Charles XIV John

King of Sweden and King of Norway .

He is the founder of the current Swedish royal family, the Bernadotte dynasty and is one of the ancestors of Denmark , Norway , Belgium and Luxembourg .

He was a general in the French army during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars and was the biggest beneficiary of the Napoleonic Wars . He was French , but after becoming crown prince of Sweden, he drove out the French army and became the king of that camp, becoming a perfect Swede, and to this day, his descendants are passing on the throne of that camp from generation to generation.[4] Although the pro-Napoleonic forces claim that he was a traitor or a traitor, he was fundamentally in political conflict with Napoleon , and Napoleon, his former senior and superior, treated him too harshly from the beginning. It is also known that he abandoned France and became king, but this is incorrect information that does not fit the timing at all. From the first time I went to Sweden, I said, ‘I will protect my country .’ I never said, ‘I will make Sweden a pro-French country!’

In addition, there were many people in France who opposed Napoleon because they thought he was ruining the country by encouraging war, so in France, Bernadotte is often evaluated as a man of fortune or misfortune.[5] As expected, Napoleon's downfall was due not only to external military failures but also to Napoleon's own misjudgments, as well as internal affairs and public sentiment.

He was born prematurely in 1763 as the son of Henri Bernadotte, a lawyer in the Béarne region of southwestern France . His grandfather was a tailor and his great-grandfather was a weaver, but his father, uncle, and older brother all worked as lawyers at Poe's court. His father, who also wanted his son to become a lawyer, worked as a lawyer's clerk, but it was not a good fit for him. After his father died when he was 17, he joined the Royal Navy despite his family's opposition.[6] He enlisted as a soldier in the Army Corps .

He was sent on a mission to suppress rebellions in overseas French territories such as Corsica , and was promoted to sergeant in August 1785. When the French Revolution broke out, Bernadotte became an enthusiastic supporter of the Jacobin faction, and was promoted to warrant officer in 1790, while still a member of the French Royal Army. After the Kingdom of France collapsed in 1792 and the revolutionary government was established, he was commissioned as an officer, promoted to colonel in 1792, and to lieutenant general in 1794 at the age of 31.

He was a man of great standing who rose from a soldier to a general, and because he had many military achievements, he was popular with the people. His popularity during this period was such that he was considered a political rival of Napoleon . In addition, during the French Revolutionary War, he had close relationships with talented and prominent generals from the Sambre and Meuse counties, such as Marceau, Clever, and Championet, but unfortunately, they died during the Revolutionary War, weakening his power somewhat. Additionally, Marceau and Kléber were strong supporters of the republican government , so if they had not died, it is possible that Bernadotte and his forces would have blocked Napoleon.

In 1796, when the French army was destroyed and disintegrated by the Austrian army on the Rhine River , he reorganized the army and gained fame by fending off the Austrian army.

In the coup of the 18th Brumaire in 1799, he actually condoned Napoleon's coup, but kept his neutrality, kept his distance from Napoleon, and did not swear allegiance to Napoleon. Since Bernadotte was a Jacobin, he had a hard time feeling good feelings for the anti-Jacobin Napoleon. Louisiana in 1803 He was about to be appointed governor , but the appointment was canceled due to the Louisiana Purchase of the United States .

After his coup d'état, Napoleon favored him even though he was an opponent, and in 1804 made him a marshal.

In 1805, he surrounded the Prussian army in the Battle of Ulm and made a great contribution in the Battle of Austerlitz, earning him the title of Prince de Pontecorvo.

However, around this time, his wife and Napoleon were having an affair, and because he had previously opposed Napoleon's coup, he became increasingly rebellious. But if you actually think about it, the strange thing is that his wife, Desiree Clary , was originally Napoleon's fiancée.[7] In fact, some say that one of the reasons why Napoleon treated Bernadotte well was because he felt sorry for his former fiancée because he broke off his engagement with her and married Josephine . So around this time, Napoleon gave Bernadotte the title of Archduke of Pont Corvo.

Because of this, he did not perform well in the Battle of Auerstedt and Jena in 1807.[8] He was in danger of losing his position as Marshal of the French Army and the Archduke of Pont Corvo, but he succeeded in maintaining his position thanks to the pillow-like beauties of Desiree Clary, his wife and Napoleon's ex-girlfriend. He defeated the Prussian general Marshal Blücher and played an active part in the Battle of Wagram, which changed Napoleon's heart. Napoleon became the godfather of his son , and seemed to have reconciled with Napoleon for the time being.

