Swedish Nobility - Unintroduced Nobility

Unintroduced Nobility

Being "introduced" at the House of Nobility means that the body confirms the status of a family as Swedish nobility. Even when a family was ennobled by the Swedish monarch, it still had to seek introduction at the House of Nobility to achieve such status. Introduction, however, was not necessary for being considered noble as such, although only the introduced families had a legally privileged position. Unintroduced families still could use their titles, if they had any, and noble elements and styles in their coats of arms. The recognition of their noble status in the society was chiefly of social, rather than legal, nature.

Sweden has a significant number of unintroduced noble families, several of which are historically prominent (as of 2010 comprising 99 living families and around 450 individuals). The families fall into four groups:

1. Foreign nobility, i.e. families of foreign origin (particularly German/Baltic, but also other nationalities) which had noble status in a different country than Sweden, and which partially or wholly live in Sweden. This group is the largest by far among the unintroduced nobility.
2. Families of Swedish origin which were granted noble status and/or titles by a foreign country (for example, members of the House of Bernadotte have been granted Luxembourgish comital titles).
3. Families which have been ennobled by the Swedish monarch, but which have not been introduced at the House of Nobility. This group is made up by a small number of families.
4. Armigerous families of foreign origin which have traditionally been included in the various directories of unintroduced nobility, but whose original noble status has not been proven. These families are nevertheless considered part of the Swedish unintroduced nobility for traditional reasons, i.e. because they have been considered noble in Sweden for an extended period of time. This group consists of a small number of families.

Three successive almanachs of unintroduced nobility have been published; the first one was started in 1886, the second in 1912, and the third in 1935; it was most recently published in 2010. An association of unintroduced nobility, Sveriges Ointroducerade Adels Förening, was founded in 1911. Several branches of the House of Bernadotte have been members of this association, as a result of members of the royal family losing their Swedish titles and being granted foreign (Luxembourgish or Belgian) titles upon marrying non-royals. Notably Count Carl Johan Bernadotte of Wisborg was chairman of the association for many years.