Reuterholm

The ensuing period was a melancholy one. The aristocratic classes loudily complained that the young king, Gustav IV of Sweden, still a minor, was being brought up among Jacobins; while the middle classes, deprived of the stimulating leadership of the anti-aristocratic "Prince Charming" and becoming more and more inoculated with French political ideas, drifted into an antagonism not merely to hereditary nobility, but to hereditary monarchy likewise. Everything was vacillating and uncertain; and the general instability was reflected even in foreign affairs, now that the master-hand of Gustav III was withdrawn.. Sweden and renewed efforts of Catherine II to interfere in Sweden's domestic affairs were, indeed, vigorously repulsed, but without tact or discretion, so that the good understanding between the two countries was seriously impaired, especially when the proclivities of Gustaf Reuterholm, who then virtually ruled Sweden, induced him to adopt what was generally considered an indecently friendly attitude towards the government at Paris. Despite the execution of Louis XVI of France on January 21, 1793, Sweden, in the hope of obtaining considerable subsidies, recognized the new French republic; and secret negotiations for contrading an alliance were actually begun in May of the same year, till the menacing protests of Catherine, supported as they were by all the other European powers, finally induced Sweden to suspend them.

The negotiations with the French Jacobins exacerbated the hatred which the Gustavians already felt for the Jacobin councillors of the duke-regent Charles. Smarting beneath their grievances and seriously believing that not only the young king's crown but his very life was in danger, they formed a conspiracy, the soul of which was Gustaf Mauritz Armfelt to overthrow the government, with the aid of a Russian fleet, supported by a rising of the Dalecarlians. The conspiracy was discovered and vigorously suppressed.

The one bright side of this gloomy and sordid period was the rapprochement between the Scandinavian kingdoms during the revolutionary wars. Thus, on March 27, 1794, a neutrality compact was formed between with Denmark and Sweden; and their united squadrons patrolled the North Sea to protect their merchantmen from the British cruisers. This approximation between the two governments was happily followed by friendly feelings between the two nations, under the pressure of a common danger. Presently Reuterholm renewed his coquetry with the French republic, which was officially recognized by the Swedish government on April 23, 1795. In return, Sweden received a subsidy and a treaty between the two powers was signed on September 14, 1795. On the other hand, an attempt to regain the friendship of Russia, which had broken off diplomatic relations with Sweden, was frustrated by the refusal of the king to accept the bride, the grand duchess Alexandra, Catherine II's granddaughter, whom Reuterholm had provided for him. This was Reuterholm's last official act. On November 1, 1796, in. accordance with the will of his father, Gustav IV, now in his eighteenth year, took the government into his own hands.

The government of Gustav IV of Sweden was almost a pure autocracy. At his very first Riksdag, held at Norrkoping in March 1800, the nobility were compelled, at last, to ratify Gustav III's detested Act of Union and Security, which hitherto they had steadily refused to do. Shortly after this Riksdag rose, a notable change took place in Sweden's foreign policy. In December 1800 Denmark, Sweden and Russia acceded to a second Armed Neutrality of the North, directed against Great Britain; and the arsenal of Karlskrona, in all probability, was only saved from the fate of Copenhagen by the assassination of the emperor Paul of Russia, which was followed by another change of system in the north. Hitherto Sweden had kept aloof from continental complications; but the arrest and execution of the Duc d'Enghien in 1804 inspired Gustav IV with such a hatred of Napoleon that when a general coalition was formed against the French emperor he was one of the first to join it. (December 3, 1804), pledging himself to send an army corps to cooperate with the English and Russians in driving the enemy out of the Netherlands and Hanover. But his senseless quarrel with Frederick William III of Prussia detained him in Pomerania; and when at last in December 1805 he led his 6,000 men towards the Elbe district the third coalition had already been dissipated by the victories of Ulm and Austerlitz. In 1806 a rupture between Sweden and Prussia was only prevented by Napoleon's assault upon the latter power. After Jena Napoleon attempted to win over Sweden, but Gustav rejected every overture. The result was the total loss of Swedish Pomerania, and the Swedish Army itself was only saved from destruction by the ingenuity of Johan Christopher Toll. At Tilsit the emperor Alexander I of Russia had undertaken to compel "Russia's geographical enemy," as Napoleon designated Sweden, to accede to the newly established "Continental Russian System". Gustav IV naturally rejected all the proposals of Alexander to close the Baltic against the English; but took no measures to defend Finland against Russia, though, during the autumn of 1807, it was notorious that the tsar was preparing to attack the grand duchy. On February 21, 1808 a Russian army crossed the Finnish border without any previous declaration of war. On April 2 the king ordered a general levy of 30,000 men; but while two army corps, under Armfelt and Toll, together with a British contingent of 10,000 men under Moore, were stationed in Scania and on the Norwegian border in anticipation of an attack from Denmark, which, at the instigation of Napoleon, had simultaneously declared war against Sweden, the little Finnish army was left altogether unsupported.

