Griswoldi
Banned
[A metaphorical comic showing the great powers at the Congress of Vienna.]
January 14th, 1814, Danish envoy Edmund Bourke, British envoy Edward Thornton and Swedish envoy Gustaf af Wetterstedt were all in the city of Kiel, busy at hand negotiating a peace. This peace was heavily in spite of the Danish, who had been the loser of the short war. The Danes were supporters of the French Empire (although one could argue they weren't the most willing accomplices), while the Swedes and the Brits were members of the Sixth Coalition (the group tasked with taking the French Empire down). While Denmark was given back it's islands by the United Kingdom - except Heligoland - and also given Swedish Pomerania, they were forced to cede the Kingdom of Norway in it's entirety [1] to Sweden. Battered and bruised, the Danes could do nothing more but accept the peace being thrust upon them. Despite the treaty officially ceding Norway to Sweden, Norway was actually not yet in the hands of Sweden. Taking advantage of the fact, on January 30 Christian Frederick, Crown Heir of Denmark, declared himself the rightful King of Norway. This began the Swedish-Norwegian war of 1814, known by the Norwegians as the War of Independence or the Norwegian Revolution. The two armies began to fight a bloody war. The Swedish were richer, more powerful, and had more numbers than the Norwegians. But the Norwegians were fighting in their homeland, and for a real cause - their freedom. The war quickly turned into a stalemate, with the invaders unable to gain much ground. This is partially due to the majority of the Swedish troops being sent down south, to fight in Germany [2]. This was in contrast to the entirety of the Norwegian Army, which, while less equipped, had most of their troops there with them.
While this war waged in the north, another one was waged in the south. The Sixth Coalition fought tooth and nail against the French Empire, and victory was close in hand. The allied forces entered Paris on March 30th, and crept closer and closer to taking the French down. Finally, on April 6th, Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte abdicated his throne; later he would be exiled to the island of Elba. Louis XVIII was restored to the throne, bring the Bourbons back to power in France. Within a week, the members of the Coalition, along with some other nations, began to redraw the map of Europe and restore peace after so much fighting.
In May, the Treaty of Paris, part of what would be called the Congress of Vienna, was signed by the participants of the Napoleonic Wars. The Swedish delegation and the Norwegian delegation, who had showed up seemingly uninvited but by sheer force of will managed to get into the meeting [3], the only nations in the group still at war, refused to recognize each other, and continually bickered through out the meeting. This led to the Great Powers of the Congress, (Austria, Prussia, Russia and the United Kingdom) deciding to intervene. Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington and delegate from the United Kingdom, as well as the delegate from Prussia, Karl August von Hardenberg, both offered their support to the Norwegian delegate, Frederik Gottschalk von Haxthausen, one of the most influential members of the Norwegian Revolution. In the end, it was decided that as a former officer of Napoleon, Bernadotte was lucky that he kept the throne of Sweden at all, and the Swedish delegate, Count Carl Löwenhielm, was forced to sign a ceasefire and on behalf of Sweden, recognize Norwegian independence. The one stipulation of this agreement was that the current claimant to the throne of Norway, the Crown Heir of Denmark, must abdicate. The Norwegian delegate was more than happy to agree to such, as the Crown Heir's plan was to reunite Denmark and Norway after the Revolution. The leaders of the revolution were against such an action. Von Haxthausen was deemed by the Congress as a sufficient regent, and placed in charge of the Storting, a parliamentary group. Officially, he took the title of Prime Minister, and delayed choosing a monarch as long as possible in order to help the fledgling Kingdom gain order and establish a constitution and a government. In doing such, for almost an year Norway was Monarch-less; it was frequently called the 'Kingdom without a King' in this year. During this year he interviewed many candidates, such as Prince Karl Theodor of Bavaria, and Wilhelm Friedrich of Prussia [4]. Von Haxthausen specifically favored Wilhelm Friedrich; a second son of the King of Prussia, it was unlikely that he had much of a future, and indeed, he was willing to be a candidate in the election of the new monarchy (with his father's approval). While he was young, von Haxthausen saw that as a plus - he had plenty of time to develop a Norwegian identity, and could be controlled by the Norwegians a lot easier while their state started it's beginning years.
