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52-611: The Stenbock family is an old Swedish noble family , of which one younger branch established itself in Finland and another younger branch in Estonia , both of them in the mid 18th century, of which the first was entered into the rolls of the Finnish House of Nobility and the latter received both Estonian and Russian letters of nobility . This article about a member of the Swedish nobility

104-599: A 1762 act): a helm with an open visor, a coronet showing rank, a medallion and the use of supporters. Modern Swedish law makes no distinctions on the basis of nobility. Outside Sweden, Saint Bridget (1303–1373) became known as the Princess of Nericia , which appears to have been a noble, rather than a royal title, since she was not the daughter of a king. Duchies in Sweden Duchies in Sweden have been allotted since

156-497: A 1762 royal act; commoners using open visors or "noblemen's shield" (Adelig Sköld) are subjected to a fine. When an association called Ofrälse och löske mäns samfund för bruk af öppne hjälmar (Commoners' and vagabonds' society for the use of open visors) petitioned the Swedish government for amnesty (Swedish: abolition ) in regards to violations of the 1762 act, the petition was not tried nor granted. The Supreme Administrative Court of Sweden ruled, in 2013, that, since no one has

208-470: A castle and financed troops, then the castle was theirs, but the troops were expected to serve as a part of the army of the realm. In Sweden, there never existed serfdom . Hence, nobility was basically a class of well-off citizens, not owners of other human beings. In the Middle Ages and much of the modern age, nobles and other wealthy men were landowners, as well as lords of peasants and servants. Members of

260-521: A man acquiring the Swedish ducal title of a woman was at the 2010 marriage of Crown Princess Victoria to Prince Daniel. Currently the prerequisite for a ducal title has been assumed by the public to be the position of Prince or Princess of Sweden, and for that being a Swedish citizen, however no definite policy has been published. The first use in Swedish of the title of hertig was in 1266 by Prince Magnus , son of Princess Ingeborg and Birger Jarl . That title (derived from German " herzog ") then replaced

312-533: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Swedish nobility Belonging to the nobility in present-day Sweden may still carry some informal social privileges, and be of certain social and historical significance particularly among some groups. Sweden has, however, long been a modern democratic society and meritocratic practices are supposed to govern all appointments to state offices by law. No special privileges, in taxation or otherwise, are therefore given to any Swedish citizen based on family origins,

364-529: Is considered a dynastical title , and is only given to members of the Royal House (currently Bernadotte ). Unlike British dukedoms, for example, these Swedish titles are not hereditary. Modern Swedish duchies have always been named for the historical provinces of Sweden , which are no longer governmental entities. Currently, there are eleven such duchies one of which includes two of the provinces: The titles today are given to, and kept by, legitimate members of

416-417: Is not a duchess, and no other queen consorts have ever continued to have any such title either, after their husbands became King. Otherwise, royal spouses of ducal title holders are also created dukes and duchesses upon marriage (this would not include spouses who do not become Swedish royalty, such as those who married former dukes who had given up their titles for unapproved marriages). The first example of

468-757: The County Administrative Boards and local business. Since Magnus III of Sweden was the first bearer of the Swedish title hertig , this list begins, in the chronological aspect, with him. This list of dukes and duchesses in Sweden excludes minor duchies (individual towns, manors, mines, estates) as well as dominions such as Estonia and Bremen-Verden . For ease of reference, most provinces are listed by their modern Swedish names with Latin or English exonyms , by which many past dukes have been known, given as alternatives. Years given are those during which ducal titles incontestably were held, regardless of subsequent status as monarchs or former royalty. Since

520-547: The Latinized form of their birthplace (e.g. Laurentius Petri Gothus , from Östergötland ). Later merchants and other social groups discarded the formerly used family names (such as patronymic surnames ). Instead they adopted high-sounding Latin surnames. Another subsequent practice was the use of the Greek language , with the ending of - ander (the Greek word for man ). The use of surnames

