| Age of Liberty | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1719–1772 | |||
| |||
| Location | Sweden | ||
| Monarch(s) | Ulrika Eleonora Frederick I Adolf Frederick | ||
| Leader | Arvid Horn | ||
| Key events | Instrument of Government (1719) Great Northern War Russo-Swedish War Pomeranian War | ||
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InSwedish history, theAge of Liberty (Swedish:Frihetstiden) was a period that sawparliamentary governance, increasingcivil rights, and the decline of theSwedish Empire that began with the adoption of theInstrument of Government in 1719 and ended with theRevolution of 1772,Gustav III of Sweden'sself-coup. This shift of power from the monarch to parliament was a direct effect of theGreat Northern War.
Suffrage under theparliamentary government was notuniversal. Although the taxed peasantry was represented in the Parliament, its influence was disproportionately small, and commoners without taxed property had no suffrage at all.
Following the death ofCharles XI of Sweden, his young sonCharles XII became king, and in 1697, when he was only 15 years old, he was proclaimed to be of age and took over the rule from the provisional government. The states which Sweden's expansion into a great power had primarily been at the expense of,Denmark andRussia, formed a coalition withSaxony two years later with the aim of partitioning Sweden. After initial successes, Sweden's army was eventually reduced while the list of enemies grew. In a Swedish siege ofFredriksten Fortress in Norway in 1718, Charles XII was killed, after which most hostilities in the West ended. At the beginning of 1719, peace overtures were made to Britain, Hanover, Prussia, and Denmark.
By theTreaties of Stockholm on 20 February 1719 and 1 February 1720, Hanover obtained the Duchies ofBremen andVerden for herself and SouthernSwedish Pomerania withStettin for the confederateBrandenburg-Prussia. Northern Swedish Pomerania withRügen, which had come under Danish rule during the war, was retained by Sweden. By theTreaty of Frederiksborg on 3 July 1720, peace was also signed betweenDenmark andSweden. Denmark returnedRügen,Further Pomerania as far as thePeene, andWismar to Sweden in exchange for an indemnity of 600,000Riksdaler; in return, Sweden would pay theSound tolls and give up her protectorate overHolstein-Gottorp. Peace with Russia was achieved in 1721. By theTreaty of Nystad, Sweden cededLivonia, the Finnish province ofKexholm, andViborg Castle to Russia,Ingria, andEstonia. Finland west of Viborg and north ofKäkisalmi was restored to Sweden. Sweden also received an indemnity of two millionRiksdaler and a solemn undertaking of non-interference in her domestic affairs.[1]
Early in 1720,Charles XII's sister,Ulrika Eleonora, who had been elected queen ofSweden immediately after his death, was permitted to abdicate in favor of her husband Frederick, the prince ofHesse, who was elected king 1720 under the title ofFrederick I of Sweden. Under the new constitutional settlement, Sweden became the most liberal power on the European continent, second only toGreat Britain in the assertion ofParliamentary sovereignty. All power was vested in the people as represented by theRiksdag, consisting, as before, of four distinct estates: nobles, priests, burgesses, and peasants. The conflicting interests of these four independent assemblies, who sat and deliberated apart and with their mutual jealousies, made the work of legislation exceptionally difficult. No measure could now become law until it had obtained the assent of at least three of the four estates.[1]
Each estate was ruled by itstalman, or speaker, who was now elected at the beginning of each Diet, but theArchbishop of Uppsala was, ex officio, the talman of the clergy. Thelantmarskalk, or speaker of the House of Nobles, presided when the estates met in congress and also, by virtue of his office, in the secret committee. This famous 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 supreme judicial and legislative functions. It prepared 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 justice. During the parliamentary recess, however, the executive remained in the hands of thePrivy Council, which was responsible to the Riksdag alone.[1]
The policy of theHats party was a return to the traditional alliance betweenFrance and Sweden. Chancery President, and member of the rivalCaps party, CountArvid Horn acted with the recognition of Sweden's unequal status in this alliance. The Hats, however, aimed to restore Sweden to its former position as a great power. France supported the efforts of their ally to become a stronger military power and thus provided financial support to the Hats.[2]
