Folke Bernadotte was born in Stockholm into the House of Bernadotte, making him a relative to the current royal family in Sweden. He was the son of Count Oscar Bernadotte of Wisborg and his wife Ebba Munck af Fulkila. Bernadotte attended school in Stockholm, after which he entered training to become a cavalry officer at the Military Academy Karlberg. On 20 May 1948, Folke Bernadotte was appointed the United Nations's mediator in Palestine, the first official mediator in the UN's history. He succeeded in achieving an initial truce during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.