BYRON NORDSTROM – Ph.D. University of Minnesota – Professor at Gustavus Adolphus College
"In 1757, the Hats, who disliked Prussia and Fredrik II and had virtually unlimited control over decisions after King Adolf Fredrik's failure to reestablish royal control and the introduction of the royal signature stamp (a kind of "rubber stamp" with his signature that the council could and did use when the king wouldn't go along with their ideas), went to war again. They out-voted a faction in the council, went against the Form of Government regarding offensive war, accepted French assistance. . . Sweden was "as ill-prepared as it had been in 1741." (Carlsson & Rosen) (The Pomerania War, 1757-62)
This war gave rise to the longest parliament of the period to date and increased "modern" political campaigning, conversation, and the like. It probably also led to the eventual downfall of the Hats several years later.
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ANTHONY F. UPTON -- Ph.D. – Professor at St. Andrews University
“You are correct regarding all three 18th Century Swedish wars.”
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H. ARNOLD BARTON – Ph.D. Princeton University – Professor at Southern Illinois University
The war against Prussia also gives evidence to political calculations. The dominant Hats at this point were strongly dependent upon subsidies from France, which to them made it essential for them to bring Sweden into the anti-Prussian alliance. Moreover, in 1756 an unsuccessful royalist coup had been crushed, in which the Prussian-born queen, Lovisa Ulrika, was implicated, . It's intention had been to strengthen the powers of the crown, which the Hats resolutely opposed. So the war was an implied rebuke to her. Ironically, it would be largely thanks to Lovisa Ulrika's intercession with her brother, Frederick II of Prussia, that Sweden managed to make a separate peace with Prussia after its military fiasco....
I hope this may be of some help in your research.
Sincerely,
Arnold Barton
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