Princess Margaret of Connaught
Princess Margaret of Connaught (Margaret Victoria Charlotte Augusta Norah; 15 January 1882 – 1 May 1920) was Crown Princess of Sweden as the first wife of the future King Gustaf VI Adolf. Known in Sweden as Margareta, she was the elder daughter of Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught, third son of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, and Princess Louise Margaret of Prussia. Her marriage produced five children.
Also recorded as Margaret of Connaught · Margareta, Crown Princess of Sweden · Margareta, Duchess of Scania · Margaret Victoria Charlotte Augusta Norah of Connaught
Princess Margaret of Connaught

Public domain
- Born
- 1882.
- Died
- 1920.
- Nationality
- United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
- Occupation
- painter, bandy player, aristocrat, philanthropist and fundraiser.
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
VALÉORINE documentary reading
Documentary summary
Princess Margaret of Connaught (Margaret Victoria Charlotte Augusta Norah; 15 January 1882 – 1 May 1920) was Crown Princess of Sweden as the first wife of the future King Gustaf VI Adolf. Known in Sweden as Margareta, she was the elder daughter of Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught, third son of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, and Princess Louise Margaret of Prussia. Her marriage produced five children.
Admitted source layer · organised and presented by VALÉORINE
Note VALÉORINE
No house-authored Note is published until its assertions and sources pass the VALÉORINE evidence contract. The documentary article remains available in full while that enrichment is being consolidated.
Documentary enrichment in progress · no unsupported statement published
Reference Check
Propose documentary evidence for Princess Margaret of Connaught. A contribution is never written directly as fact: identity, source, rights and evidence gates still decide.
Sign in to contribute
Documentary evidence
Evidence Panel
not yet certified
- Identity
- resolved
- Independent source families
- 0
- Admitted assertions
- 0
- Open conflicts
- 0
Authority files
wikidata · Q158173 · wikipedia · Princess Margaret of Connaught
In this article
Early life
Early life
Margaret was born on 15 January 1882 at Bagshot Park and baptised in the Private Chapel of Windsor Castle on 11 March by the Archbishop of Canterbury. Her godparents were Queen Victoria (her paternal grandmother); the German Emperor (her maternal great-granduncle, who was represented by the German Ambassador, Count Münster); the German Crown Princess (her paternal aunt, who was represented by her sister, Princess Christian of Schleswig-Holstein); Prince and Princess Friedrich Karl of Prussia (her maternal grandparents, for whom her paternal uncle the Duke of Edinburgh and aunt Princess Beatrice of the United Kingdom stood proxy); the Duchess of Cambridge (her paternal great-grandaunt, who was represented by her grandniece Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll); the Prince of Wales (her paternal uncle) and Prince Charles of Prussia (her great-grandfather, for whom her paternal uncle Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany stood proxy). She was known as "Daisy" to her family, a nickname later passed down to her granddaughter Queen Margrethe II of Denmark. Margaret grew up as a member of the British royal family, taking part in family holidays and weddings. She was a bridesmaid along with her sister at the wedding of their paternal cousins the Duke and Duchess of York on 6 July 1893. Margaret was confirmed in March 1898, also in the Private Chapel of Windsor Castle.
Marriage
Marriage
When Margaret was 23 and her younger sister Princess Patricia of Connaught was 18, both girls were among the most beautiful and eligible princesses in Europe. Their uncle, Edward VII, wanted his nieces to marry a European king or crown prince. In January 1905, the Duke and Duchess of Connaught visited Portugal, where they were received by King Carlos and his wife, Amélie of Orléans, whose sons, Luís Filipe, Duke of Braganza, and Prince Manuel, entertained the young British princesses. The Portuguese expected one of the Connaught princesses would become the future Queen of Portugal. The Connaughts continued their trip to Egypt and Sudan. In Cairo, they met Prince Gustaf Adolf of Sweden, the future Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden, grandson of the Swedish King Oscar II. Originally, Margaret's sister Patricia had been considered a suitable match for Gustaf Adolf; without his knowledge, a meeting was arranged with the two sisters. Gustaf Adolf and Margaret fell in love at first sight; he proposed at a dinner held by Lord Cromer at the British Consulate in Egypt and was accepted. Margaret's parents were very happy with the match. Gustaf Adolf and Margaret married on 15 June 1905 in St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle. Margaret's bridesmaids were her sister Princess Patricia of Connaught, cousins Princess Beatrice of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Princess Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg, and first cousin once removed Princess Mary of Wales. The couple spent their honeymoon at Adare Manor in County Limerick, Ireland, and arrived in Sweden on 8 July 1905. One of Margaret's wedding presents was the Connaught tiara, which remains in the Swedish royal jewellery collection today. Newspaper articles reporting on the valuation of her mother's estate for Probate in 1917 note that Margaret received a £25,000 marriage settlement from her parents. The couple had five children: Prince Gustaf Adolf, Duke of Västerbotten, who predeceased his father Sigvard Bernadotte, Count of Wisborg Ingrid, Queen of Denmark Prince Bertil, Duke of Halland Carl Johan Bernadotte, Count of Wisborg Margaret was a dedicated mother to her children, and was determined to spend time with them. She was not keen on letting them be raised by nursery staff, as was the convention of the day. When Gustaf Adolf's father, Crown Prince Gustaf, acceded to the throne as King Gustaf V in 1907, the couple became Crown Prince and Princess of Sweden.
