Charles XV
| Charles XV & IV | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Karl XV in the mid-1860s | |||||
| King of Sweden and Norway | |||||
| Reign | 8 July 1859 – 18 September 1872 | ||||
| Coronations | 3 May 1860, Stockholm 5 August 1860, Trondheim | ||||
| Predecessor | Oscar I | ||||
| Successor | Oscar II | ||||
| Born | 3 May 1826 Stockholm | ||||
| Died | 18 September 1872 (aged 46) Malmö | ||||
| Burial | |||||
| Spouse | Louise of the Netherlands | ||||
| Issue | Louise, Queen of Denmark Prince Carl Oscar, Duke of Södermanland | ||||
| |||||
| House | Bernadotte | ||||
| Father | Oscar I | ||||
| Mother | Josephine of Leuchtenberg | ||||
| Religion | Church of Sweden | ||||
Charles XV & IV also Carl (Carl Ludvig Eugen); Swedish and Norwegian: Karl (3 May 1826 – 18 September 1872) was King of Sweden (Charles XV) and Norway (Charles IV) from 1859 until his death.
Though known as King Charles XV in Sweden (and also on contemporary Norwegian coins[1]), he was actually the ninth Swedish king by that name, as his predecessor Charles IX (reigned 1604–1611) had adopted a numeral according to a fictitious history of Sweden.[2]
Biography
 | This section needs additional citations for verification. (July 2014) |
He was born in Stockholm Palace, Stockholm, and dubbed Duke of Skåne at birth. He was the eldest son of King Oscar I and Josephine of Leuchtenberg. He was given his first officer's commission in 1841 by his grandfather, Charles XIV John. After his father's accession to the throne in 1844, he was made a chancellor of the universities of Uppsala and Lund, and in 1853 chancellor of Royal Swedish Academy of Arts. On 11 February 1846 he was made an honorary member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
The Crown Prince was Viceroy of Norway briefly in 1856 and 1857. He became Regent on 25 September 1857, and king on the death of his father on 8 July 1859. As grandson of Augusta of Bavaria, he was a descendant of Gustav I of Sweden and Charles IX of Sweden, whose blood returned to the throne after being lost in 1818 when Charles XIII of Sweden died.
On 19 June 1850 he married in Stockholm Louise of the Netherlands, niece of William II of the Netherlands through her father and niece of William I of Prussia, German Emperor, through her mother. The couple were personally quite dissimilar; Princess Louise was in love with her husband, whereas he preferred other women. His well-known mistresses included the countess Josephine Sparre, Wilhelmine Schröder and the actresses Hanna Styrell and Elise Hwasser, the latter the most celebrated actress in Sweden during his reign, and the Crown Prince neglected his shy wife. On the other hand, his relationship to his only daughter, Louise, was warm and close.
As Crown Prince, Charles' brusque manner led many to regard his future accession with some apprehension, yet he proved to be one of the most popular of Scandinavian kings and a constitutional ruler in the best sense of the word. His reign was remarkable for its manifold and far-reaching reforms. Sweden's existing communal law (1862), ecclesiastical law (1863) and criminal law (1864) were enacted appropriately enough under the direction of a king whose motto was: Land skall med lag byggas - "With law shall the land be built". Charles also helped Louis De Geer to carry through his reform of the Parliament of Sweden in 1866. He also declared the freedom of women by passing the law of legal majority for unmarried women in 1858 – his sister Princess Eugenie became the first woman who was declared mature.
Charles was an advocate of Scandinavianism and the political solidarity of the three northern kingdoms, and his friendship with Frederick VII of Denmark, it is said, led him to give half promises of help to Denmark on the eve of the war of 1864, which, in the circumstances, were perhaps misleading and unjustifiable. In view, however, of the unpreparedness of the Swedish army and the difficulties of the situation, Charles was forced to observe a strict neutrality. He died in Malmö on 18 September 1872.[3]
Charles XV attained some eminence as a painter and as a poet. He was followed on both the thrones of Norway and Sweden by his brother Oscar II.
In 1872, Charles XV had controversial plans to enter a non-morganatic marriage with the Polish countess Marya Krasińska through the assistance of Ohan Demirgian, plans that aroused opposition both in the royal house and government and which were interrupted only by his death.[4]
A few weeks before Charles' death, his daughter Louise (then the Crown Princess of Denmark) gave birth to her second son. The young Prince of Denmark became christened as grandfather Charles' namesake. In 1905 this grandson, Prince Carl of Denmark, ascended the throne of Norway, becoming thus his maternal grandfather's successor in that country, and assumed the reign name Haakon VII. The present king, Harald V of Norway, is Charles' great-great-grandson, through his father and mother.
No subsequent king of Sweden to this day is Charles' descendant. However, his descendants are or have been on the thrones of Denmark, Luxembourg, Greece, Belgium and Norway.
Issue
By his wife, Louise of the Netherlands, Charles had two children, a son who died in infancy and a daughter who married the King of Denmark. The early death of his only legitimate son meant that he was succeeded on the throne of Sweden by his younger brother Oscar II.
| Name | Birth | Death | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Louise Josephine Eugenie | 31 October 1851 | 21 March 1926 | married, 1869, Frederick VIII of Denmark; had issue including Christian X of Denmark and Haakon VII of Norway. |
| Carl Oscar Vilhelm Frederik | 14 December 1852 | 13 March 1854 | died in infancy |
Charles also sired an illegitimate son, Carl Johan Bolander, (4 February 1854 - 28 July 1903), the father of Bishop Nils Bolander[5] and daughter, Ellen Svensson Hammar (28 October 1865 - 1931), and it has been widely rumored that he had many more extramarital children.[6]
Distinctions
- 990th Knight of the Spainish branch of the Order of the Golden Fleece (1855)
Arms
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Ancestry
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Notes
- ^ Example
- ^ Article Karl in Nordisk familjebok
- ^ Cronholm, Neander N. (1902). A History of Sweden from the Earliest Times to the Present Day. ch 41 pp 289–99
- ^ Ohan Demirgian, urn:sbl:17456, Svenskt biografiskt lexikon (art av Carl-Gustaf Thomasson.), hämtad 2014-12-13.
- ^ Carl-Erik Sahlberg in Nils Bolander diktare och predikant ISBN 91-86112-39-2 p. 11
- ^ Lagerqvist & Åberg in King and Rulers of Sweden ISBN 91-87064-35-9 p 48
References
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Bain, Robert Nisbet (1911). "Charles XV.". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
External links
- The Royal Norwegian Order of St Olav - Norwegian and Swedish Monarchs Grand Masters of the Order
- Family tree of the Royal Norwegian House
- Kings of Norway (in Norwegian)
- Much material on early kings (in Norwegian)
- . The American Cyclopædia. 1879.
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- 1826 births
- 1872 deaths
- People from Stockholm
- Swedish monarchs
- Norwegian monarchs
- House of Bernadotte
- Swedish people of French descent
- Regents of Sweden
- Regents of Norway
- Dukes of Skåne
- Swedish Lutherans
- Protestant monarchs
- Knights of the Golden Fleece
- Uppsala University alumni
- Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
- Swedish monarchs of German descent
- Burials at Riddarholmen Church
- Grand Commanders of the Order of the Dannebrog
- Swedish Freemasons
- 19th-century monarchs in Europe