Princess Ragnhild, Mrs Lorentzen (Ragnhild Alexandra; 9 June 1930 – 16 September 2012), was the eldest child of King Olav V of Norway and Princess Märtha of Sweden. She was the older sister of King Harald V and Princess Astrid. She was the first Norwegian royal to have been born in Norway since the Middle Ages. In 1953 she married the industrialist Erling Lorentzen, a member of the Lorentzen family of shipping magnates. In the same year they moved to Brazil, where her husband was an industrialist and a main owner of Aracruz Celulose. She lived in Brazil until her death 59 years later.
Although she was the King's eldest child, she was never in the line of succession to the Norwegian throne, owing to Norway's law of agnatic succession. She was in the line of succession to the British throne, and occupied the 16th and 17th place in that succession line during her childhood and youth.[5][6][7]
In 1940, during World War II, she and her family fled the German invasion of Norway,[2] and she spent the wartime years in exile with her mother and siblings in Bethesda, Maryland,[9] located northwest of Washington, D.C. Before the birth of her younger brother, it was assumed she would accede to the throne in the absence of a male heir, although this would have required a constitutional amendment, as women could not inherit the throne at the time.[2]
Her Confirmation took place on 11 May 1947 in the Palace Chapel.
Following the royal family's return to Norway she attended Nissen's Girls' School, obtaining her school leaving certificate in 1948. She later spent four semesters, between 1948 and 1949, studying at a finishing school in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Marriage and family
Princess Ragnhild and Lorentzen on their wedding day
Princess Ragnhild married Erling Lorentzen, a member of the Norwegian merchant upper-class (see Lorentzen family), in Asker Church[10] on 15 May 1953. Lorentzen was a businessman and army officer who had served as her bodyguard during the War.
Following her marriage, the couple moved to Rio de Janeiro, where her husband had substantial business holdings. Their residence in Brazil was originally temporary, but they eventually settled there, and remained in Rio until Ragnhild's death in 2012.[3] In Brazil, her husband founded Aracruz Celulose.
The couple had three children:
Haakon Lorentzen (born 23 August 1954), married Martha Carvalho de Freitas (born 1958) on 14 April 1982, and had 3 children, each born in Rio de Janeiro:
Olav Alexander Lorentzen (born 11 July 1985), married Ingrid Kraus de Andrade Nogueira (born 1988) on 4 December 2021, and has one son:
Salvador Lorentzen (born 1 April 2023)
Christian Frederik Lorentzen (born 23 May 1988) married Mariah de Oliveira Pedrosa (born 1991) on 19 March 2022, and has one son:
Thomas Lorentzen (born December 2022)
Sophia Anne Lorentzen (born 28 June 1994)
Ingeborg Lorentzen (born 27 February 1957), married Paulo César Ribeiro Filho (born 1956) on 4 June 1982, and has one daughter:
Victoria Ragna Lorentzen Ribeiro (born 19 December 1988), married Felipe Sampaio Octaviano Falcão on 9 August 2014, and has two children:
Frederik Sven Lorentzen Falcão (born 28 September 2016)
Alice Eva Lorentzen Falcão (born 21 October 2022)[11][12]
Ragnhild Alexandra Lorentzen (born 8 May 1968), married Aaron Matthew Long on 21 November 2003, and has two daughters.
Alexandra Joyce Lorentzen Long (born 14 December 2007)
Elizabeth Patricia Lorentzen Long (born March 2011)
Although a private person, in 1995 Ragnhild decided to write her autobiography (this was penned with the help of author Lars O. Gulbrandsen) published under the title, “Mitt liv som kongsdatter” [My Life as a King’s Daughter].
Death
Princess Ragnhild died of lung cancer at her home in Rio de Janeiro on 16 September 2012,[15] aged 82.[3] Her body arrived in Oslo on 24 September 2012, where her brother King Harald V and her sister Princess Astrid were present to greet her alongside her spouse Erling and their children. The funeral of Princess Ragnhild was held on 28 September 2012 in the chapel of the Royal Palace of Oslo. She was later cremated and privately interred in the church of Asker.[4]
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