Louisa Ulrika of Prussia - Queen Dowager

Queen Dowager

In 1771, the king died and she became a Dowager Queen. Louisa Ulrika was at the death of the king immensely unpopular in Sweden: when the news of the king's death reached her son, the new king Gustav III of Sweden, who was then in Paris, he wrote that the Queen Dowager be protected, as "I know how little loved my mother is".

In 1772, her son the new king succeeded where she had failed in 1756 by overthrowing the democracy and reinstating absolute monarchy, His revolution was a great satisfaction to her. Louisa Ulrika wrote to Gustav III to gratulate him to the coup upon which she said: "Yes, you are my son, and you deserve to be" At the time of the coup, she was in Berlin with her daughter. She was present in Swedish Pomerania when the Province gave their allegiance to the new constitution. When her brother the king of Prussia told her that the neighboring countries would now attack Sweden, she wrote to him that she would defend the province of Pomerania against him with her own blood

Louisa Ulrika could, however, never settle with the position of queen dowager. She had expected to be the real ruler behind the throne, and when her son made it clear that he would rule independently from her, their relationship worsened. In 1772, he prevented her plans to marry off her second son Charles to Philippine of Brandenburg-Schwedt, and in 1774, Charles was married to Hedwig Elizabeth Charlotte of Holstein-Gottorp instead. Gustav III paid her debts with the condition that she established her own separate court at Fredrikshof Palace. In 1777, she was forced to sell Drottningholm Palace to her son Gustav. She did not get along with either of her daughters-in-law, calling Sophia Magdalena of Denmark "cold and shy" and Hedwig Elizabeth Charlotte of Holstein-Gottorp "flirtatious."

In 1777-78, the conflict with her ruling son erupted and she was a central figure in the great succession scandal regarding the legitimacy of the crown prince. In 1777, her two younger sons, Charles and Frederick Adolf, visited her. They claimed all women at court had lovers, and that with the exception of their mother, they could not think of even one who did not. Louisa Ulrika suggested that they make another exception: surely the queen must also be an exception? In reply, her sons laughed and asked her if she had not heard of the rumors that Sophia Magdalena had an affair with Fredrik Munck. She became very upset and ordered prince Charles to investigate if this where true, as his inheritance to the throne would be endangered by "the common offspred of a common nobleman". Charles talked to Munck, Munck talked to king Gustav, Gustav talked to Charles who claimed the whole thing was the fault of the queen dowager, which resulted in a great conflict between mother and son. When the son of the king was born in 1778, rumours pointed out him as the son of Munck. Louisa Ulrika accused the king of having another man father his child. A great scandal erupted, during which the king even threatened to exile her to Pomerania. In the following conflict, her youngest children, Sofia Albertina and Frederick, who had always been her favourites, took her side against the king. Louisa Ulrika was forced to make a formal statement, during which she withdrew her accusation. The statement was signed by the entire adult royal family except the royal couple; two princes, the princess, the Duchess, and six members of parliament. The relationship with Gustav was not repaired until her death bed.