Despite Prince Charles of England joining in the growing boycott of the Olympic Games in Beijing, the Norwegian Royal Family has no plans to cancel its trip to China this summer.

Prince Charles has long shown sympathy for Tibetan human rights and has decided to stay away from the Olympic Games in China. PHOTO: AP/MATT DUNHAM

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Earlier this week, it was revealed that Prince Charles would stay away from the Beijing Olympics this summer, reportedly as a demonstration of his concern for the human rights situation in Tibet and China.

Tibetan rights organizations have been pressuring the Norwegians to drop the Olympic Games as well, but Aftenposten.no reports that King Harald, Queen Sonja and Crown Prince Haakon will attend the summer games.

“The Royal Highnesses, the King and Queen, and the Crown Prince will represent Norway at the Olympic Games in Beijing, but the programme is not set yet,” said an e-mail sent to Aftenposten.no from the Royal Palace.

“Respect for Human Rights is important, and the Norwegian authorities are dealing with the problem through an ongoing dialogue with the Chinese,” it continued.

The leader of the Norwegian Tibet Committee, Chungdak Koren, responded with an appeal to the Royal House to follow suit after Prince Charles.

Koren said he was “disappointed”, and urged the Royal family to stay way from the opening ceremony.

He also expressed his extreme disappointment that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) will not allow Tibet to send its own athletes to the games.

“We’ve done all the formalities correctly and cannot understand why the IOC won’t let Tibet participate with its own athletes, along the same lines as Palestine, Taiwan and Hong Kong,” Koren said.

Tibet has been under Chinese control since 1951.

Tibet’s spiritual leader, the exiled Dalai Lama, received the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo in 1989.

It’s big and shiny and expensive and, of course, luxurious. But it’s environmentally friendly as well, as cars go, making the king’s new car politically correct.

King Harald’s new Lexus LS600h. PHOTO: MAGNE JOHANSEN The car’s back seat offers a number of entertainment and comfort options for the passengers. PHOTO: MAGNE JOHANSEN

Aftenposten’s car critic, Magne Johansen, got a chance to test drive the car that palace officials (and the Norwegian taxpayers) have bought for their reigning monarch. The car will be used for representation, so it’s supposed to be nice.

It is. Johansen was suitably impressed, saying it’s a dream to drive as well as to sit in its ample backseat.

The Lexus LS600h is a Japanese hybrid vehicle, running on a combination of petrol and the car’s own electricity. It can go from zero to 100 kilometers an hour (60mph) in 6.3 seconds and it costs around NOK 1.84 million in high-tax Norway (about USD 340,000 at current exchange rates).

At that price, it’s only right that the car features hand-sewn leather seats that warm up and cool down at the touch of a button. The entire vehicle is loaded to the extreme, with a TV/film screen that descends from the ceiling, a sound system with 19 speakers and a highly advanced security system that even warns the driver in case he or she starts to doze off behind the wheel.

The royals opted against a few luxury items, however, including the electronic massage system that Telenor chief executive chose for his company’s Lexus. And the palace didn’t order the sun-roof option either. It seems that would have made the ceiling too low for the hats the royals often wear, and an open sunroof can simply ruin one’s coiffure.

Royalty in Norway

Norway’s first king, Harald I — also known as Harald Fairhair — was born in the ninth century. His father, Halfdan the Black, ruler of Westfold (or Vestfold) in southeast Norway, was descended from Sweden’s royal Yngling family. When Harald was 10, his father died and Harald succeeded him as king. Before he reached his mid-20s, Harald had defeated rival kings in battle and united Norway under his rule.

After the death of King Haakon V in 1319, the Norwegian crown passed to his grandson Magnus, who was also king of Sweden. In 1397, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden formed the Kalmar Union under Margaret I, a Danish princess who had married King Magnus’s son Haakon VI. Although her nephew Eric of Pomerania was the official king of all three countries, it was Margaret who ruled them until her death in 1412.

Sweden left the Kalmar Union in 1523 and elected its own king, but Norway remained united with Denmark until 1814, when Denmark ceded Norway to Sweden. In 1905, Norway became independent from Sweden. Its new government offered the crown to Prince Carl, second son of Denmark’s future King Frederick VIII. After being approved in a popular vote by the Norwegian people, the prince ascended the throne as King Haakon VII.

Norway remained neutral in the First World War, but was invaded by Germany during World War II. Haakon VII fled to England, where he remained in exile for exactly five years. He received a warm welcome when he returned to Norway in 1945.

King Haakon died in 1957 and was succeeded by his son Olaf V. King Olaf died in 1991; the present king is his son Harald V. Norway is a constitutional monarchy; the king has little real power.

King Harald and his wife, Queen Sonja, have two children, Princess Märtha Louise (born in 1971) and Crown Prince Haakon (born in 1973). The crown prince married Mette-Marit Tjessem Hoiby in 2001. Their first child, Ingrid Alexandra, was born on January 21, 2004. Their second child, a son named Sverre Magnus, was born on December 3, 2005. Crown Princess Mette-Marit also has a son named Marius from a previous relationship.

Princess Märtha Louise married writer Ari Behn in 2002. Their first child, Maud Angelica Behn, was born in 2003. Their second child, Leah Isadora Behn, was born in 2005.

The Kingdom of Norway