No description available.

No description available.

This is a study of the letters from His Majesty the King to the county governor of Gotland in 1735. In the Age of Liberty the king had limited power. Royal decisions were made with the Council of the Realm where the King only had the advantage of having two votes and a casting vote. Furthermore, the Council had to act according to the decisions of the Estates of Parliament, if at least three of the four Estates were in agreement. The duties of the county governor were set out in a detailed instruction of which the most recent version was issued in 1734. The county governors also received tasks in laws and royal ordinances I have examined in full the thirty letters from the King that have been entered in the diary of the county secretariat of Gotland in 1735. My aim has been to examine the nature of the letters, what kind of action that was expected of the county governor and how the letters compared to the County Governor Instruction. Although the letters ostensibly came from the King, there are frequent reminders that the Council of the Realm and the Estates were those who had the real power. Most of the letters were circular letters. Presumably letters with the same contents were sent to all county governors. About a third of the letters had printed enclosures which the county governor was asked to make public. In some cases the Estates had first sent a letter to the King in Council asking them to make a certain decision. Only one of the letters was without doubt sent only the county governor in Gotland and this was also the only letter which had a reply sent back to the King. The county governor was expected to respond to the letters, which he usually did by sending information to one of the civil service departments, by communicating ordinances to the public, or by taking other measures. Two of the letters contained instructions that could be interpreted as additions to the County Governor Instruction. On the whole, the correspondence for the year of 1735 covered all the main parts of the county governor’s responsibilities.

Uppsatsens ämne kretsar kring plafonderna i Drottningens sommarrum i Stockholms Slott, utförda av Domenico Francia och Guillaume Thomas Rafael Taraval. På grund av avsaknad av samtida arkivmaterial från dess tillkomst, utgörs studiens främsta empiriska material av plafonderna själva, i egenskap av visuella källor. Syftet är att genomföra en receptionsestetisk analys av målningarna där de allegoriska programmen ställs i relation till frihetstidens politiska situation – i synnerhet kungligheternas roll i den konstitutionella monarkin. Således bygger det teoretiska perspektivet på Wolfgang Kemps receptionsestetiska begrepp: externa och interna faktorer, samt implicit betraktare. Men då Kemps syn på de externa faktorerna är något begränsad, kommer främst Peter Gillgrens adaption av begreppen att användas. Dispositionsmässigt består analysen av tre delar, där den förstnämnda fungerar kontextualiserande och redogör i korthet för frihetstidens politiska situation och regenternas roll diskuteras. Därefter följer två enskilda bildanalyser. En huvudfråga i forskningen om plafondernas program har rört huruvida de är allmänt hållna eller återspeglar faktiska inrikes- eller utrikespolitiska förhållanden. Undersökningens resultat visar på att plafonderna inte bara knyter an till den samtida politiken, utan kan även härledas till stormaktstidens praktverk Suecia Antiqua et Hodierna, vilket sammankopplar programmen med stormaktstidens retorik och politiska kultur, och visar att stormaktsambitionerna ännu ej var glömda, utan manifesteras – om än subtilt – även i frihetstidens inredningar i Stockholms Slott.

No description available.

No description available.

En undersökning i det kvinnligt konstruerade könet och dess framställning pastorala porträtt under frihetstidens Sverige. Genom en undersökning av den dåtida kontexten och analys av tre kvinnliga porträtt undersöks framställningen av kvinnan som ett ideal. / An analysis of the female constructed gender and it's display in the pastoral portrait during the first half of the 18th century in Sweden. By looking at the kontext of the time an through analyzing three portraits the matter of woman as an ideal will be explored.

