Conclusion

Abstract

Inevitably it is the victors that write history and Sweden’s history during the turbulent reign of Gustavus IV is no exception from that rule. After his removal from power in early 1809 the revolutionary leaders went to incredible lengths to blacken his name, his policies and his ideals. Their efforts, considerable though these were, looked amateurish compared with Marshal Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte’s far more vindictive and thoroughgoing campaign to remove every vestige of the former king and his dynasty. Into the dustbin of history went not only the king’s memory but also his policies, the lynchpin of which was the alliance with Britain and the war against France. This was portrayed as the height of folly and the work of a madman. Gustavus IV was therefore tarred, successfully as it turned out, with the brush of madness, and he was, to his enemies, simply the ‘madman’ or the ‘Nordic Don Quixote’ forever charging revolutionary windmills. The alliance with Britain was therefore consigned to the periphery of Sweden’s history of the Napoleonic era and Gustavus IV’s policy endeavours were overshadowed by those of Bernadotte.¹