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See also:FREDERICK III ., See also: Yet the Swedish Empire was rather a geographical expression than a See also:state with natural and See also:national boundaries. Modern Sweden is bounded by the Baltic; during the 17th See also:century the Baltic was merely the See also:bond between her various widely dispersed dominions. All the islands in the Baltic, except the Danish See also:group, belonged to Sweden. The estuaries of all the great German See also:rivers (for the Niemen and See also:Vistula are properly See also:Polish rivers) debouched in Swedish territory, within which also See also:lay two-thirds of See also:Lake See also:Ladoga and one-See also:half of Lake See also:Peipus. Stock-holm, the See also:capital, lay in the very centre of the empire, whose second greatest See also:city was See also:Riga, on the other side of the See also:sea. Yet this vast empire contained but half the See also:population of modern Sweden—being only 2,500,000, or about 140 souls to the square mile. Further, Sweden's new boundaries were of the most insecure description, inasmuch as they were See also:anti-ethnographical, parting asunder races which naturally went together, and behind which stood powerful neighbours of the same stock ready, at the first opportunity, to reunite them. Moreover, the commanding See also:political See also:influence which Sweden had now won was considerably neutralized by her loss of moral See also:prestige. On Charles X.'s See also:accession in 1655, Sweden's neighbours, though suspicious and uneasy, were at least not adversaries, and might have been converted into allies of the new great power who, if she had mulcted them of territory, had, any-how, compensated them for the loss with the by no means contemptible douceur of religious See also:liberty. At Charles X.'s death, five years later, we find Sweden, herself bled to exhaustion point, surrounded by a broad See also:belt of desolated territory and regarded with ineradicable hatred by every adjacent state. To sink in five years from the position'of the See also:champion of Protestantism to that of the See also:common enemy of every See also:Protestant power was a degradation not to be compensated by any amount of military See also:glory. Charles's subsequent endeavour, in stress of circumstances, to gain a friend by dividing his Polish conquests with the aspiring elector of Brandenburg was a reversal of his See also:original policy and only resulted in the See also:establishment on the southernconfines of Sweden of a new See also:rival almost as dangerous as Denmark, her See also:ancient rival in the See also:west. In 166o, after five years of incessant warfare, Sweden had at length obtained peace and with it the opportunity of organizing and developing her newly won empire. Unfor- Minority of tunately, the regency which was to govern her during Charles x1. the next fifteen years was unequal to the difficulties
of a situation which might have taxed the resources of the wisest statesmen. Unity and vigour were scarcely to be expected from a many-headed See also:administration composed of men of mediocre See also:talent whose contrary opinions speedily gave rise to contending factions. There was the high-aristocratic party with a leaning towards See also:martial See also:adventure headed by See also:Magnus de la Gardie (q.v.), and the party of peace and See also:economy whose ablest representative was the liberal and energetic Johan See also:Gyllenstjerna (q.v.). After a severe struggle, de la Gardie'S party prevailed; and its See also:triumph was marked by that See also:general decline of See also:personal and political morality which has given to this regency its unenviable notoriety. See also:Sloth and carelessness speedily invaded every See also:branch of the administration, destroying all discipline and leading to a general neglect of business. Another characteristic of the de la Gardie See also:government was its See also:gross corruption, which made Sweden the obsequious hireling of that See also:foreign power which had the longest See also:purse. This shameful "See also:subsidy policy" See also:dates from the Treaty of See also:Fontainebleau, 1661, by a See also:secret See also:paragraph of which Sweden, in See also:exchange for a considerable sum of See also:money, undertook to support the French See also:candidate on the first vacancy of the Polish See also:throne. The complications ensuing from See also:
ith See also:France.
herself, in return for 400,000 crowns per annum in
peace and 600,000 in war-time, to attack, with 16,000 men, any German princes who might be disposed to assist See also: Two accidents at this crisis alone saved Sweden from ruin—the splendid courage of the See also:young king who, resolutely and success-fully, kept the Danish invaders at See also:bay (see CHARLES XI., king of Sweden), and the See also:diplomatic activity of Louis XIV. In See also: The See also:remainder of the reign of Charles XI. is remarkable for a revolution which converted the government of Sweden into Charles XI. a semi-See also:absolute See also:monarchy. The king emerged from and the the war convinced that if Sweden were to retain her Swedish position as a great power she must radically reform constttu- her whole economical See also:system, and, above all, cir- See also:eton. cumscribe the predominant and mischievous influence of an See also:aristocracy which thought far more of its privileges than of its public duties. He See also:felt that he could now draw upon the confidence and liberality of the See also:lower orders to an unlimited extent, and he proceeded to do so. The Riksdag which assembled in Stockholm in October 168o begins a new era of Swedish See also:history. On the See also:motion of the See also:Estate of Peasants, which had a long memory for aristocratic abuses, the question of the recovery of the alienated crown lands was brought before the Riksdag, and, despite the stubborn opposition of the magnates, a See also:resolution of the See also:Diet directed that all countships, baronies, domains, manors and other estates producing an See also:annual See also:rent of more than £70 per annum should revert to the Crown. The same Riksdag decided that the king was not See also:bound by any particular constitution, but only by See also:law and the statutes. See also:Nay, they added that he was not even obliged to consult the See also:council of state, but was to be regarded as a See also:sovereign See also:lord, responsible to See also:God alone for his actions, and requiring no intermediary between himself and his See also:people. The council thereupon acquiesced in its own humiliation by meekly accepting a royal brief changing its See also:official See also:title