Prince Julian of Sweden, son of HRH Prince Carl Philip and HRH Princess Sofia, Duke and Duchess of Värmland, is due to be christened in the Royal Chapel of Drottningholm Palace tomorrow. Not only was his birth significant in its difference. but his christening will break a 43-year-old royal tradition.
On 7th October 2019 King Carl XVI Gustav of Sweden, Julian's grandfather, issued a statement officially splitting the Royal House from the Royal Family, as the Norwegian King had done a number of years before. He relieved the children of Carl Philip and Sofia, as well as the children of Princess Madeleine and Christopher O’Neill, from duties incumbent on representing the head of state. Therefore, they are still to be styled as princes or princesses and dukes or duchesses of their provinces, and they remain in the line of succession to the Throne. They do, however, drop the rank of Royal Highness. The King and Queen, naturally, the Crown Princess, her husband and their children, Prince Carl Philip, Princess Sofia, Princess Madeleine and, actually, the one sister of the King, Princess Brigitta, because she married a prince rather than a commoner, themselves remain in the Royal House.
The significance of Prince Julian is that he is the first member of the Swedish Royal Family to be born under this new House Law and was therefore born 'plain' Prince Julian. He has also, to my knowledge, not been assigned a monogram, the first in recent history, although he is expected to be assigned a Coat of Arms carrying the usual Quarter dedicated to the province of which he is duke, in this case Halland. We shall have to wait and see if he is invested with the usual christening set of the Order of the Seraphim but it is highly debatable if he will receive the Chain as depicted on the graphic shown above as this was taken from the Arms of the King's uncle, Prince Bertil, who was the last Duke of Halland.
His christening tomorrow is significant because it was announced that it would not be televised live, the first since that of Crown Princess Victoria in 1977. Almost in a turnaround, Swedish public broadcaster SVT confirmed a week later that they will be in the Royal Chapel to record the ceremony which will be aired on Sunday in a 45-minute summary.
Bishop Johan Dalman and chaplain of the Royal Court, Michael Bjerkhagen, will conduct the service. Julian will wear the traditional royal christening gown which will have his name embroidered on it after the ceremony. It remains to be seen who exactly will attend and who Julian's godparents will be as, officially, this will be a private family event and not an occasion of state significance.