Swedish nobility
The Swedish nobility (Swedish: Adeln or Ridderskapet och Adeln, Knighthood and Nobility) has historically been a legally and/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). Today the nobility does not maintain its former legal privileges although family names, titles and coats of arms are still protected. The Swedish nobility consists of both "introduced" and "unintroduced" nobility, where the latter has not been formally "introduced" at the House of Nobility (Riddarhuset). The House of Nobility still maintains a fee for male members over the age of 18 for upkeep on pertinent buildings in Stockholm.
Belonging to the nobility in present-day Sweden may still carry some informal social privileges, and be of certain social and historical significance particularly among some groups. Sweden has, however, long been a modern democratic society and meritocratic practices are supposed to govern all appointments to state offices by law. No special privileges, in taxation or otherwise, are therefore given to any Swedish citizen based on family origins, the exceptions being the monarch and other members of the royal family. However, also this role is today, according to the instrument of government, ceremonial.
In 1902, Sven Hedin became the last person, other than members of the royal family, to be ennobled in Sweden. Since 1974, the monarch is only permitted to confer titles of nobility on members of the royal family. As of 2004 there were about 619 existing noble families in Sweden, with about 28,000 members. They are classified as counts (46 families), barons (124 families) and untitled nobility (449 families).[1]
Until 2003 the nobility was regulated by a government statute, but in that year the statute was lifted so that governmental sanction and legal regulation of the nobility was discontinued. The House of Nobility is now a private institution, run as any private corporation under civil commercial law, and is owned by its members. Today, the only privilege of the nobility is the right to use a helm with an open visor in their coats of arms, this according to a 1762 royal act; commoners using open visors or "noblemen's shield" (Adelig Sköld) are subjected to a fine.[2] When an association called Ofrälse och löske mäns samfund för bruk af öppne hjälmar (Commoners' and vagabonds' society for the use of open visors) petitioned the Swedish government for amnesty (Swedish: abolition) in regards to violations of the 1762 act, the petition was not tried nor granted. The Supreme Administrative Court of Sweden ruled, in 2013, that, since no one has the right to amnesty, the government's decision did not concern anyone's civil rights according to the European Convention on Human Rights, and could thus not be examined by the court.[3][4]
Swedish nobility is organized into three classes according to a scheme introduced in riddarhusordningen (Standing orders of the House of Knights) 1626
The two last classes contains the so-called untitled nobility (Swedish: obetitlad adel). 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.
Until 1719 the three classes voted separately, but in the Age of Liberty all classes were voting together with one vote for each family head (Swedish: huvudman). This made the vast majority of the untitled nobility in power, for example officers and civil servants were represented.
In 1778 Gustav III restored the classes and class voting and at the same time he reformed the Class of Knights. Originally this class only contained family descendants of Privy Councillors and was the smallest class of the three classes. But Gustav III also introduced in this class the 300 oldest families in the Class of Esquire and also the "commander families", who are of the descendants of commanders of the Order of the Northern Star and the Order of the Sword. No more commander families were introduced in the House of Knights after 1809, and thereafter also the class voting was abolished and the nobility was then voting as during the Age of Liberty.
A Swedish duke (hertig) has almost always been of royal status and counted as such. An exception in medieval times was Benedict, Duke of Halland. Two men were also created princes (furstar) in the 18th century: Fredrik Vilhelm von Hessenstein and Vilhelm Putbus but neither were introduced.
Following the elevation of a commoner into nobility by the Swedish monarch, the new nobleman had to seek introduction in order to be a fully recognised member of the House of Nobility (Riddarhuset), a term that also refers to its function as a chamber in the Riksdag of the Estates, the Swedish Parliament. In 1866 the Nobility was formally separated from government and incorporated as a separate institution, governed by statutes handed down by the monarch (from 1975: the government). This last link to the government and state was abolished in 2003. The Palace of the Nobility served as official representation for the nobility and was regulated by the Swedish government, but this regulation ceased completely in 2003, as have the privileges. The membership roster is published every three years.
Royal (Kunglig) crown
Comital (Grevlig) coronet
Baronial (Friherrlig) coronet
Noble (Adlig) coronet
Jöns Bengtsson Oxenstierna, archbishop of Uppsala (1448–1467) and regent of Sweden, under the Kalmar Union
Helena Snakenborg, noblewoman, Maid of Honour of Queen Elizabeth I of England, and Marchioness of Northampton