The loss of Finland

Its immediate consequence in Sweden proper was the deposition of Gustav IV on March 13, 1809, who was clearly incapable of governing. The nobility took advantage of this opportunity to pay off old scores against Gustav III by excluding not only his unhappy son but also that son's whole family from the succession - an act of injustice which has never been adequately defended. But indeed the whole of this intermediate period is full of dark subterranean plots and counterplots, still inexplicable, as, for instance, the hideous Fersen murder on June 20, 1810 evidently intended to terrorize the Gustavians, whose loyalty to the ancient dynasty was notorious. As early as June 5, 1809 the duke regent was proclaimed king, under the title of Charles XIII, after accepting the new liberal constitution, which was ratified by the Riksdag of the Estates the same day. The new king was, at best, a useful stopgap, in no way likely to interfere with the liberal revolution which had placed him on the throne. Peace was what the exhausted nation now required; and negotiations had already been opened at Fredrikshamn. But the Russian demands were too humiliating, and the war was resumed. But the defeats of at the Battle of Savar and Battle of Ratan August 19 and August 20, 1809 broke the spirit of the Swedish Army; and peace was obtained by the sacrifice of the entire Finland, the Aland islands, "the fore-posts of Stockholm," as Napoleon rightly described them, and Vasterbotten and Laponia as far as the rivers of Tornea and Muonio at the Treaty of Fredrikshamn, on September 17, 1809.

Union between Sweden and Norway

The Union between Sweden and Norway refers to the kingdoms of Sweden and Norway between 1814 and 1905, when they were united under one monarch in a personal union, following the Convention of Moss, on August 14, and the Norwegian constitutional revision of November 4. On the same day, the Norwegian parliament elected Charles XIII king of Norway.

The Act of Union, which was given royal assent on August 6, 1815, was implemented differently in the two countries. In Norway it was a part of constitutional law known as Rigsakten, and in Sweden it was a set of provisions under regular law and was known as Riksakten. The Congress of Vienna, which oversaw numerous territorial changes in post Napoleonic Europe, did not object to the union of the Norwegian and Swedish crowns.

Sweden and Norway had previously been united under the same crown on two occasions, from 1319 to 1343, and briefly from 1449 to 1450 in opposition to Christian of Oldenburg who by the Danes was elected king of the Kalmar Union.

Norway was a reluctant member of the union; as one result Norwegian history and culture were glorified in the literature of the period. Norwegian farm culture served as a symbol and focus of nationalistic resistance to the forced union with Sweden. A growing sense of nationalism also influenced political affairs.[1] One significant political step, the development of the Norwegian local self-government district, the Formannskapsdistrikt, was approved by the Storthing and signed into law by Charles XIV of Sweden and Norway on January 14, 1837.[2] The law, required by the Constitution of Norway, mandated that every parish (in Norwegian prestegjeld[3]) form a formannsskapsdistrikt. In this manner the Norwegian State Church districts of the country became administrative districts as well, creating 373 formannsskapsdistrikt in 1837.[4] This introduction of self-government in rural districts was a major political watershed. The legislation of 1837 gave both the towns and the rural areas the same institutions; it represented a minor change for the town, but a major advance for the rural communities and an advance for Norwegian nationalism. [1]

