The Bernadottes have ruled the Kingdom of Sweden since 1818.

The family originally came from south-west France. In 1810, with Napoleon’s approval, the Swedish Riksdag elected Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, a Marshal of France, as heir to the Swedish throne. The reigning, childless King Charles XIII, with whom the line of the House of Holstein-Gottorp became extinct, had to adopt Bernadotte. Until the dissolution of the personal union in 1905, the Bernadotte kings were also the kings of Norway. The current King of Sweden is Carl XVI Gustaf.