|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Carl XV (Carl Ludvig Eugen) (3 May, 1826 – 18 September, 1872) was King of Sweden and Norway (in Norway known as Carl IV) from 1859 until his death.
Referring to Carl as Charles XV is a modern invention. The Swedish kings Erik XIV (1560-68) and Charles IX (1604-1611) took their numbers after studying a highly fictitious History of Sweden. He was actually Charles IX.[1]
Contents |
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. 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 mistresses included the actresses Hanna Styrell and Elise Jakobsson-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 memorable reform of the Riksdag in 1866. He also declared the freedom of women by passing the law of legal maturity for unmarried women in 1858 - his sister Princess Eugenie became the first woman who was declared mature.
Charles was a warm advocate of Scandinavianism and the political solidarity of the three northern kingdoms, and his warm friendship for 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.
Charles XV was highly gifted in many directions. He attained to some eminence as a painter, and his poems show him to have been a true poet. He was followed on both the thrones of Norway and Sweden by his brother Oscar II.
In 1855 he became the 990th Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece in Spain.
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, and 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' direct descendant. However, his descendants are or have been on the thrones of Denmark, Luxembourg, Greece, Belgium and Norway.
Name | Birth | Death | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
Louise Josephine Eugenie | 31 October 1851 | 21 March 1926 | married, 1869, Frederick VIII of Denmark; had issue |
Carl Oscar Vilhelm Frederik | 14 December 1852 | 13 March 1854 | died in infancy |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
16. Jean Bernadotte | |||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||
|
8. Jean Henri Bernadotte |
|
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||||
|
17. Marie du Pucheu | |||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||
|
4. Charles XIV John of Sweden |
|
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||||
|
18. Jean de Saint Vincent | |||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||
|
9. Jeanne de Saint Vincent |
|
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||||
|
19. Marie d'Abbadie de Sireix | |||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||
|
2. Oscar I of Sweden |
|
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||
|
20. Joseph Clary | |||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||
|
10. François Clary |
|
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||||
|
21. Françoise Agnes Ammoric | |||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||
|
5. Désirée Clary |
|
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||||
|
22. Joseph Ignace Somis | |||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||
|
11. Françoise Rose Somis |
|
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||||
|
23. Catherine Rose Soucheiron | |||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||
|
1. Charles XV of Sweden |
|
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
24. François de Beauharnais, Marquess de La Ferté-Beauharnais | |||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||
|
12. Alexandre, vicomte de Beauharnais |
|
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||||
|
25. Marie Anne Henriette Françoise Pyvart de Chastulle | |||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||
|
6. Eugène de Beauharnais |
|
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||||
|
26. Joseph-Gaspard de Tascher de La Pagerie | |||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||
|
13. Joséphine de Tascher de La Pagerie |
|
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||||
|
27. Rose-Claire des Vergers de Sanois | |||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||
|
3. Duchess Josephine of Leuchtenberg |
|
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||
|
28. Count Palatine Frederick Michael of Zweibrücken | |||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||
|
14. Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria |
|
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||||
|
29. Countess Palatine Maria Franziska of Sulzbach | |||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||
|
7. Princess Augusta of Bavaria |
|
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||||
|
30. Prince Georg Wilhelm of Hesse-Darmstadt | |||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||
|
15. Princess Augusta Wilhelmine of Hesse-Darmstadt |
|
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||||
|
31. Countess Marie Luise of Leiningen-Dagsburg-Heidesheim | |||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||
Karl XV/IV
House of Bernadotte
Born: May 3 1826 Died: September 18 1872 |
||
Regnal titles | ||
---|---|---|
Preceded by Oscar I |
King of Sweden 1859-1872 |
Succeeded by Oscar II |
King of Norway 1859-1872 |
||
Titles of nobility | ||
New title | Duke of Skåne 1826-1859 |
Vacant
Title next held by
Gustav Adolf |
Political offices | ||
Preceded by Severin Løvenskiold |
Prime Minister of Norway 1856 |
Succeeded by Jørgen Herman Vogt |
Preceded by Jørgen Herman Vogt |
Prime Minister of Norway 1857 |
|
|