More Romance & Renunciation

Sweden's ramrod King Gustaf Adolf still had an heir last week in his son Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf, but he could be sure of little else. Romance had already induced one of his brothers and two of his grandsons to renounce their right of succession to one of the few good thrones left in Europe. Last week it took a third grandson, 22-year-old Prince Bertil Gustaf Oscar Charles Eugen, Duke of Halland, Chevalier of the Order of the Seraphim, third son of the Crown Prince. Bertil's eye had fallen on one Christina Brambeck, yellow-haired young daughter of a Swedish Army captain. He had told his older brother Sigvard about it before Sigvard swept up his own commoner love, a German film extra, and beat Bertil to a London altar (TIME, March 5). Last week Swedish courtiers were certain that Bertil of the royal Bernadottes intended to marry Christina as soon as he gets his Lieutenant's commission in the Swedish Navy. Christina's army officer father promptly denied the story, swore that his daughter would not dream of marrying the prince. Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf announced that the prince would not dream of marrying the captain's daughter. But in Cannes King Gustaf was worried. He was reported to have said to Spain's onetime King Alfonso XIII at a dinner party, "I intend to do all I can to stop the boy."

Of what was once a surfeit of young Swedish princes, only three remained in good standing last week: the Crown Prince's eldest, Gustaf Adolf, who is safely and royally married but childless; his unmarried youngest, Carl Johan; and unmarried first cousin Carl. Royalty's joke of the week was that the Bernadottes were playing "Going to Jerusalem" for the throne.

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