Charles XV of Sweden

Charles Ludvig Eugen arrived 3 May 1826, third in the Bernadotte line but the first to enter the world on Swedish soil. His predecessors had been French officers grafted onto Scandinavian thrones, speaking accented Swedish and carrying the old faith; he grew up Lutheran, fluent, native. On 8 July 1859 he took both crowns — Sweden and Norway, where he went by Charles IV — and held them until 18 September 1872. Thirteen years, two kingdoms, one man finally at home in the role his dynasty had borrowed.