Désirée Clary
Encyclopedia
Bernardine Eugénie Désirée Clary (8 November 1777 – 17 December 1860), one-time fiancée of Napoleon Bonaparte, was a Frenchwoman who became Queen of Sweden
and Norway
as the consort of King Charles XIV John
, a former French General. She officially changed her name there to Desideria, a Latin
version of her original name. Désirée herself, however, did not like the name Desideria and never used it.
, France
, the daughter of François Clary (Marseille, St. Ferreol, 24 February 1725 – Marseille, 20 January 1794), a wealthy silk
manufacturer and merchant
, and his second wife (m. 26 June 1759) Françoise Rose Somis (Marseille, St. Ferreol, 30 August 1737 – Paris
, 28 January 1815). He had been previously married at Marseille, 13 April 1751 to Gabrielle Fléchon (1732 – 3 May 1758), without issue. Her sister, Julie Clary
, married Joseph Bonaparte
, and later became Queen of Naples
and Spain
. Her brother, Nicholas Joseph Clary, was created 1st Count
Clary and married Anne Jeanne Rouyer, by whom he had Zénaïde Françoise Clary (Paris, 25 November 1812 – Paris, 27 April 1884), wife of Napoléon Berthier de Wagram, 2nd duc de Wagram (10 September 1810 – 10 February 1887), son of Marshal Berthier
, and had issue.
Désirée received the convent schooling usually given to daughters of the upper classes in pre-revolutionary France, but, during the Revolution
of 1789, convents were closed and Désirée returned to live with her parents. Her education was described as shallow. She was to be very devoted to her birth-family her entire life. In 1794, her father died. Her brother was arrested by the revolutionary government, and she was later to say that he was released by Joseph Bonaparte
on her intervention, after which Joseph was presented to her family and married her sister. Désirée was presented to Napoleon Bonaparte, to whom she became engaged on 21 April 1795; but upon becoming involved with Joséphine de Beauharnais
, whom he married on 9 March 1796, Bonaparte broke off his engagement with Désirée.
In 1795–1797, Désirée lived with her mother in Genoa
in Italy. In 1797, she went to live with her sister Julie and her brother-in-law Joseph, who was the French ambassador to Rome
. Her relationship with Julie was always to be very intense and deep. She was briefly expected to marry the French General Léonard Duphot, but he was killed in a riot in Rome in December 1797, on the eve of their marriage.
. They were married at Sceaux
on 17 August 1798. In the marriage contract, Désirée was given economic independence. In 1799, she gave birth to their only child, a son, Oscar
, but the couple lived more or less separate lives afterward.
Her husband was a leading general in the French Napoleonic army, and normally absent from Paris. Désirée had a good relationship with the Bonaparte Imperial family, as well as with the Empress Joséphine, and declined taking sides in the conflicts between Joséphine and the Bonaparte siblings. She had a place in the coronation
ceremony in 1804. Désirée lived a comfortable social life in Paris during her husband's long absences, though she preferred an informal family life to that of the Imperial court. It is believed that she may have had a romantic relationship with the Corsica
n Ange Chaippe, who often acted as her escort. In 1804–1805, Bernadotte was made governor of Hanover
, and Désirée and her son moved to Hamburg
; but she soon returned to Paris. She was not happy living anywhere but Paris. When her spouse was made Prince of Pontecorvo
in 1806, Désirée worriedly asked if she would be forced to leave Paris, but was happy when she was assured that she would not. In 1807, she visited Bernadotte in Spandau
.
Désirée was not interested in politics, but her good connections made her a puppet in the hands of her husband and Napoleon, who both used her to influence the other and to communicate with each other with her as a messenger.
In 1810, Bernadotte was elected heir to the throne of Sweden
. Désirée initially thought this was to be similar to the position of Prince of Pontecorvo, and was depressed when she found out that this time she was expected to leave Paris.
