The king as superman

"Sverige vid avgrunden 1808-1814" is a book by Swedish diplomat Dag Sebastian Ahlander. It was published in 2019. The author is a great admirer of French marshal Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte (who became Swedish king under the name Karl XIV Johan in 1818), and it shows! The book is essentially an ode to Bernadotte, who is constantly portrayed as some kind of Übermensch and all-round genius, towering high above his Swedish contemporaries, who are all pictured as parochial fools or knaves (they smell badly, too). 

Sweden was in disastrous shape in 1808-1809. The king, Gustav IV Adolf, was an enemy of Napoleon, the French emperor and new strongman of Europe. When Napoleon forced Russia and Czar Alexander into an alliance with France, Sweden was threatened with dismemberment or worse, suddenly being surrounded by enemies on all sides: Russia in the east, Denmark-Norway (an ally of Napoleon) in the west and north, and the French Empire itself in the south, since Napoleon´s armies had occupied Swedish Pomerania in Germany. There were secret plans to partition Sweden between Denmark and Russia, in effect eradicating the Swedish kingdom from the map altogether. In 1808, Russia attacked Sweden and conquered Finland, then the eastern half of the Swedish kingdom. The Russians also took Åland, considered part of Sweden proper. The disastrous loss of almost half the country´s territory to Russia triggered a military coup against Gustav IV Adolf in 1809, who was forced to resign and leave Sweden. He was replaced by the elderly, childless and perhaps senile Duke Karl of Södermanland, who became king under the name Karl XIII. Sweden then adopted a quasi-liberal constitution (Gustav IV Adolf had been an autocrat)and began a complicated process to select a real regent in place of the obviously incompetent Karl XIII. 

Despite having approved the Russian attack on Sweden, Napoleon was still immensely popular in broad Swedish circles, something Ahlander finds downright baffling. He believes that this was a product of Swedish parochialism and isolation from the broader events in Europe. However, I fail to see how this could be the case with the Swedish establishment. When "the men of 1809" (the "revolutionaries" who had deposed Gustav Adolf) began looking for a pro-Napoleonic regent, I assume they were coldly calculating that the Franco-Russian alliance would soon break down (which, of course, it did). With a pro-French regent, Sweden would then support Napoleon against Russia, thereby regaining Finland. As far as I can tell, this was a natural Machiavellian move to make at the time. Of course, a more prosaic explanation would be that the Swedish government were afraid of Napoleon and simply wanted to keep him happy... 

After a series of pretty weird events, detailed in the book, the Swedish Parliament in 1810 elected one of Napoleon´s generals, Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, crown prince of Sweden. What nobody knew at the time, was that Bernadotte and Napoleon were estranged from each other, and that Napoleon may have approved of Bernadotte´s elevation to effective Swedish regent mostly to get rid of him! When Bernadotte moved to Sweden and became "crown prince Karl Johan" (and even the adoptive son of Karl XIII), he almost immidiately came into conflict with his erstwhile employer. Napoleon forced Sweden to declare war on Britain, but Karl Johan quickly informed the British that he had no intention of actually attacking them, while also entering into secret negotiations with Czar Alexander. That Napoleon didn´t trust his "cousin" and former general became even more obvious when French troops re-occupied Swedish Pomerania on the eve of the French invasion of Russia. Ahlander believes that this second attack on Pomerania (which seemed unprovoked) finally turned public opinion in Sweden against Napoleon. 

Karl Johan had no intention of attacking Russia in order to reconquer Finland. He believed that Finland was geopolitically part of the Russian landmass anyway, and that the territory was impossible for Sweden to defend in the long run, even if it could somehow be regained temporarily. Perhaps he also understood that many Finlanders actually preferred Russian rule to Swedish - Czar Alexander had been smart enough to grant "the Grand Duchy of Finland" extensive self-government within the Russian Empire. Karl Johan´s real goal was to conquer Norway, creating a united Swedish-Norwegian kingdom, which he believed would be geopolitically more defensible. It would also once and for all reduce Denmark (which controlled Norway) to a small nation that could no longer threaten Sweden (Denmark and Sweden had been enemy nations for centuries). Personal factors may also have been involved when Karl Johan decided to offically join the Sixth Coalition against Napoleon. His only chance to become Swedish king was for the French Empire to be defeated. Without such a victory, he would lose everything... 

