An outstanding orator and a lover of music and literature, Oscar published several books of verse and wrote on historical subjects. In home politics he proved a conservative; in foreign policy he favoured Scandinavian cooperation and after 1866 supported Germany in the hope of strengthening Sweden against Russia, encouraging the Germanophile trend that characterized Swedish political and cultural life from the 1870s until the outbreak of World War I. He tried hard to maintain the union of Norway with Sweden and was much grieved when he was obliged to abdicate the Norwegian throne in 1905. By his marriage (1857) to Sophie of Nassau he had four sons; the eldest succeeded him as Gustav V.