Northern Crowns: The Kings of Modern Scandinavia

by John van der Kiste

John Van der Kiste's book takes in the principal monarchies of Scandinavia going back to the beginning of the 19th century. He uses unpublished sources and photographs to show how they relate to modern European history. The book also considers the political backgrounds to the monarchs' reigns; as well as examining the suspected pro-German leanings of Gustav V, the author describes the dissolution of the union between Norway and Sweden in 1905, which eventually led to the election of Christian IX's grandson as Haakon VII.

Genres: Nonfiction, Royalty, History, Biography, European History

Paperback

First published September 1, 1997

About the author

John Van der Kiste, British author, was born in Wendover, Buckinghamshire, on September 15, 1954, son of Wing Commander Guy Van der Kiste (1912–99). He was educated at Blundell's School, Tiverton, where he briefly formed a rock band Cobweb with fellow pupil Miles Tredinnick, later vocalist with new wave band London and subsequently playwright and scriptwriter, and read Librarianship at Ealing Technical College, where he edited the librarians’ student magazine.
He has worked for several years in public and academic libraries, but is best known as a writer. His first book, Frederick III, appeared in 1981, and since then he has published over twenty historical biographies, as well as books on local history, true crime, rock music, a novel and a play. He is also a contributor to Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Guinness Rockopaedia, and has produced articles on historical, musical and art subjects in national and local journals, including Illustrated London News, Royalty Digest, European Royal History Journal, Best of British, BBC History Magazine, Record Collector, Antique Collector, This England, The Independent, and Gibbons Stamp Monthly. He has reviewed books and records for the press, written CD booklet notes, and between 1991 and 1996 edited the 70s rock fanzine Keep on Rockin.
In 2002 he was a consultant for the BBC TV documentary 'The King, the Kaiser and the Tsar', first screened in January 2003.
He married professional musician and teacher Kim Graham (née Geldard) in 2003 and lives in Devon.

Reviews

[Lauren Link · Rating 2 out of 5]

While I found the book fascinating I was disappointed by the discriminatory language that the author used while discussing Prince Erik, son of King Gustav V of Sweden, learning disability. I borrowed the 1998 paperback edition from my library.

Use of language aside, the book has been well-researched and I now know much more about the Swedish and Norwegian Royal Families; I have always been fascinated by Scandinavian history but sadly there are too few books on the topic that are in English and I am sadly not fluent in Danish.

[Colleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was very excited for this, because it is difficult to find anything on the Scandinavian monarchies in English. And what there is is mostly the English connections through Queen Victoria's grandchildren. Unfortunately, what I got was exactly that: 90% Denmark, 8% Norway, and 2% Sweden.

The first third is a summary of Theo Aronson's A Family of Kings. The remaining sections are heavily Danish and Norwegian, to deal with the wars. Most of the information was not new to me, though it could have been when the book was first published.

[Vincent Solomeno · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like "Kings of the Hellenes," John Van der Kiste provides a useful and much needed English language history of the Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish royal families.

[Nate · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this. No other book has ever focused on solely Scandinavian monarchs. This book was perfectly edited with it switching to another country every time it started getting long winded. Haakon VII was an interesting figure as was Gustav VI Adolf and his wives. One thing that bothered me with the Swedish princes was how they all had the same name so I could never tell them apart so I had to look back to see which one they were talking about. Danish monarchs had a similar problem, but to a lesser degree. The section on Christian IX read similar to A Family of Kings, but shortened. In the Preface, the author seemed to rant a little about how the Archives were not fully opened to him after certain years and times and what not.The pictures were an invaluable help. A good book that could have been better with the use of more primary sources which was not granted to the author by the copyright holders.