In fact, Bernadotte repeated the spade action even during the Battle of Bagram . Bernadotte, who was leading the Saxon corps, boasted loudly that if anyone showed interest, he could destroy the Austrian camp with one 'decisive maneuver' . In the battle on July 6, the Saxon army, which had been ordered to retake the city of Aderkla, was beaten gleefully by the Austrian army's concentrated artillery fire and was chased all the way to Napoleon's location . Napoleon was so dumbfounded that he asked Bernadotte , “Is this the decisive maneuver you were talking about?” He said this, but Bernadotte didn't even have the presence of mind to make an excuse. And after the battle barely ended in France's victory, Bernadotte committed the crime of lese majeste by changing the victory speech, which only the emperor could read , to say that he, and in particular the Saxon army's performance, was the best. Bernadotte was dismissed from his position immediately afterward, but[9] Thanks to Desiree's advocacy and the subsequent success he made against the British army in the Netherlands, he was able to get over it.

However, this was just a bad review about Bernadotte, and the reality was a little different. First of all, the story of the "decisive maneuver" mentioned above is only a rumor, and some say that Bernadotte, indignant at Napoleon's unfair command, was the first to resign . Looking at the issue of Bernadotte's military organization in the first place, Bernadotte's 9th Corps was a second-level corps composed of Saxons, and Dupuy's division, which could be said to be the best, was assigned to Eugene's army at will by Napoleon and numbered only about 9,000 men. Moreover, the deployment of the French army at the time had a protruding center, so it is not surprising that the weakest division was deployed even though it was obvious that the attack would be concentrated in the center.[10] In addition, Bernadotte was unable to attend the meeting of all corps commanders as he was busy reorganizing his corps due to a failed night raid that had been carried out the previous day due to Napoleon's poor judgment, so he did not know that Masséna was coming to help. And since it would have been better to go south to reassemble the remnants of the defeated army, we cannot just condemn them unconditionally. There are also suspicions that in fact, Napoleon's intention in sending the most unreliable and weak corps to the most dangerous place on the entire front was for Bernadotte to die after being hit by an Austrian cannon. In addition, he felt that Berthier, Napoleon's key confidant, was interfering with his expedition preparations and requested his resignation, but Napoleon did not allow it. However, it was clearly Bernadotte's fault for not writing the victory speech or notifying Napoleon of the retreat. This mistake meant that the relationship between Napoleon and Bernadotte was shattered.

At the time, Bernadotte was well-liked by the Swedes by treating the Swedish prisoners of war who happened to be caught in the middle of clearing out Prussia's defeated soldiers during the Fourth Great French War in Denmark . But this small fact turned into something huge.

On August 21, 1810 , the Swedish Parliament unanimously elected the new heir to the throne and became King of Sweden. He became the adopted son of Karl XIII . Of course, the king did not appoint the wrong person out of nowhere. At that time, Sweden's King Gustav IV Adolf , who was already unpopular due to his extremely reactionary policies, stood alone on the other side of Napoleon until the end, but was defeated in the Finnish War with the Russian Empire and lost Finland , and was deposed in 1809, and his uncle, the aged Karl XIII, ascended to the throne. Since he had only an illegitimate son and no legitimate children to inherit the throne, he adopted Karl August from Schleswig-Holstein, a member of the Danish Oldenburg dynasty, and designated him as his successor, but this adopted son died suddenly in 1810.[11] In this situation, Sweden attempted to please France, the acknowledged most powerful country, by adopting one of Napoleon's relatives or enemies as the next king by adopting one of Napoleon's relatives or enemies. Bernadotte was considered the best candidate because he had considerable political insight, was a relative of Napoleon, and had previously treated Swedish prisoners leniently, which earned him the favor of the Swedes.

In fact, Sweden initially proposed succession to the throne to Eugene de Beauharnais, the viceroy of the Kingdom of Italy and Napoleon's adopted son . However, when Eugene, who was a devout Catholic , refused to convert to Protestantism , the throne passed to Bernadotte. The Swedish parliament decided that Bernadotte would support Lutheranism as the state religion of Sweden. He agreed to become his successor on the condition that he convert to Protestantism , and Bernadotte accepted this, saying that he had always been attracted to Protestantism. Napoleon initially forced him to never oppose France if he ruled Sweden. However, Bernadotte refused Napoleon's request, saying it was an act that conflicted with his duties as ruler of Sweden, and Napoleon eventually agreed to the condition of releasing him from all obligations to France and sent him to Stockholm .

