Marriage
During the 1972 Summer Olympics, Silvia Sommerlath met Crown Prince Carl Gustav. In a later interview, the King explained how it just "clicked" when they met.
After the death of King Gustaf VI Adolf on 15 September 1973, Carl XVI Gustav succeeded to the throne.
He and Silvia announced their engagement on 12 March 1976 and were married three months later, on 19 June in Stockholm Cathedral ("Storkyrkan Cathedral") in Stockholm. It was the first marriage of a reigning Swedish monarch since 1797. If he had married Silvia during the reign of his grandfather, King Gustaf VI Adolf, he would have lost his position as heir-apparent to the Swedish throne. This was due to the inflexibility of his grandfather, who believed that royalty must marry royalty. This was also the reason why Carl Gustav's uncle, Prince Bertil, did not marry until after Gustaf VI Adolf's death. (Bertil was second-in-line to the throne until his nephew produced an heir, and was therefore unable to marry the Welsh commoner, now his widow, Princess Lilian, with whom he had been in love for decades, until 1976.)
| Styles of Queen Silvia as consort |
|
|---|---|
| Reference style | Her Majesty |
| Spoken style | Your Majesty |
| Alternative style | Ma'am |
In celebration of the forthcoming wedding of the King and the soon-to-be-Queen, Silvia, the internationally famous pop group ABBA performed the song Dancing Queen on Swedish television the night before the ceremony, although the song was not actually written for Queen Silvia.
The King and Queen of Sweden have three children.
- Her Royal Highness Crown Princess Victoria Ingrid Alice Désirée, Duchess of Västergötland, born on 14 July 1977. She was married on 19 June 2010 to Daniel Westling, who was born on 15 September 1973 (the same day that Carl Gustav ascended to the Swedish throne). The wedding took place on her parents' 34th wedding anniversary.
- His Royal Highness Prince Carl Philip Edmund Bertil, Duke of Värmland, born on 13 May 1979.
- Her Royal Highness Princess Madeleine Thérèse Amelie Josephine, Duchess of Hälsingland and Gästrikland, born on 10 June 1982.
Read more about this topic: Queen Silvia Of Sweden
Famous quotes containing the word marriage:
“The best friend will probably get the best spouse, because a good marriage is based on the talent for friendship.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“What exacerbates the strain in the working class is the absence of money to pay for services they need, economic insecurity, poor daycare, and lack of dignity and boredom in each partner’s job. What exacerbates it in upper-middle class is the instability of paid help and the enormous demands of the career system in which both partners become willing believers. But the tug between traditional and egalitarian models of marriage runs from top to bottom of the class ladder.”
—Arlie Hochschild (20th century)
“Yes, marriage is hateful, detestable. A kind of ineffable, sickening disgust seizes my mind when I think of this most despotic, most unrequited fetter which prejudice has forged to confine its energies.”
—Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822)