Sweden-Norway

This article is part of the
Scandinavia series

Sweden-Norway

Monetary Union

Defense union

The Kingdom of Sweden-Norway is a term sometimes, but erroneously, used to refer to the kingdoms of Sweden and Norway between 1814 and 1905, when they were united under one monarch in a personal union, following the Convention of Moss, on August 14, and the Norwegian constitutional revision of November 4. On the same day, the Norwegian parliament elected Charles XIII king of Norway.

The Act of Union, which was given royal assent on August 6, 1815, was implemented differently in the two countries. In Norway it was a part of constitutional law known as "Rigsakten", and in Sweden it was a set of provisions under regular law and was known as "Riksakten". The Congress of Vienna, which oversaw numerous territorial changes in post Napoleonic Europe, did not object to the union of the Norwegian and Swedish crowns.

Sweden and Norway had previously been united under the same crown on two occasions, from 1319 to 1343, and briefly from 1449 to 1450 in opposition to Christian of Oldenburg who by the Danes was elected king of the Kalmar Union.

Following growing dissatisfaction with the union in Norway, the parliament unanimously declared its dissolution on June 7 1905. This unilateral action met with Swedish threats of war. A plebiscite on August 13 confirmed the parliamentary decision by a majority of 368208 to 184. Negotiations in Karlstad led to agreement with Sweden September 23 and mutual demobilization. Both parliaments revoked the Act of Union October 16, and the deposed king Oscar II of Sweden renounced his claim to the Norwegian throne and recognized Norway as an independent kingdom on October 26. The Norwegian parliament offered the vacant throne to Prince Carl of Denmark, who accepted after another plebiscite had confirmed the monarchy. He arrived in Norway on November 25 1905, taking the name Haakon VII.