Carl Otto Mörner
Carl Otto Mörner (born May 22, 1781 in Uppsala , † August 17, 1868 in Vaxholm ) was a Swedish baron and diplomat . He gained fame as the "kingmaker" of the Swedish Bernadotte dynasty .
Life
Carl Otto came from a noble family, his grandfather Didrik Mörner Baron af Morlanda was a colonel and married to Martha Elisabeth Bure. His father Carl Claes Mörner (1730–1786) married Margareta Elizabeth von Post (1734–1790). Carl was the third and youngest child in the family and had emerged from the relationship as the second son. In 1796 he joined the Uppland regiment and in 1809 he became a lieutenant.
King Charles XIII had no heirs and suffered a stroke in the autumn of 1809 and was no longer capable of governing. Since Karl himself had no surviving children, he adopted Christian August von Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg in 1809 , who called himself Karl August as the Swedish heir to the throne. On May 28, 1810 Christian August also had a stroke, he fell from his horse and died an hour later. His father, Duke Friedrich Christian II (1721–1794), was the next candidate to be placed under house arrest in his Augustenburg Castle by a Danish flotilla; because his brother-in-law King Friedrich VI. of Denmark was interested in rule over Sweden.
The Swedish Reichstag commissioned Lieutenant Carl Otto Mörner to go to Paris as envoy in order to obtain Napoleon's approval for the election of Friedrich Christian II von Holstein-Augustenburg (1721–1794).
Mörner and Baron Ankarswärd arrived in Paris on June 20, 1810. They independently asked several marshals whether one of them wanted to become King of Sweden, an offer that General Jean Baptiste Bernadotte accepted. Mörner's choice fell on Bernadotte, who on the one hand had shown a certain independence from Napoleon and on the other hand enjoyed a good reputation in Sweden, including from the reports of his cousin Count Gustav Mörner when Lübeck was taken. At the same time as Mörner, the Swedish general Count Fabian Wrede (1760-1824) was in Paris as the bearer of imperial congratulations to Napoleon on his marriage to Marie-Louise of Austria.
When Mörner finally returned to Sweden, the reign received him mercilessly and put him under house arrest. While Mörner was in prison, Bernadotte received the emperor's approval for his candidacy, because Napoleon hoped to be able to attract Sweden to France's side. On August 21, 1810 the Reichstag elected Johann Baptist Bernadotte as crown prince on the condition that he accepted the pure Protestant faith. In October 1810 Bernadotte came to Stockholm and was by Charles XIII. adopted and thus legitimized as heir to the throne.
In 1811 Mörner became a captain in the army, and in the same year he was adjutant to Crown Prince Jean Baptiste. Charles XIII died on February 5, 1818, Mörner was now promoted to colonel . After Bernadotte's elevation to King Charles XIV of Sweden , he was his envoy to France . He was after all from 1824 to 1829 Lieutenant Governor of Jämtland . He died in Vaxholm in 1868 and was buried in the old Linköping cemetery.
Carl Otto Mörner married Sofia Emerentia Wetterstedt in 1810, daughter of Baron Eric af Wetterstedt and Anna Christina Bladh. Sofia Emerentia died in 1831 after giving birth to eight children. In the same year 1831, the widower married Catharina Charlotta Styrlander (1799-1847). Only six months after her death in 1848 he entered into a third marriage, with Anna Sofia Sundius, the daughter of the royal secretary Sundius and Sophia Styrlander.
Web links
- Biography on Svenskt Biografiskt Lexicon (Swedish)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Mörner, Carl Otto |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Swedish baron and lieutenant |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 22, 1781 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Uppsala |
| DATE OF DEATH | 17th August 1868 |
| Place of death | Vaxholm |