new prince and an old one.

http://www.taracohen.com/cms/archives/291A

Karl XIV Johan, king of Sweden 1818-1844

Sweden is celebrating at the moment. The Crown Princess has got engaged and next year, when she marries Sweden will have a new prince. Since he’s a commoner and a an ordinary (Not so ordinary for the Crown Princess I gather!) Swedish young man, it’s all very romantic and everyone is simply beaming with happiness.

That’s not what I’m going to write about though. Instead I’ll devote this piece to the last time (and the only time) a commoner has become a prince of Sweden. It happened 1810 when Jean Baptiste Bernadotte, a Marshal of France, was elected Crown Prince of Sweden and was adopted by the childless King Charles XIII. Jean Baptiste was a prince (of Ponte Corvo, a title bestowed him by Napoleon) in his own right, but he was born the son of a lawyer in the French town of Pau.

King Karl XIV Johan with his family.

But what was life for a Frenchman in the early days of 19th C Sweden? The easy answer is cold. As school children we are still told anecdotes about Karl XIV Johan (as Jean Baptiste was crowned) the first Swedish king of the House of Bernadotte, anecdotes about his reaction to the cold climate, the terrible food and the hassle of a new language.

Sängkammarregemente “bedchamber government” sounds practically dissipated, but the moniker of Karl XIV Johan’s rule has a dull pragmatic reason behind it. The king found Sweden so cold he usually didn’t rise from bed until well into the afternoon. The secretaries of state had to come to him instead.

Until the invention of radiators the best way of heating a Swedish house was with kakelugn, i.e. a tiled stove (in German: Kakelofen). A tiled stove is very effective since it stores heat in the bricks and in the smoke canals that makes up its construction.

The tiled stove from the baroness' bedroom at Sturehof manor.

Unlike an open fireplace it doesn’t need much fuel and it heats up a considerably larger area that an open fireplace. The invention revolutionised the lifestyle of late 18th century: several rooms could be used in the winter and decorators incorporated the tiled stove in their plans, transforming its shape along with the latest trends.

A cabinet made in the shape of a tiled stove.

They were a priced object and the rest of the room was furnished around it (not unlike out television sets).The opposite corner to the stove usually held a cupboard in the same shape as the stove to keep the symmetry.

Since they were so costly a room, even big ones, generally only had one stove. The king’s bedroom, however, has two stoves, on either side of the bed. As mentioned before, he thought it cold. His wife, Queen Desideria, thought it colder still. After a brief stay in Sweden she returned to Paris and remained there for twelve years, 1811-1823.

The kings bedroom at Rosersberg Palace

Then there was the food. In the seventies (I’m referring to the 1970s here) my father met a Swedish man in Australia who had left Sweden 50 years before and wouldn’t go back because he “couldn’t stand any more salted herring”. To this day salt and possibly pepper are the main ingredients in any traditional Swedish cooking.

King Charles was suspicious of any dish served at his table and rightly so. We do know however that he liked mushrooms, especially this kind of mushroom, which is called Karljohan.

A Karljohan mushroom

It’s hard to fail with fried mushrooms. Only add butter – and salt and pepper.

The king also ordered boiled eggs for every dinner. It’s hard to fail with eggs too. Just boil and serve – with salt and pepper.

His silver eggcup and a salt and pepper set in silver are still in use. Since the days of Karl XIV Johan a silver eggcup always marks the place setting of the king at state dinners. When not in use its exhibited in the long gallery where the state dinners take place. So, do go to Stockholm and the Royal Palace, there’s a historical eggcup to be seen!

On to the language difficulty and the Swedish gibberish a friend of mine refer to as Scandiwegian. Karl XIV Johan never learnt the language. I’ve known it since I was a toddler, it’s still a hassle.

He did try to hold speeches in Swedish, but was too uncomfortable too keep it going. Some drafts for the speeches still remain. They are written in a Frenchified Swedish. All the typical Swedish vowels are exchanged for similarly sounding French spelling.

French was the language of the court, had been for many years, so everyday business probably worked out well enough. Occasionally though, the language issue became a barrier.

For one, the king was suspicious of everyone, not being able to follow the gossip and always fearing a coup d’état. Sweden, along with the rest of Europe, had seen its share of conflicts and war since the time of the French Revolution. One king (Gustavus III) had been assassinated in the 1790s, his son (Gudstavus IV) was later deposed from his throne, and Sweden had lost a third of its territory to the Russians – Karl XIV Johan mild paranoia is quite understandable.

On other occasions the language barrier was simply amusing. One anecdote tells of a Mr. Mörner who had been sent by a secretary of State to inquire about the king’s health. Karl XIV Johan had been feeling poorly. Sadly Mr. Mörner’s French wasn’t very accurate.

