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SOCIAL CLASSES AND DISTINCTIONS.
15o
13th century the social conditions became crystallized. The ancient condition of
thraldom ceased to exist, though it was not till the beginning of the following
century that it was entirely abolished. The new Estates, on the other hand,
were now recognized by law. The organization of the Catholic Church was
brought to a definite conclusion by the Synod of Skiinninge in 1248, and from
that time forth, its officers and servants formed a privileged class of the
community. Some forty years later, a legally acknowledged temporal aristocracy
came into being, inasmuch as every man who engaged to serve the realm at his
own expense as a horse-soldier, was declared exempt from all the ordinary taxes.
It was thus actually possible for any one who wished to become a member of
this class, and an aristocracy of service, rather than of birth, was thereby
constituted. The peculiar conditions of that age, however, had as a result that
birth, wealth, and service under the Crown were generally enjoyed by the same
individuals, and, on the whole, the hereditary nobility may be said to have been
already established. At about the same period, the Cities began to detach
themselves as distinct communities, with constitutions of their own, and their
responsible inhabitants, burgesses, became a class for themselves. The bulk of the rest
of the population, peasant proprietors, constituted the fourth estate.
In the 14th century — a time of great unrest and frequently of general
lawlessness — the aristocracy arrogated virtually all the power in the body
social, and endeavoured to adapt to Sweden, too, the contemporary principles of
feudalism. The Swedish Peasantry, however, averted this threatened danger by
rising in arms (1434), under the leadership of Engelbrekt, to oppose King Erie
Xni. The vigorous national movement that succeeded this effort and lasted
throughout the protracted Union wars with Denmark, raised the Swedish peasantry
to a position of importance, to which the history of that time can provide no
parallel, not even in Switzerland, whose peasants, it is true, fought for their
freedom, but did not exercise any such influence on the affairs of the country.
In Sweden, however, the peasantry, in conjunction with the patriotic section of
the nobility, took an active part in the struggle for the independence of their
country, as they did also in the internal struggles. A check was given, it is
true, by Gustavus Vasa, to the independence which sprang up among the
peasantry during these restless days, but their legal and social status was secured
once for all. As the Swedish Diet (Riksdag) was at this very time becoming
more definitively established, it was a matter of course that the peasant class
should be represented in it.
The reform of the Church carried out by Gustavus Vasa, and the forfeiture
of the lands belonging to the Church overthrew the ecclesiastical aristocracy.
The new Protestant clergy, too, received for various privileges, and became one
of the four Estates into which the Riksdag was divided; their wealth and
influence were, however, no longer what they once had been, and in succeeding
centuries they always sided with the lower classes against the nobility.
The Estate of the Nobles, which, during the internal strife that culminated
in the Stockholm "bloodbath" (1520), was materially weakened and kept down
so long as the vigerous Gustavus Vasa lived, obtained all the greater influence
while the members of his house were subsequently fighting for the crown. The
dignities of Count and Baron were established, and fresh privileges were conferred
(1561, 1569, and 1612), by which they were freed from the obligation of knight
service. Nobility now became a mark of royal favour, and the estate of nobles
became a closed, hereditary caste, with great legal and actual privileges. But
at the same time, the noble was required to take a real share in the government
of the Kingdom and in the great tasks imposed by Sweden’s entry into the arena
of European politics. This was the Nobility’s Epoch of Greatness, at the same
time as it was that of the Kingdom. We will only mention here the world-
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