Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Off Topic Another royal question; or, Poor Colonel Gustafsson!

This post is for Artemis, who provided some information about why the Royal House of Sweden has a French surname, Bernadotte. That's because Napoleon's rival and antagonist, Jean Baptiste Bernadotte, had been sent a letter by a Swedish courtier, Baron Karl Otto Mörner, where Mörner offered Bernadotte the position of King of Sweden! The Swedish government had Mörner arrested for making such a bold offer without asking his government's permission, but Bernadotte grew ever more popular in Sweden, and he did indeed become Crown Prince and later King Carl Johan of Sweden.



Jean Baptiste Bernadotte became Carl Johan, king of Sweden. Thanks for the info, Artemis! But there is even more to this story. Bernadotte was made Crown Prince of Sweden after the previous Crown Prince, Carl August, had died of a stroke just months after he had arrived in Sweden. Okay, but wait a minute. Carl August had "arrived" in Sweden? Just like Jean Baptiste Bernadotte? Do all Swedish Crown Princes arrive in Sweden from abroad? Aren't they ever born here?

Well, yes, they usually are! But this whole story about Jean Baptiste Bernadotte actually begins with one of his predecessors, a thoroughly "Swedish" king who was one of Sweden's most gifted and brilliant kings ever, Gustav III. Here is a painting of Gustav's coronation:



Gustav, 1746-1792, was one of Sweden's most brilliant and gifted kings ever, as I said. Unfortunately, he eventually tried to do more than he was able and made more enemies than he could handle. He promoted and supported all kinds of arts and artists, built a great theater house and founded various academies. He reformed the Swedish government and administration, making himself ever more independent of Parliament and ever more autocratic. He reformed the penal code and opposed the death penalty. In 1777, he was the first head of state anywhere to acknowledge the independence of the United States of America. For a long time, he was extremely popular with the Swedish people, particularly with those who did not belong to the nobility. But alas, he thought he was a great warrior king too, and he wasn't. The Swedish nobility became ever more dissatisfied with him, and in 1792 one of the angriest noblemen, Jacob Johan Anckarström, shot the king at a masque ball. Bang!





The king is dead, long live the king! But there were complications here. For many years there had been rumors that Gustav III was gay. He was remarkably uninterested in women, and his marriage to his wife, Sofia Magdalena, was cold. When the Queen finally became pregnant after several years of marriage, rumors circulated that another man had fathered the child that the Queen was expecting. There is an incredibly rude and in its time widely circulated 18th century drawing showing another man "helping" the king with the act of conception. I doubt I could have posted that drawing here even if there had been an "n-section" of the "Off Topic" forum!

The poor boy who was conceived with or without the king's help was given the name Gustaf Adolf, and he became the Crown Prince. No doubt he heard a lot of jeers and taunts about his heritage as he was growing up. When he was thirteen years old his father died, and he was put under the guardianship of a man who had been one of his father's enemies! Poor boy!

During his studies he learnt Latin and Finnish, because Finland at that time was a Swedish province, as it had been for centuries. Very few Swedish kings before him had taken the trouble to learn Finnish, however, because Finnish is unrelated to all other languages except Hungarian and Estonian, and it is very hard to learn it. Isn't it ironic, then, that the dutifully Finnish-speaking Gustav Adolf later started a war that would cost Sweden the sovereignty of Finland forever?

Eventually Gustav Adolf became Gustav IV Adolf:



For one reason or another, Gustav IV Adolf took an interest in my hometown of Malmö. Malmö, which was founded in the 13th century, had barely grown at all in more than five hundred years because of the wall that surrounded and hemmed in the city. Gustav IV Adolf had the wall torn down, and suddenly Malmö was free to expand. Just south of the old wall a new square was built in 1804, and it was named after the King. Gustav Adolfs Torg, the Square of Gustav Adolf, is a very important hub of present-day Malmö:



Gustav Adolfs Torg, named in honour of Gustav IV Adolf.

(I can't resist showing you this link , where you can find many good pictures of Malmö.)

Gustav IV Adolf took such an interest in Malmö that he actually moved here in November 1806 and stayed here until May 1807! During that time, Malmö was the inofficial capital of Sweden.

Ah, but misfortunes awaited Gustav IV Adolf. The "Finnish War" that was fought between 1808 and 1809 meant that Sweden lost Finland. As Gustav IV Adolf tried to assert his authority over the armed forces in spite of this catastrophic loss, a general had him arrested, and later the Swedish Parliament had him deposed. He lost his royal title, and his sons lost their right to the Swedish throne as well. Gustav IV became Colonel Gustafsson - the name means Gustaf's son, and he was the son of Gustaf III. (At least he may have been.) Anyway, poor Colonel Gustafsson spent the rest of his unhappy life travelling around Europe, looking for friendhip and support and finding little of it!



Alas, poor Colonel Gustafsson!

Anyway, that's the reason why Sweden was suddenly in need of a Crown Prince who had to arrive here from another country!

Ann

Very interesting, Ann. That part I didn't know!
Yes, I had forgotten that fact, but I was very proud of it when I was and kid learning US history, being part Swedish and all.
I found out about Count Bernadotte by reading the book "Desiree" by Annemarie Selenko. Here's a great site on Desiree: Desiree
She was wooed by both Napoleon and Bernadotte, which was why Nappy wanted Bernie out of France. She became Queen of Sweden.

Artemis

This, of course, was the inspiration for one of Guiseppe Verdi's operas, "Un Ballo in Maschera" (The Masked Ball), where, in a case of art imitating life, the king is assassinated at a masked ball.

Interesting bits of backstory on this opera:

1) Marian Anderson made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York (she was the first black singer allowed on-stage there, in 1955) as Ulrica, the seer who prophesies that the king will be killed by his best friend.

Strangely enough, you don't see a lot of contraltos around anymore (Ulrica is a contralto). Not sure why.

2) When Verdi first wrote the opera, the censors had a conniption about the opera portraying a royal assassination. Verdi in turn then had an artistic conniption about the censors gutting his work.

They worked out a compromise. It wasn't going to be a king who was assassinated; it was going to be a governor. And he wouldn't be in Europe. Yes, folks, the Masked Ball was to be held in... *drums rolling* Colonial Boston. Yes, we all know that the Puritans had masked balls every weekend, because they were such party-hearty folk.

This example of total ludicrousness had everyone rolling their eyes at the time, and now, when the opera is staged, it's sensibly staged with a king being assassinated. In Europe. No Puritans or Bostonians in sight.

Iolan, I forgot to tell you... thank you for the very interesting information about Verdi's opera!

Ann

I, too, read the book "Desiree" ages ago. I wish I still had it, but unfortunately, it was only borrowed. Well, maybe I ought to go visit amazon.com...

Amazon has the paperback, but from what I read in the Desiree page, the American translation didn't include all the stuff in the European English version. You might be better off in German.
I read it when I was a kid and had the library book. At that time in the US they edited out the juicy parts because they were immoral. Since I was a kid, I didn't notice anything lacking

Artemis

You're welcome. I think I read it once and it stuck with me. Because "Puritans in Boston" and "Masked Ball" together are an oxymoron.