Herr Mörner “… que son excellence espérait que Votre Majesté se comporterait mieux aujourd’hui que hier.”

Karl XIV Johan “Je tâcherai, mon ami”

What Mörner wished to have said, was inquire whether His Majestyfelt better today than yesterday, but since he used the wrong word he asked instead whether His Majesty would behave better today than he did the day before.

With a smile Karl Johan responded, “I’ll try, my friend.”

Posted: May 6th, 2009 under Latest News.

Cover Art

I'm proofing the final audio files and loading them up to ACX for quality check.  Desiree, the audiobook in English, should be available by the end of the month -- from Audible, Amazon, and Itunes.

The cover art was designed by Caitlin Quinn (yes, my daughter!)


*If you use an Apple machine please know that there is a speed control, often set to default of 1/2x.  Audiobooks play well at 1x.  If you're having this problem,  audiobooks sounding like the reader was on a cocktail of martinis and valium, please tap the screen of your player, while a book or podcast is playing, then look to the upper right of the screen to reset the speed of playback. 

Memoirs and campaigns of Charles John: prince royal of Sweden John Philippart

Click here to access the free e-book of this archived memoir

TRIVIA

Trivia: Jean Baptiste Bernadotte is said to have had a tatoo on his body where one could read:"Mort aux rois", that is to say: "Death to the kings".


Jean Baptiste Bernadotte was the last monarch elected to the throne.


Although some may have died in infancy, how many siblings did Napoleon have?
12. Napoleon's parents Letizia and Carlo had 13 children, however only 8 survived infancy. The survivors were Joseph (nee Guiseppe); Napoleon (nee Napoleone) Lucien (nee Lucciano); Eliza (nee Maria-Anna); Louis (nee Luigi); Pauline (nee Maria-Paola); Caroline (nee Maria-Annunziata); and Jerome (nee Girolamo).

Joseph, the oldest son, was originally destined for what occupation or profession by his father?the Church. When Carlo was offered the chance for a free education for his two eldest children, he felt that the mild mannered Joseph should enter the Church and the more fiery tempered Napoleon should enter the army. After a few years, Joseph requested his father to have him transferred to the army. Carlo, after consulting Napoleon, brought him back to Corsica in order to study law.


One of Napoleon's brothers was unable to obtain a scholarship, so Napoleon educated his brother himself. Napoleon was with his regiment at Auxonne and shared an apartment with his brother. Which brother was this?Louis. Louis was brought to the mainland from Corsica after the death of his father. He was 12 years of age when he arrived in France and was financially supported there by Napoleon. Since Napoleon was a junior officer, funds were tight and Napoleon himself acted as his brother's instructor.


Which of his sisters most resembled Napoleon?Eliza. Unlike her sisters, Eliza was educated and demonstrated the same proud and independent nature as Napoleon. Her sisters considered her something of a prude. She was sent to the girl's school at St Cyr. Hortense was Josephine's daughter and Napoleon's step daughter. 


Napoleon while a young officer had a romantic attachment to a young girl named Desirée Clary. Later she became his sister-in-law when her sister Julie married one of his brothers. Which brother did she marry?Joseph. Julie was the daughter of a rich silk merchant in Marseilles. Her father was not impressed by Napoleon's prospects and frowned upon her relationship with Napoleon. ("One Bonaparte is enough") She married Jean Bernadotte, who became a Marshal in the French army. When the childless Swedish monarch sought a successor, Bernadotte was adopted by the Swedish king, and, in due course, Desirée became Queen of Sweden and the mother of the present dynasty.


The youngest brother of Napoleon also married without Napoleon's consent. However, by this time, Napoleon was First Consul of France and marriage by a member of his family could only be done with his permission. Since French law would not permit a Frenchman under 25 to marry without his father's or mother's consent, (Jerome was 19) the marriage could be considered illegal. Who was the bride?Elizabeth Patterson. Jerome met Elizabeth Patterson while on a visit to Baltimore with the French navy. They married on Christmas Eve 1803 and had a son, Jerome. Napoleon refused to accept the marriage and when Elizabeth attempted to visit France she was denied entry into the country. Jermome's grandson, Bo Patterson Bonaparte, was Theodore Roosevelt's Secretary of the Navy in 1905 and became Attorney General of the United States 18 months later. 


