Court Party (Sweden)

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The court party ( Swedish Hovpartiet ) was a political party in Sweden during the so-called Freedom Period (1719–1772), which tried to give the king more influence.

founding

In connection with the Senate Diet of 1723, King Friedrich I planned to expand his power vis-à-vis the established parties in parliament, and so a group was formed from his sympathizers that resembled the later court party. Since the king was unable to achieve any of his goals at the aforementioned Reichstag, this association disintegrated again very quickly.

Only after the change of rulers from 1751, the court party in support of the new king made Adolf Friedrich and his wife Luise Ulrike , a sister of the Prussian king Friedrich II. The couple had before the throne in the political proximity of the Hutpartei ( Hatt Arne held) and unclear Promises of increased power received, but this friendship had already cooled before the death of Frederick I, as it became clear that the hat party neither wanted nor could change the form of government.

The court party, like most court parties , initially consisted of the royal couple's closest friends, including several members of the Swedish aristocracy , such as Count Erik Brahe , Thure Gabriel Bielke and Johan Ludvig Hård or Baron Erik Wrangel . In addition, there were some people from literary and artistic circles who could be won over due to the Queen's strong interest in art, such as: B. the poet Olof von Dalin . Officers and administrators who had disagreed with the established parties or who hoped for personal advantages as members of the court party also joined. There was no deeper integration with any of the estates , even if the new king was initially received with sympathy and a new royalist movement ignited in parts of the peasantry.

The court party was not comparable to the two big parties, the hats and caps . It also lacked a program for foreign policy and economics . There was only a fundamentally negative attitude towards the parliamentary constitution and an effort to strengthen the royal power. In this context, opinions were quite different. Some just wanted to give the king a little more leverage in awarding contracts or determining government spending, and others supported the queen's dreams of unlimited power.

Political development

At the State Council of 1751/52 the party was able to achieve some advantages for the royal couple, but a fundamental shift in the balance of power did not materialize. After that, the conflict between the court party and the hat party, which just had the greatest influence in parliament, worsened. It culminated in 1756 in the unsuccessful coup d'état by Luise Ulrike's closest ally, in which the plans for a coup were uncovered early on. Several high members of the court party paid for this attempt with their lives on the scaffold or were forced to emigrate . The Queen herself received a serious admonition from Parliament.

After a period of swooning, the court party appeared again in public in the 1760s. She got political support from the respective major opposition party in the Reichstag. From 1766, Crown Prince Gustav appeared more and more as a representative of the court party. The highest party post in parliament at that time was held by Colonel Fredrik Carl Sinclair , who later became Reichsrat . The party's drafts for a revision of the constitution in the direction of a monarchy were made in great secrecy.

With King Gustav's putsch on August 19, 1772, the most radical demands of the court party were fulfilled. But it also lost its right to exist, which led to its dissolution.

literature