GEN-MEDIEVAL-L Archives

Archiver > GEN-MEDIEVAL > 1998-01 > 0885890522


From: Portculis< >
Subject: Re: Crown Princess of Sweden
Date: 27 Jan 1998 08:42:02 GMT


>>
>Carl XIV was adopted by an aging childless King of Sweden. As far as I know
>Desire Clary never was the mistress of Napoleon. Her sister married
>Napoleon's
>brother Joseph, Napoleon became engaged to Desire but married Josephine.
>As Bernadotte was adopted into an existing Royal family the Salic Law
>was simply continued.
>Leo van de Pas
>
>

I did not mean to imply that Desiree slept with Napoleon, though one wonders
when they were engaged(she was from a minor aristocratic family in the
Provence) or after her marriage when she left Sweden and went back to Paris
without her husband for a time (Sweden was cold and boring) if it wasn't a
distinct possibility (her sons and grandsons had many mistresses, which is
generally a trait learned from previous generations, not something that just
crops up suddenly). When things were falling apart for Napoleon, it was
Desiree that was called to persuade him to shed less blood. There was still
some intimacy there even after her marriage.

As to Carl XIV just continuing the laws that preceded him, let me state the
following. We have already discussed Christina ruling 1632-1654. She was
succeeded by her aunt's son, Carl X (son of Johann Casimir of Zweibrucken), so
that too was female succession. On the death of Carl XII, his sister Ulrica
Eleanora succeeded to the throne in 1718, so no problem with female rule there.
On the death of her and her husband Freidrich of Hesse-Cassell, they were
succeeded again through the female line by the great-grandson of Carl X's
sister, so again female succession.

And as late as 1809, the (English) biography of Bernadotte (Carl XIV) says that
when Gustaves IV Adolphus was arrested and forced to abdicate (March 13), when
his uncle succeeded as Carl XIII, THERE WAS NO CLEARLY ESTABLISHED LAW TO
SUCCESSION IN SWEDEN. Sweden joined the Continental system in the treaty of
Paris. So this was not some ancient thing, but something new during the time
of the aging Carl XIII and the crown prince Carl XIV (Bernadotte). I trust the
biographer to be accurate in his statement, as the book received excellent
reviews. But I leave it to someone else to check to see exactly what date the
laws of succession were changed and defined (after 1809).

Cheers!

This thread: