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CHARLES XIII. (1748-1818), king of Sweden
and Norway, the second son of Adolphus Frederick, king of Sweden, and Louisa
Ulrica, sister of Frederick the Great, was horn at Stock holm on the 7th of
October 1748. In 1772 he co-operated in the revolutionary plans of his brother
Gustavus III. (q.v.). On the outbreak of the Russo-Swedish War of 1788
he served with distinction as admiral of the fleet, especially at the battles
of Hogland (June '7, 1788) and Oland (July 26, 1789). On the latter
occasion he would have won a signal victory but for the unaccountable
remissness of his second-in-command, Admiral Liljehorn. On the death of
Gustavus III., Charles, now duke of Sudermania, acted as regent of Sweden till
1796; but the real ruler of the country was the narrow-minded and vindictive
Gustaf Adolf Reuterholm (q.v.), whose mischievous influence over him was
supreme. These four years were perhaps the most miserable and degrading in
Swedish histbry (an age of lead succeeding an age of gold, as it has well been
called) and may be briefly described as alternations of fantastic jacobinism
and ruthless despotism. On the accession of Gustavus IV. (November 1796), the
duke became a mere cipher in politics till the 13th of March 1809, when those
who had dethroned Gustavus IV. appointed him regent, and finally elected him
king. But by this time he was prematurely decrepit, and Bernadotte (see CHARLES
XIV.) took over the government as soon as he landed in Sweden (1810). By the
union of 1814 Charles became the first king of Sweden and Norway. He married
his cousin Hedwig Elizabeth Charlotte of Holstein-Gottorp (1759-1818), but
their only child, Carl Adolf, duke of Vermland, died in infancy (1 798).
Charles XIII., who for eight years had been king only in title, died on the 5th
of February 1818.
See Sveri~es Historia vol. v. (Stockholm, 1884); Drouning
Hedwig Charlottes Dagbokshandteekningar (Stockholm, 1898); Robert Nisbet
Bain, Gustavus IlL and his Contemporaries (London, 1895); it.
Scandinavia (Cambridge, 1905). (R. N. B.)
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