Jump to content

Désirée Clary

From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Désirée Clary
Portrait by Fredric Westin, 1830
Queen consort of Sweden and Norway
Tenure5 February 1818 – 8 March 1844
Coronation21 August 1829
BornBernardine Eugénie Désirée Clary
(1777-11-08)8 November 1777
Marseille, France
Died17 December 1860(1860-12-17) (aged 83)
Stockholm, Sweden
Burial
Spouse
(m. 1798; died 1844)
IssueOscar I of Sweden
HouseBernadotte (by marriage)
FatherFrançois Clary
MotherFrançoise Rose Somis
ReligionRoman Catholicism

Bernardine Eugénie Désirée Clary (8 November 1777 – 17 December 1860) was Queen of Sweden and Norway from 5 February 1818 to 8 March 1844. Her husband was King Charles XIV John. Her son was King Oscar I. Before she married, she was engaged to Napoleon Bonaparte.

Clary was born in Marseille, France. Her father was François Clary, a silk manufacturer and merchant. Her mother was Françoise Rose Somis.

Clary's sister was Julie Clary. Julie married Joseph Bonaparte. She later became Queen of Naples and Spain.

Clary's brother was Nicholas Joseph Clary, later Count Clary.

An early portrait by Robert Lefèvre

When Clary was a child, she was educated in a convent. When she was 11 years old, the French Revolution took place and convents were closed.[1] Clary returned to live with her parents. She was home-schooled after that.

In 1794, Clary met Joseph Bonaparte, the brother of Napoleon Bonaparte. Joseph was soon engaged to Julie Clary. Désirée was engaged to Napoleon Bonaparte on 21 April 1795. Napoleon became involved with Joséphine de Beauharnais. He broke the engagement to Clary on 6 September 1795. He married Joséphine in 1796.

For a short time, Clary was engaged to Mathurin-Léonard Duphot, a French general. People thought that the engagement was Napoleon's idea to make up for breaking their engagement. Duphot liked Clary's dowry and the fact that she was the sister-in-law of Napoleon. On 30 December 1797, Duphot was killed in a riot in Rome.[2] Later in her life, Clary said that her engagement to Duphot had never existed.[3]

On 17 August 1798, Clary married Jean Baptiste Jules Bernadotte, another French general and politician.[4] On 4 July 1799, their son, Oscar, was born. They never had any other children.

In August 1810, Bernadotte was elected heir to the throne of Sweden. Clary did not want to leave France, but had to move to Sweden. Her husband moved first. She and their son left later and arrived there on 22 December 1810.

In Sweden

[change | change source]
Queen Desideria in about 1830

Clary did not like Sweden. She hated the snow so much that she cried.[2] In summer 1811, she returned to France without her husband and son. She lived there as a private citizen and not as royalty.

In summer 1822, Clary's son traveled outside Sweden to find a wife. He met with Clary two times during his travels. In 1823, Clary went to Sweden with Josephine of Leuchtenberg, the woman her son was going to marry. Clary stayed in Sweden the rest of her life.

On 21 August 1829, Clary was crowned Queen of Sweden. She was never crowned Queen of Norway because of religious differences.

An 1850s caricature of Dowager Queen Desideria by Fritz von Dardel

In 1844, Clary's husband, Charles XIV John, died, and her son Oscar became king. When Oscar died in 1859, his son Charles became king.

In December 1860, Clary died at age 83.

References

[change | change source]
  1. Revue politique et littéraire: revue bleue. 1888. p. 576 (French).
  2. 2.0 2.1 Lagerqvist, Lars O. (1979). Bernadotternas drottningar (The queens of the Bernadotte dynasty) (in Swedish). Albert Bonniers Förlag AB. ISBN 91-0-042916-3.
  3. Ulf Sundberg in Kungliga släktband ISBN 91-85057-48-7 p 206
  4. Lindwall, Lilly: (Swedish) Desideria. Bernadotternas anmoder.[Desideria. The Ancestral Mother of the Bernadottes] Stockholm. Åhlén och Åkerlunds Förlag A.-B. (1919)