Category Archives: Swedish Royals

King Oscar I of Sweden and Norway

by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2013

King Oscar I of Sweden and Norway; Credit – Wikipedia

King Oscar I was born Joseph François Oscar Bernadotte on July 4, 1799, at 291 Rue Cisalpine (today’s address: 32 Rue de Monceau) in Paris, France.  His father was General Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, a Marshal of France and the French Minister of War.  His mother Bernardine Eugénie Désirée Clary, known as Désirée, was the first fiancée of Napoleon Bonaparte.  Julie Clary, his mother’s sister, was married to Joseph Bonaparte, Napoleon’s brother, and Jean-Baptiste and Désirée’s son was named after Joseph Bonaparte.  The name Oscar was suggested by Napoleon Bonaparte, the baby’s godfather.  Napoleon was an admirer of the 18th-century Scottish poet James Macpherson and the name Oscar was used in Macpherson’s works.

In 1809, King Carl XIII of Sweden ascended the throne of Sweden. He had no living children, and his adopted son and heir died the following year. The Swedes had the idea to offer the position of Crown Prince to one of Napoleon’s Marshals. On August 21, 1810, the Swedish Riksdag of the Estates elected Oscar’s father  Jean Baptiste Bernadotte as Crown Prince of Sweden. He arrived in Stockholm in November 1810 and was formally adopted by the King Carl III of Sweden, taking the name Carl Johan, and converting from Roman Catholicism to Lutheranism. The new Crown Prince of Sweden was actively involved in the events leading up to the Treaty of Kiel in 1814, in which Denmark was forced to cede Norway to Sweden. Unlike the previous union with Denmark, this was a personal union under a single sovereign, and Norway remained an independent state with its own constitution. King Carl XIII of Sweden also reigned as King Karl II of Norway. The separate kingdoms of Sweden and Norway were under a common monarch from 1814 until its dissolution in 1905.

Oscar was eleven years old when his father was elected Crown Prince of Sweden and in December 1810, he traveled to Stockholm with his mother Désirée. Oscar was given the title Duke of Södermanland, and, unlike his mother, quickly learned Swedish and adapted to life in Sweden. As Crown Princess, Désirée had difficulty adjusting to the Swedish court and despised the weather in Stockholm. She left Sweden in 1811 and did not return until 1823, five years after her husband became king.  As a result, Oscar did not see his mother for twelve years.

Oscar’s father prescribed guidelines for his son’s education. Upon arriving in Sweden, Oscar was immediately schooled in Swedish, quickly became proficient, and served as his father’s translator.  Besides Swedish, Oscar was also taught Norwegian and German.  He studied humanities, administration, constitutional law, science, art, and music.  Oscar was particularly talented in music and composed a funeral march performed at King Carl XIII’s funeral in 1818.  When the composer Ludwig van Beethoven heard of this, he wrote to Oscar’s father and was invited to help develop Oscar’s musical talent.  Besides his musical talent, Oscar was an expert in social-political issues and wrote articles on education and prison reform.  He was elected an honorary member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and was appointed chancellor of Uppsala University.

Oscar married Princess Joséphine of Leuchtenberg (known by the Swedish form of her name Josefina) by proxy at the Leuchtenberg Palace in Munich, Kingdom of Bavaria on May 22, 1823, and in person at a wedding ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden on June 19, 1823.  Princess Joséphine of Leuchtenberg’s father was Eugène de Beauharnais, the son of Empress Joséphine (who was Napoleon’s first wife) from her first marriage to Alexandre, Vicomte de Beauharnais who had been guillotined during the French Revolution.   Her mother was Princess Augusta of Bavaria, a descendant of King Gustav I of Sweden and King Charles IX of Sweden, thereby ensuring that future members of the House of Bernadotte were descendants of the House of Vasa which ruled Sweden from 1523-1654.  Joséphine brought to Sweden jewelry that belonged to her grandmother Empress Josephine. Members of the Swedish and Norwegian royal families still wear the jewelry. For instance, Empress Jospéhine’s Cameo Tiara was worn by her descendant Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden on her wedding day.

Queen Josefina wearing the Cameo Tiara; Credit – Wikipedia

Oscar and Josefina  (as she was known in Sweden) had five children, four sons and one daughter.

