Riksrådet (in
Norwegian and
Swedish) or Rigsrådet (in
Danish or English: the Council of the Realm and the Council of the State – sometimes translated as the "Privy Council") is the name of the councils of the Scandinavian countries that ruled the countries together with the kings from late Middle Ages to the 17th century.
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...
had a Council of the Realm () that was de facto abolished by the Danish-Norwegian king in 1536–1537. In
Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...
the parallel
Council
A council is a group of people who come together to consult, deliberate, or make decisions. A council may function as a legislature, especially at a town, city or county/shire level, but most legislative bodies at the state/provincial or natio ...
gradually came under the influence of the king during the 17th century.
Rigsrådet in Denmark
The members of the Council of
Denmark
Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...
seem to have developed from being councillors of the king to being representatives of the magnates and noblemen. From the 1320s it clearly appears as a force, and from the 1440s it was the permanent opponent of royal power, replacing the
Danehof.
The Council consisted of noblemen who were appointed either by the king or their peers on the council. Until the 1536
Reformation
The Reformation, also known as the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation, was a time of major Theology, theological movement in Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the p ...
, bishops were automatically members. So were the supreme officials (today the "cabinet ministers") while lower ranking "ministers" did not have any formal right to membership. The "backbenchers" of the council took part in daily negotiations of problems and administration, voted, and took on diplomatic tasks. Most of them were squires who also had to look after their lands.
As a whole, it was the role of the council to rule together with the king, to control him, and to manage the affairs of State well.
The councillors were seen as a guarantee towards the nobility (and in theory also towards "the people") that everything was done right. The Council took over the rule in the space that appeared by a succession or at interregna. It led negotiations over the creation of a new ''
haandfæstning'', and in theory it also had to call for a rebellion against kings who did not keep their promises, a right that was used in 1523. However, in the 16th century, it was not quite unusual that the councillors to some degree identified with the State rejecting too extravagant demands from the Danish
gentry
Gentry (from Old French , from ) are "well-born, genteel and well-bred people" of high social class, especially in the past. ''Gentry'', in its widest connotation, refers to people of good social position connected to Landed property, landed es ...
. The background of this normally was that they themselves represented the Danish answer to the peerage.
The number of councillors was not laid down. Normally it was about 20, but from time to time deaths might reduce their number wherefore it was supplied by mass creations. Not until 1648 was the number of councillors finally fixed to 23.
The authority of the council was indisputable, and within some limits the kings also tried to co-operate. However most of the kings neglected some of the rules and, for instance, foreign questions presented many loopholes. The many military defeats of the 17th century and especially growing economic problems and conservatism of the nobility also weakened the prestige of the council, and the king gradually tried to strengthen his own influence. At the introduction of
absolute monarchy in 1660, the council was abolished.
The word ''Rigsråd'' was revived in Denmark in the 19th century. During 1854–1866 it was used for a special federal council dealing with all common legislative questions of Denmark and
Schleswig-Holstein
Schleswig-Holstein (; ; ; ; ; occasionally in English ''Sleswick-Holsatia'') is the Northern Germany, northernmost of the 16 states of Germany, comprising most of the historical Duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of S ...
, and from 1863 of Denmark and Schleswig alone. It had hardly anything else in common with its old namesake other than the title. (The world's first use of the
Single transferable vote
The single transferable vote (STV) or proportional-ranked choice voting (P-RCV) is a multi-winner electoral system in which each voter casts a single vote in the form of a ranked ballot. Voters have the option to rank candidates, and their vot ...
in an election of legislators was seen in the 1855 Rigsrad election
The loss of Schleswig in 1864 made the Rigsrad redundant, and it was abolished by the new constitution two years later.
Riksrådet in Norway
The Norwegian Riksråd gradually emerged around 1300, evolving from the King's council. It emerged clearly as a power factor after 1319, during the minority of King
Magnus IV of Sweden, Magnus VII Eriksson.
There do not seem to have been any clear rules for how many members the council should have, or who should be councillors. During the 15th century, the number could be from 30 to 40, whereas after 1500 it was barely above ten.
The Norwegian bishops were automatically members. There were at the time five bishops in mainland Norway (the archbishop in
Trondheim
Trondheim ( , , ; ), historically Kaupangen, Nidaros, and Trondhjem (), is a city and municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. As of 2022, it had a population of 212,660. Trondheim is the third most populous municipality in Norway, and is ...
, the bishops in
Oslo
Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022 ...
,
Hamar,
Stavanger
Stavanger, officially the Stavanger Municipality, is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Norway. It is the third largest city and third largest metropolitan area in Norway (through conurbation with neighboring Sandnes) and the ...
,
Bergen
Bergen (, ) is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestland county on the Western Norway, west coast of Norway. Bergen is the list of towns and cities in Norway, second-largest city in Norway after the capital Oslo.
By May 20 ...
), as well as one in the
Faroe Islands
The Faroe Islands ( ) (alt. the Faroes) are an archipelago in the North Atlantic Ocean and an autonomous territory of the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. Located between Iceland, Norway, and the United Kingdom, the islands have a populat ...
, two on
Iceland
Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...