. She was said to have been treated with a certain snobbery by the court and especially the Queen, though the Dowager Queen
was kind to her. The climate was also a shock; she arrived during the winter, and she hated the snow so much that she cried. She had never wished to be a queen and did not want to move so far away from her family. The queen found her spoiled and undignified, and Désirée's French entourage, especially Elise la Flotte, made her unpopular by encouraging her to complain about everything. The Queen described her as good-hearted, generous and pleasant when she chose to be and not one to plot, but also as immature and a "spoiled child", who hated all demands and was unable to handle any form of representation. She described Desiree as "a French woman in every inch," who disliked and complained about everything which was not French, and "consequently, she is not liked."
She left Sweden in 1811 under the name of "Countess of Gotland
", officially because of her health, and returned to Paris. There she stayed for twelve years, leaving her husband and her son behind. She herself said that the Swedish nobility had treated her as if they were made of ice: "Do not talk with me of Stockholm, I get a cold as soon as I hear the word." She resided incognito in Paris, thereby avoiding politics during the difficult period when Sweden was at war with France. However, her house at rue d'Anjou was watched by the secret police, and her letters were read by them. When Napoleon was defeated in 1814, her house was a refuge for her sister Julie. Bernadotte met her in Paris, but returned to Sweden without her. She was ridiculed by the court of Louis XVIII of France
as an upstart, but had her own little court where she held receptions. In 1816, she made plans to return to Sweden, but she wished to bring her sister, Julie; her husband thought this unwise, as Julie was a member of the Bonaparte family and her presence might be taken as a sign that he sided with the deposed Napoleon, and in the end, this came to nothing.
Désirée's husband had employed a Count de Montrichard at her household (1817) as his spy to report to him if she did anything which could affect him.
. Désirée held receptions in Paris as the queen of Sweden on Thursdays and Sundays, though she still used the title of countess. She fell in love with the French minister, the duc de Richelieu
, and followed him on his travels until his death in 1822. In 1822, she met her son in Aachen
.
In 1823, Désirée returned to Sweden together with her son's bride, Josephine of Leuchtenberg
; the visit was initially to be but a short one. On 21 August 1829, she was crowned Queen at her own request. She also talked about a coronation in Norway, but the Norwegians found it impossible because of her religion. She was, in fact, not religious, but was forced to attend mass and confession by her daughter-in-law. She was the first commoner to be a queen since Karin Månsdotter
in 1568. The 1830s were a period when she did her best to be active as a queen, a role she had never wanted to play. The decade is described as a time of balls and parties, more than had been seen at the Swedish court since the days of King Gustav III
, but Désirée soon grew tired of her royal status and wanted to return to France. However, her husband did not allow it.
There is nothing to indicate that she ever had any political influence. She spent her summers at Rosersberg Palace
, and often visited Swedish spas, such as Ramlösa
spa. She visited Norway a couple of times, the first time in 1825. The court was astonished by her informal behaviour. Every morning, she visited her husband in her nightgown, which was seen as shocking, because her husband usually conferred with members of the council of state in his bed chamber at that time. Otherwise, they met only on formal occasions: because she was always late at dinner, he stopped having his meals with her after 1826: and as her consort also preferred to have his meals alone, it was not uncommon for the nobles of the court to sit alone at the dinner table, without the royal couple present. She went to bed late, and woke up late.
She never became very popular at the royal court and never learned to speak Swedish, and there are many anecdotes of her attempts to speak the language. She kept her French personal staff: during the first years, her niece, countess Marcelle Tascher de la Pagerie, was her lady-in-waiting. Among her other more known ladies-in-waiting were the Norwegians Kathinka Falbe and Jana Falbe; because of Desiree's eccentric habits, they were known as "Strapatsfröknarna" (approximately "Mlles. Calamity"). During her stays at Rosersberg Palace, she took walks in the parc by night, and as she had a fear of being attacked by bat
s, she instructed her ladies-in-waiting to walk in front of her dressed in white to attract the bats from her.
There are other stories about people having been awakened by her carriage when she drove through the streets at night; the carriage sometimes stopped. She would sleep for a while, and then she would wake and the carriage would continue on its way. Sometimes she drove in circles around the royal palace: this habit was called "Kring Kring", one of the few Swedish words she learned, which means "around and around". On the last day of her life, she entered her box at the Royal Swedish Opera
just after the performance had ended. Désirée died in Stockholm
on 17 December 1860.
