Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden

Biography

Carl XVI Gustaf was born at Haga Palace near Stockholm in 1946, the youngest child and only son of Prince Gustaf Adolf and Princess Sibylla. His father died in an air crash at Copenhagen in January 1947, and when his grandfather became King Gustaf VI Adolf in 1950 the four-year-old prince became heir to the throne.

He was educated at Sigtuna boarding school, then spent two and a half years training in the army, navy and air force, receiving commissions in all three in 1968. He studied history, sociology, political science, tax law and economics at Uppsala University and economics at Stockholm University, and prepared for his role by studying the courts, parliament, government and business, including spells at the Swedish mission to the UN and at the embassy in London.

He became king on his grandfather's death on 15 September 1973. Under the 1974 Instrument of Government, which took effect soon after, the monarch lost his remaining executive powers, so his duties are ceremonial and representative: state visits, opening the Riksdag each year and presenting the Nobel Prizes. He married Silvia Sommerlath in 1976, and a 1980 change to absolute primogeniture made their eldest child, Victoria, heir apparent. He has a long interest in the Scout movement and is the longest-reigning monarch in Swedish history.