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Carl XVI Gustaf (Carl Gustaf Folke Hubertus) (born April 30, 1946), styled His Majesty The King, is the King of Sweden. He acceded to the throne on September 15, 1973, upon the death of his grandfather, King Gustav VI Adolf.

The king married Silvia Sommerlath on June 19, 1976.

They have three children:

• HRH Princess Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden, Duchess of Westrogothia (1977- )
• HRH Prince Carl Philip, Duke of Wermelandia (1979-)
• HRH Princess Madeleine, Duchess of Helsingia and Gestricia (1982-)

The King's duties, according to the constitution, are of a representative and ceremonial nature. He pays State Visits abroad and receives those to Sweden, opens the Annual Session of the Parliament, Chairs the Special Council held during a change of Government, holds regular Information Councils with Ministers, Chairs the meetings of the Foreign Affairs Council, and receives and signs credentials of foreign ambassadors to Sweden - and signs those of Sweden to other countries. The King holds the highest ranks in the three branches of the Swedish Armed Forces.

The King is passionate about the environment, technology, agriculture, trade, and industry.

He is the protector of the Swedish Royal Academies, and takes active part in the proceedings of a few of them. He also is the Honorary Chairman of the World Scout Foundation, and often participates in scout activities both in Sweden and abroad.

Worldwide, Carl XVI Gustaf is probably best known as the presenter of the Nobel Prizes each year. He also hands over the Polar Music Prize.

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Her Majesty Queen Silvia of Sweden (Silvia Renate Bernadotte, née Sommerlath, born 23 December 1943) is the wife of King Carl XVI Gustaf, Sweden's monarch, and the mother of the heir apparent to the throne, Crown Princess Victoria. She is styled Her Majesty the Queen and is in Sweden most often referred to as Queen Silvia.

Before her marriage to the king of Sweden, Silvia Sommerlath worked at the Argentinian Consulate in Munich, was an educational host during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, and served as the Deputy Head of Protocol for the Winter Games in Innsbruck in Austria. She also was briefly a flight attendant.

She is an educated interpreter and speaks six languages: Swedish, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and English. She also is largely fluent in sign language for the deaf.

Though initially cool to the idea of a commoner queen, the Swedish press quickly warmed to Queen Silvia and soon began publishing admiring articles about how easily she fit into the country's expectations of queenly deportment. On the occasion of the Queen's 50th birthday, she had revived the popularity of the monarchy. 'With Silvia, the republic died.'

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Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden (Victoria Ingrid Alice Désirée) (born July 14, 1977), Duchess of Västergötland, is the heir apparent to the Swedish throne. She is the eldest child of King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia, and belongs to the House of Bernadotte. She is, currently, the only female heir apparent in the world (though there are several females who are heirs-apparent of an heir-apparent) and is usually styled HRH the Crown Princess. She is currently 184th in the Line of Succession to the British Throne through her father who is a great-great-grandson of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom.

In addition to her studies, Victoria has worked as a trainee at the United Nations in New York and at the Swedish Embassy in Washington, DC, and she has also participated in a three week introductory course to the Swedish Defence Forces that aims to prepare its participants for international missions. Victoria has also studied conflict solving and international peacekeeping, completed an educational programme with the SIDA, Swedish International Development Agency, interned at the Swedish Trade Council in Berlin and Paris, and studied forestry and agriculture.

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