Charles III of the United Kingdoms of Scandinavia
| Charles III | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| King of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden | |||||
| Reign | 30 April 1866 - 3 June 1902 | ||||
| Coronation | 15 June 1866 | ||||
| Predecessor | Charles II | ||||
| Successor | Gustav I | ||||
| Born | Charles Frederick Gustav Nicholas 2 April 1817 Oslo Palace, Norway | ||||
| Died | 3 June 1902 (aged 85) Buckingham Palace, London | ||||
| Burial | |||||
| Spouse | Alice Keppel (m. 1887) | ||||
| Issue | |||||
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| House | Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg | ||||
| Father | Charles II | ||||
| Mother | Anna Pavlovna of Russia | ||||
| Religion | Church of Denmark Church of Norway Church of Sweden | ||||
Charles III, or Carl III (2 April 1817 - 3 June 1902), was the King of the United Kingdoms of Scandinavia. The eldest child of King Charles II, better known as The Mercenary Crown Prince and Grand Duchess Anna Pavlovna of Russia, he succeeded his father upon the latter's death, with his reign, in stark contrast to that of his predecessor's, being that of a general period of non-involvement in continental European affairs, although in the aftermath of the Berlin Conference, he oversaw a continued period of a resurgence of Scandinavian colonialism inherited from his father's reign, which led to some minor but important acquisitions for Scandinavia, namely the Persian city of Bandar Abbas and the nearby island of Hormuz, along with a major colony aswell, namely the colony of Scandinavian Somaliland. His reign, which spanned for roughly 36 years, was the longest than any of his predecessors until it was superseded by his grandson, King Frederick, at 41 years long.
Despite the overall positivity of his reign, Charles also generally attracted much controversy for his notorious marital history. Having first been married to Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna of Russia, the couple promptly separated just a month later, as a result of the prince eloping with Princess Marianne of the Netherlands during their brief marriage. He then subsequently married the Dutch princess and upon her death after a lengthy marriage, he was then married once more, and for the last time, to famed British society hostess, Alice Keppel, whom at the time of the marriage, was only nineteen years old, whereas the King himself, by then had already reached seventy years of age.
Charles III, along with his father, Charles II and his grandfather, Charles I, are collectively known and remembered as "The Three Great Charles", with the period from the beginning of his grandfather's reign as king of a unified Scandinavia until the end of his own reign being named as the Great Carolean Era, or the Golden Carolean Century.
Early Life
Charles was born on April 2th 1817 as the eldest child of the then Prince Charles of Sweden-Norway and Grand Duchess Anna Pavlovna of Russia. However, the younger Charles's birth, despite it being a rather standard occasion itself, soon became the subject of various rumours as all the palace doctors that had overseen his birth inexplicably died within at least a year into his birth, with rumours most popularly suggesting that due to the general closeness between Charles's father and his own similarly-aged stepmother, Queen Charlotte, the young price might have been a secret love child of theirs instead, and not that of his own biological mother, Grand Duchess Anna Pavlovna. Nevertheless, the rumours survived well into the younger Charles's own later reign during the latter half of the 19th century, during which, on one occasion, he notably proclaimed, "My mother is Grand Duchess Anna Pavlovna of Russia, and my grandmother is Princess Charlotte of Prussia. None shall say nothing different than that".
Having been given the names Charles Frederick Gustav Nicholas, he symbolically inherited the very given name used by three of his immediate predecessors, his father, the later Charles II, his grandfather, Charles I, and his adopted great-grandfather, Charles XIII of Sweden. Around the same time, following the peaceful acquisition of Norway from Denmark by the Swedish government, Charles's original title of Prince of Sweden was subsequently changed to Prince of Sweden-Norway.
Upbringing
Having been brought up by his parents, particularly his mother, in the Swedish residence of Stockholm Palace, the younger Charles underwent a relatively normal childhood as a royal prince, and most importantly, the second in line to the throne following his grandfather's ascension to the throne. Then, in a manner similar to that applied towards his own father, the younger Charles was also taught extensively in the arts of warfare. A particular admirer of the deceased French cavalry general, Antoine Charles Louis de Lasalle, famously nicknamed The Hussar General, the younger Charles was in much favour of horseback riding, a talent that he would later use to his own great advantage.
In regards to linguistics, Charles was primarily educated in all three of the major Scandinavian languages, comprising Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish. He also concurrently took to learn both the Russian and German languages himself, an endeavour aided by his Russian-born mother and his Prussian-born grandmother.
