Oscar II of Sweden
Oscar II (Oscar Fredrik) (
January 21,
1829 –
December 8,
1907) was
King of Sweden from
1872 until his death, and of
Norway 1872 -
1905. He was the third son of King
Oscar I of Sweden and
Josephine of Leuchtenberg. Through his mother he was a descendant of
Gustav I of Sweden and of a sister of
Charles X of Sweden.
He was born at
Stockholm and at birth created Duke of
Östergötland. He entered the
navy at the age of eleven, and was appointed junior lieutenant in July 1845. Later he studied at
Uppsala University, where he distinguished himself in
mathematics. On
June 6,
1857 he married Princess
Sophia Wilhelmina, youngest daughter of Duke
William of Nassau.
He succeeded his brother
Charles XV, on
September 18,
1872, and was crowned as king of Norway in the
Nidaros Cathedral in
Trondheim on
July 18,
1873. At the accession he adopted as
his motto Brödrafolkens väl ("The Welfare of the Brother Peoples"). While the King and the Royal Court resided mostly in
Sweden, Oscar made the effort of learning to be fluent in
Norwegian and from the very beginning he realized the essential difficulties in the maintenance of the union between the two countries. The political events which led up to the peaceful
separation of Norway from Sweden in 1905 could hardly have been attained but for the tact and patience of the king himself. He declined, indeed, to permit any prince of his house to become king of Norway, but better relations between the two countries were restored before his death, which occurred at
Stockholm on the
December 8,
1907.
His acute intelligence and his aloofness from the dynastic considerations affecting most European sovereigns gave the king considerable weight as an arbitrator in international questions. At the request of the
United Kingdom,
Germany and the
United States in
1889 he appointed the chief justice of
Samoa, and he was again called in to arbitrate in Samoan affairs in
1899. In
1897 he was empowered to appoint a fifth arbitrator if necessary in the
Venezuelan dispute, and he was called in to act as umpire in the Anglo-American arbitration treaty that was quashed by the
United States Senate. He won many friends in
England by his outspoken and generous support of Britain at the time of the
Second Boer War (
1899-
1902), expressed in a declaration printed in
The Times of the
May 2,
1900, when continental opinion was almost universally hostile.
Himself a distinguished writer and musical amateur, King Oscar proved a generous friend of learning, and did much to encourage the development of education throughout his dominions. In 1858 a collection of his lyrical and narrative poems, Memorials of the Swedish Fleet, published anonymously, obtained the second prize of the
Swedish Academy. His "Contributions to the Military History of Sweden in the Years 1711, 1712, 1713," originally appeared in the Annals of the Academy, and were printed separately in 1865. His works, which included his speeches, translations of
Herder's Cid and
Goethe's Torquato Tasso, and a play, Castle Cronberg, were collected in two volumes in 1875-1876, and a larger edition, in three volumes, appeared in 1885-1888. His Easter hymn and some other of his poems are familiar throughout the Scandinavian countries. His Memoirs of
Charles XII of Sweden were translated into English in 1879. In 1881 he founded the World's first
open-air museum at his summer residence near
Christiania, now
Oslo. In 1885 he published his Address to the Academy of Music, and a translation of one of his essays on music appeared in Literature in May of 1900. He had a valuable collection of printed and MS. music, which was readily accessible to the historical student of music.
King Oscar II was married to
Sophia of Nassau. Their children were:# King
Gustaf V (
1858-
1950)# Prince
Oscar, Duke of
Gotland, later Count Oscar
Bernadotte af Wisborg (
1859-
1953)# Prince
Carl, Duke of
Västergötland (
1861-
1951)# Prince
Eugén, Duke of
Närke (
1865-
1947)
His eldest son,
Oscar Gustaf Adolf, duke of
Värmland, succeeded him as King Gustaf V of Sweden. His second son, Oscar, resigned his royal rights on his marriage in 1888 with a lady-in-waiting, Miss Ebba Munck, when he assumed the title of Prince
Bernadotte and from 1892 he was known as Count
Wisborg. The king's other sons were Charles, duke of
Västergötland, who married Princess Ingeborg of Denmark; and
Eugén, duke of
Närke well known as an artist.
As
King of Norway, he was after the events of 1905 succeeded by his great-nephew Prince
Carl of Denmark, grandson of his late elder brother King Charles, who ascended the Norwegian throne in 1905 with reign name
Haakon VII.
Harald V of Norway, the great-grandson of Oscar II (grandson of his third son duke of Västergötland), succeeded in 1991 to the throne of Norway once held by his great-grandfather, Oscar himself.
*
The Royal Norwegian Order of St Olav - H.M. King Oscar II the former Grand Master of the OrderThe name and portrait of Oscar II has been used as a trademark for the
King Oscar sardines as well as for
gingerbread cookies (
pepparkakor) and other bakery products made by
Göteborgs Kex AB.