from Riksrdd (council of state) to Kungligardd (royal council)—a visible sign that the senators were no longer the king's colleagues but his servants. Thus Sweden, as well as Denmark, had become an absolute monarchy, but. with this important difference, that the right of the Swedish people, in See also:parliament assembled, to be consulted on all important matters was recognized and acted upon. The Riksdag, completely overshadowed by the throne, was during the reign of Charles XI. to do little more than See also:register the royal decrees; but nevertheless it continued to exist as an essential part of the machinery of government. Moreover, this See also:transfer of authority was a voluntary See also:act. The people, knowing the king to be their best friend, trusted him implicity and co-operated with him cheerfully. The Riksdag of 1682 proposed a fresh Reduktion, and declared that the whole question of how far the king was empowered by the law of the land to bestow fiefs, or, in See also:case of urgent national See also:distress, take them back again, was exclusively his See also:majesty's affair. In other words, it made the king the disposer of his subjects' temporal See also:property. Presently this new principle of See also:autocracy was extended to the king's legislative authority also, for, on the 9th of December 1682, all four estates, by virtue of a common See also:declaration, not only confirmed him in the possession of the legislative See also:powers enjoyed by his predecessors, but even conceded to him the right of interpreting and amending the common law. The recovery of the alienated crown lands occupied Charles XI. for the See also:rest of his See also:life. It was conducted by a See also:commission which was ultimately converted into a permanent See also:department of state. It acted on the principle that the titles of all privatelanded estate might be called in question, inasmuch as at some time or other it must have belonged to the Crown; and the See also:burden of See also:proof of ownership was held not to See also:lie with the Crown which made the claim, but with the actual owner of the property. The amount of See also:revenue accruing to the Crown from the whole Reduktion it is impossible to estimate even approximately; but by these means, combined with the most careful management and the most rigid economy, Charles XI. contrived to reduce the national See also:debt from £2,567,000 to £700,000. These operations represent only a part of Charles XI.'s gigantic activity. Here we have only space sufficient to glance at his reorganization of the national armaments. Reorganize. Charles XI. re-established on a broader basis the tion of indelningsverk introduced by Charles IX.—a system Armaments. of military See also:tenure whereby the national forces were bound to the See also:soil. Thus there was the ruslhdll tenure, under which the tenants, instead of paying rent, were obliged to equip and maintain a See also:cavalry soldier and See also:horse, while the knekthdllarer supplied duly equipped See also:foot soldiers. These indelning soldiers were provided with holdings on which they lived in times of peace. Formerly, See also:ordinary See also:conscription had existed alongside this indelning, or See also:distribution system; but it had proved inadequate as well as highly unpopular; and, in 1682, Charles XI. came to an agreement with the peasantry whereby an extended indelning system was to be susbstituted for general conscription. The See also:navy, of even more importance to Sweden if she were to maintain the dominion of the Baltic, was entirely remodelled; and, the See also:recent war having demonstrated the unsuitability of Stockholm as a See also:naval station, the construction of a new See also:arsenal on a gigantic See also:scale was simultaneously begun at See also:Karlskrona. After a seventeen years' struggle against all manner of See also:financial difficulties, the twofold enter-prise was completed. At the death of Charles XI. Sweden could boast of a See also:fleet of See also:forty-three three-deckers (manned by 11,000 men and armed with 2648 guns) and one of the finest arsenals in the See also:world. Charles XI. had carefully provided against the contingency of his successor's minority; and the five regents appointed by him, if not great statesmen, were at least See also:practical Charles XII., politicans who had not been trained in his austere /697,4718. school in vain. At See also:home the Reduktion was cautiously pursued, while abroad the successful conclusion of the great peace congress at See also:Ryswick was justly regarded as a signal triumph of Sweden's pacific diplomacy (see OXENSTJERNA See also:FAMILY). The young king was full of promise, and had he been permitted gradually to gain experience and develop his naturally great talents beneath the guidance of his guardians, as his See also:father had intended, all might have been well for Sweden. Unfortunately, the sudden, noiseless revolution of the 6th of November 1697, which made Charles XII. absolute See also:master of his See also:country's See also:fate in his fifteenth See also:year (see CHARLES XII.), and the See also:league of Denmark, See also:Saxony and Russia, formed two years later to See also:partition Sweden (see See also:PATKUL, JOHANN See also:REINHOLD; See also:PETER THE GREAT; CHARLES XII.), precipitated Sweden into a sea of troubles in which she was finally submerged. From the very beginning of the Great See also:Northern War Sweden suffered from the inability of Charles XII. to view the situation from anything but a purely personal point of view. Great
His determination to avenge himself on enemies Northern
overpowered every other See also:consideration. Again and War again during these eighteen years of warfare it was in his power to dictate an advantageous peace. After the dissipation of the first See also:coalition against him by the peace of Travendal (Aug. 18, 1700) and the victory of See also:Narva (Nov. 20, 1700), the Swedish See also:chancellor, See also:Benedict Oxenstjerna, rightly regarded the universal bidding for the favour of Sweden by France and the maritime powers, then on the See also:eve of the War of the Spanish See also:Succession, as a See also:golden opportunity of " ending this See also:present lean war and making his majesty the arbiter of Europe." But Charles, See also:intent on dethroning See also:Augustus of Poland, held haughtily aloof. Subsequently in 1701 he rejected a personal See also:appeal from See also: Even now he could have made See also:honourable terms with his numerous enemies. The resources of Sweden were still very far from being exhausted, and, during 1710 and 1711, the gallant Magnus See also:Stenbock (q.v.) upheld her military supremacy in the