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Rex Perpetuus Norvegiae (from Latin, "Eternal King of Norway") is an honorific title that was given to King Olaf II of Norway (Saint Olaf) in 1163. Ten years earlier, a new archdiocese was established at Nidaros by Nicholas Cardinal Breakspear (later Pope Hadrian IV). In the new Law of succession, the second archbishop of Nidaros, Øystein Erlendsson (Saint Øystein), decreed that future kings of Norway should not be considered kings in their own right, but rather as vassals governing in the absence of Saint Olaf.