The Hats initiatedwar with Russia. The unstable European political situation due to the almost simultaneous deaths ofCharles VI, Holy Roman Emperor and EmpressAnne of Russia seemed to favor the Hats' schemes. Despite the protests of the Caps, a project for the invasion of Russian Finland was rushed through the premature Riksdag of 1740. On 20 July 1741, war was formally declared against Russia; a month later, the Diet was dissolved, and thelantmarskalk set off to Finland to take command of the army. The first major battle occurred six months after the declaration of war when the Russians routed the Swedes in Finland atLappeenranta and captured the fortress. Neither side had major offensive achievements in the following six months, during which time the Swedish generals made a "tacit truce" with the Russians through the mediation of the French ambassador atSaint Petersburg. By the time that the "tacit truce" had come to an end the Swedish forces were so demoralized that the mere rumor of a hostile attack prompted a retreat toHelsinki. By the end of the year, the majority ofFinland was held by Russia. The Swedish fleet was struck by an epidemic, and thus contributed little to the war.[2]
The Hats avoided a motion for an inquiry into the conduct of the war by shifting the focus of the Riksdag to the issue of succession. QueenUlrike Eleonora of Sweden had lately died childless and KingFrederick was old. Negotiations were thus opened with the new Russian empress,Elizabeth of Russia, who agreed to restore the greater part of Finland if her cousin,Adolph Frederick ofHolstein, were elected successor to the Swedish crown. The Hats took the opportunity to recover the lost lands, as well as a bit of their own prestige. By theTreaty of Åbo on 7 May 1743 the terms of the empress were accepted and only the small part of Finland which lay beyond theKymi River was retained by Russia.[2]
Since 1719, when the influence of the few great territorial families had been merged in a multitude of needy gentlemen, the first estate had become the nursery and afterwards the stronghold of an opposition at once noble and democratic which found its natural leaders in such men as CountCarl Gyllenborg and CountCarl Gustaf Tessin. 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 "Night-caps" (a term subsequently softened into "Caps"), themselves adopting the sobriquet "Hats" from thethree-cornered hat worn by officers and gentlemen, which was a display of the manly self-assertion of this opposition.[1]
These epithets instantly caught the public fancy and had already become party badges when the estates met in 1738. This Riksdag was to mark another turning-point in Swedish history.In theWar of the Polish Succession between 1733–1738 Sweden supportedStanislaus Leszczyński againstAugust III of Poland. The Hats carried everything before them, and the aged Horn, who had served thirty-three years, was finally compelled to retire from the scene.[3]
Encouraged byLouisa Ulrika of Prussia,Frederick the Great's sister, KingAdolf Frederick of Sweden (reigned 1751–1771) supported a rebellion to restore the privileges of the monarchy. Theattempted monarchical revolution, planned by the queen and a few devoted young nobles in 1756, was easily crushed, with Adolf Frederick nearly losing the throne in response.
That same year, the Hats saw a blow to their foreign policy. At the instigation ofFrance, Sweden entered into theSeven Years' War, which proved disastrous. The French subsidies, which might have sufficed for a shorter, six weeks campaign (it was generally assumed that the king ofPrussia would give little trouble to a European coalition), proved inadequate. After five unsuccessful campaigns, the Hats were forced to make peace, with Sweden having lost approximately 40,000 men. When theRiksdag met in 1760, Hat leaders managed to avoid impeachment after a session lasting twenty months, and the Hat government was bolstered for an additional four years. However, the Caps soon seized power in a meeting of the estates in 1765. The Cap leader, Ture Rudbeck, was elected marshal of the Diet overFrederick Axel von Fersen, the Hat candidate, by a large majority; and, out of the hundred seats in the secret committee, the Hats succeeded in getting only ten.[2]
The Caps quickly ordered a budget report to be made, finding fraud on the part of the Hat government resulting in a large increase in the national debt and a depreciation of the note circulation to one-third of its face value. This report led to an all-round retrenchment, earning the parliament the nickname "Reduction Riksdag". The Caps succeeded in reducing the national debt, reducing wealth of the nobility in order to replenish the empty exchequer, and establishing an equilibrium between revenue and expenditure. The Caps also introduced additional reforms, the most remarkable of which was theliberty of the press in 1766. In foreign policy, the parliament also allied Sweden withRussia to counter the influence ofFrance.[2]