See also:north. But all the efforts of the Swedish government were wrecked on the determination of Charles XII. to surrender nothing. Thus he rejected advantageous offers of mediation and alliance made to him, during 1712, by the maritime powers and by Prussia; and, in 1714, he scouted the friendly overtures of Louis XIV. and the emperor, so that when peace was finally concluded between France and the Empire, at the congress of See also:Baden, Swedish affairs were, by common consent, See also:left out of consideration. When, on the 14th of September 1714, he suddenly returned to his dominions, Stralsund and See also:Wismar were all that remained to him of his See also:continental possessions; while by the end of 1715 Sweden, now fast approaching the last See also:stage of exhaustion, was at open war with See also:England, See also:Hanover, Russia, Prussia, Saxony and Denmark, who had formed a coalition to partition her continental territory between them. Nevertheless, at this the See also:eleventh See also:hour of her opportunities, Sweden might still have saved something from the See also:wreck of her empire if Charles had behaved like a reasonable being (see CHARLES XII.; PETER THE GREAT; See also:GORTZ, GEORG HEINRICH VON; See also:OSTERMAN, ANDREI); but he would only consent to See also:play off Russia against England, and his sudden death before See also:Fredrikshald (Dec. II, 1718) left Sweden practically at the end of her resources and at the See also:mercy of her enemies. At the beginning of 1719 pacific overtures were made to England, Hanover, Prussia and Denmark. By the See also:treaties of Stockholm (Feb. 20, 1719, and Feb. 1, 1720) Hanover obtained the bishoprics of Bremen and See also:Verden for herself and Stettin for her confederate Prussia. By the treaty of Frederiksborg or Copenhagen (July 3, 1720) peace was also signed between Den-mark and Sweden, Denmark retroceding See also:Rugen, Further Pomerania as far as the Peene, and Wismar to Sweden, in exchange for an See also:indemnity of 600,000 See also:rix-dollars, while Sweden relinquished her exemption from the See also:Sound tolls and her See also:protectorate over Holstein-Gottorp. The prospect of coercing Russia by means of the See also:British fleet had alone induced Sweden to consent to such sacrifices; but when the last demands of England and her allies had been complied with, Sweden Peace of was left to come to terms as best she could with Nystad, the tsar. Negotiations were reopened with Russia at 1721. Loss Nystad, in May 1720, but peace was not concluded oftheBaltic till the 30th of August 1721, and then only under Provinces. the direst pressure. By the peace of Nystad Sweden ceded to Russia Ingria and Esthonia, Livonia, the Finnish province of Kexholm and the fortress of See also:Viborg. See also:Finland west of Viborg and north of Kexholm was restored to Sweden. She also received an indemnity of two millions of thalers and a See also:solemn undertaking of non-interference in her domestic affairs. It was not the least of Sweden's misfortunes after the Great Northern War that the new constitution, which was to compensate her for all her past sacrifices, should contain within it the elements of many of her future calamities. See also:Early in 1720 Charles XII.'s See also:sister, Ulrica Leonora, who had been elected See also:queen of Sweden immediately after his death, was permitted to abdicate in favour of her hus- Frederick 1, See also:band the See also:prince of See also:Hesse, who was elected king 1720-1751. under the title of Frederick I.; and Sweden was, The Limited at the same time, converted into the most limited Monarchy. of monarchies. All power was vested in the people as represented by the Riksdag, consisting, as before, of four distinct estates, nobles, priests, burgesses and peasants, sitting and deliberating apart. The conflicting interests and mutual jealousies of these four See also:independent assemblies made the See also:work of legislation exceptionally difficult. No measure could now become law till it had obtained the assent of three at least of the four estates; but this See also:provision, which seems to have been designed to protect the lower orders against the See also:nobility, produced evils far greater than those which it professed to cure. Thus, See also:measures might be passed by a See also:bare See also:majority in three estates, when a real and substantial majority of all four estates in congress might be actually against it. Or, again, a dominant See also:action in any three of the estates might enact See also:laws highly detrimental to the interests of the remaining estate—a danger the more to be apprehended as in no other country in Europe were class distinctions so sharply defined as in Sweden. Each estate was ruled by its talman, or See also:speaker, who was now elected at the beginning of each Diet, but the See also:archbishop was, ex officio, the talman of the See also:clergy. The landt- constitumarskalk, or speaker of the See also:House of Nobles, presided See also:don of the when the estates met in congress, and also, by Estates. virtue of his See also:office, in the hemliga utskott, or secret See also:committee. This famous See also:body, which consisted of 50 nobles, 25 priests, 25 burgesses, and, very exceptionally, 25 peasants, possessed during the session of the Riksdag not only the supreme executive but also the surpeme judicial and legislative functions. It pre-pared all bills for the Riksdag, created and deposed all ministries, controlled the foreign policy of the nation, and claimed and often exercised the right of superseding the ordinary courts of See also:justice. During the See also:parliamentary See also:recess, however, the executive remained in the hands of the rad, or See also:senate, which was responsible to the Riksdag alone. It will be obvious that there was no See also:room in this republican constitution for a constitutional monarch in the modern sense of the word. The crowned puppet who possessed a casting See also:vote in the rad, of which he was the nominal See also:president, and who was allowed to create peers once in his life (at his See also:coronation), was rather a state decoration than a sovereignty. At first this cumbrous and complicated See also:instrument of government worked tolerably well under the See also:firm but cautious See also:control of the chancellor, See also:Count Arvid Beernhard See also:Horn political (q.v.). In his anxiety to avoid embroiling his country parties, abroad, Horn reversed the traditional policy of Hats and Sweden by keeping France at a distance and draw- caps. See also:ing near to Great See also:Britain, for whose liberal institutions he professed the highest admiration. Thus a twenty years' war was succeeded by