Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - XVIII. Reign of Chales XIII, 1809–1818 - B. The Election of a Crown Prince
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Bernadotte Elected Crown Prince 317
It was thought that above everything else Sweden must
have a great general, who might raise the country out
of its ruin. The story of this election reads like a ro-
mance. The government had concluded to elect the
brother of the deceased prince. As the leading men
wished to stand well in the graces of Napoleon, they
sent a courier to Paris to inform the Emperor of the
intended election.
The courier, a young lieutenant named Morner, un-
dertook to act independently in this matter. He
thought, like so many others, that Sweden must have
a general. But the intended candidate lacked com-
pletely all military talent. So young Morner hit upon
the plan of calling on Marshal Bernadotte and secured
his consent to become the heir to the throne of Sweden
if the choice should fall on him. With this project he
hastened back to Sweden.
His proposition fell like a bomb in the Swedish coun-
cil of state, but somehow it won many adherents. The
result was that the candidate proposed by the council
and elected by the Estates was not the Augustenbur-
ger, but the French marshal.
Marshal Bernadotte had behind him a remarkable
career. He was born in southern France of bourgeois
parentage. His father was a lawyer and he himself
had been educated for the profession. He began his
military career as a private. He soon rose to the posi-
tion of a subaltern officer. Higher he could not rise,
as he did not belong to the nobility. Then came the
Eevolution, which broke down all class distinctions,
and within five years the subaltern had become a gen-
eral. Napoleon’s plans to make himself master of
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