Axel von Fersen the Younger
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Count Hans Axel von Fersen (September 4, 1755 - June 20, 1810) was a Swedish soldier, diplomat and statesman.
He was the son of the statesman Fredrik Axel von Fersen and grandson of General Hans Reinhold Fersen. He was carefully educated at home, at the Carolinum at Brunswick and at Turin. In 1779 he entered the French military service Royal-Bavière, accompanied General Rochambeau to America as his adjutant, served as interpreter between him and General Washington, distinguished himself during the war with England, notably at the siege of Yorktown, 1781, and in 1785 was promoted to be colonel proprietaire of the regiment Royal Suédois. He is famous as a lover and had affairs with women such as Marie-Angelique Diderot (daughter of Denis Diderot) and Hedwig Elizabeth Charlotte, married to the future King Charles XIII of Sweden.
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[edit] Fersen's relationship with Marie Antoinette
The young nobleman was, from the first, a prime favourite at the French court, owing partly to the recollection of his father's devotion to France, but principally because of his own amiable and brilliant qualities. Queen Marie Antoinette, who had first met Fersen when they both were age 18 (not 16) was especially attracted by the grace and wit of "le beau" Fersen, who had inherited his full share of the striking handsomeness which was hereditary in the family. It is possible that Fersen would have spent most of his life at Versailles, but for a hint from his own sovereign, then at Pisa, that he desired him to join his suite. Fersen accompanied Gustav III of Sweden in his Italian tour and returned home with him in 1784.
In 1785 Marie Antoinette would give birth to Louis-Charles, the first titular Duke of Normandy in centuries. Afterwards Louis XVI wrote in his journal that it had happened just as when "his own son" had been born. Some have claimed that Louis-Charles, later dauphin of France, was the biological child of Marie Antoinette and Fersen. However, this is extremely unlikely. Some have claimed that Louis XVI actually meant when "his first son" was born. Secondly, little Louis XVII was noted to resemble two members of the Bourbon family: his paternal uncle Charles X (Louis XVI's youngest brother) and his late grandmother, Princess Maria-Josefa (Louis XVI's mother). The claim that Fersen was the biological father of Louis XVII has been discounted by the child's recent biographer, Deborah Cadbury, and by Marie-Antoinette's biographer Antonia Fraser. The question of this is answerable today through DNA analysis but no one as yet has undertaken to do this as they did with the Russian Family.
When the war with Russia broke out, in 1788, Fersen accompanied his regiment to Finland, but in the autumn of the same year was sent to France, where the political horizon was already darkening. It was necessary for Gustav III to have an agent thoroughly in the confidence of the French royal family, and, at the same time, sufficiently able and audacious to help them in their desperate straits, especially as he had lost all confidence in his accredited minister, the baron de Stael. With his usual acumen, he fixed upon Fersen, who was at his post early in 1790. Before the end of the year he was forced to admit that the cause of the French monarchy was hopeless so long as the king and queen of France were nothing but captives in their own capital, at the mercy of an irresponsible mob.
He had the leading role in the flight to Varennes. He found most of the requisite funds at the last moment. He ordered the construction of the famous carriage for six, in the name of the baroness von Korff, and kept it in his hotel grounds, rue Matignon, that all Paris might get accustomed to the sight of it. He was the coachman of the fiacre which drove the royal family from the Carrousel to the Porte Saint-Martin. He accompanied them to Bondy, the first stage of their journey.
[edit] Politics
In August 1791, Fersen was sent to Vienna to induce the emperor Leopold to accede to a new coalition against revolutionary France, but he soon came to the conclusion that the Austrian court meant to do nothing at all. At his own request, therefore, he was transferred to Brussels, where he could be of more service to the queen of France. In February 1792, at his own mortal peril, he once more succeeded in reaching Paris with counterfeit credentials as minister plenipotentiary to Portugal. On the 13th he arrived, and the same evening contrived to steal an interview with the queen unobserved. On the following day he was with the royal family from six o'clock in the evening till six o'clock the next morning, and convinced himself that a second flight was physically impossible. On the afternoon of the 21st he succeeded in paying a third visit to the Tuileries, stayed there till midnight and succeeded, with great difficulty, in reaching Brussels on the 27th. This perilous expedition, a monumental instance of courage and loyalty, had no substantial result. In 1797 Fersen was sent to the Second Congress of Rastatt as the Swedish delegate, but in consequence of a protest from the French government, was not permitted to take part in it.
