The Royal Waiting Room – Crown Princess Victoria

The times are changing, and – taking in account the age of many of the monarchs worldwide – it is safe to assume that the coming years, we will see at least a few changes in the succession lines. Time to take a closer look at all those heirs, how they have prepared for their duties and how they are perceived among the public. This final blog in the series looks at Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden, the only current female heir apparent in the world.

Victoria was not always the heir apparent. She was born on 14 July 1977 to Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia of Sweden, a country that had male-preference primogeniture, meaning that she would be displaced in the succession by a younger brother. In May 1979, a younger brother – Carl Philip - arrived and was Crown Prince from the moment of his birth. However, in the egalitarian environment of 1970s Scandinavia, it was felt that succession should depend entirely on birth order and not at all on gender.

The Act of Succession of 1810, written when the French Marshal Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte was chosen as the heir presumptive to Charles XIII, was therefore amended in 1979 to state that the first-born child (not the first-born son) would be the heir apparent. The amended Act took effect on 1 January 1980, and the two-year-old Victoria displaced her eight-month-old brother, a major event in their lives to which both infants were oblivious. However, the King has let it be known that he doesn’t agree with the way the change was made and, while being fully supportive of Victoria’s ability to meet the challenge of her position, feels that his son should have remained Crown Prince since that was his status at birth.

Incidentally, the Swedish royal family is in the line of succession to the British throne based on their descent from Princess Margaret of Connaught, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria who married the future Gustaf VI Adolf, grandfather of the present king. If a couple of hundred people ahead of the Swedish royals in the line of succession suddenly dropped dead and King Carl XVI Gustaf found himself being hailed as Charles III of Britain, Prince Carl Philip, not Princess Victoria, would be his heir since Britain still has male-preference primogeniture. Not much consolation for losing the position of Crown Prince of Sweden, but at least a theoretical possibility.

Princess Victoria has received an impressive amount of education in preparation for her role as Head of State. She initially attended state schools, where she said she was bullied as a young child because she was dyslexic. She transferred to an exclusive private school, Enskilda Gymnasiet, at the age of 13. After graduating from school, she spent a year in France, studying at the Catholic University of the West in Angers. She returned to Sweden in summer 1997 and undertook a training course for several months in the workings of Parliament and the government. This was followed by a course of study at Yale University in Connecticut; an overseas university was chosen because the Princess was suffering from anorexia and it was felt that she needed to be away from the Swedish press and living somewhere where she could be relatively anonymous as well as receive the best possible therapy. After leaving Yale she spent some time working in the Swedish Embassy in Washington DC, returning to Sweden in 2000. Since then she has undertaken various courses of study in topics such as international relations, conflict resolution, and political science. She has also done internships at the United Nations, the European Union, and the Swedish Trade Council, and completed her military basic training. In 2006 she took part in the year-long Diplomat Programme of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 2009 she graduated from Uppsala University, the university she would have attended in the late 1990s if not for the need to study abroad. She is also involved in the Crown Princess Victoria Fund, a charity focused on providing recreational opportunities for disabled children. She is patron of several organisations, mainly in the fields of health, sports, and culture.

As well as formal courses of education, the Princess undertakes a full programme of royal duties both at home and abroad. Since her 18th birthday she has been able to act as regent when the King is out of the country or indisposed. She attends formal royal engagements such as state visits, the opening of Parliament, the Nobel ceremony, and the Swedish National Day, as well as making more informal trips to different parts of the country to meet people and carry out engagements such as visiting schools, factories, and hospitals. She has undertaken official overseas visits every year for at least the last decade, with a particular focus on international aid.

In June 2010 the 32-year-old Victoria married her long-time boyfriend Daniel Westling, who became Prince Daniel, Duke of Västergötland, on his marriage. Their engagement was announced in February 2009, and a few months later Daniel rather unexpectedly underwent a kidney transplant to treat a congenital renal disorder. His state of health prompted speculation in the press about whether it would have any effect on his fertility and hence the succession. Nearly a year after the wedding royal-watchers are eagerly awaiting news of a pregnancy for the Crown Princess.

So, how well prepared and ready is Crown Princess Victoria for her future role as Sweden’s fourth Queen Regnant? Her education and experience are second to none; her educational background makes certain other heirs look like rank amateurs. However, her personal life is a somewhat different matter. Since she is only recently married and so far has no children, she must be hoping for plenty of time to have a family and raise her children before being called to take on the challenges of monarchy. Both Elizabeth II and Margrethe II came to the throne as mothers of young children, and in both cases it appears that their family life suffered somewhat as a result. Hopefully Victoria won’t find herself in the same situation. Another personal issue is her bout with anorexia in the mid-1990s. Although she appears to have recovered fully from the disorder, she spoke at the time of feeling that her life was being controlled by others and that she had no control over anything except the food she ate. As Crown Princess her life is largely controlled by others; as Queen, it will be significantly more so. With her greater maturity and with a husband to help shoulder the burdens of her position, hopefully she’ll be more than equal to the challenge of monarchy when the time comes.

Photo Credit
Photo of Victoria at the 2009 National Day celebration in Skansen by Flickr member Bengt Nyman and used under Creative Commons licence.

By Yvonne | Published in: Blog, Sweden | Tags: Carl XVI Gustaf, Crown Princess Victoria, Prince Daniel, Succession