Gustav, the son of Swedish King Adolf Frederick, is in Paris, where he carries both the court and the city by storm, from February 4 to March 25, 1771.

The poets and the philosophers pay him enthusiastic homage, and distinguished women testify to his superlative merits.

With many of them he will maintain a lifelong correspondence.

His visit to the French capital is, however, no mere pleasure trip; it is also a political mission.

Confidential agents from the Swedish court had already prepared the way for him, and the Duke of Choiseul, the retired Chief Minister, resolves to discuss with him the best method of bringing about a revolution in France's ally, Sweden.

Before he departs, the French government undertakes to pay the outstanding subsidies to Sweden unconditionally, at the rate of one and a half million livres annually.

Count de Vergennes, one of the most prominent French diplomats, is transferred from Constantinople to Stockholm.

On his way home, Gustav pays a short visit to his uncle, Frederick the Great, at Potsdam.

Frederick bluntly informs his nephew that, in concert with Russia and Denmark, he has guaranteed the integrity of the existing Swedish constitution; he advises the young monarch to play the part of mediator and abstain from violence.

Gustav had first intervened actively in politics during the December Crisis (1768), when he compelled the dominant Cap faction, which mainly represents the interests of the peasantry and clergy, to summon an extraordinary diet from which he hoped for the reform of the constitution in way that would increase the power of the crown, but the victorious Hat party, which mainly represents the interests of the aristocracy and military establishment, refuses to redeem the pledges that they had given before the previous elections.  

Gustav has found greater success abroad.