Prince Carl Johan of Brasland
Prince Carl Johan of Brasland (1838-1921) was the son of Prince Otto of Brasland.
As a young man he showed great promise: he studied Law and Philosophy with private tutors and also served in the Army with distinction. He was also very close to his first cousin, Crown Prince Frederick, who valued his opinion. As a result, Carl Johan was a part of Frederick's closest circle and advised him on several issues. Frederick's marriage to Duchess Amelia von Kerlich (Carl Johan's first cousin) increased his influence over the Crown Princely couple, and he helped the heir to define a long-term plan to recover the prerrogatives lost by the Crown during the reigns of George I and George II. Both Frederick and Carl Johan believed that the best system of government for Brasland was a strong monarchy, and they both saw with concern how Parliament was leading the country to a break of its traditional Christian values and to a deep social division, causing the class hatred that many other nations in Europe were witnessing.
In 1880, Frederick married the Pantocratorian Princess Theodora, a vivacious young woman with political ideas of her own. The Crown Prince valued his wife's advice, which was frequently in opposition to Carl Johan's. As a consequence, the two (Theodora and Carl Johan) became enemies. The prince resented Theodora's influence on Frederick, while she thought that Carl Johan was too much in love with power and used the Crown Prince as a tool for his own political ambitions. Frederick became King a year later, and by then Carl Johan's visits to the Royal Palace had decreased considerably. Furious, he began to spread rumours about the new Queen, which she decided to ignore. However, tensions escalated in 1884, when Crown Prince Karl died. People close to Carl Johan suggested that the Queen, who was pregnant with her first child, had poisoned the Crown Prince so that a son of her own could succeed the throne. After hearing the rumours, Theodora felt ill and her physicians ordered her to retire to the countryside, where she could spend the remaining of her pregnancy away from the gossip. The King was furious and ordered to investigate who had started the calumnies against his wife. The results indicated that Prince Carl Johan had started it, and it signalled the end of his influence at Court. He was banned from Markund and forbidden to attend any public functions. He had to move to Ronnlich Castle, his parents' countryside home, devoting his time to writing and reading.
While the prince led this 'rural exile' he met Countess Helena von Heilendorf, a granddaughter of Prince Heinrich of Brasland. They married in 1887 and had three daughters: Geraldine (born 1889), Ottonia (born 1891) and Ludovika (born 1895).
The ban to visit the capital was never lifted during the reign of Frederick IV, but his successor did allow Carl Johan to return to Markund. However, he only did it for short periods, as he had grown used to live in his beloved Ronnlich. During one of these visits, in 1921, he and the now Dowager Queen Theodora reconciled. Carl Johan died later that same year.
His great fortune (he had inherited the bulk of his mother's estate) was equally divided between his three daughters.
