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Parliaments, Estates and Representation
ISSN: 0260-6755 (Print) 1947-248X (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rper20
Scottish involvement in the Swedish Riksdag
of the seventeenth century: the period from
Parliamentarianism to Absolutism, c.1632–1700
Alexia Grosjean & Steve Murdoch
To cite this article: Alexia Grosjean & Steve Murdoch (2014) Scottish involvement in
the Swedish Riksdag of the seventeenth century: the period from Parliamentarianism to
Absolutism, c.1632–1700, Parliaments, Estates and Representation, 34:1, 1-21, DOI:
10.1080/02606755.2014.888620
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02606755.2014.888620
Published online: 27 Mar 2014.
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Scottish involvement in the Swedish Riksdag of the
seventeenth century: the period from
Parliamentarianism to Absolutism, c.1632–1700
ALEXIA GROSJEAN AND STEVE MURDOCH
SUMMARY
This article discusses the role of one migrant ethnic group (in this case the
Scots) and follows its involvement in the Swedish Parliament (Riksdag) in the
Swedish in the early modern period. It seeks to establish whether the Scots
used their ethnicity to form a particular constituency within the Swedish Parlia-
ment, or if they had become so well integrated into Swedish society that they sat
in the Riksdag as Swedes regardless of their ethnic links. In doing so, this article
contributes to a number of areas of interest beyond parliamentary history, not
least in the fields of ethnic integration and societal acceptance in early modern
Sweden.
alla grefvar, friherrar, ridders- och fra
¨lsema
¨n, som till laga a
˚r komne a
¨ro och ej
laga fo
¨rfall hafva; alla o
¨fverstar, o
¨fverstelo
¨jtnanter och majorer samt en ryttma¨stare
eller kapten af hvart landtregement; alla biskopar och superintendenter och tva
˚af
hvart kapitel samt en prestman af hvart ha
¨rad; af hvar stad en borgma
¨stare och
en ra
˚dman eller annan borgare och af hvart ha
¨rad en bonde.
1
Alexia Grosjean and Steve Murdoch, University of St Andrews
1
This is translated as: ‘All counts, barons, noblemen and tax-exempt men of legal age with no criminal
record: all colonels, lieutenant colonels and majors along with masters of horse or captains from each
regional regiment; all bishops and [church] superintendents and two from each chapter, along with a
preacher from each parish; [and] from each town a mayor and a councillor or other burgess and from
each parish one farmer [are to attend].’ This was a Royal summons issued on 20 December 1654 to
the forthcoming Riksdag in February 1655 quoted in C.G. Starba
¨ck, Bera
¨ttelser ur svenska historien,11
vols, vol. 6 (Stockholm, 1886), p. 33. The Riksdag was called in response to the current threats to
Swedish security as well as pressing domestic issues.
Parliaments, Estates & Representation 34, April 2014. Published for the International Commission
for the History of Representative & Parliamentary Institutions by Routledge/Taylor & Francis. #2014
International Commission for the History of Representative and Parliamentary Institutions/Commission
Internationale pour l’Histoire des Assemble
´es d’ E
´tats. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02606755.2014.888620
Downloaded by [University of St Andrews] at 02:51 03 November 2017
Although notable forays have been made into the history of the Swedish Riksdag
(Parliament),
2
the emphasis has usually been placed on the development of the
institution rather than on a targeted study of particular individuals, or even national
groups, who took part in the meetings. The Riksdag was far from a mono-ethnic
institution, being open to not only Swedes, but also Finns and a variety of
foreigners (including Dutch, Germans, French and, as we shall see, Scots) who
had made Sweden their new home. All these individuals took up their seats as ‘nat-
uralized’ Swedes, but there are sometimes indications that their decisions in the
Riksdag may have been influenced by their own ethnic origins. Given the frequency
of the meetings and the vast numbers of participants involved, this article cannot
present an exhaustive account of all the Scots who served the Swedish state, nor
of the discussions in which they participated. Instead, it is intended to give an indi-
cation of the role that particularly vocal Scots played in the specifically governmen-
tal and related social changes that Swedish society experienced in the period prior
to Swedish absolutism.
Research into the military relations between Scotland and Sweden during the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries has revealed a Scottish military participation
in the Swedish armed forces of over 50,000 men in the early modern period, of
which a significant number became ennobled and settled in Sweden.
3
Large com-
munities of civilian Scots have also been identified in Stockholm and Gothenburg,
with smaller clusters of Caledonians in a number of smaller towns across Sweden
and Finland.
4
Building on the scholarship surrounding these migrants, this
article explores whether the Scottish presence at the Riksdag ever expressed
itself as a coherent group or whether those Scots who sat in the Swedish institution
were so integrated into their host society that they acted simply as ‘new Swedes’ in
their parliamentary roles.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE RIKSDAG
If the roots of the Swedish Riksdag can be found in the fourteenth century
5
– and
this is still debated by historians – it was in 1435 that a first official meeting of
representatives of various social classes, albeit excluding the peasantry, was
2
M.F. Metcalf (ed.), The Riksdag: A History of the Swedish Parliament (New York, 1987). See also
M. Roberts, Essays in Swedish History (London, 1967).
3
For the most complete survey see A. Grosjean, An Unofficial Alliance, Scotland and Sweden 1569–1654,
(Leiden, 2003).
4
For Scots in the Stockholm and Gothenburg communities see S. Murdoch, ‘Community, Commodity
and Commerce: The Stockholm-Scots in the Seventeenth Century’, in D. Worthington (ed.), British and
Irish Emigrants and Exiles in Europe, 1603–1688 (Brill, 2010), pp. 31–66; A. Grosjean and S. Murdoch,
‘The Scottish Community in Seventeenth Century Gothenburg’, in A. Grosjean and S. Murdoch
(eds), Scottish Communities Abroad in the Early Modern Period (Leiden, 2005), pp. 191 –223; J.R. Ashton,
Lives and Livelihood in Little London (Sa
¨vedalen, 2003); E. Grage, ‘Scottish Merchants in Gothenburg,
1621–1850′, in T.C. Smout (ed.), Scotland and Europe 1200 –1850’ (Edinburgh, 1986), pp. 112–115;
G. Behre, ‘Scots in “Little London”. Scots Settlers and Cultural Development in Gothenburg in the
Eighteenth Century’, Northern Scotland 7, (1986), pp. 133–50.
5
Roberts, ‘On Swedish History in General’, in Essays in Swedish History,p.7.
2Alexia Grosjean and Steve Murdoch
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called in Arboga to discuss matters affecting the kingdom as a whole. Another
meeting was held at Uppsala the following year in 1436 and, by the end of the
century, the gatherings occurred with such regularity that the institution had, in
Michael Roberts’ opinion, ‘become an important element in the political life of
the nation’.
6
Earlier meetings of a similar nature, known as herredag where
nobles and bishops gathered, had dealt with significant constitutional develop-
ments affecting the whole kingdom, such as the granting of the Charter of Liberties
in 1319 with regard to the parliamentary election of Magnus Eriksson as king, and
the passing of the Land Law in 1350. The development of the Riksdag as a royal
institution is, however, fundamentally connected with the rise of the house of
Vasa and it was during the reign of Gustav I Vasa (1523 – 60) that the term
Riksdag was introduced to differentiate these meetings from the herredag, even
though both terms remained frequently interchangeable until the mid-seventeenth
century. In 1527 Gustav I called what became known as the Reformation Riksdag at
Va
¨stera
˚s and in 1544 another Riksdag at Va
¨stera
˚s saw the Succession Pact (Arv-
fo
¨rening) enacted, firmly establishing Sweden as a protestant and hereditary
kingdom. At this latter meeting representatives of all four estates were present:
the nobility (Adeln), the clergy (Pra
¨sterna), the burghers (Borgarna) and the peasan-
try (Bo
¨nderna). Each estate undertook its discussions in separate chambers, even
separate buildings, and each estate supplied a Speaker and kept its own minutes
to varying degrees. As consensus of three estates was necessary for a resolution,
conferring sometimes took place with committees of one estate visiting another.
Within the Riksdag some of the estates, particularly the nobility and the clergy,
comprised political bodies working toward their own goals. Despite the ‘regulariz-
ation’ of the Riksdags other forms of meetings were still held between the Crown
and representatives of various estates, and thus the Riksdag remained one of
many points of contact between monarch and subjects.
7
The concept of the Riksdag as we have come to understand it was largely a cre-
ation of Gustav I Vasa, and saw many gradual changes affecting the power and pro-
cedures of the institution implemented during the following century.
8
The Riksdag
played a major part in Sweden’s transition from aristocratic constitutionalism to
royal absolutism, where it latterly acted as a willing vehicle of conveyance. The
bond between the Crown and the Riksdag became strong, leading to its replace-
ment of the Riksra
˚d(Council of the Realm) as the monarch’s preferred mechanism
from which to obtain a ‘stamp of approval’ for his policies,
9
particularly in 1544
when the monarchy was established as an hereditary institution replacing the elec-
tive one it had been. Before this time the Riksra
˚dhad reigned supreme as a check
upon the Crown and the leader of the magnates (including the forerunners of the
6
Roberts, ‘On Swedish History in General’, p. 7. This was the first time that the nobility appeared as
its own estate.
