Ah, what a pain it is to have to take the family into consideration!' 2 I cannot get my own back in any other way, Joseph likes him and I'd have everyone against me.

Napoleon said, 'I want to send him away from the all these cabals, without there being any talk. Fortunately for Bernadotte, his wife and Joseph Bonaparte saved him. To others Bernadotte unleashed a tirade against Bonaparte, but nevertheless, Napoleon's coup d'état succeeded. When Napoleon returned from Egypt, he asked Bernadotte for his support in his own coup d'état, and once again Bernadotte refused to participate. Within a few months though, Director Siéyès forced him to resign. His reward for his inactivity was to become Minister of War. Bernadotte declined to participate in the coup but at the same time did nothing to stop it. In April he was authorized to return to Paris and then in June he was invited to participate in the coup of 30 Prairial by Director Siéyès. In early 1799 Bernadotte once again commanded a division, and that spring he took Mannheim and blockaded Philipsbourg before being forced to fall back. Bernadotte was now connected by marriage to the Bonaparte family, which would significantly alter the course of his career. More importantly, Désirée's sister Julie was the wife of Joseph Bonaparte, Napoleon's older brother. Désirée had once been a love interest of Napoleon's, but more recently had been engaged to General Duphot, but that relationship ended prematurely when Duphot was killed in a riot in Rome that year. Once back in Paris, Bernadotte met and married Désirée Clary, daughter of the merchant whose house he had briefly visited nine years before. When a mob tore down the tricolor flag and lit it on fire while the police watched, Bernadotte left. Arriving in Austria, Bernadotte took no care to disguise his disdain for the job and forced his republican principles upon everyone. Afterwards, he returned to the Army of Italy until he was appointed ambassador to Austria in February of 1798. He was still in Paris during the coup of 18 Fructidor but did not participate except to proclaim his loyalty to the Republic. After the armistice was signed, Bernadotte was given the honor of taking the captured Austrian flags back to Paris to present to the Directory. That March, he led his men during the crossing of the Tagliamento and went forward, seizing Palmanova, Gradisca, and Laybach. In Italy he would come under the command of rising star General Napoleon Bonaparte. In early 1797 General Bernadotte was sent with reinforcements from the Army of the Sambre and Meuse to the Army of Italy. A week later he was too ill to command and relinquished his division, but barely more than a week had passed before he resumed his command and covered the retreat of the army. After taking Nuremberg, Bernadotte was hard pressed at Teining but able to repulse the enemy's attack, only to be defeated the next day at Neumarkt. Forced back, he protected the retreat of the army, and then when the French resumed the offensive he won at Limburg. In 1796 he again commanded a division, crossing the Rhine at Neuwied and then taking Nassau. After Maestricht was taken, he was appointed governor.ĭuring the campaigns of 1795, Bernadotte commanded a division, first under Kléber and later under Hatry. That October he won at Binche and then took part in the siege of Maestricht and was promoted to général de division in the Army of the Sambre and Meuse. He fought at Fleurus in June of 1794 and received a promotion to général de brigade on that battlefield.

In one fight, as his men fled he tore off his epaulettes and threw them on the ground, swearing that if they dishonored him he would refuse to be their colonel. The next year in February he was promoted to chef de bataillon, and then in April to chef de brigade. Sent to the Army of the Rhine, Lieutenant Bernadotte's first combat took place in May of 1793 near Mainz. At the end of 1791, he finally received a promotion to lieutenant. 1 As the unrest of the Revolution grew, in 1790 he faced down a mob in Marseille to protect his colonel. While there he was sent to be billeted with a wealthy merchant named François Clary, but he was sent away because he was not an officer. By 1788 he had risen to become sergeant major of his company, and the next year his regiment was sent to Marseille. Both he and his brother began working in the legal profession, but when his father died suddenly in 1780, Jean-Baptiste decided to enlist as a soldier. Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte was the son of a successful tailor whose parents intended for him to become a lawyer.

Jean baptiste de langy