First Lady of Sweden

Princess Victoria Bernadotte, First Lady of Sweden

Victoria Ingrid Alice Désirée; born 14 July 1977), is the eldest child and heir apparent of King Carl XVI Gustaf. If she ascends to the throne as expected, she will be Sweden’s fourth queen regnant (after Margaret, Christina and Ulrika Eleonora) and the first since 1720.

Victoria was born on 14 July 1977 at 21:45 CET in the Karolinska University Hospital in Solna, Stockholm County, Sweden, and is the oldest child of King Carl XVI Gustaf and German-born Queen Silvia (born Silvia Renate Sommerlath). She is a member of the Royal House of Bernadotte. Born as a Princess of Sweden, she was designated Crown Princess in 1979 (SFS 1979:932) ahead of her younger brother. Her place as first in the line of succession formally went into effect on 1 January 1980 with the parliamentary change to the Act of Succession that introduced absolute primogeniture. She is one of the only three female heirs apparent in the world – the other two being her goddaughters Catharina-Amalia, Princess of Orange and Princess Elisabeth, Duchess of Brabant.

Her given names honour various relatives. Her first name comes primarily from her great-great-grandmother, Victoria of Baden, the queen-consort of Sweden as wife of King Gustaf V. Her other names honour her great-aunt Ingrid of Denmark; her maternal grandmother, the Brazilian Alice Sommerlath (born Alice Soares de Toledo); and her ancestor Désirée Clary, the queen-consort of Charles XIV John and a former fiancée of Napoleon I of France as well as her paternal aunt and godmother, Princess Desiree.

She was christened at The Royal Palace Church on 27 September 1977. Her godparents are King Harald V of Norway, her maternal uncle, Ralf Sommerlath, Princess Beatrix of the Netherlands, and her aunt Princess Désirée, Baroness Silfverschiöld.

On 17 August 2011 the Swedish royal court announced that Crown Princess Victoria was pregnant and expecting the couple’s first child in March 2012. On 23 February 2012 at 4:26am CET, Victoria gave birth to a girl in the Karolinska University Hospital. The child is second-in-line to the Swedish throne.

More info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria,_Crown_Princess_of_Sweden