7
G. Rystad, ‘The Estates of the Realm, the Monarchy, and Empire, 1611– 1718’, in Metcalf (ed.), The
Riksdag, pp. 71– 2.
8
H. Schu
¨ck, ‘Sweden’s Early Parliamentary Institutions From the Thirteenth Century to 1611’, in
Metcalf (ed.), The Riksdag, pp. 57–8.
9
Roberts, ‘On Aristocratic Constitutionalism in Swedish History, 1520 – 1720’, in Essays in Swedish
History, p. 19.
Scottish involvement in the Swedish Riksdag of the seventeenth century 3
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Vasa monarchs). The struggle for supremacy of political influence between the
Riksdag and Riksra
˚dremained an ongoing theme throughout the early modern
period. For example, in 1595, when King Sigismund III Vasa (1566 –1632)
10
was
absent in Poland, Duke Karl persuaded the Riksra
˚dto not only recognize him as
regent but also to call a Riksdag – although not all members of the estates attended
out of loyalty to Sigismund. The duke had wisely used both bodies to implement
his promotion and, with the support of both, eventually usurped the Crown. Thus
the Riksdag did not immediately fulfil the Vasa hope that it would be an obedient
instrument of the monarchy as the crises at the end of the sixteenth century proved
that aristocratic constitutionalism was still in force.
11
Certainly by the time of
Gustav II Adolf’s accession, in 1611, the future of the Riksdag seemed uncertain,
as it still lacked a written legal foundation and the establishment of functions
unique to it, and its meetings were frequently described as chaotic.
12
Indeed,
sometimes fights even broke out between members of different estates, as occurred
in 1634 when the estate of nobility considered summoning a regiment of soldiers to
protect them from the estate of peasants.
13
The history of the Riksdag, from 1611 until 1718, can be characterized not only by
the ‘high degree of articulation between the government and the Riksdag’, but also
the ‘tension of cooption of the Riksdag by the monarchy and aristocratic regencies to
support foreign and domestic policies and the emerging self-consciousness and pol-
itical awakening of the Riksdag and its constituent Estates’.
14
Roberts saw these
developments in a more positive light, describing the Riksdag as materializing
from this period of protracted constitutional struggle between monarchy and the
aristocracy in the form of a truly national representative organ with the establishment
of clearer parliamentary procedures.
15
The committee organization began to surface
and written regulations on the work of the Riksdag were drawn up; further, the Riks-
dag’s monopoly of legal legislation was established and its control of the executive
began to be asserted.
16
However, Riksdags were held solely at the discretion of the
government and some who took part in them viewed them as an imposition and a
burden that could involve unpleasantries.
17
Its main rival, the Riksra
˚d, was under-
standably already keen by 1611 to reduce the number of meetings and, in the
10
Sigismund was the son of Johan III Vasa (1537– 92) and his Polish wife, Catherine Jagellonica of
Poland (1526–83), and inherited both the Polish and Swedish Crowns. He was King of Sweden
(1592– 99) and King of Poland (1587 – 1632). However, Sigismund’s Catholic faith put him at odds
with the Swedish kingdom, reformed since the time of Gustav I, and eventually led to Sigismund’s over-
throw by his uncle, Duke Karl, later Karl IX (1550 – 1611), who was King of Sweden 1604– 11.
11
Roberts, ‘On Swedish History in General’, p. 8.
12
M. Roberts, ‘The Constitutional Development of Sweden in the Reign of Gustav Adolf’, History 24,
issue 96, (1940), p. 335.
13
W.E. Svedelius, ‘Fo
¨rso
¨k till en historisk framsta
¨llning af de orsaker hvilka under Carl XI:s regering
fo
¨ranledde Statsskickets fo
¨ra
¨ndring’, Svenska Akademiens Handlingar ifra
˚nA
˚r 1796, part 21 (Stockholm,
1845), p. 211.
14
Metcalf, ‘Introduction’, in Metcalf (ed.), The Riksdag, pp. 1 and 3.
15
Roberts, ‘On Swedish History in General’, p. 8.
16
Roberts, ‘On Swedish History in General’, p. 8.
17
Schu
¨ck, ‘Sweden’s Early Parliamentary Institutions’, p. 59.
4Alexia Grosjean and Steve Murdoch
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1611 Accession Charter presented to Gustav II Adolf, the consent of the Riksra
˚dwas
emphasized as intrinsic to a king’s successful reign.
Perhaps the three most significant developments in the Riksdag in the first
third of the seventeenth century were the 1617 Riksdagsordning (Order of the
Riksdag), the 1626 Riddarhusordning (Order of the House of Nobility) and the
1634 Regeringsform (Form of Government), all drafted by the Chancellor and
Riksra
˚dmember, Axel Oxenstierna. The Riksra
˚dplayed an instrumental part in
the Riksdagsordning of 1617, the only act passed in the seventeenth century (com-
pared with three passed in the following century
18
) concerning the actual running
of the Riksdag, whereby fundamental procedures of the institution were estab-
lished. The monarch was to ceremoniously open the Riksdag in the Hall of
State at the Royal Palace; the royal Propositions were to be delivered to the
four estates in writing; thereafter the estates were to deliberate separately and
to deliver their responses individually; where differences arose, negotiations
were to be held to achieve unity, and if this did not happen the sovereign was
empowered to nominate the response he favoured. At each Riksdag the sovereign
also appointed the lantmarskalk (spokesman) for the nobility, who presided over
the Riddarhus. This individual also served as the chairman of the ‘Secret Commit-
tee’, comprising members of all estates except the peasantry, a body selected at
each Riksdag to deal with issues of particular sensitivity. The sovereign could thus
‘shape’ responses to his propositions through this appointment and the govern-
ment thereby very much directed the work of the Riksdag,
19
to the extent that
some historians have decried the Riksdag for not consisting of an open forum
for debate, but this is perhaps a limiting view of events.
20
Propositions were dis-
cussed separately by each of the four estates, and they could in turn submit sup-
plications to the monarch. It was, of course, usually only after consensus was
reached among the estates and royal confirmation that any Proposition became
a Resolution of the Riksdag.
The 1634 Regeringsform, largely ‘created’ by the Riksra
˚dand the estate of the
nobility, sought fewer and more formal sessions of the Riksdag.
21
The Regeringsform
was a total reorganization of central government and led to the transformation of
Swedish society, which in turn facilitated the advances enjoyed by seventeenth-
century Sweden. Urbanization gave increased power and influence to the burghers,
who were important in breaking the stranglehold of the aristocracy over Swedish
society. Further, the setting up of military colleges created new opportunities for
the many Scottish soldiers settled in Sweden. This was followed, in 1637, by the
establishment of the Bergkollegium (College of Mining), and the Kommerskollegium
(College of Commerce) in 1651. However, the Regeringsform also transformed the
Riksra
˚dfrom an elective council to one almost totally controlled by the Oxenstierna
family. This was a somewhat positive development for several of the Scots in
18
These were passed in 1719, 1729 and 1772. Three Instruments of Government (Regeringsform) were
also passed on those dates.
19
Rystad, ‘The Estates of the Realm’, p. 69.
20
See particularly A.F. Upton, Charles XI and Swedish Absolutism (Cambridge, 1998), p. 31.
21
Roberts, ‘On Aristocratic Constitutionalism’, p. 27.
Scottish involvement in the Swedish Riksdag of the seventeenth century 5
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Sweden as several of them had developed strong relationships with Chancellor
Oxenstierna over the years.
ThepowerandinfluenceoftheRiksra
˚dunderwent a sea-change during this
century, going from a position of political dominance as the ‘Council of the
Realm’ to an almost irrelevant role as ‘King’s Council’. As early as 1602 a Riksdag res-
olution stated that the Riksra
˚dshould advise and not govern.
22
Roberts argued that
during the 1630 s and 1640 s the Riksdag was ‘vigorous, alert and jealous of its sup-
posed rights, and on the aggressive to extend them’.
23
The Riksra
˚d,incontrast,
went from being a vital part of the Riksdag to being in many ways its target.
Roberts went so far as to say that in the middle decades of the century, indeed, it
was the Riksdag rather than the Council that tended to set the pace of constitutional
advance.
24
It is perhaps interesting that only two Scots ever became members of the
Riksra
˚d, namely Field Marshal Robert Douglas and the Finnish-born General Arvid
(Alexander Finn) Forbes in the 1650s, and their appointments came just before the
decline of Riksra
˚dinfluence began. They were, however, present when the recently
abdicated Queen Kristina returned to Sweden in 1660, and Arvid, at least, was quite
vocal in his opinion that she could not be trusted and should be placed under surveil-
lance if not house arrest – possibly giving us an early indication of growing distrust
between the various powerful factions and institutions in Sweden.
25
It was in the period after Kristina’s abdication in 1654 that the balance of power
between Crown, Riksra
˚dand Riksdag began to change. Karl X (reigned 1654 – 60)
did not rely on the Riksdag or even make use of the institution for making decisions
in the way that his predecessors had. Rather he focused on the aforementioned
‘Secret Committees’, which comprised hand-picked members of the estates,
excluding the peasants. Indeed, he began to push through the reduktion, brought
on by the Crown’s vast debt, whereby lands and properties granted to the nobility
were forcibly returned to the Crown.
