Josephine of Leuchtenberg

Early life

Joséphine was born on 14 March 1807 in Milan, Italy. She was the first of six children of Eugène de Beauharnais, Duke of Leuchtenberg (1781–1824), and his wife, Princess Augusta of Bavaria (1788–1851). Her paternal grandmother and namesake was Joséphine Tascher de La Pagerie, the first wife of Napoleon; she was given the name 'Joséphine' by Napoleon's request. Her maternal grandfather was King Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria.

At birth, she was given the title Princess of Bologna by Napoleon, and later she was also made Duchess of Galliera. She spent her first seven years in Italy. The family spent their days in Villa Bonaparte in Milan and at their summer residence in Monza outside Milan. In 1812, they received a visit from the former Empress Joséphine. In 1813, her father Eugène turned down the offer from his father-in-law to join the forces against Napoleon. In 1814, Augusta joined her father at his military headquarters at Mantua, where she gave birth to Théodolinde de Beauharnais, Joséphine's youngest sister. A little later, Joséphine and her siblings joined their mother in the fortress at Mantua in a procession of carriages with their courtiers. After the defeat of Napoleon that same year, her parents left for her maternal grandfather in Bavaria, and a little later, Joséphine and her siblings followed them in the company of Baron Darnay, earlier her father's secretary. Reportedly, this was a memory that stayed with Joséphine. Her father was given the title Duke of Leuchtenberg and the former principality of Eichstätt in Bavaria as a fief. Her childhood is described as happy. The family spent their summers at Eichstätt and their winters in Munich with Augusta's family.

Education

Joséphine could speak French, German and Italian and studied history and geography with Professor Le Sage; botany and natural science with Professor Martinus; mathematics, physics and astronomy with Professor Siebers.

Marriage to the Crown Prince of Sweden and Norway

Charles XIV John of Sweden feared the legitimist policy of the Congress of Vienna, and wished to give the House of Bernadotte connections through blood with old royal dynasties of Europe. The marriage of his son and heir to the throne, Crown Prince Oscar, was the solution to this problem, and in 1822, he finally forced his son to agree to marry and to make a trip to Europe to inspect a list of potential candidates for the position of Crown Princess and Queen. In this list, a Princess of Denmark was the first alternative; a Princess of Leuchtenberg was the second; a Princess of Hesse was the third and a Princess of Weimar was the fourth. Charles XIV John had chosen Josephine of Leuchtenberg as candidate number two, because she had connections both to the old dynasties of Europe through her mother, and to the House of Bonaparte through her father, and thus, she "joined the new interests with the old", as he expressed the matter.

Engagement and wedding

Crown Prince Oscar declined marriage to a Danish Princess, but expressed his interest in the Princess of Leuchtenberg after his first meeting with Joséphine on 23 August 1822 in Eichstätt. The couple reportedly developed a mutual attraction and fell in love when they saw each other, and therefore, the marriage was accepted by both families and duly arranged. Joséphine took lessons in the Swedish language and corresponded with Oscar until the wedding. Her father was reportedly not against her conversion to Lutheranism, but the Swedish representatives had apparently thought it necessary to offer her the option to keep her religion. Although she was a devout Catholic, she agreed to raise her children in the Lutheran religion. She brought a Catholic priest, and regularly attended mass and confession in her private Catholic chapel. The Pope had given his consent to this. In Sweden, the law of 1781, Toleransediktet, declared freedom of religion for foreigners and immigrants, and Joséphine, as well as her mother-in-law Désirée, could be regarded as such. For Swedes, however, the conversion from the Lutheran Church to another religion formally meant confiscation of property and banishment from the country. The situation in Norway was similar. The Lutheran clergy was against the match, but the King had his way.

Princess Joséphine married the Crown Prince by proxy at the Palais Leuchtenberg in Munich on 22 May 1823. They also conducted a wedding ceremony in person on 19 June 1823 in Stockholm, Sweden. The first wedding ceremony was Catholic, and the second wedding ceremony was Lutheran. Through her mother (her maternal line of Hesse and upward through Hanau and Ansbach, Baden-Durlach and Kleeburg), Joséphine was a descendant of Charles IX of Sweden through a sister of Charles X Gustav of Sweden, making her children descendants of Gustav Vasa. Through her maternal grandfather, Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria, she was also one of the descendants of Renata of Lorraine, granddaughter of Christian II of Denmark.

