Princess Birgitta of Sweden

Princess Birgitta

Birgitta at the wedding of her niece Madeleine on 8 June 2013
Born (1937-01-19) 19 January 1937
Haga Palace, Solna, Sweden
Spouse Prince Johann Georg of Hohenzollern (m. 1961; his death 2016)
Issue Prince Carl Christian
Princess Désirée
Prince Hubertus
Full name
Birgitta Ingeborg Alice
House Bernadotte
Father Prince Gustaf Adolf, Duke of Västerbotten
Mother Princess Sibylla of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
Swedish Royal Family

HM The King
HM The Queen


HRH Princess Birgitta

Princess Birgitta of Sweden and Hohenzollern (Birgitta Ingeborg Alice; born 19 January 1937) is a Swedish princess, an elder sister of King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden.

Family

Born at Haga Palace in Stockholm, she is the second child of Prince Gustaf Adolf, Duke of Västerbotten and Princess Sibylla of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and a granddaughter of King Gustaf VI Adolf. Her sisters are Princess Margaretha, Mrs. Ambler, Princess Désirée, Baroness Silfverschiöld, and Princess Christina, Mrs. Magnuson. She is a first cousin of Queen Margrethe II of Denmark

Birgitta is the widow of HSH Prince Johann Georg of Hohenzollern.

Among her sisters she alone married a man of princely status, and, in keeping with the tradition that princesses who marry princes retain their royal status, Princess Birgitta retained her Swedish style of Royal Highness, [1] a higher treatment than that of Serene Highness, to which the Princes of Hohenzollern and their wives were historically entitled.

Marriage

Princess Birgitta in 1958

On a visit in 1959 to friends and relatives in Germany, the princess met her future husband at a cocktail party.

On 15 December 1960, her engagement to Prince Johann Georg Carl Leopold Eitel-Friedrich Meinrad Maria Hubertus Michael of Hohenzollern (b. 1932; d. 2016), was announced.

The civil ceremony took place at the Royal Palace of Stockholm on 25 May 1961, and the religious in the Sankt Johann Church at the bridegroom's Family Palace of Sigmaringen on 30 May/ 31 July 1961. The bridesmaids were the bride’s sister Princess Christina and cousin Princess Benedikte of Denmark; the groomsmen were the bride's brother Crown Prince Carl Gustaf and her cousin Count Michael Bernadotte of Wisborg (son of Count Sigvard Bernadotte of Wisborg).[2]

Birgitta converted to Roman Catholicism when she married the Hohenzollern prince. Thus she and her children have been ineligible for succession to the Swedish throne even when new constitutional regulations took effect in Sweden in 1979 and 1980.

Prince Johann Georg and Princess Birgitta separated in 1990, although they remained legally married. She lives on the island of Majorca in Spain, while her husband lived in Munich.

Public life

In November 1960 Birgitta visited the United States accompanied by her younger sister Princess Désirée on behalf of their grandfather King Gustaf VI Adolf for the 50th anniversary of the The American-Scandinavian Foundation. In their honour a ball was organised for the two princesses at the Renaissance Blackstone Hotel in Chicago by Mayor Richard Daley.[3]

Princess Birgitta has had assignments for golf and charities outside of Sweden and is an Honorary Board Member of the (British) Royal Swedish Golfing Society,[4] a position she took over when her uncle Prince Bertil died.

She has her own golf competition in Majorca, the Princess Birgitta Trophy, at her home golf course.

She participates in the celebrations of the Swedish Lucia every year, and in the party held at her golf club on Sweden’s National Day.

She also takes part in Swedish royal family events; with her husband and children, she was a guest at the 2010 Wedding of Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden, and Daniel Westling,[5] and at Princess Madeleine's wedding in 2013.[6]

Issue

Birgitta's arms since marrying Prince Johann Georg

Princess Birgitta's marriage produced three children and six grandchildren:

Title, styles, honours and arms

Styles of
Princess Birgitta of Sweden
Reference style Her Royal Highness
Spoken style Your Royal Highness
Alternative style Ma'am

Title

Honours

National honours

Foreign honours

Ancestry

See also

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Monday, March 21, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.