Oscar and Josefina’s marriage was a happy one.  They shared interests in music and art and had similar personalities. While he was crown prince, Oscar had an affair with a lady-in-waiting which produced a daughter.  After his marriage, Oscar had another well-known affair with Emilie Högquist, a famous Swedish actress at the Royal Dramatic Theatre.  Oscar had two sons with his mistress Emilie.  In 1832, Queen Josefina wrote in her diary that a woman was expected to endure a husband’s extramarital affairs: “A woman should suffer in silence.”  Josefina and her husband continued to appear together in public.  Oscar discontinued his extramarital affairs when he became King of Sweden and Norway in 1844 upon the death of his father.

Oscar I’s health had never been strong and he began to suffer periods when he would fall silent in mid-sentence and then continue a minute later as if nothing had happened.  By the early 1850s, these symptoms worsened and in 1852 he was forced to make a trip to the spa at Bad Kissingen in Bavaria in hopes of recovery.  In the fall of 1852, he became ill with typhoid fever and it took a year for him to fully recover.  He continued to have neurological symptoms and by 1857, it was suspected that Oscar had a brain tumor.  By September 1857, Oscar was paralyzed and the doctors recommended that he be relieved of his duties.  On September 25, 1857, Oscar’s eldest son Carl was declared Regent.  After being bedridden for a long period, King Oscar I died at the Royal Palace in Stockholm on July 8, 1859, at the age of 60. An autopsy confirmed that he had a brain tumor.  King Oscar I was buried in the Bernadotte Chapel at Riddarholmen Church in Stockholm.

Bernadotte Chapel at Riddarholmen Church; Photo Credit – Susan Flantzer

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Kingdom of Sweden Resources at Unofficial Royalty

Sigvard Bernadotte, Count of Wisborg

by Emily McMahon  © Unofficial Royalty 2013

 

Sigvard Bernadotte, Count of Wisborg, was born Prince Sigvard of Sweden on June 7, 1907, at Drottningholm Palace in Drottningholm, Sweden.  He was the second son of the future King Gustav VI Adolf of Sweden and his first wife, Princess Margaret of Connaught, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria.  He had four siblings:

Sigvard (left) with his parents and eldest siblings, 1912. source: Wikipedia

The family divided their time between homes in Stockholm and their summer residence at Sofiero Palace near Skåne. The family was a close one, and unlike royal parents of previous generations, Gustav Adolf and Margaret spent a great deal of time with their children. Sigvard’s mother died suddenly on May 1, 1920, shortly after undergoing mastoid surgery. She was eight months pregnant with her sixth child. The loss of Margaret was so devastating for the family that Gustav Adolf refused to let anyone speak of her out of grief. Three years later, Gustav Adolf married again to Lady Louise Mountbatten.

Sigvard was educated privately and later at the Lundberg School. He entered Uppsala University in 1926, studying political science and art history. Sigvard became the first Bernadotte to earn an academic degree in 1929, the same year he designed a church window at Lundberg. He continued his studies at Konstfack, a Swedish art and design college. He was among a group of painters selected to design the Stockholm Exhibit in 1930.

Sigvard (center) with his brothers Bertil (left) and Gustaf Adolf (right) in the 1930s. source: Wikipedia

Throughout his young adulthood, Sigvard was romantically linked to various European princesses. Maria Francesca of Italy and Juliana of the Netherlands were rumored to be nearly engaged to Sigvard. Even actress Greta Garbo was said to be involved with Sigvard. Although the two did know one another, it is unlikely they were more than friends.

In the early 1930s, Sigvard relocated to Germany (supposedly due to a romance with a commoner) where he worked as a set designer for several theaters. It was through his theater work in Berlin that Sigvard met his first wife, actress Erica Patzek. When Sigvard declared his intentions to marry Erica, his entire family and top Swedish government officials attempted to talk him out of it. Sigvard’s grandfather, King Gustav V, was so disgusted with the third marriage to a commoner within the family (following Gustav’s brother Oscar and grandson Lennart) that he stopped speaking with Sigvard for a time.

Erica and Sigvard married quietly in London in 1934. The marriage removed Sigvard from the line of succession and meant a loss of his titles and appanage. The couple, now Sigvard and Erica Bernadotte, relocated to Hollywood to establish Erica’s movie career (without success), while Sigvard designed posters for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Sigvard and Erica divorced in 1943, after which he married Danish commoner Sonja Robbert. The couple had a son, Michael, the following year. After their divorce in 1961, Sigvard married Marianne Lindberg with whom he stayed until his death.

c.1944. source: Wikipedia

During the following two decades, Sigvard divided his time between Copenhagen, Stockholm, and New York working at Bernadotte & Bjorn Industrial, a design firm he founded with Danish designer Acton Bjorn. Sigvard remained well-known in Sweden for the work he did during that time, designing everything from machinery to appliances to cookware. He was particularly fond of designing items from silver.

