Editing Olav V (section)

==Birth and early life==
[[File:Den norske kongefamilie, 1921 (6812749750).jpg|left|thumb|214x214px|The Norwegian Royal Family in 1921]]
Olav was born as Prince ''Alexander Edward Christian Frederik'' in Appleton House on the royal [[Sandringham House|Sandringham Estate]], [[Flitcham, Norfolk|Flitcham]], United Kingdom.<ref name=san28oct>{{cite news |last=Sandelson |first=Michael |title=Norway's Queen Maud in euthanasia speculations |url=http://theforeigner.no/pages/news/norways-queen-maud-in-euthanasia-speculations/ |access-date=9 July 2013 |newspaper=The Foreigner |date=28 October 2011}}</ref> His parents were [[Haakon VII|Prince Carl]], second son of [[Frederick VIII of Denmark|Crown Prince Frederick of Denmark (later King Frederick VIII)]], and [[Maud, Queen of Norway|Princess Maud]], youngest daughter of [[Edward VII|King Edward VII of the United Kingdom]], who was the eldest son of Britain's [[Queen Victoria]]. In 1905, Carl was elected as Norway's first independent king in 518 years. The fact that Carl already had a son gave him an advantage over the other candidates, as it assured the continuance of the new royal line.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Berg|first1=Roald|title=Norge på egen hånd 1905–1920 (Norsk utenrikspolitikks historie, volume 2)|date=1995|publisher=Universitetsforlaget|location=Oslo|isbn=8200223949|page=309|language=no}}</ref> When Carl accepted his election, he took the name Haakon VII. The king gave his two-year-old son the Norwegian name Olav after [[Olaf II of Denmark|Olav Haakonsson]], King of Norway and Denmark.<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Olav to Martha |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,732173,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090210230221/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,732173,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=10 February 2009 |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time Magazine]] |date=21 January 1929 |access-date=17 January 2009}}</ref> It was also chosen in honour of [[Olaf II of Norway|Olaf II]], the last independent king of Norway before its union with Denmark.

Olav was thus the first heir to the throne since the [[Middle Ages]] to have been raised in Norway, and his parents went to considerable length to give him as Norwegian an upbringing as possible. Unlike his father, who was a naval officer, Olav chose to complete his main military education in the army. He graduated from the three-year [[Norwegian Military Academy]] in 1924, with the fourth-best score in his class. Olav then went on to study jurisprudence and economics for two years at [[Balliol College, Oxford]].{{sfn|Benkow|1991|pp=97-108}}

During the 1930s, Crown Prince Olav was a naval cadet serving on the minelayer/cadet training ship ''[[HNoMS Olav Tryggvason|Olav Tryggvason]]''.{{sfn|Bratli|Schau|1995|p=93}} Olav moved up the ranks of the Norwegian armed forces in the army from an initial rank of first lieutenant to captain in 1931 and colonel in 1936.{{sfn|Dahl|1982|p=48}}

He was an accomplished athlete. Olav jumped from the [[Holmenkollen ski jump]] in Oslo and competed in sailing regattas. He won a gold medal in sailing at the [[1928 Summer Olympics]]{{sfn|Flint|1991}} in [[Amsterdam]] and remained an active sailor into old age.

On 21 March 1929 in Oslo, he married his first cousin [[Princess Märtha of Sweden]] with whom he had two daughters, [[Princess Ragnhild of Norway|Ragnhild]] and [[Princess Astrid, Mrs. Ferner|Astrid]] and one son, [[Harald V of Norway|Harald]]. As exiles during [[World War II]], Crown Princess Märtha and the royal children lived in [[Washington, DC]], where she struck up a close friendship with [[Franklin Roosevelt]]. She died in 1954, before her husband ascended the throne.

The British Film Institute houses an early film, made in 1913, in which a miniature car (a "baby Cadillac") commissioned by Queen Alexandra for Crown Prince Olav tows a procession of Londoners through the streets of the capital, before being delivered to a pair of "royal testers" of roughly Olav's age.<ref>{{cite AV media |people=F.S. Bennett (Director) |date=1913 |title=The Smallest Car in the Largest City in the World |medium=motion picture |language=en |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rMgxEN3Kfg | archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211107/-rMgxEN3Kfg| archive-date=2021-11-07 | url-status=live|access-date= 15 May 2017 |location=London, England |publisher=British Film Institute |via=YouTube}}{{cbignore}}</ref> The car is a battery-powered, one-third size replica on a four-foot wheelbase, and is on permanent loan to the [[Norsk Teknisk Museum]] in Oslo.<ref>{{cite news |author=Morton, Ian |title=Right Royal Fun in a Baby Cadillac |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/2724262/Right-royal-fun-in-a-Baby-Cadillac.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/2724262/Right-royal-fun-in-a-Baby-Cadillac.html |archive-date=12 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |work=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |date=30 August 2003 |access-date=15 May 2017}}{{cbignore}}</ref>