Encouraged by
Louisa Ulrika of Prussia,
Frederick the Great's sister, King
Adolf Frederick of Sweden (reigned 1751–1771) supported a rebellion to restore the privileges of the monarchy. The
attempted monarchical revolution, planned by the queen and a few devoted young nobles in 1756, was easily crushed, with Adolf Frederick nearly losing the throne in response. That same year, the Hats saw a blow to their foreign policy. At the instigation of
France, Sweden entered into the
Seven Years' War, which proved disastrous. The French subsidies, which might have sufficed for a shorter, six weeks campaign (it was generally assumed that the king of
Prussia would give little trouble to a European coalition), proved inadequate. After five unsuccessful campaigns, the Hats were forced to make peace, with Sweden having lost approximately 40,000 men. When the
Riksdag met in 1760, Hat leaders managed to avoid impeachment after a session lasting twenty months, and the Hat government was bolstered for an additional four years. However, the Caps soon seized power in a meeting of the estates in 1765. The Cap leader, Ture Rudbeck, was elected marshal of the Diet over
Frederick Axel von Fersen, the Hat candidate, by a large majority; and, out of the hundred seats in the secret committee, the Hats succeeded in getting only ten. The Caps quickly ordered a budget report to be made, finding fraud on the part of the Hat government resulting in a large increase in the national debt and a depreciation of the note circulation to one-third of its face value. This report led to an all-round retrenchment, earning the parliament the nickname "Reduction Riksdag". The Caps succeeded in reducing the national debt, reducing wealth of the nobility in order to replenish the empty exchequer, and establishing an equilibrium between revenue and expenditure. The Caps also introduced additional reforms, the most remarkable of which was the
liberty of the press in 1766. In foreign policy, the parliament also allied Sweden with
Russia to counter the influence of
France. Although no longer a great power, Sweden still took on many of the responsibilities of a great power, and, despite losing value, the prospect of a Swedish alliance still held weight. Sweden's particular geographical position made it virtually invulnerable for six months out of the twelve, and its
Pomeranian possessions provided easy access to the Holy Roman Empire. Additionally, to the east, its
Finnish frontier was close to the
Russian capital at Saint Petersburg. Neutrality, a relative commitment to defensive alliances, and commercial treaties with the maritime powers, became the basis of the older Caps' foreign policy. However, the Hats' relationship with
France in the north drove the younger Caps to seek an alliance with Russia. This policy backfired, as France's distance to Sweden had left Sweden outside the territorial ambitions of France. Russia, on the other hand, saw Swedish land as a potential area of expansion. The
1772 Partition of Poland included a secret clause requiring the contracting powers to uphold the existing Swedish constitution as the swiftest means of subverting Swedish independence; and an alliance with the credulous Caps, or "the Patriots" as they were known in Russia, guaranteeing their constitution, was a corollary to this agreement. The domination of the Caps was short-lived. The general distress caused by their drastic reforms had found expression in pamphlets criticizing the Cap government, which were protected under the new press laws. The
senate retaliated with an order, which the king refused to sign, declaring that all complaints against the austerity measures of the last
Riksdag should be punished with fine and imprisonment. The king, at the suggestion of the
crown prince, urged the senate to quickly summon a Riksdag in order to relieve the national distress, but was refused, leading the king to abdicate. This resulted in the
December Crisis (1768), leaving Sweden without a regular government between December 15–21, 1768. Eventually, the Cap senate yielded and the estates were called for 19 April 1769. On the eve of the contest there was a general assembly of the Hats at the French embassy, where the Comte de Modêne furnished them with 6,000,000 livres in return for a promise to reform the Swedish constitution to increase the powers of the monarchy. On the other hand, a Russian minister became kingdom's treasurer and a counsellor for the Caps. In return, the Caps openly threatened to use Russian force to punish their detractors, and designated
Norrköping, instead of
Stockholm, as the place of meeting for the
Riksdag due to the city being more accessible to the Russian fleet. It quickly became evident that the Caps had misstepped, and when the Riksdag met at Norrköping on 19 April, they found themselves in a minority in all four estates. In the contest for speaker of the Riksdag (
Lantmarskalk), the leaders of the two parties were again pitted against each other. The results of the previous Diet were exactly reversed, with
von Fersen defeating Rudbeck by 234 votes, despite Russia spending at least 90,000
Riksdaler to secure the election of the latter. A joint note presented to the estates by the Russian,
Prussian and
Danish ministers protested the result, in menacing terms, against any "reprisals" on the part of the triumphant faction, hastened the fall of the government. The Cap senate resigned en masse to escape impeachment, and an exclusively Hat ministry took its place. On 1 June, the "Reaction Riksdag", as it was generally called, withdrew to the capital; and the French ambassador and the crown prince
Gustav called upon the new Privy Councillors to redeem their promise to reform the constitution. When, at the end of the session, they half-heartedly brought the matter forward, but it did not proceed, with the Reaction Riksdag disbanding on 30 January 1770. == Freedom of the press ==