Herman Wedel-Jarlsberg

Count Johan Caspar Herman Wedel Jarlsberg (21 September 1779 – 27 August 1840) was a Norwegian statesman and nobleman. He played an active role in the constitutional assembly at Eidsvoll in 1814 and was the first native Norwegian to hold the post of Governor-general of Norway with the authority of a viceroy, representing the absent king of Norway as head of the Norwegian cabinet during the union with Sweden.

Background Wedel Jarlsberg was born in Montpellier, France, son of diplomat Frederik Anton Wedel-Jarlsberg (1748–1811) and Catharina von Storm (1756–1802). His younger brother Ferdinand Carl Maria Wedel-Jarlsberg (1781–1857) was a military officer and commanding general of the Royal Norwegian Army.

He grew up in London, where his father was serving as diplomat on behalf of Denmark-Norway. From 1794 to 1798, he was tutored by Friedrich August Nitsch, who had studied under Immanuel Kant. Wedel Jarlsberg fled with his brother Frederik Anton in June 1799, to get away from their abusive father. After getting to Edinburgh, they got on a boat to Copenhagen, where their mother had fled to some years earlier, to get away from her husband. There he studied law at the University of Copenhagen and graduated in 1801. He accepted a commission as the king's county governor for the district of Buskerud in 1806.

Career During the Napoleonic Wars, his connections with Sweden increased, and when the appointed and adopted Swedish crown prince, Carl August died in 1810, his name was mentioned as a possible substitute in a desperate situation. Jean Baptiste Bernadotte was appointed and adopted and changed his name to Carl Johan.

Wedel Jarlsberg was elected to the National Assembly at Eidsvold in April–May 1814 as representative of the County of Jarlsberg. His engagement for a Norwegian union with Sweden did not diminish. He maintained strongly that Norwegian interests were often contrary to the Danish, and that after the Swedes had adopted a constitution in 1809, Norwegian interests would be more strongly secured in a union with that country. He was of course well aware of the Swedish campaign to incorporate Norway as a substitution for the lost Finnish provinces. In some popular works, Count Wedel Jarlsberg has been described as a traitor – a fifth-columnist – which is completely unjust. His opinions were well known to the educated public, and even if he was politically isolated to some extent, his title and position in the Norwegian society never changed much.

During Norway's efforts to secure independence from Denmark and Sweden in 1814, he hence advocated a moderate approach to the issue. He was the obvious leader of the party, which has been named "the Union Party"or "the Swedish Party". He maintained that Norway would not manage to stand completely alone, alienated from all the leading powers in Europe, which had unanimously guaranteed Norway as a Swedish province. But there is no evidence that his point of view in any sense prevented him from fighting for a Norwegian constitution inspired by those of the United States and France, which the Swedish constitution was not. He belonged to the minority in the main topic on the Constitutional Assembly at Eidsvoll, but he was vindicated by subsequent events.