Filip II | |
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King Filip II in 1950 | |
King of Sweden | |
Reign | 3 December 1944 – 9 April 2021 |
Predecessor | Andreas |
Successor | Gustav VI |
Born | 10 June 1921 Copenhagen, Denmark |
Died | 9 April 2021 | (aged 99)
Issue | Eric, Crown Prince of Sweden Prince Christian, Duke of Värmland Infanta Anne, Duchess of Valencia |
House | Glücksburg |
Father | Andreas of Sweden |
Mother | Princess Alice of Hesse and by Rhine |
Religion | Protestant |
Filip II Ludvig (Prince Filip of Denmark; 10 June 1921 – 9 April 2021) was King of Sweden from 3 December 1944 until his death in 2021.
Philip was born into the Danish royal family in Denmark. One year after his birth, his father became King of Sweden; as such, he was raised in Stockholm. He was the longest-reigning Swedish monarch. Filip died on 9 April 2021, two months before his 100th birthday.
Early Life[]
Born Prince Phillip of Denmark of Glucksburg to Prince Andrew, a cousin of the King of Denmark. With growing instability in Denmark at the 1920s the family took a reduced allowance. This gave Andrew somewhat of a commoners reputation. When King Adolph Gustav of Sweden died without a male heir in 1922 the Swedish Parliament elected Prince Andrew as King of Sweden.
At age 1 he became the Duke of Gotland, the traditional title of the heir to the Swedish throne. At age 18 he entered the Swedish Navy and he saw action in the Polish-German War but the Swedes pulled out of the war in 1940. He married Rixa of Oldenburg (1924-2024), the daughter of Nikolaus, Grand Duke of Oldenburg, in 1944, they had three children: Eric (1945-1976), Christian (1947-) and Anne (1950-). Later that year his father died and he became King.
Reign[]
Phillip took the regnal named Filip and thus became King Filip II. His son Eric took his position as Duke of Gotland. He oversaw the building of the Hastighetsväg which improved the infrastructure of the country and the accessibility of the remote villages and towns and allowed for them to be improved. In 1976 his son Eric and his wife Helen Romanov dies in a plane crash. They had one child, Gustav who became the Duke of Gotland and heir apparent. Filip, Bernard I of the Netherlands, Margaret II of Denmark and Harald V of Norway established a annual meeting of the Monarchs of the House of Glücksburg in 1993.
In the beginning of his reign he funded the Swedish football league expanding it to 5 tiers. In 1954 the King was honored with presenting the Filip Cup, the domestic knockout style tournament and the second biggest domestic cup after the league title. The Swedish National Team also play at Filipstadium in Stockholm and a third tier football team is named Filip F.K.
Filip passed away at the age of 99, after 75 years on the throne and is the longest reigning sovereign in history. He was succeeded by his grandson Gustav, who took the name Gustav VI. In his will he asked that his funeral be used as the Glucksberg Congress so even in death he would be promoting diplomatic relations.
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