Shocking Marriage Details from History that Really Take the Cake

Marie Antoinette’s Lover Was Lynched by a Street Mob

Marie Antoinette’s lover eventually regained favor at the Swedish court, and was sent as an envoy to France, where he met Napoleon Bonaparte in 1797. Napoleon recalled the count’s efforts against the Revolution and on behalf of the executed French king and queen. As von Fersen recounted, Napoleon: “remarked that the Court of Sweden seemed to take a pleasure in sending agents and ambassadors who were personally disagreeable to every French citizen“. When he returned to Sweden, the count was alarmed by a rise in popular sympathy for revolutionary France. In 1801, he became Marshal of the Realm, Sweden’s highest court official. From that position, he did all he could to halt the spread of revolution to his country. In 1809, a coup deposed Sweden’s King Gustav IV Adolf, and replaced him with his uncle, Charles XIII. A dispute then erupted over who should succeed Charles.

Von Fersen backed a faction that supported the deposed king’s son, Gustav, Prince of Vasa. They opposed the popular Charles August, who was adopted by Charles XIII and became Crown Prince, or heir to the throne. However, Charles fell off his horse in 1810, had a stroke, and died. Rumors spread that he was poisoned, and von Fersen became a prime suspect. On June 10^th, as Marshal of the Realm, he rode in a carriage at the head of the Crown Prince’s funeral procession. He was attacked by a mob as soon as he reached Stockholm. The crowd dragged von Fersen out of the carriage, and the funeral’s armed military escort did not intervene. He broke free and ran into a nearby house, but the mob followed and dragged him back out into the street, where it beat him to death.

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Where Did We Find This Stuff? Some Sources and Further Reading

All That Is Interesting – That Time Jerry Lee Lewis Married Myra Gale Brown – His 13-Year-Old Cousin

Ars Orientalis, Vol. 39, 2010 – Eighteenth Century Ottoman Princesses as Collectors: Chinese and European Porcelains in the Topkapi Palace Museum

Barton, Hildor Arnold – Scandinavia in the Revolutionary Era: 1760 – 1815 (1986)

Binyon, Timothy John – Pushkin: A Biography (2007)

British Heritage Travel – Did Mary Queen of Scots Kill Her Husband Lord Darnley?

Daily Beast – Marie Antoinette’s Adultery Unmasked by Modern Science

Delamere Manor – The Five Most Expensive Weddings of All Time

Encyclopedia Britannica – Hans Axel von Fersen

Fersen, Hans Axel – Diary and Correspondence of Count Axel Fersen, Grand Marshal of Sweden, Relating to the Court of France (1902)

Fraser, Antonia – Marie Antoinette: The Journey (2001)