by Susan Flantzer © Unofficial Royalty 2015
Joséphine of Leuchtenberg, Queen Josefina of Sweden & Norway; Credit – Wikipedia
The wife of King Oscar I of Sweden and Norway, Princess Joséphine of Leuchtenberg was born on March 14, 1807, in Milan, then in the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy, now in Italy. Her father was Eugène de Beauharnais, the son of Empress Joséphine (Napoleon Bonaparte‘s first wife) from her first marriage to Alexandre, Vicomte de Beauharnais, who had been guillotined during the French Revolution. Her mother was Princess Augusta of Bavaria, daughter of King Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria and Princess Augusta Wilhelmine of Hesse-Darmstadt. Augusta’s father created his son-in-law Duke of Leuchtenberg and Prince of Eichstätt with the style Royal Highness. Joséphine had six siblings, some of whom made excellent marriages.
- Princess Eugénie de Beauharnais (1808–1847), married Constantine, Prince of Hohenzollern-Hechingen, no issue
- Prince Auguste de Beauharnais, 2nd Duke of Leuchtenberg (1810–1835), married Queen Maria II of Portugal, no issue
- Princess Amélie de Beauharnais (1812 – 1873), married Emperor Pedro I of Brazil, had issue
- Princess Theodelinde de Beauharnais (1814–1857), married Wilhelm, 1st Duke of Urach, had issue
- Princess Carolina de Beauharnais (born and died 1816)
- Prince Maximilian de Beauharnais, 3rd Duke of Leuchtenberg (1817–1852), married Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaievna of Russia, eldest daughter of Nicholas I, Emperor of All Russia
In Sweden, the king of a new upstart dynasty was considering how to provide his dynasty with legitimacy. The House of Bernadotte has reigned in Sweden since 1818 when Jean Baptiste Jules Bernadotte, a Marshal of France, assumed the throne as King Carl XIV Johan. His predecessor King Carl XIII was childless and the House of Holstein-Gottorp was becoming extinct. On August 21, 1810, the Riksdag (Swedish Parliament) appointed Bernadotte as heir to the throne. The first four Bernadotte kings were also Kings of Norway until 1905 when the union between Sweden and Norway was dissolved. King Carl XIV John found the answer to his legitimacy problem in Joséphine.
Through her mother, Joséphine was a descendant of King Gustav I of Sweden and King Charles IX of Sweden from the House of Vasa which ruled Sweden from 1523-1654. If Joséphine married the king’s only child Oscar, it would ensure that future members of the House of Bernadotte were descendants of the House of Vasa. Oscar was born Joseph François Oscar Bernadotte on July 4, 1799, in Paris, France. Napoleon Bonaparte was his godfather. He was 11 years old when his father Jean Baptiste Bernadotte was elected Crown Prince of Sweden and he moved to Stockholm with his mother Désirée Clary, who ironically was once the fiancée of Napoleon. Oscar was given the title Duke of Södermanland, and, unlike his mother, quickly learned Swedish and adapted to life in Sweden.
In 1823, Oscar married Joséphine and after her marriage, she was known as Josefina, the Swedish form of her name. They married first by proxy at the Leuchtenberg Palace in Munich, Kingdom of Bavaria, now in the German state of Bavaria, on May 22, 1823, and in person at a wedding ceremony conducted in Stockholm, Sweden on June 19, 1823.
The couple had five children:
- King Carl XV of Sweden (Carl IV in Norway) (1826–1872), married Princess Louise of the Netherlands, had issue
- Prince Gustaf, Duke of Uppland (1827–1852), died at age 25 from typhoid fever
- King Oscar II of Sweden (1829–1907), married Princess Sophia of Nassau, had issue
- Princess Eugenie (1830–1889), unmarried
- Prince August, Duke of Dalarna (1831–1873), married Princess Therese Amalie of Saxe-Altenburg, no issue
Josefina brought to Sweden jewelry that had belonged to her grandmother Empress Josephine, still worn by the Swedish and Norwegian royal families. The Cameo Tiara, originally made for her grandmother Joséphine, Empress of the French, was worn by her descendant Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden at her wedding in 2010.
Credit – Wikipedia
Crown Princess Victoria wearing the Cameo Tiara at her wedding; Photo Credit – The Royal Order of Sartorial Splendor
Oscar and Josefina’s marriage was a happy one. They shared interests in music and art and had similar personalities. While he was crown prince, Oscar had an affair with a lady-in-waiting which produced a daughter. Unfortunately, Oscar had another well-known affair with Emilie Högquist, a famous Swedish actress at the Royal Dramatic Theatre. Oscar had two sons by his mistress Emilie. In 1832, Queen Josefina wrote in her diary that a woman was expected to endure a husband’s extramarital affairs: “A woman should suffer in silence.” Josefina and her husband continued to appear together in public. Oscar discontinued his extramarital affairs when he became King of Sweden and Norway in 1844 upon the death of his father.
Queen Josefina in 1874; Photo Credit – Wikipedia
After being bedridden for a long time, King Oscar I died at the Royal Palace in Stockholm on July 8, 1859, at the age of 60. An autopsy confirmed that he had a brain tumor. King Oscar I was buried in the Bernadotte Chapel at Riddarholmen Church in Stockholm. Josefina survived her husband for 17 years and died in Stockholm on June 7, 1876, at age 69. She remained Roman Catholic, was given a Catholic funeral, and was buried with her husband at Riddarholmen Church.
Bernadotte Chapel at Riddarholmen Church; Photo Credit – Susan Flantzer, August 2011
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