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Courtyard Crisis
The Courtyard Crisis (Swedish: Borggårdskrisen) was a constitutional conflict between Sweden's king Gustaf V and the Liberal prime minister Karl Staaff.
The crisis has been seen as the culmination of the struggle between the pro-king conservatives and the pro-parliamentary forces. It was rooted in differing views on how much money should be spent on defense – Gustaf V advocated higher funding than the government. World War I broke out in July 1914, six months after the Courtyard Speech, and united the parties on the defense issue.
In 1909, universal and equal suffrage for men was introduced in the elections to the Andra kammaren (The Second Chamber of Parliament), significantly increasing the number of eligible voters to 1 million. This was a development that conservative political forces saw as threatening and wanted to stop. The right to vote in the Första kammaren (The First Chamber of Parliament) had also been extended after the 1909 reform – from 4,000 to 40 votes for the richest – but was still weighted, which meant that the conservatives continued to control the Första kammaren. The king and the conservatives thus had not only the will but also the opportunity to slow down the development towards greater democracy and parliamentarism.[citation needed]
In 1911, the liberal Karl Staaff formed a liberal government with the support of the Social Democrats, not least because new groups of voters with liberal and social democratic sympathies were given the opportunity to vote. The differences between the right and the left were already very great, and with the election of Staaff as prime minister, the differences deepened further. A major issue that the Liberals had pushed in their election program was to reduce defense spending. In 1911, more than half of the state budget was spent on defense, compared to 5.8% of the state budget in 2021. The right-wing government under Arvid Lindman that preceded Staaff's government had decided to build several new armored boats to expand the Swedish defense. With the Liberal election victory, the construction of the boats was stopped, which led to strong criticism from conservative quarters. The conservative reaction included right-wing politicians, the conservative newspapers, the military, the church and nationalist commentators.
The Ungkyrkorörelsen ("Young Church Movement") and the Conservatives each started their own private armored boat collection. Sven Hedin's book Ett varningsord ("A word of warning") was published in 1912 in a million copies. The book warned of Russia and described the horrors of an imaginary Russian occupation. The pro-king arguments followed the pattern of aggressive nationalism that was a common European phenomenon at the time. Down in Europe, the zeitgeist helped lower the threshold for the outbreak of violence in 1914. For Sweden, this meant a mixture of national romanticism, passion for Charles XII and fear of Russia. Attacks on Staaff were very vicious, from allegations of treason to the sale of ashtrays with Staaff's face on them.
Micaela Edhager had argued that courtyard crisis also reflected a confrontation between two different ideas of how Sweden's political system should be arranged, a monarchial one vs a parliamentary system.
On December 21, 1913, Staaff relented and, against the background of increasing international tension, advocated in a speech the expansion of the navy and investments in the army. On the same day, there was a call for a peasant march in support of defense. The king's speech to the 30,000 farmers (The Courtyard Speech, Borggårdstalet, February 6, 1914) was a rhetorical masterpiece in the spirit of the times, written by Sven Hedin with the support of General Staff Officer Carl Bennedich. The king more or less distanced himself from the Staaff government, while at the same time asserting the personal power of the king, and thus the right to act as supreme commander. Contemporaries suspected that the speech had been written by Verner von Heidenstam, but this was not correct (see below).[citation needed]
The speech stated that the king demanded the right to dictate to the assembly what should be decided on matters of importance to him. He had spoken of "my army" and "my navy". Nor had he allowed the prime minister to read the speech in advance. The Social Democrats responded within a few days with a so-called workers' rally, with some 50,000 participants, in support of the Liberal government, under the slogan "The will of the people alone shall decide in the land of Sweden!"
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Courtyard Crisis
The Courtyard Crisis (Swedish: Borggårdskrisen) was a constitutional conflict between Sweden's king Gustaf V and the Liberal prime minister Karl Staaff.
The crisis has been seen as the culmination of the struggle between the pro-king conservatives and the pro-parliamentary forces. It was rooted in differing views on how much money should be spent on defense – Gustaf V advocated higher funding than the government. World War I broke out in July 1914, six months after the Courtyard Speech, and united the parties on the defense issue.
In 1909, universal and equal suffrage for men was introduced in the elections to the Andra kammaren (The Second Chamber of Parliament), significantly increasing the number of eligible voters to 1 million. This was a development that conservative political forces saw as threatening and wanted to stop. The right to vote in the Första kammaren (The First Chamber of Parliament) had also been extended after the 1909 reform – from 4,000 to 40 votes for the richest – but was still weighted, which meant that the conservatives continued to control the Första kammaren. The king and the conservatives thus had not only the will but also the opportunity to slow down the development towards greater democracy and parliamentarism.[citation needed]
In 1911, the liberal Karl Staaff formed a liberal government with the support of the Social Democrats, not least because new groups of voters with liberal and social democratic sympathies were given the opportunity to vote. The differences between the right and the left were already very great, and with the election of Staaff as prime minister, the differences deepened further. A major issue that the Liberals had pushed in their election program was to reduce defense spending. In 1911, more than half of the state budget was spent on defense, compared to 5.8% of the state budget in 2021. The right-wing government under Arvid Lindman that preceded Staaff's government had decided to build several new armored boats to expand the Swedish defense. With the Liberal election victory, the construction of the boats was stopped, which led to strong criticism from conservative quarters. The conservative reaction included right-wing politicians, the conservative newspapers, the military, the church and nationalist commentators.
The Ungkyrkorörelsen ("Young Church Movement") and the Conservatives each started their own private armored boat collection. Sven Hedin's book Ett varningsord ("A word of warning") was published in 1912 in a million copies. The book warned of Russia and described the horrors of an imaginary Russian occupation. The pro-king arguments followed the pattern of aggressive nationalism that was a common European phenomenon at the time. Down in Europe, the zeitgeist helped lower the threshold for the outbreak of violence in 1914. For Sweden, this meant a mixture of national romanticism, passion for Charles XII and fear of Russia. Attacks on Staaff were very vicious, from allegations of treason to the sale of ashtrays with Staaff's face on them.
Micaela Edhager had argued that courtyard crisis also reflected a confrontation between two different ideas of how Sweden's political system should be arranged, a monarchial one vs a parliamentary system.
On December 21, 1913, Staaff relented and, against the background of increasing international tension, advocated in a speech the expansion of the navy and investments in the army. On the same day, there was a call for a peasant march in support of defense. The king's speech to the 30,000 farmers (The Courtyard Speech, Borggårdstalet, February 6, 1914) was a rhetorical masterpiece in the spirit of the times, written by Sven Hedin with the support of General Staff Officer Carl Bennedich. The king more or less distanced himself from the Staaff government, while at the same time asserting the personal power of the king, and thus the right to act as supreme commander. Contemporaries suspected that the speech had been written by Verner von Heidenstam, but this was not correct (see below).[citation needed]
The speech stated that the king demanded the right to dictate to the assembly what should be decided on matters of importance to him. He had spoken of "my army" and "my navy". Nor had he allowed the prime minister to read the speech in advance. The Social Democrats responded within a few days with a so-called workers' rally, with some 50,000 participants, in support of the Liberal government, under the slogan "The will of the people alone shall decide in the land of Sweden!"