Napoleon also had a heart of atonement for Desiree, the fiancée he had abandoned. Napoleon speculated that Desiree must feel a considerable sense of inferiority, since her original fiancée was the French emperor, and her sister Marie became the queen of Naples and then the queen of Spain. .[12] In that sense, it may have meant giving her ex-lover a seat as Queen of Sweden.

At first, Charles Nobles, including the Brahe family , also developed a close relationship with Bernadotte, and the Swedish people also had high hopes that Bernadotte would reclaim Finland from Russia. Therefore, as soon as he arrived in Stockholm, Bernadotte became the de facto ruler in place of the old king. However, contrary to the aspirations of many of his people, Bernadotte was very skeptical about regaining Finland. It might have been before the 18th century when the Great Northern War took place, but in the 19th century, the difference in national power between Sweden and Russia was significant , and the state of the national treasury was difficult due to the long war with Russia that began with Magnus IV in the 14th century. Additionally, Bernadotte was concerned about the hostilities and war with Russia that would be triggered even if Finland was regained. However, knowing full well that the Swedish people's support for him was based on territorial expansion, Bernadotte instead set his sights on a new target: Norway . Norway is the king of Denmark Oluf II[13] Since then , it had formed an alliance with Denmark, but after the Count War, it was virtually ruled as a colony by Christian III . In Bernadotte's view, Norway, ruled by Denmark, which had destroyed most of its navy and could firmly unify the Scandinavian peninsula, was a more attractive target than Finland, which had been taken over by Russia, which had a superior military power.

Meanwhile, as soon as he arrived in Sweden in 1810, Napoleon moved Russia and Denmark to demand that Sweden participate in the continental blockade and declare war on Britain, and although Bernadotte was reluctant, he had no choice but to comply. Britain and Sweden remained nominally at war until 1812, but no actual conflict occurred. However, the continental blockade was observed, although not completely, and[14] The total import of British goods from Sweden fell from £4.8 billion in 1810 to £500 million in 1811.

In this way, in the early days, Bernadotte obediently followed Napoleon's instructions (albeit reluctantly), and the relationship between the two seemed good on the surface. However, in 1812, Napoleon, ahead of his expedition to Russia, stabilized his rear and feared that Sweden, with the completely unreliable Bernadotte, would gain a foothold in his rear, and made a surprise attack on Swedish Pomerania, and the relationship between the two deteriorated to the point where it was difficult to repair. As it happened, this invasion took place on January 26, Bernadotte's birthday, and because of this, he lost face even more. This not only greatly worsened Bernadotte's personal feelings toward Napoleon, but also caused public opinion in France and Sweden toward Napoleon to boil with anger. There was no longer any desire to do so, but even if Bernadotte tried to remain loyal to Napoleon, public opinion would not be convinced.

In the end, Bernadotte declared neutrality between France and Russia in the same year (in effect, declaring to Napoleon that he would not take your side), while openly negotiating with Britain and Russia, and when the Russian campaign was almost completed, that is, when Napoleon was retreating from Russia, he dispatched 20,000 troops to Riga , helping Russia defeat the French army. By 1813, Bernadotte had openly entered into an alliance with Britain and Russia in return for Norway, which he sought. He soon allowed Sweden to participate in the 6th Alliance against France as the heir to the Swedish throne, and as the general commander of the Northern Army, one of the main forces of the Alliance against France, he defended the French army, which had won at Lützen and Bautzen, from attacking Berlin , at Grosberen and Dennewitz. And crucially, he led the Northern Army and participated in the Battle of Leipzig , laying the foundation for improving Sweden's status and gaining interests after the fall of Napoleon. Of course, Napoleon defined Bernadotte as a traitor, and because of this incident, Bernadotte was indeed stripped of the title of Duke of Pont Corvo that Napoleon had given him. And this title was given to the son of Joachim Murat .

Meanwhile, Bernadotte fought very passively in the Battle of Leipzig, for which he received a lot of criticism from his allies. After the Battle of Leipzig, he split off from the other allied armies attacking France and set out to conquer Norway, easily overpowering the Danish and Norwegian armies and making Norway an enemy of Sweden's eastern alliance.

When Napoleon abdicated through the Treaty of Fontainebleau in April 1814, the Russian Emperor at the time , Alexander I , attempted to make Bernadotte the monarch of France to replace Napoleon. In fact, Alexander I was a person with quite liberal tendencies at the beginning of his reign, and by the end of the war, he had considerable skepticism about restoring the reactionary Bourbon dynasty, which adhered to absolute monarchy, although it had faded somewhat. In his view, it seemed good for France to be ruled by a flexible person who had liberal ideas and could respect the results of the revolution to a certain degree, so it did not matter much even if the person had such abilities, even if it was not Bernadotte. British historian Dominic Lieven said that Bernadotte was just one of the candidates for the next ruler of France in Alexander I's mind, and that the emperor considered several people in addition to Bernadotte, including Eugene de Beauharnais .

