Aftenposten
- Crown Prince Leopold and Princess Astrid are married today in Stockholm.
- Big fire in Bærum last evening.
- What has happened?
Aftenposten's issue of 4 November 1926 led with the wedding of Belgium's Crown Prince Leopold and Sweden's Princess Astrid, held that day in Stockholm. The paper's own correspondent described a reception at which Stockholm's mayor, Director Cederborg, gave a long French speech over champagne welcoming the kings, above all the Belgian one. The front page also reported a fire the previous evening at the Aug. Herm. Francke and Dr. Barnardo's children's home at Wøien in Bærum: the glow turned the western sky blood-red and set the newsroom telephones ringing, and the large outbuilding burned. A leader titled "What has happened?" turned to the impeachment case then under way against Abraham Berge's former government, attacking a general secretary for failing to see that the Storting and the court of impeachment are separate, and that the facts, not party resolutions, should decide how the case proceeds.
Translation
Crown Prince Leopold and Princess Astrid are married today in Stockholm.
…had been presented, Stockholm's mayor, Director Cederborg, raising a glass of champagne, gave a lengthy speech in French in which he welcomed the kings – especially the Belgian one – to Stockholm
Big fire in Bærum last evening.
At about half past seven yesterday evening there was a rush on the editorial office's telephones, with callers asking where the fire was. A strong glow could be seen in the west; indeed, the whole sky was blood-red, it was said. It turned out that a fire had broken out at the Aug. Herm. Francke and Dr. Barnardo's children's home at Wøien in Bærum. It was the large outbuilding that burned.
What has happened?
To the general secretary it is evidently quite incomprehensible that the Storting is one thing and the court of impeachment something else, and that "the course of the proceedings" before the latter forum is determined not by party resolutions but by the inherent force of the facts themselves.
Context
A wedding in two stages: Stockholm on 4 November, Brussels on 10 November
The ceremony the paper announced was the first half of a two-part marriage. The engagement of Princess Astrid of Sweden to Prince Leopold of Belgium, Duke of Brabant, had been announced in September 1926. The couple entered into a civil marriage in Stockholm on 4 November 1926, the date of this issue, and were married religiously in the Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula in Brussels on 10 November. Leopold had carried the title Duke of Brabant since 1909, when his father became King of the Belgians as Albert I. The Belgian monarch whom the Stockholm mayor singled out in his French speech was therefore the groom's father. The excerpt itself records only that the speech was long, in French, and addressed to "the kings".
Why the Stockholm wedding mattered to Norway
Aftenposten sent its own correspondent to Stockholm, and family ties explain the Norwegian interest. Astrid's mother, Princess Ingeborg of Denmark, was the younger sister of King Christian X of Denmark and King Haakon VII of Norway, making Norway's king the bride's uncle. In 1905 the Norwegian government had discussed making Ingeborg and her husband, Prince Carl of Sweden, king and queen of Norway, but Carl declined and Ingeborg's brother took the throne instead; her kinship to the Scandinavian dynasties later helped reconcile the three royal houses after the tension over Norway's 1905 secession. Astrid herself had been mentioned as a possible bride for the future Olav V of Norway, and Crown Prince Olav was among the young relatives and friends in the wedding party at the religious ceremony in Brussels. For a Norwegian reader in 1926, the marriage was therefore a family event for the country's own royal house as well as a Swedish–Belgian alliance.
The impeachment case behind the leader
The "court of impeachment" in the leader was the riksrett convened against former Prime Minister Abraham Berge and six members of his cabinet. Berge had been prime minister and finance minister in a government of the Frisinnede Venstre (Liberal Left) and Høyre (Conservatives). In 1923 his government lent 25 million kroner to Den Norske Handelsbanken in Trondheim without laying the decision before either the Storting or the King in Council. The secrecy was justified as a way to avoid panic among the bank's customers, and the bank failed anyway. The charges held that granting the support without the Storting's approval was unconstitutional and that the government had breached its duty to inform parliament. The Odelsting voted to bring the case in 1926; Store norske leksikon dates the vote to 14 October, while the Storting's own history page gives 14 July. By early November, when this leader appeared, the case was a live political quarrel rather than a settled chapter.
Why the leader insisted the court stood apart from the Storting
The leader's claim that "the Storting is one thing and the court of impeachment something else" rested on the court's make-up. The riksrett had 25 members: nine Supreme Court justices and sixteen members of the Lagting, the upper division of the Storting. That mix of judges and politicians is what made it possible to argue over whether party loyalties or the evidence would steer the proceedings. Publicity was a guiding principle of the procedure: the proceedings were printed in Rigsretstidende, and the press coverage was marked by strong party-political fronts. The leader, which names its opponent only as "the general secretary", belongs to that partisan exchange. Its insistence that the facts would decide was not borne out in a simple way. The trial opened on 21 March 1927, and Berge and the six ministers were acquitted on formal grounds because the charges had lapsed under the statute of limitations; the judges were divided over the grounds for acquittal. The case later led to a new Responsibility Act in 1932, which is still in force.
Original
Kronprins Leopold og prinsesse Astrid vies idag i Stockholm.
var blit præsentert, holdt Stockholms ordfører, direktør C e d e r b o r g, ved et glas champagne en længere tale paa fransk, hvori han ønsket kongene - specielt den belgiske - velkommen til Stockholm
Stor brand i Bærum igaaraftes.
Ved ½8-tiden igaaraftes blev der et run paa redaktionens telefoner med forespørsel om, hvor det var brand. Der saaes en sterk lysning i vest, ja hele himmelen var blodrød, het det. Det viste sig, at der var opstaat brand paa Aug. Herm. Francke og dr. Barnardos barnehjem paa Wøien i Bærum. Det var den store uthusbygning, som brændte.
Hvad er hændt?
For generalsekretæren er det øiensynlig ganske ubegripelig, at Stortinget er et og riksretten noget andet, og at» processens gang «for det sistnævnte forum ikke bestemmes av partibeslutninger, men av kjendsgjerningenes egen iboende kraft.