GUSTAV IV ADOLF

born Nov. 1, 1778, Stockholm, Sweden died Feb. 7, 1837, Sankt Gallen, Switz. Swedish king whose intemperate foreign policy led to his overthrow in a coup d'tat of 1809. The son of the assassinated Gustav III, Gustav IV came to the throne in 1792 under the regency of his uncle Charles, duke of Sdermanland. Although the regency ended in 1796, Gustav IV was plagued by a morbid fear of Jacobinism, and he avoided coronation until 1800, when agricultural and financial crises necessitated the convocation of a Riksdag (estates general). In 1805 Gustav IV brought Sweden into the European coalition against Napoleon. When Russia joined with France in 1807, Gustav stubbornly decided to remain in the field, even though that would mean a Russian attack on Finland. The situation grew more dangerous when, also in 1807, Denmark-Norway declared war on Sweden, thus completely isolating it. In these circumstances certain groups of liberal officials and officers in Sweden's western army arranged a coup d'tat, and on March 13, 1809, the king was overthrown. His heirs being declared ineligible to succeed him, he and his family left Sweden for exile. Gustav finally settled in Switzerland under the name Colonel Gustafsson.