Martha Thyra
38.924525, -77.066618 | Royal
This statue of the Crown Princess Martha Thyra by Kristen Kokkin was installed in front of the Norweigen Embassy in 2005.
Princess Martha of Sweden was Crown Princess of Norway as the spouse of the future King Olav V from 1929 until her death in 1954. The presently reigning King Harald V is her only son. When Germany invaded Norway in April 1940, the Crown Princess and her children fled first to her native Sweden, but she was not well received. Many Swedes felt she had put Sweden’s neutrality at jeopardy. Some even suggested she should accept the suggestion by the Germans, and return her three-year-old son, Prince Harald, to Norway so he could be proclaimed King by the Germans. Following an invitation by President Roosevelt, she went to the United States on the United States Army transport American Legion, via the then Finnish port city of Petsamo. In the U.S., she and her children initially took up residence in the White House.