Gustav III's bloodless seizure of power
- When
- 19 August 1772
- Where
- Stockholm, site of the coup
- Part of
- Swedish Coup of 1772
Gustav III executed a bloodless coup on 19 August 1772, making himself master of the Riksdag and council.
On 19 August 1772 King Gustav III carried out his coup d'état in Stockholm without a drop of blood being shed, gaining mastery over both the Riksdag of the Estates and the council. The event is known as the Revolution of 1772, the Bloodless Revolution, or the Coup of Gustav III. Days earlier, collaborators had secured key positions: Toll won the fortress of Kristianstad by sheer bluff on 6 August, and on 16 August Sprengtporten surprised Sveaborg, though contrary winds prevented him from crossing to Stockholm. That same day the Cap leader Ture Rudbeck arrived with news of the southern insurrection, leaving Gustav isolated among enemies before he acted.
Sources
- Revolution of 1772 Wikipedia, revision of 2026-08-22
- Gustav III Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-30
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.