S W E 
Their Swedish majesties having no children, it was neccessary 
to settle the succession; especially as the duke of Holstein 
was descended from the queen’s eldest sister, and was, at 
the same time, the presumptive heir to the empire of Russia. 
Four competitors appeared; the duke of Holstein Gottorp, 
Prince Frederic of Hesse-Cassel, nephew to the king, the 
prince of Denmark, and the duke of Deux-Ponts. The 
duke of Holstein would have carried the election, had he 
not embraced the Greek religion, that he might mount the 
throne of Russia. The tzarina interposed, and offered to 
restore all the conquests she had made from Sweden, except¬ 
ing a small district in Finland, if the Swedes would receive 
the duke of Holstein’s uncle, Adolphus Frederic bishop of 
Lubec, as their hereditary prince and successor to their 
crown. This was agreed to ; and a peace concluded at Abo, 
under the mediation of his Britannic majesty. Adolphus 
died dispirited in 1771, after a turbulent reign of twenty 
years; and was succeeded by his son Gustavus. The most 
remarkable transaction of this reign is the revolution which 
took place in the government in the year 1772, by which 
the king, from being the most limited became one of the 
most despotic monarchs in Europe. Ever since the death of 
Charles XII., the whole power of the kingdom had been 
lodged in the states; and this power they are said to have 
abused. Gustavus therefore determined either to seize on 
that power of which they made such a bad use, or perish 
in the attempt. The revolution was effected in the follow¬ 
ing manner. On the morning of the 19th of August, 1772, 
a considerable number of officers, as well as other persons 
known to be attached to the royal cause, had been summoned 
to attend his majesty. At the moment when one detach¬ 
ment which was to mount guard was diawn up, together 
with that which was to be relieved, his majesty addressed 
them with all that eloquence of which he is said to have 
been a perfect master. All the officers but three, and all 
the soldiers but one, answered him with loud acclama¬ 
tions. The senators were now immediately secured, and 
the new constitution proclaimed. 
The power thus obtained was employed by the king for 
the good of his subjects. He took care that the law should 
be administered with impartiality to the richest noble and 
the poorest peasant, making a severe example of such 
judges as were proved to have made justice venal. He gave 
particular attention and encouragement to commerce, was 
a liberal and enlightened patron of learning and science, 
and laboured strenuously to introduce into his kingdom the 
most valuable improvements in agriculture that had been 
made in foreign countries. 
But while thus active in promoting the arts of peace, he 
was not inattentive to those of war. The fleet, which he 
found decayed and feeble, he in a few years restored to a 
respectable footing, and, besides changing the regulations of 
the navy, he raised a new corps of sailors, and formed them 
to the service by continual exercise. The army, which, as 
well as the navy, had been neglected during the aristocracy, 
was next to be reformed. The king began by giving cloaks, 
tents, and new arms to all the regiments. Afterwards, under 
the direction of Field Marshal Count de Hessenstein, a new 
exercise was introduced, and several camps were formed, in 
which the soldiery were manoeuvred by the king himself. 
The sale of military offices, which had been permitted for 
many years, was entirely suppressed; and the king provided 
not only for the re-establishment of discipline and good 
order in the army, but for the future welfare of the indivi¬ 
duals which composed it. These warlike preparations were 
necessary to a plan which he had formed for entirely 
abolishing the power of the aristocracy, and freeing Sweden 
from the factions which had long been formed in it by the 
court of St. Petersburgh. The change which he had intro¬ 
duced was very inimical to the intrigues of that court; and 
the Russian ambassador exerted himself openly to bring 
about a rupture between the king and the discontented 
nobles. Gustavus ordered him to quit the kingdom in eight 
days, and immediately prepared for war with Russia. To 
Vol. XXIII. No. 1608. 
DEN. 789 
this apparently rash enterprise he was incited by the Ottoman 
Porte, at that time unable to oppose the armies of the two 
empires; and his own ambition, together with the internal 
state of his kingdom, powerfully concurred to make him 
lend every assistance to his ancient ally. It is needless for 
us to enter into a detail of the particulars of that war. 
Suffice it to say, that neither Gustavus Adolphus nor Charles 
XII. gave greater proofs of undaunted courage and military 
conduct in their long and bloody wars than were given by 
Gustavus III. from the end of the year 1787 to 1790, 
when peace was restored between the courts of St. Peters¬ 
burgh and Stockholm. 
The king of Sweden was now at liberty to cherish again 
the arts of peace, and to humble the haughty spirit of the 
nobles. But the revolution which he effected, though 
calculated to promote the general good of the people, 
produced a conspiracy against his life, among the 
nobles. On the 16th of March, 1792, at a masquerade, 
he was surrounded by several persons in masks, one of 
whom fired a pistol at the back of the king, and lodged the 
contents in his body. On the 28th of March, a mortifica¬ 
tion was found to have taken place, and he expired on the 
following day. 
The king had by his will appointed a council of regency; 
but convinced by recent experience how little dependence 
was to be placed on the attachment of his nobles, and aware 
of the necessity of a vigorous government in times of such 
difficulty and danger, he appointed his brother, the duke of 
Sudermania, sole regent, till his son, then a minor, should 
attain the age of 18 years. In his dying moments he desired 
that all the conspirators, except the perpetrator of his murder, 
might be pardoned. 
The young king, who was about 14 at his father’s death, 
was proclaimed by the name of Gustavus IV. 
From the accession of Gustavus IV., to the end of his reign, 
few transactions of any importance occurred. Soon after 
the king had taken on himself the administration of affairs, he 
engaged warmly in the war against France, and till the time 
of his deposition, continued a most faithful ally of Britain. 
The efforts of the Swedish monarch towards humbling the 
power of Buonaparte, have been already noticed under the 
articles Britain and France ; and the war with Russia, in 
which his alliance with Britain had involved him, has been 
sufficiently touched on in the article Russia. This prince 
seems to have been endowed with great and amiable quali¬ 
ties, but he was certainly rash and imprudent in a high 
degree, and he thus materially injured his kingdom. 
The discontented nobles of Sweden found, in a temporary 
derangement in the mind of Gustavus, an excuse for d»- 
throning him. His uncle, the duke of Sudermania, who 
had been at the head of the conspirators, was proclaimed 
king on the 29th of June, 1809, under the title of Charles 
XIII. His first measures were to convoke a general diet, 
and proclaim a new constitution ; but as he was compelled to 
continue in amity with England; he was attacked by France, 
and by the same measure was embroiled with Russia. 
This powerful enemy obtained a series of advantages, which 
were only checked by the occasional naval exploits of the 
British. At length Sweden was forced to yield the govern, 
mentsof Kynnemegard, Nyland and Tawastland, Abo ana 
Biorneboy, with the isles of Aland, Savolax, Carelia, Wasa 
Heleaboy and West Bothnia, as far as the river. So that 
Russia obtained during the abovementioned wars, nearly a 
fourth of her territory, and a sixth of her population from 
Sweden. 
The Swedes now chose, under the title of Crown Prince, 
a successor for Charles XIII., but he shortly after dying, and 
no other competitor of equal talents and interest appearing, 
they raised to this high station Bernadotte, a distinguished 
general of Napoleon’s army. Sweden soon became entirely 
under the direction of the Crown Prince, and he finding 
the people universally favourable to amity with Napoleon, 
since the emperor would hear of no peace without a de¬ 
claration of war against England. But a forced war of this 
9 P claration 
