Swedish Allotment System - New System

New System

A complete reorganization of the military system was made at the end of the 17th century. In 1682 Charles XI decided to reorganize the army, and introduced the new allotment system, often referred to as just "the allotment system". The system was to remain in effect for over 200 years. One of the main reasons for the reorganization was the bad condition the army had been in during the Scanian War (1674–1679). In this system, the overall structure of the old system was retained, but contracts such as those described above were used instead of forced conscription. Contracts were written with counties and provinces, stating that they would have to raise and supply a regiment of 1,000 or 1,200 men in both wartime and peacetime. Usually, four farms (there were exceptions) were to join forces and equip a soldier. Those farms were the rote, and they also provided a croft (soldattorp), farmland, and equipment for one volunteer soldier who could then make a military career, while the rest of the men in the rote escaped conscription. The soldier's duty was to attend military drills, and in time of war was to report for duty, wherever that might be. Royal manors, farms owned by the nobility, and farms used as salary to government officials were exempted and did not need to provide soldiers to the system.

The cavalry was conscripted in the same way as in the old system, with each rusthåll providing a horse and horseman. In later years, contrary to the early times when the rider was often the farmer himself, the horseman was a volunteer in the same way as in the infantry, and he was also supplied with a croft (ryttartorp) and pay from the farmer, who in turn gained a large tax reduction and also did not need to serve in the army. This was mainly done because it was easier to replace a fallen horseman than replace the master of the estate. Usually, the rusthåll was made up of only one estate, and possibly another supporting farmer. In exceptional cases, one rusthåll could support as many as seven horsemen.

While most regiments were allotted in the late 17th century—Dalregementet and a few others allotted earlier—some remained outside the system, including some of the guards regiments and all the artillery regiments with enlisted soldiers. Many new regiments of enlisted mercenaries were also raised in wartime; for example, only one-fifth of soldiers in the Swedish army at the Battle of Breitenfeld in 1631 were of Swedish or Finnish origin. The rest of the army was made up of German, Scottish and other European mercenaries. This would however change during the Great Northern War, in which a majority of the regiment's soldiers were from Sweden or its dominions.

Allotment for the army was only applied to the countryside and not to the towns, where people were exclusively recruited to the navy. Each province had its own regiment consisting of 1,200 soldiers (and thus also 1,200 rotar, not counting officers) for an infantry regiment, or 1,000 horsemen (and 1,000 rusthåll) for a cavalry regiment. Thus, a rote did not necessarily consist of ten men fit for military service as in the old system; it could instead consist of a single wealthy estate or several small farms, all depending on the tax amount and the number of soldiers the farms or estates would be able to provide.