Oscar I of Sweden

Early life and family

Oscar was born at 291 Rue Cisalpine in Paris (today: 32 Rue Monceau) to Jean-Baptiste Jules Bernadotte, then-French Minister of War and Sovereign Prince of Pontecorvo, and Désirée Clary, Napoleon Bonaparte's former fiancée. He was named Joseph after his godfather Joseph Bonaparte, who was married to his mother's elder sister Julie, 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. Désirée is said to have chosen Napoleon to be Oscar's godfather.

Prince of Sweden

On 21 August 1810, Oscar's father was elected heir-presumptive to the Swedish throne by the Riksdag of the Estates, as King Charles XIII was without legitimate heirs. Two months later, on 5 November, he was formally adopted by the king under the name of "Charles John"; Oscar was then created a prince of Sweden with the style of Royal Highness, and further accorded the title of Duke of Södermanland. Oscar and his mother moved from Paris to Stockholm in June 1811; while Oscar soon acclimatized to life at the royal court, quickly acquiring the Swedish language, Désirée had difficulty adjusting and despised the cold weather. Consequently, she left Sweden in the summer of 1811, and would not return until 1823.

On January 17 1816, Oscar was elected an honorary member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, and in 1818 was appointed chancellor of Uppsala University, where he spent one semester.

Oscar became Crown Prince in 1818 upon the death of his adoptive grandfather, and the accession of Charles John to the Swedish and Norwegian thrones.

In 1832-34 he completed the romantic 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 anonymously published Om Straff och straffanstalter, a work advocating prison reforms.

Marriage and issue

Seeking to legitimise the new Bernadotte dynasty, Charles XIV John had selected four princesses as candidates for marriage, in order of his priority:

Oscar would eventually marry Josephine, first 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.

The couple had five children:

1. King Charles XV & IV (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 illegitimate sons (unofficially called the Princes of Lapland) by his first mistress, the actress Emilie Högquist:

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 his second mistress, Jaquette Löwenhielm (née Gyldenstolpe), Oscar had a daughter:

1. Oscara Hilder née Meijergeer (1819–1880)

Politics

In 1824 and 1833, Oscar briefly served as Viceroy of Norway.

In 1838 Charles XIV John 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 to the thrones in 1844—discovered to their great chagrin. The new king would not hear of any radical reform of the cumbersome and obsolete Constitution of 1809, though one of his earliest measures was to establish freedom of the press. He also passed the first law supporting gender equality in Sweden when he in 1845 declared that brothers and sisters should have equal inheritance, unless there was a will.

Oscar I also formally established equality between his two kingdoms by introducing new flags with the common Union badge of Norway and Sweden, as well as 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.

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 by placing Swedish and Norwegian troops in cantonments in Funen and North Schleswig (1849–1850), and was the mediator of 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).

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. 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.

Death

In the 1850s, Oscar's health began to rapidly deteriorate, becoming paralyzed in 1857; he died two years later at the Royal Palace in Stockholm on 8 July 1859. His eldest son, who served as Regent during his absence, succeeded him as Charles XV.

Titles and styles

Honours

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