Prince Nicholas August of Sweden was supposed to be called Nicholas after the Tsar. August was added just to refer of Tsar Nicholas as being the Great. However,something went wrong in the Swedish-Russian relations and he was started to be called just August. Many Swedes were thereafter called August, among them August Strindberg. In the same way the name Oscar had been introduced in Sweden.
Nicholas August was the fifth child and fourth son of King Oscar I of Sweden, né M. Oscar Bernadotte in Paris 1799 and of Queen Joséphine, née princess of Bologna and duchess of Galliera in Milan 1807 (later styled princess of Leuchtenberg).
Being the the youngest child of his mother he seems to have been her favourite son although not as intelligent as his brothers, nor as artistic.
He studied at the university of Uppsala and had his military education in the army not the navy, which in Sweden has always been considered smarter than the army.
He was supposed to drink a bit heavily and courting too many ladies,who were not of his rank, so the engagement to Princess Thérèse of Sachsen-Altenburg was arranged (nor against his will or hers) around Christmas 1863. They were married in Altenburg in the spring of 1864. He was at the time of their marriage 33 and she was 28, which was considered extremely late.
They took up residence at the Royal Palace in Stockholm spending much of the summers at the Haga Palace just outside Stockholm.
Princess Thérèse of Sachsen-Altenburg, born 1836, was the oldest child of Prince Edward of Sachsen-Altenburg and Princess Amélie of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen. Princess' Thérès's father was the brother of Duke Joseph of Sachsen-Altejnburg of Queen Thérèse of Bavaria and a first cosin of the later emperor William I of Germany and a second cousin of Tsar Alexander II and of Queen Victoria og Great Britain. Her mother Amélie had French roots ,as had Prince August, her grandmother being Antoinette Murat, step-daughter of Joachim Murat, King of Naples. He was also marshal of France just as prince August's grandfather.
Princess Thérèse herself was a first cousin of King Maximilian II of Bavaria, King Otto of Greece, Queen Marie of Hannover, King Carol of Roumania. She had two Sachsen-Altenburg first cousins who were grandduchesses of Russia, Elena Pawlowna and Alexandra Joephewna (help me my Russian is nonexsistant). Her sister Antoinette became reigning Duchess of Anhalt and her-half- sister Marie the last reigning Princess of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen. She was a second cousin of Alexander II and of many others (I Ihave to stop somewhere).
Her mother Princess Amélie died giving birth to her fourth child when Princess Thérèse was barely five. She then lived with her Sigmaringen relatives until her father remarried Princess Louise Reuss elder line. Staying with them in Munich her two younger brothers died in Scharlach (do not know the word in English-a in those days often deadly child disease). Instead she got to half siblings Prince Alfred and Princess Marie. Prince Alfred later went ino Russian service becoming a buddy of the later tsar Alexander III and HIH prince Eugène Leuchtenberg, a first cousin of Thérèse's husband Prince August.
In 1852 her father Prince Edward died leaving Princess Thérèse an orphan and when her stepmother remarried she was sent to her cousin Marie, Queen of Hannover. King George, Queen Marie's husband, was both a first and second cousin of her father's so she was rather involved in the family. However,it seems she did not fit in in at the Hannovrian court and she was taken care of by her uncle Prince Karl Anton of Hohenzollern- Sigmaringen. Here she could reconnect to her French roots since Prince Karl Anton's wife Princess Joséphine was a grand-daughter of a French Beauharnais. While staying with her uncle Prince Karl Anton, his duaghter and Thérèse's cousin, princess Stéphanie became Queen of Portugal.
Prince August and Princess Thérèse seem to have lived a rather good life together. They rarely had to take greatb part in any important state business. However, when Thérèse's second cousin grandduke Konstantin Nicolaivitch, married to her cousin Alexanda of Sachsen-Altenburg,came to Stockholm with their son Nicolaus Konstantinovitch (later to marry another Sachsen-Altenburg princess Elisabeth) they threw a big party at the Haga Palace. Unlike August's brothers King Karl and King Oscar II there hardly any rumours about infidelity from August'side.
After a while of comparative happiness sad events took place. In the 1866 war in Germany princess' Thérèse's first cousin prince Anton of Honzollern-Sigmaringen was killed in battle with her Hannoverian cousins. The Hannoverians lost and had to emigrate to Austria. Then Queen Louise of Sweden, August's and Thérèse's sister-law (and Thérès's second cousin) died. Then King Karl, August's brother died and then prince August, leaving princess Thérèse a widow at the age of 37 after having been married barely nine years and an orphan since the age og 16. Shortly afte also princess Thérèse's mother in law passed away.
Princess Thérèse started to suffer from nervous attacks and become a burden to the court of Sweden. She was sent incognito, as Comtesse de Dahlskiöld, to Neuchâtel were she bougt av villa and established her own little court. She returned to Syockholm around 1890 sound again and lived happily everafter at the Haga palace. But that is another storyj