Although no longer a great power, Sweden still took on many of the responsibilities of a great power, and, despite losing value, the prospect of a Swedish alliance still held weight. Sweden's particular geographical position made it virtually invulnerable for six months out of the twelve, and itsPomeranian possessions provided easy access to the Holy Roman Empire. Additionally, to the east, itsFinnish frontier was close to theRussian capital at Saint Petersburg.[2]
Neutrality, a relative commitment to defensive alliances, and commercial treaties with the maritime powers, became the basis of the older Caps' foreign policy. However, the Hats' relationship withFrance in the north drove the younger Caps to seek an alliance with Russia. This policy backfired, as France's distance to Sweden had left Sweden outside the territorial ambitions of France. Russia, on the other hand, saw Swedish land as a potential area of expansion[citation needed]. The1772 Partition of Poland included a secret clause requiring the contracting powers to uphold the existing Swedish constitution as the swiftest means of subverting Swedish independence; and an alliance with the credulous Caps, or "the Patriots" as they were known in Russia, guaranteeing their constitution, was a corollary to this agreement.[2]
The domination of the Caps was short-lived. The general distress caused by their drastic reforms had found expression in pamphlets criticizing the Cap government, which were protected under the new press laws. Thesenate retaliated with an order, which the king refused to sign, declaring that all complaints against the austerity measures of the lastRiksdag should be punished with fine and imprisonment. The king, at the suggestion of thecrown prince, urged the senate to quickly summon a Riksdag in order to relieve the national distress, but was refused, leading the king to abdicate. This resulted in theDecember Crisis (1768), leaving Sweden without a regular government between December 15–21, 1768. Eventually, the Cap senate yielded and the estates were called for 19 April 1769.[4]
On the eve of the contest there was a general assembly of the Hats at the French embassy, where the Comte de Modêne furnished them with 6,000,000 livres in return for a promise to reform the Swedish constitution to increase the powers of the monarchy. On the other hand, a Russian minister became kingdom's treasurer and a counsellor for the Caps. In return, the Caps openly threatened to use Russian force to punish their detractors, and designatedNorrköping, instead ofStockholm, as the place of meeting for theRiksdag due to the city being more accessible to the Russian fleet. It quickly became evident that the Caps had misstepped, and when the Riksdag met at Norrköping on 19 April, they found themselves in a minority in all four estates. In the contest for speaker of the Riksdag (Lantmarskalk), the leaders of the two parties were again pitted against each other. The results of the previous Diet were exactly reversed, withvon Fersen defeating Rudbeck by 234 votes, despite Russia spending at least 90,000Riksdaler to secure the election of the latter.[5]
A joint note presented to the estates by the Russian,Prussian andDanish ministers protested the result, in menacing terms, against any "reprisals" on the part of the triumphant faction, hastened the fall of the government. The Cap senate resigned en masse to escape impeachment, and an exclusively Hat ministry took its place. On 1 June, the "Reaction Riksdag", as it was generally called, withdrew to the capital; and the French ambassador and the crown princeGustav called upon the new Privy Councillors to redeem their promise to reform the constitution. When, at the end of the session, they half-heartedly brought the matter forward, but it did not proceed, with the Reaction Riksdag disbanding on 30 January 1770.[5]
The Great Northern War left Sweden in a state of economic and demographic ruin at the start of the Age of Liberty. This period brought economic and social upheaval as well as industrial development. However, by the time the Age of Liberty ended in 1772, Sweden was by all objective measures a weaker nation than it was during its "Era of Great Power." Its land was diminished, itsmonopoly over the bar iron trade was gone,[6] and it was lagging behind in the race towards earlyindustrialisation.[7] The decline can be attributed both tofiscal,monetary andexecutive policy errors by the various Riksdag parties in power, as well as to technological and economic shifts which allowed Sweden's rivals and neighbours get ahead on the global stage. However, the agricultural reforms, the early industrial developments and the gradual change frommercantilism tofree trade which occurred during this period and pioneered the path for Sweden'sagricultural revolution in the 1790s and eventuallarge scale industrialization in the mid to late 19th century.[clarification needed][7]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Sweden".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 26 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 188–221.
