The French July Revolution of 1830, which started the liberal movement throughout Europe, also had its influence in Norway.  Liberal newspapers were established at the capital, and the democratic character of the Storthing became more pronounced, especially after 1833, when the farmers commenced to take an active part in the elections.  Prominent among them was Ole Gabriel Ueland.  The king was so displeased with the majority in the Storthing of 1836 that he suddenly dissolved it; but the Storthing answered this action by impeaching the Minister of State, Loevenskiold, for not having dissuaded the king from taking such a step.  Loevenskiold was sentenced to pay a fine; the king then yielded and reconvened the Storthing.  He also took a step toward conciliating the Norwegians by appointing their countryman, Count Wedel-Jarlsberg, as viceroy.  This action was much appreciated in Norway.  During the last years of this reign there existed the best of understanding between the king and the people.  Charles John’s great benevolence tended to increase the affection of the people, and he was sincerely mourned at his death, March 8, 1844, at the age of eighty years.

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 of the largest in the world.  In 1869 a law was passed providing for annual sessions of the Storthing instead of triennial as heretofore.