Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - XVI. Reign of Gustavus III, 1771–1792 - A. The Coup d’Etat of 1772
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Gustavus HI and the Estates 281
prived of his crown ? The gates were opened, the king
appeared, mounted and with drawn sword, followed
by the guard. The people’s anxiety was changed to joy
and cheering. Wherever the king rode forth, through-
out the capital, to receive the oath of loyalty from sol-
diers and officers, the people crowded around him with
shouts of "Live the King !" The same shouts came from
the ships in the harbors. The king tied a white band,
as a badge, around his arm. In a short time the white
band was around the arm of every person in the city.
Wherever the king’s proclamation to save the land
from party strife was read, shouts of applause were
heard. It was not simply a revolution; it was a cele-
bration.
The Meeting of the Estates. Two days later the Es-
tates met on call of the king. Gustavus entered the
hall and from the throne addressed the Estates as fol-
lows : "Filled with deep anxiety over the condition of
the country, and constrained to exhibit the truth in its
full light, when the kingdom is at the brink of destruc-
tion, it is not to be wondered at that today I am unable
to receive you with feelings of gladness. For a long
time the country has been rent in twain by party
strife, divided, as it were, into twr
o peoples, the parties
united only in tearing the unhappy land to pieces. To
strengthen itself has been the only aim of the ruling
party. Nothing has been sacred to a party animated
by a feeling of hate and revenge. Thus has liberty, the
noblest of man’s rights, been converted into an intoler-
able despotism in the hands of each ruling party. If
the domestic affairs of the country are in a perilous
condition, how terrible are its foreign relations ! I am
A History of Sweden. 19.
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