In 1951, Grand Duchess Charlotte of Luxembourg conferred on him the title of Count of Wisborg. After marriages to commoners became a common practice among Swedish royals in the 1960s and 1970s, Sigvard decided to pursue the reinstatement of his princely title. Sigvard’s nephew, King Carl XVI Gustav, never consented to this, which caused a long-standing rift between the two. A lawsuit against the Kingdom of Sweden was ongoing at the time of Sigvard’s death.

Sigvard Bernadotte, Count of Wisborg, died on February 4, 2002, in Stockholm, Sweden. He was 94 years old, and for the last eight years of his life, had been the eldest living great-grandchild of Queen Victoria, and her longest-lived descendant. He is buried in the Royal Burial Ground in Haga Park in Solna, Stockholm, Sweden. His widow, Countess Marianne, remained active with several Swedish charities, some of which she founded with her late husband. She was often seen at family functions, including the weddings of Crown Princess Victoria in 2010, Princess Madeleine in 2013, and Prince Carl Philip in 2015.

This article is the intellectual property of Unofficial Royalty and is NOT TO BE COPIED, EDITED, OR POSTED IN ANY FORM ON ANOTHER WEBSITE under any circumstances. It is permissible to use a link that directs to Unofficial Royalty.

Prince Wilhelm of Sweden, Duke of Södermanland

by Emily McMahon and Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2013

Prince Wilhelm of Sweden, Duke of Södermanland; Credit – Wikipedia

Born on June 17, 1884, at Tullgarn Palace, a royal summer palace in the province of Södermanland, south of Stockholm, Sweden, Prince Wilhelm of Sweden (Carl Wilhelm Ludvig)  was the second of three sons of King Gustaf V of Sweden and Victoria of Baden.  Wilhelm saw little of his parents during his childhood, as his mother frequently traveled abroad. In his young adulthood, he became known as the “Sailor Prince,” due to his service in the navy.

Wilhelm had an older brother and a younger brother:

Wilhelm represented his father at the Jamestown Exposition in the United States in 1907 and was very well received by Swedish-Americans. At around the same time, Wilhelm became engaged to Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia, a granddaughter of Alexander II, Emperor of All Russia, and the only daughter and the eldest of the two children of Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich of Russia and Princess Alexandra of Greece and Denmark (Grand Duchess Alexandra Georgievna).  When Maria Pavlovna was only seventeen months old, her mother died shortly after giving premature birth to her second child, Maria Pavlovna’s brother.  Maria Pavlovna and her brother were raised by their childless uncle Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, and his wife Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna (born Princess Elisabeth of Hesse and by Rhine).

In 1907, Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna received a request from the Swedish royal court for a photograph of Maria Pavlovna. Wilhelm’s mother was looking for a bride for him. Marrying Maria Pavlovna to Wilhelm worked well with Elizabeth Feodorovna’s plans to retire from the Russian court and start a Russian Orthodox religious order.  It was decided that Prince Wilhelm would travel to Moscow to meet Maria Pavlovna. The day after they met, 23-year-old Wilhelm told 16-year-old Maria he wanted to marry her. Pressured by Elizabeth Feodorovna, Maria Pavlovna became engaged to marry a man that she had just met with the stipulation that the wedding was to be postponed until Maria was 18-years-old. The couple married at the Catherine Palace at Tsarskoye Selo near St. Petersburg, Russia on May 3, 1908.

Maria Pavlovna and Prince Wilhelm of Sweden on their wedding day

The couple had one son:

Wilhelm of Sweden with his wife, Maria Pavlovna of Russia and their son, Lennart. Photo credit: Wikipedia

Wilhelm and Maria Pavlovna settled in the Djurgarden, a fashionable section of Stockholm, where the couple’s home (Oakhill) was built. However, the couple could spend little time together due to Wilhelm’s military responsibilities. Maria was homesick in a strange country where the royal court was even more formal than the Russian court. In 1913, Maria left her husband and son and returned to Russia, causing a great scandal in Sweden. On March 13, 1914, the marriage was officially dissolved, and then confirmed by an edict issued by Nicholas II, Emperor of All Russia on July 15, 1914. Wilhelm and Maria’s son Lennart remained in his father’s custody, was raised primarily by his paternal grandmother Queen Victoria of Sweden, and rarely saw his mother during his childhood.

