Charles II of the United Kingdoms of Scandinavia
| Charles II | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| King of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden | |||||
| Reign | 11 February 1845 - 30 April 1866 | ||||
| Coronation | 20 May 1845 | ||||
| Predecessor | Charles I | ||||
| Successor | Charles III | ||||
| Governor-general of Norway | |||||
| Tenure | 16 February 1814 - 5 February 1818 | ||||
| Predecessor | Prince Christian Frederick of Denmark | ||||
| Successor | Johan August Sandels | ||||
| Born | Charles Christian August Frederick 5 November 1796 Augustenborg Palace, Augustenborg, Denmark | ||||
| Died | 30 April 1866 (aged 69) Amalienborg, Copenhagen, Denmark | ||||
| Burial | |||||
| Spouse | |||||
| Issue | |||||
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| House | Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg | ||||
| Father | Charles I | ||||
| Mother | Princess Louise Augusta of Denmark | ||||
| Religion | Church of Denmark Church of Norway Church of Sweden | ||||
Charles II, or Carl II (5 November 1796 - 30 April 1866), was the King of the United Kingdoms of Scandinavia. Originally born in November 1796 as a minor Danish prince, he instead subsequently became a Swedish prince and second in line to the Swedish throne at the age of thirteen, when his father was adopted by the childless King Charles XIII of Sweden amidst a succession crisis facing the kingdom.
At the age of eighteen, the younger Charles first took part in the campaign of unifying the kingdoms of Sweden and Norway, then previously under Danish suzerainty, after which, he was made Crown Prince of Sweden and Norway following his father's ascension to the throne. Subsequently, during his tenure as crown prince, he notably oversaw various reforms to the traditionally decentralised Scandinavian militaries, whilst also serving as an advisor, and on several occasions, a field officer for several European armies, thereby earning him the nickname, The Mercenary Prince. Furthermore, Charles was also notable in sponsoring the efforts of a renewed Scandinavian colonialism, particularly in both Africa and the Middle East.
Charles II, along with his father, Charles I and his eldest son, Charles III, are collectively known and remembered as "The Three Great Charles", with the period from the beginning of his father's reign as king of a unified Scandinavia until the end of the reign of his son, Charles III, being named as the Great Carolean Era, or the Golden Carolean Century.
Early Life
Charles was born on November 5th 1796 as the only son of the then Prince Christian August of Augustenborg and Princess Louise Augusta of Denmark. Born Charles Christian August Frederick, he shared his father's later adopted Swedish name, Charles, and the latter's own middle name, August, whilst also being given the names commonly used by previous Danish monarchs, Christian and Frederick.
Nevertheless, the young Charles had been born in his father's absence, the latter whom, prior to his birth, had enlisted for the recently beginning Napoleonic Wars. Consequently, for roughly the first five years of his life, the young prince rarely saw his father around, and instead grew close to his mother, Princess Louise Augusta. At the same time, he grew up considerably well himself in the family residence of Augustenborg Palace, located in the southern region of Denmark. On several occasions, he was able to visit his Oldenburg cousins in Copenhagen, whom generally received the young prince warmly, as his own mother was of the dynasty itself.
At the age of thirteen, when his father was made Governor-general of Norway, the family of three subsequently moved to Oslo, where the young prince was said to had been wholly fond of the city's coastal scenery. For instance, at the age of fourteen, he had his father employ a personal tutor to teach him in the ways of sailing, which would in turn allow him to freely sail around the Baltic Sea by himself. Then, upon completing his sailing training, he successively acquired a modest sailing ship, which he nicknamed Nelson after the deceased British admiral, Horatio Nelson whom, prior to his demise, had ironically led the Royal Navy in the First Battle of Copenhagen in 1801 against Denmark-Norway.
Prince of Sweden
When the young Charles was sixteen years old, his family's fortunes rapidly turned when his father, then the Governor-general of Norway, was adopted by the childless King Charles XIII of Sweden, thereby placing himself second in line to the throne as his father's eldest child. Following the family of three's arrival, with the personal approval of the King of Sweden himself, Charles and his parents were allowed to take up residence at Drottningholm Palace, located at the outskirts of the Swedish capital of Stockholm.
While living in his new residence, as a result of his own father's demands, the younger Charles was extensively subjected to almost daily trainings in the arts of warfare, although his education in other subjects, such as history, mathematics, and others were also "equally" prioritised. Eventually, his first chance at earning some degree of military experience came soon enough when he was tasked with accompanying his father, the Crown Prince of Sweden, in a supposedly peaceful expedition to subjugate and wrestle Norway from Denmark, an ally of Napoleon in the War of the Sixth Coalition. Thus, at the head of an approximately hundred strong band with his own father at hand, the two marched for several days from the Swedish-Norwegian border before finally entering the Norwegian capital of Oslo on April 6th that year, during which they were tremendously by the local populace, while the then governor-general promptly surrendered the city without a fight, thus ceding the Norwegian realm to the Swedes without a fight. Several days later, Charles, along with his father, Charles August, promptly received the reigning Swedish monarch, King Charles XIII, whom promptly made the prince the new Governor-general of Norway under Swedish suzerainty, a position once held by his own father. He subsequently held the position until his father's own ascension as monarch, from which point, he later became actively involved as the new Crown Prince of Sweden-Norway.
