Reminiscent of what Britain's Prince Charles is facing now, as a future king who never particularly endeared himself to the people as a young man, King Carl XVI has said that he never felt fully embraced by the Swedish people until he was in middle age. King Carl's father, Prince Gustaf Adolf, died in a plane crash in Denmark in 1947, when his son was 9 months old. (Fun fact, King Carl XVI is roughly 205th in line to the British throne, because it is a small, small royal world.)īut the Swedes changed the law back in 1980, making King Carl XVI's eldest daughter, Princess Victoria, Crown Princess Victoria-then, at 3 years old, first in line to the throne, newly ahead of her then 12-month-old brother, Prince Carl Philip.īack in 1973, however, it was the baby of the family who inherited the crown from his grandfather, King Gustaf VI Adolf. It wasn't until 2011 that the United Kingdom changed the law so that a possible firstborn daughter for Prince William and Kate Middletonwould be next in line after her father. King Carl XVI has four older sisters, none of whom had a shot at the crown when they came into this world due to traditional primogeniture-that centuries-old royal system that mandated sons would always be ahead of their sisters in line, while the son of a monarch's deceased brother would be next in line ahead of the monarch's next-youngest brother.
While the technical reason was to decrease the stress on public funds that financing the royals inevitably is at times, their mother, Princess Madeleine, called the move a "greater opportunity" for her kids "to shape their own lives." The ongoing modernization was reflected last summer by the announcement that King Carl XVI had rescinded the royal titles of five of his grandchildren, knocking them off the ladder of ascendancy. (Though tell that to the persistent factions in the U.K., Sweden and beyond who would gladly do away with monarchies tomorrow.) As Queen Elizabeth II's heirs understand all too well, it's imperative for them to adapt to this rapidly changing world, which while it doesn't exactly need royalty in its midst, does exactly want to do away with the system, either. The Swedes also have a progressive streak that has resulted in them, if not exactly reinventing, then at least modernizing their own court.
They've flown relatively under the radar on a global scale when compared with the ever-spotlit royals across the North Sea (and now across the Atlantic), but romance and weddings, not to mention all of the new grandchildren running around the palace, has certainly helped push the heirs of the House of Bernadotte into the headlines more often.
0 kommentar(er)
