since watching young royals i have become very interested in scandals and conflicts within the (real) swedish royal family. i thought i would share some things i have read about these past weeks that some of you might find interesting!
-prince bertil was responsible for a car accident in 1928 that killed his classmate at the boarding school, lundsberg (aka real life hillerska), that he attended. prince bertil was only 16 years old and did not have a drivers license. he was sitting behind the wheel during the accident, but was not charged with manslaughter. he only got a ticket for driving without a license.
-prince bertil’s grandfather, gustaf v, met kurt haijby, a restaurant owner, in 1933. gustaf and kurt started a secret relationship during a time when homosexuality was forbidden. kurt haijby’s wife found out about the relationship and started to blackmail the king. even though a king cannot be charged with a crime in sweden, the monarchy was frail at the time and the royal court wanted to avoid a scandal. the whole thing became public knowledge anyway, and the story will actually be released as an svt tv series this christmas (2021 is apparently the year of swedish gay kings).
-prince bertil met the love of his life, lilian, in 1943. lilian came from the british working class. bertil’s brothers had married non-royal/noble women without permission from the king and therefor given up their places in the line of succession. that left bertil and his oldest brother as the only two heirs in their generation. bertil felt a responsibility, and therefor, bertil and lilian couldn’t get married. however, they did remain a couple.
-prince bertil was right to consider the possibility that he might become crown prince. when he met lilian, his oldest brother had had four daughters in ten years, but no son. however, a son was finally born in 1946. one year later, prince bertil’s oldest brother passed away in a air plane crash. had the son not been born, prince bertil would have become next in line to the succession after his father.
-the son is sweden’s current king. he became king when his grandfather, prince bertil’s father, died in 1973. bertil’s father’s official motto had been “duty adove all”, while the current king’s official motto is “for sweden - with the times”. true to this motto, the current king allowed prince bertil to get married to lilian in 1976 when asked for permission.
-when the current crown princess, victoria, was born in 1977, a woman could not inherit the crown. the right wing government proposed that this should be changed, while the left wing opposition wanted to scratch the entire monarchy in favor of a republic. in 1980 the law was changed and victoria became crown princess. her brother was crown prince for almost a year in 1979 before the law change was approved by the parliament. the current king did not agree with the government’s decision to change the law. apparently, he’s not always “with the times”.
-there is no law that says that royals have to marry other royals/nobles, but they do need the king’s permission. since 1973, royals are given permission to marry non-royals/nobles by the current king and therefor do not loose their place in the line of succession when doing so. crown princess victoria married the son of a postman, her brother married a woman who had previously competed in paradise hotel and her sister married a british-american business man.
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