# Joseph Bonaparte ( Corte 1768 – Florence 1844 ), King of Naples and Spain, married Julie Clary, sister of Napoleon's childhood sweetheart, Désirée, who was to become the wife of General Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, the later Charles XIV of Sweden.

* 1948 – The Lehi ( also known as the Stern gang ) assassinates Count Folke Bernadotte, who was appointed by the UN to mediate between the Arab nations and Israel.

He was born Jean Bernadotte, distinguished from a namesake brother by the addition of Baptiste and had the full name of Jean Baptiste Jules Bernadotte by the time Karl also was added upon his Swedish adoption in 1810.

Bernadotte was born in Pau, France, as the son of Jean Henri Bernadotte ( Pau, Béarn, 14 October 1711 – Pau, 31 March 1780 ), procurator at Pau, and wife ( married at Boëil-Bezing, 20 February 1754 ) Jeanne de Saint-Vincent ( Pau, 1 April 1728 – Pau, 8 January 1809 ).

His brother Jean Bernadotte ( Pau, 1754 – Pau, 8 August 1813 ) was eventually made 1st Baron Bernadotte and married Marie Anne Charlotte de Saint-Paul.

Finally, they were the great-grandsons of Jean Bernadotte ( Pau, 7 November 1649 – Pau, 14 July 1689 ) and wife ( m. Pau, 18 June 1674 ) Marie de la Barrère-Bertandot ; he was in turn the son of Pierre Bernadotte and wife Margalide Barraquer and paternal grandson of Joandou du Poey, born in 1590, and wife Germaine de Bernadotte.

It was during the middle of that battle that Marshal Bernadotte was stripped of his command after retreating contrary to Napoleon's orders.

He was elected partly because a large part of the Swedish Army, in view of future complications with Russia, were in favour of electing a soldier, and partly because Bernadotte was also very popular in Sweden, owing to the kindness he had shown to the Swedish prisoners during the recent war with Denmark.

The matter was decided by one of the Swedish courtiers, Baron Karl Otto Mörner, who, entirely on his own initiative, offered the succession to the Swedish crown to Bernadotte.

Although the Swedish government, amazed at Mörner's effrontery, at once placed him under arrest on his return to Sweden, the candidature of Bernadotte gradually gained favor and on 21 August 1810 he was elected to be the Crown Prince and was made the Commander-in-chief of the Swedish Armed Forces.

On 2 November Bernadotte made his solemn entry into Stockholm, and on 5 November he received the homage of the Riksdag of the Estates, and he was adopted by King Charles XIII under the name of " Charles John " ( Karl Johan ).

The keynote of his whole policy was the acquisition of Norway and Bernadotte proved anything but a puppet of France.

Oscar I ( born Joseph François Oscar Bernadotte ; 4 July 1799 – 8 July 1859 ) was King of Sweden and Norway from 1844 to his death.

When, in August 1810, his father Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte was elected Crown Prince of Sweden, Oscar and his mother moved from Paris to Stockholm ( June 1811 ).

Oscar's father was the first ruler of the current House of Bernadotte.

Though in sight of the battle, Bernadotte took no steps to come to Davout's aid, for which he was later censured by Napoleon.

Under his adoptive father, the reigning and yet powerless King Charles XIII of Sweden, the Crown Prince was effectively the regent of the country, and when Sweden sided with Napoleon's enemies, Bernadotte came to be seen as a traitor to his native France.

In the middle of the 20th century the scheme came under close scrutiny and, following a settlement between the Crown and the House of Bernadotte, the last payment of the fund was made in 1983.

Since ( 1 ) Jean Baptiste Jules Bernadotte was elected Crown Prince of Sweden on 21 August 1810 and came to the throne as King Karl XIV Johan on 5 February 1818, the following persons have been in the succession:

In negotiations with captured Swedes after the Battle of Lübeck, Marshal Bernadotte first came to the attention of the Swedish authorities.

He fought against Oudinot in defence of Berlin, and in the summer came under the command of Bernadotte, crown prince of Sweden.

Himmler declared himself the provisional leader of Germany, telling Bernadotte on 23 April that Hitler would be dead within the next few days.

However, the Allies didn't know that the reinforcements of Bernadotte, Mortier and Davout had already been within the supported distance, and could be called in need by forced marches from Iglau and Vienna respectively, raising the French forces to 75, 000 troops, thus sharply reducing the inferiority in number.

Little Oscar Bernadotte a few years before being chosen with his father to be Swedish royalty.

Several branches of the House of Bernadotte have been members of this association, as a result of members of the royal family losing their Swedish titles and being granted foreign ( Luxembourgish or Belgian ) titles upon marrying non-royals.

The Swedish situation was further weakened by being at war with France and Denmark, both of whom threatened Sweden's possessions with a joint invasion of 45, 000 troops in Denmark ( under French general Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte ) and a further 36, 000 in Norway.

