| Margaret of Connaught | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crown Princess of Sweden Duchess of Scania | |||||
 Princess Margaret of Sweden, 1905 | |||||
| Born | (1882-01-15)15 January 1882 Bagshot Park,Surrey, England | ||||
| Died | 1 May 1920(1920-05-01) (aged 38) The Royal Palace,Stockholm, Sweden | ||||
| Burial | 10 May 1920 Royal Cemetery, Solna, Sweden | ||||
| Spouse | |||||
| Issue | |||||
| |||||
| House | Saxe-Coburg and Gotha[a] | ||||
| Father | Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn | ||||
| Mother | Princess Louise Margaret of Prussia | ||||
Princess Margaret of Connaught (Margaret Victoria Charlotte Augusta Norah; 15 January 1882 – 1 May 1920) wasCrown Princess of Sweden as the first wife of the futureKing Gustaf VI Adolf. She was the elder daughter ofPrince Arthur, Duke of Connaught, third son ofQueen Victoria of the United Kingdom, and his wifePrincess Louise Margaret of Prussia. Known in Sweden asMargareta,[b] her marriage produced five children.
Margaret was born on 15 January 1882 atBagshot Park andbaptised in the Private Chapel ofWindsor Castle on 11 March 1882 bythe Archbishop of Canterbury. Her godparents were Queen Victoria (her paternal grandmother); theGerman Emperor (her maternal great-granduncle, who was represented by theGerman Ambassador,Count Münster); theGerman Crown Princess (her paternal aunt, who was represented by her sister,Princess Christian of Schleswig-Holstein);Prince andPrincess Friedrich Karl of Prussia (her maternal grandparents, for whom her paternal unclethe Duke of Edinburgh and auntPrincess Beatrice of the United Kingdom stood proxy); theDuchess of Cambridge (her paternal great-grandaunt, who was represented by her grandniecePrincess Louise, Duchess of Argyll); thePrince of Wales (her paternal uncle) andPrince Charles of Prussia (her great-grandfather, for whom her paternal unclePrince Leopold, Duke of Albany stood proxy).[1] She was known as "Daisy" to her family.
Margaret was alsoconfirmed in the Private Chapel of Windsor Castle in March 1898.
Margaret grew up as a member of theBritish royal family, taking part in family holidays and weddings. She was a bridesmaid along with her sister atthe wedding of their paternal cousinsthe Duke andDuchess of York on 6 July 1893.[2]
When Margaret was 23 and her younger sisterPrincess Patricia of Connaught was 18, both girls were among the most beautiful and eligible princesses in Europe. Their uncle,Edward VII, wanted his nieces to marry a European king or crown prince. In January 1905, the Duke and Duchess of Connaught visited Portugal, where they were received byKing Carlos and his wife,Amélie of Orléans, whose sons,Luís Filipe, Duke of Braganza, andPrince Manuel, entertained the young British princesses. The Portuguese expected one of the Connaught princesses would become the futureQueen of Portugal.
The Connaughts continued their trip toEgypt andSudan. InCairo, they met Prince Gustaf Adolf of Sweden, the futureGustaf VI Adolf of Sweden, grandson of the Swedish KingOscar II. Originally, Margaret's sister Patricia had been considered a suitable match for Gustaf Adolf; without his knowledge, a meeting was arranged with the two sisters.[3] Gustaf Adolf and Margaret fell in love at first sight; he proposed at a dinner held by Lord Cromer at the British Consulate in Egypt and was accepted. Margaret's parents were very happy with the match.
Gustaf Adolf and Margaret married on 15 June 1905 inSt. George's Chapel atWindsor Castle.[4] Margaret's bridesmaids were her sisterPrincess Patricia of Connaught, cousinsPrincess Beatrice of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha andPrincess Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg, and first cousin once removedPrincess Mary of Wales. The couple spent their honeymoon atAdare Manor inCounty Limerick, Ireland, and arrived in Sweden on 8 July 1905.[5]
One of Margaret's wedding presents was the Connaughttiara, which remains in the Swedish royal jewellery collection today.[6] Newspaper articles reporting on the valuation of her mother's estate for Probate in 1917 note that Margaret received a £25,000 marriage settlement from her parents.[7]
The couple had five children:
Margaret was a dedicated mother to her children, and was determined to spend time with them. She was not keen on letting them be raised by nursery staff, as was the convention of the day.[8]
When Gustaf Adolf's father, Crown Prince Gustaf, acceded to the throne as KingGustaf V in 1907, the couple became Crown Prince and Princess of Sweden.
_Adolf_of_Sweden_w_fam_07729v.jpg)
The marriage between Margaret and Gustaf Adolf is described as a happy love match.[3] Gustaf Adolf felt great pressure from the "Prussian" military discipline with which he had been raised by his mother, and he was greatly affected by and attracted to Margaret's differing English customs.[3] The visitingInfanta Eulalia of Spain wrote that the Crown Princess gave the Swedish court "just a touch of the elegance of the Court of St James's" and of how much Margaret loved her life in Sweden.[9]
After her arrival in Sweden, Margaret, who in Sweden was called "Margareta", received lessons in the Swedish language, and asked to be educated in Swedish history and social welfare. After two years, she spoke good Swedish. She was also eager to find out more about Sweden, and on many occasions went on incognito trips.[10] During her first years in Sweden, Margaret behaved with great seriousness and was therefore regarded as stiff, but the view of her changed because of her great interest in sports, where she showed a more relaxed and natural manner. Margaret took a great interest in many forms of sports; she used the winters forskiing,ice skating and playing hockey (what is nowadays calledbandy), and playedtennis andgolf during the summers. She also corresponded with various relatives.
