Axel von Fersen the Younger

Hans Axel von Fersen was born in 1755 in Sweden to a famous statesman of a father.  Fersen had a privileged upbringing and was quick to learn a multitude of languages.  In his early years he would tour Europe completing his education at various colleges.  He would journey to France for the first time in 1774 meeting King Louis XV and also Marie Antoinette and the Dauphin Louis.  After the King’s death and Louis XVI coronation Fersen would again visit the court where Marie Antoinette  would apparently recognise him.  Rumours swirled that the Queen and the Swede began an affair.  He would depart France as an aide to General Rochambeau to fight in the American War of Independence against the British. He would meet with many of the key players in the Revolution including George Washington and Marshall Lafayette. He would be given several honours.  He would once again visit Versailles alongside his King Gustavus III who complete a Treaty with France.  He would spend  the years after the War of  Independence shuttling  between Sweden and France finding the time to buy Marie Antoinette a dog named Odin.

When the Revolution broke out Fersen continued to spend time in France  supporting Marie Antoinette.  He would witness the King and Queen being forcibly removed from Versailles and taken to Paris.  He would become more concerned with the treatment of the Royal Family and began to plan for some kind of escape.  It was Fersen who drove the Berline out of Paris carrying the Royal family he hoped to freedom.  He departed from them believing that he would see them later in safety.  The flight however would end in capture at the town of Varennes.  When evidence emerged of Fersen’s involvement in the plot an arrest warrant was issued and he was forced to flee the country.

Fersen spent his time entreating the monarchs of Europe to declare war on France. He also conspired to help the King and Queen escape from France.  His plans would come to nothing as the King became increasingly cautious. The Tuileries Palace was eventually raided by a mob and the monarchy finally abolished.  The King would be executed as would Marie Antoinette and Fersen was only able to plot impotently across the border.

Fersen would return to Sweden where he was implicated in the death of the Crown Prince in 1810.  He was set upon by an angry mob and beaten to death.  He would later be cleared of any involvement in the death of the Crown Prince.

Madam De La Tour Du Pin on the Flight to Varennes. Escape from the Terror The Journal of Madam De La Tour Du Pin, The Folio Society, London (1979) p128

I will not describe here the the details of the unfortunate flight, so clumsily organised.  Memoirs of the day have described it in all its aspects.  But what I did learn from Charles de Damas was that, at the moment of the arrest, he has asked the Queen to let him take the Dauphin up on his horse, that he could in this way have saved him, but that the Queen would not consent.  Unhappy Princess, mistrustful of even the most faithful among her servants!

Before the King left Paris, it had been suggested to him that it might be better to take two trustworthy young men used to riding post, rather than the two soldiers of the Garde du Corps who did, in the event, accompany him and who had never ridden anything but troop horses.  The king refused.  The entire flight, organised by M. de Fersen, who was a fool, was a succession of blunders and imprudences.

Count Fersen (Swedish diplomat and close friend of Marie Antoinette) reports on the death of Madam de Lamballe. Taken from Madame De Lamballe by Georges Bertin, Godfrey A. S. Wieners, New York (1901) p291

Madame la Princesse de Lamballe has been tortured most horribly for four hours. My pen refuses to write the details. They tore out her entrails with their teeth and afterwards gave her every possible restorative for two hours to resuscitate her that she might more fully realise the torture of death.