young daughters went to safety in Canada. As I understand it, the Danish royals stayed in Denmark, with old King Christian X riding his horse around town, ignoring the Nazi troops around him. They endured Nazi occupation. The Swedes were neutral, so they stayed put, with Queen Louise many times serving as a messenger between her relatives in distress. The British royals, of course, were hunkered down in Great Britain, fighting for their lives just like everyone else in their country.

      1. While her mother and older sister were living there, Princess Margriet of the Netherlands was born in a hospital in Ottawa, Canada’s capital city and was also baptized in that city. The room where she was born was temporarily made ex territorial so she wouldn’t be a citizen of the Netherlands. In gratitude for this Ottawa received thousands of tulip bulbs and still has a glorious showing of tulips every spring. She was named after they marguerite, the flower that symbolized the resistance to the Dutch.

  1. I forgot to say that Grand Duchess Charlotte of Luxembourg also went to the UK, with her son the future Grand Duke Jean receiving a commission in the Irish Guards after graduating from Sandhurst. He participated in the Normandy Landings and the Battle of Caen and went on to liberate his country. He, along with Prince Philip, is one of the last royals to take active duty during WWII.

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