26
On his death in 1660 the Riksdag rejected
the Riksra
˚d’s right to be custodian of the regnum, and would not be bound by
Karl X’s will, resolving that the Additament of 1660 should only be in force
during the minority of the succeeding monarch.
27
In this year the Riksdag estab-
lished an undisputed claim to be the only organ through which consent for taxation
and legislation could be given.
28
Membership of the Riksra
˚dwas steadily decreas-
ing in number at this time as the king did not replace those who died, and by 1680
the council had 24 instead of the 40 members it once had.
29
22
Roberts, ‘On Aristocratic Constitutionalism’, p. 19.
23
Roberts, ‘On Aristocratic Constitutionalism’, p. 27.
24
Roberts, ‘On Aristocratic Constitutionalism’, p. 28.
25
Starba
¨ck, Bera
¨ttelser ur svenska historien, vol. 6, p. 373. Forbes, although Finnish-born, only gained
ennoblement in Sweden through his Scottish noble ancestry, see Grosjean, An Unofficial Alliance, p. 151.
26
By the reign of Karl XI (1660–97), in 1682, this debt was estimated at 7.5 million riksdaler. Sven-
Erik A
˚stro
¨m, ‘The Swedish Economy and Sweden’s Role as a Great Power 1632– 1697’, in M. Roberts
(ed.), Sweden’s Age of Greatness 1632–1718 (London, 1973), p. 88.
27
Roberts, ‘On Aristocratic Constitutionalism’, p. 28.
28
Roberts, Essays in Swedish History, p. 36.
29
A.F. Upton, ‘The Riksdag of 1680 and the Establishment of Royal Absolutism in Sweden’, English
Historical Review, vol. 102, no. 403, (1987), p. 291.
6Alexia Grosjean and Steve Murdoch
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SCOTSMEN AND ‘THE FOUR ESTATES’
The Riksdag was divided into four estates, two of which appear to have been devoid
of Scottish members while the other two had a significant number of Scots among
their members. There appears to have been no bar to Scottish or foreign partici-
pation in the two classes where Scots seem absent, so nationality was not a
factor. It is more likely that the wider penetration of Scots into the other two
estates reflects the specific interests of Scottish migrants to Sweden. A review of
the membership and function of each estate is instructive.
The peasant estate, representing the majority of the Swedish population, con-
sisted of anywhere between 150 – 200 members at any one time. According to
Rystad, meetings were held at a local inn, although it would have required a
large locale.
30
For this estate every rural district (ha
¨rad) elected one member to
act as a representative, and as this individual only received a small honorarium
to cover expenses, two ha
¨rad would often combine to send a joint representative.
Speakers of the peasantry received relief such as cash/tax waivers. Only peasant
proprietors, or freeholders (skattebo
¨nder) and crown tenants (kronobo
¨nder) were eli-
gible.
31
The nobility’s peasants (fra
¨lsebo
¨nder) were not entitled to participate, along
with the inhabitants of the countryside who did not have tenants.
32
Members of
this estate were ineligible for membership of the Secret Committees which, in
practice, exercised much of social policy, dealing with items of national concern.
No regular minutes were kept in this estate, and as such it is nigh on impossible
to determine whether there were Scottish members, how many there may have
been or if they had any bearing on the business of the estate.
A more important estate was that of the clergy, which consisted of 50 – 70
members and which was represented by the bishops, supplemented by clergymen
appointed from every diocese. There were supposed to be two of these, but usually
only one appeared, and there were no rules governing the election of delegates.
Representatives of the gymnasia, of the University of Uppsala and A
˚bo Academy
also sat with the clergy. Their deliberations usually occurred in Storkyrkan (Stock-
holm’s Church of St Nicholas) with the Archbishop of Uppsala as speaker (or Bishop
of Linko
¨ping if the archbishop was unavailable). This estate also functioned as a
tribunal and administrative organ for the national church, until 1686. As far as
can be ascertained there were no Scots who attended the Riksdag through member-
ship of this estate despite there being several prominent Scots among the Swedish
clergy, such as James Guthrie (Jacobus Chytraeus Scotus), John Guthrie, Udde
Mackay and Torcuil Graham.
33
While seemingly not present among the peasant or clerical estates, there were
certainly Scots in the more influential ‘third estate’, the burghers, which consisted
of 80– 90 members at any given time. Access to this estate came through obtaining
burskap (citizenship), for which one paid a fee and swore an oath, and thereby
30
Rystad, ‘The Estates of the Realm’, p. 95.
31
Roberts, ‘Queen Christina and the General Crisis’, in Essays in Swedish History, p. 117.
32
The fra
¨lsebo
¨nder were peasants who ‘rented’ land belonging to a member of the noble class.
33
For Scots in the Swedish clergy see S. Murdoch, Network North, Scottish Kin, Commercial and Covert
Associations in Northern Europe 1603–1746 (Leiden, 2006), pp. 114 –19.
Scottish involvement in the Swedish Riksdag of the seventeenth century 7
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gained the relevant social and political rights that pertained to the bourgeoisie.
These rights were tied to specific towns, and as such there were differences
depending on location: staple towns engaged in foreign trade whilst other towns
could only undertake domestic trade.
34
The estate met at the Town Hall, where
seating positions were determined by the ranking of the towns. The burghers rep-
resented the ever-expanding number of towns in Sweden and Finland, which
increased from 77 in 1610 to 101 by the end of the seventeenth century. Stockholm
appointed 10 members, Gothenburg 3 members and the smaller towns 1 or 2
members. Summons to a Riksdag usually came from the landsho
¨vding (governor),
who was also responsible for the election of representatives to the Riksdag – this
meant that there was potential for influence for those who moved in the social
sphere of the landsho
¨vding. There was a particular rivalry between mayors and
magistrates on one hand with the burghers on the other. There were no rules gov-
erning the election of members to the estate. Each town was to have two represen-
tatives: one of them a mayor, the other a town councillor or leading burgher. Often,
only one representative was sent, usually the town mayor. Small towns sometimes
failed to send anyone, or shared a representative with a neighbouring town, pre-
sumably as a money-saving device. A special tax on the burghers covered some
of the expenses incurred by the parliamentary representative, but it was usually dif-
ficult to gain full reimbursement for expenses. The parliamentary role of the bur-
ghers was usually demonstrated through their resistance to increasing taxation and
other customs obligations which were imposed on them. Further tensions were
caused by the tendency for royal appointees to be placed as town mayors, rather
than allowing their selection from the traditional local elites. As both Stockholm
and Gothenburg contained vibrant Scottish mercantile communities and networks,
it is unsurprising that the chosen representatives sometimes included a Scot. Coun-
cillor John Maclean represented Gothenburg in 1649 while the President of Com-
merce John Spalding represented the city in 1660 and 1664, as did his relative
Andrew Spalding in 1697. In 1649 the brewer-burgess James Fife represented
Stockholm at the Riksdag, while the goldsmith Alexander Clerk did so in the
1664 Riksdag.
35
As the century progressed other towns for which no substantive
Scottish community has been researched also sent Scots to represent them at the
Riksdag. For example, Mayor John Guthrie represented the Finnish town of A
˚bo
(Turku) in 1640, while Thomas Thomson represented Sa
¨ther in 1668. Among
the most active of the men representing regional towns was the Mayor of
O
¨rebro, Thomas Clerk, who attended at least seven Riksdags between 1660 and
1680.
36
An even larger concentration of Scots came through their infiltration into the
first estate of the Riksdag, the nobility. This estate proved to be the one most
subject to foreign influence through the Swedish Crown’s reliance on ennoblement
as a form of compensation for service in a period of military expansion. Until 1655
the nobles met at a particular house bought for that purpose, but from 1660 they
34
K. Stadin, Sta
˚nd och genus i stormaktstidens sverige (Lund, 2004), p. 211.
35
Borgarsta
˚ndets Riksdagsprotokoll fo
¨re frihetstiden (Uppsala, 1933), pp. 30–31, 42–4, 373, 388.
36
Borgarsta
˚ndets Riksdagsprotokoll fo
¨re frihetstiden, pp. 30– 31, 42 – 4, 47 – 9, 174, 201 and 209.
8Alexia Grosjean and Steve Murdoch
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gathered in the Riddarhus, a purpose-built building. The estate was represented by
the heads of families and on certain occasions those present could number up to a
thousand individuals. The nobility was required to attend every Riksdag and matri-
culations of new nobles occurred at these meetings. There were three classes of
nobility, ranked in order from first-class counts and barons, second-class knights
and third-class esquires. Most Scotsmen gained membership in the third class of
nobility, although there were a few counts and barons in the first class. The most
recent scholarship on the subject points to some 47 Scots being introduced into
Riddarhus by 1660, with a further tranche of even greater size matriculating in
the reign of Karl XI.
37
Not all gained ennoblement after military service. The
royal physician, Doctor James Robertson, was introduced into the nobility in
1634 and attended his first Riksdag the following year.
