On Thursday afternoon, His Majesty King Carl XVI Gustaf and Her Majesty Queen Silvia of Sweden attended a seminar at Ørebro Castle in Sweden in connection with the 200th anniversary of King Karl Johan’s ascension to the throne. This year marks 200 years since Karl Johan became King of Sweden and Norway, and founded the Royal House of Bernadotte which is still on the throne in Sweden.
The seminar “The Coronation year of 1818” was held in the main hall at Ørebro Castle in Sweden. The Bernadotte community and the Society Concordia organised the seminar, which started early in the morning with 250 participants. The guests where mainly historians and politicians from the Nordic countries as well as Russia, France and Great Britain.
The seminar began with a flag ceremony at Ørebro Castle. After a solemn fanfare, the workshop was opened by Maria Larsson, Governor of Örebo County. Lectures were then held by historians from Norway, Sweden and Russia who discussed Karl Johan’s role in Swedish politics before 1818. Then, a lunch followed in the governor’s residence at Ørebro Castle.
After lunch, the King and Queen arrived. They were warmly welcomed by Maria Larsson, Governor of Örebo County; Kjell Kallenberg, President of Concordia; and Einar Lyth, President of the Bernadotte community in Ørebro. “Our history concerns us all, and Karl XIV Johan was in many ways the founder of modern Sweden,” said Maria Larsson, Governor of Örebo County.
The King and Queen, together with the other participants at the seminar, could hear the lecture about the coronations in 1818 following the royal arrival. Priest Ingemar Söderström talked about the Swedish coronation in Stockholm, and historian Trond Isaksen spoke about the coronation in Trondheim. Before the seminar was concluded, the last lecture discussed Prince Oscar, later King Oscar I, in the period from 1810 to 1818.
The royals then left the castle and headed back to Stockholm.
Royal Central’s Senior Europe Correspondent, Oskar Aanmoen has published his book this autumn, and it is about King Karl Johan’s journey in Norway in 1818. He had the honour to hand over a copy of the book to Their Majesties the King and Queen when they left the castle. Aanmoen describes the royals as “very nice and warm people who showed great interest in the book”.
The seminar was held in Ørebro because of the city’s strong connection to King Karl Johan. It was in Ørebro that Jean Baptiste Bernadotte was appointed Crown Prince of Sweden in 1810. Also, it was there that he, as Crown Prince, initiated peace talks with both Great Britain and Russia during the Napoleonic wars.