THE ROYAL HOUSE OF SWEDEN.

Otago Witness, Issue 2664, 5 April 1905, Page 72

THE ROYAL HOUSE OF SWEDEN.

That King Oscar II is a popular Sovereign has been settled past a doubt. The very hint of a report of his serious ill - health sent a wave of anxiety to the confines of both his kingdoms. Just; as the latp African war brought to the surface much unsuspected patriotism, so the rumour of King Oscar's indisposition has awakened latent and unguessed-at loyalty ir: Norway at least, for the Bernadottes have not hitherto quite succeeded in winning the hearts of the Northmen. The present King's grandfather, Jean Baptiste Jules Ber-nadotte, was the son of a lawyer at* Pau, and to his dying day, crowned King of Sweden though he became, he could speak no language but the soft accents of the Pyrenees, and he looked to the last exactly what he was — a Frenchman born and bred.

People who ought to know better com • nionly make the mistake of thinking that it was Napoleon who raised Bernadotte to the Northern throne. The fact is exactly the contrary. Napoleon was furious when the Swedes asked his marshal to become their Crown Prince. He considered that all honours must originate in himself. He might give crowns to one or another ; but for a subject of his, a man he had raised "from the dust," to accept such an offer without even a reference to his wiD drove him wild with anger. The Pyrenean lawyer's son must have had good grit in his composition. He would be King of Sweden in spite oi Napoleon! When one remembers how just then the Emperor strode, Colossus-like, across the map of Europe, one appreciates the audacity of that resolution. The pioudest monarchs of the world had paled and trembled before this man. Bernadotte defied him.

The old King of Sweden, Carl XIII, senile and hypochondriacal, died five years after this, and Bernadotte mounted the throne, taking the name of Carl XIV. He was a good King, devoting himself to the consolidation of his kingdom, cajoling the Norwegians into joining with the Swedes, and then working to the uttermost for their contentment. His only son, Oscar I, followed on the same lines, and in 1859 Oscar's eldest son, Carl XV, succeeded to a fairly stable throne. This last-named Carl had married a princess of the Low Countries, and had an only daughter, Louise, who was unable, on account of her sex, to succeed to her father's crown. But before he died he saw her happily married to the Crown Prince of Denmark. On his death his brother, the present King Oscar 11, -ascended the throne. Sophie, Queen of Sweden and Norway, ii a Princess of Nassau, youngest sister oi the Duke of Luxembourg. Her four stalwart sons set aside all doubts as to biie succession. The Crown Prince (whose wife is a Princess of Baden) has also three sons. Perhaps it was this superabundant supply of heirs male that gave courage to ISiing Oscar's second son (his namesake, Oscar) to entreat permission to resign his royal rights and marry the woman he loved.

The Beauharnais blood ran strong in the young man's veins. Not a hundred years ago the Bernadottes were drawing leases and making wills for the good folk of Pau, or growing wine in their vineyards down at Jnrancon, where they owned a little green-shuttered chateau on the slopes of the coteaux over the river. The pjith in life which Jean Baptiste Jules had trodden so brilliantly had brought its thorns as well as its roses^ — ptisonous thorns, too, wounding to the death. It is at best but splendid slavery tc be a king. At least, so Prince Oscar thinks.

And so he has married the fair-haired lady who Avon his heart under the pine woods of Karaborg ; and because it is difficult to make his altered circumstances fit in with the royal family circle, he has fixed his abode in England, where he lives the simple life of an English country gentleman, surrounded by his boys and girls, and apparently as happy-hearted as they. He has resigned his Swedish titles, and is known by the name to which lie has paternal right, "Prince Bernadotte."

His boys go to English schools, and few among their comrades are aware that they are grandsons of a king. But they are remembered often and fondly in Sweden. Non-royal they may be. but King Oscar and Queen Sophie love them dearly, and many a big package finds its way to the South Country railway station near to which they dwell.