Margaret was also interested in art, and was an admirer of the works ofClaude Monet.[8] She photographed, painted, and took a great interest in gardening. She and her spouse receivedSofiero Palace as a wedding gift, and they spent their summers there and made a great effort creating gardens in anEnglish style on the estate; her children participated in their improvement. In 1915, Margaret asKronprinsessan Margareta published the bookVår trädgård på Sofiero ("Our Garden at Sofiero") and two years later alsoFrån blomstergården ("From the Flower Garden") illustrated with her own drawings and photographs, which were sold for the benefit of household schools with childcare.
During World War I, Margaret created a sewing society in Sweden to support the Red Cross. The society was calledKronprinsessans Centralförråd för landstormsmäns beklädnad och utrustning ("The Crown Princess's central storage for clothing and equipment of the home guard"), which was to equip the Swedish armed forces with suitable underwear. When paraffin supplies ran low she organized a candle collection, and in November 1917 she instituted a scheme to train girls to work on the land. She also acted as intermediary for relatives separated by the war. With her help, private letters and requests to trace men missing in action were passed on. She was also active in her work on behalf of prisoners. She aided prisoners of war in camps around Europe, especially British nationals. Margaret's efforts during the war were pro-British, in contrast to her mother-in-law's strictly pro-German attitude. In 1917, Margaret organizedMargaretainsamlingen för de fattiga ("The Margaret fundraiser for the poor"). At the end of the war, when the final steps towards full democracy were taken in Sweden, Margaret's positive attitude to reform influenced her husband the Crown Prince. Unlike the attitude of her reform-hostile in-laws, King Gustaf and Queen Victoria, this is believed to have eased political tensions and preserved the Swedish monarchy.[11]
.jpg)
At 2:00 am on Saturday, 1 May 1920, her father's 70th birthday, Margaret died suddenly inStockholm of "blood poisoning" (sepsis). Sometime before this she had suffered frommeasles, which aggravated her ear, and she underwent surgery to remove amastoid. Since the previous Sunday, she had been suffering from pain in her face from something below her eye, and doctors decided to perform another procedure. On Thursday, symptoms oferysipelas appeared under her right ear. She fell gravely ill on Friday night when symptoms of sepsis became evident, and she died within hours.[12] At the time, she was eight months pregnant with her sixth child. In announcing her death during traditionalInternational Workers' Day celebrations, Swedish Prime MinisterHjalmar Branting said: "the ray of sunshine atStockholm Palace has gone out" (Solstrålen på Stockholms slott har slocknat).[13][14]
In Britain, there had been reports that Margaret was unhappy in Sweden and there were dubious rumours that her death had been a suicide.[15]
Margaret was buried according to her specific and detailed wishes, written in 1914. She asked to be buried in her wedding dress and her veil, with a crucifix in her hands, in a simple coffin made from English oak and covered in British and Swedish flags. She requested that there should be nolying-in-state after her death.[16]
In 2021, an exhibitionDaisy. Crown Princess Margareta, 1882–1920 opened at the Royal Palace in Stockholm.[17]
The late British rose breederDavid C. H. Austin releasedRosa 'Crown Princess Margareta' in 2000. Princess Margaret was an accomplished landscape gardener and had a prominent role in the design and care of the gardens at Sofiero Castle.[18]
Upon her marriage in 1905, Princess Margaret adopted the arms of a Princess of Sweden and Duchess of Scania, with an inescutcheon of her previous arms: the arms of the United Kingdom, with an inescutcheon of Saxony, the whole differenced by a label argent of five points, the first and fifth bearing fleurs-de-lys azure, the second and fourth shamrocks vert, and the central point a cross gules. The inescutcheon of Saxony was removed by King George V in 1917.[20]
 Margaret's coat of arms as a British princess from 1917 |  Margaret's coat of arms as Crown Princess of Sweden from 1917 |
| Name | Birth | Death | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prince Gustaf Adolf, Duke of Västerbotten | 22 April 1906 | 26 January 1947 | Father of the current KingCarl XVI Gustaf of Sweden. |
| Prince Sigvard, Duke of Uppland | 7 June 1907 | 4 February 2002 | Later Sigvard Bernadotte,Count of Wisborg. |
| Princess Ingrid | 28 March 1910 | 7 November 2000 | Laterqueen consort of Denmark. She was the mother of QueenMargrethe II of Denmark, who herself is the mother of the current KingFrederik X of Denmark. |
| Prince Bertil, Duke of Halland | 28 February 1912 | 5 January 1997 | |
| Prince Carl Johan, Duke of Dalarna | 31 October 1916 | 5 May 2012 | Later Carl Johan Bernadotte,Count of Wisborg. He was the last living great-grandchild ofQueen Victoria andPrince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Artists | |
| People | |
| Other | |