Josephine arrived in Sweden in the company of her mother-in-law, Queen Desideria, who had been absent for eleven years. They arrived in Manilla outside Stockholm 13 June 1823, where they were welcomed by King Charles XIV John, Crown Prince Oscar, military salutes and great crowds, and escorted to Haga Palace, where Josephine was embraced by Princess Sophia Albertina, Abbess of Quedlinburg. The second wedding ceremony took place six days later. Six days after her arrival in Sweden, her middle name 'Napoléonne' was removed. This was because Sweden had fought against Bonaparte in the recent war. She had brought with her several pieces of exclusive jewelry made in Paris for her paternal grandmother, which are still among the possessions of the Royal Houses of Sweden, Denmark and Norway (via Louise and Märtha of Sweden). In Sweden, she was known by the Swedish version of her name: Josefina. In her retinue, she brought with her Bertha Zück, who she made her treasurer, and her Catholic confessor Jacob Lorenz Studach: until their death, they enjoyed such a close relationship that they were referred to as "The Trio". Josephine was escorted to Sweden by a temporary lady-in-waiting, Countess Aurora Wilhelmina Brahe, but once arrived, Countess Elisabet Charlotta Piper and, from 1836, Countess Charlotta Skjöldebrand served as her Överhovmästarinna or senior lady-in-waiting.

Crown Princess

Josephine was a social success in Sweden from the moment of her arrival, both as a private person in the circles of high society as well as a public person, and was to become more popular as Queen than her predecessor and successor. Already as Crown Princess, she was able to play the representational part that her mother-in-law was not able to fulfill, and she played a great role in making the new dynasty popular in Sweden. In the summer of 1824, the Crown Prince and Crown Princess visited Christiania in Norway, where they engaged in many public appearances to make the monarchy popular. Oscar had been given the task of temporary Viceroy during his visit, and Josephine was present in a box when he appeared before the Storting. After this, they made a trip through Sweden to present her to the public. She was described as charming, beautiful and dignified, and she was also regarded as gifted: she impressed by being able to speak the Swedish language almost fluently at her arrival. At a ball in 1838 Fritz von Dardel described her: "As for the Crown Princess, she was beautiful and dignified, perhaps too thin but very intelligent and quite delightful toward all. No one has anything to reproach her for other than for her Catholic religion."

Her relationship to her father-in-law was very warm. The King treated her with great affection and, for example, used to hide sweets in his pockets, which she searched through and, at one occasion, found a jewel hidden in a sweet. On 21 August 1823, Charles XIV John declared that this day, the same date he had been elected Crown Prince, should be the name day for Josephine, and henceforth be celebrated as Josephine-Day. The first such celebration took place that day at Drottningholm Palace, and Josephine Day was celebrated in Sweden for decades after that: it became a tradition for the public in Stockholm to travel to Drottningholm Palace at that day, where festivities had been arranged for them, and cheer for Josephine, who greeted them from a balcony.

Her relationship with her mother-in-law, however, was somewhat tense during the first years, as Queen Désirée reportedly felt neglected by her spouse, and that her place as a Queen was overshadowed by Josephine's popularity. After the initial years, however, the relationship between Josephine and Désirée became more friendly and harmonious.

The relationship between Josephine and Oscar was initially described as a mutually happy one, and the couple shared their interests in culture, painting, writing and singing. Oscar and Josephine had five children, of whom two were to become kings of Sweden and Norway. However, Oscar was known for his extramarital affairs, a fact that deeply tormented Josephine. Oscar was to resume his contact with Jacquette Löwenhielm after the wedding, though Josephine is initially not believed to have been aware of this: however, in 1826, she gave the first signs of being aware of his affairs in her diary, and in 1828, she wrote of painful suspicions of adultery and also that it pained her to be constantly pregnant. In 1832, a year after the birth of her last child, she wrote in her diary about the contemporary view that a woman was expected to endure a husband's extramarital affairs: A woman should suffer in silence, and that she found this contemporary view unjust. In 1835, her pain over Oscar's behavior caused her to take a trip to the spa Medevi to calm her nerves. Her husband's relationship with the famed actress Emilie Högquist was well known. It was also not a temporary affair, but a serious relationship, which began in 1836 and resulted in two sons. Josephine described the years of Oscar's relationship with Emilie Högquist as a walk "through fire". Josephine and Oscar, however, continued to appear together in public, and her dignified behavior placed the sympathies on her side. Oscar became unpopular because of it, and King Charles XIV John reprimanded him for it out of sympathy for Josephine's suffering. During her later years as Crown Princess, this situation, which contributed to a conflict between the monarch and the Crown Prince, introduced Josephine to politics as she became active as a mediator between her spouse and her father-in-law.

Queen of Sweden and Norway

In 1844, Josephine became Queen of Sweden and Norway at the accession of her spouse. She was crowned in Sweden 28 September 1844. There had been some opposition: the religious debate was more heated in the 1840s than it had been in 1829, when Queen Desideria had been crowned, but Oscar solved the matter by declaring that he would not be crowned himself if she was not. In Norway, there was more serious opposition to the coronation of a Catholic. The official reason was that the ceremony was unnecessary, as the queen had no position in the Norwegian constitution, but it is acknowledged that the real reason was her religion: Queen Desideria had in fact not been crowned in Norway either. Because of this, Oscar refused to be crowned in Norway as well.

