August Swedish

August was born on June 24, 1831 in the Drottningholm Palace in the west of Stockholm . He became the youngest son of the Crown Prince of Swedish and Norwegian Oscar and his wife Josephine Leuchtenberg , granddaughter of Empress Josephine , wife of Emperor Napoleon I. The godfather of the newborn prince was the Russian emperor Nicholas I. For this reason, he was given the name Nikolaus . But due to anti-Russian protests in Sweden, the prince took the name August as his main name. Children were brought up in the Lutheran faith, although their mother remained Catholic. Among his teachers were the Swedish philosopher Christopher Jacob Bostrem and the Norwegian teacher Otto Obert . August growth is a well-mannered but lazy youth. He was completely not interested in culture and did not use his royal position, preferring ordinary people who understood him .

In 1846, at the age of 16, Augustus entered the army. In 1849 - 1853 he studied at Uppsala University . December 10, 1851 became an honorary member of the Swedish Academy of Sciences. Later he took part in military battles and in 1872 received the rank of lieutenant general from artillery. The prince did not stand out with his mind or abilities, unlike his brothers and sisters Eugenia , but he was a kind and somewhat original person. For example, he was very interested in trains and locomotives. One of the first trains made in 1856 was named after the prince. The train functioned until 1906 and is now in the Swedish Railway Museum.

After the death of his elder brother Augustus Gustav in 1856, his father sold the Sternsund Palace to the prince. Augustus was a very cheerful person and for this reason became the hero of numerous jokes. To all this, he liked to drink and, whenever possible, made loud toasts.

In 1864, during his second German tour, he visited Princess Deresa Saxe-Altenburg in Dusseldorf , whom he first met in 1852 . After a week's stay, a wedding was announced. On April 16, 1864, in Altenburg, the 33-year-old prince and the 27-year-old princess Teresa married. She was the daughter of Edward of Saxe-Altenburg and his wife Amalia Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen . The princess was described as a little fragile girl with a soft expression , the princess had a musical ear. There was no great love between the spouses, but they were able to become very good friends. The couple lived in harmony, despite the fact that Teresa sometimes had nervous breakdowns, and her husband was not at home much when traveling around Sweden. Teresa made friends with her sister-in-law Eugenia and often visited her in Gotland . The couple did not have children.

Prince Augustus died on March 4, 1873 after a short illness at the age of 41 at the Royal Palace in Stockholm . He was buried in the Riddarholma church . Teresa died in 1914 .

Since Prince Augustus was a slow man, people said about him that he was “Dumber than the train!” ( “Dummare än tåget” ). This expression still lives in Swedish, although few people remember where it came from. Augustus himself said this: “They say that I am dumb, if they had heard my Teresa!” ( “Dom säger att jag är dum, men dom skulle bara höra min Thérèse!” )

• Edholm, Erik, Svunna dagar. Ur Förste Hovmarskalken Erik af Edholms dagböcker. Norstedts, 1944
• Edholm, Erik, På Carl XV Tid. Ur Förste Hovmarskalken Erik af Edholms dagböcker. Norstedts, 1945
• Semenov I.S. Christian dynasties of Europe, p. 132 [1]

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