Charles XIV. Johann (Sweden)

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Karl XIV. Johann, portrait of François Gérard (detail)

Karl XIV. Johann (born January 26, 1763 in Pau , France as Jean Baptiste Bernadotte , † March 8, 1844 in Stockholm ) was French Maréchal d'Empire , Prince of Ponte Corvo , Swedish commander in chief of the Allied Northern Army against Napoleon, from 1818 to 1844 as Karl XIV. Johann King of Sweden and as Karl III. Johann King of Norway . Karl XIV. Johann is the founder of the Swedish royal family Bernadotte .

Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte was a French revolutionary general who fought in the Italian army under Napoleon Bonaparte after the French conquest of the Austrian Netherlands , Holland and the left Rhine region . During the imperial era, Bernadotte became one of the 14 marshals on May 19, 1804 with whom Napoleon led his campaigns. He took u. a. participated in the battles at Austerlitz and Wagram and successfully pursued Blücher to Lübeck , where he took him prisoner.

King Charles XIV John painted by Fredric Westin

In his time until 1810 he was governor of the Electorate of Hanover , Ansbach and the Hanseatic cities. From the emperor he received the title of Prince of Pontecorvo and other honors. After the Battle of Wagram (1809) he had fallen out with the Emperor, but successfully led the defense of France when the British landed in Holland.

In 1810 Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte was born by the childless King Charles XIII. adopted. As the Swedish heir to the throne, Bernadotte took the name Karl Johann . He converted to the Evangelical Lutheran faith and became a member of the Church of Sweden . Because Norway was linked to Sweden in a personal union as a result of the Peace of Kiel since 1814 , he also became heir to the Norwegian throne and, after the death of his adoptive father, also Norwegian king.

When Swedish Pomerania was illegally occupied in the following French campaigns and Sweden was exposed to ever greater French reprisals, Karl Johann began to support Napoleon's opponents. So he advised Tsar Alexander I to use the tactic of retreat that turned the French campaign in Russia into a catastrophe. In 1813 Bernadotte faced Napoleon with Swedish troops and became commander-in-chief of one of three armies in the coalition, the so-called Northern Army , consisting of Prussians, Russians and Swedes. Under him, von Bülow won the battle of Großbeeren and Dennewitz . Due to the Trachenberg Plan drawn up by him and Radetzky , the Battle of the Nations near Leipzig broke out . He and the Northern Army commanded by him took part in the battle only hesitantly. In the further campaign he refused to fight on French soil and to destroy France, although Tsar Alexander saw in him Napoleon's successor. Instead, he carried out a connection between Norway and Sweden.

In the period that followed, Bernadotte achieved Swedish neutrality : Sweden did not participate in the coalition against Napoleon during the rule of the hundred days . In 1818, Bernadotte became King of Sweden as Karl XIV. John and as Karl III. Johann King of Norway. Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte founded the Bernadotte royal house in Sweden .

Life

family

Bernadotte's birthplace in Pau
Oscar I of Sweden and Norway, portrait by Fredric Westin

Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte was the third child of Henri Bernadotte (born October 14, 1711 - March 31, 1780), the king's lawyer ( procureur du roi ) at the Seneschal Court, and his wife Jeanne de Saint Vincent (born April 1 , 1780) 1728–8 January 1809). The child was baptized Catholic on the day of birth. Godparents were Jean Bernadotte the Younger and his wife Marie de Besbedes. The family included the older brother Jean and the older sister Marie († 1796).

On August 17, 1798, Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte and Désirée Clary married in Sceaux-l'Unité . She had previously been engaged to Napoleon Bonaparte from April 1795 to 1796 . Désirée was a sister-in-law of Joseph Bonaparte , who married her sister Julie Clary on August 1, 1794 . The couple - together with Lucien Bonaparte and his wife Christine Boyer - took part in the marriage ceremony as best man.

The marriage of Jean-Baptiste and Désirée Bernadotte resulted in the son François Joseph Oscar Bernadotte, born on July 4, 1799. The only son became the royal successor of his father in 1844 as Oskar I of Sweden and Norway .

Period from 1780 to 1799

Beginning of the military career (1780–1791)

Bernadotte first began an apprenticeship in law, which he broke off in the second year of his apprenticeship after the death of his father. On September 3, 1780 Bernadotte was - after recruitment - a soldier in the Régiment Royal-La Marine (Brassac company) in the royal army during the era of absolutism under Louis XVI. The regiment bore the maritime name because it was set up for service on islands, in ports and overseas. Soon after his recruitment, Bernadotte served for eighteen months in Corsica , where he also served as fencing master for the officers. On May 20, 1782 he became a grenadier .

In the fourth year of his service Bernadotte arrived in Grenoble to 36 e régiment d'infantry . Here he received on June 16, 1785 the rank of a Caporal (non-commissioned officer) and on August 3, 1785 that of a sergent . On June 21, 1786 the NCO rank of Fourrier (Quartermaster) followed.

On May 11, 1788, Bernadotte was promoted to sergent major, which corresponds to the German rank of sergeant major . Because of violent pre-revolutionary attacks from the Third Estate against the soldiers, the regiment was transferred from Grenoble to Marseille in October 1788 . Here he was promoted to adjutant (staff sergeant) on February 7, 1790. French regiments also knew the adjutant as an officer's duty . This rank group would Bernadotte was however denied, because the Ancien Régime the Bourbons demanded that each officer of the royal army the detection of four noble generations.

Bernadotte as a lieutenant in the 36th Infantry Regiment, portrait by Louis-Félix Amiel, 1792

For the army during the French Revolution , a resolution of the National Assembly in August 1791 removed all status privileges and created promotion opportunities for soldiers who came from the bourgeoisie. In April 1792 Bernadotte could be promoted to Sous-lieutenant - retroactively with the date of November 6, 1791 .

First coalition war (1792–1797)

In the First Coalition War (1792-1797) an alliance of European powers tried to contain or reverse the French Revolution and its effects. In this war, which France had started with its declaration of war on April 20, 1792, Bernadotte fought in the Rhine Army under the high command of General Adam-Philippe de Custine .

On September 21, 1792, the First French Republic was proclaimed. In the same month Bernadotte was involved in the capture of Speyer and Mainz - in Bingen he was appointed regimental adjutant on November 30, 1792. The Rhine Army had the task of conquering the left bank of the Rhine in order to reach a " natural border " of France with the Rhine .

During the period of reign of terror , which lasted from the beginning of June 1793 to the end of July 1794, Bernadotte was elected Capitaine with effect from July 18, 1793 . Bernadotte's regiment supported the Northern Army in the fighting on September 8, 1793 at Hondschoote and on October 15 and 16, 1793 at Wattignies . The French army was under the leadership of General Jean-Nicolas Houchard . Before the two battles, Bernadotte was promoted to Chef de bataillon on August 8, 1793 . A confirmation followed on February 8, 1794, so that he was commander of a battalion. On April 4, 1794, Bernadotte took over as chief de brigade of the 71st Infantry Half-Brigade with 3,000 men.