38
From the 1640 s onwards the number of noble families was radically increased
and the homogeneity dissipated as conflicts erupted between the new nobility
dependent on appointment to civil or military offices against the older land-
owning aristocracy. As noted above, this estate had a Chair (landmarskalk), who
was appointed by the sovereign at the start of each Riksdag meeting. Two
Swedes of direct Scottish lineage fulfilled this role in the seventeenth century,
namely Bengt Skytte
39
in 1647 and Gustav Duwall
40
(MacDougall) in 1675
(whose father James had died serving Sweden during the Thirty Years’ War and
was only posthumously ennobled in 1674). The 1675 Riksdag included King Karl
XI’s coronation ceremony, at which Duwall as landmarskalk took an honoured
place.
41
The other noble Scots were expected to participate and they were
joined (in theory) by further Scots outside the nobility who had found themselves
in positions which necessitated Riksdag participation.
37
For a full analysis of Scots in the Swedish nobility see Grosjean, An Unofficial Alliance, pp. 145– 56.
38
K.A. Ahlberg (ed.), Sveriges Apotekarhistoria, 6 vols (Stockholm, 1910– 49), vol. I, pp. 27– 8.
39
Bengt Skytte’s mother was the daughter of James and Maria Neave, Scots who had settled in Stock-
holm during the reign of King Johan III (1568 –92). Despite his seemingly entirely Swedish identity,
Skytte thus had direct familial links to Scotland, and had accompanied the General of British troops
in Swedish service, Sir James Spens, on a diplomatic mission to Britain in 1629, where Skytte was per-
sonally knighted by King Charles I. Further, his brother Johan had been naturalized as a Scot under the
Great Seal, which naturalization transferred to Bengt on Johan’s death. Although Skytte was not a Scot
by birth, he certainly moved among the Scottish community and had personal interests in Scottish ties,
and thus his appointment as landmarskalk may have facilitated access for other Scots’ supplications to the
king. See Murdoch, Network North, pp. 58 – 60, and the naturalization document on pp. 357 –8. The orig-
inal is found in the Swedish Riksarkiv [hereafter SRA], Deposito Skytteana, A:5, E5412. Scottish natu-
ralization document of Johan Skytte, 9 May 1635.
40
Gustav Duwall had long been in royal service, both to Queen Kristina and Karl X, and had been
deployed on diplomatic missions, including to Richard Cromwell in 1658. He was Governor of Koppar-
berg region (Dalecarlia) 1662–92, and then of Va
¨sterbotten from 1692– 1705. In his 30-year role of
Regional Governor he was not matched by any other Scot, albeit several Scots did become Governors:
Robert Lichton, Governor of Estonia 1681–87, and of Jo
¨nko
¨ping 1685–87; David Macklier, Governor of
A
¨lvsborg 1693– 1708; Hans Clerk, Governor of Va
¨sterbotten 1680– 83, and of Kalmar 1683 – 94 and of
So
¨dermanland 1693– 1710; John Laurin, Governor of Marstrand 1693–98; Malcolm Hamilton, Governor
of Va
¨sternorrland 1698– 99.
41
M. Schildt, ‘Karl XI:s kro
¨ning 1675′, Institutionen fo
¨r musikvetenskap (Uppsala University, 2005),
p. 13.
Scottish involvement in the Swedish Riksdag of the seventeenth century 9
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In addition to these four estates, the military command was occasionally
required to attend Riksdags at least from 1634 onwards, but they had already
done so before. However, the frequency of officer-ennoblement meant that
many were already members of the nobility, and thus attended the meetings in
that estate. Although initially a large number of these military men did not even
hold the rank of captain, from 1634 onwards it was determined that only officers
at that rank and above could attend (and captains were limited to one from each
Swedish and Finnish regiment).
42
The highest ranked of the Scots in this role
were those who were elevated to the Krigsra
˚d(Council of War), and these included
both noble and non-noble Scots. Field Marshal Robert Douglas and Arvid ‘Finn’
Forbes we have already mentioned, although another Scottish Krigsra
˚dwas
Major-General Patrick More from Perth, who was elevated to that council in
1671 but does not appear to have been ennobled.
43
The military involvement
extended beyond the army, as naval officers and their sons also gained admission
to the Swedish nobility. For example, Admiral Simon Stuart was ennobled and
matriculated in the Riddarhus in 1634, which meant he should have attended the
various Riksdags between then and his death in 1646. It is probable that Admiral
Stuart’s naval duties kept him away from the Swedish capital. His son, Robert
Stuart of Hammarby, was also knighted in 1634, but he predeceased his father.
44
The impact of the non-noble military presence at the Riksdag was minimal; prob-
ably the only time that military officers played an important role within the nobility
was in 1664 when they acted to protect the prerogatives of the monarchy. This
same meeting was attended by the senior Swedish statesman Alexander Erskine,
which may indicate that a group of high-ranking Scots were all present, though
this remains to be proven.
ACROSS THE ESTATES: SCOTTISH PARTICIPATION AT THE RIKSDAG
The earliest Scottish attendees whose names regularly occur in Riksdag documents
– Anders Stuart the elder, Anders Stuart the younger and David Stuart – appear to
have been royal servants, of both military and royal household backgrounds, and
descendants of a nobleman called John (Hans/Johannes) Stuart, who had been in
Karl IX’s service. From May 1630 James Forbes’ signature appears on various
responses given by the estate of nobility to the king’s proposals set forward at
the opening of each Riksdag.
45
Forbes appears to be the first Scot for whom we
have a record of his petition to the sovereign at the Riksdag for matriculation into
the Riddarhus, which was accepted.
46
At several Riksdag meetings thereafter the
children of military Scots submitted requests for matriculation into the Riddarhus
42
Rystad, ‘The Estates of the Realm’, p. 97.
43
Murdoch, Network North, p. 223.
44
Sveriges Rikes Ridderskaps och adels Riksdags-Protokoll [hereafter SRARP], 17 vols (Stockholm, 1855–
1902), vol. II, 1633–36, p. 134.
45
SRARP, vol. I, 1627–32, pp. 137, 156, 175.
46
His name appears on attendance lists from the 1630 Riksdag onwards, see SRARP, vol. I, 1627 –32,
pp. 137, 139, 140, 156, 160, 175, 178, 192; his seat number in the Riddarhus in November 1632 is given as
no. 145, SRARP, vol. I, 1627–32, p. 198.
10 Alexia Grosjean and Steve Murdoch
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on their father’s merits (children of James Spens, James MacDougall, James
Robertson and William Philip for example). This indicates that these individuals,
resident in Sweden, sometimes with Swedish mothers, knew the value of gaining
noble status in their host society and sought access to it, even if it required obtain-
ing letters of proof of their social status from Scotland, or from other family
members based in Sweden.
47
It is perhaps also telling that James Forbes was
asked to pronounce on the request of another of the early Scottish applicants for
matriculation in the Riddarhus, Maurice Duwall (MacDougall).
48
Maurice was in
fact married to James’ step-daughter, therefore James had personal reasons to
support Maurice’s application for matriculation. If this does not prove the existence
of an ethnic agenda it, at the least, certainly indicates that of a familial one.
In 1680 there was an interesting case concerning one Colonel Andrew Sinclair,
who matriculated in the Riddarhus that year. It seems that one of the older already
ennobled Sinclairs noted that the colonel had previously been known as ‘Skrogge’
but had now adopted the Sinclair family name and arms.
49
Unfortunately, although
Colonel Sinclair was to explain himself the following day, nothing was recorded as
regards this issue in the following day’s notes. Sometimes it took a long time to
resolve issues concerning the correct ‘placement’ of a newly matriculated noble-
man, as each family got a specific number which related to a certain rank. Robert
Lichton, ennobled in 1652, was still bemoaning in September 1686 (!) that he
had not been awarded his rightful place in the Riddarhus, despite complaints
lodged at several Riksdags.
50
Collectively these examples show that Scots (undoubt-
edly, along with other foreigners) were quite prepared to use the Riksdag for social
advancement and not above using kith and kin networks within the institution to
facilitate this process.
While we can be sure of the identity of the individuals mentioned above, some-
times it can be difficult to determine precisely who was whom at the Riksdag: for
example, the officer John (Hans) Ramsay was ennobled in 1633 and therefore
would have been expected to attend every Riksdag meeting until his death in
1649. However, his son, Johan Hansson Ramsay has been identified as attending
the 1642 Riksdag – is this in error or did he simply represent his family in his
father’s absence?
51
Both John Ramsay and Robert Wallace, members of the nobi-
lity in Finland, were recorded as not attending the Riksdag in February 1633.
52
They were both aged officers in the Swedish army whose service to the Crown
long predated the reign of Gustav II Adolf and the idea that proxies in the form
of family members would attend in their stead cannot be ruled out.
Whether as proxies or not, by far the main influx of Scots into the Riksdag
occurred from the mid-1630 s onwards. These tended to be mostly new
47
See S. Murdoch, ‘Fabricating Nobility? Genealogy and Social Mobility Among Franco-Scottish
Families in the Early Modern Period’, in C. Auer and Y. Tholoniat (eds), Ranam: Recherches Anglaises
et Nord-Americaines, No. 40. Culture savante, culture populaire en Ecosse (Strasbourg, 2007), pp. 37 – 52.