Crown Princess
Crown Princess
The marriage between Margaret and Gustaf Adolf is described as a happy love match. Gustaf Adolf felt great pressure from the "Prussian" military discipline with which he had been raised by his mother, and he was greatly affected by and attracted to Margaret's differing English customs. The visiting Infanta Eulalia of Spain wrote that the Crown Princess gave the Swedish court "just a touch of the elegance of the Court of St James's" and of how much Margaret loved her life in Sweden. After her arrival in Sweden, Margaret, who in Sweden was called "Margareta", received lessons in the Swedish language, and asked to be educated in Swedish history and social welfare. After two years, she spoke good Swedish. She was also eager to find out more about Sweden, and on many occasions went on incognito trips. During her first years in Sweden, Margaret behaved with great seriousness and was therefore regarded as stiff, but the view of her changed because of her great interest in sports, where she showed a more relaxed and natural manner. Margaret took a great interest in many forms of sports; she used the winters for skiing, ice skating and playing bandy, and played tennis and golf during the summers. She also corresponded with various relatives. Margaret was also interested in art, and was an admirer of the works of Claude Monet. She photographed, painted, and took a great interest in gardening. She and her spouse received Sofiero Palace as a wedding gift, and they spent their summers there and made a great effort creating gardens in an English style on the estate; her children participated in their improvement. In 1915, Margaret as Kronprinsessan Margareta published the book Vår trädgård på Sofiero ("Our Garden at Sofiero") and two years later also Från blomstergården ("From the Flower Garden") illustrated with her own drawings and photographs, which were sold for the benefit of household schools with childcare. During World War I, Margaret created a sewing society in Sweden to support the Red Cross. The society was called Kronprinsessans Centralförråd för landstormsmäns beklädnad och utrustning ("The Crown Princess's central storage for clothing and equipment of the home guard"), which was to equip the Swedish armed forces with suitable underwear. When paraffin supplies ran low she organized a candle collection, and in November 1917 she instituted a scheme to train girls to work on the land. She also acted as intermediary for relatives separated by the war. With her help, private letters and requests to trace men missing in action were passed on. She was also active in her work on behalf of prisoners. She aided prisoners of war in camps around Europe, especially British nationals. Margaret's efforts during the war were pro-British, in contrast to her mother-in-law's strictly pro-German attitude. In 1917, Margaret organized Margaretainsamlingen för de fattiga ("The Margaret fundraiser for the poor"). At the end of the war, when the final steps towards full democracy were taken in Sweden, Margaret's positive attitude to reform influenced her husband the Crown Prince. Unlike the attitude of her reform-hostile in-laws, King Gustaf and Queen Victoria, this is believed to have eased political tensions and preserved the Swedish monarchy.
Death
Death
At 2:00 am on Saturday, 1 May 1920, her father's 70th birthday, Margaret died suddenly in Stockholm of "blood poisoning" (sepsis). Sometime before this she had suffered from measles, which aggravated her ear, and she underwent surgery to remove a mastoid. Since the previous Sunday, she had been suffering from pain in her face from something below her eye, and doctors decided to perform another procedure. On Thursday, symptoms of erysipelas appeared under her right ear. She fell gravely ill on Friday night when symptoms of sepsis became evident, and she died within hours. At the time, she was eight months pregnant with her sixth child. In announcing her death during traditional International Workers' Day celebrations, Swedish Prime Minister Hjalmar Branting said: "the ray of sunshine at Stockholm Palace has gone out" (Solstrålen på Stockholms slott har slocknat). In Britain, there had been reports that Margaret was unhappy in Sweden and there were dubious rumours that her death had been a suicide. Margaret was buried according to her specific and detailed wishes, written in 1914. She asked to be buried in her wedding dress and her veil, with a crucifix in her hands, in a simple coffin made from English oak and covered in British and Swedish flags. She requested that there should be no lying-in-state after her death.
