It was September 1973 when a 27-year-old named Carlos Gustavo Folke Huberto Bernadotte ascended the throne of his country, Sweden.
His father had died in a plane crash in Denmark when he was a few months old, in 1947, leaving a widow and five children—he, the youngest and only son.
Three years later, in 1950, his great-grandfather Gustavo V also died and he became heir.
When his grandfather, Gustavo Adolfo VI, died in 1973, he became king of a country that respects him and, at times, appreciates him, but that keeps certain distances and not a few reluctances with his figure.
This 2023, therefore, Carlos Gustavo celebrates half a century as a Swedish monarch, with his reign already becoming the longest in the history of his country.
As experts explained to EL PAÍS last January, "then the current Swedish monarch was the youngest in the world, and he did not feel prepared."
“He was frequently criticized and mocked in the media, and the wind was blowing strongly from the left.
The then prime minister, Olof Palme, said that we were one step away from the republic”, Herman Lindqvist, who taught history to Princess Victoria, told this newspaper.
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Throughout these five decades, Carlos Gustavo has been building a family, a series of heirs who have created their own heirs.
The king married Silvia of Sweden shortly after ascending the throne —in the 1970s he did not stop receiving criticism for being single—, highly appreciated by Swedish society for his discreet and hard-working profile.
They had three children: Victoria, the eldest, who in turn has two children;
Carlos Felipe, the second and only male, married with three children;
and Magdalena, the youngest, also with three children and settled in the US. Now they are going through a moment of stability, only agitated by small health issues, such as the heart operation that the king underwent in February, or by controversial sparks,
Each of the three heirs has caused many headaches to the royal marriage, be it for health reasons, for their marriages, for their finances or for their personal and professional decisions.
But also joys.
The last one, that of Magdalena, who has decided to return from Florida, where she lives with her family, to settle permanently in her native country starting next summer.
But who exactly is who in the Swedish royal family?
Who are its members, where do their controversies come from, how have they managed to resolve themselves?
The explanation, in this video.
