The news from Oslo is both shocking and predictable. Marius Borg Høiby, the son of Crown Princess Mette-Marit of Norway, has been convicted of rape. A prince’s son, a rapist. The monarchy, that ancient institution, is once again exposed as a vessel for moral decay. We are meant to gasp, to wring our hands, to declare this an aberration. But let us be honest: this is not an exception. It is a symptom. The European monarchies are in terminal decline, not because of republicanism or radicalism, but because of their own internal rot, their own profound decadence.
Consider the pattern. In Britain, Prince Andrew’s association with Jeffrey Epstein, the sexual abuse allegations, the quiet settlement. In Spain, King Emeritus Juan Carlos fled into exile amid corruption scandals. In Sweden, the royal family has been dogged by rumours and controversies. And now Norway. Each episode is a fresh wound, but the disease is the same: an institution that has outlived its moral purpose, sustained only by ceremony and sycophancy. The royals are no longer symbols of virtue. They are celebrities with titles, and we know what celebrity culture breeds: entitlement, impunity, and a vacuum of accountability.
I am not a republican by instinct. I have argued that constitutional monarchies provide a useful, apolitical head of state, a link to history, a check on populist excess. But that argument collapses when the monarchs themselves become the excess. The Norwegian royal family has handled this with predictable deference: the Crown Prince and Princess issued a statement of ‘pain’ and ‘support for the victim’. But they did not resign. They did not denounce their son with the force that was needed. They protected their brand. That is what modern royalty does: it manages a brand. And when the brand is tarnished, they hire public relations consultants, not confessors.
This is the Age of Decadence, a period that historians will compare to the late Roman Empire or the pre-Revolutionary French court. We have wealth without purpose, privilege without responsibility, and a populace that consumes royal scandal as entertainment. The monarchy has become a soap opera, and we are the bored audience. But a society that laughs at the fall of princes is a society that has forgotten what princes are for. They are meant to be exemplars, not cautionary tales.
What is to be done? Abolition would be too hasty, and would likely replace the monarchy with something worse: an elected president who might be a demagogue or a billionaire. But reform is essential. The Norwegian constitution allows for the forfeiture of royal titles and succession rights for criminal behaviour. That must be used. Marius Borg Høiby should be stripped of his title, his privileges, his place in the line of succession. The monarchy must show it can cleanse itself, or it will be cleansed by history.
Yet I am not optimistic. The European monarchies have become masters of survival through inertia. They will wait out this scandal, as they have waited out others. They will smile for the cameras, attend the charity events, and hope that the public’s attention span is short. But the rot is deep. The Norwegian prince’s son is not a lone criminal. He is the product of a system that breeds entitlement, where the rules are different for those with blue blood. And until that system is genuinely reformed, until the monarchy is forced to live by the same moral standards it preaches, the scandals will continue. The crown will fall, not with a bang, but with a long, sordid whisper of rape convictions and venal crimes.
We are living through the death throes of an idea. The monarchy as a moral authority is dead. What remains is a spectacle, a tourist attraction, a drain on the public purse. And when the only thing a prince can offer is a cautionary tale, it is time to rewrite the story altogether.