48
SRARP, vol. III, 1636–44, pp. 22– 3.
49
SRARP, vol. XIII, 1680, pp. 224–5.
50
SRARP, vol. XV, 1686–89, p. 9.
51
SRARP, vol. III, 1636–44, pp. 95 and 212.
52
SRARP, vol. II, 1633–36, p. 47.
Scottish involvement in the Swedish Riksdag of the seventeenth century 11
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members of the nobility, such as Dr Robertson who had been settled in Sweden for
at least a decade if not longer, and they normally attended several meetings. For
example, Colonel William Spens sat in both the 1638 and 1640 Swedish Riksdag
as a member of the noble estate.
53
The soldier Peter Udnie from Aberdeen took
up his seat in 1647, the same year he was ennobled and introduced into the Riddar-
hus.
54
He attended several Riksdag meetings before his death in 1657. In so doing
he would have been at the same gatherings as Major-General William Barclay, who
frequently attended Riksdag meetings after his introduction into the Riddarhus in
1654.
55
This period also saw a further increase in the number of Scots appearing
amongst the burgher estate, reflecting the by now embedded nature of many of
these Scottish entrepreneurs who came to seek their fortune in Sweden. During
the 1650 s members of the Haijock family of Dundee, who had migrated to
Sweden around the 1620 s, began to appear as burgher representatives in various
Riksdags. David Haijock was a burgher of Kalmar and his brother Alexander was
a burgher of Jo
¨nko
¨ping. Alexander was initially part of the Scottish mercantile
network of Gothenburg and is known to have had business connections with the
Scots Peter Bursie and John (Hans) Maclean in 1643.
56
He moved to Jo
¨nko
¨ping
at some point after that and represented the town at the Riksdag in 1657, thus
revealing that Scottish migrants did not always remain tied to one place or area
within Sweden.
57
Although we can place these men in the same orbit, the depth
of their contribution to the actual debates occurring in the Riksdag remains elusive.
Occasionally we are able to draw out more from the meetings than simply a list
of attendees. The 1672 Riksdag, for example, saw Scottish involvement on several
levels, with Scots serving in varying positions and representing different social
strata. Anders Gerner, son of Albrekt Gerner and Maria Watson (both of Scottish
descent), became the Speaker for the estate of burghers, almost by accident.
58
He was serving as the politieborgma
¨stare (municipal mayor) for Stockholm – a
53
Register till Sveriges Ridderskaps och Adels Riksdags-Protokoll [hereafter Register], I Personregister
(Stockholm, 1910) lists Spens in the volume for 1638, pp. 254, 298, 299, 357 and the volume for 1640,
pp. 5, 57; G. Elgenstierna, Den Introducerade Svenska Adelns A
¨ttartavlor, med tilla
¨gg och ra
¨ttelser [hereafter
SAA
¨], 9 vols (Stockholm, 1925– 36), vol. 7, p. 429.
54
Register lists Udnie in the volume for 1647, pp. 78, 140, 142, 143; SAA
¨, vol. 8, p. 411; T. Fischer, The
Scots in Sweden (Edinburgh, 1907), pp. 263– 4.
55
Register lists Barclay in the volumes for 1654, 1655, 1656, 1657 and 1660; SAA
¨, vol. 1, pp. 232–3.
56
For Alexander Haijock’s origins see Jo
¨nko
¨pings historia Del II (Jo
¨nko
¨ping, 1918), p. 225, and for his
appointment to town mayor see Jo
¨nko
¨ping, Del III (Jo
¨nko
¨ping, 1919), p. 261. This information comes
from the records of Jo
¨nko
¨ping ra
˚dhusra
¨tt for 1643.
57
Borgarsta
˚ndets Riksdagsprotokoll fo
¨re Frihetstiden, p. 381. He certainly became a high-ranking and pre-
sumably wealthy citizen as he is noted for owning a copy of Count Per Brahe’s collection of nine
accounts of travels to the Far East, the East and the West Indies (see item 6 in the April 2009 catalogue
for Hordern House contribution to the New York Book Fair).
58
It was as a result of a feud between Governor-General Axel Sparre and the Stockholm authorities
that Sparre insisted that Gerner be appointed Speaker for the burgess estate instead of the individual
the authorities had selected. Gerner was described as a well-travelled and well-educated man (‘vittberest
och bokligt bildad’) who corresponded fluently in Latin and French, see C.F. Corin, Sja
¨lvstyre och kunglig
maktpolitik inom Stockholms stadsfo
¨rvaltning, 1668–1697 (Stockholm, 1958), pp. 79– 80. For his attendance
at the Riksdag see Borgarsta
˚ndets Riksdagsprotokoll fo
¨re Frihetstiden, pp. 81, 89, 92, 96, 98, 101, 103–5, 113,
120–122.
12 Alexia Grosjean and Steve Murdoch
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position he had gained as a result of his patronage networks
59
– and so he already
enjoyed a certain status in Swedish society. Regardless of how Gerner secured his
position as Speaker, his attendance at the 1672 Riksdag placed him in the same diet
as probably the most influential entrepreneurial Scot ever to attend the institution.
Daniel Young from Arbroath arrived in Sweden in 1645 after a stint in Lu
¨beck.
He rose from being a kra
¨mhandlare (essentially a packman) to burgess of Stockholm
within only four years.
60
He was so successful that he was ennobled in Sweden in
1666 and took the name of Leijonancker thereafter. He performed a variety of civic
duties, for example serving as a commissioner in the Kammarkollegium (Treasury)
from 1669– 74.
61
But it was in his commercial activities that he both excelled
and influenced Swedish manufacturing and commerce. Leijonancker’s efficiency
in the manufacture and trade in cloth developed throughout the 1660s – 80 s.
Along with the Stockholm councillor, Hans Olofsson To
¨rne, he obtained the
rights to a textile mill on So
¨dermalm, a glove factory in Tyreso
¨and a kla
¨destamp
or ‘waulk-mill’ in Va
¨ttinge. He successfully courted support from the Kommerskol-
legium (Board of Trade) and a group of Swedish financiers who backed his manufac-
turing enterprises.
62
By 3 November 1669, Leijonancker’s expenses in establishing
his new factory were estimated at 17,100 rixdaler and he requested the minting of
some 2,000 ship-pounds of copper to be exported and the tax raised used to offset
his costs.
63
The economic impact of Leijonancker’s ventures was noted by Stock-
holm’s administrators, and they flourished to such an extent that, by the end of the
decade, his cloth-manufacturing operation in the So
¨dermalm quarter of Stockholm
employed at least 600 spinners, and a total personnel of around 1,200.
64
He var-
iously retained between 30 – 60 weavers, operated two dye-colouring works in
the city and envisaged an expansion to include four other towns close to the
capital employing a labour force of thousands.
65
Further to the construction of
workshops, Leijonancker also built houses for his workers next to his factories
59
Gerner was a long-time familiar of Chancellor Magnus de la Gardie, see Corin, Sja
¨lvstyre och kunglig
maktpolitik, p. 79. In 1668, for example, Gerner signed a receipt on behalf of de la Gardie that the latter
had donated 100 riksdaler to the Finnish congregation, see P. Stobaeus (ed.), ‘Fo
¨rteckning o
¨ver De la
Gardieska arkivet Historiska handlingar’, Historiska handlingar 29:1. Handlingar ro
¨rande domkapitels-
och ecklesiastika a
¨renden Stockholm (Lund, 2009).
60
Stockholms Stadsarkiv [hereafter SSA], ‘Borgare i Stockholm’: register, 1601– 50, p. 39. Burgess of
Stockholm, 17 November 1649; N.A. Kullberg et al. (eds), Svenska Riksra
˚dets Protokoll, 18 vols (Stock-
holm, 1878–1959) [hereafter SRP], vol. 15, 1651 – 53, p. 302, 24 March 1652.
61
J. Kleberg, Svenska A
¨mbetsverk, Del. VI:I Kammarkollegium, 6 vols (Stockholm, 1930– 57), p. 67.
62
SRARP, vol. XI, p. 320. Minute 19 October 1672; Svenskt Biografiskt Lexicon [hereafter SBL], vol. 22,
pp. 452–3.
63
SRA, Kommerskollegium till Kungl. Maj:t, vol. 2, - Re. Daniel Leijonancker. 27 April and 3 Novem-
ber 1669.
64
SRARP, vol. XI, p. 310. Minute 19 October 1672. Leijonancker noted that within days he could
collect several thousand workers in Sweden and augment production from 15 – 20 ‘st. rak’ per year to
several thousand. For further comment see S. Gerentz, Kommerskollegium och Na
¨ringslivet 1651–1691
(Stockholm, 1952), p. 219; SBL, vol. 22, p. 452. Given that Stockholm’s population was estimated at
around 42,000 by 1676, Leijonancker must have been responsible for the employment of a serious pro-
portion of the available labour force. The population estimate comes from N.J.D. Pounds, An Historical
Geography of Europe, 1500–1840 (Cambridge, 1979), p. 124.
