The Council of the Realm, or simply The Council ( sv, Riksrådet or sv, Rådet: sometimes in la, Senatus Regni Sueciae), was a

cabinet Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to: Furniture * Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers * Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets * Filin ...

of medieval origin, consisting of magnates ( sv, stormän) which advised, and at times co-ruled with, the

King of Sweden The monarchy of Sweden is the monarchical head of state of Sweden,See the Instrument of Government, Chapter 1, Article 5. which is a constitutional and hereditary monarchy with a parliamentary system.Parliamentary system: see the Instrument ...

. The 1634 Instrument of Government, Sweden's first written constitution in the modern sense, stipulated that the King must have a council, but he was free to choose whomever he might find suitable for the job, as long as they were of Swedish birth. At the introduction of absolutism,

Charles XI Charles XI or Carl ( sv, Karl XI; ) was King of Sweden from 1660 until his death, in a period of Swedish history known as the Swedish Empire (1611–1721). He was the only son of King Charles X Gustav of Sweden and Hedwig Eleonora of Holstein- ...

had the equivalent organ named as Royal Council ( sv, Kungligt råd). In the

Age of Liberty In Swedish and Finnish history, the Age of Liberty ( sv, frihetstiden; fi, vapauden aika) was a period that saw parliamentary governance, increasing civil rights and the decline of the Swedish Empire that began with Charles XII's death in ...

, the medieval name was reused, but after the bloodless revolution of

Gustav III Gustav III (29 March 1792), also called ''Gustavus III'', was King of Sweden from 1771 until his assassination in 1792. He was the eldest son of Adolf Frederick of Sweden and Queen Louisa Ulrika of Prussia. Gustav was a vocal opponent of what ...

, the old organ was practically abolished. The 1809 Instrument of Government, created a

Council of State A Council of State is a governmental body in a country, or a subdivision of a country, with a function that varies by jurisdiction. It may be the formal name for the cabinet or it may refer to a non-executive advisory body associated with a head o ...

, also known as the King in Council ( sv, Konungen i Statsrådet) which became the constitutionally mandated cabinet where the King had to make all state decisions in the presence of his cabinet ministers ( sv, Statsråd). Throughout the 19th century and reaching its culmination with the enactment of the 1974 Instrument of Government, this new Council gradually transformed into an executive cabinet of ministers known as

The Government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...

( sv, Regeringen), chaired and formed by the

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is ...

who since 1975 is elected by the

Riksdag The Riksdag (, ; also sv, riksdagen or ''Sveriges riksdag'' ) is the legislature and the supreme decision-making body of Sweden. Since 1971, the Riksdag has been a unicameral legislature with 349 members (), elected proportionally and se ...

, and which governs the Realm independently of a purely

ceremonial monarch A crowned republic, also known as a monarchial republic, is an informal term that has been used to refer to a system of monarchy where the monarch's role may be seen as almost entirely ceremonial and where nearly all of the royal prerogatives are ...

Middle Ages

During the reign of Magnus III between 1275 and 1290 the meetings of the council became a permanent institution having the offices of Steward (), Constable ( sv, Riksmarsk) and Chancellor ( sv, Rikskansler). Particularly from the reign of King

Gustav Vasa Gustav I, born Gustav Eriksson of the Vasa noble family and later known as Gustav Vasa (12 May 1496 – 29 September 1560), was King of Sweden from 1523 until his death in 1560, previously self-recognised Protector of the Realm ('' Riksför ...

, with his efforts of creating a centralised State, the members of the Council ( sv, Riksråd) gradually became more of

courtier A courtier () is a person who attends the royal court of a monarch or other royalty. The earliest historical examples of courtiers were part of the retinues of rulers. Historically the court was the centre of government as well as the official ...

s and state

official An official is someone who holds an office (function or mandate, regardless whether it carries an actual working space with it) in an organization or government and participates in the exercise of authority, (either their own or that of their su ...

s rather than the semi-autonomous warlords they once were.

Early modern Sweden

Following the change of policies upon the death of Gustav II Adolf in action at Lützen in 1632, the 1634 Instrument of Government written by Chancellor

Axel Oxenstierna Axel Gustafsson Oxenstierna af Södermöre (; 1583–1654), Count of Södermöre, was a Swedish statesman. 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 c ...

laid the foundation for the administration of modern Sweden. For instance, the roots of the present-day administrative subdivision into

counties A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

( sv, Län) is a legacy from this time. From 1634, the council was headed by the five Great Officers of the Realm, each leading a branch of the state administration: *

Lord High Steward The Lord High Steward is the first of the Great Officers of State in England, nominally ranking above the Lord Chancellor. The office has generally remained vacant since 1421, and is now an ''ad hoc'' office that is primarily ceremonial and ...