, 22 November 1693 – Marseille, 30 August 1748), son of Jacques Clary and his wife Catherine Barosse, paternal grandson of Antoine Clary and wife Marguerite Canolle, and maternal grandson of Angelin Barosse and his wife Jeanne Pélissière, and wife (m. in Marseille, 27 February 1724) Françoise-Agnès Ammoric (Marseille, 6 March 1705 – Marseille, 21 December 1776), daughter of François Ammoric and his wife Jeanne Boisson.
Her maternal grandparents were Joseph Ignace Somis (c. 1710 – Marseille, 29 April 1750), son of Jean Louis Somis and his wife Françoise Bouchard, and wife (m. in Marseille, 27 May 1736) Catherine Rose Soucheiron (Marseille, 11 January 1696 – Marseille, 18 February 1776), daughter of François Soucheiron and his wife Anne Cautier.
autobiography
by Annemarie Selinko
, Désirée, 1951; and of two films:
Clary and Marie Tascher, better known as Joséphine de Beauharnais, the future wife of Napoleon and first empress of France, were also the subjects of a screen treatment written by John B. Langan and published in 1918, The Bernadotte Album, which purported to be "Founded on the memoirs of Marie Tascher and Désirée Clary."
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
and Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
as the consort of King Charles XIV John
Charles XIV John of Sweden
Charles XIV & III John, also Carl John, Swedish and Norwegian: Karl Johan was King of Sweden and King of Norway from 1818 until his death...
, a former French General. She officially changed her name there to Desideria, a Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
version of her original name. Désirée herself, however, did not like the name Desideria and never used it.
Early life and family
Désirée Clary was born in MarseilleMarseille
Marseille , known in antiquity as Massalia , is the second largest city in France, after Paris, with a population of 852,395 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Marseille extends beyond the city limits with a population of over 1,420,000 on an area of...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, the daughter of François Clary (Marseille, St. Ferreol, 24 February 1725 – Marseille, 20 January 1794), a wealthy silk
Silk
Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The best-known type of silk is obtained from the cocoons of the larvae of the mulberry silkworm Bombyx mori reared in captivity...
manufacturer and merchant
Merchant
A merchant is a businessperson who trades in commodities that were produced by others, in order to earn a profit.Merchants can be one of two types:# A wholesale merchant operates in the chain between producer and retail merchant...
, and his second wife (m. 26 June 1759) Françoise Rose Somis (Marseille, St. Ferreol, 30 August 1737 – Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, 28 January 1815). He had been previously married at Marseille, 13 April 1751 to Gabrielle Fléchon (1732 – 3 May 1758), without issue. Her sister, Julie Clary
Julie Clary
Marie Julie Bonaparte was Queen consort of Spain and the Indies, Naples and Sicily as the spouse of King Joseph Bonaparte, who was King of Naples and Sicily from January 1806 to June 1808, and later King of Spain and the Spanish West Indies from 25 June 1808 to June 1813.- Background:Julie Clary...
, married Joseph Bonaparte
Joseph Bonaparte
Joseph-Napoléon Bonaparte was the elder brother of Napoleon Bonaparte, who made him King of Naples and Sicily , and later King of Spain...
, and later became Queen of Naples
Naples
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...
and Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
. Her brother, Nicholas Joseph Clary, was created 1st Count
Count
A count or countess is an aristocratic nobleman in European countries. The word count came into English from the French comte, itself from Latin comes—in its accusative comitem—meaning "companion", and later "companion of the emperor, delegate of the emperor". The adjective form of the word is...
Clary and married Anne Jeanne Rouyer, by whom he had Zénaïde Françoise Clary (Paris, 25 November 1812 – Paris, 27 April 1884), wife of Napoléon Berthier de Wagram, 2nd duc de Wagram (10 September 1810 – 10 February 1887), son of Marshal Berthier
Louis Alexandre Berthier
Louis Alexandre Berthier, 1st Prince de Wagram, 1st Duc de Valangin, 1st Sovereign Prince de Neuchâtel , was a Marshal of France, Vice-Constable of France beginning in 1808, and Chief of Staff under Napoleon.-Early life:Alexandre was born at Versailles to Lieutenant-Colonel Jean Baptiste Berthier ,...
