King Carl XVI has four older sisters, none of whom had a shot at the crown when they came into this world due to traditional primogeniture—that centuries-old royal system that mandated sons would always be ahead of their sisters in line, while the son of a monarch’s deceased brother would be next in line ahead of the monarch’s next-youngest brother.
It wasn’t until 2011 that the United Kingdom changed the law so that a possible firstborn daughter for Prince William and Kate Middleton would be next in line after her father. (Prince George was born first and therefore Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis follow him, ahead of their uncle, Prince Harry. And, fun fact, King Carl XVI is roughly 205th in line to the British throne, because it is a small, small royal world.)
But the Swedes changed the law back in 1980, making King Carl XVI’s eldest daughter, Princess Victoria, Crown Princess Victoria—and, at 3 years old, first in line to the throne, newly ahead of her then 1-year-old brother, Prince Carl Philip. Kate and William took tea with Victoria and her husband, Prince Daniel, at their home in Stockholm, Haga Palace, in 2018.
Back in 1973, however, it was the baby of the family who inherited the crown from his grandfather, King Gustaf VI Adolf. King Carl’s father, Prince Gustaf Adolf, died in a plane crash in Denmark in 1947, when his son was 9 months old.
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