User:Screensaver/Age of Liberty

The death of Charles XII
Since 1680, Sweden had been an absolute monarchy. All power was consentrated at the monarch, and the power of the council and parliament (Riksdag of the estates) were heavily limited.

Since Sweden, under the rule of Charles XII had been attacked by ??? in ???, Sweden had been involved in the Great Northern War. When Charles XII died in 1718, after have being shot ???, during his attack on Norway, Sweden was left in a complicated situation. The war had proved to be a disaster. Economically, military as well as demographically Sweden was exausted. The states finances were ruined, and the peasants that had to economically support the war by delivering taxes, were ???. Russian forces were ??? the northern parts of the east coast, almost all the way down to Stockholm, while Norwegian forces was plundering the west coast.

Two issues needed to be solved quickly. The question about succession - who should become king after Charles XII? - and the peace.

Ulrika Eleonora becomes queen
Charles XII was not married and had no children. He was only 17 years old when he became king, and had since then been involved in constant warfare, and had spend a lot of time outside the country. Already before his death two competitors for the throne had emerged, and when he died the fight between them began.

The first was the legal heir, Charles XII's nephew Charles Frederick of Holstein-Gottorp. He was the legal throne heir since his dead mother, ???, had been Charles XII's oldest sibling, and he was her only child. Charles Frederick had been close to the old king and was still to his closest man, Baron Georg von Görtz. The other was Charles XII's younger sister Ulrika Eleonora, arguing for the principle of proximity of blood. She was supported by her husband Frederick von Hessen-Kassel, who was the driving force to make her queen. In contradiction with Charles Frederick, he had been opposed to Charles XII's war. The two fractions are commonly called the Holstein and the Hessen one.

As soon as the news about the kings death reached Stockholm, Ulrika Eleonora put a plan to work, that had been planed and dictated by her husband. She ordered the arrest of Georg von Görts and other supporters of the Holstein fraction, and started negotiations with the old Privy Council, consisting of influetial nobels that had been deprived of their power during the years of royal autocracy. The Council agreed to accept her as queen if she promised to rule with the "counceling of the councel" (råds råde), and thereby restoring the position the council had had before 1680. In this way they both hoped to avoid the involvement of the Riksdag.

However, in order to win the throne support from the army, that now was returning from the disastrous war in Norway, was needed as well. Both fractions were trying to win over officers on their side, and Frederick von Hessen even used the armys own funds to bride officers. The army mostly supportered the Hessen fraction, since the Holstein fraction was tainted by their support for Charles XII and hes wars. Many officers disliked Charles XII constant wars, that he planned, decided about and controlled all by himself. According to them the royal autocracy was to blame for Swedens military failures, and they did not want to replace one abolute monarch with an other. Therefore they demanded that the autocracy should be abolished, and the Riksdag summoned.

At first Frederick did not accept the demands from the army, but when Charles Frederick claimed that he was prepared to do so, he quickly changed this policy. In january 1919 the Riksdag gathered, and the debate began. Ulrika Eleonora was forced to accept more limitations of her power, and to accept a new constitution that was radically different from all older versions.

Ulrica Eleonora thereby became the third queen regent in Swedish history. However, she did not rule for a long time. Only after a year she tried to get the Riksdag to approve her husband Frederick von Hessen-Kassel as co-ruler. When this failed, she abdicated in favour for him, as many had expected that she would do. In 1720 he became king as Frederick I.

The german ??? had then became swedish king after a long political struggle. It had cost him a lot, and there was even (false) rumours that he was responsible for the death of Charles XII. Even though he had finally become king, the new constitution had deprived him of most of the powers that came with it - something he was not satisfied with.

The peace
Soon after the kings death, negotiations for peace started. After a series of treaties, it was also achived. The Stockholm treaties in 1719 and 1720]] ended the war with Hannover and Prussia. The Treaty of Frederiksborg ended the war with Denmark-Norway in 1720. Finally the Treaty of Nystad ended the war with Russia.

The war resulted in a big territorial loss for Sweden - most of the territories Sweden had gained during its expansion since the middle of the 16th century were lost. Sweden was no longer the regional great power it once had been. This role was instead taken over by Russia, an old enemy of Sweden.

The constitution
In 1720 a new constitution was accepted by the Riksdag of the estates. It marked a major shift in the politics of Sweden, replacing the absolute monarchy and dominance of the king with a powerfull parliament and counsil. This weakening of the monarchs position was a result of Swedens loss of the war. Much of the guilt was attributed to the autocracy of the king. The king should no longer be able to start wars without the permission of the Riksdag.

