Charles XIV John (Swedish: Karl XIV Johan; 26 January 1763 – 8 March 1844) was King of Sweden and Norway from 1818 until his death in 1844 and the first monarch of the Bernadotte dynasty. In Norway, he is known as Charles III John (Norwegian: Karl III Johan); before he became royalty in Sweden, his name was Jean-Baptiste Jules Bernadotte. During the Napoleonic Wars, he participated in battles as a Marshal of France.
Born in Pau in the region of southern France known as Béarn, Bernadotte joined the French Royal Army in 1780. Following the outbreak of the French Revolution, he demonstrated great military talent, rising rapidly through the ranks and becoming a brigadier general by 1794. He served with distinction in Italy and Germany, and was briefly Minister of War. His relationship with Napoleon was turbulent; nevertheless, Napoleon named him a Marshal of the Empire on the proclamation of the French Empire. Bernadotte played a significant role in the French victory at Austerlitz, and was made Prince of Pontecorvo as a reward. His marriage to Désirée Clary, whose sister was married to Joseph Bonaparte, made Bernadotte a member of the extended Imperial family.
In 1810, Bernadotte was unexpectedly elected the Crown Prince to the childless King Charles XIII of Sweden, thanks to the advocacy of Baron Carl Otto Mörner, a Swedish courtier and obscure member of the Riksdag of the Estates. He assumed the name Charles (Carl) after his adoptive father and John (Johan), which is a Swedish version of Jean. He was subsequently named regent and generalissimo of the Swedish Armed Forces, soon after his arrival becoming de facto head of state for most of his time as Crown Prince. In 1812, following the sudden unprovoked French invasion of Swedish Pomerania, Crown Prince Charles John was instrumental in the creation of the Sixth Coalition by allying with Alexander I of Russia and using Swedish diplomacy to bring warring Russia and Britain together in alliance. He then played a major role in the writing of the Trachenberg Plan, the war-winning Allied campaign plan, and commanded the Allied Army of the North that defeated two concerted French attempts to capture Berlin and made the decisive attack on the last day of the catastrophic French defeat at Leipzig.
Following the conclusion of the Leipzig campaign and after liberating Bremen and Lübeck from the French in late November 1813, Charles John invaded Denmark, aiming to knock Napoleon's last major ally out of the war to secure the Coalition's northern flank in preparation for the invasion of France in 1814 and to secure Norway for Sweden, as stipulated in the several treaties that created the Sixth Coalition. After a brief campaign that saw the defeat of the Danish Army, King Frederick VI of Denmark was forced to sign the Treaty of Kiel on 15 January 1814 that ceded Norway to Sweden, that in turn led to the Swedish–Norwegian War of 1814, where Norway was defeated in nineteen days. This put Norway into a union with Sweden, which lasted for almost a century before its peaceful 1905 dissolution. The Swedish–Norwegian war is viewed as Sweden's last direct conflict and war.
Upon the death of Charles XIII in 1818, Charles John ascended to the throne. He presided over a period of peace and prosperity, and reigned until his death in 1844.
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Early life and family
Jean Bernadotte was born on 26 January 1763 in Pau, the capital of the province of Béarn in the southwestern part of the Kingdom of France. He was the son of Jean Henri Bernadotte (1711–1780), prosecutor at Pau, and his wife (married at Boeil, 20 February 1754) Jeanne de Saint-Jean (1728–1809), niece of the lay abbot of Sireix. The family name was originally du Poey (or de Pouey), but was changed to Bernadotte – a surname of an ancestress at the beginning of the 17th century. He was the youngest of five siblings, two of whom died in childhood. Soon after his birth, Baptiste was added to his name to distinguish him from his elder brother Jean Évangeliste. Bernadotte himself added Jules to his first names as a tribute to the French Empire under Napoleon I.
At the age of 14, he was apprenticed to a local attorney. Aged 17, his father's death dissuaded him from following in his career.
Early military career
Bernadotte joined the army as a private in the Régiment Royal–La Marine on 3 September 1780, and first served in the newly conquered territory of Corsica. Subsequently, the Régiment stationed in Besançon, Grenoble, Vienne, Marseille and Île de Ré. He reached the rank of sergeant in August 1785 and was nicknamed Sergeant Belle-Jambe, for his smart appearance. In early 1790, he was promoted to adjutant-major, the highest rank for non-commissioned officers in the Ancien Régime.