Regulating education is a vital part of government. This thesis is inspired by recent changes on the political landscape of higher education. It is guided by an interest in how political objectives and concepts of ideal social relationships are transformed and expressed through government university policies and their consequences. An early stage of what is now commonly referred to as the modern state and the modern research university, rather than present or relatively recent developments, will be explored. Instead of studying trends on the European continent, the thesis inquiries into an attempt made by the Swedish government to revise the constitutions of Swedish schools and universities through the so-called Educational Commission appointed in 1745. The purpose of the thesis is to apply a modern policy perspective to the Educational Commission’s attempt at reforming the constitution of the Swedish universities. The aim is to illuminate the construction of university regulations and to place this within a larger framework of policy making during the Age of Liberty (Frihetstiden) in Sweden. The Commission was an attempt by the Swedish government to implement educational changes based on a holistic view of the realm. It was one of several contemporary initiatives with nationwide ambitions. The Commission did not, however, succeed in reaching its formal objectives, but by placing too much emphasis on what the Commission did not achieve one risks overlooking other results and consequences. It initiated new communication structures, operating procedures and accountability schemes. It changed the regulations for assessing higher education making the university transparent and accountable to the government in new ways. New administrative routines for producing university reform were introduced. The Commission also provided university actors with a legitimate channel for voicing their opinions in relation to the government. They were given a legitimate position to formulate problems, questions and solutions regarding the university. The demands of the professors for increased autonomy in seeking knowledge and providing education stood against the claims made by the government for added control and insight into academic affairs. Through the Commission, the views of the professors were put into circulation in an official political context. / Östersjöregionens akademiska kultur under tidigmodern tid

The purpose of this master thesis is to understand how political culture was negotiated during times of extreme external conditions, through the example of the parliamentary debates during the famine years 1726–1727. The result is based on the parliamentary protocols of 1726–1727 under the Age of Freedom. To answer the purpose of this study, four questions have been constructed. How was the crop failure and its consequences described? During the summer of 1726 Sweden was struck by a severe famine as a result of a poor harvest. The livestock were weakened and the farms had fallen into destitute. The peasants had to gather roots, bark, and moss to survive. Even the nobility described their own cultural habits and assets as being threatened and damaged. The local community felt that they could not live up to the demands made by the central power. What solutions did the local community propose or demand from the central power to tackle the consequences of the crop failure? The high taxation and lack of money, together with a strictly regulated trade, made the peasants feel forsaken, especially compared to other groups. The main strategies to gain the central powers approval was to show submission, refer to the law and try to compromise. But, when the central power did not respond to the peasants demands they threatened to leave their political duties. If the peasants had left, the entire political system could have collapsed. With what arguments did the central power respond to these problems? The central power feared that if they allowed the peasants to trade to a greater extent, they would perhaps engage in trade rather than in agriculture. They also feared an increased risk of fraud if the market opened up for a more mobile trade, which reflected the suspicion of a lack of morality among the peasants. The lack of trust was also an excuse to exclude the peasants from the Secret committee. The political distribution of power was considered by the peasants to be a political failure. Without the insight into the Secret committee, the peasants could not use economic arguments in the debate. How can the debate about crop failure and famine be understood as an example of political culture? Instead of the peasantry protesting with rebellion against the central powers levies, the Riksdag can be regarded as a safety valve, where the central power and the local society could find middle ground. If the demands of the local community did not collide with other groups' interests, then there was a good chance of getting temporary reliefs or increased freedom of trade.

This essay is a contribution to the process of reconstructing the meaning of a concept that has been long forsaken and somewhat forgotten. It examines the way in which the Swedish nobility perceived the politically active peasantry during the 1740s as an expression of the prevailing political culture of the period. The aim of this study is thus to understand a bygone world of thought that once existed in a very turbulent political culture. I focus on the words formed and articulated in the halls and rooms of the Swedish estates by which the thoughts, opinions and power of the Swedish government came to the fore. In doing so it is possible to say something about how the nobility, in their relationship with the peasantry, constructed an object which represented their perception of the Swedish peasant and what this meant. In other words the persona that the nobility attributed the peasants. The new political culture of the Age of Liberty (1719–1772) allowed the peasants to enforce a political offensive that gave raise to new ways of expressing themselves, new ways of performing and new ways of positioning themselves in relation the other estates. This also meant a change in how the other estates perceived and acted in relation to the peasantry. The peasant persona was mainly characterized by negative traits and qualities. He was foolish, unqualified and naïve in his quest for increased political rights. However, he was also regarded as humble, benevolent and as a dedicated man. He was a Swedish citizen, just as the members of the nobility, and therefore he had an inherent value because of his love for his homeland. This made it possible for the nobility and peasantry to protect themselves against intruders, to strive forward and to live in harmony with each other. / <p>Författaren har bytt namn till Jakob Starlander.</p>