The Swedish Royal Family since the time of King Gustav V. The previous Swedish Royal Family, the House of Vasa, was a victim of the turmoil in Europe surrounding the French Revolutionary and Napleonic Wars. To the surprise of many, when the Swedish government desired a new monarch they elected one of Napoleon's marshals, Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, who converted from Catholicism to Lutheranism and became King Carl XIV Johan of Sweden. His descendants have ruled over Sweden to this day as well as Norway from 1818 to 1905.