Posted by Bjarne Birkrem (bjarbirk) on 8/5/2008, 9:54:38, in reply to "Religion of a consort"
138.62.101.134
The Norwegian Constitution only specifies that the King (or reigning Queen) has to be a Lutheran (and during the very recent modifications of the links between church and State, this requirement was kept intact at the personal request of King Harald). However, since the heir will one day succeed to the throne, it follows implicitly that the heir also has to be a Lutheran. (Otherwise, at the very least he or she would have to convert immediately on succeeding to the throne...)
However, there is no formal requirement as far as the spouses are concerned. Since 1814, Norway has had two queens who were born as Catholics and who did not convert: Queen Désirée (consort of Carl XIV/III Johan) and Queen Josephine (consort of Oscar I). In the case of Queen Désirée, her religion was no obstacle to her husband's coronation, since she was absent anyway - shortly after her husband had become Crown Prince of Sweden, she returned to France, and did not return until 1823, five years after her husband's accession and coronation. Nobody suggested to hold a special coronation ceremony just for her (again, the Constitution at the time only specified that the King should be crowned and anointed, the consort was not mentioned). I do not think Désirée (or, as the Swedes insist on calling her, Desideria 
) was ever crowned in Sweden either, but our Swedish posters may correct me if I am wrong.
In the case of Queen Josephine, on the other hand, the Norwegian bishops were unwilling to crown a Catholic queen, and they initially intended to crown only the new King, Oscar I (who had converted to the Lutheran church along with his father in 1810). As it turned out, King Oscar was reluctant to be crowned without his wife, and as a result, his Norwegian coronation never took place. In Sweden, if I am not mistaken, they were both crowned, so the primate of the Swedish church, the Archbishop of Uppsala, was clearly less rigid than the Norwegian bishops...
As far as the change from one protestant denomination to another is concerned, I am not sure what the situation was regarding the various Swedish and Norwegian consorts. Queen Lovisa (consort of Carl XV/IV), had been baptised in the Dutch Reformed Church, but I do not know whether she became a Lutheran. Queen Maud of Norway and her cousin Crown Princess Margareta of Sweden were baptised in the Church of England, but again, I am not sure whether they became Lutherans. (I seem to remember reading somewhere that Queen Maud sometimes attended services in the English church in Oslo, which may indicate that she remained an Anglican.) As for Queen Louise of Sweden (the second wife of Gustaf VI Adolf), I am not sure which church she was baptised in in the first place - after all, she was born in Germany as a princess of Battenberg before becoming "only" the British Lady Louise Mountbatten, so it is possible that she was a Lutheran from the start (?).
--Previous Message--
: All the talk of the recent conversion to
: Anglicanism of Mr. Peter Phillips' fiancee
: (Miss Autumn Kelly, raised as a Roman
: Catholic) reminds me to ask, for
: clarification: is there a religious
: requirement regarding the SPOUSES of the
: Scandinavian monarchs?
:
: I know that the sovereigns themselves are
: all required to be Evangelical Lutherans.
: And I don't believe Norway, Sweden, or
: Denmark has any succession regulation
: equivalent to the 1701 Act of Settlement in
: the UK -- which specifically discriminates
: against Catholics (and if you will,
: Catholics alone. If one reads the law
: carefully, he will observe that any wording
: of exclusion, regarding the marriages and
: accessions of British dynasts, is aimed
: directly at them).
:
: Someone on the ERMB said that Crown Princess
: Mary (raised as a Presbyterian) was not
: obliged to join the ELC of Denmark, on the
: occasion of her marriage to Crown Prince
: Frederik. Is that true? In that case, I
: guess her conversion (if indeed it occurred)
: was purely voluntary ...
:
:
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