Did King Adolf Frederick Really Eat Himself to Death?

2 hours ago
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Most kings get remembered for wars, conquests, or at least one decent piece of legislation. King Adolf Frederick of Sweden managed none of that. Instead, he's gone down in history as the monarch who sat down to dinner on February 12, 1771, and simply didn't survive it. The story, as it's usually told, involves lobster, caviar, sauerkraut, kippers, champagne, and then, because apparently all of that wasn't enough, fourteen cream-filled sweet buns. If you're wondering whether a person can actually eat themselves to death, Adolf Frederick is the man historians trot out as evidence that yes, technically, maybe.

The truth, as ever, is a bit more complicated. But it's also somehow funnier.

A King Who Was Mostly Decorative

Adolf Frederick ruled Sweden from 1751 until his death in 1771, which sounds impressive until you learn that he was essentially a constitutional figurehead with very little actual power. The Riksdag, Sweden's parliament, ran the country. Adolf Frederick tried to seize more control on at least two occasions and failed both times. What he did have was an excellent appetite and, by all accounts, a sweet tooth that bordered on the professionally committed.

His health, it should be noted, was already poor before the famous meal. Throughout his reign he suffered from persistent headaches, migraines, stomach cramps, colic, haemorrhoids, and what Swedish royal physicians delicately recorded as a 'rumble of weather' in his digestive system. He was, in other words, a 60-year-old man with a deeply unhappy gut who decided to celebrate Shrove Tuesday by testing its absolute limits.

The Last Supper (Not That One)

February 12, 1771 was Fettisdagen, the Swedish equivalent of Fat Tuesday, the day before Lent begins and historically a day for feasting before the lean weeks ahead. The king took this brief very seriously. The meal at Stockholm Palace reportedly included lobster, caviar, kippers, sauerkraut, boiled meats, turnips, and duck, all washed down with champagne. At this point a reasonable person might call it a night. Adolf Frederick called it the starter course.

For dessert he moved on to semlor, the traditional Swedish Shrove Tuesday buns. A semla (the plural is semlor) is a wheat bun filled with almond paste and topped with whipped cream, then served in a bowl of warm milk. They're rich, heavy, and delicious. They are not, under most circumstances, eaten fourteen at a time. According to the most widely repeated version of events, that's exactly what Adolf Frederick did. Stomach cramps followed shortly. The king was dead within hours.

The Source of the Story Is a Man Known for Exaggerating

Here's where it gets interesting. The primary source for the 'ate himself to death' version of events is Count Johan Gabriel Oxenstierna, who wrote in his diary that the king's death occurred from indigestion of sweet rolls, sauerkraut, meat with turnips, lobster, caviar, duck, and champagne. Historians note, with some understatement, that Oxenstierna was known for expressing himself dramatically. His diary entry reads less like a medical report and more like a man who had already decided what the story was and wasn't going to let facts get in the way.

The royal physicians who actually examined the body concluded that the cause of death was a stroke. The palace accounts from that period are also missing, which means there's no official record of what was actually served at the feast. Researchers at Sweden's Royal Armoury have pointed out that the first official bulletins announcing the king's death didn't mention semlor at all. The buns became the prime suspect largely because he died on the day they're traditionally eaten, and because it made for a much better story.

What the Autopsy Actually Found

The royal physician Dr. Herman Schützercrantz performed the postmortem examination roughly a day after the king's death. He noted that the stomach contained a recently eaten meal, which at least confirms there was dinner involved. More surprisingly, both the small and large intestines were almost completely empty. In a healthy person, that would be strange. For Adolf Frederick, who had chronic digestive problems and may well have been given an enema before the feast to, as the Royal Armoury researchers put it, 'make room for the big meal,' it was grimly consistent with the way the man seems to have approached his own body.

Dr. Schützercrantz also noted signs suggesting the king was developing cancer of the stomach or intestines, likely related to his lifelong eating habits. So however you slice it, food was involved in Adolf Frederick's death. It just took a few decades to do the job properly.

So Did He Eat Himself to Death or Not?

The honest answer is: sort of, but probably not in one sitting. The researchers at the Royal Armoury put it well when they concluded that the king ate himself to death the same way Oxenstierna described, but it was a process that took place over a long time. A 60-year-old man with chronic digestive disease, haemorrhoids, a history of strokes, and a lifelong pattern of rich, low-fibre eating sat down to an enormous meal on a day when such excess was culturally expected, and his body finally gave out. The semlor may or may not have been involved. Fourteen of them is almost certainly an embellishment.

What's certain is that Adolf Frederick spent twenty largely unremarkable years on the Swedish throne, failed twice to claim any real power, and is now remembered almost exclusively because of what he had for dinner on the last night of his life. Swedish schoolchildren know his name. Sweden uses him as a cautionary tale every year when semlor season rolls around. There's something fitting about a man who couldn't hold onto his kingdom becoming immortal by holding onto his dessert spoon.