In royal families the rules of inheritance are usually known in advance. In Sweden, however, one ten-year-old boy turned them upside down - not because of politics, but because of a testament written more than a century ago. Prince Alexander, the eldest son of Prince Carl Philip and Princess Sofia, is fifth in line for the throne. But when it comes to one particular palace, he is first - ahead of his father, ahead of his aunt, Crown Princess Victoria, and ahead of all the rest.

The palace is called Stenhammar and lies about 120 kilometres southwest of Stockholm, near Flen. The estate stretches over 2,000 hectares, of which 1,200 are forest - which is exactly why it is among the favourite residences of King Carl Gustaf and Queen Silvia. They withdrew here during the pandemic, and in August 2023 they welcomed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his wife Olena here. Less well known than the other palaces, Stenhammar has always had a more family than official character.

The key is that the palace is not the king's private property. Since 1903 it has belonged to the state - but not like the ordinary royal residences. The former owner, Robert von Kraemer, left the estate to the state under one very precise condition: it must be given for free exclusively to a „member of the royal family with a right to the throne”. And then he added one more condition that today decides everything - priority goes to whoever holds the title of Duke of Södermanland, the province in which the palace stands.

This is exactly where little Alexander comes in. According to Swedish royal expert Sara Eriksson, he is the only member of the family who fulfils the letter of the testament - Duke of Södermanland by birth, a title granted to him by his grandfather. King Carl Gustaf gave each of his grandchildren a dukedom, and to the firstborn son of his only son he gave one of the most historic titles - the one that coincides with the land on which Stenhammar stands. Coincidental or not, the result is clear.

There is a quiet irony in all of this too. It is known that in the first years of his reign Carl Gustaf would have preferred his heir to be a son, rather than the firstborn daughter. Sweden nevertheless did not give up the reform that equalised the rights of men and women even at the very top of the state - Victoria remained Crown Princess. But the old testament from 1903 remained untouched, and through it flowed exactly what history had closed off through the main door.

So a child of ten could one day become the keeper of Stenhammar - an estate built in 1603, with more than 150 buildings from barns to houses and cabins, and today devoted mainly to sustainable farming and livestock. Royal households change, the order of succession changes, but a sheet of paper written 120 years ago still decides to whom a king's favourite palace belongs. Sometimes the past knows how to be more stubborn than any new law.