572-591: The Middle Ages when the nobility frälse was divided into lords in the Privy Council, knights and esquires. Until 1719 the three classes voted separately, but in the Age of Liberty all classes were voting together with one vote for each family head (Swedish: huvudman ). This made the vast majority of the untitled nobility in power, for example officers and civil servants were represented. In 1778 Gustav III restored

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624-605: The Order of the Sword . No more commander families were introduced in the House of Knights after 1809, and thereafter also the class voting was abolished and the nobility was then voting as during the Age of Liberty. A Swedish duke ( hertig ) has almost always been of royal status and counted as such. The exception in medieval times was Bengt Algotsson . Two men were also created princes ( furstar ) in

676-444: The living (at the time of publication) unintroduced noble families resident in Sweden. Five of these families have titles as Princes, Dukes or Marquis, the others as Counts and Barons. Most unintroduced noble families, however, are untitled, similar to the introduced families. Some of these families, or their titled branches, have since become extinct. Surnames in Sweden can be traced to the 15th century, when they were first used by

728-435: The 13th century and until 1618, in some Swedish royal houses, when a king had more than one son, he gave each or some of them duchies to rule as fiefs . The geography of these duchies could be unclear, as they were not always within the boundaries of one province and could also be reallotted with territorial changes. Feuds between a king and ducal brothers were common, and ended at times in assassination and fratricide . There

780-672: The 13th century to powerful Swedes, almost always to princes of Sweden (only in some of the dynasties) and wives of the latter. From the beginning these duchies were often centers of regional power, where their dukes and duchesses had considerable executive authority of their own, under the central power of their kings or queens regnant. Since the reign of King Gustav III the titles have practically been nominal, with which their bearers only rarely have enjoyed any ducal authority, though often maintaining specially selected leisure residences in their provinces and some limited measure of cultural attachment to them. In Sweden today, Duke ( hertig )

832-684: The 18th century: Fredrik Vilhelm von Hessenstein and Vilhelm Putbus but neither were introduced. Following the elevation of a commoner into nobility by the Swedish monarch , the new nobleman had to seek introduction in order to be a fully recognised member of the House of Nobility (Riddarhuset), a term that also refers to its function as a chamber in the Riksdag of the Estates , the Swedish Parliament. In 1866

884-505: The 1920s. By then the last tax exemption privileges had also been abolished. However, some minor privileges remained until 2003, including the right to be beheaded by sword, when the law granting these noble privileges was completely abolished and the government no longer has the right to call the heads of families to be assembled in session. The prerogatives of nobility today are limited to protection of noble titles and certain elements and styles used in their coats of arms (this according to

936-461: The 20th century, because of constitutional restraints, several princes gave up their royal titles for marriages that were not approved by the King (see Bernadotte af Wisborg ). Whether or not they then actually lost their ducal titles too has never been formally or legally determined. For the first time since the 14th century a princess of Sweden was created duchess in her own right in 1980, coinciding with

988-495: The Class of Esquires were elevated to the Class of Knights. Some ancient noble families: At the coronation of Eric XIV in 1561, Swedish nobility became formally hereditary for the first time upon the creation of the higher titles of Count (greve) and Baron (friherre) . The House of Knights was organized in 1626. The grounds for introduction into this chamber became either birth into an "ancient" noble family or ennoblement by

1040-552: The Gentry ( Frälse ), i.e., priests and nobles. The names of these were usually in Swedish, Latin, German or Greek. The adoption of Latin names was first used by the Catholic clergy in the 15th century. The given name was preceded by Herr (Sir), followed by a Latinized form of patronymic names. Starting from the time of the Reformation , a common naming practice among the clergy was to use

1092-469: The Nobility was formally separated from government and incorporated as a separate institution, governed by statutes handed down by the monarch (from 1975: the government). This last link to the government and state was abolished in 2003. The Palace of the Nobility served as official representation for the nobility and was regulated by the Swedish government , but this regulation ceased completely in 2003, as have