On June 26, 1794, Bernadotte took part in the Battle of Fleurus under General Jean-Baptiste Kléber , who came from Alsace . Three days later, on June 29, 1794, Bernadotte was promoted to Général de brigade and assigned to the Sambre and Maas Army under Jean-Baptiste Jourdan .

In the battle of Aldenhoven on October 2, 1794, Bernadotte with 10,000 men held out a superior force of 25,000 opponents. On October 5, 1794, he and his troops reached the Lower Rhine town of Neuss . On October 6th, his artillery responded to a cannonade of the imperial garrison of Düsseldorf by bombarding the city, and the Düsseldorf castle burned down the following night . On October 22, 1794, Bernadotte was promoted to Général de division and commander of an avant-garde division. When Maastricht surrendered on November 4, 1794 , Bernadotte was garrison commander until December.

On April 5, 1795, the Republic of France and the Kingdom of Prussia agreed on a treaty that had been discussed since 1794. On the night of April 6, 1795, François Barthélemy signed the Treaty of Basel for France and Karl August von Hardenberg for Prussia . The fighting against Austria continued in the war year 1795 : In January 1795 Bernadotte had taken command of the 4th division in Cologne, with which he captured Kreuznach in autumn 1795 . On December 12, 1795, the troops withdrew again.

In the war year 1796 , Bernadotte was involved in the Battle of Wetzlar on June 15 and 16, 1796. From Wetzlar, Bernadotte's troops then advanced far in a south-easterly direction to the vicinity of Regensburg . As a result of the defeat in the Battle of Amberg on August 24, 1796, the Sambre and Maas Army and the Rhine-Moselle Army had to withdraw to the west again. In October 1796, Bernadotte was appointed military governor of Koblenz . At the beginning of 1797 he received the order from the Directory to march to Italy with 20,000 men from the Sambre and Maas armies.

Napoleon Bonaparte , general of the Italian campaign , had requested the support troops. It took Bernadotte's troops about a thousand kilometers from the beginning of January to the end of February 1797. The march led from Koblenz to Metz and Dijon , then via Mont Cenis to Susa in Piedmont , from there to Milan and finally to Mantua , the headquarters of the headquarters .

The first meeting between Napoleon and Bernadotte took place in Mantua on March 3, 1797. Bernadotte was given command of the 4th Division, which was to march on Vienna and which consisted entirely of the troops he had brought in from the Sambre Maas Army. The advance began on March 10, 1797 from Padua towards Udine . On March 18, 1797, Bernadotte's soldiers occupied the fortress town of Palmanova . On March 19, 1797, they captured Gradisca d'Isonzo , so that Archduke Charles had to retreat north. Then Bernadotte had the task of marching towards Laibach . Here the occupation of Idria and the mercury mine succeeded. Napoleon shared with Bernadotte - he gave his consent - in the rich exploitation of the mine.

On May 4 and May 14, 1797, the governments of France and Austria approved the preliminary peace of Leoben , which was ratified on May 24, 1797. After the armistice, French troops occupied Venetian territory and Bernadotte was appointed governor of Friuli , based in Udine. In the summer of 1797 - a few weeks before the coup d'état of the 18th Fructidor - Napoleon sent Generals Augereau and Bernadotte to Paris. Bernadotte had the task of delivering the captured flags to the government. The Peace of Campo Formio followed on October 17, 1797 .

Ambassador to Vienna, Armée de Mayence and Minister of War (1798–1799)

As a result of the Peace of Campo Formio, Bernadotte lost his administrative and military functions. He had to go to Treviso to await further orders. There he was finally appointed French ambassador to the imperial court in Vienna in January 1798 . With this appointment, Napoleon prevented Bernadotte from taking over the Italian army. Instead, General Berthier took over the army. Bernadotte arrived in Vienna on February 8, 1798. But after a scandal over the hoisting of the tricolor on April 13, 1798 on the occasion of the anniversary of the preliminary peace in Leoben, the ambassador left Vienna on April 17, 1798 and traveled back to Paris, where he arrived in May.

During the Second Coalition War , Bernadotte was transferred to the Armée de Mayence on October 10, 1798 . On November 11, 1798, he moved to his headquarters in Giessen . Because Bernadotte prevented the collections of the University of Giessen from being carried away as booty to Paris, the university awarded him an honorary doctorate on December 17, 1798. Two days later, Bernadotte reached his winter quarters in Landau in the Palatinate . During this time, Bernadotte was appointed Général en chef of a new Rhenish Obversation Army (occupation force) as well as Joubert's replacement from command of the Italian Army and his transfer to the Danube Army. After Joubert had also received command of the Obversation Army from the Board of Directors in March 1798, Bernadotte withdrew from his service because of a hemoptysis to take a longer stay at a spa.

Lucien Bonaparte, who was friends with Bernadotte, portrait by François-Xavier Fabre , after 1800

On the advice of Lucien and Joseph Bonaparte , board member Gohier proposed Bernadotte as the successor of Louis Marie de Milet de Mureau, who was generally considered incompetent, as Minister of War . On July 2, 1799, Bernadotte was unanimously elected by the board of directors. At the time of Bernadotte's Office of War Minister there were 260,000 soldiers of the revolutionary troops stationed from Holland to Naples and threatened by external enemies and internally by the royalists . He arranged the finances, took action against corruption , set up new training camps for recruits and improved the supply situation for the troops. When Jourdan, Augereau and Saliceti tried to arrange a plot against the government with Bernadotte in which Barras , Sieyès and Fouché were to be arrested, he should have resigned for assistance beforehand. The plot did not take place. Sieyès , Barras and Ducos , who had been warned, retired Bernadotte on September 14, 1799, against the opposition of the other two directors. Before that, he had been able to give orders to André Masséna for the then victorious Second Battle of Zurich .

French Consulate (1799–1804)

Coup of 18th Brumaire VIII

With the coup d'état of 18th Brumaire VIII the rule of the Directory ended and on November 10th, 1799 the era of the French Consulate began . The National Convention appointed Napoleon First Consul . The consulate also included the priest Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyès and the lawyer Pierre-Roger Ducos . General Bernadotte, who was not in active office at the time, had behaved neutrally during the coup.

State Councilor and Commander of the Western Army

A Council of State, Conseil d'État, was newly established as an advisory body to the consuls in governance and administration . On January 24, 1800, Bernadotte received from Napoleon the appointment of State Council in the military section. He also had the task of drawing up a new law on recruiting.

