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    Re: Queen Désirée of Sweden Archived Message

    Posted by June on July 1, 2012, 4:08 am, in reply to "Queen Désirée of Sweden"

    Thank you Barbara D. for your informative post, which is much appreciated.




    --Previous Message--
    : Queen Désirée (actually in Swedish
    : "Desideria") was born Bernardine
    : Eugénie Désirée Clary in 1777 in Marseille,
    : Southern France. Her father was in the trade
    : with the Osman Empire (Constantinopel) and
    : earned some wealth with his business. The
    : Clarys were not of noble descendance,
    : actually the provenance of the family is not
    : well known.
    :
    : When she was 18, Eugénie (she later started
    : to be called Désirée) met the from Corsica
    : emigrated family "Buonaparte"
    : (later Bonaparte). She introduced Joseph
    : Bonaparte to her elder sister Julie who felt
    : in love with Joseph and later married him.
    : Eugénie/Désirée herself was from 1795 to
    : 1796 engaged to the young and unknown
    : General Napoleone Buonaparte who was later
    : known as Napoléon Bonaparte and became
    : Emperor of The French!
    :
    : The two never married because the Clarys
    : opposed against a second Bonaparte in the
    : family and Napoléon himself met the rich and
    : influent widow Joséphine de Beauharnais de
    : Tascher de la Pagerie and married her in
    : 1796.
    :
    : Désirée herself married in 1798 Jean
    : Baptiste Bernadotte, a General in the French
    : army. Jean Baptiste later became Marshal
    : under Napoléon and was made Count of Ponte
    : Corvo. In 1810, he was adopted by the
    : childless Swedish King and Queen under the
    : name Carl Johan. This was also the name he
    : was later known as King of Sweden and
    : Norway.
    :
    : Désirée herself became Swedish and Norwegian
    : Queen under the name "Désideria".
    : Whilst her husband and her son Oscar lived
    : in Sweden from 1810 on, Désirée stayed in
    : France up to 1823, mainly under the
    : pseudonym of Countess of Gotland. The
    : reasons are not absolutely clear. There
    : might be her health, she didn't coped with
    : the nordic climate in Sweden or it might be,
    : that she didn't felt comfortable in the
    : stiff protocol of the Swedish court.
    :
    : Désirée finally went to Sweden with her
    : son's fiancée, Josephine of Leuchtenberg
    : (who was Joséphine de Beauharnais'
    : granddaughter!). She remained in Sweden up
    : to her death in 1860.
    :
    : That woman had a very interesting life and
    : she was involved with two of the most
    : influent men of their time!
    :

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