was born as Prince of Sweden and Duke of Östergötland, but he gave up those titles when he married below his station in 1937. King Leopold III of Belgium was the widower of Carl's sister, Astrid of Sweden, and he conferred the title of Prince Bernadotte upon his brother-in-law on the day of Carl's first marriage. It had its own coat of arms and was a noble title, that is a prince as a high rank of Belgian nobility, not a royal title. In Sweden, Carl's princely Bernadotte family was considered a part of the unintroduced nobility and joined a private club called Ointroducerad Adels Förening. Prince Carl Bernadotte's title is now extinct, as it was personal to him and his wives. His heirs were designated to be Counts or Countesses Bernadotte. Carl had only one child, Countess Madeleine Bernadotte.
Luxembourg
renounced his titles as Prince of Sweden and Duke of Gotland when he married below his station in 1888. However, he was allowed by his father, King Oscar II, to keep the courtesy title of Prince and then be styled as Prince Bernadotte. His and his wife's titles of nobility became official when he was created Prince Bernadotte and Count of Wisborg in 1892 by his maternal uncle, Grand Duke Adolphe of Luxembourg. Oscar's grandnephews, Sigvard, Carl Johan and Lennart, were also created Counts of Wisborg in Luxembourg in 1951. In those government documents, they were also styled as Prince Bernadotte, with their own specific arms for that title, a title which for them however remained largely out of use, unlisted in Swedish government publications and genealogical handbooks, but is used intermittently in other media and publicity. One of their widows, Marianne Bernadotte, survives as of 2019. Her late husband announced to Swedish media in 1983 that his title was Prince Sigvard Bernadotte. However, that was never approved or recognized by his nephew, King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, for which that king has been criticized. According to all six books of memoires by Sigvard, Carl Johan and Lennart Bernadotte, two of their wives and a more recent summary of these matters Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf of Sweden from the 1930s on had played an integral and abiding part in the removal and denial of their Swedish titles and privileges.
Napoleonic title
King Charles XIV John of Sweden, who had been born in France as Jean Bernadotte, was also often called Prince Bernadotte after the promotions he received from Napoleon I and before he was elected as Crown Prince of Sweden. Some Swedish experts have asserted that all of his male heirs have had the right to use that title, since the Swedish government never made all of the payments promised to Charles John to get him to give up his position in the Principality of Pontecorvo.
