Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden
 | Gustav IV Adolf
King of Sweden |
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Gustav IV Adolf (
November 1,
1778 –
February 7,
1837), was
King of Sweden from
1792 until his abdication in
1809. He was the son of
Gustav III of Sweden and his queen consort
Sophie Magdalen.
Gustav Adolf was born in
Stockholm. It has been suggested that Gustav Adolf was the biological son of Count Adolph Fredric Munck of Fulkila, though this has never been established. The Count is implied to have been given the task to father a son to the king, who supposedly had different leanings. These rumors however did not prevent Gustav III from taking an active role in the education of his heir, which took place under the direction of Nils von Rosenstein. In August 1796 his uncle the regent
Charles, duke of
Sudermannia, visited
St. Petersburg for the purpose of arranging a marriage between the young king and
Catherine II's granddaughter, the grand-duchess Alexandra. The betrothal was actually fixed for September 22, when the whole arrangement foundered on the obstinate refusal of Gustav to allow his destined bride liberty of worship according to the rites of the
Greek Orthodox Church — a rebuff which undoubtedly accelerated the death of the Russian empress. Nobody seems to have even suspected at the time that serious mental derangement lay at the root of Gustav's abnormal piety. On the contrary, there were many who prematurely congratulated themselves on the fact that Sweden had now no disturbing genius, but an economical, God-fearing, commonplace monarch to deal with.
Gustav's prompt dismissal of the generally detested
Gustaf Adolf Reuterholm added still further to his popularity. On
October 31,
1797 Gustav married Frederica, daughter of Charles Frederick, grand-duke of
Baden, a marriage which might have led to a war with
Russia but for the fanatical hatred of the
French republic shared by the emperor
Paul of Russia and Gustav IV Adolf, which served as a bond of union between them. Indeed the king's horror of
Jacobinism was morbid in its intensity, and drove him to adopt all sorts of reactionary measures and to postpone his coronation for some years, so as to avoid calling together a diet; but the disorder of the finances, caused partly by the continental war and partly by the almost total failure of the crops in 1798 and 1799, compelled him to summon the
estates to
Norrköping in March
1800 and on
April 3 Gustav was crowned.
His reign was ill-fated and was to end abruptly. His policies had put Sweden at war, first with
France and then with
Russia which led to the loss of
Finland. The loss represented a third of the Swedish realm and precipitated his arrest on
March 13,
1809 which was successfully accomplished by a
conspiracy of officers of the western army, headed by
Adlersparre, the
Anckarsvärds, and
Adlercreutz, who had marched rapidly from
Skåne to
Stockholm. On
March 13,
1809 seven of the conspirators broke into the royal apartments in the palace unannounced, seized the king, and conducted him to the château of
Gripsholm; Duke
Charles was easily persuaded to accept the leadership of a provisional government, which was proclaimed the same day; and a diet, hastily summoned, solemnly approved of the revolution.
On
March 29 Gustav, in order to save the crown for his son, voluntarily abdicated; but on
May 19 the
Riksdag of the Estates, dominated by the
army, declared that not merely Gustav but his whole family had forfeited the throne. On
June 5 the duke regent was proclaimed king under the title of
Charles XIII, after accepting the new liberal
constitution, which was ratified by the diet the same day. In December Gustav and his family were transported to
Germany. In exile Gustav used several titles, Count
Gottorp, Duke of
Holstein-Eutin, and finally settled as at
St. Gallen in
Switzerland as where he lived in a small hotel in great loneliness and indigence, under the name of Colonel Gustafsson. It was there that he suffered a stroke and died. At the suggestion of King
Oscar II of Sweden his body was brought to Sweden and interred in the
Riddarholmskyrkan.
In
1797 he had married
Frederica Dorothea Wilhelmina of Baden (
1781–
1826), with whom he had five children:
# Crown Prince
Gustaf, after
1809 known as
Gustaf Gustafsson of Vasa (
November 9,
1799–
1877)# Princess
Sofia Wilhelmina (
May 21,
1801–
1865), married Grand Duke
Leopold I of Baden # Prince Carl Gustaf,
Grand Duke of Finland (
December 2,
1802–
1805)# Princess Amalia Maria Charlotta (
February 22,
1805–
1853)# Princess
Cecilia (
June 22,
1807–
1844), married August, Grand Duke of Oldenburg
His son Gustav would serve as an officer to the
Habsburgs of
Austria, but would never father a son of his own, only a daughter, later Queen Consort
Carola of Saxony, wife of Saxony's King
Albert I. Sofia Wilhelmina would marry Grand Duke
Leopold of Baden, whose descendant
Victoria of Baden would marry into the House of
Bernadotte, i.e
Gustav V of Sweden. By
1812, Gustav Adolf divorced his consort and following this he had several mistresses, among them
Maria Schlegel who gave him the son
Adolf Gustafsson.
