Swedish nobility
"Knighthood and Nobility") has historically been a legally or socially privileged class in Sweden, and part of the so-called frälse (a derivation from Old Swedish meaning free neck).
The archaic term for nobility, frälse, also included the clergy, a classification defined by tax exemptions and representation in the diet (the Riksdag).
Sweden has, however, long been a modern democratic society and meritocratic practices are supposed to govern all appointments to state offices by law.
The division into classes has roots in the Middle Ages when the nobility frälse was divided into lords in the Privy Council, knights and esquires.
Two men were also created princes (furstar) in the 18th century: Fredrik Vilhelm von Hessenstein and Wilhelm Malte zu Putbus but neither were introduced.
Generally, the nobility grew from wealthier or more powerful members of the peasantry, those who were capable of assigning work or wealth to provide the requisite cavalrymen.
The background for this was that the old system of a leiðangr fleet and a king constantly on travel through the realm (between the estates of Uppsala öd) had by this time become outmoded.
In the case where a noble was granted a castle belonging to the crown, his heirs couldn't later claim their ancestors' civil or military rights.
For extended periods, the commander of Viborg at the Novgorod/Russian front did, in practice, function as a margrave, keeping all the crown's income from the fief to use for the defense of the realm's eastern border.
[5] The somewhat loose cut-off date or rather rule of thumb for what constitutes ancient Swedish nobility is therefore set to during mid 14th century but no later than 1400.
Some ancient noble families: At the coronation of Eric XIV in 1561, Swedish nobility became formally hereditary for the first time upon the creation of the higher titles of Count (greve) and Baron (friherre).
The Lord High Chancellor, Axel Oxenstierna, was the architect of the Instrument of Government of 1634, which laid the foundation of modern Sweden.
Due to the many wars fought by Sweden, the crown needed some means of rewarding its officers, and since the royal coffers were not without end, ennoblement and grants of land were useful substitutes for cash payments.
In less than a century, the nobility's share of Swedish land ownership rose from 16% to over 60%, which led to considerably lower tax revenue for the crown.
The recognition of such noble status in society was of a social, not a legal, nature, as has all Swedish nobility become since it was separated from the government more recently.
[8] An association of unintroduced nobility, Sveriges Ointroducerade Adels Förening, private club with no official standing, was founded in 1911.
Starting from the time of the Reformation, a common naming practice among the clergy was to use the Latinized form of their birthplace (e.g. Laurentius Petri Gothus, from Östergötland).
This was a period which produced a myriad of two-word Swedish-language family names for the nobility (very favored prefixes were Adler-, "eagle"; Ehren-, "honor"; Silfver-, "silver"; and Gyllen-, "golden").
The nobility's political privileges were practically abolished by the reformation of the Riksdag of the Estates in 1866, and the last rights of precedence to certain governmental offices were removed in the 1920s.
The prerogatives of nobility today are limited to protection of noble titles and certain elements and styles used in their coats of arms (this according to a 1762 act): a helm with an open visor, a coronet showing rank, a medallion and the use of supporters.
[citation needed] Outside Sweden, Saint Bridget (1303–1373) became known as the Princess of Nericia,[10] which appears to have been a noble, rather than a royal title, since she was not the daughter of a king.
