Gustav IV Adolf

Tournaments and hastiludes at Drottningholm 1799 and 1800

The last of the Gustavian hastiludes were arranged by King Gustav IV Adolf and were inspired by his father's tournament in Adolf Fredriks Torg in 1777, though less money was spent on them. Once again, letters of challenge and tournament programmes were printed for the occasion. The 1799 challenge letter was written by the poet C.G. Leopold. Much the same equipment was used as for the tournaments of Gustav III.

Many of the suits of armour were stripped off and re-painted; coats of arms no longer needed to be painted as decoration, now that the knights wore wide silk sashes across their chest. The scenery painter I. Kastberg was engaged to paint newly made silk banners and shields. The crest of the helmets were done by Professor J.B. Masreliez. As in the tournaments of Gustav III, the knights appeared both in armour and in more casual dress. Seven "buff" coats of coarse yellow woollen cloth, accompanied by high, round hats of black felt, are still extant. The young king himself led the challengers (les tenants), wearing Gustav III's slightly modified and elongated armour, while les venants were led by the Master of the Horse, Count David Frölich.

Gustav IV Adolf's hastiludes, like so many before them, suffered numerous setbacks. An epidemic of measels broke out, several people were wounded by pistols which had carelessly been loaded with scrap metal, and a crowded grandstand collapsed.

After Gustav IV Adolf's chivalrous exercises at Drottningholm, parts of the Gustavian panoply of chivalry came to be used once more, namely in 1894 at Lindarängen, Stockholm, when officers of the Svea Regiment of Artillery put on a tournament which, according to the printed programme, was a pageant of the time of Erik XIV (i.e. the 16th century).