The King of Norway has decided to change the way the Royal Family has been categorized, as shown at the official website today.
Earlier there were two categories – the Royal House and the Royal Family:
The Royal Family
The Royal House of Norway belongs to the House of Glücksburg. The members of the Norwegian Royal House are Their Majesties King Harald and Queen Sonja and Their Royal Highnesses Crown Prince Haakon, Crown Princess Mette-Marit and Princess Ingrid Alexandra.
The members of the Royal Family are in addition the Crown Prince and Crown Princess’s other children, His Highness Prince Sverre Magnus and Mr Marius Borg Høiby; Her Highness Princess Märtha Louise, Miss Maud Angelica Behn, Miss Leah Isadora Behn, Miss Emma Tallulah Behn and Her Highness Princess Astrid, Mrs Ferner.
As of today we can read:*
The Royal House of Norway
The Royal House of Norway belongs to the House of Glücksburg. The members of the Norwegian Royal House are Their Majesties King Harald and Queen Sonja and Their Royal Highnesses Crown Prince Haakon, Crown Princess Mette-Marit and Princess Ingrid Alexandra.
[...]
Other royals
In addition to the members of the Royal House, HH Prince Sverre Magnus, HH Princess Märtha Louise, and HH Princess Astrid also hold royal titles.
* See also the subpage about the "Other royals".
An article on the subject in English can be read at Newsinenglish.no today. The Head of Communication at the Royal Court, Guri Varpe, has explained the changes to VG.no today: "The changes on Kongehuset.no have been made to clarify who represents the royal house, as well as who the other royals are. This is in line with current definitions of the royal house and its members"
I think it is obvious to conclude that the changes have come after the many discussions concerning Princess Märtha Louise's activities, including the claims that she has used her title for commercial gains, and her many violations of the agreement made in 2022 where she promised to differentiate more clearly between her own activities and her relationship to the Royal House of Norway, which among others meant that she would "not employ the title of Princess or refer to members of the Royal House in their social media channels, in media productions or in connection with other commercial activities".
The changes also means among others that Crown Princess Mette-Marit's son Marius Borg Høiby, who last month was charged with among others domestic violence, has also ceased to be a member of the royal family.
I think it was a good idea to change the categories, but I would have preferred if the category "royal family" had been continued, but that it should only include those with titles. There is no reason to get rid of the the category altogether. Of course the man in the street will still use it even if not used by the Royal Court.
The changes will, for the record, have no effect on the line of succession. Many people have demanded that Princess Märtha Louise should lose her title, but it doesn't seem very likely as of now.
The King and Crown Prince have constitutional roles to play and together with their spouses belong to the Royal House, together with Princess Ingrid Alexandra, who is 2nd in line and will one day inherit the throne. In other words, those styled Majesty or Royal Highness. They are also exempted from paying taxes, cf. the Norwegian taxation act section 2-30, while other family members have to pay taxes just like other citizens.