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1144-519: The Swedish royal family for life, except for Swedish monarchs, who do not continue to hold ducal titles after ascending the throne. Only in connection with his ascension in 1973 has the current king occasionally been referred to as King of Sweden and Duke of Jämtland . He became the Duke of Jämtland after his christening, and held that title until his ascension to the Swedish throne in 1973. However, his wife, current Queen Silvia , whom he married in 1976,

1196-454: The accession of Charles XIII in 1809, the Royal Court of Sweden has neither recognized that ducal titles are continued to be borne by kings, nor that those were still valid that had been given to princes who subsequently lost their royal status (also see Sigvard Bernadotte ). There is also no evidence that domestic provincial ducal titles continued to be borne by kings in earlier eras. From

1248-479: The amendment of the Act of Succession allowing female succession to the throne. Thus, King Carl XVI Gustaf 's eldest daughter Victoria became Crown Princess (displacing her younger brother Carl Philip ) and received the title of Duchess of Västergötland . Her younger sister Madeleine was the first princess to be created duchess at birth, and also the first to get a double duchy (see above), roughly corresponding with

1300-470: The classes and class voting and at the same time he reformed the Class of Knights. Originally this class only contained family descendants of Privy Councillors and was the smallest class of the three classes. But Gustav III also introduced in this class the 300 oldest families in the Class of Esquire and also the " commander families", who are of the descendants of commanders of the Order of the North Star and

1352-416: The clergy with respect to their exemption from tax. Generally, the nobility grew from wealthier or more powerful members of the peasantry, those who were capable of assigning work or wealth to provide the requisite cavalrymen. These became knights, councilors and castle commanders. The background for this was that the old system of a leiðangr fleet and a king constantly on travel through the realm (between

1404-468: The crown. The " Reduction " of 1655 and 1680, however, brought land back into the crown's possession. Historically all members of a noble family were generally titled. If the family was of the rank of a Count or a Baron, all members received that title as well. However, following the new Instrument of Government from 1809, a change was made more in line with the British system so that, for later nobility, only

1456-465: The ducal titles often are included in formal communication and royal court usage. In writing to them, it is considered correct to address all of them but the Crown Princess by ducal title. As of 1772, the dukes and duchesses do not normally reside permanently within their duchies, though they are associated with them to some extent by making occasional visits, seen as beneficial to public relations for

1508-420: The estates of Uppsala öd ) had by this time become outmoded. The crown 's court and castles were now to be financed through taxes on land. Soon it was agreed that the king should govern the realm in cooperation with a Privy Council (or Royal Council), in which the bishops and the most distinguished magnates (i.e. the most prominent contributors to the army) participated. When critical decisions were necessary,

1560-506: The exceptions being the monarch and other members of the royal family . In 1902, Sven Hedin became the last person, other than members of the royal family , to be ennobled in Sweden. Since 1974, the monarch is only permitted to confer titles of nobility on members of the royal family. As of 2004 there were about 619 existing noble families in Sweden, with about 28,000 members. They are classified as counts (46 families), barons (124 families) and untitled nobility (449 families). Until 2003

1612-537: The first in 1886, the second in 1912, and the third in 1935; it came out most recently in 2010. An association of unintroduced nobility, Sveriges Ointroducerade Adels Förening , private club with no official standing, was founded in 1911. Several branches of the House of Bernadotte have chosen to become members of this association, as a result of members of the royal family being denied the use of Swedish titles upon marrying non-royals, but being granted foreign ( Luxembourgish or Belgian ) titles. Carl Johan Bernadotte

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1664-541: The first known being from 1360. The somewhat loose cut-off date or rather rule of thumb for what constitutes ancient Swedish nobility is therefore set to during mid 14th century but no later than 1400. Some Swedish ancient families are still extant at the Swedish House of Nobility or the Finnish House of Nobility ; some have been further elevated from Class of Esquires to Class of Knights or to titled nobility ( count or baron ). In 1778 all ancient noble families in

