The Unpopular French Queen of Sweden | Désirée Clary

Welcome to Forgotten Lives! In today's episode we are looking into the life of Désirée Clary, the Queen of Sweden and Norway from 5 February 1818 to 8 March 1844 as the wife of King Charles XIV John.

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Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0

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[raquellofstedt]

About Desirée, this poor thing came to Sweden during a particularly cold period, and when there was no central heating. Her husband was said to spendwhole days in a warm bath just to be able to function. Sweden was shortly before that a world power, but the material wealth in Sweden couldn't compare to that one saw in the continent. That said, the Bernadottes manage to keep their noses pretty clean compared to many royal houses. I'm not much of a royal fan, so I don't follow them much. We had a horrible year with the Big tidal waves and the Nordic storms about twenty years ago, and our current king rose to the occasion with suprising empathy and aplomb. In the end, they are just people big big bank accounts, but he did well.

[bonitaberger]

When younger, one of my favorite books was Desiree..a novelized version of her story. Great fun to hear your telling of what really is a remarkable story.

[teel]

As always, a very enjoyable and informative episode. I think that there was a movie about Desiree, from 1954, that starred Marlon Brando, as Napoleon Bonaparte, and Jean Simmons, as Desiree.

[buzzzzzz]

This was a nice treat.
TYSM🌻
I read this biography, written by Annemarie Selinko (which i believe was an adaptation of Desiree's own diaries) in my early teens and would still highly recommend it as a good read, even forty years later! 😅
Another book i remember being equally impressed by when it comes to women in history that have been overlooked, is a book called Katherine by Anya Seton. It's a biographical interpretation of the life of Katherine Swynford in the 14th century. Her historical significance that reaches right up to present times is pretty remarkable too.

[matthewwaters]

I had never heard of Desiree, another brilliant and very interesting story

[Elke-jm]

Lovely to listen to your intro song, so refreshing! Thank you FLives, i'm in need of a good distraction, rough day i had! Your french spoken is just perfect!

[megs]

14:11 i love that letter, how beautifully human. It would do our planet good to have more humanity in our "leaders" as always, brilliant job. I truly appreciate the work you put in to these 👋🙂.

[huldarunreynisdottir]

This was very interesting video. I am from Iceland but now live in Sweden and had never heard this story 😊 Thanks for this, Always interesting to watch your videos 😊

[Mattostar-zd]

Hello Forgotten Lives, thank you for another spectacular video about people from the past. You never have a dull content. 😊

[andrepettersson]

I grew up near Rosersbergs slott which was her favourite place in Sweden apparently. It was still a bit too rural in her opinion but she spent every summer there. I have always found it interesting that Josephine de Beauharnais grand daughter married Désirées son who would become King Oscar I. As a result many jewels and tiaras once belonging to Josephine are now in Sweden. It is also through her daughter Empress Amelia of Brazil that the Braganza tiara ended up in Sweden since Amelia left it to her sister Queen Josephine of Sweden in her will.

[darriendastar]

That was remarkably good. I thoroughly enjoyed that and learned a lot. Thank you.

[maryroberts]

Another interesting life! I would love to hear you tell the story of Emma of Normandy.

[Charlotte]

Really enjoy your content, it's always very well made and entertaining 😊

[TinaBiebe]

I only knew of Desiree through the Jean Simmons/Marlon Brando movie. I had heard stories about the real life woman and I think of someone like the future Catherine the Great of Russia who educated herself about her adopted land and learned the language. So while I definitely loved your video, I’m still no more sure what to think about Desiree Clsry than I was when I saw the movie (which at least was just a downright fictionalized romance between her and Napoleon).

[jenjaffray]

I love that her descendants are still the kings of Sweden! Love your stories, as always!

[Mattostar-zd]

Happy Birthday Forgotten Lives! 🎂🎁🎈🥳 I hope you have a wonderful one and for many, many more to come. 🎉🎉🎉

[susanyoung]

I love hearing the real story. I am a big fan of the book Desirèe. It amazes me that a fictional book so closely mirrors reality. Usually they are not this close. After hearing the reality, the conversations in the book feel as if they could have happened. Thank you very much for researching and presenting the life of Bernardine Eugenie Desirèe Clary Bernadotte, Queen of Sweden.

[PamelaTitterington]

Always enjoy your stories of people I have never heard much about it's really interesting and good to listen to.thanks for this

[kathiedevall]

My mother's favorite book from the 50's. I'm so sad i lost it in a hurricane.

[berenicewaters]

Very interesting video, I've been to Sweden 3 times and yes it's very cold in the winter however Stockholm is beautiful. How interesting that her line survived to the present day of the Swedish monarchy