This is something that has always puzzled me. When Carl XII of Sweden died, his nearest male heir was his nephew, Karl Friedrich, Duke of Holstein. However, his younger sister, Ulrika Eleonora, Hereditary Princess of Hesse-Kassel, became queen instead. Ulrika abdicated in favour of her husband, who ruled as Frederik I. From what I can make out, there was still a Holstein party favouring the succession of Karl Friedrich at the Swedish court, when Ulrika Eleonora’s husband died. However, Karl Friedrich’s marriage to a Russian grand duchess scuttled his chances of becoming king of Sweden, but in the early 1740s there was talk of their orphan son succeeding the childless Frederik and Ulrika Eleonora. But the little duke had already been “adopted” by his aunt, the Russian empress, and Sweden was forced to go back to the drawing board.
This is what puzzles me. Since Carl XII’s siblings’ lines are extinguished or unavailable, the succession should’ve gone to any siblings of Carl XI (he had none legitimate), and thence to the siblings of Carl X. Now, Carl X’s only brother, Adolf Johann’s youngest son, Gustav Samuel Leopold, had succeeded to the Palatine appanages of the Swedish house of Bavaria, which were covered by Salic Law. Gustav had put forward his claim in 1718 to succeed, but he couldn’t find support for his succession claim in Sweden, so he was bypassed in favour of Ulrika or Karl Friedrich. His siblings had all married
very late or not at all, and thus there were no nieces or nephews to succeed to his claim to Sweden, and the Palatinate appanages passed to the next branch of the house of Bavaria.
With the extinction of Adolf Johann’s line, the claim went to he and Carl X’s oldest sister, Christine Magdalene. Christine had married the margrave of Baden-Durlach, and had ten children. Their oldest surviving son, succeeded as Margrave Friedrich VII of Baden-Durlach, and married the younger sister of the Queen-Consort of Sweden, Hedwig of Holstein-Gottorp. Friedrich VII died in 1709, and was succeeded on the Badener throne by his son Karl III Wilhelm (b.1679), who had at one point been considered as a husband for one of Carl XII’s sisters. After Karl, there was
another brother, Christof (b.1684) who married a princess of Leiningen and had three surviving sons with her. Karl and Christof’s
youngest sister, Albertine Friederike married her Holstein cousin, Christian Albrecht, and
her son was elected as King Adolf Frederik of Sweden.
Why was the Margrave of Baden (which clearly had the best claim) bypassed,
not in favour of his younger brother (which would be understandable if Sweden wanted to avoid a messy personal union), but of his
youngest sister, who had two older sisters, a Princess of Leinengen-Dagsburg (who had
five children) and the duchess of Württemberg (who only had one son)? Surely one of the junior Badener princes had a better claim?
Also, how might the history of Sweden be different with King Christof I and his line? Since
clearly although all three of his sons married morganatically, their line was luckier than the main Badener line in terms of male issue. To illustrate this, Christof’s eldest son, Karl August (b. 1712) had issue extincted in the male line in 1964; his second son, Karl Wilhelm Eugen (b.1713) who was for a time considered as a possible husband for the only child of the last Margrave of Baden-Baden, Elisabeth (b.1726), and remained unwed; and his youngest, Christof (b.1717), is still extant in the male-line.
My apologies for such a long monologue