The shift of power was made possible because of the uncleare succession. Both of the contestants of the throne had a weak legitimity, and the competition between them made them accept reduced power in order to be elected.

The Riksdag


The Swedish parliament, the Riksdag of the estates (Ståndsriksdagen), was already at this time on old institution, that had to some extend existed since the 15th century. During the age of liberty it functioned in the same way as before, although it met more frequently and regularry, and had considerably more influence over the politics.

The Riksdag was, as the name suggests, divided into four different estates - the nobility, the clergy, the burghers and the peasants. The estates met, discussed and voted separately. They had different speakers, and the speakers for the nobility, the Lord Marshal (Lantmarskalk) functioned as a speaker for the parliament as a whole. Every estate had one vote, and for a resolution to be passed three votes were required, i.e. the support of a majority of three of the estates was needed. This sometimes made the system inneffective, since two estates could block any decission.

The Riksdag was to meet every three years, or when summoned by the king or itself. Between sessions the level of political activity was quite low, and the running of state affairs was taken care of by the Privy Council. The meetings were held in Stockholm, in contrast with earlier times when the meetings were moved around to different cities all over the country.

The four estates


Internally, the four estates worked in different ways, had differents criterias for inclusion and different ways to vote. The nobility consisted of the leader of every noble family - approximately 1 200 persons. However only 400-500 of these used to be present at meetings. The others had the possibility to vote by proxy.

The clergy...

The burghers...

The peasants estate cosisted of around 150 persons elected from different parts of Sweden. Only peasants owning taxed property had the right to vote - those who worked for the nobility was considered to be represented by that estate, and those who were peasants but did not own land themself, such as wimen, elderly or servants, was considered to be represented by the owner of land they worked on (for instance, by their husband).

The Privy Council
The kings council, the Privy Council, dates back to at least the 11th century, and had since then adviced the king. Over the years it had had different amount of powers - when regents have been week or young it has been important, and when regents have been strong it has been of lesser importace. With the new constitution it was given more power than ever before, as well as a constitutional base. The counsil, rather than the king, came to fill the function of the executive power and government.

The 16 member of the counsil was elected by the Riksdag and appointed by the king. This ment that the Riksdag suggested three candidates for each place, and the king then chose one of them. The council was not only elected by the parliament, single members could be dismissed by it as well, through a procedure called licentiering. The procedure was frequently used. This ment that the council was to some part responsible to the parliament, and the system can therefore be classified as an earlie form of parliamentarism.

When the counsil voted the king had two votes and the decisive vote, while the counsellors had one vote.

The political climate
Even though the constitution of 1720 was not an attempt to establish a modern democracy, and did not result in anything like it, it created a society closer to it than Sweden had ever been before in history and more like it than the absolute majority of other European states at that time. It sparked a heated debate over various political issues, that incorporated larger portions of society than usual, and that were even more intensified by the Law of Freedom of press from ???. A bourgeois culture with newspapers and coffy houses was slowly emerging in Sweden, and the order of the estates began to be questioned.

A real democracy?
Even though the constitution was influenced by contemporary thinkers such as John Locke and events such as the Glorious revolution in England, it was not a result of a modern democratic or liberal ideas. Nor did it present any possibility for the majority of the people to paricipate in the political life of the state or affect its descissions. Ideas from the enlightment affected Sweden little, and not at such an early time as this. The constitution was mostly a reaction to the earlier royal autocracy and its failures, not an attempt to fundamentally reshape society.

The system with the estates was also problematic from a democratic point of view. To the contemporary world the system, that dated back to medieval sweden, was seen as given by God. A member of the estate belonged there, and there was no need for an individual representation, since a persons interests was seen as naturally represented by his estate. The different estates incorporated different numbers of peoples, but all had one vote. Thereby the interests of the bigger estates was not represented in proportion to their size. For intsance the peasants, the biggest estate, consisted of ???% of the popultaion, and held the same amount of voting power as the 1 200 families represented by the nobility. The peasants being excluded from the ??? also illustrates how the biggest estate sometimes had the least power.

In addition to this the system only represented leaders of bigger social units - not individuals. This meant that in the nobility, only the leader of a noble family had a vote, and when representants for the peasants were elected only landowning men were alowed to vote, since they were seen to represent their whole household. Large parts of the population was thereby discluded from any direct political influence. They could still, offcourse, use the indirect influence or confidence they had with their represantive, i.e. wife to husband.

Large groups, such as peasants working the land of the nobels and poor living in the cities was also excluded from representations since they did not belong to an estate.

