Między Rosją i Francją. Zarys dziejów wewnętrznych i polityki zagranicznej Szwecji w latach 1751-1772

Abstract

After the death of the king Frederic I in 1751 the second period of the "Age of Liberty" in Sweden begun. The new king - Adolf Fredric van Holstein-Gottorp and his wife, Lovisa Ulrika Hohenzollern dreamed about strengthening the weak position of the monarchy. Their plans however were fighted against by the powerful party of "Hats" which had dominated Swedish policy for years. These were "Hats" who had made the king and the queen back out of their support for the conspirators during coup d'état in 1756. After those events royal couple was humiliated and the royal authority in Sweden ceased almost to nothing. Because of unsuccessful participation of Sweden in the Seven Years War (1756-1763) the "Hats" lost the rule in favor of the appositional party of "Caps". But the "Caps" as well (since then allied to the royal court) had not any intention to strengthen a position of the king in the country. It was the reason why the royal couple once again tried to enter into friendly relations with the party of "Hats". In 1769 the "Hats" (with the king' s support) gained the rule in Sweden for another two years, but they did nothing to increase the royal authority. For worse their come back to the rule caused the conflict between the nobility (the majority of "Hats" were noblemen) and unprivileged estates. In the end of 1770 the quarrels between the parties led Sweden to the state of complete anarchy. At 12th of February 1771 Adolf Fredric died suddenly. His eldest son and heir of the throne - prince Gustavus was at that time in Paris. As soon as he received the news about his father's death, he came back to Sweden. Before leaving Paris he was given the promise of French aid in overthrowing the Swedish constitution. In that time the court of Versailles was interested in considerable strengthening the position of the king in Sweden. Since the beginning of his reign Gustavus III tried to reconcile the hostile parties. When he failed in his attempts, at 19th of August 1772 he executed the famous monarchistic coup d'état which subversived hitherto existing constitution. That was the end of the "Age of Liberty" in Sweden. Till now Swedish historians dispute how to judge this period in their history. Independently of all further opinions about the "Age of Liberty”, one thing seems to be certain. The great majority of Swedish society did not regret collapsed political system.