Charles XVI Gustavus

Charles XVI Gustavus (Carl Gustaf), 1946–, king of Sweden (1973–), grandson and successor of Gustavus VI; son of Prince Gustaf Adolf of Sweden and Princess Sibylla of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Brought up by his grandfather and mother after the death of his father in 1947, he attended a Swedish boarding school, served in the armed forces, and studied for a year at Uppsala Univ. A new constitution, passed shortly before his grandfather's death and effective in 1975, made the king a ceremonial figurehead, divesting him of traditional status as supreme commander of the armed forces and of the right to formally nominate new premiers and to open the Swedish parliament. In 1976 he married a German interpreter, Silvia Sommerlath.