Princess Sibylla of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha

Crown Princess of Sweden . She is the eldest daughter of Queen Victoria 's grandson Carl Eduard and the mother of the current King of Sweden , Carl XVI Gustaf . She never became crown princess or queen because her husband died while she was crown princess.

He was born at Friedenstein Palace on January 18, 1908, as the second and eldest daughter of Karl Eduard, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Princess Victoria Adelheit of Schleswig-Holstein . Sibylla and her siblings, like most royal children, were raised by nannies and tutors and spent little time with their parents. Instead, the brothers banded together. We grew up doing everything together, from playing to studying. Sibylla had a particularly close relationship with her younger brother Hubertus, and she also developed a lifelong friendship with her half-sister , Grand Duchess Kira Kirillovna . Sibylla was very interested in art from a young age, and loved reading art history books and drawing pictures. I studied crafts for six months at an art school in Weimar, but due to the times, it had to be limited to a hobby. Regarding this, Sibyla often said that if fate had turned out differently, she would have become a furniture designer. In the winter of 1928 and 1929, she spent time in Cape Town, South Africa, with her aunt, Princess Alice of Albany , and this experience became a lifelong memory.

Princess Ingrid of Sweden was looking for a mate for her brother , Prince Gustav Adolf, and wanted to link Sibyla to her brother. Sibylla was connected to several royal families in Europe and had a beautiful appearance. Sibylla and Prince Gustav Adolf were both descendants of Queen Victoria and were 6th cousins.[2] Princess Alice of Albany, who thought it was a good union, also encouraged her niece Sibylla. Meanwhile, Sibylla became a bridesmaid at the wedding of Princess Alice's daughter, Lady May Abel Smith. At the time, Sibylla was May's cousin and was very close to the Athlone family. Alice asked other relatives to be bridesmaids, and the request was also passed on to Ingrid. Ingrid tried hard to persuade Gustav Adolf, but he was not very interested. However, at the urging of his grandfather Gustav V, Gustav Adolf headed to London. He met Sibylla in London and fell in love with the beautiful and shy girl at first sight. Sibylla also had a crush on the handsome Swedish prince. The two began exchanging letters and soon promised to be together. Princess Ingrid, who had arranged this love affair, was especially pleased, and after that, Sibylla and Ingrid became good friends, becoming step-sisters and sisters-in-law.

The couple announced their engagement on June 16, 1932, and married in Sibylla's hometown of Coburg on October 20 of the same year. Because Coburg was a city steeped in Nazism at the time, King Gustav V did not attend the wedding. The Nazi Party used the wedding as an opportunity for party propaganda and placed Nazi symbols and flags throughout the city. Hitler was also invited to the wedding, but instead of attending he sent a congratulatory telegram. Mayor Schwede, who officiated the wedding, was a member of SA and was sentenced to 10 years in prison after the war.

After a month-long honeymoon in Italy and Egypt , Gustav Adolf and Sibylla settled into Haga Palace in Stockholm. Sibylla shared with her husband a deep interest in the Scouting movement. The couple has their eldest daughter, Princess Margareta, and their second daughter, Princess Birgitta.[3] , four daughters were born, including Princess Desiree, the third daughter, and Princess Christina, the fourth daughter. The peaceful life at Haga Palace was considered an ideal family by the Swedish people, and the names of the princesses had a great influence on the naming of girls at that time.

The increasingly brutal Nazi power and the outbreak of World War II had a great impact on Sibylla. Sibylla's father, Carl Eduard , was a Nazi collaborator who joined the Storm Troopers , supported the SS , and actively participated in Operation T4 . As a result, Sibyla frequently received threatening letters.[4] She sometimes delivered gifts to German soldiers during the war or attended events honoring fallen German soldiers. This was something she did as a German princess, but as the Crown Princess of Sweden, supporting the German army that occupied Norway, her neighbor and relative, could be problematic. In an interview from her '60s, she mentioned that she had no idea what the Nazis were up to.

Sibylla and Gustav Adolf had four daughters, but Sweden needed a male heir to the throne. And Sibyla became pregnant again in the fall of 1945. This pregnancy went smoothly, unlike the previous four pregnancies where I suffered from headaches and nausea. Gustav Adolf joked that it was a sign that he would have a son this time. While everyone was looking forward to the birth of a son, on April 30, 1946, she finally gave birth to her eldest son, Prince Carl Gustav, and Sibylla cried with relief. The whole of Sweden was excited by the birth of a successor. Crown Prince Gustav Adolf and Crown Princess Louise visited the Haga Palace early on, and King Gustav V, who was recuperating from the flu, also rushed over and shed tears of joy. The chamberlain of Haga Palace even fainted from joy. However, less than a year later, Gustav Adolf died young in a plane accident on his way back from hunting with Duke Bernhard in the Netherlands .[5] Sibyla, 39, was left alone with her five siblings, the youngest, Carl Gustaf, was only nine months old. Sibylla was so shocked by her husband's sudden death that she never told her children about their father. The children did not dare to talk about their father, and the youngest son, Carl Gustaf, did not know that his father had died in an accident until he was seven years old. After my death, I was so shocked that my hair turned gray. A year later, Folke Bernadotte, who was a close friend of Gustav Adolf and had supported Sibylla after his death, was also assassinated, making Sibylla's life even more difficult. In 1950, Sibyla and the children moved to Stockholm Palace. Sibylla later recalled that at the time, he felt like his feet were sinking.

After her husband's death, Sibyla's most important task was to properly raise her son Carl Gustav as the future king. After the death of her mother-in-law, Queen Louise, in 1965, she served as Sweden's first lady. In her final interview, she said she was worried not about death but about "how the Swedes will remember her."

Sibyla suffered from colon cancer in 1972 and was weakened. She last attended the 90th birthday celebration of her father-in-law , Gustav VI Adolf . She died at 4 p.m. on November 28, 1972, about two weeks after the celebration, with her fourth daughter, Princess Christina, by her side. Gustav VI Adolf was deeply saddened by the death of his eldest daughter-in-law and declared a three-week mourning period. After the funeral on December 7, her remains were cremated and buried next to her husband's grave in the Royal Cemetery of Solna.