"Commoner" Daniel Westling Marrying Swedish Crown Princess Has Aristocratic Blood
Just as I "predicted" early last year it turns out that the "Svensson" (commoner) Daniel Westling who yesterday married the "Swedish" (really French-German) Crown Princess Victoria actually has aristocratic blood. In the article A Svensson in the Swedish palace? Pass the smelling salts from February 2009 I wrote:
Either Daniel Westling is of "royal stock" (crypto-bloodline) or he will never end up on the Swedish throne. The other alternative is that if Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden marries Daniel she will pass on the right to the throne to her younger sister Princess Madeleine or her younger brother Prince Carl Philip. It's going to be interesting to see how they deal with this.
A quick wiki search reveals that Daniel’s great- grandmother was of the “Nobel” Bååt family line (Sometimes spelled Båth or Båt). More bloodline associations will probably surface.
The bloodline associations sure surfaced eventually. According to the genealogist Björn Engström, Daniel Westling is descended from both Swedish and Finnish aristocracy, like Pehr Evind Svinhufvud. The Svinhufvud's were a Swedophone noble family tracing their history back to Dalarna, Sweden. Pehr Evind was the third President of Finland from 1931 to 1937.
Here is Pehr Evind Svinhufvud with the Order of the Seraphim decoration. The president of Finland has a coat of arms designed shortly after entering office. The arms are surrounded by Sweden's highest decoration: Order of the Seraphim.
Mr Daniel Westling will also be knight of the order of the Seraphim after the wedding.
Commoner marrying Swedish crown princess 'has aristocratic roots'
By Nick Squires | telegraph.co.uk
The "commoner" who is to marry Sweden's crown princess next week has artistocratic roots, according to a new book.
Daniel Westling has been mocked for his provincial roots and country accent, and has undergone careful grooming by courtiers, language tutors and a public relations agency ahead of his wedding later this month to Crown Princess Victoria.
Sweden's King Carl XVI Gustav was reportedly initially hostile to the idea of his 32-year-old daughter marrying the commoner.
But, according to the genealogist Björn Engström, the former fitness instructor is descended from both Swedish and Finnish aristocracy.
Mr Westling can count among his distant relatives members of parliament, courtiers, royal retainers and even a woman convicted of witchcraft.
One of Mr Westling's ancestors was a member of the court of the 16th century Swedish King Karl IX and he can also trace lineage back to the aristocratic Svinhufvud family.
That connection means that he is also distantly related to Pehr Evind Svinhufvud, who was president of neighbouring Finland in the 1930s.
"If you look at his ancestors as a whole, they're an unusually honest family. There are very few criminal convictions," Mr Engström told The Local, an English language newspaper in Sweden. (Well, he'll be marrying into the world's biggest criminal network now.)
"Someone was convicted of drunkenness in 1817 and ... another ancestor was convicted of witchcraft, but she was not drowned like many others - she was later pardoned."
The couple's wedding, in Stockholm on June 19, when Mr Westling will become His Royal Highness Prince Daniel, has been feted as Europe's biggest royal event since the Prince of Wales married Lady Diana Spencer in 1981.
Mr Westling's immediate family is of more ordinary standing – his father is a retired social services worker and his mother a former post office employee.
Source: telegraph.co.uk