, and had issue.
Désirée received the convent schooling usually given to daughters of the upper classes in pre-revolutionary France, but, during the Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
of 1789, convents were closed and Désirée returned to live with her parents. Her education was described as shallow. She was to be very devoted to her birth-family her entire life. In 1794, her father died. Her brother was arrested by the revolutionary government, and she was later to say that he was released by Joseph Bonaparte
Joseph Bonaparte
Joseph-Napoléon Bonaparte was the elder brother of Napoleon Bonaparte, who made him King of Naples and Sicily , and later King of Spain...
on her intervention, after which Joseph was presented to her family and married her sister. Désirée was presented to Napoleon Bonaparte, to whom she became engaged on 21 April 1795; but upon becoming involved with Joséphine de Beauharnais
Joséphine de Beauharnais
Joséphine de Beauharnais was the first wife of Napoléon Bonaparte, and thus the first Empress of the French. Her first husband Alexandre de Beauharnais had been guillotined during the Reign of Terror, and she had been imprisoned in the Carmes prison until her release five days after Alexandre's...
, whom he married on 9 March 1796, Bonaparte broke off his engagement with Désirée.
In 1795–1797, Désirée lived with her mother in Genoa
Genoa
Genoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....
in Italy. In 1797, she went to live with her sister Julie and her brother-in-law Joseph, who was the French ambassador to Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
. Her relationship with Julie was always to be very intense and deep. She was briefly expected to marry the French General Léonard Duphot, but he was killed in a riot in Rome in December 1797, on the eve of their marriage.
Madame Bernadotte
After her return to France, she met her future husband, the French General Jean Baptiste Jules BernadotteCharles XIV John of Sweden
Charles XIV & III John, also Carl John, Swedish and Norwegian: Karl Johan was King of Sweden and King of Norway from 1818 until his death...
. They were married at Sceaux
Sceaux, Hauts-de-Seine
Sceaux is a commune in the southern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris.-Wealth:Sceaux is famous for the Château of Sceaux, set in its large park , designed by André Le Nôtre, measuring...
on 17 August 1798. In the marriage contract, Désirée was given economic independence. In 1799, she gave birth to their only child, a son, Oscar
Oscar I of Sweden
Oscar I 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 . Oscar's father was the first ruler of the current House of Bernadotte...
, but the couple lived more or less separate lives afterward.
Her husband was a leading general in the French Napoleonic army, and normally absent from Paris. Désirée had a good relationship with the Bonaparte Imperial family, as well as with the Empress Joséphine, and declined taking sides in the conflicts between Joséphine and the Bonaparte siblings. She had a place in the coronation
Coronation
A coronation is a ceremony marking the formal investiture of a monarch and/or their consort with regal power, usually involving the placement of a crown upon their head and the presentation of other items of regalia...
ceremony in 1804. Désirée lived a comfortable social life in Paris during her husband's long absences, though she preferred an informal family life to that of the Imperial court. It is believed that she may have had a romantic relationship with the Corsica
Corsica
Corsica is an island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is located west of Italy, southeast of the French mainland, and north of the island of Sardinia....
n Ange Chaippe, who often acted as her escort. In 1804–1805, Bernadotte was made governor of Hanover
Hanover
Hanover or Hannover, on the river Leine, is the capital of the federal state of Lower Saxony , Germany and was once by personal union the family seat of the Hanoverian Kings of Great Britain, under their title as the dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg...
, and Désirée and her son moved to Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
; but she soon returned to Paris. She was not happy living anywhere but Paris. When her spouse was made Prince of Pontecorvo
Pontecorvo
Pontecorvo is a town and comune in the province of Frosinone, Lazio, Italy. Its population is 13,400.- History :The village lies under Rocca Guglielma, a medieval fortification perched on an inaccessible spur...
in 1806, Désirée worriedly asked if she would be forced to leave Paris, but was happy when she was assured that she would not. In 1807, she visited Bernadotte in Spandau
Spandau
Spandau is the fifth of the twelve boroughs of Berlin. It is the fourth largest and westernmost borough, situated at the confluence of the Havel and Spree rivers and along the western bank of the Havel, but the least populated.-Overview:...
