Gustav of Sweden (Wasa)

Gustav von Wasa, lithograph by Josef Kriehuber , around 1830

Gustav Wasa, 1862.

Gustav von Holstein-Gottorp, Prince of Sweden , from 1829 Gustav Prince von Wasa (born November 9, 1799 in Stockholm , Sweden , † August 4, 1877 in Pillnitz ) was an exiled Swedish prince and Austrian field marshal lieutenant . Since he was not allowed to call himself “Prince of Sweden” as a member of a deposed dynasty, he named himself Wasa after the extinct old Swedish royal house .

Life

Gustav was the eldest son of Gustav IV Adolf von Holstein-Gottorp, King of Sweden, and his wife, Princess Friederike Dorothea Wilhelmine von Baden . Gustav's father was deposed on March 13, 1809 and has since lived in exile in Switzerland as "Colonel Gustafson". Even the prince had to leave his homeland as a boy and was brought up in Karlsruhe, where his mother was from. Eventually he and his sisters found refuge in Vienna. In 1825 he joined the Imperial and Royal Army. This made him one of the very few Swedes who ever worked in Austria. Since 1820 he was an honorary member ( Honorary Fellow ) of the Royal Society of Edinburgh .

As a member of a royal family, albeit deposed, he immediately began his career as a lieutenant colonel in the kk Uhlan Regiment No. 4 . Two years later he was already a colonel in the Imperial and Royal Infantry Regiment No. 60. In 1828 he was appointed commander of the grenadier battalion of the Imperial and Royal Infantry Regiment No. 2. In 1829 he was promoted to major general and appointed commander of a brigade stationed in Vienna. During these years there were rumors in Vienna that Gustav had had an affair with Archduchess Sophie and that he was the biological father of her two sons Franz Joseph and Ferdinand Maximilian .

On November 9, 1830, he married his cousin, Princess Luise Amelie Stephanie von Baden , the daughter of Grand Duke Karl Ludwig Friedrich von Baden and Stéphanie Louise Adrienne de Beauharnais , Countess von Beauharnais, in Karlsruhe . An engagement to Marianne von Oranien-Nassau , which had already entered into in 1828 , was dissolved again in 1829, despite the mutual affection of the betrothed, because the son of a dethroned king was considered inappropriate. In 1831 he became the owner of the Prince of Wasa No. 60 infantry regiment. In 1836 he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Field Marshal. For the next twelve years he was in command of the Vienna division. In December 1848 he was given a permanent leave of absence and has since lived in seclusion in Vienna.

Half a century after his exile, he was given permission to visit his old homeland, Sweden, for the first time. On the way back he died in August 1877 at the age of 77 with his daughter in Pillnitz in Saxony.

In Vienna, the Wasagasse in the 9th district of Alsergrund , where his palace was located, commemorates Gustav of Sweden ; the former Wasagasse in the 13th district of Hietzing , in which his Hackinger Schlösschen was located, was renamed Seuttergasse in 1894 .

ancestors

Adolf Friedrich King of Sweden (1710–1771)

Gustav III King of Sweden (1746–1792)

Luise Ulrike of Prussia (1720–1782)

Gustav IV Adolf King of Sweden (1778–1837)

Frederick V King of Denmark (1723–1766)

Sophie Magdalene of Denmark (1746–1813)

Louise of Great Britain (1724–1751)

Gustav of Sweden (Wasa)

Karl Friedrich Grand Duke of Baden (1728–1811)

Karl Ludwig von Baden (1755–1801)

Karoline Luise of Hessen-Darmstadt (1723–1783)

Friederike von Baden (1781–1826)

Louis IX of Hessen-Darmstadt (1719–1790)

Amalie of Hessen-Darmstadt (1754–1832)

Caroline of Pfalz-Zweibrücken (1721–1774)

progeny

• Louis (* / † 1832)
• Carola (1833–1907) - married to King Albert I of Saxony

literature

• Felix Czeike : Historical Lexicon Vienna . 5 volumes, Vienna 1992 ff.

Web links

Commons : Gustav of Sweden (Wasa)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ^ Fellows Directory. Biographical Index: Former RSE Fellows 1783–2002. (PDF file) Royal Society of Edinburgh, accessed on April 18, 2020 (here: Gustavus Vasa, Count Itterburg).