Bird-chasing guards damage royal portrait

Guards chasing an errant jackdaw in the royal palace in Stockholm damaged a portrait of the founder of the current Swedish royal family.

The jackdaw is believed to have infiltrated the royal cabinet meeting room through a chimney, The Local reported, citing TV4. The guards, using bamboo sticks, tried to capture or kill the bird as it flew toward a portrait of King Charles XIV, but ripped the portrait.

TV4 reported the Royal Court plans to put a net over the chimneys to keep birds out of the palace.

The king, also known as Karl XIV Johan, was born Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte in France and became one of the Emperor Napoleon’s marshals. He was offered the succession to the Swedish throne in 1810 after the death of King Charles XIII’s children and reigned from 1818 to 1844.

The present king of Sweden, Karl XVI Gustaf, is his great-great-great-great-great-grandson.