Bernardine-Eugénie-Désirée Clary

Queen Consort of Sweden

This Marseillaise, younger sister of Joseph Bonaparte's wife Julie, fell in love with the young Napoleon, with whom she became engaged on April 21, 1795. The future emperor even asked for her hand in marriage - unsuccessfully - but his meeting with Joséphine de Beauharnais in Paris on October 15, 1795 led him to abandon his plans.

Courted in 1797 by General Léonard Duphot, who was assassinated in Rome in December of that year, Désirée finally married General Jean-Baptiste Jules Bernadotte on August 17, 1798, and the following year gave him a son, Oscar, their only child.

When her husband was elected Prince Royal of Sweden, Désirée Bernadotte initially refused to follow him to Stockholm, eventually spending the winter of 1810 - 1811 there, but immediately returning to France and managing to remain there, despite the Emperor's orders, even after Sweden joined the enemy coalition.

After a brief relationship, around 1819, with the minister Armand de Vignerot du Plessis de Richelieu, Désirée did not settle permanently in the royal palace in Stockholm  until 1822, four years after her husband's accession to the Swedish throne, when her son became engaged to Joséphine de Leuchtenberg, daughter of Eugène de Beauharnais (their wedding took place in July 1823).

Officially crowned Queen of Sweden on August 21, 1829 under the name of Desideria, she spent the last years of her life in increasing isolation, losing her husband in 1844, then her sister Julie in 1845, before suffering the sorrow of losing her son, King Oscar I, in July 1859.

Queen Desideria died on December 17, 1860 in Stockholm, where she is buried  in the Riddarholmen church  alongside her husband.

In the 21st century, her descendants still rule Sweden, Norway and Denmark.

A Marseille metro station bears her name.