Bernadotte – the French private who became King of Sweden

Sweden is one of the last remaining monarchies, but few know that its royal lineage is entirely French and descends from a man who started out as a private in the French army, rose to the rank of Marshal in Napoleon's army, and was finally invited to become King of Sweden. This impressive man's name was Bernadotte, and today we will tell you some anecdotes from his adventurous life.

Bernadotte fights the pogromists

The last serious pogrom against the Jews of Sweden occurred in 1838, in Stockholm. The King of Sweden, Charles XIV Johan, took a personal part in suppressing the riots. He seized a sword and almost ran to the barracks of the Royal Guard to lead the attack of the Skåne Brigade on the rioters. His courtiers, with great difficulty, managed to get their hands on him and drag him back.

The king was in his seventies. He was Gascon by origin, not even Gascon, but Biarnish (which the Gascons consider a wild and disordered people). Before he ascended the Swedish throne in 1818, Karl Johan was Marshal of France and bore the surname… Soon everyone will answer me in chorus – “Bernadotte!” and they will be not-entirely-right. The current Swedish dynasty is not entirely Bernadotte. Napoleon granted Jean Bernadotte the title of Prince of Ponte-Corvo, and that is how he is marked in the heraldic lists. True, ‘Ponte-Corvo’ means “bridge of the Goblin”, which is a somewhat strange name for a royal dynasty, so we will let him remain in our memory as Karl-Johan-Bernadotte. Karl Johan is one of my favorite figures in the history of 19th-century Europe. Everything about him arouses sympathy, empathy, or understanding in me.

Chronically ill

Jean-Baptiste Jules Bernadotte was always late. For a general, that was too much even in that golden age of generals.

Bernadotte was consistently late for the Battle of Würzburg, hid in the forests on the outskirts of Paris during Bonaparte's Thermidor coup (and this, while dressing his wife in men's clothing), arrived too late for the Battle of Jena, missed the Battle of Eylau, was late for the Battle of Wagram, was delayed before Großbirn, did not make it to the Battle of Dennewitz, and already as the Swedish heir to the throne, arrived too late in Paris, when Bonaparte's former favorites, the Marshals of France, all those kings, dukes, and princes who had risen from the ranks of surrogates, servants, doctors, lawyers, etc., were working to break Napoleon's spirit at Fontainebleau, urging him to abdicate his rule. Bernadotte was not late for his two major battles – Austerlitz, where he fought alongside France, and Leipzig, where he fought against France.

Eau de Cologne and hair curlers

Jean-Baptiste Jules Bernadotte always took care of his appearance. Until the day he died, he slept with curlers in his hair. He used to spray cologne everywhere, considering it a very beneficial activity for himself and those around him. He wasted countless bottles of cologne. Everyone around him grinned: curlers, cologne… All he needed was to apply blush!

Jean-Baptiste Jules Bernadotte had been suffering from tuberculosis since his youth. He contracted it in the army, where he enlisted as a private, and by the age of 30 the disease had reached the stage of lung hemorrhage. Bernadotte needed cologne to disinfect the air around him, acting on the secret recommendation of Doctor Pijoux, and without particularly publicizing his motives for doing so. And what about the curls in his hair?! Ah, the man was Gascon, that was important to him.

The crossing of the Alps that no one has heard of

Jean-Baptiste Jules Bernadotte crossed the Alps at the head of his troops, on a hasty journey on foot, through one of the most difficult routes to cross. The Alps had been crossed by Hannibal, Caesar, Suvorov, and Napoleon. But Bernadotte had prepared well for this crossing. He meticulously monitored the soldiers' preparation and equipment, used to send reconnaissance forces forward, fed his men hot food, and attached iron spikes to the soldiers' boots. Because of this, no one today remembers Bernadotte's journey through the Alps. The crossing turned out to be uninteresting, too boring for historians.

