Alice de Toledo Sommerlath (née Alice Soares de Toledo; 25 May 1906 – 9 March 1997) was the mother of

Queen Silvia Queen or QUEEN may refer to: Monarchy * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom ** List of queens regnant * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mothe ...

, wife of

King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden Carl XVI Gustaf (Carl Gustaf Folke Hubertus; born 30 April 1946) is King of Sweden. He ascended the throne on the death of his grandfather, Gustaf VI Adolf, on 15 September 1973. He is the youngest child and only son of Prince Gustaf Adolf, Du ...

Early life

Sommerlath was born in the

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

São Manuel São Manuel is a municipality in the state of São Paulo in Brazil. The population is 41,123 (2020 est.) in an area of 651 km². The elevation is 709 m. History On April 19, 1850, lieutenant Manoel Gomes de Faria, Dona Delfina Carolina Gomes, ...

in the

Brazilian state The federative units of Brazil ( pt, unidades federativas do Brasil) are subnational entities with a certain degree of autonomy (self-government, self-regulation and self-collection) and endowed with their own government and constitution, which ...

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for 'Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the GaWC a ...

, she was the youngest child and only daughter of Elisa Novais Soares (1881–1928) and her husband Arthur Floriano de Toledo (1873–1935).

Marriage and later life

On 10 December 1925, Alice Soares de Toledo married at Santa Cecília, São Paulo to German entrepreneur Walther Sommerlath (1901–1990), eventually moving to

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

with him. There, the couple had four children: *Ralf Sommerlath (born 26 November 1929) *Walther Ludwig Sommerlath (1934–2020) *Hans Jörg Sommerlath (1941–2006) *

Silvia Renate Sommerlath Silvia () is a female given name of Latin origin, with a male equivalent Silvio and English-language cognate Sylvia. The name originates from the Latin word for forest, ''Silva'', and its meaning is "spirit of the wood"; the mythological god of ...

(born 23 December 1943), married in 1976 to

Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden Carl XVI Gustaf (Carl Gustaf Folke Hubertus; born 30 April 1946) is King of Sweden. He ascended the throne on the death of his grandfather, Gustaf VI Adolf, on 15 September 1973. He is the youngest child and only son of Prince Gustaf Adolf, D ...

From 1937 through 1947, they lived in Berlin. From 1947 to 1957, the family lived in

, where Sommerlath's husband held positions such as president of the Brazilian subsidiary of Swedish company Uddeholm AB. In 1957, the Sommerlaths returned to

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...

. Sommerlath was widowed in October 1990. She suffered from heart disease and

senile dementia Dementia is a disorder which manifests as a set of related symptoms, which usually surfaces when the brain is damaged by injury or disease. The symptoms involve progressive impairments in memory, thinking, and behavior, which negatively affe ...

and died at

Drottningholm Palace The Drottningholm Palace ( sv, Drottningholms slott) is the private residence of the Swedish royal family. Drottningholm is near the capital Stockholm. Built on the island Lovön (in Ekerö Municipality of Stockholm County), it is one of Swede ...

Ekerö Municipality Ekerö Municipality ( sv, Ekerö kommun) is a municipality in the province of Uppland in Stockholm County in east central Sweden. The name derives from the name of the main island within the municipality whose name is Ekerön, and literally mean ...

, west of

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

in 1997. Her remains were buried in Heidelberg beside her husband's.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Soares de Toledo, Alice 1906 births 1997 deaths People from São Paulo (state) Brazilian people of Portuguese descent Brazilian people of indigenous peoples descent Brazilian emigrants to Germany German people of Brazilian descent Brazilian emigrants to Sweden