Swedish Royal Family

- Family name: Bernadotte
- Bernadotte has ruled Sweden since 1810Official Site: The Monarchy in Sweden
- King Carl XVI Gustaf has ruled Sweden since 1973Official Site: The Monarchy and the Royal Court
- Official residence: Royal Palace of Stockholm
- Actual residence: Drottningholm Palace

Guides Note

The Swedish royal family includes King Carl XVI Gustaf, his wife Queen Silvia, their three children: Crown Princess Victoria, Prince Carl Philip and Princess Madeleine, and Princess Lilian, the wife of the late Prince Bertil, who was the King's uncle. King Carl XVI Gustaf is the official head of state in the constitutional democracy Sweden. The royal family has very limited political power under Sweden's parliamentary representative democratic government.Official Site: The Monarchy in Sweden
Members
1. H.M. King Carl XVI Gustaf: born 1946. Son of late Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf, who died in 1947, and late Princess Sibylla, Duchess of Sachsen-Coburg-Gotha of Germany, who died in 1972
2. H.M. Queen Silvia, born 1943. Daughter of the late German businessman, Walther Sommerlath, and his wife, late Brazilian-born Alice Sommerlath
3. H.R.H Crown Princess Victoria Ingrid Alice Désirée, born 1977
4. H.R.H. Prince Carl Philip Edmund Bertil, Duke of Varmland, born 1979
5. H.R.H. Princess Madeleine Thérése Amelie Josephine, Du
6. H.R.H. Princess Lilian, Duchess of Halland, born 1915 in Swansea, United Kingdom. Wife of the late Prince Bertil, the present King's uncle
Background

The members of the royal family Bernadotte are the descendants of the French Marshal Jean Baptiste Bernadotte, who was elected heir to the throne of Sweden in 1810 and ruled from 1818 to 1844. After becoming king, he was renamed to the more Swedish name Carl XIV Johan. The family Bernadotte has ruled since then, but the power of the monarchy has been gradually limited and today its functions are mainly ceremonial and representative.Official Site: The Monarchy in Sweden King Carl XVI Gustaf inherited the throne in 1973 when his grandfather, King Gustaf VI Adolf, died. He has four sisters, the princesses Margaretha, Birgitta, Désirée and Christina. The king met his queen Silvia, formerly Silvia Sommerlath, at the 1972 Olympics in Munich. They married in 1976.
Royal Succession

Prince Philip was heir to the throne when he was born in 1979, but a change in the Swedish constitution in 1980 changed the right to the throne from the first-born male to the first-born child. The new law made his older sister heir. The King has publicly expressed his resentment to this decision, based on the fact that the law was retroactive.Aftonbladet: Grundlagen ar lustig Kungen: Grundlagen ar lustig (November 24, 2003) Although there are other royal women in the world who are in line to a throne, Crown Princess Victoria is currently the only immediate female royal successor in the world.
Duties

As King of Sweden, Carl XVI Gustaf has limited political power and his functions are mainly representative and ceremonial. For example, he represents Sweden during visits from foreign heads of state or trips abroad and participates in the ceremonial opening of the Swedish Riksdag (parliament) at the beginning of each yearly term. The King also presents the awards to the winners in the yearly Nobel Prize awards ceremony.