THE KING IS SHOT

THE KING IS SHOT!

On March 16, 1992 Gustav III left Haga to go the Opera. He was in a bad mood, one of his loyal courtsmen had just been found guilty of forgery. The nobility was boycotting the court. The finances of the country were in chaos. The peasants were angry that they were no longer allowed to manufacture their own alcohol. There was a general feeling of unrest in Sweden and cries for a republic were becoming ever louder.

The king ate his supper at the Opera and then changed for the masquerade. He put on a black cape over his normal attire and finished off his costume with a black hat with plumes and a black mask. But he wasn't difficult to recognize since the medals on his breast were clearly discernible.

When he came down to the Opera ballroom, he was surrounded by a group of men and shot in the back. But Gustav III did not die. The Opera was cordoned off and the names of all present were noted.

The assassinator Jacob Johan

Anckarström was arrested already the day after the shooting. He had thrown away the pistol in panic. A pistol dealer in Stockholm identified the pistol as the same one that Anckarström left in for repairs a fortnight earlier.

The king's wounds were deep but not life threatening. But he died two weeks later of an infection.
The very fact that he refused to die right away was a contributing factor to the revolution that never happened. As he lay there in his deathbed in the palace of Stockholm, he talked about all sorts of things but banned four subjects from the conversation: the assassination attempt, the French revolution, the theater and government issues. He knew who the conspirators were and was later informed by the police chief in Stockholm that three thousand members of the nobility knew about the assassination plans.

The most widely accepted motive for the assassination was the revenge of a nobility that had been stripped of its powers. But the three ringleaders Anckarström, Ribbing and Horn also had personal motives.

It was only Anckarström who was executed. The other two ringleaders were considered to be given light sentences. Claes Horn and Adolf Ribbing were served with life-time exiles.