Tags

, , , , , ,

On December 5, 1718, Princess Ulrica Eleonora of Sweden received the news of the death of her brother, King Carl XII of Sweden. It has never been claimed that she had any advance knowledge of the purported involvement of her husband’s aide André Sicre, who was a French military engineer who also was aide-de-camp to Prince Friedrich of Hesse-Cassel and often has been named as the hired assassin of King Carl XII of Sweden.

Princess Ulrica Eleonora of Sweden did immediately declare herself monarch in Uddevalla by stating that she had inherited the throne.

The council was taken by surprise and did not contest this. She took control over the affairs of state and had Georg Heinrich von Görtz and his followers removed from power.

The “Hesse Party” secured Princess Ulrica Eleonora’s succession to the throne. They gained the support of the Riksdag opposition, who wanted to end the absolute monarchy established in 1680 and reinstate parliamentary rule.

On December 15, 1718, she declared that though she had inherited the throne, she did not intend to keep the Carolinian absolutism but agreed to reinstate the older system. The war council was determined to abolish absolutism and the right to inherit the throne, but was willing to acknowledge her as an elected monarch.

Their opinion was supported by the majority of the Assembly of the Estates. Princess Ulrica Eleonora was forced into agreeing to abolish absolute monarchy and the right to inherit the throne, both for her and for her contestant, her nephew Duke Charles Friedrich of Holstein-Gottorp.

After having agreed to sign the new constitution as monarch, she was elected Queen on January 23, 1719. On February 19, she signed the Instrument of Government (1719), thereby securing the support of the Estates not to give the throne to her nephew and competitor.

The new Queen Ulrica Eleonora of Sweden was crowned in Uppsala Cathedral on March 17, 1719 and made her formal entrance into Stockholm as monarch on April 11th that same year.

During the ceremonies in Stockholm, she received the Estates, who passed the throne in procession. On this occasion, she demonstrated that she knew who her followers were.

When she received the nobility, she only allowed their representatives to kiss her hand with her glove on, while the other representatives were allowed to kiss her hand without the glove.

Queen Ulrica Eleonora never made the traditional journey through the country, the Eriksgata, on her own. Instead, she made it with her husband Prince Friedrich of Hesse-Cassel in 1722, after his own coronation as King Friedrich I of Sweden.