In 1792, at a masked ball in Stockholm Opera House, the king was shot by an assassin hired by the disaffected aristocracy. Gustav died two weeks later and was succeeded by his son Gustav IV, the country led by a regency for the years of his minority. The wars waged by revolutionary France were at first studiously avoided in Sweden but, pulled into the conflict by the British, Gustav IV entered the Napoleonic Wars in 1805. However, Napoleon's victory at Austerlitz two years later broke the coalition and Sweden found itself isolated. Attacked by Russia the following year, Gustav was later arrested and deposed, his uncle elected king. A constitution of 1809 established a liberal monarchy in Sweden, responsible to the elected Riksdag. Under this constitution Karl XIII was a mere caretaker, his heir a Danish prince who would bring Norway back to Sweden some compensation for finally losing Finland and the Aland Islands to Russia (1809) after 500 years of Swedish rule. On the prince's sudden death, however, IVIarshal Bernadotte (one of Napoleon's generals) was invited to become heir. Taking the name of Karl Johan, he took his chance in 1812 and joined Britain and Russia to fight Napoleon. Following Napoleon's first defeat at the Battle of Leipzig in 1813, Sweden compelled Denmark (France's ally) to exchange Norway for Swedish Pomerania. By 1814 Sweden and Norway had formed an uneasy union. Norway retained its own government and certain autonomous measures. Sweden decided foreign policy, appointed a viceroy and retained a suspensive (but not absolute) veto over the Norwegian parliament's legislation. The nineteenth century Union under Karl Johan, or Karl XIV as he became in 1818, could have been disastrous. He spoke no Swedish and just a few years previously had never visited either kingdom. However, under Karl and his successor Oscar I, prosperity ensued. The Gota Canal (1832) helped commercially, and liberal measures by both monarchs helped politically. In 1845 daughters were given an equal right of inheritance. A Poor Law was introduced in 1847, restrictive craft guilds reformed, and an Education Act passed. The 1848 revolution throughout Europe cooled Oscar's reforming ardour, and his attention turned to reviving Scandinavianism. It was still a hope, in certain quarters, that closer cooperation between Denmark and Sweden Norway could lead to some sort of revived Kalmar Union. Expectations were raised with the Crimean War of 1854: Russia could be neutralised as a future threat. But peace was declared too quickly (at least for Sweden) and there was still no real guarantee that Sweden would be sufficiently protected from Russia in the future. With Oscar's death, talk of political union faded. His son Karl XV presided over a reform of the Riksdag that put an end to the Swedish system of personal monarchy. The Four Estates were replaced by a representative twohouse parliament along European lines.