Riksdag of the Estates in the context of "Speaker of the Riksdag"

The Finnish War (Swedish: Finska kriget; Russian: Финляндская война; Finnish: Suomen sota) was fought between the Kingdom of Sweden and the Russian Empire from 21 February 1808 to 17 September 1809 as part of the Napoleonic Wars. As a result of the war, the eastern third of Sweden was established as the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland within the Russian Empire. Other notable effects were the Swedish parliament's adoption of a new constitution and the establishment of the House of Bernadotte, the new Swedish royal house, in 1818.

In Swedish history, the Age of Liberty (Swedish: Frihetstiden) was a period that saw parliamentary governance, increasing civil rights, and the decline of the Swedish Empire that began with the adoption of the Instrument of Government in 1719 and ended with the Revolution of 1772, Gustav III's self-coup. This shift of power from the monarch to parliament was a direct effect of the Great Northern War.

Suffrage under the parliamentary government was not universal. Although the taxed peasantry was represented in the Parliament, its influence was disproportionately small, and commoners without taxed property had no suffrage at all.

The Diet of Porvoo (Finnish: Porvoon maapäivät, or unhistorically Porvoon valtiopäivät; Swedish: Borgå lantdag; Russian: Боргоский сейм), was the summoned legislative assembly to establish the Grand Duchy of Finland in 1809 and the heir of the powers of the Swedish Riksdag of the Estates. The session of the Diet lasted from March to July 1809.

During the Finnish War between Sweden and Russia, the four Estates of Russian-occupied Finland (nobility, clergy, burghers and peasants) were assembled in Porvoo (Borgå) by Tsar Alexander I, the new Grand Duke of Finland, between 25 March and 19 July 1809.

The 1809 Instrument of Government (Swedish: 1809 års regeringsform), adopted on 6 June 1809 by the Riksdag of the Estates and King Charles XIII, was the constitution of the Kingdom of Sweden from 1809 to the end of 1974. It came about as a result of the Coup of 1809, in which King Gustav IV Adolf was deposed. The promulgation of the constitution marks the point at which Sweden transitioned from the absolute monarchy of the Gustavian era (established by a previous coup in 1772) into a stable, constitutional monarchy adhering to the rule of law and significant civil liberties.

Initially the Instrument only curtailed the powers of the king, who retained a significant role in politics, but over time the crown's powers were reduced still further by convention as Sweden developed into a full democracy.

The 1810 Act of Succession (Swedish: 1810 års successionsordning, lit. 'the 1810 order of succession') is one of four Fundamental Laws of the Realm (rikets grundlagar) and thus forms part of the Swedish Constitution. The Act regulates the line of succession to the Swedish throne and the conditions which eligible members of the Swedish royal family must abide by in order to remain in it.

It was jointly adopted by the Riksdag of the Estates, convened in Örebro on 26 September 1810, and Charles XIII, as a logical consequence following the election on 21 August of Jean Baptiste Bernadotte as Crown Prince.

Gustav III (24 January [O.S. 13 January] 1746 – 29 March 1792), also called Gustavus III, was King of Sweden from 1771 until his assassination in 1792. He was the eldest son of King Adolf Frederick and Queen Louisa Ulrika of Sweden.

Gustav was a vocal opponent of what he saw as the abuse of political privileges seized by the nobility since the death of King Charles XII in the Great Northern War. Seizing power from the government in a coup d'état, called the Swedish Revolution, in 1772 that ended the Age of Liberty, he initiated a campaign to restore a measure of royal autocracy. This was completed by the Union and Security Act of 1789, which swept away most of the powers exercised by the Swedish Riksdag of the Estates during the Age of Liberty, but at the same time, it opened up the government for all citizens, thereby breaking the privileges of the nobility.

The Instrument of Government (Swedish: regeringsform) of 1634 was a document describing the form and operation of the Swedish government, retrospectively regarded as the country's first constitution, although it was not intended to function as such. It was composed by the Lord High Chancellor, Axel Oxenstierna, and was adopted by the Riksdag of the Estates (Swedish Parliament) on 29 July 1634. It was rendered void when the Riksdag repudiated it in 1680.

Gustavus Adolphus (9 December [N.S 19 December] 1594 – 6 November [N.S 16 November] 1632), also known in English as Gustav II Adolf or Gustav II Adolph, was King of Sweden from 1611 to 1632. He is credited with the rise of Sweden as a great European power (Swedish: Stormaktstiden). During his reign, Sweden became one of the primary military forces in Europe during the Thirty Years' War, helping to determine the political and religious balance of power in Europe. He was formally and posthumously given the name Gustavus Adolphus the Great (Swedish: Gustav Adolf den store; Latin: Gustavus Adolphus Magnus) by the Riksdag of the Estates in 1634.

He is often regarded as one of the greatest military commanders in modern history, with use of an early form of combined arms. His most notable military victory was the Battle of Breitenfeld in 1631. With his resources, logistics, and support, Gustavus Adolphus was positioned to become a major European leader, but he was killed a year later at the Battle of Lützen. He was assisted in his efforts by Count Axel Oxenstierna, the Lord High Chancellor of Sweden, who also acted as regent after his death.

The Swedish nobility (Swedish: Adeln, or Ridderskapet och Adeln, lit. "The Knights and the Nobility") has historically been a legally or socially privileged class in Sweden, and part of the so-called frälse (a derivation from Old Swedish meaning free neck). The archaic term for nobility, frälse, also included the clergy, a classification defined by tax exemptions and representation in the diet (the Riksdag). Today the nobility does not maintain its former legal privileges although family names, titles and coats of arms are still protected. The Swedish nobility consists of both "introduced" and "unintroduced" nobility, where the latter has not been formally "introduced" at the House of Nobility (Riddarhuset). The House of Nobility still maintains a fee for male members over the age of 18 for upkeep on pertinent buildings in Stockholm.

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, the exceptions being the monarch and other members of the royal family.