You don't choose your family (or rather, you do)

Jean-Baptiste Jules Bernadotte was a relative of Napoleon. Not by blood. Bernadotte's wife was for a time Bonaparte's fiancée. Then Bonaparte pursued Josephine Beaugrena, but, as befits a mountain man, he did not forget his previous love - he married the sister of his failed fiancée to his brother Joseph. Napoleon liked when everyone gathered together, under one roof, as befits a family. Bernadotte did not particularly like Napoleon, and he paid him back in kind. In his relationship, Napoleon acted alternately: sometimes he would assign him all sorts of troublesome tasks, and sometimes he would retire him. And so it went on for years.

I tell you, Napoleon was a tiresome relative. And a grudge-bearer. I wouldn't wish such a relative on anyone.

When Bernadotte loses his composure

Jean-Baptiste Jules Bernadotte was a passionate man. He was cautious in matters of war, protecting the lives of his soldiers, etc. On the personal level, however, the courage of the future king of the Swedes erupted to the right and left. For example, Bernadotte was once sent to serve as ambassador in Vienna, at the court of the Austrian emperor.

Six years earlier, the French had beheaded their queen, the Austrian princess Marie-Antoinette of Bourbon-Habsburg, and then had her infant son's head left in the prison. For all the years that followed Marie-Antoinette's murder, the French had been beating the Austrian troops on the thigh, day and night, in the fall, summer, spring and even winter. The ambassador received a cold reception in Vienna. When the ambassador hoisted the French flag, the citizens of Vienna wanted to tear it down, and Ambassador Bernadotte, with a pair of axes in his hands, charged into the Viennese crowd. This happened in the morning. Bernadotte, with coils in his hair, a robe wide open, and two axes in his hands, pounced on Mozart's countrymen. With great difficulty, using two harness poles taken from a carriage, they managed to pull the ambassador away from the crowd, and then he turned to throw stones at the crowd. The ambassador was dragged back to the embassy. From inside the embassy building itself, the ambassador managed to “fire a shot from his pistol, screamed loudly, and even, some say, howled like a wolf as the secretaries threw him to the carpet.”

An offer that cannot be refused

Jean-Baptiste Jules Bernadotte was very confident in himself. Once, he was sitting at home, after his official dismissal, and suddenly a foreigner came to visit him. A Swede. And he said to him: “Come to Sweden to be king! There’s going to be a vacancy here soon!” That’s all well and good, why not really go, since you’re retired, to work a little as a king?

There are no arguments “against”, there are only arguments “for”.

• First of all, I remind you, this is Gascony. These people really like to become kings.
• Secondly, it was not easy to be a king in Sweden at that time. There weren’t really many volunteers for the job. One king was shot dead in the middle of a masquerade ball. A second king was called, to his face, “an old fool.” The heir of the old fool (they found a Danish prince there) was found dead while hunting. The Swedes were told that the prince had died of his own accord. First he had died of a stroke, and the second time he had died when he fell from his horse. The Swedes didn’t fully believe this sacred truth, but they thought a bit in a thoroughly Swedish way, and with their bare hands they tore Ober-Goupmarshal Axel von Peiersen to pieces. In the middle of the street. They barely managed to bury this unpleasant incident.
  It seems that later they found a replacement for the heir who had died twice – some other Danish prince, but he was afraid. He didn't want to go to Sweden. In short, you have a chance, Jean!
• Thirdly, relations with the Bonaparte relative were now completely strained. He had to go! Go and be king! Serve Mother Sweden! The fact that the foreign Swede who had come to him held the formidable military rank of 'lieutenant', that he had no real connection to the high corridors of politics, that he was under legal investigation and so on – all this did not cause Bernadotte any embarrassment.

Bernadotte went to Sweden and became, first, the heir to the throne, and then also the king of Sweden. After that he also became the king of Norway. Whereas if he had suffered from an analytical mind, he would have rotted for the rest of his life as a simple marshal.