Civil liberties
Means that are not accepted in democracys todays was also used to achive political goals. Imprisonment of political opponents were not exceptions, and after the royal coup attempt in 1756 supporters of the coup were executed.

The parties
There were no modern parties during the age of liberty - the Hats and the Caps were loose social networks rather than modern parties with mass membership. Theyre purpose was to organice and try to establish a majority and rally support for a decision in parliament - not to activate the public politically. The parties was more focused around people than policys, something the swift changes of positions illustrates. They did not even have a written programs stating their opinions.

Public debate
Political activity was largely confined to the parliamentary sessions in Stockholm, in between them it was relatively low. Political issues sill only concerned a minority of the people.

Emerging break up of the estates
Large groups were not included in an estate, and were thereby politically unrepresented. Large, unrepresented groups were peasants working the land of nobels and poor living in the cities. It was however not these groups that attracted the interests of the public, but rather the emerging groups of journaliss, academics as well as non nobel civil servants and works and manufactory owners - commonly reffered to as ??? (ofrälse ståndspersoner) These groups did not fitt in to the system with the four estates, but were still of large importance to society. As these groups grew bigger - in the middle of the 18th century they were bigger than the nobility and clergery together - the idea of the estates grew more and more unsteady.

The rule of Arvid Horn


The first years of the age of liberty was dominated by a man named Arvid Horn. He had been close to Charles XII, and served with him in field as well as kanslipresident while Charles XII was abroad. Horn had also been one of the driving forces behind the new constitution. By holding the position as Lord Marshall at the same time as he was kanslipresident and chairman of the secret committee, he managed to gather much of the power in his own hands - he was far more powerfull than the weakend king. During his "reign" the Privy Council, that Horn and his allies dominated, rather than the parliament were dominating politics.

Even thought Horn had earlier made a career in the military and participated in the wars of Charles XII, he know shifted to a peasefull policy, emphasizing the need for rebuilding the country instead of engaging in new costly wars. He actively tried to moderate ideas of a revenge war with Russia, and instead focused on rebuilding the state finances that had been almost completely ruined by the great war.

During this time two fractions emerged in the Riksdag - one that supported Horn and one who opposed him. These two parties were called Caps (Mössor) and Hats (Hattar). The name Caps stem from their opponents alleging them of "speaking in the nightcap" (tala i nattmössan), a swedish expression meaning "talking rubbish". The supporters of Horn willingly accepted this name, while their opponents subsequentally were called Hats, as opposed to Caps.

The Hats and the Russian war


In 1738 the Hats won a majority in the Riksdag, and Arvid Horn and his Caps were forced to resign.

The Hats immediately started to plan a war with Russia to regain the territories that were lost after the Great Northern War. In 1741 the circumstances was regarded as favourable for a war by the Hats - a succession crisis in Russia gave Sweden an opportunity to intervene. The plan was to support Peter I's daughter Elizabeth, and from a combination of military threath and gratitude make her accept a transer of territory to Sweden.

The war turned out to be a catastrophy for Sweden. It was ill planned - the troups lacked proper equipment and weapons, and the military command had little control of the situation. Two generals were even executed because of their failures during the war.

During the war Elizabeth gained power through a coup, and thereby became Elizabeth I of Russia. This resulted in a ceasefire, and the Swedish troups returned to Swedish territory. After failed negotiations the war continued in 1742, and Russian troups penetrated into Finland, taking control of most of the Swedens eastern half.

Facing military defeat, Sweden had to sign a peacesettlement with Russia. By accepting Adolf Frederick of Holstein, whose family was know to be friendly towards Russia, as heir to the Swedish throne in the Treaty of Åbo Sweden managed to end the war with only small losses of territory.

Swedens involvement in the Seven Years' War
In 1754 the Seven Years' War broke out in Europe with Prussia and Great Britain with allies on one side and Austria, France and Russia with allies on the other side. Austria and France actively tried to convince Sweden to join the war against Prussia, enticing with promises of regaining territories earlier lost in the Great Northern War and with subsidies.

The hope to restore former glory made the Hats decide to join the war in 1757. An attack without prior declaration of war were launched from the Swedish part of Pomerania against Prussia on September 13. The descision to go to war was taken by the Hats government, and was not approved of by the Riksdag, and therefore no formal declaraiont of war could be done. At first the Swedish troups were sucsesfull, but the war soon turned out to be just as ill planed as Swedens previous military adventure in Russia.

In 1762 political changes within Russia made the Hats fear that Russia would change side and start to support Prussia. To avoid ending up in war with Russia as well peace negotiations were started, resulting in the Treaty of Hamburg restoring the borders to the way they were before the war.