At the time of his death, he was one of five surviving great-grandchildren of Queen Victoria ( the other four being Count Sigvard Bernadotte ( 1907 – 2002 ), Infanta Beatriz of Spain ( 1909 – 2002 ), Lady Katherine Brandram ( 1913 – 2007 ) and Count Carl Johan Bernadotte ( 1916 – 2012 ).

In Sweden, the loss of Finland resulted in both a new royal dynasty ( Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte being appointed successor to the throne ) and a rewriting of the constitution, resulting in a new Instrument of Government, with more limited powers of the King.

The United Nations attempted to assert its authority over Jerusalem but the designated mediator, Count Bernadotte, was assassinated and the city ended up being split between Israel and Jordan.

Following a contentious debate on May 4, the assembly decided that Norway would profess itself to the Lutheran-Evangelical faith, that its monarch must always have professed himself to this faith ( thereby precluding the Catholic-born Bernadotte from being a king ), and that Jews and Jesuits would be barred from entering the kingdom.

Understanding the advantage of avoiding a costly war, and of letting Norway enter into a union voluntarily instead of being annexed as a conquered territory, something that, historically, the Swedes had never managed to do, Bernadotte offered favourable peace terms.

In the course of the war of the Fourth Coalition against Napoleon, troops under Bernadotte occupied the neutral Lübeck after a battle against Blücher on November 6, 1806.

* February 5 – Upon his death, King Charles XIII of Sweden ( Charles II of Norway ) is succeeded on both thrones by his adoptive son Charles XIV / III John, starting the Royal House of Bernadotte.

Bernadotte joined the army as a private in the Régiment de Royal-Marine on 3 September 1780, and first served in the newly conquered territory of Corsica.

In the war against Austria, Bernadotte led the Saxon contingent at the Battle of Wagram ( 6 July 1809 ), on which occasion, on his own initiative, he issued an Order of the Day attributing the victory principally to the valour of his Saxons, which order Napoleon at once disavowed.

Initially of low standing, Gustav rose to lead the rebel movement following the bloodbath in which his father was executed, and his election as King on June 6, 1523 ( currently recognised as the National holiday of Sweden ) and his triumphant entry into Stockholm eleven days later meant the end of Medieval Sweden's elective monarchy as well as the Kalmar Union, which had united the Nordic kingdoms since 1397, and the commencing of a hereditary monarchy under the House of Vasa which, currently under the House of Bernadotte, continues to date.

On 17 September 1948, UN Mediator Count Folke Bernadotte, and Colonel André Serot while on an official tour of duty to Jerusalem were murdered " in cold blood ... in the Katamon quarter of Jerusalem by Jewish assailants.

The Allies had initially split on the best candidate for the throne: Britain favoured the Bourbons, the Austrians considered a regency for Napoleon's son, François Bonaparte, and the Russians were open to either the duc d ' Orléans, Louis Philippe, or Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, Napoleon's former Marshal, who was in line for the Swedish throne.

Folke Bernadotte, Count of Wisborg ( in Swedish: Greve af Wisborg ; 2 January 1895 – 17 September 1948 ) was a Swedish diplomat and nobleman noted for his negotiation of the release of about 31, 000 prisoners from German concentration camps during World War II, including 450 Danish Jews from Theresienstadt released on 14 April 1945.

According to Bernadotte, he told Himmler that the proposal had no chance of acceptance, but nevertheless he passed it on to the Swedish government and the Western Allies.

After eight years as king only by title, Charles died without a natural heir on 5 February 1818, and Bernadotte succeeded him as King Charles XIV John.

Bernadotte birth house and museum on rue Tran

Bernadotte reigned as King Charles XIV of Sweden and Carl III Johan of Norway from 5 February 1818 until his death on 8 March 1844.

* The Bernadotte Dynasty family tree on Kindo

Having cleared Ney's troops out of the way, the Russians rolled down on the isolated French I Corps under Marshal Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte.

The attack was to take place against the Russbach line on a wide front, between Wagram and Markgrafneusiedl, with Bernadotte, Eugène, Oudinot and Davout all ordered forward.

Withdrawing without permission and without notifying Napoleon of his action, Bernadotte irresponsibly compromised the entire French position on the left.

Napoleon had on 31 July instructed his Foreign Minister, Talleyrand, to inform the Danes that if they did not wish for Holstein to be invaded and occupied by Jean Bernadotte they must prepare for war against Britain.

It was adopted by the Riksdag of the Estates on September 26, 1810, and it regulates the right of members of the House of Bernadotte to accede to the Swedish throne.

Napoleon's plans to invade Sweden was never realized due to the British activity on the Baltic Sea, the weakness of the Danish military and hesitations of French Marshal Bernadotte.