Of course, the allies refused and supported the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy .[15] Instead, Bernadotte was granted possession of Norway as previously promised at the Congress of Vienna following the Treaty of Paris on 30 May .

When Karl At the same time, he ascended to the throne of Norway , which had already formed an alliance with Sweden at the time .[16]

During his reign, Sweden was stable internally and diplomatically, and its economy developed rapidly. Until the day of his death, he spoke Swedish[17] The Swedes loved Bernadotte, and even in Norway, the evaluation was not bad for ordinary Norwegians , except for the nationalist camp. The language problem was resolved with his son, who speaks fluent Swedish , interpreting.

After his death in 1844, Napoleon's godson[18] His son inherited the throne, and even now, the Swedish royal family has been passed down through Bernadotte's direct descendants, and the Norwegian royal family has also been passed down through Bernadotte's female descendants.

What's even more interesting is that the relationship between Napoleon and the Swedish royal family did not end there. Oscar I , son of Bernadotte, married Joséphine de Beauharnais, daughter of Eugene de Beauharnais, who was Napoleon's adoptive son.[19] Beauharnais, who was loyal to Napoleon to the end, and Bernadotte, who betrayed Napoleon, became in-laws of each other.

He is a man of great standing who rose from a private soldier to a marshal and then to the position of king. On the one hand, from the French public opinion of the time and Napoleon Bonaparte's personal perspective, he was a bitter enemy , a traitor , and a traitor, and from the perspective of Poland and Norway , he was an aggressor who prevented our independence .

Nevertheless, he is revered by Swedes as a hero who saved the country during difficult times and put it on a rock . In fact, from Sweden's point of view, it can be said that betraying Napoleon was the best path for Sweden, and that not betraying Napoleon would have been betraying the Swedes who trusted him, so it is difficult to say whether it was good or bad. It's a problem. In other words, there was no choice but to fight with either Sweden or Napoleon. However, Bernadotte clearly declared to Napoleon that he could not do anything against Sweden's interests, and Napoleon accepted this and let him go. Nevertheless, it was Napoleon who first occupied Swedish Pomeranian territory and struck Bernadotte's head. In fact, common sense suggests that since Bernadotte became Sweden's head of state, he had no choice but to turn his back on France if France invaded Sweden or imposed diplomatic sanctions on him.

If we look a little deeper into history, Bernadotte was already close to Napoleon's rival and was ideologically a Jacobin, so he could not be on good terms with Napoleon. As can be seen in the coup, Bernadotte was not a person who cooperated or was loyal to Napoleon from the beginning. Rather, it is surprising that Napoleon used Bernadotte as the middle ground.[25]

The image of Napoleon in Europe at the time was that of a 19th century version of Adolf Hitler , so when considering the peace of Europe, Bernadotte was not a traitor, but rather an unlucky leader who had to leave his native France to stop an ambitious man.[26] , At the same time, he was a famous military leader who developed Sweden in the 19th century.

He may not be able to compare to aces such as Ruinicolas Davout , Jean Lan , and Andre Massena , but he appears to have the skills to be worthy of the position of Marshal Grand d'Arme. Starting off as a lowly soldier, he earned the position of marshal on his own, and was shown several times to be able to carry out his assigned duties quite well. Although he showed signs of instability during the Battle of Jena-Auerstedt and the Battle of Wagram, there was an excuse that Napoleon's instructions were vague or suspicious in each case.

Even after becoming Karl XIV John, he showed considerable strategic insight. He put forward a grand strategy of merging with Norway rather than Finland, and actually achieved that goal, stabilizing Sweden's national power. When he joined the Alliance against France , he defeated Michel Ney in the Battle of Dennerwitz with the Prussian army , and later, together with Josef Radetzky , he planned the Trachenberg Operation, contributing to the downfall of Napoleon. In particular, in the process of forming a siege just before the Battle of Leipzig, he showed insight comparable to that of August Neidhard von Gneisenau and was able to achieve the goal of avoiding encounters with Napoleon's main force and avoid individual crushing factions of the Alliance against France.

In summary, he never showed the qualities of a master who could create an advantageous situation or overcome an unfavorable situation, but when he found himself in an advantageous situation, he was able to solidify it and achieve victory. Almost all of his tactical and strategic choices in favorable situations yielded the best results.