During Gustav III's later reign, with the Russo-Swedish War and the Theatre War (in which Dano-Norwegian troops came very close to Marstrand), Sweden was fraught with political instability. In 1792, the Free Port's royal creator and benefactor was assassinated by disgruntled noblemen, and the young Gustav IV Adolf was crowned. Despite all this, Marstrand prospered, its population steadily rising and commerce reaching new heights. At the same time, fears grew that the Free Port was being misused for personal (and above all, foreign) gain rather than royal (and local) profits, and the fight against smuggling became quite hopeless. In the end, it was the burghers of Marstrand themselves that brought the Free Port era to an end, after almost twenty years in operation. They requested a royal withdrawal of the town's rights as a "porto Franco". This was granted on 15 May 1794, through a decree by Gustav IV Adolf's regency government.