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III. CONSTITUTION AND ADMINISTRATION.
carried through a reorganization of the administration of the State, which was
completed, after the death of Gustavus Adolphus, by the Constitution Act of 1634.
The Council of the Realm was transformed into a permanent Chamber of Councillors,
a Senate in the capital, and became more and more distinct from the Riksdag.
The latter, on the other hand, developed into an independent organ of the unity of
the kingdom. Though for a long time it was only summoned to meet on
specially important occasions, it was nevertheless enabled, during the internal struggles
at the close of the sixteenth century, to take part in all the important changes
then made in the status of the Realm; it began to share, too, with the king in
legislation, and took over the right of taxation, while the other representative
bodies (provincial assemblies, etc.) gradually disappeared. The First Organic Law
for the Riksdag dates from 1617. The Riksdag remained a diet of estates, (Ständer)
now organised in four estates: viz., the Nobility, including both the higher and
the lower orders of the nobility (counts and barons from the time of Erie XIV)
and forming a House of Nobles (Riddarhus), in which all noble families
had a right to be represented, and where for a long time, moreover, the
officers of the army were represented; the Clergy; the Burgesses; and the
Peasantry, the three last consisting of delegates for the Church, the Towns, and
the land-owning Peasants. The Protestant Clergy, as representatives of the
higher intellectual culture and thanks to the prominent part they had played in
the internal struggles at the close of the sixteenth century, had acquired very
considerable influence and constituted by themselves one of the four Chambers
of the Riksdag.
Matters did not proceed, however, in an even course of normal development
during the seventeenth century, for two regencies, extending together over almost
a quarter of a century, involved interruptions and brought with them a degree
of irregularity in the external forms of government; contemporaneously, too,
arose conflicts between the Estates. These contentions lasted for upwards of
thirty years (1650—82) and ended in a partial victory for the lower Estates.
At a time of great financial embarrassment for the Crown, an Act of
Resumption was forced through the Riksdag in the reign of Charles XI, by which all
grants from the crown-demesnes were annulled, especially the great fiefs of
Counts and Barons. This victory for the lower Estates, however, was obtained
at a high price, for it was gained only by giving into the King’s hands absolute
power. The Riksdag was, it is true, summoned to meet at intervals, but only
for the purpose of giving assent to the King’s proposals; and Charles XII (1697
—171S) ruled without a parliament, exercising in his own person the rights of
legislation and of taxation.
On the death of Charles XII the dominion of Sweden as a Great Power fell
to pieces, and the blame for the misfortunes that had brought the country to
the verge of ruin was attributed in Sweden to the absolute monarch. To a very
substantial extent it was owing to the Estates of the Realm that the restoration
of the Kingdom both in internal and in external relations was effected. Without
disturbing the foundations of the old fabric of state, which was regarded as
consisting of the King, the Council, and the Estates, the last-named endeavoured,
by merely transferring the preponderance of power and by other precautionary
measures, to provide against a recurrence of the abuse of the royal prerogative.
The King was still at the head of the government, but he was expected not to
issue decrees on his own judgement alone, but to take and adopt good counsel.
It was thought that this would be ensured by the ordinance that, in case of
vacancy in the Council of the Realm, the Estates were to propose a list of
candidates, from whom the King had to choose one, and that all important
matters were to be decided by voting in the Council, at which the King should
have two votes together with a casting vote. Members of the Council, more-
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