Posted by Robert
on 8/5/2008, 11:14:06, in reply to "Re: Religion of a consort"
81.224.221.43
--Previous Message--
: 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.
:
She was crowned in Storkyrkan in 1829.
: 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...
Or more obediant! 
:
: 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 (?).
:
:
RW
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