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Riksdag of the Estates
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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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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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 Västerås in 1527 Lutheranism was adopted as the new state religion in stead of Roman Catholicism
- 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.
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) remains 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 Czar, but the political institutions were kept practically intact. The Finnish estates assembled in 1809 at Porvoo to confirm the change in their allegiance. This Diet of Finland followed the forms of the Swedish riksdag, being the legislative body of the new autonomous region. However, during the reigns of Alexander I and Nicholas I it was not assembled and no new legislation was enacted. The diet was next assembled by Czar Alexander II in 1863, as the need for modernizing legislation became imminent. After this the Diet was in session quite regularly until 1905 when it passed an act forming a new unicameral parliament which has been the Finnish legislative body since then. The Finnish House of Knights (Ritarihuone) still carries the tradition of the Estate of Nobility, but no new families have been introduced since 1906.