On April 11, 1800, Bernadotte was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Western Army with headquarters in Rennes . In Brittany , under Georges Cadoudal, the Chouannerie took place , the armed uprising Catholics loyal to the king against the revolutionary rule. In the English Channel, British cruisers patrolled. A British landing in Quiberon on June 5, 1800 by almost 600 men was repulsed by troops stationed on site without Bernadotte's intervention. There were no further planned landings, as Bernadotte reinforced the coast guard and took massive action against the Catholic royalists. On October 1, 1801, the preliminaries for a peace treaty between France and England were signed in London . On December 5, 1801, Bernadotte returned to Paris, where he served as a Council of State until October 1802. On December 31, 1802, he was appointed French Minister Plenipotentiary to the United States of America - an office he was unable to take up because of the renewed hostilities with England.

During this time he visited the salon of Juliette Recamier and made the acquaintance of the writer Madame de Staël there .

Imperial Marshal (1804-1810)

Governor of Hanover

The Coronation at Notre Dame (1804); Painting by Jacques-Louis David ; Bernadotte is the right of the altar behind Cardinal Joseph Fesch and next Caulaincourt , Eugène de Beauharnais , Talleyrand and Berthier to see

On May 18, 1804, the consular constitution ended and the Empire français ( First Empire ) began: Napoleon was appointed emperor by the Senate. On the same day, Bernadotte received high command of the Hanover Army, and on May 19, 1804, he was appointed Maréchal d'Empire .

Information board about Bernadotte's stay at Hardenberg's house

As governor of the occupied Electorate of Braunschweig-Lüneburg , which the British King Georg III. belonged, Bernadotte resided since June 17, 1804 in the Hardenberg house in the Great Garden in Herrenhausen . Bernadotte had taken over the house from General Édouard Adolphe Mortier . In September 1805, Bernadotte left the electorate with the reputation of a comparatively likeable governor .

Third coalition war (1805)

In 1805 there was a third coalition war against France. On August 30, 1805, Emperor Napoleon I ordered that L'Armée des côtes de l'Océan , which he had gathered from 1803 for the planned invasion of England on the French coast - especially near Boulogne-sur-Mer - should in future bear the name Grande Armée . The French troops in Holland and in the Electorate of Hanover were also assigned to the army with ultimately seven corps . On August 23, 1805, Bernadotte received the order to gather his regiments in Göttingen . On August 29, 1805 he was appointed commanding general of the 1st Army Corps. His troops marched 350 kilometers in ten days and reached Würzburg on September 27, 1805 , where the 24,000 men of the Bavarian army were placed under the corps. On October 1, 1805, the enlarged corps was able to march into Munich : the Austrian commander Michael von Kienmayer had evacuated the city the night before. During the march to Munich, Bernadotte had violated the neutrality of the Prussian principality of Ansbach .

After taking Munich, the Grande Armée was to advance against Vienna on both sides of the Danube . The troops marched to the left of the Danube under Édouard Adolphe Mortier . To the right of the river was Bernadotte with his 1st Army Corps, which Salzburg captured on October 30, 1805. And after the capture of Melk , Bernadotte received the order on November 13, 1805 to support Mortier in the fight against Kutuzov's Russians. Because the enemy had destroyed most of the ships, the crossing of the Danube could only be completed on November 16, 1805. Meanwhile the Russian soldiers under Kutuzov were in retreat.

The ensuing battle of Austerlitz - also known as the Battle of the Three Emperors - ended on December 2, 1805 in favor of the French. Napoleon had Davout and Bernadotte come in forced marches, whereby Bernadotte had to leave the Bavarian troops in Iglau in order to keep Archduke Ferdinand's corps there. On the eve of the battle, Napoleon also withdrew Kellermann's cavalry with 2,500 horses. The share of Bernadotte's reduced troops in the victory remains controversial because of the few and contradicting sources. At the headquarters of Bernadotte, two days after the Battle of Austerlitz, the first negotiations began, which led to the Peace of Pressburg with Austria on December 26, 1805 .

Before the defeat of Prussia in the fourth coalition war , the Principality of Ansbach had to cede it to France. Bernadotte administered the occupied Ansbach from February 23 to September 30, 1806.

On June 5, 1806, Bernadotte received the title of Prince of Ponte Corvo from Napoleon . The area formed a papal enclave in the Kingdom of Naples since 1464 , which was conquered by Napoleon in 1799. After his brother Joseph was appointed King of Naples, he created the Principality of Ponte Corvo for Bernadotte.

Fourth coalition war (1806-1807)

The central event of the fourth coalition war (1806-1807) was the battle of Jena and Auerstedt on October 14, 1806. Before that, there had been a battle near Saalfeld on October 10, but this did not directly influence the strategic situation of the campaign: Napoleon knew still not where the main Prussian power was, whether on the left or right bank of the Saale . He initially suspected them to be in Gera , but after better knowledge of the situation, he planned his attack on the Prussians near Jena , with Bernadotte and Davout , who had already arrived in Naumburg an der Saale with the 1st and 3rd Army Corps , after the enemy had the option of retreat Berlin should cut off.

At three o'clock in the morning on October 14, 1806, the order came for Davout to march to Apolda , with an imprecise reference to an interaction with Bernadotte. Together, Davout and Bernadotte set separate routes: Davout chose the bridge crossing at Kösen and Bernadotte the one at Dornburg . At Auerstedt the 3rd Army Corps encountered the main Prussian power - completely unexpectedly. Davout won with his three divisions with 27,300 men against 50,000 men.

Without intervening in the fighting, Bernadotte's 1st Army Corps reached the city of Apolda at four in the afternoon. It was only in the evening that Davout instructed both Bernadotte and Napoleon about the fighting at Auerstedt. On October 15, 1806, Napoleon dictated in his 5th Bulletin: The corps of Marshal Prince von Ponte Corvo had the task of stabbing the enemy in the back from Dornburg, be it that he was going in the direction of Naumburg, be it in the direction of Jena. In addition to this criticism, Napoleon charged Bernadotte through his Marshal Louis-Alexandre Berthier on October 21, 1806, with the allegation that he did not take part in the battle and thereby risked defeat. The authors Imhof and Barton come to the conclusion that the allegation was intended to cover up Napoleon's incorrect assessment of the military situation . In contrast to the bulletin (formulated later) of October 15, after passing Dornburg, Bernadotte did not stab the enemy in the direction of Naumburg or in the direction of Jena, but marched to Apolda without fighting. It is not known whether Bernadotte already knew at this point that the double battle had already been decided. His behavior after passing Dornburg is still controversial to this day.

