The peasantry at the early modern Swedish Riksdag.

Sweden was a special case in the early modern political landscape of Europe, being the only large kingdom in which the rural population had its own representation at the Imperial Diet (Riksdag) alongside the nobility, clergy, and city burghers. The delegates mainly originated in the class of rural notables. The article first elucidates the social and political conditions and the development of peasant involvement in one of the three supreme political institutions beside the sovereign and the Imperial Council (Riksråd). Furthermore, it traces the controversial historiographic interpretations attached to the peasant estate and its political significance. It becomes clear, in a chronological and systematic perspective, that peasant participation formed an intermittent dynamic and complex process, which depended on such factors as war, economic circumstances, and social relations. Particularly important were the vertical solidarities between crown and peasantry grounded in their shared animosity towards the nobility. As a result, however, the representatives of rural subjects undermined their own right to participation in favour of the royal prerogative, thereby weakening the status of the Riksdag as a whole in the political field of forces. The extensive research overview revolves around the question as to what extent the peasants’ participatory claims were sacrificed for political expediency. In the light of this general tendency, the article finally addresses the concept of empowering interactions and emphasises the ambiguous effects. It is indeed hard to deny that the Riksdag with its peasant delegates lend legitimacy to the idea and practice of state rule. But it has to be doubted that in the course of such interactions, the Swedish peasantry really achieved a gain in state-based authority as a political actor of its own accord. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]