Revolutionary Wars
Following the outbreak of the French Revolution, his eminent military qualities brought him speedy promotion. Bernadotte's promotions came both from the esteem of his commanders as well as from his men; having been elected to the rank of lieutenant colonel and colonel by his men, though he refused both nominations in favor of traditional advancement.
It was during this period of rapid advancement that the military qualities he became known for, daring assaults and gasconades, came to the fore. Of the latter, Bernadotte was gifted in his ability to inspire his men to prodigious feats of valor. He has been compared by historians to a fellow Gascon, d'Artagnan. One of his biographers asserts that Alexandre Dumas used Bernadotte as the model for his d'Artagnan. As Colonel and commander of the 71st Demi-Brigade, Bernadotte rallied his men, who were retreating in disorder before an Austrian attack, by tearing off his epaulettes, throwing them to the ground before his men, and shouting, “If you dishonor yourselves by flight, I refuse to remain your colonel!” Soldiers left the ranks, gathered his epaulettes, pressed them into his hands, formed ranks and reformed the line, and counter-attacked.
By 1794, he was promoted to brigadier, attached to the Army of Sambre-et-Meuse. After Jourdan's victory at Fleurus (26 June 1794), where he distinguished himself with a decisive attack and seizure of key terrain that led to the Austrian retreat, he became a divisional general.
Bernadotte played key roles throughout the next 18 months during the three French invasions into Germany; often employed in the place of honor during offensives, leading the vanguard, and in retreat as a defensive specialist commanding the rearguard.
At the Battle of Theiningen (1796), where the Austrians outnumbered the French three to one, Bernadotte's rear-guard successfully repulsed numerous attacks while inflicting heavy losses on the enemy, preventing the Archduke Charles from cutting off the retreat of the French army over the Rhine after its defeat by the Austrians at the Battle of Würzburg.
At the beginning of 1797, he was ordered by the Directory to march with 20,000 men as reinforcements to Napoleon Bonaparte's army in Italy. His successful crossing of the Alps through the storm in midwinter was highly praised but coldly received by the Army of Italy. Upon receiving insult from Dominique Martin Dupuy, the commander of Milan, Bernadotte was to arrest him for insubordination. Dupuy was a close friend of Louis-Alexandre Berthier, and this started a long-lasting feud between Bernadotte and Berthier, who would become Napoleon's chief of staff.
Marshal of the French Empire
On the introduction of the First French Empire, Bernadotte became one of the eighteen Marshals of the Empire, and from June 1804 to September 1805 served as governor of the recently occupied Hanover. In this capacity, as well as during his later command of the army of northern Germany, he built a reputation for independence, incorruptibility, moderation, and administrative ability. Bernadotte's rule was popular, and despite the exactions taken from the populace as part of Napoleon's policy of making occupations pay for themselves, Hanover's economy prospered. Bernadotte extended his protection and made private contributions to Gottingen University, befriending many of the professors and other men of learning whom he often had over for dinner and employed to tutor himself and his wife.
During the campaign of 1805, Bernadotte, with his army corps from Hanover, formed into the I Corps, commanded the Left Wing of the Grande Armée overseeing Auguste de Marmont's II Corps and having the majority of the Bavarian Army attached to his command; some 65,000 men or 1/4th of the Army. Bernadotte was also tasked with assuring France's newest ally, the Elector of Bavaria, Maximillian IV Joseph, that the Austrians would be driven from his country.
Bernadotte, with Davout's III Corps attached to his command, and the Bavarians, gained a victory over the Austrians, driving them out of Munich on 12 October, taking some 3000 prisoners and 19 guns and installing Maximillian Joseph back onto his throne. I Corps then co-operated in the great movement which resulted in the shutting off of Mack in the Battle of Ulm. Bernadotte's troops then captured Salzburg on 30 October. In the Battle of Austerlitz (2 December 1805) he was posted with his corps in the center between Soult and Lannes, and contributed to defeating the attempt of the right wing of the allies to outflank the French army. As a reward for his services at Austerlitz, he became the 1st Sovereign Prince of Pontecorvo (5 June 1806), a district in southern Italy formerly subject to the Pope.
