Charles John was succeeded by his son, Oscar I, who very soon won the
love of the Norwegians. One of his first acts was to give Norway her
own commercial flag and other outward signs of her equality with
Sweden. His father had always signed himself "King of Sweden and
Norway"; but King Oscar adopted the rule to sign all documents
pertaining to the government of Norway as "King of Norway and Sweden."
During the war between Germany and Denmark, King Oscar gathered a
Swedish-Norwegian army in Scania, and succeeded in arranging the
armstice of Malmoe in 1848. The war broke out anew, however, the
following year, and he then occupied northern Schleswig with Norwegian
and Swedish troops, pending the negotiations for peace between Germany
and Denmark. During the Crimean War, King Oscar made a treaty with
England and France (1855), by which the latter powers promised to
help Sweden and Norway in case of any attack from Russia. General
contentment prevailed during the happy reign of King Oscar, and
the prosperity, commerce, and population of the country increased
steadily. These satisfactory conditions did not, however, result in
weakening the national feeling, and the Storthing, in 1857, declined
to promote a plan, prepared by a joint Swedish and Norwegian
commission, looking to a strengthening of the union. After a sickness
of two years, during which his son, Crown Prince Charles, had charge
of the government as prince-regent, King Oscar I died in July,
1859, at the age of sixty years. He was married to Josephine of
Leuchtenberg, daughter of Napoleon's stepson, Eugene Beauharnais.

Charles XV was thirty-three years old when he ascended the throne. The
progress in the material welfare of the country continued during his
reign, and, like his father, he was very popular with the Norwegians.
Numerous roads and railroads were started, all parts of the country
were connected by telegraph, and the merchant marine grew to be one