Adolf Frederick of Sweden

Biography

Adolf Frederick was born at Gottorf Castle in Schleswig in 1710, a younger son of a junior branch of the House of Holstein-Gottorp; through his mother he descended from earlier Swedish kings. From 1727 to 1750 he was prince-bishop of Lübeck, ruling a small territory around Eutin, and from 1739 he also administered Holstein-Kiel for his young cousin, the future Peter III of Russia.

In 1743 the Hat party in the Swedish Riksdag had him chosen heir to the throne, hoping to win better peace terms from Empress Elizabeth of Russia. In 1744 he married Louisa Ulrika of Prussia, sister of Frederick the Great. He succeeded Frederick I on 25 March 1751 and was crowned that November, the first Swedish king of the Holstein-Gottorp line.

Under the constitution of the Age of Liberty real power lay with the Riksdag and its rival Hat and Cap parties, and the king was largely a figurehead. Urged on by his queen, he was drawn into the failed royalist coup attempt of 1756, which nearly cost him the throne. In the December Crisis of 1768, guided by his son Gustav, he refused to sign state papers and threatened to abdicate, forcing the Riksdag to be summoned, but he gained little from it. His reign also saw the Caps' reforms of 1765-1766, including a pioneering press freedom act.

Adolf Frederick died suddenly in Stockholm on 12 February 1771. His son succeeded him as Gustav III and restored royal absolutism by a coup the following year.