This essay examines high school principals experienced autonomy and control during the COVID19-pandemic 2020 – 2021. During the pandemic, the Swedish government chose a different path than other countries regarding for example public restrictions and the possibility for preschools and elementary schools to remain open. High schools, on the other hand, were forced to have distance learning during parts of the COVID19-pandemic. The high school principals’ experienced autonomy and control are examined trough a theory about domains in which autonomy can be experienced. These domains are educational domain, social domain, developmental domain and administrative domain. Six high school principals were interviewed using a semi-structured interview method and the material from these interviews was coded based on the four domains’ keywords. The results from this survey show that before the pandemic the principals felt that they had high autonomy in all domains. At the same time, their perceived control was high, something they largely viewed as positive. However, during the COVID19-pandemic all but one of the principals found that their autonomy had diminished. Also, control decreased in all domains except the administrative one. In the administrative domain the control increased, both in terms of implementation and number of controllers. Parts of this control were perceived as positive but not all. The conclusion of this essay is, that when a society experiences a major crisis such as the COVID19-pandemic, the control and supervision of principals’ work increase and their experienced autonomy decreases.