History, Napoleonic Wars

His son and successor, Gustav IV Adolph, was bitterly opposed to Napoleon of France, and in 1805 he joined the Third Coalition against him, composed of Britain, Sweden, Russia, and Austria. Russia deserted the coalition for an alliance with Napoleon in 1807 and a year later invaded Finland, menacing Sweden. Gustav was deposed by an army revolt in 1809. The Riksdag then formulated a new constitution, which remained in force until 1975, and in 1809 elected as king the ex-king’s uncle, Charles XIII. Sweden concluded two treaties, one with Russia in 1809, ceding most of Finland and the Aland Islands, and another with France in 1810, by which a pro-Napoleonic policy was adopted. Charles XIII was childless, and the Riksdag chose Marshal Jean Baptiste Jules Bernadotte, prince of Pontecorvo and one of Napoleon’s generals, as crown prince, in an effort to conciliate Napoleon. The marshal accepted, and an act of settlement, fixing the succession in the Bernadotte dynasty, was enacted in 1810. Bernadotte almost immediately became the dominant influence in Swedish policy. Withdrawing his allegiance from France, he fought with the coalition against Napoleon in 1813 and 1814. In the latter year Denmark was forced to yield Norway to Sweden, receiving in exchange the Swedish possessions in Pomerania. At the end of the Napoleonic Wars, Sweden no longer possessed territory in Germany. The Congress of Vienna, in 1815, recognized the union of Norway with Sweden.