On the morning of October 15, 1806, Napoleon gave Marshals Murat , Soult and Bernadotte orders to pursue and destroy the enemy. After a march of thirty kilometers, Bernadotte captured the city of Halle an der Saale on October 17th .

After taking Halle, Bernadotte's army corps crossed the Elbe at Barby on October 22, 1806 . In pursuing the fleeing troops of Blucher , Napoleon had given his marshal a free hand. In day marches of up to 50 km, the French soldiers with a strength of 12,000 infantry and 800 riders followed the fleeing Prussians. Blücher withdrew to the neutral city of Lübeck with 25,000 soldiers .

Together with Soult's and Murat's troops, Bernadotte opened the Battle of Lübeck on November 6, 1806 by storming the city with two divisions, and they succeeded in penetrating the city around noon. Large parts of the troops -  Scharnhorst and the seriously wounded Yorck among them - were taken prisoner. The French lost 1,000 and the Prussians 8,000 men. Blücher was able to escape with 9,000 men, but in view of the hopeless situation he accepted Bernadotte's demand for surrender with the addition that Blücher surrendered only for lack of bread and ammunition.

The French philosopher Charles de Villers , who lived there at the time, described the consequences of the battle for the population of Lübeck caused by the French occupation in a letter to Countess Fanny de Beauharnais. De Villers, a guest in the house of Lübeck's mayor Mattheus Rodde and his wife Dorothea Schlözer , was able to mitigate some of the attacks in the first phase of the occupation through Bernadotte, who was quartered in the same house. On November 8, 1806, Bernadotte issued a daily order prohibiting looting and instituting courts-martial.

On December 15, 1806, Bernadotte joined Emperor Napoleon in Thorn and was given command of the left wing of the army with Ney and Bessières under himself. The first French troops arrived in Allenstein on February 2, 1807 . The Russian troops under Bennigsen were able to escape in the direction of Prussian Eylau . Here it came between the French and Russian armies on 7./8. February 1807 for the battle of Preussisch Eylau , which remained without a decision.

The peace of Tilsit of July 7th and 9th, 1807 ended the fourth coalition war. The peace treaty between France and Russia divided Eastern Europe into a French and a Russian sphere of interest. The Franco-Prussian Treaty downgraded Prussia to the status of a European middle power. Bernadotte was a guest at the signing ceremony.

Governor of Hanseatic cities (1807–1809)

On July 14, 1807, Bernadotte was appointed governor of the occupied Hanseatic cities of Lübeck, Hamburg and Bremen . He had his residence in Hamburg. Despite the continental blockade, Bernadotte obtained licenses to trade with England for the shipping companies whose economic existence was threatened.

When the Russian Tsar occupied Finland , which belonged to Sweden, which had become Francophile after the coup , there was the option of attacking Sweden from Denmark. Bernadotte was tasked with an invasion and was to lead a contingent of French, Spanish, Dutch and Danish soldiers. The Danes, however, avoided sending troops. The British achieved naval supremacy in the second naval battle of Copenhagen and the bombing of Copenhagen from September 2nd to 5th, 1807, and made a passage extremely dangerous. The Spanish soldiers deserted to the British when they learned of Napoleon's plan to appoint his brother Joseph as King of Spain. The invasion seemed impossible.

On March 7, 1809, Bernadotte's governorship in Hamburg ended when he took command of the Royal Saxon Army as the 9th Corps of the Army of Germany.

Fifth coalition war (1809)

During the fifth coalition war , the battle of Wagram took place on July 5 and 6, 1809 . Here Bernadotte led the Saxon troops alongside the Grande Armée. Wagram was the first battle in which Napoleon failed to get a victory with few losses. In a circular to the marshals, Napoleon declared that the victory was an achievement by Marshal Masséna and Generals Oudinot and MacDonald . The disgraced Bernadotte had to return to Paris.

The British Walcheren expedition of July 30, 1809 also served the purpose of relieving the allied Austria. As part of the French countermeasures, Fouché had to hand over command to Bernadotte. He gathered an army of 30,000 men near Antwerp . King Louis Bonaparte himself joined with some Dutch units. In addition, Dutch gunboats attacked the British ships. Nevertheless, by Napoleon's decree of September 11, 1809, Bernadotte lost the command of Marshal Bessières . In addition, Bernadotte was summoned to the headquarters in Schönbrunn Palace by Napoleon . After the rejection of the post of governor of Rome, Bernadotte requested his retirement and left Vienna on October 21, 1809.

The Peace of Schönbrunn of October 14, 1809 ended the fifth coalition war.

Crown Prince of Sweden (1810-1818)

Apelstein No. 38 in Leipzig as a memory of the Battle of Nations and Karl Johann

Elected Crown Prince of Sweden (1810)

Because of his rejection of the French Revolution and the French policy of expansion, King Gustav IV Adolf was imprisoned in Gripsholm Castle in a coup d'état by Francophile Swedish officers on March 13, 1809 . On March 29, 1809, the king had in favor of his childless uncle Karl XIII. abdicate.

The Russo-Swedish War ended on September 17, 1809 in the Treaty of Fredrikshamn . Sweden had to cede Finland, the Åland Islands and parts of Lapland and Västerbotten to Russia, which formed the Grand Duchy of Finland from these areas .

When Prince Christian August of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg, adopted by him and chosen as his successor, suddenly died on May 28, 1810, the question of succession arose again. Forced by the French-friendly State Council, the Swedish king sent a letter to the French emperor on June 2, 1810, requesting his opinion. The messenger of the letter was the twenty-nine-year-old lieutenant and baron Carl Otto Mörner (1781–1868). Like other Swedish military men, he believed in France's imminent attack on Russia. In this war there could then arise a chance that a person with war experience and in the favor of Napoleon, as Crown Prince of Sweden, could recapture Finnish territory and secure Sweden's independence as an ally on the side of France. 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, u. a. from the reports of his cousin Count Gustav Mörner on the capture of Lübeck. 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 .

On June 25, 1810, Mörner went to Bernadotte to win him as his successor. But Bernadotte, who remained without a decision of his own, reported Mörner's offer to the Kaiser on the morning of the following day. In the afternoon - at Mörner's instigation - a conversation took place between Count Wrede and Bernadotte, in which concrete succession issues were discussed: Bernadotte's conversion from Catholic to Protestant denomination, his lack of knowledge of the Swedish language and Napoleon's required consent.

In the meantime, Elof Signeul , Swedish consul general in Paris, and the French import merchant Jean Antoine Fournier had launched an intensive campaign in favor of Bernadotte. On July 12, 1810, with Napoleon's approval, his candidacy in Sweden was announced. The Swedish Diet in Örebro unanimously elected Bernadotte as Crown Prince of Sweden on August 21, 1810. On September 23, 1810, Bernadotte received from Napoleon's hands the certificate with which he was released from French citizenship.

