You do not know the language of the country you would rule? You've never even been there? In addition, you come from a simple, clerical family, and you do not have a single drop of blue blood in your veins? Nothing is lost - you have a chance to sit on the throne anyway. There are two conditions:it must be Sweden and you must be really lucky.
It was thanks to a bizarre misunderstanding and coincidence that Jean Baptiste Bernadotte, the founder of the dynasty that still rules Sweden, became king, bearing the names of Karl Johan from 1810, and reigning as Charles XIV John from 1818. His interesting biography by the Swedish researcher Margaret Beckman was recently published by the Gdańsk publishing house Finna (under the title "Jean Baptiste Bernadotte").
The book concisely describes the entire career of a simple French soldier who, thanks to luck and talent, climbed to the highest heights:he was appointed by Napoleon Bonaparte as marshal of France, and also awarded the title of princely.
The French Emperor definitely underestimated Bernadotte. As it turned out completely wrong.
You will read about it on paper, but in the meantime I will try to answer one simple question:how did the Swedes choose Bernadotte as their ruler?
Ending monarchy and Napoleon behind the fence
In 1810, Jean Baptiste Bernadotte was a popular general, but in the eyes of the soldiers rather than Napoleon Bonaparte. The latter wrote about him that he was a moderately gifted commander whom nature endowed with too much vanity.
The emperor of the French was already heartily fed up with the marshal's shoes - he avoided meeting him and seriously wondered how to send him here to a distant and less prominent position. The spice of the whole situation was added by their family ties - Bernadotte married Eugénie Désirée (Eugenia Desideria), who was also the sister-in-law of Józef Bonaparte and… ex-fiancée of Napoleon himself!
The Swedes knew very well about the relationship between the marshal, and recently also prince Bernadotte, with the Bonaparte family. On the other hand, they had no idea that the famous general had fallen out of favor. And that's where all the embarrassment came out .
Charles XIII, king of Sweden and Norway (here he reigned as Charles II). It was Bernadotte who succeeded him.
In the spring of 1810, the Swedish authorities began looking for a successor to the aging, sick and childless King Charles XIII. Initially, the choice fell on his cousin Carl August von Schleswig-Holstein, but the latter was so upset that, hit by apoplexy, he fell off his horse and gave up his ghost. Then Charles XIII decided to consult the most powerful ruler in Europe at that time:Napoleon Bonaparte.
The emperor of the French doesn't understand what is written to him
All signs in heaven and earth indicate that the French ruler did not fully understand what he was asked about, or that he simply downplayed the letter from the elderly Swedish king. Charles XIII hoped that Bonaparte would propose the French heir to the Swedish throne - someone from his family or from those closest to him.
Meanwhile, he wrote back polite, but without any particulars. To quote Margareta Beckman, Napoleon expressed his sympathy and expressed his support for the union between Denmark and Sweden. However, he did not mention any French candidate for the throne of Sweden.
Some felt that the power in the north simply did not interest the busy autocrat. Others assumed, however, that Bonaparte had left the Swedes a free hand and that they had to find a suitable French for themselves . A pro-French party quickly arose and began to promote the candidacy of none other than Jean Baptiste Bernadotte.
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King Charles XIV of Sweden, King of Sweden at the head of an army moving ... against the French.
Family ties played their part again - not so long ago, the Marshal hosted Count Gustav Mörner in Lübeck with honors, and now his son approached him with a proposal to claim the throne of Sweden.
King… by misunderstanding?
Then things turned out swiftly:the proposal immediately reached Napoleon's ears, directly from Bernadotte, who was asking for his opinion. At the same time, the Swedish MP in Paris assured that the plans are as serious as possible. Looking at it, Napoleon was not too thrilled with the idea. By the way, what happened must have come as a surprise to him.
The next month he tried to find a better candidate - he proposed his stepson Eugéne de Beauharnais, then Murat, whom he wanted to remove from the Neapolitan throne, or one of the marshals, such as Berthier or Massény. The children of his brother Louis Bonaparte were also involved.
All in vain - the only candidate the Swedes were willing to accept was Marshal Bernadotte, despised by Napoleon. Admittedly, the secret commission rated the competing prince von Augustenburg the highest, but it had only one objection to the French - not knowing the Swedish language.
The solemn coronation of Jean Baptiste Bernadotte. Image by Jacob Munch.
In the end, it was Bernadotte who won the parliamentary vote (and by acclamation!). On the one hand, the candidate himself got involved in the elections by sending his private MP. On the other, the Swedes firmly believed that they would win the gratitude and favor of the French Emperor . Imagine their surprise when Napoleon reacted harshly, writing to Charles XIII that… this was not what he had expected.
At this stage, however, it could not be undone. Napoleon just couldn't decide how to approach the situation:on the one hand, he allowed Bernadotte to leave and even handed him a large sum of money (a million francs!). On the other hand, he said goodbye to him without the slightest sign of friendship.
As soon as Jean Baptiste Bernadotte was adopted by Charles XIII (as Karl Johan), the French emperor sent an ultimatum to Sweden demanding - contrary to earlier agreements - that England be declared war.
Napoleon did not even want to negotiate directly with Bernadotte, thus again expressing his dislike of the future king. Two years were enough, and it took a heavy toll on him:in 1812, the former general of his army, and now the heir to the Swedish throne, joined the VI anti-Napoleonic coalition and went to war with the man to whom he owed his brilliant career.
Source:
The article is based on the book:Margareta Beckman, Jean Baptiste Bernadotte:How a soldier of Napoleon's army became heir to the Swedish throne , Finna 2011