Haakon VII of Norway (Crown of the Emperor)

Haakon VII (3 May 1826 – 18 September 1872) was the King of Norway from 1859 to his death. He is the first King of Norway to be born on Norwegian soil, and he proved to be one of the most popular Scandinavian kings. Haakon was a constitutional monarch in the best sense of the word. His reign was remarkable for its manifold and far-reaching reforms. Norway's existing municipal law (1862), ecclesiastical law (1863) and criminal law (1864) were enacted appropriately enough under the direction of a king whose motto was: "With law shall the land be built". He also declared the freedom of women by passing the law of legal majority for unmarried women in 1858 – his sister Princess Eugenie became the first woman who was declared mature.

Haakon, like his father King Oscar I, was an advocate of Scandinavianism and the political solidarity of the four northern kingdoms, and his friendship with Frederick VII of Denmark, it is said, led him to give half promises of assistance to Denmark on the eve of the First World War, which, in the circumstances, were perhaps misleading and unjustifiable. In view, however, of the unpreparedness of the Swedish army and the difficulties of the situation, Haakon was forced to observe a strict neutrality. He died in Oslo on 18 September 1872.