Norway's King Harald V died on 28 August at the age of 89. The funeral is set for 9 September in Oslo, and the guest list already says more about the future of Europe's monarchies than any protocol document could. In one place, in the same hall, will stand almost everyone who will rule Europe over the next fifty years.

Ingrid Alexandra of Norway, Amalia of the Netherlands, Christian of Denmark, Elisabeth of Belgium and Estelle of Sweden. Five names, five thrones waiting for them. Not one of them reigns yet, and all of them are already being photographed together as though it were an ordinary thing - because for them it is.

Harald was something like a grandfather to the whole nation, and that is not a phrase from an official statement. He was the king who first accepted the idea that a monarchy is sustained not by distance but by presence. In that he was ahead of his time, and Norwegian society repaid him with a loyalty no referendum has ever measured.

The Swedish court is coming in full

Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia, Crown Princess Victoria who is Harald's goddaughter, and little Estelle - Sweden is not sending a delegation, it is sending a family. The blood ties between the Scandinavian courts are such that the funeral looks more like a family gathering than an act of state. That is a privilege no president has: when one dies, relatives from four countries do not turn up.

From Japan comes Crown Prince Akishino. That is no small detail - the Japanese court rarely travels, and even more rarely for the funeral of a European monarch. When it does, it means the connection is personal, not ceremonial.

Operation K and the cost of one funeral

Oslo has activated a security plan called Operation K. When that many heirs and reigning monarchs gather in one place, security is not a formality - it is a logistical operation on the scale of a summit. The Norwegian taxpayer will not see the bill in detail, and nobody will ask for it either.

What is left after 9 September is one image: five young people, none of them older than their twenties, who know exactly when and what they will inherit. In a region where every political succession is settled by a campaign, a court case or a recount, that certainty looks like something from another planet. Whether it is an advantage or a burden is a question they have not answered themselves yet either.