a twenty years' peace, during which the nation recovered so rapidly from its wounds that it began to forget them. A new See also:race of politicians was springing up. Since 1719, when the influence of the few great territorial families had been merged in a multitude of needy See also:gentle-men, the first estate had become the nursery and afterwards the stronghold of an opposition at once See also:noble and democratic which found its natural leaders in such men as Count Carl Gyllenborg and Count Carl Gustaf See also:Tessin (q.v.). These men and their followers were never weary of ridiculing the timid caution of the aged statesman who sacrificed everything to perpetuate an inglorious peace and derisively nicknamed his adherents " See also:Night-caps " (a See also:term subsequently softened into " Caps "), themselves adopting the See also:sobriquet " Hats," from the three-cornered See also:hat worn by See also:officers and gentlemen, which was considered happily to See also:hit off the manly self-assertion of the opposition. These epithets instantly caught the public See also:fancy and had already become party badges when the estates met in 1738. This Riksdag, was to mark another turning-point in Swedish Treaties of Stockholm and Frederiksborg 1719 and 1720. history. The Hats carried everything before them; and the aged Horn was finally compelled to retire from a See also:scene where, for three and See also:thirty years, he had played a leading part. The policy of the Hats was a return to the traditional alliance between France and Sweden. When Sweden descended to her natural position as a second-See also:rate power the French- alliance became too costly a luxury. Horn had clearly perceived this; and his cautious See also:neutrality was therefore the soundest statesmanship. But the politicians who had ousted Horn thought differently. To them prosperity without glory was a worthless possession. They aimed at restoring Sweden to her former position as a great power. France, naturally, hailed with See also:satisfaction the rise of a faction which was content to be her See also:armour-See also:bearer in the north; and the golden streams which flowed from See also:Versailles to Stockholm during the next two generations were the political life-See also:blood of the Hat party.
The first blunder of the Hats was the hasty and See also:ill-advised war with Russia. The See also:European complications consequent war with upon the almost simultaneous deaths of the emperor
Russia, Charles VI. and See also:Anne, empress of Russia, seemed
1741. to favour their adventurous schemes; and, despite the frantic protests of the Caps, a project for the invasion of Russian Finland was rushed through the premature Riksdag of 1740. On the loth of July 1741 war was formally declared against Russia; a See also:month later the Diet was dissolved and the Hat landlmarskalk set off to Finland to take command of the army. The first See also:blow was not struck till six months after the declaration of war; and it was struck by the enemy, who routed the Swedes at Villmanstrand and captured that frontier fortress. Nothing else was done on either side for six months more; and then the Swedish generals made a " tacit truce " with the Russians through the mediation of the French See also:ambassador at St Petersburg. By the time that the " tacit truce " had come to an end the Swedish forces were so demoralized that the mere rumour of a hostile attack made them retire panic-stricken to See also:Helsingfors; and before the end of the year all Finland was in the hands of the Russians. The fleet, disabled by an epidemic, was, throughout the war, little more than a floating See also:hospital.
To See also:face the Riksdag with such a war as this upon their consciences was a trial from which the Hats naturally shrank; but, to do them justice, they showed themselves better parliamentary than military strategists. A motion for an inquiry into the conduct of the war was skilfully evaded by obtaining See also:precedence for the succession question (Queen Ulrica Leonora had lately died childless and King Frederick was old); and negotiations were thus opened with the new Russian empress, See also: The Hats eagerly caught at the opportunity of recovering the See also:grand duchy and their own prestige along with it. By the peace of See also:Abo (May Peace of 1 743) terms of the empress were accepted; Abo, 1743. 7, 743) , and only that small part of Finland which lay beyond the Kymmene was retained by Russia. In March 1751 old King Frederick died. His slender prerogatives had gradually dwindled down to vanishing point. Adolphus Adolphus Frederick (q.v.) would have given even less Frederick trouble than his predecessor but for the ambitious !l., 1751- promptings of his masterful See also:consort Louisa Ulrica, 1771. Frederick the Great's sister, and the tyranny of the estates, who seemed See also:bent upon See also:driving the meekest of princes into See also:rebellion. An attempted monarchical revolution, planned by the queen and a few devoted young nobles in 1756, was easily and remorselessly crushed; and, though the unhappy king did not, as he anticipated, See also:share the fate of Charles See also:Stuart, he was humiliated as never monarch was humiliated before. The same years which beheld this great domestic triumph of the Hats saw also the utter collapse of their foreign "system." At the instigation of France they plunged recklessly into the Seven Years' War; and the result was ruinous. The French subsidies, which might have sufficed for a six See also:weeks' demonstration(it was generally assumed that the king of Prussia would give little trouble to a European coalition), proved quite in-adequate; and, after five unsuccessful See also:campaigns, the The Seven unhappy Hats were glad to make peace and ignomini- yearn war. ously withdraw from a little war which had cost the country 40,000 men and £2,500,000. When the Riksdag met in 176o, the indignation against the Hat leaders was so violent that an See also:impeachment seemed inevitable; but once more the superiority of their parliamentary See also:tactics prevailed, and when, after a session of twenty months, the Riksdag was brought to a See also:close by the mutual consent of both the exhausted factions, the Hat government was bolstered up for another four years. But the See also:day of reckoning could not be postponed for ever; and when the estates met in 1765 it brought the Caps into power at last. Their See also:leader, See also:Ture Rudbeck, was elected See also:marshal of the Diet over Frederick Axel von See also:Fersen (q.v.), the Hat candidate, by a large majority; and, out of the See also:hundred seats in the secret committee, the Hats succeeded in getting only ten. The Caps struck