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The full quote, written by British historian Lord Acton in 1887, goes, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.” Almost always bad. Not Gustav III of Sweden, though.
--On This Day in History, Shit Went Down: February 12, 1771--
Enlightened: “having or showing a rational, modern, and well-informed outlook.” Despot: “a ruler or other person who holds absolute power, typically one who exercises it in a cruel or oppressive way.” So Gustav 3 was a despot, but not the cruel or oppressive kind, cuz enlightened. An enlightened despot. It’s a thing.
Charles XII of Sweden was a powerful monarch, but he couldn’t outpower death. He ate his last meatball in 1718 and his sister Ulrika took over. The Swedish Riksdag (parliament) only agreed to recognize her if she gave up being absolute monarch. She said okay and a year later abdicated in favor of her husband, Frederick I. Neither Ulrika nor Frederick were powerful rulers, and the nobility ran shit. They did not run it well. Frederick died without an heir in 1751 and Adolf Frederick was placed on the throne. He was a wimp too. The aristocrats still ran things, poorly.
Adolf Frederick died and his son, Gustav 3, said enough of this aristocratic cockfuckery. Crowned on February 12, 1771, aged 25, the following year Gustav said it’s motherfuckin’ coup d’état time. It was a self-coup, because he was already king, but he wanted to be an autocratic king. It wasn’t that he was power hungry, it’s because the Riksdag was fucking useless. Rife with infighting, holding most of the power but unable to do anything positive with it. Gustav felt he could do something positive, so he went despotic.
The 53 years between Charles and Gustav were referred to as the Age of Liberty in Sweden but since the Riksdag couldn’t get along they were at “liberty” to accomplish the square root of fuck all. Not that I approve of dictators, but Gustav got shit done. He eased off on torture and capital punishment, built up the navy to one of the most powerful in Europe, straightened out the nation’s finances, invested in cultural projects, abolished oppressive export tolls, and increased religious freedoms. He was a bit of a cock regarding freedom of the press though. It helped him in arousing the anti-aristocratic sentiments that led to him seizing even more power in 1789, making himself absolute monarch.
The aristocracy got evermore pissy at being shut out of power, and in March of 1792 he was shot in the back while attending a masked ball at the Royal Opera House in Stockholm. He died 13 days later from sepsis, but the coup attempt failed. Gustav’s younger brother Carl was named regent until Gustav’s son, Gustav IV, came of age four years later. Junior carried on the absolute monarchy stuff until 1809 when there was another coup, this one successful. Number 4 was ousted and exiled, and Uncle Carl was put on the throne with greatly reduced powers.
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