Désirée Clary – The Reluctant Queen

When Désirée Clary was a young lady, she met Napoleon Bonaparte. Although they got engaged, by a twist of fate, she actually married Napoleon’s rival, Jean Baptiste Bernadotte. However, when Bernadotte became King of Sweden and Norway, Désirée struggled to accept the situation.

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Sources / Further reading
Desiree, Queen of Sweden and Norway. Translated from the French of Baron Hochschild by Mrs. M. Carey, New York, Dodd, Mead & Co., 1890

A Queen of Napoleon’s Court, The Life-Story of Desiree Bernadotte by Catherine Bearne, New York, E.P. Dutton & Co, 31 West Twenty-Third Street, 1905

Letters of Napoleon, Selected, Translated, and Edited by J.M. Thompson, Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, Basil Blackwell, Oxford, 1934