Around the time of his divorce, Wilhelm met a French woman, Jeanne de Tramcourt. Jeanne was divorced from a Swedish sculptor, who used her as a model in several of his works. Wilhelm lived with Jeanne at his new home Stenhammar Palace in Flen, Sweden. Although it was known within the family circle that Jeanne and Wilhelm were a couple, Wilhelm’s royal status prohibited him from marrying commoner Jeanne. For her part, Jeanne told Wilhelm when he mentioned marriage, that she did not want to be the “Swedish Mrs. Simpson” and was fine with cohabiting quietly. Jeanne was known instead as the “hostess” of Stenhammar.

Jeanne de Tramcourt, Wilhelm's longtime partner. Photo credit: polarbearstale.blogspot.com

Jeanne de Tramcourt, Wilhelm’s longtime partner. Photo credit: polarbearstale.blogspot.com

Jeanne was killed in a car accident near Stjärnhov in 1952 when the couple was on their way to visit Wilhelm’s son Lennart. The snowy weather and icy road conditions were determined to have caused the accident. However, Wilhelm, the driver, was heartbroken and blamed himself until the end of his life.

Like his grandfather King Oscar II of Sweden, Wilhelm was a poet, and wrote more than forty books between 1912 and his death. His 1955 book of poetry entitled Verklighetens Skuggbilder (The Shadow Images) reflects Wilhelm’s pain and desperation after Jeanne’s death. Wilhelm also produced several short films and authored numerous travel books, visiting Central America, Central Africa, and Thailand to conduct research for his works.

Wilhelm died of a heart attack at Stenhammar Palace in Flen, Sweden on June 5, 1965, twelve days before his 81st birthday. Unusual for a Swedish prince, he was not buried at the traditional Swedish royal burial sites but in the parish cemetery in Flen, Sweden.

Grave of Prince Wilhelm and first daughter-in-law Karin Nissvandt; Credit – Wikipedia

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Sophie of Sweden, Grand Duchess of Baden

Sophie of Sweden, Grand Duchess of Baden. Photo credit: Wikipedia

May 21, 1801 – Birth of Sophie of Sweden, Grand Duchess of Baden

Sophie’s Wikipedia page

Sophie was the daughter of Gustav IV Adolf, King of Sweden and Frederica of Baden. Sophie was well-educated and had a wide variety of interests throughout her life. Sophie left Sweden with her family in 1809 following her father’s overthrow as king. She was described as stubborn and self-important as a child and maintained negative feelings about her father’s deposition for the rest of her life.

At the age of fourteen, Sophie was engaged to her half grand uncle, the future Leopold, Grand Duke of Baden. By this time, there were only two heirs left in the direct male line in Baden, both of whom were childless. One of these men, Sophie’s uncle Karl I, arranged a marriage between Sophie and Leopold, the result of a morganatic marriage between Grand Duke Charles Frederick and Louise Caroline of Hochberg. Sophie’s Baden lineage would shore up Leopold’s more tenuous claim to the grand ducal throne.

Sophie married Leopold, only eleven years her senior, in 1819. The couple had seven surviving children, including two future Grand Dukes of Baden. Sophie and Leopold raised their children away from court per request by Sophie’s uncle Louis I. Leopold inherited the grand ducal throne in 1830.

In 1828, so-called “wild child” Kaspar Hauser appeared in Nuremberg. He was believed by some to have ties to the Baden grand ducal family, rumors that were probably manufactured by Leopold’s detractors. When Hauser was stabbed in 1833, Sophie was accused of ordering his murder leading to a rift between her and her husband. The family fled Baden during the 1848 revolutions, returning the following year.

Sophie died in 1865. In 1881, her granddaughter Victoria of Baden married the future Gustaf V of Sweden for much the same reason as Sophie had married Leopold: Victoria was a princess with old Swedish lineage which was meant to strengthen the claim to the throne held by the new Bernadotte dynasty.

