Carl XVI Gustaf is King of Sweden. He ascended the throne on the death of his grandfather, Gustaf VI Adolf, on 15 September 1973.
Princess Margaret of Connaught was Crown Princess of Sweden as the first wife of the future King Gustaf VI Adolf. She was the elder daughter of Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught, third son of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, and his wife Princess Louise Margaret of Prussia. Known in Sweden as Margareta, her marriage produced five children; she was the grandmother of King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, Queen Margrethe II of Denmark and Queen Anne-Marie of Greece. She died 30 years before her husband's accession to the throne of Sweden.
The House of Bernadotte is the royal family of Sweden since its foundation there in 1818. It was also the royal family of Norway between 1818 and 1905. Its founder, Charles XIV John of Sweden, was born in Pau in southern France as Jean Bernadotte. Bernadotte, who had been made a General of Division and Minister of War for his service in the French Army during the French Revolution, and Marshal of the French Empire and Prince of Ponte Corvo under Napoleon, was adopted by the elderly King Charles XIII of Sweden, who had no other heir and whose Holstein-Gottorp branch of the House of Oldenburg thus was soon to be extinct on the Swedish throne.
Prince Bertil, Duke of Halland, was a member of the Swedish royal family. He was the third son of King Gustaf VI Adolf and his first wife, Princess Margaret of Connaught, as well as the uncle of King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, Queen Margrethe II of Denmark and Queen Anne-Marie of Greece. From 1973 to 1979 he was heir presumptive to his nephew King Carl XVI Gustaf and the Swedish throne.
Count of Wisborg is a title granted by the monarchs of Luxembourg to some men formerly titled as princes of Sweden and their descendants.
The Swedish royal family since 1818 has consisted of members of the Swedish Royal House of Bernadotte, closely related to the King of Sweden. Today those who are recognized by the government are entitled to royal titles and styles, and perform official engagements and ceremonial duties of state. The extended family of the King consists of other close relatives who are not royal and thus do not represent the country officially.
Duchies in Sweden have been allotted since the 13th century to powerful Swedes, almost always to princes of Sweden and wives of the latter. From the beginning these duchies were often centers of regional power, where their dukes and duchesses had considerable executive authority of their own, under the central power of their kings or queens regnant. Since the reign of King Gustav III the titles have practically been nominal, with which their bearers only rarely have enjoyed any ducal authority, though often maintaining specially selected leisure residences in their provinces and some limited measure of cultural attachment to them.
Princess Lilian of Sweden, Duchess of Halland, was a Welsh fashion model who became a member of the Swedish royal family through her 1976 marriage to Prince Bertil, Duke of Halland (1912–1997). As such, she was an aunt of King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, and Queen Anne-Marie of Greece.
Princess Birgitta of Sweden is an elder sister of King Carl XVI Gustaf.
Princess Désirée, Baroness Silfverschiöld is the third child of Prince Gustaf Adolf, Duke of Västerbotten, and Princess Sibylla of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and granddaughter of King Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden. She is an elder sister of King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden.
Princess Sibylla of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha was a member of the Swedish royal family and the mother of the current king of Sweden, Carl XVI Gustaf.
Princess Margaret (1930–2002) was the daughter of King George VI of the United Kingdom and Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon; sister of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom.
Prince Hubertus of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha was a German courier pilot and a member of the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, which reigned over the eponymous duchy in the German Empire. Born a prince of Great Britain and Ireland as a great-grandson of Queen Victoria, Hubertus lost this title during the First World War. He became heir apparent to the headship of his house in 1932, and he never married. Hubertus joined the Nazi Party upon the outbreak of the Second World War despite his opposition to Adolf Hitler and Nazism. He served in the Luftwaffe on the Eastern Front until he was killed in action. He is the maternal uncle of King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden.
Gustaf VI Adolf was King of Sweden from 29 October 1950 until his death in 1973. He was the eldest son of Gustaf V and his wife, Victoria of Baden. Before Gustaf Adolf ascended the throne, he had been crown prince for nearly 43 years during his father's reign. As king, he gave his approval shortly before his death to constitutional changes which removed the Swedish monarchy's last nominal political powers. He was a lifelong amateur archeologist particularly interested in Ancient Italian cultures.
Prince Gustaf Adolf, Duke of Västerbotten was a Swedish prince who for most of his life was second in the line of succession to the Swedish throne. He was the eldest son of Gustaf VI Adolf, who was crown prince for most of his son's life and ascended the Swedish throne three years after his son's death. The current king, Carl XVI Gustaf, is Prince Gustaf Adolf's son. The prince was killed on 26 January 1947 in an airplane crash at Kastrup Airport, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Events from the year 1972 in Sweden
Princess Kristine Bernadotte, born Kristine Rivelsrud, was a Norwegian-born princess of Belgian nobility. She was the third wife and widow of Prince Carl Bernadotte, a former royal prince of Sweden, to whom she was married from 1978 until his death in 2003.
A royal christening gown is an item of baptismal clothing used by a royal family at family christenings. Among those presently using such a gown are the royal families of the United Kingdom, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, and Sweden. In most of these families, the tradition goes back over a century: as of 2019, the Swedish gown has been in service for 113 years, the Dutch gown for 139 years, and the Danish gown for 149 years; the current British gown has been in use since 2008. The Spanish gown has been in use for 81 years.
The wedding of Carl XVI Gustaf, King of Sweden, and Silvia Sommerlath took place on Friday, 19 June 1976 at Storkyrkan. Carl XVI Gustaf had been reining king of Sweden since 1973 and Sommerlath was a German-born translator. The couple had met at the 1972 Summer Olympic Games in Munich and became engaged in 1976.
