Tribute to Gustav III "The Theatre king"

SUBSCRIBE TO EXELLENT HISTORICAL VIDEOS AND TRIBUTES ABOUT THE HISTORY COVERING 1,500 BC-1945 AC Gustav III (24 January [O.S. 13 January] 1746 -- 29 March 1792Note on dates) was King of Sweden from 1771 until his death. He was the eldest son of King Adolf Frederick of Sweden and Louisa Ulrika of Prussia, sister of Frederick the Great. As he opposed the parliamentarian reforms that had been worked out before his reign, in the Age of Liberty, and as he spent high amounts on things that pleased him, he was controversial. To distract attention from this, he tried to expand Sweden's borders through a war against Russia,But the war was a status quou . In the end, Gustav was assassinated by a conspiracy of noblemen. Gustav III was a benefactor of arts and literature. He founded several academies, among them the Swedish Academy, and had the Royal Swedish Opera built On his return to Sweden Gustav III tried to mediate between the bitterly divided Hats and Caps. On 21 June 1771, he opened his first Riksdag of the Estates (parliament) with a speech which aroused powerful emotions. It was the first time for more than a century that a Swedish king had addressed a Swedish Riksdag in its native tongue. He stressed the need for all parties to sacrifice their animosities for the common good, and volunteered, as "the first citizen of a free people," to be the mediator between the contending factions. A composition committee was actually formed, but it proved illusory from the first, the patriotism of neither of the factions being equal to the puniest act of self-denial. The subsequent attempts of the dominant Caps to reduce him to a roi fainéant (a powerless king), encouraged him to consider a revolution. Under the sway of the Cap faction, Sweden seemed threatened with falling prey to Russia. It appeared on the point of being absorbed in that "Northern System" which the Russian vice-chancellor, Count Nikita Panin, strove to bring about. It seemed that only a swift and sudden coup d'état could preserve Sweden's independence. this juncture Gustav III was approached by Jacob Magnus Sprengtporten, a Finnish nobleman, 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 main, and once Finland was secured, to embark for Sweden, join up with the king and his friends near Stockholm, and force the estates to accept a new constitution from the untrammelled king. The plotters were at this juncture reinforced by Johan Christopher Toll, also a victim of Cap oppression. Toll proposed to raise a second revolt in the province of Scania, and to secure the southern fortress of Kristianstad. After some debate, it was finally arranged that, a few days after the Finnish revolt had begun, Kristianstad should openly declare against the government. Duke Charles (Karl), the eldest of the king's brothers, would thereupon be forced to hastily 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 south, while Sprengtporten attacked it simultaneously from the east.

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YouTube | April 30, 2008

Tags:. .illusory. .prussia. .exellent. .puniest. .enmity