at once at the weak point of their opponents by ordering a See also:budget See also:report to be made; and it was speedily found that the whole financial system of the Hats had been based upon reckless improvidence and Rale of the Caps. wilful misrepresentation, and that the only See also:fruit of their long See also:rule was an enormous addition to the national debt and a depreciation of the See also:note circulation to one-third of its face value. This See also:revelation led to an all-See also:round See also:retrenchment, carried into effect with a drastic thoroughness which has earned for this parliament the name of the " Reduktion Riksdag." The Caps succeeded in transferring £250,000 from the pockets of the See also:rich to the empty See also:exchequer, reducing the national debt by £575,179, and establishing some sort of See also:equilibrium between revenue and See also:expenditure. They also introduced a few useful reforms, the most remarkable of which was the liberty of the See also:press. But their most important political act was to throw their See also:lot definitely in with Russia, so as to counterpoise the influence of France. Sweden was Alliance. R . not then as now quite outside the European See also:Concert. Alghough no longer a great power, she still had many of the responsibilities of a great power; and if the Swedish alliance had considerably depreciated in value, it was still a marketable commodity. Sweden's See also:peculiar geographical position made her virtually invulnerable for six months out of the twelve, her Pomeranian possessions afforded her an easy See also:ingress into the very See also:heart of the moribund empire, while her Finnish frontier was not many leagues from the Russian capital. A watchful neutrality, not venturing much beyond defensive alliances and commercial treaties with the maritime powers, was therefore Sweden's safest policy, and this the older Caps had always followed out. But when the Hats became the armour-bearers of France in the north, a See also:protector strong enough to counteract French influence became the See also:cardinal exigency of their opponents, the younger Caps, who now flung themselves into the arms of Russia, overlooking the fact that even a pacific See also:union with Russia was more to be feared than a martial alliance with France. For France was too distant to be dangerous. She sought an ally in Sweden and it was her endeavour to make that ally as strong as possible. But it was as a future See also:prey, not as a possible ally, that Russia regarded her ancient rival in the north. In the treaty which partitioned Poland there was a secret clause which engaged the contracting powers to uphold the existing Swedish constitution as the swiftest means of subverting Swedish independence; and an alliance with the credulous Caps, " the Patriots " as they were called at St Petersburg, guaranteeing their constitution, was the corollary to this secret understanding. Thus, while the French alliance of the warlike Hats had destroyed the prestige of Sweden, the Russian alliance of the peaceful Caps threatened to destroy her very existence. Fortunately, the domination of the Caps was not for long. The general distress occasioned by their drastic reforms had found expression in swarms of See also:pamphlets which See also:bit and stung the Cap government, under the See also:protection of the new press laws. The senate retaliated by an See also:order in council (which the. French Alliance. king refused to sign) declaring that all complaints against the measures of the last Riksdag should be punished with See also:fine and imprisonment. The king, at the See also:suggestion of the crown prince (see GUSTAVUS III.), thereupon urged the senate to summon an extraordinary Riksdag as the speediest method of relieving the national distress, and, on their refusing to comply with his wishes, abdicated. From the 15th of December to the 21st of December 1768 Sweden was without a See also:regular government. Then the Cap senate gave way and the estates were convoked for the 19th of April 1769. On the eve of the contest there was a general See also:assembly of the Hats at the French See also:embassy, where the See also:Comte de Modene furnished them with 6,000,000 livres, but not till they had signed in his presence an undertaking to reform the constitution in a monarchical sense. Still more energetic on the other side, the Russian See also:minister, See also:Ivan Osterman, became the treasurer as well as the counsellor of the Caps, and scattered the largesse of the Russian empress with a lavish See also:hand; and so lost to all' feeling of patriotism were the Caps that they openly threatened all who ventured to vote against them with the See also:Muscovite vengeance, and fixed See also:Norrkoping, instead of Stockholm, as the See also:place of See also:meeting for the Riksdag as being more accessible to the Russian fleet. But it soon became evident that the Caps were playing a losing See also:game; and, when the Riksdag met theca[ of the caps. at NorrkSPing on the r9th of April, they found them- selves in a minority in all four estates. In the contest for the marshalate of the Diet the leaders of the two parties were again pitted against each other, when the See also:verdict of the last Riksdag was exactly reversed, Fersen defeating Rudbeck by 234, though Russia spent no less a sum than £i1,5oo to secure the See also:election of the latter. The Caps had See also:short shrift, and the See also:joint note which the Russian, Prussian and Danish ministers presented to the estates protesting, in menacing terms, against any " See also:reprisals " on the part of the triumphant faction, only hastened the fall of the government. The Cap senate resigned en masse to See also:escape impeachment, and an exclusively Hat See also:ministry took its place. The On the 1st of June the Reaction Riksdag, as it Reaction was generally called, removed to the capital; and Riksdag. it was now that the French ambassador and the crown prince Gustavus called upon the new senators to redeem their promise as to a reform of the constitution which they had made before the elections. But when, at the See also:fag-end of the session, they half-heartedly brought the See also:matter forward, - the Riksdag suddenly seemed to be stricken with See also:paralysis. Impediments multiplied at every step; the cry was raised: " The constitution is in danger "; and on the 3oth of See also:January 1770 the Reaction Riksdag, after a barren ten months' session, See also:rose amidst chaotic confusion without accomplishing anything. Adolphus Frederick died on the 12th .of See also:February 1771. The elections held on the See also:demise of the Crown resulted in a Gustavus partial victory for the Caps, especially