Online Encyclopedia

Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.

GUSTAVUS III

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V12, Page 737 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
» Make a correction to this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

GUSTAVUS III . (1746-1792), See also:

king of See also:Sweden, was the eldest son of See also:Adolphus See also:Frederick, king of Sweden, and Louisa Ulrica of See also:Prussia, See also:sister of Frederick the See also:Great, and was See also:born on the 24th of See also:January 1746. Gustavus was educated under the care of two See also:governors who were amongst the most eminent See also:Swedish states-men of the See also:day, Carl Gustaf See also:Tessin and Carl Schafer; but he owed most perhaps to the poet and historian Olof von Dalin. The interference of the See also:state with his See also:education, when he was quite a See also:child, was, however, doubly harmful, as his parents taught him to despise the preceptors imposed upon him by the See also:diet, and the See also:atmosphere of intrigue and duplicity in which he See also:grew up made him precociously experienced in the See also:art of dissimutlon. But even his most hostile teachers were amazed by the lliance e of his natural gifts, and, while still a boy, he possessed that See also:charm of manner which was to make him so fascinating and so dangerous in later See also:life, coupled with the strong dramatic See also:instinct which won for him his See also:honourable See also:place in Swedish literature. On the whole, Gustavus cannot be said to have been well educated, but he read very widely; there was scarce a See also:French author of his day with whose See also:works he was not intimately acquainted; while his See also:enthusiasm for the new French ideas of enlightenment was as sincere as, if more See also:critical than, his See also:mother's. On the 4th of See also:November 1766, Gustavus married See also:Sophia Magdalena, daughter of Frederick V. of See also:Denmark. The match was an unhappy one, owing partly to incompatibility of See also:temper, but still more to the mischievous interference of the jealous See also:queen-mother. Gustavus first intervened actively in politics in 1768, at the See also:time of his See also:father's See also:interregnum, when he compelled the dominant Cap See also:faction to summon an extraordinary diet from which he hoped for the reform of the constitution in a monarchical direction. But the victorious Hats refused to redeem the pledges which they had given before the elections. " That we should have lost the constitutional See also:battle does not See also:distress us so much," wrote Gustavus, in the bitterness of his See also:heart; "but what does dismay me is to see my poor nation so sunk in corruption as to place its own felicity in See also:absolute anarchy." From the 4th of See also:February to the 25th of See also:March 1771, Gustavus was at See also:Paris, where he carried both the See also:court and the See also:city by See also:storm. The poets and the philosophers paid him enthusiastic See also:homage, and all the distinguished See also:women of the day testified to his superlative merits.

With many of them he maintained a lifelong See also:

correspondence. But his visit to the French See also:capital was no See also:mere See also:pleasure trip; it was also a See also:political See also:mission. Confidential agents from the Swedish court had already prepared the way for him, and the duc de See also:Choiseul, weary of Swedish anarchy, had resolved to discuss with him the best method of bringing about a revolution in Sweden. Before he departed, the French See also:government undertook to pay the out-See also:standing subsidies to Sweden unconditionally, at the See also:rate of one and a See also:half million livres annually; and the See also:comte de See also:Vergennes, one of the great names of French See also:diplomacy, was transferred from See also:Constantinople to See also:Stockholm. On his way See also:home Gustavus paid a See also:short visit to his See also:uncle, Frederick the Great, at See also:Potsdam. Frederick bluntly informed his See also:nephew that, in See also:concert with See also:Russia and Denmark, he had guaranteed the integrity of the existing Swedish constitution, and significantly advised the See also:young monarch to See also:play the See also:part of mediator and abstain from violence. On his return to Sweden Gustavus made a sincere and See also:earnest See also:attempt to mediate between the Hats and Caps who were ruining the See also:country between them (see SWEDEN: See also:History). On the 21st of See also:June 1771 he opened his first See also:parliament in a speech which awakened See also:strange and deep emotions in all who heard it. It was the first time for more than a See also:century that a Swedish king had addressed a Swedish diet from the See also:throne in its native See also:tongue. The orator laid especial stress on the See also:necessity of the See also:sacrifice of all party animosities to the See also:common weal, and volunteered, as " the first See also:citizen of a See also:free See also:people," to be the mediator between the contending factions. A See also:composition See also:committee was actually formed, but it proved illusory from the first, the patriotism of neither of the factions being equal to the puniest See also:act of self-denial. The subsequent attempts of the dominant Caps still further to limit the See also:prerogative, and reduce Gustavus to the See also:condition of a roi faineant, induced him at last to consider the possibility of a revolution.

Of its necessity there could be no doubt. Under the sway of the Cap faction, Sweden, already the See also:

vassal, could not fail to become the See also:prey of Russia. She was on the point of being absorbed in that See also:northern See also:system, the invention of the See also:Russian See also:vice-See also:chancellor, See also:Count Nikita See also:Panin, which that patient statesman had made it the ambition of his e to realize. Only a See also:swift and sudden coup d'etat could See also:save the See also:independence of a country isolated from the See also:rest of See also:Europe by a hostile See also:league. At this juncture Gustavus was approached by See also:Jakob See also:Magnus See also:Sprengtporten, a Finnish nobleman of determined See also:character, who had incurred the enmity of the Caps, with the project of a revolution. He undertook to seize the fortress of Sveaborg by a coup de See also:main, and, See also:Finland once secured, Sprengtporten proposed to embark for Sweden, meet the king and his See also:friends near Stockholm, and surprise the capital by a See also:night attack, when the estates were to be forced, at the point of the See also:bayonet, to accept a new constitution from the untrammelled king. The plotters were at this juncture reinforced by an ex-See also:ranger from Scania (Slane), Johan Kristoffer See also:Toll, also a victim of Cap oppression. Toll proposed that a second revolt should break out in the See also:province of Scania, to confuse the government still more, and undertook personally to secure the See also:southern fortress of See also:Kristianstad. After some debate, it was finally arranged that, a few days after the Finnish revolt had begun, Kristianstad should opexly declare against the government. See also:Prince See also:Charles, the eldest of the king's See also:brothers, was thereupon hastily to mobilize the garrisons of all the southern fortresses, for the ostensible purpose of crushing the revolt at Kristianstad; but on arriving before the fortress he was to make common cause with the rebels, and march upon the capital from the See also:south, while Sprengtporten attacked it simultaneously from the See also:east.

End of Article: GUSTAVUS III

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML.
Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.

Links to articles and home page are always encouraged.

[back]
GUSTAVUS II 		[next]
GUSTAVUS IV

Site © 2006 - Net Industries