Oscar I of Sweden

Oscar I
King of Sweden and Norway
Reign 8 March 1844 – 8 July 1859
Coronation 28 September 1844, Stockholm
Predecessor Charles XIV & III John
Successor Charles XV & IV
Born (1799-07-04)4 July 1799
Paris, France
Died 8 July 1859(1859-07-08) (aged 60)
Stockholm, Sweden
Burial Riddarholm Church
Spouse Josephine of Leuchtenberg
Issue Charles XV of Sweden
Prince Gustaf, Duke of Uppland
Oscar II of Sweden
Princess Eugenie
Prince August, Duke of Dalarna
Full name
Joseph François Oscar Bernadotte
House Bernadotte
Father Charles XIV John of Sweden
Mother Désirée Clary
Religion Church of Sweden
prev. Roman Catholicism

Oscar I (born Joseph François Oscar Bernadotte; 4 July 1799 – 8 July 1859) was King of Sweden and Norway from 1844 to his death. When, in August 1810, his father Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte was elected Crown Prince of Sweden, Oscar and his mother moved from Paris to Stockholm (June 1811). Oscar's father was the first ruler of the current House of Bernadotte and his mother was Désirée Clary, Napoleon Bonaparte's first fiancée. Her sister, Julie Clary, was married to Napoleon's brother, Joseph Bonaparte. Désirée is said to have chosen Napoleon to be Oscar's godfather.

Upbringing

Little Oscar Bernadotte a few years before being chosen with his father to be Swedish royalty.

Oscar I was born on 4 July 1799 at 291 Rue Cisalpine in Paris (today: 32 Rue Monceau), the son of then French Minister of War, general Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte and Désirée Clary. He was named Joseph after his godfather Joseph Bonaparte who was married to his mother's elder sister, Julie Clary, but was also given the names François Oscar. The latter name was chosen by Napoleon after one of the heroes in the Ossian cycle of poems.

From Charles XIII of Sweden, on the day of the royal adoption of his father, Oscar received the style of Royal Highness and the title of Duke of Södermanland. He quickly acquired the Swedish language. By the time he reached the age of majority he had become a general favourite. He had an excellent education, and he soon came to be regarded as an authority on all socio-political questions. On January 17, 1816, he was elected an honorary member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, and in 1818, he was appointed chancellor of Uppsala University, where he spent one semester.

In 1832-34 he completed the opera Ryno, the errant knight which had been left unfinished on the death of the young composer Eduard Brendler. In 1839 he wrote a series of articles on popular education, and (in 1841) he published an anonymous work, "Om Straff och straffanstalter", advocating prison reforms. Twice during his father's lifetime he was viceroy of Norway. By proxy at the Leuchtenberg Palace in Munich on 22 May 1823 and in person at a wedding ceremony conducted in Stockholm on 19 June 1823 he married the Princess Josephine, daughter of Eugène de Beauharnais, Duke of Leuchtenberg, and granddaughter of the Empress Josephine. [1]

Planned marriage

Oscar's father had selected four princesses as candidates for marriage, in order of his priority:[2]

Politics

In 1824 and 1833, the Crown Prince was briefly Viceroy of Norway. In 1838 the king began to suspect that his son was plotting with the Liberal politicians to bring about a change of ministry, or even his own abdication. If Oscar did not actively assist the Opposition on this occasion, his disapprobation of his father's despotic behaviour was notorious, though he avoided an actual rupture. Yet his liberalism was of the most cautious and moderate character, as the Opposition, shortly after his accession (8 March 1844), discovered to their great chagrin. He would not hear of any radical reform of the cumbrous and obsolete Constitution of 1809. But one of his earliest measures was to establish freedom of the press. He also passed the first law towards gender equality in Sweden when he in 1845 declared that brothers and sisters should have equal inheritance, unless there was a will.

Daguerreotype of Oscar I in 1844; this is the first known photograph of a Swedish monarch.

