The Unofficial British Royal Family Pages

Wednesday 22 December 2004

Sweden's Great War Time Love Story:

Bertil & Lilian

Edward and Mrs Simpson are often the first 'royal' couple we think of when we contemplate difficult royal romances.  However, in that generation, there was in fact another couple. Though they are not so well known as David and Wallis, their tale is perhaps an even more poignant example of the often-uneasy relationship that exists between royal duty and the heart.            

Prince Bertil of Sweden was born in 1912.  He was the third of four sons of Crown Prince Gustav Adolf and Princess Margarita, formerly Princess Margaret of Connaught.  Bertil’s only sister, Ingrid, later married Frederik of Denmark and was the mother of Denmark’s Queen Margrethe.            

At his birth, being the third son, there was very little chance that Prince Bertil would ever have to worry about becoming king.  His elder brother, also Gustav Adolf, was directly in line after their father and then came  Bertil's second brother, Prince Sigvard.  Bertil could have honestly thought that his sister, Princess Ingrid had as much chance of ever having to prepare to wear the crown as he did.  As sometimes happens, fate would later destroy such thoughts.            

Three years after Bertil’s arrival in the Swedish royal family, a baby girl was born in Swansea, Wales to Mr and Mrs William Davies.  They named her Lilian May.  The Davies were a working class family and Lilian’s father was a miner.  Luckily for Lilian she grew into a very attractive young woman and bravely headed to London with the hope of creating a better life for herself than was possible in Swansea at that time. 

She quickly found work as a model and an actress.  She also fell in love with another actor, Ivan Craig and they married during the war in 1940.  As often happened in whirlwind wartime marriages, the couple grew apart, separated after less than a year of marriage and divorced officially after the war. 

At this time in Sweden, life had somewhat changed for Prince Bertil.  His grandfather, King Gustav, still reigned; his father was still Crown Prince and his elder brother, Gustav Adolf next in line, but Prince Sigvard, the second son, had ceased to be a Prince of Sweden. 

Sigvard had fallen in love and married a commoner.  For this he paid a heavy price and, according to the Constitution, was stripped of his title and his place in the succession. Finding yourself no longer a Prince but simply Mr Bernadotte must be something of a shock, but it was a price Sigvard must have been prepared to pay to marry the woman he loved. Nevertheless, in decades to come the act would cause him to seethe. 

One step closer to the throne, Prince Bertil moved to London during the war where he was a naval attach�.  At the same time, Lilian Davies joined the war effort and worked in a factory and later at a hospital.   One night in 1943 she met Prince Bertil at a nightclub.  There was an instant attraction but neither was deluded in thinking that a relationship would be easy.    

Despite the obvious challenges they faced, the couple continued contact during Bertil’s time in England. Most couples in love carry somewhere in their hearts a belief that their love will conquer all. Bertil and Lilian had Sigvard as living proof that it did not.  Then, to emphasise this Bertil’s younger brother Prince Carl Johan entered a morganatic marriage in 1946.  

Although Carl Johan was younger than Bertil,  the fact that he too was stripped of his title must have indicated to the couple that neither the King nor the government would change the Law for them.    Apart from being a commoner, Lilian was separated and soon to be divorced. If anything, she was a rung below either of the brothers’ wives.  One can only imagine their despair at the next event to upset the House of Bernadotte. 

As we know, many of Europe’s royalty are friends, if not relatives.  In 1947 Bertil’s elder brother, Prince Gustav Adolf joined a hunt put on by Juliana of the Netherlands and her husband Bernhard.   After the hunt, Gustav and his friends left by aeroplane to return to Sweden.  Set to refuel in Copenhagen, the aircraft crashed at the airport tragically killing all on board.   

Suddenly, Bertil’s baby nephew Carl Gustav was not only fatherless but also the next in line to the crown after his grandfather.  The baby boy had four elder sisters but at that time, women could not inherit the throne and consequently Bertil found himself two steps away from wearing the crown.  Bertil’s grandfather was ageing, his father no longer young and there was a reasonable chance that both could die before Carl Gustav came of age, in which case Bertil would have to act as Regent.  And, in the event that something happened to the infant Carl Gustav, Prince Bertil would become heir. 

Nevertheless, Lilian continued to be the woman of Bertil’s life in all but marriage.  She moved to Sweden after the war and the couple lived discreetly together, no doubt to the annoyance and displeasure of the King and the Swedish government.  To her immense credit she demanded nothing.  Unlike Wallis Simpson, she ensconced herself quietly in her partner’s life, running his household and learning Swedish in an effort to adapt to the country her partner called home.   Over the years the relationship became public knowledge but the situation remained the same; Lilian never appeared in public with Bertil and the King did not relent. 