During the 1806 campaign against Prussia, Bernadotte was reproached by Napoleon for not participating with his army corps in the battles of Jena and Auerstädt (14 October 1806). Napoleon, on the night of 13 October, thinking he had faced the whole Prussian Army at Jena, sent orders to Davout, through Marshal Berthier, Davout relayed the order to Bernadotte at 0400 on 14 October with the order stating: "If the Prince of Ponte Corvo [Bernadotte] is with you, you may both march together, but the Emperor hopes that he will be in the position which had been indicated at Dornburg." This was in accordance with Bernadotte's last set of written orders from 12 October, which ordered him and Davout to get across the Prussian line of retreat. In pursuance of these orders, Bernadotte, separately from Davout, left Naumburg at dawn on the morning of the 14th for Dornburg and marched toward Apolda, which he reached by 16:00. Hampered by the very poor state of the roads, and a steep defile within which Dornburg is situated and the narrow bridge which passes over the Saale, that could pass but one artillery piece at a time according to General Dupont, he could not engage in the Battle of Jena, though he effectively compelled the Prussians to retreat from both battlefields by posting his troops on the heights of Apolda.
Offer of the Swedish throne
In 1810, Bernadotte was about to enter his new post as governor of Rome when he was unexpectedly elected Crown Prince to King Charles XIII of Sweden. The problem of Charles's successor had been acute almost from the time he had ascended the throne a year earlier. He was 61 years old and in poor health. He was also childless; Queen Charlotte had given birth to two children who had died in infancy, and there was no prospect of her bearing another child. Soon after his coronation, the king had adopted a Danish prince, Charles August, who had died just a few months after his arrival. Despite the fact that Napoleon favored his ally, King Frederick VI of Denmark, the Danish Prince Frederick Christian of Sonderburg-Augustenburg initially had the most support to become the Swedish Crown Prince.
The political situation, both internal and external, in Sweden made selecting a foreign king an attractive option. Sweden wanted to strengthen its relationship with Napoleon for military reasons and sought to select a king who could attract Napoleon's support. The Swedish court initially sounded out the emperor for his preferences on candidates for crown prince, whereupon Napoleon made it clear he preferred his adopted stepson Eugène de Beauharnais, or one of his nephews or brothers. The Swedish envoys did not accept Eugène as a candidate. Baron Lagerbielke, the Swedish envoy in Paris, reported to Stockholm that Eugène was "gentle and good [...] but he does not seem to be a man of strong character; and, although he had had great opportunities, he does not appear to have developed any distinguishing talents." Also, Eugène, serving as viceroy in Italy, did not wish to convert to Lutheranism, a prerequisite for accepting the Swedish offer. Moreover, none of Napoleon's brothers were interested in going to Sweden, and his nephews were too young, as the Swedes did not want the hazards of minority rule in the event that King Charles died prematurely. The matter was decided by an obscure Swedish courtier, Baron Karl Otto Mörner (nephew of Count Gustav Mörner, the commander of the Swedish force captured by Bernadotte at Lübeck), who, entirely on his own initiative, offered the succession to the Swedish crown to Bernadotte. Bernadotte communicated Mörner's offer to Napoleon, who at first treated the situation as an absurdity, but later came around to the idea and, while adopting a public attitude of indifference, quietly lent support to Bernadotte's candidacy both financially and diplomatically.
Although the Swedish government, amazed at Mörner's effrontery, at once placed him under arrest on his return to Sweden, the candidature of Bernadotte gradually gained favour and on 21 August 1810 he was elected by the Riksdag of the Estates in Örebro to be the new crown prince, and was subsequently made Generalissimus of the Swedish Armed Forces by the King. Several factors benefitted Bernadotte's election. Being foreign was, although problematic, also to his favour due to geopolitical factors and the internal situation at the time. One benefit was his presumed close ties to French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, with whom he would have access to military backing, as the intention at the time was to reacquire Finland. The current King, Charles XIII, viewed Napoleon in a more positive way than Gustav IV Adolf had, who had held him in very ill regard. Another point in favour was that a large part of the Swedish Army, anticipating conflict with Russia, favoured electing a soldier. Also, Bernadotte was personally popular, owing to the kindness he had shown to the Swedish prisoners in Lübeck and his reputation as the well-liked governor of the Hanseatic Cities from 1807 to 1809, as many Swedish merchants had operated under his auspices. Finally, Bernadotte had no qualms about his own and his son Oscar's conversion to Lutheranism, recalling the conversion of Henry IV for the benefit of France with whom he felt a kinship as both hailed from Pau. (Bernadotte's wife Désirée refused to convert).