among the III., 1771- lower orders; but in the estate of the peasants 1792. their majority was merely nominal, while the mass of the nobility was dead against them. Nothing could be done, however, till the arrival of the new king (then at See also:Paris), and every one felt that with Gustavus III. an entirely incalculable See also:factor had entered into Swedish politics. Unknown to the party leaders, he had already renewed the Swedish alliance with France and had received solemn assurances of assistance from Louis XV. in case he succeeded in re-establishing monarchical rule in Sweden. France undertook, moreover, to pay the outstanding subsidies to Sweden, amounting to one and a half millions of livres annually, beginning from January 1772; and See also:Vergennes, one of the great names of French diplomacy, was to be sent to circumvent the designs of Russia at Stockholm as he had previously circumvented them at See also:Constantinople. Immediately after his return to Stockholm, Gustavus endeavoured to reconcile the jarring factions by inducing the leaders to See also:form a See also:composition committee to adjust their differences. In thus mediating he was sincere enough, but all his pacific efforts were frustrated by their See also:jealousy ofhim and of each other. Still worse, the factions now intrenched still further on the See also:prerogative. The new coronation See also:oath contained three revolutionary clauses. The first aimed at making abdications in the future impossible by binding the king to reign uninterruptedly. The second obliged him to abide, not by the decision of all the estates together, as heretofore, but by that of the majority only, with the view of enabling the actually dominant lower estates (in which was a large Cap majority) to rule without, and even in spite of, the nobility. The third clause required him, in all cases of preferment, to be guided not " principally," as heretofore, but " solely " by merit, thus striking at the very See also:root of aristocratic See also:privilege: It was clear that the ancient strife of Hats and Caps had become merged in a conflict of classes; the situation was still further complicated by the ominous fact that the non-noble majority was also the Russian faction. All through 1771 the estates were wrangling over the clauses of the coronation oath. A second See also:attempt of the king to mediate between them foundered on the suspicions of the estate of burgesses; and, on the 24th of February 1772, the nobility yielded from sheer weariness. The non-noble Cap majority now proceeded to attack the senate, the last stronghold of the Hats, and, on the 25th of April, succeeded in ousting their opponents. It was now, for the first time, that Gustavus, reduced to the See also:condition of a roi faineant, began seriously to consider the possibility of a revolution; of its See also:necessity there could be no doubt. Under the sway of the now dominant faction, Sweden, already the See also:vassal, could not fail speedily to become the victim of Russia. She was on the point of being absorbed in that Northern System, the invention of the Russian minister of foreign affairs, Nikita See also:Panin (q.v.), which that patient statesman had made it the ambition of his life to realize. Only a See also:swift and sudden coup d'etat could See also:save the inde- Monarchial pendence of a country isolated from the rest of Coup d'etat Europe by a hostile league. The details of the '4 1774 famous revolution of the 19th of August 1772 are elsewhere set forth (see GUSTAVUS III.; See also:TOLL, JOHAN KRISTOFFER; See also:SPRENGTPORTEN, See also:JAKOB MAGNUS). Here we can only dwell upon its political importance and consequences. The new constitution of the loth of August 1772, which Gustavus imposed upon the terrified estates at the See also:bayonet's point, converted a weak and disunited republic into a strong but limited monarchy, in which the See also:balance of power inclined, on the whole, to the side of the monarch. The estates could only assemble when summoned by him; he could dismiss them whenever he thought See also:fit; and their deliberations were to be confined exclusively to the propositions which he might think fit to lay before them. But these very extensive powers were subjected to many important checks. Thus, without the previous consent of the estates, no new law could be imposed, no old law abolished, no offensive war undertaken, no extraordinary war subsidy levied. The estates alone could tax. them-selves; they had the absolute control of the See also:Bank of Sweden, and the inalienable right of controlling the national expenditure. Thus the parliament held the purse; and this seemed a sufficient See also:guarantee both of its independence and its frequent See also:convention. The senate, not the Riksdag, was the chief loser by the See also:change; and, inasmuch as henceforth the senators were appointed by the king, and were to be responsible to him alone; a senate in opposition to the Crown was barely conceivable. Abroad the Swedish revolution made a great sensation. See also:Catherine II. of Russia saw in it the triumph of her See also:arch-enemy France, with the prolongation of the costly See also:Turkish War as its immediate result. But the See also:absence of troops on the Finnish border, and the See also:bad condition of the frontier fortresses, See also:con-strained the empress to listen to Gustavus's pacific assurances, and stay her hand. She took the precaution, however, of concluding a fresh secret alliance with Denmark, in which the Swedish revolution was significantly described as " an act of violence " constituting a casus foederis, and justifying both powers in seizing the first favourable opportunity for intervention to restore the Swedish constitution of 1720. In Sweden itself the change was, at first, most popular. But Gustavus's first Riksdag, that of 1778, opened the eyes of the deputies to the fact that their political supremacy had departed. The king was now their sovereign lord; and, for all his See also:courtesy and gentleness, the jealousy with which he guarded and the vigour with which he enforced the prerogative plainly showed that he meant to remain so. But it was not till after eight years more had elapsed that actual trouble began. The Riksdag of 1778 had been obsequious; the Riksdag of 1786 was mutinous. It rejected nearly all the royal measures outright, or so modified them that Gustavus himself withdrew them. When he dismissed the estates, the speech from the throne held out no prospect of their speedy revocation. Nevertheless, within three years, the king was obliged to summon another Riksdag, which met at Stockholm on the 26th of January 1789. His attempt in the See also:interval to rule without a