During Horn’s peaceful administration the financial conditions
improved, the state debt was reduced and the peaceful trades and
industries were furthered. The great deed accomplished was the
completion of a new state law which was published in 1734 and is in
force to this very day. Arvid Horn was a perfect type of the great
Carolin era, of pure and severe morals and modest requirements. In a
day of increasing scepticism and levity, he ostentatiously preserved
the rigid religious practices of his youth. He showed unreserved
indignation at the unworthy and immoral conduct of the king, for
which reason strained relations existed between them. Count Horn was
of impressive form and carriage, controlling the quick temper of the
warrior beneath the smooth and dignified bearing of the statesman.
The decades which followed upon the fall of Arvid Horn were stormy
ones and full of miseries. The friends of peace were called Caps and
the warlike party Hats. The latter, now in power, commenced a war
against Russia, which turned out badly, the Swedes being defeated at
Vilmanstrand, in 1741, and at Helsingfors, in 1742. The government and
secret committee felt ashamed of their work and had the poor generals,
Charles Emil Lewenhaupt and Buddenbrock, executed for their lack of
martial skill and good fortune. Peace was made with Russia in 1743, the
towns of Fredericshamn, Vilmanstrand and Nyslott, in Finland, being
ceded by Sweden, and the river Kymene made the boundary line.
Next the Hats had to face a rebellion. In order to please Elizabeth of
Russia, Czar Peter’s daughter, they had selected Charles Peter Ulric,
her nephew and the son of the duke of Holstein, as heir-apparent to the
Swedish throne, to which he was the nearest in right, Ulrica Eleonore
dying without issue, in 1741. But when chosen as Elizabeth’s successor
in Russia, the Hats selected Adolphus Frederic, prince bishop of
Lubeck, who on his mother’s side was a descendant of Gustavus Adolphus.
This caused popular discontent, the people, forgetful of past enmities,
desiring to make Crown Prince Frederic of Denmark heir-apparent. The
peasants at the Riksdag of 1742 proclaimed loudly their desire of a
personal union with Denmark-Norway, which would establish Scandinavia
as one solid power against Russia. The peasants of Helsingland and
Dalecarlia revolted. They gathered, and marching down to Stockholm,
placed the government in a dangerous position by demanding the
election of Crown Prince Frederic of Denmark and the execution of the
two imprisoned generals. In that very moment peace was obtained with
Russia, and the government persuaded the leaders of the rebellion, who
had obtained admission to the Riksdag, that Adolphus Frederic must be
chosen, since it was a part of the treaty of peace. Later the rebels,
3,500 in number, were forced to surrender. Their principal leader was
executed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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