Carl Bildt

Nils Daniel Carl Bildt (born 15 July 1949) is a Swedish politician and diplomat who was Prime Minister of Sweden from 1991-94. He was the leader of the Moderate Party from 1986-99. Bildt served as Sweden's Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2006-14.

He had been noted internationally as a mediator in the Yugoslav wars, serving as the European Union's Special Envoy to the Former Yugoslavia from June 1995, co-chairman of the Dayton Peace Conference in November 1995 and High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina from December 1995 to June 1997, immediately after the Bosnian War. From 1999 to 2001, he served as the United Nations Secretary-General's Special Envoy for the Balkans.

Background

Bildt was born on 15 July 1949 in Halmstad, Halland, to an old Norwegian-Danish-Swedish noble family traditionally domiciled in Bohus county. Bildt's father Daniel Bildt (1920–2010) was a former major in the reserves of the now defunct Halland Regiment and a former bureau director in the now defunct Civil Defense Board's Education Bureau. Daniel Bildt married Kerstin Andersson-Alwå in 1947. Carl Bildt's brother, Nils, was born in 1952. Bildt was married to Kerstin Zetterberg from 1974–75; to Mia Bohman (daughter of former Moderate party leader and Minister of Economy, Gösta Bohman) from 1984–97; and, since 1998, to Anna Maria Corazza. Bildt has three children; two from his second marriage and one from his third marriage.

Carl Bildt (1850–1931)

Baron Carl Nils Daniel Bildt (15 March 1850 in Stockholm – 26 January 1931) was a Swedish diplomat and historian. He spent most of his Foreign Office career as Swedish envoy in Rome and published extensively on Swedish historical topics relating to Rome and Italy. A son of Gillis Bildt, he inherited the baronial title on his father's death in 1894.

After a law degree from Uppsala and holding various lower-ranking diplomatic posts in London, Paris, Washington D.C., Berlin and Vienna, and as state secretary for foreign affairs, he was appointed Swedish envoy to Rome in 1889. He remained there until 1902 when he was transferred to the same position in London, but returned as envoy to Rome in 1905 and remained there as envoy until his retirement in 1920. He remained in Rome after retirement, died in 1931 and was buried in the Non-Catholic Cemetery for Foreigners there.

Throughout his years in Italy, Bildt published a number of works on Italian or Italo-Swedish topics, starting with his Anteckningar från Italien av en svensk diplomat ("Notes from Italy by a Swedish diplomat"), with historical descriptions of a number of Italian towns. He wrote essays on earlier Swedish visits to Italy, such as the one by King Gustav III in 1783, but his main focus was on Saint Bridget of Sweden who spent her last years in Rome and Queen Christina, who settled there after abdicating from the Swedish throne (1654) and converting to Roman Catholicism (1655). With his excellent connections in Rome, Bildt was able to access until-then unused sources in Roman public and private archives and published articles on many previously unknown episodes in and aspects of Christina's later life.