65
SRARP, vol. XI, p. 310. Minute 19 October 1672.
Scottish involvement in the Swedish Riksdag of the seventeenth century 13
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and ensured that most aspects of production could be done on one site.
66
Discus-
sions on the textile industry took place at the highest levels – in the Stockholm
City Council, the Riksra
˚dand the Riksdag – and it was observed that increasing
the manufacturing base of the industry proved useful in giving work to orphans,
the unemployed, the homeless and even prisoners.
67
Thus, through his commercial
interests, Leijonancker not only made a healthy profit for himself, but he also con-
tributed to the livelihoods of Stockholm’s disadvantaged indwellers and thus the
good of the city. It would be extremely interesting to establish the stance that
the city mayors Alexander Haijock (Jo
¨nko
¨ping), James Ross (Vasa) or William
Ross (Nykarleby) took toward his contributions, let alone his fellow Stockholmer
Gerner.
68
All we know is that they were present. Nonetheless, Leijonancker’s
influence in the 1672 Riksdag was such that he thereafter sat in the meetings
held in 1675, 1678, 1682– 83 and 1686, though he did so as part of the nobility.
69
Despite this, his main contribution in the Riksdag was driven by self-interest and
certainly pertained more to entrepreneurial activity than landed interest. When
manufacturers pressed for ever-increasing centralized production they looked to
Leijonancker as their spokesman. The need for laws facilitating the concentration
of the workforce was a point frequently argued for by Leijonancker in the Riksdag
on behalf of the Swedish textile industry, with the previously mentioned positive
results for his own factories being one of the outcomes.
70
Leijonancker was again present in a Riksdag held in Halmstad in 1678, where he
was joined by another Scot, the merchant William Halliday. Leijonancker actively
used his position to benefit non-resident countrymen and Scottish trade in particular.
He pointed out to the Riksdag the problems of importing English wool into Sweden,
but also that Scottish wool was just as good, albeit that Pomeranian wool was
cheaper.
71
Despite the extra cost, and through Leijonancker’s intervention,
demand for wool, cloth and other materials grew so much that Scottish imports to
Sweden increased while English imports suffered directly as a result.
72
For his
part, Halliday had been selected by the 48 elders of Stockholmas one of six represen-
tatives (four councillors and two burgesses) to attend the Riksdag to petition the
Crown to reduce the ever-increasing financial burdens being placed on the city.
73
Iro-
nically perhaps, these additional costs came, in part, from the presence of some mili-
tary Scots in the town. The Stockholm Stadso
¨verste (City Colonel), William Barclay,
died in 1676 and was eventually replaced by fellow Scot Colonel John Forbes, who
received his royal warrant in 1678, albeit the citizenry viewed the office as unnecess-
ary and expensive, as they had since Barclay’s appointment in 1656.
74
Forbes was
66
Gerentz, Kommerskollegium och Na
¨ringslivet, pp. 203– 4; SBL, vol. 22, p. 452.
67
Corin, Sja
¨lvstyre och kunglig maktpolitik, pp. 136– 7.
68
Borgarsta
˚ndets Riksdagsprotokoll fo
¨re Frihetstiden, pp. 82– 4.
69
SAA
¨, vol. 4 p. 523.
70
For further comment see Gerentz, Kommerskollegium och Na
¨ringslivet, p. 203; SBL, vol. 22, pp. 452–3.
71
For Leijonancker see SRARP, vol. XI pp. 309–15.
72
For the beginnings of the decline of English cloth exports to the Baltic see S-E. A
˚stro
¨m, From Cloth
to Iron: The Anglo-Baltic Trade in the Late Seventeenth Century (Helsingfors, 1963), pp. 68– 76 and 144.
73
Corin, Sja
¨lvstyre och kunglig maktpolitik, pp. 104, 201 and 204.
74
Corin, Sja
¨lvstyre och kunglig maktpolitik, pp. 63 and 211.
14 Alexia Grosjean and Steve Murdoch
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eventually relieved of his command, not through any negligence on his part, but
rather due to the state of near-perpetual conflict that existed between the king
and civic Stockholm in which Forbes became an expendable element removed to
placate these relations.
75
However, further tensions were created by the recruitment
pressures and financial burdens placed on the city by Major General Robert Lichton,
whose troops were billeted in the town during the Scanian War (1675–79). The citi-
zens were grudgingly forced to pay the expenses for his troops, but whether the Scots
in the Stockholm Ra
˚dor Riksdag were either for or against Lichton remains
uncertain.
76
During the 1680 s and 1690 s there were at least three Swedish-born Scots in
the first class of nobility: Count Gustav Douglas, Governor Gustav Duwall (Mac-
Dougall) and Major General Robert Lichton. Lichton was the son of John
Lichton and his wife Catherine Guthrie, had been ennobled in 1652, and was a
typical representative of how well integrated some ‘foreigners’ became in
Swedish society. Lichton’s name first appears in connection with the 1660
Riksdag, and, when not abroad on military campaigns, he regularly attended the
Riksdag meetings and had considerable input in discussions, being held in high
esteem by Karl XI.
77
In discussions where the first, second and third classes of
the nobility had differing opinions, Lichton frequently tended to side with the
third class – it is probably just coincidental that this was the class with the most
Scottish members. There was no indication that he favoured cross-estate support
in the Riksdag. In December 1682 Lichton made it quite clear he felt that
burgher estate should not be allowed to independently raise the prices of their
goods as this was likely to benefit them at the expense of the nobility.
78
Lichton certainly made an impact in the lively debates held amongst the nobility
in 1680 regarding the role of the Riksra
˚din government (Karl XI was angling to lessen
the power and influence of this council). He quite vehemently exclaimed his disgust
that the Estates had the power to ‘undo’ what a monarch did, with reference to the
Estates’ having discarded the late Karl X’s will, and the insecurity this created for
all.
79
Although some of his fellow nobles explained the nature of the Swedish con-
stitution to him, he persisted in his belief that it was wrong for the Estates, and
thus the Riksra
˚das members of the noble estate, to have that power over a
monarch. Was he speaking with the recent events of the British Isles in mind, par-
ticularly the overthrow of the Stuart monarchy in 1649? Lichton was the only Scot
appointed onto a select committee of members of the burgher, clergy and noble
estates which was to discuss this matter further in December 1680.
80
He was cer-
tainly a supporter of the royal family and avidly worked for the aforementioned
reduktion, for the implementation of which he was sent to Swedish-held Livonia in
75
Corin, Sja
¨lvstyre och kunglig maktpolitik, p. 212.
76
Corin, Sja
¨lvstyre och kunglig maktpolitik, pp. 203, 208– 9, 253 – 5, 426.
77
Register notes Lichton attending the 1664, 1668, 1672, 1675, 1676, 1682– 83 and 1686 Riksdags.
78
SRARP, vol. XIV, 1682–83, p. 141.
79
SRARP, vol. XIII, 1680, pp. 222– 3. For more on this debate around the changing of the will, see
J. Scherp, De ofra
¨lse och makten: En institutionell studie av riksdagen och de ofra
¨lse sta
˚ndens politik i maktdel-
ningsfra
˚gor, 1660–1682 (Stockholm, 2013), pp. 128– 94.
80
SRARP, vol. XIII, 1680, p. 235.
Scottish involvement in the Swedish Riksdag of the seventeenth century 15
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1681.
81
It may be that his own experiences regarding issues over donated lands, as
discussed at length in the Riksra
˚din the autumn of 1674, had left a bad taste in his
mouth.
82
Lichton was appointed Governor of Reval and Estonia, and in the 1682
Riksdag he supported the landmarskalk Fabian Wrede as one of the ‘floor
leaders’.
83
Lichton’s continued promotion by the Swedish king may explain his
staunchly held pro-monarchical stance, as expressed during the 1682 Riksdag discus-
sions: on November 11 he stated emphatically that ‘We should win His Majesty over
by supplication and not by disputation.’
84
Karl XI’s increasing control of power resulted in the weakening of the Riksdag’s
influence. Michael Roberts believed that after the lower estates and the serving
nobility united to support Karl XI in his continuation of the reduktion, the
Riksdag sank into complaisant inertia in the following years, merely following the
king’s will.
85
However, that may be an oversimplified view of events as the
minutes of the estate of nobility reveal continued discussion. Lichton made his
opinion known on various issues. For example, during discussions about the role
of women in the noble estate, Lichton intriguingly commented that any sensible
wife would not diminish her noble husband’s reputation, perhaps a veiled
comment indicating a certain gender-equality angle in his thinking.
86
In this he
appeared to be supported by Hans Clerk, who put his name to the nobility’s sup-
plication to the monarch regarding the parity of noble women’s status with regard
to their noble husbands – and his was the only Scottish signature.
87
In 1686 the two
men were both appointed to serve on the committee to deal with the national bank,
with Lichton representing the first class of nobility and Clerk those of the third
class.
88
This convention has been described as a ‘turning point’ with regard to
the role of the parliament, which changed from an ‘active to a reactive role’
in the running of Swedish affairs.
