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- XVIII. Christina's Minority. The Guardians. A.D. 1633—1645
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292
The chancellor’s form of govern-
ment adopted by the diet. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES.
The five administrative
colleges. Prefects and judges.
[1633—
The form of government, again revised by the
chancellor, was adopted by the collective estates,
through the dietary statute of July 29, 1634 *. It
is an ordinance for the administration of public
affairs, affecting both the exercise of the regal au-
thority, and the privileges of the estates, though
properly defining neither of them, but, on the con-
trary, presuming both. Of the sovereign, in his
relation to the government here created, it is laid
down that his rights and dignity are unimpaired,
and in no wise prejudiced
’
;
of the estates,
" that
their congresses, meetings, and resolutions must be
esteemed and held true general diets, against which
no one is to speak, that is subject to the king and
realm in fealty and obedience ’." Yet there were
some who already declared that they regarded the
mode of government introduced as new in Sweden,
and dangerous to regal authority ^.—The govern-
ment is conducted under the king, and in his
absence, illness, or minority, by the five grand
officers, the steward, marshal, admiral, chancellor,
treasui’er, with the advice, and at the head of five
colleges, the palace-court, the council of war, the
admiralty, the chancery, and the chamber of ac-
counts 3. The palace-courts are four in number,
the principal in Stockholm, with the high-steward
(Drots) as president, and four councillors of state
as assessors, six of the baronage, and six other
learned and discreet men ;
the others in Jenkoe-
ping, Abo, Dorpt, with a member of the council as
president, and six noble, six unnoble colleagues.
A court of state (Riksrjitt) is besides mentioned,
with reservation of the old view that the diet was
the highest court of the realm. "If any man should
be delinquent," it is laid down,
" of so high condi-
tion, or in such highest concernment, that it
toucheth the majesty of the king and the crown,
and inijuiry and decision in the matter cannot be
conveniently had otherwise than by the convoca-
tion of the estates, then shall all these palace
courts, with the rest of the councillors of state and
the provincial lieutenants who are present, as well
as one burgomaster of the towns of Stockholm,
Upsala, Gottenburg, Norrkoeping, Abo, Wiborg,
cum de ea re controversia inciderit, Deum solum judicem,
nee, praeter comitia regni, nuUius alterius forum esse. Elec-
tori Brandenburgensi, d. 28 Martii, 1635.
8 The council, in their letter to the chancellor, May 10,
1634, pray him to remit " the corrected form of govern-
ment." On the 5th July it was read to a commission of
the estates, and then to all the estates, whereupon some
changes were made. The secretary Grubbe was sent to Ger-
many to inform the chancellor of these, and to communicate
to him the remarks oft’ered by each of the estates. Reg.
*
§ VI. The form of government of 1634 (but with many
disfiguring errors of the press) may be read in Stiernman,
a. 887.
’
§ XLv. The composition of the diets remains as usual.
’
CoUegiis quinque eonmique capitibus summa non tan-
tum rerum agendarum cura, verum et potestas conceditur.
Unde verentur quidam fieri posse, ut, prout ingenia illorum,
qui ofiiciis summis praesunt, ad virtutem aut ambitionem
prona fueriiit, ita quoque rempublicam cum illis florere aut
periclitari posse, atque ita rex ipse, quern curis vacuum sub
hoc praetextu cupiunt, potentia quoque solutus, Venetorum
instar ducis, ociosus degat. (To the five colleges and their
heads, not only the highest cares of administration but even
the power are conceded. Wlience some fear that it may happen
that, just as the wits of those who wield the highest func-
tions are prone to virtue or ambition, so also the republic
may flourish or be jeopardied with them, and thus the king
fill the place of the estates, and have power to pass
sentence in this cause." The second college, the
council of war, is directed by the marshal, with two
councillors of state as assessors, who have served, or
still serve, in the army, and four officers, with the
field-marshal, the ordnance-master, and the general
watchmaster *. lu the third college of the admi-
ralty presides the high-admiral, and has for assess-
ors two councillors of state (those who have served
at sea being preferred), and four vice-admirals, or
the oldest and most intelligent ship captains, among
them the Holm-admiral (governor of Skeppsholm,
or Ship Island at Stockholm). No one of these col-
leges is allowed to dispose of any public funds, but
this is wholly the business of the chamber of ac-
counts, where also an account is to be rendered of
all and every receipt and expenditure. The fourth
college is the chancery, uuder the high-chancellor,
with four assessors, councillors of state, one chan-
cellor of the household^, and two secretaries of state,
if possible of the nobility. The high-treasurer’s
college, the fifth and last, is the chamber of ac-
counts, in which sit two councillors of state, three
others of the nobility, and two of the oldest cham-
berlains ’’. These five colleges (the Stockholm
palace-court alone being understood), to whose
special instructions reference is also made, shall at
all times sit in Stockholm, unless the king, on
account of the plague or other disaster, should
remove his residence for some time ’.—The govern-
ment of the provinces is divided into cei-tain pre-
fectures, of which, besides the town of Stockholm,
under its own chief lieutenant *,
there are twenty-
four, under as many prefects (or land-captains,
landshofdingar). In frontier provinces, a supreme
prefect, or governor-general, may be appointed ;
these must be councillors of state, like the chief
lieutenant of Stockholm. The assizes (lagsagor)
in Sweden are fourteen ^,
under as many justiciaries
or lawmen, whose tribunals form the second in-
stancy of the country, and receive all appeals from
the court of the hundred. In the council- chambers
of the towns shall always preside a bailiff, whom
the kmg appoints thereto, and neither the prefect
himself, whom they desire to be relieved from business,
under this pretext stripped also of power, like a duke of
Venice, may be reduced to inactivity.) Schering Rosenhane
to secretary Schmaltz, August 3, 1634. Mem. de Christine,
iii. 187. n.
3
Hofratten, Krigsradet, Amiralitetet, Kansliet, Rakninge-
kammaren.
* He appears to correspond to the adjutant-general of the
army.
5 The chancellor of the household is wanting in the first
concept by Oxenstierna.
s Tlie special instructions of the colleges mentioned in the
form of government still remained to be made out.
’ The chancellor’s concept even binds all the higher func-
tionaries to possess houses in Stockholm. This section was
omitted.
8 In the concept, Burgrave (burg-grefve, borough-reeve).
—
" He shall, for the more convenient execution of justice,
have a captain to himself, who shall be entitled town’s cap-
tain, and with him twenty-four soldiers, of whom twelve
shall constantly attend on him, clad in a fixed livery, namely,
blue and yellow." § xxiv. So far as I know, this is the
first time in which the so-called Swedish coloujs appear in
uniform.
9 In the concept thirteen. But Nerike and Vermeland,
which make each one jurisdiction in the form of government,
make but one together in the concept.
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