The Act
The Act of Union of Security gave the king the sole power to declare war and make peace instead of sharing this power with the estates and the Privy Council. The estates would lose the ability to initiate legislation, however they would keep the ability to vote on new taxes.
Another provision was that the King was enabled to determine the number of Privy Councillors and this also enabled him to abolish the Council altogether as he determined the number of them to zero. The judicial branch of the Privy Council (in Swedish: Justitierevisionen) was then transferred to a newly established Supreme Court.
Most noble privileges were abolished with the Act, with most offices now available to all regardless of rank. It also made noble lands purchasable by anyone instead of just by nobles.
Read more about this topic: Union And Security Act
Famous quotes containing the word act:
“I wish my countrymen to consider that whatever the human law may be, neither an individual nor a nation can ever commit the least act of injustice against the obscurest individual without having to pay the penalty for it. A government which deliberately enacts injustice, and persists in it, will at length even become the laughing-stock of the world.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
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—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881)