Arms
Arms
Upon her marriage in 1905, Princess Margaret adopted the arms of a Princess of Sweden and Duchess of Scania, with an inescutcheon of her previous arms: the arms of the United Kingdom, with an inescutcheon of Saxony, the whole differenced by a label argent of five points, the first and fifth bearing fleurs-de-lys azure, the second and fourth shamrocks vert, and the central point a cross gules. The inescutcheon of Saxony was removed by King George V in 1917.

Princess Margaret of Connaught, Margaret of Connaught
Wikimedia Commons

Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf (future King Gusatf VI Adolf) and Crown Princess Margaret of Sweden
know
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
1882
Princess Margaret of Connaught born at Bagshot Park Mansion.
1920
Princess Margaret of Connaught died at Stockholm.
Legacy
In 2021, an exhibition Daisy. Crown Princess Margareta, 1882–1920 opened at the Royal Palace in Stockholm. The late British rose breeder David C. H. Austin released Rosa 'Crown Princess Margareta' in 2000. Princess Margaret was an accomplished landscape gardener and had a prominent role in the design and care of the gardens at Sofiero Castle.
Primary material
Documents and archives
reference work
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q158173: Princess Margaret of Connaught
Reputable secondary · Wikimedia Foundation
- “Princess Margaret of Connaught”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
scholarly publication
- The garden that we made by the Crown Princess of Sweden (née the Princess Margaret of Connaught), 1920
Scholarly · Crossref registry · 1920
Honours
Member, Second Class, of the Royal Order of Victoria and Albert (VA) Companion of the Imperial Order of the Crown of India (CI) 25 July 1905: Lady of Justice of the Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem (DStJ)
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Court Circular. The Times. 8. 13 March 1882.
- 2.Monarchy of Denmark. 80 fakta om H.M. Dronningen. kongehuset.dk.
- 3.National Portrait Gallery. The Duke and Duchess of York and Bridesmaids.
- 4.Lars Elgklou (Swedish): Bernadotte. Historien - och historier - om en familj (English: "Bernadotte. The history - and stories - of a family") Askild & Kärnekull Förlag AB, Stockholm 1978. .
- 5.Marriage. St George's Windsor.
- 6.THE ROYAL HONEYMOON. Cheshire Observer. 24 June 1905.
- 7.Connaught Tiara. Crown Princess Victoria. 2010-06-15.
- 8.The Times. (Saturday, 4 August 1917). Pages 11, "Will of The Duchess of Connaught". Newspapers.com. Retrieved 11 February 2025, from https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-times-will-of-the-duchess-of-connaug/165202896/.
- 9.Van der Kiste, John. Northern Crowns: The Kings of Modern Scandinavia. Sutton. 1996. 9780750911382.
- 10.Van der Kiste, pp. 76–77.
- 11.Van der Kiste, p. 76.
- 12.Lars Elgklou, Bernadotte. Historien - och historier - om en familj. Askild & Kärnekull Förlag AB, Stockholm. 1978. .
- 13.Crown Princess of Sweden – Death After Short Illness. The Times. 15. 3 May 1920.
- 14.John Van der Kiste in Northern Crowns; the Kings of Modern Scandinavia, , p. 78.
- 15.Bernadotte, Wieselgren & Ohlmarks in Sveriges hundra konungar, Biblioteksböcker, Stockholm 1956, p. 563.
- 16.David Williamson in Debrett's Kings and Queens of Europe, , p. 136.
- 17.Princess Margaret's Last Wishes – Wedding Dress as Shroud. The Times. 11. 10 May 1920.
- 18.Daisy. Crown Princess Margareta. Swedish Royal Court.
- 19.David Austin Roses. Crown Princess Margareta.
- 20.London Gazette issue=27822 date=28 July 1905 page=5219
- 21.Heraldica – British Royalty Cadency
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
scholarly publication
The garden that we made by the Crown Princess of Sweden (née the Princess Margaret of Connaught), 1920Crossref registry
Verifiedreference work
Wikidata, structured authority record Q158173: Princess Margaret of ConnaughtWikimedia Foundation
Partially resolvedreference work
Partially resolved
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Paintings
18,623 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Princess Feodora Adelheid of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-AugustenburgArtist
- Princess Irmingard of BavariaArtist
- Princess Louise of Orange-NassauArtist
- Princess Luise of Anhalt-BernburgArtist
- Princess Maria TenishevaArtist
- Princess Marie Alexandrine of Saxe-Weimar-EisenachArtist
- Princess Marie of Hesse-KasselArtist
- Princess Marie, Princess Valdemar of DenmarkArtist
Best supported in this field
For owners
Own a work by Princess Margaret of Connaught?
A specialist will read what you send and tell you what the house can establish, what it cannot, and whether the object is suited to sale. There is no charge and no obligation. The object stays with you throughout; nothing is shipped to us unless it is arranged in writing beforehand.