Monarchy of Sweden - History

History

Sweden has been a kingdom since prehistoric times. As early as the 1st century, Tacitus wrote that the Suiones had a king, but the order of succession to the later historic kings of Sweden, before King Eric the Victorious (died 995), is only known by what is accounted for in the historically controversial Norse sagas (see Mythical kings of Sweden and Semi-legendary kings of Sweden).

Originally, the Swedish king had power limited to the functions of a warchief, judge and priest at the Temple at Uppsala (see Germanic king). It is a testimony to lack of influence that there are thousands of runestones commemorating commoners, but no chronicle about the Swedish kings, prior to the 14th century (though a list of kings was added in the Westrogothic law), and only a few runestones that may mention kings: Gs 11 (Emund the Old), U 11 (Haakon the Red) and U 861 (Blot-Sweyn).

The power of the king was greatly strengthened by the introduction of Christianity during the 11th century, and the following centuries saw a process of consolidation of power in the hands of the king. The king was traditionally elected at the Stones of Mora, and the people had the right to both elect the king and to depose him. The stones were, however, destroyed ca 1515.

Sweden has only had an hereditary monarchy since 1544 when the Riksdag of the Estates, through Västerås arvförening, designated the heirs of King Gustav Vasa as the heirs to the Throne.

The powers of the King was originally regulated by a partition of the written legal code called Konungabalk (English: Kings' partition) from medieval times until 1734, when a new law code of Sweden was adopted and this partition of the law was removed. This new law code of Sweden was adopted after a long period of inquiries by Royal commissions since the days King Charles IX (late 16th/early 17th century) on a new legal code to replace the medieval one.

The 1634 Instrument of Government and altering hereditary rules also regulated the monarchy until 1719, when a fully written constitution, the 1719 Instrument of Government, came into force. This constitution was replaced one year later by the 1720 Instrument of Government, which limited the powers of the monarch even more than the 1719 statute did. The 1720 statute was later replaced by the 1772 Instrument of Government.

As a result of the poorly managed Finnish war, on 17 September 1809, in the Treaty of Fredrikshamn, Sweden had to surrender the eastern half of Sweden to Russia. King Gustav IV Adolf and his descendants were deposed in a coup d'etat led by dissatisfied army officers. The childless uncle was of the former king was later elected as Charles XIII. The Instrument of Government of 1809 put an end to notions of royal absolutism by dividing the legislative power of between the Riksdag (primary) and the King (secondary), and vested executive power in the King when acting through the Council of State.

The present Bernadotte dynasty was established in September 1810 when the Riksdag, convened in Örebro, elected French Marshal and Prince of Ponte Corvo Jean Baptiste Bernadotte as Crown Prince of Sweden. The reason for this procedure was that there were no heirs of King Charles XIII and the previously elected heir in January 1810, Charles August, had suddenly died in a stroke.

Following the de facto breakthrough of parliamentarism in 1917 the King's powers were in practice considerably reduced, and he became a figurehead with only limited political authority. In 1975, with the adoption a new Instrument of Government, the monarch was de jure reduced to a mere figurehead without any formal political powers left.