Wednesday 20 February 2013

A few details on Swedish royal wedding

The Swedish royal court has recently begun a rather odd practice whereby the court publishes their own interviews with the members of the royal family. Needless to say the result is not always the most interesting questions or answers. Today the court has published an interview (external link) with Princess Madeleine about her forthcoming wedding to Christopher “Chris” O’Neill on 8 June.
The Princess does not really say much, but discloses that it will be an afternoon wedding (in the Palace Church in Stockholm, as already announced), followed by a dinner at Drottningholm Palace, the home of the King and Queen to the west of the capital. Invitiations will be sent out before 1 April, the Princess will have no maid of honour but a group of children as bridal attendants (as is the Swedish royal tradition) and it has not yet been decided if there will be a live broadcast of the wedding.

6 comments:

  1. Trond, is there any truth to the recent claim by a political scientist that the children of Princess Madeleine, if raised outside of Sweden, will not be in line for the throne? I can find no such provision in the Swedish constitution.

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    1. The Act of Succession says: "Såsom 2 § i 1809 års regeringsform uttryckligen stadgar, att Konung alltid skall vara av den rena evangeliska läran, sådan som den, uti den oförändrade Augsburgiska bekännelsen, samt Uppsala mötes beslut av år 1593, antagen och förklarad är, sålunda skola ock prinsar och prinsessor av det kungl. huset uppfödas i samma lära och inom riket. Den av kungl. familjen som ej sig till samma lära bekänner, vare från all successionsrätt utesluten" - to summarise it says that like the King should always be a Lutheran, so princes and princesses of the royal house should be raised in the same faith and within the realm, and that those members of the royal family who do not profess that faith are excluded from the line of succession.

      But while it says that princes and princesses should be brought up in Sweden it does, on the other hand, not say explicitly that those raised abroad forfeit their rights of succession. And perhaps some would argue that this only applies to princes and princesses and thus not to Princess Madeleine's children if they are not given those titles.

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    2. I took note of the same provision as you did, but as you noted, it does not prescribe any "penalty" for not being raised in Sweden. Is there any provision in Swedish law or constitutional precedent that would suggest that succession rights are tied to residency in Sweden?

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    3. I am afraid I do not have time to look into that for you, but generally speaking: since this Act of Succession was introduced in 1810 all princes (and since 1980 princesses) have in fact been raised in Sweden.

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    4. Oh, please don't ever feel obliged to look things up for me - I'm only a curious reader :)

      Frankly, I suspect that if such a provision actually existed, you would already be aware of it, as would the Swedish royal court (which would presumably address the issue, which they apparently have not).

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    5. Legal formalities are not at the top of my interest list, but I do expect that the Swedish court will have investigated the matter - or at least that they will do so now, when the situation possibly arises for the first time.

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