The Swedes accepted the so-called "politics of 1812", but very reluctantly, since the loss of Finland (Swedish-controlled since at least the 13th century) to the Russian arch-enemy was keenly felt. Ahlander claims that Karl Johan played an even more central role in the war against Napoleon than usually assumed. Indeed, it was Karl Johan who convinced the Czar to fight Napoleon´s Grand Armée when the latter invaded Russia and many Francophile Russian nobles wanted him to sue for peace! Is this really true, or is it just another example of the author´s personality cult of the Overman Karl Johan? What is clear is that Karl Johan and the Swedish army did participate in the war against Napoleon in Germany (including the Battle of the Nations outside Leipzig). Karl Johan also took the opportunity to weaken Denmark by marching into Slesvig and Holstein. Finally, in 1814, Karl Johan invaded Norway, which had attempted to declare its independence in the wake of the Napoleonic Wars, hoping for British support in so doing. Instead, Britain decided to support Sweden, forcing the Norwegians to surrender after only three weeks of armed conflict. In 1818, the former French general finally became union king of Sweden-Norway following the death of Karl XIII. 

The story of Karl XIV Johan ends somewhat paradoxically. In Sweden, Karl Johan became almost as autocratic as the deposed Gustav IV Adolf. He attempted to curtail the freedom of the press, employed a network of secret agents, and frequently worried about conspiracies against his person. One of his favorite expressions was "opposition is conspiracy". He also continued the mercantilist economic policies of Gustav IV Adolf, mercantilism being something he as a Frenchman was used to. Karl Johan never learned Swedish, and was relatively isolated within a small clique of Francophone Swedish nobles. In Norway, by contrast, Karl Johan had to accept the most liberal constitution in Europe at the time, with the Norwegian Parliament having effective veto power over many of his decisions! Karl Johan was pragmatic enough to grant Norway a large amount of self-government, making Norway a semi-independent nation in personal union with Sweden, rather than a conquered and subordinate territory, but it must have been one of the strangest unions in history, and perhaps a hard pill to swallow for the old general...

Ahlander´s book also contain information on Karl XIV Johan´s personality. In keeping with the idea of Karl Johan as super-hero, he is portrayed as unusually handsome, very tall (something which supposedly made Napoleon resent him!), well spoken, gracious to friends and enemies alike, a man of honor, and a hard worker. Even his authoritarian side is said to be a good thing. The Frenchman straightened out the dull and dim-witted Swedes! Ahlander claims that Karl Johan spoke French with a distinct Gasconian accent. Apparently, Gasconians are even more fiery, energetic and passionate than Frenchmen in general. (Gascony, where Bernadotte was born, is a historical region in southern France.) On a more humorous note, Ahlander notes that Karl Johan constantly complained about how dirty and smelly Swedes were, including Swedish nobles. Karl Johan is said to have had a man-servant with him at all times, who would give the regent a perfumed handkerchief to hold around his nose everytime the stench became too overbearing. It was also considered something of a sensation that Karl Johan had a hot bath installed in the royal palace, which he moreover used every day! Tobacco and brännvin (a Swedish hard liquor) were no-nos, the king much preferring wine and café au lait. Suffering from the cold Swedish climate, Karl Johan often stayed in bed, even when discussing government matters with his ministers and aides, making his opponents refer to his rule as "the bed chamber regime". Out of bed, Karl Johan always wore his fancy Swedish general´s uniform, complete with all the medals he had been awarded, apparently seeing this as some kind of official outfit. We also learn that his son, Oscar (who eventually succeeded him on the thrones of Sweden and Norway) did learn both Swedish and Norwegian, and apparently spoke at least Swedish without any foreign accent. As king, Oscar I became the first truly "liberal" king of Sweden, but that´s another story...

"Sverige vid avgrunden 1808-1814" (Sweden on the brink 1808-1814) is interesting, to be sure, but I will probably try to find some other books to double-check its most sensational claims. And I don´t mean those handkerchiefs.