Schwedenstein near Serno

Commander in Chief of the Swedish Armed Forces (1810-1813)

On September 28, 1810, he was appointed Commander in Chief of the Swedish armed forces on land and at sea. On October 20, 1810, Bernadotte entered Swedish territory for the first time. On November 5, 1810, Charles XIII adopted him. took place under the name of Karl Johann during an extraordinary meeting of the estates of his son.

In the Paris Treaty of January 6, 1810, Sweden had committed itself to participate in the continental blockade directed against Great Britain . Due to the threat of economic losses, Sweden was reluctant to fulfill its obligation - and the French emperor had already issued admonitions to the Swedish government. After a first ultimatum in May 1810, the French envoy Charles-Jean-Marie Alquier (1752–1826) presented Foreign Minister Lars von Engeström (1751–1826) with a second ultimatum on November 13, 1810: If Sweden does not join the Kingdom of Great Britain within five days declare war, hostilities against Sweden can be expected from France. Although there was a formal declaration of war on November 17, 1810 , this declaration was not followed by any military action.

From March 17, 1811 to January 7, 1812, Crown Prince Karl Johann was in charge of the sick Karl XIII. accepted. Sweden tried, through Karl Johann, a policy of neutrality when approaching Russia. This policy was justified with the paradigm of natural borders: The aim of Swedish expansion was therefore less directed towards Finland, but more towards Norway, which had been in a confederation with Denmark since 1380 . A secret conversation between Karl Johann and the Russian ambassador in Stockholm, General Count Jan Pieter van Suchtelen, was part of the rapprochement with Russia under Tsar Alexander I at the end of November 1810 . By contrast, relations between Sweden and France deteriorated increasingly from the beginning of 1811. A crisis situation arose at the end of January 1812 - at the beginning of the Russian campaign - when French troops marched into Swedish Pomerania . This crisis brought Swedish foreign policy closer to England and Russia.

In the Treaty of Petersburg, which was concluded between Russia and Sweden on April 5, 1812, the contracting parties not only guaranteed each other their territories, but with Russian support, Sweden should come into possession of Norway. The contract was negotiated by Count Carl Axel Löwenhielm in his capacity as Karl Johann's closest confidante.

After the catastrophe of the Grande Armée in the winter of 1812, the Crown Prince tried to adapt to the new political situation: he distanced himself from his brother-in-law Joseph Bonaparte , called the Swedish Chargé d'affaires d'Ohsson back from Paris and referred the French ambassador in Stockholm Country. This expulsion of a diplomat had influenced Madame de Staël - she spent the winter of 1812/1813 in Stockholm as a guest of the Crown Prince.

But despite a conciliatory tuned touch of Napoleon from February 17, 1813 Crown Prince Karl Johann lost rapidly in decision alternatives: In the Treaty of Kalisz of 27-28. February 1813 Prussia allied itself with Russia against France. The Crown Prince decided to join the coalition against Napoleon, and in the Treaty of Örebro of March 3, 1813, England agreed to the Swedish conquest of Norway. In return, Sweden had to take part in the upcoming campaign with 30,000 men. After the joint declaration of war by Russia and Prussia on March 16, 1813, the former French marshal finally parted with Napoleon in his letter of March 23, 1813.

Karl Johann had to commit himself in the contract to Örebro to personally lead the Swedish troops. For this reason he left his country by ship in May 1813 and crossed from Karlskrona to Stralsund . The commander found the situation unfavorable: on May 2, 1813, Napoleon's troops won the battle of Großgörschen against Prussia and Russia. In Lützen , Napoleon had spent the night before the battle - almost demonstratively - at the monument to the Swedish King Gustav II Adolf , who died in the Battle of Lützen in 1632 . And Napoleon's next victory in the Battle of Bautzen on 20/21. May 1813 worsened the military situation of the allies. In the meantime, Napoleon only achieved one Pyrrhic victory (see evaluation in the Battle of Bautzen ).

Through the mediation of the Austrian Emperor Franz I , there was an armistice between France and the coalition on June 4, 1813 in Poischwitz, Silesia . Karl Johann was not involved in these negotiations. In the development of the Trachenberg Plan , which was decided on July 12, 1813, the Crown Prince was involved with his military knowledge as a former French marshal.

Commander in Chief of the Northern Army (1813-1814)

According to the Trachenberg Plan, a northern army was set up under the leadership of Karl Johann. It consisted of the Swedish troops and two Prussian corps under Generals Bülow and Tauentzien . There was also a Russian corps under Ferdinand von Wintzingerode . The Northern Army numbered 125,000 men. The commander in chief of the allied armed forces was the Austrian field marshal Schwarzenberg .

In the Battle of Großbeeren on August 23, 1813, the defeat of the French prevented the Napoleonic troops from advancing to Berlin again. However, the Prussian general von Bülow had ordered the victorious attack against the will of the commander-in-chief of the Northern Army. Bülow's victory spared the Swedish Crown Prince a direct encounter with his former comrades Oudinot and Ney .

Napoleon replaced the defeated Oudinot with Ney and ordered him to make a new advance on Berlin. On September 6, 1813, the battle of Dennewitz broke out , in which von Bülow and von Tauentzien again participated on the Prussian side .

After the victory at Dennewitz, Karl Johann moved his headquarters to Zerbst on September 15, 1813 . Although the second phase of the Trachenberg Plan had begun, he did not allow the Northern Army to march towards Leipzig on October 4, 1813, until the allies requested it. The Battle of Leipzig began on October 16 and ended with the Allied victory on October 19, 1813.

At the beginning of the decisive battle, the Northern Army had advanced up to 30 km north of Leipzig. On October 17, 1813, it was near Breitenfeld . Here Karl Johann received an urgent request from Blücher and Prince Wilhelm of Prussia the next morning at five o'clock to intervene in the battle, which happened in the following two days. The historian Arthur E. Imhof compares the behavior of the Crown Prince with that of a cunctator .

Column in memory of the peace in Kiel

As early as October 10, 1813, the strategic decision had been made that the Northern Army had to advance towards Holland via Kassel after the battle of Leipzig. At the same time Metternich tried diplomatic channels for Denmark to join the Allies. Karl Johann saw in the Austrian efforts to Friedrich VI. , King of Denmark and Norway, a serious threat to his own interests in the annexation of Norway to Sweden.

Contrary to the original Allied agreements and in the interests of his Swedish expansion policy, Karl Johann decided on October 29, 1813 to advance with the Northern Army via Göttingen and Hanover to Hamburg and Holstein . The French Governor General Davout, responsible for the Hanseatic Department , had his official seat in Hamburg . The dual aim of this military operation was to block the French troops based in occupied Hamburg with a siege and to pursue the Danish troops.

