Editing Charles XIV John (section)

==Fictional portrayals==

[[Louis-Émile Vanderburch]] and [[Ferdinand Langlé]]'s 1833 play {{Lang|fr|Le Camarade de lit}} ("The Bedfellow") depicts Bernadotte as King of Sweden; an old grenadier claims that, as a young man, Bernadotte received a tattoo of a scandalous republican motto: either {{Lang|fr|Mort aux Rois}} ("Death to kings"), or {{Lang|fr|Mort aux tyrans}} ("Death to tyrants"), or {{Lang|fr|Mort au Roi}} ("Death to the king"). The tattoo is finally revealed to read {{Lang|fr|Vive la république}} ("Long live [[First French Republic|the Republic]]") and a [[Phrygian cap]]: a highly [[ironic]] image and text for the skin of a king.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qrYRAAAAYAAJ&q=%22Camarade+de+lit%22+tattoo&pg=PA354|title=The Court Journal: Court Circular & Fashionable Gazette|date=19 July 2018|publisher=Alabaster, Pasemore & Sons, Limited|via=Google Books}}</ref> This play was so popular that the idea that King Charles XIV John had a tattoo reading "Death to kings" is often repeated as fact, although there is no basis to it.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vyGNDAAAQBAJ&q=%22death+to+kings%22+tattoo&pg=PA333|title=1,339 QI Facts To Make Your Jaw Drop: Fixed Format Layout|first1=John|last1=Lloyd|first2=John|last2=Mitchinson|first3=James|last3=Harkin|year =2013|publisher=Faber & Faber|via=Google Books|isbn=978-0571313211}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WftvAAAAMAAJ&q=%22death+to+kings%22+tattoo|title=La Solidaridad|first1=Guadalupe Fores-|last1=Ganzon|first2=Luis|last2=Mañeru|date= 1995|publisher=Fundación Santiago|isbn=978-9719165545|via=Google Books}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GzvcTC3ck8YC&q=%22death+to+kings%22+tattoo&pg=PA556|title=The Complete Prophecies of Nostradamus|first=Mario|last=Reading|year= 2018|publisher=Sterling Publishing Company, Inc.|via=Google Books|isbn=978-1906787394}}</ref> For reasons of discretion, he publicly proclaimed himself in 1797 "a Republican both by principle and conviction" who would “to the moment of my death, oppose all Royalists and enemies to the Directory".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Solomon |first1=Maynard |last2=Herttrich |first2=Ernst |title=Beethoven Essays |date=1988 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0674063778 |page=343 }}</ref>

Désirée Clary's relationships with Bonaparte and Bernadotte were the subject of the novel ''Désirée'' by [[Annemarie Selinko]].<ref>[[Library of Congress]] # 52033733</ref> The novel was filmed as ''[[Désirée (film)|Désirée]]'' in 1954, with [[Marlon Brando]] as Napoleon, [[Jean Simmons]] as Désirée, and [[Michael Rennie]] as Bernadotte.<ref name="NY Times">{{cite web |url=https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/13390/Desiree/details |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080415032603/http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/13390/Desiree/details |url-status=dead |archive-date=15 April 2008 |department=Movies & TV Dept. |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=2008 |title=Désirée |access-date=21 December 2008}}</ref>

Bernadotte is a primary supporting character in the historical fiction novel by [[The New York Times Best Seller list|''New York Times'' Bestselling]] author [[Allison Pataki]] ''A Queen's Fortune: A Novel of Désirée, Napoleon, and the Dynasty that outlasted the Empire,'' that tells the life story of his wife (and Queen of Sweden and Norway) Désirée Clary.<ref>{{cite book |last=Pataki |first=Allison |date=2020 |title=A Queen's Fortune: A Novel of Desiree, Napoleon, and the Dynasty that outlasted the Empire |publisher=Ballantine Books |location=New York |isbn=978-0-593-12818-3 }}</ref>