89
By this time the sovereign largely controlled
the Riksdag by using the Secret Committees to undertake all the real discussions
of concern; the king had considerably altered the makeup of the committee to com-
prise 29 noblemen, 23 clergy and 20 burghers.
90
Thus, during the Riksdags of the
81
King Karl XI’s letters dated 22 and 25 January and 29 July 1681 published in Samlingar i Landtma
¨teri,
fo
¨rsta samlingen Instruktioner och Bref 1628–1699 (Stockholm, 1901), pp. 54 – 7. Starba
¨ck, Bera
¨ttelser ur
svenska historien, vol. 6, p. 760. See also Nordisk familjebok, 38 vols (Stockholm, 1904 – 26), vol. 16,
T. Westrin (ed.), (Stockholm, 1912), p. 369.
82
Svenska Riksra
˚dets Protokoll, tredje serien, ny fo
¨ljd, 2 vols (Stockholm, 1975, 1983), vol. 1 (Stockholm,
1975), pp. 72, 74– 8, 80 – 82, 97, 133 – 8, 140, 141.
83
Upton, Charles XI and Swedish Absolutism, p. 44.
84
SRARP, vol. XIV, 1682–83, p. 74.
85
Roberts, Essays in Swedish History, p. 30. For a more nuanced discussion of this transitional period,
see Scherp, De ofra
¨lse och makten, pp. 257–94.
86
SRARP, vol. XIII, 1680, p. 200.
87
SRARP, vol. XIII, 1680, pp. 358–9.
88
SRARP, vol. XV, 1686– 89, p. 22. Lichton understood the value of personal rank within the nobility
as when he was unable to attend the 1689 Riksdag he complained to the landmarskalk, Gyllenstolpe, that
his wife’s nephew was not of high enough standing to represent him in hisplace. SRA, Drottning Hedvig
Eleonoras Livgedningsakter Arkiv: Skrivelser till general guvernor Gustaf Soop och Carl Gyllenstierna
fra
˚n enskilda personer: B. Till Carl Gyllenstierna – Greve Robert Lichton. 1683 – 91, K799, 71.
89
Upton, Charles XI and Swedish Absolutism, p. 128.
90
Upton, Charles XI and Swedish Absolutism, p. 112.
16 Alexia Grosjean and Steve Murdoch
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last two decades of the seventeenth century, most committees, including the
Secret Committee, were hand-picked by the head of state.
91
They would tackle
issues as varied as discussing the running of the Riddarhus or any other issues
that emerged during a parliamentary gathering. Scottish families frequently
found their way into these committee structures. For example, in October 1680,
Anders-Erik Ramsay and David Maclean were selected for a committee bearing
proposals to the other estates.
92
In December Hamilton, Maclean and Admiral
Hans Hansson Clerk, along with Gustav Duwall, were all appointed to the commit-
tee to present the noble estate’s response to the king’s various propositions, though
they were not alone among the membership of this body.
93
To emphasize this
point, during the 1682 Riksdag the peasant estate had made repeated attempts to
meet the nobility and in early October Colonels Maclean and Hamilton were
two of the nine committee members selected to make a formal greeting to the
peasant estate, the others coming from Swedish stock.
94
During the same
meeting Colonels Maclean and Hamilton, and Gustav Douglas were all added to
the Secret Committee that was due to discuss financial levies for the war
effort.
95
Another now familiar Scot selected for committee duties was the entrepre-
neur Daniel Young Leijonancker. He had been elevated to Kommersra
˚d(Senior
Commissioner) in 1682, in which capacity he remained until the autumn of
1684.
96
This body dictated the direction of all Swedish commerce, set prices on
particular goods and issued the rights to monopolies, such as that for cloth and
salt. It also held ultimate responsibility for the Swedish sea tolls and the issuing
of sea-passes to all Swedish shipping. Undoubtedly due to the experience he
gained here, Leijonancker served on a Riksdag committee dealing with issues of
commerce in September 1686, along with the omnipresent Robert Lichton and
Hans Hansson Clerk. Leijonancker also spoke on behalf of the third class of nobi-
lity regarding payment dates for ‘contributions’ (taxes) to the Crown.
97
However,
despite the fact that Lichton, Clerk, Duwall and even Leijonancker appear to
have frequently engaged in the same discussions during the Riksdag meetings of
the 1680 s, little evidence has yet come to light to suggest that they particularly
consulted each other or supported each other’s views on any particular topic, or
that they formed a specifically Scottish lobby.
Indeed, as the seventeenth century progressed it was usually the descendants
of Scottish families, rather than native Scots, who were attending the Riksdag.
For example, Henrik Leijonancker joined his father in the 1686 Riksdag and rep-
resented the family in 1693 after his father’s death.
98
Along with Henrik in this
latter and subsequent sittings were a host of native second- and third-generation
91
Robert Lichton, Hans Hansson Clerk and Gustav Duwall were all selected to convene with the rest
of the committee at the castle on 15 September 1686, see SRARP, vol. XV, 1686– 89, p. 142.
92
SRARP, vol. XV, 1686–89, p. 63
93
SRARP, vol. XV, 1686–89, p. 247.
94
SRARP, vol. XIV, 1682–83, p. 9.
95
SRARP, vol. XIV 1682–83, pp. 132–3.
96
SAA
¨, vol. 4, p. 523; Gerentz, Kommerskollegium och Na
¨ringslivet, pp. 56, 59, 139, 142, 191, 202 and 219.
97
SRARP, vol. XV, 1686–89, pp. 16 and 30.
98
SRARP, vol. XV, 1686–89, p. 439 and SRAARP, sextonde delen, pp. 158, 181.
Scottish involvement in the Swedish Riksdag of the seventeenth century 17
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Scots, including the previously mentioned Hans Hansson Clerk, Gustav Douglas,
Malcolm Hamilton, but also Lieutenant Colonel Jacob Spens and private Gustav
Duwall (first class of nobility). These were bolstered by the presences of Private
D. Stuart, Lieutenant Colonel Anders-Erik Ramsay, M. Forbes, Master of Horse
Patrick Ogilvie, Major Lorents Clerk, Lieutenant William Netherwood, Captain
George Belfrage and Assessor Robert Kinnemond (third class of nobility).
99
Further Scottish names appear in the signed response to the king’s proposals for
that Riksdag, including those of William Philp (Philip), Frederik Wood, Anders
Gerner and George Guthrie.
100
Despite this significant presence of ethnic Scots,
Lieutenant-Colonel Anders-Erik Ramsay was, unusually, the only ethnic Scot
included on the committee formed to undertake the traditional ceremony of greet-
ing the royal household at the opening of the parliamentary meeting in November
of that year.
101
Shortly thereafter, Ramsay was appointed to the committee to deal
with issues concerning the Riddarhus.
102
However, he was also on the committee
selected to respond favourably to the monarch’s general propositions, along with
fellow ethnic Scots Count Gustav Douglas and Malcolm Hamilton.
103
Similarly,
amongst the attendees of the 1697 Riksdag were the usual family names. Four
days after the Riksdag opened – which had been called after the death of Karl
XI – the estate of the nobility discussed sending a committee to the king’s
council, declaring their desire to see the new king take his throne, and amongst
them were Count Gustav Douglas, Admiral Hans Hansson Clerk, Colonel James
Spens and Colonel Mackeleer (Maclean).
104
At this point there was no infusion
of new Scottish blood into the Riksdag, rather the continued immersion of existing
Scottish families deeper into Swedish society.
CONCLUSION
Numerous Scotsmen (native and foreign born) attended the Riksdag meetings in
the seventeenth century representing, arguably, the two most important of the
four parliamentary estates, namely the nobility and the burghers. This confirms
previously published results on the integral role of Scots in early modern
Swedish history. These Scots made a successful two-pronged inroad into
Swedish society, both socially and politically. The drive came from high-ranking
military officers and those merchants who became burghers and/or held civic
posts within the ever-expanding Swedish commercial sector. One can, perhaps,
apportion differences in degrees of loyalty to the Crown versus personal financial
success to the two groups: the military men were obviously dependent on faithful
service to the Crown for their rise through the social strata, whereas the merchants
and burghers required a hefty dose of personal motivation to attain financial
success, albeit this had a knock-on beneficial effect on the Crown. But it was
99
SRARP, vol. XVI, 1693, 1697, pp. 151– 64.
100
SRARP, vol. XVI, 1693, 1697, pp. 176 – 85.
101
SRARP, vol. XVI, 1693, 1697, p. 4.
102
SRARP, vol. XVI, 1693, 1697, p. 10.
103
SRARP, vol. XVI, 1693, 1697, p. 22.
104
SRARP, vol. XVI, 1693, 1697, pp. 203 – 5.
18 Alexia Grosjean and Steve Murdoch
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likely the pre-eminence of Scots in the military sphere that placed them in an envi-
able position facilitating their entry into the Riksra
˚d. Through their constant dem-
onstration of skill, loyalty and longevity in service these Scots found a sympathetic
response in the martial natures of both Karl IX and Gustav II Adolf – and even that
of Chancellor Axel Oxenstierna – and continued to do so with Karl X and Karl XI.