parliament had been disastrous. It was only by a See also:breach of his own constitution that he had been able to declare war against Russia (April 1788); the See also:conspiracy of Anjala (July) had paralysed all military operations at the very opening of the See also:campaign; and the sudden invasion of his western provinces by the Danes, almost simultaneously (September), seerned to bring him to the See also:verge of ruin. But the contrast, at this crisis, between his self-sacrificing patriotism and the treachery of the Russophil aristocracy was so striking that, when the Riksdag assembled, Gustavus found that the three lower estates were ultra-royalist, and with their aid he succeeded, not without See also:running great risks (see GUSTAVUS III.; . See also:NoRDIN, GUSTAF; See also:WALLQVIST, See also:OLAF), in crushing the opposition of the nobility by a second coup d'etat (Feb. 16, 1789), and passing the The Act of famous Act of Union and See also:Security which gave the Unlpn and king an absolutely See also:free hand as regards foreign security. affairs and the command of the army, and made 1789. further See also:treason impossible. For this the nobility never forgave him. It was impossible, indeed, to resist openly so highly gifted and so popular a sovereign; it was only by the despicable expedient of assassination that the last great monarch of Sweden was finally removed, to the See also:infinite detriment of his country. The ensuing See also:period was a See also:melancholy one. The aristocratic classes loudly complained that the young king, Gustavus IV., Gustavus still a See also:minor, was being brought up among crypto- Iv., 1792- See also:Jacobins; while the See also:middle classes, deprived of 1809. the stimulating leadership of the anti-aristocratic " Prince Charming," and becoming more and more inoculated with French political ideas, drifted into an antagonism not merely to hereditary nobility, but to hereditary monarchy likewise. Everything was vacillating and uncertain; and the general instability was reflected even in foreign affairs, now that the master-hand of Gustavus III. was withdrawn. Sweden and The renewed efforts of Catherine II. to interfere Revolu- in Sweden's domestic affairs were, indeed, vigorously ilonary repulsed, but without tact or discretion, so that the France. See also:good understanding between the two countries was seriously impaired, especially when the proclivities of Gustaf See also:Reuterholm (q.v.), who then virtually ruled Sweden, induced him to adopt what was generally considered an indecently friendly attitude towards the government at Paris. Despite the See also:execution of Louis XVI. (See also:Jan. 21, 1793), Sweden, in the See also:hope of obtaining considerable subsidies, recognized the new French republic; and secret negotiations for contracting an alliance were actually begun in May' of the same year, till the menacing protests of Catherine, supported as they were by all the other European powers, finally induced Sweden to suspend them. The negotiations with the French Jacobins exacerbated the hatred which the Gustavians already felt for the Jacobin councillors of the See also:duke-See also:regent (see CHARLES XIII., king of Sweden). Smarting beneath their grievances and seriously believing that not only the young king's crown but his very life was in danger, they formed a conspiracy, the soul of which was Gustaf Mauritz See also:Armfelt (q.v.), to overthrow the government,with the aid of a Russian fleet, supported by a rising of the Dalecarlians. The conspiracy was discovered and vigorously suppressed. The one See also:bright side of this gloomy and sordid period was the rapprochement between the Scandinavian kingdoms during the revolutionary See also:wars. Thus, on the 27th of March Alliance 1794, a neutrality compact was formed between with Denmark and Sweden; and their See also:united squadrons Denmark. patrolled the North Sea to protect their merchantmen from the British cruisers. This approximation between the two governments was happily followed by friendly feelings between the two nations, under the pressure of a common danger. Presently Reuterholm renewed his coquetry with the French republic, which was officially recognized by the Swedish government on the 23rd of April 1795. In return, Sweden received a subsidy of 56,000; and a treaty between the two powers was signed on the 14th of September 1795. On the other hand, an attempt to regain the friendship of Russia, which had broken off diplomatic relations with Sweden, was frustrated by the refusal of the king to accept the See also:bride, the grand duchess Alexandra, Catherine II.'s granddaughter, whom Reuterholm had provided for him. This was Reuterholm's last official act. On the 1st of November 1796, in accordance with the will of his father, Gustavus IV., now in his eighteenth year, took the government into his own hands. The government of Gustavus IV. (q.v.) was almost a pure autocracy. At his very first Riksdag, held at Norrkoping in March 1800, the nobility were compelled, at last, to ratify Gustavus III.'s detested Act of Union and Security, which hitherto they had steadily refused to do. Shortly after this Riksdag rose, a notable change took place in Sweden's foreign policy. In December 1800 Denmark Sweden and Russia acceded to a second Armed Neutrality of the North, directed against Great Britain; and the arsenal of Karlskrona, in all See also:probability, was only saved from the fate of Copenhagen by the assassination of the emperor See also:Paul, which was followed by another change of system in the north. Hitherto Sweden had kept aloof from continental complications; but the See also:arrest Qustavus N and execution of the duc d'See also:Enghien in 1804 inspired joins the Gustavus IV. with such a hatred of See also:Napoleon that European when a general coalition was formed against the coalition, French emperor he was one of the first to join it 1804, (Dec. 3, 1804), pledging himself to send an army See also:corps to co-operate with the See also:English and Russians in driving the enemy out of Holland and Hanover. But his senseless quarrel with Frederick William III. of Prussia detained him in Pomerania; and when at last (December 1$05) he led his 6000 men towards the See also:Elbe See also:district the third coalition had already been dissipated by the victories of See also:Ulm and See also:Austerlitz. In 1806 a rupture between Sweden and Prussia was only prevented by Napoleon's See also:assault upon the latter power. After See also:Jena Napoleon attempted to win over Sweden, but Gustavus rejected every See also:overture. The result was the See also:total loss of Pomerania, and the Swedish army itself was only saved from destruction by the ingenuity of J. K. Toll (q.v.).
