Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - XV. Sweden in 1914
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
1914] KING OSCAR II. 259
tempered by a kind of scornful good-nature. A country
—more particularly an original country—very soon
assimilates a foreign dynasty.
Charles XV., the eldest of the grandsons of Bernadotte
and Mademoiselle Clery and of Eugene Beauharnais, was
actually the last of the line in which the influence of
French blood is truly noticeable; his brother, Oscar II.,
being solely and entirely Swedish, it is precisely in his
reign that the force of circumstances led to German
influence and caused it to bear fruit.
Moreover, two personal causes contributed to it:
King Oscar II. was a scholar, a man of letters, a seeker;
and therefore a great intimacy sprang up between
him and the Crown-Prince of Prussia, afterwards the
ephemeral Emperor Frederick III. who also dreamt
about philosophy and the high principles of humanity
and liberty. German public opinion did not omit to
profit by this intimacy between the popular " Kronprinz "
and the Monarch of the brother-nation, Sweden. German
scholars, men of letters, musicians bowed low before
the king-philosopher, the true connoisseur and sincere
admirer of German science and art; to him went the
praises, the flattering dedications, the diplomas of the
universities and academies. And it is all very well to
have a well-regulated and sincere mind, as Oscar II.
had, but these things are always flattering and set up—
perhaps involuntarily—sympathy between the object
and the authors of these demonstrations.
In addition, Oscar II. was married to a German
princess, a Nassau. TWe young German princesses of
the generation to which Queen Sophia of Sweden
belonged were generally brought up outside the narrow
ideas of German patriotism ; as they might be destined to
a foreign prince, they were not to be hampered with
anything that might embarrass them in their new country.
But after 1815 there were some exceptions, and Queen
Sophia was one of them ; and as she was a model wife
and mother, and as her virtues and her intelligence
gained for her the sincere affection of Stockholm society
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