When the younger Charles was aged twenty-two years old, his grandfather was elected as the new King of Denmark to succeed the childless King Frederick VI, thereby fully uniting all three independent kingdoms of the Scandinavian region, with the notable exception of Finland, then under Russian overlordship. At the same time, upon having reached the age of majority four years prior, the younger Charles himself had been enlisted in the Swedish Army which, due to the Swedish government's policy of having traditionally favoured the army over the navy, was generally perceived as the union's foremost land military unit. Subsequently, on August 1835, under the guise of a personal adventure, Charles privately travelled to the then war-torn Spain, plagued by the First Carlist War, in which he partook in on the side of the Spanish Liberals. After atleast two months long in the war-torn country, the prince was able to then safely leave the country through the Pyrenees mountain range, through which he then briefly reached to and resided in the capital city of Paris, where he also met the new French monarch, Louis Philippe I. While there, according to several rumours at least, the Scandinavian prince reportedly shown some interest in the French king's daughters, namely the similarly-aged Princess Clémentine of Orléans, although for quite unknown reasons, this interest was abruptly cut short.
Marriage
Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna
Beginning from the age of twelve, the younger Charles was quick to become a subject of various marital proposals, most of which had been orchestrated by his own grandfather. For instance, sometime in February 1831, in an apparent effort to secure a firm alliance with Russia, its sole neighbour in the east, a fourteen year old Charles was first offered as a young groom for the twelve year old Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna, an offer that received much support from both sides due to the looming expectations of a Scandinavian-Russian alliance. As a result of the general approval towards a marriage between the two, a younger Charles was then occasionally sent to Saint Petersburg in order to spend some time with the Russian grand duchess, whom was his first cousin through his mother, and vice versa. Eventually, after atleast a four years long period, when the conditions were deemed suitable enough for the young bride and groom to marry, with additional reports suggesting that the two "were quite jubilant enough at the idea of marriage", they were finally married on January 3rd 1835, in a hugely lavish ceremony in Saint Petersburg, attended by both the then King Charles I and Tsar Nicholas I of Russia.
In the following month of February, the couple's then relatively new marriage, despite an outwardly promising image at the beginning, soon began to quickly fall apart when during their subsequent honeymoon in Copenhagen, Denmark, Charles, having had the benefit of mutual assistance from his own country's officials in the country, abruptly feigned an "official visit" to the Netherlands, supposedly on the orders of his own grandfather. In reality, with the truth not being discovered by the grand duchess for at least two weeks later, the prince had been privately seeing the married Princess Marianne of the Netherlands, whom Charles was reportedly attracted to due to her fairly attractive looks, progressive character, and her own personal interests in the culture. At the same time, as to avert any suspicion from either side, the two were able to skillfully change the subsequent location of their next meeting, with the change in locations being disguised as being simply a new task the prince was to undertake on behalf of the Scandinavian monarch. Consequently, by mid-February, when the actual hidden purpose of Charles's supposed "official visits" had already been revealed to Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna, Charles's own wife, the two were soon quick to consider an immediate termination of their marriage. However, in stark contrast to the younger Charles's desire to potentially divorce his Russian wife in order to be able to marry the Dutch princess instead, the prospects of a divorce were fervently opposed, particularly by Charles's grandfather, the King, whom was wholly against forfeiting an alliance with Russia in favour of an another with the Netherlands, the latter country which he considered as "unimportant" and "inferior to Scandinavian prestige". Furthermore, Charles's now exposed adultery habits also became a source of contention by the Church, whom reportedly coerced the King to potentially sideline the young Charles in the line of succession, due to his perceived immorality. Lastly, the prospects of a divorce were also sternly opposed by the Tsar of Russia whom, like Charles's grandfather, feared terminating the alliance between the two nations.
Nevertheless, through the service of a Lutheran priest allegedly paid off by the prince himself, the couple's marriage, by Charles's own personal request, was declared annulled, presumably out of the prince's own intention to not be known as a divorcé, meaning that a marriage between the two was declared to had never supposedly existed in the first place. As a result, Charles was also able to avoid any possible religious restrictions on the issue of a divorcé being married to another person in later times.
Princess Marianne of the Netherlands
In a somewhat concerted effort, just a few days after the prince's marriage was annulled, Princess Marianne herself also promptly divorced her own husband, Prince Albert of Prussia, on the grounds of infidelity. Then, in a somewhat expected manner, the two begin to court one another more extensively, even going so far as to attend several balls and high society events together, albeit under false identities. In particular, Princess Marianne herself was also a cousin of the prince, albeit his first cousin twice removed through a common ancestor, Frederick William III of Prussia.
Regardless, due to the surrounding and mutual amount of controversy both Charles and Marianne had brought from their previous marriages, the two initially agreed to hold off all sorts of an immediate wedding ceremony, as to supposedly wait for the anger and discontent surrounding them to die out. Eventually, on March 16th of the same year, the two were married through a private civil ceremony at the German city of Lübeck.
Alice Keppel
Death
Titles & Honours
- 2 April 1817 - 5 February 1818 His Royal Highness Prince Charles of Sweden-Norway
- 5 February 1818 - 11 February 1845 His Royal Highness Prince Charles of Scandinavia
- 11 February 1845 - 30 April 1866 His Royal Highness The Crown Prince of Scandinavia
- 30 April 1866 - 3 June 1902 His Majesty The King