A first meeting in Bornhöved on December 7, 1813 ended without a decision. After a second meeting of units of the Northern Army under General Wallmoden-Gimborn with Danish troops under the leadership of Friedrich von Hessen-Kassel on December 10, 1813 in Sehestedt , the Danes withdrew to the Rendsburg fortress . Karl Johann took his headquarters in Kiel . On December 15, 1813, he accepted a fortnightly truce. In the meantime, the Austrian diplomat Count von Bombelles in Copenhagen had given himself up to King Friedrich VI. offered as a peace broker. Bombelle's proposal stipulated that Denmark should give up large parts of Norway in favor of Sweden, which was initially rejected by the king. But in view of the Danish bankruptcy, the king finally consented to surrender on January 7, 1814. The Peace of Kiel was concluded on January 14, 1814 : The Kingdom of Norway was henceforth part of the Kingdom of Sweden in a personal union.

Despite his success, the four allied powers England, Austria, Prussia and Russia did not involve Crown Prince Karl Johann in the Congress of Châtillon , which took place from February 5 to March 19, 1814. In the meantime he moved into his first headquarters in Cologne on February 10, 1814 , which he moved to Aachen on February 28, and then to Liège. And after the entry of the Allies into Paris on March 31, 1814, the transfer to Brussels followed on April 4. From there, the Crown Prince traveled to Paris on April 10, 1814, where he stayed from April 12 to 29. The main reason for his trip were problems with the organization of the personal union between Sweden and Norway.

On May 1, 1814, the Swedish Crown Prince Karl Johann left France, his former homeland, forever. He also left his wife Désirée behind, who only moved permanently to Sweden in 1823 for the wedding of their son.

Swedish-Norwegian War 1814

The Norwegian people refused to accept the terms of the Treaty of Kiel. It proclaimed the former Danish governor Prince Christian Friedrich in Trondheim as regent on February 25, 1814 . With this, Norway demonstrated its independence and arbitrarily ended the Danish-Norwegian personal union . On 17 May 1814 was followed by the Diet of Eidsvoll in the Constitution of Eidsvoll the establishment of a constitutional hereditary monarchy and the election of the Prince to the Norwegian king. This process was a casus belli for the Swedish kingdom : on July 26, 1814, a Swedish army under the leadership of Karl Johann marched into Norway.

But the first negotiations with the Norwegians began on August 3rd. They finally led to the Moss Convention on August 14, 1814 . On November 4th, the Storting elected the Swedish King Karl XIII. as Charles II to the Norwegian king. The annexation of Norway to Sweden was completed, but in a different political and historical quality than agreed upon by the contracting parties in the Peace of Kiel. Despite the union with Sweden, the democratic constitution of Eidsvoll retained its validity in Norway's constitutional monarchy - with the exception of the Union's foreign trade and defense policy.

The Moss Convention had redefined the Swedish borders even before the Congress of Vienna , which began on September 18, 1814 and ended on June 9, 1815. For the signatory state Sweden - represented at the congress by Carl Axel Graf von Löwenhielm - the agreements of the Vienna Congress Act only had one further territorial consequence: Prussia acquired the Swedish-Pomerania and Rügen areas from Sweden in return for a purchase price .

Political activity from 1814 to 1818

Crown Prince Karl Johann observed the restoration in France with great attention . Although the Bourbons tolerated the Crown Prince out of respect for Charles XIII, they saw Gustav von Wasa , son of King Gustav IV Adolf , who was deposed in 1809 , as a possible successor . With this in mind, Tsar Alexander tried at the Congress of Vienna to create a principality for his ward Gustav.

One of King Louis XVIII. The staged plot aimed at expelling the Crown Prince was suddenly interrupted by Napoleon's rule of the Hundred Days . But immediately after the Battle of Waterloo , in which Sweden was not involved, and the onset of the Second Restoration , a wild press campaign by the French royalists against Karl Johann began. The persecution of former companions created additional consternation. He was particularly struck by the news of the execution of his former friend Ney . The Crown Prince invited the Marshal's son to Stockholm. He also looked after the son of Marshal Drouet . Karl Johann appointed the Duke of Otranto , son of Joseph Fouché , chamberlain at the Swedish court.

In the years 1815 to 1817 there were even criminal prosecutions of people who had publicly expressed their sympathy for Gustav von Wasa. Apart from this, the last few years before the crown prince's coronation passed as if in a waiting position, but he used this time to stabilize his policy of Swedish neutrality , which he had already begun during the coalition wars, through friendly relations with Russia and England.

King of Sweden and Norway (1818–1844)

Karl XIV. Johann (monument in Oslo )

King Charles XIII died on the evening of February 5, 1818. Before midnight, councilors of state and high officials swore their oaths on the new Swedish King Charles XIV. On February 7, reciprocal pledges of loyalty and the swearing-in of Crown Prince Oskar followed in the Reichstag .

On May 11, 1818, the Swedish King Karl XIV. Johann was solemnly crowned in Stockholm by Jacob Axelsson Lindblom , Archbishop of Upsala . On September 7th, the coronation as King Charles III of Norway followed in St. Olaf's Cathedral in Trondheim . Johann.

A historic achievement of King Charles XIV. John was the continuation of neutrality in foreign policy. In the history of Sweden in the 19th century , industrialization began during its time, including necessary reforms in the infrastructure and in the community.

The King of Sweden and Norway was buried in Stockholm's Riddarholmskyrkan after his death on March 8, 1844 .

Honors

Ratings

Bernadotte was a differently judged personality. Born in France in 1763, he was named Bernadotte in the army for 47 years and Charles XIV John as King of Sweden for 34 years. This alone justifies or requires different perspectives. A distinction must be made between the areas of politics, the military and the family. When assessing the statements made about him, the interests of the person making the statement must be taken into account.

Bernadotte's life and actions are controversial. While he is partly portrayed negatively due to the publications of contemporary witnesses up to the present day, later biographers present him in a better light. Allegations, in the battles at Auerstedt and Jena, Wagram, Großbeeren, Dennewitz and Leipzig and in his behavior Napoleon Acting treasonable towards them appears largely unfounded. In some points it has even been proven that targeted defamation campaigns were carried out against him - already during his lifetime, but also on the Prussian-German side afterwards. B. Napoleon, Blücher, Bülow and the Prussians to better represent.