(or Lord High Justiciar) (Swedish: ''Riksdrots'') * Lord High Constable (Swedish: ''Riksmarsk'') * Lord High Admiral (Swedish: ''Riksamiral'') * Lord High Chancellor (Swedish: ''Rikskansler'') *

Lord High Treasurer The post of Lord High Treasurer or Lord Treasurer was an English government position and has been a British government position since the Acts of Union of 1707. A holder of the post would be the third-highest-ranked Great Officer of State ...

(Swedish: ''Riksskattmästare'')

Parliamentarism vs. absolute monarchy

The councillors had the highest position in the kingdom after the royal family and were styled "the King's cousins". From around 1672, the year of the coming of age of Charles XI, the council was assembled less and less frequently and eventually the king ruled autocratically, using an ad hoc group of trusted relations and advisors to discuss a particular matter or group of matters. The

Scanian War The Scanian War ( da, Skånske Krig, , sv, Skånska kriget, german: Schonischer Krieg) was a part of the Northern Wars involving the union of Denmark–Norway, Brandenburg and Sweden. It was fought from 1675 to 1679 mainly on Scanian soil, ...

(1674–1679) gave the king the opportunity to establish – with the approval of the Estates – an absolute Monarchy along the lines of Renaissance Absolutism. Council, Parliament, local government, legal system, Church of Sweden, all were brought within the power of the King and his secretaries. This was the culmination of a long power-struggle between the kings and the aristocracy. The first of the

Acts ratifying the change of system was a declaration that the king was not bound by the 1634 constitution, which no king or queen had ever consented to freely. The councillors were now titles Royal Councillors, being appointed and dismissed at the king's pleasure. In 1713, the son and successor of Charles XI, Charles XII, issued a new working order for the Chancellery to enable him to conduct government from the battle-field, but his sudden death at the siege of Fredricshald in Norway in 1718 provided the opportunity for the parliament (

Riksdag of the Estates Riksdag of the Estates ( sv, Riksens ständer; informally sv, Ståndsriksdagen) 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 t ...

) to write a new

constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When these pr ...

in 1719 and 1721, that gave Sweden half a century of first renewed conciliatory, and then parliamentary government. The first Estate, the nobility, dominated both the parliament and the council. The council now had 16 members and was chaired by the King. Each councillor had one vote, while the king, as chairman, had two. The council was the government of the country, but also the supreme judicial authority. From 1738 the Estates could remove councillors to create a majority corresponding to that of the Estates, the Estates also appointing the President of the Chancellery (the prime minister), along party lines. The

Freedom of the Press Act (1766) The Basic Laws of Sweden ( sv, Sveriges grundlagar) are the four constitutional laws of the Kingdom of Sweden that regulate the Swedish political system, acting in a similar manner to the constitutions of most countries. These four laws are: t ...

was also passed during this period. This

lasted until the bloodless coup d'état of king

in 1772, which restored royal sovereignty under the guise of the 1634 Instrument of Government. In 1789, by the Act of Union and Security ( sv, Förenings- och Säkerhets Acten), an amendment charter to the constitution, the exclusive right of the nobility to high offices was abolished and the Estates of the Burghers and the Peasants also received these privileges - a step towards modern democracy. Aristocratic control of state organs ceased, as among other things the Privy Council was able to be abolished altogether by the Act, although the then councillors retained their titles for life. The council's judicial function devolved on the King's Supreme Court ( sv, Konungens Högsta Domstol) composed of an equal number of noble and non-noble members. In the 1789 constitutional amendment Gustav III, having desired to abolish the constitutional power of the Council (a pesky limitation to royal rule of the executive branch, in his view), had instead received the right to determine the number of councillors. He decided to have zero of them, instead he created the office of Rikets allmänna ärendens beredning, which was a predecessor to the

. The loss of the

Finnish War The Finnish War ( sv, Finska kriget, russian: Финляндская война, fi, Suomen sota) was fought between the Kingdom of Sweden and the Russian Empire from 21 February 1808 to 17 September 1809 as part of the Napoleonic Wars. As a re ...

in 1809 prompted a military coup which removed Gustav IV Adolf, replacing the Gustavian era with a new dynasty and a new constitution restoring initiative to the Estates.

