Gustav III was a Swedish enlightened monarch reigning from 1772 until his death in 1792. He was a complicated, often quite contradictory figure. He came to power via a coup d’etat promising to restore Sweden’s glory and upkeep the liberties of his subjects. His reign can be divided into two parts. In the first part, from 1772 till 1783, he was fairly successful in domestic and foreign policy. For Sweden it was a time of peace during which there was improvement in fiscal policy and human rights. Sweden's foreign trade also improved during this time, largely due to the American Revolutionary War. After 1783 there was a drop in the Swedish foreign trade, the country's regime became increasingly autocratic while the relations with Russia worsened which would finally culminate in the (illegal) Russo-Swedish war of 1788. After the equalisation of privileges in 1789 the nobility became frustrated but very few actually considered regicide to be a legitimate course of action. These few however, formed a conspiracy in 1791 and in March of 1792 a radical nobleman by the name of Jacob Johan Anckarström shot the king during an opera. King Gustav III died two weeks later and Anckarström was executed shortly thereafter.