OSCAR II. (1829-1907), king of Sweden and Norway, son of Oscar I., was born at Stockholm on Jan. 21, 1829. In 1857 he married Princess Sophia Wilhelmina, youngest daughter of Duke William of Nassau. He succeeded his brother Charles XV. on Sept. 18, 1872, and was crowned in the Norwegian cathedral of Drontheim on July 18, 1873. At his accession he adopted as his motto Brodrafolkens Val, "the welfare of the brother folk," and from the first he realized the essential difficulties in the main tenance of the union between Sweden and Norway. The political events which led up to the final crisis in 19o5, by which the thrones were separated, are dealt with in the historical articles under NORWAY and SWEDEN. But it may be said that the peaceful solution eventually adopted could hardly have been attained but for the tact and patience of the king himself. He declined, indeed, to permit any prince of his house to become king of Norway, but better relations between the two countries were restored before his death, which took place at Stockholm on Dec. 8, 1907. His
acute intelligence and his aloofness from the dynastic considera tions affecting most European sovereigns gave the king consider able weight as an arbitrator in international questions. At the request of Great Britain, 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 em powered to appoint a fifth arbitrator if necessary in the Vene zuelan dispute, and he was called in to act as umpire in the Anglo American arbitration treaty that was quashed by the senate.
Himself a distinguished writer and musical amateur, King Oscar was a generous friend of learning and of education. His works, which included his speeches, translations of Herder's Cid and Goethe's Torquato Tasso, a play, Castle Cronberg, poems and historical works, were collected in 1875-76 (new and enl. ed., 1885-88). His Memoirs of Charles XII. were translated into English in 1879.