Désirée Clary, Queen Desideria of Sweden and Norway

by Scott Mehl  © Unofficial Royalty 2015

Désirée Clary, Queen Desideria of Sweden and Norway; Credit – Wikipedia

Queen Desideria of Sweden and Norway was the wife of King Carl XIV Johan (born Jean Baptiste Bernadotte). She was born Bernardine Eugénie Désirée Clary, on November 8, 1777, in Marseille, France, the youngest of the nine children of François Clary, a wealthy French merchant, and his second wife Françoise Rose Somis. Through Désirée, her parents are the ancestors of the royal families of Belgium, Denmark, Luxembourg, Norway, and Sweden.

Désirée had eight siblings:

  • Joseph Nicolas Clary, 1st Comte Clary et de l’Empire, (1760 – 1823), married Anne Jeanne Rouyer
  • Joseph Honoré Clary (1762 – 1764), died in childhood
  • Marie Anne Rose Clary (1764 – 1835), married Antoine-Ignace Anthoine, baron de Saint-Joseph et de l’Empire, Mayor of Marseille
  • Marseille Clary (1764 – 1784), unmarried
  • Justinien François Clary (1766 – 1794), unmarried
  • Catherine Honorine Clary (1769 – 1843), married Henri Joseph Gabriel Blait de Villeneufve
  • Julie Clary (1771 – 1845), married Joseph Bonaparte, King of Naples and Sicily, King of Spain and the Indies, elder brother of Napoleon Bonaparte
  • Basile Clary (1774 – 1781), died in childhood

Désirée had four half-siblings from her father’s first marriage to Gabrielle Fléchon (1732–1758):

  • François-Joseph Clary (1752 – 1753), died in infancy
  • Marie-Jeanne Clary (1754 – 1815), married (1) Louis Honoré Lejeans (2) Emmanuel Mathieu Pézenas, Baron de Pluvinal
  • Marie Thérèse Catherine Clary (1755 – 1818), married Lazare Lejeans
  • Étienne François Clary (1757 – 1823), married Marcelle Guey, had two children

Désirée was educated at a convent in her early years, before returning home to her family during the French Revolution. Several years later, she met Joseph Bonaparte, the elder brother of Napoleon, and the two became engaged. Soon after, Napoleon suggested that Joseph should instead marry Désirée’s sister Julie and that he himself would marry Désirée. They became engaged in April 1795, but Napoleon soon became involved with Joséphine de Beauharnais and the engagement ended in September 1795. She spent the next several years living with her sister and brother-in-law in Genoa and then in Rome. While in Rome in 1797, she became engaged to a French general, Mathurin-Léonard Duphot, allegedly arranged by Napoleon. They were to marry on December 31, 1797, but Duphot was shot and killed in a riot the previous day.

Returning to Paris, Désirée soon met Jean Baptiste Bernadotte, a noted French general and future King of Sweden. The couple married on August 17, 1798, and had one son:

In 1804, Bernadotte was made Marshal of France, and Désirée was given an allowance by Napoleon, as well as a house on the Rue d’Anjou Saint-Honoré in Paris, France. Désirée maintained this house for the rest of her life, living there whenever she was in Paris. With her husband often gone, Désirée installed herself in the ranks of Parisian high society, spending her time with both the Bonaparte and Clary families. She occasionally traveled to see her husband but quickly returned to Paris, the only place she felt at home.

Désirée Clary, Queen Desideria of Sweden and Norway. portrait by François Gérard, c.1810. source: Wikipedia

In August 1810, Désirée’s husband was elected Crown Prince of Sweden. Not wanting to leave Paris, Désirée did not initially accompany her husband to Sweden. She finally made the trip in December 1810 and was immediately unhappy. She found the Swedish weather very harsh, and could not adapt to the formality and responsibilities of her new role as Crown Princess. Added to that was a very difficult relationship with the wife of King Carl XIII of Sweden, Queen Hedwig, who complained – perhaps rightfully so – about Désirée’s constant complaints about everything that was not French.

The following year, Désirée left Sweden and returned to Paris, living under the name Countess of Gotland. There, she acted as a go-between and mediator between her husband and Emperor Napoleon and kept her husband fully advised of the political events in Europe. After Napoleon was overthrown, Désirée often spent time with the court of King Louis XVIII of France and used her influence to prevent her sister from being exiled from the country.

On February 5, 1818, King Carl XIII of Sweden died, and Désirée’s husband ascended the thrones of Sweden and Norway. However, Désirée – the new Queen of Sweden and Norway – remained in Paris. It would be several years before she made her return to Sweden. In 1822, her son, now Crown Prince of Sweden, toured Europe to find a bride and met with his mother twice. The following year, in June 1823, Désirée returned to Sweden, accompanying her future daughter-in-law, Princess Josephine of Leuchtenberg, the granddaughter of Napoleons’s first wife Joséphine de Beauharnais from her first marriage to Alexandre, Vicomte de Beauharnais, who had been guillotined during the French Revolution. Although she planned to make just a temporary visit, Désirée remained in Sweden for the rest of her life.

Coronation of Queen Desideria in Sweden, August 1829, by Fredric Westin. source: Wikipedia

Désirée’s coronation was been delayed due to potential religious issues stemming from her remaining a Roman Catholic and not converting to Lutheranism like her husband and son. Finally, on August 21, 1829, Queen Desideria, her official name although she never used it herself, was crowned Queen of Sweden. She was never crowned in Norway due to her religion.

Queen Desideria attempted to fulfill her role as Queen Consort, holding parties and balls, but she soon grew tired of it and longed to return to Paris. Her lack of effort to embrace her new homeland, and her refusal to learn the languages of either Sweden or Norway, led to her never being fully accepted by the Swedish or Norwegian people. Her less-than-royal roots didn’t help either. She was better received in Norway, where she visited several times, and served as patron of the Eugenia Foundation from 1828 until 1847.

Following her husband’s death in 1844, Désirée became Queen Dowager. Despite plans to return to her home in Paris, in 1853, her fear of sea travel prevented her from making the trip. She spent her remaining years in Sweden, splitting her time between her apartments at the Royal Palace of Stockholm, Drottningholm Palace, and Haga Palace.

Queen Desideria’s tomb; source: Wikipedia

Queen Desideria died on December 17, 1860, at the Royal Palace of Stockholm. Following her funeral in January 1861, she was interred in the Bernadotte Chapel at the Riddarholmen Church in Stockholm, in front of her husband’s tomb.

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