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Charles XV King of Sweden and Norway (more...) Charles XV in the 1860s Reign July 8, 1859 – September 18, 1872 Predecessor Oscar I Successor Oscar II Coronation May 3, 1860 Consort Louise of the Netherlands Issue Louise, Queen of Denmark Prince Carl Oscar, Duke of Södermanland Full name carl Ludvig Eugen Detail Titles and styles HM The King of Sweden & Norway HRH The Crown Prince of Sweden & Norway HRH The Duke of Skåne Royal house House of Bernadotte Father Oscar I Mother Josephine of Leuchtenberg Born May 3, 1826(1826-05-03) Stockholm Died September 18, 1872 (aged 46) Malmö Burial Riddarholmskyrkan, Stockholm

Swedish Royalty House of Bernadotte Charles XIV John Children    Oscar I Oscar I Children    Charles XV    Gustaf, Duke of Upland    Oscar II    Princess Eugenie    August, Duke of Dalarna Charles XV Children    Lovisa, Queen of Denmark    Carl Oscar, Duke of Södermanland Oscar II Children    Gustaf V    Oscar, Duke of Gotland    Eugén, Duke of Närke    Carl, Duke of Västergötland Grandchildren    Princess Margaretha    Märtha, Crown Princess of Norway    Astrid, Queen of Belgium    Carl, Duke of Östergötland Gustaf V Children    Gustaf VI Adolf    Wilhelm, Duke of Södermanland    Erik, Duke of Västmanland Gustaf VI Adolf Children    Gustaf Adolf, Duke of Västerbotten    Sigvard, Duke of Uppland    Ingrid, Queen of Denmark    Bertil, Duke of Halland    Carl Johan, Duke of Dalarna Grandchildren    Princess Margaretha    Princess Birgitta    Princess Désirée    Princess Christina    Carl XVI Gustaf Carl XVI Gustaf Children    Crown Princess Victoria    Carl Philip, Duke of Värmland    Madeleine, Duchess of Hälsingland and Gästrikland

Carl XV (Carl Ludvig Eugen) (3 May 1826 – 18 September 1872) was King of Sweden and Norway (in Norway known as Carl IV) from 1859 until his death.

Referring to Carl as Charles XV is a modern invention. The Swedish kings Erik XIV (1560-68) and Charles IX (1604-1611) took their numbers after studying a highly fictitious History of Sweden. He was actually Charles IX.¹

Biography

He was born in Stockholm Palace, Stockholm, and dubbed Duke of Skåne at birth. He was the eldest son of King Oscar I and Josephine of Leuchtenberg. The Crown Prince was Viceroy of Norway briefly in 1856 and 1857. He became Regent on 25 September 1857, and king on the death of his father on 8 July 1859. As grandson of Augusta of Bavaria, he was a descendant of Gustav I of Sweden and Charles IX of Sweden, whose blood returned to the throne after being lost in 1818 when Charles XIII of Sweden died. On 19 June 1850 he married in Stockholm Louise of the Netherlands, niece of William II of the Netherlands through her father and niece of William I of Prussia, German Emperor, through her mother. The couple were personally quite dissimilar; Princess Louise was in love with her husband, whereas he preferred other women. His mistresses included the actresses Hanna Styrell and Elise Jakobsson-Hwasser (the latter the most celebrated actress in Sweden during his reign) and the Crown Prince neglected his shy wife. On the other hand, his relationship to his only daughter, Louise, was warm and close.

As Crown Prince, Charles' brusque manner led many to regard his future accession with some apprehension, yet he proved to be one of the most popular of Scandinavian kings and a constitutional ruler in the best sense of the word. His reign was remarkable for its manifold and far-reaching reforms. Sweden's existing communal law (1862), ecclesiastical law (1863) and criminal law (1864) were enacted appropriately enough under the direction of a king whose motto was: Land skall med lag byggas - "With law shall the land be built". Charles also helped Louis De Geer to carry through his memorable reform of the Riksdag in 1866. He also declared the freedom of women by passing the law of legal maturity for unmarried women in 1858 - his sister Princess Eugenie became the first woman who was declared mature.

Charles was a warm advocate of Scandinavianism and the political solidarity of the three northern kingdoms, and his warm friendship for Frederick VII of Denmark, it is said, led him to give half promises of help to Denmark on the eve of the war of 1864, which, in the circumstances, were perhaps misleading and unjustifiable. In view, however, of the unpreparedness of the Swedish army and the difficulties of the situation, Charles was forced to observe a strict neutrality. He died in Malmö on 18 September 1872.

Charles XV was highly gifted in many directions. He attained to some eminence as a painter, and his poems show him to have been a true poet. He was followed on both the thrones of Norway and Sweden by his brother Oscar II.

In 1855 he became the 990th Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece in Spain.

A few weeks before Charles' death, his daughter Louise (then the Crown Princess of Denmark) gave birth to her second son. The young Prince of Denmark became christened as grandfather Charles' namesake, and in 1905 this grandson, Prince Carl of Denmark, ascended the throne of Norway, becoming thus his maternal grandfather's successor in that country, and assumed the reign name Haakon VII. The present king, Harald V of Norway, is Charles' great-great-grandson, through his father and mother.

No subsequent king of Sweden to this day is Charles' direct descendant. However, his descendants are or have been on the thrones of Denmark, Luxembourg, Greece, Belgium and Norway.

Issue

Ancestry

References

External links

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Charles XV of Sweden

• Royal House of Sweden and Royal House of Norway
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• The Royal Norwegian Order of St Olav - Norwegian and Swedish Monarchs Grand Masters of the Order
• Family tree of the Royal Norwegian House
• Kings of Norway (in Norwegian)
• Much material on early kings (in Norwegian)

References

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

Wikipedia content modification information:

• This page was last modified on 4 November 2008, at 14:48.

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