This 250-Year-Old Erotic Caricature Poked Fun at a Swedish King’s Sex Life

In 1775, the young King of Sweden realised that he wasn’t doing it right.

Doing what right?

Well, every King must have an heir and even after nine years of marriage, he and his wife remained childless. And as it turned out, the King and Queen were both married (by arrangement, of course) at a very young age — both were sexually inexperienced and there seemed to be evidence suggesting that he wasn’t particularly interested in women.

The country was also going through a small crisis because of this — who would be the next in line to the throne? Was the Queen ever going to get pregnant? Would the King finally learn how to do it properly and get the job done?

In the days before pornography was widely available, how was a sexually-clueless King going to “educate” himself?

Enter Count Adolf Fredrik Munck

Count Adolf Fredrik Munck was a Finnish nobleman who was also a close friend of King Gustav.

He was the exact opposite of the King, in every way. He was physically attractive and had a string of high-profile lovers at court. In fact, one of his paramours was Anna Sofia Ramström, a chamber lady of Gustav III’s wife, Queen Sofia Magdalena.

The King had a lightbulb moment.

He was going to ask Munck and his girlfriend to “teach” them how to have sex!

Make out of that what you will.

The sexual instructor to the King and Queen

What a title! But yes, Munck (and his girlfriend) ended up becoming the King and Queen’s sexual instructors!

Apparently, Count Munck was quite the diarist and he recorded their sexual escapades in full detail (goodness gracious!). This account remains in the Swedish National Archives to this day.

Now bear in mind that in those days, European Kings and Queens not only slept in separate beds, but they often resided in separate royal apartments!

So, basically, the King would enter the Queen’s bedchamber, accompanied by Count Munck and Anna Sofia Ramström, his girlfriend, who was also the Queen’s chamber lady.

They explained to the King in detail regarding what to do, helped him undress and then they would retire to the chamber next door, on alert in case help was needed.

According to Munck’s writings, on the first night, after about 15 minutes, a bell would ring and they would rush into the room to provide assistance. Apparently, the King told Munck “that he had not found any holes!”

Goodness.

Sex education was virtually non-existent in those days, even for the most powerful people in the country.

Munck had asked the Queen to “show him” but the King thought it was “shameful”. OK, so they really hadn’t been doing it right all this time!

Munck would write over the next few days about the King’s bumbling about in the bedroom. He found the royal couple in the wrong position, “because he will not rest on his arms, but rather places his whole weight on the Queen’s body.” The poor Queen!

Munck felt compelled to “move them with his hands”. So he was basically using a “hands on approach”, holding and touching the King and Queen to get them to move and thrust in the correct manner (refer to the drawing above).

Talk about top management forcing an employee to something way above his pay grade!

Oh, and Munck also wrote that, “the King’s large male member had such a tight foreskin, and that the Queen’s vagina was small and that the perfect conjugal union would not be achieved without great effort.”

So it went on night after night. Count Munck and Ramström would sleep next door to the King and Queen, ready to burst into the Queen’s bedchambers to assist at any moment.

Finally, the couple succeeded. Sofia Magdalena eventually became pregnant.

Rumours and more rumours

It did not take long for rumours to spread. The hottest gossip whispered in the elegant salons of Stockholm were about how Munck was actually the lover of both the King and the Queen.

Everyone loves a sex scandal, right?

Some even said that the Crown Prince was actually the illegitimate child of Munck, conceived during their wild threesomes.

Munck was, for better or worse, treated very well by the King and Queen. After all, he was showered with noble titles, loads of cash and jewels and all sorts of other perks.

To this day, we may never know.

Was Munck merely an assistant and instructor, guiding the King on how to penetrate and impregnate his wife? Or did he (literally) provide more than a helping hand, and jumped into bed with both of them?

Was the King actually gay? Did he need another man around to help him get sexually aroused?

Did the King and Queen really not have sexual relations for at least nine years prior to the “assistance” provided by Munck and Ramström? Seems to be so.

Were people really that ignorant about sex in those days? (Now, this was certainly very true!)