He formally established equality between his two kingdoms by introducing new flags with the common Union badge of Norway and Sweden and a new coat of arms for the union. He also founded the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav on August 21, 1847, giving his Norwegian kingdom its own order of chivalry. Most of the legislation during Oscar I's reign aimed at improving the economic position of Sweden, and the Riksdag of the Estates, in its address to him in 1857, declared that he had promoted the material prosperity of the kingdom more than any of his predecessors.[3]

In foreign affairs Oscar I was a friend of the principle of nationality. In 1848 he supported Denmark against the Kingdom of Prussia in the First War of Schleswig; placed Swedish and Norwegian troops in cantonments in Funen and North Schleswig (1849–1850); and mediated the Truce of Malmö (26 August 1848). He was also one of the guarantors of the integrity of Denmark (the London Protocol, 8 May 1852).[1]

As early as 1850 Oscar I had conceived the plan of a dynastic union of the three Scandinavian kingdoms, but such difficulties presented themselves that the scheme had to be abandoned.[4] He succeeded, however, in reversing his father's obsequious policy towards Imperial Russia. His fear lest Russia should demand a stretch of coast along the Varanger Fjord induced him to remain neutral during the Crimean War, and, subsequently, to conclude an alliance with Great Britain and the Second French Empire (25 November 1855) for preserving the territorial integrity of Sweden-Norway.[1]

He was the 968th Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece in Spain.

Children

Oscar I left five legitimate children – four sons and one daughter. Two of his sons, Charles and Oscar, succeeded him to the throne.

  1. King Charles XV (Charles IV in Norway) (1826–1872)
  2. Prince Gustaf, Duke of Uppland (1827–1852)
  3. King Oscar II (1829–1907)
  4. Princess Eugenie (1830–1889)
  5. Prince August, Duke of Dalarna (1831–1873)

Oscar also had two sons (unofficially called the Princes of Lapland) by his mistress, the actress Emilie Högquist:[5]

  1. Hjalmar Högquist, born 18 June 1839 in Hamburg, died 1874 in London.
  2. Max Högquist, born 12 August 1840 in Stockholm, died 1872 in China.

With another mistress, Jaquette Löwenhielm (née Gyldenstolpe), Oscar had a daughter

  1. Oscara Hilder née Meijergeer (1819–1880)

Name

Oscar I was in part responsible for the international popularisation of the Irish male given name Oscar, which was given to him by his godfather, Napoleon, who had been an admirer of the Ossianic poetry of James Macpherson. Oscar I is also the dedicatee of Robert Schumann's Second Symphony which was published in 1847.

Ancestry

Arms

Crown Prince, Duke of Södermanland (1818-1826)
Crown Prince, Duke of Södermanland (1826-1844)
King Oscar I of Sweden and Norway
Royal Monogram of King Oscar I of Sweden

References

Citations

  1. 1 2 3 Chisholm 1911.
  2. ↑ Hjalmar Lagerqvist, Sveriges drottningar
  3. ↑ Cronholm, Neander N. (1902). A History of Sweden from the Earliest Times to the Present Day. ch 40 pp 273-88
  4. ↑ Lars O. Lagerqvist in Sverige och dess regenter under 1000 år (Sweden and Her Rulers for 1000 years) ISBN 91-0-075007-7 pp. 273-274
  5. ↑ Söderhjelm & Palmstierna in Oscar I, Bonniers, Stockholm 1944, p. 279

Bibliography

Further reading

Oscar I
Born: 4 July 1799 Died: 8 July 1859
Regnal titles
Preceded by
Charles XIV/III John		 King of Sweden and Norway
1844–1859 		Succeeded by
Charles XV/IV
Swedish royalty
Preceded by
Charles XIII/II		 Duke of Södermanland Succeeded by
Charles Oscar
Italian nobility
Preceded by
Josephine		 Duke of Galliera
with Josephine
1823–1837 		Succeeded by
Raffaele de Ferrari


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