Prince Carl of Sweden and Norway, Duke of Västergötland (27 February 1861 – 24 October 1951) was a Swedish prince. Through his daughters Märtha and Astrid, for whom he arranged dynastic marriages, he is an ancestor of current members of the Grand Ducal Family of Luxembourg, Belgian royal family and Norwegian royal family.
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Early life
Prince Carl was born on 27 February 1861 at his parents' residence in the Arvfurstens palats (Palace of the Hereditary Prince), an 18th-century palace located at Gustav Adolfs Torg in central Stockholm. Born into the House of Bernadotte, he was the third son and child of the then Prince Oscar and Princess Sophia. His father was the younger brother and heir presumptive of the reigning king of Sweden-Norway, the sonless King Charles XV, and his mother was the youngest daughter of Wilhelm, Duke of Nassau. Upon the death of Charles XV on 18 September 1872, Carl's father ascended the Swedish and Norwegian thrones as King Oscar II.
Carl was known as "the Blue Prince" (Blå Prinsen) because he often wore the blue-coloured uniform of the Life Regiment, to which he belonged in a ceremonial manner.