True, due credit must also be given to his relative, Bonaparte. He did not erect obstacles, this, out of the hope that in the climate of Stockholm, Bernadotte, who was suffering from tuberculosis, would not live long. In the climate of Stockholm, Bernadotte, who was suffering from tuberculosis, lived to be eighty-something, drinking himself drunk and pleasing the Swedish women who liked him along the way.
This trait of blondes – liking brunettes with enormous noses and bluish chins from too many whiskers – was highly appreciated by Jean-Baptiste Jules Bernadotte.

Jean-Baptiste Jules Bernadotte almost became commander of the Russian army

In the War of 1812. Emperor Alexander came to convince him personally. And Bernadotte didn't exactly resist!
“Let’s go and beat up my disgusting family soon, Sasha! Come on!”
But Sasha, as usual, was filled with sadness for some reason, began to worry for some reason, his spirits, for some reason, suddenly dropped, he cried a little, and in the end he left the city of Ovu (Turku), leaving Bernadotte behind, full of readiness for action and sincere bewilderment.

Jean-Baptiste Jules Bernadotte did not like journalists

They wrote unpleasant things about him. When Bernadotte was king of Sweden, he closed one of the newspapers, “Aftenbladet,” 23 times in a row. Each time, the newspaper was revived under a fresh and unexpected name. After the closure of “Aftenbladet,” “Aftenbladet II” appeared; they closed the second – “Aftenbladet III” emerged; they banned the third – and so it went on until “Aftenbladet XXIV.” “What kind of people are you anyway?” – Bernadotte said and pulled his hand away from the whole thing. – “Take care of normal conditions for the monarchy for me! You’re just getting on my nerves!” But he didn’t close number 24 anymore.

And why? It was because the Royal Court had sentenced the founder of the Swedish Drama Theater, Anders Lindbergh, to death. For insulting the king's honor. The king, upon learning of the sentence, immediately set about breaking all the laws, interfering with the independence of the judiciary, threatening the judges in all sorts of ways, intimidating them, and even running to get his sword. He constantly demanded that Lindbergh be acquitted.

The court yielded to the king's illegal demands and overturned the death sentence. Royal arbitrariness had the upper hand. They began to push Lindbergh out of the death cell. But the founder of the dramatic theater firmly refused to leave the cell. “No,” he said, “you will come and hang me according to the law!” The judges ran to the king. The king was lost in thought. While he was thinking (and he loved to sit and think) they again tried to pull Lindbergh out of the death cell and even threw him out of prison. Lindbergh, filled with righteous indignation against the violations of the law taking place before his eyes, tried to break back into prison.

But then the king came up with the solution to the problem! Lindbergh’s death sentence was reinstated. But at the same time a general pardon was declared. The king invented the reason for the pardon himself. The pardon was granted on the occasion of… Attention! Drums! The sound of the national anthem! …on the occasion of “the 24th anniversary of the landing of our revered monarch on Swedish soil.” Lindbergh turned pale, but stood with dignity in this injustice. The king congratulated himself on his sharpness of mind. The judges wiped the beads of sweat from their foreheads.

Bernadotte's tattoo

Everyone, of course, will not refrain from reminding me about Bernadotte's tattoo, which supposedly said, "Death to all kings and tyrants!". The said tattoo - no one saw it. Doctors, undertakers, mistresses - everyone was talking about it. The only argument in favor of the existence of the tattoo - Bernadotte never took off his shirt in public. Even in the palace, even in front of servants. Why? The whippings and the shavings leave eternal traces on the skin. Private Bernadotte was twice sentenced to corporal punishment. This embarrassed Bernadotte. One thing is a tattoo, another thing is a king who was whipped twice. You have to feel the difference.

Jean-Baptiste Jules Bernadotte, Prince of Pont-Corvois, Marshal of France, King of Sweden, son of a poor Gascon lawyer, gave Sweden two modest gifts:
Eternal peace and the compulsory education law.