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QUEEN ELEONORA AND KING FREDERIC. 605
NOTE 4.
QUEEN ULRICA ELEONORA AND KING FREDERIC .
Ulrica Eleonora, a younger sister of Charles XII, and second
daughter of Charles XI, was born in 1688, and in 1715 was married
to Frederic, the Crown-prince of Hesse-Cassel, who was born in
1676. Her elder sister, Hedvig Sophia, who died in 1708, was married
to Duke Frederic IV of Schleswig -Holstein -Gottorp, and left a son,
Charles Frederic. After the death of Charles XII, on Nov. 30 , 1718,
Prince Frederic, who was then in the camp, immediately proclair
wife Queen of Sweden, without regarding the claims of her sister’s son,
Charles Frederic. In order to have her appointment as Queen of Sweden
ratified by the Cabinet and the Diet, Ulrica Eleonora was obliged to
renounce some of the most essential rights of the crown, among which
was that of levying war without the concurrence of the people, or
rather of the House of Nobles and the Council of State, into whose
hands most of this power passed. By the wish of the Queen her
husband Frederic was in 1720 acknowledged by the Diet as the
reigning King of Sweden. Among the most vigorous opponents in
the Diet to the curtailment of the royal power was Bishop Swedberg ;
he argued that “we ought to be very careful not to tie the hands of
royalty so much, that one day it will break these bonds, and re
establish a despotism;" an opinion, the soundness of which was
proved by the revolution in 1772, when Gustavus III regained most
of the power that had been wrested from the king by the nobles.
It was not on account of the Bishop’s devotion to the cause of royalty
that his children were ennobled by Ulrica Eleonora in 1719, but
because the Queen, when a princess, had entertained great reverence
and esteem for the intrepid Bishop. Owing to the great diminution
of the royal power, neither Ulrica Eleonora, who died in 1741,
her husband Frederic, who died in 1751, had much opportunity of
distinguishing themselves as sovereigns of Sweden. Indeed they were
upbraided for taking too little interest in the affairs of the state,
among others by Bishop Swedberg, who told the King that his people
did not like his so seldom attending the Council of State ; to which
the King replied that this was not to be wondered at, since he " had
there sixteen preceptors.” In her younger days, while Charles XII
was imprisoned in Turkey in 1713, Ulrica Eleonora had seized the
reins of government, and assembled the Diet in order to follow a
more peaceful policy; but for this arrogation of power she was
severely reprimanded by her brother on his return . Once more in
nor
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