Jean Bernadotte was an enigmatic but dashing and courageous soldier in early 19th-century France. A rival to Napoleon, he married Napoleon's first love, Desiree Clary, and later, as Crown Prince of Sweden, he fought against Napoleon at Leipzig in 1813, hoping to take the throne of France. Instead, in 1818, he found himself King of Sweden. This biography draws on a considerable body of recent French and Swedish research.