Age of Liberty
The conflicting interests of these four independent assemblies, who sat and deliberated apart and with their mutual jealousies, made the work of legislation exceptionally difficult.
It prepared all bills for the Riksdag, created and deposed all ministries, controlled the foreign policy of the nation, and claimed and often exercised the right of superseding the ordinary courts of justice.
Chancery President, and member of the rival Caps party, Count Arvid Horn acted with the recognition of Sweden's unequal status in this alliance.
The unstable European political situation due to the almost simultaneous deaths of Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor and Empress Anne of Russia seemed to favor the Hats' schemes.
Neither side had major offensive achievements in the following six months, during which time the Swedish generals made a "tacit truce" with the Russians through the mediation of the French ambassador at Saint Petersburg.
By the time that the "tacit truce" had come to an end the Swedish forces were so demoralized that the mere rumor of a hostile attack prompted a retreat to Helsinki.
Negotiations were thus opened with the new Russian empress, Elizabeth of Russia, who agreed to restore the greater part of Finland if her cousin, Adolph Frederick of Holstein, were elected successor to the Swedish crown.
By the Treaty of Åbo on 7 May 1743 the terms of the empress were accepted and only the small part of Finland which lay beyond the Kymi River was retained by Russia.
The attempted monarchical revolution, planned by the queen and a few devoted young nobles in 1756, was easily crushed, with Adolf Frederick nearly losing the throne in response.
The French subsidies, which might have sufficed for a shorter, six weeks campaign (it was generally assumed that the king of Prussia would give little trouble to a European coalition), proved inadequate.
[2] The Caps quickly ordered a budget report to be made, finding fraud on the part of the Hat government resulting in a large increase in the national debt and a depreciation of the note circulation to one-third of its face value.
Sweden's particular geographical position made it virtually invulnerable for six months out of the twelve, and its Pomeranian possessions provided easy access to the Holy Roman Empire.
[2] Neutrality, a relative commitment to defensive alliances, and commercial treaties with the maritime powers, became the basis of the older Caps' foreign policy.
The general distress caused by their drastic reforms had found expression in pamphlets criticizing the Cap government, which were protected under the new press laws.
The senate retaliated with an order, which the king refused to sign, declaring that all complaints against the austerity measures of the last Riksdag should be punished with fine and imprisonment.
[4] On the eve of the contest there was a general assembly of the Hats at the French embassy, where the Comte de Modêne furnished them with 6,000,000 livres in return for a promise to reform the Swedish constitution to increase the powers of the monarchy.
The results of the previous Diet were exactly reversed, with von Fersen defeating Rudbeck by 234 votes, despite Russia spending at least 90,000 Riksdaler to secure the election of the latter.
[5] A joint note presented to the estates by the Russian, Prussian and Danish ministers protested the result, in menacing terms, against any "reprisals" on the part of the triumphant faction, hastened the fall of the government.
[7] The decline can be attributed both to fiscal, monetary and executive policy errors by the various Riksdag parties in power, as well as to technological and economic shifts which allowed Sweden's rivals and neighbours get ahead on the global stage.