Bertil’s father became King in 1950.  Four-year-old Carl Gustav became Crown Prince and Bertil was next in line.   Again, nothing changed for the couple under King Gustav VI Adolf.  In fact, the status quo would more or less remain another twenty years until Carl Gustav was in his twenties. Bertil’s father softened slightly his hard-line approach to his son’s relationship over time and met Lilian occasionally.  

Indeed, near the end of his reign, he obviously realised that after almost thirty years, the relationship was going to last and that Lilian had made the most of an unfortunate situation.  With this in mind he allowed her to sit beside him at the dinner to celebrate his 90^th birthday in 1972.  

One can fairly assume that the King was not heartless.  To the contrary he was a very popular King but was undoubtedly well aware of the importance of maintaining a ‘clean’ House in Sweden at a time when republicans in Sweden were grumbling. Despite this, in his own way he apparently grew fond of Lilian, although he stopped well short of approving a marriage. 

Prince Bertil continued carrying out his duties, which were no doubt made even more taxing knowing that he could never wed the woman he most obviously loved. He and Lilian sacrificed much in their lives and while Lilian stayed very much in the background officially she was by no means the archetypal mistress.  She had not destroyed or intruded on a royal marriage nor had she ever demanded anything from her husband. 

In a time when de facto relationships were looked upon with disdain and mistresses one step away from prostitution, Lilian remained steadfast in her devotion to her husband and by allowing him to continue his responsibilities to Sweden, she won the admiration and respect of her new countrymen.  Neither likely expected a change to the structure of their relationship and were probably reasonably content with their lot when they were finally allowed to be seen in public together in the late 1960’s. 

Gustav VI Adolf died in 1973 and twenty-seven year old Crown Prince Carl Gustav was proclaimed King.  Prince Bertil was now heir presumptive.  The young King had watched his Uncle and Lilian for his entire life and was well aware of their sacrifices.    When he ascended the throne, he took the motto, ‘For Sweden, with the Times’.  It was a prescient choice because the King himself had fallen in love with a commoner.   After a discreet three-year courtship, Carl Gustav succeeded in his bid to have the German/Brazilian Silvia Sommerlath as his queen, a union made far easier now that he was King.  

It’s unlikely that his nephew’s marriage sparked a glint of hope in either Bertil that he would be able to marry Lilian, at least not before Carl Gustav and Silvia had children. However, soon after his own marriage, the new King gave his Uncle permission to marry Lilian. 

On 7^th December 1976 the couple wed, in what must have been a surreal moment for both.  Now in their sixties and having waited almost four decades, they were officially man and wife.  And, in a move that surprised some, delighted others and incensed his uncles, particularly Sigvard, the King announced that Lilian would become a Princess of Sweden in her own right.   

Well aware of his ‘new’ aunt’s devotion to his Uncle and, through that devotion, sacrifice and service for her adopted homeland, Carl Gustav sought to reward the couple who had missed out on so much, not the least of which, a family of their own.  Consequently he rewarded the woman who had never made a ripple and the Uncle who had put his duty before his personal life.  By marriage, Lilian also became Duchess of Halland. 

Prince Bertil continued to act as the King’s deputy until the Act of Succession was changed in 1980, so that only Carl Gustav’s children were in line to the throne.  A special amendment to the Act was made so that Bertil became fourth in line to the throne after Princess Madeleine.  Again, it was a move that was highly unlikely ever to be required but a gesture of thanks by King Carl Gustav.  

Princess Lilian adapted effortless to her role as princess and Swedes were happy to embrace a new princess, especially one that had proved she was worthy of the title.  Renowned for her benevolent personality and elegance, she quickly became a popular member of the family. 

Sigvard, onto his third morganatic marriage, continued to harbour bitterness about his nephew King’s decision to grant Lilian the title of princess right up until his death a few years ago.  By then, both he and Carl Johan had been granted the titles, ‘Counts Bernadotte of Wisborg’ by the then Grand Duchess of Luxembourg, although Sigvard began calling himself prince again in the early 1980’s. Carl Johan and his wife remain on friendly terms with the current royal family. 

Sweden’s great royal love story came to an end on 5^th January 1997 when Prince Bertil, Duke of Halland died at the couple’s home, Villa Solbacken in the picturesque Stockholm district of Djurg�rden.  Six hundred mourners attended Bertil’s funeral, which took place in the chapel of the Royal Palace in Stockholm and Swedes lined the streets to pay homage to the kindly faced man who had devoted his entire life to the country. 

Princess Lilian, now 87, still carries out royal duties, most notably at the Nobel Prize presentations.  There, she stands beside the King’s three children who are more like her and Bertil’s adopted grandchildren. She is particularly close to HRH The Crown Princess Victoria.   While nearly ninety she still devotes her time to causes that were of particular interest to Bertil, as well as her own and continues to live at Villa Solbacken.  

Link to the Swedish Royal Court’s bio on Princess Lilian: http://tinyurl.com/53dft

- Gioffredo
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