1716-454: The head of the family would hold the title (if there is one). There are a few families where these systems overlap such that the vast majority are nobles pre-1809 without title, while the heads of the families have been elevated to count or baron after 1809. The vast majority of noble families are still of the old kind where all members are regarded as nobles. No hereditary title of nobility has been granted since 1902, when explorer Sven Hedin

1768-432: The imbalance of power his father had created became destructive. John, with the aid of Carl, eventually revolted, dethroned Eric and became king; Magnus proved unimportant due to mental health issues, but Carl's duchy of Södermanland prospered as a separate territory for several decades and also made his eventual rise to the throne possible. His duchy was inherited by his younger son, Carl Philip , who died in 1622 having been

1820-473: The last holder of one of the semi-autonomous Swedish duchies, which his brother, King Gustav II Adolph , officially abolished in 1618. During the subsequent rule of Queen Christina of Sweden , however, her cousin and heir Carl Gustav of the Palatinate-Zweibrücken was titled Duke of Öland by the Swedish sovereign herself, but her government refused to acknowledge that title officially. His father

1872-436: The many wars fought by Sweden, the crown needed some means of rewarding its officers, and since the royal coffers were not without end, ennoblement and grants of land were useful substitutes for cash payments. During the 17th century, the number of noble families grew by a factor of five. In less than a century, the nobility's share of Swedish land ownership rose from 16% to over 60%, which led to considerably lower tax revenue for

1924-606: The modern governmental limits of Gävleborg County . Such modern ducal titles are handled by the King of Sweden personally, are unregulated by law and not registered as names in the Swedish Tax Agency 's population census. Now the title holders are mainly known domestically as Crown Princess Victoria , Prince Daniel , Princess Estelle , Prince Oscar , Prince Carl Philip , Princess Sofia , Prince Alexander , Prince Gabriel , Prince Julian , Princess Madeleine , Princess Leonore , Prince Nicolas and Princess Adrienne though

1976-454: The nobility utilized their economic power and sometimes also other powers to have small-farm owners sell their lands to manor lords, so landowning centralized gradually more in the hands of the noble class. For extended periods, the commander of Viborg at the Novgorod /Russian front did, in practice, function as a margrave , keeping all the crown's income from the fief to use for the defense of

2028-446: The nobility was regulated by a government statute, but in that year the statute was lifted so that governmental sanction and legal regulation of the nobility was discontinued. The House of Nobility is now a private institution, run as any private corporation under civil commercial law, and is owned by its members. Today, the only privilege of the nobility is the right to use a helm with an open visor in their coats of arms, this according to

2080-623: The older Nordic " jarl ", both translated into the Latin title dux , However, professor of art history Jan Svanberg is of the opinion that since Birger Jarl (died 1266) was depicted with a ducal coronet of English and continental European design, he actually was a duke, and that his Latin title of Dux Sueorum should be given as Duke and Regent of Sweden in English. Svanberg's opinion would then make duchesses of both of Birger's wives Ingeborg (died 1254) and Matilda (died 1288), in English usage. From

2132-501: The privileges. The membership roster is published every three years. The institution of Swedish (and Finnish) nobility dates back to 1280, when it was stated by King Magnus III in the Decree of Alsnö that magnates who could afford to contribute a mounted soldier to the cavalry were to be exempted from tax - at least from ordinary taxes - just as the clergy already had been. The archaic Swedish term for nobility, frälse, also included

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2184-499: The realm's eastern border. But despite heavy German influence during the medieval period, the elaborate German system with titles such as Lantgraf, Reichsgraf, Burggraf and Pfalzgraf was never applied in Sweden. Swedish ancient nobility ( Swedish : uradel ) is the term used for families whose de facto status as nobility was formalised by the Ordinance of Alsnö in 1280. These noble families have no original patents of nobility ,

2236-542: The right to amnesty, the government's decision did not concern anyone's civil rights according to the European Convention on Human Rights , and could thus not be examined by the court. Swedish nobility is organized into three classes according to a scheme introduced in riddarhusordningen ( Standing orders of the House of Knights) 1626 The two last classes contains the so-called untitled nobility (Swedish: obetitlad adel ). The division into classes has roots in

