Page 11 - Axel von Fersen v2

The Story
Story continued:
Being able to escape the mob, the royal family is detained in their Parisian palace under Lafayette’s watch. When Fersen, now head of a regiment in eastern France, gets the news he sets off to Paris to save his beloved Marie Antoinette.
Fersen successfully brings the family out of the capital but when he is supposed to bring them to the border, Louis XVI refuses. His wife’s lover can’t be the hero of this historic moment. When Fersen says goodbye and sets off to his new residence in Bruxelles, the history of Europe changes for all time. The escape, the Flight to Varennes, is a failure and the royal family is escorted back to Paris and later executed.
Fersen’s mourning is soon interrupted, the Swedish king Gustav III, wants his services but the assignment is short-lived when the king is killed at an opera ball in Stockholm. Fersen becomes loyal to the new king, Gustav IV Adolf, at a time when revolutionary tendencies are spreading all over Europe and where a new French leader, Napoleon Bonaparte, dictates the arena. Gradually the king shows severe signs of megalomania and declares, against Fersen’s advice, war on France. Sweden loses major territories and Fersen becomes a scapegoat for the disastrous consequences. Gustav IV Adolf is exiled and a temporary king is installed, Duke Karl, the brother of Gustav III. Karl has no heirs and the man chosen to find his successor is the most loyal supporter to the royal crown, Fersen. A task that accidentally makes him the most hated man in Sweden.