Swedish Royal Family

The Swedish Royal Family consists of King Carl XVI Gustaf, born 1946, Queen Silvia, born 1943, Crown Princess Victoria, born 1977, Prince Daniel, born 1973, Prince Carl Philip, born 1979, and Princess Madeleine, born 1982.

In addition to the members of the Royal Family, the Swedish Royal Court also includes Princess Lilian, born 1915, and Princess Birgitta, born 1937, married to Prince Johann Georg of Hohenzollern.

Princess Lilian was born on 30 August 1915 in Swansea , Wales. She is the daughter of William and Gladys Mary Davies.
She married the current King's uncle, Prince Bertil.
Lilian Davies was married to the actor Ivan Craig for several years. During the Second World War, Mrs Craig worked in a factory that produced radio sets for the British merchant navy. She also worked at a hospital for wounded soldiers.
Prince Bertil and Mrs Craig met for the first time in London in 1943. They were married at the Drottningholm Palace Chapel on 7 December 1976.
Prince Bertil died on 5 January 1997. Princess Lilian fulfils a number of duties that were previously the responsibility of Prince Bertil, particularly in the field of sport.
Princess Lilian is The Duchess of Halland. She resides on the island of Djurgården in Stockholm.

Carl Gustaf Folke Hubertus, King of Sweden, Duke of Jämtland, became Sweden's Head of State on 15 September 1973 at the age of 27, succeeding his grandfather, King Gustaf VI Adolf.
The King's motto is: “For Sweden - With the times".
Carl Gustaf was born on 30 April 1946. He is son of then Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf, who died in a plane crash in 1947, and Princess Sibylla of Sachsen-Coburg-Gotha, who died in 1972.
King Carl Gustaf married Miss Silvia Renate Sommerlath on 19 June 1976 in Stockholm Cathedral. They have three children: Crown Princess Victoria, Prince Carl Philip and Princess Madeleine.

With the accession of Gustaf VI Adolf to the throne in 1950, following the death of Gustaf V, the four-year-old Carl Gustaf became Crown Prince.
Crown Prince Carl Gustaf became the Swedish Head of State at the age of 27, following the death of King Gustaf VI Adolf, who died on 15 September 1973.
The Crown Prince was taught privately at the Royal Palace of Stockholm during his pre-school years. He started school in the autumn of 1952, attending Broms School followed by the Sigtuna Boarding School. He graduated from upper secondary school in 1966.
School was followed by military service. The Crown Prince completed two and a half years' training in the Army, Navy and Air Force, with a special emphasis on naval training.

During the Olympic Games in Munich, Germany in 1972, The Crown Prince met Miss Silvia Renate Sommerlath.
She was working at the Games as an interpreter and hostess.
The engagement of King Carl XVI Gustaf and Silvia Sommerlath was officially announced on 12 March 1976. They were married three months later on 19 June 1976 at Stockholm Cathedral.

(Oscar Fredrik Wilhelm Olaf Gustaf Adolf, 11 November 1882 – 15 September 1973) was King of Sweden from 29 October 1950 until his death. His official title was King of Sweden, of the Goths and of the Wends. He was the eldest son of King Gustaf V and his wife Victoria of Baden. Gustaf VI Adolf was a descendant of the Bernadotte kings of Sweden, as well as the House of Vasa. Through his mother Victoria, he was also a descendant of Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden of the deposed House of Holstein-Gottorp. He was the grandfather of Queen Margarethe II of Denmark and King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden.

Oscar Gustaf Adolf 16 June 1858 – 29 October 1950) was King of Sweden from 1907. He was the eldest son of King Oscar II of Sweden and Sophia of Nassau, a half-sister of Adolphe, Grand Duke of Luxembourg. Reigning until his death at age 92, he holds the record of being the oldest monarch of Sweden and the second-longest reigning (after Magnus IV).

(Bertil Gustaf Oskar Carl Eugén, 28 February 1912 – 5 January 1997), Duke of Halland, was the third son of King Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden and his first wife, Princess Margaret of Connaught.
The prince was born at Stockholm. He was granted a very old dukedom, that was carried already in the Middle Ages by various Danish and Swedish royal relatives, such as Benedict, Duke of Halland. After his eldest brother Prince Gustaf Adolf died in 1947, leaving a less than one-year-old son in the line of succession, and because his next elder brother had already given up his place in the succession (owing to an unacceptable marriage), it seemed likely that he (Bertil) could one day become regent.
For this reason, Prince Bertil chose not to marry Welsh commoner Lilian Davies, as that would have deprived him of his place in the succession, so the couple simply lived together discreetly. Their common base was a home in Sainte-Maxime Southern France. The arrangement was well known by all and intended to keep the lineage until the heir-apparent to the throne (Carl XVI Gustaf) was old enough. The then Mrs Davies was a known part of the Royal Family from their private perspective but not officially. However, his father lived long enough for the prince's nephew Prince Carl Gustaf to come of age.
After the death of King Gustaf VI Adolf (in 1973), and after himself having married, the new King approved the couple's marriage, which took place in Drottningholm on 7 December 1976. Still first in line to the throne (until the birth of Crown Prince Carl Philip in 1979), Prince Bertil continued to act as the King's deputy. His widow is known as HRH Princess Lilian, Duchess of Halland. The prince was a brother of the late Queen Ingrid of Denmark (née Princess Ingrid of Sweden), mother of the current Queen Margrethe II of Denmark.
When the Act of Succession was changed in 1980, rights to the throne was restricted to Carl XVI Gustaf and his descendants; however, a special addendum was made for Prince Bertil's case, so that he became third (and, after the birth of Princess Madeleine in 1982, fourth) in line to the throne.

(Stockholm, 22 April 1906 – Kastrup Airfield, Copenhagen, 26 January 1947) was Duke of West Bothnia and the eldest son of Prince Gustaf Adolf of Sweden (the future King Gustaf VI Adolf) and his first wife Princess Margaret of Connaught. His mother was a granddaughter of Queen Victoria as the daughter of Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught. Gustaf Adolf was the father of the current king, Carl XVI Gustaf.
The prince was killed on 26 January 1947 in an airplane crash at the Kastrup Airport, Kastrup, Denmark.
On 19/20 October 1932, he married in Coburg his second cousin, Princess Sibylla of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, daughter of Charles Edward, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.
Sibylla was a great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria, a granddaughter of HRH Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany. They had five children.

They had kids: Princess Margaretha, Mrs. Ambler, Princess Birgitta of Sweden, Princess Désirée, Baroness Silfverschiöld, Princess Christina, Mrs. Magnuson, Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden

Silvia, The Queen of Sweden, was born in Heidelberg, Germany, on 23 December 1943. Her parents were the late Walther Sommerlath and his Brazilian wife Alice, née de Toledo.
The Queen has two older brothers: Ralf and Walther Sommerlath. Her third brother, Jörg Sommerlath, passed away in 2006.
The Sommerlath family lived in Sao Paulo, Brazil between 1947 and 1957, where Walther Sommerlath held various positions, including President of the Brazilian subsidiary of Swedish company Uddeholm. The family returned to West Germany in 1957.
The Queen is a member of the Lutheran Church of Sweden.
Initially the Royal Family lived in an apartment at the Royal Palace of Stockholm. In 1982 they moved to Drottningholm Palace.