Sweden bids farewell to Princess Lilian

A coffin draped in Sweden's blue and yellow flag was placed on a catafalque and topped by a crown once belonging to Sweden's Princess Eugenie at the Stockholm Royal Chapel funeral, which was officiated in Swedish and in English.

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Skies were clear and temperatures hovered around zero as the funeral cortege then advanced through the Swedish capital, before the princess was laid to rest at the royal burial grounds in Haga Park on the outskirts of the city.

"It was a declaration of love, to be there without being seen," Bishop Emeritus Lars-Göran Lönnermark said at the service, referencing the Welsh-born princess 33-year wait before being able to marry her lifelong love Prince Bertil.

"In this life choice of hers, there must have been a lot of pain," he said.

Apart from the Swedish royal family, Denmark's Queen Margrethe II - a niece of the princess by marriage - and Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt were among the invited guests. Princess Lilian's blood family in Wales was represented by Barbara Davis, daughter of the princess's cousin.

IN PICTURES: Scenes from Princess Lilian's funeral

Sweden's Queen Silvia held the hand of her son Carl Philip as the now-grown children of King Carl XVI Gustaf said farewell to the woman dubbed by Swedish media as "the grandmother they never had."

Nick Howe, chaplain of Stockholm's Anglican church, read in English from Corinthians. There were a number of other British touches to the service, which saw a union flag placed by the altar and which included hymns Jerusalem and For All the Saints, in Ralph Vaughan Williams' arrangement. British Ambassador Paul Johnston attended the service with his wife Nicola.

Born Lilian Davies in the Welsh mining city of Swansea in 1915, Princess Lilian died on Sunday at the age of 97, after suffering from Alzheimer's.

The former factory worker met her Swedish prince during World War II when he was stationed at the Swedish embassy in London. The couple's romance flourished and she moved in to his London flat after hers was damaged in an air raid.

IN PICTURES: People at the palace share their thoughts about Princess Lilian

However, the prince's father, King Gustaf VI Adolf, refused to give his blessing to a marriage so as not to jeopardise the future of the monarchy.

When Bertil's eldest brother, Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf, died in a plane crash, he left behind an infant son who would one day inherit the throne.

But Bertil's two other brothers had already relinquished their places in the line of succession by marrying commoners, and Lilian was forced to stay in the shadows.

IN PICTURES: Click here for a walk through the life of the Princess

Once the new king married in 1976, one of his first moves was to allow Bertil and Lilian to wed, which they did in December 1976, 33 years after meeting. She was 61, he was 64.

Bertil, who died in 1997, once said that one of his biggest regrets was that the couple had to sacrifice having children in order to protect the throne.

Princess Lilian maintained an active life for nearly a decade following Bertil's death, taking over many of his patronages and attending royal events as one of the family's most senior members.