Alice de Toledo Sommerlath (née Alice Soares de Toledo; 25 May 1906 – 9 March 1997) was the mother of Queen Silvia, wife of King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden.

Early life

Sommerlath was born in the municipality of São Manuel in the Brazilian state of São Paulo. She was the youngest child and only daughter of Elisa Novais Soares (1881–1928) and her husband Arthur Floriano de Toledo (1873–1935).

Marriage and later life

Alice Soares de Toledo married German entrepreneur Walther Sommerlath (1901–1990) on 10 December 1925 at Santa Cecília, São Paulo, eventually moving to Germany with him. There, the couple had four children: In 1932, date on which Brazilian women were considered eligible to vote, she came to hold in her own right: the title of elector, nomenclature that is a remnant of the Brazilian monarchical period. From 1937 through 1947, they lived in Berlin. From 1947 to 1957, the family lived in São Paulo, where Sommerlath's husband held positions such as president of the Brazilian subsidiary of Swedish company Uddeholm AB. In 1957, the Sommerlaths returned to Heidelberg. Sommerlath was widowed in October 1990. She suffered from heart disease and senile dementia and died at Drottningholm Palace, west of Stockholm, in 1997. Her remains were buried in Heidelberg beside her husband's.