Crown Prince and Regent
On 2 November 1810 Bernadotte made his solemn entry into Stockholm, and on 5 November he received the homage of the Riksdag of the Estates, and he was adopted by King Charles XIII under the name of "Charles John" (Karl Johan). At the same time, he converted from Roman Catholicism to the Lutheranism of the Swedish court.
The new Crown Prince was very soon the most popular and most powerful man in Sweden and quickly impressed his adoptive father. Following his first meeting with his new heir, Charles XIII (who had initially opposed Bernadotte's candidacy) remarked to his aide-de-camp count Charles de Suremain, "My dear Suremain, I have gambled heavily, and I believe that after all I have won." He also made himself well-liked by Queen Charlotte, who regarded him as a "gentleman in every sense of the word", and established a net of contact within the Swedish aristocracy, befriending in particular the Brahe family through his favorite Magnus Brahe and countess Aurora Wilhelmina Brahe, whose cousin Mariana Koskull became his lover.
The infirmity of the old King and the dissensions in the Privy Council of Sweden placed the government, and especially the control of foreign policy, entirely in his hands. Amongst the first of Charles John's acts as Crown Prince was to address the dire state of the Swedish economy. The Swedish economy was in shambles after years of mismanagement under the reign of Gustav III and was further aggravated during the reign of his son, Gustav IV Adolf. The economic turmoil had been caused, in part, by the debts accrued from Gustav III's Russian War, in part to the failure of several of Gustav IV Adolf's well intentioned economic reforms (Gustav IV Adolf was rather more successful in his agrarian reforms) and the costs of the more recent wars against France and Russia. Under Gustav IV Adolf, genuine attempts at economic reform, including paying down the national debt by some 700,000 Riksdalers in the first years of his active reign, and revitalizing the currency, met with limited success.
Such measures were undermined by his other policies. Gustav IV Adolf's personal dislike of the Riksdag, which had the power to raise taxes, led to his refusal to call them into session after 1800, crippling his attempts to raise state revenues. Gustav IV Adolf's foreign policy plunged Sweden into disastrous (and expensive) wars against France and Russia. The cost of years of war, several poor harvests between 1798 and 1809, the ineptitude of his ministers in carrying out fiscal reforms, and the loss of Finland's tax base had ballooned Sweden's national debt. The impending demands of Napoleon to adhere to the Continental System forecasted even greater difficulties. Charles John immediately began making reforms and used his sizable fortune, honestly accrued during his time as French Marshal, to pay off much of the debt and stabilize the economy through grants and a £300,000 sterling loan to the state at 5 percent interest. Charles John also purchased back from the French private estates that had been confiscated during the occupation of Swedish Pomerania from 1808 to 1810 and returned them to their original Swedish and German owners.
King of Sweden and Norway
Charles John had been regent and de facto head of state upon his arrival, and took an increasing role in government from 1812 onward, with Charles XIII reduced to a mute witness in government councils following a stroke.
Upon Charles's death on 5 February 1818, Charles John ascended the throne. He was initially popular in both countries. The democratic process and forces steadily matured under the King's restrained executive power.
The foreign policy pursued by Charles John in the post-Napoleonic era was characterized by maintaining balance among the Great Powers and avoiding involvement in conflicts outside the Scandinavian peninsula. It made a sharp contrast with Sweden's previous hegemonic expansionism, which resulted in uninterrupted wars with neighboring countries for centuries, and he successfully kept his kingdoms at peace from 1814 until his death. He was especially concerned about the conflict between the UK and Russia. In 1834, when relations between the two countries were strained over the Near East Crisis, he sent memoranda to the British and Russian governments and proclaimed neutrality in advance. It is pointed out as the origin of Swedish neutrality.