Margaret of Connaught, Crown Princess of Sweden

by Emily McMahon and Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2013

Margaret of Connaught, Crown Princess of Sweden; Credit: Wikipedia

Born on January 15, 1882, at Bagshot Park in Surrey, England, Margaret was the eldest of the three children of Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught (third son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert) and Princess Louise Margaret of Prussia. She grew up at her parents’ homes at Bagshot Park and Clarence House in London, England, and was known in the family as Daisy.  Margaret had a younger brother and sister:

NPG x36196; The Duke and Duchess of Connaught with their children by Hughes & Mullins

The Duke and Duchess of Connaught with their children by Hughes & Mullins, albumen cabinet card, 1893 NPG x36196 © National Portrait Gallery, London

Margaret was christened on March 11, 1882, in the Private Chapel at Windsor Castle and given the names Margaret Victoria Augusta Charlotte Norah.  She had an impressive set of godparents:

Along with her sister Patricia, Margaret was known as a great beauty and their uncle King Edward VII expected them to marry a European king or crown prince. In January 1905, both sisters and their parents visited Portugal where Margaret and Patricia were entertained by the two sons of King Carlos I.  The Portuguese expected that one of the sisters would become their future queen.  The trip continued to Cairo, where Margaret met and fell in love with Prince Gustaf Adolf of Sweden, Duke of Skåne, the eldest son of Crown Prince Gustaf of Sweden, the future King Gustaf V of Sweden. Gustaf Adolf proposed to Margaret at a dinner held at the British Consulate in Egypt, and she accepted. The couple married at St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle on June 15, 1905. Margaret was given a tiara from the Khedive of Egypt as a wedding gift as a symbol of the courtship that started there. It is known as the Khedive Tiara, was worn by several of Margaret’s descendants at their weddings, and is now in the possession of her granddaughter Queen Anne-Marie of Greece.

Wedding of the future King Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden and Princess Margaret of Connaught; Credit – Wikipedia

Margaret and Gustaf Adolf had four sons and one daughter:

Margaret and Gustaf Adolf with their four eldest children; Credit – Wikipedia

Margaret was eager to learn the Swedish language and history, endearing her to the Swedish public. During World War I in neutral Sweden, Margaret organized supply drives and acted as a go-between for her relatives whose Allied and Axis countries were divided by the war. She was also interested in gardening, taking great care of the gardens at the family home of Sofiero Castle.  In 1907, when Gustaf Adolf’s grandfather King Oscar II died and his father became King Gustaf V, Gustaf Adolf and Margaret became the Crown Prince and Princess of Sweden.

Margaret was eight months pregnant with her sixth child in 1920 when she underwent mastoid surgery. An infection set in, killing Margaret, at the age of 38, and her unborn child on May 1, 1920, her father’s 70th birthday. Her family along with the Swedish and British public mourned her death greatly.

Margaret left written, specific instructions for her burial. She requested to be buried wearing her wedding dress and veil, holding a crucifix in a simple coffin made from English oak and covered with British and Swedish flags.  Initially, Margaret was buried at the Storkyrkan (The Great Church) next to the Royal Palace in Stockholm, Sweden.  In 1922, Margaret’s remains were transferred to the Royal Burial Ground in Haga Park in Solna, Stockholm, Sweden in a burial site she and her husband had chosen for themselves.  She was the first person to be buried at the Royal Burial Ground in Haga Park.

Margaret’s husband married again, in 1923 to Lady Louise Mountbatten, formerly Princess Louise of Battenberg.  The couple had no children.  In 1950, upon the death of his father, 67-year-old Gustaf Adolf became King.  He reigned until his death at age 90 in 1973, having survived both his wives.  King Gustaf VI Adolf was succeeded by his and Margaret’s grandson, King Carl XVI Gustaf.

Grave of Margaret, her husband, and his second wife; Credit – Wikipedia

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Kingdom of Sweden Resources at Unofficial Royalty

Prince Gustaf Adolf of Sweden, Duke of Västerbotten

by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2013

Prince Gustaf Adolf of Sweden, Duke of Västerbotten; Credit – Wikipedia

Prince Gustaf Adolf of Sweden was the father of King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden and would have himself become King of Sweden had he not died tragically in an airplane crash at the age of 40. He was born on April 22, 1906, at the Royal Palace of Stockholm, the eldest son of the future King Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden and Princess Margaret of Connaught. He had four younger siblings:

Gustaf Adolf as an infant, held by his great-grandfather, King Oscar II. His grandfather, King Gustaf V, and father, King Gustaf VI Adolf stand behind them. source: Wikipedia

Gustaf Adolf’s mother Princess Margaret of Connaught was the daughter of Queen Victoria’s third son Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught. She married the future King Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden in 1905. The marriage was a happy one but was tragically cut short when Margaret died from an infection after a mastoid operation in 1920. She was eight months pregnant with her sixth child who also died.

