Age of Liberty

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Kingdom of Sweden Konungariket Sverige (Swedish)
1719–1772
State flag Royal coat of arms
Capital	Stockholm
Common languages	Swedish (official)
Religion	Church of Sweden (official)
Government	Unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy
King/Queen
• 1718-1720 (first)	Ulrika Eleonora
• 1720-1751	Frederick I
• 1751-1771	Adolf Frederick
• 1771-1772 (last)	Gustav III
President of the Privy Council Chancellery
• 1718-1720 (first)	Arvid Horn
• April – August 1772 (last)	Joachim von Düben
Legislature	Riksdag of the Estates
History
• Beginning of constitutional monarchy	21 February 1719
• Queen Ulrika Eleonora abdicated	24 March 1720
• Reconstituted	2 May 1720
• Constitutional monarchy abolished	19 August 1772
Currency	Riksdaler
ISO 3166 code	SE
Preceded by Succeeded by Swedish Empire Gustavian era

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Consolidation Middle Ages (1050–1397) Kalmar Union (1397–1521) Early Vasa era (1521–1611)
Great Power Emerging Great Power (1611–1648) Swedish Empire (1648–1718)
Enlightenment Age of Liberty (1718–1772) Age of Absolutism (1772–1809)
Liberalization Constitution and Union (1809–1866) United Kingdoms (1814–1905) Industrialization (1866–1914) World War I (1914–1918)
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In Swedish and Finnish history, the Age of Liberty (Swedish: frihetstiden; Finnish: vapauden aika) 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 Gustav III's self-coup in 1772. 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.