Oscar II of Sweden

Oscar II (Oscar Fredrik) (January 21, 1829 – December 8, 1907) was King of Sweden and Norway from 1872 until his death. He was the third son of King Oscar I of Sweden and Josephine of Leuchtenberg. Through his mother he was a descendant of Gustav I of Sweden and of a sister of Charles X of Sweden.

Politics

His acute intelligence and his aloofness from the dynastic considerations affecting most European sovereigns gave the king considerable weight as an arbitrator in international questions. At the request of the United Kingdom, Germany and the United States in 1889 he appointed the chief justice of Samoa, and he was again called in to arbitrate in Samoan affairs in 1899. In 1897 he was empowered to appoint a fifth arbitrator if necessary in the Venezuelan dispute, and he was called in to act as umpire in the Anglo-American arbitration treaty that was quashed by the United States Senate. He won many friends in England by his outspoken and generous support of Britain at the time of the Boer War (1899-1902), expressed in a declaration printed in The Times of the May 2, 1900, when continental opinion was almost universally hostile.

Related Topics:
United Kingdom - Germany - United States - 1889 - Samoa - 1899 - 1897 - Venezuela - United States Senate - England - Boer War - 1902 - The Times - May 2 - 1900

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