Crown Prince of Sweden-Norway
Following his father's ascension to the throne on February 5th 1818, the young Charles quickly found himself in a more powerful, and politically active position. Thus, as crown prince, he began spearheading various military reforms, particularly in the army, in which most of his reforms were of the Napoleonic model, whilst also encouraging the expansion and improvement of both the Swedish and Norwegian navies. Interestingly enough, despite his general preference for the army in most hypothetical military situations, Charles himself never abandoned, nor neglected the importance of the navy, a fact made evident by a notable quote he uttered to a Swedish naval officer, "The men will have the forts and the winter, while the ships will have the finest sailors in all of Europe".
The Mercenary Prince
Marriage
Inconclusive Beginnings
Shortly after the successful Template:Swedish "conquest" of Norway, through which the young Charles consequently became a prince of both Sweden and Norway, his father, Crown Prince Charles of Sweden-Norway, was also quick to begin making marital arrangements on behalf of his then only son, as the latter wanted to avoid the fate of the childless Swedish monarch himself, which then made it a necessity for the younger Charles to immediately have a natural heir of his own to succeed him in the case of an early death before he himself could ascend to the throne. To that end, in the initial phase, it was first suggested that the future King of Sweden and Norway was to marry his Danish-born first cousin once removed, Princess Juliane Sophie of Denmark whom, at the time of the consideration, was roughly twenty-six years old. At the same time, a more likely candidate, namely his soon-to-be stepmother, and daughter of the King of Prussia, Frederick William III, Princess Charlotte of Prussia, was also briefly considered as a potential wife, as she was only two years his junior, but nevertheless, just four years later, the Prussian princess was instead married off to Charles's own father instead in order to produce more children with the now middle-aged king, with the hopes of averting a succession crisis should Charles, as feared by his father, die prematurely.
The Anlgo-Russian Dilemma
When the first two candidates were dismissed, the third candidate however, this time of British ancestry, was quick to gain much larger traction within both the Swedish and Norwegian courts, as the young Charles was suggested to marry the similarly-aged Princess Charlotte of Wales, whom at the time, due to the surrounding circumstances, was expected to succeed both her grandfather, King George III and her own father, the later King George IV. On paper, as Charles and Charlotte were both coincidentally second in line to their respective royal thrones, it was viewed by a number of ministers and members of the nobility that a firm Anglo-Scandinavian alliance, primarily against the Russians in the east, would be of immense value, although it was established by diplomats from both sides that upon the death of the other, the "union" would be divided among their respective children. However, this predicament also led to a complicated dilemma, for at the same time, the then Tsar Alexander I of Russia also had two eligible younger sisters, the recently widowed Catherine Pavlovna and the unmarried Anna Pavlovna. In a manner similar to that of the situation with the British, prospects of a marriage between the prince and a Russian grand duchess would also benefit through a guarantee of mutual alliance between the two neighbouring kingdoms, although as a trade-off, Scandinavia would instead abandon the chance of being closely affiliated with an unrivalled naval power.
Eventually, after much bitter debate and arguments among the ministers and the nobility regarding Charles's marital prospects, it was then decided that an alliance with Russia, a much larger neighbouring power whom, in contrast to Britain, could directly threaten Scandinavia when necessary, was more suitable than that of an alliance with Britain. The decision was also influenced by the fact that due to her gender, the princess could be easily sidelined from the throne by the birth of a younger brother in accordance with the British succession laws at the time, thus potentially stripping the benefits of a political union between the two countries that was to be reaped from the marriage. Thus, on January 18th 1815, Charles, along with a small group of escorts, arrived in the capital city of Saint Petersburg where after having a brief audience with the Tsar of Russia, Charles promptly focused on earning the attention of Grand Duchess Anna Pavlovna instead. This effort, despite a brief faux pas in which the prince attempted to greet the grand duchess in the Russian language, proved ultimately successful as Anna Pavlovna was quick to convince her brother, the Tsar to agree on a prospective marriage between the two. Thus, following a mutual sense of agreement from both sides, the couple was married several days later, on January 22nd, at Saint Petersburg, although Charles himself was reported of having said, "I considered myself wed tonight with my darling wife", on the night of Anna's own birthday celebration, which was the very same day that the Scandinavian delegation had arrived at the city.
Family
From the beginning of their marriage, both Charles and Anna Pavlovna of Russia were generally described of having a mutual sense of love for one another, made evident by the birth of a child just four years later, following an initially stillborn child several months into their marriage, which briefly tested the couple's commitment to one another. At the same time, following the second marriage of his father to the much younger Princess Charlotte of Prussia, whom was herself two years and three years Charles and Anna's junior respectively, strong rumours surrounding the court at the time then subsequently spoke of a supposed ilicit affair between the prince and his stepmother, although this was never officially confirmed, with the most likely evidence being simply that of the two being emotionally close to one another which, despite it being most likely due to their much smaller age range compared to that with Charles's own father, was expected of a relationship between a mother and a son. On Anna's part at least, she was reported of having been "undisturbed" and "unaffected" by the rumours, which Anna herself personally referred to as "damaging" and "unwarranted" insults to the hopeful prince and his stepmother.
Death
Titles & Honours
- 5 November 1796 - 15 July 1809 His Royal Highness Prince Charles Christian of Augustenborg
- 15 July 1809 - 30 May 1814 His Royal Highness Prince Charles of Sweden
- 30 May 1814 - 5 February 1818 His Royal Highness Prince Charles of Sweden-Norway
- 5 February 1818 - 11 February 1845 His Royal Highness The Crown Prince of Scandinavia
- 11 February 1845 - 30 April 1866 His Majesty The King