When peace was made, Charles XI. immediately took action in the matter of reform. He saw his country at the verge of utter ruin and the crown unable to help it. The peasants were losing their rights, one by one, and five-sixths of the crown lands were in the possession of the nobles. Brought up in ignorance and isolation, finding rottenness and incapability everywhere, it was no wonder that the king became strongly imbued by the spirit of absolutism, which pervaded all Europe. He followed the example of the monarchs of France and Denmark, learning from them how, by secret agitation and pressure, to make the lower classes fervently appeal to him to take the absolute power in his hand. His principal adviser was _John Gyllenstierna_, a man of old, celebrated stock, but belonging to the lower nobility. Gyllenstierna was one of the greatest and most patriotic statesmen of his day. He first attracted attention as a champion of the lower nobility against the great lords for the restitution of crown lands. Raised to dignities and a high station, he never changed his position to the aristocrats in power, who thought they could win him over by favors. Seeing the absolute impossibility of reform, with the help of the nobles, Gyllenstierna turned to the king, whose whole confidence he won, inspiring him with plans of a Scandinavian peace policy, and a reform through the destruction of the aristocracy. Gyllenstierna died after having brought to the king his bride, a union which was the work of this able statesman. The Riksdag was convoked to meet October 5, 1680. Everything commenced quietly. No royal proposition was made; but a strong agitation had been set in motion among the four Estates, the three lower ones sending in a petition to make the royal power absolute, to have a restitution of crown lands made, and the government, during the king’s minority, brought to answer for their acts. Similar requests were sent up from the nobility, after many stormy scenes at the Riddarhus. Thus, toward the end of the Riksdag, with the petitions in, came the royal propositions which, when accepted, in one blow crushed the aristocracy, as a ruling class, and the antiquated state council, as an institution, and established the absolute power of the king.