Swedish royalty has Brazilian DNA: meet Queen Silvia of Sweden

When talking about the royal family, the first that comes to our minds is the British one, thanks to the gift that Queen Elizabeth II and her clan have to transform their mere presence into great events – and of course the entry of Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle in this history has done a lot for them to come back to being pop in recent years.

But there are many other royalty around the world, and the Swedish one deserves our special attention for having a queen consort who is half Brazilian: Silvia from Sweden🇧🇷

Get to know the story of this sovereign who lived in São Paulo from 4 to 14 years old and leaves marks in the history of the Scandinavian country since when she started dating King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden🇧🇷

Half Brazilian, half German

Silvia Renate Sommerlath was born on December 23, 1943 in the small town of Heidelberg, Germany. Her mother, Alice, was from São Manuel, in the interior of São Paulo, and settled in the European country when she married the German Walther Sommerlath.

The youngest of a family that already had three boys (Ralf, Walther Ludwig and Hans Jörg), Silvia moved to São Paulo with her parents and siblings at the age of 4, when her father came to work in Brazil. Of course, the fact that Alice was Brazilian and had relatives around here weighed heavily on the transfer of the Sommerlaths.

For ten years, she studied at the traditional German school Visconde de Porto Seguro, in the state capital. And then they went back to Germany.

Silvia finished high school in Düsseldorf and went to Munich to attend college. She graduated in 1969 from the equivalent of our Literature course, with a specialization in Spanish. And it was because of her professional choice that she became queen of Sweden.

Munich Olympics – 1972

After a brief career as a flight attendant, Silvia got a job as an interpreter for the Argentine entourage at the Munich Olympic Games in 1972. And who went to watch the Games? Who? Yes, himself: the then Crown Prince of Sweden, Carl Gustaf.

They met at an Olympic event and, as the King says to this day, it was a “click” at the first conversation. They started dating, even though each one lived in a different country (although Germany and Sweden are not that far apart, right?).

In 1973, King Gustaf VI Adolf died and Carl took the throne, gaining the title King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden. Silvia became the King’s girlfriend.

In March 1976, the couple announced their engagement. Three months later, on June 19, the wedding took place. It was the first time since 1797 that a Swedish king in full exercise of his functions had married.

Queen Silvia, the Dancing Queen

By that time, Sweden was already falling in love with Silvia. Smart, extremely refined, independent – ​​she continued to work civilian jobs while dating Carl, even though he was king –, beautiful… The perfect woman to be the country’s queen consort.

The passion was so great that ABBA, the most important musical group in the history of Sweden, decided to save the debut of “Dancing Queen”, their biggest hit, for Silvia. The first performance of the song was on the night of 18 June 1976, at a pre-wedding party for Gustaf and Silvia at the Royal Swedish Opera.

You can see this great moment of world music in this video; Silvia and Carl appear in the final ten seconds, she with a smile from ear to ear, he expressing more happiness than the average of European kings at the time. Behind them are Silvia’s parents, our Brazilian Alice and Walther:

In 1993, in honor of Silvia’s 50th birthday, Anni-Frid Lyngstad (the brunette/redhead from ABBA) sang the song again for the queen:

Revolution in royal traditions

Shortly after Silvia and Carl completed a year of marriage, on July 14, 1977, Victoria, the couple’s first daughter, was born. On May 13, 1979, Carl Philip was born and on June 10, 1982, Madeleine.

By the rules in force at that time, Carl Philip was born first in line to the Swedish throne. Although Victoria was the eldest, male children had the privilege of jumping the line.

But Silvia didn’t think it was fair and, after exposing her point to her husband, the Swedish Crown decided to change the law. On January 1, 1980, the approval of the Swedish Act of Succession was announced, a constitutional reform that defines that the first position in the line of succession to the throne of Sweden belongs to whoever is born first, whether male or female.

Sweden was the first monarchy to adopt this system. For you to have an idea, the United Kingdom only made something similar official in 2013.

And thus, Princess Victoria became the first Crown Princess of Sweden. The revolution in the monarchy has a hint of Brazil.

Work on health causes

Silvia takes advantage of her position as queen consort to work on health-related causes in Sweden and around the world. Since 1994, she has been working with the World Health Organization to mentor international actions.

She was also the co-founder of the World Childhood Foundation in 1999 and was involved with the creation of the Global Child Forum in 2009.

But its biggest connection is with the treatment of dementia in old age. In 1996, she founded Silviahemmet, an initiative to educate health professionals to deal with people suffering from dementia and also to invest in studies and research on the subject.