Courtyard Speech

The speech was a part in the organized expressions of Swedish conservatives who criticized the liberal Prime Minister Karl Staaff's decision to lower military spending, particularly the decision not to proceed with the construction of a coastal battleship for the Swedish Navy (then known as the "F-ship", which later became the Sverige-class coastal defence ship), which had been decided upon by the previous right wing government headed by Arvid Lindman.

Before World War I, modernisation of navies and introduction of Dreadnought-style heavy warships stood at the forefront of naval technology at the time, and the issue generally received a lot of public attention.

The speech was written by Sven Hedin and Lieutenant Carl Bennedich, well before the date of the planned peasant armament support march.

The Conservative politician and previous Prime Minister Arvid Lindman and the future Independent Liberal Prime Minister Gerhard Louis De Geer thought that the speech could lead to a constitutional crisis between the King and the members of the Council of State.

The initial line of the speech, I redlige män af Sveriges bondestam!, "Ye honest men of Sweden's yeomanry tribe" remains, because of its archaic grammar and choice of words and because of the political implications and importance of the speech, a famous quote in Swedish politics.