by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2019
King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden (born 1946)
(All photos credits – Wikipedia unless otherwise noted)
King Carl XVI Gustaf was born on April 30, 1946, at the Haga Palace in Solna, Sweden. He was the only son and the youngest of the five children of Prince Gustaf Adolf of Sweden, Duke of Västerbotten and Princess Sibylla of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. At the time of his birth, Carl Gustaf’s great-grandfather King Gustaf V was the reigning King of Sweden, his grandfather, the future King Gustaf VI Adolf, was the Crown Prince, and his father Prince Gustaf Adolf of Sweden, Duke of Västerbotten was second in the line of succession. When Carl Gustaf was only nine months old, his father died in an airplane crash at Kastrup Airport near Copenhagen, Denmark. At that time, Carl Gustaf became second in the line of succession behind his grandfather.
King Carl Gustaf is a descendant of Queen Victoria through both of his parents. His paternal grandmother was Princess Margaret of Connaught, daughter of Queen Victoria’s son Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught. His maternal grandparents were Charles Edward, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the posthumous son of Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, Queen Victoria’s youngest son, who married Princess Viktoria Adelheid of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg. Carl Gustaf married Silvia Sommerlath, a German, and had two daughters and one son.
King Carl Gustaf has nineteen first cousins. He shares his first cousins with his siblings Princess Margaretha, Mrs. Ambler; Princess Birgitta, Princess of Hohenzollern; Princess Désirée, Baroness Silfverschiöld; and Princess Christina, Mrs. Magnuson.
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King Carl XVI Gustaf’s Paternal Aunts and Uncles: Children of King Gustaf VI Adolf and Princess Margaret of Connaught
- Prince Sigvard, Duke of Uppland (1907 – 2002) later Count Sigvard Bernadotte af Wisborg, married (1) Erica Patzek, divorced, no children (2) Sonja Robbert, divorced, had one son (3) Marianne Lindberg
- Princess Ingrid (1910 – 2000), married King Frederick IX of Denmark, had issue
- Prince Bertil, Duke of Halland (1912 – 1997), married Lillian Davies, no issue
- Prince Carl Johan, Duke of Dalarna (1916 – 2012) later Count Carl Johan, Bernadotte af Wisborg, married (1) Kerstin Wijkmark, two adopted children; (2) Countess Gunilla Wachtmeister af Johannishus, no children, was the last surviving great-grandchild of Queen Victoria
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King Carl XVI Gustaf’s Maternal Aunts and Uncles: Children of Charles Edward, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and
- Johann Leopold, Hereditary Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1906 – 1972), married (1) Feodora, Baroness von der Horst, divorced, had issue, unequal marriage, causing Johann Leopold to renounce his rights to the headship of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha; married (2) Maria Theresa Reindl; no issue
- Prince Hubertus of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1909 – 1943), unmarried, died in action during World War II
- Princess Caroline Mathilde of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1912 – 1983), married (1) Friedrich Wolfgang Otto, Count of Castell-Rüdenhausen, divorced 1938, had issue; (2) Captain Max Schnirring, he died 1944, had issue; (3) Karl Otto Andree, divorced 1949, no issue
- Prince Friedrich Josias of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1918 – 1998), married (1) Countess Viktoria-Luise of Solms-Baruth, divorced 1947, had issue, Head of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha descends from this marriage; (2) Denyse Henrietta de Muralt, divorced, had issue; (3) Katherine Bremme, no issue
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PATERNAL FIRST COUSINS
Paternal First Cousins: Children of Count Sigvard Bernadotte of Wisborg, born Prince Sigvard of Sweden, and Sonja Christensen Robbert
- Count Michael Bernadotte of Wisborg (born 1944) married Christine Diotima Elisabeth Wellhofer and they had one daughter.
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Paternal First Cousins: Children of Princess Ingrid of Sweden and King Frederik IX of Denmark
Queen Margrethe II of Denmark (born 1940)
Queen Margrethe married Henri de Laborde de Monpezat, born in France, and the couple had two sons. She became Queen of Denmark in 1972 upon the death of her father. An avid painter and designer, Margrethe has had her work displayed in exhibitions around the world, and some are part of permanent collections in several museums in Denmark. In addition to her painting, Queen Margrethe has designed many sets and costumes for theater productions and provided illustrations for several books. She has also published translations of several foreign works.
