Armfelt Conspiracy

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Gustaf Mauritz Armfelt by Wertmüller
Magdalena Charlotta Rudenschöld

The Armfelt Conspiracy was a plot in

Gustav III of Sweden
. The conspiracy was discovered and prevented in 1793.

Background

King

Charles XIII when he succeeded Gustav IV in 1809) was named regent, with the Privy Council to advise him. On his deathbed, King Gustav III had also committed the care of his son to Gustaf Mauritz Armfelt and appointed him a member of the Privy Council and Governor of Stockholm.[1]

Soon after the murder of Gustav III, Gustaf Adolf Reuterholm was recalled from his exile by Duke Charles and made president of the Kammarrevisionen (a forerunner of the Administrative court of appeal). Reuterholm had been implicated in the failed 1789 Conspiracy to depose Gustav III and replace him with Charles, and in 1792 he became the de facto ruler of Sweden through his advice to Duke Charles. The "Gustavians" of the regency and the wider government, those still loyal to Gustav III and his policies, were systematically pushed to the side by Reuterholm.[1]

Armfelt was removed from the position as Governor of Stockholm and Reuterholm had him named Swedish minister to Italian courts in 1792, which was a convenient way to remove him from the political action in Stockholm.[1]

The conspiracy

Armfelt was resentful of his de facto exile and was of the opinion that the conduct of the regency contravened the last will of Gustav III. From his residence in Naples he tried to engineer the fall of Reuterholms rule using his many acquaintances in high positions.[1] His agents in Sweden were actively involved in his plots, notably his lover Magdalena Rudenschöld.[2]

Many of his proposed plans were fanciful. One plan was to have

Catherine II of Russia interfere by having a Russian naval force make a demonstration of force outside Stockholm and making political demands. This plan did not receive support at a sufficiently high level in Catherine's court, but Reuterholm's spies in Italy intercepted some of Armfelt's letters.[1]

The intercepted letters provided evidence of treason. Rudenschöld, the former Royal Secretary Johan Albrecht Ehrenström and some others were arrested 18 December 1793. A Swedish warship was sent all the way to Naples with orders to the crew to arrest Armfelt and bring him to trial in Stockholm. His protectors at the court of Naples managed to save him from arrest at the last moment but in February 1794 he had to flee from Italy to Russia. Catherine II was unwilling to support Armfelt in any way, at least not in her capital, so he was sent to the distant town of Kaluga with his family.[1]

Armfelt was convicted in his absence by Svea Court of Appeal on 22 July 1794 to forfeit his life, all honours and possessions, guilty of planning an armed coup.[1] Rudenschöld and Ehrenström were also sentenced to death, and when the case reached the Supreme Court of Sweden, Johan Fredrik Aminoff was also sentenced to death. However, Duke Charles commuted all but Armfelt's death sentences to prison sentences.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g "Armfelt, Gustaf Mauritz". Biografiskt lexikon för Finland (in Swedish). Retrieved 2023-09-10.
  2. ^ Hedvig Elisabeth Charlotta (1920) [1793-1794]. af Klercker, Cecilia, ed. Hedvig Elisabeth Charlottas dagbok. IV 1793-1794. Översatt av Cecilia af Klercker. Stockholm: P.A. Norstedt & Söners förlag


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