And what Gustavian was, is, therefore, Swedish too.

On his death-bed, Gustavus III appointed his brother Charles and
Charles Gustavus Armfelt members of the government during the minority
of his son. Gustavus IV Adolphus was declared of age and took charge
of the government when eighteen (in 1796). His guardians retired,
and the new monarch ruled alone, without favorites or influential
advisers. This proved most unfortunate for Sweden, for he was entirely
without the gifts of a regent. He was a lover of order, economy,
justice, and pure morals, but through lack of mental and physical
strength his good qualities were misdirected. His father's tragic fate
had a sinister effect upon his mind, the equilibrium of which was also
shaken by the outrages of the revolutionists in France. Of a morbid
sensibility, and without inclination to confide in any one, his
religious mysticism led him into a state close to insanity. He
imagined himself to be the reincarnation of Charles XII, while in
Napoleon he recognized the monster of the Apocalypse, which he himself
was sent to fight and conquer.

He refused any alliance with Russia and Denmark, and stubbornly
resisted the friendship France wished to bestow. By his imbecility he
lost Finland to the kingdom, and was compelled to abdicate in 1808.
This "lunatic monarch," as he was called, was escorted out of the
country with his family, never to return, and died in St. Gallin, in
1837.

Under these conditions we find Sweden at the beginning of the
nineteenth century, when Charles XIII was chosen to succeed his
nephew, the abdicated Gustavus IV Adolphus. Charles XIII was one of
the most unsympathetic of Swedish kings, but his reign marks a new