At the time Josephine became queen, Fredrika Bremer wrote of her, that she: "... prefers to act out of her own pulse and will. Granted, I have not heard this from court, but I believe it to be the truth. Out of the two royal spouses, she is, without question, believed to be the stronger character." After Oscar ascended to the throne, he discontinued extramarital affairs. The relationship between Josephine and Oscar was repaired, and continued to be good during his reign and until his death. The degree of her political influence during the reign of Oscar is debated. She was said to have acted as his adviser and to have exerted influence in several matters. Reportedly, Oscar felt pressured by his responsibility, and relied upon her support. It is confirmed that, when a crisis occurred, the king and the queen withdrew in private to discuss the matter before the king made a decision. Their private conferences were witnessed by the curious court, who could sometimes observe them discussing the matter in the palace garden out of hearing range.

Foreign policy can be seen to have been affected by her sympathies and views. In her correspondence with her aunt, the Prussian queen Elisabeth Ludovika of Bavaria, it is evident that she actively negotiated for peace in the First Schleswig War of 1848. During the war, she informed her aunt that Sweden had decided to assist Denmark against Prussia to defend its independence, and that she hoped that Prussia would be willing to engage in peace negotiations. The result was that Prussia had Count Albert von Pourtalès sent to Sweden to enter in peace negotiations with Josephine personally. In parallel, she assured the Queen and King of Prussia of her personal regard and offered them a safe haven if they should ever be forced out of Prussia. She is confirmed to have played an important part in the secret diplomacy of Oscar I, where she also promoted her younger son, Oscar, before her elder son Charles. Her contact with Emperor Napoleon III and Empress Eugenie of the French is regarded to have been of certain importance during the 1850s European crisis. Josephine was by referred to as pro-French and anti-Russian. She was pointed out, among others by her son, Charles, to have been responsible for the November treaty between Sweden-Norway, France and Great Britain against Russian expansionism in 1855.

Queen dowager

In 1859, Oscar died, thereby making Josephine queen dowager; although she was only officially titled as such in the late 1860s, when her mother-in-law, Queen Dowager Désirée, died. It is noted, that she followed the French tradition by wearing violet as a mourning colour rather than black: violet was her favourite colour in any event, and she would wear it for the rest of her life. As queen dowager, she lost all political influence and devoted herself to her charitable activities and her interest in the Catholic congregation and its issues.

Charles XV considered her too old fashioned and formal and their views were seldom shared. Charles XV made himself known for a decadent life style: he was rumored to engage in Oriental debaucheries with the Armenian Ohan Demirgian, and his life at the summer residence Ulriksdal Palace was compared to that at Versailles, which brought the crown into disrepute, something which had also been Josephine's fear. Her relationship with Queen Louise has been described as very good. In 1866, she shared the royal couple's negative views about the parliamentary reform. Queen Dowager Josephine was known for acting as nurse during illness in the family, and her relationship with Charles improved in his last years, when his health deteriorated and he became a Freemason and thereafter saw fewer differences in Catholicism and Protestantism.

Josephine kept informed about the political events, though she could no longer affect them. In the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, she supported Austria against Prussia, whose expansionism she feared. In 1870, Josephine expressed how deeply she felt against the introduction of the new Catholic doctrine of Papal infallibility. She regarded this as a doctrine which would in high degree repulse the Catholic church in the eyes of the Protestant world. She reportedly suffered when her cousin Emperor Napoleon III of France was dethroned in 1870. After the Battle of Sedan, she assured the imprisoned Napoleon III that she would never forget that she was a member of the Beauharnais family. She invited the son of Napoleon III, the Prince Imperial, to Sweden, though he did not accept the invitation. She also expressed dislike of the annexation of the Papal States, and called 1870 a terrible year. Josephine nursed her daughter-in-law Queen Louise at her death bed in 1871.

In 1872, Charles XV died, and Josephine's younger son Oscar II succeeded to the throne. At the time of Charles' death, Josephine was on a trip to see her sister, Amélie, former Empress of Brazil, in Portugal. On the way, she visited Paris and saw King Amadeo I and Queen Maria Vittoria of Spain in El Escorial. In Lisbon, her dying sister wished for her to see the Sintra National Palace and Monserrate Palace before her return. She returned to Sweden two days after the death of Charles. Upon the death of Jacob Lorenz Studach in 1873, Josephine negotiated with the Pope about who would be the most suitable replacement for missionary Bishop of the Catholic Church in Scandinavia. She wished to have the Bishop of Speyer, Bonifatius von Haneberg. The Pope however appointed Johann Georg Huber.

Death

Queen Josephine died in Stockholm in 1876 at the age of 69 and received a Catholic burial. Her last words were: "I am going home now. I am very happy."

Issue

Josephine had five children with Oscar; four sons and one daughter:

Charles XV of Sweden & IV of Norway (1826–1872)

Prince Gustaf, Duke of Uppland (1827–1852)

Oscar II of Sweden (1829–1907)

Princess Eugénie of Sweden and Norway (1830–1889)

Prince August, Duke of Dalarna (1831–1873)