This change of policy was, no doubt, to a large extent, due to Jean Baptiste Bernadotte, Prince of Pontecorvo, who had risen from the ranks in Napoleon's service, had become a field marshal, and after the death of Christian August, had been made crown prince of Sweden (1812). At a meeting with Alexander of Russia at Aabo, he was promised Norway, as a reward for his adherence to the cause of the allies; and the same promise was later repeated by England. The condition of Norway, during this period, was aggravated by the continued blockading of her ports by the English. In 1812 a famine broke out, and the people were obliged to grind birch bark into flour and bake it into bread. The depreciation of the Danish paper money swept away the savings of thousands of families, and demoralized all commercial relations. Everywhere the greatest discontent prevailed at the union with Denmark, which had brought the country to such a strait. The tardy grant of a charter for a Norwegian University (1811) which had before been refused, caused a temporary enthusiasm, but did not allay the discontent. The political sense which seemed to have been dormant for centuries, began to awake again, and a feeling of independence and a desire for national self-assertion found expression in the Society for Norway's Welfare, (1810), in the liberal contributions to the University, and in a sudden patriotic ferment, which pervaded the land. The native official class came to the front as the leaders and exponents of these political aspirations, and rendered important service by formulating the people's desires and leading them toward rational aims. To be disposed of, like chattels, by foreign powers, which had no sympathy with Norway's traditions, nor interest in her welfare, was revolting to their self-respect, and amid all the insecurity, which the various moves upon the foreign diplomatic chess-board produced, a stubborn determination to resist to the utmost asserted itself among the thinking classes of the people. As long, however, as Norway was a mere appendage of Denmark, it could not escape being involved in the consequences of King Frederick's policy. When, after Napoleon's disastrous campaign in Russia, the allies demanded the surrender of Norway to Sweden, the king refused and sent his cousin, Prince Christian Frederick, to govern the country as viceroy. But Napoleon's defeat at Leipsic and Bernadotte's invasion of Holstein, at the head of a large army, compelled him to come to terms. At the Peace of Kiel, (January 14, 1814) he ceded Norway to Sweden, and soon after released the Norsemen from their allegiance to him, giving up all claim upon their country for himself and his descendants. [Illustration] [Illustration] CHAPTER XXXVI. NORWAY RECOVERS HER INDEPENDENCE.