Following growing dissatisfaction with the union in Norway, the parliament unanimously declared its dissolution on June 7, 1905. This unilateral action met with Swedish threats of war. A plebiscite on August 13 confirmed the parliamentary decision by a majority of 368,208 to 184. Negotiations in Karlstad led to agreement with Sweden September 23 and mutual demobilization. Both parliaments revoked the Act of Union October 16, and the deposed king Oscar II of Sweden renounced his claim to the Norwegian throne and recognized Norway as an independent kingdom on October 26. The Norwegian parliament offered the vacant throne to Prince Carl of Denmark, who accepted after another plebiscite had confirmed the monarchy. He arrived in Norway on November 25, 1905, taking the name Haakon VII.
 

A new dynasty

Charles XIII was both infirm and childless. To secure the succession to the throne, he adopted Prince Christian August of Augustenborg as his heir. He had been viceroy of Norway and commander-in-chief of the Norwegian army during its successful resistance against the Swedish invasion in 1808-1809. His great popularity in Norway was considered an advantage to the Swedish plans for the acquisition of that country. In addition, he had demonstrated his interest in a rapprochement between the two countries by refraining from invading Sweden during the conflict with Russia. As crown prince of Sweden, he changed his name to Carl August of Augustenborg. After his mysterious death on May 28, 1810, the French marshal, Bernadotte, was adopted by Charles XIII and received the homage of the estates on November 5, 1810.

The new crown prince was very soon the most popular and the most powerful man in Sweden. The infirmity of the old king, and the dissensions in the Privy Council, placed the government and especially the control of foreign affairs almost entirely in his hands; and he boldly adopted a policy which was antagonistic indeed to the wishes and hopes of the old school of Swedish statesmen, but perhaps, the best adapted to the circumstances. Finland he at once gave up for lost, he knew that Russia would never voluntarily relinquish the grand duchy, while Sweden could not hope to retain it permanently, even if she reconquered it. But the acquisition of Norway might make up for the loss of Finland; and Bernadotte, now known as the crown prince Charles John or "Karl Johan", argued that it might be an easy matter to persuade the anti-Napoleonic powers to punish Denmark for her loyalty to France by wrestling Norway from her. Napoleon he rightly distrusted, though at first he was obliged to submit to the emperor's dictation. Thus on November 13, 1810 the Swedish government was forced to declare war against the United Kingdom, though the British government was privately informed at the same time that Sweden was not a free agent and that the war would be a mere demonstration. But the pressure of Napoleon became more and more intolerable, culminating in the occupation of Pomerania by French troops in 1812. The Swedish government thereupon concluded a secret convention with Russia Treaty of Petersburg, April 5, 1812 undertaking to send 30,000 men to operate against Napoleon in Germany in return for a promise from Alexander I of Russia guaranteeing to Sweden the possession of Norway. Too late Napoleon endeavoured to outbid Alexander by offering to Sweden Finland, all Pomerania and Mecklenburg, in return for Sweden's active co-operation against Russia.

The Orebro Riksdag (April-August, 1812), remarkable besides for its partial repudiation of Sweden's national debt and its reactionary press laws, introduced general conscription into Sweden, and thereby enabled the crown prince to carry out his ambitious policy. In May 1812 he mediated a peace between Russia and the Ottoman Empire, so as to enable Russia to use all her forces against France (Peace of Bucharest); and on July 18, at Orebro, peace was also concluded between the United Kingdom on one side and Russia and Sweden on the other. These two treaties were, in effect, the corner-stones of a fresh coalition against Napoleon, and were confirmed on the outbreak of the Franco-Russian War by a conference between Alexander and Charles John at Abo on August 30, 1812 when the tsar undertook to place an army corps of 35,000 men at the disposal of the Swedish crown prince for the conquest of Norway.