[ 스웨덴 ] 스웨덴 릴리안 공주 97세로 사망

[astrid]

Sweden's Welsh-born Princess Lilian dies in Stockholm at 97

One of royal households best-kept secrets, her relationship with Prince Bertil was seen as threat to Bernadotte dynasty

Princess Lilian, seen here in 2005, had been in poor health for several years. Photograph: Henrik Montgomery/AFP/Getty Images

She was one of the better-kept secrets of Sweden's royal household: a commoner and divorcee whose relationship with Prince Bertil was seen as a threat to the Bernadotte dynasty.

In a touching royal romance, Welsh-born Princess Lilian and the prince kept their love unofficial for decades and were both in their 60s when they finally received the king's blessing to get married.

Lilian died in her Stockholm home on Sunday at the age of 97. The royal palace didn't give a cause of death but Lilian suffered from Alzheimer's disease and had been in poor health for several years.

She met Sweden's Prince Bertil in 1943, but his obligations to the throne and Lilian's status as a divorced commoner prevented them from making their love public. The couple's sacrifices and lifelong dedication to one another gripped the hearts of Swedes.

"If I were to sum up my life, everything has been about my love," the princess said of her husband when she turned 80 in 1995. "He's a great man, and I love him."

Born Lilian Davies in Swansea, Wales, on 30 August 1915, she moved to London at 16 to embark on a career as a model and an actress, showcasing hats and gloves in commercials and taking on small roles in movies. She met British actor Ivan Craig, who she married in 1940.

After the second world war broke out, Craig was drafted into the British army while Lilian stayed behind in London, working at a factory making radio sets for the British merchant fleet and serving at a hospital for wounded soldiers.

At the time, Prince Bertil was stationed at the Swedish Embassy in the British capital as a naval attaché. The couple first laid eyes on each other in the fancy nightclub Les Ambassadeurs shortly before Lilian's 28th birthday in 1943. Lilian then invited him to a cocktail party in her London apartment. But it wasn't until he fetched her with his car after an air raid in her neighbourhood that the romance blossomed, Lilian recalled in her 2000 memoirs, My Life with Prince Bertil.

"He was so handsome my prince. Especially in uniform. So charming and thoughtful. And so funny. Oh how we laughed together," Lilian wrote.

Lilian was still married at the time but the situation resolved itself since Craig, too, had met someone else during his years abroad in the army, and the couple divorced on amicable terms.

Upon the prince's return to Sweden, however, his relationship with a commoner became a delicate issue.

The prince became a possible heir to the throne when his eldest brother died in a plane crash, leaving behind an infant son – the current King Carl XVI Gustaf. Two other brothers had dropped out of the line of succession by marrying commoners.

Bertil's father, King Gustaf VI Adolf, ordered him to abstain from marrying Lilian, since that would jeopardise the survival of the Bernadotte dynasty.

Instead, the couple let their romance flourish in an unofficial manner, living together in a common-law marriage for decades.

They first lived in their house in Sainte-Maxime in France but later shared their time between the French village and Stockholm, where Lilian discreetly stayed in the background for years.

Despite the royal reluctance to recognise her officially, Lilian's charm and warm personality soon won the Swedes over, and magazines depicted the happy couple playing golf and riding around on the prince's motorbike. When Bertil had to use a walking frame after an operation, she cheerfully nicknamed it his "Bugatti."

In 1976, some 33 years after they first met, the new king finally gave them the approval they had been waiting for.

On a cold December day the same year, Lilian, or "Lily" as the prince used to call her, became Princess of Sweden and Duchess of the southern province of Halland in a ceremony at the Drottningholm palace chapel just outside Stockholm. The bride had by then turned 61 and the groom was 64.

The couple never had any children.

Prince Bertil died in the couple's residence Villa Solbacken in Stockholm in 1997 after unspecified lung problems.

Lilian took over some of her husband's duties, especially as an award presenter for various sports associations.

Health problems forced her to cut back on some of her royal duties. In 2006, she stopped attending the annual Nobel prize banquet, and the next year she also stopped taking part in the award ceremony.

In 2010, the palace said Lilian suffered from Alzheimer's disease, preventing her from attending the wedding that summer of crown princess Victoria and Daniel Westling.

텔레그레프지가 기사를 더 친근하게 써줬네요. 같은 영국계라서 더 호의적인듯 합니다. 

HRH Princess Lilian of Sweden

HRH Princess Lilian of Sweden, who has died aged 97, was the widow of Prince Bertil of Sweden, uncle of the present King, Carl XVI Gustaf.

HRH Princess Lilian of Sweden Photo: EPA

7:21PM GMT 10 Mar 2013

Hers was one of those old-fashioned royal love stories: the beautiful young girl forbidden to marry her prince for dynastic reasons. In her case, the story was resolved in her favour, and she ended her life a respected member of the Swedish royal family; indeed, she looked more regal than many born into European royal families.

She was born Lillian May Davies in Swansea on August 30 1915, the daughter of William Davies and his wife, Gladys Mary Curran. She originally spelt her name with two “l”s, but changed to Lilian when she adopted a career variously described as fashion model, ballerina and singer. In September 1940 , at Horsham, she married a Scottish actor called Ivan Craig (1912-95), whose career never flourished beyond bit parts such as 2nd policeman in Murder at the Windmill in 1949 and Lord Blackheath in four episodes of Ivanhoe in 1958. He went to Africa during the war and after a long separation they were divorced.

During the Second World War Lilian worked at a factory making wirelesses for the Royal Navy, and at a hospital for wounded soldiers. She met Prince Bertil of Sweden in 1943, some say at a cocktail party to mark her 28th birthday, others at a nightclub called Nuthouse; yet another version placed their meeting on the London Underground.

