Affable, unflappable and imposing (he was a 6ft 2in ex-Olympian), the late King Harald of Norway was also blessed with good luck for much of his life. The first notable dose of good fortune occurred at the age of three, when his mother managed to spirit him and his sisters out of their home country hours before the Nazi invasion – and away to safety in the US.

He returned to a nation so devoted to its monarchy that the children of post-war Norway pooled their pocket money to help buy his grandfather, King Haakon, a royal yacht. The Norge remains in service to this day, funded by an uncomplaining nation.

Compare that with Britain’s royal family, who had to wave farewell to their yacht Britannia back in 1997 after a long and toxic political squabble.

It is a reminder of the many ways in which, of all the world’s monarchies, Norway perhaps most closely resembles our own; and of why the House of Windsor has so often cast an envious glance across the North Sea. Following the death of King Harald at the age of 89 last week, however, it is royalists in Norway who now look wistfully across at the UK.

Like King Charles, Harald reigned in an age when monarchy had to earn the respect it once took for granted

Like King Charles, Harald reigned in an age when monarchy had to earn the respect it once took for granted

Harald V sat midway between Elizabeth II and Charles III. Like our late queen, he was a great-grandchild of Edward VII. Like her, his world view was shaped by war.

Like King Charles – who hailed Harald as a ‘dear cousin’ and ‘towering’ figure – he had strong Danish lineage (both could claim direct descent from King Christian IX). Like King Charles, Harald reigned in an age when monarchy had to earn the respect it could once take for granted. Both men would have to overcome traditionalist opposition when it came to marriage.

In the absence of a Norwegian nobility, young Harald had been expected to wed a European princess, yet fate introduced him to Sonja Haraldsen, daughter of an Oslo textile........

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