Carl Bildt

Who was Carl Bildt?

Baron Carl Nils Daniel Bildt 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, 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 and converting to Roman Catholicism. 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.