The decisive conflict level is politics. The Marshal Napoleon became King of Sweden in 1810/1818. This change did not necessarily mean a change of sides. For his Swedish voters a certain internal independence of Bernadotte from Napoleon was important; on the other hand, Napoleon had agreed to this choice. For the foreseeable conflict with Russia, Napoleon expected Bernadotte to be at least neutral, while the Swedes, on the other hand, often expected clear resistance. When Napoleon occupied Swedish Pomerania in 1811, the now Swedish regent allied himself with Napoleon's opponents. The supporters of Napoleon viewed this partisanship as treason, and against this background it is to be understood why his previous achievements were devalued from this side. The other side sees him in the front of those who freed Europe from the yoke of the tyrant Napoleon. It is to be understood that this side does not want to hold the liberator and founder of a two-hundred-year-old dynasty still ruling today about the less glorious aspects of his military achievements.

As a military man, his rise to army commander-in-chief or war minister of France can be explained without Napoleon solely on the basis of his military characteristics, but as Marshal of France then certainly not without his family ties to the emperor. Napoleon, who considered himself to be an unsurpassed military genius, tended to praise his own successes while hiding his military failures. On the one hand, in the event of victories, he robbed his marshals of some of their fame; He has proven his strong emotionality, which was able to switch seamlessly between exuberance and outbursts of anger, through his own written documents. In the end, it is crucial that Napoleon never gave Bernadotte the final military departure, and certainly not just because of family considerations. Those who, like Napoleon, absolutely wanted to win were not allowed to drag along losers among their marshals out of sentimentality; the French emperor must therefore have thought Bernadotte was a competent general.

At the collegial level, it should be taken into account that there was rivalry among the leading generals within all armies and between allied armies, with the tendency to praise one's own successes and devalue the successes of others. Regardless of this subjectively interested point of view, it can be stated that Bernadotte does not report any sudden surprise maneuvers, no forced marches, no death-defying resistance, even in the case of great losses - things that usually establish military fame. He has undoubtedly fulfilled the duty of a marshal expected of him; the other marshals also sometimes had their weak moments. Attempts to praise him as exceptionally talented through this general level of duty fulfillment or, conversely, to portray him as a notorious failure, must fail due to a lack of sources. Bernadotte was evidently an inconspicuous, sufficiently competent general.

With the change from Marshal to Crown Prince, his behavior as a military commander also changed. As Marshal Napoleon, he could only lose the marshal's baton in the event of defeat, while overall responsibility for the state remained with Napoleon, but as Crown Prince he could lose the throne. Sweden, a country with only a small population, could only raise an army of about 10,000 men (the total strength of the allies in the Battle of Leipzig in 1813 was 310,000 men); the head of state therefore had to use these resources sparingly and try to achieve the greatest (political) success with the least possible effort. From the Crown Prince's point of view, his reluctance to advance, which the Prussians lamented, was undoubtedly a matter of Swedish state. As justified as this behavior is from a Swedish and independent point of view, it must not lead to him being portrayed as a military hero in the 1813 campaign; he must be honored here as a statesman.

literature

Special

  • Clemens Amelunxen: Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte. Marshal Napoleon - King of Sweden . Heymann, Cologne a. a. 1991, ISBN 3-452-22228-4 .
  • Dunbar Plunkett Barton: The Amazing Career of Bernadotte 1763-1844. Murray, London 1929.
    • German edition: Bernadotte, French grenadier and King of Sweden, 1763–1844. Translated from English by Otto Albrecht van Bebber. Goldmann, Bern / Leipzig / Vienna 1936.
    • French edition: Bernadotte (1763–1844). Payot, Paris 1961 a. Plon, Paris 1983, ISBN 2-228-13320-5 .
  • Fritz Corsing: Jean Baptiste Bernadotte. Nauck, Berlin 1946.
  • Jörg-Peter Findeisen : Jean Baptiste Bernadotte. Revolutionary General, Marshal Napoleon, King of Sweden and Norway. Katz, Gernsbach 2010, ISBN 978-3-938047-48-4 .
  • Gabriel Girod de l'Ain: Jean Baptiste Bernadotte - citizen, French revolutionary general, Swedish-Norwegian king . Translated from the French by Inga Pohlmann. Verlag des Südkurier, Konstanz 1989, ISBN 3-87799-081-9 .
  • Torvald T. Höjer: Carl XIV Johan . Norstedt, Stockholm.
  1. The franska tiden. 1939.
  2. Crown princes. 1943.
  3. Konungstiden. 1960.

