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Bernadotte, Jean-Baptiste Jules

Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte

Born

26 January 1763

Died

8 March 1844

The son of a lawyer at Pau who enlisted in 1780 and was still a sergeant-major when the Revolution opened the commissioned ranks to him, Bernadotte was promoted general of brigade at Fleurus in 1794 and marched a corps from the Rhine to reinforce Bonaparte in Italy three years later. He was briefly ambassador at Vienna, where his display of the tricolour provoked a riot, and minister of war from July to September 1799, reorganising recruitment and supply before Sieyès engineered his removal. At Brumaire he neither joined the coup nor opposed it, declining to appear in uniform, and was rewarded accordingly. Elected heir to the Swedish throne in 1810, he brought Sweden into the coalition against Napoleon and became king in 1818, dying at Stockholm in 1844.

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