.
Désirée was not interested in politics, but her good connections made her a puppet in the hands of her husband and Napoleon, who both used her to influence the other and to communicate with each other with her as a messenger.
In 1810, Bernadotte was elected heir to the throne of Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
. Désirée initially thought this was to be similar to the position of Prince of Pontecorvo, and was depressed when she found out that this time she was expected to leave Paris.
Crown Princess
Désirée visited Sweden for the first time in 1810 but could not adapt to the demands of formal court etiquetteEtiquette
Etiquette is a code of behavior that delineates expectations for social behavior according to contemporary conventional norms within a society, social class, or group...
. She was said to have been treated with a certain snobbery by the court and especially the Queen, though the Dowager Queen
Sophia Magdalena of Denmark
Sofia Magdalena of Denmark and Norway was a Queen consort of Sweden as the spouse of Gustav III of Sweden....
was kind to her. The climate was also a shock; she arrived during the winter, and she hated the snow so much that she cried. She had never wished to be a queen and did not want to move so far away from her family. The queen found her spoiled and undignified, and Désirée's French entourage, especially Elise la Flotte, made her unpopular by encouraging her to complain about everything. The Queen described her as good-hearted, generous and pleasant when she chose to be and not one to plot, but also as immature and a "spoiled child", who hated all demands and was unable to handle any form of representation. She described Desiree as "a French woman in every inch," who disliked and complained about everything which was not French, and "consequently, she is not liked."
She left Sweden in 1811 under the name of "Countess of Gotland
Gotland
Gotland is a county, province, municipality and diocese of Sweden; it is Sweden's largest island and the largest island in the Baltic Sea. At 3,140 square kilometers in area, the region makes up less than one percent of Sweden's total land area...
", officially because of her health, and returned to Paris. There she stayed for twelve years, leaving her husband and her son behind. She herself said that the Swedish nobility had treated her as if they were made of ice: "Do not talk with me of Stockholm, I get a cold as soon as I hear the word." She resided incognito in Paris, thereby avoiding politics during the difficult period when Sweden was at war with France. However, her house at rue d'Anjou was watched by the secret police, and her letters were read by them. When Napoleon was defeated in 1814, her house was a refuge for her sister Julie. Bernadotte met her in Paris, but returned to Sweden without her. She was ridiculed by the court of Louis XVIII of France
Louis XVIII of France
Louis XVIII , known as "the Unavoidable", was King of France and of Navarre from 1814 to 1824, omitting the Hundred Days in 1815...
as an upstart, but had her own little court where she held receptions. In 1816, she made plans to return to Sweden, but she wished to bring her sister, Julie; her husband thought this unwise, as Julie was a member of the Bonaparte family and her presence might be taken as a sign that he sided with the deposed Napoleon, and in the end, this came to nothing.
Désirée's husband had employed a Count de Montrichard at her household (1817) as his spy to report to him if she did anything which could affect him.
Queen
In 1818, her husband became king of Sweden; but she remained in Paris, officially for health reasons, which was discussed in the papers in Paris and by her visitors. In Sweden, her husband took a mistress, the noble Mariana KoskullMariana Koskull
Henrietta Mariana Charlotta Koskull was a Swedish noble and lady-in-waiting, known as the royal mistress of King Charles XIII of Sweden and King Charles XIV John of Sweden....
. Désirée held receptions in Paris as the queen of Sweden on Thursdays and Sundays, though she still used the title of countess. She fell in love with the French minister, the duc de Richelieu
Armand-Emmanuel du Plessis, Duc de Richelieu
Armand Emmanuel Sophie Septimanie de Vignerot du Plessis, 5th Duke of Richelieu was a prominent French statesman during the Bourbon Restoration...
