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| King of Sweden | |
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| Monarchy | |
 Royal Coat of Arms of Sweden |
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| Incumbent: Carl XVI Gustaf |
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| Style: | His Majesty |
| Heir apparent: | Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden |
| First monarch: | Eric the Victorious (first monarch of undisputed historicity) |
| Formation: | Unknown |
| Kingdom of Sweden |
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The monarch is the head of state of the Kingdom of Sweden. Sweden, being a constitutional monarchy with a representative democracy based on a parliamentary system has a largely ceremonial monarch, though officially he or she holds the highest public office in Sweden and the highest military rank. The Act of Succession of 1810 designates the House of Bernadotte as the Swedish royal house; it also states that the king (and thus implicitly any queen regnant) must be a Protestant Christian.
The current monarch of Sweden is King Carl XVI Gustaf.
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History
Sweden has been a kingdom since prehistoric times. As early as the 1st century, Tacitus wrote that the Suiones had a king, but the order of succession to the later historic kings of Sweden is not known, except for what is accounted for in the historically controversial Norse sagas (see Mythological kings of Sweden and Semi-legendary kings of Sweden).
Originally, the Swedish king had little power, and that was restricted to the functions of a warchief, judge and priest at the Temple at Uppsala (see Germanic king). It is a testimony to this lack of influence that there are thousands of runestones commemorating commoners, but no chronicle about the Swedish kings, prior to the 14th century, and only a few runestones that may mention kings: Gs 11 (Emund the Old), U 11 (Haakon the Red) and U 861 (Blot-Sweyn).
The power of the king was however, greatly strengthened by the introduction of Christianity during the 11th century, and the following centuries saw a process of consolidation of power in the hands of the king.
The king was traditionally elected at the Stones of Mora, and the people had the right to both elect king and to depose him. The stones were, however, destroyed ca 1515.
The office is hereditary since 1544. The present Bernadotte dynasty was established during the Napoleonic Wars through the Constitution of 1809 and the Act of Succession of 1810, in a bloodless Revolution after present day Finland, then the eastern half of the Realm, was lost to Russia.
The 19th century Constitution divided the powers of government between the Riksdag and the Monarch. Following the break-through of Parliamentarism in 1917 the king's powers were considerably reduced, and he became a constitutional monarch with only limited political authority.
Head of state
In 1974 a new Instrument of Government became part of the Constitution which abolished the Privy Council as the government institution and stripped the Monarch of virtually all formal powers, while still retaining him as Head of State. Many of the king's previous political functions were transferred to the Speaker of the Riksdag. The monarch leads the Privy Council in a session that establishes the new government following a general election or cabinet reshuffle. The king also chairs the Committee for Foreign Affairs (Utrikesnämnden), a body which serves to officially inform the head of state and the leaders of the opposition of government affairs. Bills passed in the Swedish parliament become law without having to acquire royal assent. Thus, in Sweden, unlike most constitutional monarchies, the Monarch is no longer even the nominal chief executive.
A more recent constitutional reform changed the rules for succession to equal primogeniture. This allowed for the crown to pass to the eldest child regardless of gender and thus installed Princess Victoria as heir apparent over her younger brother Prince Carl Philip.
Full title
The traditional full title of the Swedish sovereign was: By the Grace of God, King of the Swedes, the Goths/Geats and the Wends (Swedish: med Guds Nåde Sveriges, Götes och Wendes Konung; Latin: Dei Gratia Suecorum, Gothorum et Vandalorum Rex). Other titles that have been a part of the full title have been: Grand Prince of Finland, Duke of Skåne, Estonia, Livonia, Karelia, Bremen, Verden, Stettin, Pomerania, Kashubia and Wendia, Prince of Rügen, Lord of Ingria and Wismar, Count Palatine of the Rhine, Duke of Bavaria, Jülich, Cleves and Berg.
This traditional title had been in use since the establishment of the hereditary monarchy in 1544. Carl XVI Gustaf instead chose the plain and simple title King of Sweden (Swedish: Sveriges Konung), thereby ending an age-old tradition.1
Such innovations are reflected in his personal motto För Sverige, i tiden, "For Sweden, with the times".
The line of succession
Present monarch: His Majesty King Carl XVI Gustaf (since September 15, 1973), born 1946
- HRH Crown Princess Victoria, Duchess of Västergötland, daughter of the King, born 1977
- HRH Prince Carl Philip, Duke of Värmland, son of the King, born 1979
- HRH Princess Madeleine, Duchess of Hälsingland and Gästrikland, daughter of the King, born 1982
See also
- List of Swedish governments
- List of Swedish monarchs
- Royal mottos of Swedish monarchs
- Swedish monarchs family tree
- Swedish Royal Family
External links
- The Royal Court of Sweden - Official site
- The Act of Succession - At the Riksdag
- Res Publica: Sweden an international anti-monarchy Web directory
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Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 4 December 2008, at 23:57.
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