Following the conclusion of the Finnish War in 1809, Sweden lost possession of Finland, which had constituted roughly the eastern half of the Swedish realm for centuries. Resentment towards King Gustav IV Adolf precipitated an abrupt coup d'état. Gustav Adolf (and his son Gustav) was deposed and his uncle Charles XIII was elected King in his place. However, Charles XIII was 61 years old and prematurely senile. He was also childless; one child had been stillborn and another died after less than a week. It was apparent almost as soon as Charles XIII ascended the throne that the Swedish branch of the House of Holstein-Gottorp would die with him. In 1810 the Riksdag of the Estates, the Swedish parliament, elected a Danish prince, Prince Christian August of Augustenborg, as heir-presumptive to the throne. He took the name Charles August, but died later that same year.
At this time, Emperor Napoleon I of France controlled much of continental Europe, and some of his client states were headed by his siblings. The Riksdag decided to choose a king of whom Napoleon would approve. On 21 August 1810, the Riksdag elected Jean Baptiste Jules Bernadotte, a Marshal of France, as heir presumptive to the Swedish throne.
When elected to be Swedish royalty the new heir had been called Prince Bernadotte according to the promotions he received from Emperor Napoleon I, culminating in sovereignty over the Principality of Pontecorvo. Some Swedish experts have asserted that all of his male heirs have had the right to use that Italian title, since the Swedish government never made payments promised Charles John to get him to give up his position in Pontecorvo.[3]
Some members of the house who lost their royal status and Swedish titles due to unapproved marriages have also been given the titles Prince Bernadotte and Count of Wisborg in the nobility of other countries.
Bernadotte
Bernadotte's arms as sovereign of Pontecorvo
Bernadotte, born in the town of Pau, in the province of Béarn, France, had risen to the rank of general during the French Revolution. In 1798, he married Désirée Clary, whose sister was married to Joseph, Napoleon's elder brother. In 1804, Napoleon promoted Bernadotte to a Marshal of France. Napoleon also granted him the title "Prince of Pontecorvo".
As the Crown Prince of Sweden, he assumed the name Charles John (Swedish: Karl Johan) and acted as regent for the remainder of Charles XIII's reign. In 1813, he broke with Napoleon and led Sweden into the anti-Napoleon alliance. When Norway was awarded to Sweden by the Treaty of Kiel, Norway resisted and declared independence, triggering a brief war between Sweden and Norway. The war ended when Bernadotte persuaded Norway to enter into a personal union with Sweden. Instead of being merely a Swedish province, Norway remained an independent kingdom, though sharing a common monarch and foreign policy. Bernadotte reigned as Charles XIV John of Sweden and Charles III John of Norway from 5 February 1818 until his death on 8 March 1844.
King Charles John's first known paternal ancestor was Joandou du Poey, who was a shepherd. He married Germaine de Bernadotte in 1615 in the southern French city of Pau and began using her surname. Through her the couple owned a building there called de Bernadotte,[4] the surname theoretically meaning Young woman of Béarn in local dialect.[5]
A grandson of theirs, Jean Bernadotte (1649–1698), was a weaver.[6]
Another Jean Bernadotte (1683–1760), his son, was a tailor.[7]
His son Henri Bernadotte (1711–1780) married Jeanne de Saint-Jean (1728–1809) and with her was the father of the future Swedish–Norwegian king. Henri was a local prosecutor, from a family of artisans,[8] who had once been imprisoned for debt.[9][10] This was a modest family which occupied only one floor of the house in a cross street in a popular and peripheral district of Pau.[11]
Two branches of the French Bernadotte family survive. The elder descends from Andrew (André) Bernadotte, an older granduncle of Carl John's, with descendants today in the general population of France. The younger branch divided in two, one branch descending from the king's older brother John (Jean Évangéliste) Bernadotte (1754–1813), the heads of which were French barons as of 1810 with Louvie Palace[12] in the south of Pau as their seat (branch extinct with the death of Baron Henri Bernadotte in 1966), and the other branch being the Swedish Royal House.[13]
This is a list only of the royal house, not of the royal whole family. It excludes in-laws and living persons (2022) who were royal, i.e. born members of the royal house, who no longer are royal today. Royals currently alive are listed in italics. All are listed primarily as Swedish royalty unless otherwise noted.
D’azur, au pont à trois arches d’argent, sur une rivière de même, ombrée d’azur, et supportant deux tours du second; au chef des princes souverains d’Empire.[14]
Tiercé en bande d’azur, d’argent et de gueules à la gerbe d’or brochant [de Vasa] et d’azur, au pont à trois arches d’argent, sur une rivière de même, ombrée d’azur et supportant deux tours du second [de Pontecorvo], le tout surmonté d’une aigle (Aigle de Jupiter) contournée d’or au vol abaissé, empiétant d’un foudre du même [de Bernadotte].
Écartelé en sautoir d'or, qui est la croix de Saint-Éric, cantonnée en I, d’azur à trois couronne d’or [de Suède moderne], en II de gueules au lion d’or, couronné du même armé et lampassé de gueules tenant une hache d’armes d’argent emmanchée d’or [de Norvège], en III d’azur à trois barres ondées d’argent, au lion d’or couronné du même, armée et lampassé de gueules [de Suède ancien], au IV d’argent à la tête de griffon de gueules couronnée d’or [brisé de Scanie] sur le tout parti tranché d’azur et de gueules à la banche d’argent et à la gerbe d’or brochant sur le tout [de Vasa] et d’azur, à un pont de trois arches sommé de deux tours crénelées et posé sur une champagne ondée, le tout d’argent [de Pontecorvo], au corbeau de sable, empiétant d’un foudre d’or surmonté d’un chef cousu d’azur semé d’étoiles d’or [de Bernadotte].
The new feature of these arms was that the eagle of Napoleon was replaced by a black raven of Odin. Over this was a field of stars of gold in reference to the title of Marshal of France.
After the death of his father in 1844, prince Oscar became King Oscar I of Sweden and Norway, replaced the field of stars with the Big Dipper/Charles' Wain. In addition to the rules governing the arms of the kingdoms of Sweden-Norway, rules were established for the arms of the queen and the royal prince and princesses.
In 1885, King Oscar II of Sweden replaced the raven with the beak and talons of gold.
In 1908, King Gustav V of Sweden returned the color gold to the Napoleonic Eagle.
In 1885, King Oscar II of Sweden replaced the raven with a black Napoleonic Eagle (Eagle of Jupiter) with the beak, talons, and lightning bolt of gold. Odin was believed to shapeshift to an eagle.
↑ François Velde (26 August 2011). "LL". Heraldica. Retrieved 31 October 2013.
↑ Berghman, Arvid (1944). Dynastien Bernadottes vapen och det svenska riksvapnet. Skrifter utgivna av Riksheraldikerämbetet. Stockholm: Svensk Litteratur. OCLC492875260.
↑ Bramstång, Gunnar (1990). Tronrätt, bördstitel och hustillhörighet (in Swedish). Lund: Juristförlaget i Lund. pp.54–55. ISBN978-91-544-2081-0.
Jean-Marc Olivier, "Bernadotte Revisited, or The Complexity of a Long Reign (1810–1844)", in Nordic Historical Review, number 2, October 2006, pp.127–137.
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