His domestic policy particularly focused on the promotion of the economy and investment in social overhead capital, and the long peace since 1814 led to an increased prosperity for the country. During his long reign of 26 years (34 years if one counts his time as regent from 1810 to 1818), the population of the Kingdom was so increased that the inhabitants of Sweden alone became equal in number to those of Sweden and Finland before the latter province was torn from the former, the national debt was paid off, a civil and a penal code were proposed for promulgation, education was promoted, agriculture, commerce, and manufactures prospered, and the means of internal communication were increased.
On the other hand, radical in his youth, his views had veered steadily to the right over the years, and by the time he ascended the throne, he was an ultra-conservative. His autocratic methods, particularly his censorship of the press, were very unpopular, especially after 1823. His dynasty faced little danger, as the Swedes and the Norwegians alike were proud of a monarch with a good European reputation.
Death
On 26 January 1844, his 81st birthday, Charles John was found unconscious in his chambers having suffered a stroke. While he regained consciousness, he never fully recovered and died on the afternoon of 8 March. On his deathbed, he was heard to say: "Nobody has had a career in life like mine. I could perhaps have been able to agree to become Napoleon’s ally: but when he attacked the country that had placed its fate in my hands, he could find in me no other than an opponent. The events that shook Europe and that gave her back her freedom are known. It is also known which part I played in that."
His remains were interred after a state funeral in Stockholm's Riddarholmen Church. He was succeeded by his only son, Oscar I.
Honours
The main street of Oslo, Karl Johans gate, was named after him in 1852.
The former main base for the Royal Norwegian Navy, Karljohansvern, was also named after him in 1854.
The Karlsborg Fortress (Swedish: Karlsborgs fästning), located in present-day Karlsborg Municipality in Västra Götaland County, was also named in honour of him.
The Caserne Bernadotte, a French military building located in Pau, was also named after him in 1875.
The bronze equestrian statue of the King at the Royal Palace, Oslo, unveiled in 1875, is the largest bronze statue in Norway.
National
French Empire: Knight Grand Eagle of the Legion of Honour, 2 February 1805
Kingdom of Italy: Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Iron Crown
Sweden:
Knight of the Order of the Seraphim, 21 August 1810
Commander Grand Cross of the Order of the Sword, 21 August 1810
Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Sword, 1st Class, 21 August 1810
Commander Grand Cross of the Order of the Polar Star, 21 August 1810
Commander Grand Cross of the Order of Vasa, 28 January 1813
Knight of the Order of Charles XIII, 21 August 1810
He became Lord and Master of all Swedish orders of chivalry upon his accession to the throne.
Fictional portrayals
Louis-Émile Vanderburch and Ferdinand Langlé's 1833 play Le Camarade de lit ("The Bedfellow") depicts Bernadotte as King of Sweden. In it, an old grenadier claims that, as a young man, Bernadotte received a tattoo of a scandalous republican motto: either Mort aux Rois ("Death to kings"), or Mort aux tyrans ("Death to tyrants"), or Mort au Roi ("Death to the king"). The tattoo is finally revealed to read Vive la république ("Long live the Republic") and a Phrygian cap: a highly ironic image and text for the skin of a king. This play was so popular that the idea that King Charles XIV John had a tattoo reading "Death to kings" is often repeated as fact, although there is no basis to it. He publicly proclaimed himself in 1797 "a Republican both by principle and conviction" who would “to the moment of my death, oppose all Royalists and enemies to the Directory".
Désirée Clary's relationships with Bonaparte and Bernadotte were the subject of the novel Désirée by Annemarie Selinko. The novel was filmed as Désirée in 1954, with Marlon Brando as Napoleon, Jean Simmons as Désirée, and Michael Rennie as Bernadotte.
Bernadotte is a primary supporting character in the historical fiction novel by New York Times Bestselling author Allison Pataki A Queen's Fortune: A Novel of Désirée, Napoleon, and the Dynasty that outlasted the Empire, that tells the life story of his wife (and Queen of Sweden and Norway) Désirée Clary.