December 8, 2004

The current king of Sweden is His Majesty King Carl XVI Gustaf. His duties are largely ceremonial, but he does chair the Committee of Foreign Affairs.

Recently, Sweden adopted a policy of cognatic primogeniture, meaning the royal succession goes to the first born, regardless of gender. This makes Her Royal Highness Crown Princess Victoria, Duchess of Westrogothia the heir apparent.

The interesting thing is that she has a younger brother, His Royal Highness Prince Carl Philip, Duke of Wermelandia. So this fairly recent ruling changed the heir apparent.

I wonder what kind of interesting things went on to cause that. Normally, I would expect the rules to change when they wouldn't affect the current succession.

-ATW