The King of Sweden has reduced the number of family members who will continue to receive taxpayer funds, stripping five of his grandchildren of their royal highness status, according to an official statement.
The children will keep their titles of prince/princess and duke/duchess, but won’t be expected to perform royal duties, Fredrik Wersäll, marshal of the realm, said in a statement on the Swedish Royal Court’s website on Oct. 7.
The only two grandchildren of King Carl Gustaf who were excluded from the move are the children of Sweden’s Crown Princess Victoria—Princess Estelle and her younger brother, Prince Oscar.
The parents of the five, Prince Carl Philip and his wife, Princess Sofia—father and mother to Alexander and Gabriel—and Princess Madeleine and her husband, Christopher O’Neill, who are the parents of Leonore, Nicolas and Adrienne, welcomed the change on social media.
In an Instagram post on Monday, Princess Madeleine—the youngest of King Gustaf’s three children—said the change had been “planned for a long time,” adding that it gives their children a “greater opportunity to shape their own lives as private individuals.”
Her brother, Prince Carl Philip, also welcomed the news on Instagram, saying it would give his sons, Prince Alexander and Prince Gabriel, “freer choices in life.”
King Carl Gustaf and his wife, Queen Silvia, have three children—Crown Princess Victoria, Prince Carl Philip, and Princess Madeleine.
In 1980, the Swedish monarchy became the first to change its rules of succession so that the first-born child of the monarch is heir to the throne, regardless of gender.
