Charles Edward was imprisoned until 1946 . He was originally charged with Crimes against humanity and the trial was held . Though he was exonerated of complicity in actual war crimes , he was judged to have been " an important Nazi " . Only his failing health saved him from remaining in prison . Another factor for leniency towards him was the fact that in April 1946 , his daughter Sybilla had given birth to a son , the future King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden , who became , upon birth , third-in-line to the Swedish throne . In January 1947 , Sybilla 's husband died in a plane crash , and in October 1950 , King Gustaf V of Sweden died , at which point Charles Edward 's grandson became the Crown Prince of Sweden . In that same year 1950 ( or August 1949 , according to his ODNB entry ) , after several appeals , Charles Edward was sentenced by a denazification court as a '' Mitläufer '' and '' Minderbelasteter '' ( roughly : follower and of lesser guilt ) , fined ( DM 5,000 ) and almost bankrupted . Had he been convicted for the greater charge of " crimes against humanity , " he would have been liable for a death sentence , and even otherwise , to criminalize the future king 's grandfather for " crimes against humanity " would lead to major embarrassment in the immediate term and could have ramifications in years to come . The lesser sentence was therefore handed out
in a plane crash
1947 KLM Douglas DC-3 Copenhagen accident
Charles Edward, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha