King Assassinated at a Masked Ball

Gustavus III., King of Sweden, succeeded his father, Adolphus Frederick, in 1771. The country was at that time distracted by two rival political parties, called the "Hats" and the "Caps." The "Hats" were favorable to the French interests, and wore a French chapeau; the "Caps" were partisans of Russia, and a Russian cap was their. badge.

Gustavus is noted for a very successful coup d' etat. Finding the people thoroughly weary of the misrule of the nobles and ready for a change of government, he instigated a fictitious rebellion, then collected a large body of troops (on pretense of restoring order), and having arrested the council in a body, convoked the Diet, and laid before the council a new constitution, to which they were compelled to subscribe. A revolution was thus effected without the shedding of blood, and in three days the whole government of Sweden had been changed from an aristocratic to a monarchical form, Gustavus having recovered all the regal power which had been gradually lost by his immediate predecessors.

He ruled with great moderation, but he had made many enemies among the nobles, so that they finally entered into a conspiracy against him, and on the 16th of March, 1792, their agent, a Captain Ankarstrom, mortally wounded him at a masked ball in the opera house built by the king. The pistol had been loaded with broken shot, which rendered the wound especially painful, and the king suffered the most dreadful agony for thirteen days. Ankarstrom was instantly apprehended; he confessed his crime, but stoutly denied that he had any accomplices. On the 20th of April he was condemned to be publicly flogged for three days and then beheaded. He went to the scaffold rejoicing in his crime.

Gustavus III. was a man of varied learning and the author of many dramatic works. In 1788 he deposited in the library of Upsala certain papers, which were not to be opened for fifty years after his death. Their publication was confided to Gejer, and much interest was felt in them as the time expired; but they disappointed the general expectation, for they were found to consist only of historical notes and letters of little value.