Carl XVI Gustav

sweden The 7th king of the Bernadotte dynasty . He is the longest-reigning monarch in Swedish history .

" King of Sweden" was chosen instead of "King by the Grace of God of the Swedes , Goths and Bents " , which had been used since the hereditary monarchy was established in 1544 .

He was born at Haga Palace, north of Stockholm , at 10:20 a.m. on April 30, 1946, weighing 3.5 kg and measuring 50 cm tall, as the youngest and eldest of the five children of Hereditary Prince Gustaf Adolf, Duke of Westerbotten and Princess Sibylla of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha . For the Swedish royal family, who maintained the Salica law, Carl Gustav was the long-awaited successor.[2]

On June 7, he was baptized as a Lutheran infant in the chapel of the Royal Palace in Stockholm . At the baptism ceremony, he was awarded the Order of Seraphim by his great-grandfather Gustav V.[3] The godparents are King Gustav V , Crown Prince Gustav Adolf , Crown Prince Frederic , Crown Princess Ingrid , Crown Prince Olaf, Princess Juliana , Carl Eduard , Folke Bernadotte , and Maria Bernadotte.

When he was 9 months old, his father , Gustav Adolf , died suddenly in a plane accident. At the age of only 9 months, he became second in line to the throne after his grandfather, Prince Gustav , and at the age of 4, he became crown prince when his grandfather became king. As a child, he received education with his peers at the castle's kindergarten organized for Carl Gustav, and then entered Broms School at the age of seven. It was at this time that he realized that he had no father. Sent to boarding school after sixth grade, and after high school in 1966, Carl Gustav completed two and a half years of training in the Swedish Army, Royal Swedish Navy, and Swedish Air Force.

Afterwards, he sailed around the world aboard the minelayer 'Älvsnabben' during the winter of 1966 to 1967. In 1968, he was appointed as an officer in the Swedish Army, Royal Navy, and Air Force. He later rose to the rank of captain in the Army and Air Force, and lieutenant in the Navy. He studied history, sociology, political science, tax law, and economics at Uppsala University , and later studied economics at Stockholm University . Despite being dyslexic , he studied a variety of subjects.[4]

In order to become qualified as head of state, he also completed training programs covering various fields such as the judicial system, social groups and institutions, labor unions, and employer associations. He studied closely the administrative practices of the Swedish Parliament (Rixdag), the government, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, while also gaining solid external experience, training at the Swedish Permanent Mission to the United Nations and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), and gaining practical experience at the Swedish Embassy and Bank in London, the Swedish Chamber of Commerce in France, and the local factory of the global company Alfa Laval. In 1970, he visited Japan on behalf of his grandfather, King Gustav VI Adolf. He also attended the Expo held in Osaka as the chief representative of the Swedish delegation.

While going to Munich , where the 1972 Olympics were held, he met Silvia Sommalat, a German / Brazilian woman three years older than him . The two soon fell in love, but at the time, the Swedish royal family had a civil marriage system in place, so at the time, there were no heirs to the throne in Sweden except Carl Gustaf and his uncle, Bertil, Duke of Haaland, who were either stripped of their princely titles or died. Carl Gustaf's paternal grandfather, Gustaf VI Adolf, opposed the marriage, insisting that he should marry a member of the royal family, and Prince Carl Gustaf insisted that he would never marry anyone other than Silvia, but he had no choice. However, when Gustav VI died and he became king, he changed the succession law.[5] Eventually, with approval from parliament, the wedding was held at Stockholm Cathedral on June 19, 1976, under the officiating of Uppsala Archbishop Olof Sundby.[6]

If his paternal grandfather had not died, Carl Gustav, who was first in line to the throne, would have lost his right to succession due to a marriage between nobles. As the royal family was troubled by a succession controversy, the Social Democratic Party government, which was in power for a long time at the time, began a reform that drastically reduced the role of the monarch. Thanks to this, the role of the monarch has been greatly reduced in Sweden. For example, in Sweden, since 1975, the structure has been changed to one where the Prime Minister (elected by the National Assembly) is ultimately appointed and dismissed by the Speaker of the National Assembly, and the Prime Minister directly appoints and dismisses ministers. Additionally, the bill passed by the National Assembly was immediately turned into law. Previously, the king followed symbolic procedures, such as appointing and dismissing the prime minister and ministers, and approving bills passed by the National Assembly. Of course, in reality, the King was symbolically ratifying what had already been decided, but today, the King of Sweden has been deprived of even this formal authority. Of course, there are still some roles left as the head of state, such as signing the credentials (a document containing the contents of sending a specific person as a diplomatic envoy), but compared to the monarchs of other constitutional monarchies, the role can be said to be much smaller.

