Just days after the passing of her little brother, Norway bade farewell on Friday to Princess Astrid, the daughter of King Olav V who acted as the nation’s first lady for many years after her mother’s passing.
The Norwegian royal court broke the news on Friday that Princess Astrid, granddaughter of King Haakon VII, daughter of King Olav V, sister of King Harald V, and aunt of King Haakon VIII, had died at the age of 94. Her last public appearance came two days earlier, when she attended the funeral of her late brother, King Harald, in Oslo.
Astrid leaves behind five children—Cathrine, Benedikte, Alexander, Elisabeth, and Carl-Christian—and seven grandchildren, as well as nieces, nephews, and cousins. At the time of her death, Astrid was the oldest living descendant of Queen Victoria. (That title now belongs to her third cousin, 94-year-old Anne Abel Smith, a granddaughter of Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone.)
Born on February 12, 1932, Princess Astrid Maud Ingeborg of Norway was the second daughter of Crown Prince Olav of Norway and Princess Märtha of Sweden. She was named for her aunt, Queen Astrid of Belgium, who also served as one of her godparents. Also in the godparent roster for the baby princess were all four of her grandparents, plus the Duchess of York (later Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother), Prince George (later the Duke of Kent), Princess Thyra of Denmark, and Prince Eugen of Sweden.
Neither Astrid nor her elder sister, Princess Ragnhild, were constitutionally entitled to inherit the Norwegian throne at the time of their births, and there was serious talk when they were children about changing the laws to allow women to become queens regnant—until, that is, the birth of their younger brother, Prince Harald, in 1937. The family is pictured shortly after Harald’s birth in the portrait above, with Astrid perched beside her mother on a settee.
Princess Astrid was just eight when the Nazis invaded Norway in 1940. She fled to America with her mother and siblings, arriving in New York that August. Astrid was educated with her sister and brother in Washington, D.C. during the war. On their return to Norway in 1945, she attended Nissen, a girls’ school in Oslo.
Surrounded by family, Princess Astrid was confirmed in the chapel of the Royal Palace in Oslo on May 9, 1948. In this portrait, taken during the celebrations, she is seated between her mother, Crown Princess Märtha, and her grandmother, Princess Ingeborg of Sweden. Standing behind them are her brother, Prince Harald; her grandfather, King Haakon VII; her sister, Princess Ragnhild; her father, Crown Prince Olav; her aunt, Princess Margaretha of Denmark; and her uncle, Prince Carl Bernadotte.
Princess Astrid went on to study for two years at Oxford in the early 1950s. The marriage of Princess Ragnhild in 1953 and the death of their mother, Crown Princess Märtha, in 1954 brought Astrid new responsibilities back home. From then until her brother’s marriage in 1968, Astrid was the senior lady at Norway’s royal court, and she often served as first lady during gala events.
To help her fulfill her role, Astrid amassed a collection of personal jewelry. In this portrait, taken to mark her 25th birthday in February 1957, she wears an unusual tiara and matching jewels made of yellow gold and set with semi-precious gemstones. The suite, a gift from Princess Ingeborg, originally belonged to Princess Pauline of Württemberg, the mother of Queen Sofia of Sweden.
As first lady, Astrid also had access to some of the grandest jewelry pieces that had belonged to her mother, Crown Princess Märtha. Here, in 1960, she wears Queen Josefina’s Diamond Tiara for a banquet during a state visit from the King and Queen of Denmark. The lacy diamond tiara belonged went from Sweden to Denmark with Queen Lovisa, who bequeathed it to her son, Prince Gustav. Crown Princess Märtha inherited it on his death in 1944, and today’s worn by the highest-ranking royal lady in Norway.
A few weeks later, when the King of Sweden came to Norway for a state visit, Astrid wore perhaps the most important suite of jewels in the Norwegian vaults: the diamond and emerald parure that came to Sweden via Queen Josefina’s sister, Empress Amélie of Brazil. Princess Ingeborg inherited the set from Queen Sofia in 1913, and during World War II, she gave the emeralds to Crown Princess Märtha to use as an insurance policy in America should the family run out of funds. Thankfully, they never needed to sell the jewels, and the emeralds have been worn by the senior lady at the royal court of Norway ever since.
Along with the grand jewels she used while serving as Norway’s first lady, Princess Astrid also often wore a smaller tiara that belonged to her mother. The Vasa Tiara was Märtha’s wedding gift from the people of Stockholm in 1929. Astrid inherited the tiara personally from her mother. Two decades ago, she told the royal jewelry historian Trond Norén Isaksen that she intends for the tiara to stay with the royal family after her death.
Like her brother, Princess Astrid was a keen sailor, and the hobby led her to her future husband. She met Olympic silver medalist Johan Martin Ferner when she hired him to help sail her yacht during a race. Though there was some pushback when they announced their engagement in 1960—Ferner was a divorced commoner—the two wed at Asker Church on January 12, 1961. (Astrid opted for a lace headpiece and veil instead of a tiara.) They had five children and were married until Ferner’s death in January 2015.
Even after her wedding, Astrid continued to be a fixture at royal gala events during the decades that followed, wearing jewels and tiaras from her personal collection. Here, during a state visit from the President of Finland to Oslo in 1983, she wears the turquoise and diamond circlet that belonged to her great-grandmother, Queen Alexandra. The tiara, as well as the earrings and necklace, came to Norway with Alexandra’s daughter, Queen Maud. Per Isaksen, Astrid also intends for the turquoises to remain with the royal family after her passing.
From Queen Maud’s jewelry collection, Princess Astrid also inherited a jeweled aigrette that could be worn with two different topper ornaments. This version features floral motifs rendered in diamonds and rubies. It was presented to Maud by a group of “Lady and Gentlemen Friends” as a wedding gift in 1896.
Astrid also wore an all-diamond ornament on the aigrette shaped like a pair of wings. Unlike the Vasa Tiara and the turquoises, Astrid reportedly intends to leave the aigrettes to her own children. The unique bracelet she wears on her right wrist in this photograph, taken in 2017, features Queen Maud’s badge of the Royal Order of Victoria and Albert. Several years ago Astrid gave the bracelet to her great-niece, Crown Princess Ingrid Alexandra.
Even as she climbed into her 90s, Princess Astrid was a regular fixture, tiara and all, at Norwegian royal gala events. Over the last two years, she arrived in full splendor for banquets held at the Royal Palace in Oslo. Here, in April 2025, she wears the diamond and ruby aigrette with pearl drop earrings and a diamond necklace for the Icelandic state banquet at the palace.
In the summer of 2025, she brought out the Turquoise Circlet for a gala dinner in honor of the visiting President of France.
In October, she wore her ruby aigrette with a favorite star-spangled evening gown, plus starry earrings, a diamond and pearl bow brooch, and a diamond necklace for the annual gala for members of Norway’s parliament, the Storting.
And in January, during this year’s diplomatic gala, we saw Astrid make one last tiara appearance, wearing Queen Alexandra’s Turquoise Circlet with Princess Maud’s turquoise necklace and earrings and the large coordinating brooch, which also reportedly comes from Alexandra’s collection.
Now, Astrid has joined her husband, her parents, and her siblings in the great hereafter. Only Queen Sonja remains from their generation in Norway, with just a handful of other royal contemporaries from the wartime generation left in Europe. The torch is passing.
I’ll be covering the Dutch royal family’s Prinsjesdag jewels tomorrow, so my Tuesday post will arrive a few hours later than usual. See you then.
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