Count Lennart Bernadotte of Wisborg

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Prince Lennart as a baby with his parents.

Gustaf Lennart Nicolaus Paul Bernadotte, Count of Wisborg (8 May 1909 – 21 December 2004), was Prince of Sweden and Duke of Småland from 1909 to 1932. He was born at the Royal Palace in Stockholm, as the son of Prince Wilhelm of Sweden and his wife Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia.

Under the Swedish Act of Succession, a prince or princess marrying without the consent of the Sovereign forfeits the right of succession for themselves, their children and their descendants. They give up their titles and assume the family name of Bernadotte. By his marriage on March 11, 1932 he was subsequentially stripped of his title and became Mr. Lennart Bernadotte.

Since 1868, Swedish princes who have lost their succession rights have received noble titles conferred by other reigning monarchs. The Grand Duke or Grand Duchess of Luxembourg has conferred the title of Count of Wisborg, and in one case the King of Belgium has conferred the title Prince Bernadotte. Thus on ennoblement by the Grand Duchess Charlotte of Luxembourg, on July 2, 1951 he became Lennart Bernadotte, Count of Wisborg.

King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, who lost the right to confer noble titles in the new constitution of 1974, does still retain the prerogative to restore royal titles, but has chosen not to do so.

Lennart Bernadotte concentrated his energy on his estate, the island of Mainau in Lake Constance, Germany, where he died, and on his charitable fund, the Lennart Bernadotte Stiftung.

[edit] Marriages and issue

Karin Nissvandt (7 July 1911 - 9 September 1991)
- Civil: Prince's Row Register Office, London, February 20, 1932
- Religious: London, March 11, 1932
- Children: Birgitta Bernadotte, Countess of Wisborg, (May 5, 1933), Marie Louise Bernadotte, Countess of Wisborg, (November 6, 1935), Jan Bernadotte, Count of Wisborg, (January 9, 1941), Cecilia Bernadotte, Countess of Wisborg, (April 9, 1944)
- Divorced: 1972
Sonja Haunz (born May 7, 1944)
- On the Isle of Mainau, April 29, 1972
- Children: Bettina Bernadotte, Countess of Wisborg, (1974), Björn Bernadotte, Count of Wisborg, (1975), Catherina Bernadotte, Countess of Wisborg, (1977), Christian Bernadotte, Count of Wisborg (1979) and Diana Bernadotte, Countess of Wisborg, (1982).