, and followed him on his travels until his death in 1822. In 1822, she met her son in Aachen
Aachen
Aachen has historically been a spa town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Aachen was a favoured residence of Charlemagne, and the place of coronation of the Kings of Germany. Geographically, Aachen is the westernmost town of Germany, located along its borders with Belgium and the Netherlands, ...
.
In 1823, Désirée returned to Sweden together with her son's bride, Josephine of Leuchtenberg
Josephine of Leuchtenberg
Joséphine of Leuchtenberg was Queen consort of Sweden and Norway as the wife of King Oscar I...
; the visit was initially to be but a short one. On 21 August 1829, she was crowned Queen at her own request. She also talked about a coronation in Norway, but the Norwegians found it impossible because of her religion. She was, in fact, not religious, but was forced to attend mass and confession by her daughter-in-law. She was the first commoner to be a queen since Karin Månsdotter
Karin Månsdotter
Karin Månsdotter was Queen of Sweden, first a mistress and then the spouse of King Eric XIV of Sweden...
in 1568. The 1830s were a period when she did her best to be active as a queen, a role she had never wanted to play. The decade is described as a time of balls and parties, more than had been seen at the Swedish court since the days of King Gustav III
Gustav III of Sweden
Gustav III was King of Sweden from 1771 until his death. He was the eldest son of King Adolph Frederick and Queen Louise Ulrica of Sweden, she a sister of Frederick the Great of Prussia....
, but Désirée soon grew tired of her royal status and wanted to return to France. However, her husband did not allow it.
There is nothing to indicate that she ever had any political influence. She spent her summers at Rosersberg Palace
Rosersberg Palace
Rosersberg Palace is one of the Royal Palaces of Sweden. Situated on the shores of Lake Mälaren, on the outskirts of Stockholm, it was built in the 1630s by the Oxenstierna family and became a royal palace in 1762, when the state gave it to Duke Karl , the younger brother of Gustav III of Sweden.-...
, and often visited Swedish spas, such as Ramlösa
Ramlösa
Ramlösa is a brand of carbonated mineral water from a source in Ramlösa Brunnspark in the southern part of Helsingborg, Sweden. Ramlösa goes back to the year 1707 when a health spa around the source was founded by Johan Jacob Döbelius....
spa. She visited Norway a couple of times, the first time in 1825. The court was astonished by her informal behaviour. Every morning, she visited her husband in her nightgown, which was seen as shocking, because her husband usually conferred with members of the council of state in his bed chamber at that time. Otherwise, they met only on formal occasions: because she was always late at dinner, he stopped having his meals with her after 1826: and as her consort also preferred to have his meals alone, it was not uncommon for the nobles of the court to sit alone at the dinner table, without the royal couple present. She went to bed late, and woke up late.
She never became very popular at the royal court and never learned to speak Swedish, and there are many anecdotes of her attempts to speak the language. She kept her French personal staff: during the first years, her niece, countess Marcelle Tascher de la Pagerie, was her lady-in-waiting. Among her other more known ladies-in-waiting were the Norwegians Kathinka Falbe and Jana Falbe; because of Desiree's eccentric habits, they were known as "Strapatsfröknarna" (approximately "Mlles. Calamity"). During her stays at Rosersberg Palace, she took walks in the parc by night, and as she had a fear of being attacked by bat
Bat
Bats are mammals of the order Chiroptera "hand" and pteron "wing") whose forelimbs form webbed wings, making them the only mammals naturally capable of true and sustained flight. By contrast, other mammals said to fly, such as flying squirrels, gliding possums, and colugos, glide rather than fly,...
s, she instructed her ladies-in-waiting to walk in front of her dressed in white to attract the bats from her.