During this congress it is told that Napoléon simply called him Monsieur, neglecting the fact that he was an appointed ambassador, a Count, and one of the Lords of the Realm of Sweden (en av Rikets Herrar). Napoléon in turn was said to have told by Fersen that Fersen might as well call Napoleon a deserter for leaving his regiment back in 1791 (the Royal Suédois), and he would never discuss anything with a person who had had an affair with the widow Capet (Marie Antoinette). Fersen is said to have left the congress and Napoléon in rage.
During the regency of the Duke Charles of Sudermannia (1792-1796) Fersen, like all the other Gustavians, was in disgrace; but, on Gustav IV attaining his majority in 1796, he was welcomed back to court with open arms, and reinstated in all his offices and dignities. In 1801 he was appointed Riksmarskalk, or Earl Marshal. On the outbreak of the war with Napoleon, Fersen accompanied Gustav IV to Germany to assist him in gaining fresh allies. He prevented Gustav from invading Prussia in revenge for the refusal of the king of Prussia to declare war against France, and during the rest of the reign was in semi disgrace, though generally a member of the government when the king was abroad.
[edit] Death of Prince Carl August
Fersen stood quite aloof from the revolution of 1809. His sympathies were entirely with Prince Gustavus, son of the unfortunate Gustav IV, and he was generally credited with the desire to see him king. When the newly elected successor to the throne, the highly popular prince Carl August of Augustenburg, died suddenly in Scania in May 1810, the report spread that he had been poisoned, and that Fersen and his sister, the countess Piper, were accessories. The source of these accusations has never been discovered. But it was eagerly taken up by the anti-Gustavian press, and popular suspicion was especially aroused by a fable called 'The Foxes' directed against the Fersens, which appeared in Nya Posten. When, then, on June 20, 1810, the prince's body was conveyed to Stockholm, and Fersen, in his official capacity as Marshal of the Realm (Swedish: Riksmarskalk), received it at the barrier and led the funeral cortege into the city, his fine carriage and his splendid robes seemed to the people an open derision of the general grief. The crowd began to murmur and presently to fling stones and cry "murderer!" He sought refuge in a house in the Riddarhus Square, but the mob rushed after him, brutally maltreated him and tore his robes to pieces. At this time the Royal Life Guards stood in formation on the square, started to form a square around von Fersen, but the commanding officer gave the order "För fot gevär!" (English: Attention! Rifles by the foot). To quiet the people and save the unhappy victim, two officers volunteered to conduct him to the senate house and there place him in arrest. But he had no sooner mounted the steps leading to the entrance than the crowd, which had followed him all the way beating him with sticks and umbrellas, made a rush at him, knocked him down, and kicked and trampled him to death. The riot, which lasted more than an hour, happened, too, in the presence of numerous troops, drawn up in the Riddarhus Square, who made not the slightest effort to rescue the Marshal of the Realm from his tormentors. In the circumstances, one must adopt the opinion of Fersen's contemporary, Baron Gustaf Armfelt, "One is almost tempted to say that the government wanted to give the people a victim to play with, just as when one throws something to an irritated wild beast to distract its attention. The more I consider it all, the more I am certain that the mob had the least to do with it. . . . But in God's name what were the troops about? How could such a thing happen in broad daylight during a procession, when troops and a military escort were actually present?" The responsibility certainly rests with the government of Charles XIII of Sweden, which apparently intended to intimidate the Gustavians by the removal of one of their principal leaders. He said: "Det skadar inte om den förnäma herren får lite smuts i sin vagn." (English: "It won't hurt if the distinguished man gets some dirt in his carriage"). Armfelt escaped in time, so Fersen fell victim.
[edit] Aftermath
Axel von Fersen died that day in Stockholm in front of the Riddarholm Church, being Sweden’s most highly ranking official next to the King. His death sent shockwaves thorough the country. The cause of death was determined to be "crushing of the ribcage" which he sustained by the possible sailor Otto Johan (John) Tandefelt, who was jumping with both his feet together on Fersen's chest.
A few months after the murder Axel von Fersen and his family are cleared of any suspicion connected with the death of Carl August of Augustenburg, and he finally receives a state burial with all pomp and ceremonies. His sister Sofie Piper retreats from Stockholm after this incident to the family’s palace in Löfstad, southeast of Norrköping. Here she raises a memorial to her brother, which states:
Åt en oförgätlig broder, mannamodet uti hans sista stunder den 20 juni 1810 vittna om hans dygder och sinnes lugn (English: "To an unforgettable brother, the courage in his last moments on the 20th of June 1810, bears testimony to his virtues and clean conscience")
[edit] References & Further Reading
- The Fatal Friendship by Stanley Loomis ISBN 0-931933-33-1
