Gustav III of Sweden - Between Constitutionalism and Absolutism

Between Constitutionalism and Absolutism

Gustav worked towards reform in the same direction as other contemporary sovereigns of the age of enlightenment. Criminal justice became more lenient, the death penalty was restricted to a relatively short list of crimes (including murder), and torture was abolished in order to gain confessions, although "strict death penalty" was maintained.

He took an active part in every department of business, but relied heavily on extra-official counsellors of his own choosing rather than upon the senate. The effort to remedy the widespread corruption that had flourished under the Hats and Caps engaged a considerable share of his time and he even found it necessary to put on trial the entire Göta Hovrätt, the superior court of justice in Jönköping.

Measures were also taken to reform the administration and judicial procedures. In 1774 an ordinance was proclaimed providing for the liberty of the press, though "within certain limits". The national defences were raised to a "Great Power" scale, and the navy was so enlarged as to become one of the most formidable in Europe. The dilapidated finances were set in good order by the "currency realization ordinance" of 1776.

Gustav also introduced new national economic policies. In 1775 free trade in grain was promoted and several oppressive export tolls were abolished. The poor law was amended, limited religious liberty was proclaimed for both Roman Catholics and Jews, and Gustav even designed and popularized a national costume, which was in general use among the upper classes from 1778 until his death. (It is still worn by the ladies of the court on state occasions.) The king's one great economic blunder was the attempt to make the sale of alcohol a government monopoly, which clearly infringed upon the privileges of the estates.

His foreign policy, on the other hand, was at first both restrained and cautious. Thus, when the king summoned the estates to assemble at Stockholm on 3 September 1778, he could give a highly positive account of his six years' stewardship. The parliament was quite obsequious towards the king. "There was no room for a single question during the whole session."

Short as the session was, it was long enough for the deputies to realize that their political supremacy had departed. They had changed places with the king. He was now indeed their sovereign lord; and, for all his gentleness, the jealousy with which he guarded, the vigour with which he enforced the prerogative, plainly showed that he meant to remain so.

Even those who were prepared to acquiesce in the change by no means liked it. If the diet of 1778 had been docile, the diet of 1786 was mutinous. The consequence was that nearly all the royal propositions were either rejected outright or so modified that Gustav himself withdrew them.

Earlier in foreign affairs, however, and privately, Gustav had shown considerable interest in the American Revolution and had this to say about it in October 1776:

It is such an interesting drama to see a nation create itself, that I – if I now had not been who I am – would go to America to follow up close every phase in the emergence of this new republic. – This perhaps is America’s century. The new republic, which hardly has a population put together better than Rome had to begin with, may perhaps take advantage of Europe some day, in the same manner as Europe has taken advantage of America for two centuries. No matter what, I cannot help but admire their courage and enthusiastically appreciate their daring.