The list of Norwegian monarchs begins in 872, the traditional dating of the Battle of Hafrsfjord, after which victor Harald Fairhair united many of the Norwegian petty kingdoms into a single kingdom. Harald's realm was later to be known as the Kingdom of Norway. Harald was thus the founder of the first royal house on Norway's throne, the so-called Fairhair dynasty. Although this house became patrilineally extinct already when Harald's grandson Harald II died in 970, most of the Norwegian monarchs until 1387 have traditionally been regarded as part of the Fairhair dynasty. Modern scholars have however largely rejected this view, and shifted towards seeing the later kings as forming their own dynasties, the most important which were the Hardrada dynasty and Sverre dynasty.
Aside from short periods under the Danish king in the late 10th and early 11th century, Norway was ruled as an independent kingdom until the 14th century. In addition to sporadic conflicts between individual kings and branches, the rivalry over the Norwegian kingship was most dividing between 1130 and 1240, during what is known as the civil war era. During this period, the two parties called the Birkebeiner (rioting commoners) and Bagler (members of the Norwegian nobility) fought over the kingship, although the Birkebeiner generally held most power and ultimately prevailed.
In 1387, Norway became part of the so-called Kalmar Union, in which Norway, Denmark and Sweden were united under the same monarch. Norway's throne was inherited by the Danish king Christian I in 1450, and thereafter possessed by Copenhagen-based monarchs until 1814, bringing the kingdoms of Norway and of Denmark into a personal union, known as Denmark–Norway. Norway finally gained constitutional independence with a constitutional monarchy in 1814, ending the absolutism of 1660, and elected the Danish king's son, the Christian Frederick, as Norway's king. After several months, however, the king was forced to abdicate, and the throne was given to Charles XIII of Sweden (Charles II in Norway), which brought the kingdoms of Norway and of Sweden into a personal union, the Union between Sweden and Norway. In 1905, the union ended, and Norway has since then been ruled by members of the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg.
Especially between 1450 and 1905, the Danish and Swedish kings of Norway possessed and used several other titles, among others King of the Goths, King of the Wends, Duke to Sleswick, Duke to Holsatia, Prince to Rügen, and Count to Oldenburg. They called themselves "King to Norway" (Konge til Norge), indicating that the country was theirs, usually with the style His Royal Majesty. With the introduction of the constitutional monarchy in 1814, the traditional style "by God's Grace" was extended to "by God's Grace and after the Kingdom's Constitution", but was only briefly in use. The last king to use the style "by God's Grace" was Haakon VII, who died in 1957. The King's title today is formally "Norway's King" (Norges Konge), indicating that he is the country's king, with the style "His Majesty". A construction like "King of Norway" (Konge av Norge) is formally incorrect in Norwegian.
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