After the French Revolution, one of Napoleon's brothers entered French politics and won election to the Council of Five Hundred, one of the legislative bodies under the Directorate. This brother was instumental in the success of Napoleon's coup of 18th Brumaire, 1799. Who was he?Lucien. Lucien fancied himself an intellectual, writer and politician. When elected to the Council of Five Hundred, the lower legislative body under the Directorate, he was successful in adjourning the Council to St Cloud where pressure could be exerted to depose the Directorate and elect a triumvirate of three consuls. Napoleon was elected First Consul and in August 1802 a plebiscite confirmed a change in the constitution to make Napoleon First Consul for life with the right to name his successor. In 1804 he was proclaimed Emperor.


In order to become King of Spain, Joseph had to surrender a kingdom. What kingdom did he relinquish?Naples. Berg was a duchy created by Napoleon for his sister Caroline and her husband Joachim Murat. Holland went to brother Louis. Bavaria was a state allied with France. Napoleon did raise it to the status of kingdom. Maximilian I became the first King of Bavaria. Joseph was convinced that his subjects in Naples adored him. He informed visiting French senators that, "The Neapolitans thought of him in the same way as the French thought of Napoleon." He felt that he had the support of all the citizens from the most notorious bandit to the haughtiest duke. Joseph overestimated his support.


Who succeeded Joseph in the kingdom he had to relinquish?Joachim Murat. Joachim Murat was a successful leader of French cavalry and the husband of Napoleon's sister Caroline. They had previously been given Berg as a duchy. Caroline was ambitious and pressured her brother for a throne for her husband. Murat was to prove as ambitious as his wife. He changed sides just before Napoleon's defeat in 1814 in order to save his throne. (Caroline had carried on secret negotiations with Metternich. Murat had visions of uniting Italy under his banner, and returned to Napoleon's side when he returned from Elba. Acting precipitously and in an attempt to unite Italy behind him he invaded the Papal States and was defeated. He fled to France and offered his sword to Napoleon. Napoleon refused the offer. Murat attempted to re-invade his former kingdom. Captured, he was executed by firing squad. He was noted, among other things, for his flamboyant uniforms.


Louis, the brother that Napoleon had supported and educated when he was a child, married Napoleon's step-daughter thus becoming his son-in-law as well as his brother. Who was the lucky girl?Hortense. The theory that Louis was a suppressed homosexual is probably well founded. As an adult he became morose and embittered. He suffered from an undiagnosed disease which induced rheumatic attacks which would eventually cripple him. Mentally, he was a disturbed individual and was afflicted with fits of jealousy and a persecution complex. Hortense wrote the unofficial anthem of the second empire, "Partant pour Syrie."


Eliza was Napoleon's eldest sister. She was most like him in intellect and ambition, as a result, Napoleon disliked her. Nevertheless, she was created an Imperial Princess and later Princess of Lucca and Piombino and even later Grand Duchess of Tuscany. t. Initially a "postage stamp principality" ("An army of 4 privates and a corporal, said Caroline Murat) Eliza had the work ethic of her brother. She reorganized the judicial system, police and prisons, drained swamps, built roads and established a silk industry. She reopened marble quarries at Carrara and swamped Europe with marble busts of Napoleon (she had a personal financial interest in the quarries). In 1809 she became Grand Duchess of Tuscany. In January 1814 in an agreement with Murat who had defected to the allies, she betrayed Napoleon. Her betrayal was intended to guarantee her throne. However the action was not successful and she was deposed. She had one daughter, Napoleone who schemed to kidnap the Duke of Reichstadt (Napoleon's son) and take him to France to restore the Bonapartist regime. 




When the other members of Napoleon's family were given titles at the time of his coronation as Emperor, what title was invented by Napoleon to bestow upon his mother? Madame Mere. Letizia was unimpressed by all of the trappings of empire but she was disappointed in receiving only the title Madame Mere. She continued to call Napoleon, Napoleone. Although wealthy, she continued to practice the thrift she had learned as a widow raising 8 children in Corsica. After Waterloo, she was one of the few Bonapartes with considerable financial assets, a fact that her children learned to appreciate. She did not attend Napoleon's coronation due to a dispute about the exiling of Lucien but Napoleon had her painted in by David in the official coronation portrait. She was never comfortable in France because of her poor knowledge of the language. She preferred to reside in Italy. Eliza was allowed to add Tuscany to her territory. Queen of Corsica and Empress Mother are made up titles.

Louis, like two of his brothers, was given a throne. He became king of what country?The Netherlands. Louis, although ill and suffering from a persecution complex, made a cardinal error in Napoleon's eyes. He believed that as King of the Netherlands he had a responsibility to his subjects that might not coincide with Napoleon's wishes. Napoleon intended him to be merely a French viceroy but he attempted to follow an independent path. This resulted in political and military pressure and his abdication in 1810.




Excerpted:  http://www.funtrivia.com/en/subtopics/Those-Troublesome--Bonapartes-186143.html

portraits of Jean Baptiste Bernadotte