In between the time it took for the Norwegian Storting to choose upon a King, the rest of the world was quite busy. The redrawing of Europe was a tenuous task as best - and it was only the tiredness of war from the Great Powers that kept them from fighting each other immediately. Tsar Alexander I wanted all of Poland, King Friedrich Wilhelm wanted all of Saxony, and Austria wanted neither of those things (but wanted all of Lombardy and Venice). The British delegate secretly informed King Friedrich that the British and Austrians would support a Prussian Saxony as long as he disagreed on a Russian Poland. King Friedrich agreed, and the Duchy of Warsaw that Napoleon pieced together was reformed into the Kingdom of Poland, with Frederick Augustus I of Saxony placed on the throne as compensation for the loss of Saxony, which was given in whole to Prussia. King Friedrich agreeing ended an opportunity for Talleyrand, the Frenchman who wanted to negotiate the peace in favor of France, to gain access to the Congress. This would lead to harsh terms imposed on France - such as the Grand Duchy of Tuscany being given the island of Corsica, elevating it to the Kingdom of Corsica-Tuscany. The Austrians were given control of Lombardy and Venice, under the Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia. This avoided a Great War between the powers, but angered Russia greatly. The Congress was briefly interrupted when news came of Bonaparte's death on Elba. Although it was ruled a death by natural causes, supporters of Bonaparte were very suspicious [5]. Nonetheless, it came as a relief, as most feared that while alive, the former Emperor could return and grasp power once more. In Norway, however, on June 1st, 1815 the Storting came to vote upon who would be the first King of the newly established Norwegian Kingdom. Prince Wilhelm Friedrich was voted to be King of Norway with a 92/169 majority. Three weeks later, on June 21st, Wilhelm entered Olso. His arrival was met with much celebration and cheer; once he was crowned, there would be no doubt that Norway would be independent. A parade was thrown, with Wilhelm in the front, followed by the highly respected members of the Revolution, and then the Norwegian Military [6], and in front of the newly built Royal Palace of Oslo, and tears were in the eyes of many of the citizens as he was crowned Vilhelm Frederik I, King of the Norwegians [7], the Wends and the Goths. The sound of clapping overtook the heir as the people cheered - the four hundred years of darkness was finally, finally over. [8]
[1] - A minor POD, the lands of the Norwegian Realm are kept with Norway though.
[2] - The main POD. IOTL Bernadotte was urged to send more troops south to fight in Germany against the French, and ITTL he listened. This means less troops in Norway, meaning less of a win on Sweden's behalf, stretching the war long enough to where the rest of Europe, tired of the fighting, ends it for them.
[3] - In fact, Gottschalking became a popular word for crashing a party later on. What the world doesn't know is that he was told to come by the Danish delegate, who supported an independent Norway under themselves against a Swedish Norway.
[4] - The very same Wilhelm Friedrich who would become Wilhelm I, Emperor of the Germans. It didn't seem likely that he would become King of Prussia, and was more than willing to take a crown where he could get it. The British, who at the moment counted the Prussians as their greatest ally in Europe, are sort of squirming in their seats, but unwilling to act against in order to show face.
[5] - He was poisoned, by order of the Archduke of Austria.
[6] - The Norwegian Military is the remnants of the forces left from the old Dano-Norwegian Armed Forces. Basically, all Danes went back to Denmark.
[7] - 'King of the Norwegians' was an important change from other monarchs, who would've gone with 'King of Norway'. This enforced the idea that he was the King of the people before the actual state. 'The Wends and the Goths' was a standard Scandinavian styling.
[8] - 'Four hundred years of darkness' was the translation of the Norwegian term for the union, which IOTL would be coined by literary writer Henrik Ibsen later on in the century. In this timeline, it's coined by von Haxthausen.
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