He was the third son of the then Crown Prince Gustaf Adolph, and a great-grandson of Queen Victoria through his late mother, Princess Margaret of Connaught. Something of a playboy, he fell for Lilian, and they were soon lovers. She came to Sweden to live openly, if discreetly, with Prince Bertil in 1957 and they remained together until his death in January 1997, having finally been allowed to marry only in 1976.

A marriage had not at first been permitted owing to the strict rules of the Swedish royal house. Two of Prince Bertil’s brothers had married commoners and had renounced their rights to the throne, effectively dropping out of royal life.

Prince Bertil was needed as the most active male member of the royal family after his father and grandfather, especially following the death of his eldest brother, Crown Prince Gustaf Adolph, in a plane crash in 1947. At that time old King Gustaf V was still alive. He was succeeded by his son, Gustaf VI Adolph in 1950, and he lived until 1973, disapproving of divorcees. The heir, the present King Carl XVI Gustaf, was less than a year old when his father was killed, and there was a strong possibility that Prince Bertil might have had to serve as Regent.

King Gustaf Adolph asked Prince Bertil not to marry Lilian until after his death. Ironically, her first public appearance at the Swedish court was for the 90th birthday celebrations of the King in 1972. But she was a well-known figure in international society, and she and Prince Bertil were frequently photographed at their villa in the South of France in magazines such as Point de Vue.

Times had changed by the time that King Carl Gustaf came to the throne, and he himself was married to a commoner. Prince Bertil therefore married Lilian on December 7 1976 at the Palace Church of Drottiningholm in the presence of the King and the Queen. A game old couple, they honeymooned in Kenya and at their French villa.

Thereafter Princess Lilian appeared as publicly at court as she had previously done privately. Also, every year from 1976 until 2005 she attended the Nobel Prize-giving ceremony, adorned in royal jewels and Sweden’s highest order of chivalry (the Seraphim). It was only at the age of 91 that she discontinued this tradition, deciding that she was too old.

Prince Bertil died aged 84 on January 5 1997, with Princess Lilian at his side. In her years of widowhood she continued to undertake royal engagements and to support many of her husband’s causes.

In 2000 she published a book about her life with Prince Bertil. Five years later she celebrated her 90th birthday, when it was noted that she was as active as ever as she attended a flamenco festival at the House of Dance and a smoking dinner at Nalen. Refusing to allow a fuss to be made, she asked for no personal presents, preferring people to make donations to SOS Children’s Villages. “I have most things,” she said.

Inevitably she was asked for the secret of her longevity, and she replied: “I think that the work – and laughter – keeps me somewhat young in mind. I don’t do gymnastics or exercise. But I do feel the same wish to help as my husband did.”

The Princess remained supremely elegant, liking to wear high heels and haute couture clothes. She loved practical jokes and was fortified by the love of Queen Silvia, to whom she was especially close, and the younger members of the Swedish royal family.

White orchids invariably adorned the Villa Solbacken, where she lived under the care of a rota of three nurses.

At the time of her death, she was the oldest member of the Swedish royal family, entirely accepted by all generations of that family.

There were no children of either of her marriages.

HRH Princess Lilian of Sweden, born August 30 1915, died March 10 2013

[리아]

릴리안 왕자비가 세상을 뜨셨군요... 삼가 고인의 명복을 빕니다.

[astrid]

글 쓰자마자 답글을.... 허허허 .....어허허헣ㅎㅇㅎ

[sympathy]

에궁~ 돌아가셨군요.. ㅠㅠ
고인의 명복을 빕니다.. ㅠㅠ

[chiro]

안타깝게도 기품과 명예 전통을 수호하던 왕실의 어른들이 슬슬 사라져가고 있슴.
그나마 스웨덴 왕실의 중심을 잡는데 한목하고 있던 릴리안왕자비도 가고 앞으론 더 무게감 없는 왕실이 될듯.

[chiro]

릴리안 할머니가 비중있는 왕실공무를 수행하지 않았고 사실상 왕실쪽에서 의미있는 인물이 아니어도 그냥 살아있으면서 가끔 얼굴이라도 비쳐주는것이 왕실에 무게감을 더해주는 겁니다. 왕의 숙모인것은 사실이고 이양반 삶의 스토리만으로도 스웨덴왕실에 호감을 더하게 될테니 말입니다.

[위험한 사치]

고인의 명복을 빕니다.

[맘이바다]

고인의 명복을 빕니다
예전 세대의 왕족들이 확실히 더 기품있게 느껴지네요

[yeosinhan]

둘 사이에 자녀는 없나보네요..ㅜㅜ 삼가 고인의 명복을 빕니다

[♥수진♥]

결국 가셨네요... ㅠㅠ

[Marilyn]

이분의 대한 이력리 오늘아침(3월12일)신문에 상세히 나왔네요.

[주준희]

딴 말이지만 마지막 사진에 저 가수가 저런 짓 하는 거요..... 서양에선 너그러운 일인가요? 전 어르신한테 다리까지 올리고 저러는게 좀 꼴불견이네요. ㅠ,ㅠ

[astrid]

개인적으로는 알지도 못하는 할머니 사진 올리는 것보다는 저의 할머님들을 추모하는 글, 사진들을 올리고 싶습니다만은...
솔직히 영국여왕등 만수무강 하시라는 글 보면 오글 거립니다
릴리안 공주가 도도해보이는 모습과는 달리 유머스러운 분이셨다고 해요. 그래서 재롱떤게 아닌가 싶어서 이사진도 불펌해서 올렸 사옵니다.