At See also:Tilsit the emperor See also: The nobility took advantage of this opportunity to pay off old scores against Gustavus III. by excluding not only his unhappy son but also that son's whole family from the succession—an act of injustice which has never been adequately defended. But indeed the whole of this inter-mediate period is full of dark subterranean plots and See also:counter-plots, still inexplicable, as, for instance, the hideous Fersen See also:murder (June 20, 181o) (see FERSEN, HANS AXEL VON) evidently intended to terrorize the Gustavians, whose See also:loyalty to the ancient See also:dynasty was notorious. As early as the 5th of Charles June 1809 the duke regent was proclaimed king, xIII., 1809- under the title of Charles XIII. (q.v.), after accepting '819. the new liberal constitution, which was ratified by the Riksdag the same day. The new king was, at best, a useful stopgap, in no way likely to interfere with the liberal revolution which had placed him on the throne. Peace was what the exhausted nation now required; and negotiations had already been opened at Fredrikshamn. But the Russian demands were too humiliating, and the war was resumed. But the defeats of Savarsbruk and Ratan (Aug. 19, 1809) See also:broke the spirit of the Swedish army; and peace was obtained by the See also:sacrifice of Finland, the Aland islands, " the fore-posts of Stockholm," as Napoleon rightly described them, and Vesterbotten as far as the rivers Tornea and Muonio (treaty of Fredrikshamn, Sept. 17, 1809). The succession to the throne, for Charles XIII. was both infirm and childless, was settled, after the mysterious death Bernadotte (May 28, 181o) of the first elected candidate, chosen as Prince Charles Augustus of Augustenburg, by the Crown selection of the French marshal, Bernadotte (see Prince. CHARLES XIV., king of Sweden), who was adopted by Charles XIII. and received the See also:homage of the estates on the 5th of November 181o. The new crown prince was very soon the most popular and the most powerful See also:man in Sweden. The infirmity of the old Influence king, and the dissensions in the council of state, and Poltcyof placed the government and especially the control of Bernadotte. foreign affairs almost entirely in his hands; and he boldly adopted a policy which was antagonistic indeed to the wishes and hopes of the old school of Swedish statesmen, but, perhaps, the best adapted to the circumstances. Finland he at once gave up for lost. He knew that Russia would never voluntarily relinquish the grand duchy, while Sweden could not hope to retain it permanently, even if she reconquered it. But the acquisition of See also:Norway might make up for the loss of Finland; and Bernadotte, now known as the crown prince Charles See also: These two treaties were, in effect, the corner-stones of a fresh coalition against Napoleon, and were confirmed on the outbreak of the Franco-Russian War by a See also:conference between Alexander and Charles John at Abo on the 30th of August 1812, when the tsar undertook to place an army corps of 35,000 men at the disposal of the Swedish crown prince for the conquest of Norway. The treaty of Abo, and indeed the whole of Charles John's foreign policy in 1812, provoked violent and justifiable See also:criticism among the better class of politicians in Sweden. The immorality of indemnifying Sweden at the expense of a weaker friendly power was obvious; and, while Finland was now definitively sacrificed, Norway had still to be won. Moreover, Great Britain and Russia very properly insisted that Charles John's first See also:duty was to the anti-Napoleonic coalition, the former power vigorously objecting to the expenditure of her subsidies on the nefarious Norwegian adventure before the common enemy had been crushed. Only on his very ungracious compliance did Great Britian also promise to countenance the union of Norway and Sweden (treaty of Stockholm, March 3, 1813); and, on the 23rd of April, Russia gave her guarantee to the same effect. The Swedish crown prince rendered several important services to the allies during the campaign of 1813 (see CHARLES XIV., king of Sweden); but, after See also:Leipzig, he went his own way, determined at all hazards to cripple Denmark and secure Norway. How this " See also:job " was managed contrary to the dearest wishes of the Norwegians themselves, and how, finally (Nov. 14, 1814), Norway as a free and independent See also:kingdom Union wkh was united to Sweden under a common king, is !Norway. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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