General

Web links

Commons : Karl XIV  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Napoleon appointed 18 marshals, including 4 honor marshals, with whom he did not go to war.
  2. It is controversial whether his proposal was decisive. Even Phull and Kutuzov had advised to withdraw the Czar, a consequence of the all interested military known success of the guerrilla war strategy in the Spanish War of Independence since 1807th
  3. a b c Bernadotte's files from the archives of the French War Ministry, quoted from Dunbar Plunkett Barton: Bernadotte, French grenadier and King of Sweden, 1763–1844. Goldmann, Bern / Leipzig / Vienna 1936, pp. 316–318.
  4. ^ Dunbar Plunkett Barton: Bernadotte, French grenadier and King of Sweden, 1763-1844. Goldmann, Bern / Leipzig / Vienna 1936, p. 8 u. 39.
  5. ^ Dunbar Plunkett Barton: Bernadotte, French grenadier and King of Sweden, 1763-1844. Goldmann, Bern / Leipzig / Vienna 1936, p. 81.
  6. ^ A b c d e Dunbar Plunkett Barton: Bernadotte, French grenadier and King of Sweden, 1763-1844. Goldmann, Bern / Leipzig / Vienna 1936, pp. 9-17 u. 316–318 (Archives of the War Department).
  7. ^ Dunbar Plunkett Barton: Bernadotte, French grenadier and King of Sweden, 1763-1844. Goldmann, Bern / Leipzig / Vienna 1936, ranking list of the French War Ministry, p. 218.
  8. Fritz Corsing: Jean Baptiste Bernadotte. Nauck, Berlin 1946, pp. 21-23.
  9. ^ Dunbar Plunkett Barton: Bernadotte, French grenadier and King of Sweden, 1763-1844. Goldmann, Bern / Leipzig / Vienna 1936, p. 11.
  10. Fritz Corsing: Jean Baptiste Bernadotte. Nauck, Berlin 1946, p. 26.
  11. a b Fritz Corsing: Jean Baptiste Bernadotte. Nauck, Berlin 1946, pp. 31-32.
  12. Fritz Corsing: Jean Baptiste Bernadotte. Nauck, Berlin 1946, p. 35.
  13. a b c Fritz Corsing: Jean Baptiste Bernadotte. Nauck, Berlin 1946, pp. 39-48.
  14. ^ A b Dunbar Plunkett Barton: Bernadotte, French grenadier and King of Sweden, 1763-1844. Goldmann, Bern / Leipzig / Vienna 1936, pp. 47–55.
  15. Fritz Corsing: Jean Baptiste Bernadotte. Nauck, Berlin 1946, pp. 54-59.
  16. a b c d Arthur E. Imhof: Bernadotte. French revolutionary general and Swedish-Norwegian king . Musterschmidt, Göttingen 1970, pp. 24-30.
  17. ^ Arthur E. Imhof: Bernadotte. French revolutionary general and Swedish-Norwegian king . Musterschmidt, Göttingen 1970, p. 34.
  18. Fritz Corsing: Jean Baptiste Bernadotte. Nauck, Berlin 1946, p. 104
  19. ^ Dunbar Plunkett Barton: Bernadotte, French grenadier and King of Sweden, 1763-1844. Goldmann, Bern / Leipzig / Vienna 1936, p. 317.
  20. a b Arthur E. Imhof: Bernadotte. French revolutionary general and Swedish-Norwegian king . Musterschmidt, Göttingen 1970, pp. 35-36.
  21. ^ Order printed in full in: Liskenne, Sauvan: Bibliothèque Militaire. T. VII, 1853, p. 11 ff.
  22. a b c Arthur E. Imhof: Bernadotte. French revolutionary general and Swedish-Norwegian king . Musterschmidt, Göttingen 1970, pp. 37-38.
  23. a b c d e Arthur E. Imhof: Bernadotte. French revolutionary general and Swedish-Norwegian king . Musterschmidt, Göttingen 1970, pp. 40-42.
  24. ^ Dunbar Plunkett Barton: Bernadotte, French grenadier and King of Sweden, 1763-1844. Goldmann, Bern / Leipzig / Vienna 1936, pp. 162–167.
  25. ^ Dunbar Plunkett Barton: Bernadotte, French grenadier and King of Sweden, 1763-1844. Goldmann, Bern / Leipzig / Vienna 1936, p. 168.
  26. Fritz Corsing: Jean Baptiste Bernadotte. Nauck, Berlin 1946, p. 26.
  27. Charles de Villers: Letter to the Countess Fanny de Beauharnais containing news of the events that occurred in Lübeck on Thursday, November 6th, 1806 and following. Art and Industry Comptoir, Amsterdam 1807; Reprint: Lübeck 1981.
  28. ^ A b Dunbar Plunkett Barton: Bernadotte, French grenadier and King of Sweden, 1763-1844. Goldmann, Bern / Leipzig / Vienna 1936, pp. 316–318 (Archives of the War Ministry).
  29. ^ Dunbar Plunkett Barton: Bernadotte, French grenadier and King of Sweden, 1763-1844. Goldmann, Bern / Leipzig / Vienna 1936, p. 192.
  30. ^ Arthur E. Imhof: Bernadotte. French revolutionary general and Swedish-Norwegian king . Musterschmidt, Göttingen 1970, p. 47.
  31. Fritz Corsing: Jean Baptiste Bernadotte. Nauck, Berlin 1946, pp. 159-161.
  32. ^ Bernadotte converted on October 19, 1810.
  33. a b Arthur E. Imhof: Bernadotte. French revolutionary general and Swedish-Norwegian king . Musterschmidt, Göttingen 1970, pp. 49-53.
  34. a b Arthur E. Imhof: Bernadotte. French revolutionary general and Swedish-Norwegian king . Musterschmidt, Göttingen 1970, pp. 55-58.
  35. a b c d Arthur E. Imhof: Bernadotte. French revolutionary general and Swedish-Norwegian king . Musterschmidt, Göttingen 1970, pp. 60-65.
  36. a b Fritz Corsing: Jean Baptiste Bernadotte. Nauck, Berlin 1946, pp. 203-206.
  37. a b Fritz Corsing: Jean Baptiste Bernadotte. Nauck, Berlin 1946, pp. 208-211.
  38. Fritz Corsing: Jean Baptiste Bernadotte. Nauck, Berlin 1946, pp. 220-221.
  39. ^ Arthur E. Imhof: Bernadotte. French revolutionary general and Swedish-Norwegian king . Musterschmidt, Göttingen 1970, pp. 71-76.
  40. a b c d Arthur E. Imhof: Bernadotte. French revolutionary general and Swedish-Norwegian king . Musterschmidt, Göttingen 1970, pp. 72-75.
  41. ^ A b Martin Krieger: The Danish State in the Age of Napoleonic Wars. In: Sonja Kinzler (Hrsg.): The Kiel Peace 1814. A fateful year for the north. Wachholtz, Neumünster / Hamburg 2014, pp. 43–44.
  42. Michael Bregnsbo: The peace treaty and its signing in Kiel on January 14, 1814. In: Sonja Kinzler (Hrsg.): The Kiel peace 1814. A fateful year for the north. Wachholtz, Neumünster / Hamburg 2014, pp. 47–53.
  43. a b Arthur E. Imhof: Bernadotte. French revolutionary general and Swedish-Norwegian king . Musterschmidt, Göttingen 1970, pp. 76-82.
  44. ^ Dunbar Plunkett Barton: Bernadotte, French grenadier and King of Sweden, 1763-1844. Goldmann, Bern / Leipzig / Vienna 1936, p. 266.
  45. Bård Frydenlund: The importance of the Kiel Peace for Norway in 1814. In: Sonja Kinzler (Hrsg.): The Kiel Peace 1814. A fateful year for the north. Wachholtz, Neumünster / Hamburg 2014, pp. 121–130.
  46. a b Arthur E. Imhof: Bernadotte. French revolutionary general and Swedish-Norwegian king . Musterschmidt, Göttingen 1970, pp. 88-90.
  47. ^ Dunbar Plunkett Barton: Bernadotte, French grenadier and King of Sweden, 1763-1844. Goldmann, Bern / Leipzig / Vienna 1936, pp. 273–277.
  48. Fritz Corsing: Jean Baptiste Bernadotte. Nauck, Berlin 1946, p. 285.
  49. a b Arthur E. Imhof: Bernadotte. French revolutionary general and Swedish-Norwegian king . Musterschmidt, Göttingen 1970, pp. 91-92.
  50. ^ Bernadotte's files from the archives of the French Ministry of War, quoted from Dunbar Plunkett Barton: Bernadotte, French grenadier and King of Sweden, 1763–1844. Goldmann, Bern / Leipzig / Vienna 1936, p. 281.
  51. List of the Knights of the Royal Prussian High Order of the Black Eagle. Decker, Berlin 1851, p. 15; Digitized. Retrieved September 3, 2012
predecessor Office successor
Charles XIII./II. King of Sweden
1818–1844
Oscar I.
Charles XIII./II. King of Norway
1818–1844
Oscar I.
Louis Marie de Miletus de Mureau Minister of War of France
1799
Edmond Louis Alexis Dubois-Crancé