, one in
Greenland
Greenland is an autonomous territory in the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. It is by far the largest geographically of three constituent parts of the kingdom; the other two are metropolitan Denmark and the Faroe Islands. Citizens of Greenlan ...
, and one in
Orkney
Orkney (), also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago off the north coast of mainland Scotland. The plural name the Orkneys is also sometimes used, but locals now consider it outdated. Part of the Northern Isles along with Shetland, ...
(lost to
Scotland
Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...
in 1468). The bishops from the islands rarely participated in the Norwegian Riksråd. In addition, the chaplains of the royal chapels in Oslo and Bergen were permanent members. So were the commanders of the five strongest castles of Norway:
Bohus,
Akershus in Oslo, the castles in
Bergen
Bergen (, ) is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestland county on the Western Norway, west coast of Norway. Bergen is the list of towns and cities in Norway, second-largest city in Norway after the capital Oslo.
By May 20 ...
,
Tønsberg
Tønsberg (), historically Tunsberg, is a List of towns and cities in Norway, city in Tønsberg Municipality in Vestfold county, Norway. It is located about south-southwest of the capital city of Oslo on the western coast of the Oslofjord near ...
and
Trondheim
Trondheim ( , , ; ), historically Kaupangen, Nidaros, and Trondhjem (), is a city and municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. As of 2022, it had a population of 212,660. Trondheim is the third most populous municipality in Norway, and is ...
. The rest of the council was recruited from the Norwegian nobility. Only Norwegians were eligible for these places in the Norwegian Riksråd – however, the eligibility extended also to include foreigners who had married a Norwegian. As several of the bishops and commanders of the castles were foreigners – mostly Danish, but also some Swedish – the number of Norwegians in the Norwegian Riksråd gradually diminished.
The archbishop of Trondheim mostly acted as the head of the council.
As Norway had of old been a
hereditary kingdom, the Norwegian Riksråd's task did not originally include the election of the king, as was the case in Sweden and Denmark. However, as successive kings died without leaving any issue, starting with
Olav IV in 1387, it fell to the Riksråd to interpret the succession laws. This it did so freely that Norway more and more became, in reality, an elected monarchy, like its Nordic neighbours. This was formally affirmed in 1450, when
Christian I of Denmark took the Norwegian throne as an elected monarch. On his death, in 1481, the Riksråd ruled the country for two years, in an
interregnum
An interregnum (plural interregna or interregnums) is a period of revolutionary breach of legal continuity, discontinuity or "gap" in a government, organization, or social order. Archetypally, it was the period of time between the reign of one m ...
, before electing
Christian's son as the new king – a period which could be seen as the height of the council's power.
In the early 16th century, the power of the Norwegian council diminished. The
Oldenburg union kings conducted a policy of strengthening their own power at the cost of the nobility, and the Norwegian nobility was too weak to put up a strong opposition. In addition, the few Norwegian noble families became more and more intermarried with the Danish nobility, giving them less of an interest in maintaining separate Norwegian structures. During the troubled transition to the reign of King
Christian III, the Norwegian archbishop
Olav Engelbrektsson led a rebellion in support of Christian's rival to the throne. After Christian had won, the Norwegian Riksråd was de facto abolished, in 1536–1537. The archbishop went into exile, the Protestant reformation was carried through in Denmark and Norway, and the Norwegian Riksråd never assembled again.
Riksrådet in Sweden
The Riksråd was the
upper parliamentary house in Sweden populated by the nobility. The Swedish nobility often played a prominent role in Swedish history, which both helped and hindered the nation.
Sten Sture of the Riksråd led the resistance against the Danish-dominated
Union of Kalmar until he was killed in battle in the beginning of 1520. After the
Stockholm bloodbath in November 1520, when around 90 nobles were executed by the Danish king
Christian II, the Swedish nobleman
Gustav Vasa took over the resistance and successfully restored Swedish sovereignty in 1523.
Over the next two centuries the Monarchy and the Riksråd were constant rivals. When
Sigismund was crowned in 1594 the Riksråd drafted the Charter of Nyköping which took many of the king's powers. During
Queen Christina of Sweden's reign a large proportion of
crown land
Crown land, also known as royal domain, is a territorial area belonging to the monarch, who personifies the Crown. It is the equivalent of an entailed estate and passes with the monarchy, being inseparable from it. Today, in Commonwealth realm ...
was alienated (given to nobles) which led to major financial instability in Sweden.
King
Charles XI was Sweden's first absolute monarch who led an immense '
reduction' policy (the retrieval of land from the nobility). In 1654 1.5% of land was the Crown's and 72% belonged to the nobility. By 1700, 35.5% of land belonged to the Crown and 33% belonged to the nobility.
This continued until the end of the Swedish absolutists in 1718 when
Charles XII was killed during the
Great Northern War
In the Great Northern War (1700–1721) a coalition led by the Tsardom of Russia successfully contested the supremacy of the Swedish Empire in Northern Europe, Northern, Central Europe, Central and Eastern Europe. The initial leaders of the ant ...
.
The
Privy Council, Riksråd, officially was the ruling body of Sweden until 1974.
References
{{Reflist
Political history of Sweden
Political history of Denmark
Political history of Norway