A short list of the most well-represented Scottish families attending the Riksdag
meetings includes the Clerks, the Douglasses, the MacDougalls (Duwalls), the
Forbes (Fa
˚rbus), the Hamiltons, the Macleans (Makeleers), the Netherwoods,
the Ogilvies, the Ramsays and the Stuarts. Not only were these drawn from
some of the main families of the Scottish nobility, but they all produced numerous
soldiers of note in the Swedish army. There were many other Scots from non-noble
families in Scotland who rose through the strata of Swedish society. Not least
among these were Robert Lichton and the entrepreneur Daniel Young Leijo-
nancker. These men participated in the Swedish Riksdag during the peak of
Sweden’s expansion as a great power between 1621 and 1721.
105
This period
coincided with what Michael Roberts has described as an era of ‘aristocratic consti-
tutionalism’ as a result of the constant absence of monarchs from the realm due to
war, minority and regency. Further, although the Riksdag officially comprised four
representative estates, it was largely controlled by the first estate, the nobility.
However, the remaining three estates did sometimes cooperate to ensure the
acceptance of policies which the nobility did not favour, particularly where the
reduktion was concerned. As Scots were members of both the estates of nobility
and burghers, native Scotsmen and Swedish-born Scots could be found playing
on both sides of the political struggle. The roles some of these men played
varied from the royal servants appearing in royal funeral processions, such as
David and Alexander Stuart, to active implementers of the reduktion policy in
Estonia, such as Robert Lichton. They could participate in a small way in commer-
cial business or, as Leijonancker demonstrated, shape Swedish commercial and
manufacturing policy, sometimes to the advantage of his own social networks.
The presence of Scottish families at Swedish Riksdags remained tangible right
up to, and even after, the end of the seventeenth century.
106
When Karl XII
selected the members for his Secret Committee in 1697 the list included no less
than five second-generation Scots: Gustav Douglas, Jacob Spens, Hans Hansson
Clerk, Carl Magnus Stuart and David Makeleer (Maclean).
107
Perhaps another
indicator of how successful some Scots were at integrating into Swedish society
is reflected in a comparative survey of English members of the same institution.
Only one Englishman gained similar access to the Swedish Parliament, namely
George Fleetwood, who would have been eligible to attend the Riksdag after his
ennoblement in the 1640 s, while his son Gustav Miles Fleetwood would have
had similar rights. English comparisons only reveal the difference in migration
numbers to Sweden from Britain, and there is no claim here that Scottish inte-
gration into Swedish society was in any way unique. Other nationalities also
105
M. Roberts, ‘Introduction’, in Sweden’s Age of Greatness,p.1.
106
For example, Hans Hansson Clerk was appointed landmarskalk by the king in1710.
107
SRARP, vol. XVI, 1693, 1697, pp. 280 – 281.
Scottish involvement in the Swedish Riksdag of the seventeenth century 19
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made successful inroads into that host society – but perhaps not to the same
degree. For example, the de la Gardie family was itself of immigrant origins,
having arrived from France toward the end of the sixteenth century, and achieving
social mobility through marriage to an illegitimate daughter of King Johan III. As
yet, though, no evidence of a particularly vibrant and socially integrated French
community in seventeenth-century Sweden has emerged and, the de la Gardies
aside, no widespread French presence in the Riksdag has been found. Similarly,
immigrants from Germany and the Netherlands can easily be identified but a sys-
tematic survey of their penetration of Swedish political institutions is yet to be
undertaken. There are certainly other ‘foreign’ groups who made it into these insti-
tutions, particularly the Danish noble families of the annexed provinces captured
from the Oldenburg state and incorporated into Sweden after 1660. It might be
assumed that as fellow Scandinavians these newest Swedish citizens would have
automatic privileges, but in fact those Scots who participated in the Riksdag meet-
ings of the 1670 s and 1680 s for a time enjoyed greater influence and impact in
Sweden than the nobility of Swedish Ska
˚ne, Halland and Blekinge. These
former ‘Danes’ were supposed to have the same rights as native-born Swedish
nobility at the Riksdag but, as a consequence of the revolt in 1675 and the
Scanian Wars, these newcomers were simply excluded from attending the
Riksdag meetings in 1678, 1680 and 1682.
108
This was the period when Leijo-
nancker and Lichton in particular wielded considerable influence.
We have been careful not to overstate the role of the Scottish constituency in
the Riksdag, not least due to the way the gatherings were recorded, but rather
just note its presence.Indeed we have shown often contesting agendas among
Scots of different backgrounds. Furthermore, we also know that some Scots tried
unsuccessfully to attend the Riksdag. Already in 1633 Henry Sinclair, a burgess
of Gothenburg, fought for his right to represent the town as a member of the
estate of burghers, but the records have not shown whether he was successful in
this.
109
Moreover, the fact that some of these noble Scots could not attend
Riksdag meetings does not mean they lacked influence or that they could not
play other roles in Swedish society, within spheres as varied as the military, the dip-
lomatic and the mercantile.
110
For example, it is certain that Field Marshal Alex-
ander Leslie and General Sir James Spens never attended the Riksdag, yet both
were among the most influential Scots in Sweden in the seventeenth century.
111
It is probably more true to say that most Scots who had any impact on Swedish
108
H. Gustafsson, ‘Att go
¨ra svenskar av danskar?’, in Da Østdanmark blev Sydsverige, Karl-Erik Frand-
sen and Jens Chr. V. Johansen (eds), Ska
˚nsk Senmedeltid och Rena
¨ssans, Vetenskaps Societen i Lund, no.
19, (Skippershoved, 2003), pp. 50, 52.
109
For more on Sinclair, see H. Almquist, Go
¨teborgs Historia (Gothenburg, 1929), p. 109; E. La
˚ngstro
¨m,
Go
¨teborgs Stads Borgarela
¨ngd 1621–1864 (Gothenburg, 1926), p. 23; C.F. Corin, Va
¨nersborgs Historia I,
Tiden till 1834 (Stockholm, 1944), pp. 12, 45 and 172 – 4; Grage, ‘Scottish Merchants in Gothenburg’,
p. 112.
110
Murdoch, ‘Community, Commodity and Commerce: The Stockholm-Scots in the Seventeenth
Century’, pp. 31– 66.
111
For Leslie see Grosjean, An Unofficial Alliance, passim; for Spens see Murdoch, Network North,
pp. 251–79.
20 Alexia Grosjean and Steve Murdoch
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society did so despite their lack of involvement in the Riksdag meetings. For
another example we need only think of Alexander Erskine, who was fundamental
to negotiations toward the Peace of Westphalia on behalf of the Swedish Crown. As
with Leslie and Spens, he appears not to have attended any Riksdag meetings (he
was ennobled but not introduced into Riddarhus), but his impact on Swedish
society, not to mention northern European history, is beyond question.
112
NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS
Alexia Grosjean is a graduate of the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, UK, where
she completed her undergraduate degree and her PhD. She is Honorary Research
Fellow at the University of St Andrews where she works on the Scotland and the
Wider World Project. Her research interests focus on early modern Scottish-Scan-
dinavian connections with an emphasis on the 1560 – 1650 period. She has pub-
lished widely in this area and her publications include An Unofficial Alliance:
Scotland and Sweden 1569– 1654 (Leiden, 2003), Scottish Communities Abroad in
the Early Modern Period (co-edited with Steve Murdoch), (Leiden, 2005), and the
Scotland, Scandinavia and Northern European Biographical Database (SSNE), with
Steve Murdoch.
Steve Murdoch is Professor in History at the University of St Andrews, Scotland,
UK. His research interests include migration from the British Isles in the seven-
teenth century and all forms of interaction between early modern Scotland and
the wider world. He has published extensively on this subject. His major publi-
cations include Britain, Denmark-Norway and the House of Stuart 1603 – 1660
(East Linton, 2003), Network North: Scottish Kin, Commercial and Covert Associ-
ations in Northern Europe 1603– 1746 (Leiden, 2006), and The Terror of the Seas: Scottish
Maritime Warfare 1513– 1713 (Leiden, 2010). His major edited collections include
Scotland and the Thirty Years War, 1618– 1648 (Leiden, 2001) and with Alexia Gros-
jean, Scottish Communities Abroad in the Early Modern Period (Leiden, 2005). He has
also produced the highly acclaimed Scotland, Scandinavia and Northern European
Database (SSNE) with Alexia Grosjean. In 2013– 14 he is the Olof Palme Visiting
Professor in Peace Studies at the University of Stockholm. He will be based at
the Centre for Maritime Studies in the History department there, working on a
project examining Swedish neutrality during the 1652 – 1713 period.
112
B. Schlegel and C.A. Klingspor, Den med sko
¨ldebref fo
¨rla
˚nade men ej a
˚Riddarhuset introducerad Svenska
Adelns A
¨ttar-taflor (Stockholm, 1875), p. 69; D. Croxton and A. Tischer, The Peace of Westphalia: A Histori-
cal Dictionary (London, 2002), p. 84; Murdoch, Network North, pp. 24, 58, 369.
Scottish involvement in the Swedish Riksdag of the seventeenth century 21
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