The Instrument of Government (Swedish : regeringsform) of 1634 was a document describing the form and operation of the Swedish government, retrospectively regarded as the country's first constitution, although it was not intended to function as such. [1] It was composed by the Lord High Chancellor, Axel Oxenstierna, [2] and was adopted by the Riksdag of the Estates (Swedish Parliament) on 29 July 1634. [3] It was rendered void when the Riksdag repudiated it in 1680. [4]
After King Gustav II Adolf was killed at the Battle of Lützen (1632), the Swedish crown passed to his daughter, Christina. However, she was only five years old at the time, and so power was exercised in her name by the Council of the Realm. As the dominant figure on the Council was the Lord High Chancellor, Axel Oxenstierna, he therefore became the effective regent of Sweden. However, he was at the time out of the country, having been accompanying King Gustav on his campaigns in Germany, and he chose to remain in Mainz to direct military operations rather than returning to Sweden. Indeed, he did not come back to Sweden until 1636, and it was during this period of absence that he composed the Instrument of Government. [5]
Oxenstierna's primary purpose in drawing up the 1634 Instrument was not to effect a major change in Sweden's form of government (as would be the case with the later Instruments of Government promulgated in 1719, 1772 and 1809), but rather to describe its existing structures and norms, and to clarify the division of responsibilities among different royal officials, in order to ensure that the regency government functioned smoothly in his absence. [1]
The Instrument of Government was the first attempt to systematically describe and regulate the structures of Swedish government and administration, as well as the judiciary and the armed forces. It also instituted a number of reforms, such as decreeing that the number of members of the Council of the Realm, hitherto an ad hoc gathering of the king's advisors, was to be fixed at twenty-five (Article #5). It furthermore established that the Council was to be headed by the five Great Officers of the Realm; one of these was Oxenstierna himself (as Lord High Chancellor), while two others were kinsmen of his, namely his brother Gabriel Gustafsson Oxenstierna (as Lord High Steward) and their cousin Gabriel Bengtsson Oxenstierna (as Lord High Treasurer). [2]
One of the Instrument's most important reforms, and certainly the one that has had the most pervasive effect upon Swedish life since 1634, was the introduction of a system of counties (Swedish : län) to replace the traditional provinces (Article #23). The counties have been rejigged several times in the centuries since, but remain the primary units of local government in Sweden to this day. [6]
The Instrument largely ignored the role of the Crown in its description of the operation of the Swedish government, and indeed reassigned many functions which were usually discharged by the king to the Great Officers of the Realm instead. As Sven Nilsson says in his biography of Oxenstierna:
All this management is top-down. Not by the king, who in a peculiar way stands outside the hierarchy, but by the officials…In the system instituted by this Instrument of Government, there is no place for the personal rule that characterises Gustav Adolf's time. On the contrary, it creates an alternative to the autocratic royal state, an oligarchic bureaucratic state, where power rests with the Great Officers of the Realm.
Obviously, this reflects in part the fact that the underage Queen Christina was incapable of taking an active role in government at the time the Instrument was written. However, it was intended from the beginning that the Instrument would apply not just during Christina’s minority but also after she came of age, and indeed during the reigns of subsequent monarchs. Oxenstierna stated as much in a letter of 5 December 1632, in which he described one purpose of the new document as being to ensure that “a wise king could be properly understood, and a foolish king not immediately deposed”, [8] i.e. that it would enable royal officials to prevent a wayward monarch from taking unwise actions that might provoke revolt.
The Instrument of Government was endorsed by the Riksdag of the Estates in July 1634 and subsequently applied across Sweden, although technically it did not have legal force as it was never formally confirmed by either Queen Christina or her successor King Charles X Gustav. Indeed, the latter strongly resented the restrictions it imposed upon his role in the government, and he used the Swedish defeat in the Dano-Swedish War (1658-1660) to argue that the current arrangement was inadequate. He therefore proposed to the 1660 session of the Riksdag that the Instrument be rewritten to give him greater freedom of action, but his efforts came to naught due to his sudden death in February of that year. [9]
The Instrument thus remained in force de facto down to 1680, when Charles Gustav’s son Charles XI used the poor Swedish performance in another conflict, the Scanian War (1675-9), to revive his father’s argument that the only way to ensure the security of the Swedish Empire was by centralising power in the person of the monarch. The Riksdag was convinced, declaring on 1680 that the king "was not to be bound by any instrument of government, only by the laws of Sweden", thereby rendering the Instrument of Government void and establishing an absolute monarchy in Sweden for the first time. [4] [9]
Despite the introduction of absolutism, Charles XI continued to implicitly accept many of the limits on royal power laid out in the Instrument of Government. His son and successor Charles XII was less sensitive, especially toward the end of his reign, when the strains imposed by the Great Northern War led him to rule in an increasingly high-handed and autocratic fashion. His arbitrary interference in the business of government and his refusal to take advice from his officials led to mounting frustration with the absolutist system, and after the king's death in 1718 it was overthrown and replaced by a constitutional monarchy. The document drawn up to articulate the new system was inspired by the 1634 Instrument of Government, and was given the same title (see Instrument of Government (1719)), although it differed from its predecessor in that it was explicitly intended to function as a constitution. [9]
Axel Gustafsson Oxenstierna was a Swedish statesman and Count of Södermöre. He became a member of the Swedish Privy Council in 1609 and served as Lord High Chancellor of Sweden from 1612 until his death. He was a confidant of King Gustavus Adolphus and then Queen Christina, for whom he was at first regent.
Charles XI or Carl was King of Sweden from 1660 until his death, in a period of Swedish history known as the Swedish Empire (1611–1721).
