Female Heirs – Princess Ingrid Alexandra of Norway

With the introduction of absolute primogeniture in most European monarchies, there are now several Queens in waiting. With our series Female Heirs, we’ll be taking a look at those young women who will one day rule in their own right. Today we’ll be taking a look at Princess Ingrid Alexandra of Norway.

Princess Ingrid Alexandra of Norway was born on 21 January 2004 at 9.13 A.M. in the National Hospital in Oslo as the first child of Crown Prince Haakon and his wife, Crown Princess Mette-Marit (born Tjessem Høiby). Norway introduced absolute primogeniture in 1990, and so Ingrid Alexandra is second in line behind her father. She was not overtaken by her younger brother, Sverre Magnus, who was born in 2005. Ingrid Alexandra also has an elder half-brother named Marius from her mother’s previous relationship.

Her baptism took place on 17 April 2004, in the chapel of the Royal Palace. Her godparents are her grandfather, King Harald V, her aunt Princess Märtha Louise, King Frederik X of Denmark, Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden, King Felipe VI of Spain and her grandmother, Marit Tjessem.

She began her education in 2010 at the Jansløkka elementary school, where her elder half-brother also went to school. She transferred to the private English-language Oslo International School in 2014. In 2020, she moved to Oslo’s Uranienborg School.

Because of her age, she does not perform many royal duties yet. She has taken part in the celebrations of Constitution Day, and she took part in the opening of the Princess Ingrid Alexandra Sculpture Park in 2016. Princess Ingrid Alexandra also lit the cauldron for the opening ceremony of the Winter Youth Olympics in Lillehammer.

Ingrid Alexandra is expected to become Norway’s first Queen regnant since Queen Margaret, who ruled over Norway, Denmark and Sweden 500 years ago. She is also distantly in line to the British throne as a descendant of Maud of Wales, but she is preceded by her brother as the United Kingdom still practised male-preference primogeniture at the time of their births.