Princess Märtha of Sweden

Princess Märtha of Sweden (Märtha Sofia Lovisa Dagmar Thyra; 28 March 1901 – 5 April 1954) was Crown Princess of Norway as the spouse of the future King Olav V from 1929 until her death in 1954.

The current king, Harald V, is her only son.

Märtha was born at her parents' home of Arvfurstens Palats in Stockholm on 28 March 1901, the second child of Prince Carl of Sweden, Duke of Västergötland, and his wife Princess Ingeborg of Denmark.

Her father was the younger brother of King Gustav V of Sweden, making her a first cousin twice removed of the present King of Sweden, and her mother was the younger sister of King Christian X of Denmark and of King Haakon VII of Norway.

Märtha had an elder sister, Princess Margaretha of Denmark, a younger sister, Queen Astrid of the Belgians, and a younger brother, Prince Carl Bernadotte.

Märtha grew up to be much more confident and outgoing and so the daughter most admired by her mother.

As a child, Märtha was taught at home by private tutors and completed in-depth courses in childcare and first aid.

She and her sisters were occasionally seen shopping unaccompanied on the streets of Stockholm.

During the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam, Princess Märtha of Sweden became engaged to her first and second cousin, Prince Olav, only son and heir apparent of her uncle the King of Norway and grandson of her grandfather King Frederik VIII of Denmark's younger sister.

News of the engagement was very well received: it was taken as a sign that there was no longer any tension following the dissolution of the union between Norway and Sweden.

An excellent match in terms of strengthening royal ties, it was also clearly a match based on love.

Initially, her younger sister, Astrid, was expected to marry Olav being younger than Olav by two years, while Märtha was two years older.

Astrid was also considered more beautiful, but she instead married the future King of the Belgians Leopold III.

Following a year-long engagement, she married Crown Prince Olav in Oslo Cathedral on 21 March 1929.

Märtha's was the first royal wedding in Norway in 340 years.

The marriage is widely believed to have been a success due in large part to their genuine mutual love.

They had three children: Ragnhild (1930–2012); Astrid (b. 1932); and the much awaited heir, Harald (b. 1937).

Crown Princess Märtha soon became a popular and respected member of the royal family, later undertaking a range of official engagements and she also gave many speeches, unusual for royal females in that era.

Crown Prince Olav and Crown Princess Märtha of Norway resided at the country estate of Skaugum, which was a wedding gift from Baron Fritz Wedel Jarlsberg.

When the main house at Skaugum was destroyed by fire in 1930, the Crown Princess took active involvement in its rebuilding.

Tragedy struck Crown Princess Märtha in 1935 when her sister, the Queen of the Belgians, was killed in a car crash; the two siblings had been very close.

Later King Olav said that it took his wife more than ten years to come to terms with her sister's death, and he did not think that she ever really got over it.

She – together with her elder sister Margaretha – became a great support for her sister's children in Belgium.

In 1938 upon the death of her mother-in-law, Queen Maud, Crown Princess Märtha became the royal Norwegian court's senior lady.

In 1939, shortly before the outbreak of World War II, the Crown Prince and Princess visited the United States.

The couple befriended President Franklin Roosevelt and his wife, Eleanor.

During this visit, the royal couple conducted an extensive tour of the Upper Midwest, where many Norwegian immigrants were settled.

Also during their US tour, Crown Princess Märtha was initiated, together with her lady-in-waiting Ragni Østgaard, into the Delta Zeta sorority being pinned at the University of North Dakota by Delta Zeta national president Myrtle Graeter Malott.

Crown Princess Märtha contributed greatly towards Norway mobilizing for self-defence by making a public announcement on 26 January 1940 when she encouraged Norwegian women to participate in the mobilization work.

During the flight from the German invasion in 9–10 April 1940, the Norwegian government decided that the Crown Princess and her children were to flee across the border to her native Sweden while her husband and father-in-law remained.

Upon their arrival at the Swedish border, they were first denied entry because they could not provide passports; she then instructed her driver to run through the border gate, thus gaining entry into her native Sweden.

In Sweden she stayed at first at a tourist hotel in Sälen, before travelling on to Stockholm where her parents and relatives lived.

Her presence in Sweden became problematic where some considered her presence to put Sweden's neutrality in jeopardy.

President Roosevelt then offered her a personal invitation to the United States.

Her uncle, King Gustav V of Sweden, telegraphed her father-in-law King Haakon and advised against the trip, but Märtha insisted on accepting the invitation.

Roosevelt sent the US Army transport SS American Legion to the then Finnish port city of Petsamo to pick her up.

In the U.S., she and her children initially stayed at the White House.

Crown Prince Olav, however, accompanied his father to the United Kingdom with the Norwegian government-in-exile.

As Olav only became king in 1957, Märtha never became Queen of Norway.

Princess Märtha was also an elder sister of Queen Astrid of Belgium and a maternal aunt of Grand Duchess Joséphine-Charlotte of Luxembourg and Kings Baudouin and Albert II of Belgium.