The monarchy of Sweden is centred on the monarchical head of state of Sweden, by law a constitutional and hereditary monarchy with a parliamentary system. There have been kings in what now is the Kingdom of Sweden for more than a millennium. Originally an elective monarchy, it became a hereditary monarchy in the 16th century during the reign of Gustav Vasa, though virtually all monarchs before that belonged to a limited and small number of political families which are considered to be the royal dynasties of Sweden.
Riksdag of the Estates was the name used for the Estates of Sweden when they were assembled. Until its dissolution in 1866, the institution was the highest authority in Sweden next to the King. It was a Diet made up of the Four Estates, which historically were the lines of division in Swedish society:
The Council of the Realm, or simply The Council, was a cabinet of medieval origin, consisting of magnates which advised, and at times co-ruled with, the King of Sweden.
Baron Jacob Magnus Sprengtporten (1727–1786) was a Swedish-Finnish army officer and politician, and half-brother of Georg Magnus Sprengtporten. He is most famous as one of the leaders of the Revolution of 1772, the coup d'état which ended the age of constitutional monarchy in Sweden known as the Age of Liberty and ushered in the period of absolute monarchy known as the Gustavian era.
The Oxenstierna family is a Swedish noble family, originally from Småland in southern Sweden, and is part of the Swedish uradel, the ancient nobility.
The 1809 Instrument of Government, adopted on 6 June 1809 by the Riksdag of the Estates and King Charles XIII, was the constitution of the Kingdom of Sweden from 1809 to the end of 1974. It came about as a result of the Coup of 1809, in which King Gustav IV Adolf was deposed. The promulgation of the constitution marks the point at which Sweden transitioned from the absolute monarchy of the Gustavian era into a stable, constitutional monarchy adhering to the rule of law and significant civil liberties.
Count Gustav Horn af Björneborg was a Swedish nobleman of Finnish descent, military officer, and Governor-General. He was appointed member of the Royal Council in 1625, Field Marshal in 1628, Governor General of Livonia in 1652 and Lord High Constable since 1653. In the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648), he was instrumental as a commander in securing victory at the Battle of Breitenfeld, in 1631. He was High Councillor of the realm in 1625, elevated to the rank of field marshal in 1628, and sometimes commander-in-chief of Swedish forces in Germany during Thirty Years' War. After the war, he served as Governor-General of Livonia 1652, President of War department and Lord High Constable in 1653. In 1651, Queen Christina created him Count of Björneborg.
Gustaf Otto Gustafsson Stenbock was a Swedish military officer and politician.
The Governor of Stockholm was the head of the Office of the Governor of Stockholm, and as such he was the highest Swedish State official overseeing the affairs in the City of Stockholm between 1634 and 1967. The Governor was the equivalent in Stockholm of a county governor elsewhere in Sweden.
The 1772 Instrument of Government was the constitution of the Kingdom of Sweden from 1772 to 1809. It was promulgated in the wake of the Revolution of 1772, a self-coup mounted by King Gustav III, and replaced the 1720 Instrument of Government, which had been in force for most of the Age of Liberty (1719-72). Although in theory the 1772 Instrument merely readjusted the balance of power between the Crown and the Riksdag of the Estates, without changing Sweden's status as a constitutional monarchy, in practice it is generally seen as instituting an absolute monarchy, especially after its modification in 1789 by the Union and Security Act, which further strengthened royal power at the expense of the Riksdag. It remained in force throughout the Gustavian era, until replaced by the 1809 Instrument of Government as a result of the Coup of 1809.
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The Lord High Chancellor was a prominent and influential office in Sweden, from 1538 until 1799, excluding periods when the office was out of use. The office holder was a member of the Privy Council. From 1634, the Lord High Chancellor was one of five Great Officers of the Realm, who were the most prominent members of the Privy Council and headed a governmental branch each—the Lord High Chancellor headed the Privy Council. In 1792, more than a century after the office's abolition in 1680, it was revived, but was then finally abolished again seven years later in 1799.
The Lord High Treasurer was a highly prominent member of the Swedish Privy Council between 1602 and 1684, excluding periods when the office was out of use. The Lord High Treasurer was head of the Kammarkollegiet and, from 1634, one of five Great Officers of the Realm.
Count Magnus Gabriel De la Gardie was a Swedish statesman and military man. He became a member of the Swedish Privy Council in 1647 and came to be the holder of three of the five offices counted as the Great Officers of the Realm, namely Lord High Treasurer, Lord High Chancellor and Lord High Steward. He also served as Governor-General in the Swedish dominion of Livonia.
Events from the year 1632 in Sweden.
The Gustavians were a political faction in the Kingdom of Sweden who supported the absolutist regime of King Gustav III of Sweden, and sought after his assassination in 1792 to uphold his legacy and protect the interests of his descendants of the House of Holstein-Gottorp.
The 1719 Instrument of Government adopted on 21 February 1719 by the Riksdag of the Estates, was the constitution of the Kingdom of Sweden from 1719 to 1720. Although only in force for a few months, it has great significance in Swedish history, as its promulgation marked the end of the country's first period of absolutism (1680-1719) and the beginning of the period of constitutional monarchy and parliamentary government traditionally known as the Age of Liberty.
The 1720 Instrument of Government adopted on 2 May 1720 by the Riksdag of the Estates, was the constitution of the Kingdom of Sweden from 1720 to 1772, and was thus in force for almost the entirety of the period of constitutional monarchy known as the Age of Liberty, having replaced the largely identical Instrument of Government (1719).