Charles XV Bernadotte

Gustaf V was born at Drottningholm in 1858, the eldest son of Oscar II and Sophia of Nassau, and reigned as king of Sweden from 1907 until his death in 1950, for nearly forty three years. His reign spanned the end of the union with Norway, the arrival of full parliamentary democracy and Swedish neutrality in both world wars. In the Courtyard Crisis of 1914 he made the last serious attempt by a Swedish monarch to direct policy against his government, and afterwards the crown's political role steadily receded. A lifelong tennis enthusiast, he competed into old age under the pseudonym Mr G and founded the Swedish tennis association. He married Victoria of Baden in 1881.

Prince Carl, Duke of Vastergotland, born in 1861, was the third son of Oscar II and Sophia of Nassau and a cavalry general in the Swedish army. He is remembered chiefly for humanitarian work: as chairman of the Swedish Red Cross for more than four decades he organised prisoner of war exchanges and relief transports through the First World War and famine relief in Russia, and the organisation grew into a major institution under him. In 1897 he married Princess Ingeborg of Denmark. Their daughters married into three royal houses, which made him a grandfather of Harald V of Norway and Albert II of Belgium. He died in 1951 at the age of ninety.

Gustaf VI Adolf was born in Stockholm in 1882, the eldest son of Gustaf V and Victoria of Baden, and was king of Sweden from 1950 until his death in 1973. A genuine scholar, he was a serious archaeologist who took part in excavations in Greece, Italy, Korea and China, a recognised authority on Chinese art and a notable gardener and botanist, elected to several learned academies on merit. His unassuming manner and his motto, Duty before all, made him personally popular and helped carry the monarchy through the republican debates of the 1950s and 1960s. He married Margaret of Connaught in 1905 and, after her death, Louise Mountbatten in 1923, and was succeeded by his grandson Carl XVI Gustaf.

Prince Wilhelm, Duke of Sodermanland, born in 1884, was the second son of Gustaf V and Victoria of Baden and had a long career as a writer. A naval officer by training, he published poetry, essays and travel books, and was an early documentary film maker whose expeditions to Africa and Asia in the 1920s and 1930s produced both films and popular accounts of them. He married Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia in 1908; their only child was Lennart, later Count Bernadotte of Wisborg, and the marriage was dissolved in 1914. He spent much of his later life at Stenhammar in Sodermanland and died in 1965.

Prince Gustaf Adolf, Duke of Vasterbotten, born in 1906, was the eldest son of the future Gustaf VI Adolf and Margaret of Connaught, and from 1950 would have been crown prince of Sweden. A cavalry officer and a notable horseman, he was chairman of the Swedish Olympic Committee, of the national scouting association and of several sports federations, and was widely seen as a capable future king. In 1932 he married Princess Sibylla of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha; they had four daughters and then a son, the future Carl XVI Gustaf, who was nine months old when his father died in January 1947 at the age of forty.

Sigvard Bernadotte, Count of Wisborg, born in 1907, was the second son of Gustaf VI Adolf and Margaret of Connaught and one of the first members of a European royal family to earn his living as a professional designer. He lost his Swedish royal title in 1934 on marrying Erica Patzek, and was created Count Bernadotte of Wisborg by Luxembourg in 1951. Trained in Stockholm and Munich, he designed silver for Georg Jensen in Copenhagen from 1930 and in 1950 founded the firm Bernadotte and Bjorn with Acton Bjorn, an early industrial design partnership whose work ranged from the Margrethe mixing bowl to typewriters and kitchen appliances. He died in 2002.

Princess Margaretha, Mrs. Ambler, born in 1934, is the eldest child of Prince Gustaf Adolf, Duke of Vasterbotten, and Princess Sibylla of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and the eldest sister of King Carl XVI Gustaf. She grew up at Haga Palace with her three sisters and her much younger brother, and carried out official duties in Sweden as a young princess. In 1964 she married John Ambler, a British businessman, and moved to England, where she has lived ever since, keeping her Swedish title in the style Princess Margaretha, Mrs. Ambler. She is the senior surviving member of her generation of the Swedish royal family.

Princess Birgitta of Sweden, born in 1937, was the second daughter of Prince Gustaf Adolf, Duke of Vasterbotten, and Princess Sibylla, and a sister of King Carl XVI Gustaf. In 1961 she married Prince Johann Georg of Hohenzollern, and because she married into a royal house she was the only one of the king's four sisters to keep the style of Princess of Sweden as a member of the royal house. She lived in Germany and from the 1980s mainly on Mallorca, where she was a keen golfer and took part in Swedish and German charitable work, returning to Stockholm for family and state occasions. She died in December 2024 at the age of eighty seven.

Crown Princess Victoria, Duchess of Vastergotland, born on 14 July 1977, is the eldest child of King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia and the heir apparent to the Swedish throne. She became heir on 1 January 1980, when Sweden became the first monarchy to adopt full absolute primogeniture, moving ahead of her younger brother Carl Philip in the succession. She studied political science and conflict resolution in Sweden and at Yale, trained in diplomacy and in the armed forces, and now carries out a full programme of state and representational duties. In 2010 she married Daniel Westling, created Prince Daniel, Duke of Vastergotland; their children are Princess Estelle and Prince Oscar.

Prince Carl Philip, Duke of Varmland, born on 13 May 1979, is the only son of King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia. He was briefly crown prince of Sweden, from his birth until 1 January 1980, when the change to absolute primogeniture made his elder sister Victoria heir apparent. He trained as a graphic designer in Sweden and the United States and has worked professionally in design, and he is also an accomplished racing driver who has competed in Swedish touring car and Porsche Carrera Cup series. He served as an officer in the Swedish navy. In 2015 he married Sofia Hellqvist, and the couple carry out charitable work through their own foundation.

Princess Estelle, Duchess of Ostergotland, was born on 23 February 2012 in Stockholm, the elder child of Crown Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel and a granddaughter of King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia. Under the absolute primogeniture that Sweden adopted in 1980 she stands second in line to the throne, after her mother, and is therefore expected in time to become queen regnant of Sweden. She was given the duchy of Ostergotland at birth, following the Swedish custom of granting provincial duchies to royal children, and she appears with her family at national occasions such as the National Day celebrations and the annual Victoria Day. She belongs to the ninth generation of the House of Bernadotte in Sweden.