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Princess Benedikte of Denmark, Princess of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg (born 1944)
Princess Benedikte married German Richard, 6th Prince of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg. The couple had one son and two daughters. One of their daughters, Princess Nathalie of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg, competed for Denmark in the Equestrian Team and Individual Dressage in the 2008/Bejing and 2012/London Summer Olympics. In the 2008 Bejing Olympics, Nathalie won a Bronze Medal in Team Dressage.
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Princess Anne-Marie of Denmark, Queen of Greece (born 1946)
Anne-Marie married King Constantine II of Greece and the couple had three sons and two daughters. Unfortunately, her tenure as Queen did not last very long. Following a coup in 1967, the Greek royal family went into exile, living in Rome for several years before moving to Denmark and then finally settling in the United Kingdom. While in exile, King Constantine was deposed and the monarchy formally abolished in 1974.
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Paternal First Cousins: Adopted Children of Count Carl Johan Bernadotte of Wisborg, born Prince Carl Johan of Sweden, and Kerstin Wijkmark
- Monika Bernadotte (born 1948, adopted in 1951) married Count Johan Peder Bonde. They had three children and divorced after 21 years of marriage.
- Christian Bernadotte (born 1949, adopted in 1950) married Marianne Jenny and had three children.
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Maternal First Cousins: Children of Johann Leopold, Hereditary Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Baroness Feodora von der Horst
- Princess Caroline of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (born 1933) married Michael Nielsen, had two daughters
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Prince Ernst Leopold of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1935 – 1996)
- Prince Ernst Leopold married (1) Ingeborg Henig, had one son, divorced (2) Gertraude Monika Pfeiffer, had two daughters and three sons, divorced (3) Sabine Biller, with whom he committed suicide, no children
In 1986, Ernst Leopold married for a third time to Sabine Biller, a journalist. The couple began to have money problems as they were living beyond their means. On June 27, 1996, in the parking lot of a chalet restaurant in Bad Wiessee, Bavaria, Germany, the bodies of Ernst Leopold and Sabine were found in their car, dead from gunshot wounds from hunting rifles. Apparently, they had simultaneously shot themselves.
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- Prince Peter Albrecht of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (born 1939) married Roswitha Henriette Breuer, two sons
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MATERNAL FIRST COUSINS
Maternal First Cousins: Children of Princess Caroline of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and her first husband Friedrich Wolfgang Otto, Count of Castell-Rüdenhausen
- Count Bertram Friedrich of Castell-Rüdenhausen (born 1932) married Felizitas von Auersperg, had two sons
- Count Conradin Friedrich of Castell-Rüdenhausen (1933 – 2011) married Marta Catharina Lonegren, had one daughter and one son
- Countess Viktoria Adelheid of Castell-Rüdenhausen (born 1935), who married Lieutenant Commander Sir John Miles Huntington-Whiteley, 4th Baronet, had two daughters and one son
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Maternal First Cousins: Children of Princess Caroline of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and her second husband Flight Captain Max Schnirring
- Calma Barbara Schnirring (born 1938) married (1) Richard Darrell Berger, had six sons, divorced (2) James Cook, no children
- Dagmar Sibylla Schnirring (born 1940), married (1) Heinrich Walz had two daughters
(2) Eberhard Schäl - Peter Michael Schnirring (1943 – 1966), unmarried
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Maternal First Cousins: Children of Prince Friedrich Josias. Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and his first wife Countess Viktoria-Luise of Solms-Baruth
Prince Andreas, Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (b. 21 March 1943)
Prince Andreas is the Head of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. He married Carin Dabelstein, daughter of Adolf Wilhelm Martin Dabelstein and Irma Maria Margarete Callsen. The marriage, although unequal, is not morganatic because it was authorized by Andreas’s father. Andreas and Carin have two sons and one daughter.
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Maternal First Cousins: Children of Prince Friedrich Josias of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and his second wife Denyse Henrietta de Muralt
- Princess Claudia of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1949 – 2016), married Gion Schäfer, had two daughters
- Princess Beatrice Charlotte of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (born 1951), married Prince Friedrich-Ernst of Saxe-Meiningen, had one son and one daughter
- Prince Adrian of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1955 – 2011) married (1) Lea Rinderknecht, had two sons, divorced (2) Gertrud Krieg, no children
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Works Cited
- Lundy, D. (2019). Main Page. [online] Thepeerage.com. Available at: http://www.thepeerage.com/. (for genealogy information)
- Unofficial Royalty. (2019). Unofficial Royalty. [online] Available at: https://www.unofficialroyalty.com. (for biographical and genealogy information)
- Wikipedia. (2019). Main Page. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/. (for biographical and genealogy information)