Developments in 1809 and beyond

On 6 June 1809, a new

was adopted, and while the King still appointed the members of the Council, once again called the

, the legislative powers were once again shared with the

. The new Council had nine members; the leading members being the Minister of State for Justice ( sv, Justitiestatsminister) and the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs ( sv, Utrikesstatsminister. The departmental reform of 1840 created seven ministries headed by a minister, and in 1866 the four Estates were abolished and the new

bicameral Bicameralism is a type of legislature, one divided into two separate assemblies, chambers, or houses, known as a bicameral legislature. Bicameralism is distinguished from unicameralism, in which all members deliberate and vote as a single gr ...

was constituted. In 1917, as the outcome of the 1914 Courtyard Crisis ( sv, Borggårdskrisen), the

parliamentary system A parliamentary system, or parliamentarian democracy, is a system of democratic governance of a state (or subordinate entity) where the executive derives its democratic legitimacy from its ability to command the support ("confidence") of th ...

was firmly established in Sweden, and the King could no longer independently appoint cabinet members without taking the will of the Riksdag into account.

List of Lords High Chancellor and Presidents of the Chancellery from the advent of Absolutism in 1680 to 1809

* Count Bengt Oxenstierna (June 1680 – 1685; acting) (1685 – 12 July 1702) * Count Nils Gyldenstolpe (12 July 1702 – December 1705; acting) (December 1705 – 4 May 1709) * Count Arvid Horn (21 March 1710 – 10 April 1719) * Count Gustaf Cronhielm (15 May 1719 – 12 December 1719) * Count Johan August Meijerfeldt (12 December 1719 – 22 April 1720; acting) * Count Arvid Horn (22 April 1720 – 18 December 1738) * Count Gustaf Bonde (18 December 1738 – 16 April 1739; acting) * Count Carl Gyllenborg (16 April 1739 – 9 December 1746) * Count

Carl Gustaf Tessin Count Carl Gustaf Tessin (5 September 1695 – 7 January 1770) was a Swedish Count and politician and son of architect Nicodemus Tessin the Younger and Hedvig Eleonora Stenbock. He was one of the most brilliant personages of his day, and the mo ...

(9 December 1746 – 5 December 1747; acting) (5 December 1747 – March 1752) * Count Andreas Johan von Höpken (17 March 1752 – 5 February 1761) * Count Claes Ekeblad (10 April 1761 – 12 August 1765) * Count Carl Gustaf Löwenhielm (9 September 1765 – 7 March 1768) * Baron Fredrik von Friesendorff (7 March 1768 – 30 May 1769; acting) * Count Claes Ekeblad (30 May 1769 – 9 October 1771) * Count

Ulrik Scheffer Ulrik is a male name, a Scandinavian form of Ulrich. Ulrik may refer to: * Ulrik Frederik Christian Arneberg (1829–1911), Norwegian politician for the Conservative Party * Albert Ulrik Bååth (1853–1912), Swedish poet * Ulrik Balling (born 197 ...

(9 October 1771 – 22 April 1772; acting) * Count Joachim von Düben (22 April 1772 – 22 August 1772) * Count

(23 August 1772 – 5 June 1783) * Count Gustaf Philip Creutz (5 June 1783 – 30 October 1785) * Baron Malte Ramel (30 October 1785 – May 1786) * Baron Emanuel de Geer (May 1786 – 13 June 1787) * Count

Johan Gabriel Oxenstierna Count Johan Gabriel Oxenstierna (19 July 1750 – 29 July 1818) is considered one of the foremost Swedish poets of the Gustavian period. A prominent courtier during the reign of King Gustav III of Sweden, he was also a politician, diplomat and ...

(May 1786 – 14 November 1789) * Count Karl Wilhelm von Düben (1788 – 8 November 1790) * Baron Evert Wilhelm Taube (29 March 1792 – 1792) * Baron Fredrik Wilhelm von Ehrenheim (28 May 1801 – 28 March 1809) * Count

Lars von Engeström Count Lars von EngeströmThe official English translation of the Treaty of Orebro 18 July 1812 translates his name from French as Lawrence Baron d'Engeström (''British and Foreign State Papers'', Volume 1 Part 1 (1812-1814), published by the Gr ...

(May 1809 – June 1809)

References

{{Constitution of Europe 13th-century establishments in Sweden Political history of Sweden

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic countries, Nordic c ...