For Swedish Royals, Centuries of Battles

For Swedish Royals, Centuries of Battles

They're young, they're beautiful, and they've got blue blood running through their veins. What more could a tabloid wish for?

Swedish paparazzi, and their European colleagues, can't get enough of Sweden's Crown Princess Victoria (born 1977), Prince Carl Philip (born 1979), and Princess Madeleine (born 1982). The princesses, especially, are closely monitored, with reports on their workouts and diets, favorite designers, love affairs—even updates on the progress of Princess Madeleine's summer tan. Princess "Madde" was even voted the most beautiful woman in the world by Spanish gossip magazine Hola.

It seems like a charmed life, but such constant scrutiny can be too much, even for a princess trained for a life in the public eye. When the crown princess was 20, the royal court revealed that she suffered from bulimia, an illness that is said to have plagued many European princesses, from the late Princess Diana to Princess Mary of Denmark. The crown princess interrupted her studies in Stockholm and spent two years at Yale, where she could live in relative anonymity.

The royal family may be dealing with distinctly 21st-century struggles these days, but Swedish royal history is rife with battles. Viking kings battled for power over the land around Lake Mälaren in the first millennium. The first king to reign over a unified Sweden, Gustav Vasa, claimed the throne in 1523 after a bloody rebellion against Kristian II of Denmark. His sons then spent their lives battling each other: King Erik XIV, the snubbed suitor of Elizabeth I of England, created a scandal by marrying a commoner, then jailing his brother Johan, who he felt was getting dangerously popular. Johan and third brother Karl then joined forces to overthrow Erik, who died in jail, poisoned by arsenic-laced split-pea soup.

The glory days of Sweden's military began in 1611, when Gustav II Adolf became king. He led Sweden through the Thirty Years' War until his death at the Battle of Lützen in 1632. Swedish expansionism continued after his death; by 1718 all of Finland and Estonia, parts of Russia, and patches of the German coast were under Swedish rule.

The current royal family, the Bernadotte family, came from France in the 19th century. Then-king Karl XIII was old and had no heirs. Seeking to approach France and stave off Russia, Sweden invited one of Napoleon's marshals, Jean Baptiste Bernadotte, to become king of Sweden. He accepted and assumed the more Swedish-sounding name Karl XIV Johan.

Though debate has raged in Sweden for years whether to abolish the monarchy, it seems only a small percentage of the Swedish people would like to see the country without the royal family. Sweden's expansionist dreams have long been abandoned; Sweden hasn't been in a war for close to 200 years. And yet it seems the Swedish royal family is still looking for peace.

-Karin Palmquist