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People have lockdown projects; here's mine. Characteristically low effort. I'll post a daily thread about an anecdote from #history that interests me. Except I don't commit to doing it daily. You may find none of them interesting.
With that ROUSING commencement, here's the 1st.
With that ROUSING commencement, here's the 1st.
Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte joined the French army when his ambitions of following his father into the law were stymied by his father’s death. He was a brilliant soldier & gained rapid advancement.
He married a woman who’d previously been engaged to Napoleon & was the Emperor’s older brother’s wife’s sister; those Bonapartes liked to keep things tight (hey Joseph, be King of Naples! No, be King of Spain!).
In the War of the Fourth Coalition, the Prussians under Blücher were taking a beating from the French. Lübeck is a beautiful Hanseatic port (hi, @HansaProjekt!). In 1806, at the Battle of Lübeck, Bernadotte and co caught Blücher’s retreating army & marmalised them.
There were some Swedes fighting alongside the Prussians. Bernadotte captured them, and treated them courteously and well (& tried in vain to treat Lübeck well, as his men sacked it).
The Swedes headed home to a problem. The king was heirless & going senile. Who to get to be the new king? Hey, how about that nice Frenchman who was so decent to us at the Battle of Lübeck? Plus, close to the Emperor, can’t hurt…
Thus a Frenchman came to be ushered onto the throne of Sweden, giving us the House of Bernadotte which reigns to this day ( @RoyalsSwedish fan account).
What’s the lesson today? When you have got the whip hand, sometimes it's not only right, but it pays, to be nice. People remember it. This is lesson I believe to be applicable beyond one’s behaviour to defeated 19th century Swedish minor nobility.
Anyway, he was Crown Prince for a while, but as the king was well & truly gone by then he was running things PDQ. What did the newly Swedish Crown Prince do? Why, he took his new country to war. Against France. What can one say? The man had élan.
Wisdom of crowds. Hashtag for this?