Gustaf Adolf, c1913. source: Wikipedia

Gustaf Adolf grew up at the Royal Palace in Stockholm and spent summers at Sofiero Castle and at his maternal grandparents’ home Bagshot Park, in England. With his siblings, he began his education privately at home, before attending the Lundbergs School, a private boarding school in Värmland. Along with his studies, the prince excelled at fencing and horse riding. He was the Swedish champion in saber fencing, and in 1936, competed in show jumping at the Olympic Games held in Berlin. He would later serve as President of the Swedish Olympic Committee from 1933 until he died in 1947. He was also very involved in the Scouting movement, both as a child and an adult.

Graduating from Lundbergs School in 1925, Gustaf Adolf began his military career, entering the cavalry. He later attended the Military Academy Karlberg, becoming a lieutenant in the Life Guards. In 1927, he attended the War College and attained the rank of Captain in the Mounted Life regiment. He later attended Uppsala University and the Stockholm School of Economics, in preparation for his future role in the monarchy.

In November 1931, while attending the wedding of Lady May Cambridge in London, Gustaf Adolf’s sister Ingrid introduced him to one of the other bridesmaids Princess Sibylla of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Sibylla was the daughter of Prince Carl Edward, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Princess Viktoria Adelheid of Schleswig-Holstein. Gustaf Adolf and Sibylla were second cousins, through their mutual descent from Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. A romance quickly began and they were engaged on June 16, 1932.

Gustaf Adolf and Sibylla at their wedding; Credit – Wikipedia

Gustaf Adolf and Sibylla married in a civil ceremony on October 19, 1932, at Veste Castle in Coburg. The following day, a religious ceremony was held at St. Moritz Church.

After extensive renovations, they took up residence at Haga Palace, and had five children:

Gustaf Adolf with his family, 1946. source: Wikipedia

Along with his participation in the Olympic committee, Prince Gustaf Adolf also served as Chairman of the Swedish Guide and Scout Council, President of the International Scout Committee, Chairman of the Swedish Sports Confederation, and Chairman of the Swedish Hunters Association, among others.

Prince Gustaf Adolf was killed in a commercial airplane crash on January 26, 1947, at the Kastrup Airport in Kastrup, Denmark, near Copenhagen. He was returning from a hunting trip and a visit to Princess Juliana and Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands. The plane had landed at Kastrup for a routine stop before continuing to Stockholm. After taking off, the plane climbed to an altitude of only 150 feet, stalled, and plummeted nose-first to the ground, where it exploded upon impact. All 22 people aboard the plane were killed. Also killed in the accident were the prince’s aide, Count Albert Stenbock, Danish actress Gerda Neumann, and American opera singer Grace Moore.

Grave of Prince Gustaf Adolf and Princess Sibylla. source: Wikipedia

Following a funeral held at the Storkyrkan (Stockholm Cathedral) in Stockholm, Sweden on February 4, 1947, Prince Gustaf Adolf was buried at the Royal Burial Ground in Haga Park in Solna, Stockholm, Sweden. His only son, nine-month-old Carl Gustaf, became second in the line of succession and would succeed his grandfather King Gustaf VI Adolf in 1973.

This article is the intellectual property of Unofficial Royalty and is NOT TO BE COPIED, EDITED, OR POSTED IN ANY FORM ON ANOTHER WEBSITE under any circumstances. It is permissible to use a link that directs to Unofficial Royalty.

Kingdom of Sweden Resources at Unofficial Royalty

Märtha of Sweden, Crown Princess of Norway

Märtha of Sweden, Crown Princess of Norway. Photo credit tiara-mania.blogspot.com

April 5, 1954 – Death of Märtha of Sweden, Crown Princess of Norway

Martha’s Wikipedia page

Märtha was the second of three daughters of Carl of Sweden and his wife Ingeborg of Denmark. Carl was a son of Oscar II of Sweden. Märtha grew up with her sisters Margaretha and Astrid (later Queen of Belgium) and brother Carl grew up in a palace outside Stockholm and had a laid back early life for a royal woman. She and her sisters were often seen shopping in Stockholm unaccompanied.

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Märtha spent much of WWII in exile due to Nazi occupation of Norway. She spent a significant amount of time in the United States, where she became fascinated with college sorority life and was consequently sworn in as a member of Delta Zeta sorority in 1939. Märtha also spent much time with Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt; rumors still swirl that Märtha was romantically involved with the president. Upon her return to Norway in 1945, Märtha was well received by her people.

Märtha developed cancer soon after the end of the war and died in 1954. A coast in Antarctica, a memorial fund, and one of her granddaughters (Märtha Louise) is named in honor of her. Olav became king a little over three years after her death.

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