Thanks to the abolition of common marriage, I was able to officially marry my uncle and his wife, who raised me like my parents. At the time, his uncle, Prince Bertil, Duke of Halland, had been unable to marry his beloved lover, Lilian Bael, a commoner, for a whopping 33 years and had to live only as a shadow lover. This long-cherished wish was resolved.[7] Lilian officially entered the Swedish royal family, receiving the title 'Duchess of Halland'.[8] Gustav and his family later moved to Drottningholm Palace, west of Stockholm, in 1980, but he and his wife still maintained an office at the Stockholm Palace .

On September 15, 1973, when his grandfather, King Gustav VI Adolf, passed away, Carl Gustav inherited the throne and became King of Sweden . Four days later, on September 19, he attended an extraordinary cabinet meeting and took the oath as king (Konungaförsäkran). He then sat on a silver throne in the inner corridor of the Stockholm Royal Palace and gave an enthronement speech while lawmakers, diplomatic corps members, and members of the royal family watched. At the Cabinet meeting, his title was decided as ‘Carl XVI Gustaf’ and his title as ‘King of Sweden’.[9] The entire cabinet meeting and enthronement ceremony were broadcast live on TV, and after all the official events, he stood on the balcony and expressed his gratitude to the cheering people.

His first official overseas trip as king was a visit to Norway on October 6, 1974, where he met his godfather, King Olaf V.

As the head of state representing Sweden, he welcomes diplomatic envoys and leads overseas trips. In addition, he declares the opening of the National Assembly (Rixdag) every year, presides over extraordinary cabinet meetings held when the government changes, and holds regular briefing meetings on state affairs with the Prime Minister and the Cabinet. While serving as the chairman of the Foreign Affairs and Security Advisory Committee, he is also responsible for awarding credentials to foreign ambassadors and signing dispatches of his country's ambassadors. In particular, it is well known to the public for directly awarding the Nobel Prize ceremony and the Polar Music Award every year . However, in order to maintain political neutrality as a symbol of the country, they deliberately do not exercise their right to vote during general or local elections.

Because he is the king, he holds the highest rank in the Swedish army, navy, and air force. In 1973, when he ascended to the throne, the King was defined as the Commander-in-Chief of the Military (Högste Befälhavare) according to Article 14 of the existing 1809 Constitution, and accordingly, upon his accession to the throne, he was promoted ex officio from the existing ranks (Captain in the Army and Air Force, Lieutenant in the Navy) to Captain and Admiral. However, as the new constitution came into effect on January 1, 1975, the king's constitutional military command authority was extinguished, and therefore, currently, there is no actual military command authority except for the command over the royal military aides, but the highest rank is maintained in the form of an honorary appointment (à la suite).

On April 26, 2018, he became the longest-reigning monarch in Swedish history , exceeding the reign of his predecessor , Magnus IV (44 years and 222 days). Because Magnus IV abdicated the throne in 1364, this record was broken after 654 years.

On October 7, 2019, the royal family announced in a statement, 'We have decided not to provide Prince Carl Philip's two sons and the three children of his youngest daughter, Princess Madeleine, with the title of His Royal Highness and financial benefits received as members of the Swedish royal family.' As the number of the king's grandchildren increased, criticism grew over paying them a huge amount of dignity maintenance through taxes, and in the 2010s, as the popularity of the royal family declined compared to before for various reasons such as controversy over the king's private life, controversy over the Swedish Academy's sexual crime cover-up, and financial opacity, the number of royals was inevitably limited. They will no longer be able to use royal titles and titles, will lose the ability to receive salaries as members of the royal family, and will no longer have to perform official royal duties, but will retain the title of duke given to them as members of the royal family. However, it is expected that he will continue to appear at royal social gatherings as a 'theoretical member of the royal family'. Some interpreted this announcement as reflecting the Swedish royal family's broader view that there is no need to waste taxpayers' money on royal titles. #

In 2023, a grand Golden Jubilee event was held to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the throne. The commemorative event included members of the Swedish royal family.[10] In attendance were Norway 's King Harald V , Queen Sonya , Crown Prince Haakon , Denmark 's Crown Prince Margrethe II , Crown Prince Frederik , Crown Princess Mary , and Greece 's Queen Annamaria .[11] During the festival, they toured all 21 provinces across Sweden, held a celebratory dinner at the Royal Palace, and held a horse-drawn carriage parade in downtown Stockholm. Controversy over the king's private life began around 2018, ahead of the Golden Jubilee.[12] Although the royal family's popularity has fallen considerably due to the opacity of the royal family's finances and the Swedish Academy's #MeToo controversy, the overall approval rating of the royal family among Swedish people is still solid thanks to the high public popularity of Crown Princess Victoria and her eldest granddaughter, Princess Estelle, Duchess of Östergötland .

Britain's Queen Elizabeth II died in 2022 and her relative Queen Margrethe II of Denmark abdicated in 2024, making her the longest-serving current head of state in Europe. In particular, on March 18, 2024, during his reign, Sweden officially joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, marking a historic turning point that put an end to its neutral status that it had maintained for over 200 years.