Queen Dowager
In 1844, her husband died. In 1853, she wished to return to Paris, but her fear of sea travel made it impossible. After becoming a widow, she grew more and more eccentric. She went to bed in the morning, got up in the evening, ate breakfast at night, and drove around in a carriage through the streets, in the courtyard, or wandered around the corridors of the sleeping castle with a light. An anecdote illustrates this: in 1843, a palace guard saw the queen fully dressed on the palace balcony in the middle of the night. When he came home to his wife, he told her that she was lazy in comparison to the queen, who had gotten up hours before sunrise. He thought Queen Désirée was up earlier than anyone else in town, but in fact, she had not yet gone to bed-–she would eventually get up from bed at three or four in the afternoon. She enjoyed making unannounced visits, and sometimes she would take in children from the streets to the palace and give them sweets; she was not able to engage in any real conversation, but she would say "Kom, kom!", which is Swedish for "Come come!"There are other stories about people having been awakened by her carriage when she drove through the streets at night; the carriage sometimes stopped. She would sleep for a while, and then she would wake and the carriage would continue on its way. Sometimes she drove in circles around the royal palace: this habit was called "Kring Kring", one of the few Swedish words she learned, which means "around and around". On the last day of her life, she entered her box at the Royal Swedish Opera
Royal Swedish Opera
Kungliga Operan is Sweden's national stage for opera and ballet.-Location and Environment:...
just after the performance had ended. Désirée died in Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
on 17 December 1860.
Ancestry
Her paternal grandparents were Joseph Clary (MarseilleMarseille
Marseille , known in antiquity as Massalia , is the second largest city in France, after Paris, with a population of 852,395 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Marseille extends beyond the city limits with a population of over 1,420,000 on an area of...
, 22 November 1693 – Marseille, 30 August 1748), son of Jacques Clary and his wife Catherine Barosse, paternal grandson of Antoine Clary and wife Marguerite Canolle, and maternal grandson of Angelin Barosse and his wife Jeanne Pélissière, and wife (m. in Marseille, 27 February 1724) Françoise-Agnès Ammoric (Marseille, 6 March 1705 – Marseille, 21 December 1776), daughter of François Ammoric and his wife Jeanne Boisson.
Her maternal grandparents were Joseph Ignace Somis (c. 1710 – Marseille, 29 April 1750), son of Jean Louis Somis and his wife Françoise Bouchard, and wife (m. in Marseille, 27 May 1736) Catherine Rose Soucheiron (Marseille, 11 January 1696 – Marseille, 18 February 1776), daughter of François Soucheiron and his wife Anne Cautier.
Désirée Clary in fiction
Désirée Clary is the subject of a popular novel, a mockMock
Mock may refer to:* In geography: Mock, California, in Inyo County* In programming: Virtual mock or Mock object, simulated objects that mimics the behavior of real objects in controlled ways* In mathematics: Mock modular form, mathematical function...
autobiography
Autobiography
An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
by Annemarie Selinko
Annemarie Selinko
Annemarie Selinko was an Austrian novelist who wrote a number of best-selling books in German from the 1930s through the 1950s. Although she had been based in Germany, in 1939 at the start of World War II she took refuge in Denmark with her Danish husband, but then in 1943, they again became...
, Désirée, 1951; and of two films:
- Le Destin fabuleux de Désirée Clary (1942) a French film made by Sacha GuitrySacha GuitryAlexandre-Pierre Georges Guitry was a French stage actor, film actor, director, screenwriter, and playwright of the Boulevard theatre.- Biography :...
- Désirée (1954), an American film based on Selinko's book, with Jean SimmonsJean SimmonsJean Merilyn Simmons, OBE was an English actress. She appeared predominantly in motion pictures, beginning with films made in Great Britain during and after World War II – she was one of J...
and Marlon BrandoMarlon BrandoMarlon Brando, Jr. was an American movie star and political activist. "Unchallenged as the most important actor in modern American Cinema" according to the St... - The Selinko book mentioned above was originally published in 1951 in German, by Kiepenheuer & Witsch, and quickly rose to the best-seller lists around the world. It has been translated into many languages, including English, French, Spanish, Turkish, Greek, and Chinese.
Clary and Marie Tascher, better known as Joséphine de Beauharnais, the future wife of Napoleon and first empress of France, were also the subjects of a screen treatment written by John B. Langan and published in 1918, The Bernadotte Album, which purported to be "Founded on the memoirs of Marie Tascher and Désirée Clary."