Riksdag of the Estates
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The Riksdag of the Estates, or Ståndsriksdagen, was the name used for the Estates of the Swedish realm, or Rikets ständer, when they were assembled. Until its dissolution in 1866 the institution was the highest authority in Sweden next to the Swedish monarch. It was a Diet made up of the Four Estates, which historically were the lines of division in Swedish society:
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- Nobility
- Clergy
- Burghers
- Peasants
Important assemblies
The meeting at Arboga in 1435 was usually considered to be the first Riksdag, but there is no indication that the fourth estate, the peasants, had been represented there.
- The first meeting is likely the one that took place at Uppsala in 1436 after the death of rebel leader Engelbrekt.
- At the Riksdag in 1517 regent Sten Sture the Younger and the Privy Council pushed for the decision to depose archbishop Gustav Trolle, which started a chain of events that led to the Stockholm Bloodbath and eventually the dissolution of the Kalmar Union.
- At Söderköping in 1595, Duke Charles was elected regent over Sweden instead of King Sigismund, who was a Catholic and the monarch of both Sweden and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
- In 1612 the meeting decided to give the nobility the privilege and right to hold all higher offices of government, after successful lobbying by Axel Oxenstierna.
- The first open conflict between the different estates happened in 1650.
- At the Riksdag in 1680 a large scale reduction (a return of lands to the Crown earlier granted to the nobility) was decided.
- At the sessions in 1634, 1719, 1720, 1772 and 1809 new constitutional instruments of government were adopted.
Replaced by the new Riksdag
In 1866 all the Estates voted in favor of dissolution and at the same time to found a new assembly, The Swedish Riksdag or Sveriges Riksdag. Out of the four estates, the corporation of the Swedish nobility, the House of Knights (Riddarhuset) remaines as a quasi-official representation of the nobility. The modern Centre Party which grew out of the Swedish farmers' movement, sitting in the Parliament still today, could be construed as a modern representation with a traditional bond to the Estate of the Peasants.
The Instrument of Government from 1809 divided the powers of Government between the Bernadotte Monarch and the Riksdag of the Estates, and after 1866 with the new Riksdag. In 1809 Sweden ceded Finland to Russia. Finland became a Grand Duchy under the Russian Tsar, but the political institutions were kept practically intact. The Diet of Finland which was the successor to the Swedish Riksdag of the Estates in Finland, was dissolved in 1905.
See also
sv:ståndsriksdagen
