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 period in Swedish history, commencing the era of constitutional government.  The new constitution to which the king subscribed was not a radical document; it only reduced the power of the king.  Hans Jaerta, one of the nobles who had renounced their privileges and been active in the conspiracy against Gustavus IV, was the leading spirit of the constitutional committee, and was appointed secretary of state in the new cabinet.

It was necessary to select an heir to the throne, as Charles XIII was childless, and Prince Christian August of Augustenborg was chosen, much in opposition to the nobles, who wanted the son of Gustavus IV.

The Prince of Augustenborg, who was Danish governor-general of Norway, accepted, and was adopted by the king, changing his name to Charles August.  Beloved by the lower classes who had effected his selection, he was treated coldly by the Gustavian aristocrats, and reports of attempts to poison the heir-apparent were in circulation even before he arrived in Sweden.  Prince Charles August himself said he had often been warned that he would die young of paralysis, but paid no attention to the warnings given him.  During a parade of troops at Qvidinge, in Scania, he was suddenly seen to lose consciousness and dropped dead from his horse.  A report that seemed to favor the supposition that death resulted from poison, threw the populace into a frenzy, and the stoning to death of Count Fersen resulted.  This occurred at the burial of the dead prince, when Count Fersen, as marshal of the realm, opened the procession.  Approaching the church of Riddarholm, his carriage was pelted with stones, Fersen himself seeking shelter in various places, but being pursued by the mob and killed.  Thus perished a man who, with Curt von Stedingk, had received the order of Cincinnatus from the hands of George Washington, and who once was so near saving Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette from their cruel fate.  Fersen’s brother was saved only by mere chance, and his sister by a flight in disguise.