2288-469: The sovereign. Consequently, genealogy flourished. The Lord High Chancellor, Axel Oxenstierna , was the architect of the Instrument of Government of 1634 , which laid the foundation of modern Sweden. It guaranteed that all government appointments were to be filled by candidates from the nobility, a move which helped mobilize support for, rather than opposition to, a centralized national government. Due to

2340-417: The whole frälse was summoned to the diets . Swedish nobility had no hereditary fiefs . In the case where a noble was granted a castle belonging to the crown, his heirs couldn't later claim their ancestors' civil or military rights. The lands of the magnates who constituted the medieval nobility were their own and not "on lease" from a feudal king. If they by their own means or exploitation of peasants built

2392-924: Was chairman of the association for many years. According to the Nordisk Familjebok : The first counts and barons, created in 1561 by Eric XIV : John III granted the first baronial titles accompanied by territorial grants (earlier titles elevated the family's hereditary estate to comital or baronial status): Charles IX created only one: (he made Svante Bielke and Nils Bielke barons without grant of entailed lands) Gustav II Adolf granted: Christina granted: Charles X Gustav granted: Charles XI granted: The following titled families of high nobility are included in Kalender öfver i Sverige lefvande ointroducerad adel (1886–1899), Sveriges ointroducerade adels kalender (1912–1944), and/or Kalender över Ointroducerad adels förening (1935–), which are directories of

2444-466: Was created Duke of Stegeborg in 1651, a title that a younger brother of Carl Gustav's eventually inherited. In 1772, King Gustav III reinstated the appointment of dukes, now non-hereditary, for his brothers as courtesy titles , which added to their international prestige and domestic influence. Since then, all Swedish princes have been created dukes of a province at birth, as well as one Great Prince or Grand Duke of Finland (who died in infancy). During

2496-704: Was ennobled by the King (that honor was hereditary, but he left no heirs). Since 1975 the Swedish monarch and government no longer have the right to ennoble or to confer knighthoods and orders on Swedes. Titles are still given to members of the Swedish royal house where princes and princesses are made non-hereditary dukes or duchesses of selected provinces, but these are honorary titles within that house, not titles of nobility. Unintroduced families could use their titles, if they had any, and noble elements and styles in their coats of arms. There has never been legislation in Sweden preventing anyone from purporting to belong to nobility. The recognition of such noble status in society

2548-439: Was of a social, not a legal, nature, as has all Swedish nobility become since it was separated from the government more recently. Sweden has had a significant number of unintroduced noble families (as of 2010 comprising 99 living families and around 450 individuals), several of which have been historically prominent. The families fall into four groups: Three successive almanach series of unintroduced nobility have been published;

2600-466: Was only one non-royal Swedish duke, Bengt Algotsson , Duke of Halland and Finland in 1350s. After the Kalmar Union period, just before his death in 1560, King Gustav I continued the tradition by making his sons John , Magnus and Carl powerful dukes, together ruling much more of the kingdom than their older half-brother Eric , who had held a duchy in the southeast. When Eric became King Eric XIV,

2652-552: Was still quite uncommon in the 17th century among the nobility and the educated class. Furthermore, the concept of hereditary surnames was also limited to a few families. When a family was ennobled, it was usually given a name—just as with lordships of England and other Western European countries. This was a period which produced a myriad of two-word Swedish-language family names for the nobility (very favored prefixes were Adler -, "eagle"; Ehren -, "honor"; Silfver -, "silver"; and Gyllen -, "golden"). The regular difference with Britain

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2704-475: Was that it became the new surname of the whole house, and the old surname was dropped altogether. The noble estates are not abolished in Sweden , but their privileged position has been weakened step by step since 1680. The nobility's political privileges were practically abolished by the reformation of the Riksdag of the Estates in 1866, and the last rights of precedence to certain governmental offices were removed in

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