Mourners gather at a makeshift memorial outside the Royal Palace in Oslo, Saturday. (AFP-Yonhap) OSLO (AFP) -- Norway on Saturday opened a new chapter in its history under King Haakon VIII, who was due to give a memorial speech a day after the death of his 89-year-old father, King Harald.The palace said the monarch's speech -- his first as king -- would be broadcast at 7 p.m. Flags flew at half-staff as scores of Norwegians flocked to the Royal Palace in Oslo, adding flowers to the mountains already on the ground after more than 20,000 people paid their respects Friday.The late king enjoyed massive support despite the slew of scandals that dogged his family in the final stretch of his 35-year reign."He has always struck me as someone with a great deal of integrity and simply a genuinely good person," 34-year-old Martin Lillebo told Agence France-Presse.Lillebo, who had come to lay flowers with his wife and two young children, noted that Harald, who ascended the throne in 1991, was the only monarch he'd known.He was "king for pretty much exactly as long as I've been alive."Tributes also poured in from European monarchies and world leaders, including US President Donald Trump, who hailed the memory of "a strong, proud, and greatly respected man."King Haakon held audiences at the palace Saturday with the leaders of the Church of Norway, Parliament and the Supreme Court.The palace also announced that King Haakon would receive Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store for a viewing of the late king's casket, which was brought to the palace from Oslo University Hospital on Friday evening.Store was seen speaking informally to mourners outside the palace earlier Saturday, weaving through the crowds and shaking hands.A national period of mourning has been declared in Norway. No date has been set for the late king's funeral.King Haakon will swear an oath of allegiance in Parliament on Tuesday.City halls across Norway put out condolence books Saturday for the public to write personal messages.Oslo Mayor Anne Lindboe, who had called off her own wedding Friday because of the king's death, was the first to write a message at Oslo City Hall."Dear King Harald, you didn't need a crown to be a king. Thank you so much for everything you have done for our city. We will never forget you," she told reporters she had written.One of the first members of the public to write a message after the mayor, Unni Zetterquist Thorsen, 68, told AFP she had thanked the late king for his "patience and strength through difficult times in Norway."King Haakon and his wife, Queen Mette-Marit, are not expected to be crowned in a ceremony -- Norway abolished coronations in 1908.But like his father and grandfather before him, the new king could choose to have his reign blessed during a ceremony at Trondheim Cathedral, where Norwegian monarchs were crowned between 1814 and 1906.King Harald was widely seen as the embodiment of an open and tolerant Norway and praised for leading a monarchy that was modern and modest.In a social media post, the palace noted that King Harald, who was Europe's oldest reigning monarch, would have celebrated his and Queen Sonja's 58th wedding anniversary Saturday.Harald had been hospitalized in Oslo since Aug. 17, suffering from hemolytic anemia, a condition caused by an abnormally rapid destruction of red blood cells that leads to fatigue and shortness of breath.The monarch faced mounting health problems in his final years, forcing him to scale back his official schedule.But he always ruled out abdicating, adamant that he had taken a lifelong oath before the Norwegian Parliament.The past year has been a turbulent one for the Norwegian royal family.Queen Sonja, also 89, was briefly hospitalized in May because of heart problems.New King Haakon's wife, Mette-Marit, is under scrutiny for her ties to the late US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.In June, Mette-Marit's son from a relationship before her marriage to Haakon, Marius Borg Hoiby, was sentenced to four years in prison for two rapes.Mette-Marit, 53, who suffers from a serious lung disease, underwent a lung transplant in July.