Bernadotte elected Crown Prince of Sweden and the Act of Succession

Background. After Sweden lost Finland at the conclusion of the Finnish War in 1809, the succession to the childless King Charles XIII became pressing. In 1810 the Riksdag of the Estates elected Prince Christian August of Augustenborg as heir-presumptive. Baron Carl Otto Mörner, a Swedish courtier and obscure member of the Riksdag, advocated the candidacy of Jean Baptiste Bernadotte, a Marshal of France. Although the Swedish government, amazed at Mörner's effrontery, placed him under arrest on his return to Sweden, Bernadotte's candidature gradually gained favour. His personal popularity owed much to the kindness he had shown Swedish prisoners in Lübeck and his reputation as governor of the Hanseatic Cities from 1807 to 1809, under whose auspices many Swedish merchants had operated.

Election of the Crown Prince. On 21 August 1810, the Riksdag of the Estates, convened in Örebro, elected Jean Baptiste Jules Bernadotte as heir presumptive to the Swedish throne. The election was unexpected: Bernadotte had been about to enter a new post as governor of Rome. King Charles XIII subsequently made him Generalissimus of the Swedish Armed Forces.

Act of Succession. The Act of Succession was adopted on 26 September 1810 by the Riksdag of the Estates, convened in Örebro. This Fundamental Law of the Realm formally established Bernadotte as the heir to King Charles XIII. The adoption was a logical consequence of the earlier election, solidifying Bernadotte's position within the Swedish constitutional framework.